So, good news, did not go on that trip I was worried about last week.
Bad news, this chapter did not want to get written, but it is done now at least

Also, I've been writing the next real POV chapter on and off, and man it's already so long, I haven't even gotten to the part that's super plot relevant It's definitely gonna be split in two, though still probably being posted in the same week

Also Also, I think I'm gonna be posting the pseudo POV chapter this week, it's not a perfect lead in, but at this point it's either that or include it in an actual chapter, which I also don't want to do

Guest: Yes. No. She was surprised because despite the name, she looked nothing like she used to.

thewittywhy: Yeah feels weird doesn't it? You don't expect to go into a DBZ thing feeling bad for Nappa. Honestly, the concept for Nappa's character is way sadder than the show would imply, like, dude has his planet and everyone he may know and care about destroyed, still has to work under the same Dictator he already was, aaannnndd now he's raising two kids, who also just had their planet and everything they know destroyed. Like, honestly, it's kinda a shame I can't really get into it much in the fic without having an awkward flashback or going out of character for Nappa.
Anyway, I've been talking about Nappa for too long for no reason, uh, making fun of 17 is super fun and super easy. They're baby adults and thus practically teenagers. It is very easy to make fun of teenagers.
And that is a valid question. One that I definitely considered and planned before reading your comment. But nah, I've figured it out lol

Qinlongfei: Unfortunately, I don't know the reference so I can't confirm or deny the comparison

SoralTheSol: Of course, they're baby adults, practically teenagers. Of course they are lol

I felt too tense. This wasn't good. There was nothing I could do at least until we got there. Then I could worry about it all. I'd already chewed most of my nails down and obviously that wasn't helping.

Maybe if I focused on something else?

"Hey Trunks? This timeline is already really different from your's right?"

"Well yeah, so much has changed, it's almost unreal."

"So then why are you so against the idea of the Androids being different? If so much else has changed?" I fiddled with the strap of my backpack as I spoke.

Trunks almost scowled, "how can I? They look and act the same! They killed Gero in cold blood. The only difference is that they didn't kill us!"

"Was it In cold blood? Killing Gero that is. I mean, he wasn't exactly talking to them nicely and he had them locked away and asleep for who knows how long."

"So is being rude justification for murder now? In that case, I don't see why my father has survived this long."

"Well, first of all, we could get into a much longer discussion about how even if the Androids were just as evil and went on a murder spree across the planet Vegeta would still technically be worse-"

"What?"

"Second, Dad's kinda, the only one who really could do anything about him at this point. And third, it wasn't really just being rude? Gero was threatening them. And who knows what happened before all this."

"…can we go back to my father somehow being worse than a post-apocalyptic causing threat?"

"Hmm. No."

"I think that's the more pressing matter here."

"Well no, by default the current threat is the more pressing matter."

"You can't just bring that up and not expect follow up questions!"

"Yeah, I'm just being petty towards Vegeta. It's nothing. Back to topic. It'd really just turn into me complaining about Vegeta more than anything else."

"I think…I'm going to need to have a conversation with Shaylan about this… Uh, hey…"

"Yeah I know."

"Oh, ok. That's, good. Does anyone else do you think?"

"No. Piccolo will probably figure it out when he sees her though." Or at least when he hears her name. Why'd I even tell him that? Stupid. It's not like it matters.

"Anyway, back to Androids-"

Trunks groaned, "does that even matter? Shay- Uh- well- she said we shouldn't speculate until we know more anyway."

"Ok, but you can't accept otherwise if you're so dead set on them being the worst."

"It's pointless to even discuss this now. For all we know I'm completely right!"

"Better to discuss it now than in the middle of a fight."

"If we're fighting, then I'm probably right."

"You mean like how Vegeta started the last fight?"

"This conversation isn't going anywhere. It's still always going to loop back to we don't know. So let's not."

"They didn't do anything to hurt Krillin, Raditz, or I."

"And there can be reasons for that we don't know."

"The girl, Eighteen, kissed Krillin. On the cheek, but still counts."

Trunks actually stopped mid-flight, "what?" He shook his head, resuming his flight, "that, that could just be some kind of manipulation."

"Seventeen didn't do anything when I actively made fun of him."

"Why would you do that?"

"Have you seen his socks?"

"…yes. I have, and ok Shaylan does that too but still- that could still be, why am I still defending this? This conversation is still pointless."

"How long until we get there?"

Trunks checked his watch, "about, ten minutes."

"Then we have plenty of time to discuss."

