Well, I'd meant to get this out over a month earlier, but real life got in the way. Anyways, I'd really wanted to write this for a looong time.

Btw, I've included a few references to the Dragon Ball manga wince there are a couple differences to the anime, and also it's one and a half arcs ahead of where the anime ended. I've included a few footnotes at the end regarding the manga parts I've added, in case you haven't read it.

Also, a huge shoutout to the homie SeventeenRedShadowsAndCounting for betaing the fic. Thanks a lot, man.

Anyways, onto the fic!

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fanfiction. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super are all owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and Akira Toriyama, please support the official release.


Silence. Throughout the entire cemetery, it reigned supreme, unbroken by even the slightest noise. The air itself hung heavy, an oppressive weight for anyone who stepped foot in the final resting place of so many individuals. People rarely ventured into its grounds due to that very reason, but for once, one man was present within its walls, hunched over a cluster of graves. His muscular body was akin to stone, as still and silent as his surroundings.

Goku's heart ached, the sensation, oh so familiar, yet not dulled in the least, over the decades. While it may be said that time healed all wounds, he didn't think that this particular one would ever do so. The best that may come in the future was it being slightly softened, yet still painful when broached.

His onyx eyes traced the names on the gravestones. Each and every single one hit him like a hammer blow, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut, holding back the whirlpool of emotions within.

Chi-Chi, Gohan, Goten, Pan, I'm sorry. So sorry. After everything, I still had to leave you...

His palm was pressed against the ground, the calloused surface easily pushing into the dirt. To any other person, the ground would have been an unyielding force akin to a slab of granite, but for him it felt as soft as putty.

A tear made its way down his face, before landing on the ground. He didn't even try to brush it away, nor stop it from falling. After all, no one was there to see him, and even if someone did, he wouldn't care in the slightest.

He hated how he had been forced to endure as everyone he knew and loved slowly passed onto the Otherworld, but what could he have done? There had been no indication that he would outlive everyone he knew, including so many of his descendants.

The memories were still fresh in his mind. The confusion when he remained just as young and hearty as he had always been on his eighty fifth birthday. Hadn't Vegeta said that Saiyans began to rapidly age after they crossed eighty? Why, then, did he remain, while everyone he loved slowly withered away?

Of course, they had thought that it was simply slightly delayed for him. He would begin to show signs of aging soon, wouldn't he? There had to be a simple explanation for it.

Such had been their thoughts, and it was that thought which gave him a sense of peace. While he may have lusted for battle, he never wanted to live forever. After all, he could get his fill of fighting strong opponents in the Otherworld, just like how he had done in the years between Cell and Buu.

But then, as yet another decade passed and he still showed not the slightest hint of his age, their explanations slowly ran dry.

He was forced to watch as his wife slowly aged before him, while he remained unchanged. He was unable to do anything as she grew old and wrinkled, her life and vitality withering away before his eyes. Every day, he could sense her strength ebbing, the bright spark of light that was her ki ebbing as time passed.

His mind could still replay in perfect clarity the moment Chi-Chi passed. How the light in her eyes, which had always been so bright and full of emotion, slowly dimmed as he held her hand, desperately holding back the pain that threatened to burst forth. He knew that she wouldn't want to see him hurting so much, but he still couldn't help the few tears that slipped through.

He placed his hand against the rough dirt, his eyes staring at her headstone. He could feel the age-old whisper within him, a plea to allow his power to burst forth and destroy the pathetic attempt to honour everything she had done. A simple headstone could never be enough to show how much she meant to him.

He shook himself, trying to rid the memories that were clawing at the barriers of his mind. However, nothing he did could stop a couple from flowing over.

He could still vividly recall Gohan, his firstborn, the one he'd always been so proud of, weakly grasping his hand as the life slowly drained out of the half-Saiyan's body, wrinkled and shrunken due to age. It had been barely three decades since Chi-Chi passed, but even the alien blood wasn't enough to delay his son's passage for much longer. Goku even had a nagging suspicion, one that filled him with no small amount of guilt, that the numerous battle his son had been forced to partake in probably were a factor. He may have been half-Saiyan, but the human blood he possessed most likely diluted the nigh-invulnerability their race had to permanent damage.

Even then, he looked the same as he always had, without even a trace of greying hair.

That had been the moment he'd decided that he needed answers. He remembered Bulma having talked about a being who had the answers to every possible question, but never having met him, Goku was unable to utilize his Instant Transmission, and since Jaco had long since retired from the Galactic Patrol the spend the rest of his life peacefully on his home planet, there was little hope of convincing the diminutive alien in accompanying him, even if he hadn't given up his aircraft.

