Satan City, outside Satan's mansion

Buu was terrified. He had no idea what was happening to him, all he knew was that he was attacked by a deadly enemy and left completely powerless. Running away through the crowded city streets, he was immediately surrounded by masses of fans, all screaming Satan's name. This time he couldn't fly, there was no way to avoid them. Buu was trapped.

Behind him he could hear thunderous explosions, and orange fire lit up the sky. The terrified Buu could only roar "Run! Run now! Run!" over and over, and eventually he, along with a crowd of rapidly panicking fans, began to flee away from the mansion.

He didn't know how far away they got before a flying figure appeared over the mass of people. It was a blond, athletic woman wearing loose and elegant summer clothes, holding a little girl in one hand and a few shopping bags in the other.

"What are you doing?" Eighteen asked in a slightly accusing tone, ignoring the surprised gasps and stares of the people below. "What were those explosions just now?"

"Buu don't know, Buu scared!" said the frightened Buu, still in Satan's body.

"Buu? What are you saying?" Eighteen didn't have too much time to consider Satan's confusing answer, because the pink form of Majin Buu appeared above the crowd, looking down at them.

Buu pointed up at the monster who stole his body. "This not Buu! This bad man!"

"Haha!" Ginyu couldn't help but laugh at the pathetic earthlings. After blowing up half the mansion with a lazy energy blast and setting fire to the rest of the compound, he began searching for new targets. The body thief immediately noticed a big, screaming herd of people running away from his location, and set out after them. Now how should he destroy them? One by one or all at once? The second was more satisfying but would be over very quickly, while in the first option the screams could last for hours. He didn't have much time, though, so he decided on a moderately large area attack, enough to turn everyone in the crowd to ash.

"Die like the vermin you are!" Ginyu extended an arm and fired a deadly blast down towards the ground. Eighteen, shaken by the unfamiliar words coming from the normally jolly Buu, had only an instant to make a difficult choice. Stay, or run.

She dropped her shopping bags, held Marron tight against her body, extended her free arm towards Buu and fired a massive blast of her own.

The two attacks collided and detonated in midair, resulting in a massive explosion. The shock wave cracked windows for miles around, pushing people off their feet and causing a thick cloud of dust and smoke to cover almost half of Satan City.

Majin Buu started laughing through the smoke, but it was a strange, malevolent sound, one Eighteen never heard before. With an invisible burst of force the smoke and dust were blown away, revealing Majin Buu and the sky above. The nearby area now looked like an eye of a storm, surrounded by walls of dust. "What do we have here," Majin Buu laughed, "some of the earthlings aren't completely worthless!"

The demon launched a barrage of ki blasts around the crowd, forcing the panicking people to flee towards the center. The blasts were too small and too fast for Eighteen to stop, especially while holding her daughter. She knew she could escape, Marron's safety was more important than anything else, but could she really be safe with Majin Buu going rogue?

"Ah, there, all bunched together nicely," said Ginyu. "And now," he smiled, pointing a finger at the terrified people and gathering an evil-looking orb of red ki, "now you all die."

Eighteen shot another of her blasts into Majin Buu's attack, but the energy was absorbed, only causing the red ki orb to grow and making the demon laugh in glee. With a final shout, Majin Buu launched the attack downwards.

Several things happened at once.

Krillin and Tien flew in from the north, Tien in his training outfit and Eighteen's husband wearing his orange gi. The two fighters flew so fast time almost seemed to stop, so fast that even Eighteen could barely follow their movements. Their auras flaring and extending in strange ways, Krillin and Tien approached the red blast.

Alarmed, Eighteen expected the two to intercept it themselves, but they surprised her. The fighters flew around the plummeting red blast, performing a set of flowing, unfamiliar moves and using their auras to nudge it out of course, making it orbit their own bodies – first around Tien, then around Krillin, then back to Tien and back to Krillin - until the short warrior finally extended his right arm and launched the orb back towards Majin Buu.

The surprised Ginyu barely had time to shield himself from the blast before he was engulfed in a destructive inferno of raging ki, all of it his own! The two earthlings had turned his own attack against him!

