What happened to the Z Fighters in Cell's Timeline?

[cpd12589]

Ok, so the question is a bit more complex than the Subject says. Basically I've always wondered what fully happened when Trunks returned the 2nd time in the first alternate timeline.

To make it easier, here's my basic rundown of the timelines with the gap I'm looking to fill.

CELL TIMELINE (Timeline #3): Goku kills Freeza/King Cold -> Goku dies of Heart Condition -> Z Fighters killed by Androids -> Future Gohan killed by Androids -> Future Trunks returns to the past -> Future Trunks kills Freeza/King Cold and gives Goku heart medicine -> Future Trunks returns to the future -> 2 years later Future Trunks goes back to check on Goku -> XXXXXXXXXX -> Future Trunks returns to the future and kills the Androids -> 2 years later Cell kills Future Trunks and goes to the past (Timeline #3)

FUTURE TRUNKS TIMELINE (Timeline #2) Future Trunks kills Freeza/King Cold and gives Goku heart medicine -> 3 years later Future Trunks returns to this timeline -> Future Trunks finds the Z Fighters fighting #19/#20 -> Goku retires due to heart condition and Vegeta kills #19 -> #20 runs back to the lab and activates #17/#18 who in turn kill #20 -> #16/#17/#18 defeat Vegeta and the Z Fighters and then go after Goku -> XXXXXXXXXX -> Future Trunks returns to the Future (Kills the androids/Gets killed by Cell)

CURRENT TIMELINE (Timeline #1) Future Trunks kills Freeza/King Cold and gives Goku heart medicine -> 3 years later Future Trunks returns to this timeline -> Future Trunks finds the Z Fighters fighting #19/#20 -> Goku retires due to heart condition and Vegeta kills #19 -> #20 runs back to the lab and activates #17/#18 who in turn kill #20 -> #16/#17/#18 defeat Vegeta and the Z Fighters and then go after Goku -> Wacky Insanity involving Cell from Timeline #1 occurs -> Future Trunks returns to the Future (Kills the Androids/Kills Cell)

Obviously the XXXXXXXXXX is the gap I'm looking to fill. I don't know if it's covered in any of the guidebooks.

First of all in your second timeline(Future Trunks's timeline) Goku killed Mecha Frieza and King Cold then died from the heart virus. Everything else I changed I bolded. I relabeled your main timeline to timeline 1 and Cell's timeline to timeline 3 just to make it easier.


FUTURE TRUNKS TIMELINE (Timeline #2) Goku kills Freeza/King Cold-> Goku dies due to heart condition-> 3 years from Mecha Frieza's death on May 12 C17 and C18 appear and begin killing all the Z Fighters except Gohan and of course Trunks-> Several years pass in which Gohan trains Trunks-> C17 and C18 kill Gohan-> Trunks goes to main timeline to warn them and give antidote-> Trunks returns and trains for 3 years then goes back to main timeline -> Future Trunks returns to the Future (Kills the androids and Cell)

For Cell's timeline(timeline 3) everything should be the same as what happened in Future Trunks's timeline(timeline 2) up till the point where the time machine was completed. After that Trunks uses a shutdown controller to kill C17 and C18. Then Cell kills Future Trunks and steals his time machine just before Future Trunks was going to use it. And of course you know how the main timeline goes...

Timeline 4 is the one where Future Trunks went to from Cell's timeline(timeline 3). Since Cell's timeline(timeline 3) went the same as Future Trunks's timeline(timeline 2) up till the point of the time machine being completed that means timeline 4 is the same as the main timeline up till the Cell Games, where Future Trunks is absent because he was killed by Cell in Cell's timeline(timeline 3).

Everything I wrote above coincides with the diagram from Daiz 7 below.

[Bussani]

Well, I'll explain it as well as any of us ever figured it out (in my opinion).

Timeline 1 (the very first timeline): Goku beats Freeza and Cold. Goku dies of a heart virus. The Androids appear and kill everyone. Bulma builds a time machine. Trunks travels back in time, creating Timeline 2.

