Chapter 3

Capsule Corp

Trunks was now ready to return to his future.

The time-machine was standing in the garden, just waiting for him to enter.

His parents, Goku, young Gohan and most of the others Z-fighters were standing to see him off.

"You are sure about this?" Bulma asked him.

"I am. It is like Goku said. Unless your 17 and 18 seriously change their minds, your world is not in direct danger from them. But mine is. So it should have priority."

"I see," she said.

"But you have a time-machine. I mean, couldn´t you return to... well whatever point in time you want?" Krillin mentioned.

"My world is a different timeline compared to this one. And the point of my arrival is not always completely exact. I actually wanted to arrive before the first attack of the Androids happened... but I arrived by a few hours off, when the town was already wrecked.

And I fear the longer I stay here, the harder it will be to programm an exact date for my return. I might arrive in the future weeks or even months after I left it," he explained.

"Beside that - should we die here, fighting this Androids here, I will not return at all and leave my time... and my mother at the mercy of the future Androids."

"Shenlong could bring you back," Goku offered.

"Only if Piccolo survives as well," Trunks countered. "Sorry - but this is a bit too risky for my taste."

"I understand."

"Father." Trunks turned to Vegeta.

"So you truly want to use that device to just shut the Androids off?"

Trunks gritted his teeth.

"I would also rather train and take on them with my own strength. But at every day they are around... mother could be killed."

Vegeta just scoffed.

"Well - just do what you think you need to," he said.

Trunks sat down in the time-machine.

"But we expect you back to fight our version of these Androids," Vegeta added.

Trunks gave him a small smile.

"Goodbye everyone," he said. "I will try to be back in time."

Then he activated the machine and it disappeared.

xxxxxxx

50 days later

The time for the fight had come.

Son Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo had been preparing themselves for this day for the last two months.

Just like the other Z-fighters did. But Krillin, Yamcha and even Tien admitted that they would probably not be able to make much of a difference.

But still they were right here with them.

"Okay. I am here," Tien - who had just arrived - said.

"You have become stronger," Krillin said.

"So have you," Tien replied.

"It makes still no difference," Vegeta commented.

"Has any of you heard anything about Trunks?" Piccolo asked.

"He has not returned yet," Vegeta stated. He tried his best not to sound as if he cared.

"So there is possibly either something with the time-machine... or with him," Piccolo responded.

"Yes," Vegeta said darkly.

As expected the Androids appeared once again appeared in front of the turtle house this morning.

Only this time the Z-fighters were already waiting for them.

17, 18 and 16 landed before them.

"We are back," 17 said. "And I see you are ready as well."

He looked at Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo, who were all standing in a defensive stance.

"Where is your friend?" 18 asked. "The one with the blue jacket and the sword. Did he not want to come?"

"To be honest - we are not sure," Piccolo replied. "He left to take care of something and never returned. But does it matter to you anyway?"

"I guess not." She shrugged with her shoulders. "To bad. He seemed interesting," she said.

"Then let us beginn."

"I guess you want us to take this somewhere else?" 17 stated. "To some empty place?"

"That would be good," Goku replied.

They all lifted-off and flew in the direction of the other islands close by (unknowingly mirroring events from another timeline).

A few minutes later they landed on the unhabitated piece of land.

While Goku, Vegeta - both as Super Saiyans - and Piccolo were directly facing the Androids, Krillin and Tien were staying in somewhat greater distance.

Son Goku took a step forward, towards 17.

"Wait a moment," Android 16 spoke up. "Let me fight Son Goku."

17 and 18 were looking at him a bit surprised.

"It is my purpose to destroy Goku," 16 declared.

"Well okay," 17 replied a bit reluctantly. "I would rather fight Goku myself. But if that´s what you want."

"So you are my opponent then," Goku addressed 16 casually.

"Yes."

"In case you don´t win, I will take over for you," 17 commented.

"Understood," 16 replied.

"Then, how about we fight for now Vegeta?" 17 questioned. "Or do you want a back-fight with 18?"

"It doesn´t matter to me which one of you I crush. If I defeat you or her, for me it will be revanche enough."

"Revanche?" 17 responded. "Remind me, who was the idiot running after us, practically begging for a fight? If you truly want revanche, you should better just smack yourself in the face until you pass out. Because you have nobody to blame for what happened but yourself."

