Piccolo cursed about having been distracted, the monster had fled after blinding them, and was probably out hunting for earthlings and the cyborgs who were god-knows-where, while Trunks held her right forearm, something hurting. The fractures from the day before worsened with her first blow, the adrenaline giving way to the reality of a very human-nervous system. Her right index and major has basically shattered, comminuted fractures be damned, and the radius and ulna of that same arm got displaced on impact. Trunks regretted being right-handed; one night's rest hadn't been enough to consolidate the bones back together.
"We can't let that thing absorb the Cyborgs or join forces with them, else the world is doomed," she whispered, looking ahead for the others' arrival.
"Damn it all! Cell is weaker than the Cyborgs right now, but if it continues absorbing earthlings.. we have to stop it before it reaches such strengths!"
Krillin landed first, but he was quickly followed by a furious and agitated Vegeta, who inquired what the hell was Piccolo and his power. Krillin explained the fusion, while Trunks didn't listen and focused on tying up her arm in her handkerchief firmly. Piccolo said something about Tenshinhan arriving, and that he'd explain 'what the hell was that' once he'd be there.
"You're wounded." Piccolo remarked, seeing the teenager tend to her arm. He sounded surprised.
"Displaced fractures. It'll be fine, should've used my other hand. Can't regrow limbs like you, how does that even work?" There was a hint of jealousy and admiration in the Namekian's ability to regrow limbs like a lizard, and at the absolute cool head required to rip one's own limb out was astonishing. Piccolo ignored that question, as well as Tenshinhan's landing.
"Krillin, you've got senzu?"
"Yes, you're wounded Piccolo-? Oh Kami, Trunks your arm! Your hand!" It was clear Piccolo asked for a bean for Trunks and not for himself, and Krillin promptly obliged, searching the pouch for a bean to give to the teenager.
"They're precious, you should keep them for severe injuries. This will be fine." Trunks tried to refuse, but Piccolo and Vegeta glared. She'd been through worse and overall kept a good composure. She missed Tenshinhan's worried look as well, that behavior only got him to imagine exactly what kind of world the teenager lived in. He'd broken Yamcha's leg a few years prior, and that had been a big deal.
"Take the damn bean, brat," Vegeta spat.
Trunks bit her tongue, since he'd been the source of the initial fractures to begin with, but obeyed the Saiyan and thanked Krillin for the precious medicine, eating it and removing the piece of fabric that was meant to hold her bones in place. She flared her ki and closed her fists a moment to feel her own full power, and then relaxed. She missed Piccolo's glance; he had the feeling the teenager hadn't fought at full force, and now understood why: Trunks was wounded prior to their fight, and if the previous night's ki spikes were to be trusted, Vegeta had been the cause.
"Now that's out of the way, what the hell was that?!" Vegeta asked, impatient. Tenshinhan and Krillin agreed with the sentiment, if not the wording, and asked the same question with their eyes to Piccolo and Trunks. The Namekian answered.
"The monster from the Time Machine. Another android created by Dr. Gero."
Vegeta blew a gasket. "You told us there were two , and there's actually SIX?! Do I hear seven?" He didn't know about the Time Machine, but it didn't matter, the result was what caught his attention. Now, not why.
Trunks couldn't help thinking with cynicism that indeed, there were seven creations by Dr Gero in this world that she knew of . Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, which she'd seen, A-19 and A-20 (Dr. Gero) whom she'd not seen and were destroyed, this matured version of Cell that came out of the Time Machine, and the version of Cell currently being developed in the sublab. Little did she know, she never heard of the Android Goku had befriended as a kid, C-8 or Eighter.
"I'm from the future, not omniscient, Vegeta-san," she allowed herself a little smile. Something grabbed her attention when she felt Gohan arrive. Piccolo felt it too. The boy had sneaked out of his study-confinement and rushed after Krillin; feeling his dad's ki in two different places was way too uncanny to not investigate. Hopefully Chichi wouldn't notice his absence. Trunks smiled warmly seeing the child land in his purple gi and had a little welcome gesture towards him.
