Chapter 24: The Decisive Final Battle, Part III: Grief and Loss
The shockwaves from Gotenks' massive Ki sphere completely leveled Dende's palace and decimated the surface of Earth, but Baby once again formed barriers around each and every one of the people and animals populating the planet to shield them, while purposefully taunting Gotenks by not shielding himself – he emerged unscathed.
"Cocky as ever, are you? My sister and mother's Ki are faint, but I sense them in this rubble… Clearly you are shielding them for whatever plans you have to torment me."
"Fufufufu… I frankly have no respect or adoration whatsoever for Saiyans or Earthlings, upon coming across enough specimen of both species… But your powers of deduction frankly are not bad. If you'd been born into the Tsufurian bloodline, I might have even enlisted you to be a general for my Royal Army."
"I'd sooner die a hundred deaths than join your stupid little clan! That blast was just the purview of what is to come next, your death WILL happen today, I promise you that!"
Gotenks fired off a two-handed blast of moderate magnitude, one that Baby again did not bother to dodge or shield himself from. However, rather than hurting or even pushing Baby, Gotenks instead used the propulsion of the blast to repel himself further away from Baby to widen the distance between them and used a Taiyo-ken, lighting the entire surface area of Earth in a brilliant, blinding light.
"Not this trick again… With or without my eyesight, my clairvoyant powers will keep track of your every move. Why this exercise in futility? Your efforts are completely wasted."
"We'll see. A moment was all I needed," said Gotenks as Baby sensed thousands of Kamikaze Ghosts surrounding him, prompting Baby to remark, "Feh… Are you sure that doing this is prudent? An explosion generated by this many ghosts would doubtlessly envelop this planet in a humongous shockwave that could easily kill everyone. I spared them all on a whim, and I could rescind that effort with equal ease."
"Is talking too much some kind of Machine Mutant trait?! If I know you as well as I think I do, you won't let Bra and my mother die that quickly! I have nothing to worry about, this is what I have to do!"
The ghosts completely surrounded Baby, who lit up two light spheres from the irises of his eyes and targeted each of the ghosts to detonate them from a safe distance. However, this was merely the first stage of Gotenks' plan, and from the smoke a series of Kienzan emerged, Gotenks clearly having taken the instantaneous window of opportunity to generate the deadly discs.
"Feh! If you were smarter you'd have generated these discs first, when my eyesight was robbed! Smoke cannot bypass the superior vision of a Machine Mutant, let alone their King!"
"And you sure you wanna rely on your eyesight of all things, pal?!"
Baby realized a second too late that Gotenks merely wanted to divert Baby's attention from using his eyesight and clairvoyance in perfect unison, and so he emerged behind Baby in a precarious spot where the discs wouldn't reach, from where Gotenks restricted Baby's movements with Galactic Donuts.
"You thought I'd risk mutilating my brother's body?! I'll never stoop to your level, pal! You'll die, but you'll give me the satisfaction of beating your ass with my fists… AND THEN I'LL DRIVE YOU OUT OF HIS BODY AND END YOU!"
Gotenks, finally having unleashed the fullest extent of his rage, began to beat Baby senseless by punching him repeatedly in the nose, cheeks, and the pit of his stomach – even his heart – without attacking his head and heart simultaneously because he wanted Baby's torture to never end for a long time.
However, after three minutes of this, Baby merely smirked and showed that he was not affected whatsoever by Gotenks' flurry of blows. Enraged even more, Gotenks finally gave in to his utter frustration and headbutted Baby, which did not even bruise him. Future Trunks' sword lost from Gotenks' Fusion attire being fixed into a Metamoran garb, Gotenks instead formed a Ki blade akin to Vegetto's Spirit Sword and stabbed Baby in the tongue, only for it to barely penetrate his skin.
Baby smirked and said through telekinesis, "Now do you understand the futility of your efforts?! You concocted such a perfect plan to entrap me and yet… Even as I put zero resistance into fighting you, the most you can do is give me paper cuts on my tongue! Fuwahahahahahaha! I intended to beat you and humiliate you into submission myself, but I have to say I find this even more amusing yet!"
"You shut your mouth! I'll tear that tongue off, and you'll bleed half to death by the time I'm done with y-"
"You.. Kill ME?! Don't get cocky, brat! I've been toying with you this whole time, and in your arrogance you show the King such disrespect!"
