Regretful Battle of Legends

by Aspiring-Creator

1-10-13 was a date that would live in infamy. For it was at that time, two titanic powers clashed... which ended with the destruction of Earth and the deaths of billions which was something that the lone Kryptonian deeply regret and hoped would never happen again. Unfortunately, with the reappearance of a certain Saiyan warrior, history seemed doomed to repeat.

1. Battle of Legends

Author's Note:

I would like to respectfully ask that there please be NO flame wars in the reviews, I know this subject is a bit touchy for people but regardless, this is a fic for the sake of entertainment. Not only that but I do want to stress way early on, the focus is NOT on the battle itself. In fact, let me just say right off the bat that if you are coming in here expecting a straightforward "BANG! POW! KABLAMMO!" kind of story where there's an epic fight and your possibly preferred winner, you are coming here for the wrong reasons and will most likely be disappointed. However, if you're willing to get the idea out of your head right now and are interested in seeing a brains over brawn take then sit back and relax. If you can't accept this and just want a story where your preferred character utterly curbstomps the opponent, you may want to check elsewhere.

Also for those keeping track, this is the fourth time I've reuploaded this story and before anyone asks, I have ZERO intentions of deleting the story from this point forward.

Oh and if any of you are sticking around, I do want to highly encourage you all to read the ENTIRE author's addendum once you're finished with the story. Yes it's long and yes it's quite the wordy bastard but I think you'll find it includes some neat insight.

Now with that, please sit back, relax and enjoy the one-shot.

---

(Frisco, Texas)

"Heh... heh... wow, you certainly still got some moves. I'm impressed." An orange-clad warrior said, out of breath and with a smirk on his face to the man in front whose countenance showcased the exact opposite with his stern, stone-cold look of disappointment and crossed arms.

"I'm only going to say this once. Please give this game up. Stop the needless violence. Billions of people aren't worth the trouble of finding out who's stronger." The man said with clear irritation in his voice as he lowered to the ground, his cape and hair flowing aimlessly in the wind as he stared down at a blue spiky haired warrior clad in orange whom all have come to know as the heroic Son Goku and the man in front of them was nothing to scoff at either for he was the Man of Steel, the super-powered god among men known as Kal-El among his people and Clark Kent by his earth-born friends but to many across the globe, he was more widely known as the Superman, one who fights for truth, justice, and freedom. Both of these men had fought and defeated several different opponents over the years, each of them testing their strength further and further to a point that no mortal man could comprehend until one fateful day where all hell broke loose from its confines and spread out onto the streets, a clash that was heard from 'round the world.

January 10, 2013 was the day that Superman and Goku did battle. Citizens from Metropolis could barely believe it when they looked up and saw an orange clad stranger riding on a yellow cloud towards the Man of Steel and how in just mere seconds, he attacked with no regard for his surroundings, almost as if he let his ambition to fight take full control of him. The fight lasted for what felt like hours, civilians fell by the hundreds as various structures that were once called homes were smashed into millions of tiny indistinguishable pieces of rubble with what seemed like every passing moment. The once proud business man Lex Luthor could only watch in utter horror from his home as the warrior fired a blue energy beam from his hands which completely wiped out Lexcorp and presumably every single one of his coworkers. Finally the fight came to a close when Superman, having used up almost all of his remaining power reserves, flew up towards the sun in an attempt to rejuvenate himself for he realized that the only way to get the battle hungry Saiyan to stop was to make the ultimate sacrifice.

He would have to put an end to one of history's greatest heroes... but he would not come to this conclusion under his own will for after he knocked one of Goku's powerful Ki attacks away, he was forced to watch as the Earth, along with everything on it, was completely obliterated. Lois, Olsen, Perry, Bruce, Barry... everything and everyone that he fought long and hard to protect was just wiped out in the blink of an eye.

"No! What have I... What have I done?!" Was one of the many things that flew through Superman's mind, at speeds that even he couldn't comprehend and then... something snapped. No deity who watched the battle could tell you what exactly happened except that in the blink of an eye, one of the world's strongest men and the leader of the Justice League who was well-known for his cool head and how it'd take awhile or at least something major to even get his brow to furrow, had all that thrown out the window with its replacement being for just that moment, pure, unrestrained fury.

Knowing full well what was coming next, King Kai tried desperately to reach out to Goku as tears began to well up in his eyes, begging for his student to just turn tail and run to save himself but unfortunately it was all ignored and the blue skinned Kai watched as one of his greatest students and friends met his end with that one punch that embedded itself deep into his chest. Friends and family from Other World, King Yemma and even Beerus and Whis watched as the once mighty Super Saiyan God's flesh began to rapidly fade away until there was nothing left but a single, torn and bloodied boot.

"GOKU!" Was all anyone could call out as tears spilled down their faces, staining their clothes and the ground beneath them, his son Gohan trying desperately to hold back Chi Chi and get her to realize the sad truth of the warrior's passing, Krillin collapsing to the ground with his daughter Maron just barely being able to hold him up. The sadness was so widespread that even the belligerent prince of all Saiyans himself, Vegeta could not help but let his guard down and grasp Bulma tightly, the two beginning to weep together. Far across the various realms, Beerus said no words as he knelt his head down and began to ponder over various decisions while his master and friend, Whis, looked on.

"Well Lord Beerus..." The robed deity began with staff firmly grasped in his hand, "what do you suppose we do now?" The God of Destruction kept his silence, his expression showing a mixture of grief and anger. Finally after a couple of seconds, he made his decision as he stood up and proceeded to speak in one of the most depressed sounding tones imaginable.

"Well Whis... I've gotta be honest with you. In all my years of destroying planets and overlooking this galaxy, I do not know. Now usually at this point, I would destroy the planet of the fool who dared to but if memory serves me right, this man already is without a home and while I would also suggest coming to fight this man in question, the result could lead to more senseless destruction and while it is my duty, I don't think the Kais would appreciate it if the entire galaxy or even the universe was destroyed during a senseless act of revenge." Whis looked at his compatriot with a concerned look, for all the time that he spent traveling around the galaxy, wiping out planets at every corner, not once did Beerus ever take this tone at any point. Pondering for a brief moment, Whis' eyes widened with both shock and excitement at a thought that he had hoped would rekindle any hope lying in the purple cat.

"Lord Beerus, you know how the planet Earth has what are called Dragon Balls?" Without even looking at his mentor, Beerus slowly nodded his head. "And you know how they grant wishes much like the wish granting orbs of Namek right?" Confused and slightly annoyed, Beerus cocked his head towards the deity, finally voicing something after what felt like hours of silence.

"Whis what in the world are you getting a-" Suddenly, the deity's eyes widened with realization. Then seconds later, his mouth formed into a smirk. "Oh you sly dog. I had completely forgot about Dende being off on that little vacation to Namek." His face now possessing a smile of his, Whis continued.

"Well my lord, what do you say?" Beerus simply turned towards his guide.

"Does this face look like it's saying no?" The guide shook his head.

"Not quite but I just wanted to make sure, after all remember how you responded the last time we did this? Back when that fellow Frieza was making a mess of things?"

"There was a last time?" Whis couldn't help but let out a sigh at his reaction which he admitted he should've expected.

"Erm yes, remember? It was only a few years ago my lord."

"Well apparently it was either a few years too long or the thought was so boring and/or angering that I've decided it wasn't worth the brainpower at some point." Letting out another sigh a few moments later, Whis was just about to start with the travel preparation when suddenly...

"Oh wait a moment! It was that time where Lady Bulma graced our gaze and taste buds with that wonderful strawberry sundae wasn't it?" As quickly as the shout of excitement occurred, Whis found himself rushing to keep his balance and once he did, it was just before he let out his response that Beerus decided to continue on.

"Well you see Whis, while I usually don't bother with planets like this, there's just one problem I can't overlook. With the Earth destroyed, none of those delightful confections we love so much will exist and while one could say I should wait for one of those planets to produce their own versions of those meals, I have a feeling they just won't make meals anywhere near as good. I mean remember when that city planet tried producing something resembling that delightful roasted Kowakian from the planet Tori? They said that 'Kowakian monkey lizard' would give me almost the exact level of delight in taste and yet when I bit into it, it was like someone had put droppings on my plate. It was so awful I destroyed their whole world because of it! The point is that I refuse to take that chance again so with that, there's no argument, we're bringing back the Earth and that's final." Whis remained silent as his expression suddenly changed into that of a smile and it was with that the pair took off towards the direction of the young guardian in the hopes of reversing this mess. Fast forward to moments later and the work had finally paid off. Thanks to the help of Beerus, Whis and the surviving Dende, the Kryptonian was able to acquire the Dragon Balls which had been launched all across the galaxy and used them to make his wish.

"Please, let the legends be true..." Superman pleaded with himself as he closed his eyes and began the incantation. "Eternal Dragon," He began, his voice being low and somber. "by your name," He watched as a faint glow began to envelop each of the balls as his voice grew stronger and stronger. "I summon you forth: Shenron!" At first, there was nothing but just when Superman was ready to accept his planet's fate, he watched as one large, vaguely dragon shaped beam of light shot from the orbs and began to curl in many different directions and after a minute, it stopped in one position and the Kryptonian couldn't believe his eyes when the legendary eternal dragon finally came into view.

"He who has gathered the seven Dragon Balls, I ask of you, what are your two wishes?" The dragon spoke, his voice loud, booming and commanding of respect. At first, Superman couldn't even comprehend what he was seeing, in all his years of protecting the planet, he was shocked and disappointed at himself to be so blind to the existence of a being as legendary as Shenron but then again, even the feats of Goku never really turned up to him. A little more time passed and soon, his nerves had at long last completely relaxed and with that, he took a deep breath and got to his main point right away.

"My first wish is for the Earth and all of its inhabitants to be restored to the living, breathing world." Shenron's eyes flashed a vibrant red right as he began to voice his reply.

"Very well, now what is your second wish?" Superman remained silent and searched deep within his thoughts for the topic of his second wish. Finally after a couple more minutes, he came to a clear conclusion.

"My second wish... is for the citizens of Metropolis to have no memory of my encounter with Goku." In contrast to the Kryptonian, Shenron was unperturbed by what was uttered which was quite surprising given that from what he was told, he figured mindwiping would be something that he would frown upon like he himself did which included when he learned about acts such as what happened to Dr. Light and Bruce in the past. Then, as though he was reading his thoughts, the dragon went on.

"I have granted a wish like yours before and understand your concern." Immediately, an eyebrow cocked.

"W-When was this?"

"A few years back, a monster by the name of Majin Buu threatened the planet and at one point, managed to successfully destroy it. When I was summoned, I was told to wipe every mind clean of any memories of the creature which I conducted without much care for it is not my place to inflict my morals on anyone during their wishes." The Kryptonian found himself puzzled. While he knew that he should've figured the being's opinion on the matter to be as such, he still wasn't quite sure how to feel though at least then, he finally understood what Beerus meant when he said that these orbs attracted trouble from all across the galaxy. Following this and after a couple of seconds nowhere near long enough to cause impatience, he looked the dragon straight in the eyes.

"Thank you for understanding," He began, his voice slightly quivering. "I-I'm sorry if I seem taken aback by this, it's just that... well, the idea of wiping the mind is..."

