-- Disturbance, Book 3: Endurance --

Chapter E09 - Two Worlds

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.

--

-Two worlds are warring in me, killing us now; raging inside-
-Measure the horror in me; remove the sickness plaguing my mind-

"Oh man, this is really bad," Gohan remarked, sticking his head out of the hiding spot they'd found to observe the screaming monster, as his power level continued to rise. Those in the group with enough energy to do much of anything had made sure to get the others somewhere safe while they recovered; and to hide while Buu powered up. Already his power level had reached 'Super Buu's maximum, and it was steadily creeping higher. Their only saving grace was that Buu appeared to be in no hurry.

"Where is he getting all this energy from?" Kaen muttered sourly. "How can he be more powerful now then when he was leeching energy from these two?" Now that the two in question were free of the Buu pod, the reason they were inside Buu seemed to become a lot clearer, based on their appearance.

The Recoome-looking one had a brown Mohawk atop his pinkie-orange, pointy-eared head, and wore a yellow long-sleeved outfit, almost like a loose bodysuit, under a broad black-with-gold-trim tunic. A massive orange sash was tied around his waist, and his feet were adorned with similarly orange boots. The chubby, friendly looking one had a purple Mohawk, wearing a deep purple bodysuit, similar to the other man, with a similar orange sash; his boots, however, were black. And adorning his torso was a vest and cape combo that looked identical to Majin Buu's first appearance.

"What're we gonna do niichan?" Lime asked, her bottom lip quivering a fraction when Buu's power increased again; she was terrified, but too scared of disappointing her brother to admit it. Looking around, Kaen noticed similar looks on the other kids' faces too.

'Why did they have to look to me for guidance?' Kaen sighed to himself, closing his eyes. 'Okay Kaen, you can do this. You've done it before, even if that wasn't really you.' He nodded once to himself. 'Right, first priority is keeping the kids safe, then stopping the monster.' Opening his eyes again, he kept his voice level as he barked, "Dende, Pi, I need you to heal everyone Buu absorbed; we'll need every fighter in top form. Gohan, you're with me. Everyone else remains here."

"Who died and left you in charge boy?" Vegeta sneered, folding his arms.

Kaen just quirked an eyebrow. "You did." The smirk slipped off the prince's face. "I'm your second in command, remember? With you dead, it's my responsibility to step up and assume leadership until such time that either you are returned to life, or Trunks is ready to take over. And before you ask Vegeta, you're staying here. Don't want to have you die on us a second time now do we?" Kaen wouldn't say how worried he was about Vegeta ceasing to exist, and Vegeta wouldn't accept any concern like that anyway, but they both knew what he really meant

-Two worlds are warring in me, killing us now-
-Show me the light-

Goku's face hardened with battle resolve. "I'm coming with you."

Kaen sighed tiredly; there's always one who doesn't agree. "No, you're staying here. That's an order."

Goku scowled, something that looked decidedly odd on his normally cheerful face. "I'm not one of your subjects. I don't follow your-"

"Kakarott! Shut the hell up!" Kaen shouted, cutting the man off. "I know you're not much of a Saiyan, but let me point out three facts to you. I am older than you, I am smarter than you, and until your strength returns, I am a damn sight stronger than you, so you will sit down and shut up or so help me, I'll send you back to the Otherworld myself, because I'm not taking a liability like you into combat. Understand?"

"Yes!" Goku shot back instantly, all but flopping backwards from the force of Kaen's voice, and damnit if he didn't have to fight hard not to add a 'sir' to the end of that.

"Good." Kaen nodded but once, taking to the air towards Majin Buu, with Gohan following behind him. Once they were out of hearing range, the teen muttered, "Damn I hate doing that. It's murder on my throat, and gets less effective every time."

"Well, it was impressive all the same," his half-Saiyan companion remarked. "Where did you learn how to do that?"

Kaen just grinned. "I've been dealing with the twins half their life. I know how to deal with impetuous children." It wasn't the whole truth, but it was truth enough. They had more important things to worry about.

