Dragon Ball: Timelines

Mirai timeline (one of them)... 34 years after the first appearance of the Androids

17 years after the end of their reign...

For a long time, life on Earth in Trunks timeline had now been peaceful... and their civilization and the surviving humans had the chance to rebuild and prosper again.

Twelve years had passed since the battle against the Nameless God and his herald the Priest, against the Demon Lord Demigra and also the last fight against Android 17... - eleven years since the failed invasion of Beby and his M2 army.

It had been a time of peace for the remains of the human race that still lived in Trunks timeline.

The long genocide by the hands of the Androids, that ended nearly two decades earlier, had reduced the population to little less than a third of what it had been before their attack... Cell, who had absorbed countless people in his quest to become stronger,... the attack of the Great Ghetty-Star and finally the M2 invasion... had cost countless more lives.

The human race was a shadow of what it once was. But it had started to recover. It had, before this had happened.

It had been eleven years of peace... years that had now ended just a short time ago.

xxxxxxx

They had always known that it wouldn´t last forever. They never stopped training and preparing for the next possible threat to appear some day.

Trunks, his mother Bulma, Eighteen, once one of his worst enemies and not actually the woman he came to love - to say this was a surprise would be an understatement, their old friend Android Sixteen, who was still in control of the Ghetty Star after merging with the entity years ago... and Trunks and Eighteen´s daughter, who had turned ten years old, not long ago.

xxx

Pan had been named in honor of Trunks old master - after his daughter, who Trunks had seen in one of the other timelines. From her personality as well, she was quite a bit like the girl she was named after, her father thought. Or maybe he just felt the wish to draw similarities to Son Gohan, who never had the chance to have a family of his own. At least not in this world.

Like most part saiyajins, Pan Briefs was eager to fight, a bit aggressive, self-confident and had a good measure of pride. But despite this she was a kindhearted had blue hair, like her grandmother Bulma and light blue eyes, she had gotten from both her parents.

She had not reached the Super Saiyajin level yet. But she was on a similar level as Son Gohan had been before he had reached it in the Room of Spirit and time.

xxx

Another person who was currently with them was Marron, the by now 16 years old daughter of the 18 and Krillin from the last past timeline they had visited. After the death of her parents, she had in a sense become their daughter as well.

In opposite to the first past timeline Trunks had visited - or the `original´ past, how he often called it, the one that ended up with Son Goku and Vegeta both reaching God level... and a form called SSJ4... he and his mother had stayed in regulary contact with this `new´ past for the last 12 years. At least once every year they visited the past timeline or at least send a message.

Marron had been in the unique situation that she had been raised some years in the past by her uncle 17 and some here in the future.

One of the main reason for this was that for a long time, she was not even aware that `Mirai 18´ was not her real mother. As she was a small child, nobody had the heart that her mother had actually died in the battle against The Priest - especially not after her father Krillin did only a few months earlier. So she spend years believing that this 18 was actually her real mother, who had simply started a relationship with Trunks after her father´s death.

It was only a few years ago that she had been told the full truth. It had been more than a shock for her.

The first year after both of her parents had died, she had spend solely with her uncle and his family in the past timeline, while Trunks, 18 and 16 dealt with the threat of Beby and the M2 army in the future. Then, after the safety of the future world was assured - and also after confirming that 18 could in fact be trusted - they visited the past another time. After some time, Trunks and Eighteen decided to adopt the daughter of her counterpart.

Marron had also been trained and thought how to fight by Trunks and her `mother´. She was strong. Stronger than any regular human would have been, they knew. They reason was most likely the genetic engineering, that Doctor Gero had once put her mother through as part of the process to convert her into a Cyborg.

All of them were currently fighting the enemies that had invaded their world.

xxx

Trunks and Android 18 of all people... it could easily be said that nobody in this world would have thought that it would come to this. Even if she and her brother 17 had not been dead for five years at that point.