"I completely understand." The dragon interjected. "I know that for you mortals, there are choices you make that despite being ultimately better for the greater good in the years to come, it's still incredibly difficult and in some cases morally questionable. Here though I just want to let you know that I understand why you're doing this as like with the Majin Buu wish from before, you wish for the populace to not have to recall such a dark and horrible time in their lives so that they don't have to mentally suffer for the years to come. It's a valiant cause and a wish I can grant. However, I do have one question,. Are you sure it is wise to only implement this for the citizens of Metropolis? Don't you fear those who may come to challenge you?" Superman held up one hand to his face and lightly grasped his cheek, beginning to ponder over his decision. Indeed this was something he had considered, especially since the God of Destruction and Dende told him of the rather large amount of currently living friends and while most of them he was told would most likely get by and move on once a simple explanation, some of them would not be so kind and as he was told about a certain former Saiyan Prince, some would most likely not rest until he was nothing but a greasy smear on his fist.

And that's not even going into the mess that could come about from the superhero community, especially those like Bruce who despite their friendship, still had that amount of distrust that caused him to be currently torn on if he would either give him the most brutal verbal lashing imaginable or if he'd actually come under the impression that he had gone rogue and end up trying to rally almost every super team against him or lead him into a trap filled with almost all of his major weaknesses where he'd then face him alone and considering what he knew about his experimentation with infusing Kryptonite weaponry... well, he admitted it certainly made coming up with an answer to a question like this that much more difficult though thankfully, even with the amount of time that passed on, Shenron despite what was said about him by Beerus and Dende, was quite patient which he mentally admitted should've been an expectation as with how long he had been in existence, he would be more understanding about some of those more difficult choices. Finally after a few more seconds, Superman sighed.

"Actually, I'll admit it." He began. "The idea does frighten me, especially when it comes to friends I know, especially those few who may not trust me to where they may jump to the conclusion that I either betrayed them or that this accident shows that I'm a menace who doesn't belong... however, they have every right to be angry at me," Superman slowly knelt his head down as he spoke and looked at his left open palm. "Because during that fight, I did betray them and worst of all, I betrayed myself and my code. I let my rage take full control of my actions when I should've known better and it led to me murdering not just a fellow hero but an outsider, a father. It was thanks to my failure to end the battle before it began, I let billions of innocents and friends die." As the thoughts of that moment came back into his mind, the Kryptonian's eyes, which were already slightly pink from a long time prior to this conversation, began to well up with tears which came at the same time his body began to slightly quiver, actions that even managed to tug at the dragon's heart strings as even though he existed mainly to just grant the wishes of those who gathered the Dragon Balls, he became rather well-acquainted with the emotions of mortals, especially when it came to those wishing back a deceased loved one though never before was it this strong. After a few more seconds, the man continued on.

"And not only did I let it happen but I caused it and that's in spite of there being so many ways that I could've prevented this from happening. I could've tried to absorb the beam, I could've made sure to strike it so that it would fly off and detonate at a safe distance away from any and hopefully all inhabited worlds though what strikes me the hardest, what really cements this as being my greatest failure, is the fact that I could've stopped this by simply preventing the fight from even happening. If I had tried to simply detain Goku at the beginning or if I had done as much as attack his pressure points after getting rid of his senzu beans, absolutely none of this would've happened and his family wouldn't have had to go through the extreme trauma that I'm sure they felt watching him die." After a few more moments, the Kryptonian's raised hand balled into a fist right as he shut his eyes. "But of course, what's done is done, I can't go back and change the past. So with that, I'm here to atone for my mistake and all that will come from it." The Eternal Dragon just stared at the Man of Steel with surprise emanating from his eyes.

"You possess a great deal of maturity and honor, if only more summoners behaved like this, especially those of the past." A low hum began to emit from the Dragon Balls and in just a few moments, Superman looked behind him to see the Earth, standing strong and looking exactly as it had always looked. After a couple of seconds, Superman turned his head towards the dragon right as he began to change into pure energy and with a respectful nod of his head, Shenron gave his last word. "I bid you nothing but good fortune on your life later Superman, farewell." With that final word, Superman watched as Shenron completely disappeared and soon after the Dragon Balls slowly raised up into the air and in just a few seconds, spread out in one straight line all across the vastness of space, never to be seen again until the inevitable day where one would find them again. With his work completed, Superman looked towards the Earth and for the first time since what felt like forever, he let a small smile develop on his face as he moved towards his home. Of course, even with all the oddities that he had faced prior in his life, he still wanted to make certain that this wasn't some sort of beautiful dream or hallucination and with that thought, he quickly reached over to his hand and gave it a quick, hard pinch and found himself greatly relieved to find that this was no deceptively depressing dream about an impossibility but rather a reality that just wound up impossibly wonderful. Though despite him knowing full well that this indeed was true, there was just one last thing he needed to check.

"Before I return to Metropolis, I just have to see this planet's beauty in full once again." And with that thought, Superman began to fly all across the Earth, taking in its forests, wildlife and friendly civilians who looked up to the sky and applauded the sight of his cape flapping in the wind though usually not before they mistook him for a bird or a plane, a mistake that, while annoying to most, gave the Kryptonian a very good chuckle as he traveled through the world.

---

Meanwhile, moments before the wish...

(King Kai's Planet)

The cold morning air of King Kai's planet tasted like ozone to Son Goku, numbing his tongue and lips, making his heart pound harder in his chest until it actually wound up shaking the fabric of his orange gi. For most, he knew this action shouldn't cause this and he certainly knew that for most this wouldn't be that exciting or even interesting, especially if they were in the state he currently was in with muscles aching, sweat from his exertions still drying in the wind, knuckles making faint but still fairly worrying cracking noises which was something he experienced all too often but would more often than not ignore for the anticipation of the thrill that could come about in the next session was usually just far too tantalizing to convince him to stop right there.

Though also, it was mostly thanks to another, much more temperamental Saiyan warrior that would prevent him from pausing both out of this excitement and a desire to not incur his seemingly boundless wrath.

Directly across from him, Vegeta, the former prince of the entire Saiyan race, took three steps toward his opponent, his expression showing nothing but determination and a degree of seriousness that betrayed the feelings of exhaustion his body was going through thanks to a few hours prior which also showed itself in the form of the various scuffs, tears and cracks that were blatantly present on his suit, armor and flesh. Then for a moment, the wind had fallen completely still, all was now quiet except for the scrape of his boots across grass and dirt that lay beneath him as he moved into his fighting position. For the entirety of this motion and afterward, not once did his lips ever move for even a minor comment which was a given with the prince whenever he was faced with his rival as he felt with the amount of times he had failed to defeat him, no comment was needed nor was it necessary. Instead, it was best he let his fists and the result of the battle do all the speaking for they could convey his intention far more efficiently than some long-winded drivel or a short cocky boast. However, what was rather odd about this particular moment was that he didn't even bother with any boast in the hours that flew by during the initial fight preparations which certainly would've caused those who knew him, especially his rival Goku, to raise an eyebrow.

For most people, this was something they'd rather not question both due to the infamy that his temper had given him and his history with Goku which many could easily understand along with his Saiyan heritage. However, if one truly had to know from the man right at that moment why he was taking what was a simple sparring match as though it was a do-or-die situation, he'd dodge it completely but would leave you with a slightly cryptic and somewhat sinister message that this was in preparation for an "overgrown boy scout" which most would probably end up rather confused by though they wouldn't push any further out of the desire to keep their vital organs where they belonged as while one could not die within the afterlife, pain was still not exactly a pleasant experience.

Though for someone as frustrated and frightened as the short, plump and blue deity that stood just a few feet away from them, the idea of pain or at least some form of his misery being extinguished was quickly becoming far more desired than the idea of seeing what was about to continue transpiring as from what he could gather from the multiple small craters, cracks, pieces of rubble, points where bodies have been dragged across the surface and the massive hole in his house which he was using the remainder of as a barricade which he knew was going to provide little to no help, this fight if it went on for any longer or if it as much as had an ever so slight increase in intensity, he could just kiss his world goodbye for a second time and this time, there would be no excuse of "this was the last place they could think of."

"Okay, I know that they're Saiyans and all. I know this is what they do and that I shouldn't be so frustrated. All I have to ask is... why?" He asked himself, his mental tone coming off as a mixture of a whine and a grumble. "Why oh why do they always have to use my world to spar?! What does my place have that Beerus' home or hell, the Supreme Kai's does not?! Do they just like ruining my good day?! Honestly has that one experience not taught Goku anyt-" The Kai halted just mere moments before the thoughts could finishing passing through. That experience, that horrific and dreadful ordeal that occurred that day was one he had repeatedly pushed from his mind every day that followed due to the overwhelming amount of pain it consistently brought. Unfortunately for him, it seemed with every attempt he made to push it back, no matter how successful it was, it would somehow always come creeping back, even stronger than ever and usually, what would wound up happening after it popped back into his head would be that his eyes would start welling up once more with liquid which he'd often be powerless against until his eyes were dry, aching and red.

However, it was in a move that left him feeling torn on whether he should feel fortunate or just continue being upset that he wound up not experiencing the usual waterworks or at least, it was not in response to those memories and instead it was from the sharp spike of pain that rippled throughout his head right as he crashed against what remained of his home with the last he was able to see of Goku and Vegeta at that moment being just a messy blur of colors. At that point, the Kai's sadness was quickly replaced with his usual brand of irritation as he rubbed the rather unsightly bruise on his head.

"FOR PETE'S SAKE! CAN'T YOU TWO AT LEAST GIVE OUT A PROPER WARNING BEFORE YOU START AGAIN?!" Unfortunately, like almost all of the Kai's cries during these times, he quickly realized that these cries fell on deaf ears as the two Saiyans still kept the attention on each other during one of their ever so common power struggles though for most like King Kai, it was hard to even make out if that was even supposed to be what was happening as the near breakneck pace of their punches and kicks would often be so fast that they more often than not appeared to be invisible to the naked eye.

Speaking of the fight itself, he wasn't quite sure if it was due to the feeling of fatigue finally deciding to rear its hideous mug or something else at play, all Goku could tell by watching his friend during an exchange like this which has occurred literally hundreds of times, he was not battling like this was a regular sparring session. Granted, he did note to himself for the past few months of training in Other World that Vegeta had been acting like this for almost every other occasion though he usually chocked it up to the fact that the man, no matter who he was with during these sessions, would go all out and show little-to-no remorse with his only exception being when it was with his own children. Not only that but due to him being the one he has sparred with the most, Goku has always known the prince to be a tactical but unrelenting fighter with his main preference being to try his best to overwhelm the opponent with an onslaught of both physical and Ki-based strikes that would move at speeds so incredible and in a span of time so brief that it actually caused some of those foes to come under the impression that he was some sort of demon.

However, even with that in mind, there was one element that he found Vegeta putting in place at almost all times, one that was even noted by higher beings such as Beerus and according to Pikkon, even those who would never give a Saiyan proper credit like Frieza, one that was mysteriously absent from these past few encounters.

That element being his grace.

While he came across as just a short-tempered and rather mindless brute to most, those who'd actually faced him would note that despite his fighting style seemingly leaning way too far towards overspecialization, the way in which he'd weave his web of strikes together so elegantly was almost as awe-inspiring and stunning as it was terrifying as what appeared to be just a mindless and haphazard string of punches and kicks would actually turn about to be a series of calculated and well-timed strikes that aimed not just to simply harm the opponent but to incapacitate and maybe even kill. For Goku specifically, one example that would almost always stick out in his mind was his no-holds barred brawl with Vegeta when he was at the time under the influence of the powerful wizard Babidi as while he was ultimately able to match his strikes blow for blow, the impact that would follow from the collisions which would occasionally result in the faint and thankfully slight cracking of bone and the couple of strikes that he had inflicted on him were so tremendous that had his guard not been up or if he for whatever reason came to battle in base form, he most certainly would've died or at least put into a comatose state whereas his strikes at the time were purposefully made to be just powerful enough to where he could hopefully just knock him out if his attempts to talk some sense into him didn't work.

