Lord Beerus knew that there was something special about Goku ever since he laid eyes on him. When he asked to fight him, he thought him mad, but he simply derived pleasure from challenging others; and himself.
Yet, when he appeared, he didn't come to fight once more but to relay information he badly wished to know: where is the Super Saiyan God?
As Goku explained he realized things weren't so simple. The Saiyan God of legend was a mortal creation and had been used against another faction of evil hearted Saiyans. The Good Saiyans disappered from legends as assuredly as the manifestation of their physical god.
The being needed the combined efforts of four pure hearted Saiyans to grant a fifth godhood. The arrival of Tarble couldn't had been better timing in everybody's eyes, as they gathered back onto the deck of Bulma's airship to do the ritual.
"Wait, why is Vegehan being the god?" Goten asked, having defused Gotenks so they could even attempt the ritual. "Shouldn't it be my dad?"
"Dolt! He's still stronger than him!" Trunks rebuked as he held onto Goten's hand with insistence.
"But not by that much, right?" Goten inquired innocently.
"Goten is right," Bulma sighed, crossing her arms over her chest as all the party guests murmured in the background and watched with mystified awe at what was about to happen. "It should be Goku. However, Vegehan insisted he get this chance. And if the strongest person here gets to be a god, who am I to disagree?"
As the kids muttered to themselves, Videl grabbed one of Goku's hands and then Vegehan's. She personally didn't know if this was going to work. After all, she is only a Saiyan by genetic splicing. Was she a pure hearted person too? There were a lot of maybes that didn't make her feel comfortable but she trusted in what everyone else said.
"This has to work!" She thought with a determined expression. "We can't let this pompous cat get away with what he did!"
"You feeling okay, Tarble?" Vegehan asked, looking at his younger brother's more passive expression.
"I will be, eventually," He confessed, his face looking uncertain as he gripped Trunks' hand at the other end of the circular chain they made. "Is this going to avenge my wife, and the Tech-Techs? Or is this just a hollow contest of strength? I don't know what I can do now everything is gone…"
Vegehan grimaced. He didn't want to blurt out his plans to use the Dragon Balls of Earth to bring back his brother's adopted family back to life. If he did, there was a certainty it would bring about its second destruction by Beerus's hands out of spite for undoing his work.
"Don't worry about it, brother," He spoke with a stoic tone. "Whatever happens, I'll make what happens right. You can bet on that."
After saying that, Vegehan powered up, signaling the others to do the same. No transformations were needed, as just their presence was all that was required. Ki is just the catalyst to bring out something greater.
Beerus watched patiently at the edge of the airship, seated upon a chair with a tent placed over his head. Whis and Kibitoshin stood beside him, the three spectating this ritual to ensure its success or failure. While the Creator had obvious bias, the tall attendant showed a whimsy that showed no care whatsoever of what is to come.
But the Hakaishin watched with rapt anticipation.
A flicker of blue began to emerge from Videl, then the boys, followed by Tarble and Goku with finally Vegehan. It looked to be a gentle flame, awash the five as it rose higher and higher over them till it circled around the Potara Fused Saiyan. He floated upward, shining brightly over everyone's heads and stunning the spectators.
Beerus narrowed his eyes at the bluish glare, recognizing the shift to something from mortal to divine.
Cracks formed over the light, shedding away to unveil the Fused Saiyan lowering back to the ground. Beneath the bluish shell shattering is a reddish tinged being; skin adopting a more orange hue, muscles more lithe and an overall thinner physique. More strikingly, his stark black eyes gleamed a soft crimson just as his torch shaped hair was.
"I-Is that it?!" Goten blanched. "The Super Saiyan God guy?!"
"Obviously, you dork!" Trunks rebuked, though he himself couldn't take his eyes off it.
"Vegeta," Tarble gaped at the sight along with Videl and Goku. "You look so strange. Did you lose weight?"
"I don't know," Vegehan blinked, raising his arms and gesturing his bare hands experimentally. "Is this really a Super Saiyan God's power? I feel so...strange. Like I feel light on my feet or I'm in someone else's body."
"You okay?" Videl asked.
"I think I am," He nodded, smiling at Videl with certainty. "I think we succeeded. I'm an actual god now."
