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"Finally. Home sweet home, huh, Goten?"

"Yup. Well, you can also say that."

"I don't think so. You know that proverb, home is where your heart is? Well, mine's certainly not here."

"Gee, now you're making me feel like a part of my heart is left behind in your world. Thanks, huh, Gohan."

"Haha, I didn't mean that! Sorry! But you're technically correct… Son is there."

A Sunday in September, Age 779.

The two Saiyan halflings had made it safely to Goten's world, ten years into the future. Enjoying the vista of sunset, they were sitting on the front porch of a yellow capsule house situated on an elevated clearing somewhere in the depths of Mount Paozu. Except for another house attached directly next to the main house, everything was all too familiar.

In order to create an illusion of continuity seen from the perspective of those of this world, Gohan had decided to drop Goten off on the Sunday immediately following his departure. This he did because he remembered the scenario made by his brother to justify his absence, which was staying over at a friend's house over the weekend. Goten himself failed to recall it at first since he wasn't a good long-term memoriser to begin with and the fact that he had spent more than a year—his time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber included—in the past didn't help one bit.

That said, now he was more than grateful that Gohan had so kindly taken him back to his timeline; he was ready to continue his life as though nothing had happened. The last year had been so fun for him, and during that period of time he had learned a lot about life and the joys that came with it, especially the importance of fighting for what was held dear in the heart. Everything was all thanks to Gohan, who had ever so bravely fought and surpassed his own limits for little Goten and Trunks's sake, and also Dr. Goodguy, whose perseverance even in trying times had brought him to the very pinnacle of success.

Not only that, he had so much fun with the little kids over there, especially Trunks. Being able to see the excessively proud kid from a different perspective had been an eye opener for him. By playfully bullying and making fun of little Trunks, he had managed to get back at the one he had known since forever for the countless tricks, pranks, and jokes he had pulled on him. It was as though the tyke was Trunks's proxy for Goten to retaliate against. To say the least, it was fun, and even more so when he considered the fact that little Trunks had considered him his own big brother with whom he could share his secrets with.

But now, all those things were memories of a bygone day, memories that could never be re-enacted, let alone relived… not if maintaining the dimensional integrity of his timeline—as well as that of Gohan's—was of his utmost concern. The best that Goten could do was to keep those memories to himself, cherish them, move on, and be grateful to Gohan for having allowed him to once again experience a rewarding journey with him.

Just like Goten did with Trunks, the brothers spent their final moments together in total silence. Several minutes would pass with neither of them saying a word, yet there wasn't even the slightest trace of awkwardness or uneasiness. To top all that, the setting was just extremely fitting; saying their farewell under the golden sunset rays… that was like something out of stories, something which was almost too good to be true.

Gohan flashed a bittersweet smile. With a rather peculiar mix of gladness and sadness present in his voice, he said, "Well, this is it. I guess it's goodbye, huh…"

Goten nodded weakly. "Mm-hmm… for good. We're not gonna meet ever again. That's kinda sad if you think about it, dontcha think?"

"Tell me about it… I really don't blame Goten for being very sad like that," Gohan shrugged, "He was gonna lose a wonderful big brother. He knew about it, too, and he wasn't prepared… that must've been hard. I know how he felt like."

"Yeah, because you've been totally through this a long time ago. And now, too. But because of that, I'm sure," the spiky-haired Son boy slapped his brother's back, "you're gonna help them through their sadness. If there's anyone who can do it, it's you."

Goten kept talking, but every word from his mouth made Gohan even more lost in his own land of bliss. In particular, his mind was set on that time when Chichi recited an endless string of positive adjectives used by the children to describe him in a nutshell. Although Gohan was humble thanks to his upbringing, he felt really proud and he had to admit, he loved that moment. It made him feel like his efforts of fighting for their sake were totally worth it.

Even when Gohan regained his awareness to the outside world, that motor mouth who was his brother was still talking, although it seemed he was ready to conclude. "If you ever feel down and need a listening ear, just talk to Son," he said, "There's no way he can't help you in your problems. Hee-hee."

"Yeah, I guess so," Gohan concurred, "After all, he's thirty-three per cent you, thirty-three per cent me, and thirty-three per cent himself."

"But I want you to promise me something. Even though he will be there for you, you gotta keep being a great big brother, okay?"

In reply, Gohan nodded in an assured manner and promised Goten that he would do his best. Finally, knowing there was no further delaying the inevitable, he stooped his head, smiled weakly, and shrugged. "I… uh, I've never been good at saying goodbye. I dunno how many times I've said this before, but… thanks a lot for everything, Goten."

"Anything for my awesome brother," replied Goten. Then, just like what he did to Son, he gave his brother a jovial hug for the final time. "I'll miss you."

