Atomic Number 79 is a Dragon Ball fanfiction written by Sevargs. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here
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Beerus becomes enraged at Goku because of his continued reckless behaviour. As a punishment, he erases Vegeta from existence. While Whis reverses time to bring Vegeta back, Goku is left to deal with the regret and guilt of what he caused.
Atomic Number 79 provides examples of:
- Cessation of Existence: When Beerus destroys Vegeta, he is not sent to the afterlife. He is removed from existence completely.
- Color Motif: The color gold is a frequently occurring symbol of death, grief, and regret within the work, primarily regarding Vegeta's death. Even the fic's title is a reference to the color, as 79 is gold's atomic number.
- Dreadful Musician: Krillin is terrible at singing but goes all out at karaoke anyway.
- Face Doodling: In the rare awake example, Vegeta restrains Goku's head while drawing on his face with a permanent marker. He writes the word "stupid" across Goku's forehead in perfectly mirrored writing.
- Height Insult: During Goku and Vegeta's argument over Goku acting strange, Goku makes multiple jabs about Vegeta being shorter than him.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: The fic centers around Goku feeling guilty and anxious since he caused Vegeta to be destroyed. Vegeta taunts Goku, causing him to feel worse. Eventually, he forgives Goku.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Vegeta is Goku's Gwen Stacy, even though he is brought back to life not long after his death. Goku continues to ruminate and feel grief for what he caused despite Vegeta returning to life.
- Kiss of Distraction: Goku kisses Vegeta to distract him from asking questions Goku doesn't want to answer. Vegeta is fully aware this is a trick.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Lampshaded by Vegeta, while he and Goku are arguing about Goku's secretive behaviour, Vegata says that if Bulma saw them in the position they were in, she would think sexual things were going on. He also says she would encourage them, which he seems to find worse than the idea of her being upset.
- No Body Left Behind: When Beerus destroys Vegeta, his body unravels into a gold cloud. It's as if he was never there to begin with.
- Not Himself: Vegeta pressures Goku to explain why he's acting strange. Goku struggles to deal with his emotions after causing Vegeta's temporary death, which Vegeta has no memory of. He doesn't want Vegeta to know what happened, so he continues acting in a way that others think is unusual.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Goku experiences recurring nightmares about Vegeta dying. These nightmares often cause him to wake up in the middle of the night, which results in him not getting much sleep.
- Silent Treatment: After Goku kisses Vegeta, Vegeta ignores him as much as possible. After some time, he switches to only speaking with Goku coldly and only when necessary, as ignoring Goku completely was getting in the way of Vegeta's training.
- The Only Way They Will Learn: Beerus erases Vegeta from existence to teach Goku a lesson about not being reckless and thinking through the potential consequences of his actions.
- Time Master: As in canon, Whis can rewind time a small amount. He uses this ability to bring Vegeta back to life after Beerus destroys him.
