Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z.

...

Looking next to him, Vegeta gave lifeless smile to the only person he'd been truly faithful to over the years. She was just as pretty as she was when they had first met. What used to be her beautiful, shining aqua hair was now grey. He recalled that there had once been a time when she had dyed it… But those times were long and gone now, they had been for decades.

Her once dazzling aqua eyes had faded to a lighter shade of blue. They no longer held the life that they did when he first met her on Namek… They didn't glow like used to when his first-born was conceived… They didn't shimmer like they once did during those seven years of peace.

While she was still beautiful, Vegeta knew that they were getting old. He was now in his mid-eighties, and he, himself, had settled down quite a bit. His title as the Saiyan Prince, was now all but gone; for he was the only true Saiyan left. The brats were powerful, but they just didn't have the fighting drive that he and... even Kakarot had in their youth.

Youth… It felt like it had simply vanished. It wasn't there anymore; his life was now… empty and mellow. Vegeta thirsted for the excitement to which youth had once granted him access.

He had wasted many years, serving Frieza… Back when he thought all there was to life was being the strongest. Hell, even after he had met the woman, and changed his ways… he'd wasted many years and didn't appreciate the finer things that life had to offer.

But those wasted years, nothing could be done about them. All he could do was try to make the best of the remnants of his life.

Vegeta quietly walked out of their bedroom towards the kitchen, rubbing his eyes... His eyebrows had faded and were now a dark grey colour. His hair colour had also receded to a lighter shade of black; giving it the appearance of a dark grey colour.

Arriving in the kitchen, he punched a code into a nearby touch screen on the wall and instantaneously a few robots appeared. Without so as much as a sound they began to cook various foods differing in cuisine. However they only lasted a good ten minutes or so before they were quickly gobbled down by the last full-blooded Saiyan.

Even the speed at which he ate had been reduced... in his youth it would have taken him barely a minute to do so. Now it took him ten minutes.

Everything was different being old. The food was good. Just good… there was no taste to it. It just filled up his stomach. He couldn't tell the difference between a piece of broccoli and a slice of cheese anymore.

Being old was horrible.

After walking over to the same wall he punched in another code. Instantaneously the bots began to clean the dishes, each of them now having their own unique pearl sparkle.

Grumbling about stupid sparking plates, he strode over to the gravity room. He still needed to train, he hadn't slacked off and didn't intend to soon.

First he put the gravity on thirty times the Earth's and powered up to his maximum in his base form. He threw a few punches before increasing it to one-hundred and fifty times the Earth's gravity. He needed to clear his head today. He continued with his warm up before ascending to his Super Saiyan form.

Without any sign of outward effort he powered up to his peak, and began a physical routine around the gravity room. He then raised the gravity level to three hundred times that of the Earth's, and began to go through a few basic forms.

After a while he raised the level to five hundred times the gravity level of Earth. Not soon after though, he found himself pinned to the ground by the sheer pressure placed upon his body.

He clenched his fists and focused on bringing out the power buried deep within him. His now golden hair fell down to his knees, its spiky pattern not seizing. His yellow eyebrows vanished from his face, and Vegeta's aura began to radiate in a brilliant golden colour.

He walked easily around the room before returning to the control panel and adjusting the gravity level once more, this time to seven hundred and fifty time the Earth's gravity.

Slightly wincing he threw some basic punches, and tried a kick or two. They were very slow, anyone could have dodged them. Even that idiotic buffoon with the afro.

Vegeta was aiming to master Super Saiyan Four, but to do that he needed to fully master Super Saiyan Three as Kakarot and his brat had done all at the Cell Games with normal Super Saiyan, all those years ago. It annoyed Vegeta to no end; Kakarot was still under forty years of age, while he was an eighty year old Saiyan prince. He may have understood Kakarot, heck he even respected him, but it was still unfair.

It was as if Kakarot was immortal, unable to be defeated… Invincible! No matter what you did he always came back with something better! He countered Vegeta's Galick Gun, single handily defeated two members of the Ginyu force while nobody else could and threw a massive spirit bomb that almost took out Frieza. He even ascended to Super Saiyan, the pinnacle of the Saiyan race at that time. Not to mention how he fought off a deadly virus, and tricked Cell; almost killing him.

The worst part was, that list of accomplishments wasn't even half full.

Vegeta hadn't gotten to do anything. He needed to be strong but for what? Here he was an eighty year old man. If anything like the Shadow Dragons came along it would be in the hands of Trunks, Goten, Gohan and his brat.

None of them even took training seriously! He needed to be prepared, and the only stopping him was the only thing he couldn't fight… age.

Something suddenly snapped in Vegeta's mind. All this talk of being young…

Maybe he could…

...

A few months later…

...

It was Bulma's eighty-first birthday and he had a present for both of them. It was called youth.

Vegeta stood in front of the new set of Dragonballs. It wasn't the greatest idea to go and create another set of them considering what had happened last time, but Dende decided that they needed to have a pair. Just in case anything ever happened, they needed a Shenron.. He however gave each ball a different frequency which would naturally alter itself over time, making them completely undetectable on the woman's radar.

