The Father of Heroes
By Allen Jenkins
Chapter 1: The Death of Majin Buu
"You have until the count of ten, then I'm going to destroy you."
Majin Buu locked his evil black eyes on the golden-haired warrior in front of him, hate and rage and fear seething through him in equal amounts. He couldn't believe it. He was more powerful than he had ever been, more powerful than anyone had ever been, and this wretched warrior was toying with him. Toying with me! I am Majin Buu! the demon's thoughts screamed. Twenty minutes before, he, Majin Buu, had been the most powerful being to have ever existed, thanks to those other tasty warriors. Gohan especially. The demon's garb, in fact, matched the gi the demi-Saiyan had been wearing when he was absorbed. Then those two, Goku and Vegeta, had shown up with those earrings. That was when the whole thing went to hell.
"One," the golden-haired warrior announced in that strange double voice with his crossed arms and his cocky smirk. Buu ground his teeth together and growled a bestial sound deep in his demonic throat. His muscles flexed, stretching his bright pink skin, and his enormous ki spiked as he clenched his own massive power and the stolen energy of his trophy Saiyan meals. Pink lightning snapped around the Majin and waves of force rippled outward, shifting gravel and making waves in the water below. The golden warrior's grin never wavered as his slow count passed two, three and four.
Buu's eyes remained on the fighter in front of him as his power continued to climb. Once again, for the hundredth time, he took in the warrior's appearance. He was taller than Vegeta and shorter than Goku, and his chiseled muscles stretched the blue and orange outfit he wore—a curious reversal of Goku's—across his frame. His boots and gloves were white, just like Vegeta's. Buu's eyes traveled back up to the fighter's face, past his muscular neck, past the blended features of the two Saiyans who had given him so much trouble and stopped briefly on the tall spikes of golden hair on top of the warrior's head, so like Vegeta's in shape except shorter with two locks in front hanging down to the warrior's eyes. Super Saiyan, or some such thing, they called it. It mattered little. What did matter to Buu were the miserable gold and white earrings that hung from the fighter's ears and the aqua blue eyes that coldly promised his own death. Buu looked at the warrior, still standing at ease with arms crossed, and he called up his name: Vegeto.
Majin Buu's rage and need for destruction flared hotly when he remembered the warrior's name. Vegeto. The cause of more pain than he had ever felt at the hands of one fighter. And the man did not even seem to care. He prattled on about warm-ups and didn't even seem to notice the rare blow Buu managed to land. It was maddening! And here he is, Buu thought to himself, promising to destroy me! Vegeto's count reached seven.
Buu's body began to tremble with the power he was gathering, and he leaned forward, clenching his fists in front of him, a deep roar building in his throat. The lightning snapped faster and more furiously until Buu happened to glance down to the ground below the fused warrior. There he saw a small pink appendage slowly snaking across the ground until it positioned itself right beneath the oblivious Vegeto. Buu looked back up at the warrior and smiled his own smile as the warrior's count reached nine. Victory would be his after all.
Vegeto's lip curled up even farther when he saw the demon smile in the face of his own death. Arrogant even to the end. Just like me, I guess, he mused. But he, Vegeto had the power to back up his attitude. He had the power to back up anything he wanted. He extended his senses outward to feel the ki Majin Buu was letting off. He could handle it easily.
The new Saiyan warrior loved the thrill of pure power flooding his body. He was unlike anybody who had ever existed. He was Goku and Vegeta in one body, but the Potara earrings created a fusion that was far more powerful than that ridiculous dance. He was more than the sum of his parts, a virtual god as a regular Super Saiyan. After this is over I'll see what 2 feels like, and then I'll teach myself level 3, he thought with a small smile.
Vegeto turned to look at the still smiling Buu and said, "Ten. Time's up. Time to die." Then he began to gather his power. It rushed into him like the river behind a broken dam, and he pointed his open palm at the demon. He was about to release the killing blast when a flicker of pink caught his peripheral vision. He snapped his eyes down in time to see a severed piece of Buu's flesh fly toward him and, faster than the blink of an eye, surround him in viscous pink goo. He barely had time to scream and hurl his energy out in a protective shield before the rubbery flesh closed over his eyes.
Majin Buu smiled fiercely when he saw his enemy engulfed by his separated appendage. He crowed with victory as the now Vegeto-sized blob streaked toward him and was absorbed into his own body.
