Zildar and the others landed on the Lookout a few minutes after leaving West City. Bulma took baby Trunks and young Sakura away from the edge and sat down leaning against a tree as Videl ran over to Hercule and hugged him until he was blue in the face. "Man, that was incredible Piccolo!" Gohan cheered walking over to the Namek. "That other guy couldn't even touch you." Zildar half grinned, half smirked as he rested a hand on Gohan's head.
While it was true that he wasn't exactly Piccolo anymore he wasn't really Zildar either, he realized. His experiences as Kami and Piccolo had changed who he was quite a bit. "You know..." he said slowly, his mind still working it over. "I think I will stay with Piccolo."
Gohan stared at him blankly but Goku grinned. "I guess it is kind of confusing being two people."
"Three, actually." Piccolo said shaking his head. "It takes a bit for the mind to adapt. Zildar's long gone, Kami and I may have been each a half of him but by the time we merged we were our own people." He turned to look toward Appla and Bardock. "I've also managed to recover Zildar's old memories now and I have some more insight, I think, into this unnamed threat out there in the universe."
"You do?" Goku asked shocked.
Piccolo nodded. "Long ago when I still lived on Namek, I was the strongest of the Warrior Nameks. The second strongest was Slug." Seeing the shocked looks on the faces of those who recognized the name he nodded. "Yes, the same Slug we fought a few years ago. Kami recognized him, even if I didn't at the time, but he didn't make the connection. Though more complete than mine his memories still had holes. Anyway, Namek was attacked by a guy calling himself King Frigid and he had with him his son, Lord Cold."
"You're kidding!" Bardock cried in shock. "Then... you and Slug were..."
Piccolo nodded. "We were the ones that killed Frigid after his forces almost completely decimated the Namek population. Only myself, Slug, and Guru survived. Slug and I only made it through thanks to some help from an alien named Razor. He unlocked a power deep within us, far more and far different than what Azura did a few years ago. He told us he worked for someone who wanted the Nameks to survive..."
"You're thinking it's this conspiracy?" Appla asked.
Piccolo nodded. "I do. It's obvious that Slug had to be working for someone and that's the only thing that makes sense."
Raditz nodded. "Yes, that does fit. What I found when I was first looking into the matter wasn't much but it did stretch back several hundred years. I found one planet that had been told not to trust the Sai-jins or the Changelings nearly five hundred years ago. Neither Empire had been formed yet that long ago..."
"But... how would they know about the Sai-jins and Changelings that long ago?" Goku asked. "And why is it taking them so long to come out of the shadows if they've been around that long?"
"That creature, Cell... he said he was from the future, but a different future." Piccolo said trying to remember what he'd heard. "He said that there was no Sai-jin Empire in his time-line, that it should have long since vanished. And while he seemed to have data on everyone he didn't know who Hotaru or Sakura where. Said that they shouldn't be here. According to him things were drastically different than what he knew of the past."
"Well, Trunks and Sakura did change things." Krillin said.
"Trunks?" Bulma asked looking up.
"Oh, that's right, you didn't know yet. The guy that came back with Sakura is Trunks." Krillin said.
"That's not important right now." Piccolo said. "What is important is that Cell mentioned that too, but he also had a good point. He came back 4 years ago, Trunks and Sakura 3 years ago, that doesn't explain changes even further back than that."
"Piccolo's right." Bulma said rocking baby Trunks. "If that Cell thing was right and the past is different even further back than when he arrived that means someone else had to have gone even further back than him."
"Is that possible?" Videl asked. "How could someone from a different time-line end up in ours?"
Bulma shook her head. "I've not done much research on time travel." she said. "But I do know some things. We already know that you can't change the future, only create a new and seperate time-line. From that I say it's safe to assume that each person, or in the case of Trunks and Sakura who travelled together, persons, creates their own seperate time-line. Of course, just because you're going into the past doesn't mean cause and effect isn't still effective, and someone can't go further back than you did, before you went back, if they're coming from further in the future..."
"You're losing me Bulma." Yamcha said.
"Oh, sorry... Hmmm... how to explain it..." She moved so that she was sitting beside Popo's small garden area and picked up a stick. With that she drew a line through the dirt. "Alright, this line here is the time-line. The first and original one. Now, what do we know about changes to it besides Sakura, Trunks, and Cell?" she asked.
