--- Disturbance, Book 2: Divergence ---
Chapter D10 - Through The Fire And Flames
Disclaimer: The fun about this sentence is that by the time you realise it doesn't say anything, it's too late to stop reading it. Also: See first chapter.
Disclaimer: By reading this disclaimer, and/or the content after it, you, the reader, hereby waive all rights to flame the author for anything that may or may not occur in this chapter.
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The air across the Lookout was fairly solemn in the wake of Majin Buu's brutal assault, as everyone silently mourned the loss of one of their own. Out of everyone there, it seemed the two least affected by it were, strangely, the two who, by all rights, should have been most affected; Oran and Lime. Other than a slight bit of moisture built up in the corner of one of the young girl's eyes, the pair seemed almost indifferent to the death of their much beloved eldest sister.
In the end, it was Goten who first spoke, asking no-one in particular, "Why? Why did she have to die? Majin Buu's lookin' for us, why'd he need to kill her?"
"Because she got in his way," Piccolo grunted sourly. He understood how the villain mindset worked, having been one himself in the past.
"But why did she jump in front of the blast like that?" The young boy persisted.
Goku knelt down to look his youngest son in the eye, replying, "Because she loves him, and you do strange things for people you love." Goku knew that all too well, as the halo above his head attested to.
"Or maybe," Oran countered, "Because they've got a plan." Seeing that he had everyone's full attention, he continued, "Think about it: why would they have attacked Majin Buu at all, when they would have sensed he was stronger than them?"
"To keep West Capitol from being destroyed?" Yamcha replied, the inflection at the end of his sentence declaring his input a guess.
Oran shook his head. "No, however much he's changed since he came here, Kaen wouldn't risk his life to protect humans. Besides, you only know half the picture." This got intrigued looks from the others. "When Kaen and Gohan were fighting, I kept wondering to myself why Kaen wasn't using his full strength, 'coz I could sense he had more. Maybe he didn't use the rest of his power because he couldn't, and maybe this was all planned to bring that power out; after all, Pi knows Kaen can revive her." The fact he used his elder siblings names showed how serious he was about his theory.
"Do you really think Pi'd throw her life away on the off chance it'd give Kaen a power boost?" Krillin asked sceptically.
Oran nodded, noticing slightly how every other Saiyan present also nodded, as did Piccolo, before replying with a humourless grin, "You really don't understand how we Saiyans think do you?"
Lime, silent until now, shouted firmly, "Get him Kaen! Make him hurt bad!"
-On a cold winter morning, in the time before the light-
The two combatants stood motionless, still in the same positions they had been ever since one had fired a fatal blast; Buu still stood with it's hand outstretched, a bastardly smirk on it's face, while Kaen still stood almost frozen, staring at, if not through, the point Pi had been standing at the time of her death. The way her sword was planted into the ground, it almost looked like a cross, a grave marker, mocking him.
As his younger brother predicted, this was, in fact, Kaen's plan all along: that either he or Pi would be killed, and the other would, hopefully, gain enough power to at least revive the other, if not destroy Buu completely. Kaen, of course, had planned that he be the one killed for her, and he knew Pi's plan had the roles reversed. Now, however, that Pi's plan was successful, he found himself frozen in place.
He hurt. Not physically, but inside. Having witnessed Pi die saving him before, he felt he should have been able to cope a little better this time; he was wrong. Comparing the pain of last time to this would be like comparing a pinprick to being run through the chest (a feeling he knew all too well...). The plan, however, was a complete success, as he felt the void in his heart from Pi's loss rapidly being filled with rage, and with that rage, came power.
-In flames of death's eternal reign we ride towards the fight-
Pi sighed to herself. She recognized this place, from the brief few seconds she'd spent here last time she was killed. There seemed to be a lot more of the tiny pink-ish clouds around though, so she assumed those were people's souls, or something. Vaguely, she wondered why she didn't look like one of those...
"Excuse me miss," a voice called from behind her. Turning around, she noticed a strange blue creature with tiny horns, wearing a business shirt, slacks, and a tie, approaching her. "Miss, you're supposed to join the line."
'An ogre,' she mused to herself, piecing together what the creature before her was. With a shrug, she commented, "Oh don't mind me, I won't be staying long."
Getting a little agitated with her, the ogre put a hand on her shoulder, trying to move her towards the line while saying, "I must in-"
He stopped abruptly when Pi placed a hand on his wrist, and began squeezing. Her formerly polite face shifted to barely controlled anger as she said, "Don't touch me, if you value your arm, and your life." Applying more pressure, she calmly removed the arm from her shoulder, forcing the ogre to his knees, before commenting, "As I said, I'm not staying long. Within the next few minutes, I'll either be returned to life, or my mate will be joining me, but until either of those events happen, I'm not moving." Smiling slightly, though the look didn't touch her eyes, she asked, "Would you mind doing me a favour?"
The tone in her voice clearly said 'you don't want to say no', so the ogre quickly nodded his assent, replying, "Anything miss," while trying not to yelp at the pain of his arm nearly being removed from its socket.
This time, the smile did reach her eyes, as she said mock-sweetly, "I need a way to watch the events taking place on Earth, specifically the fight with Majin Buu. Do you think you can do that?" When he nodded emphatically, she released his hand, adding, "Good boy. Now run along and do that."
Satisfying when the ogre scurried off, Pi turned her thoughts back to her mate. Testing the bond, she decided it felt a little... strange. The best way she could describe it, even to herself, was like a bridge that had been neatly sheered in half, or like a raised drawbridge on a foggy night; you knew there was more to it, it just... wasn't there. She felt empty. 'I wonder... Does being dead shield me from the pain of the broken bond?' She asked herself, finding it made a lot of sense; the idea that dead Saiyans felt empty until their partner joined them on the other side was better than both of them suffering until they were together again.
'I just... I just hope he's alright...' Pi thought to herself sadly. She knew just how emotionally fragile Kaen could be when it came to anything about her. 'I just hope that, when all of this is over, he'll be able to get over it.'