I didn't want my thoughts trailing back to Cell after all.

Trunks was not as enthusiastic about the concept.

Clover-

Getting Goku to Kame house was pretty uneventful, but objectively speaking it was probably a good thing she stayed. She and Shay were the strongest ones here, and it was pretty obvious Shay didn't want to be left alone with all her past, stuff.

She didn't really have much stake in the conversation on what to do about the Androids. She didn't really care how they dealt with them as long as they were dealt with. They were here to make this timeline better after all, not get revenge.

She found all of Goku's friends pretty interesting. Yamcha was kinda odd, but fun. Trunks's father was, a lot. Shay looked like she had fun confronting him at least. Younger Aunt Bulma was way more reckless than the woman who scolded Trunks and her for staying out too late. Seeing the baby Trunks was super cute though, even if it was super bad of Aunt Bulma to bring him.

Piccolo was kinda hard to read, but definitely cared about mini Shaylan at least. Gohan- she means. She's always supposed to refer to the mini as Gohan. Shay said the mini probably wouldn't like being called by that name anyway. Clover didn't really get why, but whatever. Past stuff was weird.

Krillin might be one of her favorite past people, though she might be a bit biased from some of Shay's stories. When she was up for telling them, and not all melancholy and sad about it.

She couldn't really get much of a read on that Tien guy or his little friend, Chaotzu? She didn't interact with them much though so that makes sense.

But one guy she really couldn't get a read on, was her father.

He was all, attentive and concerned when it came to Baby Trunks. It was weird, and completely contradicted what Trunks said he learned the first time he went back.

And when asked for clarification, Shay just got all dodgy and backtracky the way she does when she doesn't want to talk about something.

Aunt Bulma just said that their fathers had a complicated past and dropped the subject.

None of Shay's other friends had much information they didn't already know about them.

And it definitely didn't help that ever since he learned she was his daughter he couldn't help but glance at her every 15 seconds, tops. He probably thought he was being subtle. It was getting on her nerves.

Even worse was that the second everything was settled and she went outside to just, chill on the beach and be away from everything else, he was there. Immediately. Wanting to talk.

And yeah, sure, she wanted to talk, eventually, she wanted answers after all, but she was kinda hoping to have a minute to, not? Do anything? Not deal with all the weird past things.

But, who knows how long the silence would last and she definitely didn't want anyone else listening in on the conversation, so, guess this was as good a time as any.

"Hi! Uh, hello- I've never actually-" the man fumbled, as if it wasn't obvious he'd never introduced himself to a future daughter, "it, it is true though, right? You are-?"

"Yeah…thought that was kinda obvious by now…"

"Right, right, that's- ok, right- that's, that's great! I mean- that, I'm not, doing this well. But, if, if you're worried I'd act like Vegeta has with-"

"No. I'm not," Clover interrupted, "Shay always said you adored me when I was born. She was pretty certain you would here too."

"Oh! That's- but then why- I mean you've been all-" he continued to fumble for words. Honestly, he's had all this time to think and he couldn't plan anything about what he'd had to say? Shay seemed to think over everything before saying anything. Didn't anyone know what a middle ground is?

Whatever, it's not like she didn't get what he was trying to say.

"Trunks and I don't lie to each other you know. The first time he came back, he told me what you had said, about hurting people. Killing people. And how you just said that, so casually, as if it meant nothing." She crossed her arms in front of her as she spoke. Just talking about it made her uncomfortable, and if that's what's casual to him, what more could there be that she doesn't know?

Her father at least seemed to understand that it bothered her. She couldn't tell if he understood why.

He seemed to try and say something a few times but not really having much to say in response.

Eventually though, he settled on something, nodding, "ok."

"What?"

"Ok, I mean, I can't take back the things I've done, and I, can't feel bad for every job I've done. So, if that's a dealbreaker for you, I can't, really do anything about it." He didn't walk away, but he did take a step back, waiting for her response.

What?

Was that?

This didn't line up with anything she knew or expected.

This wasn't the loud, impulsive man Shay sometimes described. And wasn't like the man Trunks described practically bragging about killing people.

Oh. Right, it probably didn't really matter what she thought of him. He had his actual daughter on the way, one he could raise to just, not care about things like that.

But then why was he still here waiting for a response?

Can't feel bad for every job- he considers killing people just a job? That's just-

Does that mean he's stopped whatever it was now? She doubted Aunt Bulma would let him live on her property if he was still killing people.

Did that even matter though? He still killed people. Probably more than they were led to believe since nobody would tell them.

