Chapter Hundred-forty-one
A Sample of Destruction! An Uninvited Guest!
Goku looked back and forth between Kaiou and the two newcomers, trying to get a read on the purple cat and the blue man. Beerus's tail swished idly back and forth across the ground and he looked at Goku with only the slightest bit of interest, his yellow eyes drifting up and down Goku's body, appraising her silently. Whis, for his part, regarded Goku with more amusement than anything.
"Are these guys friends of yours, Kaiou?" she asked. Unfortunately, Kaiou was so terrified that he was nonverbal, only letting out breathless sputters of shock. She looked back toward Beerus and walked toward him, holding out a hand. "Hi there! My name's Goku!"
Beerus looked down at Goku's hand and his reaction actually surprised Whis. Beerus was so amused at the sheer novelty of someone so blindingly ignorant as to presume that they were equals that he couldn't help but shake Goku's hand in return. "Yes," he said before taking his paw away, "I'm aware of you. You're the mortal that defeated Freeza."
Goku grinned, putting a hand on her hip. "Yup!" Of course, she hadn't killed him but that wasn't Beerus's statement.
"I'm almost impressed," Beerus conceded. "I didn't think there was a mortal in the universe strong enough to beat Freeza."
"Oh, I'm way stronger than Freeza now," Goku assured him confidently. In fact, Goku was pretty sure Goten or Trunks could kill Freeza. Pretty easily, too.
"Oh, really?" Beerus asked, a glint of excitement in his eyes. Before he got any further, he snapped a finger and chided himself. "Ah, where are my manners? Whis, introduce us."
Goku thought that was pretty weird. Why couldn't Beerus just introduce himself? He was standing right there.
If Whis was annoyed by Beerus's actions, he didn't show it. After all, he'd had hundreds of thousands of years to get used to his lord's "eccentricities." "I am called Whis, attendant and angel," he began, putting the arm not holding his staff across his stomach and giving a slight bow. "I invite you to behold the presence of my master, the ultimate power in this universe, The God of Destruction: Beerus the Destroyer." Beerus couldn't help but put his hands on his hips, puffing out his chest a little and lifting his chin to strike a proud pose. He'd never get tired of Whis doing that.
"Nice to meet you," Goku said, nonplussed. "So… what are you guys doing here?" she asked bluntly, causing the color to drain from Kaiou's face. One of Beerus's eyebrows twitched at that. It was clear that the novelty of this bumpkin was already beginning to wear off.
"As I said, when I found out about the mortal who defeated Freeza, I had to see her for myself," he explained. "I want to see this 'Super Saiyan' power of yours that the rest of the universe is blathering about. I want you," he said as he leveled Goku with a gaze that could make planets stop spinning, "to fight me."
"Now, Lord Beerus, there's no need for–" Beerus's ear twitched in Kaiou's direction and he tucked his neck to pull his head down into his coat. "Uhh… that is… maybe you could move things somewhere e–"
"Alright, now you're talking!" Goku said excitedly. She quickly got into a fighting stance as Kaiou fainted dead away, his legs kicking up into the air. "It's been a while since I've had someone new to spar with!" Without a word or even the slightest strain, Goku powered up to Super Saiyan, her hair shooting up and flashing with golden light as her aura flared up around her. "What do you think?" she asked.
Beerus continued to stand with his arms behind his back, his expression unmoved. "Ecstatic," he said sardonically. Despite how unimpressed he looked outwardly, however, there was another glint of excitement in his eyes. "Whenever you're ready." On the one hand, Goku felt a bit of hesitation at attacking someone who didn't have their hands raised in defense but maybe he was just that confident in his abilities. It was also still kind of weird to her that she couldn't sense his ki at all. Maybe that was the whole God thing, like how she couldn't sense Xī's ki before she fused with Kibito, either. She pushed all thoughts from her mind and took a focusing breath before launching forward like a rocket to carry out her attack.
Goku leaped into the air and threw out a hooking kick to the side of Beerus's head, using the momentum to swing around and deliver a series of rapid-fire jabs to his back. She dug her feet into the grass and pivoted to Beerus's side, attacking with elbows and knees before jumping again and landing in front of him to let out a mighty yell and deliver a right hook with such devastating force that it pushed back the endless sea of yellow clouds beneath them.
Beerus didn't seem to have moved from the spot. "Surely that can't be all the power you have," he said, not even pretending to hide his disappointment. "I didn't come all the way here just for that, did I?"
