The collision was cataclysmic.
Gogeta and Kid Buu met in the center of the battlefield with such force that the shockwave flattened everything within a hundred-meter radius.
The ground cratered beneath them, spider-web cracks spread outward from the center.
Golden aura blazing around him, Gogeta's Super Saiyan aura moved with elegance.
His right fist connected with Kid Buu's face, snapping the demon's head to the side.
Before Buu could recover, Gogeta's left knee drove into his midsection, folding the pink creature in half.
Kid Buu's body compressed like rubber, then rebounded, launching him backward through three destroyed buildings.
Debris exploded outward with each impact, creating clouds of dust and rubble.
But the demon was already regenerating. His distorted form smoothed out, his manic giggles resumes as he burst from the rubble.
Pink energy crackled around his body as he launched himself back at Gogeta with terrifying speed.
Gogeta's expression remained completely stoic as he watched Buu approach.
At the last possible second, his body blurred with Instant Transmission....and he reappeared behind the demon.
His right hand was already glowing with concentrated purple ki.
"Galick Gun!"
The purple-blue energy beam erupted from his palm at point-blank range, striking Buu square in the back.
The demon was driven forward, the beam carving a trench through the ruined cityscape as it pushed him along like a bulldozer pushing debris.
Kid Buu twisted mid-flight, his body rotating impossibly as he fired his own pink energy blast back along Gogeta's beam.
The two attacks collided, creating a sphere of explosive power between them.
Gogeta cut off his Galick Gun and appeared above the explosion using Instant Transmission again.
Both hands cupped at his right hip, golden energy gathering between his palms.
"Kamehameha!"
The blue-gold beam crashed down on Kid Buu from above, driving the demon into the ground with such force that the street collapsed into the sewers below.
Water and debris fountained upward as the beam continued, boring deeper and deeper into the earth.
From their vantage point at the edge of the battlefield, the Z-fighters watched in stunned silence.
"He's... he's completely overwhelming him," Gohan breathed, his own Super Saiyan 2 form seeming inadequate by comparison. "That thing nearly killed all of us, and he's just..."
"Toying with it," Piccolo finished grimly. "No, not toying. He's being efficient. Every move is calculated to end this as quickly as possible."
"That's Dad's Instant Transmission," Goten said quietly, his young voice filled with confusion. "And that was Vegeta's Galick Gun. But the way he's using them together..."
"It's like watching both of them fight at the same time," Trunks added, his eyes wide. "But it's not them. It's just... him."
Gogeta's Kamehameha finally ceased, and he floated down toward the massive crater he'd created.
Steam rose from the superheated earth, obscuring his vision temporarily.
But His golden aura pulsed steadily, illuminating the dust and debris.
A pink blob suddenly shot out from the crater, moving at incredible speed.
It reformed in mid-air into Kid Buu, but this time the demon was done playing games.
His body began to change, pieces of him separating and taking on independent movement.
Kid Buu's right arm detached completely, stretching out like elastic as it rocketed toward Gogeta from one angle.
Simultaneously, his left leg extended impossibly long, wrapping around to attack from another direction.
A chunk of his torso separated, forming a pink sphere that shot forward with explosive intent.
Gogeta's responded immediately.
He caught the detached arm with his left hand, his ki instantly destroying the separated piece before it could reform.
His right hand fired a small ki blast that vaporized the attacking torso chunk. And when the extended leg wrapped around his waist, he simply tensed his muscles and shattered it like glass.
But Kid Buu had already regenerated the missing pieces.
The demon's body was whole again, and now pink energy was gathering around him in massive quantities. His already terrifying power was spiking even higher.
"He's absorbing energy from the planet itself," Piccolo said urgently. "If he keeps that up—"
Kid Buu's form blurred as he launched a renewed assault.
This time he was faster, more aggressive, fighting with the desperation of something that knew it was outmatched.
His fists became a blur of motion, each strike backed by planet-shattering force.
Gogeta met the assault head-on. His own fists moved with impossible speed, blocking and countering with perfect precision.
Every impact created shockwaves that rippled across the battlefield. The sound was like continuous thunder, a drumbeat of destruction that echoed across West City.
Left jab from Kid Buu...was blocked by Gogeta's right forearm.
Gogeta countered with a right hook which connects with Buu's jaw, spinning the demon's head 180 degrees.
Buu's head rotates back around unnaturally, his mouth opening wide to fire an energy beam....Gogeta ducks under it, driving his elbow into Buu's chin with enough force to launch him skyward.
Gogeta pursued instantly, appearing above the rising demon.
