Disclaimer: I hold no rights to Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, or any of the associated products, whose licenses are held firmly by current corporations. I have no intent of making any money off of this.
Author's Note: This takes place at the very end of GT. I know I should be working on The Hammer Falls, but I needed a short break.
One Last Wish
For a moment, the dragon soared aloft, and there were only clouds, whistling by, filling the air like soft pillows, bouncing gently from the passage of the might magical creature. For a moment there is nothing but the passage of the wind, the movement of the air around the ears.
Son Goku relaxed against the back of the dragon, watching the sky go by, waiting for the inevitable to happen. He would be changed now, different, passing on into something different, something greater. He would still exist, but this was the end of his life, or all his adventures, all his times in the world.
I wonder if I could have done better. Done more. I wonder if my life would have been better if none of it had ever happened. Would it have been?
Memories came to him, not haunting, but painfully, scenes that had already occurred and would never happen again. Sparring with Krillin, talking with Gohan, growing up with Goten, Vegeta, looking at him scornfully, then smiling. Memories of far off times with Bulma and Piccolo and young Gohan. Days spent hunting for Dragonballs or chasing down bad guys over the wide expanse of the world.
They were good times. The best times. I had a good life. I can't even remember how many times I saved the world, or how many times the world needed saving. I always tried to do good, and I guess I usually succeeded. We fought to give ourselves and our children a future. And thanks to people like me and Gohan and Vegeta, we succeeded. We changed so many people for the better, saved so many lives. I really wonder sometimes if we could have done better, but we did enough.
A terrible sleepiness began to come over him.
The world's changed, hasn't it? I mean, now that I'm becoming the Dragonballs, I'll have changed, the world will change with it. I remember when life was simple, and I wish sometimes that it could have stayed that way forever, but I know that it could never have done so. And come to think of it, I enjoyed the challenge of life as well. Good times and bad, I loved them all. I was the luckiest man alive. I have a loving family, good friends, and I made a difference.
The sleepiness got deeper and more insistent.
Goodbye everyone. See you around.
Then, as the world began to close off, as it faded in the distance to black, to darkness, as shadows moved to block his vision, and as his eyes drooped shut, he had one final thought. It was his last before he faded from the world, and the flying, soothing motion of the dragon became all.
I wish I could do it all over again.
Then there was a sound, a light, and then nothing.
Son Goku opened his eyes again, and nearly jumped in shock. He was back in his child's body again!
"What happened? Where is everybody?" He jerked around, but all he could tell was that he was in familiar woodlands, somewhere that he used to know probably, but he could not quite place the location. He was holding a huge saw in one hand, and balancing a fairly large piece of tree in the other.
Suddenly his hair almost stood on end. He could not feel anybody else! Gohan, Goten, Uub, Fat Buu, Vegeta, Trunks, Pan, Krillin! All of them were gone. His ki senses could not pick out any of them, no matter how hard he tried. Either their ki were gone, hidden from him, or they were all dead.
A sudden pit opened up in the base of his stomach. Without even thinking he unleashed the power set lose in the core of his being and blasted clear up to Super Saiya-jin 2, rising into the air on wings of golden flame, trying to figure out what happened. He stopped just before leaving the atmosphere, glancing around with the most astute senses he had, but not being able to find anything.
"Where is everyone? What happened to them? Were they killed when I wasn't there?" Goku was panicking by this point.
Then he started feeling things again. He could feel Master Roshi on his island out in the ocean, and Yajirobe was certainly there, and so were Mr. Popo and Master Karin. But the other kis he could feel were unfamiliar, or different. Dende did not feel right, more like the original Kami-sama, while there was something out there that felt like Krillin, but in the wrong place, and far too weak. There were faint scents of Tenshinhan and Yamucha too, but they were hard to feel, distant as if they too had been diminished. And there was Bulma, speeding directly toward him.
"What happened?" Goku asked one more time, confused by the lack of any enemy in the area. And then something began to dawn on him, a possibility so huge, so tremendous, that it could not be comprehended immediately, or even bit by bit. Something so huge that it boggled the mind, changed everything, rewrote the book. Reacting out of shock, Goku dropped out of Super Saiya-jin 2, returning to his normal black hair, and fell back to the ground, landing lightly on his feet.
And there it was, the little cottage, standing as he remembered it once had, waiting there for him, door invitingly unlocked, looking just as it had the last time he had been there. Every shingle, every stick was still in place, and, for a moment, he was captivated by the image, by the sudden dawning realization. But he still needed more reassurance, and, with a shaking hand, the most powerful being on the face of the earth reached out and opened the door.
There it was. Sitting there on its pillow. Waiting in its place of reverence for the touch of its devotee to make everything right again. Glowing, glimmering in the light, the eerie markings announcing its existence to the world.
The Dragonball, sitting there, waiting to be used, waiting for the dragon to be summoned. And then everything came rushing back.
Him agreeing to safeguard and absorb the power of the Dragonballs, an eternal guardian. Saying goodbye to his friends. Lying on the dragon and allowing it to relax into slumber. And one final wish.
I wish I could do it all over again.
And then this.
Here he was, and there was Bulma coming to start all his adventures all over again. To begin a life of wonder once more.
Except now he was already powerful beyond belief, astonishing in his abilities. He knew everything now that he would ever need to know, everything that he would ever require to save the world again and again. He could change destiny this time. He could spend more time with his sons, be there when Goten was born instead of being dead, stand there when Gohan got married once more, be there for his son after he defeated Cell. He did not have to worry because he already knew who was coming, about the people who would come into his life, the people who would change the world. He knew who would become good, how he could save lives and time.
Goku could feel the power of the Dragonballs, contained within him, flare up at the recognition of the power in the artifact in front of him, so alike and so different.
"I can hardly wait." Goku smiled. "To see Gohan again. To see Goten and Chi-chi for the first time. To meet Master Roshi and Krillin, to fight with Piccolo and Vegeta once more. I can't wait for all of them, for Pan and Videl, Yamucha and Tenshinhan, Dende and Uub. I'm coming, I get to do it over again."
And then, with one last glance of recognition at the Dragonball behind him, he shot out the door like a rocket, toward where Bulma was already turning that familiar curve, heading to him, to seek out the Dragonball and start the greatest adventure anyone could ever have. And there leapt Son Goku, soaring out of a dream to change the world and live the rest of eternity on the wings of adventure.
Behind him, the Dragonball, having granted Goku's greatest wish, flared once and waited until all this would pass again.