"Yes!" he screamed madly. "I've won! I've beaten them all!" All around, the desolate landscape where he had battled the Z-Fighters echoed with the demon's insane laughter.
Vegeto opened his eyes to a shadowy, nightmarish environment. All around him was a maze of dark fibrous tissue. It reeked like a landfill, and the ground beneath the Saiyan's feet pulsed and bucked to the disgusting internal rhythms of Majin Buu's body. So this is the inside of Buu, he thought as the shield around his body dissipated. Not impressed.
Vegeto scanned around him, looking for a clue as to what he should do. "Find a way out, I guess," he mumbled to himself. He moved to his left and peered down a gloomy tunnel that looked like it was lined with strange organic cobwebs. "Looks as good as any other." With a sigh, Vegeto adjusted the blue belt on his gi and marched off down the tunnel.
As the fused Saiyan took his first step into the bizarre tunnel a terrible wave of mental energy drove Vegeto to his knees in the spongy webbed floor. He grabbed his head with gloved hands as a deep tearing sensation ripped a scream from his throat. He felt as if his mind were being torn in half. His two personas were being assaulted by the utterly alien atmosphere of Majin Buu's dreadful body. His scream wailed on and on as Buu's demonic power tried to tear apart the fabric of the Potara earrings' magic.
In pain greater than anything he had ever felt in his short life, Vegeto clamped his jaws shut, pressed his head to the Buu-tissue floor and pounded his fists into the spongy surface. His aura flared brightly and golden lightning snapped around his body as Vegeto reached deeply into his reserves to draw out the power he needed to defeat his enemy. But his enemy could not be defeated by physical strength. Within Vegeto his mind and his spirit waged war with Majin Buu.
Inside the new Saiyan a deafening, maniacal voice cackled insanely, drowning out any hope of thought. But one being did think. Deep inside Vegeto's psyche, the one who was once Goku shouted into the tempest of laughter. He shouted frantically, striving to be heard. Striving to be distinct from that madness. And just as deep inside the new Saiyan, the one who was once Vegeta heard. Vegeta heard and responded.
Fight it! Goku screamed, reaching out to Vegeta with everything he had. Fight it! If we let him win, he'll destroy us! Our only hope is together! Damn, it Vegeta, answer me!
And then, across the tempest, cutting through like a razor, the one who was once Vegeta answered. Be calm Kakarot, he said. We are together, my brother. I said I'd see this through to the end with you, and I will. Now, concentrate. Use our power. We are one.
And with that, Vegeto forced himself to his feet and tucked his arms in by his sides. A low growl began deep in his throat as his ki began to rise. Power flooded into Vegeto's body, snapping muscles taut, as spirit and body combined to exorcise the demon trying to tear him apart. With a primal scream the Saiyan threw his head back and flung his arms out as golden power exploded outward. The dark tunnel lit up like noon as Vegeto unleashed an expanding globe of light and energy. He screamed as he threw waves of ki against the walls, ejecting both his own power and the vile presence of Majin Buu from his body.
When the screaming, shuddering and light finally faded away, Vegeto stood erect, arms hanging loosely at his sides, chest moving in a normal rhythm, and a satisfied smile on his face. He looked around at the dark tunnel and yelled, "I've beaten you! I know that's all you can do here! Well, I won't die here, and I won't become part of you!" With that the Saiyan whirled and struck his palm flat against the wall. A huge light appeared under his hand as he released a gigantic ki attack into the living tissue of Majin Buu. An explosion like a hundred thunderclaps went off in the confined space and the energy exploded against the rubbery flesh, spraying blood and smoke everywhere.
When the smoke cleared a very satisfied Vegeto stood staring at a new tunnel carved in the dark webbed flesh. A perfect circle, the tunnel extended what seemed like hundreds of yards deeper into Buu. It was pitch black at the beginning, but the end was suffused by a faint pink glow. Vegeto cocked an eyebrow curiously, and he lifted into the air and began to fly down the tunnel toward the end.
As Vegeto flew he noticed the glow getting brighter, but then he noticed something far more disturbing. Just as Majin Buu could heal himself on the outside, his insides seemed to possess the same kind of ability, and Vegeto could definitely feel the tunnel getting smaller. He accelerated steadily as he kept flying toward the now-strong pink glow until he was literally racing through a tunnel with a diameter slightly larger than his shoulders. Does it never end? he thought with some frustration as he covered what he reckoned to be miles of progressively shrinking tunnel. Finally, with a small prick of irritation as he felt the tunnel wall brush his arm, Vegeto reached the end of the tunnel with a quick burst of incalculable speed. As his feet touched the ground his chin fell to his chest as he looked on a scene of horror.
