"Hrnngh. How disappointing."
A short, wrinkled, somewhat frog-like humanoid in orange robes sat perched over a crystal ball in the center of an ancient, yet still perfectly functional spaceship, observing the activities of Hell with annoyance and curiosity piqued in equal measure. Entering the chamber behind him was a much, much taller figure dressed all in blue with his chest exposed, and who had a rather striking appearance through his bat-like ears, his small yet notable horns, and his long, sinister goatee.
"What is it, my lord?" he asked, causing the shorter man to groan.
"That 'Jamba' fellow I'd been keeping my eye on, he was sealed away somehow," he said in a frustrated tone of voice, much like how one would comment on their favorite sports team losing. The taller man scoffed, having heard about the person his master was talking about every so often.
"That plan of his was half-cocked and you know it," he retorted angrily, a hint of jealousy in his voice. How dare his master devote such attention towards some weakling's feeble attempts to accomplish their goal when he had served him loyally for eons! "He wouldn't have had any idea how to kill Shin if you hadn't pointed him in the right direction," he added, causing the sorcerer to chuckle at his minion's pettiness as he debated the merits of his argument.
It was true that he had perhaps given this dark horse of his a bit of a mental nudge to seek out Zuno after decades of stagnation, but that was hardly cheating. All he could do at such a great distance was subtly influence each link in the chain of command such that they thought it was worth investigating, from those two Frieza Force scouts who had the bright idea of checking it out all the way up to Jamba and King Cold himself. What Jamba chose to do with that information, as well as what Jamba chose to do to the source of that information, was all on him, rather unfortunately for Zuno, and quite fortunately for the sorcerer. After all, that vindictiveness of his, that ruthlessness of his, traits which Jamba had developed over so many decades of directionless grief and rage, it all proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that, for how insufferably self-righteous he was...he was still more than evil enough to be slotted right into the sorcerer's plans, whether he was willing or not.
Frankly, it was more fun if he wasn't, as far as the sorcerer was concerned.
"Oh, so I slipped a card into the deck when no one was looking, who cares?" he replied dismissively. "You must admit, it was rather amusing when he figured out how to torture Zuno, wasn't it?" he asked, to which the devil-man had to let out a slight chuckle. His master had a point.
"It was a little amusing, yes," he conceded. His master howled out a laugh in agreement.
"It certainly brought back some old memories, that's for sure!" he said in between fits of giggling, remembering back to his first true feat of magic all those millennia ago. Introducing a caveat wherein Zuno couldn't know anything about himself or his "father" had been fun on its own, since it meant that he never did remember their little visits once they had left his line of sight. However, once the sorcerer had figured out that the curse he had laid could make Zuno ramble on endlessly about utter inanity until his throat ran drier than the driest desert in the universe, that was when he could safely say those visits were the most fun he had ever had in his entire life. Nothing since had ever amused him in quite the same way, but then again...that just proved how few opportunities he had been given to have any fun in all of these years of hiding.
He really hadn't lived much of a life at all, had he?
No, because of "the" Supreme Kai, because of Shin, he had to be "careful," "cautious," and "quiet," lest they tip someone important off to their activities and get them both killed before they could amass the unfathomable power needed to unleash the Beast from its slumber. "Careful," "cautious," and "quiet," gah! Those were nothing more than insufferable words meant for the most insufferable fools of the universe, fools who lacked the knowledge of how to bend people, bend worlds, bend reality to their whims! Fools who lacked the power to do whatever they could imagine, with no gods and no masters to tell them otherwise! Men like him had no need for such pathetic, pitiful, meaningless words, or at least...that was what his "father" had believed.
His sire had nearly realized their vision of such a universe: two Supreme Kais absorbed and buried, the other two dead and gone, all of them powerless before the might of the Beast which his father had made into a living weapon that even gods feared! With The Destroyer caught napping for that entire century, all that had been left in their way was Shin, the East Supreme Kai. He couldn't help but groan at the thought of him. That doe-eyed, pathetic newbie had been nothing compared to his comrades, and they both knew it. Why else would he flee and hide until the Beast went into another hibernation, until his father was left vulnerable, just so Shin could spring out from the shadows and gut him without warning, like the sniveling coward he really was?!
The sorcerer took a deep breath to calm himself down. It wasn't worth it to get worked up like this, not yet. When he had that immortal brat at his mercy, the Beast's elastic arm wrapped securely around his throat to crush his windpipe like a chicken's, that was when he could belittle the last link in reality's most suffocating chain. That was when he would finally have his satisfaction, that is when he would finally fulfill his purpose, that is when he would finally fulfill his father's dream of a universe so wonderfully chaotic and delightfully free.
In short...that is when he would have a life worth living.
But for now, there were bigger things to worry about. Like how Jamba's inconvenient run-in with the business end of some old man's backwoods sealing technique had cost him a valuable pawn which, had everything gone according to plan, would have given him enough energy to finish what his father started before the end of the year. The predicament weighed on the sorcerer's mind for a moment as he contemplated what to do next. Continuing as they had been was the easiest plan, but with how "careful" and "cautious" they had to be over the centuries to avoid Shin's notice, they had only gathered perhaps 5% of the energy needed to revive the Beast from his slumber. Although this old human he had seen suggested that Earth was now home to remarkably powerful warriors, the sorcerer doubted that even draining the entire planet dry would give them enough energy to get the ball rolling, in a somewhat literal sense. On the other hand, while it would be a tremendous hassle to get Jamba out of Hell and bring him under his power...his right hand might be able to arrange such a thing, provided he was willing to count on the loyalty of demons.
Well, that, and certain other minions which Jamba's misadventure had left waiting for him.