Gohan gratefully reciprocated the hug. "I know. I'll miss you, too."

After yet another exchange of "thank you"s, Gohan let go of his brother. He walked toward his time machine parked on the grassy turf which was essentially the Son family's front yard and flashed Goten a sign of respect. The latter acknowledged this gesture and gave a similar one, and it made him smile.

"Bye, Gohan. Give my regards to the others, will ya?"

"I will. Bye too, Goten."

That would be the last time he got to see Goten. He could only watch and let out a contented yet sad sigh as his brother disappeared into the house, although he left the front door open. Knowing there was nothing more to be accomplished by lingering around, Gohan prepared to depart for his own world and flew into the time machine.

"Mom, I'm home! How's everything going?"

Before he could settle down on the pilot seat, though, the sound of Goten's voice from inside the house caught his attention…

"Son Goten! I've been waiting for you. Now hurry up and get your sorry back to your room this instant!"

… but it soon escalated to an argument of some sort.

"W-what? What's happening—yeowch!"

Gohan decided to stay for a while and eavesdrop to treat himself to a dose of an amusing conversation. The following verbal exchange between a certain boy and his mother certainly was just too exciting to give a miss.

"You're in no position to talk back right now! Do that and this frying pan will cause another scar on your head! Hmph, Kibito Kai's multifunction cooking wares sure are reliable."

"But mom, I have the right to know what's going on! Please?"

"Oh, so you want to know what's going on? Okay. Your head teacher called and told me you've smuggled cockroaches to the school and set them free in the girls' changing room!"

"Huh? How did she know—uh… um, I mean… I didn't do—"

"And that's just the cover story. Mr. Derpington also said you constantly failed to pay attention to him during his class!"

"He… he really said so? But that's not fair! I always get his questions right—oww! Moooom, that hurts!"

"Save your breath for later, young man, because you've got a ton of serious explaining to do. Now move it!"

"Aaawww…"

The voices trailed off and became no longer audible. Gohan could no longer fight the hilarity; he quickly took a seat, pressed a button to have the canopy of the machine lowered, and burst out laughing once he was isolated from the outside world. Yes, it was indeed cruel to laugh at his own brother's misfortune, but he just couldn't help it.

"Gee, you really are something, huh, Goten? You're strong and smart and all, but you can still find the time to have fun and enjoy yourself," he said between his giggles while shaking his head in an attempt to come to.

After he recovered, he wiped the tears that had made their way out of his eyes thanks to that paroxysm of laughter. His face then assumed a slightly more serious expression, although that smile was still pasted on his face. "But that's just you, and I've learned a lot from seeing how you live your life. Thanks for everything, my great big brother, for teaching me countless things about life itself…"

And finally, it was time for him to go. With a press of a button, the machine came to life, hummed gently, and slowly gained elevation. Before he was taken away from this dimension, he made sure to focus his mind on Goten's energy signature and, as a final goodbye, said the following words in his mind, as though telepathically to his brother.

'… and good luck. It's not like you can win arguing against mom, but you'll need it.'

When Goten said the children were a handful to take care of, he really was telling the truth.

It was past midnight and Son had just finished getting them to bed, but it wasn't without struggle. To say it needed a great deal of effort was an understatement. They were like F5-scale tornadoes and power generators combined together; one second they were here, the next they had gotten there, Afterimaging with the greatest of ease for someone their age. Pair that with their seemingly endless supply of energy and there you have them: the ultimate housebreakers—literally.

The fact that they—especially Trunks, the ring leader and the older of the two—hadn't quite trusted him yet just made it worse. They would always run away, keeping their distance from him at maximum whenever possible. That didn't help at all, especially that time when he saw Trunks just sitting wordlessly all by himself in the living room while staring at a photograph on his hand. How he had wanted to be of help to him, but the kid rejected his help, said nothing was wrong, and ran off again into the depths of the house to rendezvous with his partner in crime.

To tell the truth, that pained him at first. It felt as though the children didn't accept him. He had Goten's memory of being loved and admired by both children, but he wasn't him. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't approach them the same way Goten did. It was like pursuing something he really wanted to achieve or obtain, but at the same time knowing he would always be at least one step behind.

However, being an optimistic boy he was to begin with, he wasn't about to let that thought consume him. Sooner or later, he would show the kids they could trust him just like they did Goten and Gohan. He needed only be himself, not trying to be either of his twin brothers; he was positive that in time, he would prove himself capable of being a great brother just like what Goten had decreed, not only to little Goten and Trunks, but also to Gohan.

With that in mind, he gave a smile as he covered his little brothers' tiny bodies under their respective blankets. After making sure they had fallen asleep, he walked toward the door, turned off the lights, and exited the room…

… to find he was all by himself on a dimly lit hallway.

