Disclaimer 1: I do not own anything from the Dragon Ball universe. That privilege belongs to Akira Toriyama.
Disclaimer 2: I do not own the videos this story was inspired by those privileges belong to Rising Fist and Prince Vegeta
Yes, Vegeta, I know what you are seeking. What the goddesses have in store for you . When Nail hatched I received a vision, a vision of your fate. You stand at a crossroads, and not for the last time. One path is the same as what is behind you. Loneliness and depression, an empty, hollow existence. The other leads down a new road, the journey will not be easy, it will test you, your loyalty, your friendship.
I would hardly call Whis my friend. I would sooner call you one Dende.
True, but he does seek to support you, to help you adjust to this life that you merely exist in now. However, while Whis will never betray you, allowing him to know about your quest too soon will spell doom for the entire universe. When the time comes you will not be able to stop him from finding out the truth you will hopefully keep from him for years to come. Eventually, everything must fall into place as it is meant to happen. In the meantime, you will need to take on your duties responsibly.
Are you telling me I should forget about finding her until the right moment arrives Dende? Twenty years is not a lot of time for me, I have slept for a century and woken up as though I had only just shut my eyes.
Of course, I was not suggesting you forget Vegeta. Performing your duties could lead you to her sooner than planned, and you might be able to prevent a lifetime of suffering for her. But nothing is certain. I know that her soul was trapped the same as her physical existence was. The mother of the gods has shrouded her in mystery and like any good mystery it will take more than these meager twenty years to uncover. Be easy when you find her, give her time to know you . Let her know you. She may be your mate, she may even recognize you when you first find her but she will be resistant to the notion of you being each others' destinies.
Reincarnation is a tricky thing, and while some aspects of her may be the same as Bulma's, her life will differ greatly from your wife's, and therefore, it will make her a different person. A different person with the same soul. Finding her will be half the battle.
That is all I can impart to you old friend, but I have aided you in another way. Whis thinks you need to travel and visit more of these places. He will believe this was his idea and should give you ample time before he suspects anything. But I do suggest you confirm his question or he will be suspicious again .
Vegeta replayed the information in his mind every day. He recalled each word after waking from the images that played out in his sleep. Images of the life he needed to save his reincarnated wife from. So far he knew she was born in a slave dungeon and had been hidden for over a year before her mother's owner discovered the little girl, by all appearances she was a Saiyan, her mother was a Saiyan as well, of course. She had a rare black tail, blue eyes, and violet hair. He suspected she was only half Saiyan or less as she didn't appear to have any abilities and her mother was extremely weak to be full-blooded as well. However, both were vastly undernourished and not allowed to go outside. The mother was taken away from the child regularly, for hours on end, sometimes for a day or more. And when she was returned it was obvious she had been brutalized. The visions always had the same thing in common, Vegeta was able to stand witness to the events like a ghost, only observing, never able to alter the course of the events that played out.
The worst dream, or vision, he'd had was after seven years of searching through the Northern Quadrant.
The dungeon chamber was rank from all those that had come before them. A woman with short spiky black hair laid on the one cot inside the dark room, lit only by the hole in the ceiling where people sometimes passed over or tables blocked out the light. A small child sat beside the woman, her head resting on the cot near the woman's shoulder. Tears making clean tracks down her dirty face.
Vegeta stood with his back against the door watching as the two females spoke in the dialect of his long-lost people.
"My sweet girl, I am not long for this world." The Mother of the small girl couched a harsh dry cough that Vegeta cringed at. Whatever disease the woman had seemed painful, the lines of her face were twisted and contorted with the torment she suffered from.
"Mama no, don't leave me." The tiny violet-haired girl cried and pleaded for her mother not to leave her.
"Don't cry my little Bee, you need to stay strong to live in this world. Your mama will always be with you." Vegeta flinched as another round of violent coughs ravaged the woman's body and blood sprayed out to stain her lips. "My sweet princess, you will make it home one day. You'll find our people again, the gods have shown me." Coughing again the woman had to roll to her side so that she could breathe around the blood pooling in her airways.
"Mama I am scared." The tiny Saiyan child whimpered and used a dirty cloth to wipe the fresh blood from her mother's face.