Before him in four man-sized bubbles of rubbery pink flesh hung his sons and his finest fighting companion. They seemed to be completely comatose wrapped in their eggs of flesh, and only their slack faces showed. The eggs were attached to barrel-thick stems that soared up into the darkness, and both eggs and stems pulsed with pink power. They pulsed in time with the heartbeats of their captives.
Vegeto closed his mouth and shook his head fiercely as he tried to steady his churning feelings. He had to think clearly, not lash out in blind rage with as much power as he could, or he might kill them all. He slowly walked up to the nearest pulsing egg, the one holding Piccolo, and he reached his hand out to feel the surface of his friend's prison. As he touched it, Piccolo's eyes snapped open, causing Vegeto to gasp and take a step back. The Namek's eyes were completely white, showing no pupils. They were the eyes of someone possessed.
As Vegeto looked at Piccolo the Namek suddenly grinned, flared his ki, and exploded out of the pink egg. He landed not two feet from Vegeto and he stood staring at the Saiyan with that maniacal grin and those haunting eyes. "Piccolo, what's…" Vegeto began, but he was cut off as the Namek leaped forward suddenly and swung a hard punch that connected solidly with Vegeto's chin. Vegeto took a surprised step backward, but he ignored the minor sting in his jaw. With the power of the Super Saiyan form in him, nothing Piccolo could do could possibly hurt him. The only one who could do that was all around him contained in the hideous pink flesh.
Piccolo's grin became a snarl as he shook his fist roughly and rushed back in, this time swinging his leg in a kick at Vegeto's head. The Saiyan never his took his eyes off Piccolo's, but he raised his arm in a perfect block. One block became another as he methodically fended off Piccolo's repeated attacks, occasionally slipping in a perfectly placed counter with his amazing speed. The defensive punches and kicks staggered the Namek back, but Vegeto was careful not to put his full strength behind them. He needed Piccolo conscious.
The Namek's attacks began to come faster and harder, but Vegeto kept pace easily, never giving Piccolo an opening, knowing the crafty Namek would find some way to use it to his advantage. That was Goku's less arrogant half influencing Vegeto because Goku knew from experience that Piccolo never let even the smallest gap in an opponent's defenses go unpunished.
Finally the Saiyan decided he'd had enough. As Piccolo swung yet another kick at his face Vegeto boosted his speed dramatically and caught Piccolo's swinging leg with his right hand. Then, faster than the blink of an eye, he spun a full circle to the left and swung his own kick at the back of Piccolo's still extended leg. The Namek had no chance to move as the force of Vegeto's kick spun his body around and he was facing away from the Saiyan warrior. Vegeto then reached out, caught his old companion in an unbreakable hold and growled into his pointy ear, "Now, tell me what the hell is going on here."
Piccolo looked back at Vegeto with insane eyes and spat, "You don't know? You're in the core you monkey. This is the nucleus of Majin Buu. You can't possibly win in here." Piccolo then began laughing insanely. Laughter just like that of Majin Buu.
The Namek's hideous glee was cut off suddenly as a fist that felt like steel slammed into Vegeto's kidney. The Saiyan cried out in pain as he released his hold on Piccolo and spun to look into the empty white orbs of his oldest son Gohan.
Vegeto didn't even have time to scream in protest before the young Saiyan launched a flurry of punches and kicks from all possible angles. Vegeto was struck several times in the face and gut before he recovered his equilibrium enough to even defend himself. His son was much faster and stronger than Piccolo.
Gohan's left and right fists pistoned at Vegeto furiously, the fused warrior dodging and blocking for all he was worth. He ducked under Gohan's hooking right only to curl desperately away from his rising right knee. Vegeto lashed out at Gohan's back with a hard kick, but Gohan spun and blocked with his own left leg. The demi-Saiyan blurred and reappeared on Vegeto's left, but the move seemed almost in slow motion to Vegeto's heightened reflexes, and the instant it took Gohan to move, Vegeto set himself and went on the offensive.
