Planet Vegeta, 37 Years Ago, Estate of the Vegeta Royal Family
"The Legendary Super Saiyan...?" A young boy, only five, was clad in the armour well known in use by the Freeza Army. With his signature spiky hair, standing upright, and a widow's peak, he looked far from innocent, but compared to the more imposing man he stood next to, he may as well have been a precious doll. "What do you mean, Father? What is that?"
"The Legendary Super Saiyan, my son..." the older man placed his hand on the shoulder pads that adorned his son's combat jacket, and smiled. His genuine smiles were only reserved for this boy, his heir, the one to inherit the Saiyan throne and the Vegeta name. "It is one of our races proud legends; in this particular tale, there is a Saiyan said to be born every thousand years who inherits power a cut above the rest. A 'Super Saiyan'. I believe, son, that this is your destiny; I know that you will become the Super Saiyan our race has longed to see...and overthrow that tyrant, Freeza!"
"...Me...become a Super Saiyan...?" The five year old Saiyan was certainly enamored with the prospect. He'd always wanted to be strong; to be the best, this much was certain. If he could become the Super Saiyan of legend, certainly no one would stand in his way. No, he would become the Super Saiyan. After all, he was the prince. Who was there to stand in his way?
"This...this is amazing...!" Trunks stood in awe as he felt Vegeta's ki overwhelm him. To be able to feel that ki so clearly, despite being so far away, was insane. It was so oppressive he felt that Vegeta may as well have been standing right next to him. "Dad, you're awesome!"
The long-hair that adorned Vegeta's back ripped furiously with his aura, which flickered with the force of a violent flame. Rivulets of bio-electricity snapped within this aura, occurring at higher frequencies than the Ascended Super Saiyan state. If Bū could sense ki he might be backing away. Even the Saiyan Prince himself could feel power coursing through his body like blood. His ki was racing, and his body pumped full of adrenaline.
Bū, however, thought otherwise. Pointing his gloved hand at Vegeta, the Djinn grinned. "You look scary, but you no scare Bū! Big hair make you look big funny!"
"I'm inclined to agree," Babidi grinned. "You look more like a musician in need of a haircut than any kind of fighter. Majin Bū, let's give him a trim on the house!"
"Bū do!" Bū crowed, and prepped himself for a movement. Before he could even begin an attack, there was a sight akin to a bright yellow blur, and suddenly Majin Bū was ripped in half. Vegeta had moved so swiftly a single blow was all it had taken to split Bū into pieces, and he didn't even think he'd taken a full complete stride before closing the 'distance' between himself and the monster.
The two halves of Bū spiraled into the air, before stretching out to reattach themselves; Majin Bū quite literally pulled himself together, glaring angrily at Vegeta, who was grinning at the Djinn with amusement and pride.
"What's the matter? Is that the best you can do? I was hoping for more from the mighty Majin Bū!" Gripping his gloved fist, the Saiyan Prince began to let loose a violent power up. The ground cracked and shattered beneath his feet, rocks erupting from the ground as Vegeta exploded forward with a massive show a force. Colliding with Majin Bū, Vegeta slammed his knee into the Djinn, forcing it to skid backwards along the ground. Chuckling to himself, drunk on power, Vegeta pursued Bū, slamming his fists and legs into the creature, completely on the offensive, while he pushed Bū into being able to do nothing but defend.
"Bū!" Babidi shrieked. "Come on! Dodge, hit back, do something, damn it! I know you're not so unintelligent you can't even duck!"
Whatever warnings Babidi shouted, Bū was in no hurry to heed them, and this was his error. Vegeta was attacking without relent, and performed a powerful uppercut to the Djinn's chin, sending him hurtling into the air. Vegeta leapt from the ground, racing past Bū and appearing above him. As the flying Djinn flew like an unreasonably fat bird, Vegeta gripped both fists together and slammed them down on Majin Bū's head, sending him flying down to Earth with a crushing blow.
