Thoughts

"Speech"

Disclaimer: DC and DBZ belong to their respective owners; I own nothing.

Chapter 1: Phoenix

There are worlds beyond the one you know. Universes beyond the one you inhabit. A glorious sequence of realities but that harmony is delicate. And when the infinite crisis comes, and it will come, it will take something extraordinary to stop it. An unimaginable force to defend all of reality.

There has been a crisis before. Once the iterations of the Universe were unnumbered. The infinite number of Earth's were watched by a race of beings known as the Monitors. From their homeworld Nil, outside all realities in the Overvoid, the Monitors protected and preserved the infinite strands of creation. Until one of their own turned against them.

The Anti-Monitor.

A crisis tore across the infinite Earth's. Universes perished in the maelstrom. In the end, the Monitors of Nil sacrificed themselves to defeat the evil of the Anti-Monitor. But peace was restored at a terrible cost. For a time there was stability. But now that fragile peace has been threatened once more. Darkness has risen once again.

The Fifty-Two Universes are crumbling.

Golden Shadows

"No, no, no, this isn't good enough!" Palming her forehead an irate woman scowled as she observed the orb in her hand. For all it's power, the orb was still proving to be utterly useless. "This will never do!"

She had been tasked with a mission, possibly the greatest mission of all time. The Fifty-Two Universes were at risk. For all intensive purposes, this was nothing new or groundbreaking. Each Universe was threatened on an almost daily basis. Facing gargantuan odds was nothing new to her or her leader. But not since the infinite crisis had a threat loomed so large.

Nix Uotan, the last of the Monitors, had given her this quest. An unknown menace had begun a brand new assault on the Multiverse. She had been present during the previous crisis and had unwittingly been a pawn of the Anti-Monitor. Under his malevolent influence, she had been forced to commit abhorrent acts, which still haunted her to this very day. That unceasing guilt was the part of the reason she worked so diligently for Nix.

She needed to atone for her past sins.

The original Monitor had saved her from assured death. Rescuing her from her sunken vessel, the original Monitor had essentially acted like her father. He had taken her under his wing and turned her into the Harbinger. But she had returned his kindness and mercy with violence, slaughtering him as the Anti-Monitor had commanded. Time healed all wounds, but that was one scar that would never be repaired.

"Why won't this infernal device show me what I need?!" The frustration seeped through her voice as she glared at the orb. It contained a codex of every known hero across space and time. But it's information still left much to be desired.

Nix had given her the task of assembling a team. She was supposed to gather a group of heroes from across the Multiverse to battle the upcoming threat. Things were easier said than done though. She had already traversed across countless dimensions with no luck. The problem wasn't the heroes themselves, but their particular circumstances.

Multiversal travel required strict rules and regulations. Harbinger could not select heroes who were integral to their planet or the time stream. As tremendous as the looming threat was, each individual Universe had its own set of problems. She would have loved nothing more than to select the most powerful members of the Justice League for this task, but their fates could not be interfered with. She could not afford to cause an imbalance.

So now Harbinger was forced to pick a rag-tag team of heroes. It would have been an incredible slight to tell them that she had only chosen them because of their insignificance to their Universe. It was a part of the information that she made sure to omit. So many of these Universes were pitiful. Earth-17 had been a hellish world chalk full of chaos and destruction. Earth-15 had been beautiful but possessed no superheroes.

With every fleeting moment, that unknown threat grew larger. So far she had only assembled two heroes and she wholeheartedly knew that they would not be enough. One of them didn't even possess superhuman powers. There was another route she could go but it would be incredibly dangerous, and most likely frowned upon by Nix. She could enter another Multiverse and ask for their assistance.

She was aware of the numerous Multiverses that existed within the larger Omniverse. It was something the original Monitor had made her aware of years ago. Traveling at the right vibrational frequency within the bleed, the walls which separated the Universes, it would be possible to leap into another realm. But would their heroes even be willing to help?

She was aware of the Dragon realm, a Multiverse which contained warriors with unimaginable power. She had peeked through the bleed's veil to observe it's occupants before. The warrior known as Son Goku was as courageous and valiant as Superman. He also seemed to enjoy a challenge, he would certainly be up for the task. With his power and might, this threat could very well be averted.

It's a big risk but the payoff could be immense. I hope Nix will understand. At the very least Goku should consider my offer. Who knows how big this threat may be? It may even reach his Multiverse.

Golden Shadows

In the waning moments of your life, it was said that your history flashed before your eyes. During his near-death experience, at the hands of Frieza, Goku had been the last thing he had thought about. He had died, well nearly died, with a vibrant smile on his face. He had been assured by the fact that his youngest son would be the one to avenge their race. It had brought him an inner peace that had evaded him throughout his wretched lifetime.

But this was anything but peaceful. His final thoughts now rested solely on vengeance and retaliation. He had miraculously survived death before, if he evaded it once more, he would be sure to never end up in this position again. His lack of awareness had resulted in this present circumstance. If he had simply finished the job when he'd had the opportunity, none of this would have occurred.

Chilled.

His jaws clenched at the thought of that name. That horned lizard was responsible for this! He had lost everything because of him! Bardock had thought Frieza was the pinnacle of his hatred, but Chilled had moved up on his hit list. He had to die!

