All For a Few Moments

by Paradoxical Fool

When the time came for him to die on the planet Namek, Vegeta falls unwitting victim to a small hiccup in the Universe. Now, alive despite Frieza's best attempts, he has to establish just where he stands in the grand scheme of things; pre-determined pawn, or writer of his own destiny?

5. -5-

AN: And so it's come to this: the confrontation with Broly in just the fifth chapter. Seems I compressed the storyline a bit too much…or did I?

As for the question of "why are they going after Broly now? He shouldn't be active for a few more years!" I shall answer that in this chapter, but not directly. Look in the subtext and piece the hints together. If you can accurately see the story, then I wrote it right, and if not, then I still need a lot more work than I thought.

And if you want music for this chapter, I direct you to what I was listening to over and over on Soundcloud while I was writing this, which was "Super Saiyan 5 Broly Theme (The Enigma TNG Remix)", "Super Saiyan 3 Broly Theme (The Enigma TNG Remix)", and Bruce Faulconer's "Vegeta–Super Saiyan" in alternating order and not necessarily reflecting what's going to happen in the chapter…maybe…wink wink…nudge nudge…

No not really.

…maybe…

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"T-that-that-" Krillin stuttered uncontrollably, sensing the power of this mysterious saiyan and wishing profusely that he couldn't. It was so monstrous that Frieza now seemed like a child throwing a tantrum in comparison. Not just the sheer strength and magnitude of it, but also the feeling that they were getting through it: wild, untamed rage and insanity in boundless amounts, almost infinite from what they could tell.

"There's no way we can actually fight that!" Yamcha protested, once more overcome by fear.

"I have to agree," Tien unexpectedly announced. "Not even a super saiyan holds a candle against that thing. How could any of us possibly stand a chance?"

"We have to try," Goku insisted adamantly, roused from his own fear by the others. He wouldn't let them see just how much he was dreading the confrontation or else they might lose all hope. He was well aware that he was often the rock for them to cling to, and now couldn't be any different.

Vegeta was staring out the window, hands on either side of it. He seemed to be thinking, but Goku had seen the sheen of sweat on his forehead and realized that the prince was just as terrified as they were, and this worried the Earth raised saiyan even more.

"Should we still just face it head on?" Gohan inquired of nobody in general. Goku looked once more towards Vegeta before answering with what he prayed was the right choice.

"Yes. If we can't find a way to overpower this guy, then we probably won't find any other way before it's too late. Let's try to locate him and-" But he was startled into silence when the power signature abruptly vanished. Without the overbearing presence, they all realized that they had developed headaches in trying to cope with sensing it.

"I'm not even going to be so hopeful as to guess that whatever it was just blew itself up," Piccolo remarked, taking off his turban to alleviate his head of any more stress.

"We're never that lucky, are we?" Yamcha added glumly. This was turning out even worse than he'd feared.

"They're more than likely hiding their power level, or otherwise decreased in power so drastically that we can't feel them anymore." Vegeta deduced, never looking away from his window.

"Is that a good thing? That their power dropped like that?" Krillin asked, nervous to do even that. Goku answered, of a same mind as his fellow saiyan.

"No, it means that he can transform as well, possibly to an even higher level than Vegeta or me."

That news had the same effect on the other warriors as sensing the power to begin with had.

"Higher!?" Gohan blanched. He had believed his father was the strongest man in the universe, but to be so suddenly proven wrong was not a good feeling.

"It would seem the case," Vegeta intoned quietly. His mind was alternately racing for a solution and crawling from the fear. Having his body work against him like that reminded him far too much of when he had faced Frieza on Namek, the only other time he had been completely helpless.

'But look where that got you' he thought to himself. 'You are a Super Saiyan now, one with legends and gods. You cannot, no, will not be cowed like some infant being fed by his mother! You are the prince of all saiyans, so act like it!'

Pushing himself from the observation port, he turned to face the other fighters. Most of them he could barely stand, but were without a doubt some of the strongest allies he would probably ever get, so he would just have to deal with his issues some other time.

"Namek-"He paused, gritting his teeth. "Piccolo, you are the most adept at tracking energy signals so you will need to find the area in which the saiyan was last. We may still be able to find him there. Humans, get everything loose on the ship packed away as tightly as you can. If we run into trouble while still on the ship then we don't want a weight to destroy something important. Gohan, help them. Kakarot," he turned to the man whom he didn't know whether to call rival or nemesis, "you and I are on watch for anything heading towards the ship, whether it be super saiyan or asteroid. Now is not the time to be negligent, especially when there are so many destroyed planets in this vicinity,"

"Um…" Goku looked from the other saiyan to his surprised friends. "Do what he said, I guess. He is the only one with military training after all."

For once, Yamcha didn't complain, just glad that he hadn't been singled out for some suicidal mission or something. He, Tien, Krillin and Gohan set to work with their task, rounding up anything that might become a projectile at a moment's notice. Piccolo also held his peace, simply crossing his legs while levitating and clearing his mind so as better to find their elusive target. It was Goku that questioned the orders.

"Are you sure that we couldn't just locate him ourselves and use Instant Transmission to get to him?" Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest. Without his armor on, he somehow looked a bit taller, though that was probably just a trick of the eyes.

"You said yourself that I'm the one with experience. I learned that in a conquest with either unknown or equally matched opponents, full use of the resources at hand are the only thing standing between crippling defeat and hard earned victory. These 'Z-Fighters', as you so love to call yourselves, all bring something to the field that you and I couldn't."

"Really?" Goku inquired, not sure if he was hearing praise or not.

"Your son is extraordinarily powerful when he is enraged. He could turn the tables at the right time. I dare even say that you might be able to teach him to harness that rage and ascend. The tall bald one has that knack for mimicking moves he's seen to substantial success. You also have it, but you should stick to what you know as a super saiyan so you don't needlessly exhaust yourself. The shorter bald one has a bag full of tricks that can confound enemies ten times his strength. The namekian is clever, often using an opponent's personal flaws against them, like he did when fighting Nappa or Frieza. The hairy one, Yamcha, has a deep resolve when he's not whining like a bitch. He won't back down once he's in a fight, even if it's clear he's going to lose."

"How do you know so much about them? You barely even know them." Goku had been taken aback by the news of his son's potential, but the rest had surprised him as well. He was becoming more and more thankful that Vegeta was on their side for this one.

"I learn more about someone by watching them fight," the prince offered simply, turning on his heel to head towards the airlock.

"And I learn more about you by the minute," Goku uttered quietly, grinning widely and following quickly.

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Goku had once seen a really old arcade game in a shopping center that Chi-Chi had dragged him to when she was still pregnant with Gohan. It had been tucked into a back corner of a small game center where small children were given a few dollars by their worn down parents and Goku had thought the machine had looked a little sad and unused so he had inserted one of the few zeni coins he bothered carrying and played the wood paneled game.

To his surprise, he had found himself to be a natural at it. The rudimentary goal was to shoot oncoming rocks with your little ship in the middle and avoid being hit, since even one collision resulted in failure. It reminded him greatly of firing off ki blasts to block other ones, so he just envisioned the wire-framed hazards as multicolored lasers instead. Unfortunately, he had gotten a little too into it and had yanked the joystick straight out of the panel. Guiltily looking about to see if anyone had seen, he had replaced the joystick as best he could and dashed off to regroup with his wife and never spoke a word of the destruction again (well, except to Krillin over the phone; the dwarf had laughed at him for a few minutes and had needed to be stopped by Master Roshi before he could pass out from lack of oxygen).

