Chapter 1: Atonement

Fear. Horror. Confusion. These were the feelings of Bardock, who had returned to Planet Vegeta battered, bloody, and beaten. After taking his pod to Planet Meat to meet up with his crew, he was horrified to find that Dodoria, the spiky pink blob that was Frieza's second in command, had brought his elite and had wiped out Bardock's crew without mercy. Fasha, Borgos, Shugesh, all of them had been killed upon his arrival.

Bardock absentmindedly touched his blood-red headband as he remembered seeing his best friend Tora on the verge of death. Formally Tora's armband, Bardock had turned it into a headband after his longtime comrade and best friend had died in his arms in a sign of remembrance for the man he considered a brother.

The full-blooded Saiyan kept running in the streets of Planet Vegeta, soaked in blood and sweat running down his body. That mission to Meat had been nothing more than an ambush, one that left Bardock in ruined armor and covered in bruises and cuts. I should have gotten there earlier! I shouldn't have let that fat fuck kill them all! I'm so sorry, my friends. I've failed you all...

Suddenly, Bardock slowed down and fell to his knees as he saw the area around him begin to change. The red sky turned green, and the city streets changed into a rural area with blue grass and plateaus. "Bardock!" a voice softly called out. That voice...it seemed somewhat familiar to Bardock, but he couldn't place where or how.

"Who is it?" Bardock asked, breathing heavily as he came to a stop. "Show yourself! Who's calling me?" What kind of black magic, one that could change the environment and make mountains grow on Vegetasei, was this? Now, Bardock was even hearing voices in his head? Damn that Kanassan for giving him that stupid curse!

"Come on out! I know that you're here!" Bardock was getting irritated now. Why wouldn't they answer him?

"Bardock!"

Hearing the voice again, Bardock turned around...only to be petrified at the sight. In front of him was an absolute like a mirror image of the Saiyan, except no scars and signs of war littered his body; the green body armor Bardock wore to each mission had been replaced with an orange fighting outfit and a blue shirt underneath it. Some kind of insignia was on the back, and while Bardock would normally take the time to try to decipher the meaning to the best of his ability, he was too busy being confused as to what was happening to even attempt it.

"You know who I am, don't you, Bardock?" the man asked, and now Bardock realized that this was his newborn son somehow; it had to be, but what...what was his name? Fuck, Bardock just had to forget at this time...wait, Kakarot! That was his offspring's name!

As normal as it'd been for a Saiyan to not remember their offspring's name, Bardock felt sort of ashamed that he couldn't remember Kakarot, especially considering that he never had a relationship with Raditz and had come from an awful childhood of his own. "Yes…You're my son!" Bardock replied weakly, reaching a hand out to his son. Kakarot still hadn't looked at him yet, instead being focused on whatever was in front of him.

Bardock was struggling to find the words to say, instead just silence coming out of his mouth. Kakarot...why won't you look at me?

"It's not too late, father, to be different." Now, Kakarot finally turned around, and he was most definitely a replica of Bardock himself. Hell, if not for the different shade of skin, Kakarot would have perfectly resembled Bardock's best friend, Turles. Hopefully, you'll be as much of a Saiyan as Turles is, Kakarot.

Now, Kakarot's face started to change, but his voice remained the same. "...to be different...than him." Before Bardock could ask who him was, he saw it. Him... he was the man who had enslaved his race, the man who had betrayed him and his race.

Frieza.

"Hahaha!" Frieza's chill-causing voice was the only noise that Bardock could hear. Now, Frieza let out a deep, jovial laugh, causing Bardock to become wide eyed and scream as he felt the ground beneath him break.

The beaten Saiyan suddenly snapped out of it, and the weird planet returned to the normalness of Planet Vegeta. There was absolutely no way that what he just went through was a delusion or hallucation; no, that was real, absolutely fucking real. Again, the words of the Kanassan made their way through his head again, about how he would see the end of his race like the alien had seen his.

Bardock kept running until he reached the roof of the capital building. "Where am I? This is madness! Where I was seemed just as real as this!" Bardock said, coming to a halt as he reached the top and saw nothing but the city below him. Out of breath once again, this didn't stop Bardock from looking up at the sky. And then, what he saw in the sky made him want to run away and never come back.

There, in all its glory, was Frieza's ship quickly approaching Vegetasei. Damn it all, the visions had been true, Frieza was here to destroy the planet!

"I have given this gift to you, Bardock, so that you too can see the end," the words of the Kanassan echoed in his head, as did Kakarot's. "It' not too late, father, to be different than him."

