The sky over West City was painted red with flames.
Piccolo stood on a crumbling rooftop, his weighted cape torn and singed, breathing heavily as he surveyed the devastation below....
Entire city blocks had been reduced to smoking craters. The screams of civilians fleeing in terror mixed with the psychotic laughter of the creature responsible for it all.
Kid Buu.
The pink demon floated in the center of the destruction, his small, childlike form a mockery of innocence.
His empty dark eyes held no intelligence, no reasoning....only pure, gleeful malice. He giggled as he casually fired another energy blast, erasing an entire building and everyone inside it in a flash of pink light.
"Piccolo!" Gohan's voice cut through the chaos as the half-Saiyan landed beside him, his gi shredded and blood trickling from a cut above his eye. "We can't keep this up. He's too strong. Every time we think we've got a strategy, he just—"
An explosion rocked the building they stood on as Kid Buu appeared directly behind them, his face split in a manic grin.
"MOVE!" Piccolo shoved Gohan aside as Buu's tentacle-like head appendage stretched out, narrowly missing them both. The rooftop where they'd been standing exploded into rubble.
Gohan recovered in mid-air, powering up to Super Saiyan 2. Golden aura blazed around him as he launched a desperate counterattack. "MASENKO!"
The yellow energy beam struck Kid Buu directly, engulfing the demon in brilliant light.
For a moment, hope flickered....but then Buu simply walked out of the smoke, completely unharmed. He tilted his head curiously, like a child studying an interesting toy.
"Damn it," Gohan cursed, something he rarely did. The situation was deteriorating fast.
"Gohan, fall back!" Piccolo ordered. "We need to regroup with the others and—"
"KIKOHO!"
The shout came from above. Tien Shinhan descended from the sky, his hands forming the familiar triangle shape.
Golden energy erupted from his palms in a massive rectangular beam, slamming into Kid Buu with enormous force.
The attack drove Buu downward, carving a crater into the ruined street below.
Tien's three eyes were wide with effort, veins bulging on his forehead as he poured everything he had into the technique.
"Tien, no!" Piccolo shouted. "That technique drains your life force! You'll kill yourself!"
"Someone... has to... slow him down!" Tien gasped between clenched teeth. Sweat poured down his face as he maintained the Kikoho, pinning Buu in the crater. "Get the civilians out... while you can!"
Kid Buu struggled against the attack, his body compressing under the pressure. But even as Tien poured his life energy into holding him down.
"Nyah Nyahhh!" Buu's laughter never stopped. If anything, the demon seemed amused by the effort.
"KIKOHO! KIKOHO! KIKOHO!"
Tien fired the technique three more times in rapid succession, each blast taking more of his life force. His skin grew pale, his breathing labored.
"That's enough!" Piccolo flew toward him. "Tien, stop! You're going to—"
The final Kikoho faded, and Tien's arms dropped to his sides. His body went limp, falling from the sky like a puppet with cut strings.
"TIEN!" Krillin appeared in a blur of movement, catching his friend before he hit the ground. The shorter fighter's face was stricken with horror as he felt for a pulse. "No, no, no... Tien, come on buddy, stay with me!"
But Tien's eyes were already closing, his breathing stopped. He'd given everything....his life itself...just to buy them a few seconds.
"He's... he's gone," Krillin whispered, his voice breaking. Tears streamed down his face as he cradled his fallen comrade. "Tien's gone."
Kid Buu's laughter erupted from the crater, drawing everyone's attention.
The demon floated up from the hole, completely unbothered by Tien's ultimate sacrifice. He looked around at the remaining fighters with those empty dark eyes, then pointed at Krillin.
"Oh no you don't!" Yamcha shot forward, positioning himself between Buu and the grieving Krillin. "You want them? You go through me first!"
"Yamcha, don't!" Gohan shouted, but it was too late.
Kid Buu's mouth stretched impossibly wide, and a massive pink energy beam erupted from it. The attack was too fast, too sudden.
Krillin looked up just in time to see Yamcha standing protectively in front of him, arms spread wide. Then the beam struck, and Yamcha's scream was cut short as his body was vaporized instantly.
The beam continued, catching Krillin as well. Earth's strongest human had just enough time to whisper "Eighteen..." before he too disappeared in pink light.
"NO!" Gohan's roar of anguish echoed across the destroyed city. His golden aura exploded outward with such force that nearby debris was blown away. "YOU MONSTER!"
Piccolo grabbed Gohan's shoulder, holding him back with surprising strength. "Gohan, stop! Getting yourself killed won't help anyone!"
"Three of them," Gohan said, his voice shaking with rage and grief. "He killed three of them in minutes. Tien, Krillin, Yamcha... they're gone, Piccolo. They're just... gone."
In the distance, Goten and Trunks were doing their best to evacuate civilians, their young faces pale with fear.
