A/N: This is supposed to be a prequel kind of thing to Magnetic Today, but I may have deviated slightly, not that anyone other than myself will be that critical of the canon created in the other fic. Reading Magnetic Today is not required for enjoyment of this fic.

Loveless World

Whis heard the sound of an explosion. "My, my, is it time already?" A second explosion followed as he made his way upstairs.

Silence followed until Whis threw open the doors, dust still hanging in the air. "Rise and shine, my lord!"

"I am risen! And shining!" Beerus walked past, on his way to the bathroom.

"Oh? Well this is unexpected. What's put you in such a good mood this early in the day?"

Beerus stretched, cracking his joints in the process. "I've just slept for a century, right? Or did you alter the alarms while I slept?"

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"I didn't think you had. I feel too good to have slept any less. See how wonderful I can be when I get my beauty sleep?"

Whis took the night gown Beerus held out. "I'm glad. Maybe this time you can pay attention during the coordination meeting."

Beerus's gleeful expression was wiped off his face and he tried to grab the night gown once more. "I'm going back to bed."

Whis sighed as he pushed Beerus into the bathroom. "I've got you a very sweet breakfast, so hurry up and bathe or you'll miss it. We haven't been late for the meeting before, and we certainly aren't starting now."

Beerus huffed and jumped into the water.

Ooo

Beerus yawned as they set foot on the Sacred World of the Kais. Surely he would get to enjoy a short nap while the kais discussed exactly which planets needed destroying in order to create new ones in their place.

But as he looked to the tree under which they usually had their meetings, he found only one seated at the table. In fact, it wasn't even the usual round table, but a square one. That was a shame; he liked the other table with its cardinal points, the respective kai seated in front of their direction. In this way he never had to bother with names. He looked closer and saw that East was the only one at the table. There was another with him, but he was new to Beerus's eyes.

"Where are the others?" Beerus asked as he took the only other seat.

"They're gone…" East said, barely audible. He looked sad and anxious.

"What d'you mean gone? I mean, I'd rather not be here either, but I am. And to leave you alone to sit through it? That's pretty indecent. Grand should have done it at least."

The Eastern Supreme Kai clenched his fists that rested on his knees. "They're dead." The words sounded hollow. He looked up at the destroyer, tears gathering in his eyes. "Buu…Majin Buu!" That's all the information he managed to get out before erupting into sobs.

Beerus watched on with a confused look as the other man, an attendant kai he presumed, came forward to comfort the other. "Hey, Whis, got any info on this?"

Whis brought his staff close to his face and searched; he had been paying attention during Beerus's slumber. "Here." He let the images project from his staff; Buu arriving on the world, fighting the kais, killing them…

"Can you turn that off?" the attendant asked, voice laced with anger.

Whis looked down to see Shin sitting with eyes tightly closed, hands pressed against his ears. "My apologies, how rude of me. My lord, it would appear that Buu killed or fused with all the Supreme Kais except for the Eastern Supreme Kai."

"I see." He felt like he'd dodged a bullet, and he wanted to know more, but it seemed that now wasn't the time. "Hey, er…East, are you… Are we going to have this meeting or what?" Right now he wanted nothing more than to get off this planet. He wanted Whis to explain exactly how this had come to pass, and he also wanted to leave this crying kai to get over this.

"Y-yes." The kai dabbed his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Alright, let's start with who's here," Beerus said. Simple stuff first. "Obviously I'm me, I'm sure you've already told tough guy here about me, right?"

The attendant inclined his head. "Lord Beerus, destroyer of Universe 7."

"Good, good! This is Whis." Beerus waved in his direction and Whis gave a smile. "He'll be glad to not be the only attendant at these things. So, East, wanna introduce us?"

"Kibito is my bodyguard."

Beerus clapped. "Oh, I like that. Taking matters into your own hands? Good. That's a nice bit of security." Honestly he was surprised to find out it was East that had survived what looked like a massacre; he would have put his money on South.