"Dabura, I want you to go back to that wretched hive I pulled you out of and rally your forces to plan an assault on Other World. You are to cause as much destruction as you possibly can and bring Jamba to me alive before his farce of a trial reaches a verdict. Between their arrogance and the sluggish speed of their bureaucracy at the best of times, I would assume that the gods will deign to address the matter in...five? Should I call it five? Yes, five! Five years, more or less. Should be plenty of time to plan out an invasion...although, then again, demons don't really do planning, do they? Otherwise, why would you have pledged yourself to me? Hehehehe..." With his orders thus issued, Babidi clapped his hands together, expecting Dabura to comply immediately, only to be somewhat annoyed at the demon lord's evident reluctance to leave without asking one question.
"My lord, are you certain that we could accomplish such a thing - attacking the gates of Other World itself - without alerting them to your existence?" he asked reasonably, but Babidi had no interest in being questioned. His magic was supposed to take care of such pesky things as "free will" or "the ability to question orders," and yet, little moments like this happened anyway. It was really quite annoying, but alas, when you were the clone of a mighty sorcerer bent on nothing less than unraveling the order of the universe, you couldn't really get a better minion than "the king of the Demon Realm." Babidi supposed he had to make do with a little backtalk now and then.
"What I'm certain of is that, yes, it will attract a lot of attention from our good friends upstairs, but by the time they put together who and what I am, we'll have the triclops in our hands along with all the power we need to wake the Beast from its slumber. And yes, many of your fellows will likely die in the attempt, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make!" The sorcerer said this last part with a gleeful lilt to his voice that angered Dabura greatly. Although Dabura bristled at his concerns, and indeed his entire realm, being dismissed so casually by the diminutive little frog, he grumbled and held his tongue. He couldn't speak too far out of turn even if he wanted to: his master would tolerate no disobedience, and those who bore his mark upon their souls could never muster the nerve, no matter their strength of body or their strength of will. As long as there was evil to be found in the hearts of his minions, the ancient cast-off wizard could do whatever he liked to them.
Such was the power of Babidi, so much like his "father" before him.
"Understood," Dabura said instead, simply and curtly, moving to cross his arms into an upside-down cross and conduct the infernal ritual to return to the Demon Realm before pausing again, against his better judgment. "May I ask if you plan to lend your aid to us, my lord?" he asked with just the slightest hint of trepidation, only amusing Babidi further.
"Oh, worry not, Dabura. Jamba's failed venture has given me a little idea on that front. Rest assured that you and your forces will be well taken care of," he replied, happily waving the demon king off as he disappeared with a huff and a puff of sulfur, leaving the burn marks of his infernal portal behind. With no one else at the helm but him, Babidi waved a hand and shifted the crystal ball to where it was instead scrying upon Planet Quinoa, which his ship telepathically informed him would take only a week to get to if he made use of its full capabilities. He shrugged in response to the delay: the corpses were likely to still be usable by that point, albeit somewhat rotted due to their exposure to the open air, and in any case, he was far too eager to test the limits of his abilities in this exciting new way. "Let us see just what a little touch of necromancy can do for us, hm?" he said to himself with a wicked grin. Something in his spirit demanded an audience to bear witness to the fruits of his genius, even when he was the only one who particularly cared to hear him talk.
It was the sort of thing which may well get him into trouble, someday...but not today.
Paying no mind to any potential pitfalls of this new addendum, Babidi went ahead and muttered his trademark arcane words as he opened a portal large enough to envelop his ship entirely. Some would call his words of power goofy, but those that did say such things would die mere seconds later, so for as "silly" as his magic might have been, one had to admit that it got the job done. And now, assuming that he could indeed accomplish what he was planning to do on a planet-wide scale, those same words of power would give him an army of the dead more powerful than any force which the living could muster against him, no matter how mighty an individual warrior like that old man might have been. And as for the beings of Other World, ha! Those snobby little bureaucrats didn't stand a chance against his arcane power, especially with an army of dead Jambas which would keep fighting until they could no longer move at all. There were only three individuals who truly had the power to put an end to his ambitions, and of those three, one was still sleeping, one would soon be powerless before the might of the Beast, and the last...heh. He knew Babidi still lived. He just assumed that Babidi was, like all things, beneath him.
Babidi grinned. That would be the last mistake that foolish Angel ever made.
With this thought driving the completion of his mighty spell, the portal wrapped around the ship and sent it off at speeds faster than any normal ship could reach by traveling with its engines alone. In its wake, the area of space which the ship had once occupied rippled like waves on a still pond before settling back down as though nothing had ever been there to begin with. It was through tactics such as this that Babidi had kept his activities a secret from all but the all-seeing Angel himself, and it would be many years yet before anyone else caught on to what he was planning.
By that point, it may well be far too late.
"Yeesh. Sounds like you guys had your hands full up there. Are you sure everything's alright now?"
As Goku's mind was largely preoccupied with talking to King Kai as he often did, his body continued going through the motions of the basic warm-up exercises which he was trying to impart to the women who had become his first students. Fortunately, although it was impossible for him not to appear a little more vacant than he had been while focused on his telepathic conversation, Chiaotzu was more than willing to do his part as assistant instructor and keep everybody on track. King Kai, meanwhile, could see that his star pupil was busy, so he'd endeavored to keep things brief.
"About as sure as I can be, really," King Kai replied honestly. "Your master has been healed, but not for the first time, unfortunately: he's really been pushing himself to his limits lately. He'll be staying in Other World for now: I've arranged to have him provided with the best care which we can offer to the living until he has recovered fully. I'm hopeful that Lord Kibito will get back to me with the decision of his superiors by the time Roshi wakes up, but honestly, who knows how long that will take?" With this explanation, Goku paused, a thought occurring to him as he stared into the middle distance.
