A/N: Thank you everyone that reviewed, it means a lot to me. On to part three.

He leaned back in his chair, exhaling contentedly from a belly full of good food. There was a soft chuckle to his right and then a scraping of wood on wood. Without opening his eyes, one long arm reached out and wrapped around a thin waist, effectively pulling the body onto his lap with a surprised 'oof.' Smiling, the body squirmed, and his other arm linked with its partner to keep them in place.

"Goku," Chichi whined, pushing against his arms. His grin crept further across his face. "Let me up, I need to do the dishes."

"Do them later," he persisted, leaning forward to nuzzle his face in her falling-apart bun. Her dark hair had thinned over the years, but it was as soft as ever. "I'll even help."

She snorted and kept trying to push him off, but that was an iron-clad grip on the best of days. And she wasn't fighting it, not really; even going into their seventies, Goku's childish antics persisted, made her feel like a young woman despite her aging bones and creaking joints. In any case, he was right, the dishes could be put off for later. Thankfully, mercifully, the Saiyan's appetite had calmed with age and, even though he still ate enough to feed a family of four, dishes were no longer a chore that would take the rest of the night to complete.

He was nosing her cheek, planting a soft kiss, when an explosion nearby rocked the house. Chichi would've hit the floor if Goku's grip hadn't turned protective and clasped her gently to him. She looked up, and all the playfulness was gone from his face. He looked confused and irritated, accentuating the lines around his eyes.

"Goku, what is it?" she asked in a small voice. He shook his head.

"I dunno, but," his frown turned into a scowl. "What the heck? I'll be right back, stay in the house."

With that, he dashed out the door and slammed it behind him. The dark grew heavy not far from the house, but that didn't impede his progress. Another explosion shook the ground, illuminating the surrounding woods and hills with blinding blue light. He picked up his pace. A hundred or so meters off, a figure was briefly seen before disappearing into the black again, but not before Goku got a good look at the silhouette. He clenched his jaw, and then a blast rocketed toward him; he rolled, got back on his feet, ran a little faster.

"Vegeta!" he shouted. "What do you think you're doing?"

The only response he received was another blast flying at his head, this one stronger than before. A warning. A challenge. Goku deflected it with his hand into the woods, hoping nothing was killed in the explosion. Three more followed, from three different directions. In the brief and inconsistent light, Goku saw the enraged and determined expression on his friend's face. The hell was going on?

"Vegeta, stop! You could hurt someone!"

He scoffed, the first vocal response Goku had gotten thus far. "If that's what it takes, then so be it."

"If that's what what takes?" Two more blasts, ever growing in power, dodged. "You're not making any sense."

Suddenly, the prince was before him, inches away; for a moment, Goku was back in the desert wasteland where they first fought, facing down a violent and unstoppable opponent whose strength was beyond measure. Vegeta's dark eyes glinted with a violence he hadn't seen since those days, absent even during the Tankaichi Bodokai. Murderous, Vegeta was gripping Goku's shirt, pulling him close, baring his teeth.

"Fight me," he growled. "Give it everything you've got."

Goku tried to back away, but his friend – he thought – held strong. "If you wanted a spar, you could have just-"

A massive fist slammed into his mouth, and his head was knocked aside. Spots danced in his vision and blood coated his tongue. "No!" Vegeta screamed, "Fight me! Fight me!" and tossed him to the ground.

No, he was still far stronger, and with his mind as rampant as it was, Vegeta would be crushed. He shook his head; his companion growled and launched an assault, pounding his face and chest with gloved hands. Goku's skull slammed repeatedly into the ground; he thought he heard voices in the background, but it was hard to think clearly in this state. Finally growing tired of the beating, he made the effort to catch Vegeta's fists.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, but you need to calm down," Goku tried to reason through bleeding lips. His mouth hurt, but he still hoped words would solve the problem.

"If you won't do it, maybe Gohan will." He was smirking down at him, that old smirk, crazed and volatile and absolutely scary. Goku clenched his sore jaw. "Or maybe all it takes is paying your harpy a visit."

Goku's eyes widened. "Y-You wouldn't." But he knew he would. "Vegeta, we're, we're friends."

The smirk collapsed into that determined scowl, his upper lip curled up slightly in disgust. Without a second's hesitation, Vegeta's ki exploded around him and he blasted up into the sky, flying in the direction of Goku's house. He didn't have time to wonder anymore; whatever had caused it, Vegeta had snapped and now Chichi was in danger. Goku followed, surpassed, and knocked the warrior backwards with a good kick to the chest. The prince stopped himself, stared in mild surprise for a moment, and then grinned.

