I… really didn't think that the whole "evil Buu absorption thing" would happen to me.
That was my first thought after being ripped straight out of my own body, left floating in some void, watching like a helpless spectator while… my what? "evil side"? Dark half? Whatever it was, it took the wheel and started fucking things up. quite rude if I do say so myself.
It wasn't like I blacked out. No, I saw everything. Every evil or arrogant smirk. Every sincere or cutting word. Every attack. Every choice. And worse than that, I felt it. My body moved without my will, my ki burned without my command, my voice taunted and laughed, yes... i would have acted like that... if I didn't care for anything else, such as consequences. I was trapped in my own skin and puppeteered throughout it.
But the worst part for me.
She was better at it. much better.
I had to watch her dominate. Toying with Goku and Gohan like they were Sims characters, then the... maybe perhaps uncalled for, ruthless beat down on the prince. and then finally going toe-to-toe with Gokhan. Matching him, adapting, pushing further and further with every exchange. She burned through Kaioken like it was candy, twisted techniques I'd never even thought to use, and smiled while doing it. That wasn't me. And yet… it was. A version of me stripped of restraint. A version who wasn't afraid to break everything in her way. a better... me.
And when the end came, when Gokhan used a move I thought was Gogeta-specific? the soul punisher. Even with other me's well thought out attempt at stopping it, it weakened her will and damaged her soul enough that I was able to gain control again. I forced myself back into me and... Fused with her. Or maybe… absorbed her. It wasn't like her trick of splitting off and eating me, or anything like the fusion techniques. This was... Permanent. More like a Namekian fusion... makes the most sense.
And suddenly, I wasn't "me" anymore.
I was whole again, but I was also her.
I woke as a pulsing blob of flesh on the grass, slowly knitting myself back into shape, and with it came a flood of memories that weren't mine. A scientist's hand buried in notebooks. A wife's laughter, a mother's tears, a partner's disgust. Years of research, of longing, of rage, of technological prowess put form, and of last moments. And now I had to clutch at what was left of my own mind just to keep from being drowned by it all.
I didn't want to lose myself. But every second, I felt the line blur. Her thoughts bleeding into mine. My memories stitched against hers. Who was I? was a question I had to ask.
By the time my form stabilised barely a head, I was shaking. My head throbbed, my body churned, and my whole being felt wrong. Off balance. Sick. Confused. different... but I had atleast kept myself me.... hopefully.
And that was when I felt it.
A shadow overhead, a ripple of pressure in the air that pressed against my blobby form, before I even looked up.
It was Gokhan.
He floated there, aura faintly lining his outer body, his eyes locked on me. For a moment, he didn't move, only staring, the weight of his presence bearing down harder than gravity itself. Then, without a word, his hand rose. Ki flared around his palm, pure... final. He was going to erase me.
I froze, still sluggish, my body barely knitting itself back into something resembling a shape. For a second, all I could do was stare back, his silhouette framed by the sky, his expression unreadable. It wasn't anger exactly, but not pity either... guilt? No no no.
But something in me snapped, cutting through my haziness as my blobby form grew a mouth and a voice tore out edge with fear, but reigned in with firmness so it wasn't a desperate plea. "Wait!"
And against all odds, he hesitated.
His aura flickered as his eyes widened in confusion, the energy in his hand pulsing but not firing. He looked almost taken aback. "...Huh?"
It wasn't much. Just a sound, half shock, half suspicion. But it was enough. He didn't strike. He waited, staring at me harder now, as if trying to decide what I was planning.
"Don't kill me!" I shouted, the words tumbling out faster than my thoughts. My body lurched, with ki snapping through me in a jagged rush, and in a flash of elasticity, I reformed. In the span of a second, I was whole again.
Gokhan's eyes sharpened immediately, his aura flaring as he shifted into a guarded stance, ready for me to try something. But then he hesitated again, confusion slipping onto his face as he really looked at me.
I wasn't the same anymore. My skin was still pink, my body unchanged in its majin form, but my hair had shifted, no longer pure white; it now flowed in a soft gradient of pink and white. My eyes, too, were different; the sclera had returned to normal, and my irises glowed with a vivid blue unlike before.