It's not too late.

Not too late.

Not too late?

Not too late.

"Well, I'm not going to sit around and wait for the show. I know now what I have to do in order to save my planet, as well as the Saiyan race from eradication!" Bardock tightened his armband and began to power up so that he could fly into the orbit; there was no way in hell that Bardock, after all he'd been through, was going to allow Frieza to fuck him over one last time.

I don't care if I have to do it with my own two hands. Frieza, I'm coming for you, you murderous self-serving traitor. Tora, Gine, this is for you! Bardock thought as he clenched his fists in anger, starting to draw a little bit of blood that ran all over his hands. This was it, and Bardock knew that for a fact.

Either he went down, or Frieza. If Bardock had his way, the definite answer was that it'd be the latter falling to the orbit of Vegetasei with his body fried and burnt to a crisp.

Frieza stood in his throne room, looking out the window at the beautiful sky of Planet Vegeta. "What a stunning sight," Frieza laughed to himself, reaching for a glass of Kanyeezian wine. "Sometimes I amaze myself with how smart and cunning I can be." Smart and cunning, indeed, as today would be a momentous day in history; that planet of the apes, the one that had given him so many soldiers over the year, would be obliterated for good. Such a shame, another pretty planet that had to be destroyed, but this was for the best.

No Super Saiyan, or whatever they referred to it as, would stop him.

"Agreed, sire," The delicate voice of Zarbon added, letting his own smile show. For years, Zarbon had loathed the Saiyans, a race that lacked any sort of class or respect, and now the majority of them would be wiped out. Ah, between this and the prisoner that he was supposed to interrogate, today was setting up to be an absolutely amazing day for the teal-skinned elite.

"Lord Frieza!" a soldier ran in, snapping Frieza and Zarbon out of their thoughts. "An intruder is making his way towards the ship! It appears to be a Saiyan, the same one that Dodoria let go!" the soldier announced, making Zarbon groan. Frieza, surprisingly, smiled at this.

"Bardock? Let the soldiers deal with him," Frieza instructed, waving his man off. Saluting, the grunt ran off to rally his men together.

I know that you're more than enough to deal with my men, Bardock, but coming to confront me? My, perhaps I underestimated you, Frieza thought to himself, watching the show from the best seat in the house.

Bardock became wide eyed as he saw aliens of all different kinds of species flying out of Frieza's ship, each wanting to kill the Saiyan and gain favor with Frieza. The pure Saiyan smiled at the thought briefly, and then regained his look of anger as he approached them. Bolts of light came at him from the soldier's arm guns, but Bardock flew straight through them and let an explosive wave surround him , killing all of the soldiers. One soldier that didn't go with them was punched in the face by the scarred man a second later, his skull breaking on impact.

"Come on, you cowards! You expect to destroy the Saiyan race like this?" Bardock dodged an oncoming soldier and kicked another, then grabbed a third henchmen and spun him around, using him as a shield. "You want to show Frieza what you're made of? Fine, I'll happily send your skinned bodies back to that freak!"

Now Bardock had a chance to use one of his favorite techniques, one that had saved him on Rygol 7 a couple of months before. This was called the Flash Spirit, which was an elbow, followed by a kick, and then an energy wave that would hit the opponent directly near his heart.

"FRIEZA!" Bardock screamed as about 20 soldiers surrounded him and clung tight to him, each one trying to be the one that would eliminate Bardock, but they all failed when Bardock used another Explosive Wave and an energy beam to kill them all.

Bardock shouted like a mad man as he kept plowing through Frieza's men, each falling to the planet upon being hit by the ruthless Saiyan. Really, Bardock felt slightly bad that he was having to kill all of these soldiers, many of whom were acting only because Frieza asked, but this wasn't the time to feel sorry. No, this was a time to eliminate the tyrant that was planning on blowing up all of Vegetasei.

A gloved hand made its way around Bardock's throat, and the Saiyan could feel that even more men were grabbing onto him and each other in an attempt to kill him, but Bardock just kept using his energy in order to keep flying. He could see the ship slowly and slowly getting closer.

"FRIEZA!" Bardock yelled, opening his fist and letting an energy ball explode, letting him get free. "FRIEZA! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME, YOU COWARD!"

More and more soldiers seemed to be coming closer, but when they heard the sound of Frieza's ship opening - complete with the Arcosian and his hovercraft actually leaving the ship - those same soldiers backed away.

"It's Frieza!"

"Long live Lord Frieza!"

