The Saiyan language used in this story was created by MegaKat

Phrases and words used in this chapter:

br'at/br'atu - child/children

ge'tah - ally/ friend - often used as a casual way to address another Saiyan

Ja'ta - father

ji'tach - fighting team (ji'tachu - teams)

As Bardock put distance between himself and Gine, he felt a combination of annoyance and relief mixed with an odd undertone of guilt. Hell, he should feel great; he was now a player again. He had taken credit for his spawn, like Gine and her asshole ja'ta wanted, and now he would not have to talk to Gine again. Well, unless he wanted to. Sure, they might run into each other again at some point, like if he felt like introducing himself to the br'at when it came out of the Natal Pod, but that was it. Gine was off of his team, off his radar, and out of his life for good. Done and done ...so why was she still dwelling in the back of his head, taking up space in his thoughts? Even now Bardock swore he could feel those soft eyes boring into his soul as he flew away.

He needed to clear his head, get his focus back. He would only get one chance to talk to Paragus, especially after how he'd gotten the interview, and he did not want to screw it up. Thinking about Gine was not going to help. Just forget it, forget her! She's ruined my life enough. Rutaba's right; I'm better off without her. Maybe the kit won't survive, and I won't have to see her face again. She can cry on someone else.

Bardock stopped by his shitty little apartment to grab some food and clean up. He immediately regretted the decision; it was hot as balls from being shut up all day. The big sun was setting, turning everything the color of clotted blood. The little sun would follow in a few hours, but that would not help much. His place would still be a few degrees below a blast furnace. Hell, after the appointment with Paragus he just might join the others at Chiv's for a few cold ones. At least Chiv's place had good fans and you could get drunk without turning into a pile of sweat. Your ass wouldn't even stick to the seats if you found the right spot. Granted it would be odd not drinking with his squad, but they were off planet and having fun without him, thanks to Skallon being a colossal dick.

Well, he'd fix that soon.

He collected the handheld analyzer and the prototype generator, currently unfinished, and tossed them in a box. He did not want to bring the schematics, as he did not want Paragus ganking them and taking all the credit, but he did not think he'd get far without them. It was a risk he would have to take. He doused his head in the faucet, shook off the excess, then made sure to crack a window before he left. Even though the Base was only a ten-minute flight, Bardock left early.

Paragus's lab was situated in the old Saiyan Army Military Base, seated deep in the same mountain as the Palace, or so he'd been told. He never had a reason to go there before; Paragus usually dealt in wetware while Frieza's techs took care of the PTO equipment. In truth, Bardock had no fucking clue what Paragus did. The man never showed his face outside of official mandated functions. Perhaps he just lurked in the dark with his tail up his ass and raked in a sweet paycheck.

Bardock breathed a sigh of relief when he entered Headquarters for the second time that day. Outside of being covered in sweat, he was in a good mood at first. Things were going to change, he could feel it. He nodded to those he passed by, Elite and Low Class alike. Most did not respond, but a few gave him odd looks. Knowing looks. His good mood started to sour a bit. Maybe he was imagining it, but he swore that some of those ge'tahu were whispering as he passed by. He even thought he heard the phrase 'tail whipped', but that might have been his paranoia speaking. Gods, he hoped it was because otherwise he was going to have to kick a lot of tails! That damn Rutaba had probably broadcast his parental misfortune to anyone she encountered. Bardock would not put it past her, she could be a spiteful bitch.

The laboratory proper was located on the lowest level, blasted deep into the rock itself and pleasantly cool. Pft, no wonder Paragus never left. The elevator door slid open to reveal a dimly lit corridor that branched off in two directions. Bardock could easily tell that people did not come here often; the space smelled of mildew and oil and practically screamed 'go away.' It was sort of like Paragus himself: old, dusty, and unwelcoming.

He suppressed the urge to sneeze, then tucked his equipment under one arm. He took the right corridor and followed it to the end. A single door barred the way; it was solid metal with no visible handles or knobs. A keypad to the left, keys worn smooth over the years, was the only means of entrance. Communication was through a small speaker and a camera over the door frame greeted all visitors with its mechanical gaze.

"What a friendly guy," Bardock sarcastically mumbled. "I should ask him out for drinks afterward."