I caught the flicker of surprise in his stare and seized it before he could decide otherwise. "Wait-wait, look! I know what you're thinking! I know what I-she, I did! Yes, technically i did kinda sorta beat up your friends and maybe sorta tried to explode the planet" I winced at how that isn't just kinda bad but just bad. "B-but! But! That wasn't really me. Well, it was me, but not me-me. The me you are talking to now, you know, but now it is that m,e since I kinda did absorb her, it's confusing, but! When you used that soul-punishing move, you damaged her enough to free me so I could take my body back from my evil side? And I kinda accidentally just absorbed her, and I'm currently very confused and very sorry and uh. Sorry?" My voice cracked at the end, and I gave him the most awkward, lopsided smile of my life. Because that was a really bad explanation, but COME ON! It's the fusion of Goku and Gohan, currently hundreds of times stronger than me, that is excuding a really fucking scary aura right now! But... maybe it worked?
The silence that followed was unbearable. His aura still burned around him, calm but still very lethal, and his eyes drilled into me like he was peeling away every excuse I'd just spit out. He didn't move, didn't blink, didn't say anything. Just stared. And that staring was making me very uncomfortable. Considering the most social interaction I had began and ended in the same room in the same bed, in the same hospital. And again, big, muscle man who can erase me.
I swallowed hard, trying to fight down the wave of nerves that crawled up my spine. My arms fidgeted against my sides like they wanted to throw themselves up in surrender again.
"Y-you're kind staring and I don't know how to take that," I finally blurted, voice cracking. "Please say something? anything? Preferably something that doesn't involve vaporising me, but if you do, I wouldn't hold it against you... maybe... "
His head tilted just slightly, his expression unreadable. "...So you're saying," he said slowly, his tone calm but heavy, "that the one who fought us… Wasn't you. But the evil side of you that took control of you through eating you, and now, instead of her having absorbed you, you reversed it and absorbed her? meaning she is you now, and that you are... sorry?
"Yes! Exactly! Nailed it in one! Glad we're on the same page," I said, my words tumbling over each other as I nodded way too fast. "So maybe we could uh, not fight now... if you want, I could just also leave you guys all alone and do my own thing and not bother you... uh... yeah...?"
The silence stretched on forever. His aura still flared bright, ready, like he could snuff me out with a flick of his wrist if he wanted.
Then finally, he exhaled, a small sigh that seemed to take some of the pressure out of the air. The edge in his stare softened, just a fraction, and for the first time since he'd appeared, he didn't look like he was one second away from obliterating me.
"…I believe you," he said at last. The calm certainty in his voice almost knocked me flat. His expression shifted, less Gohan's sharp caution and more… Goku's easy trust. "You should calm down. If you mean it… the fight's over. Right here. Right now. If you want it to be."
For a second, I just stared at him, mouth hanging open, brain refusing to catch up. And quickly, I asked, "Seriously?"
He gave a single nod. "Yeah. Seriously."
I let out a breath I didn't even know I'd been holding, knees almost giving out from the sheer weight lifting off my chest.
The silence crept back in between us, heavy but no longer suffocating. Slowly, the white blaze of his aura pulled back, fading until it was gone completely. His form shrank back down, hair no longer standing but still very spiky. He ran a hand through his hair, as if shaking loose the last of the tension.
For a long moment, he studied me. Not with hate, not even with suspicion anymore, but with something that felt… careful. Cautious. Measuring. Finally, he broke the quiet.
"…I'll give you a chance," he said with a firm voice. "But don't mess it up. Not once. You'd be better off staying far away from everyone. From us, since the others wouldn't take kindly to you being around so recently."
I nodded quickly. "Yeah. I… I get it. I don't blame you. Honestly, I need time to myself anyway." I hesitated, then tilted my head back to the sky, the endless black dotted with stars just above the atmosphere. A thought crossed my mind, I don't need to breathe, do I?. I don't need to be here. With all the planets around, and with my new knowledge on magic...
The decision came all at once. "I'll leave Earth. Leave you all alone. For a while, at least. just to... think for a bit. Think my life through..."
He didn't answer right away, but his eyes narrowed slightly, almost like he was trying to see if I was lying. Before nodding and turning away, an eye kept on me still.
With the confirmation given, and before he could second-guess it, I looked at him one last time, then pushed off the ground. A rush of wind followed as I rocketed upward, through clouds, past the atmosphere, into the black void above. Within seconds, Earth was already shrinking behind me.
And once again... like always in my life. I was completely and utterly alone. This time... out of my own volition...
At least the view is pretty.
A/N and that wraps up the first half of this little pre-super canon arc.
i hope you enjoyed, and please comment any of your thoughts or questions.
i just love having support, and would greatly appreciate it.
but that's all for this part.
see ya!
Part 1 - a sweet start, a lonely end. - complete
part 2 - exploration, and learning.