But those memories came rushing back to the Earth's savior as he stood on the outside hull of Capsule 3, safely encased within a hazard suit and firing off small ki bullets to demolish oncoming space debris. Vegeta had been correct when he had talked about asteroids as there were now hundreds of thousands all around them and the ship was in genuine danger. Only the intervention of the two full-bloods kept their companions safe within. Goku was stationed on technically the bottom of the ship, though everything looked and felt the same as usual, and Vegeta at the top.

"You two alright out there?" Tien's voice opened up next to Goku's ears. He had been watching the monitors for the two suits and made sure that neither of them ruptured something with their exertions of power.

"Just fine," Goku answered cheerily, enjoying his task like he had that video game. A grunt was Vegeta's answer, but that was nothing new. The prince's sudden chattiness had left him as soon as they had pulled the suits on and had left the sealed air lock to enter nearly empty space. Probably something to do with the overly large suit he'd been forced to don, which had been designed for someone with Goku's height in mind. "Anything from Piccolo?"

"Not yet, but he said that he's narrowed down the prospective area and will probably find our guy in half an hour at the most."

The saiyans continued their task in silence for a while after that. Goku tried to entertain himself by counting how many asteroids he could destroy in a minute, and then break that record in the next, but that soon grew tedious, not to mention confusing with all of the numbers. He tried to start up a conversation with Vegeta several times, but the prince always told him to shut up and stay alert. Humming didn't help either, as that both aggravated Vegeta and proved just how tuneless Goku actually was. Once, he had thought he saw something that looked suspiciously like one of the saiyan attack pods crushed and deformed with what looked horribly like frozen blood trailing out of it, but he lost track of it and soon forgot all about it.

Blessedly, their monotonous task was halted when they abruptly exited the asteroid field into clear space, but it was here that they first saw actual evidence of the renegade saiyan's handiwork: what had once been a titanic sized planet was now just a cored husk, the burnt and dead surface matching the cold inner core that was visible thanks to more than a hemisphere of the planet missing, presumably the asteroids they had just passed. It was a terrible sight to behold, especially when they realized that it was one of the few planets that was still even partially intact, the rest having been disintegrated by unrestrained energy attacks.

"No reason at all," Gohan's voice came over the internal comlink, fear and sadness clear in his voice. "Just… mindless death."

"Take a good long look boy," Vegeta rumbled, rougher than usual. "This is what reality is: just a senseless chain of events that causes everyone nothing but misery and inevitably death."

"Don't scare him like that!" Goku shot back, angered by the other saiyan's words. They weren't meant for a boy still so young.

"So you would rather we coddle him like his mother wants? Keep him from the harsh truths that everyone else has to live with? No, he is a saiyan and saiyans do not shy away from the atrocities just because they feel squeamish about a few dead bodies."

"When have you ever been 'squeamish' around horror like this?" Goku countered, fully expecting an angry retort. Instead, what he got was barely higher than a whisper.

"Once, perhaps. Long ago now."

"I found him!"

They were all startled by Piccolo's sudden exclamation, but were soon asking him in over lapping voices for what he had found. Unable to make sense of their cacophony, the namekian tried to out wait their impatience, but that was sorely underestimating their impatience. Eventually, he had to shout at them to shut up, his deep voice carrying an edge of danger, like a schoolteacher's. When they were at last silent, he shared what he knew.

"It took me awhile, but I located the only saiyan energy signature not on this ship on a planet not far from here, about half a day's journey at full burn. Get inside you two; we wouldn't want to accidentally lose our super saiyans." They followed his advice and were soon back aboard, watching as the computer counted down until they reached the designated location Piccolo had inputted.

The only final preparation to be made was for them to have one last meal before the upcoming battle. They ate in silence, and even Goku found that his appetite was far more diminished than usual, though that may have been due to the zero gravity environment he had just left.

"Hey guys; I know why we can't die here," Krillin suddenly piped up, smiling wanly, "we still have three more seasons of "All My Love For You" left and Chaz hooking up with Cecelia is looking like a sure thing."

"Bull!" Yamcha objected, pointing with his spoon at the dwarf. "You know damn well that she has her eyes on Markus!"

"You mean his twin," Tien corrected. "But she won't do it; she's still wearing her wedding ring and obviously still loves Jack."

The debate raged on amongst the warriors, momentarily distracting them from the looming threat ahead. But not even Gohan's over the top impersonation of the groundskeeper Leyland could drown out the computer beeping urgently. Running back into the main hold, they watched as the timer ticked off the last few seconds before turning around and witnessing a large brown planet rising up to meet them, their destinies with it.

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AN: So the stage is set for the epic confrontation with the Legendary Super Saiyan next chapter. Please keep in mind that these aren't Ascended Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta, or Ultra Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta, or Full Power Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta; just regular Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta. I intentionally made it this way so that whatever chance they had in the first Broly movie would be well and truly absent.

Also, please note that I used Vegeta in a commander like position, similar to another Fanfic, "Crimson" by GothicDream, which was a heavy inspiration for another story I'm doing. I always liked when Vegeta used his experience from the PTO and ordered his soldiers or allies around to completely outdo his opponent; it was a chance for Vegeta to really shine, not just get beaten up by the villain to show how tough they are and make Goku look good when he beats them up in turn.

If anyone was wondering (I doubt it), I do have a way of judging how strong some of the characters are; specifically, their transformations. It's to use the 'power multiplier' scale, but only to compare increases in strength, not the actual strength itself. For instance: I have Goku as SSJ at 52x and Vegeta at 50x but with a slightly higher base than Goku so they somewhat balance out. If, say, Nappa became a Super Saiyan, then he would only be about a 40 - 42x. I'm not sure where Raditz would hypothetically be since you have to balance his unimpressive base with having the same blood as Goku, the guy with possibly the highest potential out of everyone in the show. Goten and Trunks are likely only at 30 - 35x since their transformations were inherited rather than earned. Gohan probably only had a 50x increase like Vegeta, but his plot device- sorry, rage gives him the edge when it's awakened.

And then there's Bardock. Now, whether you still dispute the legitimacy of "Episode of Bardock" is irrelevant for now. In it (SPOILER) he goes back in time and becomes a Super Saiyan to beat Chilled, Frieza's ancestor. At the end of "Bardock: Father of Goku", he had an equitable power level of around 10,000, according to other dan calculations that I will happily exploit, putting him on even standing with the royal family. If he received a zenkai upon being sent into the past courtesy of Frieza's Supernova, then his increase might be anywhere from a 5,000 - 10,000 jump all the way up to one of Vegeta's Namek zenkais such as 50,000 – 100.000. Much is left up to debate on this matter, but the point is that he's stronger, though not nearly as strong as Goku was when facing Frieza, and still manages to get thrashed by Chilled. Then he goes all 'Gold Ranger' and wipes Chilled out like he's a food stain on the kitchen counter and the saiyan is a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. While the wrestling aficionado is doubtlessly not as strong as his descendant, he's still pretty damn strong and only a Super Saiyan of that time could have so easily beaten him. From this, I got that Bardock would have needed a larger increase than either Goku or Vegeta, being weaker than they were when they ascended, so I have estimated his power up at a whopping 60 - 65x, only outdone by Cell or Buu when they made an absorption. And I will be using this whole thing in yet another eventual story; so don't go trying to rip me off by stealing it...no, actually, I don't really care. Have at.

