ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1) I have been rewriting this story under a new title Legend & Legacy. The rewrite is on Archive of Our Own. I can't post links here, but if you're interested in seeing this story retold as more of a psychological thriller, then I suggest checking it out! Google the terms: Legend & Legacy lauraneato
I've also updated Chapter 1 of Goku's Humored to be the newly rewritten Chapter 1 of Legend & Legacy to help promote the rewrite.
2) I've had this chapter 75 ready to post since 10/7, but I held out because I had hoped FFnet would fix its backend for writers and its email alert system which has been broken since September 15th. I'm starting to fully believe that the admins are letting this site falter and die. So, I'm going to be moving my attention to AO3 for a while, where I'll primarily focus on Legend & Legacy. It's probably a better site to host a retelling of this story since its content is a little more mature-themed in concept, and I can actually write some details how I've always wanted to write them without a mental block / censorship for the FFnet version.
I'm also choosing to focus on the front-end of the story since working on both ends at once can be a little disorienting. I'd rather get all the facts straight so that I can refer back to details and enrich the story moving forward.
3) After this posting, the next chapter (76) will be on hold for a few months. The next chapter of this story is mostly written (and its outline and script complete; I could bang out the final version in a day). The chapter is going to be a very significant one - the climax of the Baby Saga.
I would feel more comfortable posting the next chapter after I rewrite the first saga / Black Star Dragon Ball saga for L&L. This is because the third saga, Rebuilding Saga, is going to feature a lot of character perspectives and dialogue from characters I am rewriting within the first saga. And there will be a lot details mentioned that are not in my original GH story. For example, I intend to showcase Gohan and Goten from before they were possessed, to round out their characters and perspectives for a bit. All of it involves more writing and more content, and so this story will be even bigger and better.
You'll be able to follow it as "Legend & Legacy" on Archive of Our Own, and once it's all in a good place, my intention is to transfer the rewritten text into this story. After all, it is the same overall story - just some details, dialogue, and character development will be impacted. For example, in the rewrite, Trunks is much more of an anti-hero and takes longer to warm up to Pan, Goten has much more of an off-stage presence, and the Kais start getting involved earlier in the storyline.
4) This chapter (75) of Goku's Humored was one of the hardest chapters I've ever had to write. First, to capture Baby's personality and dynamic while merged within Buu's body, and also to capture an impactful and sentimental moment that you'll read below. It was tricky to write physical communication - how to show love, versus saying it. You'll see! I'm particularly proud of the moment; it was a great exercise in expressing the nuance of body language through prose.
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CHAPTER 75
Getting a Rise
As the pink cloud below started to coalesce back into Baby Buu's mohawked form, Pan raised her Nyoi-Bo as a conductor's wand. Pan felt bolstered by newfound confidence as opened her mind and imagined the Planet Tuffle as her playground. Closing her eyes, she surrendered to the flow of her Mystic energy. She retreated to the recesses of her thoughts, and allowed instinct to serve as her guide.
Pan's right hand tightened around her bo staff, and with a soft exhale, she channeled electricity into its core. The bo staff emitted a crackling chorus as sparks danced to life within and around it. Energy began to pick up and then run wild as the atmosphere condensed into a dense amalgam of smoke and moisture that rubbed and crackled as an electrifying symphony. Clouds began to converge upon the bo staff, striking as if it were a divine lightning rod. Thunder clapped with each strike, and the air began to swirl into a colossal tempest that began that took shape above Buu's slowly solidifying form.
Below Buu's coagulating figure, the lava began to rise in an invisible circular wind current, catching and climbing within the gusts. The lava began to spiral upward as if it were a drill. The spiral thickened and formed into a massive column firenado around Baby Buu's pink frame.
Harnessing the lava as a deterrent, Pan focused on manipulating Buu's position to enhance the effectiveness of her impending assaults. At this point, the only direction that Buu could head was directly upward, into the clouds above the molten firenado. Pan gathered and built up energy within her core, pining for release as she tracked his ki.
With her right hand still extended and holding her staff with grace, Pan raised her left arm in a conductor's pose. As her arm ascended, two sinuous tendrils of lava unfurled, stretching upward from the lava below her. They coiled and intertwined as two bands of incandescent radiance light that strengthened and solidified into the forms of two dancing lava serpents.
In a mesmerizing choreography, the serpents spiraled upward, scaling the floating rocks and mountains that dotted the sky. Upon reaching Pan's elevation, their molten bodies transformed into colossal dragons, radiant and blistering with heat. They circled her like immense, familiar guardians.
