Vegeta stood, towering over Goku in full Ozuru form.
"What is that?" Goku stared in amazement. V stared in in horror, how were they ever going to beat him now? Vegeta only used this form when he wanted to do some real damage, this wasn't his playing around form, this was the form he used to destroy planets. V gathered herself and forced herself to move forward. The energy swirled around her, pressing down on her as she forced herself forward, every step was agonizing and it wouldn't stop until that stupid moon replica was blown up, but there was no way she could gather the energy right now and there was no way Vegeta was going to let Goku blow it up. Even if she could get to her dad, she was useless now, there was nothing she could do. I'm failing my family! V yelled at herself We can't lose, there's too much to lose. V scrambled for an idea, something in her tiny head that would make her useful. "Oh, I wish Piccolo were here." She whined in frustration "Piccolo is smart, he would know what to do." V glared at the sky as a sweat broke out over her forehead. She tried to look at the fake moon but that only intensified the strain on her body. "Okay, okay." V scrambled around in her head "what would Piccolo do?" V winced and fell to her knee. How was it possible that is was getting worse? V's stomach churned like she had eaten something bad and her body felt like it was stuck in a hurricane of an energy sack, it was like all the excess energy in the air decided to attack her. Before she knew what energy felt like she couldn't identify just what this felt like, but since her training she finally had a way to describe it. It was like being trapped in a bag of angry energy while someone bigger shook her around. Dizziness overtook V and she fell flat onto her back. She closed her eyes against the overpowering sensation.
"Oh man." Goku exclaimed as the giant Vegeta ape stomped around. Goku couldn't help but feel a vague notion of familiarity with this creature in front of him.
"How can you still think there's a chance for you?" Vegeta laughed "look at you, you couldn't beat me before, I'm four times as strong in this form." Goku stood there staring at this new form and then a smile crawled across his lips and he settled back into his stance "you may be stronger than me but I've still got to try."
"Then you will die the most painfully of anyone!" Vegeta roared stomping his foot down, nearly crushing Goku.
"Wow, he's gotten so much bigger but it doesn't seem to have affected his speed at all." Goku marveled "incredible." Goku landed and powered up a Kamehameha wave, he gathered the energy as quickly as possible, it didn't look like this guy was going to give him any free shots. Goku released the energy.
"Yes!" Goku cheered too soon, the blast struck Vegeta's leg but it did little more than make Vegeta stumble. Vegeta laughed "if that's the best you can do, you mind as well kill your little brat yourself." Vegeta slammed a fist down and nailed Goku into the rock ground.
"Ouchie." Goku squeaked, shaking himself off he charged Vegeta.
"Come here you little insect." Vegeta smacked Goku into the ground. "woops, sorry." Vegeta chortled "I mistook you for a fly."
"If this keeps up he's going to use my body to destroy the Earth." Goku felt a swirling energy just a little ways away from him but he didn't have the time to go exploring, he had work to do. Goku yanked himself free of the ground and barreled through the air "Kaoken times two!" Red engulfed Goku's body and aura, the boost was enough to send Vegeta crashing through boulder after boulder until he smashed into the mountain side.
"Whoo." Goku sighed "that's an energy drainer." Goku's breath was just a little too fast and the surge in energy did so much affect his energy as his physical body. V watched helplessly feeling as if she were being tossed around an ocean of energy and it was making her sea sick. Goku had been so close just a moment before. She wondered if he could tell it was her or if this energy somehow blocked her energy signal.
"Daddy." She whimpered, she just wanted this to stop. She just wanted to help.
"You'll pay for that one, Kakarot." Vegeta swore pulling himself up. Goku watched Vegeta as he hovered upward into the sky.
"Oh, great." Goku muttered to himself when he felt the energy Vegeta was gathering "I wonder what that's for."
"Let's see what you can do with this one." Vegeta brought his hands together and aimed them at Goku. Purple energy gathered in his palms. Goku stepped back and powered up his own signature attack.
"Ka-me!" Blue energy filled Goku's hands. "ha-me!" the ball of energy formed into a solid vortex of blues as the purple energy grew, threatening Goku's home.
