Dragonball DBZ and GT belong to Akira Toryama, nothing of it is mine.

xxccc

This is my first story of Dragonball. The plot will span a few different timelines. One of the most important will be the Mirai future-world.

While a part playing after the end of GT will be very prominent in the first few chapters, this is not really a post GT fic. The story will concentrate more on other dimensions later on.

Dragonball Alternates

Timelines, alternate dimensions, even parallel universes, there were many of them. There were also some beings, only a few, who could watch into these different worlds.

Some of them were the infamous God of Destruction Beerus and his mysterious Adjutant and martial arts master Whiz, and to some limits the Kaioshin and others.

Next to the 12 known universes, that were completely different and separate realities, there were in first line the many "timelines", altered variations of the same basis universe.

Most, if not all, of these worlds had gods of one kind or the other. Gods of Creation, Gods of Destruction and other higher beings. Of course there was also a good chance of other planes somewhere where the god rules completely. Some even believed that there was some kind of Super God out there, who was watching over all these realities. But that was something nobody could truly say for sure.

Many of these beings were able to see into other dimensions and they were using this gift to watch themselves and others.

Now however, another entity had emerged recently that had developed this ability. This one was not a god, or even another supernatural being.

It was something else completely. Something not of natural heritage. Artificial...

...And it was watching.

For the moment this being was taking an interest in a certain one of these many realities.

xxx

Somewhere, at this moment, in one of these worlds, a single figure standing in a large dark-shadowed cave-complex.

This young man was a half-saiyan, the last who existed in his universe. He was wearing a blue capsule-corp jacket and dark grey trousers. Strapped on his back, he was carrying a Sword. And he had strange colored bluish, nearly purple hair.

Around him were several mechanical devices. One of them a large wide screen, the others in the distance walls of the cave.

"Now let me show you what I've gathered out there Trunks." Someone said to him. It was a monotone sounding voice, coming out of the dark around him.

xxxxxxx

"Present" timeline, 23 years after the Cell Games

While the Saiyajin known as Son Goku or Kakarot was somewhere in space, following Shenlong to an unknown place, at the same time on Earth other things were happening.

xxx

Artificial Human Number Seventeen opened his eyes.

The sky, the forest, it was the normal world of Earth. A regular landscape, recreated by the Dragonballs in its former state, like King Yemma had told him. Nothing was to see of the destruction that had happened here anymore. He was lying at the border of a forest, very close to a city that had been lying in ruins, only a few minutes earlier. That meant of course, the parts of it that hadn't been completely wiped out, had been restored. Just like he himself, had been restored by the Dragonballs.

It was a city that by all rights, hadn't existed anymore. It hadn't because he had destroyed it. Not willingly and not on his own accord, but he had been forced, manipulated. He hadn't been himself, in the truest sense of the word.

As he looked around, he saw something else lying on the ground. A few meters next to him was a body. An android wearing a dark shirt, ripped jeans, sport shoes, and an orange bandana, exactly like him.

The body looked exactly like himself, or rather, another version of himself. A clone. Nearly a mirror image, it was identical in every way. Every way except one.

The copy had no life in it anymore. It was completely functional, he could feel that, but the mind, the intelligence, the soul if you wanted to call it that, was just not there.

The being before him was Neo 17 or simply Hellfighter, as he was sometimes also called by the two madmen who had created him. He was meant to be not only a exact double of him, but in fact a complentation, a part of himself, but in the worst possible way.

This Android had been designed to make him stronger. To bring out his full potential, but also to control him, by becoming a part of him. To take him over and finally to merge with him into a single being. Super 17, the one that was meant to be under the absolute control of these two.

As far as it came to Doctor Gero and his new partner Doctor Myuu, this other Android was a part of Android 17, their ultimate creation, like a lab experiment. His opinion to all that had never been asked by either of them, not years ago, as he had first been reverted into a cyborg and certainly not now.

But they had overseen one thing, he was the one who decided who he was and not them. Even if sometimes, as it seemed, he needed a little bit of help to realize it. He thought about 18 and a surge of anger came over him.

Seventeen was looking into the lifeless eyes of the android, who would otherwise be completely identical to his own.

It was just like King Yemma had said, it was nothing more than an empty husk now.

