-- Disturbance, Book 3: Endurance --

Chapter E08 - Stricken

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.

--

-You walk on like a woman in suffering-
-Won't even bother now to tell me why-
-You come along, letting all of us savour the moment-
-Leaving me broken another time-

As Buu's haunting laughter echoed across the war zone that was once a lush field, Dende sank to his knees, a defeated look on his face as he bemoaned, "It's over. Majin Buu has won."

"No!" Gohan shouted defiantly. "It's not over. As long as I draw breath, until Majin Buu is destroyed it will never be over."

"Don't you get it Gohan? You can't win!" Dende knew Gohan was Earth's last hope, but he also knew Buu was the stronger. "Buu has Paine's powers now; a power twice that of Goku, one that may never run out. Our only choice is to cut our losses and try to lead Buu away from this planet. Maybe that way we'll be able to bring everyone back later, once we've found a way to deal with Buu."

"No Dende, there's no running from this." Gohan was never more determined that he would end this now. "Can you sense that?"

"All I can sense is Buu," Dende replied tiredly.

"Exactly," Gohan nodded, "His power is lower than before. It's lower than when Kaen first arrived, and it may even be lower than it was before he absorbed dad, but I don't know how long it'll stay that way. It's now or never Dende. I've got to finish this before he regains his strength, and if luck is on our side, maybe I'll even be able to destroy him before he 'digests' Paine, or whatever he needs to do."

"You can't do this Gohan!"

A pale blue aura flaring into life around him, Gohan sheathed his sword, before taking to the air. "If I don't," the teen remarked, taking off towards Buu, "who will?"

-You come on like a bloodstained hurricane-
-Leave me alone, let me be this time-
-You carry on like a holy man pushing redemption-
-I don't want to mention, the reason I know-

From behind his massive desk, King Yemma released an equally massive sigh. "This has never been done before, but desperate times call for desperate measures," he boomed to the figure before him. "I need your help. The universe needs your help."

The look on Vegeta's face as he leaned against Yemma's colossal stapler was equal parts scowl and smirk; the smirk should have been obvious, and the scowl for being dragged away from his fun. "Well, well, well. The mighty King Yemma coming to me for help. Let me guess: Buu?"

Yemma forced himself to remain calm; it wouldn't do to get angry with someone he was asking for help. "That's right. Majin Buu threatens to destroy everything in existence if he's not-"

"So send Kakarott," Vegeta interrupted dismissively.

"Goku has already returned to Earth to fight," Yemma shot back tersely. "He failed. All that remains is Gohan. You're all we have left. You are our last hope."

That changed Gohan's outlook slightly. A chance to both repay is debt to Gohan, and to best Kakarott, all in one fell swoop. However... "What's in it for me?" Vegeta asked gruffly. "As I am now, if I die I'm forced on to my next incarnation, so what do you have to offer me that's worth risking my very existence for?"

Yemma scowled; it figured Vegeta would be difficult. Fortunately, he knew exactly what the prince wanted. "You do this for me, I'll make you Hell's bouncer. It will be your job to keep the denizens of Hell in line. Every month, you will be allowed one day in the Upper Realms to spend as you see fit, and if you do your job well, you can earn bonus 'time off'."

The corner of Vegeta's mouth twitched up slightly, but otherwise he was stone silent as always. "Let's say I do this," he began slowly, "Let's say I help defeat Buu, Earth gets restored, and life goes on. What happens when and if I get wished back to life?"

Yemma grit his teeth. "Very well then. This offer will be eternally bound to your soul. Whenever you die, in any life, if you are sentenced to Hell, you shall receive this offer."

Vegeta's mouth twitched again, before a smirk spread across his features. "You drive a hard bargain Yemma. I accept. Send me back."

-That I am stricken and can't let you go-
-When the heart is cold, there's no hope, and we know-
-That I am crippled by all that you've done-
-Into the abyss will I run!-

In a place that defied time, space, and basic physiology, a hastily erected shield faded, and one person became two again; one male, and the other female. Scrubbing one hand through his hair, the male remarked, "Shit, that was calling it a little close."