And when thinking back to that battle in comparison to this simple sparring session, he especially noticed the difference. While he could certainly feel in each of his strikes the near exact level of power he had during that confrontation, as far as everything else was concerned, that was where the similarities came to an unfortunate halt as while the prince certainly had the power behind each of his strikes, the speed that they were moving at, while being ever so slight, was still a big enough drop to notice but more importantly, what was gone was the practically machine-like precision and the grace of royalty. Instead of fighting like a trained warrior, Vegeta's strikes had dropped to the level of a feral animal, the kind that Goku himself had often come across and easily defeated for the majority of his meals back in his childhood days with his hands and feet randomly scattering about in a desperate attempt to hit any part of his body and while for the most part, he'd wind up chalking this up to fatigue, what especially proved to be somewhat alarming was just how rapidly his energy levels were fluctuating with every passing second, almost in the same manner as Frieza's were back when he first faced his full-powered form.

Except what was incredibly odd about this was the fact that while Frieza was facing these issues due to the fact that he was so hellbent on pushing himself toward winning what was quickly turning out to be an impossible duel that he wound up overtaxing his body on how much longer it could take and to add onto that, it was the first time he truly had to use 100% of his strength. In the case of Vegeta however, not only was he one of the greatest fighters that he had ever seen and engaged with, even in his base form as he was currently, but he also was quickly becoming one of the greatest masters of Ki conservation that he has ever seen which made this sudden display of sloppiness and lack of control all the more concerning which soon led to the man then deciding to ponder over this as he caught each of the increasingly sloppy strikes.

First, the Saiyan jumped to the most obvious possibility, that being the prince had finally let all the frustration over his losses get to his very psyche which definitely seemed most plausible. After all, a long time ago it was this that led him actually allowing his mind to be controlled not so that he could become the brutal Saiyan Prince once again but rather, from what he could tell, it was just so that he'd have no qualms about finally killing his longtime rival and it was this in particular that seemed destined to become his answer when after a little bit more analysis of the man and his movements, something about it just refused to line up.

Which then led to his next guess which revolved around the possibility that the anger was less directed toward Goku but rather towards himself for how he had almost always been surpassed by almost everyone around him though unlike the first, it was very quickly discarded for much of the same reasons as the previous suggestion. Now Goku was left with absolutely nothing which caused his mind to start cycling through whatever past memory it could like mad in search of the answer to this troubling question. Just what exactly was causing Vegeta so much distress? Why is he so much more unfocused than usual?

However, just before the question could be pondered over and hopefully answered, both fighters soon paused right as an odd feeling washed over them, one that they knew all too well though to describe it took a lot of patience and possessed a great deal of difficulty with the least awkward sounding option being that it felt as though all weight and life their bodies had possessed prior to their death was returning and just in case either one of them wanted to deny it, they both watched each other right as their halos disappeared from existence which was a sight so unexpected that even King Kai found himself being perplexed by the whole thing.

"What? How? I could've sworn the Dragon Balls were destroyed with the blast!" yelled the Kai in disbelief. In contrast to this however, once his few moments of surprise were up, it was Goku who couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Well isn't that a nice surprise. That Dende sure knows how to get our heart going now doesn't he?" After spending about a second or two staring at his rival's grinning mug, Vegeta turned his head toward his open palm and began to think about this change of events, all the while the incredibly faint memories of screams filled with terror and agony began to playback in his head, the volume raising every passing second until eventually it started piercing his eardrums. Finally once the pain of that event became too much to bear, the man quickly shut his eyes and pushed those thoughts out once more with their place soon being filled by one that was far darker.

"I figured that with no planet you'd become bored enough to do this sooner or later. It's about damn time too because with my return to the living, mark my words boy scout, the moment where you're nothing but ash beneath my boot will be an absolute certa-" His thoughts were filled seconds later by the sound of teeth crunching down on, judging by the sound, a small bean which was all the info Vegeta needed to immediately turn back towards Goku who upon giving his little snack a good swallow, he quickly went into a series of stretches which did nothing but lower the spirits of both King Kai and the prince.

"Um, Goku? Mind telling me why you look like you're preparing to do more butt-kicking today?" King Kai asked, his mind already just hoping, praying he wasn't going to make another attempt at fighting... "him".

"Just trying to loosen up the joints a bit is all. Can't rush into a fight when you feel like your body's gonna lock up, especially one that's going to be as tough and as exciting as this." Those last few words, just those last few words were enough to cause the Kai's skin to go from its healthy blue tones to a sickly pale with the transition happening so quickly that his monkey Bubbles immediately rushed to find a wet towel or a glass of water.

"Hmm? What's the matter King Kai? Are you sick?" Goku asked out of innocent concern, his blissful ignorance causing a familiar feeling to spark inside the Kai."

"Why yes Goku, yes I am..." The Kai began in a calm tone so hushed that the simplest rustling of grass would've probably blocked it out. However, almost as immediately as it came, it went right out the window with King Kai's voice then raising to a shrill yell that caused him to nearly fall flat on his butt. "I'M COMPLETELY SICK OF DEALING WITH THESE STUPID ANTICS!"

"What antics King Kai? What have I done now?"

"Don't play stupid with me buddy!" King Kai replied with hand pointing towards his student. "I know exactly what you're thinking and let me tell you, after dealing with multiple heart attacks after the stunt you pulled, there is no way, not a chance in HELL that I would let you sneak off to fight that Superman guy!"

"He's thinking what?!" blurted Vegeta, his gaze now snapping towards his rival.

"Aw why not King Kai? He was such an incredible opponent! So strong and so fast with skills that were equal to my own! A rematch opportunity like this is just too exciting to pass u-"

"And it's incredibly reckless! Do I need to remind you Goku of the many times I demanded that you make no attempt to face this man because of how I knew something terrible would happen and what do you know?! Something horrific happened! Thanks to your fight, the Earth was completely destroyed, you lost everything and all because you just couldn't keep your excitement to yourself like perverts can't keep it in th-ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!" Just seconds afterward, the Kai was soon pelted by Goku's old combat gi from outside his home which caused his anger to skyrocket to an all new high, especially once he saw the Saiyan walk out, his attire now being that of the gear he wore when he went to train with Whis.

"Heh, heh, sorry bud, I didn't really catch any of it, well except for the part where I did let things get out of hand, that I definitely do regret." Quickly, Goku's tone then changed back to that of his usual happy-go-lucky self. "But that's why for this time, I'm going to try my best to keep things as contained as possible and not only that but I always have my secret weapon." Even though by this point, he should've known that it was pointless to keep trying to change the Saiyan's mind by this point, he just couldn't help himself as moments after Goku finished his sentence, he quickly flashed a small portion of an orange flaming aura which caused the Kai to nearly pop a blood vessel with how much his rage spiked.

"YOU'RE COMPLETELY BRAIN-DEAD! Do you have any idea how dangerous this is Goku?! This isn't a case like Goku Black where the first time you appeared you had no trouble beating him! He's one of those opponents who has levels of strength that make the Supreme Kai pee his pants a little when thinking about the strength of mere mortals as this is a guy who has managed to do things like hold up the ENTIRE weight of the Earth and take a blast that was like ten supernovas exploding right in his face!"

"Really, ten supernovas?" Goku questioned with surprise. Feeling slightly relieved after looking at his face, the Kai nodded.

"Admittedly it could be exaggeration but trust me, living as long as I have, I've bared witness to what this guy has done and let me tell you, he's called the Man of Tomorrow for a reason and look Goku, this is not because I doubt that you can beat him, however we're talking the safety of an entire planet and possibly even the solar system being put at jeopardy h-"

"Grrragh! Shut up!" Vegeta growled right before he immediately grabbed his rival by the shirt and pulled him down towards his level. "Kakarot listen here and listen good! I've called it already, that overgrown boy scout is my fight and mine alone!"

"Hmm..." The Saiyan soon set his hand to his temple, trying his absolute best to look as though he was actually giving his rival's very blunt and very harsh call some thought though he both knew his acting skills were next to zilch and that everyone could probably figure out his answer already. "Sorry buddy, no can do on that one but I promise you can take him some other time."

"Some other time?! So what?! You can screw this up and we have that day repeat?! I refuse! I want to make sure that there is not a single need for a next time!"

"Vegeta this is not helping!" King Kai shouted. "The whole point was to try and deter Goku from the whole thing, not to get his Saiyan blood pumping and force me to convince two dumbos that this is one awful idea."

"What the hell do you expect me to do? Stand back and act like this whole ordeal was just a sick joke?!"

"If it gets you to stay put and not risk your life then maybe for now, yes!" His fury already ramping up to the next level, Vegeta without warning let go of the collar and went right into a heated argument with King Kai which went from English that could be understood somewhat to it becoming unclear aside from the occasional single word to just a long string of angrish which unfortunately for the both of them, gave Goku the exact opening he needed to quickly raise his fingers to his temple, lock onto an energy source and disappear in the blink of an eye, the last expression he had being one nice big smirk.

Though unfortunately for him, the argument didn't quite last long once the prince realized that his rival's power level disappeared entirely which sent him into a fury like no other, a fury that was so great before King Kai even realized that Vegeta stopped arguing with him, the man quickly flew off without a second thought with the last glimpse the Kai caught before he left being his aura making a split-second change from white to a flaming blue.

---

(Undisclosed Snowy Landscape)

Deciding to make one last stop, the Man of Steel took a moment to pause and look across the cold but stunningly beautiful snow-covered landscape with memories of his old Fortress of Solitude soon rushing through like a wave of nostalgia. All in all, his relaxation had hit an all new high as the smell of oxygen, the sounds of humanity and all other elements of that mudball overwhelmed his senses. At long last after what felt like centuries, he was completely at peace.

Or at least he was for a few moments for after a minute of him closing his eyes to take in everything, an alarmingly large power level soon came to his attention and it was approaching fast which led to pausing for a moment. Cautiously, he looked around at his surroundings, his mind completely unsure of what was going on and yet despite that, he could already feel his defense mechanisms tensing as well as his natural aggression already ramping up to the next level in preparation for whatever he was about to face. Soon, several seconds passed and then those seconds became minutes which relaxed the Man of Steel just enough to where he took a quick breath though he still couldn't help but feel incredibly on edge.

And then, all his worst fears and a reminder of that one horrific nightmare came.

"Oh no." Was all Superman managed to utter right as his senses picked up a low rumble that was emanating from under the ground which was getting increasingly louder and louder until he at long last snapped his gaze towards his front and watched as rocks and snow began to shift and fly in a perfectly straight path before then exploding outward complete with an orange blur shooting up like a bullet and when the image finally stabilized, the Man of Steel just could not believe his eyes for the source of the power level had finally revealed himself and much to his dismay, it was the one that he prayed he wouldn't meet again on the battlefield.