As he fell, Bū's body rippled like jelly at the wind pressure that affected him, and he crashed into the Earth like a fat meteor. Upon impact, he seemed to turn into a puddle of pink goo, but quickly reformed himself, glaring at the sky in Vegeta's direction. The Djinn began to growl, his high-pitched voice signifying his own bad mood. Steam began to issue from the openings on his body, the high-pitched kettle-like sound shrieking through the air.
"Bū mad!" Majin Bū shouted into the air. "You hurt Bū!"
"Good to see I'm making some progress," replied Vegeta snidely. "But let's see how long you can last before I rip you apart!" Vegeta's long-haired form vanished, reappearing if front of Majin Bū as if he'd suddenly materialized there. Clenching his fist, he swung it forward, but to his surprise, Majin Bū extended his arm, the stretched limb collided with Vegeta's face. He remained still in his spot, actually surprised. A drop of blood tricked from his chin, and the Saiyan Prince wiped it away with his gloved hand.
"Just as I thought..." His sharp eyes bored directly into Majin Bū . "You're nothing! Just a spit-up wad of chewing gum! I didn't even feel it."
"W-W-What...!?" Babidi, watching on the sidelines, was floating, open-mouthed, at the sight. His was spluttering, finally unable to form words or any sort of witty commentary, at the sight of Vegeta utterly dominating the fight against his demon creature.
Vegeta thrust his foot forward, and it extended through Majin Bū's belly, leaving a foot-sized imprint. Before the Djinn could be forced back by Vegeta's physical strength, he grabbed Majin Bū by the antennae and began to pull him forward, mercilessly beating on him with a free hand. Slamming the back of his fist into the Djinn's face, crushing it in full force with his elbow, Vegeta unleashed physically upon Majin Bū with all his strength.
Grunts and groans of pain escaped the Majin, and as Vegeta released attack after attack, steam also issued from Bū's body in rhythm to the attacks, almost as if it were a kind of musical game Vegeta was playing. And he played to win. Pulling on the antennae a final time, the Prince of Destruction gave a hard yank, spinning Majin Bū above his head like some grotesque lasso.
"Now, you're done for!" shouted Vegeta, heaving Majin Bū over his head and into the air. Bū shot high above the ground, a pink rocket attempting to breach the atmosphere. Comfortably, Vegeta settled into a stance, cupping the back of his palm into his remaining free open palm. He began to charge a powerful ki, his yellow aura altering itself as a bright red and orange glow enveloped his body. The aura was strongest glowing over his hands, where a practical sphere of flames was churning, spiraling like a tempest.
"SUPER! GARLIC! CANNON!" Punctuating his technique name for emphasis, Vegeta thrust his hands forward. The aura that enveloped his body and hands erupted from his body, a pillar of flames larger than a barn silo launched itself at Majin Bū. The energy blast zoomed forward with speed invisible to common eyes, and homed in on Majin Bū, who was beginning to adjust himself.
"Bū!?" The Djinn's eyes widened, and he gripped both of his gloved hands tightly. With strength welling up that would stun anyone who could sense it, Majin Bū pressed his hands into the blast, and managed to divert its flow, if only slightly. This proved to be enough, and the blast's path was altered in a manner that the entire torso of the Djinn was erased, leaving his lower body untouched, the blast flying off into the outer reaches of space.
A bright flash in the sky signified a powerful explosion. It would appear Vegeta had just destroyed a distant planet.
Without missing a beat, the Majin's upper body mended itself, popping out of its lower torso with a fitting 'popping' sound.
His eyes narrowed in dissatisfaction, his emerald eyes flashing with anger. "Even now, he's a persistent bastard. He's going to a pain in the ass to put down!" The Saiyan gripped his gloved fists tightly. Proud of his new power he may be, it seemed Majin Bū would still give him a chance to work down the knuckles on these gloves. His muscles bulged slightly, bio-electricity crackling around his body, and his golden aura flared to life. His hair, still obscenely long, whipped, and the Earth once again trembled under the full force of Vegeta's ki.
"You strong! Bū have fun fighting you!" The Majin pointed at Vegeta, a smile, childish and innocent, on his face. "Let's play more, long-hair guy!"
