Ok, this is stupid, I was so happy that I was finally able to save the chapter that I forgot to do my usual small edit of it first before posting it.

ANYWAY!

As the summary blurb tells you, this story is centered around Raditz, and is an AU of Dragon Ball with him joining the Z Fighters.

Yes, I know, it's been done to death, even Masako X did a whole 10 episode series about it.

But if you check the pairing, you'll see what makes mine different.

Yeah, Android 21 is a part of the story.

You'll see how soon enough though.

Enjoy!

A gasp, as a pair of eyes were flung open, their owner trying to stand up, only to bang their head against a piece of metal.

A hiss escaped their lips as they sat back down, their hand reaching up to rub the spot they banged against the ceiling. Groaning slightly, they couldn't help but wonder what happened. Why were they inside some kind of metal capsule? Heck, now that they thought about it, the last thing they remembered was…

Dying, they had been dying, moments from breathing their last breath, but, they were clashing memories as to just HOW they were dying, one memory was of them fighting against a surprisingly vicious race of aliens, and one of them getting a lucky hit in that caused them to start to bleed out at a steady rate, which would explain the pool of blood at their feet.

But the other memory was, well, more tame in a sense, they had been rock climbing with one of their cousins when the rock their hook had been put into suddenly fell loose, causing them to plummet to their death.

In both cases they had been injured, and were barely holding on, the first memory of them getting into their pod after killing the bastard that wounded them, hoping to just walk the wound off, while the second memory was of their cousin shouting in worry as they started to climb back down as quickly as they could.

Anything before that was blurry at the moment, as they tried to piece everything together. Even their name escaped them.

It was then that their full situational awareness started to kick in, albeit at a slow rate as they started taking everything in.

The interior design of the pod was familiar, not just to the first set of memories, but also to the second, just as they knew that the outside was shaped like a sphere, with a single red window on the door that would open only upon landing on a planet with a breathable atmosphere of oxygen.

They then realised their left eye covered by a green glass of some sort, almost like a monocle, which, when they removed, both sets of memories identified as a Scouter, the same kind used by the Planet Trade Organizaton, or PTO for short, under the control of Frieza, a rather cruel Arcosian.

For some reason, the second set of memories was making him feel validated, as the first set confirmed that Arcosian was indeed the name of Frieza's species.

The mystery continued as they finally took notice of the gauntlet covering their forearm, which looked eerily familiar to the second set of memories, making them look down to see their torso covered in the standard PTO armor, with shoulder guards, hip guards, and a plate over the crotch area.

The color of their armor though was mainly black, with the remaining pieces being a dark shade of brown.

Though, the armor was far from intact, as a hole could be seen on their chest, not very far from the heart, but it was over the area where one of their lungs was at least, the skin covered in dried blood with a prominent scar over the area, visible after the removed the blood.

They were still confused, but more of the mystery was slowly starting to solve itself, such as them finally remembering they were a male, and they could confirm that they worked for Frieza… though they felt like changing that, since the second set of memories knew, well, a lot more than the first did, which was slowly all coming back.

It was as everything from the second set settled in, and he remembered their favorite show, up to the episode that had aired just a few days prior, that the first set of memories all came back, making the man blink as everything settled in his mind and he remembered who he was.

He was Raditz, eldest son of the Saiyan warrior Bardock and his wife Gine, and elder brother to the eventual greatest warrior of Earth, Son Goku, or rather Kakarot.

It all felt so strange to him, as the memories of his past mended with the memories the human half of him had of several different shows.

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Kai, and Dragon Ball Super, along with 19 movies worth of knowledge, all interlacing with what he knew as Raditz.

It certainly helped paint a larger picture, as he knew that Frieza was the one to blame for Planet Vegeta's destruction, and that his father had fought the tyrant till the bitter end.

It made him proud to say that he was Bardock's son.

He also knew that his original mentality as a Saiyan was… wrong.

He had been a coward, one who prefered underhanded tactics, he could admit that much.

He wanted to become a proud warrior now… and with the knowledge from the human side helping him, he might even be able to change Earth's timeline to be slightly better.