And during that time, he suffered yet another blow. His youngest, Goten, had succumbed to a disease, one he'd heard was called "cancer". He had assumed Saiyans, even those who were part-human, were immune to most diseases, but it seemed that the particular one Goten was plagued by had slipped through even his incredibly resistant immunity.

He had sat by the blindingly white hospital bed, each ragged breath Goten took stabbing his heart. How he wished his son could have seen the outside world one last time before he passed, maybe even a final look at the mountain where both of them had grown up, but it was not to be. He was forced to watch as the repeated beeping of a machine suddenly descended into an ear-piercing wail, right alongside his son's heavily depleted ki being so unceremoniously snuffed out.

It was after that heartbreak that he'd decided to talk to one more being, a quest fuelled by desperation more than anything else. He reckoned that Whis may have answers, no matter how far fetched his hope was. It was the only thing that kept him going.

Managing to pin the angel down was difficult, to say the least. Beerus had finally decided to train the person who would be his replacement for the title of God of Destruction, and Whis was almost always engaged in restraining their sessions to more manageable levels of chaos. It took more time and effort that he would have ever expected, but Goku finally managed to have a conversation with the being who had taught him to harness godly ki.

The conversation they had was enough to shake him to his very core. Whis had actually looked surprised when Goku had asked why he wasn't aging, almost as if it were obvious. He even looked at the Saiyan with a slightly bemused expression, before finally revealing that any being who'd mastered god ki to the level Goku had was bound to have an extended life while always remaining in their prime, but that was a moot point considering what came next.

His mentor had maintained his conversational tone while dropping what was most likely the biggest bombshell Goku had received in his life, even more so than the reveal of his origins by his long-deceased brother. As it turned out, any being that unlocked Ultra Instinct and mastered it to a level even less than what he had done would become, for all intents and purposes, immortal unless felled in battle.

The revelation was enough to send him reeling. For so long, he'd thought that, while he may have lived for longer than he expected, he would one day pass on and be able to meet his loved ones in the Otherworld. But this... he had barely enough time to even begin processing it when Whis had taken his leave, still as nonchalant as ever. For a moment, Goku had the sudden urge to punch the angel as hard as he could simply to elicit a reaction, but his body was under too much shock to respond.

He had returned to Earth with the burden weighing on his soul, only to see that Pan, his sweet granddaughter who he could still recall holding in his hands while she was a mere babe, had already begun to show signs of age. The heavy dilution of Saiyan blood meant that she would age sooner than a full or half-blooded Saiyan, but it was still enough to rip his heart our of his chest.

The years dragged by, but the weight in his chest never dulled. Even as Pan's children grew up, and she simultaneously kept aging, he remained unchanged, a relic of the past, almost.

And when the time came for her to depart as well, he remained by her side. He had begged her to tell the others waiting in the Otherworld exactly why he had never turned up despite all the years that had passed. As it turned out, ever since he became aware of his immortality, he was limited to visiting the Kais unless he got special permission to traverse the rest of the Otherworld, and despite his cordial relationship with the ones who pulled the strings, it was still nigh impossible to get it due to his status as an immortal. He'd heard that even Beerus and Whis has only entered the realm three times in all their millennia of existence, and that too because they had to prevent near-disaster.

Her promise to tell them should have been enough to lift his heart, however slightly, but the tearful eyes that accompanied it were enough to crush him even more. For the fourth time, he was forced to stand by, completely helpless, as one of his family, his own flesh and blood, slowly passed on before him.

How he wished he could have gathered the dragon balls and wished that all his loved ones could possess immortality, and that too while being in their primes. But he knew trying anything similar to that would be an invitation for all kinds of trouble. After the incident with Zamasu, the Gods of Destruction were always leery of any being attempting something of the like. The moment his friends were granted their wish, one of the destroyers would have appeared as soon as possible to erase them from existence, and Goku knew he would never be able to stand his friends and family suffering such a fate. And even so, Shenron couldn't bring back those who had died of natural causes, so there was no use reflecting on it.

His eyes rested on his granddaughter's grave once more, and it brought forth a tidal wave of emotions, but not simply due to the memory of her death. It was also due to the choices he had taken following the event, ones he still looked back on with nothing but regret.

He'd run away. In an act he could classify as nothing but cowardice, he'd chosen to cut ties with those who knew him and live as a recluse in the woods, just like he'd done all those decades ago before he met Bulma. However, he retained none of the previous cheerfulness, instead weighed down by the feelings of guilt, along with all the memories that remained.