"Hey there Superman." Goku greeted, the infectious cheer in his voice making no attempt to hide itself. While on the outside, the Kryptonian tried his best to muster up some form of bravado in the vain hope that maybe the Saiyan would just run off, inside he was a complete nervous wreck. As much as he had come to appreciate Goku's character and tenacity after speaking with Dende and Whis, he had hoped, pleaded and BEGGED whatever higher power that was watching over them that if the two of them were to ever cross paths again, it would be as friends and partners and that the last time he'd ever want to meet with him again would be once more on the battlefield where they risked repeated exactly what happened a long while back. So with that, the Kryptonian decided to just forgo the attempt at scaring the man and instead decided to express how he truly felt.

"What brings you here?" After a few seconds of silence, Superman watched as the warrior, with a smirk on his face, held his arms out ever so slightly right as a blue flame-like aura began to develop around him which was then followed up by an incredibly blinding flash of light which enveloped both him and the rest of the battlefield for a good couple of seconds. And then, once it finally dissipated, Goku looked almost exactly as he always had looked with the exception of a couple minor differences and those were the warrior's new lean frame along with the bright pinkish red color that replaced his usual black hair, he also had crimson irises and he had retained the flame aura, this time in a bright orange.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, I realized that during our last battle I left out an old surprise, now... you ready for a rematch?" Superman could not believe what he was hearing, despite what had happened to the Earth with their first battle, despite all the pain and suffering that was felt by several innocent bystanders, the Saiyan still wanted to brawl with him, like it was nothing but a small friendly game of chess. Superman wasn't going to have it that time and instead tried to reason with the warrior.

"You have no idea what you're doing here Goku, if we fight now, the powers we possess will endanger the lives of everyone we know and love so I'm asking you as a resident of this planet, drop this game right now, this is not worth risking the lives of anyone." Superman pleaded with concern in his voice. Goku looked over at the Man of Steel and looked back at the ground below them and let out a frustrated sigh.

"I know what happened to the planet and I understand how you feel..." Suddenly Goku's face shifted into something more akin to a playful smile. "but I will not give this up, after our first encounter, I was amazed to find someone just as, if not possibly more powerful than anything I had ever face before in my life and not only that but it was right when life was getting rather dull on my end since I don't know about you but radish farming is not exactly my forte." As he continued on, Goku began to look at his hands, almost as if he was examining the aura he was generating. "And once I saw firsthand how incredible you were, I used that experience to push myself further, to push myself far beyond any other limit I had prior so that way when the time came, I would be no slouch for this time around which led to me dusting off this old puppy which I like to call Super Saiyan God."

"Impressive..." Superman said completely taken aback and in awe by this man's tenacity. Once he realized what he was doing though, he quickly shook his head. "But p-"

"But that's not all, after seeing how impressive you were and without the help of any transformation no less, I've decided to also pour all my manpower into training my base form since hey, what good's this rematch going to be if it's just going to come to a grinding halt the moment I lose my Super Saiyan state?"

"Goku please list-"

"And plus, knowing that the Earth was likely going to be our battleground, I figured this kind of training would be good so that I can control my strikes instead of having to worry about a missed punch resulting in a destroyed world."

"But why though? If you know of the risks and yet you still want to fight, why not take us to some other place with that Instant Transmission of yours?" In response, the Saiyan simply leaned back and let out a chuckle.

"Heh, heh, I may do that later if things get too heavy and out of control but right now? I think that will not be necessary. Sorry Superman, there's no talking me out of this." Superman was completely dumbfounded. While he had indeed fought some reckless opponents beforehand over the years, never in his life would he have imagined that he would meet a warrior like Goku who is so hellbent on looking for a good fight that he may possibly not care about the consequences but regardless of what Goku may have said, there was no way that the Man of Steel was going to give up on this so easily.

"So even though I work to protect every person, every single speck of life in this galaxy, even though you are well aware of the damages we caused last time. You still want to engage in this pointless contest?" Goku gave a quick nod.

"Well pointless isn't exactly what I'd call this." He began. "In fact the only time I'd ever call it that is if it doesn't turn out to be much fun but knowing you, that's most likely going to be an impossibility."

"Just why? Why do you want to fight me? Why do you find it so necessary to seek me out just so we can clash? I have no malice towards you at all, why can't you drop this and maybe help me make the world a better place, is that so much to ask?" Goku lightly grasped his chin and began to ponder over his decision, the Kryptonian watched as the Saiyan tapped his face, his brow scrunched up, like he was having so much trouble putting his reasoning into words, then, after what felt like hours, the warrior continued.

"Didn't you hear me from earlier, it's because you were one of the most incredible opponents that I had ever faced!" Goku began, his smirk now becoming one large grin. "I mean when I first saw you, sure I thought you were just the average alien threat wanting to conquer the Earth but after our first battle, man oh man was I glad to be wrong! Your speed, your technique, your powers, aside from Lord Beerus and Whis, you are one of the only opponents who has truly pushed me to use every bit of my power in a fight and not only that, you were one of the few who actually pointed out the flaws in my techniques to me and it's thanks to that fight that now I've become a much better fighter as a result and so what better way is there to test these abilities out than on the person who inspired me in the first place?"

At that point, Superman's lips began to shift and open up but strangely, no words came. It wasn't even a case where he was just hanging on a consonant or a simple syllable, he just froze without even a hint of a noise. The reason for this?

To put it rather simply, the realization finally hit him. It wouldn't matter what he said or what he did at this moment, the Saiyan wasn't going to budge and there was no way of getting out of this battle. After coming to this conclusion, with a sigh, the Kryptonian got into his battle stance.

"I just pray that this will be quick." And it was right afterward that their fight began and needless to say, the Kryptonian could very easily tell that Goku wasn't kidding when he said that his strength and technique had increased drastically though that was hardly saying much since when they first fought, even he couldn't help but admit that in terms of martial arts and skill, Goku was by far one of the greatest that he had ever faced with the only one who could possibly challenge him in this area alone being a certain dark knight... assuming that Goku wouldn't accidentally use the full extent of his power to splatter him against a wall. However, the improvements were nothing to scoff at as from the very moment the first punch was landed on his chest, Superman felt as if his lungs had been popped like balloons which made his recovery take just long enough for the man to come back around and send him straight through at least two glaciers with the impact being so great that it was almost as though he was involved in the war with Zod and his Kryptonian army all over again.

Regardless, once he was able to regain his composure, the two soon found themselves on a more even playing field and exchanged punishing blow after punishing blow with each collision causing a small shockwave that sent snow and pieces of gravel flying far until eventually the Kryptonian gained the upper hand and worked his way into Goku's guard before then knocking him back with a force comparable to the kind that was used against him earlier which sent him straight through the icy mountains and just as the man was able to recover, he was sent careening over the ocean below by one brutal heat vision shot which was then followed up by the Man of Steel immediately flying towards him and proceeding to land a series of devastating punches and it was with every punch that landed that he began to list off the various types of damage he could cause to the Earth in the hopes that it would dissuade Goku from continuing the battle.

"If I don't watch my step! I could create an earthquake!" At this point, the Saiyan had decided to let his aggression levels lower just a tad and put more of his energy into his defense as he soon proceeded to watch for an opening. "If I don't watch every breath, I could create a hurricane!" With the last word that he said, Superman was about to knock Goku right into the rocky mountains below when the Saiyan then saw his chance and launched his knee straight into the man's stomach, the impact causing his bones to make a light but still unnerving "CRUNCH!" complete with stumbling and a good deal of blood to spill from his mouth moments after the violent hacking began. Using this to his advantage, Goku gripped the man by his foot and proceeded spin him round and round until eventually the sheer speed was causing some water to be kicked up. However just before he could send him careening into the landscape, the Kryptonian looked down and with one carefully timed heat vision shot, he caused the Saiyan to stumble just long enough for him to land a brutal overhead strike that caused the Saiyan to cut a path through the rocky terrain before then finding his place in a rocky mountain with the force of the impact causing some of the bottom portion to explode with chunks of rock and clouds of dust. Once the Kryptonian lowered to the ground, he continued on, this time with his voice taking a much more somber tone.

"Please Goku, just stop, value life more than your pride for if you don't millions of people will possibly die here with our battle, just listen to me." Goku looked at the warrior in the eyes, his expression being one of determination.

"Heh, heh, are you kidding me?" Goku straightened his wristband right as he finished the sentence. "I'm just getting warmed up." With a few movements, Superman watched as Goku began to charge up, a bright blue aura not unlike his Kamehameha enveloping his body. With a mighty yell, a beam of light shot into the air before quickly dissipating soon after. Revealing Goku in what appeared to be an ascended God state with his appearance looking no different from his Super Saiyan form with the only difference being the bright cyan colored hair and pupils along with the slightly larger musculature. Superman could only look on as irritation began to spill into his system.

"How many transformations is it going to take until you realize that what you're doing IS dangerous?! Please Goku, stop while you're ahe-" Goku took his chance and with a mighty dash, he landed one mighty punch to Superman's face...

Though simply just referring to it as such would've been the biggest understatement of the century for the punch didn't just graze or bruise him, it outright caused his cheekbones to crack, his head to jerk to the side right as a good deal of blood spewed from his mouth and with the shockwave that resulted from it, the Earth felt as though it was nearly shaken and cracked in two seconds later. All in all, the Man of Steel was flabbergasted by what he experienced and after a bit of thinking he couldn't help but ponder over if what he just felt was possibly a sneak peek at the full extent of the kind of terrifying power the Saiyan possessed and if he was only bothering to hold back and show off his forms for the sake of a fair fight. However, he couldn't ponder over this for much longer and so seconds after being launched through the air, the two resumed their battle and with every passing moment, Superman started to become more and more frustrated with Goku's supposed lack of care for what they were doing. And it was during the moment that he once again knocked Goku across the ocean that he began to ponder this.

"Why won't he listen? Doesn't he get that if we continue to battle, no matter where we are, we risk destroying the safety of this planet and possibly the whole galaxy? Why can't he see t-" The thought was soon interrupted by a devastating chop to the abdomen followed up by a bone-crunching elbow to the face which then led into one incredible onslaught that was only then matched and later surpassed by the Man of Steel a minute later though that was after receiving a whole bunch of bruises, scratches and to top it all off, a bunch of blood seeping from both his nose and mouth. Soon once he regained control of the battle's tide, he began to hit at every possible pressure point in the hopes of at the very least stunning the Saiyan like he did early in their first encounter, his attempts only increasing in speed once he noticed that they were heading straight for Frisco, Texas, thus leaving Superman with no choice but to continue the fight into the city.

"I just hope I can at the very least spare a couple thousand lives." Fast forward all the way towards the final moment of the battle, Superman stared the Saiyan down with one of his most intense glares. Now he was serious, if Goku did not stop his actions, he would have no choice but to perform the unthinkable once again or at the very least, he'd have to pummel him so badly and to such a massive degree that he'd either be in a comatose state or just unable to move for an extended period of time. Goku looked up at the Kryptonian and Superman could see that while on the outside the Saiyan looked normal minus a couple of cuts, bruises and spots of dirt on his clothes but on the inside, he could tell that Goku would most likely collapse if they went on for any longer. His bones were beginning to crack under pressure and his vitals, while not severely damaged, appeared to be at the very least shaken up. It was at that moment that he knew that if Goku continued to fight, the pain he'd be in would be far more grueling and he was certain that at this point, the Saiyan would finally stop.

Though needless to say, he'd be somewhat of a liar if he didn't admit that a lot of the damage Goku was suffering from wasn't comparable to the amount he sustained as although his healing factor was working overtime to repair it, that did nothing but gloss over the fact he had suffered what felt like minor bone fractures and cracks, shaken vitals, tears in his costume and even tears in his flesh which showed that certainly, in the years that followed their last encounter, the Saiyan had become far more powerful than he could've possibly imagined, meaning that if this fight didn't end soon and even if the planet wasn't destroyed, he pictured an ending where they may end up just outright offing each other at the same time.

