Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Golden Son Rise - Part Two ( Chapter 18 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ. However, being a fan fiction author does have its perks. *grins sadistically and points at Vegeta* There's one of 'em right there.

Mirai Vegeta: *wearing a pink bunny suit and on his knees in front of Mr. Satan* Please, Mr. Satan! You are much stronger than me! Please let me train under you so I can become a great fighter!

Goku: *watching in the background* *laughs his head off*

Brenda: *evil cackle* Vegeta tried to ki blast the floppy disk I have this story saved on. Bad Veggie-chan! *shakes a finger at Vegeta* As I said, being an author has its perks. Mwahaha!!

Vegeta: *thinks* When I get free of this author's evil writing, I swear I'll-

Brenda: *telepathically hears Vegeta* Ah ah ah, Veggie-chan! Careful what you think, or I may take pictures and pass out copies to everyone. *smirks*

Mr. Satan: YEEAAH! You BETTER respect me, or I'll grind your sissy bones to dust! You know why?! Because I'M the one who defeated CELL! If it wasn't for ME, you'd all be dead right now! MWAHAHAHA!!!

Brenda: *twitches* *pulls out a giant mallet* *starts pounding the annoying fraud to a bloody pulp* DIE DIE DIE!!! Who said you could speak during my disclaimer?! DIIIIEEEE!!!! *pauses and looks at Vegeta* *waves her magic pen and turns him back to normal* Hey, Vegeta, you can be free of your punishment if you help me blast this bakayaro to the next dimension.

Vegeta: *cracks his knuckles and smirks evilly* With pleasure!

Mr. Satan: Eeep.... *runs like the coward he is with Brenda and Vegeta giving chase* I'm gonna die!!!

(A/N: If only it were so.... *sighs* And I didn't kill Mr. Satan, much as I wanted to, because I might want to beat him up some more later on. ^_^)

It was as if a second sun had flared into existence. Bardock shielded his eyes with his arm, unable to look at the source of the light.. The air around him literally hummed with energy, the wind whipping his hair away from his face. After a few moments, the light dimmed slightly, making it so he no longer needed to protect his eyes. He lowered his arm, blinking as his eyes tried to adjust to what they were seeing.

Golden ki sparkled around the boy who stood in Goten's place. Wait. Something was wrong with that observation. Bardock once again reached out with his ki senses to touch the ki of the golden haired boy and found that it was not a different child who stood in Goten's place, but, rather, it was still Goten. Different, but him, nonetheless.

The differences, though, were enormous. The ki of this boy who was his grandson almost overwhelmed him, washing against his mind like the ocean against a small and insignificant rock. Unlike Cold's ki, coming in contact with Goten's ki was not a mentally degrading experience. Goten's ki was warm and bright and tingly, searing Bardock's soul and yet doing absolutely no harm to him. It was the absolute antithesis of the energy that Cold gave off.

What is he? What happened to Goten? The transformation that his grandson had gone through was unlike any transformation he had ever seen before. When Saiyans transformed, they became giant monkey-like beings, or ozaru. But to become ozaru, they needed the light of a full moon, or something that simulated it. No such light had been present when Goten had become... whatever he was. Something about the transformation tickled the back of Bardock's mind, as though he might have heard about something like this once, but he couldn't remember what he had heard.

"It... it can't be!" Vegeta whispered hoarsely beside him. He was literally frozen in place, his eyes wide in shock and... was it fear? "How can a child - a mere child - obtain that which no Saiya-jin has been able to achieve in over a thousand years?! How can a child who is not of royal lineage even have the ability?! Much less the grandson of a third-class warrior!"

Obviously, he doesn't realize I can hear him, said some part of Bardock's mind which was not numb with the same shock that the prince felt. He was more amused than offended by the prince's behavior. No doubt he still held the misconception that power was determined by caste. Bardock knew otherwise, of course, because he himself had broken the barriers of caste by becoming more powerful through training and battle than many elites ever dreamed of becoming, though he tried to hide this fact from those around him.

"What do you mean, Vegeta?" he asked quietly. Somehow, the Prince knew what was going on, and Bardock wanted to be let in on whatever it was.

Appearing more like the child he was than he ever had before, the young Saiya-jin no Ouji tore his wide-eyed stare from the spectacle before them and looked up at the older warrior. "He's... he is Super Saiya-jin!"

Thoroughly startled by the unexpected change in his opponent, Cold stood motionless for several long moments as he studied the differences between the child before and the child who now faced him. Lacking the ability to sense ki and having no scouter, he had no way of knowing his young enemy's strength, but the evil king had complete confidence in his ability to defeat any opponent. His son must have been careless when he had faced this child, and so had paid for his mistake with his life. Cold would not make the same mistake as Frieza. The Aisu-jin looked at the boy with curiosity and contempt, rather than fear.