"You said Master Roshi wished to have Jamba stand trial," Goku said, more of a statement than a question. "Do you really think the other gods up there will go along with that on your say-so?" he asked plainly, and he could practically see the sweat dripping down King Kai's face at the question even over their telepathic link. Still, after taking a moment to clear his throat, King Kai answered honestly.
"I don't know," he replied. "You've seen what King Yemma's line is like: we govern the universe as best we can, judge souls as quickly as possible, and everything still moves at a glacial pace. A trial like this is unprecedented precisely because of how long it would take to arrange. Even if I could get my fellows to agree, any proposal which we ended up drafting would still need to be approved by my superiors, who would insist on addressing this unprecedented situation personally, and working out a time that all three of them could be present for...it would take years." Goku's face fell at that, even though he had honestly expected an answer like that.
"Well, if you do manage to get all of that set up, give me a call. I know I didn't spend a lot of time with Jamba in the grand scheme of things, but I spent enough that I'd like to hear the whole truth from him before it's too late, even if it means I gotta pop back up to heaven for a day," Goku remarked in his typical laid-back manner. King Kai chuckled in his head, knowing that Goku would probably get his chance if he did indeed manage to fulfill Roshi's silent wish.
"Rest assured, if we can manage it, you'll definitely be summoned: in fact, you and Roshi might be the only witnesses that the defense will have to work with at this rate," King Kai remarked dryly, but something about what Goku had said made him think about something he had briefly discussed with Kibito before the man finally left his planet to return to the Sacred World of the Kai, promising only that he would have a talk with the Supreme Kai which was long overdue, and that this proposal would be part of it. It wasn't much more likely to happen than Jamba's trial...but recent events had put King Kai into something of an introspective mood, a mood which caused him to actually think about some of the policies which he had followed without question for so long. Thinking about it now, with how much it figured into King Vegeta's plans and how important it could potentially be to Goku, Gohan, and the future Vegeta...King Kai figured that the least he could do was let them in on it, just a little bit.
They deserved to know that they weren't alone in the universe.
"Goku...how much do you know about the history of your people?" King Kai began hesitantly, giving Goku pause at the shift in tone, for a certain definition of the word. He idly scratched his chin.
"Let's see...we came from a planet called Planet Vegeta...we were absorbed into the Frieza Force to take over planets for them...and then Frieza blew up Planet Vegeta because he heard about the legend of the Super Saiyan," Goku answered, somewhat surprised that he remembered most of Raditz's lecture, supplemented by what Frieza himself had told him on Namek. King Kai hemmed and hawed for a moment, leaving Goku a bit confused. "Wait, that's all right, isn't it? Is there something I forgot?"
"No, no, that's all correct, it's just...missing a chapter that you were never taught," King Kai answered cryptically. "A chapter that isn't quite as open and shut as your people assumed," he added with considerably more hesitation, but before Goku could request elaboration, he felt a telepathic tug from Chiaotzu. He had drifted to the point that everyone else had noticed, putting the lesson on pause for just a few seconds longer than Goku really would have liked.
"Ah! Um, sorry, everyone, I'm just-"
"Talking to King Kai. Figures," Chi Chi said, putting a hand on her hips with a dry expression on her face as she regarded Goku and Goku regarded her. He hadn't really thought much of it before, but now that his focus was back on the class and on his wife in particular, he couldn't help but notice that, where Launch had kept to her usual "Blonde" attire regardless of form and Maron had kept wearing black sports bras and camo shorts, Chi Chi had opted to break out the blue cheongsam she had worn for the 23rd Budokai. Needless to say, Maron was most definitely a fan of the change, and while certain aspects of that choice weren't exactly on Goku's radar...it made him happy to see her wearing it again. It felt good to see his wife truly embracing that fiery spirit that had drawn him to her a little bit more each day since they had randomly fallen back into each others' lives and slowly but surely fallen in love.
Judging by the way she looked away from him in embarrassment, Goku could guess that Chi Chi was thinking about these things too.
"Goku? Are you still there?" King Kai asked, mostly for the sake of politeness.
"Mhm!" he said a little too quickly, and out loud, at that. He could feel King Kai's dry amusement through the telepathic link, leaving him in a rare moment of embarrassment.
"I can see that I've distracted you from your training," he said in a similar manner, causing Goku to chuckle sheepishly in an attempt to brush off the awkwardness of the situation. "I've said all I can for the moment, unfortunately, so I'll go ahead and let you go. Just, ah...see if you can visit Vegeta at some point. He can fill in the missing pieces just as well as I can, and if you happen to figure out the secret anyway, well, it wasn't like I spelled it out too clearly for you, did I?" At this rhetorical question, Goku chuckled more earnestly.
"Gotcha. Thanks, King Kai, for everything," he added warmly, and he knew that he'd made the old god smile for the first time in a while. Goku truly was one of a kind, even from his perspective.
"Of course. You take care of yourself, and good luck! I'm sure your students are coming along just fine!" King Kai said before signing off, as it were, leaving Goku to pause as he briefly assessed his new pupils at this still-nascent stage in their training.
From what Goku could tell, Chi Chi was far and away the fastest learner among them, which made sense considering her years of combat training under the Ox King's care. She may have still been lagging a bit when it came to the finer points of ki manipulation, but hey, it had only been a week, and Goku was humble enough to admit that it was hard for him to explain such things to someone who wasn't already at his level. Even so, Maron was likewise proving to be a quick study under Goku's improvised tutelage, with her hours upon hours of studying previous World Tournaments giving her an intuitive understanding of martial arts techniques which left even Goku impressed, and that was saying something with his track record. Of course, Blonde and Blue Launch didn't quite have the same degree of prior experience: living with Roshi for so long had done them no favors in that department. Still, Blue Launch at least was learning fast when it came to the theoretical principles of Goku's training, while Blonde Launch proved to be more unpredictable as a result of her rough-and-tumble background. All in all, a very promising class.