The only sources of light were candle-like lamps placed on the floor, creating a path for him to follow, and one directly across the door to Trunks's room. Under that one was a piece of paper with an enigmatic message which read "Rally your courage. Follow the light."

Son had absolutely no idea if switching off the lights along the corridors was Capsule Corp's nightly routine, but what he did know was that someone was trying to pull a very cruel prank on him. While he might have inherited Goten's fear of ghosts, he just couldn't shrug aside and ignore what was in store for him; his curiosity finally got the better of him and he decided to humour the message he just read.

The space between the candle lamps on the floor became wider and wider, thus creating an illusion that Son was getting lost, but finally he managed to follow the trail without letting out a single scream. The lamps led him to the dining room; the door was closed, so he carefully opened it and peeked inside. He saw no one inside, but the fact that the room was enveloped in an eerie orange glow was indeed out of the ordinary.

And so, Son tried hard to see where the glow came from… but oh, how he wished he hadn't.

His heart almost skipped a beat or twelve upon seeing a figure sitting at the table, and right in front of the figure was a cluster of lamps sticking out of a block of some kind. Now that was too scary for his standards… he had to turn away, and after hearing a chuckle which seemed to come from the figure he hurriedly shut the door. He was too scared he didn't even bother to do an energy check to find out who it was!

"W-w-what the heck! That shadow… is that… a… ghost? A real g-g-ghost?" Son stuttered and trembled in pure fear, "Oh no, no, no. I shouldn't… I shouldn't… have come here. Should I just… go to sleep?"

Son's heart was racing faster than he could ever run. Right now he was in a quandary, torn between proceeding further and returning to his room to get some highly deserved rest. For all he knew, it was more than possible that something would leap out of the shadows when he stepped into the room to examine who that figure really was. If that really was to happen, he could picture himself fainting on the spot, perhaps never to regain consciousness ever again.

However, he had gone too far to turn back; heck, he had even defied his own definition of fear by braving the path of light! Turning back now would mean his boldness was in vain, and that would be a roaring shame. That said, there was no denying that he was scared silly, so he blew a ghost, opened the dining room door again, and sent the little phantom inside for reconnaissance.

Son could hear a snort and a muffled laughter coming from inside, and it certainly wasn't his ghost. Shortly after, the ghost returned with a card of some sort on his hand. He then handed it to his master, who brought it close to a candle lamp on the floor in order to read what was written on it.

The writing on the card read, "Celebrating Son. 23 December, Age 769."

Son raised his eyebrows in complete bafflement, unable to make head or tail of what was going on. "I don't understand… who gave you this?"

The ghost just shrugged in reply. "It's that cool guy. You know, one of those two who fused and became you?" he crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the right, "I can't tell for sure which one of them he is, but I'm positive!"

Finally everything registered in Son's head. Who else would that be if not Gohan? Yes, it all made sense now. Somehow his brother had found out about his fear of some phantasmal beings who couldn't move on to the Other World and had used it to his advantage in setting up this whole scenario. "That guy… just what's he up to? Anyway, thanks! Your job's done. Poof!"

"Yo! See ya, boss!"

With a salute, Son's ghost popped—sans explosion—and vanished into thin air, not unlike a soap bubble. As for the master, it looked like his fears had been quelled after knowing the shadowy figure was just Gohan, not some earthbound spirits or something. That said, he was still at a loss of words; rather than making hypotheticals, he decided to just storm into the room and question Gohan the meaning behind all this.

And so, he slammed the door open, flicked the light switch, and—although a mix of irritation and amusement was present in his voice—glowered at his brother. "Gohan! You almost scared me to death! I hope you—"

He was cut mid-sentence and made tongue-tied by the sight he was presented with. Yes, he had expected Gohan to be there; he was, and right now said boy was giggling in pure delight, perhaps thanks to Son's being too paranoid to the point he had to enlist the help of his ghost.

What he hadn't expected to see, however, was a really delicious-looking blueberry cheesecake on which thirteen stick-shaped candles stood. So that was where the eerie orange glow originated from… that alone was enough to send him into an ecstasy, and he had to give it his all not to drool since he knew it was downright uncivilised and rude.

Seeing Son was totally speechless, Gohan took the initiative to strike a conversation. "Hehehe… sorry if I scared you… but I really wanted to create a surprise for you. Happy belated birthday, Son!"

"Man, Gohan… I, uh… didn't expect this," Son finally spoke, "But why? You… you didn't have to do this, you know."

Gohan just grinned mischievously in reply. "But you can't stop me if I want to! This is the least I can do. Now c'mere, let's eat together!"

