"Vegeta!" Goku yelled as he pointed at the missing ring above Vegeta's head. "Your halo's gone, I guess the dragon counted you as one of the good guys!" Goku exclaimed with pure joy.
The hairs on Vegeta's back stood as the fabric of his gloves scraped against his twitching fingers, when he had been gifted his body to help fight Majin Buu he noticed that he only felt sensation when it was extreme; and unfortunately for him the only extreme sensation he had felt since he got his body back was horrible earth shattering pain. A cold shiver ran through Vegeta as his body readjusted to being alive, the feeling of his outfit clinging to the sweat on his back, the goosebumps on his arms, and the familiar bone aching exhaustion after a fight to the death. "I-I...Tch." He said in complete loss, completely unable to describe the experience of feeling the little things once again or humor Kakarot's ridiculous label giving.
It was hard to ignore the cold breeze that spanned the planet he was on now that he noticed it. "Kakarot don't forget what I told you. Now that the people of earth have been revived let them fuel the spirit bomb and defend their own mud ball for once."
Goku's face lifted, "You're always so full of good ideas Vegeta, but.."
"I know, I know, I'll buy you the time you need. Just charge the damn ball, and speak to the earthlings and if you can't convince them use that fool over there to get through to them." He said as he eyed Hercule who suddenly had a horrible stomach ache. Vegeta smirked at him, "I guess it's a good thing you're an absolute charlatan now is it?"
Goku laughed, "You really thought of everything, but.." Vegeta flared his aura and nearly sped off to deal with Buu.
"Wait! Vegeta your body isn't going to be as durable now that you're alive, you need to be more careful."
Vegeta scoffed as he flew off to buy the time needed to charge the ball.
"Let's go you big pink wad of chewing gum." Vegeta spat as he took his stance, his brow furrowed as Buu ignored him and beat his chest and blew steam. He withdrew his pride for the moment and waited till Buu made the first move though, the point of even standing before him was to buy time so he was going to do that.
The steam from Buu's ears reached an ear bleedingly loud pitch and he vanished before appearing in front of Vegeta in an instant.
The beating that ensued brought Vegeta back to his childhood and gave him a strange nostalgic feeling. Back to Frieza, back to the torture room; the blows to his head sent audible shock waves through Vegeta's head and made his ears bleed. Buu's fists were so unbelievably heavy. All Vegeta could do was fight on instinct because he couldn't hope to react to Buu's blinding speed in base and even then he was being pounded by nearly everything. But all he had to do was stay awake, all he had to do was stay awake. Just stay.. awake. He lazily threw a punch at Buu's jaw and Buu fell backwards to dodge the punch and laughed as he made a snow angel motion. Vegeta growled and stomped on the ground where Buu's stomach was and grinded his teeth together when Buu formed a hole where his stomach was. Buu stood up and headbutted Vegeta and sent him flying backwards.
Vegeta skipped to SSJ 2 and landed three hard knocks on Buu and kicked him away with the heel of his foot. He lowered himself to the ground to conserve energy and prepared for Buu's next attack, he ducked on instinct and dodged a surprise kick from Buu. He slipped under him and threw him onto the ground. He went to slam his fist into Buu's stomach but his fist hit the dirt as Buu retracted his head into his body. He smiled an evil grin at Vegeta from his belly. Then he teleports in front of Vegeta and punches him across the face, he grabs Vegeta's hair as he staggers and slams him into the ground mercilessly.
