Luckily, I already had this mostly written, I just had to edit in a semi-clean lead in for the point in the story

thewittywhy: lol thanks, and that is a valid question

TheHaragiri66: Thanks ^.^

We got back to Kame House and I did not walk in. Trunks did, after a questioning look, but I just shrugged it off.

I walked around the small house and sat in the shade.

I sat for a moment before absently going through my backpack, more to fill my time baselessly reorganizing than anything else.

My hand brushed against the Envelope that had been hidden in my sketchbook.

Oh yeah, that is a thing.

I twirled it in my hand for a moment. Admittedly, now probably isn't the best time to read it, but well, there's no telling when the next moment I'll have to myself will be when the Cell malarkey actually started up.

I sighed. Ideal or not, it should take up time at least. Time that I won't have to deal with whatever happens next.

My tail wound itself around my leg as I broke the seal and began to read.

To you, 17 years in the past,

I've never been good at starting this type of thing, but you know that as well as I.

I suppose I'll begin when our paths diverge.

I had been so excited when Frieza was returning to Earth. Of course I had been, Future Trunks was one of my favorites, how could I not be?

Very few things could match the sinking horror when I felt the familiar sunshine of Goku's Ki there instead.

It was probably suspicious, that I stood still, frozen to the spot while everyone else celebrated Goku's return. It was a good thing everyone was too excited to notice in the moment.

I had never really thought about what I'd do if I got the tail end of the timeline coin toss. I knew it was possible, technically, I just never thought about it. It never really seemed like a real possibility when the canon timeline was so ingrained.

In my distraction, I didn't notice that the fight was taking longer than the Trunks fight, nor did I notice when Frieza noticed us. But apparently, he recognized me since he targeted me for attack like he had tried to do to Krillin on Namek.

I was rescued from the fate just the same but it had made Goku angry, obviously. It was, it wasn't Super Sayain, but it reminded me of something that happened in one of the movies, I don't remember which one.

But either way, Goku had won, and he was here. Not Trunks from the future.

I assume much of the next few years played out, similarly with likely less training than you would have had. I tried, but Chichi was insistent on my studies and without an incoming threat Goku often took her side.

That's not to say I didn't train at all, it just, never felt like enough.

Regardless, the whole Cooler shebacle happened and Goku finally reached Super Sayain. Not that it helped at all to fight against that stupid virus.

Once Goku had contracted the virus, the solution was simple, collect the Dragons Balls and wish it away, except, by the time we, Krillin and I, had collected all seven, it was too late. The Dragon announced that Goku was already, gone.

And it didn't matter that he'd already been brought back, illness was deemed a natural death in the eyes of the dragon, so even if we went and found New Namek, their dragon couldn't bring him back either.

The reality of the bad timeline started sinking in. Maybe if I had gotten the dragon balls sooner. Maybe if- maybe- what if- ideas for how I could have changed this ran through my head. Too late. Too late to be any help.

Krillin tried to reassure me that it wasn't my fault, but he didn't know. He didn't know that I should have known- should have realized-

He could never know.

But the dragon was still there. The dragon was still there and waiting for a wish.

The reality of the bad timeline crashed in, that I might not have time, might not have another chance-

Of course I'd try to change whatever I could- but worst case I-

I asked Krillin if I could have the wish.

He agreed, asking what for.

My answer came in the form of the wish itself.

I wished this body was female.

Krillin's confusion went unanswered as the wish was made and the now stone Dragon Balls scattered once again.

I was hardly in the mood to explain, I put it off for another day.

I, spent a lot of time at the orphanage after Goku's death. It was, probably, definitely selfish. Chichi deserved someone to grieve with, someone to support her. But I couldn't do that. I never could. She deserved someone who knew and cared as much as she did. Not some stranger pretending to be their kid.

I didn't say anything right away about my wish. I was nine, so there weren't any obvious physical changes. Krillin didn't say anything as far as I knew either, probably waiting for my ever procrastinated explanation. I did end up giving him a pretty basic explanation, which, he took well, if a bit confused by the concept. But eventually, the shoe dropped and, I don't even remember how anymore, but Chichi found out.

I spent a lot of time at the orphanage after that too.

Maybe if I had been older- maybe if Goku were still around- maybe if I had talked about it first and didn't just make the wish-

I suppose this set of maybes isn't quite as useless, at least now you can reference them.

It had set up a domino effect of people finding out, to varying degrees of reactions. Most honestly didn't care, at least any of whom's reactions I cared about. To be completely honest though, I'm not exactly sure how far into the group the information got. It could have been everybody, or it could have stopped at Bulma or Master Roshi or at any point really.

Chichi still couldn't help but bring it up at any and every opportunity, when I just wanted to ignore it all. She's slightly better about it now, on the few times I see her.

It didn't really matter anyway, what was she gonna do, find the Dragon Balls after a year and undo my wish? Even if she had wanted to there wouldn't be time.

May 12th. Age 767. A date I couldn't remember from the show but was now ingrained in my memory. Even ignoring how I could never quite get a hold of this world's year numbering system.

These Androids were not the ones I remembered from my childhood.

Oh sure, this 17 and 18 snarked and made witty commentary with each other, but anyone and anything else was just a tool for their amusement.

