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Atavism	By : ctsama Category: Dragon Ball Z > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 9192 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball Super, Resurrection 'F', or Battle of Gods or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Shepherd

Despite his formidable skill, Vegeta was for the most part self-taught. He had never had any formal training before. He took to it like a duck to water though, making gains so fast Whis had to adjust his plans on the fly at times. Goku’s progress was almost as fast, but he was still being outpaced. Vegeta had almost completely caught up to him in physical strength in far less time than it should have taken and Whis had to get stealthy to figure out how he was doing it. It seemed Vegeta was sneaking out of bed after Goku fell asleep to get some extra hours in before slipping back in before he woke up. Once he figured it out Whis started making the weights he was using heavier each day, enough to make a difference but not enough that Vegeta would really notice.

Both their decisions paid off. One day Whis had them fighting each other, trying to get them to stop thinking about their movements before executing them. Though they were still in their base forms their ki steadily rose as the fight got progressively faster. It ended in a punch from Vegeta that sent god ki crackling through both of them. All three of them felt it like an explosion when it happened.

“Kakarot, no transforming!” Vegeta’s teeth ground. Goku was fond of skirting the rules of their training just to needle him.

“It wasn’t me this time!” Goku protested. “Honest!”

“Then what the hell was that?”

It was what Whis had been waiting on. “Vegeta! Goku! Come down here!” They landed and he couldn’t suppress a smile at their confusion. “Ah, it’s quite simple, you see. Vegeta, you have finally reached the limit of how much ki your body can hold. Since your body is strong enough to contain something more powerful now, it has begun to compress the ki inside you to make room for more.”

It took a moment for what he was saying to register. “Are you talking about… god ki?” Goku asked incredulously. “That’s what it is?”

“There are other ways to obtain it, but yes, that’s how to do it without an outside source. The only problem is that it takes a while to do it that way. Since we’re running short on time and your body is ready for it, we’ll try something else.”

? Why does he talk like we’re on a timetable?

//I’m not sure. But we know he’s not telling us everything, maybe we are on some timetable we don’t know about.//

Whis lifted and banged his staff on the ground with a smile that held an excitement he couldn’t quite hide. This was a bit of a risk, Beerus hadn’t explicitly told him he could include what he was about to try in their training, but if questioned he could always use the excuse that given time Vegeta would have accomplished the same results on his own anyway. The suspended black globe at its tip began to glow a greenish-blue hue. Vegeta found himself inexorably pulled toward it wide-eyed as it sucked him in. “Have fun!” Whis called happily. “We’ll see you in a couple of days!”

Goku tried to reach for Vegeta in a panic as he was swept in, but Whis held him back until Vegeta had fully disappeared into the orb. Goku could still feel him though, and Vegeta’s alarm faded into confusion before reaching out to calm his fears. “Um, Whis? Where did you send Vegeta?”

“Oh, just another dimension.”

Goku’s jaw dropped and Whis chuckled. “How is that possible? I can still feel him like he’s right next to me!”

“He’s never going to be farther away from you than that. In truth distance isn’t the great barrier you think it is, and especially so in you and Vegeta’s case. The immediate problem is that now I have no breakfast companion. If only someone could wake up early and keep me company…” He smiled expectantly at Goku, who was far from a morning person.

Goku sighed heavily. “But I hate mornings…” he whined.

“Need I remind you that Vegeta won’t be here to bring you breakfast in bed, and you typically arise too late to get it yourself?” Whis smirked.

Goku blanched at the thought of missing breakfast.

“...How long is he going to be gone…?”

____________________________________________________________________________

Vegeta found himself floating in a vast, empty space that reminded him of the Room of Spirit and Time. It was just an unending, crushing nothingness and he wondered what the hell it was that Whis wanted him to do here. The pressure around him was immense, so much so that he couldn’t move a single muscle, couldn’t even get his mouth open enough to curse. Goku’s presence was still with him and it was alarmed. Vegeta soothed it and let his mate know that he was confused but in no danger.

