Chapter IV

Age 734

As the two suns of Planet Vegeta begin to set, a breathtaking display of color and light unfolds across the sky. The larger of the two suns, a brilliant orange orb, casts long shadows across the rugged terrain of the planet's surface. Its light warm and golden, bathing everything in a soft glow.

The smaller sun, another orange ball of luminescence, hangs low on the horizon, casting a deep crimson light across the sky. As the light of two suns approaches the planet, their colors begin to blend with the red sky, creating a stunning display of orange and red that seems to stretch on forever.

But Tercres couldn't be bothered to appreciate the sight as tiredly flew himself out of the Unit, one of his eyes were red and puffy as he looked below at the street outside the Unit. Some saiyan parents who were recuperating from off-world missions had come to pick up their children, while the majority walked home in groups.

After spending the day alternating between fighting and learning basic combat from Instructor Tomota, all Tercres wanted to do was go home and clock out for the day.

Flying about a mile above ground, he spotted several large creatures roaming the multitude of rocky formations and the occasional large terrestrial foliage such as trees, shrubs and bushes, below that dotted the landscape, both near the many low-class saiyan towns. They clustered together in small communities filled with rock houses, eking out a meager existence on the planet as they recuperated for their next mission.

In these oases, the water of planet Vegeta was green in hue. Some carnivores could be seen around here, stalking their prey with primal determination, while others were herbivores, grazing on the tough, scrubby vegetation as well as drinking from the natural springs.

Tercres' stomach growled at the sight of the meaty creatures, but he knew he had to press on home. He flew over the occasional abandoned Tuffle town, their once-great technological structures now pillages and crumbling, overgrown with weeds.

Approaching Vegeta City, a sprawling metropolis built from the technology and remains of the capital city of the Tuffles, the reddish-orange sky was replaced with stars glittering against the black backdrop.

This was the city he called home.

As he landed outside his house, a large and wide futuristic skyscraper complete with a landing pad for both space pods and ships, he stared at the sky and gazed at the stars; he hadn't seen stars so clearly in a very long time. The cities he lived before he reincarnated always had pollution blanketing the sky, preventing him from seeing the star's light.

With a deep sigh, Tercres pressed his palm to the scanner, allowing him to enter the building. Walking though a long hallway, he could hear the sound of his parents talking inside the main living area. He took a deep breath and entered the room, where his father was waiting for him.

"So, Tercres, I hope you didn't disappoint me at the Unit today?" his father, Tarro asked, his voice stern and imposing.

Tercres swallowed nervously before responding, "Yes, father. I was able to stay ahead of my batch today."

"Good," his father said, nodding in approval. "You must strive to be the best in your batch, Tercres. You don't want to besmirch my reputation as the father of low class scum."

Tercres knew his father's personality all too well, heck his Grandpa was the same in his home reality. He was strict and stern, only caring about his son growing strong and becoming a powerful warrior. He had an almost militaristic relationship with his father, who was always pushing him to be better.

As they sat down to eat, Tercres' mother served a truly lathe meal, almost three times their body weight. Tercres' father informed him of the political tensions between Frieza and King Vegeta, complaining that the number of conquering missions had suddenly increased considerably, stretching the number of forces in the Saiyan Army thin.

He also praised Prince Vegeta IV, calling him a prodigy for having a power level in the thousands and surpassing most middle-class Saiyans at only four years old, with barely concealed reverence. Tercres listened intently, knowing that his father held the royal family in high regard.

After eating more than two times his body weight, Tercres asked for a leave to go and sleep. His mother nodded, giving him a warm smile before he left the room.

He was exhausted, and his stomach was round with from the abundance of food. After removing his armour, he went into the bathroom to wash the grime and sweat from his body.

Under the running water Tercres looked at himself, lost in thought as he lightly touched the slowly healing cuts and bruises around his body: the fading purple bruise on his chest, his slowly mending ribs as well as the fractures in the the bones of his legs and arms.

The shallow cuts on his cheek had already healed as well as the black eye he had later in the day. Apart from that, all his light injuries had already healed, leaving only the more intensive ones to catch up.

Like all things new, Tercres had found out that he was actually improving during battle with the saibaman. He was shocked to find his fighting instincts slightly increasing in quality as well his hand-to-hand combat as he battled the saibaman, though don't get him wrong, he still would have kissed the rocky floor of the training grounds in any battle with a stamina full saibaman.

Even though he knew that his gains were similar if not higher than the other four year olds due to his higher intellect — they were still full blooded saiyans that weren't tainted like him with human morality and social laws. They could exploit their saiyan talent for combat better than a privileged person like himself who had never picked up a fight in his life and only knew to haphazardly throw out punches.

Although he still had an advantage against them, he still felt terribly outclassed by literally everyone his age in terms of battle instinct.

It didn't help that the majority of the people had a weight advantage over him. Although he slightly was above average in terms of saiyan height for his age, his muscle and bone density were not comparable to the children the same age as him. His only advantage was that he had a higher latent power level than his peers.

Tercres narrowed his eyes as the water ran down his face, his hand tracing the three almost invisible scars from his clavicle down to his chest. The cut that caused the scar was either not deep, or the wound had been healed exceptionally well and had only left behind a white line on his brown skin.

'Three years,' Tercres thought bitterly. Three years from now, the planet would be destroyed by Lord Frieza due to his fear of the Legend of the Super Saiyan as well as getting permission from Lord Beerus. Twelve months from now he would graduate from the Unit, and that would mark the start of another particularly dangerous time in an already dangerous world.

Currently, he is now four years old since his birth on Planet Vegeta, however to him, it felt like only a few months had passed since he was reincarnated. The official events of Dragon Ball Z starts in Age 761 — a twenty-seven year difference.

'Speaking of Dragon Ball Z, Kakarot is already born and is currently in an Incubation Pod. That means Bardock is on Planet Cereal around this time. They must've already be fighting the Cerealians now.'

Tercres was obviously tempted to meet the father of Goku, the strongest character in fiction, though he controlled himself. With his status it wouldn't be hard to order some low class saiyans to find where Bardock and Gine lived, however he couldn't find the time nor think it was safe for him to do so incase some supreme being from the future with time based abilities caught him lacking.

After drying himself, he groaned in content from feeling so clean and light. He climbed into his cot and immediately collapsed into sleep.

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A/N: What do you think? If you have any criticisms and advice let me know. Any questions pertaining the fanfic should be said under my review.

The world-building of Planet Vegeta is extremely hard to develop due to the little evidence about the environment as well as the society of the saiyans, especially the elite class saiyans. Nearly all the evidence i could get came from the perspective of low-class saiyans so some of the stuff I couldn't find any details on was made up.

And finally, sorry for the late update. Revision and study has taken most of my time. Hopefully, I can post regularly on Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday. This schedule isn't official so take it with a grain of salt.

Thanks for getting this far. Live long and have a nice rest of week!