Breathing a sigh of relief, the female replied, "Yeah, I was afraid we'd need to start calling him names to get him to absorb us already."

A grin broke out on his face. "I thought we already did that."

She grinned back. "True, but our attacks were about as effective, so it would've wasted less energy."

"That may be true Pi," he commented, "But I do believe you were enjoying yourself immensely."

"Kaen honey, I am a Saiyan," she shrugged, "Why wouldn't I love wielding world crushing powers?"

He slid his arms around her waist, kissing her briefly before remarking, "God I love you."

She fought back a blush; now was not the time to get all girly. There would be glomping later though, she'd make sure of that. "Love you too." Casting her gaze about, if only to distract herself, she added, "So, this is the inside of a construct of evil wrapped in bubble gum?"

"A bit too pink for my tastes." It was surreal, really, that after everything that had happened in the past two days ('Wait, has it been two days?') that he was now holding a casual conversation with his mate from the belly of an evil bubblegum monster. "So, we need to find a weakness or something, where should we aim?"

Putting a hand to her chin in thought, Pi mused, "This reminds me of a lesson I learned."

Kaen balked. "Look, I know your father's good, but even he can't be so all god-damned knowledgeable that he taught you how to kill a manifestation of pure evil." (1)

"My uncle Truniz actually."

Kaen grinned as they bantered back and forth; god he's missed this. "Oh, this I gotta hear."

"Let me finish then."

"All ears."

"Okay, so the lesson was pretty simple. I'd asked him what the best way to kill something was, and he told me: 'Take out any number of three vital points: the head, the heart, or the gnads.' Considering we've already both stabbed and incinerated the head, I suggest whatever passes for a heart in these parts."

"What about the gnads?"

"What about them?"

"Isn't that an option?"

She shrugged. "Not really, no."

"How do you know? Have you already checked out his junk?"

"No Kaen, the only person who's 'junk' I've checked out is yours. We have, however, kicked, burnt, and crushed that part of his anatomy several times already with minimal success."

He winced. "Touché. Well, since this is your plan, it's our show. Lead on."

"Stay close then, who knows what weird shit is in here."

"Other than us?"

"We're more weird than them, but they could still be dangerous. This is his home turf, so to speak."

After a few minutes of silent walking, Kaen burst out laughing. Turning her head to face him a curious expression on her face, she asked, "Care to share?"

He grinned. "Looks like something he ate is going to give him heart burn."

Pi just shook her head, muttering tiredly, "I knew those stupid Earth action films would rot your brain." Knowing he'd keep up, she continued walking.

"Oh c'mon, that was a great one liner."

She grinned. "Yeah, and Gohan looks like a stellar warrior in his Saiyaman outfit."

-You don't know what your power has done to me-
-I want to know if I'll heal inside-
-I can't go on with a holocaust about to happen-
-Seeing you laughing another time-

The ground exploded into a shower of dirt, before a wave of energy sent the turf flying, heralding Gohan's swift recovery. Wiping his split lip, Gohan spat out a mouthful of blood, grinning up at Buu. Ever since the fight began anew, the monster's power had been fluctuating between helpless, as he was when Gohan first fought him upon arriving back on Earth, and when he had absorbed his father.

Amusingly, Buu's torso was constantly reshaping itself to reveal just how powerful he was at the time: if it was bare, he had no extra power, if he wore his father's gi, he was using Goku's power, and so on. Also amusingly, Oran and Lime seemed to have split again; he recognised their outfits in the random rotation of powers Buu had going on. This random power change made the fight more difficult, but Gohan was having such fun.

After all, all bar his father were significantly weaker than him.

He hadn't yet seen Pi, Kaen, or either of their fusions in the rotation, but he was taking no chances. Which is why he wasted no time in rejoining the fight, his fist reaching Buu just as his father's gi top faded into Piccolo's mantle. The end result was a massive crater in Buu's putty-like face, moments before the monster made a crater all of it's own.