And it would have truly been impossible had it not been for the being known as The Dark Priest - the Priest who had, as they had found out, in truth been an version of Trunks himself. An alternate Trunks who had been both evil, insane and incredible powerful... a twisted and dark God Ki User.

It was this being who had both resurrected the Androids as part of his agenda and in the end - ironically - caused Eighteen and Trunks to fight together for a common goal. Of course her motives back then had not been purely benevolent. A great part of her motivation had simply been her own self-interest. The Priest and his master had attempted to bring universal chaos, something that was a threat to even her survival.

Her brother, who had been planning to betray The Priest, but instead ended up finding the tables turned on him and being turned into a brainwashed and controlled Super Android. If there was one value the Androids, even the ones of this timeline, held - aside of being destructive killing-machines - then it was their own freedom. 18, who had rather seen her brother dead than a controlled slave, she helped the Z-fighters to defeat him.

And since the plans of The Priest and his master could very well mean her own doom as well, she assisted them against them as well.

Her motivations were all but selfless. But it was a step in the right direction. It was only afterwards when she truly began to change. After she had the chance to reflect about her decisions and think about her past actions, as she herself had told Trunks later.

Something that she had never made a secret of - quite ironically - were her newly developed feelings for Trunks, that she had always since her resurrection, after having been dead for five years... Even back when she was still... well, evil.

Not that Trunks had been much different. It was always clear that he had been attracted to her, as his short romance with one of her past timeline doubles had showed. Something that had ended tragically as this 18 had died.

xxxxxxx

And then finally the time where a new threat would arise... had come.

It was kind of ironic that an enemy who had been overcome many decades ago, would turn out to be the bringer of their end.

It was now a few weeks ago that they had the first contact with the Empire. At first it were only a few scouts who had arrived in their world.

For the first moments Trunks and 18 had tried to talk to the four aliens who had suddenly appeared on the Earth. But they nearly instantly announced their intention to annex the planet for their Empire... and themselves... and attacked them as soon as they refused to bow down to them.

That `fight´ had only lasted seconds. That long had it taken the two to annihilate the wannabe invaders.

Trunks easily recognized the armor they had been wearing, it was the same like Freezer´s troops had. At first he had considered the thought that this was just a small remnant from the alien tyrant´s old army... despite their great words of representing an Empire and that it was already over. Still they agreed to all stay vigilant in case it was not.

Nearly a week later they all had been proven painfull that Trunks theory was wrong, as a second larger and stronger group of soldiers appeared on their world. This time it had been Pan and Marron who had met the invaders first, because they were closest to them as this new group suddenly appeared. It was their first fight against an actual enemy, a fight on life and death.

Still the two girls as well, had been more than enough to deal with this new group. Even before Trunks and 18 appeared and joined them, they had been overpowering the aliens by themselves. But not after dozens of civilians being killed in the crossfire. Sadly this second group of attackers had appeared right in the middle of a town.

Marron had commented later - in a fashion similar to her mother - that her clothes had been ruined during the fight.

This short confrontation had however also led to an interesting discovery about their new enemies. The whole time Trunks and the others had asked themselves how the attackers had arrived on Earth in the first place. No matter how hard they looked for it, they were not able to find any landed space-ships.

Even 16 with the sensors of the Ghetty Star, that was currently in orbit, had not been able to locate any signs of it.

Bulma and Trunks had already suspected some kind of long-range teleportation. But Freezer´s Empire had never possessed something like this. So that supported the idea that their new enemy was actually a new independed group, that was somehow connected. Instead of just a small remnant of Freezer´s army.

This idea had been confirmed when the last survivor of the second group had used an device that he carryed on his arm and suddenly a portal apppeared behind him that swallowed the soldier nearly the same moment... and he had disappeared.

Trunks had been starring at the spot for a few moments. Not regular teleportation, but travelling through a portal, he realized.