"GRAAAGH!"
Well, with the exception of his youngest student. For the moment, anyway.
Gohan's petulant cry of youthful fury drew everyone's attention deeper into the woods, where Chi Chi had instructed Gohan to do his studying during their training, and where Goku had instructed him to work on training his tail. Goku could appreciate Gohan's frustration - to train his tail the way Goku had done as a boy required that one willingly squeeze it for minutes or even hours at a time in order to build a tolerance to it. To make it easier, Goku had suggested that he simply use a rock to apply the necessary pressure as he did the reading Chi Chi asked of him, but evidently, the disorientation and nausea which resulted even from this milder approach had finally gotten to be too much for the poor kid to bear. After a quick glance back and forth between husband and wife, Goku nodded in confirmation that he would take care of it.
This was a uniquely Saiyan problem, after all. Who else was there to walk him through it?
With Chiaotzu taking the reins in Goku's stead to make sure that the lesson kept going in his absence, Goku drifted off at a reasonable speed towards the clearing where Gohan was told to train. There, he found what he had expected to find: a kid who had been absolutely pushed to his limits over days of training which had gotten him nowhere, a rock which had been shattered into pieces using only his tail, and a textbook which had been thrown clear across the clearing from the force of his kiai. The temper of a child was tricky enough to deal with under normal circumstances, but dealing with the temper of a Saiyan hybrid, not to mention one of the strongest beings in the universe on top of that? This may very well become nothing less than the biggest challenge which Goku had to face since he came back from the brink of death on Planet Chilled.
And for Goku of all people? That was saying something.
"Heyyy, buddy," he began a little hesitantly, still getting the hang of how to be there for a kid who'd had to grow up way too quickly. Gohan turned to him with the hair on his arms and the back of his neck standing on end, pointed almost like harmless quills, which was definitely not a good sign. Goku knew intellectually that Gohan wasn't able to transform into his version of the Oozaru form without some kind of external factor to set it off, be it a moon of some kind or his Lunar Flare technique. Still, that didn't make it any less surprising to see these minor aspects of the Oozaru transformation show up whenever he was mad. A part of Goku found himself worried at the sight of Gohan in this slightly-transformed state, while another part of him couldn't help but think about the possibilities this suggested with a little bit of his usual excitement. Gohan had already done the impossible by refining the Oozaru transformation, but had his training given him the capacity to one day shift back and forth at will, or even do so without needing his tail at all? Was it possible for any Saiyan to master the Oozaru form the way Gohan had, or was his ability to master it owed in part to his unique hybrid physiology? Could he end up one day combining the Super Saiyan state and the Oozaru transformation to magnify his power even further, to the point where he could truly eclipse his father for good? And for that matter, if all of these hypotheses which Goku's mind formed in mere seconds were correct...could he end up doing the same?
Gohan growled, and Goku blinked, cursing himself silently. He had gotten distracted again.
"Sounds like we maybe ought to take a break-" he suggested gently, only to be cut off.
"AGH, I hate this!" Gohan complained, flopping backwards and tossing a pebble in Goku's general direction which shattered against a much larger rock. Goku sighed and put on a patient smile for Gohan's benefit, slowly drifting over to where he could sit down next to him.
"I know how you must be feeling," Goku said consolingly. "It isn't easy to train your tail, but if you're gonna get the most out of that new form of yours, you're gonna have to-"
"It's not just that, I'm just-!" Gohan interrupted again before taking a breath, endeavoring to steady himself the way Master Roshi taught him to. "I'm sick of being sidelined," he muttered, which left Goku a little puzzled before Gohan explained, seeing the question in his father's eyes. "It's not like I'm itching to go into battle or anything, not the way you must be, but...even though so little time has passed, it still feels like I've been preparing to fight for my entire life," he clarified with a volatile mix of emotions in his voice. "Ever since Raditz came, everyone's been wanting me to grow stronger, to learn how to harness my power to the fullest extent, all because of a potential that I...I never really wanted in the first place." He said this last part with noticeable reluctance, knowing that it still pained Goku to be reminded of how much Gohan hadn't wanted anything to do with the kind of action-packed life he and the others lived, even knowing that he would support him no matter what, just like he was doing now. "And now I feel like I've finally done that, finally gotten to the point where I can actually make a difference, except-!"
"Nobody wants you to fight anymore," Goku finished for him, to which Gohan nodded.
"And like, I understand why better than anybody!" he said, his frustration evident. "I know that it's better for me to stay here, better for me to settle back into my routine instead of risking my life fighting a battle I really don't need to be in! I shouldn't be having such a problem with that! I don't know why I can't just suck it up and do my homework and train my tail like you asked me to, but something about being powerless both literally and metaphorically, day in and day out, it's all just-too much! It's too much for me to deal with right now!" he snapped, slamming the ground and cracking it just a little before attempting to steady himself again. Goku sighed more deeply this time, knowing that there wasn't a lot he could do to help and knowing that he had to try something anyway, yet finding himself at a loss.
