A/N: Support/feedback much appreciated! Thanks! Also, we're quickly approaching when Super Buu makes his appearance! Currently working on chapter 26!

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FutureHendrix: Thanks! I appreciate that!

Gamelover41592: Tell me about it! Zazuli was certainly a handful and Maron and everyone else are still on the Lookout; I haven't been giving them as many scenes so I could see why you'd question that. Hopefully, I'll get better with that!

coldblue2015: Awesome review! I'm in the processing of responding via PM now!

Abyss Trinity: Definitely! Zangya and 18 really didn't have much experience fighting side by side or training together compared to Vegeta and Goku. Plus, they simply just don't like each other at all. We all know that Vegeta has a soft spot for Goku at least.

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Chapter 25: Fear & Anger

Android 18 prided herself on a lot of things.

If anything the list was near endless but she ultimately prided herself on her appearance, her battle skills and her overall composure and personality. Again, the list was near endless, but above all - her composure was something she always took the most pride in. After all, her composure had gotten both her and 17 through many things and likewise her composure was a result of what she and 17 has been through; it was double-edged sword in a way.

However, at this very moment, of which she was confronted with a grinning Majin Buu...

...Lazuli was riddled to the bone with fear.

She could barely swallow the lump that formed in the back of her throat and she could practically smell the sweat on herself.

"Buu turn you to chocolate now, too!"

18's icy blue eyes widened even further, finding herself paralyzed as she could barely summon the words to respond. Was this how she was going to die? By getting turned into chocolate and mercilessly chomped into bits afterwards? What about Marise and Taro? And Goten? What about her husband and her brother? Her friends?

Was this seriously the end for her?

18 didn't have time to ponder any further as an all too frightening purple beam was heading straight for her.

At least until something was all but chucked in between her and the incoming beam.

18 squinted in just the slightest of ways, her expression mirroring her confusion. It looked like...Saiyan armor? But how? The only person that donned Saiyan armor on the regular was Vegeta, yet he was dead, wasn't he? Something just wasn't adding up here. Was she forgetting something here? And as if accepting that it just wasn't something she was going to be able to figure out on her own, 18's head whipped over the direction said object had been hurled from.

Contrary to what she expected, it was none other than the Son siblings.

18 blinked, the confusion still clear as day on her features. "Goku and...Raditz?"

And while Raditz didn't bother addressing his wife, Goku seemingly had no qualms about doing so. "Hiya, 18! Looks like we made it just in time, huh?"

18's shoulders relaxed slightly at the sight of the two, piecing together that it was her husband that chucked the Saiyan armor seeing as he was clad in Saiyan wear. It 18 had to guess, it probably came from inside the Time Chamber itself seeing as he probably long destroyed his own clothing. "Yeah, but to be frank, I didn't expect anyone to save me and yet the both of you ended up showing up."

Goku offered 18 a light smile. "Well, it wasn't coordinated at all if that's what you mean. I used Majin Buu's ki to instant transmission to your location given that the situation was quickly taking a turn for the worse." Then Goku's eyes diverted onto Raditz, "Looks like Raditz coincidentally had the same thing in mind too I see."

Raditz grunted, still pointedly ignoring his blonde wife. "It's not like I wanted to have the same thing in mind. Tarble and I aren't quite finished training just yet."

"Oh!" Buu exclaimed childishly, pointing a gloved finger at a SSJ3 Raditz before Goku could respond to his older brother's concerns. "Buu remember you! You stay and fight Buu!"

Raditz scoffed, but nonetheless kept his teal eyes trained on Majin Buu. Why wasn't he surprised? "Kakarot, get 18 out of here and - "

Goku cocked a brow, all but interrupting Raditz before he could stop himself. " - Huh? Why?"