He met his son's swinging left fist with a strong jab from his right and flowed forward into a series of quicksilver attacks. Punches and hand strikes became straight and roundhouse kicks, and Vegeto slowly began backing Gohan up toward the wall of flesh behind them. Vegeto smoothly dodged Gohan's hard kick counter and fired a ki blast at his son's unprotected middle. The demi-Saiyan could not get his block in place in time, and the explosion knocked him back several steps and obscured his vision with smoke and bright spots. Just as Gohan recovered, though, Vegeto's knee crashed into his gut. He screamed with pain and rage, but Vegeto was not finished. Two low straight punches connected with crucial nerve points in Gohan's legs, causing his knees to buckle. As he sagged Vegeto caught him under the chin with a vicious uppercut that sent him flying upward, but he didn't travel far as the cold Saiyan warrior blurred above Gohan's flying body and hammered him down to the spongy floor. Then, hovering several feet above his son's body, Vegeto reached way back into his memories to find an attack that would put Gohan out of commission without killing him. He turned his body slightly to the side and cupped his hands behind his shoulder. But it was not a Kamehameha that he charged, as the power of the Turtle Wave might kill his son and have any number of negative effects on this bizarre environment. When the attack was ready Vegeto whipped his hands forward and shouted, "Gallic Gun!" as he fired a huge purple beam straight at Gohan's mostly prone form.
The explosion was deafening inside Buu's cortex as the beam struck Gohan with force perfectly calculated to knock the powerful demi-Saiyan out without permanently damaging him. Huge chunks of pink flesh flew out from beneath Gohan's horizontal form as the Gallic Gun carved a deep crater in Buu's brain tissue. Vegeto slowly floated to the ground next to Gohan and went down to one knee to check on his son. He placed a gloved hand on the demi-Saiyan's chest and smiled with satisfaction when he felt a faint flutter of heartbeat. Then Vegeto's head twitched slightly to the side as he felt something else. A familiar ki he had almost forgotten about in the brief skirmish with Gohan spiked and hurtled toward his bent back. At the last possible second the Saiyan spun up onto his hands in a delicate handstand as a big green form streaked past him with its fist extended.
Vegeto landed lightly and raised his eyes to see Piccolo planting hard and rushing back at him, snarling insanely. The Saiyan calmly raised his arm and pointed it directly at Piccolo's chest as the furious Namek rushed in with his fist extended again. An instant before the punch landed, a huge globe of light flashed into being and struck Piccolo dead in the chest. The fighter hurled back, struck the far wall behind the eggs still holding Trunks and Goten, slid to the ground and laid still.
Vegeto turned and stepped away from Gohan toward the center of the chamber. He stopped in the exact middle and looked straight up into the dark reaches where the four stems disappeared. A slow rumble began in the chamber that exploded with a deafening noise as Vegeto unleashed his ki with a tremendous rush of power. Then he screamed into the darkness of Majin Buu, "I'm telling you again that I've won! You've tried everything but fighting me yourself! So come out here and finish this, or leave my family alone! Come out here! NOW!"
With that last word, Vegeto drew even more deeply on his unbelievable ki, filling the chamber with golden light and snapping golden lightning. He then raised his hand and fired a huge bolt of bright blue ki straight up at the apex of Buu's brain. As the Big Bang rocketed upward a huge, familiar face materialized just above it. With a hideous grin the massive Buu face opened its gigantic mouth and swallowed the blue ki whole.
Vegeto continued to stare upward with horror and disgust at the huge face, and as he looked he felt his attack detonate somewhere within the Buu-head-being. The face extended grotesquely, and Vegeto threw his arms over his face to cover it from the expected spray of gore, but nothing happened. The Saiyan peeked upward through his arms and saw the face smiling repulsively at him. Then he screamed as the bulbous lips pursed and spat a huge blob of liquid fire right at him, and he threw his arms up toward the attack. A glimmering shield sprang up just in time to deflect the jet of flame to either side of the fused warrior, and the spray of fiery droplets melted dozens of tiny holes in the webbed flesh of Buu's cortex. None of this, though, held Vegeto's attention. He was too concerned with what was happening above him.
The huge face seemed at once to flatten and contract, and it oozed to one side of Buu's dome-like head and then, to Vegeto's horror, began to slide down the wall toward the floor. The Saiyan slowly backed away from that particular wall, stepping over the healed burns from the face's attack, and he watched as the face became a long amorphous tube of pink flesh as it continued to creep toward the floor.
