Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Saiyajin You Always Were ❯ The Saiyajin You Always Were ( One-Shot )

    "That one has so much power..." the wizard mumbled to himself.
    "But sir--he's not--you can't--"
    "Oh, yes I can!" Babidi made a snap decision.
    Dabura's eyes widened, and his lapse of attention earned him a solid blow to the head from Gohan.
    "What's going on?" the teenager questioned, mostly to himself.  "I know he could've blocked that."
    "It won't work!" the demon king pleaded, seemingly to no one.  "Think of the others -- you had a hard enough time getting them to your side!  And this one has shown no unnatural malice whatsoever."
    "I'm confident in my abilities.  Now shut up!" Babidi snapped.  He chuckled and waved his fingers over the crystal ball.  "With power like yours, we could wipe out droves of people -- and your friends, of course -- and Buu will be resurrected in no time!"
    "Nn!" the Saiyajin's eyes widened, and he clutched his head.
    "What's wrong?" Gohan whipped around.  He quickly dropped to the ground and rushed to the man's side, and then looked to Kaioshin for an explanation.
    "Babidi's trying to take control of his mind!  But--I don't understand..." he stammered.  "Babidi's magic only works on truly evil souls..."
    Vegeta gasped.  Goku let a scream rip from his throat, burying his hands into his hair in desperation.  His power jumped rapidly, until his shout reached a deafening pitch.  He writhed on the ground, blood starting to leak down his fingers and arms from his scalp.
    "My dad?  Evil?" Gohan's eyes bulged in disbelief.  "No, that can't be right.  If my dad's anything but good, I'd hate to think what we are!"
    Kaioshin shook his head, holding a steady, saddened gaze on the man being possessed.  "Well, it's happening.  He has to fight it now.  Hopefully, he should be able to fight it off."
    The prince looked on, struck silent by the sight.  His tight throat hardly allowed him to breathe, let alone speak.  "Kakarrot..." he mouthed.  This couldn't be right -- Kakarrot, of all people, being taken over by an evil wizard?  It ought to be me...I'm the only one here with a black heart, he thought to himself, almost guiltily.  He flinched as Goku let loose another scream, his hair lengthening as he thrashed in agony.  Vegeta took in a sharp breath, somehow knowing what was happening.  The back of his mind ached as his pride bent and snapped, but he was numb to that at this moment.  The other Saiyajin's anguished cries distracted him from everything but the scene before him.


    No...no, you can't do this to me!  I can't?  Why not?  You don't want it?  I don't understand!  I'm not--- You can't tell me you don't think you've got evil in your soul...  W-well...not a lot of it!  But just enough.  Why do you deny it?  Because...I know I'm a good person!  A good person?  Don't lie.  You may not act on it, but you know all about your tendencies toward bloodlust.  I... You---we---are Saiyajin.  But who are you?  I'm you, of course.  N-no...you can't be! I know that look in your eyes, when your rage explodes, when you're frustrated, when you're confident -- all the time.  I know that look.  You want to kill...you know it...  But I don't!  But you want to.  Doesn't that make you just as bad?  No...n-no!  It can't!  I'm not!  You're losing your composure...  Stop it!  Leave me alone!  Give in to it.  You know you want to become what you were always meant to be.  Become a Saiyajin.  Become Kakarrotto.  No!  I am Son Goku!  I may be a Saiyajin, but I'm not going to---to---  You don't seem to mind it when Vegeta calls you Kakarrot.  You know how proud he is of you when you act like one of your people.  Vegeta...  Yes, Vegeta.  I can't let him down!  Then let me take over...  No!  Let me take over!  No...!  Let me...take over... No... Let...me...take...over...!