He remembered, remembered everything that had happened with Doctor Gero and Doctor Myuu. Hell, the very place where he himself had once sent Gero to and from where he and his allies were now trying to escape along with his clone, the copy of him they had created. All of that came now once again back to him.

How the copy had been controlling his mind, how it had used him to attack people. Used him to kill Krillin, the human his sister had married. To attack his sister and to destroy this city.

On top of that, this copy had by controlling him, been able to create a gateway between the dimensions, literally opening the gates of Hell and allowing Gero, Myuu, and all the long dead opponents the Z-Fighters had defeated over the years to return to the living world. Until they had been beaten once again.

But still the chaos they had managed to cause, both here and in the afterlife was terrible.

xxx

He remembered how he was standing before King Yemma, the guardian of the afterlife after Son Goku had killed him. Or rather, after he let Son Goku and his own sister kill him.

In the end, he had gained enough control to overcome Gero's and Myuu's programming and held his other self back, if only for some time. It was enough to show them an opening.

The afterlife ruler was now looking at him with grim and worried expression.

In fact, he'd been dead for some time now, but after the mass breakout from Hell that Gero and Myuu had initiated with his unwilling help, he'd heard rumors that there was also another crisis going on. They needed longer to bring everything back under control.

It hadn't been the first time that he was standing before the guardian, not by far. He had been here after Cell had absorbed him and he'd been here after Buu had blown up the planet.

But now it was the first time both of them were facing a real dilemma.

"Well, what shall I do with you?" King Yemma thought aloud, asking the serious question. "I hope you realize what a difficult situation we're in with you." he put it.

That was an understatement as it would later turn out.

"You can't really be blamed for the most of your recent negative actions, as you were under mind control." King Yemma told Seventeen, while he was reading a thick book that seemed to contain the rules of the afterlife.

"Actually, since you had a hand in stopping your artificially created counterpart, then took control of the fusion, you were actually the one who caused Super Seventeen's downfall. You may in fact get a bonus for heroic deeds, but it is complicated.

And that is only the purely bureaucratic part of it." the large otherworld deity told him.

"Um, what do you mean by that?" Seventeen asked him a bit insecure.

"What he means by that," another voice was heard. He recognized it as the voice of Piccolo, the former God of Earth and creator of the original Dragonballs, who had died a few months earlier. "Is that you quite possibly won't stay long anyway." he said. "You wanted to see me?" The Namekian now addressed King Yemma.

"Ah yes, we have something to talk about." the large underworld deity responded.

"Ah, nice to see you again." 17 greeted Piccolo. "It seems we're both dead. You mean that the Z-Fighters will use the Dragonballs to bring me back?" he questioned.

"If we're lucky," he replied. "Do you have any idea what is going on on Earth right now? The Dragonballs have gone out of control and manifested themselves into 7 dangerous creatures that are threatening to destroy everything."

"Then let's hope Son Goku and the others will be able to stop them." 17 stated, "and that they manage to do it this time without messing up." he added.

"Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta have saved us many times." Piccolo reminded him.

"And how many of these times were it his own actions that had allowed these threats to rise in the first place?" he responded.

The Namekian looked as if he wanted to say something in return, but they were interrupted.

"There is still another problem that we have." King Yemma stated. "Your double is not here." he said to Seventeen.

"What?" 17 exclaimed. "What do you mean he is not here?"

"Just that. We've realized a short time ago that the soul of your doppelganger had not been registered anywhere," the afterlife-ruler informed them.

"And you only found out about this now?" Piccolo asked him.

"Oh excuse me, but we just had two universal crises going on here." Yemma replied sarcastically. "So you understand that the question of what had happened to a single soul was not exactly high on our list of priorities."

"Okay okay, I can understand that." The Namekian responded. "I guess you want me to look around in Hell, and see if I can find our missing Android?" he questioned.

"Exactly."

"Hell?" 17 asked.

"Well, Piccolo here had recently 'volunteered' to go down there to keep an eye on all the villains and keep them from causing that sort of trouble again." Yemma stated. "I have allowed him to come out for a short time because I wanted to talk to him about this."

"Do I even want to know?" Seventeen asked the Namek.

"I'll explain later." Piccolo replied.

In the end Goku and Vegeta did succeed. They stopped this new threat known as the Shadow Dragons. Afterwards the Dragonballs had been used to turn the Earth back to how it had been before and bring everybody back to life.

xxx

And so he returned.