Vegeta grimaced.

"Something else?" he commented. "Or do we start to fight now?"

"We do," Seventeen stated.

A split-second later he had moved and thrown a punch at Vegeta, who blocked it with both arms.

16 also tried to punch Goku, who had evaded it by simply using Instant Transmission.

"I guess that leaves us two Piccolo," 18 commented.

She looked towards Krillin and Tien.

"And two you two, it are the same rules like the last time. Stay out of the fight and we will do nothing to you. Get yourself involved and deal with the consequences," she told them.

She send a short glance to Krillin and showed a small smile.

Then she and Piccolo rose up into the air to join the fight as well.

Krillin forced himself to ignore 18´s small gesture and he saw up into the sky.

He saw that Goku and Vegeta had made great progress for just two months. Goku´s idea to stay permanently in Super Saiyan mode for a longer time seemed to have paid off.

But against the Androids, it was still not enough.

16 removed his right hand and fired at Goku with the cannon underneath.

But he dodged the shot and in return send a kick at the side where the Android now had no hand. Followed by a two handed blast.

But neither showed even any effect at all.

"I see," Goku whispered.

"If that is all power you possess," 16 stated emotionless as he reattached his hand, "then you have no chance."

"I know," Goku admitted. "How good this is not all I can."

And Goku started to transform further. After a few moments, his muscles had grown somewhat, his hair was blown up straighter than before and his aura intensified.

Goku grabbed 16´s left fist and threw another kick. But this time it ripped 16´s arm off. To his luck he was a full machine and showed no signs of pain. Only town metal, cables and sparks.

"Give up," Goku told him.

xxx

With a grin on his face Vegeta showed the same transformation... and he threw a punch at Seventeen that send the Android flying backwards.

To his shock however 17 showed no sign that he was even affected... and just smiled.

Then he flew forward, several times faster than he did it before and burried his fist into Vegeta´s stomach. It was enough to let the Ascended Super Saiyan double over in pain.

"Did you think you are the only ones who can get stronger?" Seventeen asked, before he slammed him over the head with enough force to send him crashing into the ground.

He looked around. 16 seemed to have lost against Goku. 18 however still easily had the upper hand against Piccolo.

17´s look turned to Son Goku.

xxxxxxx

Future timeline - 17 years in the future

Trunks time-machine appeared once again in front of the Capsule Corp building. Only now it was the damaged and worn down version of the building from his own era.

He jumped out of the machine and walked inside.

"Mother?" he called out.

"Trunks - you are back," Future Bulma greeted him. "Then everything went well? Were the Androids defeated? Is the other timeline save?"

Trunks face froze for a moment. Defeated? No. Safe? He wasn´t completely sure yet.

"Things were different. Some things are a lot different from what we expected."

"Different? Side-effects of you fighting and killing Freeza maybe?" she questioned.

"Maybe - I am not quite sure either," he admitted.

Trunks started to explain the events of the past to her.

"The Androids attacked at the same time and place we predicted. Only it were not the same Androids. Instead of 17 and 18 it were an Android version of Doctor Gero and someone called 19.

Goku´s heart-virus broke out at another time, during the fight. And Doctor Gero managed to flee and activated 17 and 18, who then killed him, after activating another Android called 16.

This 17 and 18 - they were far more powerful than the ones here... and 16 - I don´t even know how strong he is. But the three were not interested in destroying humans and attacking any towns, but were only going after Goku and hunting him down."

Bulma was looking at him aghast, not sure what to make of all these changes.

"Goku then, after recovering, gave the Androids a challenge to fight after a time of two months to prepare... and they accepted."

"That - that is a lot to take in," she said.

He then continued to tell her about the three other Androids who had by their own words be activated by Doctor Gero´s computer and how this caused them to return to the lab and find the blue-prints of 17.

He took out the shut-off switch and placed in on the table before them.

"So this small device can shut the Androids down... and end everything," Bulma stated.

"Yes."

"And Son Goku and your father in the past had refused to use it?"

"They had their reasons. And to be honest, I understand them. I would also rather defeat the Androids myself than use that thing. But I am not willing to sacrifice any more innocent people until I can do that.

In opposite to our Androids though the ones in the past are not destroying the world."

"Yes. I see," Bulma replied.