At first, Goku assumed that Beerus must have been so fast that he'd been able to dodge her attacks without her noticing before looking down at the ground and noticing the grass under Beerus's feet was completely undisturbed. He hadn't dodged at all. He'd taken everything she'd thrown like it was nothing! Goku looked back up to see that Beerus had raised one paw and stuck out his pinky finger. Before she could even think about blocking, he flicked his finger down at her forehead and knocked her skidding into the ground, digging out a trench and a crater with her body and tearing the back of her tracksuit jacket all to hell.
The pain that shot through Goku's body was so intense that for five whole seconds, she couldn't see, hear, or breathe. Soon enough, everything cleared for her and it at least stopped hurting enough that she could stand up.
"-Sappointed, Kaiou," Beerus had been saying with a cluck of his tongue. "Whis had been filling me in about what I missed on the way here and if that's really your best student, what's even the point of having you train people, anyway?" His eyes narrowed in contempt and he held up a paw that glowed with malevolent purple energy. Kaiou squeaked helplessly and, as far as Goku could tell, looked absolutely certain that he was about to die. That was enough for her.
"Hey!" she barked at Beerus, ripping off the ruined top half of her tracksuit. "Who said I was done?!" Goku balled her fists to her side and gritted her teeth, dropping into a power stance. With a quick burst of a war cry, Goku powered up to Super Saiyan 3. Super Saiyan 3 was taking considerably less effort these days with her training methods but she still had a ways to go before mastering it like she had with the original Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan 2. But even so, she was bleeding power much slower these days and it didn't put nearly as much strain on her body as it had when she'd used it against Boo. "Let's see what you think of Super Saiyan 3!" she yelled.
"Wait, so, did you just skip two?" Beerus asked before Goku attacked, bringing both hands together to slam a sledgehammer blow under his chin, carrying enough force behind it to lift him into the air. Beerus soared high into the sky and Goku struck again, driving a dropkick down onto his head with both feet. Beerus landed back on his feet and looked up at Goku with something only a few notches above contempt. Though Goku's blow had the force to move the God of Destruction, they didn't have anywhere near the power to do any actual damage, either.
'Well,' Goku thought to herself as she brought her hands to her side, 'Let's see how he likes this!' Blue-white light began to gather in her hands as lightning crackled around her body. "Kaaaameee… Haaaameee…" At the last second, she appeared right in front of Beerus, crouching down low to try and get underneath whatever guard he was using. This actually seemed to startle Beerus, earning Goku a smirk before she threw her hands forward. "HAAAAAA!" The massive blue-white beam blasted out of her hands and seemed to overwhelm Beerus, just as she'd done with a near-identical attack against Cell over a decade prior. She kept pouring on the juice, not wanting to take her chances with a half-measure of an attack. The very foundation of Otherworld started to quake, chunks of Kaiou's planet breaking off to be either vaporized by the almighty wind coming off of her or to be flung to the far reaches of Otherworld. Kaiou quickly casted a protective spell over his house but that left him open to be flung away as well.
OoOoOoO
Over at Enma's check-in station, the ogres were flung off of their feet as the entire building shook, bits of the roof falling off and onto the awaiting souls. Enma clung to his desk and protected it with his body as he screamed, "DENISE, I TOLD YOU, YOU CAN'T HAVE THE KIDS!"
OoOoOoO
On Daikaiou's planet, Pikkon was disturbed from the picnic he was having with some of the other warriors as the shaking caused the lake they were near to splash into something approaching a tidal wave. Pikkon acted quickly enough to protect the food and the other warriors with a ki shield even as he scowled in the direction of the godly energy he was feeling. That power could only be coming from Son Goku and he didn't like the idea that she was fighting someone who made her do that.
OoOoOoO
Despite the overwhelming power of the blast that could reduce virtually anything to absolute nothingness, Goku could see something moving in its shadows.
Beerus's paws shot out from the blast and then moved out in front of him to block it, treating the galaxy-shaking beam as if he was being sprayed with a garden hose. He gathered the energy within his paws and clapped them together, snuffing the ki like a candle flame. Goku stared, open-mouthed, as Beerus dusted off his paws, the thin wisps of smoke that trailed off his body the only indication that she'd even done anything at all.