And unfortunately, it seemed as though those fears were possibly going to become a reality as to both his surprise and horror, Goku straightened himself out and continued to stare the Kryptonian down, his serious expression still remaining.

"No, I will never back down from a fight." As soon as he finished, the Saiyan powered up even further and moved into a very familiar position with his hands cupped by his side.

"KAAAAMEEEEE...HAAAMEEEE!" Almost immediately upon feeling the small tremors and the pieces of rubble lifting up, the Man of Steel charged launched towards the warrior though judging from the smirk that soon appeared on the warrior's face, this was all a part of the plan as once the man was inches away from him, Goku disappeared in a blink of an eye which both confused and frightened the hero who soon started to frantically search for the missing power level for he knew that regardless of what the plan was, it certainly wasn't going to end well.

And end well, it most certainly did not as moments later, his senses at long last picked back up on a high power level right below him which seemed to come complete with the muffled noise of energy charging up...

Which only lasted for a grand total of a few seconds before what was quite possibly one of the most devastating blows he had ever taken a hit from.

"HAAAAAAAAAAA!" With that final, Earth-rending scream which came at decibels so absurd that all windows around him had shattered into millions of tiny pieces, the Kryptonian was caught completely off-guard by a massive whitish-blue wave coming up from below him with the force that it hit him at being almost like that of an Omega Beam by Darkseid if that beam was way more massive. Through the whole experience, the famous hero felt nothing but a searing pain tearing through his chest for the intense heat and pressure caused by the wave was so great that it actually tore through his costume, singed his whatever hair was present clean off and had had soon turned his flesh red with is then starting developing blisters just a mere thirty seconds into the attack. Not only that but despite the fact that he knew he could do something such as meet the energy wave with his own heat vision or even use his full strength to simply try and punch the beam like he did during their first goal, he knew that doing so would only put him right back into the same position as all that time ago and judging from where Goku was executing this strike, it seems as though even he was trying to take measures to prevent that since if he had fired that in the standard forward position like he thought he was going to, the blast at the current level it is would've most certainly destroyed the structures behind him which would've caused the amount of civilian casualties to jump right up to the levels they were at during their first duel.

Speaking of which, as the pain still continued to ripple and his supercomputer-level brain still continued to search for a way of countering this devastating energy attack, the Man of Steel couldn't help but focus on just how much the Saiyan's skills and powers had progressed since their initial encounter which actually pleased him since for as long as he could remember with the threats he faced always increasing in strength to the point they reached the realms of the ridiculous such as was the case with those like Doomsday and Darkseid, the citizens of Earth were soon stricken with the impression that he wasn't just some random powerful superhero but that he was truly a man without limits and that he could do anything such as blow galaxies away with a sneeze or be able to lift eternity and infinity.

Which, much to the surprise of anyone who has ever asked him about this, would always upset the man somewhat as not only did he possess limits of his own which the planet saw and was both shocked and upset by with the whole war of the Supermen that occurred a long time ago but he felt it was also somewhat bombastic and it was taking the credit from many of his fellow heroes which included those that were actual or at least blessed by the gods such as Diana and Orion and when someone asked him what he'd consider himself, he'd just say that he's just a simple man looking to help.

Which was why an opponent like Goku, despite his recklessness and his weirdly childlike love of fighting, was such a nice change of pace as to have someone like him who was a good person like he was and a fellow hero actually besting him on some fronts such as martial arts and battle tactics as it reminded him that he was no god and that in spite of his amazing abilities, he still had work to do in order to become the greatest protector the world needed and that most importantly of all, he was just like everyone else.

And it was at this moment that the man couldn't help but smile at both that thought as well as a fight with a certain green monster and his technique which had been known for its ability to actually break through certain energy attacks and considering how close he was getting to the sun, it sounded just crazy enough to work and he would've put it to use... if it weren't for the fact that the beam suddenly disappeared just a few seconds before he could put it to action which was a move that greatly confused him though judging from the frustrated "Oh come on." his enhanced hearing picked up, this was not at all part of the plan though before the man could try and figure out what was going on, he was thrown off balance by one strong fist crashing into his face, the force of which sent him flying straight towards the building below him. Using his knowledge of battle, the Man of Steel quickly caught himself and managed to stop right before he collided with the concrete wall. Once he straightened his jaw, he couldn't believe what he saw which was another blue-haired warrior with spiked hair very similar to Goku's though his features were more aggressive and he wore a blue jumpsuit along with what looked like alien armor and when he spoke, it was with a gruff, angry voice that was filled with hate.

"Did you really think you could just take off like that and steal my fight without my knowing about it?" Immediately, the Saiyan's demeanor changed much to the Kryptonian's confusion as he went from being incredibly frustrated to being insanely nervous.

"Heh, heh. So the slip-up didn't work did i-"

"Of course not! Even a toddler would've been able to figure the ruse out you insufferable clown! There's no way you can leave me like that, especially at a time like this."

"Eh, heh, heh, I'm sorry Vegeta b-but you know what they say. First come, first... serve?" Right as the Kryptonian felt a drop of sweat pooling down his forehead which occurred right as one of his eyebrows cocked upward, the prince just put his face into his palm and mumbled both a curse and what he planned to do to Goku after this battle under his breath.

"But moving on." Suddenly, the man's voice then became low and sinister, his vocals running dangerously close to being that of a serial killer's.

"At the very least, we meet at last."

"Now listen here, I'm not looking for tr-OOF!" With his fist still embedded in his stomach, the prince couldn't help but grin once he heard a very faint but devastating crunch.

"But it has found you anyways." The prince replied with a smirk before then following up his strike with a vicious backhand that sent the hero careening towards his right. "And unlike the kind you faced moments earlier, this kind is going to take great enjoyment in pulverizing you until there isn't a single cell left." The Man of Steel watched as the Saiyan's aura began to pulse much more violently, lightning began to crackle around the warrior as the blue flames began to increase in size.

Right before he could speak any further, Superman's vision was filled up with a blueish-white color and he soon found himself grasping his wounded face as a light groan of pain was released which was soon followed up by a slew of screams as the prince just unleashed what could only be described as a hornet swarm of punches, kicks, knees and elbows which when combined with the lingering pain and sores left by the Kamehameha, what was a rather simple and common exchange soon became pure hell.

Though thankfully, it was one he'd be spared of very quickly for Goku immediately made a dash towards the two just seconds after the exchange began. He then grabbed Superman and Vegeta and without any time to waste, he disappeared without a trace, leaving the shaken civilians on the street to converse about what just happened and to clean up the thankfully minor damages.

---

Meanwhile... on King Kai's planet...

"GOKU! GET OUT OF THERE! PLEASE DON'T TRY IT! STOP!" Those words replayed for hours and hours on end every day in his brain like a broken record and yet no matter how many times he heard it, the meaning behind them never truthfully left him. The blue-skinned teacher just sat in his car, making no noise except for the small noises his seat made from time to time when he readjusted himself and the occasional light sigh of defeat. In hindsight, he admitted he should've known that when dealing with two Saiyans who had disobeyed him literally hundreds of times before as though it was their mission that his argument with them on why they shouldn't engage the Man of Steel would fall on deaf ears but that was hardly what he could focus on.

For the only reason he engaged with them to begin with was not out of a lack of trust or even him just being too paranoid about something crazy like Superman destroying the Earth over this ridiculous contest of strength but rather he just didn't want to see his students, his friends lose their lives purely because of some pathetic pissing contest with a fellow hero. He only wanted to make sure that what happened way back then would never ever repeat.

Though unfortunately for him, the moment they left was the moment he could see that their fates were sealed.

"Ook?" The Kai jumped for a split second and quickly turned his head to his right only to find his pet monkey Bubbles, with his head cocked to the side with a face full of concern. Once he realized it was no threat, the Kai let out a loud sigh and stretched out his hand, beginning to pet the monkey as he began to speak.

"I just don't know Bubbles," he began with a small hint of sorrow in his voice. "I mean, I know Goku can come back, he has done just that so many times in the past..." The Kai paused for a brief moment to readjust his glasses with his free hand and right as he did, he lightly brushed his finger against a moist tearduct and as soon as he touched it, a single fresh tear dropped from his face. "But..." With a angry roar, he slammed his fists against the dash. " Just DAMN IT! Why can't the two of them see that this whole contest is and always will be meaningless?! Do they honestly not realize that fighting this man will just resort in a repeat of a few years back? Do they ever see past their ridiculous Saiyan pride and give at least one, ONE thought about their family and friends?!" Soon, the Kai began to calm down with his anger then being replaced with another emotion, a emotion that the monkey could immediately deduce upon seeing the moisture pouring down his cheeks. "Does he ev-e-ever... Does he ever think about how it was for me to watch him just disinte-disinte-dis..." Almost as if it was instinct, Bubbles immediately wrapped his arms around his master right as he began to weep like he had been for the past several days. Suddenly, the blue Kai silenced himself when he had heard a loud battle cry of some kind. Cautious, King Kai slowly looked up through his windshield and in the blink of an eye, he watched as a familiar orange clad Saiyan came crashing right into the front of his vehicle.

"WHAT THE HELL GOKU?!" The Kai screamed right as he began to wriggle and struggle his way through the tiny crushed side of the car, before he or Goku could answer and right as he was at the halfway point of his waist, King Kai's eyes widened at the sight of a familiar red and blue warrior locked in battle with what appeared to be Vegeta, only this time in a form that he couldn't quite recognize even after giving it some thought. The Kai took in a mouthful of air, his face red with frustration and surprise, his teeth gritting as if he was ready to scream when Goku, for lack of a better term, just took off towards the ongoing struggle and with one mighty yell, the Saiyan kicked the Man of Steel square in the face and sent him flying over the yellow clouds. The prince, as usual, was not pleased and in just a few seconds, he closed the distance between the two and gave him one nasty shot to the face.

"OW!" Goku screamed right as he grasped his head. "Vegeta! What was that f-"

"Just shut up and don't interfere." Vegeta said with a growl. With a serious expression on his face, Goku got into his fighting stance and took off after his target while simultaneously ignoring Vegeta and leaving him in the dust. With a low grunt, the prince quickly followed suit. Up ahead and after a few more seconds of flying, Superman finally managed to stop himself just in time to block an incoming punch from his Saiyan opponent. The shockwave caused by the collision flew out with such intensity that all the surrounding clouds beneath them were knocked straight back, revealing the realm of Hell. His drive not letting down, Goku immediately followed up his punch with a kick as fast as a speeding bullet that was quickly blocked by Superman's own. Without any hesitation, the two kept following up their strikes one after the other with each counter coming faster and faster with every second until soon, the two were matching blow for blow.

"How is this possible?" Goku thought to himself. "He has gone through all of my forms and yet he still is able to keep up, how exactly does he get this much power from the sun?" A few seconds later, his shock was soon replaced with happiness which was very apparent through the smirk on his face. "Oh who am I kidding? I'm having the time of my life! There's no need to bog it down with pointless questions like that." Unbeknownst to the Saiyan, the Kryptonian was pondering almost the exact same subject as he was.