With his hands in front of him, almost like he's pointing...but with his palm, golden energy gathering in a concentrated sphere.
"Big Bang Attack!"
The golden sphere shot downward, striking Kid Buu and exploding with tremendous force.
The blast was so powerful it created a second sun in the afternoon sky, forcing the watching Z-fighters to shield their eyes.
When the light faded, Kid Buu was on the floor, looking at the sky, his body smoking and damaged.
But, his regeneration was already kicking in, pink flesh knitting back together at impossible speed.
Gogeta appeared beside the demon, his right leg was already bent extremely.
His Super Saiyan aura intensified as he put his full power behind the kick.
The strike connected with Kid Buu's ribs with a sound like a gunshot.
The demon's body bent around its abdomen, then shot toward a skyscraper like a meteor.
He crashed into the ruined skyscraper with such force that the entire block collapsed into a crater.
The impact created a shockwave that shattered windows for miles around.
Gogeta landed gracefully at the crater's edge, his golden hair barely moving despite the winds swirling around them.
His expression remained stoic, but there was something else there now. A hint of frustration, perhaps, or determination to end this quickly.
Kid Buu rose from the crater once more, his regeneration working overtime. But this time, something was different.
The demon's giggles had stopped completely. His empty black eyes focused on Gogeta with what might have been actual calculation instead of mindless destruction.
The pink demon raised both hands toward the sky, and the remaining Z-fighters felt their hearts drop.
"No," Gohan whispered. "That technique..."
A massive sphere of pink energy began forming above Kid Buu's hands, growing larger with each passing second.
It was the same attack the demon would use to destroy entire planets....pure destructive force condensed into a single devastating blast.
The sphere continued to grow, now the size of a building, then larger still. Kid Buu was pouring everything he had into it, drawing energy not just from himself but from the planet itself.
The ground beneath him began to crack and crumble, life energy being forcibly extracted.
"He's going to destroy the Earth," Piccolo said flatly. "If that attack hits the planet's core—"
"It won't," Gogeta said quietly, but his voice carried across the battlefield with absolute certainty. His golden aura began to intensify, crackling more aggressively around his body. "I won't let you destroy this planet. Or hurt anyone else."
Kid Buu's manic grin returned as he prepared to launch the planet-destroying sphere. His fingers began to release—
Gogeta's power exploded outward.
The golden aura surrounding him suddenly intensified exponentially, electricity beginning to dance across his body in crackling arcs.
His muscles tensed, definition becoming even more pronounced. The ground beneath his feet disintegrated from the sheer pressure of his escalating power.
"AAAHHHHH!"
The transformation was swift but spectacular. Gogeta's already spiky hair became more rigid, standing even more on end with individual strands becoming sharper and more defined.
Lightning bolts of pure energy crackled around his entire form, blue-white electricity that made the air itself sing with power.
His eyes snapped open, revealing pupils that seemed to glow with inner light.
The golden aura around him now moved differently....more violent, more intense, shot through with constant electrical discharges.
Super Saiyan 2.
The power output was so massive that it created a localized wind storm, debris and dust being blown away in all directions.
Even at their safe distance, the Z-fighters had to brace themselves against the overwhelming pressure.
"That power," Gohan breathed, his own Super Saiyan 2 form feeling inadequate by comparison. "It's like my transformation, but so much stronger. How is that possible?"
"Because it's not just one warrior's Super Saiyan 2," Piccolo said, his voice filled with awe. "It's two of them combined. Goku and Vegeta's power merged into one perfect form."
Kid Buu's grin faltered for the first time. Those empty black eyes widened slightly....actual fear, perhaps, or at least recognition of genuine danger.
Gogeta slowly raised both hands, bringing them together in front of him.
Golden energy began gathering between his palms, but this was different from any technique the Z-fighters had seen before.
The ki was more refined, more focused, somehow more complete than either Goku or Vegeta had ever managed individually.
The energy sphere between his hands glowed with brilliant light, blue at its core but surrounded by golden halo. Arcs of Super Saiyan 2 lightning danced through it, adding another layer of destructive potential.
"BIG BANG..." Gogeta's voice was calm despite the massive power he was channeling. The sphere continued to grow, matching Kid Buu's planet-destroying attack in size.
Kid Buu screamed....not a giggle or a laugh, but an actual primal scream of desperation. He launched his massive pink sphere downward at the planet, trying to destroy everything before Gogeta could stop him.
"KAMEHAMEHA!"
Gogeta thrust his hands forward, and the golden-blue beam that erupted from his palms was unlike any energy attack ever witnessed on Earth.