"Eighteen, go," Krillin told his wife while still looking at Majin Buu, who was still recovering from the blast. "Keep Marron safe, we'll handle Buu. Vegeta and Goku should be here any second."

Eighteen nodded wordlessly and flew away, holding their daughter close.

"This not Buu, me Buu!" Buu cried from the ground, making Tien and Krillin look at him in confusion. "Me Buu! Bad man steal Buu's body!"

Krillin looked at the strangely-acting Satan, then up at Majin Buu, suddenly understanding. A quick telepathic probe later and his eyes opened wide. At the same time, Ginyu recovered from the earlier explosion and recognized the short, flying martial artist. "You!" both of them exclaimed simultaneously.

Ginyu immediately gathered another concentrated, deadly ki orb and launched it towards Krillin. Again, the two warriors reflected the orb together using their auras. This time Ginyu was prepared, easily dodging the attack. It flew out into space and detonated, appearing for a few moments like a second sun.

"Fools," Ginyu grimaced in frustration, "let's see how you deflect THIS!" The body thief powered up, preparing to launch another, deadlier attack. Krillin and Tien, however, did not wait to see his maneuver completed. Before Ginyu could launch whatever attack he was planning, the two warriors charged towards him and began attacking the demon with a flurry of kicks and punches. Unable to follow through with his planned blast, Ginyu roared in anger and started fighting back.

The three combatants flew above the city, their strikes and blocks causing powerful shock waves and constant thunder.

Despite their initial good showing, both Krillin and Tien knew they were in trouble. Ginyu kept powering up in rage, his strikes more and more difficult to avoid, while the body thief himself took no damage from hits that went past his defenses. Nothing Krillin and Tien did left any lasting damage, as Ginyu's pudgy, elastic body either absorbed attacks completely or healed rapidly afterwards.

Meanwhile, fighting at this level was draining both fighters rapidly. Their new style of fighting, developed during many intense training sessions over the last year, raised their effective power level to previously unimaginable heights — but it couldn't overcome their limited supply of ki.

Eventually one of Ginyu's kicks connected with Tien's shoulder painfully, sending another shock wave throughout the city. The three-eyed warrior plummeted down and crashed into a previously busy city street, now entirely abandoned. The force of the kick caused him to dig a wide trench into the asphalt before coming to a complete stop.

"Only you and me now," Ginyu looked at Krillin and grinned, "I wonder how long those fancy moves will keep you alive."

Krillin was breathing heavily, sweat flowing down his face. Before he could answer, another voice came from below them.

"Had your fun playing with the humans, Ginyu?" Vegeta was confidently standing there with arms crossed, in the middle of the empty street, and looked up at the body thief with a crooked smile.

"Vegeta!" Krillin shouted, relieved to see the saiyan prince. The bald warrior couldn't sense Vegeta at all, so his appearance came as a surprise. "Can you handle him? I need to go help Tien and the others!"

Vegeta nodded. "Go."

Krillin immediately flew down towards Tien and knelt to pick up the fallen warrior. "I don't think so", Ginyu said, aiming his head-tentacle at the two humans and firing a magical bolt.

A thrown sewer grate appeared in the bolt's path, thrown by Vegeta so rapidly that no one could see it. After it was struck by the bolt, the grate turned into a large piece of chocolate and fell down with a dull sound. Krillin finished picking Tien up and flew away, leaving Vegeta and Ginyu alone in the deserted city block.

"What? What just happened?" Ginyu asked angrily.

"Nothing," Vegeta smiled, "you're just too slow."

Ginyu continued hovering above Vegeta, saying nothing. The saiyan could feel his opponent's ki rise, however, and prepared himself for the inevitable attack.

The body thief suddenly pointed his head tentacle at the saiyan prince and fired a transformation bolt from above. Vegeta quickly hovered backwards, but Ginyu anticipated his movement, charged down with a sudden burst of speed and aimed a mountain-shattering punch to the side of Vegeta's head. The saiyan barely blocked the strike by raising his right arm to protect his head, then unleashed a powerful kiai shout that pushed Ginyu away. Tho two opponents faced each other again, this time hovering just above street level.