    A piercing scream spring from Goku's vocal chords, and slowly died away as his violent thrashing calmed.  He rolled onto his back, clutching his head and breathing heavily.
    "Kakarrot...?" Vegeta asked softly, dropping to his knees.
    "It's too late," Kaioshin mumbled hopelessly.  "We're doomed...he's got Goku..."
    "No!" Gohan balled his fists, glaring at Dabura for a lack of ability to do so to Babidi.  "That can't be true!  My dad is strong -- he can fight back something like that!"
    "I'm afraid it is true, Gohan," the Kai shook his head.  "There's no doubt about it."
    Shaky breaths escaped and were drawn into Vegeta's flared nostrils.  He shook his head slowly, standing up and pacing to Goku's side.  "Y-you...better not have ruined our one day...t-to see each other, Kakarrot," the prince growled, although his voice rose to a whimper as he spoke.
    "Nnnn," Goku groaned, raking his fingers through his hair as if in distress.  "Get out...!"
    Vegeta bit his lip, unsure of what to do other than look on helplessly.  "When I die---that is---K-Kakarrot, today's...probably the last time I'll ever see you..." he disregarded the Kai and the half-blood as they watched quietly.  "You better not have...screwed it up..."  He knelt down and gingerly touched the other Saiyajin's hand, drawing back when Goku's head jerked to the side.  He placed his hand to Goku's left, leaving the other to his right, and, staring concernedly at the M on the man's head, did the same with his legs.  "Kakarrot, say something," he pleaded, now on his hands and knees over Goku.
    Almost inaudibly at first, the Saiyajin let out a low growl.  His eyes opened slowly, somehow very different than before.  As his vision came into focus, he smirked.  "Hello, Vegeta."
    The prince's brows knitted in confusion for a moment.  "What are you smirking about?"  But shock dominated his features as he realized...  "K...Kakarrot?"
    "Good job," the other man replied coolly, dealing Vegeta a playful blow to the shoulder that caused him to crumple onto Goku.
    "Dad...?"
    "Goku!  You must resist Babidi's wishes!" Kaioshin urged him.
    "I'm Kakarrot," he replied with a grin, "and I don't intend to follow anyone's wishes but my own, so don't worry."
    Vegeta scrambled to his feet quickly, backing away as he stared with fearful, disbelieving eyes.  "What happened?!"
    "Quite simply, I came to my senses," Kakarrot explained.  "Babidi didn't take control of my mind -- he just changed my perspective."
    Gohan balled his fists.  "I don't believe you!  You're not my father!"
    Goku tilted his head to the side, smirking with purest insanity traced into his eyes.  "Of course I am, son."
    "Stop it!" Vegeta yelled sharply, smacking Kakarrot across the face one way, and then the other.
    "Stop what?  I thought you always wanted me to be a true Saiyajin, Vegeta..."
    His eyes twitched not in rage, but in disappointment.  "Not like this!  Now...stop!" Vegeta's harshness failed to cover desperation.
    "You wanted to fight me while I'm at my most powerful, right, Vegeta?  Well?"
    Vegeta didn't speak, ice and flames and venom in his eyes as he held his gaze on Kakarrot.  "I---I..." his balled fists slackened as he failed to come up with an argument.
    "Hmm?" Goku's fangs glinted.  "I'm ready to fight you, Vegeta.  Isn't this what you wanted?"
    His breaths came irregularly, intensely, shallowly.
    "Dad, we have to stop Babidi from reviving Buu, first!"
    "No," Kakarrot's tone dropped to a deadly whisper.  "We do not.  Leave me alone."
    As Gohan quivered in fear, Kaioshin reminded him quietly, "He's not your father, Gohan.  Now, he's a monster, who doesn't care what happens to any of us...be careful."
    "A monster?" Kakarrot questioned, thinking for several moments.  "I suppose so.  But, Vegeta, the offer still stands.  Are you going to fight me?  Wasn't that your ultimate goal for today?"
    "My goal was not...t-to fight Kakarrot!" he answered, trying to steel his confidence.  "It was...to...to..."
    "Speak," Goku encouraged him, taking a step closer.
    Vegeta paced backward in turn.  "To..." his head dropped, "to...see...Goku."
    Kakarrot inhaled sharply, grabbing his skull and wincing.
    The prince lowered his eyebrows in deep thought, and then spoke slowly.  "Babidi, take Kakarrot and I somewhere large and open where we may fight freely -- alone."  He turned to Gohan and gave a small nod, and both he and Kaioshin seemed to understand the plan immediately.  They would have to take out Dabura and Babidi before Buu could be revived, and he would deal with Kakarrot, obviously the only one suited for the task.
    "...All right, all right," Babidi replied reluctantly.  He remembered Goku's power and cackled under his breath.  As soon as he took Vegeta out, Buu would be over half of the way to full power.  It didn't matter that he had almost no control over the Saiyajin -- he would still get the power, and as far as fighting Vegeta went, no coercion was necessary.