He was drawn out of his memories by a light gust of wind, one that was enough to cause his hair to sway slightly. He placed his hand softly on the grassy carpet that covered the graves of those he loved, feeling regret well up within him.

He was no longer the same person; not after everything he'd gone through. His previous naïveté had been lost to the sands of time, brutally crushed by the deaths he had been forced to suffer.

He had reflected on his past actions so many times, yet he could never reach a satisfactory answer. Did he do the wrong thing by spending so much of his time training, where instead he could have spent it with family? Did he really need to leave so often, so much so that he hadn't truly understood his second son until a couple years after the now legendary Tournament of Power? He knew his battle lust, a trait from his Saiyan heritage, played a role, but he knew that Vegeta had been more involved with his family.

An ordinary man's answer would have been simple: no matter what, there was no excuse for spending so little time with family. He would have easily been labelled as a bad husband and a bad father. The fact that he'd known, and spent more time with, his granddaughter better than either of his sons would have solidified that opinion.

But he was no ordinary man. He knew that it was most likely due to the innumerable hours he'd spent honing his skills that the Earth, and most likely his entire universe, still persisted. After all, each threat they'd faced always was stronger and more challenging than the previous one they'd faced.

It was a dilemma that had no clear-cut answer. Was it acceptable for him to have spent so long apart from his family due to his role in the safety of the universe, or should he have tried harder still to somehow juggle his roles? The answer always eluded him, and he suspected that it always would.

Yet, he knew that his wife and sons had never begrudged his sometimes-fleeting presence in their lives. They knew that, apart from his inborn love for training and battle, he couldn't forgive himself if he could have saved an innocent from being hurt. As he himself had once said, he never thought of himself as a hero, but he couldn't bear to see innocent life put at risk.

(Oh, how it had stung when he had finally realized just how many he'd unwittingly endangered when he'd challenged so many of his opponents.)

Now, he felt that he didn't deserve them. He may have been socially stunted due to his isolated upbringing, but he should have paid more attention to his family. Looking back, he counted his blessings that they had borne with his single minded focus on getting stronger.

His emotions caused a small surge of power, causing the grass beneath his palms to suddenly flatten due to the rise in pressure. Power, more than enough to effortlessly destroy the entire planet, roiled about within him, constantly trying to break free and cause untold havoc, desperate to soothe his inner turmoil. His control, however, was resolute. He knew that one single mishap would destroy every single grave in the cemetery, and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if anything happened to the final resting places of his loved ones.

His eyes slowly moved to the side, unable to see his family's graves, only to face yet another set of headstones. Once again, the memories assaulted him, relentless in their quest to draw out the emotions he'd desperately tried to bury within himself for so long.

Bulma, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien... every one of his friends had passed on, leaving him behind. Those deaths had also played into his decision of becoming a recluse, cutting off all contact with those who knew about him, although he never got close to them. He simply couldn't bear to, knowing that he would persist even as all of them, and their descendants, moved on to the next life.

He remembered the long years he'd spent alone, desperately trying to bury his guilt under his training. Yet, for a time, even the prospect of improving himself, which usually was more than enough to cheer him up, felt like nothing more than a chore. He merely went through the motions, barely moving forward as time passed.

However, he had returned to his previous vigour after a small scuffle which had broken out in West City. He hadn't needed to intervene – the descendants of both his and Vegeta's line, though considerably weaker than their ancestors, were still enough to handle the threat – but it reminded him of the fact that enemies could attack and any moment, and if he had to live with the guilt of having missed so much time with his family due to training, he would ensure that he wouldn't allow the skills he'd gained to atrophy.

And so he'd once again gone to Whis, almost begging the angel to train him once more, since it seemed that Beerus' protégé was advanced enough for them to not worry about any accidental carnage. It had been a long, arduous task of swaying his former mentor to once again take up the mantle so that he could hone Ultra Instinct even further, but in the end, it was easier than he expected it to be. Then again, if he knew what was to come, he would have realised why Whis was relatively easy to persuade.

Once again, his memories were once again interrupted, albeit this time by something completely different. He felt the appearance of an incredible source of power, one that rivalled his own formidable might. However, he didn't make a movement, nor even feel any tension as it approached him.

"It's almost time, Kakarot. Are you ready to leave?"

He turned his head slightly, his onyx eyes meeting another pair of the very same shade. Before him stood the last relic from his era, frozen in time just like he had been. A small, sad smile tugged at his lips as he replied.

"Not really, Vegeta. I... I just need a little more time. It's a bit much to take in, isn't it?"