The rubbery worm-like creature eased onto the floor and spread out into a puddle roughly a yard across. Then from the puddle a floppy antenna, a very familiar head, a pair of broad shoulders, a bare pink chest and wide white pants rose with a fluid, eerie motion. Before Vegeto stood Buu as he looked before absorbing Gotenks, but Vegeto could sense terrible power coming from this Buu that the other one could never have dreamed of.
Vegeto stared into the demon's insane black eyes and said in his double voice that thrummed with power, "Nice to see you again. Finally found some backbone, hmm? Let's end this right now, monster."
Buu snorted and began swaggering closer to Vegeto, giving him a condescending look. When he was no more than ten feet away from the Saiyan he practically purred at him, "Poor fool. This is my world. In here there is no God, no Devil. There is only me. If you must fight, then we will fight, but know that in here, Vegeto, you cannot win. Here, you kill both yourself and those you love if you try to destroy me."
Before the demon's lips were even closed, a white-gloved hand was clamped over his grinning mouth, and Vegeto's other hand was positioned with his pointer finger less than three inches from Buu's forehead. Buu saw nothing but cold blue eyes as Vegeto said, "Let's give it a try, then." A tiny ball of ki that blazed like a miniature star formed at the tip of Vegeto's extended finger, and he began to move it ever so slowly toward the demon's brow. He felt Buu's ki begin to rise a bit, but he tightened his vise grip until he heard a tiny squeak from his enemy's throat.
Vegeto scowled fiercely and leaned in toward Buu until their faces were almost touching. Then he said, "Let me and my family go, and we'll finish this outside. Only one of us is going to die today, Buu, and we are going to settle it out in my world that you invaded. That," and Vegeto let the tiny ball at the end of his finger glow even more brightly than before, "or we can all die right here, right now."
Buu stared murder at the Saiyan who held him in the crushing grip leaving him with no favorable alternatives. He wanted this Saiyan and his miserable family dead so badly that he almost provoked the deadly attack from this warrior so willing to suicide himself and those he loved. But along with his insatiable appetite for destruction, Buu possessed an equally powerful instinct for self-preservation. He did not want to die, even if it meant killing Vegeto, even if it meant destroying this entire planet. "Agreed," he snarled through the white glove. "Outside." And then the whole world went white.
Vegeto blinked to clear the spots from his eyes as he looked around at the familiar earthen landscape. He was standing on a small island that seemed to be far from where he had been absorbed. Buu had apparently done some traveling while he was inside. The sun was only a few degrees farther across the sky, though. That's a relief, he thought. At least I didn't lose too much time in there.
After checking over himself to see that everything was still intact, the fused Saiyan warrior looked around for his family. He found them several yards away, all four of them lying on their backs, arms crossed across their chests. He checked them all and found that they all still breathed and were simply unconscious. The funeral positions seemed just another one of Buu's disgusting mind games. Buu, he thought angrily, where are you? Your time is up.
Vegeto floated up into the air and scanned around the area, searching for the demon with both his eyes and his mind. He felt him first, several islands away, but he was confused for a moment as he felt two Buu's. When he flew over to the other island and saw what he was feeling, however, he was even more confused than before.
There indeed were two Buu's. One was fat like the first had been but far less powerful. The other was no taller than an adolescent, but his evil grin betrayed cruelty like no other and dark, evil power flowed off of him in waves. The small, childlike Buu held the larger one by his antenna, and he was repeatedly smashing his round counterpart with tremendous blows from a ki-charged fist. Fat Buu cried out in pain with every punch, and little Buu crowed with insane delight as he caused more and more damage.
Finally driven beyond even his own lack of compassion for anything bearing Buu's shape, Vegeto shouted, "Enough! Both of you! Your fight is with me, Buu!"
The punches immediately stopped as the pink dwarf looked over and saw his enemy again. Faster than a blink he released Fat Buu's antenna and smashed him to the ground below with a huge scissor kick. Fat Buu screamed the whole way down, and when he struck the ground the huge shattering of rock was accompanied by a massive cloud of dust that dissipated to reveal a crater a hundred feet across. Dwarf Buu then turned to regard Vegeto and said in a hideously high, cracking voice, "Do you recognize me, Vegeto? Not quite the same right? This is my true form, the form that defeated the Kais all those millennia ago. Now we face each other each as we truly are. Now we fight."