"Hehe, a little jealous you got so much stronger when I just closed the gap," Goku confessed, shrugging lightheartedly despite his words. "But I took a shortcut too, so I have no right to complain."
"Let's not get carried away," Beerus piped up, sipping on his cup of tea before setting it down.
Rising up to his feet, he took a few steps away from the table till he got within the rays of the Sun. His eyes narrowed towards Vegehan, keeping his hands folded behind his back with low expectation.
"Come at me when you are ready," He intoned.
"How kind of you," The Red Haired God dryly remarked, lowering his body into a spread squat and hands angled across his forehead to the right.
As all of his friends hurriedly left his vicinity, his aura finally lit up. A majestic gentle flame of crimson-gold with glittering sparks emanating from within the arching halo it cast over him. Though none could feel it, the Hakaishin felt a prickling sensation run across his own skin.
Whis himself eyed curiously at the makeup of divine energy coursing around him. It definitely wasn't a mortal's and had a beautiful appearance to it. Yet, he had a feeling something about it was...incomplete.
Then, Vegehan disappeared, vanishing like vapor in a mirage. None save for Whis could see the dash the Saiyan God made, a crimson blur in Beerus's eyes.
A foot step back, and a left palm whipped up to catch Vegehan's fist.
Unlike the explosive bursts of light he had typically emitted before as a Super Saiyan, this blow left an intangible thuum that reverberated across the sky and left everyone unfazed by his attack. Far below unseen by all was the ocean splitting open, a fissure of immense force ripping it apart with a distant roar.
"I seem to have found someone worth my time after all," Beerus replied slowly, releasing Vegehan's fist.
Floating upwards, the fused Saiyan turned God followed, the pair rising higher into the Sun filled sky above the airship. Once they had departed a decent range from the construct did they properly continue.
Beerus dashed, throwing a right hook.
Vegehan parried with an upward palm, throwing a counterstrike of his own fist.
The feline deflected with an arm swivel, knee kicking up and then snap kicking through Vegehan's guard straight into his chin. Flipping back, his legs twisted around and kicked the Hakaishin back, the pair splitting apart in the sky.
Returning in a charging blur, the two clashed limbs against limbs, evenly distributing parries and feints with neither one landing as much as a scuff against the other. Distantly none could see the rate of their movements or attacks.
It was all a haze with faint tremors filling the Capsule Corp luxury aerial transport with ominous trepidation. Though this is a first for many of the passengers to see such a fantastical display of power and superhuman ability, the veterans on deck felt completely out of their depth. What's worse is they couldn't even tell what was happening even for all of their training with ki sense.
Feeling this is the case, Whis stood up and walked to the center of the group. With a smile he gestured, summoning his long stave, the spherical planet shaped orb on the top producing a ray of light above his head. In moments, they could see a holo-projection of sorts, detailing in camera visualization so they all could fathom the movements of the two deities' actions. It even produced sound, and they all heard the resonating shockwaves that were produced with each kinetic contact the pair made against one another.
"Look! Vegehan is giving them a run for his zeni!" Yamcha shouted with glee, pointing at the picture with cheer. "Kick his tail!"
"Weren't you kowtowing to him hours ago?" Krillin asked with an annoyed sideglance to his friend.
"W-Well, that was before he threatened people! I didn't know he is a jerk!" He retorted nervously.
"He's not," Piccolo intoned sharply, making the scar-faced ex-bandit shrink under the taller emerald alien's scathing words. "We were the ones who slipped up. Had Buu been properly managed, Lord Beerus wouldn't have lost his nerve."
"You're taking his side?!" Bulma inquired with a shrill voice. "I know you were a former god yourself, but he had no business behaving the way he did! I certainly didn't invite him to my party!"
"Respectfully," Whis intervened, bringing all eyes to him as Vegehan ducked in the holo-feed's recording before pulling out Beerus's tail. Throwing him around in the air and then throwing a salvo of kikoha that exploded dramatically in the horizon; shaking the airship as the Hakaishin's attendant spoke on his charge's behest. "Gods beyond mortal worlds do not behave with the same cultural niceties as the local planet deities you are familiar with. Life is snuffed as regularly as created anew and they live the liftimes of your Earth's civilizations rise and fall a hundred times over. They view you as insects because, compared to the longevity and station of a god, you owe them respect for continued existence."