The long-haired Saiyan shot Goku an incredulous look. "What do you mean why? It's obvious he wants a fight and I doubt he's just going to allow the three of us to leave. Granted, we can Instant Transmission back to the Lookout, but what difference does that make if he can possibly pursue and find us anyway? Marise, Taro, and Goten are on the Lookout as well as Chi-Chi and the others, so we obviously have to consider them as well."

Goku nodded in agreement. "That's true, but earlier you said that you and Tarble weren't finished training in the Time Chamber quite yet, so wouldn't it make more sense for me to hold Majin Buu off and keep him busy in the meantime while you two finish up?"

Raditz shot his younger brother a weird glance. "Well yeah, it would make more sense but you were only given 24 hours, remember? I mean if you fight Majin Buu, you're probably going to use up - "

Goku offered his older brother a reassuring smile. " - Hey, let me worry about the consequences, okay? We'll figure everything out later, so for now just get 18 out of here."

Silence.

And then, Raditz was ultimately releasing a sigh of defeat. After all, he wasn't really in a position to protest anyway. "Alright."

The spiky-haired Saiyan's smile widened. "Well I guess that settles it then; see you in a bit." Then, not waiting on a response from Raditz, Goku diverted his attention onto Majin Buu. "Looks like I'm going to be your opponent from here on out."

Buu cocked his head. "You fight Majin Buu?"

"That's right. How about I give you a little lesson about Saiyans along the way, too?"

Meanwhile, Android 18 had been so focused on the sight of Goku and Majin Buu that she barely registered her husband pulling her into him and then disappearing from the scene of Buu and Goku altogether. In mere seconds, courtesy of Raditz's Instant Transmission of course, they were back on the Lookout.

Needless to say, the couple quickly found themselves surrounded by everyone.

"18!" Bulma exclaimed worriedly, running up to the tattered and bleeding blonde. "Are you okay?"

Chi-Chi, whom had been running alongside Bulma, shot her blue-haired friend a weird glance. "Well of course she's not okay! Look at her Bulma, she looks horrible!"

Bulma released a brief 'tsk' in annoyance towards Chi-Chi, but kept her eyes glued on Android 18's battered form nonetheless.

"I'm fine." Android 18 answered distractedly, noting out of the corner of her eyes that Raditz was heading elsewhere. Her husband was clearly upset with her and rightly so; after all, there was nothing she could say to him to justify her actions to him at all.

"Dende," Piccolo called out after taking in 18's injuries in silence, "Can you heal 18?"

Dende roused himself out of his light daze with the shake of his head, rushing towards 18 so as to immediately begin healing the damage she received from Majin Buu. "O-Of course!"

"Man," Yamcha stated after a while, "If Majin Buu can kill Zangya and leave Android 18 like that, I'd hate to imagine what he could do to someone like me."

"Y-Yeah," Susan Marie agreed nervously from aside her lover, "I'm starting to get even more worried than before."

"Tell me about it," Ranfan muttered in agreement. "Is this ever going to end? And if it is, I don't like the look of things so far."

Tarble shot Ranfan a small smile. "I'm sure things will get better - even if it doesn't necessarily look like it right now."

Maron, from aside Krillin pouted at Tarble's choice of words, "What? No way! How can you possibly say that after what just happened to Zazuli?"

Oolong didn't hesitate to speak his mind, the fear apparent on his features as well. "I happen to second that!"

"I'm sorry," Videl interjected, "But I have to agree with Maron and Oolong here. Wasn't this whole fusion thing supposed to be a solution to this Majin Buu ordeal?"

"Ideally, yes," Piccolo smoothly interjected. "And it still is."

"If you think about it," Master Roshi backed up, "Piccolo is right. While things didn't necessarily turn out how it was supposed to with Zazuli and we ended up losing Zangya in the midst of it all, we still have options. Unfortunately, while there's a chance Goku will have to return to the Other World after fighting Majin Buu, there's still Raditz and Tarble and there's still the boys."