Vegeto wasted no time with words. This Buu was not as powerful as the one he had fought before, the one with Gohan's power, but he couldn't afford even one mistake. He had learned his lesson before, and it very nearly cost him his life and the lives of his family. No more, he thought. No more. This ends right now. Then Vegeto raised his arms and released the full volume of ki in his body.
The earth below him immediately began to rumble and buck as huge waves of golden energy began to buffet it like a hurricane pushing at a house. Except no house had ever tried to withstand a hurricane like this. Vegeto began to scream as more and power rolled off him, and his golden aura began to grow. It stretched and expanded until the edge touched the water beneath him, and where the two met, the water immediately turned to steam and disappeared. The storm of power increased as the calm golden lightning crawling on the globe of Vegeto's aura became snapping silver bolts as big as trees that blasted off around him in a furious tempest. Inside the globe the air was calm except for the scream that poured from Vegeto's throat, and it increased in volume as Vegeto's already bulging muscles bulked up a little more and his hair grew out a few more inches and seemed to stand even more on end. He had pushed his new body into the realm of Super Saiyan 2, and Vegeto's eyes shone like blue stars as his aura continued to blaze and he raised his finger to point at Majin Buu. The terrified demon seemed on the verge of weeping, but Vegeto felt no pity. He had no remorse for this creature that desired only to end all life, especially the lives of his friends and family. All he felt for this creature was an urge Majin Buu knew very well. He wanted to kill. "Come and get me demon," he growled, and like a switch had been thrown, the golden globe and silver lightning storm around the fighter disappeared, leaving him standing alone, seemingly unprotected.
Buu could barely contain his fear as he looked at the Saiyan, but his challenge and the dropping of his shield left him only one option: attack. With a desperate cry, Buu surged his ki as high as he possibly could and arrowed straight at Vegeto's grim face. His swinging fist connected dead on the Saiyan's unmoving visage, and Buu screamed as he pulled away a hand of broken bones and torn rubbery flesh. Even as the hand healed and he drew back for another swing, Vegeto seemed to move in the space between one instant and the next, and he struck Buu full in the chest with a kick that sent him blasting back hundreds of yards before he even knew what had happened. It took many hundreds more to slow to a halt, but Buu did not hesitate an instant. He rushed back in, screaming defiance and death, charging an impossibly dense globe of pink and black energy. As he came up in Vegeto's face he snapped his arm forward to throw, but the Saiyan reached out and caught his wrist in a crushing grip. The globe stayed there, crackling madly with destructive energies, but Vegeto had eyes only for Buu. He formed a golden sword of ki in his hand and whirled it in a tight arc across the top of Buu's head as he released his hand, severing the demon's antenna and chopping the sphere of energy clean in half. Vegeto blurred away as Buu turned to look dully at his ruined globe, and he screamed as the attack exploded, all the power meant for Vegeto blowing up in Buu's miserable face.
The Saiyan reappeared beside a charred hunk of flesh no bigger than a television, and he sighed as the hunk of Buu began to regrow. He took several steps backward in the air, positioning himself twenty feet away from where Buu would stand in a matter of seconds. He raised his hands with wrists touching just like a Final Flash and pointed them directly at the nearly formed Buu. Three tiny dots of light appeared in his hands, one white, one blue, and one gold. As the demon opened his eyes for the last time and saw Vegeto, the Saiyan said, "Bad news, friend: you lose."
Buu had time for a single curse from his demonic language before Vegeto screamed, "Big Kamehameha Flash!" and the three dots exploded into bars of energy each as big around as a tree and washed over Majin Buu. The huge bars coiled around each other and merged together, forming a massive attack with enough power to set a galaxy ablaze. But no galaxy was in danger here. Buu took the full force of the blast, and as Vegeto felt the demon begin to die, he poured more and more energy into the attack. He felt Buu rebound and begin to regenerate, so he clenched his muscles and pushed every erg of his ki into the blast that was now brighter than the sun. Buu's hold was slipping. Vegeto felt the fiend's body crumble, and his spirit with it, and he screamed one final time, "No more!" as the attack washed over Majin Buu and detonated with a roar of noise that shattered rocks on the island below and seemed to echo off the unseen stars in the blue sky above.
When it was over, Vegeto floated in the air, alone, his hair black and his muscles relaxed, a tiny smile on his face. He sighed with satisfaction and released the ki that kept him flying. He dropped like a rock, splashing into the sea beneath him, and his unconscious form slipped beneath the waters.