It was obvious to everybody involved how bad an idea it would be to send Gohan out into space with the others, especially if there was any chance of him running afoul of King Vegeta. It was likewise obvious to Goku that it would take months, maybe even years for Gohan to train his tail to the extent that Goku had done when he was a boy, and it was obvious to Future Vegeta that until he did, his new transformation would continue to be riddled with weaknesses despite all of his efforts, weaknesses which King Vegeta and any Saiyans he somehow managed to find would be able to exploit in order to swiftly turn the tide of battles which he would otherwise win...or perhaps worse. Goku may have found himself surprisingly content with sitting on the bench after dying and running on all cylinders for over a year, but Gohan clearly wasn't. He just couldn't think of another way to prove that he was ready to use his new form in combat without making sure his tail didn't-
"Wait a second," he said aloud before grinning and bringing his fist to his palm. "I've got an idea," he added, speaking with his usual eagerness and leaving Gohan interested, if nothing else.
"What kind of idea?" he asked as Goku gestured for him to stand up straight, then went to work preparing Gohan for the first try at a potential new training regimen.
"Something I never really thought about doing until Vegeta came along," Goku replied, taking Gohan's tail and wrapping it around his waist like a belt. Immediately, Gohan started to get the idea, but he was still caught off guard when Goku suddenly powered up to Super Saiyan as soon as the tail was wrapped as securely as he could get it. By the time Gohan had gotten back up to his feet, Goku took a few deep breaths as he powered down to half of his maximum power level. "So, training your tail is absolutely the way to go, but in the meantime, you might be able to get away with just keeping it out of anybody's reach!" Goku explained, to which Gohan nodded along hurriedly.
"Okay, um, ah-Lunar Flare!" Gohan cried out, performing his signature technique and shifting into Wrath State for the first time since he got out of the Time Chamber. Goku quietly marveled at it for a moment before getting back on track.
"Alright, the way I am now, I'm a fair bit stronger than King Vegeta, and a little bit stronger than you!" he continued. "I'm gonna keep tapping into more and more of my power as we go on, so your job is to do whatever you need to do in order to keep me from getting your tail! If you can do that with me, then unless something goes super duper wrong, you should be able to handle anyone who tries to start something with you!" he added encouragingly, then shifted into a combat stance which was reminiscent of how Vegeta tended to fight: he figured he might as well try to mimic the older Saiyan's fighting style as best he could for the purposes of this exercise. "Ready?" he asked, causing Gohan to gulp nervously, momentarily unsure of himself.
Training exercise or not, this would be the first time he'd really get the opportunity to cut loose with Wrath State, and although it somewhat intrigued him, his apprehension was far greater than his scientific curiosity. His dad was the strongest man in the universe at this point, he knew that, but he still couldn't help but worry that he was just going to end up losing control in an even worse way, now that he had worked so hard to embrace his Saiyan heritage for better and for worse. On the other hand, it wasn't like he was being asked to fight so much as fight in self-defense, which was a very different ballgame in both an emotional and tactical sense. Furthermore, while it was very likely he was going to be pushed to his limits one way or the other, he'd also had a year with Master Roshi to help him get a handle on his aggression. Obviously it wasn't completely gone, but that was to be expected: he was still a kid, after all. And if there was one thing that Gohan knew, it was that even in a no-holds-barred training exercise like this...his father would never hurt him.
He had never meant to hurt him, in the end.
"Ready!" Gohan said firmly, and with that, the two took to the skies...and began what would only be the first of many clashes between father and son to come.
"Apologies, Miss Briefs, Kyle says that Son Goku just appeared in the waiting room and insisted that he absolutely had to talk to-"
The intruder, one of Bulma's more competent technicians - Harry, Future Vegeta could vaguely recall - immediately clammed up upon realizing that Future Vegeta was conscious and looking right at him as Bulma continued her work at a nearby desk, looking especially frazzled and not in the mood to be interrupted by anybody. Unsure who he was more willing to bother between his boss and what he loosely understood as the "good" version of the guy who indirectly killed half of his family for like a month, nobody could blame him for opting for the former, least of all Future Vegeta. It was just a little sobering, is all.
"Is this a bad time?" Harry asked tentatively, getting Bulma's attention at last.
"Little bit, yeah," she said, the snappiness of her tone catching Future Vegeta's attention. She almost never berated her employees, which was part of why working at Capsule Corporation was so attractive to so many - you know, aside from the fact that it paid better than just about anybody else.
"Right, sorry, I was just bringing these schematics and heard the rest on the way," Harry said, knowing that he had to get out of dodge as soon as he left the latest blueprints from Android 17 on Bulma's desk. Seeing the signature of "Lapis" at the bottom did little to improve her mood, for reasons which Future Vegeta didn't entirely understand...yet was beginning to suspect the shape of, judging by how the cyborg had gradually been spending less and less time in the lab. He couldn't say he was completely surprised, if his hunch was right, but the fact she hadn't told him about how that impulsive suggestion of his had gone...it left him more worried for her than he had been in a while.
Worried enough to do something risky as soon as they were alone again.
"Are you alright?" he asked simply, once Bulma had thanked Harry and called ahead to make sure that Goku knew to walk to the lab, but the question was still enough to startle Bulma once she was done. It was a fair response, really: he hadn't typically stayed conscious for this long. She sighed, already feeling bad about snapping at Harry and not wanting to take out her frustrations on Future Vegeta for...a number of reasons. Some of which were honestly kind of pathetic, in her opinion.
Only she would start actually falling for her future self's husband in a matter of weeks.
"No," she found herself saying bluntly, which was incredibly confusing because she had just made the decision to brush him off as nicely as she could, so where was this sudden honesty coming from, and more importantly, why wasn't she stopping herself? "He shot me down," she said next, leaving a part of her even more flummoxed at an admission she had been doing everything in her power to stifle for days at this point. Future Vegeta's expression softened at the confirmation.