"Don't you think you're missing the point?" Videl countered. "If the fusion didn't turn out how it was supposed to with Zazuli, how do we know the other plans from here on and the fusion with the boys will be any different?"

"There's no guarantee." Piccolo answered bluntly. "Like you said, none of us expected any of our plans to get thrown out of whack so soon, but at the same time, that is why we have multiple plans to account for such impediments. Further, there's nothing we can do about what happened with Zangya, so we just have to keep pushing forwards and make a few more accommodations. Nothing more, nothing less."

Videl and everyone else seemed to quite down after Master Roshi and Piccolo's words, seemingly taking everything in.

~ 0 ~

"Whoa," Trunks began with wide purple eyes. "Did you hear that Goten?"

"Yeah," Goten mumbled in disbelief with black furrowed brows. "Zangya was killed by Majin Buu."

"And," Trunks tacked on, "Did you see how beat up 18 looked? I thought she was strong."

"Mama is strong." Marise corrected with narrowed icy eyes. Then she diverted them onto Taro for assistance. "Right, Taro?"

"Yeah," Taro agreed. "Besides, Vegeta lost to Majin Buu too."

Trunks had all but whirled around to face the three year old male. "That's completely different!"

"No it's not and you know it." Marise insisted matter-of-factly.

Silence overtook the group as the four kids continued their eavesdropping on the adults. Initially, Trunks and Goten had been eating - seeing as all of their training had made them work up quite the appetite - but as soon as they ran out of the food they naturally sought out the adults for more. Originally, they had been trying to find Mr. Popo specifically, but after seeing the adults grouped in one spot and talking amongst themselves, the boys figured that something had to have happened while they were on break.

And lo and behold they were right.

"Hey," Goten chirped out after a while, "There's Uncle 17!"

Taro perked up noticeably, peeking from around the pillars they were behind. "Uncle 17's here?"

"Yeah." Trunks responded distractedly. "I wonder if there's going to be anymore changes to the plan since he's arrived then?"

"Hmm," Goten hummed lowly. "I'm not sure, but the more people we have, the better right?"

Trunks shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to find out."

Marise's icy eyes saddened. "I guess I just don't understand what's happening. Why is everyone losing? Is Majin Buu that scary?"

"Well," Goten innocently chimed in, "my mom said that my dad is the strongest person in the world so if he's with Majin Buu right now, then I'm sure he won't lose!"

Naturally, Marise and Taro shared a glance before Marise was speaking yet again. "But Papa is just as strong as uncle Goku and - ."

" - He still lost." Trunks stated matter-of-factly; in fact, it was the same words Taro had stated earlier and he had no qualms with returning them. "And if they're supposed to be the strongest, then how come they let Gohan and my dad die?"

"Maybe Majin Buu is just that strong." Marise weakly defended.

Trunks didn't look convinced nor satisfied with Marise's answer.

~0~

"Zangya's...dead?"

"Yeah." 18 confirmed calmly. "Majin Buu turned her into some sort of chocolate and ate her."

"Luckily, Raditz and Goku interfered before 18 could meet the same fate as well."

17 diverted his eyes off of Piccolo's and down onto the designed tile of which made up the Lookout. That certainly wasn't something he expected to hear today at all. First Gohan and Vegeta and now Zangya? Just how strong was this Majin Buu character? And why did it seem to be one thing after another? If anything, at the rate things were going, 17 could see why everyone was considering Goten and Trunks participating as well.

"I see." He responded after a pregnant pause.

Ranfan and Maron shared a glance, the former speaking her mind. "Uh, didn't you and Zangya date? Don't you care that she was killed?"

"Of course." 17 answered nonchalantly. "It's unfortunate."

"Well, uh, what I think Ranfan means here is that - " Krillin paused as if searching for the proper words - "You're not really reacting like one would think given that you've just been told that your ex-lover was killed."