For starters, he wasn't going to be antagonistic towards his little brother like his original self would have been, no, he'd offer himself as an ally for things to come.

The arrival of Vegeta and Nappa, the battle against Frieza, the arrival of the androids, the fight with Cell, the battle against Majin Buu, Beerus's appearance on earth, Frieza's resurrection, Zamasu's Zero Mortal Plan, and the Tournament of Power.

He was going to have plan for all of those, to try and make them turn out better.

Maybe he could even prevent some deaths, even if that would certainly be difficult… and in the long run, unneeded thanks to the dragon balls.

But, still, it was the thought that counts.

Though… he winced as he realised this would mean he would have to lie to people he would want to make his allies, his friends, for over the next 10 years, if not many more.

Already it made him feel guilty, that he had knowledge of the future, more than what Trunks had even, and that he likely couldn't risk telling anyone.

Still, he planned on using that knowledge for good, just like Trunks did, the only difference being he wasn't time travelling, so he probably wasn't going to piss off the Supreme Kai of Time… at least he hoped she didn't get pissed, getting an earful from Chronoa just sounded like a hassle.

He probably wouldn't though, hell, he had a feeling that this would count as a new timeline being born instead of a change occuring to history.

Slowly, he fell deep into his thoughts, thinking up possible plans, scenarios, and changes, that might happen down the line, what with having nothing better to do until he reached Earth.

After what felt like days, during which he ended up exhausting his rations, even if he was stretching them out as much as he can, he finally saw a familiar blue planet, slowly getting larger as he flew towards it.

'Thinking about it, it really is a beautiful sight, one that I wouldn't have enjoyed without the human half, or never even gotten a chance to see without the saiyan half.' he thought to himself with a smile as he looked at where he would hopefully be able to call his home for the rest of his life.

He'd made a lot of plans over the last few days, a lot of them helping him realise how… finicky, the timeline was during the Z period, considering how many of his brother's enemies turned into allies, though he expected to have a lot more leeway during the Super period… although, he was curious as to what would be happening for that, since the manga and anime both had quite the good number of differences between them.

His thoughts were halted as he finally entered the atmosphere, his pod shaking a bit at the turbulence as a corona of heat surrounded it due to the friction.

He only had to wait for a good 10 seconds, before he was jostled from the crash, his pod creating a crater as it dug down into the earth due to the force of the impact.

He took a moment to make sure everything was in order, before opening the pod manually, grabbing something that was hidden in his seat, and stepping out of it, and having to cover his eyes at the sudden sunlight that blinded him for a few moments.

After a moment to readjust his eyesight, he stepped out of the crater he had made, and came face to face with… the farmer from the first episode of DBZ.

'This is either going to be sad or hilarious.' Raditz thought to himself as his scouter automatically scanned the man that held a shotgun in fear 'I know power levels are bullshit, but a power level of 5 is just sad.'

"Y-you're on m-my property…!" the farmer said, trying and failing miserably to be intimidating. Honestly, even with the shotgun, he looked ready to wet himself at any moment.

Raditz heaved an internal sigh at how fearful the man was being, before raising his hand "Look, I'm-" and he was cut off by the farmer squeezing the trigger, shooting Raditz… only for the bullets to flatten themselves against him, even the ones that hit his skin.

Both were silent for a few moments, before Raditz spoke "Ok… that stung a little… thanks for reminding me how much I hate mosquitos." he grumbled the last part to himself before sighing audibly this time "Look, sir, I'm here in peace, alright?" he said, even adding in a certain sign from an old TV show.

However, instead of having the intended effect...the farmer's eyes rolled into his head and he fell into a dead faint...and the smell of urine confirmed that yes, he DID wet himself.

Raditz pinched his nose as one of the many ostrich like birds that dotted the farm looked at the farmer oddly and started pecking him in the stomach "Welp, at least he should be happy to live." he said, before taking off into the sky, letting go of his nose when he was high enough.