In his peripheral vision, Superman could just barely make out the rapidly approaching blue blip. With quick thinking, he immediately drew in a quick breath of air and proceeded to blow, the force of the winds catching Goku off guard which sent him careening into the Saiyan Prince. With a look of disgust, the prince eased himself to the left and flew past his rival without a care and made a charge towards the Kryptonian and in the blink of an eye, Superman felt as the prince's knee rammed itself straight into his stomach which knocked the air straight out of his lungs. Smirking, Vegeta brought his hands upward and slammed them straight into the Kryptonian's back with an overhead strike.

"What's the matter boy scout?" Vegeta began as he proceeded to thrash Superman with a rapid series of furious punches. "Has this sin of your past sapped the fight out of you?!" It took him a minute but finally, the Man of Steel caught both of Vegeta's fists and sent his head crashing into the Saiyan's own. Vegeta howled in pain as he drew back, his hands barely concealing the unsightly gash. Superman looked at his opponent for a few more seconds before quickly speeding away from the two.

"At least Goku took us to a safe location away from Earth so hopefully I have a chance to get out of..." Superman's thoughts halted themselves immediately when he felt a sudden stinging pain his back which sent him careening into the clouds below.

"Oh no you don't." Goku said right before rushing towards his target with Vegeta following right alongside him. Before he could catch himself, the Man of Steel felt as the Saiyan Prince's fist made contact with his skull, a rippling pain following soon after as he was sent flying through the air. Immediately afterward, Goku followed up on Vegeta's punch with a charging kick to Superman's side along with a Ki-charged punch which sent the latter on a collision course with the ground below. The two ogres who guarded the realm were watching with confusion as a hero in tights landed on the ground with a violent "KRAKOOM!" with the resulting shockwave and crater sending several tons of trees, foliage and water across long distances. Much to the pair's surprise, the hero got up and proceeded to rub all around his body, it almost was humorous you could say, like the man had suffered the worst hangover of his life.

"Damn..." Superman muttered to himself as he watched the two Saiyans charge for him. Letting his reflexes take full control, he quickly sidestepped out of the way of Goku's punch and countered with a lightning fast backhand to the warrior's face. He was then caught off guard by a lunging kick to his face from Vegeta only to recover seconds later with a quick heat vision shot to the chest which sent the prince flying into the side of the large crater. Catching him quickly in his peripheral vision, the Kryptonian quickly turned towards the approaching Goku and with a rising uppercut to the gut, he stunned the Saiyan and immediately afterward, he countered the enraged Vegeta with a straight kick to the face. Shaking himself free of his state, Goku quickly avoided another blow with a well-timed afterimage, followed up with a quick strike that aimed straight for Superman's jaw though much to his surprise, the Man of Steel gripped his arm and with a mighty heave, he slammed him into the ground below and without skipping the metaphorical beat, he immediately turned his attention towards the charging prince and attempted to counter him with a hard punch to the face, only to find that the prince immediately disappeared and before he could react, the Kryptonian was struck by one hard chop to the neck, followed by a kick to the spine that sent him flying into the air. Not wasting any time, the prince brought his arms back and proceeded to laugh in an almost maniacal manner as a purple energy ball appeared in his hands. Superman then caught himself and looked down at the prince as he let out a couple of breaths.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me! This is NOT good, this one looks about as powerful as the Kamehameha, there has gotta be something I can use." With that last word, Superman began to examine his surroundings in the hopes of finding some kind of opening when his eyes rested upon a tightly wound small sack that Vegeta had around his waist and it was right then and there that an idea presented itself to the Kryptonian which involved a method of attack used by a certain scarlet speedster. With this in mind, it was in the blink of an eye and with a serious look on his face, the Kryptonian began to fly in circles around the Saiyan Prince at rapid speeds, the resulting effect of it being a small twister that carried the prince upward and caused him to lose his concentration.

"What the hell? I... can't breathe." Vegeta called out as he frantically searched for an exit point. In just a few seconds, the Man of Steel flew by the prince's side and immediately without hesitation, he thrust his hand out in a karate chop motion in an attempt to knock out the prince but unfortunately for him, Vegeta immediately regained his composure and gripped his arm and in just a few seconds afterward, Superman found himself at the receiving end of a devastating elbow by the prince which sent him careening into the ground below.

"Flashy tricks will not save you fool." Vegeta called out as he slowly descended to the ground in a spot right next to Goku who currently had his gaze locked on the Kryptonian in a look of determination with maybe just a slight hint of fear. Vegeta, on the other hand, had a face that was filled with disbelief and a slight hint of fear, a fear that he had not felt ever since the days of old where Frieza had braved the full-force of his final attack without suffering even a scratch. It was at this moment that Vegeta began to question if he could even beat this new foe as while he could certainly tell that both his and Goku's strikes were inflicting massive levels of damage, his senses still read as his power level as having not even dropped by a speck. In fact, it was still as high as it was when he first made it to the city.

And it was with this in mind that Vegeta let out a frustrated sigh and took in a deep breath in preparation of what he was about to suggest which went against almost all teachings provided to Saiyans.

"Hey Kakarot," Vegeta began with a whisper. "I think... I think I know how to beat him." Goku turned toward his rival with a face full of curiosity.

"What is it Vegeta? Fusion?" Vegeta shook his head.

"Like hell I would! I already told you many times before, I'd never fuse with you for any other fight!"

"Okay then, umm... we run off and call the rest of our friends over?"

"No!" Despite the prince's frustration, the Saiyan continued on with his thoughts until eventually, he came across one final idea.

"Oh I got it! You want me to charge up a Spirit Bomb with you keeping him busy and once it's ready, I'd absorb that power and use the same method I used to finish 13!" Right then and there, in the span of only a few seconds, the prince's hand smacked right into his face with enough force to leave a blood red mark which was then unexpectedly followed up by a loud groan and growl.

"CAN YOU JUST FOR ONCE, FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE SPEND THE NEXT COUPLE SECONDS WITH YOUR TRAP ZIPPED SHUT?! I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT NOTHING YOU SAY IS ON MY MIND SO PLEASE JUST SHUT THE HELL UP AND LISTEN TO ME!" After taking the next few moments to calm down, Vegeta continued. "Now, from what I can recall from my talks with King Kai, this man does possess two weaknesses. The first comes in the form of a green substance called Kryptonite which apparently will slowly take away the man's powers and as for the second, apparently his planet lasted through the heat of a red sun which will essentially turn him into just an average man if he's exposed to it and I was thinking we co-"

"No." Goku said with a shake of his head, cutting off the prince. "You said there was a way to beat him, not that we would have to resort to cheating." Vegeta looked at Goku with disbelief in his eyes.

"Don't you see Kakarot we've got no choice, without those weaknesses, there's no way we can..."

"Sure there is. Vegeta, if we can last against beings like Beerus and Whis, actual deities with powers that surpass us to an extreme degree, we can most certainly defeat Superman without having to resort to cheap tactics." With his rage just barely being held back, the prince continued.

"Those two are different though as despite being deities they have limits, limits that we're at the brink of breaking through." His expression soon shifted into that of horror. "This man on the other ha-"

"You know that's a lie." Goku interjected. "As I've learned from everyone that has ever been a teacher, everyone has a limit and regardless of who it is, anyone can beat a really tough opponent if they train hard enough and Superman is no exception." The prince both said and did nothing for the next several seconds with the only sound he made being the occasional light breath which did little to break the awkward silence which both confused and intrigued the Man of Steel who was just watching the chat from afar, seeing no reason to abandon good nature and attack an opponent when he himself wasn't currently being provoked.

Finally, the prince's next words came in the form of a growl.

"Have you lost your goddamn mind?!"

"What do you me-" Vegeta suddenly cut the man off right as a deadly rage began to seep into his system and in just a few seconds and without any warning, the Saiyan prince gripped Goku by the collar of his shirt and began to scream into his face

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA ABOUT THE PAIN THIS MAN CAUSED ME?!" He screamed right as tears threatened to come pouring down his face.

"I-I don't get it Vegeta. Why are you acting like this?" Goku asked despite his growing concern over the deterioration in his friend's demeanor which only got worse as the prince continued to vent his anger.

"What do you not get?! Kakarot, this is not just some simple test of strength for me! Unlike you, I don't want to just beat this man!" After a couple seconds of both silence and him making sure that it was safe, Goku decided to press on with his question.

"Then what do you..." Goku was thrown off-guard by the Saiyan dropping to his knees and delivering a brutal punch to the ground, the impact causing several cracks to develop.

"I want to see him bleed!" The prince landed yet another blow, the crack now becoming a small crater complete with dust being knocked up as the environment caved in. "I want to see him scream out in agony as I shatter his bones!" With the next blow, Goku could've sworn he caught a glimpse of some kind of clear fluid leaving his friend's eyes though with the dust in the way, he really wasn't so sure. "I want to watch as the last waves of life leave his eyes as I strangle the life from him! And finally..." The prince then went from a single punch to a full series of emotionally charged strikes as his voice became louder and louder and with every passing moment this occurred, even the Man of Steel couldn't help but feel... sorry for the man. Granted he felt sorry for every living being and would often sympathize with their pain but it was usually quite rare he'd even get to see firsthand how shaken these people truly could get.

"I want him to feel the exact type of suffering I felt all those years ago!" Following those last few strikes, the prince was left a huffing, panting, sweating... and tearful mess. In just a few seconds after the man finished what looked kind of like a temper tantrum, both Goku and Superman watched with utter shock as several droplets of moisture stained the ground below him which was soon followed up by a few small sniffles and while this was sad enough, it was how his tone changed with the next words he spoke that really left their mark

"Tell me Kakarot, do you know how it... you know how it feels when you see certain death heading your way and are unable to do anything to stop it?" Gone were the trademark Vegeta rage-filled growls and insults, gone was the fiery passion that he showed several times beforehand and most notably, gone was his god form and desire to fight. What took its place instead was the look of an emotionally broken and defeated father and it only got worse and worse as he continued on.

"Do you ever take a moment to think about how it feels... to just stand there helplessly and watch as everything and every..." The prince let out another few sniffles right as his voice cracked, his last moments of control on the verge of crumbling. "As everyone you care about is just taken from you right before your very eyes?" Right then and there, he looked into the steadily growing puddle with the imagery reminding him of the face of his blue-haired lover during that time and how it had the look of happiness wiped completely once all attention was directed towards the light in the sky and how it was replaced with fear and extreme sadness which continued all the way into their embrace once they realized that there was nothing they could do to stop the inevitable. After that, the prince continued on though by this point, it became clear that he wasn't going to finish this one.

"Have you ever thought about anything other than the f... than the... than the..." The prince could barely even make as much as two more attempts before finally, much to the shock of both him and Superman, the man finally, for lack of a better term, broke...

All sense of coherency completely disappeared along with his rage and instead gave way to a long session of open sobbing right as the last bit of emotional control finally caved in.

And it was just heartwrenching, especially to the Kryptonian who soon found himself seconds later not being able to help but shed a few tears. At that point, even with knowing that this was the same man who had moments earlier told him just how much he was going to revel in his suffering, Superman simply didn't see him as that anymore. In his eyes, Vegeta at this point was not some mindless savage or his opponent.

All he saw in that period of time was the face of a shattered father who was willing to fight through hell and back for even the tiniest chance of getting revenge for his family. A family that was lucky to have someone like him, a family who clearly showed him the kind of love and compassion that could possibly be comparable to even his own parents.