That, as he was soon to find out, was a big mistake.

"Fascinating light display," he sneered. "Tell me, does it do you any good?"

"More than you know," Goten smirked. He waited calmly for Cold to make the first move, knowing that if he attacked first, it would probably catch the tyrant off guard and kill him before the fight had had a chance to play out. That would be no fun.

"Well, then, let's see how well you do!" With a look on his face that almost seemed jovial, if it weren't for the hint of sadistic pleasure that flickered in his eyes, the Aisu-jin attacked, flying forward to hook a fist into the Saiyan boy's stomach, knocking the wind from the pathetic monkey.

Or that's what was supposed to happen. In reality, the boy slipped past his Cold's fist, gliding through his defenses and jabbed a small elbow into the lizard's side. Without pausing, Goten followed through with a one handed chop to Cold's back, slamming the creature into the ground. A small crater formed where the Aisu-jin landed. Despite the aches these attacks gave him, Cold was by no means finished. Rather, he was furious, angry with this gaki for even being able to hurt him! He launched himself back into the fight, this time adding more power to his punches. If this kid thought he could humiliate him, then he had another thing coming!

Super Saiya-jin.

A myth, a legend, almost an impossibility. And yet he was seeing it manifested before him in this eight year old half Saiyan. No wonder he was able to defeat Frieza, thought Vegeta, almost bitterly. How did I ever think I could defeat this child? He could kill me with a flick of his finger if he wanted to. Clenching his fists, he squeezed his eyes shut to block out the sight of glowing form before him. It isn't fair! If anyone were to become a Super Saiyan, it should be me, not some half-grown, half-breed, third-class child! I am the Saiya-jin no Ouji! Descended from the Legendary Super Saiya-jin himself! Anger flooded through his veins. How dare he surpass me! How dare he become the stuff of legend before me! It. Is. Not. Right!

Opening his eyes again, he came to the realization that there was nothing he could do about it. Goten was worlds beyond Vegeta in strength, so it didn't matter that he came from a third-class lineage. His frustrated anger vanished like wind-chased fog and his head sagged. He knew that he was sinking into a depression, but he didn't care. There was no need for a Saiya-jin no Ouji anymore, not with someone this strong around. Strength was everything to the Saiyan race, and one of the things that had kept the Vegeta family in power, aside from their greater strength and potential, had been the fact that they supposedly had descended from the Legendary Super Saiyan. Now a Super Saiya-jin had appeared, and he had not come from the royal family. One of the basic foundations of Vegeta's authority, his life, had been stripped from him. The young prince had never been so close to tears in his short life.

"What's wrong, Vegeta?" a voice said softly, startling the prince out of his thoughts. Trunks had backed away from the fight at some point. Noticing the glum look on his chibi-father's face, the demi-saiyan had decided to find out what the problem was.

"Goten is Super Saiya-jin," Vegeta despaired, hanging his head. "I am the Prince of all Saiyans, and yet the grandson of a third class soldier has outstripped me, has achieved the legendary status before me. I am left with nothing but an empty, meaningless title." A tear formed in the boy's eye, then slowly trailed down his jawline until it fell to the ground. "All my life I have been the strongest. Though at times others were stronger, they always knew that when I grew to be their age, I would surpass them. Without status, I am nothing, Trunks. Don't you see?" Vegeta lifted his head to stare at Trunks with wide haunted eyes.

The sight of his father, no matter how young, so visibly wounded and vulnerable disturbed Trunks. He was used to his father always striving to outdo Kakarot and his family, always raging against the fact that the idiot third-class and his spawn kept managing to surpass him, but Mirai Vegeta had never given up, never accepted defeat. In chibi Vegeta's eyes, that was what he saw. Defeat.

Trunks could not stand by and let his father be defeated like this.

"In the future," he said quietly, "you are a Super Saiyan, too."

Vegeta blinked, caught by surprise. "I... am a Super Saiyan?"

Trunks nodded, smiling ruefully. "I don't know if you're the strongest. Somehow, your fights with Goku, or Kakarot, always get interrupted before an outcome is determined. But," he added with fierce pride, "I know that you never accept defeat, that you always work to become better. In my eyes, that makes you as strong as any Saiyan ever born. I'm proud to call you my father."

Stunned by this admission, Vegeta could only look at Trunks in wonder. He is stronger than me, and yet he is still proud of me? How-

"Keep in mind, Vegeta," his future son added, "that Goten and I are from the future. It only makes sense that we're stronger than the normal Saiyans of this time. Besides, in our time, you're even stronger than me or Goten." The last part was said with a huge grin.

