Chapter 01

This fic takes place after chapter 66 of the Dragon Ball Super manga.

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Kakarot did it, he really did it this time!

There have been other occasions where the naivety and kindness of that clown had possibly disastrous consequences, but nothing compared to what he did this time!

Until this day, by nothing but luck, things, although they took a disastrous turn, worked out in the end.

When Freeza was spared on Namek by this clown, he returned for revenge and brought his father along, who at the time was an entity as powerful and dangerous as the icy bastard. For nothing other than an interference that violated and altered the timeline itself, Trunks appeared to right that wrong.

That wasn't the only time.

Kakarot's inability to finish what he started always turned against him and consequently those around him.

Another example of this recurring mistake was letting that mad scientist, Dr. Gero, live to create and plot against him for years.

Vegeta never let an enemy live because that was exactly the same mistake Freeza made in sparing him. Therefore, he knew better than anyone how motivating hatred was.

Allowing someone drowned in resentment to continue living was no different than asking to be killed later.

As he experienced defeat at the hands of Kakarot, his half-breed son, and those Earthlings, he himself wanted to destroy every single one of them for that affront to his pride. That wasn't only motivated by having his blood spilled by a low-class vermin, but by having his life spared in the end.

He, the prince of the warrior race, was reduced to such a pathetic state by inferior beings...

That was a grudge that Vegeta held for years and helped him grow stronger.

Once again, hatred proved motivational as well as how foolish it was to try to gift an enemy with the naive concept of a second chance.

It took Vegeta a long time and a family to remotely begin to feel an iota of gratitude for the opportunity gained on that fateful day he first set foot on Earth.

However, this only served to give voice to his reason; trying to redeem genocidal sociopaths was a very bad idea.

Still, Kakarot didn't learn that lesson.

Of course, Vegeta didn't deny his own mistakes by underestimating opponent after opponent. Letting Freeza transform when he could have finished him off in his first form. Allowing and still helping Cell absorb that android, who he undeniably resented for breaking his newly regained pride and arm with the transformation gained by nearly killing himself from so much training.

Against Majin Buu, he preferred to sell his soul to Babidi in exchange for a chance to settle the score with the only reason he kept training than to join forces and end this threat before it escalated beyond the point of no return.

In the end, despite all he did to satisfy his pride, he wasn't the only one to make mistakes at that time. Kakarot, under the special conditions of the other world, where he was blessed with a body that didn't age and an absurdly vast reserve of stamina, achieved a third limit break for the Super Saiyan. Apart from the fact that that clown had hidden this power during their fight, such power was more than enough to destroy the pink gum and prevent chaos from spreading across the world and universe.

However, Kakarot was second to Vegeta when it came to bad decisions.

Perhaps it was even a curse running through the veins of Pureblood Saiyans, or hybrids, considering what Gohan did in the fight against Cell and later Gotenks against Majin Buu.

Suddenly, Kakarot seemed desperate to have a successor who could continue protecting the Earth in his place. First, with Gohan, someone who repudiated fighting, despite the terrifying potential he possessed. Then with Goten and Trunks, children who would rather chase after glowing bugs than train.

On this occasion, in the final fight against Kid Buu, Vegeta tried to make up for his mistakes by reviving the Earth's population killed, somewhat indirectly by him, and using the Genki Dama. The wish used to resurrect the dead and put aside the evil beings opened his eyes for good to what mattered most.

When Vegeta sacrificed himself in an attempt to eliminate Majin Buu, he accepted that the family and life he created on Earth were above his pride. Being revived despite his previously established condition proved that point.

Vegeta had changed.

In that moment of acceptance, Vegeta did the unthinkable and recognized that Kakarot was better. Of course, there were numerous reasons for this, and he believed that having something to protect was the greatest of them. Vegeta got the same and a new motivation to move forward. That desire to be the best, however, remained. They were no longer different, they were the same. Pure-blooded Saiyans, living in the peace and harmony of a minor planet that didn't even enter Freeza's radar.

They both had families and the desire to protect growing stronger.

Time and determination made him reach the level of power that Kakarot possessed in his third form without needing the transformation. Simply, Vegeta no longer wanted to copy others and find his own way, as Gohan had done.