-And the darkness is falling down and the times are tough all right-
Kaen felt like his veins were on fire, as the rage coursed through his body. His golden hair waved about in an unseen breeze, as a golden aura slowly shifted into view around him. As the aura snapped into place around him, slowly expanding, the occasional bolt of pale blue lightning began cracking around his body. His teal eyes faded to a bright white, and his teeth ground together, Kaen growled, "I'm gonna make you pay..."
Without warning, the wind suddenly picked up, spiralling around his form, gathering dust to form a mini tornado around his raging aura. His hair began to waver faster, the spikes seeming to move such that they stood straighter on his head. His muscles began expanding, his cell structure seeming to increase to almost double their mass. The pavement soon began buckling underneath him, his feet digging into the ground, as if gravity itself was increasing.
The wind picked up stronger, the dust being whipped up by the tornado obscuring him from sight, as lightning bolts began shooting around it with increasing frequency. With a near audible 'snap', the new transformation seemed to lock itself in place, his eyes fading back in to colour again, although now more of an aqua colour than teal, and his hair spiked more rigidly; with his normal flame-like hairstyle, it was a little hard to tell, but a bit of scrutiny could notice the difference. With a massive shout, the tornado around him disappeared, as almost everything within a one-block radius of Kaen was vaporised instantly in a massive spherical explosion.
"I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY!"
-The sound of evil laughter falls around the world tonight-
As the light from the explosion faded, all that remained in the two block wide circle was Kaen, still floating in the exact same place as he'd been standing in the epicentre, and Pi's sword, held aloft by his power. Seconds later, there was a loud, and quite possibly violent, crash as Buu slammed into a building half a block down the road. Hovering forward, Kaen grasped Pi's sword firmly in his left hand, his own sword still in his right, and held the pair such that the blade was against his wrist.
Digging itself out of the rubble with a minor ki flare, Buu glared over at the hovering Saiyan, before grinning callously and saying, "Don't tell me you're going to try the sword thing again; you saw how badly that worked last time."
Kaen didn't reply, even to question Buu's new grasp of the English language, simply returning Buu's glare with an emotionless glare of his own, before the blades of the sword seemed to melt, turning molten as they flowed around his arms, reshaping themselves. When the metal hardened again, red-gold gauntlets, reaching all the way along his forearms, adorned both of Kaen's arms. The red and green gemstone that sat at the base of the sword now rested in the palm of his hands, the red face up in one, and the green face up in the other.
Buu raised one of what passed for eyebrows, laughing, "Different. You do realise you stand no chance of winning don't you?"
"Let's test that theory," Kaen replied coldly, vanishing from view
-Fighting hard, fighting on for the steel, through the wastelands evermore-
Kaen reappeared for a brief second as his metal-clad fist connected rather solidly with Buu's chest, before phasing out again as the force of the blow drove Buu backwards. A flash of gold appeared behind Buu for a second, before, with another resounding thud, the pink monster was sent skyward, the flash of gold dashing above it before driving it back down to, and through, the ruined building, into the basement below.
Bursting out of the rubble again, and again with a fairly large explosion, Buu took the time to glare up at Kaen, muttering, "You are really annoying, you know that?" When Kaen just grinned, the two vanished from view, a pink streak of light colliding with a golden streak of light in rapid succession across the city, too fast for the normal eye to see. Each time the two dancing lights met, there was a crack of sound almost like thunder, as the air was 'broken' by the force of the blows.
With one final, resounding blow, the golden streak crashed into the street, sliding back several metres and digging up the bitumen. Raising his hand above his head, Buu charged another potentially deadly pink blast, lobbing it down at Kaen's fallen form, with just a grin on it's face, satisfied in it's victory. In that regard, Buu was remarkably annoyed when Kaen raised a single hand, the deadly blast being absorbed by the green gem in his left palm.
Raising his right palm, the red gem within glowed briefly, before a lance of energy blasted out at high speed, boring a hole clear through Buu's chest before fading out again. Grinning up at Buu, and watching the smoking hole slowly fill itself in again, Kaen commented, "I'm not going out that easy Pinko." With another glare from the pink monstrosity, the pair vanished once more, and the dance of lights resumed.
-The scattered souls will feel the hell that is wasted on the shores-
"Where the hell is Kaen getting all this power from?" Kat mused to no one in particular, "I mean, I knew he had more power than he showed anyone, but this?"
"There's more to what's going on here than brute strength," Avarrdo commented.
"What do you mean dear?" April questioned.
"It's simple," Kellre supplied, "That Kaen has a great, as of yet untapped well of strength is not disputed, but what we're seeing here is actually more to do with highly efficient ki usage."
A completely clueless look on her face, Kat muttered, "Huh?"
"The swords that Kaen and Pi forged have many abilities," he continued, "And one of those abilities is that focusing energy through a single sword effectively doubles the amount of energy available, as the blade increases the potency of the ki in question."
"So, by using both his own sword, and Pi's, he's effectively running at four times whatever power level he's at?" Truniz paraphrased.
"Exactly," Avarrdo replied with a nod.
Ever confident in her adopted brother's abilities, and choosing to believe - correctly - that despite being a Super Saiyan Three Goku chose not to try and win, Kat smiled broadly, remarking, "He might just win this thing after all."
Kellre, however, remained grim, replying, "Let us hope."
-On the blackest waves in history, we watch them as they go-
There had been a stunned, and somewhat tense, silence across the Lookout ever since Kaen had reacher Super Saiyan 2, as the denizens aboard the floating platform chose instead to watch the fight unfolding. It couldn't last forever though, and, true enough, the silence was soon broken as Videl commented, "Well Oran, it looks like you were right." She may not have understood much, but she had a good enough grasp of ki control to realise Kaen's level was currently quite a bit higher than it was before Pi's death.
"It's not enough though," Trunks remarked.
Goten nodded, "Daddy's a Super Saiyan Three and he wasn't strong enough to beat Buu, an' he's stronger now."
"I dunno," Goku argued, "I mean, he may not be as strong as I am, but he seems to have much more stamina. I mean, he's taken quite a bit of damage, but he hasn't lost any strength."