Whether you agree or not is perfectly all right so long as you understand what I'm trying to describe. That's sorta the whole point of an Author's Note after all.

So: will Goku and the guys be able to overcome the might of the insane Super Saiyan? Find out next time on 'Dragon Ball Z: What's in a moment?'…. right now!

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Walking out onto the planet, they were all struck by how barren it was. There weren't any trees, or grass or any plant life that they could see; just brown landscape in every direction. Mountains were plentiful and they had spied a few valleys and deep canyons on their descent. The ground beneath them was baked hard by the large sun overhead, large chunks of rocks as hard as granite littering the soil.

There must have been some source of water on the planet, for storm clouds brewed overhead, dark and threatening and waiting to deliver punishment on those below. The wind was eerily still, leaving the clouds unmoved - though that hardly mattered as they enveloped most of the world.

"Not exactly my first choice for a summer home," Krillin quipped, chuckling nervously over the tremor that made him shake from within. The others didn't reply, too busy casting out their senses in search of the mysterious saiyan.

"I sense something," Tien remarked, frowning. "But-"

"It's completely different than what we felt earlier," Gohan finished, equally quizzical.

"It could be a trap, to catch us off guard," Piccolo warned, not liking the feeling that he was getting about the whole situation.

"Then don't let your guard down," Vegeta snapped, obviously as wary as the rest of them. "Come on, the only thing we can do is go and investigate. If it does happen to be the guy we're looking for, then we hit him now while his power is down and save ourselves a lot of excruciating pain."

"And if he powers up?"

"Then we get to do what you love best Kakarot: improvise and hope it works."

"Sounds about right." Goku took to the air and led the six others on their flight to the spot where the only notable power level was situated. They flew over miles and miles of brown and black, never once spotting a sign of life.

"Is the planet always like this, or did the saiyan do something to it?" Gohan mused aloud.

"It's a world where the ecology managed to kill itself off," Vegeta answered. "I saw many such as this when I was part of the PTO and destroyed just as many. They can barely support life of any kind and weren't worth the effort of terraforming which is often as expensive as the planet itself. This saiyan probably thought it was a nice place to rest in between genocides."

"Well he only picked his grave," Yamcha growled darkly.

The rest of the flight took place in silence as all of them contemplated just how unlikely it was that most of them would come away from this alive. And then there was the oh so comforting thought that even if they did somehow triumph, the androids still waited for them in a year and a half back on Earth.

Needless to say that spirits were exceptionally low when they landed on a patch of ground that looked exactly like the one they had just left. Ahead was the nearly vertical face of a mountain, gently curved to the side like some kind of soft serve ice cream. A darkened cave was situated in the apex of where two rocky ledges joined in a downward crux, almost hidden in the deep shadow of the mountain.

It was the only place that their target could have been so they cautiously approached on foot, picking their way up the steep incline like a troop of goats. At the mouth of the cave, they lined up against either side of it, their group split as evenly as seven people could be without a senzu bean being necessary.

The strange power level they had been tracking was clearly coming from the hollow, now at a pretty low level: downright feeble in fact. This was unnerving to the group and they readied themselves for an ambush.

Forming a stable ball of immaculate white ki a few inches above his palm, Vegeta crept around the corner, careful to keep his light source above his head to maximize the radius of the illumination. The cave proved to be deeper than what they had initially assumed, winding its way far into the heart of the mountain by way of natural tunnels, some barely inches in diameter and others wide and tall enough for three full grown men to walk abreast and Piccolo to stand on his own shoulders without fear of overhanging stalactites.

"Which way?" Goku asked, carelessly loud and sending his voice echoing all around them. Cringing from the unexpected disturbance, Piccolo smacked the back of his former rival's head in irritation. Confused, Goku was about to complain but his son gesturing urgently for him to stay quiet tipped him off to his blunder. Grinning self-consciously, he gave them a thumbs up and tip toed to the back of the pack.

Grumbling to himself, Vegeta pressed onward down the widest tunnel, wary of the moisture on the rocks beneath his feet that could turn treacherous at a moment of negligence. The Z-Fighters all followed in his footsteps, deciding that following the brutal saiyan wasn't the worst thing that could happen in these tunnels.

Traveling at an agonizingly slow pace, they crept onward, aware that the walls were becoming closer the farther in they went. Even though none of them were claustrophobic, it did seem like there was less oxygen and the temperature was steadily rising. The journey through the dank pit stretched on and on, more than likely leading them well into the heart of the mountain where thousands of tons of stone were waiting to crumple on top of their heads.

The cavern came as a surprise. Simply just there at the end of an especially narrow passage, the volumous chamber was formed into a massive hemisphere as large as a football stadium, the floor of the cave being straight and smooth with curved walls leading upward and inward to meet a point so high up that Vegeta's miniscule orb never had a chance of illuminating through the darkness. The only reason they could survey the cavern at all with the limited lighting was due to the reflective nature of the rocks they stood on. Closer inspection revealed that it was in fact mostly melted into a glass like substance.

Looking around, they realized that not a hint of the other saiyan could be seen. They could barely even sense him anymore as well. This bred uncertainties and fears in them all over again, creating the seed of despair, the one thing that could turn any fighter alive into a simpering coward.

Fortunately, before anyone could begin to freak out, Piccolo held his hand up in a sharp gesture that caught most of them by surprise. They watched as he concentrated intently on something only he was aware of, screwing up his eyes and tilting his head in several different angles and positions. After a moment, he froze, with his head nearly horizontal on his neck. There he remained for several long seconds before-

"He's up there," the namekian announced, indicating with a nod the blanketed darkness that cradled the majority of the chamber, "a small alcove high up in the wall."

"Now that is useful," Yamcha remarked, smiling despite himself. He still remembered the days of King Piccolo, and to see the offspring of that tyrant moving his head around like cat was undeniably funny and he had to bite his lip to prevent himself from giggling outright.

"Let's go. Everyone, make your own light ball; the more light we have the better off we are. If it's an ambush he was planning, then he already knows where we are and we know where he is. Surprise is no longer an option for either of us."

"I suppose that's something," Tien sighed, igniting an orb of pale yellow energy that took up residence about a foot above his shiny crown. The others followed suit, expanding their pool of light out several more meters around them and showcasing just how big the cavern was. "I trained to be an assassin. Surprise is supposed to be our forte. But here I am, flying right towards the danger and prepared to punch it in the face."

"I feel you man," Yamcha chimed, nodding as they rose slowly upward, wary of traps or natural hazards. "Life as a bandit usually consisted of 'shoot the tires, make a show, grab the loot and run.' When exactly did we start facing world ending threats head on?"

"Probably when Raditz came to Earth," Krillin supplied, taking up the rear of the pack. "Before that it was pretty much small adventures and thugs in weird outfits. The saiyans gave us a kick in the butt to up our game."

"Yeah, it seems like we've been doing nothing but preparing for the next big threat ever since then," Gohan spoke up, silent until that point. "Makes you wonder if we'll ever get to enjoy the peace we fought so hard for."

"Don't worry guys." Goku turned about in the air to face them as he continued to ascend. "I know it's tough to go from fight to fight without much of a break, but the work we do is for the good of all. That means our karma payoff is gonna' be HUGE!"