Baby broke out of the binds that Gotenks trapped him in and grabbed Gotenks by the mouth, and then knocked him out of Super Saiyan 3 in just one knee to the stomach. Undeterred, Gotenks went Super Saiyan 3 again and fired a blinding light blast that generated many blades from his mouth – ironically the same attack that Baby used against Vegetto, a superior opponent than he at the time. This was a move Baby did not expect, and the glove that was generated from his fusion with Gohan's body was completely torn, and a few fingers cut off. Baby's face had finally lost its cool demeanor.
"How's that for a surprise? More than a paper cut as you claimed, ain't it?!"
Baby's face was completely contorted with rage, but he forced his frown into a smirk and turned around, and then used his intact hand to form a "come hither" motion, goading Gotenks into charging him again.
"H-He's got something planned… But honestly, after being forcibly knocked out of Super Saiyan 3 and having wasted a few minutes just damaging his hand… I can't afford to hesitate. With only one usable hand, I may be able to use Redjic's old trick of generating a surprise weapon out of my mouth with Ki to damage him more severely. It's now or never!"
Gotenks powered up to his absolute limit, his muscles enlarging in a Super Saiyan Grade 2-esque fashion as the lightning bolts that typically surround Super Saiyan 3's aura instead colored his aura in blue, with the golden tinge becoming so radiant that it was enough to blind the naked eye.
"You die here, BABY!" yelled Gotenks as he flew at Baby with absolute intent to kill at this point, at which point Baby simply paralyzed him with a psychic glare that Gotenks completely struggled to break free from.
"Grr… What is this?! Y-You haven't even raised your power, and I-I can't break free just from your glare?!"
"I told you already that I was toying, did I not?! Rather than teach you the futility of your efforts with a beatdown, I've decided instead to enlighten you on the grandiose and meticulous nature of my plan… A plan that will shock you to the very core!"
"I know full well what you want to do… You just want to keep everyone in the universe alive to turn them all into Tsufurians for your petty desire of seeing your race thrive again, isn't it?!"
"Petty? Fufufufufu… It seems you've yet to learn your station. Your Fusion time is nearly up, so I will slow time around you to keep you from defusing prematurely and souring this momentous occasion," said Baby as he formed the same time-distorting octagonal barrier around Gotenks that moved far faster than the speed of light, slowing time around him just enough that Gotenks would not defuse in the middle of Baby's speech.
"It is true indeed that the rest of the Multiverse will be unified under the banner of the Tsufurians' glory… However, the Earth is different! In having studied the history of Earth and her people, and what massive calamities you filthy simians have unleashed upon this universe… I have decided instead to make the Earthlings a slave class, inferiors that must not even be allowed to proliferate and breed with the superior Tsufurian race! For only the accursed blood of Earthlings can create worthless half-Saiyan hybrids that surpass even the originals in barbaric power and potential!"
"Y-You'd make all of Earth suffer just because Earthling blood is compatible with Saiyans?! What bad things have Earthlings done, exactly?! Y-You Machine Mutants are the ones who wiped out countless populations, and converted them into robots!"
"An act for which Mu paid with his life. The sacrifices of those who were lost to Mu's efforts to resurrect me will be forever recorded in the history that I will preserve for posterity as necessary stepping stones for the Infinite Tsufurian Empire to propogate! And those whose lives were unfairly lost, I will ensure will ascend instead to Heaven rather than Hell, regardless of the sins committed in their lifetimes – through my next conquest after the living realm, the world beyond!"
"Y-You'd even tamper with the afterlife?! W-What kind of person are you?! Y-You know no shame! You want to disrupt the natural balance of the Multiverse by forcibly altering everyone's genes, and on top of that you'd even tamper with the afterlife as well?!"
"I recall that you were told when you were Goten that I intend to rise to the station of a god upon my acquisition of your brother's body, so you must as well! I am not a mere king of a planet at this point, I am the God of All Existence! A being whose great justice shall unify, rewrite and correct all the wrongs that the incompetent Kaioshin have unleashed upon this world!"
"That I can't allow! My father Vegeta will rest in peace, so will the other Trunks!"