"Cell mentioned that Trunks appeared in his time-line as well." Piccolo said. "That lead to the destruction of the Androids. It's why he came back."
"Okay. So we have Trunks going back in time..." she drew a line down from the one already there and then off along beside it. "Now, hmmm." she sat there in thought. "We're agreed that someone came back even further, after Trunks did, right?" The others nodded so she drew a third line, much closer to the start of the first, down and then along below the other two. "That would make three time-lines."
"And then Trunks and Sakura came back." Tien said. "Creating a forth, and Cell makes five."
"Well..." Bulma said gazing at the lines. "I think Cell made four and Trunks and Sakura made five." she said at last. "Cell came from this second time-line, so he would have travelled back before Trunks and Sakura, even if he came from further in the future. And then Trunks and Sakura would have come back creating our time-line."
"I'm lost..." Goku said scratching the back of his head.
"It doesn't matter." Bardock replied. "All that's important is that we now know a bit more of what we're dealing with."
"Time travellers." Piccolo said with a frown. "Whoever this Raven is, she's obviously from the future."
"Maybe." Bulma said. "Or maybe it's just her mate. We don't know. All that we know for sure is that someone came back in time from that original time-line, after Trunks, and created a new one where the Sai-jin Empire lasted." She sighed. "I'll need to talk to Trunks once he's back, compare ideas, see what he can think of. Maybe we can come up with more information..."
"So now what do we do?" Hercule asked.
"We wait." Piccolo replied.
Bardock nodded. "He's right. We can't do anything but wait right now. We may know more about the threat out there but we can't do anything about it, and the threat here on Earth is out of our league at the moment. All we can do is wait and hope that Prince Vegeta and the others have the power to do something when they come back out."
"But Piccolo was faster and stronger than that Cell guy!" Gohan said.
"We still don't know about the rest though." Piccolo said. "It's safer to wait until we have numbers on our side. Once Vegeta finishes his training we'll have more of an advantage, and then we can make our next move."
"What if they do something first?" Hercule asked.
Goku sighed and walked to the edge of the lookout. A breeze blew through flapping the tattered remains of his Gi about. "Unfortunately there's nothing we can do. We'll have to let them have the run of the planet for now. I don't like it but... we don't have any choice."
There was a depressed silence for several minutes before anyone spoke again. Videl had walked over to where 18 stood apart from the others. "I sort of saw what happened down there." she said, breaking the silence. "Ummm... thanks for helping my dad." 18 looked down at the young girl and smiled faintly.
"So... how did you end up as a Cyborg?" Krillin asked.
"It's... a long story..." 18 said softly.
"Well, we have a lot of time to spare." Goku said.
18 remained silent staring off into space. After a few moments of this, Piccolo turned from the group. "You don't have to tell us." he said, glancing over his shoulder. "Some things... are better left unsaid." and with that he walked off into the palace, the others watching him go.
After a moment the Cyborg sighed. "There's no harm in telling you about it." she said softly. She moved over to the edge of the Lookout and sat down dangling her feet over the edge. "It's not exactly... the kindest of stories. But then, I'm sure you all know by now just how much life sucks."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
March 2nd, 5 years ago, about 20 miles north of Bridge Town:
A small convoy of vehicles, all of varying shapes, sizes, designs, and ages, moved along a dirt path kicking up a blinding fog of brown sand in their wake. There were fiften of them in all. Eight small land-based jeeps, each with a large machinegun mounted atop them, two larger land-based jeeps with machine guns mounted on either side and on the back, two large ground-based covered trucks full of people, and three hover cars with front mounted machine guns and side mounted rocket launchers.
There was one hover car to the left, one to the right, and one flying point. Behind the point car the two larger jeeps rolled along side by side. Next came three of the eight smaller jeeps followed by the two transport trucks, each with a jeep beside it, and then the final three jeeps took up the rear. It was a fairly common sight not just in this part of the world but in several locations for hundreds of miles in any direction. Autoro and his gang of thugs, brutes, outcasts, outlaws, and just general unwanted rabble.
Those working for Autoro came in even more shapes, sizes, and designs than the convoy of vehicles that they travelled in. Some where just overly violent by nature and for such reasons didn't fit in with normal society. Others were on the run from the law for one thing or another, like Autoro himself, and had just happened upon this 'merry band of misfits' while others simply had nowhere else to be.