Vegeta's phased in and out of consciousness as his head was slammed in and out of the dirt but Buu's laughs haunted him whether he was awake or not. He screamed as he flared his aura and knocked Buu away, but it was a hollow victory as Buu laughed as he was knocked away by Vegeta's energy. The monster smirked as he began to walk towards Vegeta. He bit his glove as he stared Buu down from the crater made mostly from his head and ignored the burning feeling he had to fall in his legs. "Y-you know what I hate about you." Vegeta said, stopping Buu in his tracks. "You're weak. Weaker t-than you were before, and stupider…" He smirked when his words managed to strike some sort of chord in Buu. He didn't know if he understood what he was saying or if he just knew he was being insulted, but either way it didn't matter. "Weaker, dumber, hell y-you're even shorter. You're nothing compared to how you were, and yet you think you have the right to stand before me. T-the prince of all Saiyans." Vegeta pulled his arms down as he flared his aura, the electricity crackled around him as he pushed his power as far as his battered body would allow him to. He took a second to enjoy the rush that came from pushing his power as far as it could go. Another feeling lost to his dead body now regained, but it was nothing compared to the sudden burst of pride that he felt and then he continued, "You're nothing, so come and get some." He finished as he pointed at himself. "See how you stack up against the prince of all Saiyans you disgusting freak of nature."
Buu beat his chest and blew steam as if he was responding to Vegeta's speech and then he vanished in front of Vegeta and slammed him in the stomach, he smiled as Vegeta coughed blood on his face then he kicked him in the face and knocked him through a mountain. Buu flew up and watched as Vegeta rocketed towards the ground from the impact not even bothering to break his fall, then he teleported down and slammed his foot through the ground and kicked Vegeta in the back of the head through the dirt miles away.
Vegeta rapidly got to his feet after the surprising blow and sighed exhaustively, he slowly took his stance and waited for Buu to make his move again. "Kakarot how's it coming?" He yelled as he waited.
"Shouldn't be too much longer Vegeta, after Hercule started talking the energy started piling in. Just hang on a little longer; another minute at most!"
Vegeta sighed at those words. It was questionable at best that Kakarot actually knew what a minute was and even then another minute with Buu, he already knew what that was like. As he strengthened his stance he mentally prepared himself for what was probably going to be the hardest minute of his third life. He dodged another sudden foot that came from the ground, then another, but the third foot caught him off guard on the jaw. Vegeta staggered back and cursed Buu's ridiculous set of powers, he flew up to see if he could get a look at Buu. He didn't see Buu but he felt his hand on the back of his head and then the rush of air followed by the dirt afterwards.
He flared his aura again and staggered to his feet. He punched with his right hand then his left but Buu dodged both punches with a smile, Vegeta barely even had the strength to growl. He chopped at the air and tried to sweep Buu to catch him off guard but the monster dodged every attack Vegeta uselessly threw. He growled and jumped backwards to get some space between him and Buu and started spamming ki blasts, in the futile hope that it would damage Buu enough to keep him pinned there.
Buu phased in front of him and punched Vegeta and smiled when he felt his nose crack underneath his fist. He phased behind Vegeta and kicked him in the back hard enough to bend him over his foot, Vegeta's hair flickered from yellow to black as he struggled to remain conscious. Buu blitzed Vegeta landing blow after blow on his body and head.
"Vegeta!" Goku yelled, "It's ready, you need to get out of the way." Goku screamed as he held the spirit bomb above him with his energy. "Hurry!" Goku yelled again. The ball grew three sizes as energy continued to pile into it in droves, all of the universe's creatures sharing their energy with Goku in a desperate attempt to rid the universal threat that they faced. The pure desperation in Goku's face was reflected in the pure blue color the ball exuded.
Vegeta futilely attempted to flare his aura to push Buu away but he found he didn't even have the strength to do that anymore, he slipped underneath a punch and knocked Buu onto the ground with his elbow and held him there with his knee against the back of his neck "Just launch the damn ball you imbecile!" Vegeta yelled as he struggled to hold Buu on the ground. "This is not up for fucking debate Kakarot, launch the ball or everybody dies." Buu flared his aura and slammed Vegeta in his already broken nose and laughed when it spewed even more blood. He was about to throw another insanely heavy fisted attack when he noticed the ball that Goku held above his head in the reflection of a nearby lake, at first traces of fear could be seen and felt in the creature but then he realized that the ball had not yet been thrown and his incredibly slow mind put two and two together.
He laughed harder than he ever laughed before as he stomped on the back of a powered down Vegeta.