Did it have to do with whatever alien thing they had going on before arriving to earth? Or was it on earth that he killed people? Both?

Did she want the answers to any of these questions?

At her lack of response, her father just kinda nodded and began to turn away.

"Wait!" She borderline shouted impulsively, before cringing.

Great, now she had to say something.

Except this, this was the only time she'd get to meet her father. And she wasn't just going to ignore that.

She wasn't going to act like Shay and just ignore her feelings and pretend like it was all nothing and barely even talk to the people who were supposed to be her friends-

It's not like she was living with him. It's not like this was any long term thing. She's just, able to meet him.

She should be glad really. Trunks's father was ignoring him. Her father actually sought her out to speak.

"Ok, so. You've done bad things. And I don't want to know all of them. But, ok, just promise that you won't teach the mini-me, the one who's still going to be born, that those things are ok…then, we can hang out, a little bit, maybe…"

Her father looked back at her, then smiled, "deal." He extended a hand for her to shake.

Clover frowned at the hand.

Well, she's been impulsive so far. Why stop now?

She ducked past the offer of a handshake and quickly hugged him. Just as quickly she let go.

Welp now that that impulse was gone forever-

Her father immediately dragged her into another, much tighter hug.

Oh, good.

She already regretted this.

…

Kinda.

…

I, dropped the conversation about the Androids pretty quickly. It felt kinda silly to keep pushing the topic when Trunks clearly didn't like it.

Also, I didn't want to start being annoying to him. Sure a bit of that initial hero worship might have faded over the three years, which thank whatever for that, but he was still one of my favorites.

Which of course lead to the build up of stress and anxiety over Cell, and that inevitably.

I'm not sure if I was hoping to get there faster or Freeze time right then and there.

It didn't matter what I wanted because soon enough we were there and the first thing I did was try to sense something, anything that was out of place.

Nothing but the wildlife you would expect to find all the way out here.

So, searching with our eyes again I guess.

It wasn't a large space to cover at least, it wasn't long until I spotted it just sitting in a valley surrounded by tall rocks blocking it from normal view.

I alerted Trunks to it and landed by its side. Immediately I searched again for any off energy signals, to no avail.

The sound of an aircraft alerted us upwards to see an approaching plane.

"That must be my mother," Trunks said, lifting off the ground, "I'll go let her know where we are."

He took off into the sky as I was left there on the ground.

I frowned staring at the well and weathered time machine. I circled around it, not knowing what I was looking for exactly. Nothing stood out as different from what I expected. It was a vehicle worn down with time and moss layering over most of it.

The only obviously wrong thing with it is the glass cover, which had a very obvious hole breaking and melting through that. But I probably shouldn't mess with that until the other two get here.

I sat in the shade of a tree waiting for them. Eventually, I laid back with my arms behind my head and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the grass tickling my arms.

A few minutes later, the ever growing noise of the plane reached its peak and died out, though I didn't sit up until Bulma and Trunks were actually walking over.

"Hey Gohan!" Bulma greeted, "Trunks was just saying how age wonderfully! Barely looking any different than I do now!"

"Uh, right, anyway," Trunks walked forward, taking out his Capsule case and tossing one so that it opened right next to the worn down machine.

"This is the time capsule the three of us came back in."

The machine was an exact replica of the one I'd been staring at, just all shiny and new instead of broken down and moss covered.

"Huh, so this one can't be yours then. Maybe after all this is settled I end up building more of them and one just got left behind?"

"Like I said, we barely managed to make this one, and even if we could make more, we'd never be careless enough to forget it in the past." Trunks frowned as he walked around the worn down version.

He swiped his hand over one of the legs, wiping away the moss.

"As I thought, somehow, this time machine is also mine," he stepped away to show what he uncovered.

Writer in English letters, not the common language, but not uncommon to see either in logos or short phrases, was the word Hope in Bulma's handwriting.

The exact same thing was written on the unscathed time machine.

"So, what's up then? If this is yours how'd it get left out here?"

"I'm not, sure," Trunks jumped up to examine the quote melted hole in the glass, running his fingers over the edge.

"Did something blast this from the inside? Was it trying to escape?" He questioned.

He pushed a button on the hatch, and while the machine struggled, it managed to open.

Trunks hopped in and picked up some kind of shell left on the seat.

Though, with a matching half discarded on the floor, it was clear, to me at least, that it was Cell's egg.

He's already out there somewhere.

And I still couldn't sense anything.

What was the point in being able to sense stuff when it was helpful when I very much needed it?