The humans and half saiyan laughed at that, glad for the usual display of confidence and cheerfulness from the peaceful saiyan. It was good to feel some of the levity lift from their shoulders in this cave, a welcome lightening of the mood. Piccolo and Vegeta maintained their now customary silences, but they weren't dampening the mood. If anything, they made it feel like they were a complete group, a familiar scene that reassured the others.

"This is it," Piccolo spoke, looking ahead into the darkness. Now that they knew an alcove existed there, the Z-Fighters could see the line that separated the normal darkness from the deeper shadows of the nook. At the entrance, the rest of them could now hear what had guided Piccolo: soft breathing, almost indistinguishable due to distance and sound absorption. "I believe he's asleep, or else meditating."

"It's as good an opportunity as we'll ever get." Vegeta lead them forward and into the small tunnel, creeping down the water carved hallway as stealthily as before. Goku let Krillin pass him so that they would have a super saiyan on each side in case they needed a quick escape or rear defense.

Rounding a few corners, they were suddenly aware of a light not too far ahead, yellow like Tien's but with a much greater wattage about it, throwing the strands of illumination well out into the passage. Their next few steps were their most cautious with the goal in sight, and they all knew exactly what that meant for them.

Turning into a small room, Vegeta wasn't too surprised to see the figure of a tall and lanky man curled up in the corner, the ki orb safely hovering above his inert form. Judging from what he could see, the man had the typical black hair of the saiyans, though that wasn't much of an indicator by itself. He didn't wear anything on his torso save a large and heavy looking pendant that was shaped to fit into a crease of some kind. On his legs he wore plain white gi pants underneath a red skirt fastened to him by a rigid gold belt. He had several gold bands on his arms and his seemed to be likewise tailored. Dried mud caked the half of his body that was on the floor, but his musculature was still plainly visible. Most of his weight seemed to be in muscle tissue.

There commenced several tense moments where nobody knew quite what to do. It seemed like the element of surprise was on their side despite earlier presumptions and striking now would probably be the only free hit they would ever get in. But it seemed like this guy was already half dead, and that was either disconcerting to some or confusing to others. Eventually, it was Vegeta who broke the tension by doing what none of the others would have done in his place:

He kicked the saiyan's foot and barked "Wake up!"

The formerly slumbering saiyan made a sound that was halfway between a whimper and a yelp as he jerked about in post-sleep discoordination. When he was sitting up and facing them, he rubbed his eyes with the back of his non muddy hand and assessed them with bloodshot eyes with bags below them to indicate a troubled sleeping history.

"Who…are…you?" His voice was barely above a whisper and came in halting stops.

"Another saiyan," Vegeta answered as he knelt down on his haunches so as to be at eye level with the tired man. "We came here looking for you."

"Another…saiyan?" He looked confused, glancing down at the floor for a second in thought. "He said… that there were… no others beside… ourselves."

"'He'? Is there another saiyan beside yourself?" Piccolo inquired, not bothering to squat down.

"No…not anymore."

At the back of the group, Krillin and Goku shared an uneasy look. They had to look over the shoulders of the others to see the mysterious saiyan, but they could see that some of the dried stuff on his clothes and skin was blood. Vegeta seemed to make that connections as well as he changed the subject. "What's your name?"

The man thought for a minute, reaching back through the fog of fatigue. "Broly. My name is Broly."

"I'm Vegeta."

The prince was being surprisingly accommodating of the other saiyan, Goku noticed with some satisfaction. Usually he would just demand answers and threaten them with death if they resisted. Perhaps he was beginning to rub off on the monarch.

"Vegeta? The king?" Something flashed behind Broly's eyes, but it was gone just as quick and nobody quite knew what to make of it.

"No, his son. So you remember your heritage? Better than some I know."

Perhaps not that much had rubbed off, Goku admitted with candor.

"We are the last of our kind, standing in this very room. My companions and I traveled a long way to find you, so tell me honestly; are you the one that destroyed most of the southern galaxy?"

Broly regarded Vegeta with a blank expression, letting on nothing about what he was thinking.

"Yes."

The answer was short and without any form of emotion. It would have been easy to just assume that he was lying, or delusional, but they had all witnessed god breaking power erupt from the most unlikely of sources before.

"Why? You could not possibly have reason to destroy so much and kill so many," Vegeta was trying to keep his voice level, but he felt the anxiety and fear coiling in his gut as he said the words.

"Why not." Broly now stood, prompting all of them to take a step or two back in alarm. He was tall as they had observed before, almost matching Piccolo. His body, however, proved to be in much better shape than they had thought, showing off power just waiting to be released below the surface of his flesh. "They were all weak, all meaningless. They amounted to nothing, just bugs to be squashed at my pleasure. And I had plenty of that."

"You monster!" Gohan instinctively took a step forward, anger overriding his caution.

"Monster?" Broly asked, seemingly amused. "I'm no monster; I'm a devil!"

With that declaration, his aura exploded to life around him, flooding the chamber with amber orange light, though that soon became golden as he easily ascended into the super saiyan form. The others powered up as quickly as they could, Vegeta transforming as Goku jumped to his side and prepared to match him.

But Broly suddenly froze, face written in shock at the appearance of the other saiyan.

"Ka-Kaka…rot?" The tall saiyan seemed short of breath, breathing rapidly and moving with each inhalation. "Kakarot?"

"He knows your name?" Vegeta asked his rival, receiving a quizzical look in return.

"Kakarot!" Broly's surprise had now turned to seething anger, but that progressed far deeper under their watch. Rage began to shake his clenched hands and spittle built up at the corners of his mouth as he issued a low hissing noise. "Kakarot! Kakarot!"

To the horror of the Z-Fighters, they began to feel something unknown and utterly terrifying begin to well up within the enraged saiyan. It seemed alien to the super saiyan power, and yet altogether similar at the same time, like comparing an object to its shadow. Whatever Broly was dragging to the surface, it was darker and more volatile than any had right to touch.

"Kakarot! KAKAROT! KAKAROOOOOOOOOTTT!"

Broly exploded.

And a living nightmare took his place.

DBZ-DBZ-DBZ-DBZ-DBZ-DBZ

Tien, fighting to remain conscious and cradling a shattered femur, watched as a similarly demolished Yamcha landed forcefully into the hard earth a few yards away from him, blood shooting from his mouth on the impact.

"He's too much," the former bandit gasped between gurgling breaths. "There's no way we can beat something like that."

"We have to, unh, have to…try," Tien wheezed out, using the Air Dance technique to float off the ground and alleviate the pressure on his leg. Concentrating, he sculpted his ki into a crude cast around the limb to immobilize it and hopefully prevent any further damage.

"Why? So we can say we went out fighting in the Afterlife?" Yamcha snapped back, but nonetheless getting back to his feet with assistance from the triclops. "Any bright ideas?"

"No, unless hitting him with everything is an option." Yamcha laughed, an action that caused his broken ribs to throb dangerously.

They both flew into the dusk sky and reentered the battlefield of hell unloosed. Ki blasts of various size and colors were flying in every which direction, blasting craters in the ground and extinguishing mountains and cliffs like sand castles. Lightning crackled overhead in the cloudless night, sometimes rich golden and other times neon green. Deep fissures had been carved into the planet as byproducts of kiai waves and energy waves either missing their target or being subverted away from them.