Fighting the pressure squeezing him was exhausting and futile. Finally he just stopped struggling against it and started thinking. Whis had been pushing them into gaining perfect control over their ki, and he never did anything without reason. Vegeta closed his eyes, concentrated and completely sealed every bit of ki he had within him and powered up, being careful to keep the seal in place.

When it was done he found that gave him enough strength to move freely once more. He experimented in that space, glad that he’d worked so hard to train or this might have crushed him right out of existence. The heavy quality to the place was god ki, it was easy to sense. And Vegeta wondered again why Whis had sent him here. Was he being given a chance to rise to Goku’s level?

It wasn’t a chance he dared pass up. He released the blocks on his ki, letting it flow out of him and he was once again reduced to immobility, even drawing breath was a struggle. Only this time he let it meld with the god ki in the chamber, and instead of blocking himself off he just re-absorbed the ki he’d allowed to escape. The passage of time felt the same as it did in the Room of Spirit and Time, strange and unfathomable. But he spent all the time he had there doing this exercise, steeping his own ki in the chamber’s god ki and bringing it back into himself. The odds on this working the way he wanted it to were against him; the variables were numerous. If his body wasn’t strong enough, if his skill wasn’t up to snuff this wouldn’t work. There was too much going on inside him and inside the chamber for him to get a good read on his own body, but he could only hope it would pay off.

____________________________________________________________________________

Vegeta tumbled out onto the ground in an undignified heap. “Vegeta!” Goku started toward him but Whis held him back. He turned to Whis, but Whis’ expression was one of eager expectation so he kept his mouth shut and waited.

Vegeta was still lying on the ground panting harshly. He jerked and strained for a few moments before shutting his eyes, visibly forcing himself to calm down and going almost completely still.

Goku watched and the inactivity was almost unbearable. Finally when he thought he couldn’t take it one more minute Vegeta finally opened his eyes and stood slowly. Whis’ hand remained on his shoulder and Goku growled in frustration. He watched Vegeta draw in a long breath, and he let it out slowly, in a low rumble at first but it escalated as the nature of his ki began to change to Goku’s eyes. Crackles of blue energy burst in fits and starts before beginning to crawl their way up Vegeta’s body until he was enveloped by it, eyes and hair reflecting the change.

“Amazing,” he breathed, looking at his open hands before squeezing one into a fist.

Whis finally released him and Goku heard a sigh that sounded suspiciously of relief. “Success,” he said, feeling very pleased with himself. ‘I was right. They can do this.’

Vegeta looked up and finally their eyes met. He frowned, realizing he and Goku weren’t balanced; his time in Whis’ staff had oversaturated him and the god ki in Goku wasn’t nearly as great.

It was easily fixed.

Goku breathed in sharply, moaned as Vegeta poured the excess off into him until they were balanced. There was such a rightness in it that he felt invincible.

When it was done Goku was more than a little jealous, dwarfed by the moment that belonged only to Vegeta. He had found a way to attain on his own something that Goku had been bestowed in a ritual. Before he could get lost in the taste of that bitter pill yet again Vegeta rolled his eyes and reached a hand out.

//The power is yours. How it came to you doesn’t matter anymore.// Goku moved to take his hand but stopped with a squawk as Vegeta’s palm flipped toward him. He dodged the ki blast and heard Vegeta laughing as he flew off. “What are you waiting for? Come!”

Goku blinked, laughed. After all, what was the point of such a proud moment if they couldn’t share in it?

He transformed as well and they took to the sky, crashing together high above the planet in pure joy as Whis watched proudly, all fears for the future gone for the moment. They were both exceptional students after all. He couldn’t help chuckling to himself.

… Until they started playing ‘catch’ with energy wave attacks. He sighed, grateful at least that they rarely missed.

____________________________________________________________________________

The day came when a training session ended in a blow that sent Goku flying into the ground, too dazed to continue. Vegeta landed almost on top of him, angry. “Dammit Kakarot, you’re supposed to be taking this seriously!”