Any attempts to talk were to no avail, and once they started killing us, I didn't exactly want to.

Vegeta was the first to fall, his arrogance once again proving his downfall. And after that, the rest began to get picked off one after another.

It felt like an extra cruel twist of the knife that it was 18 who killed Krillin.

Nappa lives long enough to meet his daughter. That's about it.

I asked Piccolo to just, not. To stay to the side and stay safe, as long as we had the Dragon Balls there could be a chance- but his pride would not allow for it and he too was killed, Kami and the Dragon Balls going with him.

Eventually, it was just Raditz and I. Raditz had become somewhat of a central focus in my life as everything started to fall apart. He physically could not care less about the gender thing, and with his characteristic cowardice I didn't have to worry about him charging into battle and dying-

The Androids had attacked a city close to where we had been getting supplies and parts for Bulma.

They had noticed us, Raditz had stepped in between me and them. Saying to get the supplies back to Bulma.

"What are you doing?" I had asked.

Raditz didn't quite make eye contact, grimacing. His hands trembled, he half glanced back before facing forward, never looking back again.

"Acting like a Sayain for the first time in my goddamn life!" He declared.

And then he was gone.

And I was alone.

With Nappa gone, Bulma was more or less left to care for two babies. I had no idea who Clover's mother was, but evidently she couldn't be bothered to take care of an infant.

I knew as "Future Gohan" I'd have to train up Trunks, probably Clover now too, but we'll, obviously I couldn't train actual infants so that had to be held off until they were at least- well obviously I didn't want to train them as old as I- as Gohan was at the start, but it's not like I could leave them as is either.

I made sure they'd be able to at least run from a confrontation by the age of five. And I slowly upped the training from there.

It was, hard, not to fall into a defeatist mindset. Nor could I tell you exactly when I reached Super Sayain. I'm pretty sure I activated it a few times before I actually noticed. There were certainly plenty of opportunities.

And I- I didn't want to die. No amount of desire to keep to canon could have changed that.

I, probably played it safer than Canon Gohan, Canon Future Gohan, did. I did confront the Androids, occasionally, but less, directly than I suspect my canon counterpart would have.

I got in, saved as many civilians as I could, and when I inevitably got drawn into a fight, I ducked out as quickly as possible.

I got really good at dodging.

The results were a fair few scars and a lost tail, but I was alive, which was enough.

Training Trunks and Clover took up a fair bit of my time too. Inevitably, they'd ask about their fathers, and well, I wasn't exactly going to say bad things about some kids' fathers in front of them, but that left me with not much to say.

Getting them to Super Sayain was a hassle, but I knew it was possible without someone dying, and as long as they got it eventually, it'd be fine. Admittedly, I did need to push a few of their buttons, and taking them to a recently destroyed city probably wasn't the best decision, especially without my checking it out first, but, it worked at least.

Training them together was more productive than if it would have been just Trunks, they had a sparring partner that was on an even level, and they would continue to push each other to become stronger. Both out of a desire to be the better, and to protect each other.

They were not allowed to fight the Androids. Obviously. They were not allowed to follow me to any place that had the Androids. If at any point they heard of the Androids in their area, they were to leave.

They only followed that last one most of the time. Of course, the last time they had failed to do so, Clover lost her tail so they were not subject to do that on a limb. Pun only slightly intended.

As soon as I realized what timeline I was in I reinstated Pigero's gang's training. Not- not to the point where they'd be tempted to run off and fight, but enough that I was sure they wouldn't just get killed by happenstance.

They had obviously noticed a difference, but even if they had asked, I wouldn't have answered.

Once everything fell to chaos, they had ended up moving closer to Capsule Corp, so there'd be less risk of separation.

Pigero after- oh never mind. Just, don't let anything happen to the kids. He doesn't, react well. But that should probably be obvious.

He's, better now, Technically. I'm sure part of it is feeling like he has to for the rest of his kids, who are now all adults.

He was certain the time machine wouldn't work. I'm pretty sure even once we get back, he'll still be convinced it was some kind of trickery. It's kinda funny, with all that he's accepted, that's the one thing he refuses to believe.

I don't know when I started going by Shaylan again. At first, I just used it as an alias, something temporary. Then, it became my standard alias, then eventually, it just kinda, stuck. I got reused to it. After a certain point, I didn't want to be Gohan.

Bulma still calls me Gohan sometimes, I really don't mind much, and the few times I see Chichi, obviously that's the name I go with, I don't think she even knows the other, But other than that, I don't think many people ever call me anything else.

I know, that you're probably worrying about what to do now. That the Cell fight is approaching and you're supposed to be the one who deals with it. Unfortunately, I don't know any more than you about how to deal with it.

I would have eliminated him in my time but I don't know where Gero's lab is or was, and I don't remember how he even go to the past. It's been too long since I've watched the show, and the bad timeline wasn't one I paid much attention to.

That is one thing I am glad about rolling the bad timeline, that I don't have to deal with Cell. Is it a fair trade off? No, but it's the best I'm probably gonna get so, I'll take it.

And, I wish you luck in your future.

Because, regardless of anything else, you got the good timeline. And you had better make good use of it.

I read over the letter, once, twice, and a third time for good measure.

Then I folded it back up and burned it with Ki.