Timeline 2 (this is the one we don't see in the manga): Trunks kills Freeza and Cold instead of Goku, then warns Goku about the Androids and gives him medicine for the heart virus. Trunks returns to his time (Timeline 1) while everyone trains for three years. Trunks returns here from Timeline 1 to help everyone fight the Androids. In other words, this plays out exactly the same as the manga timeline up until Cell would have appeared. There's no Cell underground in this timeline, so everyone is focused on the Androids instead, and they somehow find the blueprints for the shut-down remotes in the remains of Gero's main lab. Bulma builds the remotes, they shutdown the Androids, and Trunks returns to his time in Timeline 1 to do the same.

Timeline 1 (again): Trunks returns and shuts down the Androids with the remote he got in Timeline 2. Cell then appears, kills Trunks, steals his time machine and travels back into the past, creating a new timeline.

This is where it gets tricky and a bit fan theoryish, but I don't think I can explain it without using Dayspring's idea, so stick with me.

Timeline 3: Everything happens the same way as Timeline 1 at first. No Trunks appears (since there's no timeline for him to come from--Cell already killed the one from Timeline 1), so Goku kills Freeza and Cold. Goku then dies from the heart virus at some point, and the Androids appear and kill everyone. Around this point, Cell has woken up and is sneakily building strength. The best theory I've heard for this (by a member called Dayspring if I remember right) is that Cell was needlessly cocky, like when he faced Piccolo in the manga timeline, and tried to attack and absorb the Androids before he was strong enough. The Androids kill him, and ironically, this timeline ends up almost exactly the same as Timeline 1 after all. No one but the Androids even knew of Cell's existence. Bulma builds the time machine, and Trunks goes into the past of this timeline, creating Timeline 4.

Timeline 4 (finally, the manga timeline we see): Splitting off of Timeline 3 a year after it split off from Timeline 1 (it really helps if you draw a picture of this... Maybe I should do that), this timeline has a Cell waiting underground, and a Trunks (from Timeline 3--our Future Trunks) who appears and beats Freeza and Cell. He warns Goku about the Androids, gives him medicine...wait, why am I explaining this one? This is the one we see. It ends with Trunks returning to Timeline 3, killing the Androids, then killing Timeline 3 Cell when he tries to steal the time machine.

That's more or less it. The stuff about Cell being killed by the Androids in Timeline 3 was Dayspring's way of explaining how we end up with a second Trunks future for the extra Trunks to come from, but if you don't like that explanation, you could say that when Cell split the timeline by traveling back, it also created a copy of the future he came from so that a Trunks could still show up and kill Freeza and Cold. I might try to draw the timelines and post it later to explain it better.

Edit: Okay, I don't know how much clearer these poor attempts at doodles can make it, but...



Timeline 1 is the original timeline, as described above. Trunks firsts uses the time machine in Age 783 and goes back to Age 764 to warn Goku about the Androids, who had killed everyone in Timeline 1 in his time. By going back in time like this, he creates Timeline 2.



Timeline 2 is the one where they find the blueprints for the shutdown remote. Trunks returns to Timeline 1 and shuts down his Androids, but is killed by the Cell of Timeline 1, who goes back in time farther than Trunks did (to Age 763), thus creating another new timeline that branches out of Timeline 1, as you can see below.



This would have to be the future that our Future Trunks came from. By coming back in time (exactly like the Trunks from Timeline 1 did) into his own past, he creates a new branch from it, which is the manga timeline as we know it.



What I'm hoping these drawings convey is just how the timelines are connected to one another, and the exact points where they branch off. You might be able to see why it's hard to explain there being two almost identical futures (one which our Cell comes from and another which our Trunks comes from) if you look at it this way, and why Dayspring came up with that nice little theory of his. Because after all, if Cell didn't mysteriously disappear in Timeline 3, we could never arrive at a future where Trunks was coming back in time to warn them about the Androids; if anything he'd be coming back in time to warn them about Cell, assuming he hadn't destroyed the world by that point!

