A/N: This is a small rewrite of the scene from Dragon Ball Super Episode 59 in which Goku, with the assistance of Beerus, Whis, and Kaioshin, stops Gowasu's death from his rogue apprentice, Zamasu.

"I thought you had seen the error of your ways!"

Gowasu's words echo through Zamasu's mind, revealing all of the mixed and unsurprising emotions from this revelation he expected to hear if his plan came apart. The shock from realizing how all his attempts to steer Zamasu away from the true path have failed. The self-righteous indignation and anger from being disobeyed by his pupil for not conforming to his flawed world view.

Without looking at him, Zamasu can clearly feel all of this and so much more just from hearing these few words. None of them particularly surprise him, Gowasu had proven himself an obstacle in the path to true justice, one which needed to fall if a utopia free human evil was to become a reality. Though he didn't expect Gowasu to survive this, much less through the bizarre circumstances he actually did, Zamasu knew full well this reaction would come to pass if he somehow lived.

A foregone conclusion which steeled him for what had to be done, and which made the momentary regret he felt when he recognized the genuine, heartbreaking disappointment in Gowasu's words.

But as the humans he planned to stamp out, this feeling died just as quickly and suddenly as it came. It had no place for him on his path of justice.

"Zamasu!" His master urged him to speak. He obliged him.

"Seen the error of my ways?" Zamasu met his former master's gaze, echoing his statement from before with almost a chuckle. "I simply obey the justice of the gods!" His amusement at the thought of submitting to Gowasu and the other Gods abhorrent logic morphed into anger. "The justice that says to vanquish all evil!"

"Zamasu!" Gowasu yelled again, the indignation even clearer that time. The Kaioshin of Universe Seven merely gasped, raising Zamasu's fiery resolve that much more. Of course, a simple worm-like him with nothing resembling a spine would react in that way, the true utopia had no place for worthless deities who do nothing with their power to right the wrongs of humans.

But he is paltry to the two standing next to him, Beerus and Whis. The finest examples of deities wasting their power for nothing. They didn't react to his statement or to the steely gaze he sent their way, not that Zamasu expected them two. For even though all the Gods of Destruction and their attendants were as loathsome to Zamasu as the Kai's tied to them, Beerus and Whis were easily the worst. Petty fools who spent their time obsessing over food of all things, partaking in the rituals of the despicable humans whenever possible and even employing them to do their allotted tasks.

He never liked either of them or their closest counterparts, Champa and Vados of Universe Six. But they had sinned more, by giving mortals, Saiyan's no less, a brutal warrior race embodying all the worst humanity had to offer, the power of the gods themselves.

One of which stood next to them, Son Goku, his worst enemy and in a shocking twist, the man who helped him most in realizing his true feelings for humans. The man most to thank for his mission finally starting, and the one who would help him carry it out.

But how did you all know this? Zamasu wondered as he realized how accurately they managed to predict most of his upcoming plans, save for one detail. "Still, I'm impressed you managed to work out my plan just from the fact I tried to murder Gowasu."

"It was easy!" Son Goku, adorned with a look that could kill a man finally spoke up. "We went to the future and saw it!"

"T-the future?!" Zamasu stammered out and promptly cursed himself for being caught off guard by the approaching Saiyan. Composing himself, he focused his ki into the palm of his hand, seeing an opportunity to strike Goku down. If he could not have his body, then perhaps their idea of a copy would simply have to suffice.

"Yeah. Because of you guys, the cities were wrecked, and tons of people died!"

Once more, Son Goku managed to catch Zamasu off-guard and once more, he found the Saiyan's presence a mixed blessing. Exposing him to Gowasu and putting him in the eye sights of Beerus, the most troublesome of all the Gods of Destruction, but also showing him that his utopia was already coming to pass.

"I see," Zamasu couldn't help but keep the satisfaction out of his voice. "I had realized my dream then," The ki surrounding his extended hand surged with greater power. "All the more reason I cannot fall here!"

Springing into action, Zamasu raised his ki blade overhead with the intent of cutting the Saiyan down. Were he clad in the golden power of his Super Saiyan state, he might've stood a chance, but the clumsy attempt to ready himself for battle only confirms he'd sorely underestimated Zamasu's resolve.

It seems a copy will have to suffice after all-

Before the blade could meet flesh, a horrible and paralyzing jolt of pain ran through Zamasu's whole arm, the reason for it only revealed himself a tenth of a second later when he appeared between himself and Son Goku, catching the Kai's hand and crushing the ki surging over it.

"Don't get cocky," Beerus' voice caused something... animal inside Zamasu's mind to ring in alarm. An almost primordial fear of being at the mercy of a being such as the God of Destruction. A fear which almost overtook him, but the Kai would not be deterred. Forcing this humiliating feeling back where it belong with through sheer force of will, Zamasu met the eye's of Beerus unflinchingly and his lips curled into a disgusted grimace at the sight of this most sinful of deities.

"Destruction!"

A momentary pulse of energy reverberated through Beerus' entire body before seeping into Zamasu's body. The feeling came so suddenly and so overwhelmingly, like ten thousand suns exploding for a millionth of a second then vanishing just as quickly, that Zamasu thought he had surely imagined it. That it simply couldn't exist.

When the pain began, he knew it was very much real.

His dominant hand with which he tried to strike down Gowasu and Son Goku with began to crumble into ash, aging over the span of entire eons in a matter of moments. Soon, the rest of the horrifying technique took hold over the rest of Zamasu's body. Killing his muscles, withering his bones to ash and crippling all of his senses.

But as he kneeled to the floor, gasping for air and shaking at the doorstep of death, Zamasu's eyes met those of the unflinching Beerus. The worst god of them all. A being with all the power to make true change happen, wasting it on food and for empowering humans simply for the thrill of fighting them. In that moment, a last surge of willpower fought through the pain and the tendrils of death slowly choking the life almost literally out of him.

"Worthless... creature..." Zamasu cursed him, his voice wheezy and faint. "You dare... look at me... with disgust...? You... who waste your... godly gifts... on nothing? You... who believe and stand... for nothing... but your own... petty whims?!"

He didn't expect Beerus to answer him, to defend himself or his actions. Merely to stand there and observe him with stoic and haughty superiority. Zamasu certainly didn't expect him for him to suddenly burst out into a hearty laugh.

"Stand for something?!" He echoed Zamasu's words, then laughed even harder, wiping tears of genuine amusement from his eyes. "I am a God you fool! Why would I ever need or want to stand for anything?!"

The last shreds of Zamasu's body and strength crumbled and so did he onto the floor, feeling all of his great and much-beloved fighting strength vanish into the same dust as the rest of him soon will be.

"A God standing for something..." Beerus knelt to him, allowing Zamasu to spend the last few moments of existence watching the deplorable creature's amused smile. "What a human concept!"