Inside the smoke and fire, Vegeta floated untouched.
The massive energy beam had parted around him like water around a boulder, deflected by a paper-thin golden barrier he hadn't even bothered to make visible.
His arms were folded.
His expression was pure, royal murder.
And every single word he thought was aimed directly at the North Kai like a planet-busting ki blast.
[You absolute moron.]
[Do you have any idea what you just did?]
[I was humiliating him. Slowly. Perfectly.]
[I had him dancing on strings, and you decided NOW was the time to scream in my head like a virgin at an orgy.]
King Kai's mental voice came back weak, sweating, desperate.
[Vegeta, please! This is serious! He still has ]
[I KNOW he has one more form, you blue-skinned busybody!]
[I've known since I was five years old!]
[I was going to let him reach it. I wanted him to reach it.]
[I wanted him to feel hope. Real, genuine hope.]
[And then I was going to go Super Saiyan in front of his eyes and crush that hope into cosmic dust.]
A pause.
[But congratulations.]
[You just robbed me of the single most satisfying moment of my entire life.]
Frieza's manic laughter echoed outside the smoke.
Vegeta's eyes narrowed to slits of teal fire.
[If you ever,] he sent, voice so cold it could freeze stars,
[EVER,]
[speak in my head again without permission…]
[I will find Other World. I will master Instant Transmission. And I will beat you to death with your own antennae.]
He cut the link with the mental equivalent of slamming a door so hard the hinges exploded.
The smoke cleared.
Frieza's laughter died mid-cackle.
Vegeta hovered exactly where he had been, clothes pristine, not a scratch on him.
He looked… bored.
Frieza's elongated jaw actually dropped.
Vegeta sighed theatrically.
"Done screaming?"
He cracked his neck.
"Good. Because I'm tired of playing with the warm-up acts."
Golden light ignited around him: calm, silent, absolute.
Hair flashed gold.
Eyes locked teal.
Aura flared once, just enough to turn the ocean beneath them into a perfect glass crater a kilometer wide.
Super Saiyan.
Vegeta smiled.
It wasn't kind.
"Let's skip to the part where you die screaming."
Frieza took one instinctive step back, tail curling between his legs.
For the first time in his life, the Emperor of the Universe understood what true despair felt like.
And the golden god in front of him hadn't even started swinging yet.
~~~~~~
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