Disclaimer: All recognizable content is the property of Toei Animation, Toriyama, etc, etc. This is a profitless venture, simply artistic in nature, I claim no ownership nor property of anything within and seek no material gains. Not mine.
Prologue
A city that was not beyond time and space might still find itself cut off from both, but remain capable of access to either. This was the life of the simultaneously young and ancient Supreme Kai of Time and her young friend. She knew he was approaching long before the doors opened, long even before her keen hearing told her he was crossing the city. There was very little left to worry her, with Demigra firmly defeated and the only known operator of a time machine at her side. Yet, when she turned to observe the lavender-haired man, some trepidation brewed inside of her. This was not a fear of the man who stopped a step short of her, but a fear for him.
"A new timeline has come into being," she whispered. "I have been observing it for some time. It takes a while for me to be able to trace them to their end after they form. The change has to work back to me." The Supreme Kai of Time spun in place and beckoned the Time Patroler closer. She gestured to the scroll opened on the table behind her but did not turn with him as he began to observe the unfolding events. "Sometimes, Trunks, new timelines can come naturally. The universe is imperfection that strives for perfection. There are natural temporal anomalies out there. I can find no evidence to say this is what happened here... but I also cannot find any sign that this was done by someone." Behind her, she could hear her underling go rigid and knew he was coming to realize what he was seeing.
"What is this?" he asked. His voice echoed fear intense enough that sometimes, she could think he might remember something he should not. That was alright, even a Kai could feel some remorse, some regret. "I don't understand what's happening. This didn't happen!" She did not look at him again, instead focusing on the image playing out across the scroll. The version of Trunks she was looking at was younger than the man beside her, but in so many ways she saw her underling there.
"It has," she said, quietly. "Once before. A new timeline formed naturally off of the same one this did. Just like is happening now, a version of you struck out to gather Earth's dragon balls. He did the same thing this one is about to do, but..." Her sigh drew his attention back to her. "We had to end that timeline prematurely. It would have destroyed creation itself. All times."
"We?" The Supreme Kai of Time paused for several seconds at this question before answering. Should her will hold 'til the end of time, the man behind her would never know the lie.
"Never mind, Trunks. Your duty is to watch. This version of you is about to make a decision that could put everything in jeopardy. It's different this time, though," she turned back to the scroll and pointed. "Look who is coming to join him." Trunks tilted his head slightly and squinted. "I know, it means nothing to you, but to him, the other you? It will mean a world of difference. Hopefully, a whole universe of difference. I never want to have to do what we did in the other timeline again."
Author's Note: This is obviously an incredibly small prologue, so I'll be putting up the first chapter with it. It's being put up as a standalone prologue mostly so I can give a quick introduction to this piece. It is canon compliant until the end of the Buu saga. It will not be compliant with Super and it ignores and laughs in the face of GT. You can expect: Political themes, same-sex attraction, combat (hey, I could possibly not screw it up,) themes relating to war and to poverty, a third-person limited view that may shift as necessary to tell aspects of the story I deem too important to leave off-screen and, of course, violence, plenty of that. This idea was born out of the musings of Vegeta's personality. We know that in a short time span the Saiyans went from (according to Vegeta) being enslaved by the Tuffles, to combat with a Super Saiyan God, to rule under Frieza and to its destruction, all in the span of King Vegeta's life. I started to theorize that the planet and the race were not exactly what Vegeta (a young, spoiled child when his world went up,) remembers.