"I don't understand why something as simple as dessert can trigger your God of Destruction for genocidal rampaging!" Bulma cried out with hand waving emphasis to her frustration. "For God's sake, I could have ordered more and ready to be eaten by his worship's sweet tooth in a matter of hours!"
Whis sighed. He looked up at the screen and saw Beerus emerge with a wave of his hand parting the smoke filled air. Unharmed by the attack, he smiled toothily at Vegehan as he too paused in the air to stoically stare back at him.
"I cannot say he is in the wrong, for it isn't my place. However, I do feel it is a shame that a world as developed as yours in its cultural infancy has to be destroyed," He confessed, turning his attention back to Bulma and the others. "So for that, I hope your champion ends up satisfying Beerus. If not, then it will be regretful to see you all go."
His words left a haunting air of silence to the warriors of Earth, as well as the spectating visitors. The Ox King clung to his daughter in comfort as she looked beyond worried, Tenshinhan grimaced with hands balling up at his sides while Chaozu looked up at the projection.
"What are they doing?" The pasty skinned boy asked, bringing focus back to the now still gods high in the sky away from them.
They were quiet.
Almost too quiet.
Then they realized after a few words came from the ball of light.
"It seems you are starting to get a feel for what it means to have Godly ki," Beerus spoke, his hands placing up onto his hips in confidence. "You're doing well, Super Saiyan God."
"I get the impression you're holding back, Lord Beerus," Vegehan bluntly spoke, eyes sharply glaring at the God of Destruction. "If you think this is just a game, I'll make you regret it."
"Ha! Bold words for such a fledgling in the realm of gods to speak to Hakaishin Beerus that way!" Beerus laughed aloud, clapping his hands together as he jeered. "Your power is considerable, but nowhere close to pressuring me. At the very least, you are proving a good warm-up.
"But then again," He stopped clapping, his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as his teeth bared. "I hope you don't end up disappointing me after I've waited all this time to show yourself, Super Saiyan God!"
Vegehan sighed.
He knew that the only way to convince his enemy to fight at full power is to prove his worth. Thankfully his fusion had made mastering this power far easier than it had just been Vegeta or Gohan alone.
The Power of Two shall make itself known to the Destroyer.
Inhaling, he felt the weave of space within his body pull in the passive flame surrounding his physique into a tight shell. A crimson barrier formed around him of passive burning ki, and then his fists cocked back-
THUUM!
-releasing in a stream of light that struck the God in the arms.
"Hngh!" Beerus hissed, his body jolting back from the force of the two beams. He didn't detect a standard kikoha or even an advanced discharge. It was just sheer force from the punches the red haired deity threw at his direction.
Then another pair of beams came at him, this time from the sky above from the Sun's glare. Wincing, Beerus narrowly sheared the space in front of him with a left handed claw swipe, stopping the bolts of pure force from connecting.
Feeling the air disturbed in an instant from behind, Beerus elbowed on instinct. It cleft the top of red hair, but left his visage open to a crimson appendage blurring upward.
KRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAK!
And he felt as much as saw a fist ram into his face, casting the sky into a warping ripple of pressure that shuddered the planet with its unnatural tension. Farther away the world of Mars cracked in several large fissures and the farthest planetoid Pluto evaporated. The extension of the shockwave went far beyond sight, and much to any spectating gods, it rippled halfway across the Universe.
Reeling back with a growl, Beerus felt his eyes water and a drivel of blood leak out from his indented snout. He clenched at his face while staring agape back at the Potara Fusion's strength.
"I knew you were holding back, Lord Beerus, because I am as well," Vegehan replied, his fist cocked up as vapor hissed off his knuckles from the swift and powerful impact they inflicted. "I'm not even above half strength at this moment. There is no way that this is all the feared God of Destruction has to show such a neophyte god such as myself to beat you so handily."
Beerus grinned. Wiping the blood off his nose, the Hakaishin pinched the ichor between his digits in an upright display to the Saiyan God.
In a flick, a streak of red pierced the space, creating a tunneling hole in the air as it narrowly missed the side stepping Saiyan. A cut ran rich across the alarmed fused deity, realizing he couldn't see that movement of propelling power. Just like his own innovative attack, it had no discernable power just pure force behind his muscles.
"You don't get to determine the flow of this fight, Super Saiyan God," Beerus intoned with a cheeky grin.