Trunks handed the egg off to Bulma and as she speculated over what it could be, he started pushing buttons on the machine.

To her credit, Bulma did guess it might be some kind of eggshell.

"There's not much battery left so we've only got one shot at figuring this out," Trunks said as he scanned through the flashing lights.

I had no idea what any of the numbers actually meant, but Trunks did, judging by his focus.

"It looks like the time machine got here three, no four years ago. That means that by the time I killed Frieza, it'd already been here for a year. Is this why history's changed so much?"

"I still think it's dad not dying that changed things most," I said, though I was internally screaming.

Four years. Cell has been here for four years and I had no idea. I had no way of knowing. I'd never come out here all on my own, it was far out in the middle of nowhere.

Still, I couldn't help but think that if I had, for some reason, I might have been able to prevent this all.

The battery on the worn time machine gave out and Trunks returned it to its Capsule, then returned his own.

"I'll take the weird egg shell thingies, see what I can find out from them, if anything," Bulma said.

I frowned, looking around.

This has solved nothing. So I know Cell is here. I already knew that. I wandered off as Trunks and Bulma talked. Something about going back to Master Roshi's and Vegeta being a deadbeat.

I have to find something that might help. At least something to point at and say something is very obviously wrong can we do something about it?

I followed the bath that'd be easiest to get out of the area into some trees.

Oh, yup, that'll do.

"Uh, guys? I think I found something?"

Trunks got here first, soon followed by Bulma.

"What, is that?" Trunks asked when he spotted the thing. Bulma shrieked, which, it was pretty grotesque to be fair.

"I think it's some kind of shedded skin? Or exoskeleton?"

"That! Is way too big for anything to just shed like that! It's disgusting!" Bulma fixated on that last part the most it seemed.

"Hey, so who wants to bet that whatever came from that egg also made this?" I asked, very much trying to lead to the conclusion that this bad, must fix.

"I've never seen anything like this," Trunks said as he tentatively poked at the skin or whatever, sticking his hand in for some reason.

"Oh, yep, nope that, that was a mistake. Wish I did not do that," he groaned as he withdrew his hand, now covered in some kind of slime.

He shook his hand off and wiped it against a rock, then his pants.

"Do either of you have hand sanitizer?"

"Hm? Yeah sure," I took off my backpack as I grabbed the small travel-sized hand sanitizer and handed it over.

"Right, so. New questions," I hoisted the bag back over my head, "What is this? Did it come from the egg? Who sent the egg back? Did they come too? Why to any of it." I summarized the possible questions that could come from this situation, and I can't just say the thing but we really needed to focus on this now please

"We, have no way of knowing any of that," Trunks said, "I think it's pretty likely that this came from the egg. And it's obviously been freshly shed," he grimaced at his hand again, "but other than that, I have no idea."

Trunk glanced over at his mom who shrugged.

"Not much I can do without at least examining the egg."

Bulma startled at something ruffling through the brush. It was a, rodent? It kinda reminded me of like, a chinchilla or something. But more, circle-y.

"Ok! I'm done here! I've hit my limit, creepy giant bug thing is that apparently! Goodbye!" She rushed back to her ship, "Let me know when you get to Master Roshi's!" She called as she lowed the windshield.

"Huh?"

"Oh right, mom and I were talking and decided that you and I should head back to Master Roshi's, that way if the Androids show signs of showing up we can get your dad out of there."

"Wait, but, the giant bug. We have to find it and, do something!"

"Trust me, I want to get to the bottom of this as much as you do, but we're out of leads here. The best we can do is wait for mom to examine the egg. We can't exactly scour through the entire forest while the Androids are still out there looking to kill your father."

I struggled to find a response, because what he said technically had no flaws, but, we were right here! This is the closest I might be able to get to finding Cell before it's too late!

Well, there was the one flaw in that he couldn't possibly want to solve this more than me but that's a more minor point.

I scanned out yet again for something, anything, that might be out of place. The tiniest blip that I could point at and say that's kinda weird.

But nothing. Nothing but normal, forest wildlife.

I can't search this entire place alone. He might not even be above ground, for all I know he could dig or something.

The first thing Cell did was kill off and absorb the citizens of a town or city or something, but I had no idea where.

He's right here somewhere…

But I had no way to find him.

Trunks placed a hand on my shoulder, "Gohan, I see that this is nothing you, but there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's regroup and maybe go be of the others will think of something. We can always come back later and look again."

Defeated, I nodded, knowing that by then it'll be too late.