This desire proved out of reach when Lord Beerus came along with the notion of divine power in the Super Saiyan God form.

The power of this transformation was simply beyond belief. There was no way to reach that level and close this new power gap created between them, so Vegeta swallowed his pride and again sought the same power that Kakarot possessed. Unlike the clown, he didn't go through any ritual. Vegeta wanted to be better and not a copy, learning to create God Ki on his own after receiving guidance from Whis.

To see the demonstration of such power was one thing, to feel it coursing through his veins was quite another. After this experience, a whole new realm opened up, revealing how insignificant he was before.

Things kept escalating and a new form was obtained, but this time it was something they both did at the same time, so there wasn't even a blow to his pride with that nasty feeling of following in someone else's footsteps.

After entering this realm of power, Kakarot again, with his unassuming idiocy, unleashed the wrath and envy of that Zamasu, and Goku Black was born.

Just as Vegeta's chance to prove himself against Kakarot without being selfish and putting the lives of many at risk was born.

No, Vegeta was fighting to save lives!

And yet, he lost.

Against a damn copy.

Was Vegeta really that inferior?!

Filled with frustration, he threw another year of his life away in that cursed Time and Spirit room, to get the necessary power and triumph over the copy; over Kakarot!

However, all those efforts were in vain when Goku Black and Zamasu merged. As had happened in the past, against these cursed beings that rely on fusion and absorption to fight, he had to lower himself to avenge Bulma's death from that timeline.

Vegetto was an entity of incredible power, the main reason Vegeta hated fusing was that when he did, he was conflicted about returning to normal.

That's how tempting such power was.

Then, right after he managed to show himself superior and go through the terrible experience of fusion, Kakarot showed that he had managed to master Super Saiyan Blue before he did.

After training so hard! Even using the damn room didn't solve anything!

Even worse, The King of Everything, lord Zen'oh, simply appeared and destroyed the timeline that Trunks had fought so hard to save!

An entire multiverse was destroyed because Kakarot pissed off an apprentice God of Creation.

Still, the idiot was unaware of his actions or chose to ignore everything because there was a solution when Whis found a similar timeline for Trunks to live in.

Though brooding over everything that happened, Vegeta forced himself to not think about it and focus on mastering Super Saiyan Blue. No matter what, he no longer wanted to fall behind and let things fall into the hands of the calamity-creating clown.

Then, just like that, Kakarot goes and does it again.

Destroying a multiverse wasn't enough, Kakarot seemed to want more and got himself a tournament between universes where the prize was not to be erased from existence.

The bastard put at risk everything Vegeta had built and sworn to protect!

As the appeased hatred inside him began to surface once again, he tried to focus on what mattered most, believing that there would be no real challenge in this tournament and all would be well.

After all, how many mortals could have reached their level?

There were a few, but only two participants from the eleventh universe were relevant. He faced the one who had defeated Kakarot in the exhibition match, a chance to experience the power of the completely mastered Super Saiyan Blue.

Despite everything, and his claim to be the best, he was only getting a draw at best. Kakarot, on the other hand, was showing his arrogance and superiority by ignoring everyone else so he could face the strongest guy in the tournament.

Jiren the Gray. According to the balloon that Vegeta was facing, this guy if you took into account only his skill as a warrior, was stronger than a God of Destruction.

A mortal without God ki had reached such an absurd level.

There were other mortals who were more powerful than Vegeta.

This information sharpened that feeling of inferiority that had never gone away and seemed to get worse with time.

In facing Jiren, Kakarot was able to tap into the power that Vegeta was desperately trying to obtain first and it pushed him to his psychological limit, exploding out of him in a mixture of anger and indignation.

Result? For the first time, Vegeta achieved a form of his own that no one else had. His power rose to new heights along with his confidence to finally show who was the best and thus kick Jiren's ass... and learn that it still wasn't enough.

He lost without being a real challenge to the most powerful mortal where Kakarot took another step forward and surpassed him again.

Self-esteem gained, pride restored, the power achieved... all destroyed in the blink of an eye as he saw that silver hair and felt the pressure of an undetectable yet immeasurable power.

It seemed like some kind of sick joke that only the universe found funny.