It was a bit hard to her to wrapp her mind around the idea that the past Androids were simply not interested to cause the same havok their counterparts here did.

What could have caused things to be so different? Had Doctor Gero somehow known about Goku´s death and the fact that he was still alive had caused him to do something different in the Android´s creation?

Or had it been the fact that it was Trunks who had defeated Freeza and his father instead of Goku like it should have?

xxx

Counterparts - maybe it was truly better to think about the past Androids as different entities than their present ones, if they truly were so different.

But what did that mean for everyone else? Was she not truly the same Bulma as the one in the past?

There was no point thinking about something like that now.

xxx

In this moment a message came over the radio, that the Androids were once again attacking a town.

Not that there was still much left of any larger towns on the planet. The Androids had swept over this world years ago, attacking and destroying town, settlements and districts one by one, until they had carved a circle of destruction all around the world.

Then - some years later - they repeated the same, destroyed everything they had missed in the first round and also crushed any attempt of the people to even rebuild the damage.

At the time Gohan had died they had, by the last estimations, wiped out about half of humanity.

Now it were at least 2/3rds of them. But they could not even tell for sure because it was impossible to even get exact statistics.

Most of the survivors of the human race had retreated into underground bunkers years ago, where they spend most of their lives. Even his mother had one.

Today the Androids were mostly just scouting the ruins of the towns they had destroyed years or even decades ago and killing survivors who came out for food or other things whenever they found them.

Sometimes they found small settlements that were somehow being missed by their 17 year rampage or they found one of the bunkers. Or sometimes, when they were bored, they were just shooting up the already ruined landscape in hope to force someone out in the open they could kill.

The last two decades had been nothing but a nightmare... one that would end today.

xxx

"I am going," he said.

"Be careful," Bulma told him.

"I will."

xxxxxxx

A short time later Trunks, in Super Saiyan form, arrived at the town.

It was like he had expected. The place was a ruin-field. He could still see several fires - over a dozen in fact - burning. So some of the damage at least happened recently.

As he lowered to the ground, he saw some dead bodies, a few dozen at least.

He looked down to the body of an old man lying next to a wrecked car, who seemed to be shot through the head with a bullet. Seventeen, Trunks remembered he was carrying a pistol, even if he barely used it.

Did he come too late?

No - in the distance he could see them fly away - 17 and 18.

He fired a ki blast in their direction, just to get their attention.

The blast just passed between them. But they turned around to him, so it had solved it´s purpose.

17 and 18 exchanged one of their typical short looks, before they flew back to him.

"Do you think you can simply leave here?" Tunks asked them as they landed.

"And who should stop us?" 17 asked. "You?"

"You can be glad that we find you amusing or we would have already killed you," 18 added.

"It ends today," Trunks stated.

He took one step closer to them. Ten meters, he remembered what his mother from the past told him. The range of the shut-off switch.

"Oh - so you think you can beat us now? Have you trained very hard in that time you were gone?" 17 asked him mockingly.

"No - actually I have given up on that some time ago. I instead plan to stop you in another way."

"Really? And what? Do you plan to ask us really nicely?" 18 said sarcastically.

Keep them occupied, Trunks thought silently to himself. Try to distract them. All you need is one second to activate the switch.

Yes - and they just need one second to shoot the device to atoms and then you will never get a second chance. So be careful.

"You should know something. During the last years, my mother had been working on a secret project - a time-machine. It doesn´t change our own present, but it can create other pasts, other timelines.

I have seen a past where your other selves showed any interest to destroy the world or to kill people."

"And why exactly are you telling us all this?" 17 asked.

"You don´t expect us to suddenly realize that we don´t `need to be like this´ and suddenly change, do you?" 18 questioned amused.

"No." Trunks moved his hand to take the off-switch out of his pocket.

The amusement on their faces turned into shock as they recognized the device.

"What...?" 17 called out

"How...?" 18 exclaimed.

But Trunks had already pushed the button.

Both Androids froze in their movements.

Trunks was starring at the deactivated bodies of 17 and 18 for a split-second... before he powered up and obliterated them both with powerful blasts, Seventeen a split-second before Eighteen.

Trunks powered down and then let himself sink to the ground and sat down on the earth.

He kept looking silently at the spot where the two Androids had just met their demise and then at the devastated town around him.