In the center of the fiery dance, Pan centered herself, focusing on her core, as she surged with her Super Saiyan and Mystic potential, poised and ready for the impending confrontation.
Enough time had gone by that she could sense Buu had fully regenerated within her lava tornado. She eyed the top, where the burning whirlwind met the clouds, waiting with baited breath, and ready to sic her dragons on him the second Buu emerged.
But after another couple breaths, Pan's gut told her that something was wrong - something incalculable.
As if to confirm her doubts, she heard a RIIIIIIPPPPP, the sound of a massive tear behind her left shoulder, as if denim were being stretched apart. Her ears rang with a strange piercing tone as reality distorted and warped. Before she could even interpret the split in reality, she felt his breath behind her.
Baby Buu was free. He had somehow warped behind her. What was this?!
Baby Buu's dark voice chortled devilishly by her ear with his hot breath, "Look what I can do!"
Pan spun on a point, as she witnessed the large portal that had unzipped within the air. Through the fabric of existence as if it were a mere window, she saw Baby Buu with fire and lava behind him, laughing maniacally.
Pan took a step back in shock and with renewed calculation, trying to understand what was happening. She saw the pink arms reach out through the portal and drag his pink pustuled body through, slowly and slithery, as if birthing the demon back into reality.
He can use portals?! Pan was flabbergasted and taken aback. She swallowed, realizing that trapping him was indeed going to prove difficult.
She couldn't burn him to death. She couldn't trap him to death. Holy shit, Majin Baby Buu was a monster.
She now fully understood, as her hairs stood on end, why the Supreme Kai viewed Majin Buu as a legendary-scale nemesis. Majin Buu's body was in a completely different league than any other Z fighter she had ever seen. And Baby was inside him.
As Baby Buu straightened, his demeanor was uncharacteristically casual. If anything, from his slight grin alone, he seemed amused, almost a little friendly. He casually wiped off his arms and cracked his neck to test his flexibility.
He whistled as he stood behind her on her rock and brought his hands together for a slow clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
Pan had no idea how to interpret his actions.
"I've got to hand it to you," Baby Buu said as he finished his clap, "You had me going there for a minute." He rotated his cuffs, watching her, "You're making me actually want you." He held up his hand, looking at it, "I mean, you almost killed me back there." He grinned fully to her and spoke animatedly, as if excited or inspired, "If my body were mortal, my own cells would have burned up in that lava. You might have actually won."
"The battle's not over yet, Baby." Pan scowled defiantly, lit in high contrast shadows by the circling dragon familiars.
"Oh, nonsense." Baby Buu exhibited a surprising amount of charisma as he shook his hand, waving away the thought. "This is where we negotiate."
His words hit Pan like a cast-iron slam to the face.
"Negotiate?!" Pan's ire flared, and she took to the sky again, floating above Baby Buu with her lava dragons still rotating around her as their axis.
He spoke casually and whimsically. "Yes. I've changed my mind. I don't want to kill you, after all." Baby Buu flexed his fingers among his raised hand, his eyes still fixed on his own pink skin as he marveled at his own body. "You have too much value to me."
"You will never take my body, Baby!" Pan seethed.
"Ohhhh ho ho ho," Baby Buu chortled darkly as his eyes sparkled to her. "I've realized that." Baby Buu tilted his head as his eyes bore into hers. "This whole time, you've been hiding Mystic powers. If I had known what kind of vixen you'd be, I would have been better prepared. You might have even joined me from the start."
"Never, in all of my life, would I have joined you," Pan seethed. "You're an enemy of my people."
"Oh stop being such a child." Baby Buu watched as Pan's face darkened at the word. "Come now, Pan, you look at the world as a black and white, but that's so elementary. I've witnessed countless lifetimes characterized by rigid duality, and it's dreadfully boring. There's often a superior alternative - something that leaves everyone feeling there is a win-win."
"Since when do you care about me winning?" Pan was not happy about how chatty Baby Buu was being.
"Because when you win, I win." Baby looked intensely at her. "I can offer you power." A hint of a sly grin crept onto his face and his demeanor shifted to a calculated, taunting tone. "Or if you prefer… I can offer you Trunks."
Pan's anger ebbed as she processed his words. "What?"