"We'll see about that!" Vegehan sneered.
The Saiyan God's barrier glowed around his form, and he disappeared from view. From the view of his family and friends from the projection, they could see him flickering in and around the purple cat destroyer's vicinity, seemingly in all places at once. The Hakaishin didn't look fazed, his arms whirling around in what looked like a deliberate waving motion around his person.
A second later, the copied images of Vegehan struck at him, his limbs deflecting in a multitude of taps and claps of skin to skin contact. No shockwaves were emitted this time, just high speed friction that flashed from two beings of divine level interacting.
Beerus grabbed one of the fists, halting the barrage and dispelling the clone assault on view. Swinging the red haired Saiyan around over his head, he casually flipped him away in one direction and then launched an opposing angled kick that struck him in his near instantaneous lap around the planet.
To his surprise, a palm had caught his boot by the sole, sparks and steam rising up from the beyond lightspeed attack he held off. Yanked forward, Beerus raised his arms to deflect a punch heading to his face.
Only to feel the punch feinting away to punch straight into his godly loins.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" The God shrieked at a high shrill pitch, his eyes bulging and his whole body spasming in shock from the immediate pain. Another warping shockwave was felt across the cosmos as all viewing parties winced at the palpable pain projected to all others in the Universe. Even those with no concept of genital damage felt a chill rush up their spine, wondering what force could have been harmed in such a manner to produce such a sensation in the starbound frontier?
Vegehan smirked, releasing his hold over the destroyer and crossed his arms over his chest. Beerus clutched his godly jewels with both hands while hunching over into a ball of purple-blue, sweating around the face and shuddering in visible agony.
"You can quit now if your worshipfulness is too damaged," Vegehan derisively spoke, reveling in the pain he inflicted on his once-tormentor. "Unless you feel like being a glutton of punishment?"
"You…" Beerus growled out, his shaking lessening and his face raising slowly up till only his shadowed eyeline was seen. Veins throbbed around his hairless brows, cracks of red seen in the yellows of his eyes and his pupils shrunk. A sudden wave of malice could be felt as a thin veil of purplish flame billowed from the feline's lithe body.
The haughtiness vanished as quickly as the clawed palm thrust over his face. The entirety of his body swelled with sweltering heat like a star before exploding in a loud bang, throttling him horizontally across the sky. Another moment later, and Beerus caught his back, the fused Saiyan exploded in another propelling star-like explosion. A third grasped the top of his torch-shaped hair and he felt himself piledrived in a streak of violet-overlapped crimson into the ocean below.
Slipping through the water as if it wasn't there, an instant later a claw-shaped eruption of gold blasted the sea back kilometers on all sides, revealing the dry ocean floor. Hissing with boiling heat off its soil, Beerus clenched the Saiyan God into the ground, crackles of light emitting across the seabed of mystical protection from Shenlong. The wish barely held back the godly power, and the planet's protection buckled against the destroyer's sheer might with a loud pop that lapped across the world's sight.
"Your cockiness is due a lack of respect, Vegeta! Your attempts to goad me have only decreased your chances at survival!" Beerus intoned, his eyes glaring at his crown while shoving Vegehan's face deeper into the Earth's crust. Seismic pressure rumbled for tens to dozens of kilometers, releasing plumes of fiery smoke from the moisture deprived seabed they were upon. All the while Beerus sneered down at him. "You may think you have some form of advantage now you have become a god. But let me clue you in: I have only begun to show you the depths of Lord Beerus the Destroyer's power!"
A sudden bare palm dug into the ground before Beerus's eyes. Slowly but surely a radiant flaming aura burned gently off Vegehan's body and under the strength of his fingertips pushed the straddling God of Destruction's body up. Raised up and then propped up in a vertical position, his face emerged with minor scrapes shown across his cheeks and forehead, eyes gleaming with excitement. The odd posture looked as if he was doing an upside down push-up with one hand by his fingertips on the whole planet.
"I'm glad," Vegehan whispered out, turning to look over his clawed scalp towards the visibly surprised Beerus's face. "Because I want to fight your best, Lord Beerus!"
His free arm whipped around, lashing out to Beerus's occupied side's face. Using his own free hand to palm it, he realized his error a moment too late as it halted an inch from contact-
When an instant later a space rupturing pow shot him across the air, bouncing across the ground before hitting the wall of seawater kept propped up by his divine aura. Shaking his head, he blinked and saw Vegehan - still glowing a vibrant golden-crimson majesty - instantly in front of him, throwing a punch his way.
