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It was a full minute before they realized Vegeta had stopped breathing altogether.
Gohan slumped against the wall of the infirmary before sliding down it to the cool tiled floor. Pushing his head into his hands, he tried not to cry, but the tears were unwilling to stay trapped any longer and soon he couldn't control the sobbing. Of all the people to mourn, Vegeta would have been at the very end of his list just a few short years ago. But in the intervening months of training and interacting, the prideful saiyan had taken up a role in Gohan's life equitable to an uncle, no matter how distant he tried to be with all of them.
And now he was dead; slain by an enemy he couldn't fight with all of that strength he had built up his entire life. He hadn't even been able to keep his body in Otherworld, evidenced by it still being here. Already the world seemed a quieter and darker place without the Prince of all Saiyans there to offer a scathing remark or a witty insight. The Z-Fighters had lost one of their most powerful members and an integral blocks for all of them to find support against.
Standing by the hospital bed, Bulma hardly moved as her own tears slid down her face. She clutched hers and Vegeta's son to her chest tightly, needing something to break through the unfiltered heartbreak and sorrow that now threatened to drag her down and never let go. The baby was silent, holding onto his mother while staring at the body of his father with eyes that held a wisdom far beyond his age. No tears came from his eyes. No saiyan wept for another.
Gohan ran a hand through his growing hair, trying to regain his composure while taking in hitched breaths. He knew exactly what it meant that the Prince had died because of the disease: since it was a natural cause, the dragon balls couldn't wish him back.
Vegeta was gone forever.
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In what felt like slow-motion, a shell-shocked Goku watched as his friends were pulverized by the adamant strength of android Sixteen. The red head barely paid any of them more attention than was necessary, catching Yamcha's entire head in one hand and slamming him into the ground at full force, Blocking Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon and firing his own eye beams that blasted the namekian clear across the clearing they had made amongst the trees. Tien charged in with spirit energy in both fists, yelling out a shout of defiant rage as he swung for a target that was abruptly not there. Before he could look around, one of Sixteen's detachable hands rocketed into his chest and carried him away into the tree line before an explosion erupted from that area, the hand zooming back to reconnect with the rest of the android.
Trunks came in next, sword being swung in a powerful backhanded swing that should have taken the androids head from his shoulders, but merely glanced off of the synthetic tissue as a chip of the blade came free. Turning, Sixteen slammed his leg upward and caught the half-saiyan under the chin, throwing him limply away like a rag doll. Goku feebly reached out to help him, but the energy blast he had taken at point blank range had been far more powerful than he realized and he was still just trying to stand, let alone fight back.
Before the tall automaton could cross the distance between himself and Goku, Krillin appeared in his path, arm raised above his head.
"Destructo Disc!" He screamed as the extremely compressed ki saucer was thrown with expert accuracy and headed towards their seemingly unstoppable enemy. Before Sixteen could dodge or deflect it, Krillin literally redoubled his efforts.
"Kaioken times TWO!" The disc enlarged in size and luminescence as it collided with the androids outstretched palm. Unfortunately, the monk could only watch in astonishment and frustration as his attack withered and died against the unyielding force, the power behind it spent. Unaffected by the attack, the mohawked assassin sprang forward like a sprinter and punched Krillin several times, each blow knocking him back a few feet before the last one sent him soaring away to slam through an ancient and thick tree, splinters of wood flying away from the impact site.
"Krillin…no!" Goku was regaining his equilibrium and managed at last to put his feet beneath him and rise shakily to a stand. Glaring icily at the android, the saiyan from Earth tried to come up with a plan to stop the over-powered giant, but they had tried pretty much everything they knew and nothing had even scratched him or stopped him for longer than a moment. Cursing, he drew his fists up into a basic attack pose, seeing no other alternative than to just hammer away at him and pray something important was damaged.
Throwing himself into a flurry of rapid punches and jabs, Goku did his very best but that just wasn't good enough anymore. Sixteen chopped him in the shoulder, the impossible force behind it driving the saiyan to his knees heavily, clutching at what was probably a dislocation. The android next pressed one of his boots against Goku's chest and slammed him into the ground, pressing down with crushing strength to prevent any escape. As Goku screamed from the pain, Sixteen again pulled off one of his forearms to reveal the cannon beneath and pointed it directly at his target, energy coalescing in the barrel.
"I am sorry." The android spoke for the first time since the fight began. "I do not wish to kill you, but Dr. Gero programmed me to do nothing else."
"But…you have…desires…and wishes…how can…you…let him con-…control you!" Goku wheezed out with whatever air he could still draw. If he could appeal to the android, then there might be a chance. But that idea was dashed when Sixteen replied.