But that detail was not the reason for his hesitation. No, it was something else. The portal... it looked nearly exactly like the ones they had seen 12 years ago. The last other person he had seen who had been using that kind of transportation - aside of course from themselves... was The Priest.

And Trunks knew that this portal could not only be used to move from one place to the other. No, The Priest had used this method to travel between different universes. 18 had seen it as well. They both knew what this meant.

It meant that their invaders did not even necessarely had to come from their own dimension or timeline, he had thought.

Trunks suspicion was then confirmed a few days ago... then the so called `Empire´ had finally stopped bothering with small groups of scouts and started a major invasion of their world. Entire combat groups just suddenly `appeared´ all around the planet. All of them transported through similar portals.

They had found out when Trunks and 18 had interogated a surviving soldier of one of these groups... after they had decimated it.

What they were facing was in fact nothing else than an attack from another dimension, one of the parallel realities.

Even more sure however were they as they saw certain individuals under these troops, who simply should not be around. The most obvious example was as Trunks saw the leader of said invasion-force... Cooler, the brother of Freezer... and dead for decades.

It was not only an invasion from another timeline, but from one where people existed they knew. This alternate version of Cooler however was much - much more powerful than the one Son Goku had defeated many years ago. In fact, his power was actually bordering to that of God level... as Trunks and his allies had found out during their first meeting and the following fight.

Still he was not acting on his own accord. Even this version of Cooler, despite his power, was answering to someone else, someone his troops just referred to as `the Emperor´... something that they had simply overheard from the enemies talking to each other.

It didn´t take long for them however to find out who this Emperor was - Not that they had not already suspected it before - nobody else than Freezer himself, as they found out from the alternate Cooler himself.

It was no real surprise. By what his father Vegeta had once told his mother and the other Z-fighters, Freezer had always been considered the strongest member of his family (aside from Cooler´s secret fifth form of course, that nobody even knew about)... and Freezer was clearly the most cruel and vicious one.

It was only with Trunks direct confrontation with the alien warlord, when he had found out the identity of their new foe for sure...

xxx

The battle was still going on... spread on several places all across the planet.

It had begun a few hours before, just as their new enemies had finally started a full scale invasion. The picture was practically the same in all places.

Everywhere - at hundreds of places at once - alien soldiers had appeared and were attacking and ransacking everything and everybody that they came across. And practically everywhere they were being challenged by the defenders of the planet.

At the beginning, the first groups of invaders that appeared were quickly being exterminated. The soldiers, on a similar level as Freezer´s ground or elite-troops from 30 years ago, were completely outmatched against opponents like Trunks, Android 18 or 16 and his hundreds of Ghetty-metall robots. They, together with Pan and Marron, were quickly dispatching the enemies everywhere.

It was not after the next wave had been send in, that the course of the battle had started to change. This new invaders were not the simple soldiers that had been send before. It was something far more dangerous. What appeared were small groups of seemingly human individuals. But they sensed instantly that they weren´t... not anymore.

All in all it were more than two dozen... and even more were still arriving. This new opponents were not radiating any ki. The strength of any of them rivalled or surpassed that of a regular Super Saiyajin. As it looked, the `Empire´ possessed their own versions of the Androids. Of course they were not nearly as powerful as 18 or even Trunks had become over the years, but it was more than enough to deal with 16´s Ghetty troops and fight them to an stand-still.

xxx

Trunks and 18 meanwhile were confronted by the alien-warlord himself.

"So it is true?" Eighteen stated. "You are truly from another universe."

"I guess there is sense to try to hide it," Cooler responded. "Unless you think I came back from the dead or something, right?"

Trunks scoffed. Exactly that had truly happened years ago, when the borders to the Afterlife had been temporally broken.

"Are you ready?" he asked 18.

"Of course I am Trunks-darling," she replied. "You know me."

"I have to say I am surprised," Trunks stated. "I had never thought that your race could be this strong."