Goku only held his spinning head and chuckled, genuinely pleased for some irritating reason. “I fail to see what’s funny!”

“I believe I know!” Whis added helpfully. “You beat him, Vegeta. Fair and square.”

Goku held out a hand and Vegeta helped him up without thinking, astounded that the day had finally come that he was no longer playing catch-up, staring at Goku’s back.

It marked a turning point in their training. Whis shifted his focus to getting them to fight as a team, working as one. Even when he had trained fighters on a more regular basis this wasn’t something he got to do often and it was… fun, made better by the type of students Goku and Vegeta were. Every technique learned or perfected ended not in a congratulatory party, but in an eagerness to move on to the next thing. Whis even found that if he didn’t completely exhaust them by the end of the day they’d just stay up late into the night, training on their own. With the exception of Vegeta’s days in heat he found that a day off - before now, a potent reward for any of his previous students - was effective punishment for Goku and Vegeta both. When tempers flared he only had to threaten it to shock them back into focusing.

Every day Whis pushed them to their limits and it was paying off; every day he had to exert himself a little more to stay ahead of them. He didn’t want this time to end, but end it would, and sooner than he wanted to face.

____________________________________________________________________________

Vegeta finished tugging his gloves into place as he rounded the corner to the smaller dining room Whis preferred. He and Goku had been up later than usual checking in with their children on Earth and he’d slept longer than he wanted to. His head throbbed as if to remind him of the strain but it was more than worth the headache. Neither he nor Goku would have been able to stay away as long as they had without their regular check-ins.

Being so far away from the children wasn’t easy for either father, but they knew this was for the best. The stronger he and Goku were, the easier it would be to protect the children while they grew, and the more they could pass on so their children could protect themselves when it was time.

He smirked to see Whis already there, pouring himself a cup of tea. “Nice try, Vegeta,” he said with a grin. “You’re never going to make it here before I do. Give it up!”

Vegeta grumbled as he sat down. “Do you even sleep?” Goku liked to sleep in so Vegeta had breakfast with Whis every morning. It was a routine they’d both come to enjoy.

“Not really. In fact-”

Before he could finish the thought an explosion rocked the tree, then another and another.

“Were those-”

“The alarm bombs, yes,” Whis sighed. “Here’s where things start to get interesting.”

Though Whis’ demeanor was generally more serious and thoughtful when they were alone together, this was more than that. He was troubled. “You don’t seem too happy about this.” Vegeta frowned as some almost frightening things began to fall into place. Lately Whis had been ramping up their training. He pushed them harder each day, almost as though he had a deadline he was trying to beat.

Whis said nothing, only set his tea down unfinished. It was his favorite, but now it tasted bitter to his tongue.

“I know Beerus wasn’t seriously offering to make Kakarot a destroyer god,” Vegeta pushed. “He’s not the type to want real competition. But we wouldn’t be here unless he ordered it so why does he really want us here?”

Whis found he couldn’t quite pull his gaze away from his tea. “He told me to train you and that’s all I know. I am simply following those orders.”

Vegeta rose, pushed his chair in, leaning on it heavily for a moment. He hadn’t really eaten anything but he wasn’t hungry anymore anyway. There was a lot more going on here than he’d initially thought. His usual ‘to-go’ tray was waiting for him and he piled it with Goku’s favorites, hoping he understood as much as he thought he did. Confirmation would have been nice, but if he was correct in his assumptions Whis was walking a fine line with Beerus’ orders. Vegeta knew that asking too many questions would burn him. “I’ll go kick Kakarot out of bed so we can get an early start.”

He picked up the tray but Whis stopped him. “Direct your ki out of your hand and levitate it. It’s good control practice.” Vegeta couldn’t fight his amusement, despite a confusing, dangerous situation Whis was ever the focused teacher. He frowned, and it took a little doing but he got the tray in the air and balanced without spilling anything.

Whis still stared at his tea, too uneasy to finish it. He was using them, using his only friend. Oh, it was for a good reason, and if things worked out he and Goku both would get something out of it, but he was running his own agenda and if Vegeta wasn’t sure before he knew it for certain now. It had been a long time since Whis had this kind of companionship. The prospect of losing it saddened him.