No matter what he did, felt, and achieved... he couldn't surpass Kakarot.

Almost accepting this fact in an attempt at self-pity, Vegeta didn't know what else to do.

After the tournament and once again having the consequences of that idiot's actions mitigated, life returned to normal. Except that, as always, one of Kakarot's loose ends returned to bite them where it hurt the most.

Freeza's existence became his new motivation to seek more power, fully aware that that monster wouldn't stay long without trying to destroy the Earth. Just think how far Vegeta, a Saiyan born with power in the thousands, and Kakarot, in the tens, had come and compare it to Freeza, who was born with millions in fighting power and was able to close the gap created in ten years of training and divine power in a few months.

Freeza was someone with the potential to reach the level of a God of Destruction without needing God ki, just like Jiren.

Kakarot didn't know or preferred to ignore that fact, as he tended to do with everything else.

Fortunately, Freeza was not long in returning and had hardly surpassed the level that he and the clown had reached in the Tournament of Power.

Unfortunately, the cold demon didn't come alone. Along with him was proof of his lack of pride; an unknown survivor of the race that made him take steps to prevent the birth of a warrior that could threaten his empire and came to be responsible for his death twice.

Broly was a Saiyan banished by King Vegeta to an inhospitable planet and there he grew up in isolation from the rest of the universe.

The mere existence of this new Saiyan irritated him. Someone who lived in isolation never had a life or death challenge, and without having anything meaningful to protect, managed to reach almost unprecedented levels of power.

It made no sense!

Vegeta trained at absurd gravities, for years breaking his body down to its limit time after time, facing enemies that could destroy all life in the universe, and even honing his race's legendary transformation to extract all the potential within himself, not to mention God ki and the new transformations he obtained. Yet this Broly could not only stand up to him, but he could also push him around without even knowing what a Super Saiyan was!

Incomprehensible!

After using his divine form and putting this mutant Saiyan, possibly the one the legend actually referred to, in his place and trying to finish the fight, the bastard returned with a power that Vegeta knew very well but decided to abandon.

Oozaru's power, yet retained in human form.

How had he never thought of that before? The defeat on Earth, the obsession with immortality, and the chance to take revenge and rule over the universe in Freeza's place made him ignore almost everything and unconsciously search for more power devoid of weaknesses.

Oozaru's form had numerous by making him an extravagant target, becoming slower, and less rational even though he was in control, in addition to the difficulty of controlling his power. Such a form was rudimentary and inefficient, even more so after knowing Super Saiyan. However, what would happen if this lesser power was combined with the much-acclaimed transformation of his race?

Oozaru brought out all the instinctive savagery of a Saiyan.

Super Saiyan was an extreme emotional manifestation.

Couple the two with unbelievable base power and you had another entity that threatened all that was created and that Vegeta had vowed to protect at all costs.

However, before he could go all in, Kakarot suggested the fusion dance, as he could not continue fighting any other way. Although the clown was stronger, Ultra Instinct couldn't be accessed at will, leaving him behind in this dispute.

As usual, Vegeta refused, believing that his new blue form could give this Broly a run for his money. Kakarot didn't give up, knowing exactly what to say to convince him otherwise.

With the fate of Bulma, Trunks, and Bulla in the balance, he couldn't refuse.

Broly's power was completely illogical, surpassing what Vegeta could show during the beating Freeza took and even accessing a form similar to that used by the sixth universe Saiyan, Kale, and later Kefla.

However, the same was true for Gogeta. His power was enormous. Without taking away or putting away, he was stronger than the Gods of Destruction and Broly managed to make Gogeta take him seriously.

Although it was a one-sided fight after Gogeta took on the blue form, it didn't take away from Broly's merit and title as the strongest Saiyan. Kakarot would be the strongest if he could use Ultra Instinct, otherwise, even Vegeta was stronger than him.

Objectively speaking, considering the power Kakarot had in the Tournament of Power and what Broly demonstrated, it made Vegeta the weakest of the race he carried the title of prince.

Even though he disguised and disregarded this issue, there was a shadow clouding his heart with this reality.

Vegeta was weak and could do nothing on his own.

It was as simple as that.

Probably even Freeza would surpass him at some point and be left behind.