As the two teens flew off, Goku turned to the two unconscious beings before them, feeling a niggling recognition at the back of his mind, and he couldn't help but ask, "Who are these two anyway?"

Vegeta scoffed. "I would've thought that obvious by now Kakarott, even to you. They're-"

-Two worlds collide whenever I step to the front-
-I look for a new place to hide while tearing my colour away-

"Benkei! Daisuke!" Shin cried cheerfully, a massive grin splitting his face. "They're alive!"

Elder turned to him with a curious expression, but before he could say anything Kibito gasped, "The South and Grand Supreme Kais!"

"Grand Supreme Kai?" Elder parroted questioningly, before the other two Kais turned to stare at him curiously. "In my day, there was a single Supreme Kai."

Shin's eyes widened in shock, or maybe awe, before he recovered, replying, "Oh, okay then. Well about five millennia ago, I believe, the current Supreme Kai realised that managing the entire universe was too difficult for one man, Kai or no, so he appointed four advisors, one for each quadrant of the universe, and named himself Grand Supreme Kai. As you know, each Kai rules for a millennium, before a successor is appointed; the same applies to the advisor Kais, like myself."

"I thought you were the Supreme Kai boy," Elder remarked; from anyone else, that 'boy' comment would've been insulting.

The younger Kai just shook his head. "I am the sole Supreme Kai by circumstance only. Once, I was East Supreme Kai. The North Supreme Kai was named Buson, and the West Supreme Kai was Shizuka. As Kibito mentioned, Benkei was South, and Daisuke was the Grand Supreme Kai, our leader."

"So what happened?"

-I swallow my pride, but never forget what I want-
-Starting to long for a time, not fearing the war in my mind-

Shin's face hardened, as a deep scowl formed. "Buu." The planet itself almost seemed to draw silent at the name. "Early on in our reign, the wizard Bibidi crafted his monster golem, and began reeking havoc on the universe. Buson was the first to fight the monster, and Shizuka next, but both of them were destroyed with seemingly not much effort at all; they both went to the Upper Plains almost immediately. Benkei was next, but Buu, it seemed, had a different fate in store for him."

Shin sighed, scrubbing one hand through his Mohawk. "While he may not have been the smartest of us, he certainly was the strongest, and he was the first to give Buu a decent fight. He was also the first to suffer from Buu's absorption ability. Buu engulfed him, emerging with a massively muscled body. I was next to face the monster, and surely would have lost my life, if Daisuke didn't interfere. I think, looking back, he did what he did because he wanted Buu to absorb him. And he did, resulting in the Buu that was released from the egg today."

Kibito continued, seeing Shin looked unwilling to. "The inherent good in all Kais, and Daisuke's eternal innocence, turned the once heartless killing machine into a goofy, almost lovable Buu, one who killed because it was fun, and because he was built to kill, rather than simply because it could. A Buu with a great love of food. A Buu we could have stopped."

Elder's eyes lit up. "With the Kai's influence on him, Buu could access less of the Pure Evil ki that fuelled him, making the monster weaker."

"Exactly." Shin intoned sadly. "And now, the monster is free of all chains that bound it. May the Maker have mercy on us all."

-Two worlds are warring in me, both sides are losing; patience has died-
-None of the martyr remains, drowns my conviction; regions divide-

"Aw crap." The softly spoken words that slipped from Kaen's mouth seemed to sum up everyone's thoughts at the time, as Buu's power settled down. The monster had assumed a giant, muscular form earlier, before shrinking and compacting down to this child-like form; well, young adult was more accurate than child, but that was beside the point. What was important was that in this form, Buu was at least twice as strong as he had been before.

Which meant he was currently stronger than Earth's finest were equipped to handle.

"Aw crap," the Saiyan teen muttered again, realisation coming swiftly, "Those two must've been blocking his power somehow..."

"So what do we do now?" The half-Saiyan teen to his side asked, never once removing his eyes from the child monster before them.

