At home once again! I was so unfortunate to get sick while at the festival, so I had to get back to our rented holiday-home for the rest of the week :-( But that meant I could write some more chapters, unfortunately I had no connection to the internet before now.
But here it is chapter 8! I will try to proofread more of the chapters I have already written and upload them today.
Please review – and please, write more than "WTF" as a guest did, it doesn't have to be positive, but then give me something to work with to make a better story! ;-)
And something I have forgotten in a very long time: Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any of the characters.
Dr. Brief looked at the monitor he had put in the middle of the lab. When he first had got a message from his daughter, he could not believe it. Goku, Gohan and Krillin had died at Planet Namek and she had been taken prisoner at the saiyan prince's ship. He had always been aware of something bad could happen, Goku wasn't immortal or a god, but somehow he had always been able to defeat his enemies and thereby protect earth and all humans.
He hadn't heard from her the last two months and was afraid he never would look into her beautiful blue eyes again. Luckily he was almost done with a third spaceship when Bulma had first contacted him. He had thought it would be for the best to have a spaceship if neither Bulma nor Goku's ship could take off from Namek. He had just returned from Planet Namek with Dende, a small namekian that was more than willing to help when Dr. Brief had requested for a new guardian for Earth. They had agreed to summon Shenlong the following night when Dende had made the Dragonballs and gotten a bit used to his new home with Mr. Popo.
The door opened and Mrs. Brief walked into the lab with a tray. She looked at her husband without saying a word. The doctor held back a sigh. His always happy and almost carefree wife had gotten black circles beneath her eyes and sometimes when he came into the kitchen during the day he would be met with sobs and redshotten eyes. Dr. Brief looked at the clock. Three more hours until he would know, whether Bulma was alive or not. He would wish for all of the Z-fighter who was killed by the saiyans, Gohan, Krillin, Goku and Bulma back to life. He wasn't sure if he really hoped Bulma was alive. If she was the wish wouldn't get her back to Earth and he and his wife would have to wait another year to wish her home.
"Still nothing?" Dr. Brief was surprised by the quite question asked by his wife as she put down the tray with coffee and biscuits she had just baked. He shook his head no and walked to her side. The low man embraced his wife, who had sunken to her knees with shaking shoulders and tears streaming down her face.
The group of eight stood and looked at the dragon, who was just summoned. Master Roshi, Oolong, Puar and Chichi had arrived at Capsule Corp during the evening for dinner before Dende and Mister Popo came with the Dragonballs.
"You, who have summoned me, state your wishes and I will grant them if it is within my power," rumbled Shenlong.
He was just about to continue when Oolong shouted: "Wishes? Do we have more than one now?"
"As I was about to say," said a clearly irritated Shenlong, "you have three wishes, but use them carefully."
"I thought I would give him a minor update," Dende said and looked at the clearly confused people around him, "that's also why it took a day longer. I'm sorry you had to wait, Dr. and Mrs. Brief."
"Don't say that Dende," Dr. Brief said and petted the cat, who as usual sat at his shoulder.
"No, then we can do more than just getting our friends back to life. If our little Bulma is still alive out there we can get her back!" Mrs. Brief said with a bright smile and hugged the little namekian.
"Your wishes?" Shenlong rumbled and shot an annoyed look at the crowd beneath him.
"Let's start with the wish I had planned," Dr. Brief said and took his wife's hand. "I wish for all the people killed by the saiyans and for Goku, Gohan, Krillin and Bulma to be revived."
They all looked at Shenlong in anticipation. "I can revive all but the one named Bulma…"
"But why, she hasn't even died before!?" Oolong shouted to Shenlong's irritation.
"Once again, if you would let me finish," roared Shenlong and it almost looked like his eyes shot fire.
"Yes, Oolong, shut up!" Master Roshi yelled and punched the talking pig in the back of his head.
"I cannot revive the one named Bulma because she is not dead," Shenlong said a bit more calm than his outburst just before.
Mrs. Brief screamed in joy and hugged her husband tightly. "Then revive the others from the wish dear Shenlong and afterwards our next wish is for you to bring back our daughter!"
The dragon lifted his head and said: "The first has been done, but I cannot bring back Bulma." As soon as he had said the sentence all their friends stood before them and a sudden burst of joy spread in the group. Chichi cried as she hugged her son before she started yelling at Goku for letting him go to Namek. Gohan and Krillin started talking with Piccolo, telling him about Namek. Tien and Chaozu smiled at each other and seemed glad to be back. Yamcha looked around him and seemed confused. He went over to the silent Brief-couple.
"Where is Bulma?" he asked and all of the others went silent.
"The last time we heard from her, she was at Vegeta's ship," Dr. Brief said and took his wife's hand.