Son didn't need to be told twice and did as told; he took his seat right beside Gohan. The latter instructed the former to make a wish, after which he would blow all thirteen candles in one go. Gohan followed up by cutting a large slice of the cake for Son and a significantly smaller one for himself. Initially, this was much to Son's chagrin and he insisted that Gohan take more for himself, but he was forced to accept it when his brother said he had set up this little celebration only for him.

With a "thanks", Son partook one spoonful of the cake, and almost fainted out of raw bliss when the cake melted and the full extent of its flavour burst inside his mouth. He wasn't alone; Gohan could back his claim since he too was under the very same state of intense pleasure. The cheesecake was almost unbearably soft and had the perfect balance of sweetness and savouriness, and it was as though they both had just sampled a little taste of heaven.

After being transported back to earth, Son wanted to know what the celebration was all about; he suspected there was more to it than merely celebrating his birthday. Gohan was amused at his sharpness, so he revealed that the idea of doing this came to his mind shortly before leaving the future. It was intended to express his appreciation and gratitude for Son's presence among them all. Of course this caused the ex-fused being to raise his eyebrows and pull a funny face since last time he checked, it was Goten and Gohan who had brought him to life, but Gohan just grinned and reiterated how glad he was to have him in their midst.

"Hmm… I don't really understand, but hey, thanks a lot, Gohan," said Son between his mouthfuls of cake. Again, just like before, he felt this warm feeling inside, and he knew it was how being loved and accepted felt like. He had to admit, he enjoyed it. "You sure are awesome! If there's anything I can do for you, just shout… I'll be glad to help!"

Gohan could only shrug in reply. 'Hee-hee… you really have no idea you've helped me just by being here…' he said inwardly.

Suddenly he remembered what Goten said about how he could always turn to Son whenever he felt down and needed a listening ear. Now he knew his brother from the future couldn't have been more correct when he said that.

Gohan just realised Son's presence didn't only benefit the children, but also him. That explained why Goten didn't fuss when he told him about his choice of bringing their fusion product to life…

Prior to Goten's second arrival to the past, Gohan had never had someone he could see as a friend. He was at the apex of his own world, the world inhabited only by those he knew and loved; thanks to that he would take it upon himself to please everybody even if it meant sacrificing a great deal of his own time and pleasure. That was how he had always been.

But now, everything had changed. Son was here to share his burden with, and he wouldn't mind one bit. He was here not only to be his brother, but also—just like Goten was to him—a good friend his own age… a friend he could always rely on, a friend he could confide his secrets and insecurities to, and, most of all, a friend he had so badly needed.

Indeed, Son's presence was a blessing for him which he was very thankful of. It might even be safe to say it would help him more than it would little Goten and Trunks. Yes, perhaps it was time Gohan shoved aside that overly altruistic disposition of his, admitted how he couldn't possibly satisfy everyone's demands and also his at the same time, and embraced the help Son had to offer…

"Hey, Son."

"Hmm?"

"I see you as a friend given to me by nature. Do you know the other name they use to refer to that person?"

Son thought hard of the answer, but he couldn't come up with any. After several moments of thinking without result, he finally gave up. "Nuh-uh, I dunno. It's gotta come from your bank of quotes," he said, then playfully teased, "Do you mind telling me, Mr. Know-It-All?"

"That's really easy, you know… are you sure you don't know the answer?" the wild-haired boy asked back, "Or maybe you're just too lazy to think of one. Heh-heh."

The other boy responded by making another funny face, and this amused Gohan to no end. The latter then exhaled in contentment, smiled, and looked up to the ceiling; for a few seconds there, Gohan let himself become immersed in his memories of bygone days, especially of how Goten too had been a friend given to him by nature, although the manner he was brought into his life was more technological than natural.

Finally, ready to answer his own question and spare the confused boy beside him from further bewilderment, he brought his gaze to meet Son's and spoke with a nonchalant yet sincere smile.

"… they call that person a brother."

Post-note: Just like this story's prequel, this final chapter might not be the best ending and the previous chapter might have made a better one…

But anyway… this story has officially come to a close, and for that, yay! Let me use this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have showed your support throughout this story by favouriting, following, reviewing, and/or otherwise commenting on it. I've gone through various highs and lows in writing this story, but I'm glad it's finally over now… I hope you've had fun reading it. Thanks a lot for being awesome readers! You rock!

Now, it's been 8 months of non-stop writing for me, so I figured this would be a good time to catch my breath and have a break. I may not publish any stories in the meantime, but I assure you, you haven't seen the last of me. In fact, I already have some story ideas that I've written down on a note, but perhaps not now, my friends… not now.

So… see you next story! Peace out!