Chapter 083 – Return to Evil
"This Dabura guy is giving Gohan a lot more trouble than I thought he would..." Goku spoke, eyes darting from side to side as he followed Gohan and Dabura's rapid movements.
"He's tough but he's not unbeatable." Vegeta grunted. "Gohan's gotten soft! He was a lot stronger when he was a little kid!"
"Hey, at least he's trying," Corset spoke out, "He's not doing too bad against him, I mean Dabura's barely had any hits in that did damage." Her eyes stayed on Dabura, baffled and concerned when she noticed once again he seemed to be looking towards them. '... Why's he looking over here?' Was it to check over his other opponents who he seemed so sure he'd be up against, or was it for a different reason?
Gohan charged at his distracted opponent. Dabura turned back around and inhaled again, this time shallower than before. He launched some spit straight for his oncoming foe.
"Gohan be careful!" Kaioshin bellowed. "If his spit touches you you'll turn to stone!"
A hand shot in front of his face blocking the spit as it struck. Hurriedly Gohan tossed his glove off; it struck the ground and shattered into tiny fragments of stone, quickly vanishing as the wind carried it away fragment by fragment.
"Close one..." Corset exhaled in relief. They barely had any time to try to stop the magic of his spit happening from the looks of things; it was incredibly fast and dangerous magic to be the wrong end of. Dabura leapt up into the sky for his opponent, suddenly summoning a sword in his hand! He grabbed the hilt with both hands and swung it down directly aiming for Gohan's head-
The Super Saiyan's hands stopped the force as he held the blade between them, yelling out as he strained the blade. For a couple of moments Dabura and Gohan struggled to overpower their opponent, both struggling until finally the sword snapped in half under Gohan's pressure, the Super Saiyan tossing it to the side. The broken blade sliced through the ground slightly before it stood embedded within the soil. Dabura dropped the hilt and glared at the young fighter.
"... I can't take this anymore; this is ridiculous!" Vegeta spat. "Kakarrot call him back; I'll finish off Dabura!"
Corset turned and looked at her dad; he sounded as if he'd run out of patience and indeed he looked pretty furious. Her own temper flared a little but she kept it under control; as much as she wanted to support Gohan in his fight, she knew that if any of the others had ended up fighting Dabura the battle would probably be over. He was nowhere near to finishing the fight and Dabura was slowly running out of chances. Gohan's lack of training had cost him dearly, he had lost his edge and was almost the shadow of himself when he fought Cell all those years ago. It was a sad sight to behold.
"Come on Vegeta, let Gohan finish this," Goku insisted, "He's still got a chance."
"Dabura's toying with him; you know that!" Vegeta bellowed infuriated. "Why should I sit around all day acting like this matters? I could end this in five minutes if I wanted to. I'm not here to play games or make nice father-son memories; I'm here to win. I just want to get this over with so I can fight you; that's why I went to that stupid tournament!"
"Dad, calm down, Gohan's not doing this to spite you," Corset deliberately spoke in a calm voice, knowing from past experience shouting back only riled him more which would just be counterproductive right now! "I'm sure he's trying his best."
"Stop making excuses for him! He's a weakling, a disgrace of a warrior!" Vegeta snarled. "The strongest one should be the one to end this! I should be fighting, not him!"
Before anyone could counteract his argument, the scenery rapidly changed back to the inside of the ship, baffling everyone. What was going on? Why had they suddenly been returned to the ship? It didn't make any sense!
Dabura returned to the floor and wandered towards the door.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Gohan protested. "Are you running away?"
Dabura glanced over his shoulder and sneered, "Running away? No... I don't need to deal with you anymore because we have found a new recruit; the perfect fighter..." With that he vanished behind the door, vanishing somewhere inside the ship leaving the group to wander in their own thoughts.
"... The perfect fighter?" Corset repeated confused. "What's he talking about?" Did Babidi have anyone stronger than Dabura on his side? Hard to believe considering they were now on the fourth floor and Kaioshin seemed amazed the warlord could wield such a powerful fighter under his powers.
Gohan landed on the floor beside them, "... So what now?" He asked uncertain of what was to come.
"I'm not sure," Goku shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't understand what's going on," Kaioshin confessed. "Dabura is Babidi's greatest fighter; it doesn't make sense that he would withdraw from the fight. They don't have anyone after him; he's their best!"
"He mentioned a new recruit," Goku pondered, "Do you think he was bluffing?"