A flare of light, like that of a star, sent the water flowing beneath and down deep in a maelstrom of godly power between the two. The energy resonating between the pair equalized, a purple burning flame and a gentle crimson-gold light conflicting while the two held their fists against one another. And their eyes met, a smile was shown upon both of their faces.
"They're...smiling?" Krillin asked, confused given the rough start and earlier viciousness of the recorded offense between both parties. "Why the Hell are they so happy?"
"At their core, they love fighting as much as I do," Goku explained, his best friend's eyes drawn to him as he smiled in a joyful expression at what was being shown. "Vegehan is his own person after getting used to life on Earth. But, nothing has really challenged him. Not even Majin Buu. This is the first time he has a real test of strength."
"And Beerus has been looking for his rival for some time," Whis admitted, witnessing the pair separate and rise up in circular streaks of luminous flame into the sky, then into the lower reaches of space. With stars as their backdrop, the two gods clashed again and again, flares of light shining between the two but with no negative disturbing shockwave following their wake. "Vegehan is already acclimating his Godly ki to Lord Beerus. And his power is rising along with him."
"Then he really wasn't bluffing," Piccolo noted with a sweating smirk adorned on his face. "Only that man could confidently go into a life threatening battle and hold back the lion share of his power. Our lives are on the line after all."
With Piccolo's fleeting words, they saw the two spiral across the planet in their continuous exchange of godly enhanced fists. Amidst it all, they noticed a change in the majestic form of Vegehan. The flickering crimson flickered away, replaced by a familiar silvery hue, yet continued to clash without ceasing.
After their hundredth lap, Beerus slipped past a punch and struck Vegehan with a double hammer fist, his body hurdling into a partition of earth, sinking deep into the crust before emerging into a subterranean cavern. Gasping, the Potara Warrior flipped back onto his feet and leaped back, narrowly avoiding a purple fist that almost struck his descending form. The Hakaishin, undeterred, thrust a palm out and fired diamond shaped bolts of energy towards him in swift discharge.
Vegehan flared his silvery aura, deflecting the kikoha while dancing around the craigs of the deep earthen cave he found himself in. Each successive explosion ruptured, followed by tons of rock showering and falling into the chambers adjacent to him. But in the midst of firepower, the fused Saiyan vanished from sight.
"Where did he-?" Beerus asked aloud, turning his head and body in a swivel. The caving in environment hid his opponent and Vegehan couldn't be seen. A descending boulder shattered and the Hakaishin felt a boot impact his back, sending the deity blasting through the collapsing cavern. Righting himself in the underground, his purple feline shape carving through the earthen underground while receiving a successive discharge of burning orbs of kikoha that he held off.
Rising upwards, he deflected punches and kicks that came from brief intermittent ruptures of light that came from his self made ascending tunnel. Emerging out of the peak of a mountain, the terran structure evaporated as a wave of gold came in the wake of a now Super Saiyan adorned Vegehan.
He's still getting stronger…!
Beerus smiled past the veritable storm of golden comets that was his opponent's fists. Exploding in the heavens in a twister-lit glow of golden-purple, he responded with a palming parries, his aura expanding to a blistering violet that is far larger than he was small. Reaching high above the Earth, he saw Vegehan cock his arms back, angling his elbows out to the sight with curled fingers poised in a narrow space.
His golden flame crackled into a purple-white orb of light, and Beerus widened his eyes as it swelled wider and wider till it eclipsed the moon circling the Earth.
"Take this!" Vegehan yelled, his face full of throbbing veins as he howled out with a planet-wide swathe of destructive purple light charging straight into Beerus.
"SUPER GARLIC CANNON!"
The Hakaishin had no time to dodge. He pushed a hand into the luminous wave, feeling it propel forth without halting. Grimacing, he placed the other hand on it, exerting more energy into stopping it. Still it did not yield, howling into the void as it aimed to swallow him whole.
Veins throbbed along his arms, his face construing tension and then, yelled back with a loud scream audible in the vacuum canvas around him. With a twist of his palms he tore the blast in half, feeling it explode around him in a starlit eruption of ki. In the midst of the fiery blast came Vegehan, charging alight in Super Saiyan, launching a boot first kick towards his face.
