A small tree stood in the centre of a lush, crisply cut lawn. It was squat, fruitless and a slightly darker shade of green in the leaves from the lighter surroundings. It would normally be vibrant with colourful fruit, but the bows were bare of all but a small furry creature. It was holding something in its hands and gnawing on it, while keeping its brown hairy body supported with its feet and tail. It was a monkey, a monkey who went by the name Bubbles. The nut in his paws cracked, sending a few specks of shell sailing down the trunk, to land upon a head of spiky black hair. Not far off from the tree, stood a small varnished picnic table. Sitting at this table was a short, odd looking man kicking the air with his little legs and looking extremely miffed. He had a pair of jet-black Pince-nez on his stubby nose and a black had atop his blue head, out of which poked a pair of long black antennae, like some great blue beetle. He pounded the table with his short arms and gritted his teeth.

"Darn him!" He murmured furiously to himself, in a ridiculous voice that made him sound like the muscles in his cheeks were numb and useless. "There's only two left in my galaxy, and I get the worst one! People respected the name King Kai once, did ya know that!?" The question trailed away into silence, and this angry man shot a furtive, challenging look at the tree, realising that none but the monkey was paying any attention.

King Kai felt very justified in his anger at this latest injustice. Long ago, he had often welcomed a Saiyan onto his planet in other world so he could train, but his patience had been tested repeatedly by the idiot's recklessness and lack of respect. It got to the point where his planet was basically used as a meat shield, just to save one measly little planet in the north quadrant. True it had been restored with the dragon balls, but that was before the Saiyan did something so reprehensible, so foul, that King Kai swore that he would never repeat what it was. But he had banished the Saiyan that day and set up measures so that if he were to return, he would not want to stay long. This had been effective up to now, but there had been one eventuality that he had not foreseen, and it was moping behind the tree that Bubbles liked to play in.

Vegeta had died, and possessing a charisma that the Kai would never have expected from him, had talked King Yama into letting the stubborn prince keep his body and travel to his planet to train. King Kai had screamed down his antennae that he had not been in favour of this, as it was ridiculous on multiple fronts. For one, Vegeta was way stronger than King Kai was now so there was nothing left for Vegeta to learn, and secondly Vegeta was originally meant to go down below for a lifetime of slaughter. At first, he thought that he might like to know about the Kaioken, but he was wrong. His assertions of Vegeta's guilt also were blown off by the fact he saved a few earthlings in his time as well, and apparently sacrificed his life to save one.

In his opinion, King Kai thought that for all that annoying pest's faults, Vegeta was by far a worse guest. Not only was he rude and obstinately immune to the anti-Saiyan measures, but he wasn't even enough fun to laugh at the best jokes in the northern quadrant. In fact, it was hard to even imagine it, but the stuffy old prince seemed more uptight than usual, not even Bubbles was going near him. King Kai directed his stubby nose towards Vegeta's half concealed profile and sighed. It gave the impression of dread, the fear of something oncoming and inevitable, and all the nastier for it. King Kai had to admit that it kind of put him on edge too, if something could worry Vegeta, it would certainly worry him. But what could possibly-

The thought was interrupted by a sudden presence, a life force emanating from somewhere above the planet. King Kai twitched his antennae and located the stranger in an instant. Vegeta did not move a muscle as King Kai looked up and saw a grey shape floating unsupported in the sky above his tiny planet. The energy felt different somehow, but there was no mistaking that unkempt black hair. The little man had only a second to react, it was something about the way the figure was positioned…and that spiking energy… SMASH!

Splintered wood and debris scattered in every direction following the ear-splitting sound of a meteor crashing into the bench. Even though King Kai avoided any grievous bodily harm, he was still sent flying into the shade of the tree, which Bubbles fell out of a moment later due to the shockwave. King Kai slowly got back to his feet, dusting himself down, picking fallen leaves off his clothes and swearing under his breath. Only after wiping his glasses clean with his sleeve could he see the perpetrator clearly. There in the brown smoky crater where King Kai's antique table used to be, was a man with black unkempt hair, and jet-black eyes.

