Chapter 2: Pathos

Majin Buu tightened his grip on his old master's neck. A glimmer of light shone beneath his eyes; his insanity manifesting. Babidi mouth agape, eyes tearing up, sputtered about. The others simply watched. Even all of them put together would be no match against Buu. Against the strongest being in existence.

Buu was not smiling. Not taking joy in his actions. It was such a stark contrast to his so familiar child personality of before. He was growing up. Or just pissed.

Buu picked up Babidi and threw him into a far wall. The remaining members of hell stood still behind him. Hoping, praying that it wasn't their turn. Abandoning reason for madness, one member moved.

No one even saw Buu as he grabbed the alien. But he did. Back in place, the one who moved now in his hands, Buu let out another scream. This one in anguish. He quickly impaled the alien with his arm, and exploded it into pink dust. Buu then dropped to the ground, still screaming. Something wasn't quite right.

Buu grabbed at his head. He rose into the air, still screaming and pulling at his face. Pink blobs started raining down. The group of onlookers, stricken with fright and curiosity, stepped back too fearful of the Majin's presence.

Suddenly he stopped. The screaming, the self mutilation all ceased. Gracefully, angelically, Buu descended in fetal repose. As he touched the ground, he slumped over unconscious. No one dared even breath for several moments. But when it was clear Buu was not faking, the entire group let out a sigh of relief. Babidi, still alive, emerged from rubble afar to witness it all.

"Stupid brat! He's like a little kid, only no one can touch him! And then when he does die, we get slapped with him? What fool thought it was better to bring him here? He'll kill us all!"

Babidi climbed over the broken rocks, back down to Buu. Cautiously, he re-approached his old device. Was Buu dead?

No, as a matter of fact. As Babidi closed in on him, from behind, Buu's feet shot out again, wrapping around the wizard's neck. His head stretched out, to meet Babidi, upside down.

"B-Buu… stop this! Let me g-g-goooo!" Babidi choked out, slapping at Buu.

Surprisingly, Buu did let go. But not of his own accord. The force of Babidi's hit had thrown the demon away. Babidi, gasping again, looked down upon his hand. Had he just done that?

Babidi walked over to Buu again, this time the pink menace did not offer resistance. He kicked Buu, several times, hard. And even more surprisingly, Buu screamed in pain. In real pain. Babidi cackled. "Oh, how wonderful! Majin Buu's power is gone!"

The other members of hell crept forward, not believing the suddenness of their resurgence. Babidi continued kicking Buu, and Buu continued screaming, in pain, in tantrum. He couldn't do a thing to stop them.

Frieza, seeing his opportunity, picked Buu up with his telekinesis and shot a single beam of energy through his chest. Majin Buu screamed, and blood poured out. But he didn't retaliate. The others seeing this, joined in.

The pain of constant torture lessened as Buu fell into delirium. He began seeing visions, reliving the past. The Saiyan who killed him came into focus, more.

"You'll have to learn it the hard way and know what it feels like to have your life taken away against your will. It's wrong."

Buu shook his head, trying to get the thoughts out him. He woke, returning to reality. One of them, anyway. Because somehow his powers were gone. Even the weakling Babidi whom Buu had killed originally, now had complete control over him. It wasn't right.

As time wore on, the beings in hell grew disinterested in him. Babidi remained close, always, but the others left him alone. Buu would just sit on a rock, away from them, away from everybody, hoping for it all to end. It would have already, had he not been able to regenerate. But now even that last ability seemed more of a curse.

Buu picked up a small rock and tossed it. He could not grasp what was happening, physically nor mentally to himself. Physically, he had lost his power. He knew that, as soon as it happened. Mentally though, even as he refused to accept it, Buu had lost some of his personality. Without his strength, the insanity driven fun had evaporated quickly. That left only a shell of emptiness.

Buu still didn't know where he was. Or why he was here. Like the others, he had a halo over his head. One of the people who had fought Buu on the Kai planet had a halo. And that was after Buu killed him.

He rolled over, off his rock, to look into the water flowing nearside. Buu looked into it, only seeing a reflection of himself, bloodied and battered. This time of torture, however long it had been had not been kind to his features.

It was now the image of that Saiyan returned to him, "Maybe you'll come back someday, as a better person."

Buu growled, softly, and shot an energy blast into the water, disrupting the image. He didn't care about anything, except for finding that Saiyan and killing it. That's all he wanted. But now, without his power, it was useless. He kicked at the ground, in his child's frustration. He didn't understand how to deal with his situation, nor the on setting depression.

As fate would have it, he didn't have to. Others, beyond his understanding, were now the puppet masters in this waning game. And then, unexpectedly, one such master appeared.

The creature was a human, and wore strange clothes. When it appeared, it was riding on a large, clear-white ball. The creature surveyed the surroundings, until finding Buu. At his sight, she sped toward him.

He had his head in his arms at her arrival, and did not move to greet her. The creature stepped off her ball, and walked up to Buu. It was almost strange that she had no fear.

"You the Buu?" she asked. At his ignoring, she waved her hand in his face, "Hey, you! I'm talking to you! Are you Buu?"

Babidi peeked over, from another vantage point, "He he he! Looks like Buu's having a temper tantrum. It's okay, little babies like him have those all the time."

The other creature did not listen to Babidi. Instead, she turned back to Buu, "Hey, Buu guy. I've got something to show you. And if you don't come and look, right now… well I just leave ya here!"

Buu got up, slumped in posture. The witch stepped back, not prepared for his face, which was covered in blood. But that was not why she took a step back. Because Buu had something else on his face. Something more disturbing. Tears. Majin Buu had been genuinely crying.