As he approached, a red light came on the camera and it started to track his movements. Paranoid much, Paragus? What was the man doing in there that required this level of security? Bardock wiped the sheen of sweat off his upper lip as he stopped and stared up into the lens.

And nothing happened. The door did not open, nothing came over the speaker. Bardock waited impatiently, his foot tapping slightly in annoyance. What the hell? Was Paragus blowing him off? He was on time, he had made sure of it. In fact, he was slightly early. After a few minutes, Bardock mashed some of the keys, then banged a fist on the portal.

Balls! What a dick; he knows I'm standing here.

"Eh, anyone there?" Bardock waved his arms at the camera out of frustration. "I'm here for my appointment with General Paragus." He glared at the door as if it had done something to him personally, and wondered if it was strong enough to withstand a Ki blast… it certainly looked like it could.

A hum and a crackle announced the voice feed was active. "You're early," Paragus' gravelly voice said.

"And?" Bardock growled, then folded his arms over his chest plate. Gods how he wanted to smoke, but the old coot would probably flip a dick.

"I told you to be on time."

"Seriously?" Bardock glowered up at the camera, but did not voice the things that popped into his mind. Keep your shit together, Dock.

Again, that grating crackle came out of the speaker. Damn, did Paragus program it to do that? "Come in." The door slid open without a sound to allow him passage into the scientist's inner lair. As he walked in, Bardock noted that the metal was a good ten inches thick.

The inside of the lab was cool and dry, almost uncomfortably so. Bardock expected Paragus to be hovering at the entrance like a giant vulture ready to pick his bones, but the older Saiyan could not be bothered to greet him. The hall opened into a large room lined with tables and shelves filled with a bizarre assortment of items. Bardock noticed a stockpile of chemicals in giant vats, rows of vials and beakers, a selection of electronic equipment that the Army would be jealous of, and odd-shaped tools that he had no names for.

The man himself was seated at an old and cluttered desk at the far end. Rows of monitors on the wall behind him showed different views of his floor: the elevator, the hallway, the entrance, and other unknown locations. Yup. Paranoid.

Paragus looked up and waved with one hand to indicate that Bardock could come in, like some damn royal. What a pompous ass.

As he approached the resident 'genius,' Bardock noticed five glass tanks filled with a neon green liquid. Inside each vat floated a creature that on first glance resembled a child just out of its Natal Pod, but these were no Saiyan br'atu. The creatures' bifurcated heads were far too large for their bodies, their arms and legs bore wicked clawed appendages, and their lidded eyes were solid red. It was unsure whether they were alive or not. What were those things? Had Paragus made them, or just collected them from some planet and stuck them in a tank for later?

Bardock actually stopped and stared. He was just about to rap a finger on the glass to see if the thing moved when Paragus' voice made him start. "Cultivars", Paragus stated, pride in his voice. "Artificial soldiers. And stop dawdling in my entranceway."

"Whatever." Bardock shrugged. He really did not care much about Paragus' pet projects. The only thing he cared about was whether the old coot could help him get back with his squad. Back to doing what he loved because palace duty was already making his senses dull. But in spite of 'not caring,' Bardock could not help his curiosity. He was still a Saiyan, after all.

Paragus turned as Bardock approached. The scientist wore a pair of magnifying glasses, much like those Bardock wore, pushed back on his high forehead. The man had a microscope off to one side and what looked like a selection of different seeds in clear bowls. Each had a small label that Bardock could not quite read. The Head of Sciences did not stand up, or offer Bardock a seat. He did not even offer a hand in greeting.

"Time is money, and my time is precious. Remind me why you're here, Captain."

"Bardock," he grumbled. "And I'm here to revolutionize how we fight."

"Oh yes … the engineer." He spoke that last word with such contempt that Bardock had all he could do not to punch Paragus right in his sour looking face. "You had mentioned something about a blutz wave enhancer?"

Bardock sighed, annoyed by the older Saiyan's not too subtle arrogance, as if being an engineer somehow made Bardock less worthy of respect. "Generator. A blutz wave generator. Once programmed, it will be able to recreate and broadcast the appropriate frequency at any time. Day or night, cloudy or rainy weather, it doesn't matter. It's portable, useable by all Saiyan troops, and will require no skills other than pressing a button. No longer will we be dependent on stellar bodies to do our best work. Like I said, it's going to be a game-changer. Just think of what we'd have accomplished if this had been around during the War. It wouldn't have taken twenty years."