"This is not something I can ignore, no more so than a saiyan can ignore a fight." With those parting words, he readied the hyper charged Hells' Flash to finish off the saiyan once and for all, but out of nowhere Yamcha leapt up behind Sixteen and wrapped his arms around his face, blinding him. Trunks also reappeared, barreling bodily into the android at full speed, succeeding in knocking Sixteen back by just a step, but that was enough for Goku to roll away, gasping for breath.
The surprise assault was short lived as, with nary a grunt or shout, Sixteen suplexed Trunks into the ground, simultaneously crushing Yamcha beneath him and incapacitating both at once. Rising to his feet again, Sixteen looked at both warriors with regret before turning to advance on Goku once more.
'He could easily kill all of us right now,' Goku realized with a start, 'but he's trying to only kill me.' With that in mind, he cast his gaze quickly upward to the two other androids who, so far, hadn't taken any action against the Z-Fighters; merely watching in surprise as their 'big brother' decimated the Earth's defenders. He could only hope that they wouldn't decide kill to the defenseless fighters as their future counterparts had.
Lifting two fingers to his head, Goku focused on the farthest familiar energy signal and used Instant Transmission to transport himself halfway around the planet. Sixteen and the other two were left surprised by the sudden vanishing act, looking around for any sign of the powerful saiyan and finding nothing. None of the other Z-Fighters were in any condition to continue the fight, but the ones still conscious figured out what had happened and watched the trio of artificial humans in apprehension. Without Goku, they stood no chance at all against them.
"Did he just run away?" Seventeen inquired of his sister, receiving a mere shrug in response. "Well that just takes all the fun out this. How about we hit the road and go looking for him Sixteen?" The taller android looked up at the call for a second before looking amongst the downed martial artists. His short-range power readers listed off their energies as he looked at them. When he was convinced that none of them were in any danger of dying from their injuries, he rose smoothly into the air to rejoin his two compatriots. "You alright big guy?"
"Yes. I do not like to fight or cause harm. I much rather prefer peace." The blond and brunette looked at him in confusion.
"Peace? With all the power you have? You might even be stronger than Eighteen and me. You could rule the whole world and no one would be able to stop you!" Seventeen exclaimed disbelievingly.
"Ruling the world would not bring me happiness. Why cause so much pain when I can instead help to protect and create? Is that not a better use of your power?" The sudden insightfulness from the otherwise mute android left the other two flummoxed. At first they wanted to argue the point, but they soon forgot their reasoning and opted to move past the issue.
"Let's go," Eighteen announced, turning to fly off in the first direction she chose, but a sudden voice halted them in place.
"Wait!" Krillin was hovering a bit away, battered and breathing hard, it was a wonder that he even managed to stay aloft. But he remained steady as he looked imploringly at the androids. "You don't have to kill Goku."
"Hey, it's what Big Red here needs to do and we're just going to help him out. Besides, why shouldn't we kill him?" Seventeen shot back, hands on his hips.
"Dr. Gero was evil to the core and his cause was monstrous. But something tells me that you guys aren't like that. You have a chance to be good and escape from his mad plans." He looked straight into Sixteen's eyes, completely ignoring the fact that they had been fighting just a few moments before. "Please. You said that you were sorry for hurting us. Why will you still try and kill him when you are so peaceful?"
Sixteen looked back at him in silence for several seconds. In the pause, a sadness seemed to settle on him and, if he were human, he probably would have heaved a sigh.
"My only purpose to exist is to kill Son Goku. If I do that, then I will be free to repent for my actions and spend the rest of my time helping people. I will always have the guilt of taking a just life, but I must still do it."
Seventeen and Eighteen were quiet after the confession, looking at each other with questioning eyes. Sixteen and Krillin had managed to shake their understanding of the world in just a few short sentences. Now, they were unsure of what they truly wanted to do. But the mission to kill Goku was still their priority and they rallied behind that constant factor.
"Let's go Sixteen," Seventeen barked before taking off at a normal speed into the horizon. Sixteen paid the fighters he left on the ground one last look before following the pistol wielding boy. Eighteen, however, lingered for a few moments longer, hovering a little closer towards Krillin so as to speak at a lower volume.
"What you said before, about thinking we weren't as evil as Gero; how could you possibly know?" She made her words harsher than she felt, determined to force the tallish dwarf away. But he remained where he was, physically and emotionally. Looking at her with tired eyes, he smiled warmly and somewhat goofily.
"You saved my life back there. Not to mention you want to have your own family. How could you be the bad guy?" She stared at him for a moment before giving him a smirk in return and placing a hand against his non-bleeding cheek.