With a roar, Ginyu charged again, drawing more power from his unnatural body until his whole form was engulfed in a fierce lightning aura. To Ginyu, Vegeta's movements seemed slow, sluggish.

As the two combatants engaged in furious hand-to-hand combat, Ginyu's strikes bypassed the saiyan's blocks more often than not, powerful hits battering Vegeta and causing the street itself to crumble from the shocks. As a crater was forming under the two fighting enemies, Vegeta began to stumble and bleed, until Ginyu managed to hit him with a mighty punch to the stomach.

Vegeta's face twisted in pain as he was flung into the sky through several buildings, leaving trails of dust and cement behind and coming to rest hundreds of feet in the air.

Laughing arrogantly, Ginyu launched a barrage of energy blasts at his stunned, hovering opponent. The swarm of energy orbs hit the saiyan with a terrific explosion, causing yet another shockwave to reverberate through Satan City and clearing the air of dust and debris. Vegeta fell down and hit the ground painfully, lying on top of a ruined building wall.

Ginyu approached the fallen prince from above, taking a moment to appreciate his victory. Then Vegeta opened his eyes and began laughing, there was a flash of light, and Ginyu felt half his body evaporate. Panicking, Ginyu realized the Saiyan was toying with him. One moment he was prone and unconscious, the next he was standing up and laughing, one arm aimed at the body thief with the palm open. He had launched an energy attack so quickly that Ginyu couldn't even follow it with his senses. By the time he realized what happened, Vegeta's attack was a vanishing point of light high up in the sky.

After putting the unconscious Tien down in a secluded place outside the city, Krillin flew back to the scene of the fight. He had sensed another spectator viewing the fight from hiding, and flew towards the presence. It was Satan – Buu in Satan's body, hiding behind a scrapped, ruined city bus. The two looked at each other and continued to watch the battle in silence, with Krillin growing more and more agitated. What was Vegeta thinking? Why was he letting Ginyu continue this fight?

As the half-destroyed Ginyu hovered in shock, Krillin started to rise up into the air, intending to vaporize Ginyu himself if Vegeta wasn't going to do anything. Vegeta's mental voice came to his mind, though, cold and angry. "Stay out of this, don't you dare interfere."

Gah, no point in arguing with him when he's like this, Krillin thought in frustration. He kept on watching in silence, prepared to act if Ginyu showed any sign of attacking the planet itself, a final act of defiance. Did he learn nothing from what happened with Cell? With Freeza?

Ginyu was running out of options. He had moments left to live before the overpowered saiyan decided to stop whatever game he was playing and destroy him once and for all. However, old instincts were awakening within Ginyu's new body. When badly hurt, this body had a final attack that was almost a physical need at this point. Ginyu didn't want to leave this body and switch it for Vegeta's. Instead, he decided to let the new body's instincts guide his actions, and add Vegeta's unimaginable might to his own.

The body thief sank to the ground, weak and defeated. "What's this, Ginyu?" Vegeta asked, wiping away some of the blood from his face, "tired of playing? You're already done?"

The prince began flying towards Ginyu, touching down right next to where the grotesquely warped and half-disintegrated warrior rested. Vegeta raised his left arm, palm open, and pointed it at the fallen body thief. "Look at you, Ginyu, how pathetic you are. Destroying you is almost a waste of my time at this point."

A fierce energy attack appeared in Vegeta's open palm, slowly building up in power. "Almost," the saiyan warrior said with an evil grin.

It was then that Ginyu struck, while Vegeta was occupied with humiliating him. The horrified Krillin could only watch as tiny pink blobs jumped at Vegeta from the surrounding area, enveloping him in a rubbery curtain. It was over in an instant, Vegeta was completely covered by Ginyu's attack and slowly dragged forward to to be absorbed.

The despairing Krillin rose into the air and began flinging energy blasts at Ginyu as hard as he could, hoping to destroy the demon before the absorption was complete.