'Honestly, I don't think he was even brought back by Shenron… hell, how many people WERE forgotten? Pretty sure they never made a wish to bring back those killed by Nappa when him and Vegeta landed. At any rate, for all the BS these scouters are, they're at least good for something,' he thought, before using it to try and find high power levels. True enough, he soon found a few...though now he considered how best to do this. Considering he didn't want to be a threat, there was no point in going to where Piccolo was. At the same time though, did he really want to crash the reunion party?

'I guess… I'll let Kakarot have his reunion with his friends for a little bit, and go find Piccolo for now, who knows, maybe it would be best to make him tail me in case something comes up.' He thought with a nod, having to wrack his brain a bit to remember which of the numbers exactly was Piccolo… only to not remember it, due to how long ago that had been, and how much of a throwaway line it had been at that.

'Oh well, who knows, maybe I'll find some of the other Z fighters first.' he resigned himself with a sigh, as he rocketed off towards one of the power levels.

The human part of him was certainly giddy at the fact he was flying almost as fast as a jet… though he could probably make a sonic boom if he put more of his Ki into it.

Best not to attract too much attention though.

After a few minutes, and rising up into the clouds to make himself harder to spot, he reached what he was pretty sure was West City, and was hovering above a baseball stadium.

'Huh, didn't think Yamcha had a game going on during the first episode.' he thought to himself with a smirk as he floated down enough that he could see the action better, seeing the Wolf Fang Fist user walking up to the batter's position and getting ready, before hitting a homerun with rather obvious ease.

Raditz couldn't help himself and let out a laugh as the ball landed perfectly in his hand after it got out of the stadium, before deciding to mess with Yamcha's head a bit as he threw it right back towards him after he completed his run, not even being surprised as the scarred man turned around and caught it, the whole stadium becoming confused at the fact the ball had come back, while Raditz merely flew away with a grin.

Back at the stadium, Yamcha tracked the dot that was Raditz as it flew away, a raised eyebrow underneath his baseball cap "Who was that guy?" he mumbled, before focusing back on what was going on in the stadium, the game wasn't done yet after all.

As for Raditz, he continued to fly, tracking power levels to see if they were going to be Piccolo, he only knew which one was Kakarot because it was the highest on the planet.

This time, he ended up near a large waterfall, some sort of canyon ridge thing (he doesn't know the name, sue him) above the lake, with a capsule house standing on it.

'This is… vaguely familiar.' he thought to himself, his face in a confused frown as he tried to remember where he had seen this place before.

"Hey."

The sudden voice behind him startled him, so focused on his thoughts had he been that he had not noticed his scouter notifying him of a power level getting behind him, turning around to see a bald man with three eyes, wearing training clothes in white and green.

'Oh right, this is where Tien and Chiaotzu live with Launch.' he finally remembered as Tien looked at him with his arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" the human(?) asked impassively.

'Honestly, is he human though? The third eye just confuses me.' "I was looking for someone, safe to say, you're not him. But maybe you can help me, he'd have black hair, rather wild looking, and would have a tail just like mine." Raditz said as he unwounded his tail from his waist.

Tien eyed the tail, blinking in recognition "That sounds just like Goku… are you related to him?"

Raditz couldn't help the chuckle that came from his lips "Indeed, I'm his older brother, though I doubt he knows this, our parents sent him away when he was just a baby."

"Sent him away?" Tien repeated in confusion.

Raditz simply nodded, before he mentally grinned at a funny idea to possibly embarrass his little brother "I even have a picture of him from when he was born if that helps confirm we're talking about the same person." he said, pulling a picture from his armor and handing it to Tien.

On the picture, Tien could see who he assumed was Goku's father, a man who looked just like him except with tan skin and scars, his eyes holding a far more serious look as he smirked at the camera, wearing an armor similar to what the man before him wore, just missing the shoulder pads, and with green replacing the brown. Said man was also on the picture, down in the corner, grinning as he looked more like a young teenager back when the picture was taken, wearing the exact same armor he did now, albeit in a smaller size. And in the middle of the picture was a woman with soft features, the same black colored hair as everyone else in the picture, and obviously who Goku got most of his facial features from, holding said boy in her arms, being nothing but a newborn baby at that moment. Tien had to smirk as he saw that Goku was actually born with his wild hairstyle.