"That's good my dear," she choked out around bubbling blood-stained saliva. "Fear will drive you to survive. Harness that fear and use it to keep yourself safe, and fuel your search for freedom. For all the fear you will feel, there will be as much determination to push forward." Coughs once again wracked through the woman's body and Vegeta found himself rushing forward to assist but he moved through them both and his heart seized at the look in the woman's eyes when they connected with his. She spoke again, weaker than before, between agonizing and laborious breaths "The gods are here, if only... I had gotten to see the... night sky… the moon...one...last time." She reached for Vegeta and he held out his hand for her. The desperation to see the moon calling to his inner Oozaru. As her hand came down to rest in his, it fell through and the dim light of what life remained faded from the Saiyan female's eyes.
"Mama?" the small child said, climbing to her feet to shake the lifeless body of her mother. "Mama? Mama wake up, don't leave Mama please don't leave. MAMAA!" The child collapsed across her mother's chest whaling her sorrow. Vegeta wanted to pull her away and into his arms to comfort her but he stopped himself when he saw the light of the woman's soul resting in his hand.
Vegeta had stayed with the girl in her turmoil for four days until someone finally came to get her mother, but found her dead. Instead of removing the body they took the girl and sold her off to pay for some debt her mother had incurred. Vegeta doubted this was truthful, but at least now the little Saiyan would be out of the room where her mother's rotting corpse sat.
He watched with pride as she tried to fight the men off her, succeeding in knocking her new master on his ass with a single punch to the side of his head.
Then yelled in rage when the device in the big purplish brutes hand seemed to electrify her and she went limp.
He felt horror as he watched them perform some surgery on her to implant a stronger device, one that would block her abilities and dampen her strength.
The Destroyer god followed them to her new home. He was grateful she would at least get fresh air and be able to see the sky every day. The place she lived was shrouded from him though, the threats that made the child cower and shake sounded as if they were spoken through water.
He finally allowed himself to wake when an old woman that ran the garage behind the girl's new home took her on as an apprentice.
When he awoke he still held the dead female's soul in his palm. Rising from his bed he walked out to his balcony, thankful it was night. Holding out his hand Vegeta released it under the stars and moons that graced the sky. The light hovered around at eye level for a few moments before circling around Vegeta and flying off to join the rest of their kind in the afterlife. Vegeta raised his eyes to the sky, among the stars he could envision all his ancestors watching over him. He only hoped he was living up to the expectations and desires of them, the weight of his entire race now rested upon his shoulders.
That had been five years ago now, and he and Whis had cleaned up the entire northern quadrant in the past twelve years since they had visited Dende. Neither Hit nor his other contact had come to him with any information, he was still searching blindly.
Vegeta looked over the planet he and Whis were on in disgust. He was tired of cleaning up these messes, and everywhere they went the story was the same. The further civilization expanded from the central region the more corruption there was on those frontier planets.
Down on the surface, they meandered down a wide street in the filthiest part of the largest city. The street was lined with market stands near the city center, but as they made it farther out there were taverns and brothels. Junkies say in the streets, homeless and destitute individuals and families dug through heaps of rubbage, in search of anything they found of use or value. Excrement was dumped into the streets and alleyways from those lucky enough to be living above the street. Deeper in they saw a few corpses lying amongst the junkies that grew more prevalent, some were dead from overdose others disease or murder, and even a few children that had starved. Both men stopped as they watched three men corner a fourth and stab him repeatedly before robbing him as he lay dying in a puddle of his own blood piss.
As the three murderers came out of the alley, divvying up the coin and jewelry, Vegeta and Whis turned to face them. "These kinds of people do not deserve to live in this universe." Whis said.
"They are scum." Vegeta confirmed. Sending a sidelong and wicked smile to Whis he added, "Shall we begin?"
"It would be my pleasure to watch you work my lord." Whis smiled back and barely contained his giggle when Vegeta disintegrated the men that were squabbling over the dead man's communicator. "You would think after holding my position for so long I would get used to the terrible things mortals do to each other." Whis sighed, exhausted from seeing such terrible things.
"How many like this have we destroyed so far?" Vegeta asked, just as tired of the suffering as Whis.