Seventeen was checking himself. The biochemical and technological implants inside his body were running multiple analyses. He was unharmed and undamaged. His power level was gigantic, even when he was currently not merged with his counterpart.

If he at all had the impression that he was even a bit stronger than the last fight with Eighteen and the Z-Fighters, just before the fusion with his double.

He was looking at his right hand and was then looking at the deactivated Android lying before him, concentrating.

Suddenly its eyes returned to life, flashing in a red color, just like his own and its right arm started to move, suddenly and fitfully. Seventeen moved his right arm and the arm of the clone-cyborg made the same movement the very same moment, exactly mirroring his own.

It was like a bizarre mimicry of a living being. A doll whose movements were directed by someone else. The situation was reversed now. At the same time he saw flashes of electricity sparking around the clone's body and also his own hand.

The connection between them was still active. This proved it, but now when Hellfighter's mind was gone, he was the one controlling both bodies.

"It looks like I'm the one in control now bastard." He said shooting a grin at silent the form of the now mindless robot.

Seventeen remembered back to when he had first been created and turned into an artificial being. He was meant to be the strongest fighter on Earth. For some time Doctor Gero had been working on his intended greatest project. A practically invincible super-being, the Ultimate Warrior.

He, Android 17, had been the latest attempt. Despite all of Gero's attempts to keep him and 18 under his thumb and be good little creations, he had found out far more about the mad scientists plans for him than he ever would have wanted.

He was meant to be this "Ultimate Fighter" and on some level, he openly admitted to actually wanting to be it. Just not on Gero's terms and not under his control.

What Seventeen also knew, was that back then he had only brought out a small part of his full potential. Gero never had the chance to fully realize it, not until now. Seventeen had killed him before he was able to complete his work on him and his sister.

He knew hand in hand with the physical changes would also come the mental ones and by the time Doctor Gero would have brought him to his full intended power, he would have also managed to bring him and 18 fully under his influence, thus turning them completely into his slaves. So he had killed him before he could finish his work.

At this point he and his sister had already been stronger than any other Android model they knew of and since their transformation was based on bio-engineering, they even had the potential to grow stronger. It had been enough he thought. He had been wrong.

What he had not been aware of was that there were other candidates who still existed.

One of them had been Cell, another Ultimate Android who had, as he later found out, stolen a time-machine and travelled back into the past. As it looked, Doctor Gero or at least a possible future version of him, had changed his mind and planned for him and 18 to get absorbed by the Bio-Android.

Later after Cell had been defeated, he and 18 had begun living peaceful lives. He had started to work as a ranger, living in the woods and otherwise doing whatever he wanted, eventually starting a family and having children.

Despite that, he had in the last twenty years also tried more than once to find a way to achieve his old goal. To become what he was meant to be, the most powerful in the universe, if only out of spite against Gero and Cell. He wanted to reach this power by himself, without his so-called "creator".

When he hadn't been working in the wild-park territory, taking care of things, spending time with his family, or just being off and doing whatever he felt like, he'd been training regularly.

His reasoning for that was simple. Years ago, when he had first been converted into an Android, he had lost everything. All memories of the time before were gone. Parts of his mind had been reconstructed, filled with the desire to fight, to defeat, and kill Son Goku. At the same time his organs, skin, bones, and his entire cell structure had been altered, manipulated, and enhanced through genetic engineering and completed with biomechanical components.

He had become something that could barely be described as human anymore and certainly not the same being as before.

The human he had once been didn't exist any more. He was by all rights dead. For great power, he had paid the price with the death of his old existence. His mind as it was today was a mixture of Gero's basic programmings, the lingering remains of his human self, and more than anything else, the decisions he'd made over the years. His own choices.

He was completely aware that he had been created from a young man named Lapis, twin brother of Lazuli. It was knowledge that he and Eighteen had found out several years ago, but it was pure factual knowledge. He had no details, barely any personal information and even the little that he had felt hollow. There was no personal connection anymore.

All that was left for him in this life was his sister, who had gone through the same process and even this had Gero and his allies nearly destroyed now.