They'd witnessed the deaths too, seen their father's friends....people they'd known their whole lives—erased in seconds.
Piccolo's mind raced. Kid Buu wasn't like any enemy they'd faced before.
There was no reasoning with him, no exploiting a weakness. He was pure destruction given form, and without Goku and Vegeta...
Goku and Vegeta.
"Bulma," Piccolo said suddenly, reaching out with his telepathic abilities. The mental connection snapped into place across the distance between them. "Bulma, can you hear me?"
At Capsule Corp, Bulma jerked upright from where she'd been monitoring the battle on her computer screens. "Piccolo? What's happening out there? The news is showing...oh god, is that Tien? And Krillin? Are they—"
"They're dead," Piccolo said bluntly. There was no time to soften the blow. "Bulma, we can't defeat this creature. We need Goku and Vegeta. We need them now."
Bulma's face went white. "The Dragon Balls," she whispered.
"Exactly. How fast can you gather them?"
"I can have them all within an hour," Bulma said immediately, her scientist's mind already calculating. "My Dragon Radar is fully upgraded. I can use Capsule Corp drones to retrieve them from anywhere on Earth simultaneously."
"Do it," Piccolo ordered. "And get Chi-Chi. She deserves to be there when we make the wish."
"Already on it," Bulma said, her fingers flying across her keyboard. "Piccolo... will this work? Can Shenron really bring them back?"
"He has to," Piccolo said simply. "Because if he can't, we're all dead."
The connection severed, and Piccolo turned back to the battle. Kid Buu was toying with Gohan now, dodging the young Saiyan's furious attacks with ease, still giggling like this was all a wonderful game.
"Gohan!" Piccolo called out. "Fall back! We're gathering the Dragon Balls!"
Gohan paused mid-attack, understanding flooding his features. "Dad," he breathed. "You're bringing back Dad and Vegeta."
"We don't have a choice," Piccolo said. "Now stop wasting energy on futile attacks and help me buy time!"
For the next hour, the remaining Z-fighters fought a desperate holding action.
Piccolo used every technique in his arsenal....the Special Beam Cannon, Hellzone Grenade, Light Grenade...anything to keep Kid Buu's attention divided.
Gohan pushed his Super Saiyan 2 form to its absolute limit, his strikes creating sonic booms as he tried to land even a single significant hit.
Goten and Trunks finished evacuating the immediate area, then rejoined the fight.
They attempted the fusion dance, but Kid Buu didn't give them the thirty seconds needed to complete it, forcing them to abandon the attempt and fight separately.
Kid Buu seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Every time they thought they'd landed a solid blow, he'd simply regenerate, his body reforming from any damage in seconds.
It was like fighting the ocean...no matter how hard you hit it, it just kept coming back.
At Capsule Corp, Bulma worked with mechanical efficiency that belied her racing heart.
Her drones had located all seven Dragon Balls within minutes, and were now en route back to headquarters. Chi-Chi had arrived, her face tear-streaked but determined.
"Will this really work?" Chi-Chi asked quietly, wringing her hands as they waited. "Can Shenron bring them back?"
"He has to," Bulma said, echoing Piccolo's words. She placed a hand on Chi-Chi's shoulder. "We'll get them back. Both of them."
The first drone arrived, carefully depositing a Dragon Ball on the lawn outside Capsule Corp.
Then another. And another. Within forty-five minutes of Piccolo's call, all seven mystical orbs were arranged in a circle, glowing faintly with contained power.
Bulma and Chi-Chi stood before them, two women who'd loved Saiyans, who'd built families with warriors who constantly threw themselves into danger.
They'd said goodbye so many times before, always with the hope of reunion.
This time felt different. More desperate. More final if it didn't work.
"Ready?" Bulma asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Chi-Chi nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. "Please," she said to the Dragon Balls, "bring back my husband."
Bulma stepped forward, her hands trembling slightly as she raised them toward the mystical orbs. "Eternal Dragon! By your name, I summon you forth! Shenron!"
The seven Dragon Balls began to glow brighter, their orange light intensifying until it was almost blinding.
The sky above Capsule Corp darkened to black despite it being mid-afternoon. Storm clouds gathered from nowhere, crackling with green lightning.
Then, with a sound like reality itself tearing open, a massive form erupted from the Dragon Balls. Shenron, the Eternal Dragon, manifested in all his serpentine glory.
His emerald scales gleamed in the supernatural light, his red eyes glowing with ancient power as he coiled through the darkened sky.
"YOU WHO HAVE GATHERED THE SEVEN DRAGON BALLS," Shenron's voice boomed across West City, "SPEAK YOUR WISH. I SHALL GRANT YOU ANY THREE WISHES WITHIN MY POWER."
Chi-Chi stepped forward, her voice cracking with emotion. "Please, great Shenron. Bring back Goku and Vegeta. Bring them back to life. We need them!"