A family that he unknowingly took from this world and even with the wish most likely bringing them back, that would do absolutely nothing to cleanse his soul of the fact that he still wound up taking their lives in the first place and for that, he wished he could say sorry. He wished he could scoop the man up in a hug and let it out with him. He wished he was able to tell him how he never intended for any of this to happen but deep in his heart, he knew that wouldn't be possible as from what Vegeta's attitude showed him earlier, the damage was already done. Whatever bridges were present between them had already been burned to a pile of ash that was being whisked away by the ravine below.

As for Goku himself, he didn't even know what to say. Hell, even if he had the words he didn't even know what he COULD say to comfort the man as aside from that time on Namek all those years back, he had never seen his friend so broken up before. In fact, he'd even argue that this time hit far harder than the first time as unlike that occasion, this was something he himself was directly responsible for. It was thanks to him not stopping while he was ahead way back when that Vegeta even ended up at this point.

And it was right then that at long last, Goku realized exactly the kind of mistake that was being made there and exactly why Superman and King Kai were all telling him that this was a bad idea. At long last after spending a good while telling them that he understood the risks just for the sake of getting them off his back, he realized that they weren't trying to stop him purely because they thought he couldn't handle it but because with his previous fight, he brought suffering to everything and everyone he cared about and for what? His selfish desire to battle a fellow hero just to see who was stronger.

And had he continued to fight right at that moment, had he ignored the pain of his friend just to see the end of this contest. His goal would certainly be achieved... but at the very likely expense of millions dying in a repeat of their first encounter which would then lead into a... permanent end for him and when considering that the Dragon Balls were already used once to bring him and everyone back and Whis mentioning that the time he used his Temporal Do-Over ability to prevent Earth's destruction at Frieza's hands was a one time only deal, this time there would truly be no reversal. But even if they were to win without destroying the Earth, even if that wound up being the case. Knowing Vegeta and the kind of vitriol he held towards the Kryptonian at that point in time, he had the strong feeling that ending would wind up taking away one of the planet's greatest defenders in cold blood.

With that in mind, Goku then knew what he had to do. With a deep breath and the closing of his eyes, the man immediately reverted from his god form all the way back to his base state, a move that caused both Superman and Vegeta to look towards him with shock.

"W-What are you..." His attempts to get any words out in his sorry state being fruitless, Vegeta watched as his rival possessed a look that was as melancholy as his tone.

"We're done Vegeta. I'm sorry." The prince's reddened eyes flashed with disbelief, his hopes desperately trying to find whatever excuse it could to disprove what was currently happening.

"We can't be done." He began. "T-T-The man's clearly still standing. There's still work to be..."

"There's nothing more we need to do." Goku sternly interjected. "This fight is finished." Calmly, the Saiyan turned towards his rival and looked him dead in the eyes just to make sure he got the message with his next one. "No one is dying today." The Saiyan was left in total shock, his feelings towards his partner's sudden quitting of this battle being nothing short of pure dread and slowly brewing anger.

"Have you lost your mind?" Vegeta growled through grit teeth.

"To be honest, a few moments earlier, yes." Goku began, his head ashamedly looking down at his feet. "Yes I did. For the past few hours, I had lost almost all sense of reason, all of my rationality." Suddenly, the Saiyan's own anger began to flare up. "And for what purpose did all this happen? My meaningless and reckless pursuit of a rematch with Superman just for the sake of making one last attempt at beating him." Before Superman could say anything about the words he recalled from earlier, the man turned towards him. "And no, I didn't misspeak, in fact the whole reason I told you earlier that I was just wanting to test my strength was just so you can get off my back and for all this time, I've wanted to do nothing but beat you. For the past several days in fact, there was not a single night that went by where I did nothing but dream of the day where I'd finally beat you and truly become the strongest fighter there is and it was thanks to that selfish desire that I carelessly pursued you and wound up possibly putting the planet, nay, the entire galaxy in danger." After spending a few moments taking in some nice relaxed breaths, Goku was about to continue on when Vegeta quickly interjected.

"What are you saying?" Now it was Goku's turn to be in Vegeta's shoes and ask this question.

"Weren't you listening? This whole contest, the whole damn thing, is meaningless. Don't get me wrong Vegeta, I am deeply sorry to hear about the kind of suffering you had to go through and if there was a chance I could turn back time and give you a chance to prevent all that, I would gladly let you. Really, I do understand the anger you feel. But..." Seconds after Goku stopped to take his deep breath, Vegeta found himself getting rather impatient for the rest and so he blurted out.

"But what?"

"But I'm sorry, I cannot and will not let this fight go on any longer nor will I let you kill Superman all because of an accident." The prince's eyebrow cocked right as fury began to take hold once more.

"An accident?" Seconds later, he stood up and started marching towards his rival. "You have the gall to call something as awful as THAT a simple accid-"

"Like it or not Vegeta, that's exactly what it was!" Goku harshly interjected. "Regardless of how much you may not want to believe this, Superman did not cause all those deaths on purpose. In fact..." Goku's head slowly slumped forward. "If you want anyone to blame for all this, someone to take all that rage out on, I'm the one you're looking for as I was the one who fired the blast that caused the accident in the first place. I was the one who did not realize how foolish they were being even when it was too late."

"B-B-But what about when he..."

"When he what? Used what King Kai called the Infinite Mass Punch? Vegeta, that was also a complete accident and I knew that from the very moment it happened as it didn't feel like the man to just suddenly switch gears and want to actually kill me and even now, it's apparent to me with the amount of times he pleaded me to stop that he just wouldn't be so cruel to kill someone without a lick of remorse. I'm sorry Vegeta but this quest for revenge is not only meaningless but it's directed towards a person who doesn't even deserve it in the first place." The prince was completely stunned. This was his chance, his once in a lifetime chance to finally put his soul at peace with his revenge. This was the occasion that he had been training for ever since Goku first showed up in Other World moments after his demise yet now, in spite of all that, he was going to deny him this? Even with all the good points raised it just didn't sit right with him.

"I..." Goku's eyebrow immediately raised in response to the Saiyan's quiet but clearly angered tone. "I can't honestly believe this. After all I've been through, the pain, the sadness..." Superman watched as the Saiyan's hands instinctively curled into fists in preparation for the possible danger that would come once the prince stopped twitching out of fury. "I let it all out and you still won't..." A few seconds more and what remained of Vegeta's sanity had almost completely dissipated, his sadness soon being overtaken by only the most venomous of hatred once he looked directly at his rival. However, as Goku could see from the way his face had crinkled and brow furrowed, he saw not a friend or foe but prey and as prey tend to be when faced with a predator, the Saiyan made a furious lunge for both the Man of Steel and him.

Having let his instincts take complete control long before Superman did, Goku without warning and with a flash of white charged forward and thrust his knee up straight into his friend's stomach, wincing slightly as the crunch of bone rang in his ears and as he felt the air literally leave his lungs, knowing that had he used anymore strength, he could've killed the man. With a face full of surprise, Superman watched as Vegeta's aura quickly dissipated right as he slumped onto his rival who had then proceeded to use his strength to sling him up and over his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry it had to come down to this but just know that it's for your own good." Goku commented with a sigh, before then turning towards the Man of Steel whose expression quickly changed from shock to concern but before the question could leave his lips, the Saiyan wasted no time in giving him the answer. "If he can handle punches from someone of such a high caliber like you, you have nothing to worry about." Right then and there, the hero let out a sigh of relief and right after that, Goku decided to then take his chance to speak.

"I know you had to sit through my whole speech but I still feel that it's necessary to tell you just how truly sorry I am for all the trouble I caused you and the planet. I was careless, selfish and..."

"I think that's enough self-deprecation out of you." Superman calmly interjected, his hand lightly grasping Goku's shoulder. "Thanks for the apology and finally listening to me." Despite feeling slightly better, the Saiyan still held his head in shame.

"But it took so long for me to do so and in that time we caused a great deal of property damage, we nearly caused civilian casualties and in our first fight we... destroyed the Earth and all that happened because I was so arrogant, heartless and blind to just stop and think."

"Excuse me? A fool? Heartless? Goku, even with all that has happened today and our previous fight, I just want to let you know that I do not consider you a fool and I will especially never say that you are heartless." As soon as Goku looked up, he saw that the hero's lips had curled into a small but warm smile. "In fact, let me just go on and say that you are by far one of the kindest, most carefree people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting." After a few moments of surprise, the Saiyan's head slumped forward once more, the sadness still as powerful as ever.

"How can you say that? I mean I know you're trying to cheer me up but I'm still the one who caused all this in the first place. I'm still the one who selfishly pursued th-"

"And you eventually realized and acknowledged the mistake you made like an adult and stopped it all. Even when Vegeta was pushing for you to continue with this fight, you stood your ground and let him know that you wouldn't let things escalate any farther regardless of how bad you felt for him. That takes such a great deal of heart and willpower to pull off that even some of my fellow veterans have a hard time with it. Trust me Goku, despite all that has happened, I possess no malice towards you in any way."

"Wait?" Goku began. "You don't?" Superman nodded.

"I believe in second chances, I believe in redemption, but, mostly, I believe in my friends and humanity. Even with all that I've been through during our battles, to see how this time you did take as much care as you did to keep the Earth from being harmed whether it be through keeping the battle in uninhabited areas or as high in the sky as you could manage, that especially shows me that you're no monster and not only are you no monster. You have the makings of a true hero." It took the Saiyan every ounce of his strength to keep his jaw from dropping to the floor right then and there or at least, that's what Superman could tell judging by how his pupils seemed to shrink and how a single bead of sweat seemed to drop down his forehead. He had fully expected the man to just give him the mother of all chew-outs for his actions and leave him without much warning and that would be it.

Not once during this entire moment was he thinking that instead, the man would not only show him forgiveness for all his actions but he'd also make sure to give a ton of reassurance that he was no monster and that he actually was happy to have met him. Feeling the warmth of Superman's kindness refilling his soul with confidence, Goku's lips curled into a nice big grin which he exchanged with the Man of Steel as they shook each others hands, all the conflict that existed between them just slipping away into the ether with every move. A little bit later, the Saiyan then turned away and buckled his knees for take-off when the Kryptonian stopped him.

"Before you go, I do have at least one question for you." Smiling, Goku turned back towards him.

"And that is..."

"Would you be willing to teach me about how Ki manipulation works later on down the line?" The Saiyan's eyes widened a bit with surprise. "If it isn't too much trouble I mean, I think it could really help me in the long run and it certainly would work wonders in helping me to deal with the surprising amount of times that people have actually weaponized Ki for use in their schemes." A few seconds later once the surprise subsided, Goku's grin grew even larger.

"Sure thing! And maybe in return, you can teach me some of your tricks!" Despite how impossible the type of training Goku was referring to might be, especially when it came to powers like Heat Vision or Ice Breath, he did feel that maybe considering he has the ability to read minds, both forms of Torquasm along with some mental training might be worthwhile and a bit more doable.

"A deal's a deal." Superman said with a nod. Satisfied with the exchange, Goku then turned back towards the sky above and leaped up into the air, his body disappearing in a stream of white light as he flew away from the Kai's planet with the Kryptonian looking on with a smile and eyes filled with relief, only to have that look interrupted seconds later when a wide, blue-skinned teacher came rushing down, huffing and puffing the whole way through.

"Is it... am I... too... oooh..." Superman watched as King Kai collapsed onto his stomach, his huffing and puffing not at all ceasing.

"There's no need to worry anymore, nothing happened here. Nobody died today." Immediately, the Kai stood up as though he took a shot of adrenaline.

"Really?! It's about time I got some good news." King Kai sighed with relief, wiping the sweat from his brow. "I was really expecting the worst."