The Saiyans, Son Goku and Vegeta, thought they deserved to be the strongest? He and 18, had literally died for it, in a way that not even the Dragonballs could reverse. So when he and his sister had paid such a horrid price, he at least wanted to have his end of the deal.

Now he had reached it. He was the most powerful. He was far stronger than Cell could ever hope to be.

He had even defeated Son Goku, at least before 18 interfered, but the victory tasted like ash in his mouth.

In a twisted sort of irony it was in a sense all pointless now. He didn't reach this level of power by himself. It was all given to him, or rather forced upon him, by Gero and Myuu. He was the strongest being in the universe but it was only because of what they did to him. Once again the old man had gotten one over him, at least until their last meeting, as his luck ran out..

He didn't know if he should laugh or be sad at the memory of how Myuu had finally betrayed Gero and ordered him and his counterpart after their fusion to kill him. Controlled by the programming and Hellfighter´s presence he had no choice, but it still felt good killing Gero again.

Seventeen knew the specifics of the process that had transformed him into Super 17 perfectly well. The first stage of the transformation had been very subtle. Only the thoughts of his doppelganger were reaching out to his own. They unnoticed at first, slowly corrupting and subverting his own, until they finally took over.

In the next phase his strength had grown. Hellfighter had been especially designed to realize his dormant power and bring it out.

This had in a twisted sense actually been another slap in the face. Even if he hadn't trained a single day since the Cell Games, this device would have powered him up to exactly the same level. It would've only taken maybe a half hour longer. 20 years worth of training, for nothing. Of course the procedure to unleash his full potential came right after the one to control his mind.

Then finally came the fusion, merging the two bodies into a single practically invincible fighter.

But there was more about his new transformation. It wasn't just raw power, nor was it just about physical strength.

17 picked up the other Android and then he lifted off into the air, carrying the motionless body of his double in his arms. He knew exactly what he had to do, as little as he liked it. But he had no other choice.

While he was flying over the landscape, he was using another one of his new abilities.

He concentrated.

"18." Android 17 silently called out. He concentrated his thoughts on his sister and his body automatically reacted and sent out a mental call.

It wasn't true telepathy, but a mental connection made possible by both electronic and bio-chemical implants in his and his sister's brains, and a device inside his now mindless double.

This wasn't the first time he used this ability, not by far. When his double had been controlling him, it had used this ability to coordinate their attacks.

It was meant as a tool to communicate and to control. Hellfighter had been using it against him, to turn him into his and Doctor Myuu's puppet. While 17 was under their influence he himself had used it against 18.

But finally they both resisted, sadly however at different times. Eighteen had broken the control when his double had used him to kill Krillin as the human fighter had nearly succeeded in bringing him back to his senses. The attempt had cost him his life. Hellfighter saw him as a threat, and while he had not succeeded, 17 certainly felt a level of respect for the man for trying.

He himself broke free as his sister confronted him a short time later as Super 17 and reminded him who he was. Being 18, she of course did it in the most rude and demanding way possible, he grinned.

'You just have to love her.' 17 thought.

To say that his sister had been pissed off when they last met would have been an understatement. She was positively furious about Krillin's death. It was something he was understanding all too well, now at least, if it had been his wife.

But that had not been his doing, not really. He only hoped that she would listen. Well, she was smart, but also often incredibly stubborn, so he'd have to see.

"Eighteen, do you hear me?" He once again sent out his message.

"Seventeen?" He finally heard her answer in his head. It was eighteen's voice, however actually a mental representation of it instead of actual sound.

Her "voice" was mixed with sorrow, anger, deep cutting doubt, and cold rage. It was no surprise. Part of it might also come from the simple fact that he was using the ability of his hated double, he reminded himself and that 18 strictly had seen no way to know for sure who exactly she was talking to, him or his copy.

"Eighteen." He repeated his message, "It's me. Truly me, not Gero´s new Android. I am myself again."

xxx

Many miles away Krillin, who had recently also been resurrected by the Dragonballs, was only starring confused at his wife who just seemed to have phased out somehow.

Of course as she was holding a mental conversation.

xxx

"Why should I believe you," she replied coldly. "I remember all too well what happened, and the last time I checked my brother wasn't a telepath."

Seventeen cringed.

"It's true that I'm still connected with the other Android, at least physically. But he's gone. His mind is no longer there. It is me." He assured her. "You can convince yourself very soon when we meet."