"You're so naïve and stupid…but that almost looks cute on you." Leaving him there with a heart fluttering madly, the female android rejoined her brothers as they flew across the land, soon exiting his range of vision. Placing a hand against the same cheek, he sighed dreamily, ingraining the feel of her slender and delicate fingers against his skin deeply into his memory.
His happy reverie was brought to a screaming halt when his ki sense unexpectedly picked up Goku's power far off, fluctuating wildly and uncontrollably. But this wasn't like any kind of transformation; it was closer to what Gohan felt like when his emotions ran rampant. Trying to find the cause of the disturbance, the shaved fighter didn't detect any anomalies on the planet. If anything, there seemed to be less power to feel than befo-….
Realization made him open his mouth in horror and anguish. He knew more than felt that Vegeta had perished, leaving the world of the living for good. It was as grievous a blow as if Krillin had been dealt the mortal wound himself, losing a friend always was.
Seeing no other alternative, he reluctantly sank back to earth, preparing himself to tell the others what had happened. Today was turning into an unending nightmare with everything going from bad to worse. And yet…he somehow had the feeling that things were far from over, the worst was yet to come.
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Goku blazed across the sky, a blinding streak of gold that split the blue heavens like a sword stroke. His eyes were screwed shut and his flight was unguided as his emotions fueled him, forcing him onward as his body screamed in protest. Words were half-formed in his mind, but he pushed them back as far as they would go, refusing to face them.
Appearing with a jolt next to a terrified 'good' Launch on a public beach, Goku staggered for a second, the pain from his wounds catching up with him. He had taken his senzu bean back after they had destroyed Nineteen and Bulma still had the rest. The rest of the Z-Fighters would need some more as well, so he cast his senses out to find his oldest friend.
Thousands of people looked up in alarm as the super saiyan flew by overhead, only just catching the aftershocks as he was moving too fast for even radars or machines to catch a glimpse.
It took a few extra seconds, what with his pain clouded mind, but he eventually located the blue haired heiress' energy signature. To his surprise, he could feel that her inner balance was askew, something that only happened with either poor training or extreme circumstance.
Tears freely flowed from his eyes, just as quickly snatched away by the wind. His world was a watery blur, but that was no better than what was to be seen if unhindered. The peaceful saiyan needed to blind himself, blind himself from the truth that would destroy him if he faced it.
There was Gohan as well, likewise unbalanced. But he had taken Vegeta to Bulma for aid; so why couldn't Goku feel the Prince's power anywhere-
The pure gold of his aura became brighter and brighter, eventually rivaling the sun in sheer brilliance. But the vibrancy was a lie, a false beacon of light that betrayed the severity of his anguish. Despite being a form created and driven by emotion, Super Saiyan no longer held the appeal it once had, when the pain was physical and the fights were determined by strength.
"No, oh no," he sank to his knees, head clutched in his hands. He tried to will away the guilt, the fear. Unsure, Launch laid a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort his unseen grief while the other people around stared in open confusion. But Goku didn't feel her touch at all. It wasn't even remotely registered through the screaming in his ears.
If it hadn't been for the gravitational pull of the planet, Goku might very well have blasted straight into space in his mad flight. His power would have sustained him until he had passed far beyond the boundaries of the solar system. It wasn't suicide he wanted to achieve, but rather atonement.
"RRRAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"
The roar of undiluted pain and anger escaped the saiyan's throat like a blood seeking beast, painfully clawing its way free from the confines of mortal flesh. Launch was thrown back by the sudden force, as was everyone else in a fifty foot radius and the sand all across the beach, leaving a shore of stone and soil in its place.
Without a word beyond his scream, the saiyan from Earth rocketed into the sky, almost instantly being lost in the sunny sky.
For someone who had devoted his life to protecting everyone he possibly could, the blow of losing a friend and ally because of his own actions was unbearable to Goku, poisoning his thoughts with self-doubt and guilt. It had truly been all his fault.
After an undeterminable space of time, Goku's dregs of power at last ran dry and he was left drained in the air, nearly passing out on the spot. Instead, he watched as the ground rose up to greet him, his body limp and unable to break his fall, not that he particularly wanted to. It seemed the least he could do to share in the saiyan prince's pain in those last few minutes.
But before his deluded sense of punishment could come to completion, a figure blurred into place beneath him, catching him soundly in strong arms. Opening bleary and bloodshot eyes, Goku looked up into the concerned face of Tien, all three eyes measuring him up and down to see if he was likely to do anything else that was self-destructive.