Goku glanced around the environment hoping for something, anything to bail them out of this situation. Hercule was blubbering behind a mountain way too far away to be of any help. Majin Buu was out cold. There was nothing that could be done, Goku did another look around and then another look around. He scanned the environment a dozen times, ran many possibilities but he was stuck. There really was no other option, he had to use the spirit bomb and Vegeta probably wasn't going to come back a third time. He couldn't win this fight without sacrificing Vegeta. He couldn't win this fight with Vegeta and yet he couldn't have won this fight without him. With a heavy heart he let the ball go, "Goodbye Vegeta." Goku said as his tears evaporated into the massive sphere of energy beneath him.
Though there were more spots than clear vision in his eyes Vegeta knew why his world was suddenly blue. He rolled over and glanced at Buu who was just barely holding the ball above him. He saw Buu's legs begin to give out, he saw him drop to his knees, then he saw a momentary moment of pure existential fear. Guess everybody feared death no matter how brainless the creature, it was such a strange feeling to know that your enemy was holding up the attack that was going to end your existence and therefore providing you with precious seconds of life, and even stranger to watch him fail and know you were going to die with him again. Going to die again, again, again. But that's just the way it is.
The ball engulfed Buu and Vegeta and the hairs on his back stood up when he heard the sound of Buu's existence being ended in an instant. He closed his eyes and prepared himself for what was coming to him.
When his eyes opened instead of on his knees broken and battered he was on his feet feeling perfect in a rather dark room, which Vegeta took to mean he was likely dead; and was officially the laughing stock of the universe. The only man to have ever died three times, but then again he was the only man to cheat death three times. He was above death, but wait was he dead? He did have all of his clothes on, so that was very undeath like. He wasn't in front of King Yemma's desk, and he also wasn't in line waiting to get there. He had a body so he hadn't been judged yet.
"Where am I?" His voice echoed for what seemed like miles and it disturbed him. Right before he was going to slam himself in the stomach to check if he was actually dead a voice came from seemingly all directions.
"You've been given a special chance Vegeta."
Vegeta crossed his arms unimpressed with the spooky voice, "What kind of chance?"
"You were killed by the spirit bomb, but instead of being destroyed at a molecular level like Buu your body remained completely intact. Just without a soul."
"So what…?"
"It means you're dead, for a third time. The last two times you died you were judged and sent to hell without your body. However not only did the universe deem you a good guy once when you were wished back to life, but twice. When your body was not destroyed by the spirit bomb. The attack had more than enough energy to erase your beaten body many times over but it cannot fully destroy anything that isn't pure evil, such is the nature of the attack. You're a good guy. The universe forgives you, but you're also not a good guy. So we all did some thinking, and we've decided what we're going to do with you."
"Who's we? Are you going to send me back to the mortal plane?"
"Don't worry about it, and yes; but not to the one you're native to. A person can't be wished back twice by the same balls because it's a sin against nature, to be wished back three times is blasphemy and would set a bad precedent for the rest of the universe. Yet you do deserve another chance for your part in ridding the world of Majin Buu. So we're going to send you to a different dimension rather than wish you back. Think of it as an alternate dimension if you need to, and you'll get to make your own decisions from there. You've proved that you're a good guy to the universe, we're giving you a chance to prove it to us. Things will be pretty similar, however you may notice some small changes here or there."
Vegeta vehemently nodded his head, "Not only do I not not deserve that, I don't want it. I'm perfectly content with the life I've lived. I don't need to relive it or change anything. I'd rather lose my body and rot in hell then lose everything else."
"The lives you've lived Vegeta, and unfortunately it's not your choice to make." Then a flash of light.
Vegeta's head slammed against the hard metal of the bed frame above him as he jolted awake as if from a nightmare. He held his head and swore as he looked at his surroundings, "Frieza's ship?" His own personal quarters? "Oh fuck." The decorations, the furniture, the walls, kind of the floor. He didn't recognize the floor but everything else was uncanny.
He recognized his surroundings completely. He really was in the past, but considering the way his days blended together in the past he had no clue what year it was. Which angered him to an extreme degree. The only thing that served to calm him were thoughts of how to get the fuck out of this horrible timeline.