Passing through, Vegehan realized in alarm it was a zanzouken. Looking for the real God of Destruction, he didn't have to look far as he saw above him and the Earth is the floating specter.
Clapping his hands together, Beerus shouted excitedly, "Now it's my turn!"
Vegehan felt a chill rush down his spine. An enormous star of destructive energy formed over God's head. It easily scaled above the breadth of his own Super Garlic Cannon, and held a dense quality superior to any planet busting orb used against him in the past.
In effect, it made anything Freeza use like a gumball in comparison.
"Try to stop this one!" Beerus jeered, throwing it down towards him - and much to his terror - the Earth beneath him.
"I won't let you win!" Vegehan roared out, his body unknowingly erupting into his Super Saiyan 2 state, lightning showering the blackness and filled the sky of Earth with a cacophony of storm-arcing bolts of electricity overhead. His palms collided into the dense star of power, shoving against him and descending with destructive malice.
Arms burned, muscles screamed and bones shivered, sweat sloughing off him with veins threatening to burst open from strained tension. Grimacing he could feel the sheer weight of this one stellar orb carry him downwards. Not even Buu's ki infused moon outpaced him to this extent.
Blood oozed out of his clenched teeth and eyes glared defiantly up at the mass of pure controlled mass. He slowed it with all of his will and energy to the fore, but he knew it wasn't enough. But that didn't mean he was ever going to relent.
"You surprise me," Beerus spoke, his intrigue clear even through the struggle that his foe is experiencing. "I think you should know, but part way through our battle, you lost your godly form."
"I...did?" Vegehan questioned with shock, suddenly taking stock of himself. Looking at the light coming off his reddening skin and coiling muscles, he assuredly was back in a Super Saiyan form, rather than his God one.
"It appears you intuitively absorbed the Godly ki of your acclimation to it. You are a prodigious talent to achieve something like this!" He yelled out with almost cheer in his voice.
"You think I have time to gloat?" Vegehan gritted out, feeling blood escape his ringing ears and out of his nostrils as he pumped more and more power with his body giving way in the process. "You still have this much power and here I am about to crumble under this attack! If only...I had...more power, then I could push this away!"
"Then give into the planet's fate and accept your destruction!" Beerus spoke aloud with a deep yell, an unseen finger priming a twinkle of yellow light that discharged into the orb.
Expanding without warning, the outermost wave hit Vegehan with explosive force. He screamed in pain, feeling the top of his shirt tear open and reveal burning sores of overclocked muscles stretching from his chest down his arms. Gasping aloud, he felt a wave of entropic energy escape past him, flattening mountains, leveling building tops and tearing into forests.
Biting past the searing pain, he shoved his hands into the swollen now-planet scaled star aiming to overlap the Earth by collision. He could feel his pores ignite, his body shake and every part of his being shriek in a destructive manner. His heels dug into the air, creating a gust of yellow tinted light, his back jettisoning a Sun-colored waft of luminous blinding discharge. Slamming his forehead against it, the burning body of Vegehan flickered in embers of red and a flash of red followed a sudden howling burst of yellowing power.
Without warning, a heated gust of wind burst the sky and, with all eyes upon the red glare of the Destroyer's malicious aim came to a halt. A distant, voluminous roar could be heard, and a golden ray began to overlap the red horizon of the atmosphere. Every living soul could see a brilliant aurora of red streams entangled with golden flames, enrapturing all to the divine struggle of life and death holding the planet hostage.
The planetoid of Beerus's making began to inch back, slowly as exploding boots gave wave to a thin wave of Godly red within the core of a blinding glare of gold electrically synapsing around a bleeding shirtless Saiyan. The hair stretched to the back, waving like a flag as the mane pulsed with brilliant golden-white flare, hairless brows clenched with bloodied teeth, eyes distinctly red pupils.
Pulling back a bootless foot, Vegehan gave a mighty yell as he kicked the outermost part of the burgundy spherical flare of death.
THUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!
The Universe shuddered as the sphere warped, imploding into itself before releasing a backward propelling stream of deadly light. Shooting across the cosmos, decimating anything in its path and wreaking untold devastation, it winked out into the distant black canvas of the starry expanse.