The Saiyan prince huffed, but didn't say anything to dispute it. Goku even felt that maybe his rival also felt the tug of memories, a soft, seductive call to more joyous times.

"Just be sure to wrap it up quickly. You know they won't like to be kept waiting," came the gruff reply, one Goku acknowledged with a slight tilt of his head. Truly, he would have never expected the two of them to go so far, but it seemed like it had been written in the stars for a while now.

Still, even the thought of what was to come in under half an hour wasn't enough to shake the melancholic feeling that clung to him. After all, what good was an achievement if those you cared about were not present to celebrate it with you?

Goku turned back to the four graves that constantly drew his gaze, bowing his head once more. From the corner of his eye, he saw Vegeta stand before the graves of his wife and children, a slight gleam in his usually hard gaze. For a ling moment, both remained silent, lost in their reflections.

Finally, Vegeta broke the moment, his eyes flickering back to the younger Saiyan.

"It's time, Kakarot. We should leave."

Goku, however, simply shook his head. He wasn't ready to leave, not yet.

Vegeta's eyes flashed slightly, a small hint of fiery anger present. "Kakarot, we don't have time! If we're late, you know they'll..."

"Calm down, Vegeta," Goku intercepted, his voice still level. "My Instant Transmission will suffice. We still have a few minutes left."

The prince glowered for a moment, but acquiesced. He knew inciting a fight would be useless.

Earlier, Vegeta would have gone ahead and shot off a barb about his ex-rival's childishness, but he knew it didn't hold true anymore. The repeated deaths of those he cared about had forced the Earth-raised Saiyan to mature, more than the other would have ever expected. In addition to that, ever since he'd mastered Ultra Instinct, it seemed like he always remained eerily calm, expect for the very rare instances, like now, where he was completely overwhelmed by emotion. Maybe that was why he'd never seen an angel truly lose their composure. The form itself acted as a tool to suppress their reactions.

Vegeta, on the other hand, had become even more quick-tempered and slightly more violent than he'd been all those years ago. After all, the route he chose necessitated those slight shifts in his personality.

Finally, it seemed like the prince could take it no longer. "Kakarot, come on, we must leave."

A heavy sigh was all he got in response as Goku slowly rose, his onyx eyes slightly unfocused as he still looked at the graves. For a moment, the shorter Saiyan felt an urge to rap his former-enemy-now-friend on the head to bring him back to reality, but he knew that all it would accomplish was him hitting air as Kakarot dodged it. It may not be as powerful as in his silver-haired form, but the passive Ultra Instinct he held would be more than enough to avoid the blow.

"I still can't believe it's been over a century since I left them, Vegeta. I wonder how Chi-Chi would react to the news," he muttered, his eyes slowly returning to focus on his surroundings.

Said Saiyan scoffed lightly. "Knowing her, she probably would have been over the moon. How often had she nagged you to get a job? And now you're getting one of the most prestigious ones available. It may not be as great an honour as being a God of Destruction, but becoming the first 'angel' not fathered by the Grand Priest is a noteworthy achievement."

Goku chuckled lightly. "You're just bitter my ranking is higher than yours." In a past age, Vegeta would have been shocked that his companion would retort in such a manner, but the intervening century and a couple more decades were enough for him to acclimatize to the changes in the taller Saiyan's humour.

However, it was offset by yet another comment, one in which the underlying sentiment Vegeta still had trouble associating with the former happy-go-lucky man – regret. "But I'm sure no matter what, Bulma would have been proud of you. After all, a God of Destruction is one of the greatest honours there is. I just wish she was here to see it."

And that was where their paths had culminated, ever since Goku began tapping into Ultra Instinct and Vegeta had begun learning to harness destructive energy from Beerus. It seemed that they were almost made for their respective roles, as it were. True, they had dabbled in the opposing fields, with Goku having almost succeeded in utilizing the Hakai technique on Zamasu and Vegeta had attempted to tap into Ultra Instinct himself on a couple of occasions, both could easily say they weren't well suited for the opposing path.

Even so, it had come as a shock to Goku, enough to even overcome his newfound control over his emotions, when he had learnt that Beerus and Whis were stepping down, only for Vegeta and himself respectively to fill the vacant roles. At first, he had thought it was nothing more than a practical joke, until the Grand Priest himself had verified that it was true.

It had been the greatest upheaval he'd experienced since he became aware of his immortality. While he knew that Beerus would eventually retire and Vegeta was most likely the best replacement, with him being tough but having cultivated a strong sense of morality over the decades, even after the slight shift in temperament due to the influence of mastering destructive ki, he didn't understand why Whis was stepping down as well, and why he of all people was being nominated for the role.

