1 THE WORST MISTAKE OF HIS LIFE
Babidi has never been as good as his father at anything. Especially magic. By Babidi's age, Bibidi was dead, sure, but that's because he managed to birth a creature capable of usurping gods. It didn't work out thanks to those gods' impeccable timing and them being much, much smarter than the man child Buu became; but at the end of the day, Bibidi relied solely on his talent to survive, so when that talent failed him, he bowed out and left Buu's fate to whomever proved better than he.
Babidi is not this person. He think he is though which is why he's on Earth in the first place, staring at Vegeta through a crystal ball, about to make the worst mistake of his life.
Before now, Babidi has had a string of luck that even the Z Fighters would find impressive. He knows magic – spells so heinous that men have died out of shock that Babidi is willing to use them at all. But he lets it run rampant like a rabid dog, gnashing its mismatched jaws and foaming all over itself, because why would Babidi have to hone his skills when this art is his namesake? It's this ignorance that separates him from his father the most: instead of trusting the abilities he has ironed out over centuries, Babidi unwittingly placed his bet entirely on Luck.
To be fair, Babidi has had Luck by his side for so long that it almost seems as though Luck wants him to win. Finding where Buu had been buried had taken a good chuck out of Babidi's life, but the fact that he heard of Earth at all was luck all in of itself. The fact that one of his nastier spells hasn't come back to bite him yet is also surprising, but that's less because of his competence with magic than his odd ability to suck the luck out of any room he's in. That had certainly happened to Yamu, Spopovich, and Pui Pui; but those three never stood a chance against even a self-entitled brat like Babidi. No, his greatest bout of luck was ensnaring Dabura the Demon King, who under any other circumstance would have been able to shake off the mind control entirely. Dabura had a similar streak of luck in his day when he was moving up the ranks of Hell, but that's the thing about continuously getting luck: there's a point where you're in debt and owe it back.
Babidi is about to learn this the hard way; but right now, Vegeta's looking like another notch on Babidi's belt of success, and Babidi couldn't be more excited.
"I take it you're pleased, Master?" Dabura asks.
"Immensely so," he replies, running his fingers over the crystal ball. "What a great discovery! This one's nothing like the others, Dabura. What an arrogant piece of work. Just look at how uptight he is."
"Yes, he's a rare find indeed. Can you imagine the energy he'll give when he turns on the others? Resurrecting Buu will be oh so easy."
If Babidi had any common sense, this is when he should have realized that something's terribly wrong. In spite of his unnatural luck, nothing has ever actually been easy for him. Luck makes you put in the work even when it's on your side, and you aren't supposed to take the easy way out. But Babidi's tired, unaware, and sick of waiting. His father's murderer's up there, his greatest creation down here, and it's about time all this work started paying off. The mere thought of something that powerful in his hands makes Babidi giddy. Dabura has always been something, and surely Vegeta will be too, but Buu will be so different, so terrifying, and the thought of molding something so strong into his image makes Babidi feel like he is the most important person to have ever existed.
A short-cut is worth solidifying this emotion. It's about time Babidi did a little cheat. He is a villain after all. His only mistake is not knowing what he's cheating against.
He presses his wrinkled hands against the glass and concentrates from deep within his soul. The pit of his stomach stirs as the spell creeps up through his chest, down his arms, and out through his fingertips. As it leaves him, so does Luck, embedding itself into the funnel the spell makes into the ball.
The spells strikes out completely with a mind of its own.
Vegeta feels nothing. If he wants to be honest with himself, a major part of him has been absent from the world until recently, so he's familiar with the feeling and had, for the most part, come to terms with it. Until today. Today has taken this honesty and compressed it into a fireball in Vegeta's stomach that's ready to explode into something terrible and has every intention of taking Vegeta with it. If he wants to be more honest, it's this fireball he's truly familiar with, and he welcomes it along with the hate.
Except as he stands here distanced from his comrades, he feels as though, just now, something fantastic has looked him dead in the eye, shrugged, and passed him by. It drenches on his entire parade, and Vegeta's so insulted he's confused. He turns around and, with raised eyebrows, watches it as it sniffs around the room and finally attaches itself to Goku.
Of course. Everything's about Goku. Even soul-crushing power.
Goku sneezes. The sudden sound makes the already tense Supreme Kai nearly jump out of his pants. Then stare because he also sees the spell currently burrowing its way into Goku's chest. Gohan, meanwhile, misses it and continues speaking as though nothing odd had entered the room at all.
"Uh," is all Vegeta can muster before Goku starts screaming.
Goku grabs at his hair as though a drill just broke ground in his scalp. It's a sudden movement, enough to jolt Gohan out of his ramble about Dabura. He watches as his father stumbles forward, thrashing his upper body violently side-to-side in an attempt to fend something off. Gohan steps forward, arm out like he wants to catch him. "Dad! Dad, are you okay? What's wrong?"
"There's something…" Goku's body convulses in a way Gohan never thought possible, as though something physical is shifting within him. "… attacking me."
"Where? Dad, I don't see anything."
"In-inside…!"