"Trunks, give us a proper rundown of everything, now." Piccolo ordered, and Trunks sighed and looked back at them, knowing it had to happen at some point, but unsure on how to word it and be understood. "And no information selection, we will be the judge of that," the Namekian added.
"I did not want to confuse you with the metaphysics of whatever this is," she said indicating herself, "when I saw you last week, and I wasn't sure about any of that until this."
"Out with it, Trunks," Tenshinhan frowned.
"Basically, the Time Machine seems to be able to create and connect universes." She meekly shrugged. "Mother is truly a genius, but the implications… The Creature is a bio-android. Cell. It arrived in the 787-Time Machine we found near here last week. Cell killed a version of me to take it and used it to come to 763, and matured and came out of a moult recently, perhaps two weeks ago. Gohan-san and I found the moult near that Time Machine. Its goal is to absorb Seventeen and Eighteen and 'reach perfection' to become the strongest." She looked at Piccolo to see whether she'd heard Cell right in the conversation she could hear when he opened the canal, and Piccolo nodded and explained further what he'd heard prior and after the communication he opened with the teenager, linking with what Dr Gero himself had said when they (except for Trunks and Gohan) fought him and Nineteen.
"It said it was too big for the Time Machine so it reverted to larva-form. That strange ki we all felt was Cell, and it feels familiar and a conglomerate of everyone's ki because it's composed of our DNA. Dr Gero's spying robots collected bio-material alongside fighting techniques to create the Cyborgs, and the bio material was used by Gero's computer to create Cell. It used the Kamehameha, as well as the Taiyo-ken, and it uses its tail to drink people. And it's what worried Kami." Piccolo added. Krillin and Tenshinhan knew Kami was worried and ill at ease, now it was clear why. The earthlings, save from Gohan and Trunks, knew Gero had used spying robots to create the Cyborgs and Androids, as Twenty explained when parading Nineteen's strengths; they'd missed super Saiyan in their calculations, which is why Vegeta killed Nineteen easily, and Twenty had to retreat to activate Seventeen and Eighteen. Cell, however, didn't look surprised; the spying robots who collected Goku, Freeza and Cold's cells didn't miss super Saiyan. Piccolo guessed the computer worked on its own while Dr Gero had abandoned the project and considered he had enough data for Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen and himself.
"The universe and year Cell comes from, 787, didn't have Seventeen and Eighteen anymore, because that world's twenty-year-old me destroyed them. That 'Trunks' traveled back in time twice before-."
"Isn't that Trunks you?" Krillin was starting to have a headache, seeing how Trunks tried to differentiate people. Trunks gave him a cold stare.
"I thought so at first too, but it cannot be me. Even if we share a birthday, that Trunks was seventeen when meeting Son Goku-san on the day Freeza arrived on Earth. I was sixteen, and unlike me, did not stay twenty-two days in 764 to use the Dragon Balls. My first round trip was September-783 to August-764 and September-764 to September-783. This other Trunks did February-784 to August-764, and August-764 to February 784. The travel logs don't lie." The fact that Cell used masculine language about the Trunks it killed didn't sit well with her either; perhaps like her, the twenty year old passed for male, or perhaps that Trunks was born male and in June like the baby of this world.
"Cut the details, brat, we don't need the numbers."
"No- We actually do, Vegeta." Piccolo growled at the impatient Saiyan. Vegeta huffed, he disagreed but weaklings be stubborn.
"Should have brought my sketchbook," Gohan added, and Trunks couldn't help but agree with a nod to confirm the sentiment. This would be so much easier and precise with paper. She used her boot to mark four straight lines on the dusty ground, but didn't bother with dates or order of events; she'd schematize the travels. This was just a way to indicate the four worlds as explained with Bulma prior.