Before Kaen could even begin to formulate a plan, Majin Buu's raised one hand over his head, seemingly ignoring the fact he was being watched, and silently began charging an insanely powerful, concentrated ki blast, roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beatle. Reacting on instinct alone, Kaen quickly flared into Super Saiyan Two, unleashing the most powerful beam he could prepare in such a short time, and using it to intercept Buu's blast, launching it into space.

Buu's head snapped up towards them. It seemed he'd noticed them at last.

A wordless growl rose from the monster's throat, as he raised one hand above his head. A swirling ball of pink ki burst into life above the outstretched limb, and as the growl rose into a bone-chilling shout, the sphere of ki expanded dramatically, until it was large enough to completely eclipse the sky in front of the two Saiyans.

"What the hell is he doing?" Gohan shouted incredulously, "That blast is powerful enough to wipe out from here to Mars!"

"Apparently he's taking no chances getting rid of us," Kaen remarked wryly. "He can regenerate from nothing remember, even in the depths of space."

"So what do we do now?" The teen asked again.

-Two worlds are warring in me, killing us now-
-Show me the light...-

Once again, before the full-blooded Saiyan could reply, Majin Buu hurled the massive death ball towards them. This time, however, neither of them were powerful enough to deflect it, so they did the next best thing. Powering up as high as they could get in the five-or-so seconds they had to prepare, both teens raced towards the blast and flew beneath it, reaching up to catch it before it could hit the planet.

Gritting his teeth, the two pushed back against the powerful attack, sheer force of will preventing them from slipping, but that could only last so long. "Kakarott!" Kaen shouted suddenly. "Get everyone out of here!"

"Right," the formerly deceased fighter replied, placing one hand on the heavily muscled Kai next to him as he moved to get up. And that's where everything went wrong.

The Kai's eyes snapped open, instantly noticing the presence of the attack threatening the planet, and the assailant who threw it. His 'fight or flight' instincts clearly set to 'flight', a sphere of pale light formed around him, and everyone around him, before teleporting away. With little more than a sharp, "Hey, wait a mi-", both Kais, Goku, Vegeta, and Dende were all gone.

Fighting back the string of expletives threatening to spill forth, Kaen growled, "Damnit, we've just lost half our DPS and our main healer. Bastard Kais." The situation was unwinnable, Earth was doomed; Kaen could see that now, and by the look in Gohan's eyes, his fellow warrior could too. All that was left was to save as many as possible. "Pi!" He barked, focusing his ki to keep the deadly attack aloft, "Get the others out of here!"

She wanted to argue. She wanted nothing more than to demand that she would stay here with him, that she wasn't going to leave him here to die. Despite what she wanted, however, Pi returned a grim nod, quickly gathering up Piccolo and the four children. Despite what she wanted, Pi wasn't going to let the others, especially the children, die because she didn't do what she needed to do. Pressing a single button on the wristwatch computer she wore, the group disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Despite the situation, Kaen found a grin come to his face. "Looks like it's just you and me then 'Han."

-Two worlds collide whenever I step to the front-
-I look for a new place to hide while tearing my colour away-

"Why did you leave them there?!"

Pi turned to face the irate human girl, her shoulders squared defiantly. "Do you think I wanted to 'Del?" Chichi had fainted the moment Buu's readied the attack. "Don't forget that my mate is down there too, but I did what I had to. I had to get the kids to safety."

Turning to the next likely person able to help, Videl asked pleadingly, "Kellre, can you get them?"

He shook his head slowly. "The ki bleed from that attack is screwing up both the targeting and transportation systems. We're lucky I managed to grab Pi and the kids at all, given their proximity to the attack. Gohan and Kaen, I can't even find."

Sinking to her knees, Videl vaguely noticed Kat rushing up and wrapping an arm around her. "There's got to be something we can do...?"

Her face a grim mask, Pi closed her eyes for a second, before striding back to the teleporter. "There is." Turning to face Avarrdo, she stated, "Make the ship ready to leave the blast zone as soon as we're clear." Her gaze panned over to her father, and the two shared a solemn nod. "You know what to do."