"What's gotten into you Goku?" the former assassin asked angrily, his concern melting away when he saw that his friend wasn't hurt. "Why would you go and do something as stupid as that?"
"He's dead because of me Tien. Vegeta's dead and we can't wish him back." His head drooped again, feeling uncharacteristically heavy and aching after his exertions. His natural cheer and optimism had been snuffed out like a candle in the darkness, leaving him without defense of all the dark emotions he was experiencing.
"Yes, Vegeta's dead and he died naturally so the dragon balls can't wish him back. But in no way are you responsible Goku!" He gave the alien a shake to make him look back up at him. "You knew that you'd get the disease and taking the antidote was the only course of action you could have taken. Not even you couldn't have known what was going to happen."
Goku just shook his head meekly, unwilling to budge on the matter. The guilt was his and he knew it. Nothing anyone could say would sway him on that.
"And right now, we need you Goku. So pull yourself together and use Instant Transmission to get us to Korin's; the rest of the guys are there."
Goku looked back at him listlessly, still being held at arm's length so he didn't just fall again. Seemingly managing to gather himself, he nodded, once, and placed two fingers against his forehead. They were then in the open walled main chamber of Korin's tower, absolutely nothing in between their transition. The battered and exhausted members of the Z-Fighters were scattered around the crescent shaped room, most sitting on various pieces of furniture that were definitely designed to be used as chairs.
"Piccolo's gone," Trunks said as they appeared, unaffected by the instantaneous materialization due simply to emotional depletion. He wanted to make his way to Capsule Corp as fast as he could to be there for the alternate version of his mother, but even he knew that deciding their next step against the androids took precedence, or else there might not be anything to return to.
"What? Where could he possibly go at a time like this?" Tien was somewhere between outraged and terrified at the news, though he hid behind blustered up annoyance, a trick he had begrudgingly learned from the fallen Prince.
"To see Kami," Krillin supplied helpfully. He was laying down against the railing that kept people from walking right off of the edge and into a five mile drop. He had been lost in thought since he told them the news on Vegeta and this was the first time he had spoken since. Whatever was running through his head must have been something truly mind-boggling for him to be so composed right then; or else he was just trying to calm everyone else by appearing calm himself, but that wasn't too likely. "He didn't say so, but I'm sure he means to refuse into one being and become loads more powerful. Possibly even on level with a super saiyan."
"That would be a great help right now," Korin spoke up from the stairwell, previously unnoticed by the two newcomers because of the angle, "but it will mean the end of the dragon balls."
That really got everyone's attention. Without the wish granting dragon balls, any death would be as permanent as Vegeta's. It was a shot in the arm for their view on their mortality that not even knowledge of the balls on New Namek could shake. They had a lot to be unsure of in these tumultuous days where anything was likely to happen.
"Well," Yamcha said slowly, looking at his hands in contemplation, "there isn't much point anymore." They looked at him inquiringly, so he tried to explain. "The dragon balls, I mean. If Piccolo doesn't fuse then we have even less of a chance at beating the androids, and if he doesn't then he'll probably be killed and we'll lose the dragon balls anyway. This is the lesser of two evils."
Sage advice from the usually shallow man was even further proof that things were extremely unbalanced.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Goku asked the group at large, rubbing his face in an attempt to alleviate the tiredness that was eating away at his functioning abilities. They all looked at him, and then each other, receiving no answer either way. They had absolutely no idea what they could do, what with opponents who couldn't be detected at all and inadequate levels of strength amongst the Earth's defenders, one of whom had now passed away.
Their uncomfortable silence lasted for several minutes until the son of Goku arrived with a burst of ki, landing from his flight on the cobbled floor of the tower. His eyes were as bloodshot as his father's, but the unmistakable saiyan fire was burning behind the obsidian irises instead of despair.
"Why are you all just mopping around?" he asked bitingly, shocking them with the venom in his voice. He was usually polite and cheerful, and this harshened version was…alarming. "Now is the worst time to be feeling sorry for yourselves." Despite not being part of the conversation, he somehow knew exactly what they had discussed and realized.
"Gohan," Trunks started, rising to his feet with reluctant muscles. The senzu beans Korin still had had helped but emotional hurts were untouchable by the magical food. "I came from a future with these kinds of odds, and I am the only surviving Z-Fighter. We may have years or we may have hours until the androids kill us. I don't have any more ideas how to stop them. My mother and I thought warning all of you ahead of time would be enough, but the androids are even stronger than the ones I know and crushed all of us at once. There's even one more of them."