The reason, it seemed, was because of the astounding progress the two of them had shown due to the competitive spirit present between them. Even though Goku had lost it for a time, since Vegeta had disappeared soon after Bulma passed away before either she or her husband had turned eighty and he hadn't known the other Saiyan was alive until they'd met once again around three decades into his self-imposed exile, it had once again been sparked, initially to mask the hurt he felt but later because Goku found that he still enjoyed the friendly rivalry, and the both of them found that they progressed far faster in their respective fields once the competitive spirit was reignited.

Lord Zeno and the Grand Priest, it seemed, wanted to see just how far it could go once they were solidified in their roles, and also maybe as a defensive mechanism so that if either went rogue, the other could possibly stop them. Vegeta was also to be the first God of Destruction not bound to the Supreme Kai of his universe, since it appeared as if they wanted to take this experiment as far as they could.

Also, as Whis once jokingly stated, everything that had occurred since he and Beerus had met the two Saiyans was stressful enough that the angel thought he deserved a break, and it was only proper for the person who had been a part of so many of the situations the take up the mantle.

Despite the fact that it could be seen as a simple experiment, Goku should have been overjoyed by the fact that he now had an eternity to continue training with his rival. Yet, the fact that he couldn't share his joy with those he loved had considerably dampened the excitement he should have felt.

He recalled what Beerus had once said when he'd enquired why the feline deity never really got attached to anyone, and the reply was something he only fully comprehended after his own forced ascension to immortality.

"When you know you're going to outlive them, and any attachment you form will cause the hurt to magnify even more, you begin to pull yourself away just to shield yourself. It may seem cruel or callous, but the pain you experience is something you would do anything you avoid."

Now, as he stood in the graveyard, staring into the distance, he understood exactly why Beerus said what he did. Now, he would have to mostly reside on the planet Beerus used to call home, despite his protests. And while he would have loved to visit every day, he knew he would do his duties justice. The last time he'd been negligent was in his role as a husband and father, and he'd sworn he wouldn't repeat the same error.

Goku sighed softly, already feeling like he was not supposed to be here anymore. After all, both he and Vegeta had to discard the outfits that had served them so well for all these years. It was something they had fought tooth and nail for, but to no avail. In the end, Lord Zeno, no matter how chummy he was with Goku, liked to see everyone 'in matching uniforms' as he put it in his childlike speech. Once again, Beerus' words rang true. It wasn't simply the attire that mattered, but the emotions he attached to it. In contrast, the angel-like uniform he wore felt stuffy and oppressive, and he knew Vegeta felt the same in his baggy pants.

The Saiyan prince coughed awkwardly, breaking Goku's reverie once more. "Kakarot, it really is time for us to leave."

Even as he said so, the prince's eyes momentarily flicked back towards the graves, and Goku knew his friend was feeling the very same emotions he did.

He simply nodded, holding his hand out for Vegeta to grasp, which he did with an annoyed grunt and slightly more force than necessary. Right as he placed his two fingers to his forehead and located the ki signature of the Supreme Kai, he thought softly, Chi-Chi, I hope you're proud of me.

A soft gust of wind blew past him, and while others would say he had simply imagined it, he would always steadfastly say that he heard her voice whisper, Of course I am, you big oaf. How could I not be?

And at that moment he knew, no matter where he went, his heart would always remain on Earth.

Steeling himself, he pushed his ki outward, allowing it to warp reality as he wished. The air around the two Saiyans flickered, and for a moment, they looked like holographic images instead of real people. The very next moment, they were gone, leaving not the slightest hint of their presence behind.

The wind blew across the graveyard, once again completely desolate. The leaves of the surrounding trees shivered in the air, almost as if they had felt the heavy weight, and heart, left behind by the departed Saiyan's murky reflections.


Wow, that was a ride. It certainly went on longer than I expected, that's for sure. Anyways, a few notes from the manga:

Yes, Goku can now tap into Ultra Instinct at will, and he can now also use the technique while not in the silver haired form, although that form does allow perfect usage (but his stamina is still an issue with that form, but he'll definitely have fixed that by the time of this story).

Also, in the battle against fused Zamasu, Goku actually pulled off a hakai, and almost managed to erase the bastard if the Kai hadn't pulled Mai in from of him.

Also, yeah, Vegeta's started to learn how to harness the energy of destruction from Beerus.

That's about it for the notes, I think. Anyways, thank you so much for reading my fic, and I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. If you want, go ahead and read my other fics, and join my discord (link in bio).

Have a good one, guys. Peace!