"That's right!" Vegeta grinned. "I'll play your little game all you want, Majin Bū! We won't stop until I've dragged you into the very depths of Hell!" His aura flaring, shining brilliantly, he was panting only slightly. Majin Bū wasn't even any worse for wear, in spite of Vegeta's insane onslaught; even his Super Garlic Cannon had done nothing. But he hadn't tapped the full vestiges of Saiyan power. There was still better.
"Now brace yourself for Hyper Vegeta's full power!"
On the sidelines, Trunks and Goten were watching the battle absolutely awe-inspired. They'd never seen such a high-level battle before; their spars with Vegeta and Gohan in the past had been child's play. Even the harsh Vegeta had always held something back against Trunks, and Gohan would never fight seriously against Goten no matter how much the young son of Goku would beg.
But now, as they watched Vegeta fight the fiendish Majin Bū, it was now that they could see two powerful fighters, one a very seasoned warrior, fight in a battle to the death. Neither held anything back; no reserves, nothing. And the pressure of the battle was so palpable, they could taste it. Repeatedly, Trunks felt himself swallowing instinctively, and found himself short of breath, watching his father in action as he ripped into Majin Bū.
And he'd never been as proud to be Vegeta's son.
A powerful kick, a crushing punch, and backbreaking elbow blow. Vegeta hammered into Majin Bū with all of these and more. Gripping the Djinn by the neck, Vegeta slipped behind him easily, pivoting on his heel and landing a kick to Majin Bū's back that echoed across the wasteland as the menace hurtled across the landscape before sliding face-first into the rocky ground.
Majin Bū forced himself to his feet, regenerating from the shredded front body the ground had caused, But he failed to notice Vegeta, who had walked up behind him, and placed a hand to his back. "Disappear, Majin Bū! Big Bang Attack!" An orange sphere erupted from his palm, and it ripped into Majin Bū's back, forcing him away. The sphere exploded in a blinding flash, ripping Majin Bū into pieces.
However, to almost no one's surprise, Majin Bū immediately began to piece himself together, forcing into the humanoid blob that Vegeta had come to know and loathe. The luminescent Saiyan Prince was scowling now; still confident in his abilities to win, but growing increasingly irritated with the regenerative capabilities of this demon creature.
Vegeta exploded forward, slamming a fist solidly into Majin Bū's freshly regenerated face. Following up with a pulverizing kick, he began to attack in a furious combo. To his surprise, however, Bū had begun a counterattack, and the two were swiftly moving across the wasteland; kick after kick, punch after punch, every blow as crushing as the last.
However, still, Vegeta had the advantage, his immense Super Saiyan power, which exceeded even the normal boundaries of an Ascended Super Saiyan was pushing him to new heights. Grabbing Majin Bū by the foot, ducking under the latter's own attempt at a counterblow, rolled and tossed Majin Bū over himself and slammed him directly into the ground. Landing, Majin Bū began to rise to his feet, but Vegeta was quicker. The Saiyan turned around, almost in a direct spin, and opened his maw wide. A glowing light began to emit from inside it, and Vegeta let loose a massive yellow ki wave from his mouth, enveloping and incinerating Majin Bū.
The light died from, revealing a worn and ragged Majin Bū, who was burnt and smoking from the amount of ki Vegeta had released. It seemed Vegeta had even found a hole in the creature's seemingly flawless regeneration. The excess of damage had actually rendered it stunned from the pain; Bū stood there, his body shaking from the damage.
"Bū...hurting..."
"Well, it looks like even you've got a weakness!" Vegeta grinned, though it was more of a sinister grimace than anything else. This was the look of a man who was assured of his victory. "Then, I think it's time we end this little farce. It's been fun, Majin Bū!" Vegeta extended his hands to his sides, and he began to charge a massive amount of ki. His hands and body began to emit a powerful yellow glow, and the ground and skies began to warp as Vegeta prepared his final technique: the Super Final Flash.
On the sidelines, Babidi was beginning to panic at the sight of his precious creature doing nothing.
"Bū! Please! Regenerate! Hit him! Kill him! AT LEAST DODGE!"