He had actually met another version of Cooler years ago. Back when the super-computer called Ne-Me-Sys and The Priest had temporally disturbed the borders between the world of the living and the Afterlife and the dead came back to life for a short time. That other version of him had been far behind Trunks strength. And that was before he reached God level.

This one came actually close to rivalling the power he possessed now.

"The same to you," Cooler replied. "It seems the legend of the Super Saiyajin is actually true. More than just true actually... if I look at your current power," he stated.

Freezer´s brother was standing in front of them, together with a small group of elite Soldiers trio of Empire Androids. 18 alone could have deal with them easily of course. It was Cooler himself who was the problem.

"Tell me, how have you gotten so strong?" Trunks asked him. "The version of you we thought in this universe was not nearly in your league."

"All too true," Cooler admitted. "You could say we have to thank my brother for that. You see for a long time it was true that our family was kind of lazy with our powers. That was until Freezer had faced the first Super Saiyajin... and was outmatched by him. Well, at least my brother was smart enough to blow up the planet they were on. So that he removed the Super Saiyajin from the picture nearly instantly."

"I see," Trunks stated. In their world Goku might have died when Freezer had blown up Namek, or maybe someone else had become the first Super Saiyajin. Or the fight Cooler was talking about might have taken place on a completely different world. Who knew?

"Afterwards he suggested that our entire family takes some rigerous training. So we all grew a bit stronger. Then later, after `Little Brother´ killed our father and took over as Emperor, we took it up another notch you could say. The outcome is what you see here," Cooler stated, while flaring his tremendous ki.

"Do you always talk this much?" Trunks asked him.

"Not always. Only if I think it could be interesting," the alien replied.

During this short exchange, 18 had already managed to take the group of Cooler´s soldiers out. All three of the Androids were about as strong as she had originally been. But she had improved a thousand times since then.

She simply blasted the regular soldiers away with a single volley of ki and then easily dispatched the Androids. And then she took position right next to Trunks.

"Ah, it seems your Android is working far better than our models," Cooler commented as he saw her win. "Maybe we should keep her alive and hand her to our scientists to take her apart after we won this battle."

"Shut up," Trunks growled at him.

"Oh, can it be that you are close to that particular model? Well, she is quite attactive by the standards of you humanoids. So I guess she could serve this function as well," Cooler taunted him.

"We will get your hands off her... and by the way, you won´t win this battle," the saiyan responded.

"Really?" Cooler asked mockingly. "I wouldn´t be so sure. You know saiyajin, you should never underestimate your opponent. Your arrogance had already many of your kind their lives."

"As if you should talk about arrogance," Trunks remarked. "And if you are hinting at your `secret´ fifth form here, I fear I already know about it."

For a short moment, Cooler looked distraught. But only a second later he caught himself again.

"So my double in this world had used it as well... and he was still beat. Too bad. But you will see I am now far superior to my other self." With this words he started to transform into his fifth and last form. Spikes were growing out of his elbows, a crown of sharp horns were appearing around his face, that was now covered by a organic battlemask made of bones. And his already terrifying power doubled once again.

"If you think you can intimidate me? think again," Trunks stated. "Leave him to me," he said to 18.

The female Android send him a side-look.

"You can not do much here. Go better and help 16 and the girls. They are barely holding the enemy back," he told her. "This is my fight."

She glared at him for a moment. But she knew he was right. Having continued to train for the last 12 years, she was now able to defeat even opponents of the level of Buu. But the kind of power the alien was radiating right now was too much even for her.

She would be of more help if she assisted 16. He and his ghetty robots, who were facing the enemies at dozens of places at once, were hard pressed to deal with the number of the attackers right now, especially their Android forces.

"How typical saiyajin. Always making everything about yourself," she commented grinning. But then her expression softened. "Take care of yourself," she said to him... and he draw her closer and they exchanged a short kiss. "Good luck."

In the same second she flew off with full speed in the direction of the most heavy fighting.