The tiny man's blue hands bawled into fists, as his anger bubbled to the surface. His teeth were bared, and the turquoise skin was quickly turning the colour of beetroot. This was the last time he would ever tolerate Saiyan's on his world. That table had been an irreplaceable house warming gift from princess snake. He would give them both a piece of his mind this time. But as the tiny king glared furiously at the man who had stomped out of the furrow in the ground, and was now striding towards him, the fury stumbled somewhat on confusion. The purple face, the gritted and bared teeth, and the fiery eyes that King Kai had upon his own face was being reflected quite exquisitely upon the newcomer's own visage. He also noticed that he was going at a steady pace and was showing no signs of slowing down, and in mere moments, the face of King Kai and Son Goku were level. The stark difference in their heights was not a problem because Goku had, to King Kai's utter bewilderment, grabbed his collar and hoisted him up. He hung there like an oversized fruit borne of the tree, looking straight into the cold fury of those dark eyes.

"Where is he?" He said, in a voice of forced calm. The short man opened his mouth before he had anything to say, the grip that Goku had on him was painful. Before King Kai could gather his wits to say anything, Goku made an angry sort of 'tut' through his clenched teeth and shook the collar violently a single time. He repeated the question, and with none of the previous restraint. "WHERE IS HE!?"

In a swift motion, Vegeta stepped out from behind the tree, straight backed and looking alarmed. Whatever he had expected, he had not thought the Kai was to be harmed, and certainly not by Kakarot. The fool was beside himself. He felt no concern for the Kai but did not feel like he deserved this kind of abuse, nor did he think that he would tolerate anymore crap from Kakarot after his last visit. The moment he was in the open, the two sets of black eyes snapped into an icy contact, and King Kai fell back to the floor with a gasp of relief.

Goku and Vegeta did not speak, but they maintained still eye contact for a single moment. In that moment, the prince did his best to read the clowns intentions through his energy. He thought that Kakarot's anger would betray that information and would assist him in further action. But to Vegeta's amazement, he could sense absolutely nothing. Kakarot was not letting anything slip, and as he began to stride in the prince's direction, Vegeta felt his fists twitch compulsively. He was not afraid of Kakarot, not in the slightest but there was something in his demeanour that made the steady and consistent footfalls ominous to Vegeta.

"Kaka…"

WHAM!

Vegeta was knocked off his feet and sent flying backwards before he could even get out a single word. The force of the impact sent Vegeta cascading into the sky above King Kai's world, and the increased gravity made what happened next hurt even more. In a flash, Goku was above the prince, and his hands were together in a double hammer-fist.

"A HEART ATTACK?!" he roared, before smashing Vegeta back to the earth with an almighty blow that shook the whole planet. The dust cloud that followed this was even bigger than Goku's entrance, and so was the crater. King Kai watched on in horror at the new desolation of his planet, all at the hands of that Saiyan. But there was something different about Goku, something scary. He had seen Goku mad, he had seen Goku furious, but his anger had always been unquestionably righteous. Even when he had first become a super Saiyan, all he had been thin king about was his friend Krillin and his son Gohan. But this was different, he seemed to be spiteful in his anger this time around. He only hoped that Vegeta was prepared for him, as Goku descended into the hole that he had just punched in the soil.

Vegeta had already risen to his feet, his renewed body accommodating for the harsh environment. His mind however was reeling, he had just been sucker punched by Kakarot! Why was this fool attacking with such anger?! He had expected confusion, even mockery but nothing like this. He only had a moments reprieve before Kakarot was upon him again, and his fist connected with Vegeta's chin before he had time to react. The prince cried out as he became airborne once again, with the furious old man in hot pursuit. Goku raised his hand and sent a yellow energy wave at the shape above him, but this time, Vegeta was ready for it. Twisting in mid-air, he smacked the ball of shining light straight back at the advancing Kakarot, who himself coiled his shoulders to avoid it. His fist once again flew at Vegeta, who blocked the hard punch with a two armed cross-guard.