Noticing the frown on the young boy's face, Videl asked, "Hey Oran, what's up?"
Still frowning, the boy remarked, "I just... I just don't understand why Kaen's still not using his full strength. I mean, if he waits too long, it'll be too late to revive Pi."
Spinning to face him, Piccolo asked, "He's not using his full power? How can you tell?"
The young Saiyan seemed to struggle to find the right answer, before replying, "I don't know. Maybe it's just 'coz I've been training with him so long, or maybe I can sense people's true power levels, I haven't worked that out yet; it only seems t work on him. I can just tell that niichan's got more strength he's not using." When the boy refused to say any more on the issue, the group turned back to the fight, to see whether or not the Saiyan powerhouse could defeat Majin Buu or not.
-Through fire and pain, and once again we know-
Kaen crashed into the ground, quickly flipping over onto his feet as he continued to slide. Once his momentum had worn off, he quickly wiped a trail of blood from the corner of his mouth, the back of his left gauntlet absorbing the red liquid, before he launched off the ground again. After laying into Buu for a few moments, he kicked off it again, aiming both hands towards it and firing off two super-heated red blasts; his Twin Nova technique.
The two blasts began weaving around, spiralling around Buu's form for a moment, before both striking down at the same time in different places. The Saiyan pyromancer watched curiously as the damage the blasts caused seemed to take longer than usual to 'heal' away again. Kaen just grinned; he'd stumbled upon Buu's weakness. Well, a weakness, in any case. He just needed to find an opportunity to use that knowledge.
It seemed that opportunity was slipping away fast, the dual blow having angered Majin Buu, if the look on its face was anything to go by. Glaring at him again, Buu shouted, "That hurt! You actually hurt me! You insignificant pest!"
Kaen just shrugged, "Hey, you wanted a challenge, you got a challenge. You didn't think I was doing this for my health did you?"
Buu just grinned, "Well then, I guess I should take this seriously shouldn't I?"
-So now we fly ever free-
Before Kaen could reply to this statement, Buu seemed to roll itself into a ball, a feat only possible given it's total lack of bones. Task completed, Buu blasted forward, like it had been fired out of a cannon, and it barrelled towards him at high speed. Barely dodging out of the way, he turned to follow it, only to see Buu turning in flight to come swinging back. He quickly raised his gauntleted hands to block, but was still sent sprawling from the blow, sliding a few metres on the ground, his forearms aching from the strike.
-We're free before the thunderstorm-
Quickly hauling himself to his feet, he dived out of the way as Buu swept past again, the Majin Cannonball digging a trench through the pavement where he'd been lying. The second his feet touched ground he leapt away again, narrowly missing being caught by Buu's continued assault. The dangerous dance continued for a while longer, Kaen always managing to keep one step ahead of Buu's attacks, courtesy of the (very) minor premonition abilities of one of his past selves. Even that, however, only lasted for so long.
-On towards the wilderness our quest carries on-
It was the simplest thing, really, that brought the entire house of cards crashing down. A section of the pavement, weakened by the continued shockwaves of Buu's impacts, gave way under Kaen's foot, causing him to stumble. This, in turn, allowed the Majin Cannonball to make contact with Kaen's unprotected back, and before he could recover, he was struck again, and again. For the second time that day, Kaen was pummelled by attacks.
-Far beyond the sundown, far beyond the moonlight-
"Come on Kaen," Pi cried, watching the ongoing fight in the crystal ball the ogre had brought her, "You can do better than that!"
In truth, the 'crystal ball' was the magical equivalent of a big screen TV. When the ogre had first provided a crystal ball for her to watch the fight on, it was more of a portable TV, but it seemed she began drawing quite the crowd as she yelled support. As such, they had upgraded to the jumbo-sized ball they were using now. If the brief introductions she'd gotten were true, some of the people watching were warriors from other planets and galaxies, taking time off their training on some place called the Grand Kai's planet, but she wasn't paying too much attention to them.
"He's still holding back," the guy next to her commented; some green guy by the name of Pikkon, or something. Pi just nodded to herself, returning her attention to the fight.
-Deep inside our hearts and all our souls-
As each blow landed, Kaen felt himself growing more and more enraged. Each time he was struck, his energy took a minor dip from the blow, then a large spike from the anger. This... this thing was wasting his time, it had killed his mate, and it was toying with him. With an almighty yell, the sphere of golden energy returned, vaporising more of the city and driving the Buu Ball away from him, but rather than flying away, Buu continued to circle the shield, waiting for the chance to attack again.
Charging a massive amount of energy into his right fist, Kaen dropped the shield, letting fly with a devastating punch to Buu the moment he came into range. As the pink ball impacted with the edge of a nearby building, the people observing were surprised to see that, rather than either Buu rebounding, or the building giving way, the pink ball exploded like a bug hitting a windshield on the highway.
Floating down to land on the roof of a small shop, Kaen closed his eyes, focusing his thoughts inwards. He wasn't strong enough. He could tell he had more power, he just couldn't access it, and so he did the only thing he could. Sifting through two hundred and forty years of memories, Kaen locked on to every negative thought he could, using it to fuel his rage. Looking to the demon beneath his skin, he didn't ask for more energy, he demanded it, and it was granted to him.
-So far away we wait for the day-
Avarrdo looked quickly to the console before him as a warning light began flashing, before commenting, "We're picking up an uncontrolled power flow increase."
Looking to the others, Truniz added, "Look's like the boy's pullin' out all the stops."
"It's too soon," Kellre murmured with a shake of his head.
"What do you mean 'too soon'? It seems to me he needs all the power he can get," Kat replied.
Kellre sighed. "Have you ever wondered why you can only access so much energy at a time, but with training, can access more?" She shrugged. "The body can only handle so much, and through training, you can increase this limit. However, after each increase, the body needs to recover. This will be the second increase Kaen has gotten today. He's not going to be able to control it properly. He's barely in control as it is."
"What are you saying?" Kat asked frantically, "Are you saying he can't win?"