"Well, that was certainly better," Beerus conceded, "But hardly what I'd call a 'Super Saiyan God'." Goku flinched when she realized that the second half of that sentence was coming from behind her. She pivoted around and swung a fist but Beerus battered her attack away with his tail and swatted her down to the ground all in the same motion. Goku cried out in pain as she hit the ground hard enough to bounce. With the simple motion of turning around to face her, Beerus slapped her again with his tail and sent Goku flying into Kaiou's house.
"Oh, come on!" Kaiou cried out in exasperation as his house collapsed on her. In the time it took for the beam to end, Kaiou had been rolled around his entire planet.
"Well, this was a disappointing excuse for a workout," Beerus scoffed as he looked at Whis. "If this is the strongest of the Saiyans, I might as well go back to bed. Let's go try that Vampa planet next."
"H-hey, wait," Goku groaned, pushing the rubble of Kaiou's house off and sitting up shakily. If she hadn't been in Super Saiyan 3, that would have definitely killed her. As it was, she couldn't even stand up. "I… I dunno what a Super Saiyan God is but if you're looking for Saiyans, Vegeta lives on Earth these days and he's almost as strong as me. My son Gohan's a half-Saiyan but he's way stronger than either of us."
That did seem to catch Beerus's attention, both the opportunity to harass Vegeta and the promise of more strong Saiyan warriors. "Earth?" Beerus asked Whis with a raised eyebrow. Whis raised his staff and conjured a miniaturized glowing replica of the planet, about the size of a beach ball. "Huh," Beerus muttered as he put a paw under his chin. "I could have sworn that it was pronounced Ee-yarth." Whis shook his head. "Learn something new every day, I guess. …We've been here before, haven't we?" he asked.
"Yes, Lord Beerus," Whis confirmed. "You visited it nearly seventy million years ago and killed the dinosaurs. Though, I will say, they have made quite the comeback in the last few thousand years."
"Have they really?" Beerus asked. "Well, we'd better get a move on. And for their sake, I certainly hope these Earth Saiyans are worth my time. I just hate to leave a job half-done." Whis tapped his staff on the ground and then he and Beerus were surrounded by a shimmering bubble of rainbow light that zipped off into the sky before winking out of existence, leaving a trail of sparkles behind it.
Goku winced and held the back of her head, grimacing as she started to come out of the pain-induced state of delirium Beerus's attacks had left her in. From the way Kaiou's mouth was hanging open and his antennae were wrapped around each other in a fit of apoplectic rage, she had a bad feeling about whatever she'd said. "...I goofed up, huh?"
OoOoOoO
Back on Earth, they were oblivious to their impending peril. The absurdly large cruise ship that Bulma had rented for her birthday was already humming with activity out on the open ocean, well away from the shoreline. After all, nearly every person Bulma was inviting could fly so why risk the chance of some normal beachgoer getting too close to the ship and messing things up? The crew worked diligently both because they were being paid handsomely for their labor and because they were operating under the stern and watchful eye of the man who just landed on the deck.
"Hey, if it's a beach party, why did mom rent this big boat?" Trunks asked as he and Vegeta touched down.
"Because your mother hates sand," Vegeta explained. "Something about spending a summer wandering deserts or something," he added with a shrug. "Now go to the kitchens and do the snack inventory. And no tasting!" he warned as Trunks scampered off a little too eagerly. "Your mother took into account having enough food for five Saiyans, the last thing we need is Kakarot and I fighting over the last rack of ribs!"
"You're no fun!" Trunks shouted over his shoulder.
"It's not about fun!" Vegeta shouted back. "It's your mother's birthday!"
"Oh, I don't know about that," Bulma's voice teased him from behind, "I want to think I planned a pretty fun day."
"That's not what I meant," Vegeta said with his back still facing her, "I only meant that you're what's most important." He grinned and turned around, preparing to take his wife in his arms and give her a kiss.
So, he was understandably surprised when he was greeted by the sight of his incredibly estranged brother and the strange purple-and-silver clad alien standing between him and Bulma with a purple bag over their shoulder. They were even shorter than Tarble. Hell, they were shorter than Trunks or Goten! They had gray-blue skin with almost no discernible features on their face. Their oblong head was bald, their eyes were black, their mouth was basically just a thin line. Even their nose was just two small holes on their face like some sort of reptile.
"Hello, Vegeta," Tarble said brusquely, his arms folded over his chest.