"YOU HAD A HEART ATTACK!?"

The question registered in Vegeta's mind this time, and as both he and Goku broke apart and hung in mid-air, Vegeta answered him.

"What are you!? That's part of it, but you don't know everything - Stop that, what are you trying to do Kakarot?!" Vegeta barked back, it was difficult to do so as every now and then, Kakarot was making that same furious 'tut' noise and throwing another ball of energy his way. He was smacking them out of the way, but they were making it very hard to focus on explaining. Kakarot shouted him down between energy waves, sounding madder than before.

"SO, YOU WALKED! INTO THE TIME CHAMBER! AND DIDN'T THINK! IT! WAS! STUPID!?"

Goku's final energy wave was made with two hands, and Vegeta decided to dodge rather than block. The energy went sailing over his head into the distant sky, away from the planet. But when he looked back at the fool attacking him, Kakarot had vanished. At the same time Vegeta felt a sudden pressure around his left ankle and, looking down saw the pale fingers clamping around him. The next thing he knew, the ground was inches from his widening eyes. It was only due to his training and youthful form that Vegeta was able to plant his hands in the grass, and flip forward onto his feet, and dive to one side. This was just in time as it turned out, because Kakarot went sailing past while still in a flying kick pose. Scraping his own fingers through the earth, Goku skidded to a halt a couple of yards from Vegeta. He was panting, clearly affected by the strain of the feats he was performing, unlike Vegeta who was feeling more in shape than he could remember. The idiot was muttering feverishly to himself under his breath as he glared into Vegeta's eyes with his own wild ones. The prince thought he could make out what he was saying.

"Didn't know…yeah right…bastard…liar…promised…"

Vegeta couldn't believe what he was hearing, even less that he was hearing it from Kakarot. But years of experience had sharpened the prince's senses and intellect, and so he could see before him the chain of events that had led to this moment: Their wives passing's, making his vows, moving to that farm, training and protecting humans until that short one had arrived with cat gi-

Vegeta's eyes opened wider than before as he looked at Kakarot, gritting his teeth at the sudden truth. The silence stretched on as the two Saiyan's looked at each other and King Kai, who was now watching from behind the tree, also had his teeth firmly pressed together. That reckless idiot was gonna make Goku destroy his whole planet-again!

But Vegeta's mind was now miles away from the Kai's well-being. He was getting a nagging feeling that the oath he had taken with Kakarot after they had buried his wife was involved with this. That oath which had been the plan for their final demise. But why would he be so angry about that? It was he, Vegeta that had originally been against the idea, an idea that Kakarot had come up with!

"Kakarot…It's alright. I can live with this, it's really not that big a deal."

At these words, Goku roared and pelted at Vegeta, his energy palpable, glowing white all around him. Vegeta blocked the straight punch, but the kick that followed it buckled him, and his guard slackened for a single moment, which was all Goku needed for the second punch. Vegeta braced his chest, as he had done in life in fear of his heart problem, but found that he only skidded back a few feet, leaving two parallel trails in the dirt with his feet. Though the strike had hurt, what had surely meant to be a bone breaking hard punch had barely even scraped Vegeta's pectorals. The reason was obvious from Kakarot's panting and clear aura, the fool was not fighting at full strength. Even in his anger, he held back. When Vegeta had spoken, his anger seemed to spike into a fury, his face was contorting like a rabid dog.

"Not a big deal, huh?" He spat, now in a more articulate but no less wrathful exclamation. "You really think I give a crap about that? You really don't care, do you?!"

Vegeta's confusion was starting to make his own temper rise. He was not renowned for his patience and could feel the quivering of his furrowed brow, as well as the pull of his revitalised energy. "Then what is this about? Out with it Kakarot!"

