(Some hours later)
Standing around the living room of Bulma's home, the Z-fighters continued to chat amongst themselves and help pick up the pieces left behind in the wake of their most recent fiasco. While those like Mrs. Briefs went about trying to get the place tidied up, especially the mess made by Sentinel that'd left a massive twenty meter wide hole in their dining room wall, others such as Krillin and Yamcha continued to provide comfort for Bulma.
Even though she continued to go to Vegeta for support, everyone wanted to be there to help their friend however they could.
Being conscious enough to make only a handful of decisions at the moment, the blue haired scientist set their company robots to clean up the labs and the dining room. Since they were all programmed to follow specific instructions and commands, the little automaton helpers were ideal in separating the nonessential items of the rooms from those that were important, including being able to tell the difference between tech that was unsalvageable and the stuff that was. And of course, because they didn't need food or breaks, they were tireless and dutiful in their actions, whizzing around the hallways at inhuman speeds.
For the longest time, the entire group remained in silence. It was perhaps one of the only times any of them remembered ever being quiet for so long, not knowing who to talk to or what to do. The only ones that didn't have any problems with this scenario were Piccolo, Vegeta, Zangya and Goten. While the Namekian managed to maintain his cool, knowing that the situation could be resolved one way or another, Vegeta and Zangya remained seemingly unaffected. This was mostly because both of them were stone-cold warriors and had seen their fair share of death in their lives, and while either one of them was more than capable of expressing emotions, they chose to remain collected instead.
If there was any members of their group that had to, it was them.
Goten on the other hand spent the few hours following Gohan's departure hanging around with Trunks, cheering his friend up while also taking to sitting near the latter's grandfather over by the couch. They remained there until Mrs. Briefs came by to take the two of them away and feed the youngsters some lunch, not only to cheer them up but to occupy her time as well.
Everyone had their way of coping with loss. Well… keeping herself busy was hers.
Most of the Z-fighters didn't partake in eating lunch together. Everyone just remained as they were, not really eating anything at all. After lunch time had come and gone and most of the property was being repaired, Bulma went over to sit by her grandfather and watch over him.
Tama the kitten also sat close by, positioned on the floor and staring up at his colleague and best friend in silence.
Making sure he was sleeping soundly, the woman sat by the man until she was joined by her mother. During this time, she began thinking of places to put her grandfather to rest while she went about fixing the Dragon Radar. She also used that time to think about her blunder and how she was going to apologize to him for creating an android that took his life.
Fortunately though, she wasn't able to think about it for very long.
When Mrs. Briefs gripped her shoulder in comfort and Bulma placed her hand on top of her mother's in response, they were suddenly startled out of their reverie by a cough and a groan. It was a collection of sounds that quickly had their eyes snap towards the deceased Doctor Briefs lying in front of them.
As soon as their attention fell upon him, they saw the man roll over and, through a half-lidded gaze, stared up at the two surprised ladies in exhaustion. Seconds later, the father's vision cleared, allowing him to see the two people standing over him.
Giving another moan of discomfort, Doctor Briefs slowly sat up, "Ugh. Why is my neck so stiff?"
His voice breaking the silence of the room immediately drew the collective attention of every single person in the area, including Piccolo, Android 18 and Vegeta. When everyone turned to the couch against the wall, they saw the recently deceased Briefs father sitting up and massaging his collar bone in confusion, which immediately set off alarm bells.
After rubbing away the soreness, the man sat up and cleared his throat, "Does anyone here have a glass of water."
"DADDY!" Bulma suddenly shouted, throwing herself at the doctor and trapping him in a hug.
Her actions surprising the old scientist, the founder of Capsule Corp also found himself locked in a hug from his beloved wife, who threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. "Sweet heart! You're alive!" She even gave him a big kiss on the cheek to express her delight at seeing her husband was back.