"Hundreds." Whis replied with a shrug. "Why do mortals treat each other this way?"
"Power and greed. It drives them to become stronger, but some get corrupted along the way." Vegeta explained as he tore a man off a woman crying out for help, threw him into the brick wall, and blasted him into dust.
"But the intoxicants?" Whis asked obliterating a huddle of junkies preparing their next fix.
"Suppression, for those in power to remain in power." Vegeta shrugged, it was pretty straightforward after all.
"Despicable." Whis shook his head in disgust.
"Some use them to suppress their own pain as well." Vegeta said watching one of the women that lived and worked on these streets, as her eyes glazed and the stress lines on her face relaxed away.
"Perhaps I may try some of that odd tar substance. After seeing all of this I could stand to forget some of it. Maybe we could bring some home and try it together?" Whis said, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"Do not start." Vegeta shook his head. It was like this every time they made it to another slum planet. Whis would attempt to pressure Vegeta to try drugs with him. "Is Shin coming with the transports?" He added stepping back out onto the main street and stepping over a man that was either sleeping or dead, his ki all but nonexistent.
"Yes, he is." Whis said with a sly smile. "Wouldn't you like to try it too? Step outside your own body for once?" He added, with a light and teasing tone while he followed Vegeta into a larger whore house.
"You forget Whis. I have already been dead. Twice." Vegeta commented over his shoulder. "I much prefer to remain in my body."
Women that worked within the establishment flocked to them both, throwing themselves at the men and showing off what they could pay for. The man behind the bar watched them warily while both rejected the women around them.
"Come on, it could be fun, some of these people really seem to enjoy it." Whis said as he used his staff to clear a path for them to walk up to the bar.
"I told you not to start." Vegeta groaned as he leaned his elbow onto the high counter. "Who owns this place?" He asked the barkeep.
"I do." The man snapped. "If you're not buying what my girls are selling shove off, I don't serve your kind."
"Our kind?" Vegeta turned to Whis. "What the hell do you suppose that means?" Whis just shrugged, this game of theirs was always his favorite part of getting to know the locals, or really, getting the locals to know them. "You got something against divine beings? Or is it two men that are comfortable in each other's presence that you don't like?" Vegeta sneered, allowing his tail to uncoil from his waist and flick in the air behind him.
The owner went pale as soon as the word Saiyan fell from Vegeta's lips. While he wasn't intimate with Whis, he knew the man did prefer other men to a woman and it made his blood boil when someone would treat Whis unfairly simply because he was the way he was.
"I-I...I meant no offense, your excellence." The whoremonger groveled to the two powerful beings.
"Oh, you meant it alright. And now you are lying to me." Vegeta growled menacingly, while Whis stood tall and proud.
"No, I-" the man began to try and dissuade Vegeta's inevitable wrath
"There you go, lying again." Vegeta said, interrupting the man behind the counter.
The man's eyes went wide as he realized his fate was sealed. Reaching down for his blaster behind the counter, he missed when Vegeta looked at Whis and rolled his eyes. Raising his hand up in a finger gun position Vegeta blasted the man and the wall behind the bar shattering the tall mirror that stood as the backsplash. Tiny fractals of silver-backed glass flew into the air and all around them as chaos erupted from every corner of the tavern. Both men destroyed any man trying to escape before leaving.
"So you never tried any of them on Earth?" Whis asked, picking up their previous conversation once they walked back out into the filthy street.
"I didn't say that, but they had better drugs, natural, medicinal in ways." Vegeta shrugged, raising and lowering one shoulder.
"So you have tried things like that before, and here I thought the stick up your ass was endless." Whis giggled at the sneer Vegeta sent his way. "My Lord ."
Vegeta only growled at the taller man, he didn't want to dignify that comment with a response. So what if he was outwardly a bit of a prude. It was more his own insecurities and sense of propriety than unwillingness to try new things that people saw.
"Tell me sire, which substances have you experimented with?" Whis asked, unwilling to drop the topic.
"You well know how fond Bulma was of her wine." Vegeta figured talking about her and their life together might help him adjust better to when he found this newer version of her. He hoped so at any rate.