"I… Hello, Tarble," Vegeta replied with a nod. He felt an incredible tumult of emotions being in his little brother's presence again. It had been nearly twenty years since the last time they'd spoken and that had been a very ugly meeting. Vegeta had nearly killed him. There was still a part of him that carried bitterness about Tarble's rejection, that he'd abandoned his brother and his species in their time of greatest need. A part of him that wondered how differently the various battles of his life might have gone with another Saiyan by his side, especially with the knowledge that his brother could become a Super Saiyan. But, as he knew from his own journey, he wasn't proud of the man he had been before. It was a good thing that Tarble had shown the strength to resist Vegeta's demand to join them on their foolish bid for cosmic conquest. It probably would have just ended with Tarble dead like Raditz, Nappa… and himself. Mostly, he felt shame for the time they had lost, times he should have tried to reach out. If he had been a better man, perhaps… "I'm glad to see you–"
"You can save it," Tarble told him. "I'm not here as your brother and I don't want to hear about your attempts to make amends. I'm here for Bulma's birthday as Bulma's friend. Nothing more." Vegeta frowned and looked downcast while Bulma gave him a sympathetic glance.
And yet, despite Tarble's words, the strange alien stepped toward him. "Hello," she greeted him politely in a high and cheerful voice. "My name is Gure. I'm Tarble's wife. It's so nice to finally meet my brother-in-law."
It took Vegeta a moment to process what she had even said. He was slightly startled, but only insofar that Tarble even being married was a surprise. After all, the galaxy was filled with a myriad of beings of all shapes and sizes. When the moment passed, he smiled and bowed low at the waist. "The honor is entirely mine, Gure. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Seeing Vegeta smile actually gave Tarble a moment's pause. He didn't even know Vegeta could smile. Could Bulma really be right about him?
"Well, I'm gonna go get changed," Bulma said, "And as for you two…" she took a small cylindrical device out of her handbag and pointed it at Tarble and Gure. It resembled some kind of handheld tool, like a ratchet wrench or a screwdriver. It had various sliders and buttons with a blue jewel light inset in gold on the top. She pushed a button and slid a slider and it made a strange, high whirring noise. Tarble's Galactic Patrolman suit and Gure's purple dress and silver boots glowed and were suddenly transformed into more beach party-appropriate attire. Tarble had a tropical floral print shirt and shorts like Vegeta and Gure got a flowing ocean-themed skirt and yellow bikini top, which was slightly amusing given her species' apparent lack of breasts. Bulma pushed the button again and the whirring stopped. "There we go," Bulma said as the couple stared at themselves and one another, stammering in shock. "Don't worry, your clothes will change back when you leave. So, relax, make yourselves comfortable! The others should be here soon. I'll be back in a bit!" She sauntered away while Tarble and Gure just stared in amazement.
"I knew she was brilliant but this…" Tarble muttered in shock. Vegeta couldn't help but smile with pride.
Thankfully for Gure, Bulma's device hadn't made her bag disappear and she quickly took a camera out of the bag and began to eagerly zip around the ship to take pictures. After all, she was excited to be on a new alien world and wanted to have some memories.
"Perhaps later, we can…" Vegeta started to say but Tarble cut him off with a huff and moved to join his wife. "Right," Vegeta muttered to himself as he turned to leave. He had things to take care of, anyway. This was Bulma's day, not his.
OoOoOoO
The Nimbus cloud puttered through the sky toward the horizon and the shoreline with Suno and Goten riding on top of it, Suno having elected to go with the cloud rather than flying under their own power to minimize the risk of sweat stains before they even got to the party. As they flew, she looked at her phone and frowned reflectively. She had texted Gohan earlier that she and Goten were on their way to the party and she hadn't gotten any message back yet, not even something like an "Okay!" or "See you there!"
She tried her best to push it out of her mind. It was probably nothing, after all. It wasn't like there was a single thing on earth that could actually harm her son or her daughter-in-law. Suno just had to accept that these were typical maternal neuroses once your baby bird had flown the nest and was living on their own. Her own mother had probably felt the same kind of worry once Suno moved out to be on her own.
'Besides,' she thought to herself, 'It's Gohan. The worst he could do is probably get distracted in one of his textbooks or something.'
OoOoOoO
"You know, I had been in the middle of something," Gohan protested.
"Is that something more important than me?" Videl asked coyly while sitting on the edge of Gohan's desk. She had pushed one of his textbooks out of the way to make room for herself.
"Well…" Gohan started to say before Videl changed her posture. She sat back on her hands and opened her legs and suddenly any thought or concerns about the upcoming deadline of his graduate essay dissolved into nothingness like Majin Boo. "...No," he decided. Those damn spats of hers.