Right before he got lost in his thoughts and blew a hole in the ship and took everyone on it out for the fuck of it he heard a knock on the door, "What!" He yelled as he was nearly pulling his hair out.
"Sorry my prince, Frieza has requested our presence." Nappa said as he poked his head through the door. "If it wasn't obvious enough, he told us we need to get there as soon as possible."
"Right, right. Okay, and what of Raditz?" Vegeta said, curious about whether or not his other former subject was alive.
"...I've already told him." Nappa said, surprised that Vegeta cared enough about Raditz that he wanted to keep him informed and therefore likely alive.
"Good, you're dismissed. I'll be there when I'm ready." He sighed. Life is annoying but if he was going to get back to his old life he needed to get off this piece of shit first of all and get to Earth. Which meant he had to play the part.
Nappa bowed and stood by the door, Vegeta was slightly annoyed with his lack of respect for privacy till he remembered Nappa's position as his bodyguard. He wrinkled his brow, apparently this Nappa took his position as bodyguard a lot more seriously.
"Nappa remind me, what were my previous power level readings?"
Nappa raised an eyebrow before he answered, "You were in the 15000's prince." How strange of Vegeta to not remember his power level to the decimal. "Are you feeling alright Vegeta, I know you took a hard beating from Zarbon recently and you're acting strange."
Vegeta rolled his eyes at his pathetically low number, "Well isn't that just fucking fantastic." Just another reason to take everyone out. Not only did he lose everything and everyone important to him, he was a weakling now.
"Yeah Vegeta it is." Nappa said awkwardly, "you're really close to Dodoria's level. I can't wait for when you're finally ready to wipe that disgusting pink blob off the face of the universe."
"I could do it right now, but Dodoria is mud under my shoe." Vegeta said, he was confident that he could take Dodoria despite the power difference. His power level may be abysmally tiny compared to his previous life but he had all of that time to refine his technique at least enough to wipe Dodoria's sloppy ass off the face of the universe. "Let's go see what that disgusting lizard wants."
Nappa noted Vegeta's willingness to disregard caution with the Frieza disrespect on his own ship, which was a terrible place to do that. He seemed to be in a very brazen mood today.
Vegeta looked around the ship with a strange sense of nostalgia as he walked to Frieza. As Nappa yelled at Raditz to hurry over to them, Vegeta looked at all of the members of the Frieza force as if they were aliens. Which he supposed they were, but he didn't recognize most of them. Which was probably normal, since he didn't exactly take the time to get to know anyone below him; and he definitely didn't plan to now. It seemed that there was a larger variety of aliens than he remembered though.
A sick smile painted Frieza's face as the Saiyans he so loved to torment entered his line of sight. "Well if it isn't my favorite trio of Saiyans, to what do I owe this surprise visit to?" His eyebrow raised as he noticed Vegeta waiting till the last second to bow before his almightyness.
Vegeta sighed as he bowed, "You sent for our presence my…" His response was unfortunately cut in half because Frieza shoved his face onto the floor of the ship.
"Why do you feel the need to tell me things I already know little monkey." Frieza punctuated his words by mashing Vegeta's face into the ship harder with every word. "It's quite bothersome." Vegeta lifted his face as soon as he felt the hand leave and silently growled at Frieza already being in his seat.
"Oh Zarbon, your suggestion to reinforce the floor of the ship was such a winner." Frieza said through his joyous laughter.
"My pleasure my lord, I figured you'd eventually grow weary of getting Saiyan blood all over the walls."
Vegeta groaned as he rubbed his jaw, that explained why he didn't recognize the floors; and it was officially official. He hated this fucking timeline.
Frieza laughed heartily, "And that Zarbon is why you're there, and Ginyu is... somewhere rather than here." He clapped, "But, back to business. My men have discovered a sector of the universe that doesn't know of my glory. Which are becoming very hard to find these days." Frieza said as he giggled to himself. "You are to go and make your presence known and then forgotten on the most populated planet in that sector."