    "So you finally came to your senses, huh Vegeta?" Kakarrot raised his eyebrows, grinning.
    "I wish you would come to yours," the prince crossed his arms resolutely.  "Why did you let this happen to you, Kakarrot?"
    "I thought you wanted me to be a true Saiyajin," he repeated what he had said earlier.  "Like I said -- only my perspective has changed.  I see now, that I am too different from the humans."
    "That may be true," Vegeta narrowed his eyes, "but the Kakarrot I knew didn't think he was like a human anyway.  He got along with them.  He was himself, even if without some of the proper attributes of a Saiyajin."
    "But now I know that I can't deny my bloodlust...I've decided to become what I should be."
    "You always were," Vegeta muttered with furrowed brows.
    "What do you mean?"
    He bit his lip thoughtfully, warily keeping an eye on the other Saiyajin.
    "I thought you wanted me to be proud, to stop being so sentimental and docile!"
    "I---I...I didn't..." he began to protest.  But that was what he had said -- there was more shame in trying to deny it than to admitting to the fact.  "I didn't know what I wanted."
    Kakarrot blinked slowly, confusedly.
    "Don't you understand?  Who you were was who you were supposed to be, whether I thought so or not!" he spat.
    "No, I don't understand," the other man replied candidly, and he took in a sharp gasp, grabbing at his head once more, obviously in great pain.
    "And I think I knew that -- I think I did.  Even though you weren't the Saiyajin I thought you would be, that I wanted you to be, I still called you Kakarrot, even after I knew your true nature too well.  You always were a true Saiyajin to me -- perhaps I simply never realized that...I..."
    "Nnn," Kakarrot groaned, collapsing to the ground.  "Shut up, Vegeta!"
    Despite himself, the prince strode closer to the other Saiyajin, kneeling down beside his once more writhing form.  "The Kakarrot I know would stay true to himself, and fight with every inch of his life to do so.  And you're not dead -- well, you are.  But you..." he trailed off, realizing the wetness building up around his lids and quickly trying to blink it away.  Kakarrot was breathing panicked breaths, moaning and shouting as his power plummeted.  He rolled to his side and exhaled heavily as his long hair shortened once more.
    "Vegeta..." the Saiyajin whimpered.
    Using one hand to turn the man over onto his back, and another to push his bangs away from his forehead to reveal a welcomingly empty space.  "You're back," he muttered.
    "I can't believe...I let that happen to me..." Goku's eyes teared up.  "I'm so sorry...I...it was like someone else took over my mind, even though it was me, and I knew what I was doing and everything...and I..."
    "Shh," Vegeta smoothed his hand through Goku's hair.
    "And I...you...do you still want to fight, Vegeta?"
    "What?  But Babidi---"
    "Vegeta, what you said before is true -- this might be the last time we get to see each other.  After I put you through all that, I'm not gonna use the rest of my time jumping through Babidi's hoops trying to keep him from resurrecting his monster.  I think Gohan can handle it, even Goten and Trunks if things get out of hand," he smiled.  "So if you want to fight, we can."
    "Do you want to fight, Kakarrot?"
    "Well, you know better than anyone how much I love fighting."
    "Answer my question."
    "I mean, you wanted to, right?  To have one last chance to beat me?"
    "I can't."
    "Huh?"
    "I saw you -- Super Saiyajin Three," Vegeta sighed bitterly.  "Always one step ahead.  But of course I wouldn't be opposed to a fight if you wanted one," he smirked.
    Goku chuckled at the situation, sitting up and putting a hand behind his head as he laughed.  "I know that's what you were looking forward to."
    "No, fool, you heard me earlier.  I just wanted...to see you.  Fighting seemed to be the most likely and convenient way to do so -- even if I had to put up with a tournament and your droves of acquaintances."
    "Well, you see me now, right?" Goku beamed warmly.  "And you've got all my time, as long as I have a moment to say goodbye to the others just before I leave."
    "Kakarrot..."
    "So what now?"
    "Well...I can't deny that my blood is singing to fight you."
    "Of course," Goku grinned.  "We can make a real match of it.  Just like the first time we fought, right?"
    Vegeta nodded, getting to his feet.  Just the thought of finally being able to fight Goku again, for real, sent the adrenaline rushing through his veins.  "Ready?"
    The other Saiyajin stood as well, falling into a fighting stance, grinning eagerly.  "For you, Vegeta?  Always."


    "Well, no matter," Babidi chuckled.  "We've still got that boy and the Kai rat to draw energy from."  He paused and turned to his crystal ball.  "Dabura!  New plan!  Deal the boy as much damage as you can!  It may even be enough to revive Buu..." he trailed off, wringing his hands.
    "Yes, sir," Dabura answered, turning to Gohan.  "We will resume our fight."
    "I thought you might say that," Gohan narrowed his eyes, powering up.
    "You already know now that he's strong, Gohan," Kaioshin warned.  "Be careful..."