Shenron's eyes glowed brighter as he began searching through the cosmos for the souls in question. Seconds ticked by. Then more seconds.
The pause stretched uncomfortably long.
"THAT WISH IS..." Shenron's voice actually sounded confused, which should have been impossible for an eternal dragon, "UNUSUAL."
"What do you mean unusual?" Bulma demanded, panic rising in her chest. "You've brought people back to life before! What's different about this?"
"I CANNOT FIND TWO SEPARATE SOULS BY THOSE NAMES," Shenron said, his massive head tilting as if examining something invisible. "I SENSE BOTH SIGNATURES... BUT THEY EXIST AS ONE ENTITY NOW."
The world seemed to stop.
"One... entity?" Chi-Chi whispered. "What does that mean? How can they be one?"
Piccolo, who'd broken away from the battle to witness the wish, felt his blood run cold.
His sharp mind immediately grasped the implications. "The fusion dance," he muttered. "But that's impossible. Fusion only lasts thirty minutes. There's no way they could still be..."
"THE ENTITY CONTAINING BOTH GOKU AND VEGETA EXISTS IN A PERMANENT STATE," Shenron continued. "THEY ARE NO LONGER SEPARATE BEINGS. TO REVIVE THIS ENTITY WILL REQUIRE ALL THREE OF MY GRANTED WISHES DUE TO ITS UNUSUAL NATURE AND IMMENSE POWER."
"I don't understand," Chi-Chi said, looking desperately at Piccolo. "What's he saying? Where's Goku? Where's my husband?"
Piccolo's expression was grim. "They fused. Somehow, in the otherworld, Goku and Vegeta performed the fusion dance. But instead of separating after thirty minutes..." He trailed off, the implications too massive to fully articulate. "They merged permanently."
"That's impossible!" Bulma protested. "Fusion is temporary! It's always temporary with the boys!"
"Apparently not in the otherworld," Piccolo said quietly. "The spiritual environment there, combined with whatever power they used... it must have made the fusion permanent."
"So they're..." Chi-Chi couldn't finish the sentence.
"Gone," Piccolo said, the word hanging in the air like a death sentence. "As separate individuals, Goku and Vegeta no longer exist. There's only the fusion now. Only... a different being."
FUSION
That meant nothing to Chi-Chi and Bulma. They didn't know it, had never heard it.
To them, it was just a word that represented the impossible....their husbands were gone, replaced by something else.
"No," Chi-Chi whispered, shaking her head. "No, that can't be right. Goku's just in the otherworld, training, being himself. He can't be... he can't just be gone."
Bulma's scientific mind was racing, trying to find some logical explanation, some way this made sense. But there was none. Her husband, Vegeta—proud, stubborn, impossible Vegeta—was gone. Merged with Goku into something new.
In the distance, Kid Buu's laughter echoed across the city. Another explosion rocked the landscape. They were running out of time.
"Bulma," Piccolo said urgently. "We don't have a choice. Three of our warriors are already dead. That creature will kill everyone if we don't stop it. Whatever this... Their-no,he's our only hope."
Bulma looked at Chi-Chi, seeing her own shock and grief reflected in the other woman's face.
The two wives who'd just learned they'd lost their husbands in a way they'd never imagined possible.
But they were also both mothers. And their children were out there, fighting a monster they couldn't defeat.
"Use all three wishes," Bulma said, her voice steel despite her trembling hands. "I don't care what it takes. Bring him back."
"Chi-Chi?" Piccolo asked gently.
Chi-Chi closed her eyes, tears streaming down her face. In her mind, she saw Goku's smile, heard his laugh, remembered every moment of their life together. All of that was gone now, transformed into something new.
But her sons needed protection. The Earth needed saving. And if this... thing... carried even a piece of her Goku...
"Do it," she whispered.
Bulma turned back to Shenron, squaring her shoulders. "Eternal Dragon, use all three wishes. Bring back the entity that contains both Goku and Vegeta. Revive him and return him to Earth!"
"YOUR WISH SHALL BE GRANTED," Shenron declared, his eyes blazing with power. "THE ENTITY KNOWN AS GOGETA SHALL BE REVIVED!"
The Eternal Dragon's form began to glow with blinding light.
Energy crackled across the sky as reality itself bent to accommodate the wish. This was no ordinary revival...bringing back a being that powerful, that unusual, that impossible, required every ounce of Shenron's might.
"FAREWELL," Shenron's voice echoed as his form began to dissolve back into the seven Dragon Balls.
The mystical orbs shot into the sky, scattering across the planet to await the next summoning. The darkened sky began to clear, returning to its normal blue.
And somewhere between life and death, in the space between worlds, a warrior who was both everything and nothing like the men who'd created him felt reality snap back into place around him.
Gogeta was coming home.