Blinking a few times in a mixture of surprise and confusion, Doctor Briefs then gave a chuckle and returned his loved ones affections. "I'm so sorry I worried you two so much." Being sure to hug them both tightly, the man then pulled away and rubbed his wife's cheek tenderly, before then beaming at his daughter, who had tears brimming at the corners of her eyes.
It was then a familiar shout from the side drew the man's attention to yet another member of his family he would never forget, "Grandpa!" Right on cue, Trunks rushed across the living room floor and leapt at the man as well, with Bulma and Mrs. Briefs giving the child enough space to jump into the elder's arms and embrace him.
The impact of his four-year-old grandson drew a chuckle from the old scientist, "Hey there, little guy."
As the family embraced in a flurry of laughter and tears, the Z-fighters standing nearby looked on with expressions of surprise and joy. While Chi-Chi brushed a tear out of her eye and took Goten's hand in hers when the boy ran up to her, Piccolo, Android 18 and Zangya smiled, Vegeta merely stood off to the side with his arms crossed and a neutral expression in play, and Yamcha and Krillin looked on in confusion.
Everyone was so focused on the Briefs family reuniting that nobody noticed the Dragon Radar magically repair itself on the table nearby.
The former of the pair scratched his head, "What the heck's going on?"
"I don't know, man. Your best guess is as good as mine," Krillin also replied with a similar expression of bewilderment in play.
Goten, tilting his head at the Briefs family and seeing the good old Doctor reunite with his kitten Tama, turned his attention to the woman standing next to him. "I thought Doctor Briefs was dead, mummy. How did he come back to life?"
Chi-Chi shook her head, at the same time beaming down at her son happily, "I don't know, Goten. But he's awake now."
Appearing innocently confused for a few moments longer, the child smiled once again before turning his attention back to the scene in wonder, "It's just like magic."
It was these words that suddenly had the Son mother perk up and look in the direction of Yamcha and Krillin. When their gazes met, the three human members of the old Z-gang slowly began piecing things together in their heads. Several seconds of contemplation later, they all clicked onto the exact same thought and stared back at the couch incredulously.
"Could it be?" Krillin murmured.
Yamcha swallowed nervously, "No way. Did Gohan…?"
At that exact moment, a flash of golden light suddenly occurred directly in front of the group, the photons quickly forming into the shape of a person. They then dispelled to reveal Gohan standing there, hands on his hips and a whopping big smile on his face. While the Briefs didn't take notice him at first, all of the other Z-fighters did and fixed their attention on the demi-Saiyan in surprise, around the same time the youngster turned to face them.
Zangya smirked at him, "You're back."
"Yep," the teen chirped, smiling around at his friends before then turning to his mentor, whom he could see was smiling across at him as well.
The green-skinned warrior nodded knowingly in his direction, "You went to New Namek, didn't you?"
"Uh-huh," Gohan replied, turning his attention to his mother and then towards Krillin. "I had to make a couple of detours and ask a few people for directions, but after one or two jumps across the universe I eventually managed to get there in one piece."
The realization had Krillin and Yamcha staring at the boy in amazement, with the former speaking up on behalf of the pair, "H-How did you get them to let you borrow their dragon balls?"
"It wasn't that hard actually. I just explained to the elder and his people what'd happened over here and the villagers let me use Porunga to make my wishes. Since Doctor Briefs and his family did so much for them while they were staying over here, they were more than happy to help me out," the teen said, before giving his friends a sheepish smile. "Honestly, I thought it was going to be a lot harder than that. Thank Dende we don't need to go on a several month long journey to actually get there anymore." His grin only seemed to widen. "Man, I love Instantaneous Movement."
Yamcha chuckled at the boy's remark, "You're one hell of a kid, Gohan."
"Yeah," Krillin also spoke up, seeing the teen smile at them and receive a hug from his mother. "Way to go, man."
Gohan turned to look at Vegeta to see how the Saiyan Prince had responded to his little back-and-forth across the cosmos. When his eyes met the warrior's, the hybrid received a nod of approval from him as well as a grunt. Upon returning it with a smile and a bow of his own, the proud fighter turned away from him and went back to staring at the couch.