"Quite feisty your Cyborg mistress," Cooler commented. "I can understand why you like her. Well, if I were another species, than I would maybe..."

"Cooler, I said it before... you talk too much," Trunks called out. He now powered up to his full strength as well and charged at him. He landed a heavy blow that send the alien flying backwards.

His opponent came to an halt a few hundred meters away from him in the air.

"It seems I have underestimated you saiyajin," he admitted. "You have been holding back the whole time."

"Just like you. Come on Cooler," Trunks challenged him.

xxxxxxx

In another timeline and universe, the planet Freezer-X... formerly Earth

In this version of reality Freezer had won the battle on the planet Namek. One year later, after he had been found drifting in space by his father King Cold, they arrived together on Earth, defeated the surviving Z-fighters and exterminated the native population of the planet.

Given that it had been the home of his greatest opponent, the super saiyajin and with that the symbol of his greatest victory, Freezer decided to make this planet his new capital.

It was a few years later that he assassinated his father Cold and declared himself Emperor of a new, reformed, Empire. One that would not simply conquer planets, wipe out their populations and sell them off or keep them for themselves. But one that would reach absolute and complete power over the entire universe.

And then later beyond the borders of their own universe. When the imperial scientiests had discovered the technology to travel between realities only a few years ago.

It was in this moment that the Emperor was receiving an report about the ongoing invasion.

"Your Majesty, we have got information from Lord Cooler´s troops," a servant - a member of a toad-like reptilian species - who had just entered the room informed his master.

"And... tell me - how is my brother doing?" Freezer asked smugly.

"The - the campaign is not going as well as expected," the servant replied hesitatly. He knew that the people who brought bad news to Emperor Freezer were not exactly in a good position. And sometimes they had the habbit not to survive. "It seems that Lord Cooler´s troops have met heavier resistance as expected. The troops have already lost several battle units and even several Androids. An-and by the reports Lord Cooler has engaged the enemy in person," he said nervously.

"Has he?" Freezer remarked grinning. "Now, maybe it will do him some good, right? I guess my brother can really need a work-out. Is that everything?"

"Y-yes my Lord. May I leave now?" the creature asked, still fearfully.

"You may. In fact, I won´t need your services anymore. You can take off for some time. Now leave me alone. I have other matters to attend to."

"As you wish your Majesty," the servant said and bowed. "Thank you, my Lord. Thank you." He bowed again.

"Oh, one last thing. I find your grovelling annoying. If I think about it, you can leave my service for good." With this words and a simple blink of his eyes, he send a wave of ki energy at the creature, that instantly killed the unfortunate servant and disintigrated his body.

"So Cooler has joined the battle himself," Freezer stated. "Does that mean there is actually someone who can challenge him in this world? Either way, it is something we should take care of."

xxxxxxx

Somewhere else in the multiverse

10 years after the end of the Androids - In another Mirai timeline

Trunks and the person standing next to him, were on their way back to Capsule Corporation. But even the way back was dangerous.

They had prepared everything for his planned departure. To return to the past once again, for the first time since the fight against Cell. In this world the appearance of The Priest and the AI Ne-Me-Sys and all the following events, never happened. In their place however, another dangerous enemy had appeared.

Trunks nodded to the dark haired young woman next to him, who was holding a machine gun. They had nearly made it.

But then they were suddenly being attacked. A ki blast hit the ground close to them.

"Mai," Trunks called out as he saw the woman stumbling and falling to the ground.

He could sense the ki of their enemy close by.

Like it was said, this story is a sequel to Dragonball Alternates. In the Mirai timeline that was featured in the last story, it plays 11 years after the end of Alternates. Trunks and 18, who had become a pair at the end of the last story, have a daughter - named after Pan. But she is not the same character in any form, but a OC.

Like you can guess after the last paragraph. I will also include elements from Super, especially the Future Trunks Arc, into this story.

Marron - the one from the past timeline of the last story - will also play a role.