Gohan may have loved this, but Majin Buu had never been so frustrated. Whatever that stupid girl had done to him had screwed up his control over those he had absorbed. And to make matters worse, he had yet to see a shred of that girl's power to call his own!

There were two very important facts that Buu was unaware of that would have explained the entire situation to him. The first, the reason his power was now wild and difficult to control, was because he still had a vast amount of Hellfire in his system. When the Final Judgement attack had hit home, the Hellfire it was composed of had threaded itself through the holes in his battered body.

Hellfire was designed for one purpose: to turn the ki of its victim against itself. For a construct like Buu, this was especially dangerous, considering the possibility of the magical energies holding him together being overwritten and tearing him apart. What the Hellfire had managed to do, however, was drive a wedge between Buu, and his stolen power.

The second fact was entirely simpler. Both Kaen and Pi were free inside him.

-You'll never know why your face has haunted me-
-My very soul has to bleed this time-
-Another hole in the wall of my inner defences-
-Leaving me breathless, the reason I know-

The construct that was Majin Buu was simultaneously a wonder of magic, and an abomination against science and nature combined. So far in their journey through the horror, they had discovered that Majin Buu did, in fact, have working organs, and something resembling a digestive system, but there was no waste; the acids in his stomach were strong enough to destroy anything, and without the magicks containing it, even Buu would be consumed.

Another similarity he had to an actual living creature was a circulatory system, though he had no blood. Instead, what Kaen could only guess was steam shot through his veins and arteries, and, unless Buu voided all of the basic anatomical knowledge they both shared, where they were now, was one of the former. Which meant they'd scored a shortcut to Buu's heart, flying along on a red blood cell.

True to Buu's form, it was actually more a rich pink. To make sure Buu remained as unaware to their trespass as possible, they'd agreed to use as little ki as possible, so scoring a free ride was perfect. They'd also made sure to suppress their ki as low as it could go, until they blended in with the ambient ki that permeated Buu's entire being.

It was still a little surreal that, despite all that had happened recently, especially between Pi and himself, here they were now, casually lounging on a red blood cell, Pi laying her head on Kaen's chest, as they sailed on towards their target.

Kaen ran a hand through Pi's hair absently, his mind a mile away. It was a surprising situation, playing spectator to some of her deepest thoughts and emotions, especially with what had happened between them; the fusion, combined with their already existing bond, truly meshed their minds together, unlocking all those memories that had briefly flashed through his mind but once before, when the bond was first formed. It definitely cast a new light on their relationship.

He should have been angry, or at least concerned, and he would have been well within his rights to be, but he just couldn't bring himself to be. Despite everything, he couldn't doubt her sincerity, nor her love, and that brought a smile to his face.

After all, he knew the exact moment she realised she'd fallen in love, not that he'd tell anyone; after all she'd done for him, the least he could do is help her maintain the air of mystery about her, though there would be no more secrets between them. Stroking her cheek affectionately with his thumb, he remarked softly, "You know, you were really good at that."

She smiled a little at the thoughts she heard circulating through his mind, replying, "Thanks, but it's odd that you're complimenting it, considering..."

Leaning up to kiss her on the cheek, he commented, "That's all in the past. Let's just say I sorta got to appreciate the depth of it a little, you know?" Stroking her hair again, he asked, "Ever wanted to be an actor?"

She laughed a little, her heart lifting; she may have now known instinctively how he felt, but it was still nice to hear him say it. "Sweetie, with my looks, I'd be on screen kissing other boys all the time, and my career would crash and burn very quickly when they all came down with a sudden case of 'broken-jaw syndrome'."

Kaen just grinned and held her tighter, as they sailed ever closer to the heart of the beast.