Gratitude, an emotion that was almost foreign to the prince, even at this young age, filled Vegeta's heart and again he came close to crying. With his words, his son had just saved Vegeta's pride and sanity. "Thank you, Trunks," he whispered.

He's stronger than I thought! Goten was close to panic as his face once again came in contact with the rocky landscape. Groaning, he picked himself up off the ground, wiping blood from his split lip. Almost before he could react, Cold was on him again, fists, feet, and tail sending blow after blow to rain down upon the boy. It was all he could do to dodge and block most of them, wincing as every once in a while a blow landed. So when he saw an opening in the Aisu-jin's defenses, he quickly took advantage of it by sending a large ball of ki into Cold's face. While the lizard was distracted by the pain, Goten brought himself into a familiar stance, cupping his fists, the heels of his palms touching.

"Kaa..." Blue energy sparked in his hands.

"Mee..." He pulled his hands to one side, the ki gathered growing exponentially.

"Haa..." Cold was focusing on Goten again, quickly recovering from the surprise and pain of the last attack.

"Mee..." The ball of blue ki was huge, almost too painful to hold anymore. Just a little longer.... now!

"HAA!!!" As Cold blasted towards the young Saiya-jin, Goten thrust his hands forward, launching the attack. The bright blue beam shot forward, slamming into the lizard's chest before he even had a chance to dodge or block. Screaming, the Aisu-jin was blasted into the ground, plowing a trench a hundred meters long. Panting heavily, he readied another ki blast, preparing to send it after Cold.

Unfortunately, he never got the chance to use it.

At the edge area where the fighting was taking place, Trunks, Vegeta, and Bardock watched closely. Only Trunks could see everything that was happening, since King Cold and Goten were traveling too fast for the other two to see most of the time. However, they all saw Goten crash into the ground with earth shattering force. Despite the strength of Goten's kamehameha, Cold had recovered with impossible speed, phasing out of existence before Goten could send another attack his way. He phased back into existence directly behind the young boy and brought his doubled up fists to smash into the back of Goten's head.

"Goten's in trouble," Trunks worried, gnawing on his lip. "I didn't think Cold would be this strong." In his mind, he weighed his options. Should he rush to his friend's aid? Or should he wait and see if Goten would pull through?

"Does he need our help?" Bardock asked, unknowingly echoing the chibi's thoughts. Trunks watched the fight pensively as Goten struggled to keep up with his opponent, taking more blows than he was landing.

"No," he answered reluctantly. "Goten's not finished yet, and he'd be mad if we thought he was too weak to handle this guy on his own."

Feeling dizzy from his bone jarring impact with the ground, the injured demi-saiyan picked himself up and shook his head, trying to clear the stars from his vision. Big mistake. Instead of clearing his vision, more stars appeared and he nearly fell back down as a wave of pain beat inside his head. So stupid! he berated himself. I knew better than to let my guard down after I attacked. Baka, baka, baka! Rubbing his sore head, he hastily erected a ki shield as Cold bombarded him with hundreds of small energy blasts. Defending against this left him feeling drained and exhausted. Can't keep this up much longer. The barrage of ki stopped and Goten looked up to see why Cold had stopped. The Aisu-jin was slowly advancing on him, his tail swishing back and forth lazily.

Goten's mouth suddenly felt dry. If King Cold reached him, he knew that it would be over. In a last, desperate attempt to delay the outcome he foresaw, Goten charged up his strongest kamehameha, pouring everything into it. If this didn't work, he didn't know what he would do.

His hands shot forward, and the deadly energy sizzled through the air, straight towards its intended target.

Trunks held his breath as he watched Goten prepare a final attack. This was it. This was the deciding point of the fight.

Dazzling blue light reflected off of everything, blinding anyone who tried to look directly at the source. Through his ki senses, the purple haired boy felt the attack fly towards the Aisu-jin with blurring speeds. Cold wasn't moving. Surely he wouldn't be able to dodge the blast. It was too fast, and he wasn't doing anything to get out of the way. He was just standing there, placidly watching his death speed towards him...

Lifting one hand, the alien batted the blast away.

Straight towards Trunks, Vegeta, and Bardock.

Sinking to his knees in shocked horror, Goten could only stare at the rising cloud of dust billowing from where his friends had been standing when the blast struck. Frantically, he searched for their kis-

-and found nothing. Not a trace or whisper of ki could be felt from the smoking crater.

"NOOOOO!!!!" he screamed, guilt and loss tearing at his soul. All of his power had gone into that blast, and Cold had deflected it, sending it flying towards his friends. Vegeta and Bardock were too weak to have even had a chance to survive. Trunks... had Trunks been powered up enough to live through it? If so, then where was he? Goten couldn't find his friend anywhere. With his heart in his throat, he realized that not even his best friend had survived the attack. His attack. "NOOOOOOO!!!" he screamed again, his voice raw with emotion. Vegeta, Trunks, grandpa... what have I done?! With a wordless cry of grief, he blasted towards the crater, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, they had survived.