"My name's not East. Don't call me that anymore." He was getting tearful again. "I'm the sole Supreme Kai now; all quadrants."

"Yeah, okay. What shall I call you instead?" Beerus couldn't recall his actual name. He was probably told several million years ago, and it's not as if he listened during meetings to how the kais had addressed each other.

The kai frowned, but supposed that this is exactly the kind of thing the destroyer wouldn't pay attention to. "My name is Shin. Don't forget it again."

"Shin. Got it. So." Beerus motioned and Whis placed the book on the table. "Ready to give me a list?"

The book was a list of planets and species that were to be wiped out. The Supreme Kais wrote in it, and Beerus ticked them off one by one throughout the millennium, occasionally tacking a few more onto the end. Recently he had been well-behaved and stuck mostly to the lists, but other times he'd almost ignored everything the kais had offered, preferring to follow his own ideas.

Shin opened the book and looked at all the crossed out names, feeling disgust, even though he knew it was necessary for the universe to continue growing. "I'm not," he admitted.

"Huh?"

"Just destroy whatever you want this time. I know you always write them down, so we can just discuss it next time."

"They'll be gone by next time though, so what's the point in that?" He didn't usually get so involved, but this was clearly a kai in need of some direction, and as he was the senior meeting attendant here, he felt it only right to say something.

Shin sighed and rubbed his temples. "I know, but it's only for one millennium. I can let it go. Just stick to the usual number and it'll be fine, right?"

"You'd just let me go off like that? I could wipe out half a quadrant and that'd be fine, huh?"

"Please don't do that."

"Nothing's stopping me if you don't give me some names. Don't you know how this works? Or were you sleeping through the other meetings too?" Beerus flicked back through the book. "You guys used to strategically give me a mix of planets across the universe so I didn't do too much in one area. And you used to put some thought into which people and places weren't going in the right direction, or any direction at all."

"I know. I know. But I'm just one person now. I've no one to discuss it with, and frankly I don't want to think about destruction right now."

Beerus didn't want to say it, but it had to come out. "You can discuss it with me."

Behind him, Whis beamed, glad his lord was finally taking an interest.

"I don't want to. I literally haven't even started thinking about it. We'd be here for hours just looking at planets."

That didn't sound like Beerus's idea of fun at all. He stood up. "Look, kid, clearly you need a little time. I'll come back, no big deal. This meeting sneaks up on me all the time too. I'll give you a week. I'll even leave the book here so you can just add away. And you!" He pointed at Kibito. "At least offer us some tea next time." He placed a hand on Whis's back and they departed immediately.

Ooo

"So, how much did you know?" Beerus asked when once they'd got home.

"I watched it all," Whis said. "You should know that, seeing as Buu was involved."

Beerus's anger manifested as a scowl. Before he could formulate a response, Whis continued. "You told me to pay attention - to take note of Buu's actions. You never said I was to interfere."

"Yeah, well!" Beerus huffed. "I could have died! I was one supreme kai away from death!"

"My lord, while it is my duty to watch over you, it is not my place to intervene with the Supreme Kais. Without direct orders from you I will not act alone."

"That's just a bit shit." He was trying hard to keep his rage within him, but they could both feel the way his energy was rapidly spiralling. "What's the point of having an angel if he won't even think for himself?"

Whis didn't flinch as Beerus glared at him. "I know you're angry, my lord, but please remember that I'm bound by rules just as you are. If I were to break them I'd be put out of commission."

"I know!" His aura flared. "But you could have woken me or something! Anything!"

"Your orders were not to wake you. And your orders regarding the majin were to let him get on with it. I was under the impression you liked to sleep during his rampages to pretend you weren't wise to his destruction."

Beerus ground his teeth. Whis was right, of course.

"Or are you now wishing you'd destroyed him as I suggested?"

Yes, maybe he should have destroyed the little pink shit, but he'd enjoyed having Buu as a wildcard in the universe. And besides, Buu was older than himself; it seemed disrespectful to destroy the universe's oldest destroyer. Beerus shoved Whis up against the wall and took his staff.