As he talked, Bardock started to feel excited. He placed a small globe, the size of a hover camera, on the desk in front of Paragus for the other to inspect. He held back on displaying the internal schematics, though. "Not only will it be capable of adjusting the size of the wave field, but it can be used to broadcast other frequencies as well. It has internal and external shielding, and is damn well indestructible."

"Really? That's a bold claim." One of Paragus' eyebrows crawled up like a bushy caterpillar as he sat back in his chair. He manipulated the generator, pressed buttons, examined it with his glasses. "I do hope you have schematics, soldier, as right now this seems to be nothing more than a glorified field camera with a new paint job."

"Yeah, of course." With a begrudging sigh, Bardock pulled the blueprints up on his handheld and turned the screen towards Paragus. He would not be handing them over wholesale. "Now I've been working on this for a while, and I've talked to a lot of people about it, including General Nappa. And what I really need to finalize is to collect and analyze Blutz waves. Which I can't do right now, sir, because I've been grounded. And we're not going to see a moon here for at least seventy years. I don't know about you, but I don't want to wait on this."

Paragus looked through the schematics with a critical eye. He hemmed and hawed like he wanted to correct, to criticize. But the theory was sound, Bardock knew. If it worked – no – when it worked, it would change everything. The Saiyans would rise to the top of the food chain, no one would be able to doubt their prowess. He really hoped that Paragus would not claim it had been his idea, his work. It had happened before, or so Bardock had heard. Paragus was a ruthless man who would step on whatever tails he had to get to the top and stay there.

Saiyan scientists were rare. Engineers were even rarer, since the technicality was usually beyond most Saiyans, who focused on the physical world of combat. The Saiyan motto was 'feast, fight, fuck,' and they most definitely wanted nothing more out of life. Yet a few were able to see their world, their reality, in a different light. To think in terms of abstracts, of gears and biology, to strategize. The King himself was considered an intellectual, and valued science just as strongly as muscle. After all, strength alone had not won the Tuffle War… although it had been the final strike. Paragus was rumored to be just as smart and ruthless as the king himself. And he held the key to Bardock's future … Skallon's petty games aside.

"So," Bardock prompted. "The science is sound. I've triple checked it. More than that, actually. I've had the Engineering Department check it, too. All I need is to collect a sample to complete my analysis. And that's where you come in, General. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

Paragus twiddled with his bushy mustache – a sign of his age and prowess – and stared at the pad for a few more seconds, then breathed out. "So, you want me to get Skallon off your back."

"Yes. Like I said, Skallon's blocked me from all outgoing missions. And he's a petty bitch, too." Even though he had taken credit for his kit … Gine's kit … Bardock would not put it past the man to dick him over just out of spite. Nothing like a little extra insurance.

"I see." A sly smile came over the older Saiyan's face, a nasty look that Bardock did not like one bit. "Consider it done. When you have the data, bring it back here for analysis. Unless you happen to have a lab in your barracks."

"So …" Bardock collected his items, placed them back in their box. He had not even needed to show the analyzer. "How long will that take?"

Paragus' eyebrows rose up, and he huffed. "In a hurry, soldier?"

"Look, General, the longer I sit here and rot, the longer it takes to get what I need."

Paragus chuckled, a nasty sound. "Ambitious just like the rumors say. Tell you what, I'll make sure that Skallon's off your back. For good, in return for a small favor."

What now? Bardock groaned. Not like he really had too many choices, unless he somehow got an audience with the King himself. Perhaps he should have tried to get an audience with the King during the presentation of the Prince. No… that would have been really bad timing. And now, he'd used up his last favor from Nappa just to get his foot in the door. "What kind of a favor?"

"Since you're already going on a … fact-finding mission, you can test out something for me. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." Paragus returned the datapad.

"What do you mean?"

Paragus got up and stretched, then moved over to a table filled with vials of different sizes, small petri dishes, and an assortment of what looked like pots filled with soil. Paragus selected a smaller test tube and held it up to one eye. It was filled with a green liquid and contained what looked like seeds and was stoppered at the top. He handed it to Bardock.

"What's this?" Bardock stared at the vial, then turned it around in his hands. The seeds rattled about. "You want me to start a garden?"