Kellre sighed, "I'm saying, if luck is not on our side, Majin Buu may become the least of this planet's problems, and we may witness first-hand what brought about the end of Planet Saiya."
-For the lights are so wasted and gone-
Bulma gasped as the Lookout began shaking, joining Chichi in looking up from their card game at the others for an explanation; the pair were trying to avoid noticing the fighting going on back down on Earth, as they'd both already lost a loved one to that ugly pink thing. When no one seemed to notice their scrutiny, she asked, "What's going on?"
"He's so strong..." Trunks muttered to himself, "Stronger than dad."
"Who is?" Bulma prodded.
The boy turned to look at her, replying, "Kaen. Seems he was holding back during the tournament."
"And if he's this strong, you can bet Pi is as well," Videl added, "I remember her telling me they were the same strength."
"But how is he shaking the Lookout?" Chichi asked.
"He's not," Goku replied, without looking away, "He's shaking the entire planet. His power's rising at an incredible rate. I still remember the first time I reached the third level, I nearly destroyed a good part of the Grand Kai's planet, and I didn't have blind rage fuelling me."
Smiling weakly, Krillin muttered, "I'm not sure who to root for anymore."
Shaking his head, Piccolo just commented grimly, "We could be in a lot of trouble."
-We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days-
Kaen's eyes faded to white again, his gaze distant, and his conscious mind lost in the red haze of memories past. As such, he never noticed how badly the ground was shaking, or the massive bolts of lightning falling from the mass of swirling clouds above his form. Near gale force winds picked up, swirling around Kaen and dragging the clouds down to form a massive tornado, with Kaen in the eye.
Dragging itself back together, Buu growled, "Oh no, not this time. I'm not going to let you power up!" Charging forward, he drew his fist back to strike at Kaen, only to be repelled by a blast of lightning. Picking itself up again, Buu tried once more, only this time, the force of the wind slung him around to come crashing into the building behind. Venting steam in its parody of a power-up, Buu began firing blast after blast as Kaen's immobile form, but every one of them was cancelled out by his aura.
-Through the fire and the flames we carry on-
As rising shout began to emerge from Kaen's mouth, the wind sped up further, and the clouds maintained a near constant ring of lightning around him, the bolts of electricity digging a near-circular trench. His hair began to extend, gravity proving ineffective at holding the sheer mass aloft, as the bolts of electricity circling his form began sheering through the pavement.
With one final, ear-shattering shout, Kaen's aura exploded outwards wildly, the searing heat turning much of the surrounding area to molten slag, including Majin Buu; of course, the evil bubblegum monster regenerated itself as per usual. The expanding wave of energy rippled through the city, although the damage lessened the further it went. Still, for blocks in all directions, plants and trees were set alight, water boiled, glass cracked, plastic warped, rubber melted, and metal began glowing red, all from the sheer heat.
-As the red day is dawning, and the lightning cracks the sky-
The colour returned to his eyes, the iris' of them now almost blue, and, for possibly the first time, his pupil's visible. His golden hair stopped where his tail began, and even his tail itself seemed to have doubled in girth as it waved lazily behind him. The excess power bleeding off him caused the occasional spark of blue electricity to arc around him, as well as keeping the storm clouds circling above, and every now and then, a stray lightning bolt would fall, kicking up shards of concrete.
Unimpressed by the light and weather show, Buu glared over at him, declaring, "So you're one of those Super Saiyan Three's as well as you? So what, it changes nothing! The last one couldn't even scratch me!"
-They'll raise their hands to the heavens above with resentment in their eyes.-
Kaen said nothing, merely raising his hand above his head, staring back at Buu with nothing but rage in his eyes. A deep red ball of ki grew from the gem in his palm, expanding until it reached the size of a small car, before shrinking to about the size of a coconut. With a casual, if empty, comment of, "Blast Burn," Kaen calmly tossed the ball of energy towards Majin Buu, who, in turn, fired a blast of his own to intercept it, rather than dodging it; the pink monster was thus unprepared when the exploding deep red ball of ki sent shockwaves through the air, similar to an earthquake.
As Buu went tumbling end over end through the air, Kaen disappeared from view. Before it could right itself again, Buu's direction was violently changed by an unseen impact from behind, sending him skyward, before his rubbery body was rocked by a series of blows too fast for even the most powerful fighters on Earth to follow. With a final devastating blow, Majin Buu was sent careening down the street for three whole blocks, it's face digging a fairly large trench in the road.
-Running back through the mid-morning light, there's a burning in my heart-
With a near primal growl, Kaen raced after Buu's receding form, punching holes clear through anything that got in his way; buildings, trees, signposts, and so on. He no longer truly saw Majin Buu, his vision having long faded red due to bloodlust. All he saw now was 'the enemy', and 'the enemy' must be destroyed at all cost. He didn't care about the planet, nor did he care about anyone on it. He even only vaguely cared about his dead mate.
This was, in truth, the cause of the problem; Pi's death. A broken bond, and near uncontrollable power increasing at an exponential rate even now, made for a dangerous combination, and, had Hercule not done the smart thing and gotten the citizens of Satan City out of the war zone, it might have resulted in many a death; not that Kaen would have cared. Kicking Buu skyward once more, Kaen raised both hands, forming a massive orange sphere of energy in mere seconds, before hurling it up at Buu with a feral cry; "Terra Destroyer!"
-We're banished from the time in the fallen land, to a light beyond the stars-
"By the five Kais," Pikkon breathed, "He's out of control."
"Sure is kicking a lot of ass though," the blond man next to him remarked; Olibu. This sentiment seemed to be shared by the rest of the people watching.
The crystal ball, and the people watching it, had been relocated to the courtyard of the Grand Kai's planet, and as such, the viewing audience had increased tremendously. Technically, Pi wasn't supposed to be on the planet, as she hadn't even been judged yet, let alone given permission, but the Grand Kai himself had brought her there, with the offhanded remark she was gonna wind up here anyway sooner or later.
"This, fighters, is what happens when you let your power control you," the Grand Kai remarked, to the murmured agreement of the four other Kais with him.