"No way! You've lived long enough. Actually, it's been too long for my taste," Bardock started, not noticing Frieza point a finger upwards with a small reddish ball growing out of it."Now listen Frieza, we quit, all of us!

"Got it? We don't work for you no more! We're free, you can find someone else to do your dirty work! Oh yeah, there is one last thing!" Bardock continued, his ultimate attack, the Final Spirit Cannon, charging in his hand. "This is for all the people that we killed in your name! I wish that we were never foolish enough to obey you! Here, have it!"

With a final shout, Bardock chucked his ultimate attack at the feared Arcosian like a fastball leaving the mound at rapid speed. Here it was! This was the end of Lord Frieza, the self-proclaimed ruler of the galaxy! Never again would someone find their way of life being changed by Frieza and the Planet-Trade Organization; never again would Bardock be forced to murder and purge just for the sake of pleasing some feminine alcoholic asshole like Frieza.

Hopefully, as he felt his flesh burning and the next world greeting him, Frieza would realize just how much of a mistake he made betraying the Saiyan race. For the first time in his life, Frieza would not just show fear, but feel it when he realized that nothing would save him here, not from a bloodthirsty Saiyan warrior that was out to rip his skin from his bones.

Frieza, he'd regret having trying to killed Bardock...

...ah, if only the story would have went that way...

Bardock expected Frieza to show some sort of fear at an attack like his, but all the Saiyan could hear was...laughter? Yes, Frieza just started to laugh as his Supernova attack absorbed the attack, sucking it up like paper towels on water.

"What! No way!" Bardock yelled in disbelief. Of all the times for that attack to fail...

With a hardy laugh, Frieza let the Supernova go. As Frieza's men cowered in fear and screamed at their master's betrayal, Bardock just stood there, shocked, and then the realization hit him. As he himself finally started to scream, he felt nothing when he was taken by the Supernova and his armor started to burn away.

"Kakarot…I'm sorry! I know that you will be the one that defeats Frieza! KAKAROT!" Bardock yelled as he disappeared into the ball of fire.

The first thing Bardock noticed upon waking up was that he could feel his body. Wait, what?

Bardock had always thought that when you died, you lost your body, so this was...odd. Opening his eyes, Bardock saw a blue sky, green grass, and trees and mountains to go around. This was oddly similar to the vision that he had before, except the colors were reversed.

"W-where am I?" Bardock asked, noticing that his armor was still in the bad condition that it was when he had stood up to Frieza...wait a second, Frieza! That final attack of Frieza's had done it - Frieza had eliminated Planet Vegeta and the Saiyans.

Bardock, despite a valiant effort, failed.

Letting out a choked sob, Bardock felt his knees gave out. Everything was gone. Turles. Gine. Kakarot. Maybe even Raditz. Gone. Dead. Eliminated.

I failed all of you. I'm so, so sorry, Bardock told those he lost, even though they couldn't hear him. Please, forgive me. Raditz, I wish I'd treated you better, and the same goes for you, Gine. Kakarot, I'm sorry that you couldn't live an actual life-

Wait, Kakarot! If the adult version of Kakarot had been in that vision of Bardock's, then maybe there was a chance that he was alive! Hell, maybe he'd even given Frieza a taste of his own medicine and extracted that revenge!

"Still though. That doesn't explain where I am. Is this heaven?" Bardock wondered out loud, but then he remembered that he probably wasn't going to heaven. All those years of killing innocents and purging, why would he go to heaven? "No, I can't be in heaven."

The ground shaking woke Bardock up from his daydreaming and self-loathing, and he could feel that something was happening a short distance away, some kind of momentous battle. If Bardock truly was alive by some miracle, he was going to find out where he was, how long it had been, and if he could find Kakarot and any other Saiyans.

"Whatever is happening here, I'll find out!" Bardock said, taking to the sky, flying as fast as he did when he had tried to stop Frieza...

No, this is not a false alarm to any old readers. I actually went back and started editing old chapters just for quality, grammar, and any possible retcons. I'm also posting SC on Archive of our Own, so if you have an account there and want to check it out there, feel free. Yes, the character who we all hate is sadly still in this...

New readers, welcome to Second Chance. This fic, as you've no doubt noticed, is a what-if detailing Bardock surviving Frieza's Supernova attack and ending up on Earth through the magic of time travel. This fic was started in December 2012 and is going through a revision process while still updating new chapters, but no current plot devices (i.e. a character dying) will be changed in that revision.

Welcome to SC! :)