"Yes…" Baby's eyes glistened with a cunning glint as it became more clear to Pan that he was full of wile. "I will keep him free. You can have him as yours to play with, mate with, do what you want with behind closed doors - I don't care! I'm sure he could keep you quite happy. But in exchange, you will make me happy too. You will do my bidding."
Pan swallowed and frowned, feeling slightly confused, but also deeply mortified. "You think I'm doing all of this for just Trunks?"
Baby's smile widened to its sickeningly large over-extended toothy grin. "In the end, with your ring?" His eyes grew dark and sinister as his sharp teeth glistened, "… Yes!"
And, as if to prove his point, Baby looked to the spaceship in the distance, and raised his left pink arm. Pan saw him pool ki within his palm, which condensed into a large ki ball, directly threatening the vessel. After a split second, more and more balls began to form, until there were at least twenty large kis ready to throw.
His tone was haughty as he half-chuckled, "How many hits do you think it'll take to kill everyone on board? If the ship falls into the lava, do you think people will really escape? And where would they run to? Trunks is on board too, right?"
"W-What?" Pan realized he was now targeting the citizens to try to break Pan.
"Do you think Trunks can survive the lava when the ship falls down?"
Pan realized that the floating platform that the ship was on was hovering above the lava sea. If Baby Buu shattered it, it could spell death for every single person on board. She felt her ring chime with her thought, Save Trunks.
Pan realized Baby was toying with her. "Don't do it, Baby."
"Now that I can portal places, I don't even need the ship anymore, Pan. And neither do you." Baby Buu eyed her. "I can take you away from here. You'll be safe with me."
"SAFE?!" Pan grimaced with a hateful stare at him, "You will never have my trust!"
Baby Buu threw his head back, unleashing a hearty, guttural laugh that sent ripples through his pink form, resembling turbulent waters. His voice lowered to a sinister chuckle.
"Oh, Pan," he teased as mimicked wiping away a fake tear, "Who said anything about having TRUST?" His toothy grin expanded to consume his demonic eyes as his voice rose and resonated with a menacing bellow, "No…" Baby Buu's eyes sparkled with malevolence, "... it's about us HAVING FUN!"
"Fun?!" Pan sneered. "This is not a game."
"Oh sure it is. It's all been a big bundle of fun for you, right Pan? From the first time I met you, and from these past few bodies, I've delved into memories of you, and it's clear to me that you were born for this."
"Excuse me?!" Pan was aghast.
"Think about it - what do you think constitutes evil?"
"Are you saying I'm evil?!"
"Of course you have evil within you, Pan!" Baby was enthusiastic as he brought up both his hands to gesture excitedly to her. "I know you. You are reckless; you have fun as you impulsively dive into battle, regardless of your teammates' safety. You are an usurper; you don't care about selfishly seizing opportunities from others, such as seizing your uncle Goten's rightful place on your Grand Tour ship. And let's not forget…" Baby Buu's tone became pointed, "you're a little minx claiming the heart and body of a much older man!"
Pan swallowed, reluctant to acknowledge his words, yet unable to ignore their uncomfortable truth. Despite her surging anger, she couldn't deny that his words were not untrue. She didn't want to think about that last part about Trunks. She hadn't given much thought to their age difference before… but she was not about to start defending herself now to this demon.
It became increasingly apparent to Pan that Baby Buu was just doing this as a mind game. This was how Baby worked, to fuck with peoples' heads. His words were poisonous promises.
And at this point, he was just babbling a supervillain monologue.
She was done negotiating.
With renewed resolve, Pan raised her Nyoi-Bo. Just as Baby Buu opened his mouth to continue his speech, she groaned, "Oh, just shut up."
And then Pan silently triggered her dragon familiars.
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The imperial residential quarters consisted of a common room with two adjacent suites. As Trunks quickly entered and shut the large double entrance doors behind him, he looked to each inner chamber door on either side, and it was immediately clear to Trunks which one belonged to his mom; her luggage was piled outside the right-hand door, where there was also a faint smell of stale nicotine.
There were a few Tuffle servants here - two dark-haired males guards and a blonde female maidservant - all surprised to see Trunks invite himself in. Trunks removed the staff from the suits by relieving them from their posts, and informed them that he would take over watching his father. It wasn't hard to get them to leave quickly; Trunks was an elite, which in itself held rank over them. But his demeanor was intense and his wild eyes intimidating. Although he was now dressed in a fresh outfit, a white naval long-trench suit that was far too formal, he looked like and felt like a mess. His ponytailed hair was fraying and disheveled. He was pallid and exhausted, and running on the steam power of both adrenaline and determination.