With his ki fully loaded, Vegeta was practically a star onto himself. He was flickering, his aura expanding, and then contracting, and then expanding again. Crackles of lightning snapped from his fingertips and palms, the orb in his head prematurely releasing energy from his body, ripping holes in the ground, rather than simple lines. He could feel the ki; with this technique, he could win.
"You're finished Majin Bū! SUPER FINAL FLASH!" With a final shout, his energy expanded from his body in a furious blast...only to immediately recede and deplete, fizzling out as quickly as it came. His long golden hair, that had previous reached his waist, had shrunk and receded within the span of a second, returning itself to its normal black colour and length. His eyebrows regrew, his eyes reverted to deep onyx pools, and he could feel fatigue hit his body like a freight truck. The Saiyan Prince fell to his knees, body pooling sweat, and his wounds from before seemed to cause only double the pain they had before he transformed.
"Damn...damn it all!" He growled, utterly frustrated. He barely felt like he could move his body. The situation, however, was only made worse by the fact that Bū was regenerating from his wounds and was quickly restored to full health. Vegeta's window of opportunity, his chance at victory and protecting the Earth, had just been slammed shut. "DAMN IT!" As he punched the ground, barely leaving an indent, Majin Bū snickered sinisterly.
"You were strong! But you not strong enough to beat Bū!" The Djinn grinned, and, now at a complete and total advantage, ran forward with the full force of his girth. His large body slammed into Vegeta's, and it was rocked with pain, the Saiyan Prince gasping and wheezing. Bū grabbed him by the neck, and began to drag him across the ground, before sending him careening across the wasteland with not so much as a simple throw.
Coughing and spluttering, Vegeta felt blood erupt from his throat; his entire body was damaged, a terrible combination from his wounds, and his sudden transformation depriving him of life-threatening levels of ki. He barely had the energy to stand, and was beginning to slip into the realms of the unconscious. Majin Bū approached him, smiling and humming, his wounds and cares completely gone.
"DAD!" On the sidelines, Trunks' body was trembling. He could feel regret, concern, and most of all, fear, and it crept through his body like a disturbingly cold chill. Sweat dripped down his face. "No! Dad!" Trunks was hesitating, but it was a slight falter. He couldn't remain on the sidelines now, not with his father in mortal peril. With a rising shout, the boy transformed into a Super Saiyan and immediately tore away from the safety of the rocks towards Majin Bū.
"T-Trunks, wait!" Goten mimicked his friend, and the two golden lights rushed towards Majin Bū, slipping past a surprised and shocked Babidi in the process. Homing in directly onto Majin Bū, the two boys slammed their tiny fists into Bū's face. With a jolt, Bū was removed from the ground and sent flying; his guard having been dropped, the boys scored a direct and solid hit to the Djinn's face.
"Dad!" Trunks immediately rushed over to his father's wounded form; gently, he tried to shake his father awake, the boy's pleading voice calling out. He didn't know how much time they had, or how far his kick had sent Majin Bū. After a moment, Vegeta began to cough, and his eyes jolted awake, much to his son's relief. His entire body was still racked with pain, and he was beginning to almost feel numb — "I've lost too much blood...!" — but he forced himself to his feet.
"You're alright!" The half-Saiyan boy gasped, tears forming slightly in his eyes. His father was still alive!
Wiping the blood away from his face, Vegeta looked at the boys standing next to him. After a moment of silence, he went over his available options, and knew Bū had backed him into a corner. He had only one way to end this — but first, the boys had to get to a safe distance away. Steadying himself for what was to come, Vegeta said the first words that needed to be said.
"Trunks...my son...take good care of your mother..."
The aforementioned boy blinked a few times, confused by his father's cryptic words and somber tone. "What do you mean Dad? Protect Mom? But you can do that too, right? Can't you? Dad, answer me!"
"Get out of here," Vegeta continued, deafening himself to his son's pleading. "Go, now! I'll face Majin Bū!"
