Not sure how serious I am about this fic.
All credit to respective owners.
-YARN
Kurai shouted as he prepared to roll up the scroll just as that idiot time patroller — Dailli — he had been paired up with fired a blast right at him. To be fair he had just been in a battle before being pulled out and was caught in just the wrong moment, but part of being an expert was being able to dissipate an attack so that mistakes wouldn't happen. Kurai managed to protect the scroll he was holding and deflected the blast, but the ki blast struck another scroll in the rather cramped room. The scroll may have been durable enough on it's own, but Dailli wasn't that weak and had been a seasoned patroller if a bit too hotheaded. The blast struck the most recent scroll and caused a massive burst of energy to shroud and wrap around Kurai, the time patroller who had saved Conton City and sucked him in. The two kai that were watching gasped in horror as he was swallowed up by the surge of energy and the damaged scroll hit the floor.
"No!" The Supreme Kai of Time shouted.
"What have you done?!" The Elder Kai howled at the panicked time patroller who had just blasted his partner.
He had never meant for this to happen.
Kurai slowly opened his eyes to see Trunks and Mirai/Future Gohan of all people crouched over him as he breathed in and slowly rolled over to get to his hands and knees. He looked around to see pieces of the androids scattered around and saw that while the city was in a damaged state, Gohan and Trunks looked far more relaxed than before. Kurai blanched as he realized he had ended up in the timeline in which Trunks altered so that he could save his mentor and his planet together and face the future.
He wasn't supposed to be here! He needed to get back at the Time Nest!
He frowned when he stood and felt his body tremble, his own power level lower than what it had been. He had trained like a man possessed shortly before going to this era for the first time, spending inordinate amounts of time with Goku and Vegeta while polishing his super saiyan form to keep his stamina loss to the barest minimum and moving into super saiyan 2. Now it was as though his body was pulled all the way back into that state, regressing in strength and speed and power.
All the time he had trained was gone even with the one benefit of the time nest was the ability to go into a replication of the Room of Spirit and Time or Hyberbolic Time Chamber. Weeks in there were minutes and Kurai loved getting stronger. What happened to him when he showed up in this era? Was his body affected adversely by the wave of energy that dumped him here?A small relief was his godly ki's remnants that were still swimming inside him, but they were horribly muted and weak, pulsing weakly in his body when he had them as a tangible presence before.
"Kurai?" Trunks asked in confusion, "What are you doing here?"
"I was rolling up the time scroll from the nest when a patroller mistook a shot and while I deflected it, it hit the scroll for this timeline. I was going to convince the Supreme Kai of Time to leave you here... But I don't hear anything from them..." Kurai mumbled, still a bit disoriented.
Trunks mouth dropped open while Gohan raised an eyebrow, "Trunks, who is he? And what's that about a scroll?"
Kurai scrambled for an answer when Trunk interposed smoothly, "He is a saiyan who heard that we were here on Earth and wanted to join us."
Gohan eyes widened, "Wait... So he only just got here?"
Kurai picked up the conversation, "Yeah... I only just arrived... Sorry I couldn't be here sooner... My method wasn't exactly the fastest was something malfunctioned when it shot me here."
Gohan seemed to stare at Trunks and Kurai, assessing them to see if either one of them was lying on the matter.
"If that's true..." Gohan began, "Why didn't he tried to contact me instead?"
Kurai shrugged, "It wasn't like I knew who was the boss, I just asked a friendly kai to help me connect to a saiyan I could work with since there are so few of us left. He said you both were half-saiyans, and I took my chances."
Gohan seemed to accept this and tilted his head, "So... how strong are you?"
Kurai grinned and his hair turned gold and he transformed, his aura flaring and sending out a cloud of dust from his position,"Strong enough."
Gohan was taken aback by the stranger transforming into a super saiyan but shook off his surprise to smile widely, "Oh man... I could've really used your help earlier... It was lucky that Trunks was strong enough now to help me destroy the androids though..."
Kurai frowned at Trunks who shifted uncomfortably, "Was he not capable of that before?"
Gohan looked at the newcomer, "No... Is there something wrong with the fact he now is?"
Kurai sighed, letting the matter as well as his transformation drop, "It's not odd for saiyans to get stronger if they heal from near death situations. But this is a bit much..."
There was an slightly awkward silence and Trunks turned to Kurai, "We need to address the problems that we still have. We can worry about the other stuff later."
"Cell? Buu? Beerus?" Kurai inquired in a soft voice.
Trunks nodded tightly.
"Cell? What do you mean like a skin cell?" Gohan asked.
Kurai shook his head, "No... He's an another android."
Gohan blanched, "What?! Another one?"
Kurai nodded, "We're in luck though."
Gohan groaned, "How are we in luck if there is another android?"
Kurai turned to Trunks who shrugged, letting him say what he wanted.
"Well... he's actually only a bit stronger than they were." Kurai took a moment to organize his thoughts and take a breath, "Cell was designed to absorb 17 and 18 to further increase his power and then attain his 'perfect' form. Since you and Trunks destroyed them, he won't be too hard to beat. Especially if we work together."