"I'm going to watch it all."

Beerus resisted letting out any more rage against Whis, knowing the angel would be able to repay him in kind later for any more damage done.

"Let me know if you need any help with access," Whis said, motioning to the staff.

Beerus dragged himself to the room on the other side of the aquarium where several beanbags were. He flopped onto one and began tinkering with the staff; he had become quite proficient at using it after so many years. It wasn't as if Whis didn't let him have a play from time to time. Still, the warp technique remained a mystery, its secrets hidden from him.

Having been the last thing viewed, it wasn't difficult to locate the images he wanted. The first thing he learned was that Buu wasn't acting alone this time; he had someone directing him. Of course, he hadn't been so stupid to let Buu continue to exist - that idiot never would have made his own way to the World of the Kais. But to think that a mortal could pacify that wildcard was fascinating.

He watched eagerly. Buu was too much for this Bibidi guy, clearly. It was a wonder they even made it to the kais. It was tough to watch his life-links taken out one-by-one. He never thought that someone's death would make him flinch, but these ones did. The absorption of South made him reel with excitement at a stronger Buu, but recoil with fear too. Could Buu ever get strong enough that he couldn't destroy him?

Then he watched as the Grand Supreme Kai gave his life to save Shin. He always knew that guy was too good to get anywhere in life. Beerus had great respect for the Grand Supreme Kai, even if he didn't always show it. Now there had been a kai who had really thought about the universe and its workings, and had worked hard to teach and support the others below him. Perhaps it was because he had delegated areas of the universe to others that he was able to do such a good job at over-seeing it all. Beerus would miss him; he was fair and reasonable. But in the end his kindness had killed him.

Buu underwent a personality change before his eyes, and refused to kill Shin. Well, perhaps his kindness had been good for something after all; both Shin and himself would be dead without it. But Buu was still up for destroying, especially if food was offered. Beerus felt personally attacked by this change; it was like looking in a mirror at times. Not that anyone had to bribe him with food to destroy, but they could certainly bribe him not to.

Certainly the amount of planets disappearing was greater than what he'd come to expect from one of Buu's rampages. Perhaps that's why Bibidi was finding it harder to control him again; Buu was probably ready to hibernate again.

He hadn't expected to see Shin make another appearance in this tale, but there he was. Such an angry look on his face as he faced Bibidi. Beerus was standing now, as if he had been too far away on the floor. Was Shin actually going to do it? He sure looked like he was. Beerus realised he was about to watch a very rare moment. Bibidi was almost powerless without Buu around; his magic not strong enough to bind a supreme kai. And he couldn't call Buu; he was already travelling to the next planet. Shin didn't hesitate once during the fight, nor when it came to the final blow. It was only after he realised Bibidi wasn't breathing anymore that he stopped and Beerus watched as Shin fell to the floor, head in his hands, sobbing.

The images faded and the staff returned to his hand. There were goose bumps on his arms. To think that Shin had it in him to kill a man. He could barely remember an instance when a supreme kai had killed with his bare hands. Sure, he had been called upon by previous kais to destroy for them, but never had he heard of them doing it themselves. It was against their morals, right? It certainly explained why Shin was in such a state.

"Hey, Whis, how long ago was this?" He knew the angel had been watching him.

"About a decade ago."

Ah, so it was still quite fresh. Was this a pang of guilt he could feel in his chest? Was he feeling regret that he hadn't been there to support Shin? Or regret that he'd allowed four of his five life-links to disappear in a matter of hours? He couldn't figure out if his feelings were selfish or good-natured for once.

He handed the staff back to Whis. "Sorry about earlier." Of course he was still mad, but as he watched he realised that even if he had been awake he probably wouldn't have acted until it was too late. "I'll be in my room. Don't disturb me."

"Don't sleep too long."

"I won't be sleeping." There was too much to think about.