"Dad!" Trunks raggedly pushed past his father's bedroom door. He only stopped for a moment to confirm Vegeta was indeed still unconscious, lying on top of the sheets, in a fresh change of blue bedclothes.
"Dad!" Trunks ran to his bedside and shook Vegeta's right shoulder. "Dad, wake up! Wake up!"
Vegeta was unresponsive as Trunks shook his body.
"Dad!" Trunks put both his hands on Vegeta's shoulder and rocked him hard, "Dad, come on! You've gotta wake up!"
Vegeta's eyelids fluttered and he let out a short breath.
Trunks brought his right hand up Vegeta's left side of his face.
"Dad, wake-!" Trunks tapped Vegeta's left cheek.
The moment Trunks made contact with Vegeta's face, Vegeta SNAPPED awake. His left arm instinctively GRABBED Trunks' arm and squeezed with all his might. His wide eyes were rabid as they pierced Trunks' stare.
"Oww!" Trunks tried to jerk his arm away, but Vegeta held on tight with a predatory glare, until his expression suddenly softened as he registered that it was Trunks.
Vegeta's face shifted from anger to shock, as his eyes widened in realization. And then his eyebrows rose up in confusion and doubt. His eyes clouded in question. And then his brows turned up as his eyes brightened with relief, like a beam of sunlight breaking through the overcast sky.
And then lightning struck as Vegeta's expression dropped, and a storm passed through his eyes. He was overcome with a look of agony, as if he ached with a deep and profound sense of loss and despair.
Vegeta slowly rose, still holding his arm. "Trunks…" Vegeta's voice caught in his throat as his eyes stung. His grip on his son tightened as if it would never let go. Vegeta's gaze bore deep into Trunks's eyes, pupils darting as if feeling something profound.
Trunks swallowed hard, acutely aware of how intensely Vegeta was looking at him. He had never seen such an expression on his father's face, one that seemed to penetrate his very soul. It was as if, for the first time, Vegeta truly saw him, recognized him.
And then the emotions kicked in with Trunks, and all of the relief of seeing his father alive hit him. And all of the joy that everyone was safe overwhelmed him.
His family was safe. Pan saved his dad…
Trunks' eyes stung as he looked back to Vegeta. They had a long moment of unbroken silence in which they shared a profound connection, and they deeply understood how the other felt.
Vegeta's countenance transformed to a stern yet deeply emotional grimace. His right hand reached out and also firmly grasped Trunks' right arm, the contact laden with unspoken significance. With a decisive, heartfelt grip, Vegeta squeezed with both his hands conveying the immense importance of their connection.
Vegeta's nose crinkled in frustration, with his eyes still hard. And then, yanking his arm to him, Vegeta pulled Trunks towards him, wrapping his son securely against his chest and over his right shoulder in a powerful and enduring embrace.
Trunks shook and coughed into Vegeta's shoulder as he leaned into the hug and tightly held back. And for another strong moment, they shared their kinship and connection.
When Trunks eventually pulled away, he wiped his eyes with his right hand in a silent acknowledgment of their shared vulnerability.
Vegeta regarded him with unwavering intensity. "You're alive."
A bashful smile tugged at Trunks' lips as he replied, "Yeah. You're alive."
Vegeta looked to each of Trunks' eyes, concern on his face as his eyes narrowed to glower. He nodded once to Trunks. "You were falling back there. Someone caught you. Who?"
Trunks met Vegeta's gaze, still confused yet amazed at the thought, "It was Goku."
"What?" Vegeta's eyes slowly widened as his brain slowly processed the name. "Go-ku?" Vegeta wasn't sure where the short circuit happened, but it made no sense to him. He remembered him dying. He remembered the death ball of energy. "Kakarot?"
"And Pan." Trunks smiled with a far-off look as marveled over her magnificent golden hair. He felt a surge of pride and a wave of a powerful emotion he couldn't identify as he choked back a hitch in his breath. "She saved you too."
But then Trunks' eyes ignited with sudden urgency, his entire body trembling with desperation.
Vegeta had been looking down, searching for kis. As he clearly found the one he was searching for, his eyes widened in surprise. "Kakarot's ali-!?"