"Of course, how could I forget." Whis replied with a bright smile, happy to finally have Vegeta coming out of his shell a bit more. The topic of Bulma was always a touchy one. The fact that Vegeta was instigating this one was a relief to Whis, he wanted his Lord to heal.
"I usually preferred the scotch whiskey and only a small amount. I could count the number of times I had been drunk on one hand. However, once, on our twentieth anniversary, she drugged our dinner. That sneaky woman slipped some hallucinogenic mushrooms into our food." a small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth remembering how it had opened his mind and he had finally been able to embrace himself as a person. "After that, I would use tiny amounts of it if I had to attend some dinner conference or awards ceremony with her. It helped me to be able to better deal with the crowds of people at such things."
"Interesting, so it was both a drug and a medicine. How did she add it to your food?" The Celestial asked not wanting the topic to fade away, it was rare and felt very special and momentous to Whis.
"Yup and she put it in some pasta sauce, couldn't even tell the difference." Vegeta said with a smile that he couldn't hide, even as he was destroying yet another den of depravity.
"Now that sounds like my type of drug where it can be taken with food." Whis contemplated just how delightful it could be to enjoy more tasty treats and then enjoy the expansion such things would cause without him having to work to achieve those heights.
"Ha, of course, you would say that." Vegeta snickered at and plants are much better than something secreted by the anal glands of a pig."
Whis stopped dead in his tracks. For ten years he had been teasing Vegeta about this never once had he suspected that it came from that.
Vegeta turned to look at Whis and burst into laughter at the Celestial's green pallor. "Don't lose your lunch!"
"I fail to see how this is amusing, Sire." Whis pouted that he was now on the receiving end of the joke.
"Don't like being the butt of the joke Whis?" Vegeta bantered as he regained his composure. Some children ran by and he watched them, marveling at their resilience to such sights as the men laying in the street that they jumped over or the women selling their flesh across the way that one hid behind. The woman began to shout and slapped the child, who only stuck their tongue out at her then ran off to join their friends.
"That is quite enough." Whis said, marching past Vegeta while he was distracted.
"No, come on, let's go get some. I'm sure it'll taste greaaat. " Vegeta teased as he moved to catch up to his attendant.
"You know I was only joking to begin with now if you please." Whis stomped his foot on the ground in his annoyance.
Chuckling at the Celestial's embarrassment, Vegeta let the topic drop, but couldn't keep the smirk from his face. He was glad Dende had helped him so much, the Prince was actually beginning to have more enjoyable moments like this with his attendant, and having a purpose was giving him a reason to live life once more.
Coming upon a workhouse, one where there were many children performing dangerous labors, the men entered and made their way to the work floors. Vegeta scanned each and every child as they went, making eye contact and washing them in a wave of his ki. Several of the children ran away until a large brute of a foreman placed himself in their path.
Vegeta put up his hand as he continued to walk forward. Rage poured off of him at the conditions many of these children were forced to work in. The large boss prepared to strike Vegeta. As he pulled back his fist Vegeta released a blast of ki and blew off the man's head. Walking over the headless body where it fell to the floor like it was a rug, Vegeta continued deeper into the workhouse. He could sense a cluster of ki signatures towards the back of the building and he needed to be absolutely certain his Bulma's soul was not among them.
Whis stopped at the corpse and waving his staff reduced the body to dust. Chaos had erupted around them, children were running free, a few were in such a state of shock that Whis had to teleport them out of the building. He watched Vegeta move through the sea of panic in a demeanor of tranquility. Each time this happened, Whis was reminded of the respect he had for this displaced Saiyan Prince, and a smile would spread across his face.
In the backroom, Whis caught up to Vegeta. His smile turned a bit sad with the sight before him. Vegeta sat upon the floor, surrounded by the children in the room, one little girl in his lap while the others marveled at his attire. Each one touched the different pieces on his arms and shoulders while the one on his lap was curled up into a ball. Whis's heart felt heavy for the man, Vegeta had been an amazing father and would've made a phenomenal grandfather if he hadn't been deprived of that role. A single tear fell from Whis's eye as he watched curiosity brighten the faces of the children brave enough to touch Vegeta.