Following his return and hoisting Goten onto his shoulder when the little tyke rushed over to him, everyone turned back to the Briefs family to see Bulma and everybody else beaming in Gohan's direction. When the woman expressed her gratefulness to the boy with a silent 'thank you', which brought an even warmer smile to the teen's face, she turned to her father and immediately took on a solemn look.
"Dad… I'm… I'm sorry for what happened last night," the blue haired woman whispered while shaking her head. "I never expected things to get so out of hand. That Android… I… I thought that with his programming that he was going to be just like before… and that when he came to life he would be the same Sixteen like the one we remembered. But… But it turns out there was a monster hiding inside of him and I… I let him kill you." Sniffling, Bulma rubbed her eye on the back of her hand and choked out her last words. "Damn it. I'm so sorry, daddy… I'm sorry…" She then tensed up and waited for the admonishment that was sure to come.
However, after several moments of waiting, the woman received none. Instead, the blue haired scientist felt a pat on her head and looked up to see her father fondly smiling at her. When their gazes met, Doctor Briefs gave her head a comforting rub and grinned, "It's alright, sweet heart. It's alright." The man whispered comfort to her before pulling her forward and giving her a hug. "It wasn't your fault."
Bulma protested, shaking her head in dismay, "Yes. It was…"
"No. It wasn't. None of us could have ever expected things to spiral out of control like they did. Not even you… and you're one of the best of us. That's the reality of being a scientist, Bulma," Doctor Briefs stated, pulling back and seeing his teary-eyed daughter staring back at him with sadness reflected in her gaze. "We can plan and prepare all we want when walking down the path to discovery. But no matter how hard you work, no matter how much effort you use, or how many safeguards you put in to prevent the unexpected from happening, things can still happen that are beyond our control or understanding. But as long as we endure and don't lose sight of ourselves, we'll be able to pick ourselves up and keep moving forward. That's all there is to it." The man chuckled and wiped a tear from his girl's cheek, "Don't let this mishap stop you from being the amazing scientist you are, Bulma."
Staring at the man for several moments in silence following his speech, Bulma then choked on unshed tears and beamed at her father. "You always did know what to say when I was upset." Sniffling, she took the man's hand and pressed it against her face, keeping it there before moving forward and hugging him, "I love you, dad."
The old founder smiled and returned her hug, "I know, dear. I know."
While the father and daughter embraced, and the Z-fighters standing in the background continued to watch on quietly, Krillin then had a thought and turned towards the demi-Saiyan standing by his mother's side curiously.
"By the way, Gohan, isn't the Namekian dragon supposed to grant you three wishes?" When he saw the boy look at him, the monk raised an eyebrow, "What did you use the other two wishes for?"
Grinning, the hybrid looked away, "Well, the first one I used to wish Doctor Briefs back to life. The second one I used to repair all the damages the Sentinel fight had caused to Capsule Corp and West City."
Krillin blinked, "And… the third one?"
"Oh…" Gohan shrugged and smiled brightly, "That one's a surprise."
This cryptic response left Krillin and Yamcha looking at one another in confusion. However, considering that this was their best friend's son they were talking about, they knew that the kid would have wished for something for either selfless or practical reasons, and thus had nothing to be concerned about. So, upon reaching this conclusion, everyone within earshot of the spiky haired teen turned back to watch as Doctor Briefs was brought up to speed on what'd happened following his brush with death.
As expected, he was relieved to hear that Sentinel had been destroyed by Vegeta and that the robot had been stopped. It was as though a great weight had been lifted free from their shoulders, leaving them with a sense of achievement and a feeling that things were going to be okay again. As the group stood around the living room and the robots going about cleaning up Capsule Corp's main building were baffled to find that everything had been miraculously repaired and replaced during their work, it seemed like their world was once again saved from another android crisis.
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