The Supreme Kai rushes in front of Gohan in order to separate the two. "Fight it, Goku, fight him."
Goku trips over his feet and struggles to catch himself as he distances himself from the group and back towards the wall. His shouts are shorter and choppier because his chest is heaving sporadically, the spell moving under his skin and gripping his lungs. His struggle increases as he paces left and right, his fingers starting to break skin.
Gohan rushes past the Supreme Kai to grab him, but Kaioshin yells, "Don't touch him!"
Gohan hesitates but decides to move back. "What's happening to him?"
"Magic," Vegeta manages. True Saiyans have always revered this sort of thing, thanks to their society being built on myths and legends, and it's this belief that allowed Vegeta to see the spell in the first place. It doesn't mean he's quite wrapped his around it happening though.
The Supreme Kai hears neither of them. He's too concerned with the fact that Goku's been forced into Super Saiyan, his energy stuffing the room and making the air almost too thick to breath. "Don't let him win, Goku," Kaioshin tells him. "You're not the person Babidi thinks you are. You're good. He has nothing to grab on to."
"Supreme Kai," Gohan tries again, much more forcefully, "is Babidi trying to kill him?"
"No," he replies. "He's trying to take over his mind."
The words make Vegeta shake off his trance. Suddenly the something fantastic doesn't seem so fantastic anymore. "Kakarot," he says, ignoring Kaioshin and crossing the room to Goku's side, grabbing his shoulders. "Kakarot, you idiot, snap out of it. This wasn't meant for you. It's mine. Give it to me." At least Vegeta knew how to be evil. It's much easier to maintain your mind when the spell's not giving you something you can't handle. "Spell, I accept you. Come to me," he says as though he can suddenly command the cosmos. If he could, he never would have considered its potential power-boost in the first place.
Goku continues to struggle against Vegeta's grip but despite his thrashing doesn't have the strength to actually shake Vegeta off.
"He has to choose himself," the Supreme Kai says. He inhales. "Goku," he says, "don't let him take you. Let go. Whatever he's managed to grab in you, let go. The past is the past. It's no longer a part of you."
"I can't…!"
"Yes, you–"
"… I can't get to him." Blood starts to slip down Goku's forehead from the crown of his head, and the drops that manage to fling loose pool on the floor. "I-I can't…"
Kaioshin freezes, then with recognition straightens himself out and steps completely away from the situation. "Vegeta, leave him."
Vegeta ignores him and shakes Goku more. "Dammit, Kakarot, you and I were supposed to fight today to settle this thing between us. If you don't snap out of this, I swear I'll beating the ever living–"
Goku's next power-up damn near shoves Vegeta back into the wall. The spell splinters out, its appendages flexing around Goku's aura, mixing its red into the yellow. Goku's energy's stifling now, to the point that it's making Gohan sick to his stomach. The sight isn't helping much either. Goku has released his head, but it's only to throw it back and let out a scream that shakes the entire ship. He begins to hover off the ground.
"Dad, please, talk to me!"
Gohan tries to approach him, but the spell strikes out and shocks him, sending him flying across the room. He pushes himself up on his elbows. He hasn't felt his father's power directed at him since they trained seven years ago in the Chamber, but what hit him felt not necessarily more malevolent but more… otherworldly. It racks Gohan's entire body and leaves him stunned, unable to continue calling his father's name.
Just as Goku's energy began to choke the three, it dissipates, and Goku remains suspended in the air. Gohan picks himself up off the floor and joins Vegeta and Kaioshin at the left side of the room. It's eerily quiet as though the group had fallen into a comfortable silence after pondering over Dabura's intentions.
After a moment, Vegeta says, "Try talking to him," to Gohan under his breath.
"Dad," Goku calls out, "we're here. It's okay. We're gonna get you back to normal, okay? Just come down–"
"Gohan," the Supreme Kai says. "It's too late."
Goku clenches his fists above them. His chest beats ragged, and his shortness of breath penetrates the room like a sporadic heartbeat. The three below him, meanwhile, hold their breath, including Vegeta who's admitted that his day's gone to shit. Goku raises his head and looks down upon them without a word.
His forehead distinctly lacks an M.
"Dad," Gohan says relieved.
The Supreme Kai lets go of the lungful he was holding and smiles sheepishly. "I must apologize for being such a pess–"
Goku proceeds to punch through the floor no one could put a dent in before.
Without a word, he dives into the shaft. The three gather around the hole he made and stare into the darkness, none of them making any move to follow him.
"What?" Vegeta asks.
Babidi sees all of this through his crystal ball. He has never had a spell disobey him or just not work, so the only response he can give is to cock his head to the side as though it's a simple curiosity that posed no immediate threat. There are tons of explanations, he thinks. The spell probably didn't like Vegeta's spandex. That's it. It didn't matter in the long run anyway – any of the three Saiyans would do.
Then he sees Goku break through the floor and thinks, Well that's odd.
Then he sees Goku dropping down towards him and says out loud to Dabura, "Maybe he wants to come down and give himself properly to his–"
Then he sees Goku grab Dabura and rip him in two.
That's around the time Krillin and Piccolo figure out they're no longer statues.