Chapter 3 – The End?
The first thing Vegeta sees is Goku falling backwards, he lost consciousness just like the five year old Vegeta from the memory has. The connection between their minds is severed. Vegeta looks down on his shaking hands, tears fall soundlessly to the ground. He never imagined reliving the experience could be this intense… A familiar pain creeps up his lower back and his stomach hurts like hell. He slowly gets up and looks down on Goku. Goku rolled his body into a fetal position, tears staining his cheeks even if he is unconscious. His mind can't process what he's just experienced.
"That's it, Kakarot. No more," Vegeta says with trembling voice. "It's too much for the both of us to take."
Vegeta takes off into the sky. Dark clouds gather over Goku's shaking body and soon cold rain begins to fall.
"They're both gone?" Krillin says surprised. "That's weird… Why didn't Goku tell anyone?"
"I don't know, Krillin," Bulma says desperately, "but Chi-Chi can't take it anymore. She's been crying for twelve hours straight! She thinks something terrible might have happened to Goku."
"Well, I'll take Gohan and we'll search for their ki's. It's nothing like Goku to just disappear."
Gohan nods and follows Krillin outside.
"Any idea where we should start, Gohan?"
"Let's try the training grounds first," he says. "There was a weird ki spike last night, maybe it was one of them."
They fly as fast as they can. The rain clouds are gone and the sun is shining like everything's alright.
"What do you think happened?" Krillin asks Gohan.
"No idea. Vegeta can't stand Goku around him, so it makes no sense whatsoever that they're both gone. I hope my dad's alright."
"You think Vegeta…"
"He's capable of hurting my dad. Maybe he can't kill him, but he can do other things to him."
"What do you mean?"
"I've had some trouble with Vegeta in the past, like on Namek and on Chikyuu right after Namek exploded. He's a psychopath, Krillin. I've seen it in his eyes."
"So you think the ki spike last night was them fighting?"
"I'm not sure. It didn't feel like two people were fighting, it felt like… someone was fighting himself. I can't explain really."
"Well, we're almost there. Let's go take a look."
They land on the training grounds, but take off again as soon as their feet touch the ground.
"What the…" Krillin cries out. "Did you feel that?"
"I sure did," Gohan answers, hovering a few feet above the ground. "I don't know what's going on, but something evil happened here last night. I felt darkness… and I sense my father has been here. But I can't sense his ki right now."
"So what do we do now? If we can't sense him, there's no use in searching for him. It would take too long."
"There are other ways of finding him." Gohan closes his eyes and tries to call out for his father mentally. Surprised, he opens his eyes again.
"He's blocking me! I can't establish a connection."
"Great. Well, at least he's still alive. Let's go back, Gohan. Your mother is probably worried sick about you."
"Wait! I sense something!"
"I feel it too! But that's not Goku!"
"I know, Krillin. Let's go. Maybe Vegeta can lead us to my father." They take off, flying towards the ki signal nearby.
"His ki feels weird, doesn't it?" Krillin says. "It feels almost… transparent or something."
"That's what worries me," Gohan says, flying even faster.
They soon see Vegeta, standing on top of a cliff. In his right hand, he holds a sphere of blue ki. Small white sparks flicker around it.
"Gohan," Krillin whispers. "Is that a spirit bomb?"
"I don't think so. I've never sensed anything like this."
"What the hell is Vegeta doing?"
"Let's find out!" Gohan drops from the sky and lands behind Vegeta with a soft 'thud'. Vegeta doesn't seem to react to his presence, until Gohan speaks.
"Vegeta, what are you doing? And where is my dad?"
"I don't know. It doesn't matter anymore." An incedible sadness radiates from Vegeta and suddenly it dawns on Gohan.
"Drop the ki, Vegeta," he commands.
"Hah! You think you can tell me what to do, boy?" Vegeta whirls around and stretches out his left hand. Gohan can barely avoid getting hit by the energy blast.
"Now leave this place before I get really mad and take you with me!" Vegeta roars, while powering up the blue ki sphere. It increases in size until it's bigger than Vegeta himself.
"Vegeta, no! You can't just kill yourself for no reason!" Gohan screams angrily, thinking of the reaction of Bulma and Trunks when they'd hear about Vegeta killing himself and them standing by doing nothing to stop him.
"I've got every reason, kid. Now I suggest you two take cover, or else you will get hurt."
It seems to happen in slow motion. Vegeta turns around and calmly steps into the ki sphere. A huge explosion erupts through the landscape as Vegeta blows himself up.
"Vegeta!" Gohan and Krillin scream in unison, covering their faces with their arms.
Soon all that remains is a giant crater. Vegeta is nowhere to be seen…