    "As...I expected..." Vegeta collapsed, his hair fading back to its normal dark brown hue.
    "Heh," Goku smiled.  "You're really strong, Vegeta.  I mean, I had tons of powerful people to train against in the afterlife, but you improved that much all by yourself..."
    Vegeta shrugged.  "Whatever."
    "I'm, uh...I'm really sorry about leaving you here alone, Vegeta," he turned his gaze toward the ground.
    He simply shrugged again.  "I'll deal with it."  As he had before.  Kakarrot, the only other Saiyajin, the center of his world, gone -- and as they had been the last seven years, diversions would be few and far between.  His long lifespan would render him lonely in the end.  Perhaps once his family was gone, he would spend the rest of his years cruising space.  But he felt a tie to Earth now -- a need to stay at the only place he had ever called home after the destruction of his birthplace.  And it was Kakarrot's planet.  If nothing else, he had to stay and protect Kakarrot's planet.
    "Whatcha thinking about?" Goku tilted his head, noticing Vegeta's withdrawl into himself.
    The prince's head snapped up to meet the other man's eyes as he was shocked out of his thoughts.  "You.  What I'll do without you."
    "Hm?"
    "The past seven years have been agony -- more at first than later, before I learned to distract myself with the stuff of everyday human life.  But what will I do when I've no family, no more distractions?  Seven years were bad enough; what would centuries be?  I don't even want to remember that I won't see you after all that, either."
    "Vegeta..." Goku leaned close to the other man, wrapping his arms around him for a few moments before gently letting go.  "I know you can do enough with your life in the time you still have to become a good person.  I know you are one even now -- you've just gotta be able to prove it to Enma-sama when you die."
    The prince hung his head, shaking it slowly.  "It doesn't matter."
    "Don't lie," Goku lifted Vegeta's chin, forcing the other man's gaze to connect with his.  "It matters to both of us, very much."
    "It does," Vegeta diverted his eyes, glancing off to the side.
    Goku smiled.  "Yeah.  So I was wond---" his sentence broke off abruptly.  "D-do you sense that?" he whispered.
    Vegeta gave a solemn nod.  "Undoubtedly that's his Buu monster..." he slumped his shoulders.  No matter what Goku had said, he would without a doubt disregard his promise to spend time with Vegeta and leave to take on this new threat, this new challenge.
    "He's strong...I hope Gohan's all right," he breathed worriedly.  Vegeta nodded and winced, ready for the oncoming suggestion that they go make sure.  "But I sense Goten and Trunks on the way, too.  If all three of them work together, they should be able to handle him."
    Vegeta's eyes widened.  "So you're not..."
    "I said I was gonna spend my time with you, Vegeta.  I might not be the smartest guy, but I'm not that forgetful."
    "Th-thank you," the prince's eyes warmed as his mouth turned up in a ghost of a smile.
    Goku tilted his head forward, returning the smile.  "I really missed you, Vegeta."  Hesitantly, he leaned forward and placed a kiss on the tip of the prince's nose.  He pulled back and tilted his head, shrugging his shoulders coyly as a blush creeped across his cheeks.
    Within a few seconds, Vegeta's face flashed through a series of emotions: shock, confusion, contemplation, amusement, and finally, happiness.  "Kakarrot, you've got horrible aim," he teased in a whisper, leaning forward and sinking his lips into those of the other Saiyajin.  His hands played over Goku's muscles, his scrapes and bruises, his arms and chest and back.
    "Nn," Goku replied in protest merely to Vegeta's comment, running his broad hands over the prince's body.
    With the echoes of Buu's power cast off and ignored, the two Saiyajin made the most of the time they had.


    "There was one thing," Vegeta muttered softly as the two leaned against the rock face for support, gazing deeply into one another's eyes, "that I wanted you to do for me, Kakarrot."
    Goku tilted his head, his fingers tracing along Vegeta's jaw.  "Yeah?"
    "I've got a surprise for you," he continued huskily.  "Turn around and close your eyes."
    "Okay," the Saiyajin beamed, pressing his eyes shut and spinning about.
    Holding his stare soberly on Goku's back, he lunged forward and dealt a sharp blow to the man's neck, rendering him unconscious.  Vegeta knelt down and grabbed the last senzu bean.  "When you wake up, you won't have to deal with any of this.  Consider it my final gift to you.  Goodbye, Kakarrot."