"Galick Gun!" Vegeta yelled releasing the energy.
"HA!" Goku yelled throwing his wave out there, the energies collided. V was fully aware of the impact, not because she saw it but because she felt it. It felt like their energies might tear a hole through the galaxy.
"Daddy?" V pushed herself up onto her elbows and watched the fireworks. She was too close, she needed to get out of the way.
"Daddy?" Gohan groaned pushing himself up to his feet. "owie." Gohan groaned finding Krillin laying on the ground next to him. "oh no, Krillin!" Gohan gasped shaking him "krillin, please say you're okay." Gohan begged. After a moment of constant shaking, Krillin squeezed his eyes and peeled them open. "Hey, what's the big idea." Krillin groaned "I'm trying to sleep." Krillin seemed to take a minute to wake up and collect his thoughts.
"Hey, what about the Saiyans." He suddenly remembered "where'd they go, where's Goku?" Krillin glanced around searching for a sign of the battle for the Earth but there was nothing. Nothing except those huge energies in the distance. "Is that…Goku?" Krillin couldn't believe his childhood friends had gotten so strong. So impossibly strong Krillin couldn't fathom what he would do with such an immense amount of power.
"Do you think he'll win?" Gohan asked.
"He has to." Krillin said.
"Where's V?" Krillin suddenly noticed her absence. Gohan looked at the ground with a look that said he wasn't proud "she knocked us out and headed back to the fight."
"How do you know that?" Krillin asked "I mean, if she knocked us out, how do you know that's where she went?" Krillin asked.
"She was upset about leaving dad and then she got this weird look on her face, like she decided something." Gohan sighed and closed his eyes against the reality "the next thing I remember is waking up to those huge power levels."
"Your dad told us to go." Krillin tried. This was really only the second time they had met but it didn't take genius to recognize Goku's determined face in that kid.
"Fine, but we have to lay low, Vegeta would definitely use you against your dad." Gohan nodded "right."
V dragged herself across the ground, with one eye on her father and the other on the cover of the rocks she was trying to get to. Goku struggled against the blast, "I can't let it hit!" Goku yelled but he was losing purchase. He needed to do something and he needed to do it now "Oh, think Goku, think!" he yelled at himself. Then he felt it, that energy from before, only he recognized it now.
"V?" He looked to the side and found V on the ground, but something was wrong, she was hurt. I can't let him hurt V, not anymore Goku turned back to the fight, the image of V on the ground looking so hurt and helpless fueling him
"Ka-oken!" He yelled "times…" he caught sight of V out of the corner of his eye as the blast pushed him back I'll protect you, V Goku thought "ten!" Goku screamed, the red engulfing him entirely, his energy skyrocketed shoving the blast back at Vegeta.
"Impossible!" Vegeta shouted as the blast sent him farther into the sky.
I'll protect you, V. The voice she heard in her head was Goku's, she was sure of it, in her time around the galaxy she had never heard a voice like his. V looked over as Vegeta disappeared into the clouds and Goku fell to his knee. V pushed the swirling pocket of energy away from her and forced her way to her feet, with the energy she threw herself into the air and smacked into the ground beside Goku.
"V, what are you doing here?" Goku panted wincing, man he really fried his body on that one.
"Are you okay?" V dragged herself over, something had changed, the waves weren't pressing down on her quite so hard.
"I'm just fine, V." Goku smiled, V couldn't believe he wasn't even pretending. He was hurt and he was tired and his energy was so low but he still meant it when he said he was fine.
"But you shouldn't have come back." Goku said sternly "you could have been hurt, you still can be."
"I can't leave you like this." V pouted back. "You can't even move."
He's still up there, I have to get her to leave.
"You can't make me leave." V barked "I'm gonna stay and I'm gonna protect you." V glared at the sky "Vegeta, he'll kill you and he won't feel one bit bad about it."
"And he'll do the same to you and I'll never forgive myself." Goku hardened his gaze at V, she needed to go, this was his fight.
"I live here now."
V said not realizing she was talking to his thoughts. V forced herself to her feet and clenched her hands into fists "Earth is my home to protect now too and you and Gohan and mom and everyone else." V stood her ground the energy swirling around her not pressing down on her. Goku didn't understand her energy, it wasn't coming from within her, it was as if she were collecting the energy around her.