At the center of the chaos, Piccolo flew around to fire off precision ki blasts, though they seemed useless, and Gohan was charging up his father's signature attack in his hands in hopes of getting an opening to use it. Goku and Vegeta were both in mad frenzies, raining down countless blows that would have liquefied Frieza or Cooler, but appeared to be utterly ineffective against their opponent.

Rearing from the smoke of another one of Piccolo's attacks, Broly brought his full might as a Legendary Super Saiyan to bear as he clotheslined the other two saiyans at once, his enormous arms catching them full in the face. His transformation had been a monstrous one; now standing in the vicinity of over nine feet, he was covered from head to toe in rope like muscles that stretched his skin taught across them. His hair had become that same neon green and now stood in spikes that lanced in every which direction, below which his terrible, uniformly white eyes watched in gleeful sadistic pleasure as he crushed his foes beneath his gigantic hands.

Going right along with his appearance, Broly's power had changed completely. It had rocketed upward at an unbelievable rate when he had first transformed, and even now it seemed to be steadily climbing higher and higher. None of them were even close to matching the giant in strength, but his speed seemed to be lacking. Whether it was due to the bulging increase to his muscles or simply because he thought it was more fun this way, he barely moved fasten that a walk, occasionally breaking into short runs and flying at a good clip but never moving faster than any of them could see. It had proved to be one of two advantages that they had over him, the other being that he couldn't sense power levels as they all could.

Even so, Broly was still smashing them into the dust time and time again, never giving a hint that he might be tiring, or hurting from the multitude of blows and attacks that had covered his body. He was an unstoppable tank, and they were just pebbles being thrown at him.

"Special Beam Canno-" Piccolo's shout was cut short by an emerald green ball of ki, no larger than a grapefruit, shooting from Broly's palm and enveloping the namekian in a green and yellow explosion, burning off his mantle and turban. He managed to protect the rest of himself by crossing his arms in front of his face, but when he lowered them, the grinning saiyan was already there, another 'Eraser Shell' primed to fire.

Before the execution could be finished, a column of white-blue energy blasted into Broly's back, succeeding in knocking him away from Piccolo but not much else. Looking over his shoulder, he spotted a panting Gohan and grinned ever wider. He changed direction quickly and zoomed towards the child, too exhausted to avoid the charge.

The half-saiyan was rammed face first into the ground several times before being flung bodily skywards where he was an easy target for an uncharged Eraser Shell. Sailing limply through the air after the explosion, he almost crashed back into the ground until his father intervened, catching him at the last second and laying him down gently.

"Dad…he's so strong…what are we going to do?" Gohan was practically in tears. He felt more helpless than ever in this fight, and that was something he couldn't bear.

"I don't know Gohan," Goku confided quietly, looking back to where Vegeta had reengaged the animalistic saiyan while Tien and Yamcha provided covering fire. It didn't take long for Broly to grab the prince right out of a kick and use him as a shield to absorb some of the shots before they stopped coming. Taking advantage of the hesitation, Broly hurled Vegeta by the leg into the two humans, knocking both of them out of the air. "This looks bad, and I'm not sure that we can pull a miracle off like we have in the past."

Broly next targeted the recovered Piccolo, flying towards him with both arms outstretched like a torpedo. Piccolo stood his ground and tried to counterattack when they he was close enough, but the elastic like arm didn't even phase the mad saiyan as he slammed both fists into the namekian's stomach.

From out of nowhere, a flash of light arced through the night sky and directly towards the monolithic psychopath. Noticing it as well, Broly turned to face it head on and reached out to grab it from the air. However, this was part of the plan as the orb of energy detonated and released a pulse of light identical to that of the Solar Flare technique directly into Broly's unflinching eyes. Reeling back like an electrified beast, the saiyan thrashed around futily, crashing to the ground and squirming there.

"I don't know if that's gonna work a second time, so we need to use the time we've got," announced Krillin as he followed in from the same direction as his attack. Goku had last seen him riding an undetonated ki wave into the horizon, and he looked like he had done exactly that; gi shirt and pants singed and shredded in some places, skin darkened from soot and angry red burns ran up his forearms and forehead.

"Right." Goku helped Gohan to his feet and led the other two to where the rest of the Z-Fighters were still unscrambling themselves from each other. Piccolo alighted a little less than lightly close by, breathing raggedly from the prior assault. "Vegeta, what can we do against this guy? It seems like he's only getting stronger as we get weaker."

"I had heard the legends about his kind," Vegeta huffed, keeping his eyes locked on the writhing opponent. "The Legendary Super Saiyans were our equivalent of berserkers; charging into battle with absolutely no regard for their own life and only wanting to cause as much death and damage as they could. It's even said that some could survive the destruction of a planet."

"That is noooot really helpful right now," Krillin grimaced, hoping that there actually was a plan.

"Well, if we get him angry enough, he should become sloppier and leave bigger openings. How, exactly, we'll exploit these is a whole 'nother matter." Vegeta puffed out a long breath before looking at his fellow warriors. They were all in a sorry state, though Tien was in undoubtedly the worst condition with his broken leg. None of them had proven capable of inflicting any amount of damage on Broly with either physical or energy attacks, but that had been as individuals. A metaphorical scouter beeped as the prince began to form an idea.

"Not to rush anybody, but I think the Solar Flare's beginning to wear off," Yamcha pointed out, indicating Broly who had managed to get back to his feet and was no longer screaming, but he was still clutching at his eyes and was bowed forward at nearly ninety degrees at the waist.

"Alright, I've got something, but it's a long shot," Vegeta declared, running a thumb along the length of his facial scar in a tic he had somehow picked up. "Separately, Kakarot and I are no match against him, even as super saiyans. But together, our power may just be enough to surpass his and wipe him out."

"How are we going to manage that?" Goku inquired, turning his back completely on Broly to give his kinsmen his full attention.

"If we can combine our strongest ki waves and hit him dead on with them, it won't matter what kind of legend he is."

"That reminds me," Krillin spoke up again, looking thoughtful. "What's the difference between your super saiyan and his? Aren't they both super saiyans of legend?"

"No, not even close. The 'Super Saiyan of Legend' was the story of super saiyans as a whole, while 'Legendary Super Saiyans' were legendary amongst other super saiyans, an upper echelon almost."

"Ah. Makes sense now," Krillin lied, grinning, sweat beading on his dirty forehead and creating rivulets in the dust coating. "Just wanted to get that off of my chest before I charged head long into a suicidal situation. You do want us to distract him for you, don't you?"

"Yes," Vegeta acknowledged shortly, thankful that he didn't have to explain it. The others too seemed to have understood the implications and were steeling themselves for what was sure to be a no win-scenario. Looking at their determined faces, Vegeta grudgingly felt some respect for them in that moment; in another life he himself may very well have curled up into a ball and waited for death. The earthlings really were a remarkable race.

"Alright, if we're going to do this," Piccolo cracked his knuckles in preparation, "now's the time."

He was correct in that regard, as they could see that Broly was now almost fully recovered from the sneak attack, standing up almost straight and blinking rapidly to clear away the splotches of darkness that stained his vision.

"YYAAAAAGGGGHHHH!

"GRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!

"HiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

"RRRRAAAAAAGGGHHH!" As one, all of the Z-Fighters beside the two saiyans powered up as much as they could, causing veins to bulge in various places across their bodies. Their departure was forceful enough to blast the ground into a crater nearly ten meters deep and twice as much wide under where they had stood. Goku and Vegeta watched them go, feeling unmistakably like they had just sent them to their deaths.