[Olivier Hague]

I think the main remaining issues would be Trunks getting ambushed by Cell despite the fact he should have known the location of Gero's lab, and Cell ending up one year further in the past just by pushing the button. I don't know if we came up with some satisfying fanwank for all that... I remember I tried, but...

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

I think the main remaining issues would be Trunks getting ambushed by Cell despite the fact he should have known the location of Gero's lab, and Cell ending up one year further in the past just by pushing the button. I don't know if we came up with some satisfying fanwank for all that... I remember I tried, but...

No sir, I think we need a couple more time lines to explain this thing:

[Olivier Hague]

I'll just argue that Cell is talking about baby Trunks (or time traveler Trunks before he hopped in his time machine), and those images are from Piccolo's mind. ;þ

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Well played.

[Olivier Hague]

"But how would Piccolo even know what Mecha-Freeza and Cold looked like?", you might ask... Sonar imagery, of course! He has huge bat ears!
That, or Trunks gave everybody a colorful recounting of the fight while they were waiting for Gokû: "and then he was like "WHERE DID HE GO?!", and I was like "RIGHT HERE!", and he was like "WHOAAA!", and I was like "WOOOO!""

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

He may have even drew them a cute little picture!

[cpd12589]

This is how everything happened based on this Daizenshuu 7 diagram.

TIMELINE #1 (Main/Current Timeline) Future Trunks(from timeline #2) kills Freeza/King Cold and gives Goku heart medicine -> 3 years later C19 and C20 emerge and the Z Fighters confront them and begin to fight them-> Goku retires due to heart condition and Vegeta kills C19 and C20 fleas-> Future Trunks(from timeline #2) returns to this timeline -> Future Trunks finds the Z Fighters fighting C20-> C20 runs back to the lab and activates C17/C18 who in turn kill C20 -> C16/C17/C18 defeat Vegeta and the Z Fighters and then go after Goku -> Wacky Insanity involving Cell from Timeline #3 occurs -> Future Trunks returns to timeline #2 (Kills the Androids/Kills Cell)

TIMELINE #2 (Future Trunks's Timeline) Goku kills Freeza/King Cold-> Goku dies due to heart condition-> 3 years from Mecha Freeza's death on May 12 C17 and C18 appear and begin killing all the Z Fighters except Gohan and of course Trunks-> Several years pass in which Gohan trains Trunks-> C17 and C18 kill Gohan-> Trunks goes to main timeline(timeline #1) to warn them and give antidote-> Trunks returns to this time and trains for 3 years then goes back to main timeline(timeline #1) -> Future Trunks returns to this timeline (Kills the androids and Cell)

TIMELINE #3 (Cell's Timeline): Goku kills Freeza/King Cold-> Goku dies due to heart condition-> 3 years from Mecha Freeza's death on May 12 C17 and C18 appear and begin killing all the Z Fighters except Gohan and of course Trunks-> Several years pass in which Gohan trains Trunks-> C17 and C18 kill Gohan-> Trunks goes to timeline #4 to warn them and give antidote-> Trunks returns and trains-> As Future Trunks is about to return to timeline #4 Cell kills him and steals his time machine going to the main timeline(timeline #1) himself

TIMELINE #4: Future Trunks(from timeline #3) kills Freeza/King Cold and gives Goku heart medicine -> 3 years later Z Fighters confront C19 and C20 and begin to fight them -> Goku retires due to heart condition -> Vegeta kills C19 but C20 escapes to activate C17 and C18 -> C20 activates C17 and 18 and they kill C20 -> C16/C17/C18 defeat Vegeta and the Z Fighters and then go after Goku -> Cell emerges(from another timeline separate from these 4) and begins his terror-> Piccolo fuses with Kami then has his scuffle with Imperfect Cell in which Imperfect Cell fleas-> Piccolo faces C17-> Imperfect Cell absorbs C17-> Vegeta emerges from the RoSaT and faces Semi-Perfect Cell-> Cell becomes Perfect-> Cell announces Cell Games-> Goku and Gohan emerge from RoSaT-> Cell Games begin