The not knowing was was the worst part though and he couldn’t stand it, he needed to know where their friendship stood. “This tea Bulma gave me is… actually quite good. Maybe tomorrow I could have some extra made, if you’d like a taste?” ‘Are we still friends?’

Vegeta paused on the way out the door, silent for a moment. “It wouldn’t hurt to try it,” he said finally.

Vegeta left the room, laden tray floating alongside with not even a waver. Whis sat a little straighter, as if a physical weight had been taken off his shoulders. He smiled, picked up his teacup and finished drinking.

____________________________________________________________________________

Later that day the three of them were skating across the clear blue water of the pristine lake, Goku and Vegeta trying to land a hit on Whis when all three had to duck to avoid a blast that missed them and destroyed an orbiting moon. Beerus wiped his nose as he approached with a shuffling step, still bleary from waking. Whis sighed, now the aesthetic of the sky was totally ruined. He reversed time a few seconds and set the moon back in place.

They landed to meet Beerus, and Goku wondered how a giant cat in a nightgown could feel so scary. Beerus’ eyes narrowed. He stalked right up to Vegeta who gulped audibly, clearly disturbed. He leaned forward, sniffing at him in various places as Vegeta blushed hard. The god finally stopped, narrowed eyes lancing into Vegeta’s for a moment before he laughed.

Did you feel that? That laugh was just for show.

//Yes. He’s pissed about what I’ve done.//

“So some of you survived the purge? I had no idea. That’s very… interesting. How many children have you had so far? Are they on Earth?”

“A few,” Vegeta responded carefully. “I thought it would be a good idea to have them raised on different planets,” Vegeta bluffed, uneasy with Beerus’ interest in his children. “They are the future of the Saiyan race, after all. The broader their education the better.”

“Indeed,” he said, turning to Whis. “Well? Show me what they’ve learned.”

“Free spar, no transformations or energy attacks. Go.” Whis gestured for them to take to the sky again. They did as he said but it didn’t make any sense.

If he wanted us to show what we can do he would have had us spar against him.

//He must not want Beerus to know what we’re capable of. Go with it for now.//

It seemed like they were friends, Vegeta. Why would Whis be hiding things from him?

//There might have been a time when they were friends but that time has passed. I can feel different levels of ‘dislike’ bleeding off Whis sometimes when he talks about Beerus. Now come on. This has to look good.//

Beerus sat himself down against a tree to observe, yawning hugely as he watched the two Saiyans fighting. He turned to Whis who was uncharacteristically quiet. He eyed Whis warily. “What’s wrong with you?”

Whis shook off his mood quickly and smiled. “Nothing, you know that training brings out the serious in me sometimes. Well? Are you going to tell me why you’ve got in mind for these two yet?”

“Certainly not,” Beerus snorted. “You’re going to tell me what the hell is going on here. A male child-bearer survived the purge? I never should have trusted that bitch to get the job done.”

“Well, you know what they say. ‘If you want the job done right, do it yourself.’”

It was sound advice that Beerus always ignored, and now was no exception. “Well, what’s done is done. They’ve bonded as well, have they?” Beerus asked. At Whis’ nod, his lip curled in disdain. “At least there’s that. My plans aren’t totally ruined, but I wanted two strong fighters, not one really strong one. It’s annoying. Why is Goku is still allowing Vegeta to train, anyway? He’s even letting Vegeta believe he’s still calling the shots, he’s too soft.” He put his hands behind his head and leaned back, closing his eyes. “I would have thought you’d be teaching Goku how to properly draw Vegeta’s ki out by now, the boost should have given him quite a bit more power than this. I must say I’m very disappointed. Goku should be much farther along than he is.”