"I'm not sure; it seems unlikely that a fighter of that calibre would just waltz in at a time like this..." Kaioshin replied suspiciously.
'I dunno; there's at least four of us at a higher calibre than Dabura standing right here!' Corset looked down at the floor. Part of her was now starting to wish she'd been the one to fight Dabura. At the rate Gohan was fighting, he could have taken out her own opponent and she could have beaten Dabura; if she'd known it would end up this way she would have offered to trade... providing Gohan agreed to it! There was no use beating themselves up about it now, none of them knew of the capabilities of their opponents or who they'd even end up against. Nothing could be done about it.
"They're definitely up to something..." Gohan mumbled.
"This whole thing would be over if it wasn't for you!" Vegeta snapped turning to Gohan, approaching the taller fighter. "I hope you're proud of yourself; you disgraced us with your pitiful performance! There's no excuse for you fighting the way you did. You have Saiyan blood running through your veins; a warrior like Dabura should be dead!" His anger got the better of him and he threw out one palm, knocking Gohan backwards a few steps.
"Hey back off!" Corset protested annoyed with her father's behaviour. This was no time to argue, even if Gohan hadn't done as well as they'd all hoped.
"Shut up and butt-out for once!" Vegeta bellowed furiously before turning back to Gohan; Corset resentfully keeping quiet and glaring venom at her father's head. His temper was controlling him, leading him to taking his wrath out on those he was supposed to be friends with. Seeing this didn't sit well in her stomach. The Saiyan Prince continued, "Now you're sitting here scratching your head wondering what's next when it should already be finished! You are pitiful, fighting with that soft righteous look on your face! It's brute strength that determines a fight, not goodness! The mightiest will survive and the weak will perish! Your Piccolo and Krillin were turned to stone; that's because they're weaklings. Is that the kind of fate you want for yourself? If you'd finished Dabura off they'd be back to normal."
Gohan seemed to have clammed up a little; Corset felt bad for him. She knew how unpleasant it was to be on the receiving end of one of her dad's rants; most of her empathy went towards his feelings to Piccolo and Krillin. There was no two-ways about it; killing Dabura was the only way Piccolo and Krillin could turn back to normal. Gohan'd just lost the chance to help save his friends...
"... Come on, Gohan didn't know that Dabura was going to run off," Goku butted in, "I'm sure he would have wanted one of us to fight him if he knew."
"Oh there's a convenient excuse!" Vegeta turned his anger on Goku. "You're as soft as he is, Kakarrot! I'm tired of playing around, I'm going to put an end to this little game once and for all!" With one hand pointing to the floor Vegeta began to charge up his energy. "I'm taking control of this operation now and for starters I'm going to blow this ship to pieces!"
"W-Wait!" Kaioshin spluttered. "If you blow up the ship now, you'll most certainly revive Majin Buu! Listen please; you don't know Buu, his power is horrible! Not even the four Kaioshin combined could stop him; he's killed millions of people! Don't be a fool – If Buu's revived this planet's finished!"
"Dad, listen to him; he's right!" Corset protested. "If you blow up this ship then the ground surrounding it will probably cave in on top of us; it won't solve anything."
"Enough!" Vegeta yelled aiming the energy ball straight for Kaioshin. "Now you listen to me: what happens to this planet is none of my concern! The strongest will survive and the weak shall perish!"
"... What kind of person are you?" Kaioshin asked horrified.
Corset stared at her father, eyes wider than before and jaw slightly agape. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard come from his mouth "... Dad?" Something wasn't quite right, her father hadn't said anything as malevolent in a good number of years, almost sounding as carless and cruel as he had years before when he'd still been under Freeza's command. Sensing he was deadly serious about hurting the Kaioshin and needing to somehow stop the tenseness in the room from escalating further, Corset did the first thing that came to mind. Without second thoughts she teleported and struck her father clean in the face with a punch, knocking him back a couple of steps.
"Corset!" Goku gasped nervously.
The second thoughts then entered her mind and she gulped as the anxiety and adrenaline flushed through her body. No wonder Goku'd sounded a little concerned with her actions. Trying to calm her dad down by punching him in the face? What on Earth was she thinking? Of course that wouldn't work! If anything it would just make things worse and indeed it had done. Vegeta's face was seething with fury as he slowly turned his head back around, eyes glaring with venom as they settled on her. His outstretched palm now aimed for her. Corset felt the breath hitch in her throat with shock and disbelief but her warrior instinct kicked in; she immediately put up her arms in a defensive stance ready to attempt to endure the impending attack.