"So that Trunks, comes from here," first line, "and went here twice," second line, "with, I can imagine, the same mission as me: give the medicine to Son-san, warn about the Cyborgs, then fight with that version of you against the Cyborgs. And I would venture a guess that that Trunks succeeded, this new world has no Cyborg-issue and Son-san lived. That Trunks then came back home, killed the Cyborgs, and -I assume- wanted to come back to share the good news. That third trip of that Time Machine was stolen by Cell who said there were no C-17 nor C-18 in that universe." She went from the first line to the fourth line. "But instead of returning to the past of the universe that this now-dead Trunks helped, Cell arrived to the current world, the world that I am intruding in."
"Because we saw no second Trunks doing the round trips you described.. that's how you know this world exists," Tenshinhan added and indicated the second line. Trunks nodded confirming what the man said. No handsome seventeen-year-old-savior in 764, as Bulma had put it.
"And we know it's 'a Trunks' that did the initial travels because Cell recognized me and used the name, and I'm inclined to believe the monster announcing my older self's death."
This echoed the morose assessment she had shared with the fighters when she went to the Lookout to explain to them they'd found the Time Machine and something came out of it. Cell confirming the kill was only.. reassuring, in a grim way. She knew she wouldn't let anything use the Time Machine without fighting to the death, so this other Trunks who had almost identical living experiences up until the first trip to the past was the same. She continued explaining with a certain unease and tension.
"Bulma-san agrees there are four worlds that exist because of this mess. Dead Trunks' 787 and mine in 784, both of which are rampaged by Cyborgs and where everyone is dead. In mine, the Cyborgs are alive, but in my counterpart's, they were destroyed, most certainly after the return from the second round trip." She indicated the first and third line. Her words were harsh, even if she tried to disconnect from 787's Trunks, she still felt it was her. After all that world was much more similar to hers than this one; that world, despite Trunks' death, gave her hope that she'd defeat the Cyborgs once back home. But unlike that Trunks, she knew a Cell was coming. She'd survive no matter what.
"And there's the two worlds where Dad didn't die of the virus because 'Trunks' brought medicine from the future. Our world," Gohan indicated the fourth line, "and the world that this other you went to, right?" he added and indicated the second line.
"As expected of Gohan-san," Trunks praised with a certain warmth.
"Shit this is complicated." Krillin had a hard time following this time. Two lines in the helicopter he could follow but this? This was just too much.
"Time-space continuum multiverse theories of theoretical Physics that actually connect different universes with a Machine invented by 'Bulma fucking Brief' ? Of course it's complicated. I fly the blasted thing, I am the living embodiment of this absolute mindfuck, and I'm still in over my head." Trunks let out her frustration with a snarl, Saiyan teeth and all, deadly cold eyes narrowed on the poor Krillin who stepped back at the sudden, but predictable display of aggression. She stepped back when Piccolo and Tenshinhan got between her and the monk, too close to her liking. Her eyes darted like a cornered animal, checking desperately for an exit and assessing the potential threats. Vegeta was back enough, arms crossed, and didn't show a care, even if his eyes were firmly on her; bystander. Gohan was close and trying to reach; ally. Krillin was back and afraid; prey. Tenshinhan and Piccolo were ready to intervene; threats. She stepped back further to give herself some space. Tenshinhan and Piccolo were much taller and their figures felt more invasive to some of her instincts. She crossed her arms to guard herself, but also to try and keep her aggression levels down.
"This is why I didn't give you the details. You have no business meddling in my existential crisis about not being born in this timeline, having to deal with a whole crew of stubborn people who are like the people I heard about or knew, but aren't them. "
"What do you mean, not being born?" Tenshinhan asked, that information didn't make sense, he'd seen the baby, but Gohan explained, stepping even closer as well and standing protective of Trunks, in front of the teenager. Piccolo's eyes looked with worry as the kid he'd grown fond of turned his back on the teenager who seemed ready to lash out.
"Tora-san's birthday is November 21st, 766, but the baby Bulma-san had with Vegeta-san was born on June 1st, 766."