"There we go," Goku heard him whisper before Vegeta was flying at him, fist pulled back.

Reluctantly, he matched his friend blow-for-blow, just as he had for years during their sparring. It had never been like this, though; no matter how frustrated he got, Vegeta had not intentionally tried to hurt him. He hadn't gone for cheap blows, hadn't aimed for pressure points, hadn't aimed for that tender place where his tail had been severed. He was leaving himself open for blasts, moving slower than Goku knew he could go; it didn't make any sense. What the hell was he even doing?

In an attempt to stall, Goku gripped the elder's wrist and flung him into the ground, where he crashed into a bloody pile of himself, coughing as the dust settled.

"Vegeta, why are you doing this?" he called desperately.

"Why won't you fight me?" the prince screamed back, obviously enraged. Goku unknowingly inched back. Vegeta's ki exploded gold, and the Super Saiyan continued to scream from the ground. "Threatening your wife or your son hasn't worked. Perhaps I'll go level a city. Maybe then you'll take me seriously."

"What?" Goku cried as Vegeta shot off from the ground, heading instinctively South to the nearest city.

He wasn't lying.

He wasn't bluffing.

Goku jumped to Super Saiyan and flew after his friend as quickly as he could, understanding chilling his entire body to the bone. Now he knew.

"Vegeta!" he shouted against the unforgiving wind. "Stop this, you don't know what you're doing!"

"The hell I don't!" Vegeta screamed back, not slowing.

Goku stopped, desperate for an answer. His eyes darted back and forth, hoping the trees below would offer him some answer, some way of calling back the rogue prince. Below. Below.

"If you do this now, you'll never see her again!"

He slammed to a halt.

There was a long minute where Goku wasn't sure if it had worked. Maybe Vegeta was so desperate to die that he would risk returning to Hell. Maybe.

The golden glow snapped off like a light and the prince drifted slowly to the ground, his head dipped low. Goku eased into his base form as he flew towards him; by the time his feet touched the earthy forest floor, Vegeta was sitting against a tree, head in his hands.

"Vegeta?" he asked tentatively, not sure if the episode had fully subsided.

"That stupid woman," Vegeta grumbled, obviously not listening. "I told her. I told her."

Goku knelt in front of him, placing a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. He really didn't know what to say.

"The shit she does in that lab, I swear. And she gets on my ass for training too hard. At least I'm in control of my injuries. At least I always know what I'm doing.

"I told her to be careful. She'd been having problems, sliced her hand open the week before. I warned her that she was getting more clumsy. I said, 'don't be stupid, be prepared.'"

He was crying; Goku hadn't seen him cry since he died on Namek. It was the second time Vegeta was dumping the weight of his heart on him, and again, all he could do was listen. The only difference was Vegeta hadn't wanted to die on Namek.

Ebony eyes looked up, suddenly and inexplicably showing the entire weight of Vegeta's seventy-some-odd years of life.

"The hell kind of man am I, Kakarot, if I couldn't even save my wife from a damn lab explosion?"

Goku patted his shoulder in an attempt at consoling him. "I'm sorry, I know it's gotta be hard-"

"Shut up, Kakarot," Vegeta snapped half-heartedly. "No, you don't. You're not painfully aware that you have another possible three decades of life ahead of you… Alone."

Three decades. Thirty years. Goku thought about that for a while and wondered how Vegeta knew that, but decided not to press. He considered it and quietly agreed that another thirty years without his Chichi would be pretty miserable, but he still had his friends. He still had his kids.

Smiling, he offered, "Hey now, you won't be alone. You've got Bulla and Trunks and a whole buncha grandkids to think of. Doesn't Bulla have one on the way?" Vegeta nodded slowly. "See? Spend those thirty years being a grandpa. Then, when you do go to Otherworld, you can tell Bulma all about the little ones. I'm sure she'd be real happy to hear about them."

He remained still, then sighed heavily and wiped his face with his hands roughly. Even though the storm seemed to be over, Goku was still on guard, wary of Vegeta's volatile and unpredictable nature. When Vegeta got to his feet, he followed suit, finally dropping his hand to his side.

"You okay now?" He nodded. "No more pillaging, right?"

Vegeta gave a dry, throaty chuckle. "No more pillaging." He seemed to try an apologetic smile but only managed a tired grimace. "Good night, Kakarot."

"Good night, Vegeta."

He flew away slowly, idly, as if he wasn't in a hurry. Goku supposed he wasn't. Thirty years was a long time.