"Now, Kakarot! We don't have a second to spare," Vegeta barked, gather his energy into his two hands as he charged the mightiest Gallick Gun he could muster. Goku nodded shortly, cupping his palms and pulling them in close to his side to ready his signature technique. All around them, miniature golden lightning bolts danced along the perimeter of their auras, now joined as one due to their joint effort.

At that point, the Z-Fighters collided with the hulking saiyan, literally barreling into him all at once to destabilize him before he could actually see them coming. Splitting up, they each began to speed around him in a very short and deliberate orbit, raining down blows as fast as their limbs would allow. At their speed, it almost looked like Broly was the nucleus of an atom and the warriors were the electrons circling it.

For half a moment in time, it seemed like they could actually manage to safely fend him off and buy the time they needed. But that fragile hope was shattered when Broly at last regained his sight, and the first thing he should see was Tien flying directly in front of him with a punch halfway between them. Opening his mouth, a green energy wave spewed from within to take the triclops full in the chest, blasting him away and more than likely killing him in the process.

A shout of rage came as Yamcha witnessed the death of his friend and attempted to put his foot through the back of the saiyan's skull. All it did, however, was impact painfully against the unmoving force and leave him open for a haymaker punch to the face. Though not killed by the blow, Yamcha experienced a whole new level of agony as he felt the bones in his face moving when they should have all been a solid mass.

With two of their number already down, Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin decided to create some distance between them and the LSSJ, blasting backwards and towards the mostly destroyed hills that had once been a mountain range. Broly pursued, fully intent on ripping apart the one that had blinded him, probably literally.

Thinking quickly, Piccolo split apart into two with the multiform technique. Now with an extra target to follow, the namekian hoped that the saiyan wouldn't know which one to follow. Broly was indeed confused by the sudden division, but he compensated by throwing an Eraser Shell attack at each of the retreating figures in rapid succession.

Noticing the oncoming orb of emerald energy, Krillin turned to face it while maintaining his flight and created a small Destructo Disk which was promptly thrown to intercept. The disc did its job nicely, slicing the Eraser Shell almost perfectly in half and leaving them to detonate harmlessly in its wake. Deciding that he could use this to his advantage, Krillin guided the kienzan towards where Broly was flying after one of the Piccolos.

Unfortunately, the rouge saiyan had already seen something like this just a few minutes prior and knew to avoid it. Dodging around the buzzing blade, he fired off a small ki bullet from his hand to destroy it before turning his attention on the one that had thrown it. Seeing the evil grin he was receiving, Krillin balked and tried to fly even faster. But he stood not a chance when pitted against the attributes of Broly.

Outstripped in just a few seconds, the bald dwarf flew head first into the outstretched hand of the saiyan, closing to crush and immobilize him. Screaming from the pain, Krillin tried to erupt his energy outward as he'd seen Gohan and Goku do in the past, but Broly's might was just too terrible to counter at this range. Feeling his bones bending like willow branches, he tried desperately to summon up the energy for an energy wave so as to fire it from his feet, but his strength had vanished and he knew that he was about to die in horrible pain.

"YAH!" Gohan's fist slammed into Broly's face with the full might of an enraged half saiyan behind it. It did nothing to the maniac, but he did lose interest in Krillin and released his hold on him, allowing his limp body to fall to the ground far below. Turning his opaque eyes on the seven year old, Broly actually licked his lips in anticipation of the slaughter that was to commence. Not bothering to block or dodge any of the punches and kicks sent his way by the hybrid, he simply tanked them, grinning all the while.

When Gohan put too much force behind an uppercut and smashed his fingers into the rock hard surface of Broly's body, the full blooded saiyan rammed his head forward and delivered a savage head butt that broke the boy's nose, evidenced by the spurt of blood that coated his own chest. Not letting him regain his senses, Broly grabbed Gohan by one leg and swung him around in increasingly fast arcs before releasing his grip and sending him plummeting towards the ground.

Before any further harm could be done, one of the Piccolos swooped in and grabbed the boy out of the air as his father had done not too long before. The other namekian flew in from under Broly's line of sight and loosed a concussive wave of ki that buffeted him back a few feet through the air without causing any harm. The Piccolos quickly met up and rejoined into one, Gohan still in his arms, concussed and struggling to bring his mind back under control.

"UHAHAHAHAHA! Die now, like WORMS!" Broly spoke for the first time in the LSSJ form, and it wasn't much of a deviation from his monstrous nature. One of his emerald green ki orbs blossomed in his palm, seemingly ordinary to all the rest before. But when he threw it at the two warriors, it expanded in size rapidly until it had matched the Spirit Bomb used on Namek, but this was much more terrifying to behold. Broly continued to laugh as his attack approached the last two non-saiyan warriors, relishing in their doom. Down on the ground, an exhausted Piccolo tried to cover Gohan with his form, knowing full well that it would do no good.

Unexpectedly, an enormous beam of golden energy slammed into the side of the Omega Blaster, easily diverting its path and pushing it far into the horizon where it detonated with an explosion that would dwarf any human made armaments ever conceived. Broly howled in anger, thoroughly tired of last second recues preventing him from finishing off his prey.

"Worth it," Goku murmured as he and Vegeta dropped their arms and lost their transformations. Using up their charged attacks to save Piccolo and Gohan hadn't been the Princes' idea, but he had been surprisingly agreeing about it, though Goku couldn't pinpoint the reason. He had become more of a good guy than he probably would ever admit in the past two years, and in that short time that they'd known each other, Goku had seen the person he knew Vegeta could become start to emerge from that shell of brutality and coldness.

"Kakarot!" Broly snarled upon seeing the target of his wroth. "Where have you been hiding? And you, Prince Vegeta. He was always talking about how you would be my main goal, the one that I had to kill. But we he took too long. You're as pathetic and boring as he was."

"Whatever," Vegeta brushed the insult off, not seeing Broly as one who could really judge him. "I never thought I would die fighting beside you, Kakarot, and not against you."

"Times change, enemies get stronger and allies are more needed than ever," Goku observed with a grin.

"I'll take my time squashing you!" Broly declared, pointing both palms at them and using his Trap Shoot attack to fill the sky with dozens of ki bullets. Fatigued as they were, the two saiyans managed to dodge the majority of the projectiles, moving in tandem to avoid a collision with each other. For the few that did hit them, the pain was fierce, but the attack was weak enough individually that they weren't about to lose a limb in the flurry.

Just as the volley ended, Broly reared up above them with arms pulled up over his head and that ever present insane grin plastered on his face. Slamming a fist into both saiyans at once, he sent them careening into the ground, geysers of dirt and rock sprouting up at their landing points. Following close behind, he reached into the two holes and extracted his opponents with large hands around their necks. Increasing the pressure on their throats, he delighted in the sounds of their agonized screaming, finding it more appealing than any orchestra recording Paragus had ever listened to.

Slamming the two Z-Fighters bodily together several times, he hurled first one and then the other towards the horizon. Giving chase, he reached Goku's speeding body first, planting him into the ground again with devastating elbow to the chest. He caught up to Vegeta next and took a handful of his hair, bringing him to a very painful stop. Holding the royalty in front of him, Broly snickered before hammering blows into him, only stopping when blood oozed from the other saiyan's mouth. Letting go off the hair, Broly punted Vegeta away like a ball, a comparison the Prince wasn't appreciating right then.