"I'm sorry, I should never have-" he began, only for her to hold up a hand.
"No, you know what? I'm glad you talked me into it," she said, both parties surprised at how she was being completely sincere, and only one of them was appropriately concerned. "If you hadn't, I never would have tried it and realized that me and fricken Roshi are two sides of the same damn coin!" she claimed, catching Future Vegeta entirely off-guard. He hadn't spent much time with Roshi, but he'd spent a lot of time with the widowers of Earth's heroes in his own time, and from what they gradually grew more and more comfortable telling him over the last few decades-
"That doesn't sound right to me," he said, even as a part of him was beginning to see the shape of her logic, which Bulma was all too eager to spell out for him.
"Oh, it doesn't, huh? Okay, smart guy, think about it: what do an old-ass 'reformed' pervert and an increasingly desperate corporate heiress have in common?" she asked snarkily, leaving Future Vegeta hesitant on how exactly he was supposed to answer that. Eventually, he sighed, knowing that Bulma wouldn't be satisfied until he answered her rhetorical question with the facts as they stood.
"You both pursued people younger than you-" he began in a resigned tone, only to find himself cut off yet again as Bulma threw her hands out in front of her.
"We both pursued people younger than us!" she cried out, angry at herself to a degree which Future Vegeta had only seen in his own wife's darkest moments. "And sure, I'm not as bad as Roshi was, I know that, but-I mean, God, what did I expect?! He's twenty-four with 3 years missing in his head, and I'm past thirty and so desperate you can smell it, of course he wouldn't be interested!" she added, leaving Future Vegeta a little surprised, but no less willing to argue in Bulma's defense.
"Be that as it may, such an arrangement is not entirely seen as uncouth by your people, yes? You are both adults, after all, and perfectly capable of agreeing to such things," he reasoned, still finding himself with a lot left to learn about certain nuances of human culture and thinking that he might try to cheer her up with a comparison to a world he could now say (with difficulty) was far less civilized than even they were willing to admit. "Why, on Planet Vegeta, it wasn't uncommon for the head of a clan to take on multiple partners, some of whom could be old enough to-"
"Well, we're not on your planet, are we, prince?!" Bulma snapped, cutting Future Vegeta a bit more deeply than either of them had expected her to. Realizing that she had hurt him even when she was trying to avoid that, she brought a hand to her face as tears sprang to her eyes. "God, I'm the worst person that anyone knows," she moaned in a choked up voice, causing Future Vegeta to sit up with what little strength he could muster, finding his body fighting against the action at every step. "Ugh, stop, stop trying to comfort me, dammit!" she cried as soon as she heard his grunts of pain and realized what he was attempting to do. "I'm not your wife, Vegeta! I've made that pretty crystal clear at this point, because I know that the woman you told me about would have never pulled all the stupid shit I did!" she argued, which fate timed perfectly with Future Vegeta failing to sit up and collapsing back onto the operating table, biting back a scream as soon as he landed.
"That's...demonstrably untrue-!" he got out, barely, only making her madder.
"Yeah, fine, okay, so we did a lot of the same stupid shit, technically, but that's not the point!" she retorted. "She became a leader, got over all of her hang-ups, had kids, made the 'prince of all Saiyans' want to be a genuinely decent person!" she continued, getting more and more worked up as she drafted out the Venn diagram in her head. "Meanwhile, I turned out to be a total hypocrite who can't be happy being single no matter what I say, can barely do anything to actually help when the going gets tough, and can't even ride Kintoun because I'm still just a selfish bitch!" With that last remark, Bulma's composure finally gave out, and she couldn't keep herself from sobbing any longer, which only made her feel more pathetic than she already did. With greater effort than he had put into any battle he had been in since arriving in this time, Future Vegeta opted for a new tactic, using the power of flight to lift himself off of the operating table and slowly render himself upright. Bulma, meanwhile, failed to notice his continued attempts at this point, too focused on her own self-pity. "You were right about King Vegeta," she muttered bitterly. "That future is the only place where you and I could be good," she spat under her breath, causing Future Vegeta to pause in mid-air. That Bulma truly believed that about herself, that she truly thought that his wife was so much better than her and that she was in any way comparable to the Vegeta of this time...it broke his heart more severely than anything he had experienced in decades of living in that war-torn future.
He could not bear it for a second longer.
"A good person wouldn't be so desperate that she'd go and fall for her own-?!" she had been muttering, at a volume which would have been too low for anyone to hear...had Future Vegeta not used Instant Transmission to place himself firmly on the ground in front of her, while also using telekinesis to move the equipment just enough to where he still had some slack and nothing was disconnected abruptly. It took a Herculean effort to do all of this, made apparent by the way his eyes glazed over for just a moment as he held her in his arms, before he jerked himself awake as soon as his head briefly rested on her shoulder. He needed to focus. He had a promise to keep, after all.
"Look after me," she had said. "God knows she's going to need it."
"Y-you...?" she muttered, dumbfounded at why Future Vegeta still cared about her, a matter which the former prince was all too willing to explain to her in kind.
"I was wrong," he said simply, shutting down any effort she may have given to contradict his reasoning. "People are never locked into one state for their entire lives. They grow, they change, they can become better than they were if they choose to be better. My wife taught me that." Bulma knew she shouldn't, but she found herself looking into his eyes anyway, and could feel the devotion which shone in them so strongly that she had to stop herself from falling for this man any harder.
"Vegeta-" she gasped, worried that if she didn't say something to him, one of them was going to do something foolish, and that it probably wouldn't be Future Vegeta. Fortunately, he had a response ready to nip any potential mistakes in the bud, if only by overwhelming her even further.
