Goku returned to start his search for the Dragon Balls the second the year-long wait had ended. Gathering the Dragon Balls had been quite easy this time. Bulma had handed Goku the Dragon Ball locator without a fuss and told him that she couldn't come along this time because she had to study for her college midterm. The seventeen year old girl had been on a self paced study program the last few years, but had finally decided to go back to traditional schooling and was less than a year from her first degree with a Major in Engineering and a Minor in Chemistry. Before Goku had left the Briefs family home and started his new quest, she had told him that she would like to see what happened when he made his wish and wished him luck.
When Goku had set out on his quest, all of his friends had agreed to take a break from what they were doing on the day he made his wish so that they all could meet his father. Every last one of them was curious about the sort of being that could've created Goku for various reasons. Muten Roshi because of the letter he'd received from his former student Gohan thirteen years before. Before Goku had set out in earnest, it was agreed that the wish making would take place on the island where Muten Roshi was training Krillin and Yamcha and had trained Goku before sending the boy out to learn on his own because there was no more that he could teach the boy.
Going as fast as he could - having been allowed to use Kinto'un for this particular task despite the fact that Muten Roshi had forbidden him from using the cloud during his training - it had taken him a little less than a week to gather all seven Dragon Balls. He only had to chase the would-be Emperor Pilaf away from a couple of them this time, and didn't have to fight an army for any of the rest. On the day Goku had been waiting a year for, he flew to the island that he and Krillin had trained on for the Tenkaichi Budokai with Bulma following behind in a Capsule Jet.
Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Bulma, Puar, and Oolong gathered around the glowing balls that Goku had dumped out of his bag, looking at them with some awe. Despite the fact that they'd all seen this at least once before, the summoning of the Dragon was still an awe-inspiring sight. Finally, after several moments of silence, Goku stepped forward and called for Shenron to come forth.
Day turned into night as the dragon made his appearance in an amazing display of light and darkness before asking the one who summoned him to make his wish.
"I wish for my father to come back to me!" Goku yelled with eagerness and excitement over the fact that something he'd been waiting for such a long time for was finally happening.
Shenron paused after the wish was made. Normally he would've told the person who was asking for something that was beyond the powers he'd been given that he was S.O.L. and told them to ask for something else; but normally, the people who made wishes after gathering the Dragon Balls were greedy selfish bastards who were out for themselves. None had had hearts so pure as the one who stood before him making his request. A request he could have easily made the year before instead of giving the wish away to another to make. Had the boy made this request a year ago, he would've rejected it out of hand and not even considered it as he was now. Personally, he didn't have the power to bring someone back from the dead after they had been gone for more than a year, but he knew a few individuals who could, and he was owed a favor or two...
"It shall be done." Shenron said before vanishing, hoping that he wouldn't be forced to return and disappoint the boy whose almost perfect innocence was marred by a small grain of pain and jealousy over not having the family that so many others around him had. It wasn't like bringing back one individual he'd never heard of would change the balance of things too much...
In the next world, Bardock stood before King Yemma's desk moments after Goku made his wish wondering why he wasn't in Hell.
"Someone has wished you back to life, and I'm going to let you go on one condition." King Yemma whom Bardock had met in the moments before he'd been sentenced to Hell for being Saiyan and everything that came with being a member of that race said.
"Name it." Bardock said, not believing his luck.
"The condition is that you don't kill off the population of the Planet Earth, or any other planet for that matter." King Yemma said knowing that with Saiyans, entirely banning killing would be impossible and that odds were that Bardock would be in Hell within moments if he made that a condition, which would cause an even greater headache and even more paperwork than if the Saiyan stayed alive for a few more years.
"Agreed." Bardock said, hardly able to wait to find his son whom he'd seen growing impossibly strong in his visions of the future so he could help him defeat Freeza.
"Done." King Yemma said, and an instant later Bardock found himself in an unfamiliar environment that he didn't get a good look at because something furry had latched itself onto his face.
Edited 4-18-15.