Managing to take control of his flight and assume a hover, Vegeta observed the wrecked battlefield critically. He knew that the combined energy attack had been there only chance of stopping this brute, and now neither he nor Kakarot had enough energy to pull it off again.

But something caught his attention on the outer fringes of the one-time mountain range: Piccolo had covertly collected and relocated all of the Z-Fighters to a relatively safe place and was now doing his best to help them. His brand of magic was more alteration than restoration as the child namekian's had been, but he could alleviate the pain and partly mend the bones. Unbelievably, all of the humans were still alive, though Tien had a disgusting burn mark on his chest and Yamcha's face had swollen to the point of disfigurement. But if they were properly treated soon, then they could probably make a full recovery. Not the most likely of scenarios, but Vegeta had learned to be at least a little optimistic.

Suddenly, an idea, a crazy, ludicrous, and hardly feasible idea, came to him in that moment. It was such a long shot that he knew Kakarot would have taken it if their positions had been reversed. Making sure that Broly wasn't paying him any more attention, Vegeta descended to where the Z-Fighters were recuperating. Landing amongst them, he took a moment to look each of them in the eyes before he spoke.

"This brute had torn apart our every attempt to defeat him. He laughs off our strongest attacks and brushes aside our defenses. But he is still most definitely mortal. He is still made up of flesh and blood, and as such he follows the same rules as everyone else. I have one last plan that, but I need all of your help to pull it off."

The others were silent, either because they were in too much pain to speak or because they were mulling this information over. Vegeta could tell that they still did not fully trust. Rather than anger him, it was actually a relief; it meant that they weren't fools and blindly followed Kakarot's cheerful view of the universe. They might just stand a chance after all.

"What do you need us to do?" Krillin stepped forward, nursing a dislocated shoulder. He spoke with the voice of them all, and they were willing to cooperate with the Prince. Vegeta knew then that he had chosen the correct allies.

DBZ-DBZ-DBZ-DBZ-DBZ-DBZ

Goku crossed his arms in front of his face to block another punch from the still ascended Broly, but having so many already, his arms were numb with pain and the defense broke. The next blow took him across the face, spraying spittle and blood from between clenched teeth. The pain it caused was maddening, but the Earth Raised saiyan doggedly held on, determined to give everything he had before he could die.

"Do you know just how much I hate you Kakarot?" Broly inquired, slamming yet another punch into Goku as he spoke. "I haven't gone a single day without fantasizing about ripping out you spine, or burning your flesh off, or crushing your skull like a nut. For thirty years, I have survived on the death of others, but I always imagined that they were you, and I was killing you billions of times over. But this," another punch, "this is far better than I possibly could have imagined. Here you are, and here I am, and you are dying just as slowly as I had wanted. Everything is perfect about this."

Goku couldn't muster up the spare strength to ask why Broly hated him so much, but that hardly mattered right then. He could barely move his arms any more, and his legs were locked, freezing him in a standing position and only miracles kept him from tripping backwards. The odds had never, to his memory, been worse. Even when Vegeta had attacked the Earth and he had been crushed to immobilization, a glimmer of hope had always persisted. But here and now, there wasn't anything but Broly's punches and that horrible laughter. 'Maybe it's because there was sunlight when you fought Vegeta,' a feverish part of his brain supplied, almost eliciting a giggle from the saiyan.

As Broly pulled his arm far back to deliver his most powerful attack yet, Goku readied himself as best he could manage, but even he knew that this was the end. There would be no more blocking or running after this one. It would be up to Broly how much pain Goku endured before dying, and he didn't much like those odds. The fist descended, rending the air as it went. Goku squeezed his eyes shut and anticipated the end.

What he felt however, was a stream of energy flow into his tired body. It wasn't much, but it refilled him just enough that he could now buy himself some leeway. Snapping his eyelids back up and seeing how close he was to getting destroyed, Goku loosed a scream as he powered up and regained his ascension, only just managing that. With the instant boost in power, he managed to halt Broly's fist with his own, a shockwave erupting from the point of contact.

"What?! How?!" For the first time since the fight had begun, Broly seemed flustered, unused to this kind of second wind, and in that instant he was vulnerable. Seizing upon the opportunity, Goku brought his other fist around and slugged the Legendary Super Saiyan as hard as he could across the jaw. Broly staggered backward, more surprised than hurt, but still definitely hurt. "I felt that," he announced dumbly, mind catching up.

Goku didn't actually know himself, but he wasn't about to question it now. Flipping backwards, he landed in a low crouch from which he launched himself like a sprinter towards the goliath saiyan. Broly swung his arm in an attempt to take Goku off his feet, but the peaceful saiyan dodged below and carried out a spin so the heel of his foot hit the LSSJ in the back of his leg as hard as he could. Expecting a forward attack, Broly buckled at the knees from the unexpected imbalance and fell straight into a momentum fueled roundhouse kick to the face. Impossibly, it seemed that Goku was actually causing damage where before he couldn't even phase this opponent.

The reason for this was something Broly had never dealt with before: intelligent fighting. Goku hadn't just been idly blocking and dodging; he had been observing Broly's fighting style and movements, looking for the small details that could bring down any giant. He learned that Broly favored his left fist, but mostly used his right leg for offense. It had been apparent that the saiyan was always moving forward, putting all of his weight forward when not moving and leaving him imbalanced. While he did have excellent eyesight despite the lack of irises, his other senses were noticeably weak, untrained by grueling training or survival situations.

All of these little hints were now what were keeping Goku alive and, for the moment, with an advantage over the psychopathic saiyan. Skipping away from a backhanded swing, Goku fired off a dozen micro ki bullets into Broly's face, just enough sting to threaten the exposed eyes and get him to turn his head away from the onslaught. Running around in the other direction to get at his back, Goku charged forward on foot and football tackled the larger saiyan. If it had been meant to topple him, it would have failed utterly; but that had not been his goal. Now with a firm grip, he flew into the air, dragging Broly with him, until they got to an appropriate altitude. Once there, Goku flipped them around and entered a sharp nosedive straight down. Broly attempted to grab the other saiyan, but his muscles proved too bulky to allow that much freedom of movement, and he was left to almost comically grope at his own shoulders.

Riding all the way down, Goku crashed Broly head-first into the hard rock and gravel of the ground. When they had burrowed a good ways, Goku let go and fired twin orbs from his palms that took his place and propelled Broly even further down before detonating, bring the tunnel closing in on him and encasing him under several tons of nature. Goku had made it out safely and now took a breather. He wasn't idiotic enough to assume that Broly was finished, or even severely wounded from that assault, but it had bought him some time to prepare.

Sure enough, after only a few seconds, Broly's energy spiked and sharp ribbons of green light split the ground before it entirely exploded, leaving a massive crater around where Broly now hovered. Looking around, the mammoth of a man couldn't see Goku anywhere and guessed that he had been buried in the blast. Rising above the lip of the hole as magma began to gush into it from a ruptured stream not far away. Suddenly, as all things seemed to be around him, he heard a strange static sound form behind him to see Goku there, Hunched over with a pulsing blue energy wave contained in between his palms.