Gotenks powered up even further until his muscles had enlarged to Grade 3's proportions, and he punched straight through Baby's barrier before teleporting behind him, intending to make this his last and most decisive attack. Baby, without even a change in his facial expression, suddenly moved a very familiar face in the nexus between Gotenks' fist and himself – a face that Gotenks' halves both never wanted to see between them and Baby…
"B-Bra!" yelled Gotenks as he realized a nanosecond too late that his unnaturally enlarged fist and arm had punched straight through Bra's heart and had not even touched Baby – instead, the blood trickling from his fist did. Gotenks' morale was completely shattered, and this mental breakdown combined with the strain of raising Super Saiyan 3's power to levels far beyond his limits caused his diffusion. This act had the additional effect of tearing Bra's chest in half as Trunks and Goten split, and sensing the faint Ki of her best friend disappearing, Pan awoke from her collapse to be subjected to the devastating sight.
"NOOOOO!" yelled all four Saiyans as Bra cried bloody tears and muttered, "O-Onii-chan… W-Why… Why… Did it end up… Like this…"
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" yelled Trunks as he went Super Saiyan 2 and tried to pump all of his Ki into Bra to try and restart her mangled heart, which forcibly triggered an involuntary Super Saiyan transformation in her, only for the strain caused by this to kill her instantly. Trunks' spirit was completely crushed, and he began to have seizures and convulse around violently.
"U-Uwaaaaaaaaargh! T-This… This just can't be happening! W-Why?! WHY?! I-I CAN'T… I CAN'T… I CAN'T…."
"B-BABY!" yelled Goten as he, too, went Super Saiyan 2 and took out the sword that Redjic generated for him to spar with Trunks, which Baby snapped with his tongue as he kicked Goten away with a mere love tap that knocked him nearly unconscious as well, completely breathless.
"Now do you understand the futility of your efforts?! It honestly did not matter much to me what you did in the limited time you had in Super Saiyan 3 form, for even the fact that you managed to injure my hand was a miracle – a sign that Zeno and the Kaioshin are on your side… BUT EVEN THEIR HELP, EVEN DIVINE PROVIDENCE CANNOT AVERT THE INVITABLE! THE INEVITABILITY OF YOUR HUMILIATION… AND AGONIZING DEATHS!"
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" yelled Pan as she furiously went Super Saiyan and charged at Baby holding Goten's broken sword, which Baby allowed to touch his neck, with it again being unable to so much as scratch him. Pan tried to punch him with a Ryu-ken, at which point Baby simply paralyzed her with his glare before then continuing to torment the Dragon Trio by summoning Bulma from the rubble.
"Now… It appears that she regained consciousness in the midst of the deafening noise created by the intensity of our battle, but she fell unconscious all the same as you from the trauma of her daughter's grisly demise! What say I have my way torturing her with her own son's blade for maximal irony?! The worthless womb of one who gives birth to two Saiyan hybrids of King Vegeta's bloodline must – "
Trunks' rage surpassed its limit as he heard Baby's taunts, supplying him with the necessary rage to go Super Saiyan 2 despite his fatigue and charge blindly at Baby with intent to kill using Future Trunks' sword. Having predicted this, however, Baby put both Bulma and Pan in the way of Trunks' swing, deliberately sparing Pan to showcase to her the next stage of his plan to torture her and her group by allowing the angle in which she was cut to be more shallow than Bulma's. Bulma, on the other hand, was sliced in half, and died instantly. Baby then spat in Trunks' face before throwing him and Pan both at Goten, awakening him as well. Their morale completely crushed, the Dragon Trio all had dropped back to base form… Speechless.
"D-Do whatever you want, we can't stop you anymore," said Trunks.
"I-I honestly thought the One-Star Ultimate Dragon Ball we found before you gave us the hope and motivation we needed, b-but… This despair I wasn't prepared for. Just kill us already, torture us… I don't even care anymore," said Goten.
"I-I never understood why grownups kill themselves, but I know why they do it now. I can't go on anymore, I'd rather not even exist…" said Pan as she threw up repeatedly and nearly tore her eyes out before fainting again.
"You won't die just yet… And you won't be allowed to kill yourselves, either… This cruel and unbecoming method is not one that fits my tastes, but here and now I shall show to you all my Ultimate Attack… REVENGE DEATH BALL!"