"Yeah, that's him alright." Tien said as he handed the photo back to Raditz who slipped back into his armor "I don't really know where he is at the moment, last I saw him, he was heading off to get married with a girl he promised to marry when he was just a kid."

"I feel like there's more to the story." Raditz said with a smirk, though he already knew the punchline.

Tien nodded with a chuckle "Goku thought marriage was a type of food."

Raditz couldn't help it, he just burst out laughing, as actually hearing it straight from one of his little brother's friends somehow made it all that much more hilarious.

Tien shook his head in amusement himself as he remembered when Goku admitted to it, right in front of Chi Chi's face, though he had made up for it by quickly agreeing to marrying her still now that he knew what it meant.

Eventually, the two got their amusement under control, as Raditz wiped a tear from his eye after a good laugh, nodding in thanks to Tien "Well, thanks for trying to help, I'll probably see you around." he said, Tien nodded as he took off, the three eyed man floating back down to the house below.

When he landed in front of the house, the door which was slightly cracked open was fully swung open, with Tien staring down at his trusted friend Chiaotzu, and then looking back up at the currently blonde haired Launch.

"So, who was that weirdo?" Launch asked, nodding at the dot that was Raditz.

"Goku's older brother." Tien said with a small smirk as he stepped inside, the other two remaining outside, frozen in shock, before both of them let out a loud "WHAT?!" as they ran back inside to get more details.

Back with Raditz, he was checking on his scouter, and only two sources remained to be checked. One lone power level, a high one, and a small group of power levels, two small ones, one higher one, and two average ones.

'Well, the choice is obvious.' he thought with a smirk as he rocketed off towards the lone power level.

After about a minute, he came out of his high speed flight, stopping in front of the shocked Piccolo, who he remembered at the moment was still very much evil.

Putting on his best surprised face, he blinked, rubbing his eyes for good measure "A Namekian? What's one of your kind doing all the way out here?"

"What?" Piccolo repeated in confusion, reminding him that Piccolo actually believed himself to be a demon at this point in time, and that both him and Kami had actually forgotten for the most part about their home planet.

"Clearly you're of the Warrior Clan, considering your power level, but now I find myself wondering if any Dragon Clan members are present." Raditz mused, seemingly to himself, but restrained a smirk as he saw even more confusion dance in Piccolo's eyes, and some familiarity to the words it seemed.

It was fun to make someone who always seemed so stoic just look so lost.

"Well, you're not the one I'm looking for though." Raditz said after a moment, raising his hand to his scouter, putting on an act as he visibly smirked "But that one definitely is." he said, before quickly taking off towards Kame House.

Left behind was a stunned and confused Piccolo, who looked at Raditz's retreating form for a few moments, before keeping his power level down and following after him, taking large leaps across the plateau filled area.

Raditz spared a moment to glance behind himself, smirking when he saw Piccolo mid leap, glad he'd gotten his attention enough to intrigue him and force him to follow.

Soon, he saw his target, a little pink house on a small island with nothing but a pair of palm trees on it, the horizon being nothing but waves for miles.

'Jeez, really gotta try to hammer in the hermit idea don't you Roshi? Too bad you just have your privacy so you can read all your magazines and watch your exercise videos in peace… I wonder if he even knows that porn exists?' Raditz mentally mused to himself as he slowly touched down on the island.

Standing in front of him, having sensed the approach of a high power, was a man with wild black hair, wearing an orange gi.

Raditz smiled as he looked at him "Took me long enough to find you, Kakarot."

So, yeahp! That's where we're stopping for now!

Cliffhanger, I know, but hey, you gotta have them sometimes to interest people more.

Now, as you saw, yes, Raditz has had some more interaction with other characters, a while discussion with Tien, trolling Yamcha, and messing with Piccolo.

Believe me, there's a lot more unique moments like that on the way.

Oh, and if you don't know what Goku and Raditz's mother looks like, just look up Gine from Dragon Ball Minus, that's her, she's a butcher.

See you next time, on Dragon Ball AS!