Instead of an answer, Vegeta received another of those irritated sounds from Goku's teeth and as his outline quivered for a split second, Vegeta braced himself for their attacks to turn fast. As predicted, he was dodging and blocking quick blows from Kakarot within a blink of an eye. This was when King Kai completely lost sight of what was happening. The two men had begun to fight so intensely that the Kai could no longer maintain visual contact. Only their energy could be detected. Vegeta's felt the same as ever it did, strong and without quarter. It was Goku's energy that felt more interesting as it felt restrained, as if the idiot was deliberately holding it at bay. King Kai was wondering why he would do such a thing against his long-standing rival, when he caught a few bits of what they were saying and turned to listen.

"YOU AND I BOTH KNOW WHAT THE TIME CHAMBER IS LIKE! YOU WENT IN THERE TO DIE!" He heard Goku scream at Vegeta.

"What!? T-that's ridiculous, I did no such thing!" Vegeta retorted, looking outraged at such an accusation. "I was training the blonde, you know that!"

"LIAR! YOU GAVE IN, WHEN YOU SWORE YOU WOULDN'T, YOU PROMISED!"

Goku vanished via the instant transmission, and Vegeta couldn't tell where he had gone until it was too late, until he felt the fist connect with the top of his skull. He rocketed back to earth in earnest this time, and the dust cloud was big enough to skirt Goku's boots, who was still airborne and looking down at the crater he just made. As the deafening sound of the impact subsided, Goku found his attention diverted by a sudden screeching sound like a rabid animal being antagonised sounded from somewhere below him, so he turned to see a vague black circle flailing down on the planet surface.

The short man was no longer hiding from his visitors, he stood on the edge of the crater where the bench used to be, and his clenched fists were as scarlet as his face. "WOULD YOU BUMS STOP MESSING UP MY WORLD FOR ONE SECOOOOOND!"

Even at the height of his own rage, King Kai couldn't help but faulter at the look of murderous fury on the Saiyan's face. It was so out of place it made his spine tingle, the twitching contorting features without a speck of energy showing. This wasn't the usual anger, it wasn't the usual Goku. Without a reply, He sped down to where Vegeta stood in the new crater. He had been quick enough to brace for impact, so the damage had been minimal; Vegeta had found it quite easy to shake it off and get up. His temper however had snapped, he was done being this clown's punching bag. It was time to pull his trump card.

As he landed, Goku and Vegeta's eyes met; they looked at each other, the angry Saiyan's too incensed to speak. Vegeta noticed the same thing that King Kai had, that Goku's expression was twisting and twitching, but the absence of energy just made him look like he had gone off the deep end. The behaviour bizarrely reminded the prince of a Saiyan during a primal Ozaru transformation. This was impossible of course given Kakarot's lack of a tail, but perhaps that expression was something to do with experiencing great power. Vegeta himself remembered the power as a kind of strain, like holding back a mountain. Then it clicked, and Vegeta realised what was irritating Kakarot. He straightened up, and looked down at the point between them, at the dead centre of the crater. A flash of light, and a small smattering of dust revealed a perfectly straight line in the dirt dividing the crater between the two men, Goku looking livid on one side, and Vegeta looking strangely calm on the other. His eyes were half lidded, and he was concentrating, focusing on a specific mental image, the image of a hand…falling limp in his own…

Goku assumed a low stance and finally allowed his energy to show, it burst forth from him as red fire that engulfed his body and dyed his own form a dark maroon hue. Vegeta recognised the Kaioken too well, but knew it was hopeless. It was over, and he knew the outcome one way or another.

"The moment you cross that line, I quit holding back Kakarot. Consider your next move carefully. Attack me again, you die and that will be the end of it, got it?!" said Vegeta, in a raised voice, but not quite a shout. He had his eyes fully closed now, and he could hear a beeping sound.