"We can't do that, Dad!" Trunks objected immediately — and predictably — the young Super Saiyan stepping forward with a determined look on his face. "Dad, Goten and I are really strong too! We can fight with you, and if we work together, we'll take down Majin Bū! You can't do it alone Dad, I won't watch you fight him like this!"
"No!" Vegeta replied sharply, raising his voice in response to Trunks' valiant offer. "That won't make any difference. This battle is out of your league, and numbers alone won't make a difference against an enemy like Majin Bū." There was silence, in which Goten and Trunks seemed to be considering all manner of responses; their faces were working up with the effort of thinking.
"Trunks...you're my only son, and yet I haven't ever held you since you were a baby, have I?" inquired Vegeta, his voice suddenly soft.
If anything had confused Trunks more, it was this right now. His face blank, confused, the boy looked at his father, and only a bewildered "Huh?" could escape his lips.
"Come here, son." The battered Saiyan Prince extended an arm, and before Trunks could make a motion, he wrapped his single arm around his son. Vegeta was silent, his face somber. Despite Trunks' protests of embarrassment, due to not wanting to look uncool in front of Goten — who was standing around as a rather awkward third wheel — Vegeta didn't let go.
"Trunks...you've made me happy...and...proud...to be your father. Never forget this, son. Farewell." Vegeta raised his hand, and moved it swiftly, striking Trunks in the neck; even weakened as he was, Trunks had not expected the blow, and Vegeta had hit him square in a vital pressure point in the neck. A gasp escaped Trunks' throat, and his hair began to recede to its normal shape and hue as the boy collapsed onto the ground.
Goten reacted with complete and utter shock, rounding on Vegeta, anger in his eyes. "V-Vegeta!?" The miniature Goku shouted. "Why did you hit Trunks!? Is he dead! You're his Dad, so why, what did you just do to him!?" The boy continued to ramble on in disbelief that Vegeta could lay a hand on Trunks, until Vegeta silenced the young half-Saiyan himself.
"Just! Be! Quiet!" It was a command, harsh and cold, but it managed to force Goten back into silence. "I'm counting on you, Goten. Take my son away from here...and keep him safe. He wouldn't have listened if I'd simply told him no...now go! Please!" There was desperation in Vegeta's voice now; he could feel Majin Bū returning, and he knew he had little time to prepare. Asking favours like he was doing was not in his character, and he would have preferred to simply knock both children unconscious to make the job easier, but there was no one here to take them to safety.
"B-But..."
"Go! NOW!"
Without needing to be told again, Goten grabbed the unconscious Trunks, hoisting his weight easily over his shoulder, and, sparing only one more look at Vegeta, blasted off from the ground. He tore away as quickly as possible, getting his best friend to safety being his first concern. Before today, Goten had always thought of battles as something fun. A game even. But now, even as naïve as he was, he could see the darker side of battle. When fun and games were thrown out the window. The moments that made his big brother sweat in his sleep.
When lives were taken.
Hobbling back towards Vegeta, angry, but certainly no worse for wear, was Majin Bū. "Bū big mad! Who hit Bū!? Bū find them and kill them!"
"Not a chance!" Vegeta shouted back. The Saiyan Prince's body had begun to glow; while he had no energy to become a Super Saiyan anymore, he was beginning to pool the last vestiges of his strength throughout his body. A flickering aura, white and shimmering, completely defying how much ki he should have left. There was only one logical explanation.
Vegeta was turning the remainder of his very life essence into ki.
"Your fight is with me!" Vegeta jabbed a finger in his directions. "You got it? You big bloated balloon freak!"
A vein throbbed in Bū's head, and steam erupted from the pores on his body again. "You talk mean to Bū!? Me make you hurt bad! Maybe turn you to candy and eat you!"
"I've finally found it...the way to destroy you!" A sphere of ki was enveloping him now, spiraling and churning. This vibrant white storm was Vegeta's final effort, and all of his hopes rested with it. "I'm going to crush you! And throw you into the wind!" As his ki continued to build, the Saiyan Prince felt a smile slip onto his face, and the people for which this sacrifice was being made filled his thoughts in these final moments.