Today, like most days, they were on the move. It was harder for the police to track them down if they moved around a lot. And less encounters with the cops meant more bullets for the towns and scattered homes they hit. Today's move wasn't quite typical though. They weren't moving to avoid the police, they were moving to intercept them. Some rich guy or other had apparently gone flat broke, gambled away all his money. And in an attempt to get it back he'd kidnapped some other rich guy's daughter. Things had then gone from bad to worse. His hostage was now dead and he was running from the police.
However, he also had the ransom money on him. All fifty billion Zenni. That was far too much money for Autoro to simply let slip through his fingers. And so he'd had the whole camp pack up and move out. The plan was to intercept the police pursuing the guy, eliminate them, and then 'pursuade' the guy to hand over the money. It had been decided that spliting up the convoy would be the best means of pulling this off.
Two of the hover cars, one of the larger jeeps, four of the smaller jeeps, and one of the transport trucks would head for the police. The rest would go and track down the former rich man. Autoro wouldn't normally put so large a force against one man, not when the others were up against the police, but the police broadcasts they'd intercepted indicated that he had some heavy firepower on him and was so freaked out by the situation he was shooting at anything that even faked a movement.
"Alright, here's where we split up!" a highpitched voice yelled out loudly so as to be heard over the roar of the trucks. "Boss says the police are 8 miles to the east! Shouldn't take more than five or six minutes to catch them!" The tall and skinny man in the brown slacks and jacket didn't get so much as a nod from the others in the truck to show he'd been heard. Not that he'd expect anything else.
Right by the exit at the back of the truck sat the two youngest members of the little gang of outlaws. The 16 year old twins, Gainin and his older sister Mijima. The boy had shoulder length black hair and blue eyes and was wearing a pair of brown boots, desert cammo pants, a black t-shirt, and a desert cammo jacket.
The girl across from him had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes and was dressed quite differently than her brother. She had on a pair of knee-high black boots, a black mini skirt, and a black tank-top. While he looked dressed for war she didn't. But then, Mijima always preferred fashion over function.
The boy had a large machine gun standing between his legs, his arms crossed over the top of the barrel and his chin resting on his arms, the red scarf intended to keep the sand out of his nose and mouth currently hanging lose around his neck. His sister was sitting leaning back in her seat, arms up behind her head, eyes closed. She had a pair of smaller sub machine guns resting on her lap and her own black scarf was already up over her face.
They continued on in all but silence, the roars of the trucks echoing off of everything, seemingly even empty space. Finally the sound of sirens began to cut through the loud engines and everyone in the truck shifted about grabbing their weapons and getting ready for the battle. A few glanced about at the others wondering who of them would be celebrating tonight and who would be food for the jackals and vultures. The twins simply picked up their weapons and nodded to each other. With the van still moving they stood and, gripping the side of the truck, flipped out into the open and then climbed up on top of the vehicle.
Gainin reached down and pulled his scarf up over his face and used an arm to shield his eyes from the blowing dust and dirt. He could see the police cars not much further up now, twenty of the hovering style and six ground vehicles, all of them armored tanks. He glanced over to his sister and she nodded. The two moved up along the top of the truck and then turned to the two hover cars on either side of their truck. The gunner inside each give them the thumbs up and then a second later a volley of rockets were blasting along the way toward the police.
A moment later a series of loud explosions sounded as the rockets either hit a car or slammed into the ground. The rocket attack quickly drew the attentions of the police and they pulled to a stop, as did the convoy that had attacked them. Instantly people began pouring out of the back of the large truck and taking up positions behind the stopped cars and jeeps. The twins dropped off the top of the truck and moved behind one of the stopped cars as well.
Mijima slipped along to the back edge of the car and peeked around it at where the cops were now doing the same as them. Meanwhile Gainin lay out on the ground and slipped under the floating hover car. There was a few moments of silence and then the loud booming voice of their leader echoed out over the speakers mounted on the large truck. "This is Autoro, leader of the Autoro Gang! You will drop your weapons or we will open fire!"
"This is police chief Boar, we know who you are Autoro! And you're nuts if you think we'll just surrender to the likes of you!" a gruff voice called.
"Have it your way." Autoro replied. "All men, open fire!" And with that the gunfight began.