Vegeta had gone ahead after killing the man and found the locked room he could sense over a dozen children behind. Ripping the lock off of the door he entered slowly, poking his head in as soon as it would fit. Inside the room was dark and smelled of fear, he could make out the younger ones huddled together in the corner while four children all somewhere between the ages of fifteen and twelve stood between him and the young ones. Vegeta tried to hold back the smirk at the protective determination he saw burning in these defenders of those weaker than them. It reminded him of Kakarot and the other Earth fighters. Pushing open the door fully he stood there in the doorway waiting for one of these protectors to speak up.
After a minute of silence the shortest of them, with a large scar across his face spoke up.
"Who the hell are you, bastard?" The girl questioned.
Raising a brow at the spirit of the adolescent Vegeta crossed his arms and took a step forward. All of them flinched as he moved with lethal grace, causing the Saiyan to stop before he made these obviously skittish children any more uncomfortable.
"My name is Vegeta. Why were you locked in here?" The destroyer asked, keeping his arms crossed, and his stance relaxed.
"What's it to you?" she shot back.
Vegeta smirked at the girl's fire. "Well, if it was that giant ogre that locked you in here, he can't hurt you anymore. So I guess that means you are free to leave."
"Boss Rhino won't let us go. What makes you think we should believe you?" The tallest, a boy, questioned.
"Well, he isn't exactly breathing anymore."
"Y-you k-killed him?" The first girl asked as the older kids closed ranks as a shield for the younger ones.
"Yes, I did. The way he had those kids out there working he didn't deserve to live." Vegeta said in a calm and reserved voice. "Now how about you answer my question, I will not repeat myself."
All of the children visibly tensed, and the silence hung in the room like a thick cloud.
"He put us in here 'cause we didn't do our work." a tiny girl said as she stood half hiding behind the tallest boy's leg.
Vegeta crouched down to be at eye level with the tiny child. "How long have you been in here, little one?"
"Two days." The boy answered, placing his hand in the way to interrupt Vegeta's eye contact with the smallest of them.
Vegeta growled at the boy but sat down on the floor and folded his legs in front of him, allowing his tail to sway above the ground to the side. The older children flinched again, but the little girl just blinked at him curiously.
"I'm Wibby, why doesn't your tail match your hair? Is it real?" The tiny girl asked, slipping through the older boy's legs and hopping across the floor to stand before Vegeta.
Snaking his tail around he used it to wipe a smudge of dirt from the girl's face.
"That tickles!" She giggled and rubbed at the spot where the soft hairs had touched her.
"It doesn't match my hair here on this planet, but on my home, they are very similar." Vegeta explained.
The little girl climbed right into his lap and sunk her fingers into his hair. "Wow, it's so soft!" She marveled, making Vegeta chuckle at her boldness.
At the sound of his laughter, the rest of the children relaxed and bombarded Vegeta with questions. All he answered as honestly and vaguely as possible. Wibby curled up in his lap hugging the section that draped over her. The last thing he wanted was to frighten them more than they had already been. As he answered, the children would get closer and start to touch his armor, hair, or tail.
Noticing his audience when Whis appeared in the doorway, Vegeta lifted the tiny girl in his lap and handed her to one of the older kids. "Go on kids, get to the square, you are safe now." Walking up to Whis, he added "I don't sense anything here, let's kill these bastards and move on shall we?"
"What do you mean by " sense anything"? Each time we come to a new planet you do this. We wander through the absolute worst places we can find and you send your Ki out almost as if you are searching for something, or better yet, someone."
"Nothing, just there are no more living beings here and we should move on. Shin will be here soon." Vegeta said as he ducked out of the room.
"Why do we save these people, my Lord?" Whis asked, following Vegeta back out to the street.
"We are saving the strongest of them, those that are fighting evil, and the children. They might be weak now, but they are mentally stronger than most of the adults we are sending to the inner-rim." Vegeta explained his desire to save the children of these dismal places. Even if it was a secondary precaution in case the soul he sought was among those he didn't have the time to visit.
"But won't more people spell more strife for the inner systems?" Whis asked concerned they might be removing strife from one region only to trade it for more in others.
"That is why we are so selective. How many have we simply blown up because there were no suitable inhabitants on them?" Vegeta argued, hoping to convince Whis that his methodology was the right thing to be doing.