Goku quickly intervened, grabbing Vegeta by the wrist before he went too far. "Hey, cut it out! This has gone far enough! Let's put what's happened behind us and move on from here!" He ordered sternly.
"Sorry guys, I think I made that worse," Corset apologised slowly putting down her arms.
Without a word Vegeta snatched his arm away from his rival and turned his back to them.
"... No point on getting angry about what you can't change," Corset muttered folding her arms. She kept a worried eye on her sulking father, nervous over how he was acting and what he'd said. It had been a while since she'd seen this part of him, just like when he first arrived on Earth and when he fought with them on Namek, and for most of the battle with the androids and Cell. That uncaring, self-serving, heartless man...
A cold-chill ran down her spine and she stared horrified at him, too scared to openly speak about what had just entered her head. '... Please no!' She couldn't be certain but now that the thought had entered her mind she couldn't shut it out. Was that Dabura's plan? Piccolo was currently turned to stone but her father was here and seething with resentment towards them all.
"Now what I wanna know is why did Dabura withdraw from the fight?" Goku asked.
"Yes, it doesn't make sense," Kaioshin agreed. "This was the perfect opportunity for them to gather more energy! Maybe Dabura wasn't bluffing, maybe they did find a new recruit."
"It's definitely a possibility," Goku nodded, "... but I don't see how. Happening upon someone that could beat us all? What are the chances of doing that?"
Corset continued to watch her father who was keeping quiet after his outburst. She shivered again and looked around at the others, wondering if anyone else had considered what had popped into her mind. Kaioshin seemed to be uneasy about something but then again he'd been that way for most of the day. Goku and Gohan seemed more interested on intensely staring at the door. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions, maybe they'd found someone else. Anxious she etched towards Gohan and nudged him gently in the arm. "Gohan," She hissed quietly. "I think we're in trouble. My dad."
"Huh?" Gohan glanced down at her speaking in a hushed tone. "What do you mean? What about him?"
A brash scream tore her attention away from their conversation. She shot a deer-in-the-headlights look as her father screamed, clutching his head with both hands and walking around in a hunch, violently throwing his head back and forwards. Something was wrong, something was badly wrong.
"Vegeta, what's wrong?" Gohan asked.
"I knew it!" Kaioshin cried.
"What's going on? What's happening to Dad?" Corset demanded urgently turning to Kaioshin, though she had her suspicions.
"Vegeta, what's going on?" Goku asked.
"... Something's... attacking me!" Vegeta spat through groans and a strained voice.
"It's Babidi!" Kaioshin explained nervously approaching the flailing prince. "Vegeta, fight it! Resist!"
"Oh he didn't!" Corset gasped, rushing towards her father though right now she wasn't sure what she was going to do. "Come on Dad, don't let him get you! Fight him! Fight him!" She urged.
Vegeta screamed out as he powered up into a Super Saiyan, yet still he seemed to be in pain.
"Don't let him win Vegeta!" Kaioshin cried. "Don't let him do it! You've changed; you're not that way anymore! Babidi has no claim over you!"
"What's Babidi doing?" Gohan asked worried.
"He's trying to take over his mind and enslave him by manipulating the evil in his soul!" Kaioshin explained grimly. "He struggles because his heart isn't pure! Don't let him take you, Vegeta! Empty your mind; the past is the past!"
"... Don't... order me...!" Vegeta was cut off as he screamed again, red electricity dancing around the room centring around him. One arm swung out wildly knocking Corset back a couple of shaky steps, she almost lost her balance. Eyes remained pinned to her father as he rose up into the air, his ki began to flow with that noticeable stench. It was just like all the other slaves of Babidi had.
"Vegeta - no!" Goku cried.
"Dad!" Corset watched dismayed as her father battled with Babidi, praying in her mind he would overcome this. He had to overcome this; he couldn't turn on them! He was their ally and friend; she was his daughter; he couldn't go back to his old ways! "... Come on, Dad! You can do it!" She called, taking a couple of steps forwards, stopped by the electricity practically blocking her from advancing closer. "Dad you have to beat it!"
"Don't let them use you, Vegeta!" Gohan yelled. "You're stronger than they are!"
A rogue bolt of electricity struck out suddenly, knocking Gohan off his feet and to the floor with a thud.