He slammed into a wall head first, falling onto his rump. How had a wall suddenly appeared like that? Dazedly, he looked up and found King Cold standing over him, smiling frostily. "Oh, what a pity. You killed your little friends. How sad." The lizard's voice oozed with false concern. Sobbing, the demi-saiyan blinked back tears and got to his feet. The Aisu-jin's tail whirled through the air and slammed into the boy's side, knocking him down again. Tears of pain and loss sprang to his eyes as he once again pulled himself to his feet, ignoring his protesting muscles and bleeding wounds.

Perhaps it was the stress of being lost in the past for the past four days. Perhaps it was the grief from losing his grandfather twice in as many days, or the guilt from being the cause of his friends' deaths, or anger at his tormentor. Perhaps it was the merely the physical pain he was enduring. Perhaps it was a combination of all of these things. Whatever it was, it caused something in the innocent, sweet, caring boy to snap and he almost seemed to visibly change before Cold's eyes into something far more deadly and powerful. His power skyrocketed to levels he had never bothered to reach for.

He didn't know what the attack was. It just came instinctively. Gathering his newfound energy into his fingers, his arms stretched out, he was only half aware of what he was doing. The ki in his hands flared a brilliant golden color. The color of the sun dawning on the horizon. The color of a Super Saiyan in all his glory. The color of King Cold's death. He clapped his hands together and the golden ki of each hand clashed, combined, and suddenly released itself in the tyrant's direction. Still yelling, Goten poured everything into this nameless attack. His grief, his anger, his loss, his pain, his soul. Everything he had was directed at the being who stood before him.

For a moment, the only thing that could be seen was the luminous light of Goten's attack. It consumed everything until the whole world was a golden color. And then it was gone. And so was King Cold.

Utterly spent, the youngest child of Goku dropped out of the Super Saiya-jin form, his hair changing back to its original black color, eyes becoming the obsidian windows of his soul once more. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Fear momentarily flickered through Trunks's mind as he saw the kamehameha wave flash towards him. The blast would kill him, Bardock, and Vegeta, he knew, unless he did something. Flaring into Super Saiyan, he mustered up every ounce of speed he had and grabbed his chibi-father and Goten's grandfather, racing away as fast as he could manage. Even so, he nearly didn't make it. Constructing a hasty ki shield, he managed to protect himself and the other two from most of the damage the explosion caused. He landed a good distance away, panting heavily as he set Vegeta and Bardock down.

"Whew! That was close!" He glanced at the other two to make sure they were all right, only to find them staring at him. "What? What's wrong?"

"You... you're a Super Saiyan, too?" Bardock gaped. Goten and Trunks are both Super Saiyans? Unbelievable!

"What? You think I'd let Goten become a Super Saiya-jin and not be able to myself?" Trunks was incredulous. "I am, after all, Vegeta's son!"

Beside him, Vegeta was grinning like there was no tomorrow. "That's right. Trunks is my son!"

Anything else that might have been said was cut off as a flash of golden light flooded the air and blinded them. The world was golden, filled with a deafening roar as the pure energy of Goten's attack crashed into his enemy. Barely audible amidst the cacophony was his wordless cry, heard despite the distance that separated the trio from him. Then it was over and the world returned to normal. The silence that ensued was almost as deafening as the roar that had preceded it.

His ears ringing, light spots dancing in his eyes, Trunks carefully picked his way over to the newly made valley. His mind echoed with questions as he peered through the settling dust. What was that attack? I've never seen anything like it! Where did Goten find that strength? Did he win? Or did- He quickly stopped thinking, unwilling to acknowledge the possibility that Goten might have lost, instead concentrating on searching through the rubble. Behind him, Bardock and Vegeta silently searched in other parts of the crater.

A flicker of sea green caught his eye. Rocks and debris that had been lifted into the sky during that last awesome attack had fallen on top of the child, but part of his green gi was still visible. "Hey, guys, I found him!" he shouted as he rushed over to push the rubble off of his friend. Bardock and Vegeta quickly joined him.

Lying face down in the dirt, his clothes torn, tattered, and singed, Goten's body was badly bruised and cut, bleeding from dozens of wounds. Bardock reached out and turned him over gently, then picked him up and tenderly cradled his wounded grandson in his arms. "He's still alive," he said simply, gratefully. "Though just barely. Maybe you should give him that senzu bean, Trunks."

Trunks smiled, relief written clearly on his face, and dug a hand into his pocket in search of his last remaining senzu bean.

End of chapter and of the Golden Son Rise duology. Reviews are appreciated. ^_^