As you can see since Future Trunks from timeline #3 was killed he couldn't return to timeline #4 and was absent from the Cell Games just as the Daiz 7 diagram says.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

That only works if you add in another Cell (from the mysterious "time line #5), which I think is giving the writers a little too much credit. Like I said, Dragon Ball Forever's time line guide didn't repeat the information about a Cell Game without Trunks, so...

[cpd12589]

I'm just saying according to that diagram Future Trunks was absent from timeline #4 during the Cell Games. Since Cell is there in timeline #4 means there must've been even another timeline in which he came from. There wouldn't be just 5 timelines either though. It would be pretty much never ending because in that timeline 5 Future Trunks would've gone to yet another timeline to give Goku the antidote and so on. It's never ending. That's not giving the writers too much credit that's just how a time paradox works.

[Bussani]

I think the main remaining issues would be Trunks getting ambushed by Cell despite the fact he should have known the location of Gero's lab, and Cell ending up one year further in the past just by pushing the button. I don't know if we came up with some satisfying fanwank for all that... I remember I tried, but...

It's a little stretchish, but if the blueprints for the shutdown remotes were different to the blueprints for the androids themselves, they might have found them in the remains of the main lab and never found the secret lab. In which case, Trunks would know where Gero's lab was, but he wouldn't know about Cell.

As for Cell ending up one year further in the past, I remember them saying that the time machine wasn't perfect when Trunks suggested going back further to stop the Androids (which wouldn't have helped anyway), so maybe it can sometimes overshoot its destination. I mean, it happens to the Doctor all the time, and he's a Time Lord.

[Olivier Hague]

It's a little stretchish, but if the blueprints for the shutdown remotes were different to the blueprints for the androids themselves, they might have found them in the remains of the main lab and never found the secret lab. In which case, Trunks would know where Gero's lab was, but he wouldn't know about Cell.

But the Trunks we know would. It's a bit hard to justify either Trunks letting Cell be, or Cell conveniently leaving the lab before Trunks went home, not going after the Androids, and staying in hiding god knows where for years, until the ambush...

As for Cell ending up one year further in the past, I remember them saying that the time machine wasn't perfect when Trunks suggested going back further to stop the Androids (which wouldn't have helped anyway), so maybe it can sometimes overshoot its destination. I mean, it happens to the Doctor all the time, and he's a Time Lord.

I guess, but it worked just fine for Trunks. Twice. I mean, maybe he didn't end up right where (when) he wanted to, but not four years off mark...
And then, he apparently intended to use it once more just to say "hi!"... 'Doesn't look like Tr... well, okay, maybe he just doesn't get it... Bulma was worried about that...

[TheDevilsCorpse]

But the Trunks we know would. It's a bit hard to justify either Trunks letting Cell be, or Cell conveniently leaving the lab before Trunks went home, not going after the Androids, and staying in hiding god knows where for years, until the ambush...

I always just assumed that it was something like this...

Bulma finished the time machine and Trunks headed to the past. 17 and 18 continued to play with the Earth and Cell was released into the world. When Trunks returned from the warning trip, he stayed away from the battlefield and bided his time till the time machine charged again, after that he left to fight with Goku and company. Cell wondered around and absorbed energy to allow himself to gain enough power to fight the Jinzoningen, but with less people alive, it took much longer. Also, unlike in the manga timeline, the Jinzoningen don't have warriors to fight so Cell would be forced to use radio broadcasts to track them down.

Once Trunks returned, he'd tracked down the Jinzoningen and destroyed them faster than Cell could arrive. Since Gero's creations don't give off ki, Cell couldn't be sure what exactly happened and continued to search for 17 and 18 in the shadows. Trunks would check Gero's lab, only to discover Cell missing. After his continued searching and there no longer being reports of Jinzoningen destruction, Cell would assume they were destroyed in some manner and would seek out Trunks like he told Piccolo.