And like that, Beerus lowered himself down to the bloodied fused fighter aghast. He no longer had long hair, as it receded into his scalp and wasn't present; only black locks with a silvery steam radiated off Vegehan's body, barely clothed with tears even in his pants.
"What did you just do just now?" Beerus asked in bewilderment.
"I...don't know," He panted out, looking up in a visible daze at Beerus. "I drew out all of my power till it felt like I was on fire. After that I...don't remember what I did."
"You don't know?" Beerus laughed, this time more enthused than before. "Well, aren't you just interesting? I don't think I expected you to be so unpredictable after all this time. You truly have changed, Vegeta."
"It's Vegehan, Lord Beerus," He corrected with a lopsided smirk. "I prefer you to remember that name, than the one I don't use anymore."
"Hm, as you wish," Beerus, raising a hand towards the Potara Fused Saiyan.
Then, he stopped.
"What's the matter?" Vegehan asked. "Aren't you going to finish me off?"
"I just want to hear you admit something," He said with a smile.
"Oh it wasn't obvious?" Vegehan rhetorically inquired with closed eyes. Sighing, he relented and opened his eyes to gaze straight forward at the deity before him. "You beat me, Lord Beerus. Completely and utterly."
"So you now understand what it means to face God of Destruction Beerus?"
"I know when I'm beat and I'm lucky to be alive to say it. I felt your power far exceed mine. You're unlike anything I've faced since I was born," Vegehan confessed, possessing a sincerely thankful glint in his eyes. "Thanks to you, I know what it's like to have limits. For that I'm grateful."
"But I should also thank you," The Hakaishin spoke gratefully back, tilting his head back and forth with audible pops made even in the vacuum surrounding them. "I haven't had to fight this hard in many many years. You happen to be the second strongest I've faced."
"Second, huh?" The Saiyan chuckled nervously. "You're giving me chills. Who in this Universe is stronger than me?"
"Well…" Beerus trailed off, scratching his chin as his eyes looked up thoughtfully. "Maybe not second. Technically the third."
"Third?" Vegehan winced, his pride dented by that proclaimation.
"He's speaking of me," Whis spoke, suddenly behind Vegehan, making the Saiyan widen his eyes. To his relief he was simply eating more sweet confections, bringing out joyous moans from their taste on his tongue.
"Whis may be my attendant but he also is my martial arts teacher," Beerus admitted, visibly embarrassed by the lack of restraint his tall blue skinned companion made over dessert. "He's stronger than anyone in this Universe."
"He is?!" Vegehan gaped, looking at Whis with a wide incredulous gaze.
"Though you should know," Beerus spoke, looking more solemn as he explained to Beerus. "There are many Universes out there. It is likely there are beings stronger than Whis and I. An interesting thought wouldn't you say?"
Vegehan began to laugh joyfully. It had been some time that he felt like this is the beginning of his journey. Even with power transcending a god's, there were many challenges awaiting him out there.
Darkness crept in his vision and exhaustion finally overtook the Potara Fused Saiyan. Before he could fall, Beerus grabbed his hand, smiling down at him. Together with Whis, they descended back down to the Capsule Corp Airship, eventually landing back onto the deck.
Well, Whis and Beerus did.
Vegehan was tossed face first into the deck in an unceremonious underhand throw.
"Vegehan!"
"Brother!"
The pair of voices rang out in alarm as both Tarble and Videl flew over to the wounded Saiyan's side. Girlfriend cradled the fused man's head while the other looked on in worry. Dende soon made his way over and began to apply his mystical healing ability on him.
It didn't take long as the assembly of friends gathered to see wounds recede and blood all but vanish off his person. To restore his dignity, Piccolo gestured and the blue undershirt and billowed slacks with white boots were reformed back to new.
"Hey," Vegehan greeted Videl with a wink.
"You did great," The black haired woman softly spoke as she brushed the man's bangs away from his eyes. "I'm proud of you."
"You were...amazing, big brother!" Tarble exclaimed with wide eyed amazement. "I never saw a battle like that in my life. You are so much stronger than I am!"
"Thank you but," Vegehan dismissed, staring past the two towards Beerus. "I wasn't able to win in the end."