"What?" Yamcha yelled.
"But why?" shouted Gohan.
"He killed Gohan and me in cold blood, why would he take her with him?" Krillin said in disbelief.
"We don't know," Dr. Brief explained, "and Shenlong can't bring her to Earth, and we don't know why that is either."
"I cannot bring her home because that could interfere with a pending wish Polunga is to grant. What it is I cannot tell you, because Polunga will not tell me," Shenlong said when they all looked at him.
Mrs. Brief looked confused for a bit before she fainted in her husband's arms. He sat her in a gardenchair with some help from Mister Popo.
They stood in silence for some minutes. Yamcha looked at the ground right in front of him with a look of disbelief in his face completely ignorant to Puar, who tried to soothe him. Goku and Gohan comforted a sobbing Chichi. Krillin had positioned himself beside Master Roshi and Oolong, they all three looked at the ground, not knowing what to say or do. Dr. Brief, Dende and Mister Popo looked at the others, with the same empty looks as almost everybody else.
"Your second wish?" Shenlong said impatiently. They all looked at him in surprise, the "original eight" because they had forgotten all about it and the others because they had figured the one wish was used on them.
"Second wish?" Goku said and looked at the dragon. "I must say, Shenlong, have you started to treat your regular customers with extra wishes?" The Z-fighters except Yamcha laughed halfheartedly.
"Dende upgraded Shenlong, now he like dragon on Namek," said Mister Popo and made everyone look at the small namekian.
"Why are you here?" said Piccolo when no one else said anything.
"Dr. Briefs came to Namek and asked us for a new guardian for Earth, so when I went with him and made the Dragonballs I upgraded Shenlong." Dende looked nervous under the older namekian's look.
"Why would you help us? Kami was send here by his parents and became guardian later; you have no reason to be the guardian." Piccolo had his arms crossed and send Dende a frown.
Dende looked down before he spoke up. "Our own dragonballs were suddenly nonfunctioning, we don't know if they ever will work again, but I thought that if I gave you the dragonballs some time I could be allowed to wish for Planet Namek to be as it was before Freeza."
"So you helped us for your own good. How nice," Piccolo said with a snort.
"I was the one to ask the namekians for help, and even though Dende did it for his own benefit, he still gave us the dragonballs so you boys could be wished back," Dr. Brief said and petted the cat on his shoulder to calm himself down. It was first now he realized he couldn't know when or if he would ever see his daughter again.
"That's right, Piccolo, give the boy a chance," Goku said and looked at the not-so-happy namekian.
"Fine, if I'm the only one to find this all suspicious, then don't let me bother you." With that Piccolo flew off. Dende looked after him alongside the others and sighed.
"Don't worry about him buddy," Krillin said and walked over to him, "he's just a little grumpy after some problems in the afterlife." Dende looked thankfully at the bald man.
"Your second wish? I don't have all eternity to wait!" Shenlong said and once again had all the attention.
"Go on buddy," Krillin said and petted Dende on the shoulder, "we have everything we could ask for, except Bulma, but it seems Shenlong can't help us with that."
Dende looked around and saw everyone's eyes were at him. "Are you really sure?" He couldn't believe it – he had only been at earth for two days, and he was already able to get Namek back to how it was before.
"Of course," Dr. Briefs said and several of the others nodded.
"Then," Dende said and looked at Shenlong, "I wish for Planet Namek to be as it was before Freeza got there, including all the killed people to be resurrected." As he had said the last word Dende had decided that he would stay as the guardian if they wanted him, to thank them for this opportunity.
"I cannot grant that wish either," Shenlong said and flicked his head once again, "it will also interfere with a pending wish. Polunga has just told me, that the earthling named Bulma has made the wishes, but what it is about he will not tell me. Only the people involved can be informed and none of the involved is present."
They all gasped and started to talk at the same time. After a couple of minutes in confusion and slight panic Shenlong roared: "Do you have more wishes?"
Everyone looked at him and after a couple of seconds in silence Dende said: "No, thank you Shenlong, we'll see you in four months." The big dragon then disappeared and the balls flew away.
"What did you do?" Yamcha yelled and shook the namekian. "Maybe we could have found some wishes that could end up bringing Bulma back!" Goku and Tien pulled away the angry Yamcha and shot Dende some apologetic looks.
"You're not the only one to miss her," Goku said after Yamcha had cooled down a bit. "I have known her for the most of my life, Bulma is like my sister." Chichi took Goku's hand and looked at Mr. Brief, who stood quietly by his fainted wife.
"I'm just happy to know my babygirl is alive," was all he said before he started to try and wake up his wife.
Not so good for Bulma… Her own wishes have made it impossible to wish her away from Vegeta – that would also be a drag, don't you think?