"How are they going to make their presence forgotten Lord Frieza." Came Dodoria's rough voice annoying even Frieza himself.
"Because ideally there'll be nobody left to remember Dodoria." Frieza sighed. "You will purge the planet...The planet… The… Zarbon what was the planet called, I'd use the numbers but I want to make sure, I fear that might be too complicated for the apes."
Vegeta noted Frieza's words, apparently this Frieza was closer to universal control then his universes was. Also just great.
Raditz's tail twitched violently at their teasing. They had been purging planets since they were tweens, and they had the fucking numbers system memorized far before that, it isn't complicating. An actual literal monkey could figure it out.
"Earth." Zarbon simply stated.
"That definitely didn't happen in my universe." Vegeta thought as he kept his eyes on the ground. He went to Earth to avenge Raditz's death, and to use the Dragon Balls.
"Yes, Earth. I'll even have my technicians mark it on your pods just in case. You will purge the planet Earth, do not destroy the planet. Understand?"
"Yes Lord Frieza." All three Saiyans said in unity as their tails also coincidentally twitched in unison.
"Good, always have to double check with you simians. It'll take you 2 gs(galactic standard)years to get to and from the planet. Then you'll have a gs week and a half to purge the planet. You're dismissed."
The three Saiyans gave one more bow before leaving the room and letting out a collective sigh.
"I definitely didn't miss this hunk of shit or that psychotic lizard." Vegeta said to himself as he rubbed his wounded jaw. "Hello Raditz." He acknowledged his fellow Saiyans presence for the first time.
Raditz eyes opened wide in surprise, "Uh, hello Prince Vegeta, are we gonna get going or not?"
"Yes we are, pack your shit." Vegeta said as he looked to both Nappa and Raditz, it was rather nice to see both of them in one place again. "I have a lot of shit I need to talk to both of you about and it's heavy, so hurry it up and get to the pods." Vegeta dismissed both of them and strolled to the launching pads, he had his armor and his scouter that's all he needed. He leaned against a post and shut his eyes as he awaited his comrades. Before he got too deep in his thoughts he heard the deep thumping footsteps of Raditz and opened his eyes, "Hey." Vegeta said simply.
"You're real talkative today." Raditz said back suspiciously, "You planning something?"
"If I was, I wouldn't tell you here."
"Good to know you haven't gotten too talkative then, you've been acting pretty strange. A lot calmer, I guess. Did you finally take advantage of the new whore house and bust that nut that you've been needing to bust?"
"I guess you can say that." Vegeta said as his thoughts drifted to what he'd lost, and how he was going to get it back.
"As talkative as you are, you can never just say things that make sense. Like what do you mean 'I guess you can say that' like either you came or you didn't."
Vegeta laughed if only a little, surprising Raditz, "I definitely came."
"Why did that still sound so so vague?"
Before Vegeta could respond Nappa interrupted their chat, noting the strangely positive atmosphere pre-mission. "Our pods are ready, we can take off anytime we want."
Vegeta stepped in front of him, "Let's go then." He said to the nods of his subjects.
All three of them got in their respective pods, enabled the stasis and blasted off. As Vegeta drifted into a sleep that was going to last him a year he thought of how far from home he truly was.
IMPORTANT AN: Hey, I wrote this fanfic lol. I hope you liked it lmao. Three things, one. Reviews are not only welcomed but will be actively encouraged. I'll respond to every single review that I can by name so make sure to leave a review because I'm a review whore. Two, I need a beta reader. So pm me if you're interested and know grammar and lore pretty well, also if you could make sure I'm actually writing every so often and not being lazy. That would be a plus. You will be tested, it'll be pretty simple. I'll probably just give you like a paragraph full of mistakes and ask you to correct them. You'll obviously get early access to chapters so that's a plus I guess. I'll mention who ended up becoming my beta reader at the end of the next chapter and S/O them at the end of every other chapter so that's also a plus if you're into that. Three, it'll be a while till I update this again. I wanna get a few chapters ahead, I just wanted reviews for encouragement lol. Have a blessed day y'all.