"Any and all of my wife's goodness comes from you," he said simply, the utterly sincerity of his words hitting her with what felt like an actual physical weight. "And if that is the case, which I can assure you it is, then I must believe, on some level, that Pybara was right. That there is a small scrap of goodness to be found in the heart of any Bulma and any Vegeta. Do you understand that now?" he asked, his voice soft yet firm in a way that set Bulma's heart racing with a million different thoughts and feelings that she wasn't remotely equipped to process right now.
"I..." she whispered, only to glance off towards the door and freeze with a look of utter horror on her face. Puzzled by her reaction, Future Vegeta turned and swiftly saw the reason why:
Son Goku was standing in the doorway.
"Um," he began, obviously feeling quite awkward about intruding and yet also not wanting either of them to feel bad about...whatever was happening, here. "Should I come back later?" he asked, but no sooner had he asked the question than Bulma abruptly extricated herself from the hug without accounting for Future Vegeta's circumstances, causing him to stumble forwards and leaving Goku far too preoccupied with helping him to pay her any mind as she hastily walked away.
"I'm gonna go get some supplies from the lab, goodbye forever!" she called out in a panic. "Why'd I do that, why'd I do that, why'd I do that, why'd I do that-?" she muttered anxiously to herself as she left before closing the door behind her, leaving the two Saiyans alone to talk at last.
"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt...whatever that was," Goku said honestly as soon as he had gotten Future Vegeta situated on the operating table once more, only for the former prince to sigh.
"It was nothing," he said, sounding tired and sad in a way which Goku had never quite heard from the man before. "Bulma is simply having a hard day," he continued, giving just enough of the truth that Goku wasn't about to pry, certainly not when it came to one of his closest friends.
"Gotcha," he said sympathetically. "I, uh, I dunno if this is necessarily something that would make you feel better, but, um...King Kai suggested something earlier today," Goku explained, which left Future Vegeta intrigued, to say the least. Could this be a hint of what King Kai had refused to tell him prior to Roshi's departure? Had Goku been instructed to deliver a message on his behalf...or simply to prepare him for the disappointment of never getting answers to begin with?
"Oh?" he said, trying to sound nonchalant and failing to hide his anticipation. Goku nodded.
"Yeah, he, uh, he wanted me to ask you about the history of our people," he replied, getting Future Vegeta's hopes up all the more. "I've sorta got a patchwork idea of it at the moment, based on what Raditz and Frieza told me, but apparently there's a huge chunk of it that I'm missing which has something to do with King Vegeta's plans, I'm just not sure what-" Suddenly, Goku jerked his head back ever-so-slightly, reacting to a telepathic message of such complexity that it took him a full five seconds to process all of it...and once he did, he was left with even more questions than before. "Whoa," he muttered, leaving Future Vegeta on the (literal) edge of his seat, or table, rather.
"What is it? What did he tell you? What did you see?!" he asked, mustering up just enough strength to push himself up and grab Goku by the gi in his desperation for answers. Goku tried not to react to the sudden movement, if only to make sure he didn't injure the older Saiyan, and had to think for a while about how exactly to break this news to him. Deciding that Future Vegeta would want him to be as direct as possible, Goku took a deep breath and looked at Future Vegeta with a sympathetic expression which would have made him retch and now only made him weep.
"There's another Saiyan planet, Vegeta," Goku replied. "And you can never set foot on it."
And the other shoe has dropped! In more ways than one!
Gonna keep this author's note somewhat brief so I can get to everything I promised with the last update, but suffice it to say, for a chapter I cobbled together in less than a week based mostly on various comments and reviews, I'm honestly feeling kinda good about it. I'd originally intended for the Babidi scene to occur either at the end of last chapter or the end of this arc, but I would have needed to change things and I already had the core of it ready to go, so I figured it was best to toss it into this chapter to keep the flow similar to what I had intended, sprinkle in some foreshadowing for the distant future, and ultimately give me half of a satisfactory chapter mostly off the bat. Hopefully the shifts in focus and the topics I elected to cover in this chapter are to your liking!
Anywho, with all that said, quick update on power levels here and from the previous chapter!
Jamba: Still roughly 10,000 on average - some of his copies could give Bonyu a run for her money, but that's about it. Raw power isn't really his top priority at the moment.
Roshi (Spirit Seal): I'd say about 200 million again, although most of that was on loan through King Kai transferring energy from the Spirit Bomb he made with the help of Other World's denizens. Also workshopping whether the Mafuba + Spirit Bomb combo deserves its own name - "Spirit Seal" is nice and simple, but I do have to wonder whether a portmanteau of Genkidama and Mafuba would work better or just butcher the language in a way I'd rather not do while borrowing the Japanese names. xD
Babidi: So weak as to be unmeasurable physically, but his magical powers allow him to defend against the likes of Shin and perhaps even Buu.
Dabura: 1 billion in his current state. Yeah, I know, he's said to be comparable to Perfect Cell, but that arc has a number of inconsistencies as far as power levels go, and it makes more sense to me that he would be stronger than anybody but the strongest beings in Other World without necessarily making him equal to or greater than Cell. Besides, you can make the argument that it's really his demonic abilities and especially his Stone Spit that actually put him in that weight class, which I plan to make even more potent here when he does ultimately show up, so I like to think that it all evens out.
Goku: Still 400 million since he really hasn't been training since he woke up; 200 million to start with when he faces off against Gohan. I was originally gonna write out that whole training fight, but I was rushing to get this out in time already, so I'm afraid the best I can do is to have Goku share the outcome later. He's proud, I'll say that much.
Gohan: Still 18 million in base form, 180 million in Wrath State - it's a similar thing where he really isn't getting stronger at this point, just focusing on training his tail so that he doesn't have such an exploitable weakness.