"-Pan needs help!" Trunks choked out, interrupting Vegeta. "Goku's under the ship right now helping to lift it off! He needs help! There's not enough fuel! The Supreme Kai told Goku the ship is too heavy! And Pan needs help! He needs to go to her! Help him dad!"
Too much information hit Vegeta at once. But one name caught his ear.
The Supreme Kai? Vegeta frowned, wondering how the Kais were involved with this. He would investigate this later.
Vegeta rose to his feet in one fluid motion, his commanding presence momentarily quelling the turmoil around them. He silenced Trunks with a stern gesture. "Calm down and stop blabbering! Tell me what to do."
Trunks wiped at his perspiring brow with the back of his right forearm. He gestured urgently to the ground and their surroundings. "He's lifting this shi-"
There was a creak and a groan as the ship lurched, and the entire vessel listed to the side. With a whelp, Trunks circled his arms as he lost balance and stumbled ungracefully before collapsing against Vegeta. They tumbled over the bed as a tangled mass of limbs, before landing in a heap on the unforgiving floor. In a swift maneuver, Vegeta ended their roll, positioning himself above Trunks. Their eyes locked.
The reaction was immediate and Trunks' primal instincts took over. His scream was a harrowing crescendo of sheer terror. "AAAAAHHHH!" Trunks roared a blood-curling howl, "GET OFF ME!" and he drove his elbow to deliver a forceful blow to his father's chest, sending Vegeta sprawling backward to collide with a nearby table. The impact caused a lamp to topple and shatter into countless shards of porcelain that scattered and rolled across the marble floor.
With another creak, the ship tilted back to being horizontal and level again. At that moment, Trunks felt a lifting sensation. Outside of the windows, the horizon line began to move. The ship was ascending.
Sitting up, Vegeta looked at Trunks for only a moment before he averted his eyes with a complex mixture of hardness and sorrow etched across his visage.
Trunks' entire body thrummed with the lingering surge of adrenaline that had coursed through him moments ago. He also looked to the side as he sat up, his breath hitching as he pulled his knees close to his chest. "So, yeah."
"Do you… want to talk…"
"FUCK." Trunks stood up quickly and violently kicked the bed, his face hard with anguish. "No." He looked to Vegeta. "Baby deserves to die."
"He does."
Trunks gritted his teeth as he waved his arms with emphasis, "We need to focus on killing him now! He's down there with Pan!" He spread his arms, "And it's worse, Dad!"
"What?" Vegeta wasn't sure what could be worse as he scanned kis further, to try to detect Pan. And then his eyes went wide and his blood cold in realization.
"She's with Majin BUU!" Trunks' panic rose again and he grabbed his hair in anguish. "Dad! Baby got Majin Buu! She's fighting Majin Buuuu!" He felt like he was going to explode, "ALOOOONE!"
Vegeta's eyes remained wide as he swallowed, and suddenly a flood of emotion boiled through Vegeta's inner walls as he re-lived his emotions that he associated with memories of his fight against Majin Buu. He was flooded with a relentless suffocation as he remembered how hope against hope had been shot down. Fight against fight was lost against that monster.
When it came down to it, even fusing with Kakarot as both Gogeta and Vegito could not defeat Majin Buu. The chances of Pipsqueak Pan holding her ground were abysmally small.
But then again… as Vegeta looked out the window of the ship and saw massive dancing columns of lava in the sky and floating rocks that spanned the horizon, Vegeta felt a sense of awe as he realized she was putting up a solid fight.
Feeling the ship tilt again under his feet, Vegeta looked sternly out the window at the armageddon that was unfolding.
Trunks spoke from behind him, gesturing with his hands even though his father was not looking. "Pan needs help, Dad. Please. Please help Goku! He needs help getting this ship out of the atmosphere so he can go to Pan!"
Vegeta turned and looked hard at Trunks. Then he turned his head to look out the window again, where the horizon line was moving as the ship teetered on losing its balance again. The whole ship groaned as if in agony.
"Right." Vegeta pushed past Trunks. "On it."
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–Written 10/7/23–
–Posted 10/28/23–
A/N: I hope you get a chance to check out this story's rewrite, Legend & Legacy on Archive of Our Own. On FFnet, progress on the Baby Saga is on hiatus, but not dead. (As I said before, Chapter 76 is written; I just want to fix the front-end of my story first, and everything should domino into an even better take on this current saga and the next one).
In the meantime, please feel welcome to leave reviews here or throughout the story. I actually do listen to feedback! And I'm using that feedback to write an even better version of this story.