Pi, however, tuned them all out, focusing instead on the face of her mate, through the giant crystal display. Even with the bond a mere shadow of it's former self, she almost swore she could still feel Kaen's emotions, could feel the rage, and the loss, running through him. Pressing her hand against the massive crystal ball, ignorant of the twin tear trails running down her face, she whispered, "Stay strong Kaen. Please, stay strong."
-In the blackest dreams we do believe our destiny this time-
Gohan paused in his training, wiping his brow as he stabbed the heavy Z-Sword into the dirt before him, leaning on it as he caught his breath. He only vaguely remembered the sword training he'd done with Mirai Trunks seven years ago, but he knew he had to get stronger. He needed to be able to protect the Earth, to protect his family, to protect Videl... Idly, he thought to himself, he'd really have to tell her the truth about everything when he got back.
He balked for a moment as he felt the niggle at the back of his senses, telling him there was a massive power level far away, getting stronger. Having felt his father's power level when he'd been fighting before, he had naturally assumed it was still him. Even when Buu's power level almost doubled, he still assumed it was his father fighting; after all, who else could be that strong?
Now, however, as he felt that second power level continue to rise, he had second thoughts. Turning to Kibito and the Supreme Kai, he asked, "Hey Supreme Kai, do you know what's going on down on Earth?"
Kibito grimaced - nothing new - and the Supreme Kai frowned slightly, before replying, "Your friend Kaen is battling Majin Buu. Somehow, Majin Buu has changed form, and this one is almost twice as powerful as the one that defeated you before."
-And endlessly we'll all be free tonight-
"I realise that much," Gohan replied, before the first part hit him, "Wait, Kaen? The same Kaen I fought at the tournament? When did he get this strong? We were both fighting at full power."
Shaking his head, Shin replied, "I must admit that I underestimated him. Like you, Kaen was only fighting with the full power he could access. It appears there was a massive well of energy below the surface, waiting to be released."
"Now, however, too much has been released at once," Kibito grunted.
"So," Gohan asked, "You mean Kaen might be strong enough to defeat Buu?"
Shin just shook his head again, replying, "That he has the strength to defeat Majin Buu is undisputed. However, I do not believe he has the control to wield it well enough to do so. I only pray there is enough of him left in there to avoid the total destruction of Earth."
-And on the wings of a dream, so far beyond reality-
Kaen paused in his senseless beating of Buu, giving the evil creature time to recover and prepare for the next wave. Somewhere in his primal, rage-fogged mind, Kaen felt he didn't have enough power to defeat Buu; after all, surely if he was strong enough, it would be dead by now, right? With that belief in mind, Kaen set about finding more power, demanding more power of his Saiyan soul. Despite his animalistic behaviour, Kaen was still fully aware of every technique he knew, and full capable of using all of them; his blood was in control of his actions, but he still was, at the core, the same Kaen.
He started by using his Rage Pyre technique to its maximum effect; like the Kaioken, it had levels, and, like the Kaioken, it was a power multiplier, not a static boost. Thus, when Kaen shouted "Rage Pyre Fury Fifty!" his power level increased dramatically, as his aura flared red, his golden hair taking on a rust-like tinge, and his near-blue eyes taking a red tint too.
Despite the massive damage caused to the surrounding environment by this power-up, Kaen's instinctual mind decided even this was not enough, so it resorted to the second, more dangerous power-up technique he had: Overheat. His body began glowing red-hot as the technique activated; in truth, the red-hot glow came from an aura wrapped around his body, but it didn't look like that from a distance.
The trouble with this technique was that, whereas techniques like Kaioken and Rage Pyre damaged the body when they were activated - like most overchanneling techniques - Overheat did not. It was specifically designed as a last-ditch, bottom-of-the-ninth, winner-takes-all technique, and as such, it reduced, if not removed completely, the body's fail-safes on overchanneling, allowing the user to draw in much more power then was safe without taking the damage normally associated with drawing in too much ki; however, once the technique wore off...
-All alone in desperation, now the time is gone-
"Damn..." Kellre grimaced to himself as he watched the fight; he was afraid this would happen. Kaen, in his wild state, was over-reaching, and it was going to lead to his death. Closing his eyes, he set about damage control.
Soon, as Kaen's power began growing, and waves of energy were sent out even beyond the planet's atmosphere, the Icebreaker began to shake; even the mighty Icebreaker's stabilisers could only cope with so much. Grabbing hold of the console before her, Kat cried, "What's going on?"
"It's Kaen," Avarrdo replied, barely staying stable himself, "His power's growing at an exponential rate; he can't possibly hope to contain it."
"This is bad," Truniz commented, "This is very bad. We'll be lucky if he doesn't shake the entire planet apart."
Eyes wide, Kat breathed, "You mean... Kaen's going to die?" It had never once occurred to her that her all-powerful brother could actually die.
Avarrdo sighed, closing his eyes, and wrapping an arm around April's shoulder. "From the moment he hit the third level, he was living on borrowed time. I fear that, at this point, Kaen's death is all but a forgone conclusion..."
Turning her eyes to her mate, who was being unusually quiet, Raene asked, "What are you doing dear?"
"Damage control," he replied, without opening his eyes, "I know he's in there somewhere. I fear it's too late to prevent him being destroyed by his own power, but if I'm lucky, I may be able to bring him back before it's too late for the rest of us."
-Lost inside you'll never find, lost within my own mind-
As Kaen's power continued to rise, the damage to the surrounding area became more prominent: the earth began to shake violently, no less than a seven on the Richter scale, shaking some of the more unstable buildings to their foundations; great rents were torn in the ground, massive fault lines opening; cyclonic winds, tearing up trees, power poles and the like, and hurling them across the city.
The damage to the city was so great, even the bomb shelter under city hall, where the citizens of Satan City hid, was ripped from the ground, and flung like an empty can across the city; fortunately, their luck held, as there was enough power in the throw for the shelter, which had been built self-contained, to reach the massive lake to the southwest of the city, where it skipped all the way across, losing momentum, to rest on the opposite bank. Most importantly, the people within were fine, albeit shaken up, and out of the line of fire.