"Vegeta!" V yelled "you won't win!" Her energy skyrocketed her aura turning into a small tornado around her as she blasted into the sky.
"V, no!" Goku yelled trying to get up but his body wouldn't move.
"Vegeta!" V yelled reaching out to find his energy.
"Over here brat!" Vegeta kicked her into the back and sent her through the air.
"V!" Goku called out to her, he had to move, he couldn't just lay there and let his daughter get killed, she was just a little girl, she was his little girl.
"Hey, Vegeta!" V slammed an energy laced knee into his face and swung her leg out nailing him in the gut "don't count me out yet." V thrust her hand out punching the energy around her into a blast and throwing Vegeta into the rocks. Rushing after him she grabbed him and threw him into the air, attacking him relentlessly. Piccolo had taught her these moves, the way she punched and kicked, turning her leg just so to cause maximum damage with minimal to no affect to her. V attacked the way Piccolo would instruct her to attack. Once you have the upper hand you take your opponent out, because as soon as they get the chance, they'll kill you. Piccolo understood people like Vegeta and so, with Piccolo's voice in her head, V launched Vegeta into the ground and gathered the energy around her, it was a part of her but it wasn't hers she noticed but couldn't quite understand the concept of it.
"Her body is like a magnet for energy." Goku grunted as he struggled to his feet.
"You can't hurt people." V shouted "you can't be mean and live in peace." V didn't know when she found these words, or why she was saying them but it was like a script in her head that had to be read or the attack wouldn't be okay. She couldn't understand herself lately, Vegeta didn't need or deserve an explanation for his crimes. Vegeta knew what he did and was proud of it, but still V carried on, maybe it was a good guy thing.
"What's the matter, Veroca?" Vegeta sneered "why are you dragging this out?" Vegeta struggled to regain himself. "Are you afraid of what your weakling father will say to you once you've killed me." Vegeta staggered around a bit, he was absolutely livid about the whole thing. How in all the galaxies was it that this child and a low class saiyan were his downfall? It didn't make any sense, there was no way this was happening, it was a fluke, a stupid fluke. He must've been having an off day that was it.
"Some things have to happen." V said closing her eyes and feeling Vegeta out instead, that seemed to be more accurate anyway. V couldn't believe it, once the energy was gathered, she realized that she didn't want to kill him. Yes, he had been awful to her. Mean and abusive and never once showed her an ounce of kindness but he had somewhat raised her, even though it was to humiliate her and not feed her he still threw her food, something he didn't have to do.
"Let see it then, V." Vegeta laughed throwing his arms out, confident that even with all this power at her disposal, she would not us it, not on him. "But, with Raditz and Nappa gone, you and I would be partners, I would train you, teach you to fight"
"You're mean." V said "you'd only keep being mean." V frowned at him but of course she had entertained the thought of being a real part of the team, maybe even one of them kind of being her dad, but it was just a fantasy to help her get through the pain.
"Then teach me better." Vegeta said with a sincerity V had never heard before. His eyes were glassy as he looked at her "in all our years together, Veroca, you never once thought of me as your father?" the energy was slipping but V couldn't bring herself to do it, again, the fate of the world was resting on her shoulders and she was too emotional to do it.
"Veroca…" Vegeta inquired "not once, not even once… ever think of me as a father."
"No, never." V said sadly "but I wanted you to be." V whispered
"Then give me a chance to make it up to you." Vegeta gazed up at V, V swore she saw a tear in his eye, shining. The energy was slipping and Goku smiled at his girl "it's okay to give people another chance." Goku couldn't have been more proud, living with these people, V could have been angry and hurt and could have killed Vegeta already, but she wasn't like them, she was good.
"Dad…" V met Goku's reassuring eyes as the last of the energy dispersed.
"Fools." Vegeta laughed and threw his arm out, a purple energy wave shot forward, aimed directly at V. V threw her hands up to block it but a force hit her anyway, knocking her to the side.
"V!" she heard Goku call out before consciousness was knocked out of her.