"Hardly," the scientist sneered. "This is the newest innovation in warfare: cultivated soldiers. Able to be transported with ease, and brought into battle fully trained." Paragus grinned, obviously proud. "It's a pet project I've been working on for years. I want you to plant these seeds, take Power Readings, and observe their behavior."

"Seeds?" Bardock said in a dubious tone. "What am I going to do, throw them at someone?"

Paragus' expression grew dark. "I wouldn't bite the hand that feeds you, soldier."

"Right." Bardock held his hands up. "Sorry." He wasn't sorry, though.

"As I was saying, you plant the seeds in soil, pour some of the liquid over the top. Each cultivar should emerge within 60 seconds. I want to know if they don't. As their handler, you can issue simple commands to them, and they should respond quickly and without hesitation. Note any problems with processing commands and following them. They will fight until they have completed their goal, or are killed."

Bardock sniffed. A nifty trick, if it worked and Paragus was not just yanking him around. "Do I bring them back?"

"No," Paragus shrugged. "They are disposable. Now, do we have an agreement?"

"Yeah."

As Paragus escorted him back to the door, Bardock took a closer look at all the suspended creatures; some even looked like humanoids, maybe even like Saiyans. He tried to spot a tail, but Paragus kept him moving. The idea of growing fighters from a seed seemed like a pipe dream, something thought up after a long night of partying … but then, Bardock was not a scientist. And Natal Pods were a thing…

"What are these things supposed to look like when they're … developed, y'know … so I can tell if they're working right." He tucked the vial in his chest plate pocket.

Paragus pointed out one of the creatures Bardock had noticed coming in, the wrinkled green-skinned thing. "Like that. And remember to speak your orders clearly. Now, I have work to do. You'll receive notification when your clearance has been changed."

Paragus herded Bardock out the door, and without so much as a farewell, closed it in his face.

Thank you to my beta Firestorm1991

A/N : I know. It's been a really long time. I hope this chapter finds you all well. Please note that from this chapter one, I will be replying to your comments personally, instead of at the end… so that you won't have to wait two years for your answers ^^' Thanks to all who left reviews, I read them all with interest. Your feedback means a lot

Firestorm1991: Yes, in this story Gine already has a child. I mean, Raditz looks nothing like Bardock, lolz. And don't worry, the guilt will get him. Honestly, Skallon was hoping that Gine would get killed on the mission - aren't Saiyans wonderful people? And yes, Bardock doesn't want to admit that he's jealous of some of what Gine has. I like the idea that Bardock created the wave generator, and that he's more than just a meathead. And yes. Yes he's a dick! Thanks for commenting and letting me know what you think.

Guest: Unfortunately, I have no way to contact you and let you know the update is here.

Nancy103: Thank you so much! Sorry it took a while … hope you'll like this latest chapter.

Farala: I really feel like I'd replied to you in person for such a thoughtful review, but I can't seem to find it in my outbox. So apologies for the long delay.

Thank you so much for your kind words, I really appreciate it! Part of the reason I'm writing this story is because there aren't a lot of good Bardock and Gine stories at all, which is a shame. Although Gine is certainly more in the spotlight now due to the Broly movie. Like you, I've found many stories with them to be more focused on their later lives, closer to the destruction of Vegetasai and those that focused on the beginning often have Bardock as a sympathetic character when it's been stated that most Saiyans couldn't give a crap about 'love' or 'family'. Although Bardock is often shown as a 'hero' it doesn't mean he's automatically a great guy by any means, and that's what I like to explore. In the manga and the movie, Gine says that even SHE thinks Bardock is acting out of character. And Saiyans really are for the most part, assholes.

I liked Gine from the start, because she was a different kind of Saiyan who showed they had more than one dimension to them. And yeah, without any evidence it's easy to think Fasha was his partner. Although in the special, Fasha doesn't say THEIR son is born, only his. Besides, I think Fasha and Bardock are too alike to have anything beyond a sexual relationship.

The choice to give Raditz a different father was a weighted decision, and I debated back and forth with my coauthor for a while. In the end, we decided that not only would it give the story more depth, but would also show there's a complexity to Saiyan culture as well. I'm glad that you are enjoying this different take on Raditz, and a glimpse into Bardock's mind as he is forced to change and grow. And thank you for reading!