-Day after day this misery must go on-
This action just seemed to prove to Kellre that Kaen was, indeed, still in there, buried underneath all the layers of rage. Reaching his mind out telepathically, he sought to communicate with the troubled Saiyan. The second his mind made contact, he was instantly flooded with wave after wave of powerful emotions. They weren't quite as strong as what Kaen was feeling, more of an echo due to the mental contact, which spoke of how strong these emotions were in him, that a mere echo was almost deafening.
There were almost no records, to his knowledge, of Saiyans who had suffered from a broken bond; after all, they tended not to be very chatty people, and there weren't many who weren't with their bondmate at time of death. There were also none that had anywhere near this power, but, nonetheless, there were two basic 'strains' of sufferers: those who fell into a depression, and those who flew into a homicidal rage; Kaen, clearly, was one of the latter.
Kellre knew that the only way he could bring Kaen around was to shock him out of his berserker rage, and the only way he could do that safely was with mental 'shoves' in the right direction. He just prayed that it was enough.
-So far away we wait for the day-
Pi struggled to keep her emotions in check as she watched her mate powering up to suicidal levels, and still going. She had to keep a level head, and find some way to help him... With a start, she remembered something: Goku kept in contact with his family and friends from here through a medium, a 'King Kai' if she remembered rightly.
Spinning around to face the massive audience, she shouted, "Which one of you is King Kai?"
A blue-skinned being towards the back, dressed mostly in black, and with a halo above his head, replied in a nasal voice, "I am."
She raced over to him, saying, "I need your help. I need to speak to Kaen."
King Kai started to sweat, "What make you think I-"
"Please," Pi cut him off, "I know you help Goku to keep in touch with his family. I just need to speak to Kaen for a minute. I need to help him."
He sighed, "Fine, fine. Just place your hand on my back, and I'll do the rest."
-For the lights are so wasted and gone-
Kaen's power continued to climb, and the power bleed continued to cause more and more widespread damage. Great faults in the earth began spewing forth pillars of molten lava. Lightning bolts the size of trees began raining from the pitch-black clouds swirling above, from which swarms of miniature tornadoes began dropping. Plant matter not utterly destroyed in the 'weather' so far started spontaneously combusting, despite the torrential rain. And, more dangerously, green rifts began opening in the sky (1). Even Majin Buu was not except from damage, being struck multiple times by lava faults, lightning bolts, and the like; of course, this did little to the creature bar pissing it off.
And in the centre of this localised Armageddon stood Kaen. All around him for about half a block in all directions, the ground had become a massive sinkhole, save the pillar of earth he stood on. His eyes began glowing bright red, a sign all Saiyans know well, as his face began elongating, and his muscles bulging; his primal rage demanded more power, and the only way for his body to achieve it was through the Oozaru transformation, and Kaen, thanks to one of his past lives, did not require the light of the full moon, or a simulation thereof, to achieve it.
This, however, Kellre could not allow. "Focus!" He telepathically shouted, "Remember your training! Control your power!" He realised that he was getting nowhere, so he tried a different track. "Remember Pi! Remember your mate!" This time, he got a result, as Kaen's power briefly stopped rising, before began again at a slower climb, so he tried again, "Stop! If you don't control yourself, you will lose her forever! You are her only hope! CONTROL YOURSELF!"
-We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days-
Kaen let out a primal roar, one that was wavering between his normal voice, and the deep bass of the Oozaru; Kellre had caught him on the edge between the two, and if he wasn't careful, Kaen would be pushed over. But as he quickly racked his brain for that final nudge in the right direction, he received some help from an unexpected source, one that couldn't fail.
"Kaen," Pi's voice rang out in Kaen's mind, and had he not heard it himself through the telepathic connection, Kellre would never have believed it; from that single word alone, even though it was not his mind, Kellre could almost feel the red fog lifting. "Kaen, you have to control yourself. Please, for me. I know you have the power, the skill, and the will to defeat Majin Buu. Use it. Make me proud. Defeat Buu, and we will be together again."
-Through the fire and the flames we carry on-
With a final massive roar, this time one completely human - well, Saiyan - the abnormal weather instantly halted as if it had never been. The winds died down, becoming deathly still, almost eerily so, as did the ground itself. The massive clouds vanished without a trace, and, to the great relief of the others, the green rifts in the sky sealed shut again. There was still the occasional pillar of lava left, but, with but a glance from Kaen, those hardened instantly.
Kaen glared over at Majin Buu, arcs of lightning shooting around his form from the, now more controlled, ki bleed, as the pink thing pulled itself back together, floating high above the city. It had killed Gohan, it had killed Vegeta, and, worst of all, it had killed Pi, and it had the audacity to still be alive. This Kaen would not allow. He would bring an end to Majin Buu's continued existence, even at the cost of his life. And fortunately, he had just the thing in mind; but first, he needed to weaken it a little.
-Woahoo-oh, Woahoo-oh, Woahoo-ooh-ooh-ohh-oh!-
"What the hell is he doing?" Gohan questioned, observing the fight in the crystal ball the Supreme Kai had created; training or no training, he was not going to miss the fight of the millennium. As the three of them watched, Kaen crouched down as if moving in slow motion, seeming to leave a trail of 'ghosts' of himself as he did so; there were three separate images, if Gohan's guess was right, excluding the 'original'.
After a moment in this position, almost like he was kneeling in prayer, Kaen leapt into the sky, still in slow motion, the three images trailing slightly behind him. He swung around Majin Buu's stationary form, the evil pink monster seemingly as confused as everyone else watching. When Kaen stopped moving - or at least, appeared to stop moving - there were four images of him around Buu; one each directly in front and behind, and one each between them, and all four seemed ghost-like. Then, with an almost audible pop, all four images seemed to 'solidify', and the four Kaen's grinned.
And then the beating began.
-Woahoo-oh, Woahoo-oh, Woahoo-ooh-ooh-ohh-oh!-
The Saiyan families aboard the Icebreaker watched in shock as the four Kaen's began laying into Buu at blindingly fast speeds, so much so that only their torsos and heads were visible, and even then, only most of the time. It seemed even Majin Buu's body didn't have time to register all the blows, as, by the look on things, by the time one blow could have been felt, at least eleven more would have hit.