-That I am stricken and can't let you go-
-When the heart is cold, there's no hope, and we know-
-That I am crippled by all that you've done-
-Into the abyss will I run-
-Into the abyss will I run!-

Gohan crashed into the ground once again, groaning in pain as he dragged himself to his feet. Whatever had affected Buu's powers had clearly not changed his stamina any, and no matter how much damage Gohan did, Buu's power would not drop any further. The only saving grace was that neither Kaen nor Pi's powers had surfaced, but it wasn't enough; Gohan was tiring, and there was no time for Dende to heal him. 'I can't let it end like this!'

"You tired already boy?" Buu sneered, charging up a Kamehameha wave. "Don't worry, I'll make the pain stop."

"And here I thought you couldn't get uglier or stupider, but I guess I was wrong on both counts." A new voice declared from above; a very familiar voice.

"What?!" Majin Buu barked, his head snapping up towards the speaker.

"Final Flash!" The golden beam streaked down, cleaving Buu's head from his shoulders, and sending the monster tumbling aimlessly towards the ground, at least for now. Folding his arms, a self-satisfied smirk spread across the deceased prince's face. "Of all the fighters on this planet to absorb, you chose Kakarott?"

"Vegeta!" Gohan cried out excitedly, a wise smile breaking over his face. "Am I ever glad to see you!"

Vegeta inclined his head exactly five degrees; from anyone else, the gesture would be worthless, but from Vegeta, it was the equivalent of a full-blown familial hug. While he would never say it, Vegeta respected Gohan a great deal, and owed him his life several times over. 'Today, I begin to repay my debt.' "What happened to Kaen?"

It stunned Gohan for a brief second, to hear Vegeta's voice in his head, but he must have realised the danger of speaking out loud; weakened or not, Majin Buu had absorbed seven Saiyans today, all bar his father knowing how to speak the Saiyan language, so verbalising anything would give away any plans they might have. "Absorbed. Pi too. Buu's power has been fluctuating ever since they fought him, but he's displayed abilities of everyone he's taken bar them."

The smirk on Vegeta's face turned demonic. "They let themselves get taken." Vegeta was not a smart man, he would admit that to anyone; not book smart, in any case. He was, however, a cunning man, a warrior, a Saiyan. He knew, like all Saiyans did, that sometimes, victory must be achieved at all cost, and that one Saiyan's life was insignificant when weighed against the entire race. And some times, you had to play to lose, in order to win it all. "They're trying to destroy him from the inside."

"But, why would they do th-" Gohan's confused reflections died suddenly, as instinct awoke. He could see it now, could see why they didn't fight back when the pink wave washed over them; if Liran was able to break out of it, then Paine would've had no trouble. "The fusion. They knew it was ending." Vegeta nodded once more. "So what do we do?"

"We wait until we can be sure whether they've succeeded or failed."

"And if they've failed?"

Vegeta's smirk turned grim then. "Then we finish it ourselves. One way, or the other."

-You walk on like a woman in suffering-
-Won't even bother now to tell me why-
-You come along, letting all of us savour the moment-
-Leaving me broken another time-

Despite what many people would like to think, Saiyan Battle Principle was exactly as straightforward as people believed: keep hitting it until it stops moving. Going into the fight with Majin Buu, it has always been Kaen's intention to turn the monster into a fine pink paste. The problem with this plan was that said pink paste had a nasty habit of growing back.

Pi's plan, and therefore Paine's, was a little more complex. Just as Kaen was a lot more like his father than he'd ever be willing to admit, Pi was a lot like her own parents. Unlike her mate, she couldn't make an initial rough plan and 'wing it' from there; she liked to put a bit more thought into things. To this end, she had come up with two separate plans, in case the first failed.

That said, both plans could essentially be boiled down to Kaen's plan, just with different flavours to them. The first was to beat said pink paste so hard that it couldn't possibly regenerate itself, or at least lose the means to. She had almost succeeded in this plan; she just hadn't counted on Buu still being able to control the shattered remains of his lower half. The second plan was a lot more risky, but also more likely to succeed: go inside, and destroy as many vital systems as possible.