"Well, nearly half." Whis admitted, they did destroy many planets without much visitation.
"And barely even a third of the population ever escapes the ones we investigate." The Saiyan added, annoyed Whis was dragging this conversation on. It always felt like his attendant was digging for the truth, Vegeta couldn't be sure if this was the case or if he was just being paranoid. Either one could be the truth, both could be true. Vegeta wasn't so delusional as to think he wasn't a paranoid individual, and he was well aware of how nosy Whis could be.
"We have investigated most of them, Sire. That is highly unlike Destroyers, usually, this is a task more suited to the Supreme Kia." Whis didn't want Vegeta to be too lenient and have the entire universe suffer if Grand Zeno decided Vegeta was growing weak.
"You know why I do this Whis." The Saiyan replied. It had been his first excuse for this behavior, he wanted to repair some of the damage done because his children's children hadn't been able to police the galaxy, and he felt slightly responsible.
"I think you have more than made up for it by now, Vegeta. You cannot continue to hold yourself responsible for things far outside of your control. It is okay to allow Shin to take the brunt of this, it is his responsibility after all." Whis didn't want Vegeta growing depressed again because of the awful quality of life for the youth of these slum planets. It was very apparent to Whis that Vegeta did indeed have a soft spot for children.
"So what? I shouldn't concern myself with making sure we have stronger mortals in the Seventh Universe? I shouldn't try to clean up this mess as well and leave everything to Shin? He is soft and would want to take pity on most of these wretches. It's best if someone that can more easily identify a fighting spirit handles this part of the cleansing." Vegeta argued. This topic had come up several times over the past years and each time Vegeta tried to keep his story straight and found that as of late he was needing more excuses for searching workhouses and spending the majority of his time preoccupied with the children of these places.
"I did not mean that, it is good that you are making sure the strong survive, but would it not be simpler to locate the individuals with the strongest ki and give them their permit once Shin has already arrived. So we are not circling back to planets with less desirable inhabitants once those worth saving have gone?" Whis didn't see why Vegeta always put himself through all this suffering, why he constantly felt the need to atone for his sins and the sins of corruption as a whole.
The men were standing in the street arguing now and had gained the attention of the masses. Hushed whispers moved through the crowd that had formed around them.
Taking notice of this, Vegeta didn't bother with answering Whis's question. Many of those gathered seemed to be those responsible, or at the very least under the employ of those responsible, for the majority of the oppression of innocence on this globe. Whis sighed as he scanned the crowd, all these fools were about to die. He would never understand their belief they could win against a god, or their desire to rush into the afterlife, especially considering all of them would be spending eternity in purgatory.
Vegeta amassed his power, capturing Whis's attention as it built higher than it ever had before and faster than Whis thought Vegeta was capable of. The violet aura swelled and whipped with black flames like a pyre. The Celestial took a hesitant step in retreat, Vegeta had somehow grown in power, it now rivaled his own. Whis didn't know how or why his Lord was reaching new heights, they hadn't been training, and Beerus had never grown in strength for committing acts of destruction. Then again Beerus didn't have any pity for the miserable wretches of the universe.
Sending out a concussive wave the mob fell to the ground. Vegeta used a single beam to incinerate the top half of everyone around them. Blood pooled around them as the half corpses collapsed to the ground. Vegeta clicked his tongue and lept to the other end of the block.
Whis remained in the circle of carnage for a moment longer, he couldn't believe he had ever thought that Vegeta might be the one growing soft. There was something he was missing, something Vegeta was hiding from him. These people hadn't made the God of Destruction angry, yet Vegeta had unleashed enough power to level the city in a controlled wave that had ruptured the organs of everyone within nine meters of them. Removing their top halves only destroyed the evidence of it, but Whis had heard and felt the way their life forces were already doomed. As the blood ran closer to his booted feet, the Celestial decided he would need to pay closer attention to Vegeta from now on. Joining the Saiyan, both men continued on in silence.
Note: The Mung Tar drug I mentioned in the previous chapter and what Whis is referring to here was invented by my dear friend Indigo, AKA, RoyalBlueRoses, for her Raditz Saga series. If you wanna know how they make it (which is super crazy btw) go read that Saga.