It combined the raw power of Vegeta's Big Bang Attack with the refined control of Goku's Kamehameha, creating something greater than the sum of its parts.
The beam was massive....easily fifty feet in diameter....and it moved with both devastating speed and perfect precision.
Lightning crackled along its surface as it shot upward toward Kid Buu's descending planet-destroyer.
The two attacks collided in mid-air between them.
For a moment, everything stopped. The beam and the sphere pushed against each other, neither giving ground.
Energy crackled and sparked at the point of contact, reality itself straining under the pressure of such concentrated power.
Then Gogeta's eyes narrowed, and his Super Saiyan 2 aura flared even brighter.
"HAAAAAAAA!"
He poured more power into the beam, his entire body glowing with golden light.
The Big Bang Kamehameha surged forward, beginning to overpower Kid Buu's attack.
The pink sphere started to compress, being pushed back despite the demon's desperate efforts to maintain it.
"Nyaahhhhh!!!" Kid Buu screamed again, throwing everything he had into the sphere. But it wasn't enough. It would never be enough.
Gogeta's beam overwhelmed the planet-destroyer completely, absorbing it and continuing upward.
The golden-blue energy engulfed Kid Buu entirely, and for a moment the demon was visible within the light....his form struggling, his regeneration trying desperately to keep up with the damage.
But this wasn't an attack that could be regenerated from. This was complete annihilation at the atomic level.
Kid Buu's scream was cut short as his body began to disintegrate. Not destroyed....disintegrated. Every molecule of his being was being torn apart by the overwhelming power of Gogeta's technique.
The beam continued skyward, carrying the remnants of Kid Buu with it, piercing through the clouds and shooting into space itself. From the ground, it looked like a golden pillar connecting earth to heaven, beautiful and terrible in equal measure.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity but was only seconds, the beam faded.
Gogeta lowered his hands, his breathing slightly heavy.....the first sign of any exertion he'd shown during the entire fight.
The sky was clear again. The oppressive, chaotic energy of Kid Buu was completely gone, not even a trace remaining.
It was over.
Silence fell across the battlefield. The only sound was the gentle wind blowing through the ruins of West City and the crackle of small fires still burning in the wreckage.
Gogeta's Super Saiyan 2 aura flickered, then faded. His hair lost its rigid spikiness, his eyes returned to normal, and the lightning disappeared.
Then even his Super Saiyan form dropped, his hair returning to black and his eyes to dark.
He stood there in base form, looking down at his hands. They were trembling slightly....not from exhaustion, but from something else.
The weight of what he'd just done, perhaps, or the knowledge that this victory felt hollow when so much had been lost.
"Dad!"
The shout came from two voices simultaneously. Goten and Trunks were running toward him across the ruined battlefield, their young faces bright with relief and confusion.
But halfway there, they stopped. The word "Dad" hung in the air between them, suddenly uncertain.
Because this wasn't their fathers. Not exactly. This was someone who looked like them, fought like them, but was fundamentally someone else.
Gogeta turned slowly to face them, and his stoic expression softened for the first time since arriving on Earth.
He looked at the two boys....children he remembered raising, training, loving, even though those memories belonged to men who no longer existed as individuals.
Behind them, Gohan and Piccolo approached more cautiously. The half-Saiyan's face was a mixture of relief at the threat being eliminated and profound sadness at the impossible situation they now faced.
"We need to talk," Gogeta said quietly, his voice gentle despite everything. He looked at each of them in turn....Goten, Trunks, Gohan, Piccolo. "All of us. There are things you need to understand about what happened in the otherworld. About why I'm here instead of..." He trailed off, the words catching in his throat. "Instead of them."
Goten's lower lip trembled. "You're not Dad? But you sound like him. You fight like him."
"And you use Vegeta's techniques too," Trunks added, his young mind trying to puzzle through the impossible situation. "How can you be both? How can you be neither?"
"That's what we need to talk about," Gogeta said. He looked toward Capsule Corp in the distance, where he knew Chi-Chi and Bulma were waiting. Two women who'd just lost their husbands in the most incomprehensible way possible.
This battle had been easy. Kid Buu, for all his power, was just a physical threat...something that could be punched, blasted, and ultimately destroyed.
What came next would be so much harder.
"Come on," Gogeta said, gesturing for them to follow. "Let's go home."
The word felt strange in his mouth. Home. Did he even have a home? Or did he exist in the space between two homes that no longer belonged to him?
As they began walking toward Capsule Corp, Gogeta couldn't help but wonder if the hardest battle was only just beginning.