"Smart boy," Videl said with a grin before leaping off the desk and tackling her husband onto the floor.
They still had plenty of time before the party, right?
OoOoOoO
"Kaiou, how much longer is this going to take?" Goku groaned. She still hadn't been able to move from the rubble of Kaiou's house that Beerus had knocked her into and was impatient to get going. Especially after Kaiou had explained to her what she'd said when she was all loopy. Everyone on Earth was in trouble!
Kaiou, for his part, was grumbling and grousing as he pushed his hands down Goku's back along her chakra points. Mostly because Goku had destroyed his home yet again. Sure, a house was a lot less work to replace than a planet but still! "You got hit by the God of Destruction," Kaiou reminded her as soft white light flowed through his fingertips and into Goku's body. On top of healing her body, he was also repairing her clothes. "You should consider yourself lucky that this is all I have to do and that I'm not sewing you back together! Besides," he continued, "Once I heal you, what are you even going to do? Run back to Earth and fight him again?"
"Nah, that won't work," Goku admitted. While she was more aware than she used to be of the fact that she actually got stronger every time she came close to death, she doubted it would be enough to close the distance against Beerus. "I don't think there's anything I can really do to him or even Gohan by himself. Not even if we tried the same thing that we used on Boo. Gotenks wouldn't be strong enough, either. I don't even think if Vegeta and I did the fusion dance and went all out if whatever that was could beat him. Not that I can really know," she continued with some small amount of annoyance in her voice, "Since I can't sense his darn ki! Is that a God thing?" she asked, turning her head to look back over her shoulder at Kaiou.
"Precisely," he confirmed, "And don't move your head!" Goku frowned and looked forward again. "It's more than the fact that he's stronger than you, and he is much stronger than you, a mortal just can't sense God ki at all making it impossible for you to detect his movements or tell where an attack is going to come from. Meanwhile, Gods can sense mortal ki just fine. We have to, it's kind of part of the job. So, you'd be at a huge disadvantage right from the start. The only way you could even start to stand a chance against him is if you somehow became a God yourself," he told her with a dismissive chuckle. Maybe, if they were lucky, they could contact Xī and get her to go to Earth to basically act as a stalemate. After all, Beerus couldn't kill Xī without–
"That's it!" Goku shouted as she jumped up into the air, startling Kaiou and knocking him onto his back. "Beerus said that he wanted to fight a Super Saiyan God and, for some reason, he thought that was me. What if that's actually something I can become?"
"Fantastic idea," Kaiou muttered as he pulled himself up to his feet and dusted himself off. "But do you even know what that is? How would you go about doing that?"
"...Iunno," Goku conceded, making Kaiou face fault right back onto the ground. "Vegeta probably doesn't know either," she added as Kaiou started to stand back up. "If he did, I'm sure he would have brought it up by now as something he could do to get stronger than me." She put a hand to her chin and tapped her foot thoughtfully. If she couldn't ask Vegeta about Saiyan stuff, there wasn't really anyone else alive she could ask.
That was when it hit her.
OoOoOoO
"Oh," Pikkon remarked once he was over his initial shock. "So you're one of those Super Saiyans."
"There's other Saiyans here besides me?" Goku asked. Pikkon shrugged lackadaisically.
"I think there's like… five or six. Maybe ten. Definitely not more than twenty. I beat them too," Pikkon told her, "Centuries ago."
OoOoOoO
"That's it again!" Goku declared with an excited snap of her fingers. "I just have to find some of the dead Saiyans in Otherworld!"
"It's not a bad idea," Kaiou conceded, "But it could take forever! If any of them are even still here and didn't just decide to let their souls be reincarnated at some point."
"Nuh uh," Goku countered with a grin. "If they're anything like me, they'd be way too excited by the idea of fighting forever at their peak to ever think about that." Then she pulled her legs up and crossed them together as she floated in mid-air, closing her eyes and bringing her hands to rest on her hips, sitting in lotus position.
"Now what are you doing?" Kaiou asked.
"Trying to focus on the ki in Otherworld," Goku explained. "All I have to do is find a ki like mine or Vegeta's."
Even as powerful as Goku was and with how well-trained her ki sensing abilities were, Kaiou was certain this was going to take some time, like combing the desert for a single lost diamond ring. So, he started weaving a spell to rebuild his house, his fingers tracing glowing blue-gold sigils through the air. But it turned out he shouldn't have bothered, as he'd only just started getting the frame of the house together when Goku's eyes snapped open.