It was finally over, he thought. Finally.

xxxxxx

Future Timeline - 3 years later

Bulma had now finally managed to collect enough fuel to refill the time-machine.

They had known it would take a long time - three more years.

Trunks had used that time to help with the rebuilding that had started everywhere.

The time-machine was standing not far away from the Capsule-Corp Building, ready to start.

He would help the others and also tell him that he had susccesfully stopped this time´s 17 and 18.

"I wish you good luck," his mother had told him.

Then he suddenly realized that he was not alone. He heard a noise coming from an alley between two houses. But he could not sense anyone.

"Who is there?" he asked, now getting tense.

But nothing could have prepared him for what was now coming out in the open.

It was a bizarre looking creature, with a green reptilian skin, no face beside sickly yellow eyes and a slit like mouth and a long tail with some kind of stinger at it´s end.

"Trunkss..." the being said, "it is good to finally see you face to face."

"You know me? Who and what are you?" he asked.

"Knowing you? You can say that. You after all were the one who ruined everything... when you destroyed the Androids."

The Androids? Trunks thought in surprise.

"But I overheard you talking to your mother. So this is actually a time-machine," the creature stated. "With it I can return to the past and finally find 17 and 18, still alive and intact."

Trunks transformed into Super Saiyan and draw his sword.

"What do you want with 17 and 18?" he shouted.

"No need to tell you. You will die right here for the trouble your actions have caused me. Just so much, with their help my power will soon be invincible."

The creature powered up. It was unbelievable.

This thing, Trunks realized, was even stronger than the Androids had been. Not quite as much as the ones in the past. But if it could truly grew even more powerful?... this thing could under no circumstances be allowed to get it´s claws on the time-machine.

Trunks charged at the creature.

But the monster blocked the strike of his sword and then moved and punched him in the stomach with enough force that he spat up blood and nearly dropped out of Super Saiyan.

He felt how the creature´s tail wrapped itself around his throat and cut off his air. A few moments later he truly fell out of his transformation.

"My name by the way - is Cell," it said... before it fired a ki blast right through his chest.

Cell-... Trunks recognized the word. In his last moments he realized that they all had made a great mistake.

xxxxxxx

As he regained his senses a few moments later, Trunks was at a place he never saw before.

He realized that he was standing in front of what looked like a giant bureau desk, with an equally giant being with red skin, horns and black hair and beart, sitting behind him.

The second person standing right eside the desk however, he would recognize everywhere.

"Goku," he said.

"Yes - and you are Trunks aren´t you?" the Goku standing before him asked.

"Yes-... I died, didn´t I?"

"I fear you did," Goku responded.

"And this creature... Cell. He took my time-machine."

"Yes - he did," the large being - Trunks now knew he must be King Enma - stated. "And as far a we can tell, he used it to travel into the past and created another timeline. But sadly this is something that neither you or we can change."

"I fear too, we just have to hope that the fighters in the past will be able to stop him," Goku said.

And so the story started once anew.


We see here what happened to Mirai Trunks in the second (Cell´s) future-timeline. But as the last scene hinted, this must not necessary be the end of his appearances.

A little detail: The attacked town is the same as in the manga/anime. But since Trunks is not ASSJ this time around, he is a bit slower to arrive and the old man was already killed.

Also, in the past Goku and Vegeta had broken through the limit of the Super Saiyan and reached Ascended SSJ form (not SSJ2 yet). Of course since they didn´t have a year to train, they are still much weaker in this forms.

I would estimate an Ascended Super Saiyan after time-chamber at at least 900.000.000 to 950.000.000.

They also follow Goku´s idea to train to master the SSJ state like in the original. Just without the time-chamber. That also helped them to get somewhat stronger in just a short time.

Power-levels:

Son Goku (after 2 months): 6.400.000 - SSJ 320.000.000 - ASSJ 520.000.000

Vegeta (after 2 months): 6.300.000 - SSJ 315.000.000 - ASSJ 510.000.000

Piccolo (after 2 months): ?

Android 17 (after 50 days training): 590.000.000

Android 18 (after 50 days training): 535.000.000

Android 16 (after 2 months): 450.000.000

Future Trunks (after three years): 5.800.000 - SSJ 290.000.000

Future Android 17: 310.000.000

Future Android 18: 300.000.000

Cell (in Future timeline): 330.000.000