"So that means-"
"I shall destroy the Earth," Beerus proclaimed, instantly making every warrior on guard. Even Goku winced at this, hesitantly entering a battle stance alongside Piccolo and Tenshinhan. Goten and Trunks grit their teeth, holding their fear back while Yamcha and Krillin visibly tremble. Even Eighteen and the assembled synthetic assistants of Bulma, stoic as they are, looked unwilling to rush the destroyer of worlds head on.
Turning the feline pointed a finger, his talon glowing a bright twinkling light. Firing with a whistling sound, it lanced out towards a nearby distant bedrock; only for it to just explode a small distant stone and leave everything else surrounding it untouched.
Seconds passed, and everyone looked around, expecting to be enveloped in a deadly embrace of heat and light. Yet, everyone began to lower their guard and looked around in confusion.
"That was a small Earth you destroyed, Lord Beerus," Whis sing-songed out to his charge.
"I must have run out of energy during that battle," Beerus flatly spoke, arching hands on his hips and smiled to himself. "I'll have to come back to finish the job...eventually."
"Eventually?" Vegehan questioned.
"When it stops possessing delicious treats and interesting people," The Hakaishin explained, turning to smile genuinely over the shoulder at Vegehan. "And it won't do to have my rival be homeless, now would it?"
Vegehan's eyes brightened. He got up from Videl's embrace and stood upright with a wide smile. Bowing his head, he felt himself well up with pride. Though he may have not won the physical battle, his will had won over the destroyer to stay in his hand. He made no mistake to not show his genuine gratitude.
"What about my home?" Tarble suddenly spoke, bringing a look from both his brother and the Hakaishin. The stouter Saiyan, visibly looked on with yearning to the purple feline. "Is there any way for you to bring my wife and the Tech-Techs back to life along with their world?"
"There is no force that can undo a Hakaishin's destruction," Beerus admitted, stoically explaining to the younger Saiyan as impassively as possible. "Not even the Nameccian's Dragon Balls or a Kaioshin can bring back your home. It is the way of the Universe."
It was a sinking feeling that brought a sobering realization to the group. Though their world had been spared, the planet Tarble hailed from had a damning permanence to it. Whether it is just words or reality, something told them even if they tried, it would simply be destroyed again later; and nothing erased a second time could be brought back by the Earth's Dragon Balls.
"It is regretful that you suffered a loss by pure coincidence," Whis intoned past his near emotionless lilt he had past the melody his tone normally had. "But to go against the path of Destruction would lead to eventual collapse of this Universe. Powers beyond even Lord Beerus eventually will intervene; and there is no convincing to be done then."
"No way," Tarble choked out, his eyes watering as he fell to his knees defeated. "What am I to do now? I've lost everything."
"You have us," Videl spoke compassionately, placing a hand on the teary-eyed Saiyan's shoulder. "And you can live here, for as long as you want to."
"I...can?" He asked with surprise, looking between her and his brother.
"The Earth can always be your home," Vegehan spoke with a warm smile, giving him a pat upon his torch-shaped hair onto his head, rustling it affectionately. "My little brother needs his own second chance; I'm sure your adopted people would have wanted the same."
Finally letting the tears overflow, Tarble cried out and clung to Vegehan. Taken aback, Vegehan eventually placed a tentative hug with one arm along with Videl.
Beerus cleared his throat, bringing attention back to him as Whis summoned his stave once again into his grasp. The Hakaishin placed a hand on his attendant's side, looking at Vegehan with a respectful nod.
"I shall look forward to our next eventual battle, Vegehan," The Hakaishin spoke aloud, cheerfully departing in a sudden rainbow burst of light into the heavens above. "Prepare yourself, my rival!"
A/N: And that's it. Title of course is reminiscent of the original translation of the Battle of Gods movie, and I wanted to recapture that organic build from one event to the next. With similar beats done, I thought I'd have Vegehan do his own unique spin of defeating Beerus's death ball technique by his latent God form drawing forth his max power; ie the Super Saiyan 3 form he never got in either life.
I may seem cruel, keeping Tarble's world destroyed, but it felt like the only way to keep him around and remain valid to the continued narrative. I always felt he lost potential that, similar to Raditz, siblings to Main Characters always get thrown to the wayside. This just shows another dynamic I intend on showing as time passes in this story.
And you all are in for a treat for the next Chapter; and it all stems from Beerus's statement of the Multiverse existing. Cya soon!~