17 remained stoic, not really bothering to respond to Krillin's and the other's accusations. They knew nothing about him and if they expected him to burst into tears or something in front of everyone, then they clearly had him mistaken for someone else. That just wasn't his style nor how he handled things and his past as well as the way he grew up was certainly responsible for such.

Granted, he and Zangya did have some history together, but they parted ways for a reason.

"Well, hey," Videl cut in with a frown, "Just because someone doesn't react the way you want them to doesn't mean they're any less upset."

Though, perhaps if they looked further, they would have seen how his fists balled in just the slightest of ways; it was an action on his end that went near unnoticed, but 18 caught the action of course.

"Smart girl." 17 agreed finally. Then his eyes were diverting onto his sister, "Further, I must say I can't believe you fused with Zangya. I'll never see her or you the same, you know."

18 cut her eyes, rising up to her feet once Dende finally finished healing her. "You're being so dramatic, 17. You didn't even witness the fusion, so does it really matter?"

"Of course it does. How can my twin sister fusing with my ex-girlfriend not matter?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't a walk in the park for me either, but you don't see me whining about it." 18 stated pointedly. Besides had she known that Zangya was going to have access to her memories and vice-versa, it was something she wouldn't have even considered. Well, then again, maybe that wasn't necessarily true. After all, despite their differences, neither one of them wanted Goten and Trunks to get involved by any means, but she certainly would have been more reluctant to fuse with Zangya.

Even so, 18 couldn't help but wonder if 17 knew everything about Zangya's past?

About how Zangya's parents and ultimately her entire race was wiped out by a blue-skinned gorgeous male with green hair and how Zangya and her friends were pretty much orphaned from a young age? Or how they barely managed to escape with their lives afterwards? From what she has seen of Zangya's memories, they settled elsewhere and eventually formed an allegiance and grew stronger to seek revenge against the male that destroyed their livelihood.

That desire for revenge ultimately consumed all of them and filled them up with hatred.

And rightly so given what they have been through.

But still, even if they did have a right to be consumed with hatred, what she hadn't expected was for them to dish out that same pain and loss that was dished out on them at such young age.

18 was by no means a saint, seeing as she had been known to be quite the delinquent, but even she knew that two wrongs didn't make a right.

In the end, they ended up being renowned for their cruelty throughout space and it looked as if they pushed aside their goals for revenge and worked toward establishing their power and name throughout the universe. And when one took the time to look at both Zangya's past as well as her own, it was more than apparent that their deceivingly beautiful appearances didn't come anywhere close to reflecting their troubled past.

"...have a problem." Piccolo finished.

18 blinked, diverting her eyes onto Piccolo. "What?"

Piccolo shot her a weird look, nonetheless repeated himself. "I said that I've just realized that we have a problem." And when he was sure he had everyone's attention, so as to avoid repeating himself again, the Namekian continued, "Unfortunately, while Goku did grant Raditz and Tarble some extra time to wrap things up, Raditz won't be able to go back into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

Bulma's eyes widened at this, surprised. "What? Why not?"

Piccolo's eyes flickered onto Bulma's blue ones. "Because every person is only allowed to use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber twice in a lifetime."

"Well then, so now what?" Krillin inquired. "Is there any point to Goku taking on Majin Buu if Raditz and Tarble can't even go back in the Time Chamber?"

"Like Piccolo said earlier," a SSJ3 Raditz chimed in, "we're just going to have to make a few changes. Besides, in the ten days we've spent in the Time Chamber, I managed to master SSJ3 at least. I basically had to sacrifice sleep and ultimately maintain this SSJ3 form around the clock."

"And as for myself on the other hand - " Tarble clenched his fists - "I've had close calls to becoming a SSJ2 for the past four days in the Time Chamber, but I'm still not quite there yet."

Raditz's teal eyes shifted over to Tarble. "Don't be too hard on yourself. Once again, while we didn't quite expect things to get off track by this extent, it's nothing we can't fix; I'll just have to train you here on the outskirts of Lookout. That way Kakarot's time spent fighting Majin Buu isn't a complete waste at least. However, I must warn you that I'm going to come down a lot harder on you given the situation."