"So you're not Trunks?" Piccolo was getting frustrated as well, and the teenager's retaining information didn't sit well with him. Trunks took a moment to breathe, putting her hand on her eyes for an instant, forcing herself not to look at the source of her anger and focusing on calming her heart. Despite Gohan's tug at her jacket, she was still tense.
"I am," she growled through gritted teeth. "My parents are my world's version of Bulma Brief and of Vegeta. I was born out of wedlock and Mother named me Trunks Brief." She regained some composure, and looked down at Gohan, who still held her left sleeve' elbow. She moved her right hand's fingers to touch his, finding solace in the one ally she could always rely on, regardless of universes. She looked back up at the others, with more wary eyes, calmer.
"Should we do genetic testing, this world's Vegeta-san and Bulma-san would certainly come up as my genetic parents, but the baby and I would come up as siblings." She was certain of it, since she took care of the baby while she stayed at Capsule Corp, she had the time to check his medical history in the server, and actually changed the baby at some point, confirming the baby's sex being male and putting the doubts to rest once and for all.
"Not the same ovule and spermatozoid?" Gohan asked, making Trunks turn red, she absolutely refused to imagine the circumstances that led to her and baby-Trunks' births. She didn't want to talk about reproduction with a nine year old, and neither did Krillin nor Tenshinhan. Piccolo and Vegeta didn't care, but the point was clear and suddenly eased the tension on everyone else. Same parents, different egg. It was only more confusing because she and the baby shared the same name.
"This is asinine." Vegeta spat on the ground. "The brat's lineage as my flesh and blood with the wench's genetic contributions should be obvious to anyone with eyes, and you weaklings are lucky you're not dead for your little stunt. A goddamn waste of everyone's time, while Cell's getting away." It's not like any of us are going to be using that Time Machine, so who the fuck cares about different worlds and what not? Vegeta was seething, and Trunks' blue eyes made it so much easier for him to see the fury within, a fury he knew very well and actually rode instead of putting a lid on it. He admired the control and patience the teenager had displayed in the past; this little slip was only proof of how much mental strength his heir possessed.
As much as it made Trunks feel conflicted about agreeing with Vegeta, she had to admit he was right. The man was far from stupid, she noticed how he'd followed along everything with a cold black stare, without asking questions or without doubting. He understood, and he had decided the information didn't matter. She felt something warm in her heart, reassured she'd read the man well when she told the others that the Time Machine didn't matter to Vegeta, and his arrival the moment he felt Cell, Piccolo and perhaps herself fight confirmed her assessment: he'd show up to fight. And yet, if he hadn't incapacitated her the previous night, however, she and Piccolo might have been able to kill Cell, so she still resented him somewhat.
"Are you threatening us, Vegeta?" Piccolo didn't take kindly to how Vegeta said they were lucky to not be dead.
"Just stating facts, you're blind idiots." Vegeta sincerely believed his words, as his eyes traveled to the brat he believed could have ended them all if not for the Olympian self-control on display. How can they have lived so long and be so oblivious? Trunks missed that look.
"Doesn't matter Mr Ego. Cell's hiding his ki, we can't find it unless he attacks."
"Then we must retreat and listen to the radio," Trunks spoke from pained experience. "Focus on what can be done. The priority for this world is Cell, who wants to get stronger by joining with the Cyborgs, and the Cyborgs who are on their way to kill Son-san."
"And Gero's computer, in the sublab." Piccolo added.
"Trunks, I'll take you there, you're good with computers right? Maybe we can find something useful." Krillin knew he caused the sudden stress spike in the teenager and tried to make amends, nervously so.
"I'll go too," Gohan stated. More science and help his father's best friend and the teenager whom he didn't want to part ways with? Gohan wanted in.
While Trunks wasn't too happy with the idea of going with Krillin alone, especially with her emotions still flaring, Gohan coming along reassured her. She nodded and gave an apologetic look to Krillin.