Gohan hadn't known that fact and asked what was meant by that. Trunks told him about Sixteen and the incredible power he had displayed while decimating the warriors. Instead of being horrified to learn of yet another threat, the other half-saiyan was instead emboldened further by the news.
"Well now we have a level to work towards instead of general training. If we can overtake Sixteen then the other two won't stand a chance."
"You wouldn't feel so optimistic if you had seen just how easy it was for him," Goku countered. The negativity was as uncharacteristic as Gohan's drive and was equally as alarming to the others. "Two super saiyans and four others with Kaioken at once and he was barely even bothered. How could we possibly hope to match that?"
"You've never given before, and you always found a way to beat the bad guys!" Gohan protested, fists clenching at his side. "Why can't you do that now? Why are you so hopeless?"
"Because…I'm not the one that should be protecting anyone." Goku turned and faced into the empty sky but his words were easily heard. "I just can't…anymore."
"But…" Gohan tried to argue, but the fire he had adopted was abandoning him, leaving him cold with his father's depression, something no child should ever have to feel. With the last vestiges of resilience gone, the Z-Fighters once more sank into fear and despair.
"We should probably go to Kame House," Krillin suggested, and even though no one said anything, he explained why. "From there we can get to pretty much anywhere on the planet quickly and it's unlikely that the androids will be able to sneak up on us there."
With absolutely silent acknowledgment, the others got up and took to flight towards the energy signature of Master Roshi and Oolong. Korin said nothing as he watched them depart, only wondering just where the smiling boy he had once trained had gone-leaving only the shell of a great man.
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The expenditure of light subsided and Mr. Popo lowered his arms to view the merged namekian. To his disappointment, there wasn't a trace of Kami in the physical appearance; in fact, he looked exactly the same as before, maybe an inch or two taller at most.
But it was the energy now coursing around the namekian like a living being that truly exemplified the terrific change made by the spiritual transference. The density and complexity of the unseen aura was greater even than the fighting gold of a super saiyan, making everyone else seem like a normal earthling in comparison. It wasn't malevolent, or overbearing, or even aggressive in any way: the spiritual energy was as calm as a still ocean, and just as vast. It was exactly how Popo had always imagined the presence of a god should feel, and to now be standing just a few feet away from it…
The namekian looked down at his hands without any emotion on his regal face. To him, he wasn't sure of how he should be feeling at a time like this. On one hand, he was now a complete being, no longer separated in a dark and light half. But he was also uncertain about the state of his psyche: Piccolo had indeed remained the dominant soul, but the existence of both Kami and Nail drastically changed him; so was he still Piccolo, or someone else entirely?
"Who I was when first I landed on this planet as a child…" He gazed softly on the land below them, feeling fonder of it than ever before "is lost to the annals of time. I am the summation of Piccolo, Kami and Nail, so in essence I am all three, but yet singular. But my mind is becoming clearer by the second and I realize that I am not so changed as I thought: Piccolo was my heart, Kami my soul and Nail my will." He looked back at Popo with a very familiar grin and rugged determination showing clearly. "But I am still Piccolo, I realize now. My eyes have been opened and it took some getting used to for what I saw."
He walked to the edge of the Lookout and looked down towards where he could feel miniscule power levels rapidly vanishing. He now knew what it was that Kami had felt from up here, and it was now understandable why he had been unnerved by it.
Without farewell, he lifted off and flew in a nosedive towards the ground, angling upwards before too long and homing in on the anomalous happenings. His strength was hard to gauge, but he felt like he could handle what was to come; and after that, with hope and luck, the androids as well.
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AN: …so, who wants to argue with me?
I imagine a lot of you aren't going to like what I've done here, or how I portrayed some of the guys. That is understandable. But I don't want your whiny comments on this. Just don't. If you would care to let me explain, I shall do so, though some of it might take me longer to tell through the story. I will persist.
For now, I might as well address the fact that Goku is actually depressed despite how out of character this is for him. Simply put, imagine how you would feel if a close friend of yours died due directly to something you did. It is a pretty awful feeling and can drastically affect anyone. Compound onto this that Goku has never before had this happen to him. He usually saves someone before it's too late, or otherwise was 100% unable to stop the death from happening, like with Krillin on Namek or the others that fought against Nappa and the saibamen. He's never dealt with that kind of guilt before and it is extremely devastating to him for just that reason.
But we will have to see how this affects the rest of the story, as well as the fact that Vegeta, Prince of all Saiyans, has died permanently due to the heart virus and was denied his body in Otherworld. This is a point that everything will hinge upon from this point forward, and nobody will be unaffected by it.
So, until next time: keep the hope alive, and never betray your own beliefs.
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