Neither Pi nor her mate had been entirely sure what to expect when they found Buu's inner core, or heart, or whatever it was. A dark pulsing thing, a bright pulsing thing, a never-ending well of eternal pitch that would swallow the very fabrics of time and space to never be seen again, or a kiwi-lime cupcake; given what they'd seen so far, all of them was just as likely as each other.

She honestly thought she could not be surprised by whatever was at the heart of this creature. The cavernous room they had arrived in hadn't been too surprising, but the series of pods suspended from the ceiling containing the unconscious forms of the friends and family that had been absorbed into the living goo that was Buu's flesh was extremely surprising; a pleasant surprise, but a surprise all the same, and to be fair, it was hard to sense much of anything in here.

A smile spreading across her face at the revelation they'd be able to rescue those Buu had consumed instead of having to wish them back to life, Pi remarked happily, "My plans are awesome."

His tail swishing about a bit, Kaen replied defensively, "Hey, if I knew they were prisoners in here I would've thought of something; I just assumed they were gone."

Still smiling, Pi threw her arms around him, commenting, "Sweetie, you're not a safe cracker, you're a demolitions man."

A smile coming to his face as well, he shrugged, "Heh, well, I do love my work."

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "And I do love that about you. Now, let's get them out of there."

-You come on like a bloodstained hurricane-
-Leave me alone, let me be this time-
-You carry on like a holy man pushing redemption-
-No one to mention, the reason I know-

"Final Flash!" Vegeta smirked to himself as he watched Buu skip along the ground for a few hundred metres before crashing into a hillside. Even without being able to see or sense them, the prince knew that somewhere in that monster, Kaen and Pi were trying to bring the creature down. And it was working.

Majin Buu's power had settled again. The switches between forms had gotten increasingly rare and few over the space of about thirty seconds, until they stopped entirely, leaving Buu in his original state, without any of his stolen powers. With the boost in power he'd received upon death, that meant Vegeta was now stronger than the pink putty monster, and with Gohan off being healed by the Namek brat, that left Vegeta to keep Buu busy.

And he was loving every second of it.

Smacking the monster around the terrain like a rag doll was extremely amusing and satisfying, especially when he had sacrificed his own life in vein trying unsuccessfully to destroy his obese incarnation. Now, however, Vegeta didn't need to destroy Buu. He just needed to keep him too occupied to investigate what had happened to his vast assortment of stolen powers.

If that meant using Buu as a quasi-living target practice dummy that grew back and moved around on it's own, then it was the prince's right - no, responsibility - to use as much energy failing to destroy it as he possibly could. And if he had an immeasurable amount of fun along the way, well, that was just an added bonus. Besides, it was great stress relief, and Vegeta wasn't too proud to admit, in his head at least, that he was a little pent up.

Hell, Gohan would've joined in himself if it weren't for two important factors. The first was that, after having kept the monster amused until the prince arrived, he was extremely tired and battered, so he needed time, and Dende's healing, to recover. The second equally as important point was that he knew if he got between Vegeta and his prey he was likely to lose an arm.

A very Saiyan smirk coming to his face, Gohan wondered if Vegeta would be willing to share once he'd recovered. Gohan had a few issues of his own he needed to sweat out. And if it gave Kaen and Pi more time, so much the better.

-That I am stricken and can't let you go-
-When the heart is cold, there's no hope, and we know-
-That I am crippled by all that you've done-
-Into the abyss will I run-

"Oh man!" Goku yawned widely, working the kinks out of his arms, "Feels like I just went ten rounds with Vegeta, Frieza and Cell all at once!"

Shrugging slightly, Pi remarked, "Well, you were just being used as a ki battery by Buu, and he did just go several rounds with our fusion, so you're not far wrong."

Looking around, the formerly deceased Saiyan noticed everyone else Buu had eaten standing around, in various states of recovery themselves. "Oh. Well, thanks for getting me outta there."

"Well, I was just gonna leave you there, but Pi made me cut you down. Said it wasn't fair to Gohan otherwise," Kaen remarked casually from the girl's other side.