Future Vegeta (Recovering): 100, maybe? He really shouldn't be pushing himself as hard as he does in this chapter, he's literally on life support. xD
Anywho, with all that done, on to reviews!
Zeon Paralysis Crystal has a couple comments, first from Tale 46:
"Impressive chapter and honestly the dressing down Roshi needed in canon. Here in Hermit, only strengthened his resolve to make sure the universe has a guardian. And considering he was nearly able to beat Kibito to the point of reconsidering his place in the universe. It's a perfect capstone to Roshi's development. And essentially setting up the blueprints for the other Z-Fighters to explore."
Thank you so much! I'm glad that people are generally very receptive to how I've been handling Roshi, both in terms of the path set before him to grow stronger and in terms of the developments he's needed to undergo as a person to get there. It still strikes me as ironic that my biggest fic is one which focuses on a character I honestly don't like too much in canon, precisely because the interesting aspects of his character which come through in crisis situations gets overshadowed by all the gross and overdone "pervy old master" tropes that he practically invented in terms of our modern understanding of them. I legitimately think Dragon Ball needs to really study how he was in the olden days if they're going to put him back into the rotation as a significant side character, and I do think Super has been good for him overall in that sense.
Then, in Tale 47:
"Interesting send-off and quite the foreboding ending. And one threat down and on to the next I suppose." Thanks! And yup, that's kind of the name of the game, although I hadn't initially planned on continuing down that detour for another half of a chapter, lol.
Shahryar says:
"Bro this was the best non-Goku chapter yet (and I'm still a little biased, can't help it \_(ツ)_/ ) But let's just say Kibito used to call Goku and Gohan mortals with a HARD 'm'.
Honestly, I don't think UI has gotten Super Saiyan-ish at all but that's just me. But keep up the good work, I was starving for DB content and you showed up when I was dying so I appreciate that."
Yeah, that's about what I figured as far as Kibito goes, so I'm glad my version still scans as better in that respect, lol.
Agree to disagree on the UI thing - it'd be less Super Saiyan-ish if they had kept the incomplete design, if you ask me. The completed form just looks a little too "Super Saiyan Blanco," you know? Especially with Beast Gohan added to the mix. xD
GM10 says:
"Might end up giving this a read for realsies, it's just seem so good. Muten Roshi is the original badass pervert master!"
Yeahhh, I prefer it when "pervert" isn't modifying "badass master," so I will tell you that I lean further and further from that aspect of his character as the story goes on.
"I don't know how you introduced Kibito (before this chapter I read), but I don't see much difference in how he acted with the Z-Gang when he met them: condescending a bit, looking down on 'em and extremely shocked when the space monkeys surpassed the strength of their gods (before the cat woke up). Thankfully he humbled up."
Indeed, lol: nothing quite like a good old-fashioned ass-kicking to teach you some humility: just ask Future Vegeta! Or...you know...canon Vegeta. xD
"...Now that I look back on it, Kibito could've easily become U7's own Zamasu if Shin didn't survive or something else happened."
God, I didn't even think about that - put that in your clickbaity Dragon Ball What If content farm, YouTubers, at least that one's an original thought, lmao.
A Guest commented on Kamiccolo getting nerfed with some napkin math and sound logic that I'm not gonna repost because it's very similar to previous comments on the subject. Just know that I did read it, and I don't disagree with it, and needless to say, trying to figure out how to make him work has been an ongoing thorn in my side throughout this entire story. I've got some ideas, I just need to figure out when and how to introduce them, that's all. Just be patient, he will get his day, I promise!
jwloubser55 says:
"Well that's ominous...
On a different note, in regards to Piccolo's kaioken issues. Well, Dragon Ball is about overcoming your limits, so why not have Piccolo do some funky biofeedback shenanigans and eventually learn to suppress his regeneration whilst using the kaioken?
Great story overall"
A fair point, and definitely nothing the series hasn't seen before, but he kind of already is doing that, I'd argue. Like, he's definitely progressed with the Kaio-ken Times Ten if nothing else - initially, he could only hold onto it for a brief moment before taking himself out of commission for days, while a few months of training saw him able to actually attack with it once before knocking himself out, effectively. With a couple years of Time Chamber training with the rest of Goku's rivals under his belt, it remains to be seen how much better he's gotten at managing the Kaio-ken and its deleterious effect on his body...or if he's perhaps developed a workaround that circumvents the problems he's been facing completely, tapping into something even he had no idea he possessed...something which carries its own risks.
Like I said, we'll have to wait and see.
Finally, LitchKing says:
"This chapter was pretty well written IMO. Even if you did have to use future material, I think you made a good pivot to make use of it in the first place. There is good continuity from a story standpoint. Not to knock other people's stories, but good ones are rare. Good writing takes a lot of experience. Your story falls in the category of great stories. So there's no need to apologize for putting out a good chapter while you've been sick. Feel better soon!"
Aww, thanks, and don't worry, I've long since gotten better, lol. I'm glad that everyone has been alright with me sort of cobbling stuff together these last few chapters - I'm hopeful that I can keep up this monthly schedule during my grad program, especially with my other ongoing fic on Ao3 shifting to a biweekly schedule to compensate. I'm very thankful to have such a patient following, for the most part, but it's also important to me that I give this story the time it deserves, for my sake and for your enjoyment. Comments like this definitely make a difference, I'll say that much. =)
Anywho, with all that said, thank you all for reading, stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask and get vaccinated if possible, have yourselves a fantastic day, and take care. See y'all next month as we unpack this latest revelation and just what it means for our heroes, as well as their last remaining foe...