Whis had become a consummate actor over the millennia. He smiled widely, eyes bright with enthusiasm and though everything hinged on his ability to defuse Beerus’ post-sleep, petulant violence, none of his concern showed. “Ah, now this is the interesting part. They seem to have gone back to bonding the traditional way, before your meddling. Vegeta isn’t feeding his excess ki off into his mate the as it would usually be done.”

Beerus’ eyes snapped open. “What did you say?”

“For the most part they’re functioning as equals. That’s why Vegeta’s strength is so great, it’s been quite a while since he last gave birth and it will most likely be even longer still until they decide to-”

“‘They decide?’ They, Whis? They don’t get to decide anything! Only one of them is allowed to wield power or else they get too troublesome, and you know that. My contract with their ancestors expressly forbade this. It’s the only reason I spared their race in the first place!”

Whis rolled his eyes. “You spared them - at least for a while - because they produced fighters that amused you, if memory serves. And that was thousands of years ago, as far as we knew all the male childbearers and their offspring were wiped out before they could pass on the gene. There was no one left alive who could tell Vegeta and Goku what was allowed and what wasn’t. They simply did what made the most sense.”

“That shouldn’t have mattered. It should have been cemented into their blood, they shouldn’t have had a choice to begin with!”

“And I’m sure it was,” Whis soothed. It had surprised him as well, Saiyan racial memory was incredibly strong and successfully fighting their instincts was no small feat. He smiled to himself. “But these two don’t exactly do what they’re told or what’s expected. Come, now. I haven’t been bored since they got here. They’ve amused me endlessly since arriving here, and they are far stronger than the last pair you kept. Give it a chance!” he said cheerfully.

This was the part he hated, waiting to see if his efforts to cajole his petulant charge into listening to reason had worked. It had been this way for far too long.

Beerus grumbled but seemed to accept, at least for the moment. “Well? How far along are they?”

“They’re much stronger than they know, and they’re nowhere near their peak. They will be soon though, they’re learning fast. They’ll get there almost immediately if I explain where their real power lies. The question is, do you want me to to tell them?”

Beerus remained silent, a telltale twitch of his left ear indicating his conflicting thoughts. “I could feel Champa coming and going as I slept. He is up to something and I may need soldiers, so fine, keep doing what you’re doing. But do not disclose to them the nature of their power. I don’t want a repeat of that… that deplorable incident. It’s been thousands of years and I’m still finding bits of rubble here and there.”

Vegeta had been right, Whis was impressed. “You never were serious in your offer to make Goku a god of destruction. I thought as much.”

Beerus smiled and a lesser being than Whis might have gotten a chill. “If he had accepted I would have killed him.” Beerus turned, fired a blast from his finger that Vegeta and Goku had to jerk apart to avoid. “Hey. Come down here!”

Beerus offered them a wide, sharp-toothed grin. “How are you paying Whis for the training? Anything delicious handy?”

“We brought some goodies with us,” Goku said brightly, returning the smile. “We’ll go get you a pizza!”

“No, Goku, you go. Vegeta,” he said with a wide grin. “Stay.”

Vegeta stiffened ever so slightly and Goku’s smile vanished immediately. No fucking way. There’s something wrong here.

//He wants us to react, to show our hand. Go. There’s nothing we can do for now. I know you’re not going to like this but you need to shut me out until you get back.//

Are you insane? What if you need me?

//Then I’ll break through and make you hear me, I swear I will. But our best chance here is keeping him overconfident. He’s not going to kill me, he’s testing us. And if he hurts me and you come to my rescue it shows him too much. He cannot know we’re a threat. Not yet. Now be a good little idiot and keep smiling.//

The smile returned, Goku waved and started to jog off to the kitchens but Beerus stopped him, adding a few other things to his order, to add time, no doubt. As soon as he was out of sight Goku Transmitted there, quickly attending to all the things Beerus had demanded. Oracle came zooming in not too much longer after he arrived, drawn by something she’d seen in a vision but wouldn’t discuss beyond ‘you have to hurry.’ Goku was thankful for her presence; she knew the kitchen better than he did and helped him find the more obscure things Beerus wanted.