Following his initial battle with the space pirate, things had been relatively peaceful. He had settled into a normal life if such a thing existed for Saiyan's. He remained on planet Plant but lived in exclusion from its inhabitants. Berry and his father would occasionally visit, but beyond that he had no real interaction with anyone else. His main focus had been piecing together the missing fragments of his life.

Till this day, his arrival on planet Plant was a mystery. Somehow, someway, he had survived Frieza's attack. He had been spared, but why? And by whom? He certainly wasn't deserving of it. Bardock held no belief in a deity of any kind, but if one had rescued him, it had picked wrongly. He was a planet conquering murderer who held little to no remorse for any of his actions.

If anyone should have been spared that gruesome death, it should have been Gine. His one-time lover had been the kindest, but weakest female Saiyan. There was a reason she was a butcher and not a warrior. She had loved him dearly, but those romantic feelings were not reciprocated by Bardock. He sincerely cared for her, but only as the mother of his children. [1]

Goku

The thought of his children weighed heavily on his mind when he meditated in solitude. Visions of Goku bombarded him on a daily basis. He pondered why Raditz never appeared in his visions but chalked it up to his insignificance. His eldest son must not have accomplished anything noteworthy. At least he had Goku though.

That solitude had also afforded him time to train. His transformation, which he had deduced was the one of legend, granted him immense power. He could understand why Frieza had been so frightened and craven. A planet full of Super Saiyans, hell just a battalion of Super Saiyans, could have easily destroyed his empire. It was a shame his fellow Saiyans would never receive the opportunity to wield such power.

Learning how to control his new transformation had been a struggle. Daily failures had caused him to nearly give up. But his pride would not allow him to back down from any challenge. Eventually, after weeks of blood, sweat, and tears he learned to transform at will. It no longer took an emotional imbalance for him reach that state.

Unfortunately, his mastery of the form had occurred the same day Chilled had returned. Bardock was sure he had killed him. His full power energy beam had sent him rocketing out of the planet's atmosphere. But if Chilled was anything like Frieza, he possessed the ability to survive in space. As a mercenary Bardock should have known better, you never leave a job unfinished. [2]

When Chilled returned he was almost unrecognizable. Bardock wasn't the only one who had gone through a metamorphosis. In fact, the Arcosian was a mirror image of the Frieza Bardock had seen in his visions. The only difference was the coloring of their skin. Their temperance, however, was exactly the same.

In a fit of rage Chilled instantly killed everyone once he arrived. The sounds of numerous explosions across the planet's surface alerted Bardock to the new threat. Acting quickly he had dashed off to the main village. The scene once he arrived had caused him to black out. Berry, his father, and all the other villagers were dead. Every single person he had known on this planet had been murdered.

The ensuing fight had been brutal. Bardock had barely known Berry, but he did not deserve such a fate. That innocent child had been nothing but kind to him. For the sake of Berry's race, Chilled had to die! The duo had been evenly matched until the Arcosian had decided to cheat. Growing tired of their incessant battle the space pirate simply blew up the planet.

In the span of seconds planet Plant was torn to shreds. The resulting explosion nearly killing Bardock. All that remained of his former home were tiny fragments that were currently hurtling through space. The only reason Goku's father was still alive now was because of the Ki wrapped around him. He had sheathed his body in a thin layer of Ki following the explosion.

But his energy was beginning to fade.

Any moment now his Ki would drop to deadly levels. His Ki would evaporate and so would his oxygen, forcing him to succumb to death's embrace. He didn't fear it, but he certainly wasn't looking forward to it. If there was a Hell he would most likely be venturing to that plane. The minimal good he had done in his life did not outweigh the bad.

Fuck it.

He accepted his fate. His eyes began to flutter shut but were forced open by an abrupt light. What is it now?

"He certainly looks like Goku but I don't remember him having that particular scar," Harbinger mused as she rubbed her chin. "But I don't have time to debate this."

Quickly dashing over to the battered Saiyan, she strung him over her shoulders. What are you doing with me?! For all he knew she could have been another one of Chilled's soldiers. But unfortunately, he did not have the strength to fight her. He would just have to settle this after he regained his power.

Pulling out her orb Harbinger summoned another portal. For all their sakes she prayed this work. Taking one final glance at the barely conscious man in her arms she leaped into the gateway. Fifty-Two harmonious Universes held in balance. But when the infinite crisis comes, it will take you to stop it.

Author's Note: This is a rewrite of A Saiyan's Journey. It was a good story but I felt the need to rewrite it for multiple reasons. One of the major one's being my lack of a solid explanation for Bardock's arrival on the DC Earth. Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku and Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock are canon for this. Aside from Gine's character, nothing from Dragonball Minus is canon.

This story doesn't take place in any particular DC Universe. It's one of my own making from various media sources.

[1]: Bardock and Gine were not married in this story, nor were they in love. On Bardock's half it was purely sexual. As the mother of his children Bardock cared for her, but not romantically.

[2]: Chilled managed to survive following his fight with Bardock. Unlike canon his crew was able to heal him and he did not flat line.