"Found 'em!" she cried, startling Kaiou enough to disrupt the spell and causing his chimney to crash down on his head. When he got up again, rubbing the large bump on his head in pain, Goku was already long gone.
"Darn Instant Transmission," he muttered. He really should get one of the other Gods to teach him Instantaneous Movement. "...But then what would I do with the car?" he muttered.
OoOoOoO
Tarble had left Gure to her own devices, talking to the party staff and taking pictures, generally enjoying herself while he went up into the sky and flew around the planet a couple times. He just wanted to get a better understanding of the newest member of the Federation since he was obviously far too focused on the war campaign to do any sightseeing. Honestly, he had agreed to take this trip more for Gure than for himself. It was a beautiful planet, he had to admit. It reminded him of Gure's home world, Bu'douen, the world he had landed on when he'd been exiled from Planet Vegeta. Where they had lived, been happy, and fallen in love. How it had been before their world had been targeted by the Arcosian Empire.
It was the sort of planet that any other heartless, brutal Saiyan would have loved to conquer. Their moon produced insufficient Blutz Wave Radiation to trigger an Oozaru transformation but that was hardly any trouble for a Saiyan who knew how to make an artificial moon with their battle power. For his own part, Tarble felt a profound sense of wonder at likely being the only member of his race to appreciate the beauty of a full moon. It was a peaceful, giving, compassionate world lush with natural resources and trusting people. Barely any defenses, barely any real warriors to speak of in a cosmic sense. Gure's species had done away with warfare and violence as a concept before the Saiyans had even destroyed their first home planet, all conflicts defused by mediation and cooperation toward the common good.
Even being weak enough to be exiled from Planet Vegeta, it only took Tarble a few years to become the strongest being on the entire planet. Not that he'd ever really intended to become a great warrior. It was just one of those things that happened by nature of his Saiyan blood. But strength had been inconsequential compared to the happiness of the place he came to recognize as his true home, compared to the woman he met who would become his wife. They lived happily ever after. Before their world had been targeted by the Arcosian Empire.
When agents of the Empire first made their move on Bu'douen, there was a part of Tarble that had found himself wishing that he had taken Vegeta up on his offer to unite and fight against Freeza. On the off chance that his brother hadn't been insane and that he was actually the Super Saiyan (which turned out to not be so insane after all), he might have parlayed his willingness to join the fight into getting his brother's aid in defending the planet.
Then again, Vegeta or Nappa were just as likely to have eaten Gure's people.
The Bu'dou people had first welcomed Cooler's men with open arms and offered diplomacy and kinship despite Tarble's desperate pleas to turn them away but there was precious little that they realistically could have done against the Arcosian forces. A fact that became painfully clear once Cooler's men made it known that the resources they demanded from Bu'douen would make life for the current population untenable. They were pacifist and peaceful nearly to a fault but not to such a degree that they would willingly condemn their people to die for another peoples' benefit. So, for the first time in a thousand years, Bu'douen made war.
In one of the universe's great ironies, the Bu'dou would have doubtless been massacred if Tarble had not been sent there out of shame over his weakness. Where generations of bloodlust and a religious fervor for war had failed, it was love and grief that had made Tarble strong. Seeing the massive death toll the Arcosian Empire had incurred against his beloved home had drawn a power out of Tarble that he never would have believed he had and he managed to rally the planet's flagging forces to defeat the agents of the Empire.
Their triumph was a great day and a victory against Cooler's forces had earned Bu'douen the attention of the Galactic Federation. They brought aid and relief that aided in the planet's rebuilding efforts and military personnel that would help prepare them for any future involvement but, for Tarble, it was a bittersweet moment. It reminded him of the Saiyan blood that ran through his veins and, worse still, had infected the home he loved with the poison of war. Worst of all, because of his power, he felt compelled to enlist with the Galactic Patrolmen and join the front line of the war, meaning that he barely saw Bu'douen anymore. So, this brief reprieve on Earth was a welcome one, even with the present company taken into account.
Tarble finished his brief survey of Earth and was hovering over the ship, preparing to float back down to the boat and get back to his wife. He could see what he assumed had to be some of the other partygoers coming toward the ship, since from what little he had seen in his survey of the planet, flight didn't seem to be a common attribute. Tarble looked down to the part of the ship where he could see what appeared to be a stage area with a red curtain drawn to block the view of the ocean and some of the workers were preparing what looked to be the sound system, plugging wires into some large and cumbersome speakers.