Vegeta hadn’t called out so he took a deep breath and kept working even though all he really wanted to do was unleash holy hell on someone.

As soon as they’d finished he Transmitted back with the swiftest of thank you’s for Oracle. Whis was still there, looking up with a blank, almost bored expression on his face. His fingers gripped his staff more tightly than usual though, giving away his concern. Goku set Beerus’ feast down on a table Whis must have conjured during his absence and followed Whis’ gaze in time to have Vegeta rocketing down out of the sky to crash land a few feet away from him.

He was much the worse for wear but he had enough energy to have minimized the damage from that fall if he had wanted. Goku took a deep breath, steadied himself. Beerus touched down lightly before Vegeta, ignoring Goku completely. He lifted him by the throat as Vegeta clenched his teeth together and let him do it.

//Calm down! It’s not as bad as it looks.//

Goku hadn’t even realized he’d taken a step toward them and stopped himself before Beerus noticed.

Beerus smiled to himself, smug and happy with the results of his test. The princeling had put up more of a fight than he’d expected, pushing him up to about a third of his strength. Since Vegeta seemed to constantly trail just behind Goku in terms of power it was a reasonable guess that Goku would be stronger than him now as well. He was naïve, strong and thought only of battle. Goku was the perfect tool; he would do whatever he was told as long as he got a good fight out of it.

On the other hand, Vegeta had proven entertainingly feisty during their fight. It had been a long time since Beerus had been able to play with the child-bearer of a pair, whenever he’d done it in the past it had only served to render their mates too intractable for fun; they just took everything so personally.

But Goku hadn’t responded at all. Their bond was obviously weak, and Goku was either too stupid or too afraid of him to challenge him over what he’d done to his mate. Whis was right, as usual. One soldier and one toy, not a bad outcome.

He smiled that sinister smile into Vegeta’s face. “You’ve come very far, but you have a lot more training to do. We’ll do this again soon.”

He dropped Vegeta to the ground and walked away. “I’m going to go for a bath,” he said stretching, then snagging some snacks from the food he’d sent Goku for. “Meet me in the morning Whis. We have things to discuss.”

Whis’ eyes narrowed as Beerus left them. Goku was already at Vegeta’s side, helping him up, furious at having let that happen. Vegeta felt it. “Had to,” he breathed heavily. “Not time yet.”

“I’m not going to be able to let him do this to you again, Vegeta. If worse ever came to worse we could always just fuse. As strong as we’ve gotten I don’t think there’d be much out there that could beat us like that.”

“What, with that silly fusion dance? No,” Whis said sharply, too sharply, and Vegeta and Goku both noticed. “You’re far too powerful for that to keep you fused for more than a minute or two.”

“But Whis, we-”

“Kakarot. He said no. Leave it.”

“You’re just saying that because you think it looks stupid,” Goku grumbled.

Vegeta snorted. “It does look stupid. Whis, a few hours break?”

Whis was silent for a moment as he came to a decision. The destruction of planets was necessary to maintain the balance with creation. Needless cruelty was not, and yet that was exactly what Beerus would subject Goku and Vegeta to with only a guess as to why they were being made to endure it.

He couldn’t keep moving Goku and Vegeta around like pieces on a gameboard, it was wrong. They were more than that, and they deserved better. It was time for them to start making their own decisions in all this, but for that they needed to know what the stakes were, and what he had brought them into. “Take the rest of the day. I’ll have other duties in the morning, might I suggest having breakfast with Oracle instead of me? She has quite a few entertaining stories she’d be happy to share if you asked her. Since I’m sure you’ll still be bedridden I’ll ask her to pay you a visit.”

His injuries, while painful, weren’t much to Vegeta and Whis knew it. He could take the hint.

“I’d like that. Thank you.”

*************************************************************************************************************

Forgive me, but there are two broken bones in my house and I’m exhausted, I’ll do RR next chapter. Due to those aforementioned breaks, give me two weeks on the next chapter.

Next up the boys finally get the answers they need, but are they ready?
- 19
- 20
- 21
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Atavism