"HAAAAAA!" Goku released the ki wave point blank, pouring all of his energy into maintaining the destructive power for as long as he could. But as he struggled to keep up the attack, he began to see a shape approaching through the mass of light: Broly, moving calmly through the energy as though it wasn't there and advancing on Goku through the air. Panicking, Goku pushed harder, redoubling his focus on the Kameamea, but it was in vain. Broly reached through the beam of blue and gripped Goku by the front of his gi. Giving a sharp yank, Broly pulled Goku above him, terminating the attack in the process.

"How do you like the taste of dirt?" Broly snarled before throwing Goku hard towards the ground. Feeling like a bullet being fired from a gun, Goku slammed into the ground, only going a few feet through the surface before his movement died off. Groaning, he rolled onto his back right as Broly cannoned into him, legs like battering rams. Screaming, Goku arched his back upward while Broly returned to the air, an Eraser Blaster charging in his hand. "This ends now, Kakarot. I've had my fun and now I'll send you straight to Hell!"

"No…" Goku managed to whimper, trying to crawl backwards out of his small crater as the golden light once again disappeared from his hair and leaving him completely drained. He had given it everything he had and more, but he still felt like there was more to be done. 'Well, besides making sure Broly doesn't terrorize another planet ever again,' he emended to himself.

"Good-bye Kakarot!" Broly began to laugh as he charged even more energy into his attack, swelling it to frightening proportions. Everything on the ground as far as Goku could see was tainted by that neon green, the shadows cast into stark contrast. It did look as much like the end of the world as Goku imagined it would, but that made it all the more terrifying.

Peace settled over him then. He knew better than to die full of regrets. When he had sacrificed himself to kill Raditz, he hadn't known about the other saiyans and so passed on content with all he had achieved in life. He did that now, remembering his family in every detail he could bring forth, his friends, defeating Frieza in single combat and coming to know Vegeta better than most anyone else. The Prince had begun down the path to reform, same as Piccolo had when he had trained Gohan for a year.

'Kakarot.'

In fact, it almost seemed like he could hear Vegeta's voice in his mind, like the echo of their duel back on Earth. Could they have really been mortal enemies just two years ago?

'Kakarot!'

The voice even sounded annoyed, just as he could usually recall Vegeta being. Funny that those were the memories of the other saiyan that he could easily recall.

'Kakarot, you idiot! Move!'

"Huh?" Goku uttered aloud, finally recognizing telepathy for what it was.

'MOVE!'

Deciding not to question the order, just this once, Goku willed himself onto his feet and started to run in the side, away from Broly.

"Yes! Run! Make it fun for me!" The insane saiyan chortled, maintaining his aim at his reviled nemesis. He didn't even need to, seeing as his Eraser Blaster (now probably an Omega Blaster) was packing enough power to level a quarter of the planet. Deciding that he had delayed long enough, Broly prepared to loose the blast and end Kakarot once and for all.

One more time that night, Broly was interrupted from his course, this time by a voice.

"Broly! If you mean to test yourself against a true saiyan warrior, then sit back and enjoy the show!"

The Legendary Super Saiyan debated for a second before deciding 'why not?' and looked over his shoulder towards the voice. It was Vegeta, hovering in the air, level with him but distanced quite a bit away. He was ascended into super saiyan, baring his teeth and clenching his fists, veins throbbing in both temples, apparently from anger.

"You again?" Broly laughed loudly at that, enjoying himself once again. He had enjoyed pounding Kakarot into a pulp, and now he would get that chance again with the Saiyan Prince. "If you wanted to die so badly, who am I to refuse?" Broly dismissed his Ki blast and turned fully to fly at the remaining saiyan, wanting badly to rip parts from his body.

Vegeta waited as long as he could until he was certain that Goku had gotten far enough away for him to put the last phase of his desperate plan into action. Growling from the exertion, Vegeta allowed the energy he had been stoking inside of himself to come roaring to the surface. For the moment, it manifested as a titanic golden aura that towered far above both himself and Broly and reilluminated the area with a wash of midas.

The energy sent to Goku had just been a portion of what the Z-Fighters had given Vegeta, pouring every last ounce of power into him until most had passed out or collapsed. While Goku had fought Broly with the extra energy, the Prince had concentrated his own pool of borrowed ki until he had it completely in sync with his own. From there, he tempered it to increase the raw power and sheer size of the power until it had become something he had scarcely dreamt possible for him to control. In danger of self-destructing from shattering his limit, he had positioned himself behind Broly and was now about to unleash what he had only conceived several minutes before.

"What's with the light show?" Broly quizzed as he halted his flight for the moment, secretly awed by the spectacle. But then the aura began to shrink in on itself, becoming a more and more rich golden color until it became opaque and dazzling to see. Even then it shrank back into Vegeta, until it was a skintight sheen that outlined the Prince like some kind of god. When that was complete, Vegeta thrust his hands out to either side, power crackling along both palms.

"This…is for sullying the saiyan race!" Vegeta announced, slamming the heels of his hands together, fingers clawed inward. The coalesced energy took hold there, briefly appearing in fits and bursts with the fluctuations of his aura.

Broly did not know how to sense energy. He had never even heard of such a technique, and even if he had he would have dismissed it as inconsequential. But in that spot of the Universe, at that moment in time, he could feel the unbelievable power crawling along his skin, coating his teeth with a coppery taste.

"What…what is that?" He stuttered. Vegeta answered him, simply and with only two words:

"FINAL FLASH!"

What could only be described as divine intervention erupted from between Vegeta's fingers, filling the world with pure light and the roar of Armageddon. The column of energy sheared through the empty air like Death's scythe, leaving not a single shadow along Broly's body. For his part, the Legendary Super Saiyan could only realize how wrong he had been to give Vegeta time to charge the attack, and shout out the ultimate summarization of his thoughts and feelings.

"Oh Shit!"

And then it hit him, the full and unyielding power of the Prince of all Saiyans. Spread eagle against the head of the scorching energy, Broly screamed in rage and denial as he was propelled over the lands, through the air, past the stratosphere and far, far into the cold reaches of space. Vegeta persisted for several minutes after Broly had vanished, making sure that it breached the limits of the solar system before at last releasing his hold over the energy and falling to the once again dark ground, exhausted.

As he lay there in the dirt, he watched the last vestiges of the Final Flash disappear amongst the stars, taking and ending the unholy nightmare with it. Letting out a breath of relief, he closed his eyes for a second to savor the silence. Feeling a small ki signature approaching, he looked over in that direction to see Goku walking slowly towards him, still looking up in the sky.

"I think you got him," Goku remarked, giving Vegeta a large grin. The Prince waved him away lazily, unable to hide his own smile. The other Z-Fighters were limping towards them, carefully supporting each other and already shouting out praise and congratulations to the two saiyans. Vegeta wearily pushed himself onto his elbows and shook his head until they quieted enough for him to speak.

"Today, I don't give a damn about glory. I only know that I'm lucky to be alive…and I owe that in large part to all of you. I won't say it again, so listen close: you guys kick ass." They laughed at that and Goku helped the Prince to his feet. "Now let's get back to the ship and get you patched up. Yamcha was ugly enough before and I can barely stand to look at him now."

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AN: And that's that. I went against the style of Dragon Ball Z and crammed the whole fight scene into one chapter. How's that for ya?

And, to forestall anyone complaining that Vegeta shouldn't have been able to use the Final Flash yet, I present the argument that it is actually a 'Proto-Final Flash'; unrefined, not nearly as powerful and much more draining on the user, but operating under the same principles, so a devastating attack no matter how you slice it.

Yaaaaay fan logic!

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