Gohan seemed to let his irritation turn into focus, "I see... So where is he?"
Trunks stepped in, "He's after the Time Machine. He wants to go back so he can find 17 and 18 when they are still comatose and then kill us. We should go there. His ki is a mix of all the fighter in the Earth's Special Defense force. If eh gets the time Machine, the future is over for the past."
"Then we need to head to Capsule Corp." Trunk growled, "Mom is still there!"
The trio rushed back to the domed building and sighed in relief that it looked relatively intact and Bulma's ki was still there. They flew down and landed softly, Bulma lighting up at seeing her son and Gohan both a bit beat up, but otherwise unharmed. She ran over only to stop short at the sight of Kurai.
"Who are you?"
Kurai held out his hand, "I'm Kurai. A saiyan survivor who just made it to Earth when I heard that there were saiyan survivors here as well."
Bulma eyed his hand warily before carefully extending her own to shake it in greeting, "Nice to meet you."
Kurai is a bit miffed at that, he had spent time with Bulma, Goten, Trunks (as a kid), Goku, and Vegeta whenever he went to Capsule Corp to train with the saiyans. But he shakes himself and sternly reminds himself that this isn't the same Bulma, the time nest existed in a sort of gap in the timelines, it was why all the heroes and their various foe didn't turn the palace into a desolate wasteland from constant fights. The area that Capsule Corp that he had gone to multiple times wasn't the same as it was here. And far as this parallel timelines has been lately, he can assume that Bulma had every damn right to not trust a newcomer, considering how life has been.
He chokes back the sliver of hollow pain at the idea that he will probably never see those people again.
Trunks takes a moment to hug his mom and Gohan smiles.
Then the faintest hint of Cell's ki peers from around the corner and all of them stiffen.
Bulma frowns at our faces but it's Trunks' face that convinces her to turn and run into the building. They turn almost in sync and our glares land squarely on the green android that realized he was caught and made to stand in front of them.
"So it seems you have an extra guest..." Cell mused, "Quite strong that he is a saiyan. He will make a wonder snack before the trip."
"Cell..." Kurai hisses, "If you just referred to me as a 'snack' I am going to beat you so hard, Doctor Gero will feel it in the afterlife."
Cell face isn't quite human enough to form what would definitely be a sneer, but his tone is filled with so much derision that it more than enough to make up for it, "You don't have the strength, monkey."
Kurai growls, he got enough of that shit from Frieza and his forces on his time on Namek correcting the timeline.
But someone needs to deal with this now, Cell can not be allowed to get out of this encounter alive. Of the fighters around there are three candidates that are at least feasible. Gohan is still unsteady and tired from escaping the fight that originally killed him, Kurai is fresh but still unsure of his current power level as he has no idea where he stands, so it falls to Trunks to deal with Cell.
Which he has done before.
Whereas before, he and Cell and him traded some mild banter, Trunks is quiet and efficient, he had done this once and had no desire to rerun the conversation. He blasts Cell into the rolling grasslands nearby and transforms as he flies, blurring into a golden light that smashes into the downed android and barraging him with punishing blows. Cell — caught completely off guard — is unable to even slow Trunks assault as he tried to fight back, Trunks blocking his strikes and deflecting his ki blasts with almost contemptuous ease while beating Cell badly. Cell tried to suck him in to be absorbed but Trunks shifts around the enlarged bulb of Cell's tail and throws him into the Sky and fires out a Heat Dome Attack. Cell fires a desperate Kamehameha but his power is nothing compared to Trunks who has long since surpassed his powers before.
The beams slam into each other and seem to struggle for a brief moment as the Heat Dome Attack overtakes the Kamehameha and Cell screams his denials before the beam hits him.
In a flash, Cell is vaporized leaving nothing left at all.
Gohan gapes and Kurai chuckles.
News of the Androids' destruction is slow to start and Bulma offers Kurai a room in a nearby building. It isn't fancy, a simple bed, bare desk, wooden chair, and a lamp, but is more than enough and Kurai thankfully accepts. When the lights go down and he is alone, he sits on the bed of his new room, pondering exactly what he is supposed to do. Before he had been going on missions constantly and training with his fellow patrollers, he knows that Trunk's previous partner is there and very capable, so any time alterations are probably well-handled, but with nothing to do but live in this timeline, he has no clue.
His is sure he can ascend to super saiyan 2, but that means remarkably little in the face of Buu on the horizon and is worse than laughable with Beerus and Golden Frieza (provided Frieza will even show up). After that there is the whole fiasco with Goku Black and Zamasu trying to kill all the mortals in his twisted pursuit of divine justice.
Even SSB wouldn't be enough.
His SSB Evolved form may be the only chance Kurai and this universe had.
He doesn't even want to consider Broly if he can help it. Though befriending Broly was possible, Kurai was more than happy to put a pin in that for as long as possible. Broly was insanely strong as he could beat Goku and Vegeta after they ascended to SSB, but also wild and unpredictable. If he comes, Kurai won't hesitate to at least try to keep him calm, but if he has to fight him, he wants to at least be on even ground with the berserker.