Baby flared up a dark aura that shot bolts of white lightning in various directions, which then forcibly consumed the Ki of all people who'd been previously infected with Baby's eggs until they'd fainted but were not close to being killed – and Baby then added to it his own Ki. The ball grew to catastrophic sizes, and began to generate its own gravity field – which drew Bra and Bulma's lifeless corpses into itself, and very nearly drew Piccolo's paralyzed and disabled body into it as well before Baby shielded it with a barrier to keep the Ultimate Dragon Balls from growing inactive. Who weren't so lucky, however, were all of the denizens of Earth, who were drawn into Baby's Revenge Death Ball and consumed as sources of Ki – including even Dende, Mr. Popo and Karin. With all of the Earth's population dead, Baby then yelled, "NOW YOUR MOTHER EARTH DIES… BUT IT WILL BE RESTORED, ALONG WITH THE POPULATION OF EARTH… OTHER THAN YOUR SAIYAN-LOVING SCUM MOTHERS! IT ALL ENDS NOW!"
Baby hurled the massive blast at Earth, after it had reached a size nearly as great as the Earth itself… which it completely eradicated in a mere instant. The catastrophically immeasurable strength of the blast caused a space distortion that worsened the space-time rift from which the Ultimate Dragon Balls were dug up by Pilaf in the first place, enveloping Piccolo and the three devastated Saiyans in a black hole that pulled them all into a separate dimension with an irresistible force.
Baby, amused by this turn of events, took out the six Ultimate Dragon Balls he stole from them earlier and followed them into the black hole, thinking that it would be too much of a bother to repeatedly scream holes into separate dimensions until he found them and the final Ultimate Dragon Ball.
There, the completely demoralized Trunks, Goten and Pan were slapped awake by Baby, who then asked them mockingly, "So now that you've lost your home planet… Your families… And any hope of defeating me, what next?! Shall I kill you all slowly, or will you kill each other?! Of course, I won't let your lives and torture end, not until I've wrested the final Ultimate Dragon Ball from your still-living fingers, and made the wish to convert all intelligent life into Tsufurians! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! EVEN IN THIS ALTERNATE DIMENSION YOU THREE CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR DESPAIR!"
Completely elated and in a manic state, Baby decided to add insult to injury for Trunks by altering Gohan's face to mimic Kaiba's facial structure, intending for his final sight to be one of someone who has Kaiba's face to usurp the Ultimate Dragon Balls' wishing power and leave his entire journey not only fruitless, but one that ended with a defeat unlike any other.
However, seeing this, Trunks' rage restored his Ki once again to his absolute limit, and Trunks powered up to Super Saiyan 2 again, as Goten did the same in his absolute rage. However, understanding that a reckless attack consumed in absolute rage was the last thing Trunks could afford to do right now, he powered down to base form and whispered silently to Goten, who thought to himself, "Y-Yes, that is indeed our last resort. It's funny, when this journey began, Trunks-kun was the one who could never control or contain his anger, yet now he's the one giving me pointers on how to remain calm… There's no going back from this, but it is our last and final hope! Dad, wherever you are after what happened to you… I thank you. You've given us just the tool we needed!"
"Their faces have turned rosy… Before, they were as pale as untainted snow. Just what is going on?" thought Baby as he smirked again and said, "Whatever you three are still scheming, it ends now! I will leave you three in a half-dead state and then make my wish!"
Baby charged at Trunks and Goten in a still hypomanic state, intending to quickly paralyze them and wrest the Ultimate Dragon Ball away from them. Just as he did this, a blinding flash of light obscured his vision, and the One-Star Ultimate Dragon Ball was chucked at his face – leaving Baby dumbfounded for the first time in this battle because it was thrown with a force far beyond either of the two's capabilities. After this, a new fighter emerged from the flash of light, who kicked Baby away and drew his sword, before grabbing the One-Star Ultimate Dragon Ball that the group brought.
"That kick was just the first step in your demise, Baby… I am no temporary fusion, I am a union created by the Potara Earrings! A permanent fusion, born solely to stop you!"
"A Potara Fusion?! You've used the earrings left behind by your fathers!"
"Yes! They made the resolve months ago to merge permanently to kill you, and now we've done the same! My name is… POTARA GOTENKS! I thought about using 'Trunkten,' but a cheesy name like that would sour the mood of YOUR inevitable defeat!"
Taking a deep breath, Potara Gotenks was consumed by bolts of electricity as a massive aura was lit up, and he immediately went Super Saiyan 2.
"The true final battle begins here!" yelled the powerful, fused fighter…
To be continued…