What confused almost everyone the most, however, was the fact that, judging by the short moment they'd seen before the all-out brawl began, all four Kaen's were wearing golden gauntlets. Turning to the person most likely to know, Kellre, Kat asked, "What's going on? How come all four of them have the gauntlets? I mean, I know Kaen can copy himself, but he can't copy those."
"He hasn't," Kellre replied with a shrug, "What we're seeing here is much simpler, but at the same time, much more complex."
"Gee, thanks for clearing that up bro," Truniz quipped sarcastically, without taking his eyes off the brutality on the screen; sure, he couldn't see most of it, but he could imagine, and what he did see put a smirk on his face.
"Let me put it another way," Kellre replied, "Only the real Kaen is wearing the gauntlets. Think about that for a moment."
"So... His copies just copied the image?" Truniz guessed.
"Can't," Avarrdo replied, "From what I've seen, they can only copy him, nothing more."
It suddenly clicked to Kat, who turned quickly from the screen to her adopted father to ask, "Wait, you're saying all four of them are the real Kaen?"
"Correct young Kat," the aged scientist replied, "Somehow, Kaen has found a way to simultaneously exist in multiple places at once. If you'll look closely, you'll notice that the four images are each a few nanoseconds apart in their actions." Forestalling any questions into the 'why' of it, he continued, "As to why he's doing this, I believe he noticed the same thing I did earlier; Buu takes longer to heal from simultaneous damage than from regular damage. Two strikes, in different places, at the same time, take longer to heal than two at different times."
"The bigger concern," Kellre commented, "Is that Kaen's energy is not wavering even in the slightest."
"What do you mean?" April asked, worried for her eldest son's safety, "Surely whatever he's using to be like that requires energy."
He nodded, "A great deal I would imagine. Added to that, if the sensor's calculations are correct, each individual blow the four Kaen's make is packed with enough ki to punch a hole through the hull of almost any space ship bar this one, and even then, the hull of the Icebreaker would warp. And yet, his energy has not changed since he took control over it."
"The only conclusion I can come to," Avarrdo added, "Is that the second power-up Kaen used is replenishing his energy as fast as he can use it, and burning up his essence to do it."
"Essence?" Kat questioned.
Avarrdo's lecturing tone made an appearance. "You know about energy, or ki, correct, and how every living thing, from trees to people, has it?" She nodded, giving him the typical 'what are you, stupid?' look, so he continued, "Well, there is a second type of 'energy' that everything has: the 'energy' used to keep things in the physical world. We dubbed that 'essence', or 'chi'."
Giving it a few moments to sink in, Kellre took over, "Normally, every inanimate object, like a chair, or a rock, has just essence, but no ki; there are exceptions to this general rule, as Kaen and Pi's sword proves. Conversely, every animate object has essence, to allow it to exist, and ki, to allow it to be animate. An animate object with zero ki becomes temporarily inanimate, until it has ki again; such as people going to sleep. An object with zero essence, however, no longer has the 'energy' required to sustain its existence, and dies."
"There are, obviously, ways to 'cheat death'," Avarrdo commented, ignoring the womenfolk's gasps at Kellre's statement, "Goku, for instance, is a person with ki, but no essence, so he needs a replacement 'energy' to keep him in the mortal world; in this case, the magicks of one Uranai Baba."
"Even fuelled by Baba's magicks, Goku could only contain the power of the base level of Super Saiyan Three for so long," Kellre continued, pointing out how exhausted Goku looked towards the end of the fight, "Which indicates that maintaining Super Saiyan Three uses essence. That, on it's own, is survivable; by all reports, Tienshinhan's Tri Beam technique also uses essence for a power boost. However, combined with what he's doing now..." His face grim, he concluded, "If we're right, and there is little chance we're not, then Kaen does not have much time left. At most, I'd give him five more minutes."
"Does Kaen know?" April asked softly.
Avarrdo nodded. "One would think." The mood on the Icebreaker was sombre, as everyone returned their attention back to what would be Kaen's final fight.
-Now here we stand with their blood on our hands-
A silent warning went off in Kaen's head, so he halted his brutal assault, the 'front' Kaen giving Buu one final uppercut, as the other three seemed to flow clockwise around Buu until they were part of him again. Raising his right hand, Buu's ascent was abruptly halted as a blackish-purple field of energy materialised around it; Kaen's Gravity Field technique. The gravitational pull wasn't nearly as strong as the artificial singularity that was Gravity Cannon, but with the massive damage Buu'd surely taken, it'd keep him still long enough for Kaen to pull off what he had dubbed his 'Limit Break', after some game he'd gotten the twins to play.
As he threw his hands out to either side of his body, at about waist height, he could feel blood running down both his arms, dripping out the seams in his gauntlets; he didn't have much longer before his body gave out on him entirely, but he would, through sheer force of will if nothing else, make this attack. Pi's words returned to him, and he repeated them to himself. He had the power, he had the skill, and he had the will necessary to destroy this abomination.
-We've fought so hard now can we understand?-
"What the hell is he doing?" Krillin questioned, "He's just standing... err, floating there."
"He's going to use his trump card," Oran replied, his voice subdued, "His most powerful, and dangerous, technique."
"Uh, has he ever used it before?" Goku asked, his voice having a strange inflection to it. The older Saiyan felt a little odd that this young Saiyan, just older than his son, who he had found out today had been a Super Saiyan before him, was actually currently holding a power level Goku couldn't yet reach, but did take a strange, sick sort of satisfaction in the knowledge that he couldn't sustain it without killing himself; born and raised a Saiyan or not, Goku still had the Saiyan determination to always be the strongest, and felt weird that, for the first time, someone younger than him had more power. Obviously, Gohan didn't count, as he was family.
Lime answered Goku's question, "No, he's never had the need to use this particular incarnation, but he has used one of the weaker versions before."
"When?" Videl asked.