He has no way of knowing whether his presence in this timeline will alter those events, Buu never got hatched when Trunks killed Dabura and Babidi before they could collect the necessary energy to wake him. Kurai grew slightly morose at the lost of the children that Buu created because while they were mischievous and powerful, they were innocent and loved playing with anyone who wanted (mainly Trunks and Goten).
Shaking off the thoughts, he focuses on the now; if his presence does affect things, he wants them to be for the better, helping instead of hurting.
But as he is far too weak, he has to grow back to his previous strength to at least put up a fight; first he needs to figure out where to train, and to have a suitable partner.
Which considering everything can only be his fellow time patroller, Trunks.
Gohan was supposed to die, but with Trunks' now incredible strength he was easily able to engage and have the upper hand since he wasn't fighting a battle on two sides, which is what damned him the first time. He was much stronger than many gave him credit for and Kurai knew he wasn't going to let himself stagnate after all the new villains that Trunks would undoubtedly tell him about, but this Gohan was still only believed that super saiyan was the limit; he isn't the Mystic Gohan with his potential unlocked that beat Super Buu into the ground.
Speaking of which, Kurai doesn't know if he can use his own Mystic form either (which was really annoying because the Elder Kai was a grueling taskmaster when he made you fight through a gauntlet to determine if he was going to unlock you potential through that ritual) and he needed every edge he could get. Mystic didn't give him the overwhelming increase power his super saiyan god transformations did, but there was no discernible stamina drain for a very strong power-up that matched if not exceeded Super Saiyan 3. Gohan was able to reactivate his Mystic form after training with Piccolo and his growth only increased afterwards; Kurai was determined to do the same.
But that doesn't matter if he is as weak as he suddenly found himself, power ups can only carry him so far. Once he had his transformations back to his level of acceptability, he would start training his base power so that he could be strong. His body needed to be able to sustain those sorts of transformations otherwise a drawn out fight would leave him weaker and weaker till he fell. He had a very long way ahead of him before he could be the best warrior and protector he could be.
Maybe even stronger than he could have been in the time nest.
He resolves to start regaining his strength so that nothing can threaten his new home when his door opens only to see Gohan in the doorway. He walks in and pulls a chair from the simple desk and sits in it. His bearing is nothing but serious business and his face is blank.
"Who are you and why is Trunks lying to me?" Gohan asks without preamble.
Kurai had hoped he could've have avoided this, but Gohan knew Trunks too well, he had known since Trunks covered for him that he wasn't some random saiyan. He leaned back on his hands and took a deep breath. Gohan may have let it go but even if Trunks had grown up and even if he was Gohan could still read him like an open book.
"I'll start with what happened with you, it pretty much the catalyst for everything..."
"So I was supposed to die yesterday?" Gohan said quietly, "After that Trunks achieved super saiyan and fought the android only to do marginally better except still lose. Bulma finished her time machine and sent Trunks back, and he caused a change in the timeline to save my dad, but in doing so created an entirely new timeline and/or alternate universe. But in the end it didn't matter because in the end Cell showed up from a timeline where he managed to kill Trunks from yet another timeline where Trunks managed to finally destroy the androids in order to fulfill his perfect from. He came back to find them before they could be destroyed and he did and made the cell games, when the games started my dad died to stop him from blowing up the earth when I started playing around with Cell."
Kurai winced at Gohan's sheer anger with himself though — to be fair — they weren't the same person. The Gohan of the Mirai timeline would've never let Cell go as far his mainline counterpart had, he knew the risks after fighting multiple hopeless battles against the androids time and time again. Arrogance had no place on the battlefield because not being cautious would only allow your opponent to surprise you. He was disciplined and had a much better grasp over his actions and would never play around with a enemy who had that much power.
"Something like that..." Kurai agreed, "But I think right now we should look at how to bolster our defenses for the future threats."
Gohan looked to him, "How?"
"We need more than just us." Kurai mused, "We need to bring the others back or find people to fill in the gaps. If I hadn't landed here, there would be two. And while better than two , three protecters — super saiyans or not — are just not enough consider what me and Trunks know. The people of Earth need time to rebuild and get back on their feet, life's been hard enough for them."
Gohan leaned back at that, "Well we can't just wish the dead back to life, the earth doesn't have the dragon balls anymore."
Kurai was hit with a bout of inspiration as he remembered the times he went to the New Namek subspace of the Time Nest.
"New Namek!" He shouted, getting to his feet.
"What?" Gohan asked.
"The Namekian Dragon Balls!" Kurai said excitedly, "Porunga is stronger than Shenron and can at least wish back everyone killed by the Androids! The Namekians might be willing to let us use their dragon balls to fix everything lost here, especially if you go!"
Gohan was speechless for several long moments as he realized that was brilliant. The Namekians spent a decent amount of time on Earth and would probably be willing to help set things right. With the Android threat gone, they had the time to fix things, a couple of years at the very least.
Kurai and Gohan discussed the possibilities, and while the horror of the futures were still present, a brighter flame of hope grew.