To make matters worse, Kakarot decided to tutor that mass of uncontrolled power, all for the sake of a new challenge for when he mastered Ultra Instinct because Vegeta definitely couldn't give him one.

Unlike the other times, Vegeta kept quiet about these stupid decisions, he demanded that Broly never get his hands on God ki, or else the next time he went crazy, only an angel or Zen'oh could stop him and thus destroy another timeline in the process.

Fortunately, Beerus and Whis sided with him and that bastard had to swallow, as he really planned to teach God Ki to Broly at some point in the future.

Being slowly consumed by these thoughts, Vegeta continued with his training to protect what mattered and put aside whatever discouraged him from continuing to try until the latest threat appeared.

Moro the Planet Eater.

A demon over ten million years old, whose power seemed to know no bounds.

In their first encounter, Vegeta and Kakarot suffered a crushing defeat at the decrepit hands of this old goat, having their energies consumed in the process along with most of the planet Namek.

Even more than being considered weaker than a nearly dead opponent, what irritated Vegeta was Moro's way of fighting.

Magic was the stuff of cowards, not warriors.

All Vegeta looked for was a fair fight, which is why he disliked mergers so much.

So he decided to swallow his pride again, something customary after so long, and go to the planet with the most techniques he knew, to see if he could kick this annoying magic's ass and have a real fight.

It was on Yardrat that Vegeta learned about one of the reasons Kakarot had gains and greater power growth than he did.

Spirit Control.

Vegeta, for as long as he can remember, only trained his body and nothing else. Any and all other forms of training were irrelevant. He prized pure power and only training that pushed him to his limits to obtain it.

This barbaric line of thinking, as Saiyans used to be, was holding him back; preventing him from reaching his full potential.

It took almost two months of training for him to balance his own spirit and get more power than he dreamed be capable of in such a short time.

It seemed that he had trained for years inside the Time and Spirit room when in truth Vegeta had gained access to his original power; the latent power that he had left untapped through lack of balance.

With this exorbitant increase in power, complete mastery of his new blue form in a way that no longer aggravated his muscle mass, and a new technique, Vegeta returned the favor and dishonor by saving Kakarot from certain death.

Using all he had gained, Vegeta proved himself superior and defeated the old goat by depriving him of all his stolen power, thus saving countless races and planets around the galaxy in the process.

A small step in his long redemption.

With victory in hand, Vegeta was delighted to find that he was still in the running and was a force to be reckoned with.

Moro questioned him about his post-death fate and Vegeta admitted that he hoped to burn in hell. He may have stopped being evil and saved many lives in those years of peace on Earth, but it hardly compared to the damage he caused during a lifetime of servitude under Freeza, filled with slaughter and destruction.

In this short dialogue, Moro turned the tables completely and things went from bad to worse.

Vegeta had his power copied and was defeated and Moro fought Kakarot using everything he had and never stood a chance.

His power, added to that goat, couldn't put even a scratch on Kakarot's body using Ultra Instinct.

Vegeta went back to last place among the warriors of his race.

Even as he mulled over this fact, he just wanted it all to end.

Then the fateful moment came and Kakarot did what he was used to doing and just screwed everything up.

Moro was defeated, beaten, and powerless. He could no longer fight, resist, or anything. All he had to do was kill him, seal him up, or whatever the hell.

Of all the options, Kakarot outdid himself in a ten-year regression and did the same dumb thing he had done after his fight with Cell, handing a Senzu to Moro...

Why?

Seriously, why the hell?!

It didn't make sense!

While Vegeta had screwed up, a lot, in the past, he didn't come close to Kakarot's feet, and in that, he was proud to be inferior!

The clown was insane!

To make matters worse, Moro had copied the powers of Meros, who turned out to be an angel in training.

Moro not only had the powers of Vegeta and millions of living beings but those of a damn angel!

Moro had acquired the Ultra Instinct!

With each passing second, the bastard became more dangerous and Vegeta could do nothing about it!

Then it happened.

A million-year-old demon knew exactly how to break a supposedly unbreakable man.

In reality, it was easy and Vegeta had done the same thing countless times before.

That must be why what happened next seemed to be some kind of divine punishment.