He opened his eyes to a clear blue sky above him. It seemed several hours had passed, but the light was still strong. Strange how we've never had any of these big things at night, he mused. He rolled over onto his stomach and pushed up onto his knees and white-gloved hands. As he did black spots swirled across his vision and his head sank involuntarily to the ground. "I'm sorry about that," a soft voice said from several feet away. "You'd lost so much energy, I almost didn't get to you in time. The healing was very strenuous."
Vegeto rolled over onto his side to see who was talking, and his eyes saw the young guardian of the Earth sitting cross-legged on the ground and smiling at him. "Dende," he whispered. "How did you find me?" He had no memory of anything after the attack had gone off, not even falling into the ocean.
"It wasn't hard," Dende said as he got up and came over next to the warrior. "Your battle was probably the biggest thing this universe has ever seen. I was keeping my distance, but that attack of yours still almost blinded me. After Buu died your energy just shut off, and you fell into the water. I flew in and fished you out. Then I healed you, though you were pretty far-gone. But you're fine now. You should get your strength back in a few minutes."
"Wait," Vegeto said as he sat up delicately. "You know who I am? How do you know?"
"I watched your first fight with Buu," Dende replied. "Mr. Satan and I watched you fight him and get absorbed. When he flew off I followed. I knew I couldn't leave either of you alone. We've been through so much, Goku…er…Vegeta…um…what should I call you?"
"Vegeto. My name is Vegeto. And you said Buu is dead?"
"Most definitely. I have checked the area, and there's not a trace of him left. You did it. You saved us all, Vegeto."
"What about my family," the Saiyan asked as he pushed himself to his feet. Tiny spots swam in front of his eyes, but he fanned them away with one gloved hand. "How are they?"
"I tended to them too," the young Namek said as he placed a steadying hand on Vegeto's elbow. "They're fine and they should wake in an hour or so."
Vegeto looked over to see his sons and friend lying on the ground, their arms uncrossed. All of them seemed to be resting peacefully. "An hour. Good," he said. "That should give me enough time to find the Dragonballs."
"Don't bother," Dende said with a smile as he went over to where a lumpy sack was lying on the ground. "I already thought of that." Then the Namek upended the sack and spilled out seven glowing orange balls, his own handiwork, onto the turf.
Vegeto smiled as he went over to look at the balls. "Nice work, kid," he said. Then he sighed heavily. "Dende," he said, "I've come to a decision. I have to leave. I can't stay here like this, as I am. Where would I live? Whose husband would I be? I can't do this, Dende."
"I know," the Namek said. "I worried about the same thing as soon as I saw you. But you have to tell them somehow, Vegeto. They deserve to know."
"No they don't," the sad warrior said. "I think this would be too painful for them to bear." Vegeto then turned and grasped Dende by the shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. "Tell them I died," he said. "Tell them all that their father, husband and friend died fighting Buu. It's for the best, and you know it."
Tears welled up in Dende's eyes as he squeezed Vegeto's wrist and said, "I will. It'll hurt, but I will. But where are you going to go?"
"I don't know," Vegeto said as he released Dende's shoulders and turned away. "King Kai's maybe. Or Kaioshin's planet. Who knows? But I'll come back someday, Dende. Don't you worry about that."
He looked back over his shoulder at the Namek and said, "I trust you can wish them back by yourself?" Dende swallowed heavily and nodded. Vegeto turned his head back and took a step away before he stopped again and said, "Oh, by the way, do me a favor. Use the second wish to reincarnate Buu as a pure-hearted human boy. I need you to do that for me as well, Dende."
Dende hoarsely said, "I will, Vegeto. Good luck." Vegeto smiled and held up his first two fingers in a V. Then his aura flared and he rocketed up into the sky.
As he flew away Vegeto heard Dende's small voice carry across the miles to his ear, "Come forth, Shenlong, and grant my wish!" He kept flying but rolled over on his back and saw the bright burst light that accompanied the summoning of the Eternal Dragon. The sky began to turn black near the island where the life he was leaving behind laid unconscious on the beach. He sighed and rolled back over onto his stomach. He increased his speed, reveling in the feel of the wind washing over his face. That had always been his favorite part of flying. Then he expelled a huge sigh, letting his worries and cares vanish with one breath. At peace with himself, at peace with the world he had saved once again, Vegeto raised two fingers to his forehead.
Then he was gone.