A series of titanic explosions leveled the surrounding area, but it was too late. Krillin could feel Ginyu's energy surging, and the rejuvenated body thief rose up into the air, laughing arrogantly as he emerged from the blasts.

"Ah, that's better," The smiling Ginyu turned to look at Krillin. "Patience, please, I'll be killing you in a moment. Let me just finish absorbing Vege…"

His arrogant expression faded. Something was wrong. He couldn't move. He couldn't talk. Slowly, so very slowly, a terrible pain began to fill him from inside, an ache that soon spread into every part of his being, turning more and more intense with every passing moment.

What is going on? Krillin watched as Ginyu looked up into the sky and began to scream in pain, the inhuman sound carrying on for miles and causing clouds in the surrounding sky to evaporate. The body thief hovered there in Buu's body while veins of blue light appeared under his skin, growing brighter and wider, until his entire body was imbued with blue radiance.

Suddenly the scream stopped, replaced by a roaring conflagration of blue flame and a hiss of burning material. It was painfully bright, and Krillin had to look away or risk getting blinded. After a few moments the brightness subsided and roar of the flames became the familiar sound of an active aura.

When Krillin looked at the place where Ginyu had been, he saw only a dim figure surrounded by a vibrant aura of blue energy. The figure was much smaller than the massive body of Majin Buu. He couldn't feel any ki, and all traces of Ginyu were gone.

"V… Vegeta?" Krilling asked hesitantly. Was this a new transformation? The flaming blue aura was so intense that Krillin could barely make out the outline of the person inside.

"Yes," came the muted reply. Slowly extinguishing his aura, the battered form of Vegeta appeared. The saiyan was back in his base state, looking a little tired and covered in bruises.

As Buu in Satan's body came out from hiding and stared at the hovering prince, Krillin asked "What happened to Buu… I mean, Ginyu… well, you know. And how did you even manage to do that?"

After overpowering Topo at the tournament of power, Vegeta was reasonably sure he had transcended whatever magic Buu used to absorb others. It was much closer than anticipated, though, and he was almost overwhelmed by the old sorceries. In the end, just like in the tournament, focusing on his family was what allowed him to survive. He wasn't going to admit any of this to Krillin, however.

Vegeta gave the short warrior a smug look. "That can wait for later."

Without saying another word, the saiyan prince flew up into the sky and hovered at the highest reaches of Earth's atmosphere. There, with less distractions, it was easier to follow the auras of Gohan, Beerus, Whis — and now Kakarot, too.

Down below in Satan City, Krillin sighed as he watched Vegeta fade away into the distance. "Trying to get something out of him is like squeezing water out of stone," he said to himself. The shocked Buu in Satan's body stood there and whimpered. "Don't worry, buddy," Krillin told Buu, "let's get you to Dende and decide what to do next."

Capsule Corp, a few minutes earlier

Goku appeared outside the Capsule Corp headquarters just as Vegeta was preparing to leave for Satan city. The two hovered in midair above the rounded dome of Bulma and Vegeta's home, looking at each other.

"Beerus just attacked Gohan," Goku said in a serious tone. They both knew this meeting was one of their "who gets to fight" arguments, so no need to waste time on greetings and explanations if the two of them had the same thoughts.

"Yes, and Majin Buu decided to go on a rampage," Vegeta added. "Two of us, two fights."

"I have to help Gohan," Goku said, his quick breathing betraying his anxiety.

Vegeta sighed. He wanted to fight Beerus too, of course, but if his own son or daughter were involved… "Go already, I'll take care of things here."

Goku nodded, visibly relieved. "Thanks, Vegeta, I know you really want this fight. I'll make it up to your later." The saiyan from Earth vanished immediately afterwards, leaving Vegeta alone.

That's right, you owe me one, Kakarot, Vegeta thought as he approached Satan City. Did you recover your precious ultra instinct, or not? I'm sure you have, and once you reveal it you won't be able to hide that fact any longer. Your ultra instinct against my perfected god form, until I finally defeat you at your strongest!