「Good-bye Bulma. Trunks. I do this for you. And yes. Even you, Kakarot.」
Vegeta's eyes widened, and he felt his entire body pulse as ki erupted from it at all angles. The sphere expanded, creating a blinding dome that could be seen for miles around. The sphere stretched away from Vegeta's body, and Majin Bū was completely immersed in nothing but white. As Vegeta felt the life drain from his body, the energy tore away at Majin Bū, ripping the Djinn's malleable body to pieces.
"Congratulations, your Majesties. The child is a boy." The doctor, a weathered male Saiyan, was holding a wailing child in his arms. Looking at the King, Vegeta, and his mate, a beautiful, but exhausted woman, the medical practitioner gave the infant to the woman to hold. "Have either of you decided a name?"
The woman looked at her mate, still exhausted from the ordeal of giving birth. "What do you think we should call him?"
"Vegeta." replied the King after a moment of deliberation. "The proud Prince of Saiyans."
A/N: Welp, here it is. The end of Vegeta, the Proud Saiyan Prince. I was debating on how to do this chapter ever since the story began, because I knew this was gonna be a big one, and to be honest, it's a departure from the original idea Mang and I had come up with. Rather than blow himself up, Vegeta was going to release an energy blast at Bū — say something akin to a Final Shine — and the overload would simply destroy his body. But after I came up with the Super Saiyan 3 idea for last chapter, I knew the ending would have to be more akin to the original, because Vegeta simply would not have the ki for anything else. So, I kept the original explosion as it was — though, given Vegeta is in his base state, naturally, it'd be far weaker. The benefit to fighting Majin Bū is just how malleable his body is; since even bullets pierce his flesh, most ki blasts can shred him too, weak or not.
So, a few things about this chapter; three new techniques were shown. Vegeta's Super Garlic Cannon (スーパーギャリック砲 Sūpā Gyarikku-Hō), Super Final Flash(スーパーファイナルフラッシュ Sūpā Fainaru Furasshu), and the last one was that Kikōha from the Mouth, which, since Vegeta likes to name his techniques, let's call it the Star Burst (スターバースト Sutā Bāsuto). Sadly, the 'Super Final Flash' was not shown, because Vegeta's Super Saiyan 3 form ran out of ki, however, if he had been able to release that blast, it would have been the end of Majin Bū.
On a final note, I noticed that not everyone agreed with Vegeta's Super Saiyan 3 transformation, and Hero Entertainment — who is both a reviewer of mine, as well as an active correspondent and acquaintance — mentioned that Super Saiyan 3 is not a transformation that one should be able to 'rage boost' into. While I did directly reply to him, to anyone else who has that misconception, canonically, the method in which Super Saiyan 3 can be obtained has never been stated before. In the anime — and ONLY in the anime — Goku refers to the form as drawing out all of a Saiyan's latent energy, and it can be achieved by performing this action as a Super Saiyan 2. However, you all know I frown on non-canon sources, and I only implement anime-only material (such as Pikkon and the very fact that Gohan was out wandering before the Cell Game) when I want to, believe it is of some convenience to me, or just particularly enjoy it. Even the Daizenshū only says that the form draws out the hidden power of a Saiyan to its limits, but it does not say how the form is obtained. Furthermore, the Daizenshuu are not written by Toriyama, and are thus only secondary-canon. The tl;dr version of all of that is the SSJ3 achievement requirement is vague, so I made it able to be obtained like any other SSJ form in the standard line.
Heck, if SSJ3 Vegeta ruffles the jimmies of a few of my audience members, you guys might not like quite a few things coming next. There's a storm coming, my dear readerbase, and I'm only gonna have more changes and adjustments to both canon and lore from here on out.
As a trivia note, I actually regretted killing Tenshinhan when this chapter rolled out. There was no one there to take the boys, what with Piccolo being dead and Shin being out of commission; on the plus side, I had to make Goten man up for a moment, so, development in the right direction.
Anyway, as always, thanks to Demod20 for previewing my story and making sure its the proverbial shipshape. I'll see you guys in the next exciting chapter of the Erased Chronicles!