Tarble gave a curt nod. "I completely understand."

"And while we're at it," Piccolo tacked on, "let's hope nothing else interferes."

Krillin sighed. "Yeah, let's certainly hope not; I'll go get the boys so we can pick back up, Piccolo."

"Sounds good." Piccolo responded simply.

And no sooner than Krillin moved to do just that, the atmosphere noticeably changed.

Piccolo as well as the other warriors perked up upon taking note of said change. In addition, there was an incredibly strong ki, of which no doubt belonged to Goku, and it was increasingly getting stronger as time continued on. And it seemed as if the Earth in its entirety was...shaking? Though, given the sheer power being released Piccolo nor the other warriors were too surprised.

Then suddenly, as if needing to confirm it with his own eyes, the Namekian was quickly making his way to the edge of the Lookout.

"Yeah," Piccolo stated to no one in particular moments later, "Goku's definitely in the process of powering up to SSJ3 against Majin Buu."

"Somehow this feels more intense compared to Raditz's," Krillin noted with a gulp.

"Tell me about it!" Yamcha agreed with a grin. "Plus, whenever Goku fights, I just get the feeling that everything's going to be okay!"

~0~

Goku continued his hearty battle cry whilst his form remained hunched over, his fists all but balled. Just as he anticipated, it was taking quite the bit of time to tap into his SS3 power here on Earth. But, as far as he could see, he definitely had Majin Buu's attention.

Which was good.

"Ohh!" Buu exclaimed childishly, holding up a gloved hand as if to stop the harsh winds Goku's extreme power up was producing. Unfortunately, Buu still found himself sliding backwards some what and his attempts were futile.

Not to mention that the vacant city they were currently in was being demolished by his mere energy alone.

The windows out of the countless skyscrapers, buildings, and abandoned cars all but shattered whilst the vast cracks within the pavement beneath them violently morphed into deep trenches.

"As you've already seen...courtesy of Raditz - "Goku clenched his fist even more if possible, pausing his lengthy battle cries - "there's a level even beyond SSJ2!"

Majin Buu blinked innocently, as if trying to comprehend. "Another level?"

"That's right." Goku confirmed, his teal eyes narrowing in just the slightest of ways. "You'll see what I mean soon enough."

Then while Goku picked back up his transformation, Majin Buu kept silent. If anything, it seemed as if Majin Buu was blinded by awe as he watched Goku's blonde hair eventually lengthen to great lengths in the midst of his power up. And then, Goku was releasing one final battle cry, the yellow aura around him near tripling in intensity as he did so.

Afterwards, Goku exhaled soundlessly, diverting his teal eyes towards Buu once he was finally finished.

"Sorry it took so long, but I assure you it'll be well worth the wait."

"You ready to fight Buu now?"

Goku smirked. "Yeah, I'm ready."

And in a blur, both males were lunging for the other and slinging a fist forwards. Upon collision, shock waves were produced and Majin Buu released a childish sound that mirrored awe, "Buu thinks you look funny with long hair, but Buu thinks you strong, too!"

"Thanks." Goku responded calmly, evading a punch to the stomach with a leap upwards and slamming his leg down upon Buu. "You're pretty strong yourself."

Buu evaded said kick at the last minute, slinging a ki blast towards the male seconds later.

Easily, Goku swatted it upwards and fired out one of his own - of which Buu copied his opponent's actions and merely swatted it away.

Then, after a brief stare-down in silence, the two males were lunging for each other yet again, this time exchanging a barrage of punches and kicks back and forth. If one would have looked closer, one would have noticed that Goku's features were lightly coated with sweat, but Goku wouldn't let that stop him. The dead Saiyan warrior was more than determined to buy as much time as he could for Raditz and Tarble as each second counted.

Especially within the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.