Together, the twins replied, "When Pi first died."
-I'll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can-
In his left hand, a ki ball of the purest white formed, so bright that, as it grew in power, it began to make the sun look dim. In his right hand, formed a ki ball of the darkest black, the void so strong it actually started to absorb the light around it. As Kaen poured more and more of his energy into the two balls, the lava fountains returned, bursting forth at random; one actually erupted just under where he stood, his brutal assault on Buu having carried him to the eastern outskirts of town, but the sheer volume of his energy pushed it back, hardening it into a pillar of once-molten rock beneath him.
Unknowingly, Kaen had begun chanting "I'll kill you" to himself as he charged the attack, gradually rising in volume the more energy he pumped into it. He could almost feel his body giving out on him, as he forced more and more of his life force into the blast; it got to the point that, in a fairly gory display, he even began sweating blood, tiny wounds opening up across his body. Finally, though, there was enough energy in the blast to do what needed to be done: to destroy Majin Buu.
-For freedom of every man-
Throwing his arms forward, Kaen struggled to force the two balls of ki together, the positive and negative energies clashing. Finally, though, the two balls merged, forming a single basketball-sized ball of energy, swirling with black and white streaks across its surface, like some bizarre zebra stripe pattern.
Aiming the ball at Buu - not that accuracy really mattered when dealing with this much raw energy - Kaen shouted out a final "I'LL KILL YOU! UNHOLY INFERNO!" and fired the blast.
-So far away we wait for the day-
The denizens of Other World watched in awe at the size of the blast that uttered forth from the fairly small ball of energy; it was quite obvious, from the purity of the individual balls' colours, that the energy contained within was concentrated, but they still didn't quite expect this...
A veritable wall of energy, some fifty-odd foot in radius, raced towards the immobilised Majin Buu, before carrying it off at high speeds, almost completely hidden from view by the intensity of the blast. Every couple hundred metres or so, a ring of energy would bleed off, expanding out for about another fifteen feet. All this wouldn't have been as much of a problem, if Kaen hadn't been a mere twenty-odd foot off the ground when he fired it; as such, the blast carved a massive trench off to the east of Satan City, carving deeper cuts across the trench every time a ring of energy would bleed off.
-For the lights are so wasted and gone-
Due to the curve of the earth, and the slight angle at which it had been fired, the blast veered off the planet less than a foot away from the coastline, after having sheered straight through the mountain range; as chance would have it, a pulse of energy had been released while going through the mountains, carving a massive chunk out of the range.
The blast continued off, travelling at high speeds through space, and causing some damage through the solar system: a pulse of energy glanced Mars' ice cap, which no doubt would cause it to begin melting, and possibly start terraforming of the planet. The beam of energy sliced neatly through the asteroid belt, erasing many a chunk of rock from existence. Another pulse of energy just missed wiping out one of Jupiter's moons, while Saturn and the planets after it lucked out, being far enough away that they were missed completely. By the time the energy from the blast was gone, the remains (if any) of Buu rested part way through Neptune's orbit.
There was absolute silence on the Grand Kai's planet for a few moments, before the Grand Kai himself whistled, commenting, "Damn..."
-We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days-
"Holy shit!" Kat near-screeched, watching the giant beam of energy obliterating Buu.
Truniz whistled appreciatively, commenting, "Wow. Can't say I saw that comin'..."
Kellre nodded, "That was, indeed, an impressive display of power."
"Was it enough though?" Raene asked.
Avarrdo just shrugged, "Guess we'll find out soon enough won't we?"
-Through the fire and the flames we carry on!-
Kaen grinned tiredly, his eyes fading back to black, as his elongated golden hair seemed to almost shatter into fragments of light, his usual length black hair returning, and his raging aura vanishing completely. With a flash of light, the two golden gauntlets changed back into their original sword form, plummeting down to imbed themselves in the ground on either side of the pillar of hardened lava below him.
"Well... Pi... I got 'im," he rasped, struggling to draw breath, before his strength gave out entirely, and he fell from the sky, landing at the base of the pillar, at the foot of the massive trench his attack carved. It was there, drawing breath after laboured breath, that the last of his life force slowly ebbed away.
To be continued...
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Author's notes:
(1) The same thing happened when Buu, having absorbed Gohan, was fighting Vegeto, placing Kaen's power level at a point within canon.
Now, I know a lot of people are gonna go "WTF? Kaen's a Super Saiyan 3? I thought you said he wasn't going to be stronger than canon characters." The answer is: he's not. Keep in mind that to reach the level of strength where he was stronger than Goku, he needed to practically kill himself through extra power-up techniques, so it's not the sort of thing you use in friendly combat. I mean, Goku himself has a power-up technique he could use to increase his strength - the Kaioken - so his best isn't really his best. Kaen's non-power-up, non-blind-rage best would be around Super Saiyan 2.
The other reason for the power jump is simple: to help him keep up with Gohan, his rival. Vegeta got a power boost (the Majin magic) to help him keep up with Goku, his rival, so I'm simply evening things out. The half-Saiyan's getting training to bring out his power, which would again put him as the strongest. That, and I just don't like Goku, so I don't see why he should be the only one to reach that level. I fully believe that Vegeta, prior to blowing himself up, could have reached Super Saiyan Three if given the right motivation, such as witnessing the death of Bulma and/or Trunks right before his eyes, however it probably would have resulted in his death soon after.
I know that no matter what I say, there will still be people complaining about Kaen's current Gary Stu-esque nature, but having written this, I can understand why people create such high-powered characters. I mean, the part of me that is a reader of fanfiction agrees with the sentiment that Kaen is too powerful, but the part of me that writes fanfiction says 'Fuck it. It's my story, and I'll do what I like with it. If I want to rip causality a new one, that's my business.'
In short, review if you want, but any complaints are unwanted, and will be ignored.
In other news, you may or may not have noticed that this chapter is late. I was run off my feet the day I was due to upload it, and then I was called in to work the next day, and there was a massive drama there I don't feel like going into here, meaning I almost forgot to submit it again today. So, here it is.