She was too busy staring to look over to Gohan, too busy watching her father struggle. In one final shockwave of power, his aura faded and he crashed to his knees, hunched over the ground.
Who'd won?
"Dad, talk to him!" Gohan cried.
"Vegeta, it's ok; we're here," Goku slowly approached him.
She observed him cautiously, face dropped upon realisation. "...No... I can't believe it..." Corset slowly shook her head in disbelief and denial, looking as if she'd just been told someone had died.
"What?" Gohan asked approaching her.
"Don't get any closer!" Kaioshin frowned grimly holding out an arm to stop Goku's approach. "...It's too late."
Vegeta slowly rose to his feet. At first it sounded like he was groaning yet this turned to a chuckle as he stood straight. Corset's eyes fixated on the one physical difference. There was an M engraved on his forehead. Just like she'd noticed on all the fighters who'd come to challenge them in the ship; just like Spopovich and Yamu had. Her heart thumped and lurched in her throat and almost choked her as her eyes grew warm, prickling.
Before anyone could react, the scenery changed around them, colours flashing in a mess until finally their surroundings were revealed. Wherever Babidi had transported them was pretty packed judging by the shocked and confused murmurs of what sounded like a large crowd. The group stood in the centre of the Budokai ring. Over the other side of the ring stood Mr Satan and the announcer; both just as shocked to see them.
"Hey, we're back at the tournament!" Gohan gasped.
Corset's body began to tremble. It wasn't through sorrow; it was anger. Her rage started to bubble she tightly clenched her fists and yelled up at the sky: "Change him back! Babidi!" Her scream went ignored as the announcer hesitantly approached them.
"Um, you're too late. The Budokai is over," He revealed.
Vegeta suddenly roared out and sent out an invisible blast of energy, knocking the announcer off his feet; Gohan catching him in mid-air.
"Dad fight it!" Corset cried. "Stop it, don't hurt these people!"
"Shut up!" Vegeta barked, "I'm only interested in Kakarrot! The others can clear off!"
Corset blinked and hung onto that answer. Had he been talking to her? It didn't sound like it. Was it Babidi instead? What was going on?
"... Surely you didn't?" Goku murmured.
"... Didn't what?" Corset asked turning to the Saiyan.
Her father extended one arm out ahead, aiming straight for Goku. She watched aghast as a yellow ball of ki began to form in his hand, a sense of urgency gripping and hijacking her body, "Don't-!" She bellowed. Vegeta fired off the beam straight for Goku.
"You idiot!" Goku yelled as he hurriedly put up his defences, arms blocking the blast from progressing. The blast slowly pushed against Goku, his heels dragging against the tiled arena. It wasn't enough. Goku was knocked to the side.
"NO!" Corset screamed as the blast struck the terrified crowds. The stand was reduced to rubble and smoke, in a single moment at least one-hundred-and-fifty people had been killed. The crowds were sent into panic, desperately trying to clear the stands. Corset trembled in disbelief and shock, eyes wide and mouth gaping open as she stared at the destroyed stand.
Goku'd been thrown up into the air and was now landing back on the arena stage. He slowly turned away from the destroyed stand and glared back at Vegeta, his face showing signs of anger and repulsion.
Corset finally turned away and looked back to her father; the hideous smile on his face sent shivers down her spine. He looked like a cold-hearted murderer... How could he have turned back into this? She thought he'd passed this, she thought he'd become more merciful and humane? Had the past seven years worth of change in him been a big rouse? Again she stepped forwards, "What have you done? Please stop this, Dad!"
"Corset stay back!" Goku barked sternly.
"... How about it? Shall we commence?" Vegeta jeered with amusement.
"...This isn't the time Vegeta." Goku responded.
Vegeta smiled at his rival's response, "You'll fight with me Kakarrot, unless you want the bodies to keep piling!"
Corset gasped on her breath and looked at her father. Her stomach began to grow warm as she began to realise. Her father falling to Babidi had seemed too unbelievable; she was sure her father could have probably overpowered the wizard. Even if Babidi had gotten someone as powerful as Dabura, her father was in a completely different league. She didn't know the full extent of the wizard's powers...
"You didn't..." Goku mumbled seemingly surprised. "... Vegeta... did you let Babidi control you on purpose?"
Again Vegeta extended his arm, this time to the side. Another energy blast was fired off for the crowds, screaming people wiped out in an instant as the attack struck and exploded, the cries of the dying and living drowned out.
It clicked.