-I swallow my pride, but never forget what I want-
-Starting to long for a time, not fearing the war in my mind-

"-nute. Darn it!" Goku exclaimed in frustration, turning a smouldering glare towards the muscled Kai that almost made Vegeta proud to call him a Saiyan; almost. "What the hell were you doing?! We could have beaten him! Darn it all, you left everyone else behind! We've got to go back for them!"

The Kai blinked at him, having the good graces to look both ashamed and afraid as he replied, "I-I panicked! I c-can't go b-back there!"

Spinning on his heel, Goku raced towards the other Kais, Vegeta hot on his heels, and shouting, "Kibito! We need to get the others, quickly!"

The red giant nodded, closing his eyes for a moment, before opening them slowly and replying, "I'm sorry Goku. I cannot sense them."

"What the hell do you mean?" Vegeta snarled.

"What he means," Elder replied sadly, staring into his crystal ball, "Is that you won front row seats to the end of Earth, and there's nothing we can do to stop it."

-Give me a sign, tell me when it's time-
-Show me the light, tell me when it's fucking over-

Kaen could feel the massive death ball inching closer to the rocky ground below them; this stalemate would soon be over, and Earth would be gone. Kaen, like all Saiyans, didn't fear death, though he did fear what his mate would do to him when they met again, but, like all Saiyans, the first instinct was to save as many as you can. "Gohan!" He cried out over the rush of ki swirling about them. "I want you to get as far away as you can. Hopefully I'll be able to hold it long enough for you to Transmit to safety, and the Icebreaker'll pick you up from there."

"Not a chance!" The teen shot back instantly, a grin on his face. "As much as I want to see Videl again, I don't want the next time she sees me to involve your family killing me for letting you die. Considering I'm going to die either way, I'd rather go out a hero."

"Stubborn bastard," Kaen remarked, a similar grin on his face; a truly Saiyan reply if ever he'd heard one. "Alright then, on the count of three we unleash the most powerful blast we can, hold it for exactly five seconds, then cut and run. If Lady Luck's on our side, the reverse thrust'll give us time to get away."

"Now that's a plan I can get behind," Gohan shot back. Gathering ki, he shouted, "One!"

Pooling all the energy he could muster into his hands, Kaen added, "Two!"

"THREE! HA!" A veritable wall of ki erupted from either side of the death ball, forcing it slowly upwards before, after exactly five seconds, both blasts disappeared, and the teens blasted off at high speed. The waves of ki were enough to halt the ball's descent for all of three seconds, before it began advancing on the defenceless planet.

Shouting over the violent noise of the sound barrier being broken, Kaen asked, "What's the hold up?!"

"It's no good!" Gohan shouted back, "I can't find anywhere far enough for us to go! I can't Transmit us out of here!"

As it turned out, he didn't need to. With a slight whistle and a flash of light, a third body appeared right in front of them. One arm grabbing Gohan's wrist, and her tail lashing around Kaen's, Pi cried into the communicator, "I've got 'em!" The three vanished just as suddenly.

-Two worlds collide whenever I step to the front-
-I look for a new place to hide while tearing my colour away-

Landing in a graceless heap upon the floor of the Icebreaker, Kaen shouted hurriedly, "Go go go, punch it, punch it!"

"Oh relax boy, you'll stress yourself into the grave," his father replied, calmly tapping the keys in front of him. "I've got a whole second to spare." With a final key press, the ship lurched away from the danger zone, tearing through the emptiness of space at nigh-unfathomable speeds.

Mere moments later, the view screen was lit up from behind, a massive pink light erupting like a second sun. The shockwaves rocked the ship, sending it into a spin, but sending them clear from the devastation. When the light faded, the older Saiyan cut the engines, letting the ship drift through space as it turned to face the truth no one wanted to accept.

Of the planet Earth, only dust remained.

-I swallow my pride, but never forget what I want-

-Starting to long for a time, not fearing the war in my mind-

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Author's notes:

I know it was a little... bland, but the chapter was mostly filler anyway. The Earth had to go, and this was my way of making it happen.