Yet another of those irritated noises from Goku as the fire grew around him. YOU…I HATE YOU!" Goku started forward, about to launch himself at the man he hated. The hand, so small and weak, teetered on the edge of the gloved hand…and it fell. Vegeta opened his green eyes, and for the second time, allowed flame to consume him. In an instant, the short prince's hair and body was glowing gold and burning with a fiery yellow aura. The light seemed to glow beneath his skin, giving it a pale complexion, and the spiked hair now stood a little more firmly. Goku stopped in his tracks immediately, there was a kind of numb disbelief In the Saiyan's eyes, anger completely forgotten. It returned a moment later, but that restrained look of fury came back with redoubled force, and Vegeta sighed at the result that he knew would come.

"Your move, Clown." He said, with a hint of triumph escaping his lips. Goku looked ready to explode with rage, he opened his mouth, but Vegeta spoke first.

"You and I both know that you aren't willing to go this high, so give this up." Vegeta said, slowly and clearly.

Goku spat "Bastard…"

"Don't take your own weakness out on me Kakarot, now are you going to let me explain or not?"

Goku's whole body seemed to reject what he did next, his shoulders shook, and he was breathing so hard that spit flew through his gritted teeth. Very slowly, he straightened up, and just as slowly, the red glow and hue faded back to non-existence. Once again, he looked old and shabby. The Saiyan seemed to collect himself but looked at Vegeta with the same venom as when he had been in a rage.

"Spare me. I don't wanna hear anymore." He said, in a horrible forced calm. He turned to fly out of the crater.

"Wait a second!" Vegeta lost his composure slightly, and he moved forward a few paces towards Goku. The Saiyan's head spun around like a whirlwind, and Vegeta noticed his foot was an inch from the line that he had made in the ground. He looked from his foot to Goku and saw that his anger had changed. Its no longer a burning force behind his eyes and more of a smouldering pile of ash. A kind of furious calm had come over Kakarot. He spoke in the quietest, deadliest, and most alien voice that Vegeta had ever heard from him. It was cruel, bitter, and worst of all…it was a voice of defeat.

"You left…like all the others. I was counting on you, and you betrayed me the first chance you got. But its fine, I see that now. It was foolish to expect anything else and anyway; I can do this alone. Nothing's changed…I don't need you."

Vegeta swallowed hard, he considered protesting but knew the fool wouldn't believe that he had not died on purpose. But he found those last words deeply troubling, what was the idiot planning to do now? Knowing that he couldn't move any closer, Vegeta found himself at a loss for what to say. He hadn't planned for this. "Y-you're making a mistake Kakarot…"

Some of the fire roared at him, the black eyes of the Saiyan flashed as his scowl intensified. "Mistake?... The only mistake I ever made…was trusting someone like you." Goku turned back around and began to ascend out of the hole. He then spoke without turning to look at Vegeta. "Don't you dare talk to me about weakness. I don't ever want to see you again." He disappeared via instant transmission immediately after saying this and was gone without a trace.

…

Vegeta stood in that crater for a long time, only moving when prompted. King Kai leaned over the side and peered down into the vast furrow in his home. His stomach seemed to drop a few more inches every time he looked at it.

"What the heck got into him!?" King Kai yelled down at Vegeta, who a moment later, allowed his own aura to fade and looked up towards the source of the question. Once again, King Kai found himself in the icy stare of a Saiyan warrior, but instead of fury, this face spelled a troubled and confused outlook.

"This isn't good." Said Vegeta, with a solemn glance at the place where Goku had stood not too long ago. 'I came here because I knew he would find me.' Vegeta thought to himself. 'But I had no idea he would be in such a state. This could get worse if he runs around with those thoughts in his head…' Vegeta seemed to come out of his revelry after a while, and to King Kai's slight surprise, chose to walk out of the pit instead of fly. At the pace he was going it took several long moments before King Kai had a far shorter Saiyan standing before him. His face was tough and resolute, whatever he was thinking he had his mind made up. "I've changed my mind. I do need to learn something from you."

King Kai investigated that serious expression, and his own face hardened. He knew what the prince was planning, he knew what had to be done. But Goku was really upset, and the prince had no sense of timing. How would even he teach this stoic ghost at the feast how to tell good jokes?