"Same here." Superman said with a smile, watching as the man held one hand up to his chin.

"It's good to see that kid still has a brain, even if he doesn't use it very often." The Kai commented. "Though speaking of which, I really wish he didn't fly off in the direction he did." The Kryptonian cocked his eyebrow.

"Why's that?"

"Oh it's nothing too major," Suddenly the Kai's calm tone turned to that of frustration. "he just now owes me car repairs for the seventh time!" Despite how the Kai felt about the whole situation, he couldn't have possibly been too worked up over it as just seconds later, the two men shared a long and hearty laugh together, a laugh that had been the first after such a long period of sulking and feeling completely miserable overall. It was still unfortunate of course that the fight ever had to happen and honestly the way it ended here Superman had to admit was not exactly the most climactic since after a little while, he had to admit his curiosity over who was about to win was starting to pique his interest. But regardless, for where there might've been shreds upon shreds of disappointment there was joy and relief which was all due to one simple fact.

In spite of all that had occurred prior, Superman was happy to know that the idea of the last son of Krypton and the last surviving Saiyan were on the path of becoming fast friends rather than enemies.

---

Author's Addendum:

Okay, allow me to provide some explanation for why this one-shot was created. You see, I'm a big fan of both of these characters, I love Goku and I love Superman and of course like many of you, I wondered who exactly would win in a fight so when I first heard that ScrewAttack would be doing Goku vs Superman on one of my favorite series of theirs Death Battle, I got hyped as all hell, I was absolutely ready to see my two favorite characters duke it out and I kept waiting and waiting until finally, January of 2013 came along and Goku vs Superman was released on ScrewAttack's website. I sat down in my seat and hit play as my excitement hit the breaking point and the fight at the time was awesome, nowadays the animation doesn't look quite right but back then considering that the animator by the looks of it was still learning 3D animation, the fight was at least LEAGUES better than the animation in Link vs Cloud. When I came to the climax and saw Goku's Kamehameha wave engage in a clash with Superman's heat vision, I was screaming with joy... and then came the ending, where Superman killed Goku and... yeah. Needless to say, I was definitely rooting for Goku to win and initially like many people, I was angered that Goku lost and felt that ScrewAttack royally screwed up...

And after refreshing my memory on Superman and DC as a whole and re-sitting through the original Dragon Ball, Kai, GT, the Buu Saga, making my way through Super and looking into as much info as I can, I'm just going to make this clear right now, I do feel SA royally fucked up this battle especially with that nonsense that Superman is limitless when DC themselves said that he wasn't but in spite of that, I'm just going to put that opinion aside for a moment and mention that I still enjoy the battle as far as entertainment value is concerned and that even if the research is fucked up. I don't have that too big of a problem with it to be totally honest as even the best creators and teams of fans can make mistakes. As for my opinion on who would win, all I will say is that it changes quite a few times and I will leave it at that.

Speaking of mistakes, there were plenty that were made though the most glaring for me was during the animation portion. To start off, Goku was just a dumb sack of potatoes and even more so than he was in the actual series and manga where yes he certainly is stupid when it comes to raising a child, relationships and basically anything that isn't fighting but put him in that fighting environment and what you have is possibly one of the GREATEST martial artists to ever exist in fiction and yet instead of being a crouching dumbass but hidden badass, in the Death Battle he was crouching dumbass, hidden dumbass. Though that's not even the half of it as Superman was, to put it rather bluntly, a super dick and one that would often spout off wisecracks that put him far more in line with guys like Spider-Man and Deadpool when in the comics he was the exact opposite.

To put this in much simpler terms, the characters felt more like the spoofs and tropes that were often applied to them by fans and non-fans than they did the actual characters and before anyone mentions it, I do understand that the animations aren't the main focus and are there purely for entertainment with the research being what matters (even if it is flawed all to hell like a certain match-up between a ninja of the sand and a blind Earthbender.). But as a fan of both characters who has also watched plenty of Death Battles where they managed to nail the character down to a T, it just feels so odd for their biggest battle to suddenly just give up with proper characterization. Also I do want to make it clear that I'm not slagging off on the voice actors for I found that MasakoX and ItsJustSomeRandomGuy did a fantastic job at playing the roles given to them even if the scripts weren't exactly the best they could be since these two as I've seen from their other content, do have an extensive understanding of their characters. I just wish that the fight itself didn't feel like one big TFS skit.

And then there was of course, the big one, Goku vs Superman 2, a fight that had been requested for several months the moment Battle of Gods was announced to be giving Goku the new form of Super Saiyan God and all I have to say is... look with me being a fan of series like RWBY which led to me gaining an obsession with incredibly smooth, well choreographed 3D fight scenes, this battle had me in awe regardless of how short it was. Especially when Goku first transformed into a Super Saiyan God since come on, that scene was friggin' majestic.

Then there was the ending... ooh boy that ending. Well I will certainly say that I'm glad I looked into the complaints more as trust me, I feel your pain for as visually amazing as that scene was, it certainly had it's LOAD of problems... but I'll just leave it at that.

Though speaking of problems, unfortunately while Goku was indeed fixed to a degree which I am grateful for, Superman on the other hand I felt had received BARELY any fixes. Despite the fact that this is a man who knows that he was partially responsible for letting the original battle get far too out of hand which ended up costing him his home planet and now he knows who Goku is, he was such a pompous jackass with lines like "I'm impressed, I actually felt that one.", "Blue hair? Eh, I've seen worse." or "Out of my way!" which really irritated me as I am a MAJOR Superman fan who has been following the guy for so long now and has seen how humble he truly is and while I wouldn't usually complain about this, considering the way they did the ending and how Superman safely carried Goku down to the ground, it just felt so inconsistent. Of course one can bring up the fact that his characterization has been terribly inconsistent before and whatnot but still.

So with that in mind, I went to work with creating this tale which had initially started out as what was essentially the same fight but with a bunch of minor improvements that were mainly directed towards implementing some much needed emotion and changing Superman's character to be far closer to how I remember him. However as time has gone on with me receiving a combination of ridiculous complaints, reviews by angry fanboys and legitimate constructive criticism, I've always found myself going back and tweaking things with this being my most major overhaul.

Starting off right away, there was the matter of the dialogue between Goku and Superman during their rematch and while the latter's I knew right away I was going to be fixing because of again, my dislike for the wisecracks and boasts, I actually never expected to be reworking so much of Goku's dialogue since at the time this came out (which was not too long after I had first watched the video), I thought Goku was just fine since in the manga, he was more caring about a good fight than he was about saving the world. Of course, he obviously wasn't heartless but he definitely wasn't anywhere near as righteous as the original anime and especially its original dub made him out to be. But as time went on, more and more fans came up to mention the many problems that keeping Goku's old dialogue possessed and so each time I returned, I often found myself reworking more and more of it until finally, I think (or at least, I hope) I've at long last got it to the level where it is the Goku we all know and love. Of course I could be wrong about that and may wind up fixing dialogue later but as it is now, I feel comfortable enough in saying that I've made the final major revisions and for those who do think that he is a bit too careless and heartless here. Remember that there are occasions that show he's still thinking about the planet such as how he used his Kamehameha and more.

Another detail I wanted to explain was how in the hell Superman was able to gather the Dragon Balls when the planet was clearly destroyed and while originally I had Beerus seek out Champa at the time when Super had nowhere near the amount of episodes it has now, after seeing those later episodes, I... just felt stupid for doing that and so thank GOD ScrewAttack did confirm that Dende was off-planet during the original fight to explain how these things still worked as it saved me from a ton of headaches.

As for the final set of reworks, one detail I've decided to completely do away with as I feel now that it completely detracted from the point of this story are the multiple endings and funnily enough, the ending of this fic is something I've actually gone back and forth on since the beginning. You see, back when I was first writing this story, the original ending I considered was going to have Superman, after going on for so long with Goku and Vegeta, use the Super Flare ability and then have the two of them able to absorb the power much like how Goku did with Beerus's energy sphere at the end of Battle of Gods and then while Superman is human, I would have Goku actually refuse to kill Superman and possibly have him knock Vegeta out due to how much he was itching to kill the hero. Before it was even put to the document, I decided to scrap it as it just reeked of fan appeasement and no matter how hard I tried, it just didn't work right. The next possibility I considered consisted of Goku and Vegeta fusing into either SSGSS Gogeta or Vegito to combat Superman which was scrapped because again, it sounded too much like fan appeasement and it would've completely undermined the point of the story. Finally there was the ending I initially settled on which consisted of it stopping right as Goku and Vegeta charged the Man of Steel together as the point was again, not the fight itself and it just served as a neat little way of saying that regardless of what new details crop up, this fight would always continue.

However, as time went on, I grew dissatisfied with this ending and so I then went with a second chapter in what was initially intended to be a one-shot that featured a more conclusive finale of Superman killing both Goku and Vegeta which he then wound up regretting and sobbing about, especially since they now can no longer be revived with the Dragon Balls and then Whis gave him the suggestion of finding some way to honor the two. The story then closed by showing how with the help of Roshi and Goku's other friends and family, he was able to share the man's story with the people of Metropolis and honor him with a monument which he planned on doing for Vegeta as well. Of course considering that an ending like this causes fans to get more than a little tetchy, I've received a ton of hate for this and so eventually, I decided to do an alternate ending of Goku winning the bout after Superman's killing of Vegeta triggered a rage like no other and pushed Goku to kill the hero with an Instant Transmission Kamehameha which he then regretted as he never went into the fight with the intention of killing his opponent. Despite this, the fanboys (or more accurately, a single fanboy.) grabbed their pitchforks and started attacking then because they wanted Goku to absolutely curbstomp Superman. Finally, the ending which you see here came to be during my last revision and needless to say, I worked on it when my spirits weren't exactly at what you'd call comfortable levels due to me at the time not exactly being the greatest when it came to loads upon loads of fanboys just bitching about this story as though the intent was to actually show who would win when that was never the case but regardless, it is the ending I feel most represents the intent of this story where Goku after Vegeta's breakdown, finally sees just how dangerous and ridiculous this fight was and how reckless he was for continuing it despite the Kryptonian's pleas for him to stop and so after knocking out an unruly Vegeta, he finally apologizes for his actions though much to his surprise, Superman actually forgives him and the two become friends.

And considering this ending did, as I mentioned earlier, represent the main point of this tale the best out of all the various endings I had devised, it was a no-brainer to me to make this the ending for this most recent revamp. Not only that but I also decided to add brand new scenes, overhaul old ones and remove a lot of the stuff that implied Supes as possessing no limits when that is clearly not true. Also considering I'm nowhere near as bitter as I used to be, I decided to make more of this addendum about just me going over my process instead of being about trying to show the fanboys why their ridiculously combative nature towards anyone with different opinions is ridiculous and why the hate towards DB was somewhat unfounded and ridiculous. Mainly though it was to remove the MAJOR fanboy tangent I went on about Superman and for those who may remember that from the previous versions, I am SO sorry you had to experience that. It was made with good intentions but ultimately I saw that it didn't work out all that well and with that, I've removed that detail so hopefully people are happy now.

With all that said, I'd like to give a thanks to not only those who read this story and made it through this insane addendum but also I'd like to give props to the people who gave legit criticism like Employee 427, blackm0765, epicvictory2025, chronotimeguard and finally iLarryyy since if it wasn't for your contributions and suggestions, I don't think the story would be in the state that it is today.

Stay gold my beautiful friends.