[Video]

[smallestsaiyan]

[The video shows a young boy with an excited face, looking back and forth from the right to the left. It's very late at night/really early in the morning and it's still dark out.]

Hey, look what I found! It’s a dragon ball!

[The more nobody pays attention to him, the more his face falls.] Oh, right... There’s nobody here... [Well, nobody that he knows, at least. Then he finally notices that the dragon ball has opened up and there’s a screen on it now. He looks confused.] Huh...? I think this dragon ball is broken...

[He brings it closer to his face to get a better look at it. Here, have a close up of Goten’s eyeball for a moment.] It’s like a really tiny television! Haha, I can see myself! Hi, me! [He laughs and gives the video a wave, then makes a couple silly face at it, sticking his tongue out and wiggling his free hand.]

Wonder what it’s for... I know! I bet it’s something Capsule Corp made! I’ll take it there and show it to Trunks! He’ll know what it is, Trunks knows everything.

Comments

[smallestsaiyan]

So... how do we get home?

Yeah! He came back, he's not dead anymore!

[hybrid_prodigy]

[He's getting that "I suck as a big brother" feeling again. Why does there have to be so much bad news?]

I don't know how to get back. I've been here for more than a year. [Gotta try to be reassuring, gotta try to be reassuring . . .] But people are working on figuring it out. I'm sure they'll find something.

[But the rest of this . . . He's still not sure how to process it.] But when? The Dragonballs will only work up to a year.

[smallestsaiyan]

Oh... So we're stuck here...?

He came back a few months ago, after Majin Buu. There was the World Tournament and they let him come back to fight in it! I got put in the Kids Division but Trunks beat me and won. But only because he cheated! And then Majin Buu came and everyone thought you were dead but you really weren't and Vegeta blew himself up trying saving everybody and Daddy had to go back to the afterlife so he taught me and Trunks the fusion dance! Then Majin Buu killed Mom...

[He looks a bit upset about that for a moment before he shakes it off, because she's alive again so there's nothing to be sad about anymore!] Then everybody died because Majin Buu blew up the Earth but they used the dragon balls to wish everybody back and Daddy saved everyone by using a spirit bomb so they let him come back to life again!

1/2

[hybrid_prodigy]

For now, yeah. But like I said, people are working on it. [According to his history books, they've been at it a long time, too.]

[That's . . . a lot to process. He blinks through most of it, the first thing making an impression that Vegeta sacrificed himself to save everyone. He's not such a bad guy anymore, but wow. The next bit that hit . . .]

Mom . . . [Something in him clenched. Why her? She never did anything to anybody! Why would somebody do anything that horrible --

[There's a noticeable spike in his power, and he instinctively recoils from it, shoving it back down. No. Don't get angry. No, no, no. Everything goes wrong when he gets angry.]

The whole planet? What -- [He has to sit here stunned for a minute. Don't mind him.]

[hybrid_prodigy]

Things never seem to stay peaceful . . .

[If Goten can brush most of this off because things got reversed, then Gohan is glad. But for him, it's not that simple. None of that should have happened at all. Just what kind of opponent is this Majin Buu?]

I . . . Well, as long as we fixed it, right? [He doesn't think he sounds terribly convincing, here. It's hard, trying to pretend this is okay. It just isn't] I mean, of course Dad saved everyone. It's what he does. [And what he'll never measure up to.]

[But. Changing the subject. And forcing himself to perk up.] Hey, are you hungry?

[smallestsaiyan]

[He gives an enthusiastic nod, a little oblivious to Gohan's guilt feelings.] Mhm! Everything's all better now!

[And Goten's stomach growls on cue.] Yeah!!! Mom was making dinner... [Noooo, he missed dinner!]

[hybrid_prodigy]

[That's okay. Little brothers shouldn't see their big brothers upset. Right? Gosh, he's never done this older sibling stuff before.]

Well, it's almost breakfast time, here. The sirens'll be going off pretty soon. Wanna come where I've been staying for the past year? You can meet Miss Nelliel, and I bet she'll let you stay.

And make us breakfast, too. She doesn't cook as good as Mom, but who does, right? [Mom is, and always will be, the best cook ever.]

[smallestsaiyan]

Yay, breakfast! [Good enough for him!]

Okay! [He laughs.] Yeah, nobody cooks as good as Mom does!

[hybrid_prodigy]

[Of course it is. What is being selective? That's for normal people.]

Hang on a sec. [Pulls out his own NV, which looks pretty much identical to Goten's, and his fingers fly across the keys in a blur of motion before he puts it back in his pocket.]

Just letting her know we're coming. Follow me, okay? [A little hop into the sky, waiting for Goten to follow.]

[smallestsaiyan]

[He pops up into the air after him.]

Hey, you have a broken dragonball too!