During the fighting and confrontation around the planet, Moro fed off the energy of the inhabitants and could easily identify the jovial Ki of Kakarot's progeny.

The weak point of an unbreakable man was the heart.

Ultra Instinct required a calm heart and the near non-existence of emotions, so the shock caused by the loss would certainly undo the technique.

Whis and Beerus left the planet to answer the Grand Priest's call and were not there to help or even warn about what the demonic magic was capable of doing.

Kakarot could easily match the speed of the old goat, but Moro was still more vicious and cunning in attacking the Lookout and the people there. Although Kakarot had acted in time, the attacks used were aimed at each person in the place.

By instinct, as the divine technique should be, Kakarot saved his wife and granddaughter closest to him and moved to help the others.

However, he couldn't save everyone even if he wanted to.

Trunks did what he could and saved his best friend who was by his side. As for Bulma, she protected her daughter in her arms, and for that, she had paid the price with her own life.

Vegeta fought all the way to the end of the fight without knowing it, affected by Moro's fusion with the planet when he failed to destroy Kakarot's motivation and his body could no longer retain such power.

When Moro was finally defeated, the news reached his ears and Kakarot didn't even have the courage to look into his eyes.

Pure rage took over him, reflected in the power he let out unchecked, and made the entire galaxy tremble, almost destroying the saved planet. But, unlike what Kakarot had done to Moro, he quickly stopped him.

"Calm down, Vegeta!" Goku asked, almost pleadingly. He didn't want to hurt this friend of his... even more than he had already done. "I-I screwed up this time... What I did is unforgivable, but I can't let the planet and the people who live on it pay that price!"

"Kakarot, you bastard!" Vegeta roared with blue eyes, almost injected with red from his desperation. "You had him in your hands! You could have ended it all! Yet, for some sick reason, you gave him a damn Senzu?!"

Goku said nothing. There was nothing that could be said. After spending some time with Merus and understanding the way he dealt with criminals, Goku wanted to live up to the expectations of this sacrificed life in order to get the power he needed to protect this universe, where killing was not the answer and that people, all of them, could redeem themselves if only they tried.

Vegeta was an example of this.

However, his convictions failed him, and he failed his best friend.

"After messing up like that, you have the nerve to tell me about not letting others pay the price? What about the price I paid?!" Vegeta would not forgive Kakarot this time, he swore he never would! "What about what was taken from me, what are you going to do about it?!"

"Gather the Dragon Balls and fix everything." There was nothing more Goku could do.

"Yes, you will." Without a shadow of a doubt, Kakarot would do, Vegeta would be sure of that. "Do exactly the same thing you do every time your idiotic choices bring destruction as a result!"

For someone like Vegeta, who was known for making mistakes of that sort, to be so possessed to that extent was unheard of. However, no one could take away his reason for being angry. Even Gohan wasn't happy, remembering what happened during the fight with Cell and what would have happened if he hadn't gotten angry.

Without a shadow of a doubt, everyone would have died at the hands of the green android and the universe would burn until Beerus decided to do something about it.

Piccolo thought about how irresponsible it was to let Goten and Trunks fight for the fate of the Earth. There were times when Goku was more reckless than he should have been, but no one really cared because the consequences were minimized by the existence of the Dragon Balls.

Not to mention many other incidents that occurred over the years.

Goku wasn't just attracting trouble, he tended to be one himself.

So it wasn't long before Shenlong was summoned and the first seed of fear was planted.

"Those killed by demons cannot be resurrected!" The Eternal Dragon gave his definitive answer to the wish made.

The spheres of Namek were used next when the necessary waiting time was over and Vegeta was seething with hatred but stood firm while caring for Bulla, all that was left of value that he had built up in his life.

"Those killed by demons cannot be resurrected!" Porunga mirrored the response of his Earthling counterpart, unknowingly creating roots for the growing fear in the hearts of those who expected a different answer.

Vegeta was losing control, and every time he looked at Kakarot, he saw nothing but a corpse who was still unaware of his own death.

As the tension grew, there was only one means and opportunity left to set things right.

The Super Dragon Balls.

Surprisingly, Whis and Beerus were more than willing to help and even managed to get Vados and Champa to cooperate in the cross-universe quest with a suitable bribe of food that Vegeta was more than willing to provide.