The then-young guardian of Earth decided to hand a few of them over to the members of Z-crew. Only a few though, It wouldn't do for them to be too easy to find… There were several possibilities of the world being thrust head-first into peril, because of the Dragonball.

The four star went to the harpy, a gift to remember her late husband by. He still didn't understand Kakarot's family's obsession with the ball, but he couldn't really bring himself to care. The two star went to Kakarot's first brat and the buffoon's daughter to take care off. Vegeta really didn't see the point of it, but he knew that it was best to not put all your eggs in one basket.

The one star went to Kakarot's second brat and his wife. The baldy's daughter... while he understood the concept of not putting all of your eggs in one basket, that was a stupid decision. They were easily the weakest. Goten was always in the shadow of Trunks, he always had been and it was likely that he always would be; and the baldy's daughter didn't even train. At least his daughter could throw a punch.

Bulma and Vegeta though, had been given the seven star. The seven star being a metaphor for Vegeta's power, as he was now the strongest on Earth with Kakarot gone. Having sobered down a lot, it was nice to see the woman's –and by proxy his- friends putting so much faith in him. They could've easily given it to any other idiot.

However the five star, the six star and the three star were somewhere among the muck of water, earth and air that was named Planet Earth.

While it had taken a lot of searching and time, Vegeta managed to pull it off. It had taken a lot of effort, and tracking down, but when you could fly; literally anything could be found.

Next was the difficult task of getting them from the others. The person he had to convince the least was Kakakrot's wife, surprisingly. She literally handed it over, on the promise that it was returned... Of how this was possible, Vegeta wasn't quite sure. But it had made him see her in a slightly different light.

Gohan had given it to him with a nod after Vegeta explained that he was collecting the Dragonballs, he knew that Vegeta wouldn't have asked unless it was important. He'd just told Vegeta to be careful, something that he had expected the older brat to do.

Goten, on the other hand had asked the most questions of the lot. So much so that it had quickly gotten on his nerves. He reminded Vegeta quite a lot of how his circus-clown of a father was back in the day. It had taken a lot of convincing on Vegeta's part, until he almost had it in his possession. That was until the tin-can's daughter decided to ask questions too… by that point, Vegeta settled for threatening to blow their house down.

Vegeta clenched his fist. He was so close… everything he had been missing up until this point would soon be within his grasp. He raised it into the air as he summoned the dragon, yelling loudly.

"Eternal Dragon, I summon you to grant my wish!"

The sky suddenly turned dark black as lightning struck the Dragonballs. A sudden flash and the unmistakeable instant following of thunder assured Vegeta that the great-dragon had been summoned.

The, long and scaly green dragon arose from the seven Dragon Balls. Looking almost like an exact replica of his counterpart, that Vegeta had only seen a few times; the dragon rubbed his tiny hands together.

"Who dares to summon me?" The mighty dragon boomed, his red eyes piercing into Vegeta's figure. It was clear that, that was a rhetorical question.

"I do!" The Saiyan prince exclaimed, the fire in his eyes having been brought back at the prospect of youth.

"Very well, I shall grant you any one wish!" Dende had also reduced the amount of wishes allowed to one, once more. This was to prevent from too much negative energy being gathered, and Vegeta suspected that it would be mildly successful considering how hard it was to gather the Dragonballs.

"I wish to be young once more, Eternal Dragon!" the Saiyan prince declared, glaring at the dragon, unwavering in the presence of its awesome power.

'Shit... I forgot about Bulma. Godammi-' Vegeta didn't have time to finish his thoughts as the dragon interrupted him.

"Very well," Shenron said, his dark voice resounding through the dessert plain they were in as his eyes glowed red omnisciently.

Suddenly a bright white flash surrounded the Saiyan Prince, and everything disappeared.

…

Groggily waking up, Vegeta noticed that he couldn't feel Bulma in the bed.

'Great… Woman's probably working on another one of those inventions.'

Standing up, he attempted to grab the wall. Only to notice it wasn't there.

'How strange… Did someone move my bed?'

He stared down at the ground, attempting to clear his head so he could look up without being blinded. He then suddenly noticed he was wearing socks… and his feet were tiny.

'What happened yesterday?'

Vegeta suddenly also noticed that he wasn't in his boxers. He was in pyjamas, but not just any kind. He could almost feel the expertly woven silk of the royal pyjamas he wore as a boy. What a strange dream…

He quickly jumped up, as he noticed a mirror in front of him. Sprinting to it, he glanced at the person in the mirror only to be shocked at who was looking back at him.

It was the reflection of a young boy with jet-black, spiky hair. It looked like a black flame... he hadn't seen that sight in a mirror in a long time. Not only that, but his skin was unblemished, almost a perfectly clean cream colour. It was unfitting for a warrior like him, whose skin had been torn and damaged many times.

"Is that me?" Vegeta pondered watching as each move was copied by the doppelganger.

"Boy! How many times do I have to tell you to stop talking in the mirror?" Came the voice of…

...

Author's Notes:

So I've revised the chapter, hopefully making it a little better. I know the sentences still seem systematic, but don't think that continues throughout the fic. This is merely the beginning...

Anyway, hope you enjoyed. and please don't hesitate to drop a review.