"Easy," one of the workers was saying to two others as they moved to put one of the cube-like speakers on top of another. "Easy! Just a little bit, come on..." Tarble could see even from this distance that the speaker was in a rather precarious position and the workers' grip was unbalanced. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Look out!" The speaker tipped over and started to fall backward onto the workers who had been carrying it, clearly large and heavy enough to do some damage. Tarble dove down to intervene but, before he could reach them, Vegeta was already there. The King of All Saiyans held the speaker by one corner effortlessly in the palm of his hand and set it carefully on top of the speaker it had been meant to stack on. "M-mister Vegeta, sir..." the one in charge stammered out, shrinking under Vegeta's stern gaze. Tarble frowned and waited to hear one of his brother's colorful threats, probably involving cracking open the skulls of the woman's children like eggs and sucking out their brains or something.
"Is everyone alright?" Vegeta asked in a calm and even tone. The three workers nodded and Vegeta folded his arms. "That's good. Get two more people to help you finish," he instructed them. "It's better to be careful than to rush. The last thing we need is to ruin Bulma's day because I had to fly one of you to the hospital for a broken leg." He was stern and slightly harsh but still almost... kind. Tarble couldn't hide the surprised look on his face when Vegeta turned around to face him. It was a look that he replaced with a scowl almost as soon as they made eye contact again and he started to quickly move away. "Tarble, wait!" Vegeta protested.
"I told you, I'm not interested," the Exile Prince told his brother harshly. "So you didn't kill your slaves for the slightest mistake, what does that prove?"
"They're not slaves!" Vegeta insisted as he followed after him. They wound up rounding a corner behind one of the small structures on the deck of the cruise ship, ensconced in shadow. "That's not the point," Vegeta said as he practically cornered his brother against a wall. "Just... Listen to me, by the Gods! I know who I was. I know what I was. I was a bastard, the worst of the worst. I'm not proud of the man I was, I'm disgusted by him. But I have been trying, for years, to be better. I've given my life for this planet! I've literally helped save the entire universe! Doesn't that count for anything?"
"No, it doesn't!" Tarble countered, shoving his brother hard in the chest. Vegeta staggered back more in shock than from Tarble's strength, a fact that he was painfully aware of. Despite all he'd done, all he'd grown, the gulf he could sense between their powers was still immense. "You can deny it all you want but I know what you really are. I know what we are. These humans, they don't know anything about Saiyans, they don't know about the world that made us, that placed you on a pedestal as their chosen one from the first time you took a breath. I look in your eyes and I can still see our father's face," Tarble spat. "I still remember one of the last things he ever said to me. You were born lucky and I was lucky to be born."
"He was wrong," Vegeta admitted, "I was wrong, we all were! I've learned to accept that-"
"And yet he still calls himself King of All Saiyans-"
"What will it take to make you give me a chance?" Vegeta demanded. Before Tarble could respond, their argument was interrupted by a theatrically slow clap.
"Not that this isn't fascinating entertainment," said a voice that came directly from their nightmares, "But I came an awfully long way and I hate to feel like I'm being ignored."
Tarble looked past Vegeta and Vegeta slowly turned to face the voice. A kind of fear gripped Vegeta's heart that made him feel like a small child again. No one, not Freeza, Cell, Boo, no one had made Vegeta feel a terror like this. Both of the Saiyans dropped down to their knees before the being they had never expected to see again in their lives.
"L-lord Beerus," Vegeta stammered, barely able to speak as his forehead pressed against the deck of the ship, "We are honored by your presence."
Beerus was leaning casually against the railing of the ship while Whis had transformed his staff into a delightful little sun umbrella to give them both shade from a sun that couldn't have caused them discomfort if they walked across it. "It looks like you've put together quite the party," he observed. "Whis, did we get an invitation?"
"No, Lord Beerus," Whis said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "I don't believe we did."
Beerus looked down at Vegeta with no small measure of cruel glee glowing in his yellow eyes. "Pity. Must have gotten lost in the mail."
SSV/N: Hey, just as a little sidebar, if you'd like to know what little extra bit of writing I've been working on (at least working on enough to share it), then you can check out "Star Wars: A Binary Sunrise" on both this site and AO3!