Finally, the most powerful thing in existence after Zen'oh himself, capable of restoring multiple universes in a matter of seconds, rejected the request made with the same lines as the lesser dragons.

Demonic magic didn't just kill, it destroyed body and soul, denying the very existence of that which was destroyed as an eternal curse.

Exactly what happened to Jiren's master in the past.

There was no hope.

Not even the Grand Priest was able to help and Vegeta stood on the edge, feeling something unknown; this dark emptiness in his chest.

There was more than one occasion when he went years without seeing Bulma and Trunks without feeling anything, not even missing them...

Probably because he knew they would be there when he returned.

This time, however...

"Kakarot!" Vegeta exploded into his most powerful form, calling out the name as if reciting a curse, and everyone knew what was coming. "Fight me, you damned worm!"

"V-Vegeta..." Goku didn't know how to respond, nor if he should.

His first and oldest friend would not return.

Bulma was permanently dead.

The one who showed him the world outside the forest and started all the adventures in his life was gone forever because of his selfish decisions.

Goku was as broken as Vegeta, except that his rival also lost his firstborn.

"Fight me, or I will rain hell on this universe!" Vegeta swore at the hesitation of this cursed clown, and those who knew him knew that he was more than capable of carrying out his threat.

The life the prince had lived before under Freeza's empire, the ease with which he became angry during the confrontation on Earth and tried to destroy the planet, indicated an action that had been repeated countless times.

Above all, that Vegeta was nothing compared to his current self; burning amidst an aura of royal blue flames, showing enough power to destroy a quarter of the universe without even trying.

"I can't allow that." Goku didn't want to go against his friend, as if he didn't feel the right to even try. However, even though he had failed with Moro, he wouldn't sit by and watch a disaster like that. "And I don't want to fight you either."

"You have no option, Kakarot!" Vegeta was increasing his power to the absolute limit and only the gods and angels could stand when he attacked.

Everyone else who assisted in the search for the Dragon Balls needed to be protected while nothing else in the prince's eyes mattered but the one to be destroyed!

"I won't fight you, Vegeta," Goku said decisively, turning his eyes and hair silver to receive the fist in his face without blinking or moving out of place, negating the shockwave and the disastrous effect to the entire galaxy.

The same could not be said for his former rival.

"This... it's not possible!" Vegeta grunted in pain, retracting in disbelief his broken wrist and destroyed hand bones.

He knew he was weaker, he saw Moro, someone using his own power, suffer a similar fate, but none of that mattered!

Even if it took breaking every bone in his own body, he would make Kakarot pay!

Vegeta would have his revenge!

"Not only Bulma wouldn't want that, but you don't have enough power to be my opponent," Goku had no desire to use such words, but he needed to get that idea out of Vegeta's mind.

"Don't you dare say her name!" Vegeta didn't even hear the claim about his lack of power, kicking against the bastard's face and being barred without difficulty by a hand. "You lost that right when you killed her!"

Goku got carried away by those poisonous words and returned the blow along with the emotions he received.

"I didn't kill her!" he shouted in a burst of anger and nearly ripped Vegeta's head off with one punch, burying him in the floor of an alien planet that nearly cracked in half before he lost control and undid his own transformation. "I...I...didn't kill her..." He didn't. What happened was a mistake... one he would never make again, starting now. I'm sorry, Bulma... this is the only way to calm him down.

"N-No matter what you say, Kakarot" Vegeta crawled back to the surface, with black hair and blood dripping down his face, and couldn't even focus on his surroundings, but his trembling body stood up. "This is all your fault and I'm going to make you pay!"

Even if it costs him his life.

"I know." Goku knew Vegeta too well to deny the words spoken. "Then save your anger just for me, get stronger and... I will give you what you want."

A fight to the death with the proud prince of the Saiyans.

"F-finally, you take responsibility for your actions..." That was all Vegeta wanted and he plummeted back to the ground, his consciousness wandering away and all he could see were the stars he used to brave in the past, about to host him on a new quest for power and revenge. The last one...in this cursed life.

Then the darkness embraced him as the memory of the woman he loved filled his broken heart.