Not saying it is perfect, but it is plausible at least.

[Bussani]

It's a little stretchish, but if the blueprints for the shutdown remotes were different to the blueprints for the androids themselves, they might have found them in the remains of the main lab and never found the secret lab. In which case, Trunks would know where Gero's lab was, but he wouldn't know about Cell.

But the Trunks we know would. It's a bit hard to justify either Trunks letting Cell be, or Cell conveniently leaving the lab before Trunks went home, not going after the Androids, and staying in hiding god knows where for years, until the ambush...

Oh, you meant "our" Trunks? I'd never thought about it; Trunks knew he was going to show up and why anyway, so maybe it was just the Saiyan in him wanting to beat Cell up properly rather than killing him when he was still in a tank. The only problem I can see with that is that Cell might kill people along the way, which would make it irresponsible. But...well, that's Saiyans for you. Plus, did Cell need to absorb people after first emerging from the tank, or had the tank grown him enough to not need to resort to that?

I also like TheDevilsCorpse's explanation, though.

I guess, but it worked just fine for Trunks. Twice. I mean, maybe he didn't end up right where (when) he wanted to, but not four years off mark...

I guess so... A cheap explanation could be that Cell stepped on a button on his way in and never noticed, or maybe Trunks hadn't actually set the coordinates completely yet after all.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Plus, did Cell need to absorb people after first emerging from the tank, or had the tank grown him enough to not need to resort to that?

Wouldn't Cell have actually been weaker after he reverted back into his egg form and waited for four years? Since (and yes, I know this is a different timeline, but just worth considering) when Trunks faces Cell after destroying #17 and #18, Cell says that "You couldn't defeat #17 and #18, much less me", implying that he's stronger than the Androids. Whereas, in the main timeline, Cell needs to absorb ki in order to overpower the Androids.

I guess, but it worked just fine for Trunks. Twice. I mean, maybe he didn't end up right where (when) he wanted to, but not four years off mark...

I guess so... A cheap explanation could be that Cell stepped on a button on his way in and never noticed, or maybe Trunks hadn't actually set the coordinates completely yet after all.

I always take the explanation that Trunks accidentally nudged the dial without knowing to a year back, and Cell just pushed the button. Or Cell unknowingly did something to mess up the coordinates, since he didn't know how the time machine worked. Both theories are possible.

[Bussani]

Wouldn't Cell have actually been weaker after he reverted back into his egg form and waited for four years?

That's what I mean. Cell had to grow underground and absorb people for nourishment to get back the strength he gave up by reverting. But in the future, he may not have needed to do either of these; it makes sense to me that his growth tank would have provided all the nourishment necessary to fully mature him before sending him out. It's possible, at least, and it's how I'd do it if I were Gero/the computer.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Wouldn't Cell have actually been weaker after he reverted back into his egg form and waited for four years?

That's what I mean. Cell had to grow underground and absorb people for nourishment to get back the strength he gave up by reverting. But in the future, he may not have needed to do either of these; it makes sense to me that his growth tank would have provided all the nourishment necessary to fully mature him before sending him out. It's possible, at least, and it's how I'd do it if I were Gero/the computer.

Yeah, I agree. Besides, it would be pretty stupid for Dr. Gero to make his ultimate creation still end up weaker than the Androids he was trying to absorb, even if he could absorb a bunch of people and get stronger than them anyway, although I don't know if, when he could just make Cell stronger than the Androids, absorbing a crapload of people would fit in Dr. Gero's plan. It'd be needless, if you ask me. But all we know is that he only did that in the present timeline.

But then again, if Future Cell was stronger than the Androids in the first place, and in the present timeline, it appeared that he absorbed humans just to regain the strength he lost and surpass the Androids, what would be the purpose of the energy-draining function of his tail anyway?