Goku just frowned slightly. He couldn't tell how much of that statement was true, and how much of it was just Kaen having a go at him; quite frankly, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Before he could comment on it though, Piccolo spoke out with, "So, what's our plan of escape?"

Kaen just shrugged slightly. "Never really had a plan for all of us; we thought you were dead. We were just gonna cause as much damage as we could, then bust our way out like a chest-burster."

A broad grin spreading across his face, Trunks piped in excitedly, "See? I told you it was a good movie!"

Turning a stern eye to the boy, Pi asked slowly, "You gave him those?"

The boy visibly shrunk under her gaze, replying, "Uh, yeah. They're just pretend though..."

She sighed tiredly, remarking, "Do you have any idea how hard it was to pry Kat off me during those scenes?"

Before the conversation could go any further towards Trunks getting in trouble, Lime's voice could be heard asking, "Hey, who're those two guys?" Looking over where the girl was pointing, sure enough there were two more pods. Little much could be seen, as only their faces were visible in the pod, but one of them looked sort of like Recoome, while the other bore a remarkable resemblance to Fat Buu. Both looked a little too orange to be human, despite their mainly pinkish skin.

Oran just grinned at his sister. "Wanna see what happens if we cut 'em down?"

No sooner had the words left his lips she'd summoned her pair of chakram, spinning them rapidly before launching them at the remaining pods, slicing through first the bottom, then the top connector. However, the dull thud of two pods hitting the ground was soon followed by the roar of the walls starting to collapse inwards. "Damn it you two!" Pi screeched, throwing her arms out and forming a barrier around the group, "If we get out of this you are so grounded!"

The twins hung their heads, as Goten asked fearfully, "How're we gonna get out now?"

Wrapping his tail around Pi's waist, Kaen declared, "Everyone, form a chain between Pi and Goku, and make sure you include those two; we've already cut 'em down, might as well get 'em outta here."

"What's the plan?" Goku asked, his voice in battle-mode.

Kaen just grinned. "The second you can sense fresh air, you teleport us outta here. Now, everybody hang on tight," throwing his hands out to either side, the teen set them alight with a satisfying 'fwoosh' sound, "Coz I'm about to open some fuckin' windows."

-Into the abyss will I run!-
-I can't let you go!-

His eyes widening a fraction in shock, Vegeta back-pedalled slightly at the blood-curdling scream that erupted from Buu's mouth. Ki blast still in hand, the prince turned to Gohan to see if he knew what was the monster's problem, but the demi-Saiyan looked twice as confused; mostly because the prince refused to show confusion. He reabsorbed the blast as he heard Buu's cry of, "I don't want to die!"

A smirk broke out on his face; the boy had done it. That smirk soon faded when a new, high-pitched voice echoed out from Buu's mouth, screaming, "Let me out!"

Without warning, a beam of red light, about as wide as a golf ball at most, erupted out of Buu's chest. Mere seconds later, there was a sharp whistle, before the air before Buu was suddenly full of people, Goku's voice declaring, "We made it!"

"Kakarott?" Okay, now Vegeta was confused.

"He's coming out!" Buu's pained voice declared. "He's coming out and then you're all gonna die!"

"LET ME OUT!" The high-pitched voice shrieked, "I WANT TO BE FREE!"

Blinking once, Kaen's voice seemed to sum up nicely what everyone was thinking; "What the fuck is going on?"

As Buu's power level began to rise, one thing was painfully clear; this fight wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot.

-Yes I am stricken and can't let you go!!-

--

Author's notes:

(1) - For the record, Kellre does know how to kill a manifestation of pure evil: by using pure good. He just never taught that to Pi.

What's this? Wonder upon wonders, two updates within about a week of each other?

Yeah, I'm a little surprised at how quickly I got this one written too. I owe it all to my beta Ninja, who wrote much of the dialogue for the chapter.

I don't expect to get the next chapter written quite so quickly, but, we'll see.