"You want to come here?" she asked. Obviously with a bit of shock.

xxx

Miles away she was actually saying this part out loud, that only caused her husband and her daughter and Master Roshi, who had just entered the room, to look at her even more curious.

Krillin and Muten Roshi had by now figured out what was going on. They had both by now witnessed enough telepathic conversations to recognize the signs. The only question was who was she talking to?

xxx

"Not exactly." 17 replied. "I'm on my way to Capsule Corporation and I have the body of my double with me. I need them to take a look at it."

"What?" 18 asked now.

"Look." 17 continued, "it's as I said, the mind of the other Android just vanished. I don't know why. Not even King Yemma could explain why. I need to know what's going on with my double and I need to be sure that his mind stays gone. The people at Capsule Corp. are the only ones who can find out for sure."

"The Saiyans might attack you on sight if you just show up there," she stated. "You realize that?"

"They won't." He responded. "Not if you tell them that I am coming and why. Can you do that 18? I need to make sure that he will not return and control me again. You understand why I have to do this right, after what I...what he did to you?"

Eighteen, miles away, had now tears in her eyes.

"Yes, I do." She answered.

"Thanks 18." He told her, "We will talk about all this, I promise."

"It won't be pretty." She stated.

"No it won't," He replied. A grin started to form on his face.

He thought back to how he had taken control of their fused state, after Super 17 had been confronted by 18, and how he had then distracted his double. How he'd kept them both concentrated on his sister, the accusations she was shouting to them and their own internal conflict, while he knew all too well that Goku would get up again and prepare his next attack.

Then he recalled the memory that happened only a few seconds afterwards. The picture that Super 17 saw of Goku's final strike coming at him, as he was forcing his double to stay in place and take the attack. He remembered his feelings at that moment. The horror coming from his artificial clone and triumph from himself.

The smile on his face actually deepened.

"I got you." Seventeen said quietly to his still liveless double.

xxxxxxx

"Mom." Marron said to her mother as she realized that she was crying.

"I understand 17." Eighteen spoke, still seemingly into thin air.

Krillin felt his jaw drop as he heard who his wife was talking to.

Eighteen's gaze now turned back to her family.

"You heard..."

"Your...your brother." Krillin stammered.

"Seventeen has been brought back to life. He's on the way to Capsule Corporation. 17, he's no longer under Gero and Myuu's Control. He's normal again."

"This is good… Very good." Krillin responded.

"... At least he said so." 18 stated a bit quieter.

xxxxxxx

It was less than a half hour later as 17 landed in front of the Capsule Corp. building.

Just as expected the group of four Saiyans were waiting for him outside. None of them made any aggressive moves, but they all looked ready to defend themselves.

Seventeen calculated his chances. Trunks and Son Goten, he knew were small fries. Gohan was strong, however to his knowledge, he was seriously under trained. At least after his latest power up he should be absolutely no match for him.

Vegeta on the other hand, was clearly the most powerful of the four. Out of all of them he was also the only one who had mastered the so called godly Ki and integrated it into his own. The only other who had managed to do that was Son Goku.

Seventeen knew however that he was stronger than Vegeta in his normal state. During the last fight, Hellfighter easily managed to hold him off while he was barely trying to fight.

But he wasn't completely sure of his chances if Vegeta transformed. He was aware that with the power Vegeta had already reached, the SSJ state gave him only a relatively small boost. So it was hard to say who would win between him and the Saiyan Prince.

The real question was if he was still able to transform to the Super Saiyajin 4 level? By what he had heard while he was in the afterlife, 17 wasn't quite sure. If Vegeta could, he knew he could only match him by fusing with his double. This was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. At least until he was sure nothing would go wrong.

Anyway, he was here to avoid a fight anyway. Unless he had no choice.

"I see your sister was right." Vegeta greeted him. "You are back."

"Then she has also told you that I'm not here to fight." He responded. "This here, is the guy responsible for all the trouble." He nodded to the Android he was holding in his arms, "and as you see he hasn't got much to say right now."

"Well excuse me if I don't just take your word for it." The Saiyan Prince replied.

"Okay, if you say so." Seventeen kneeled down and dropped the Clone-Android to the ground before them and held his now empty hand up in front of the four Saiyans. "See, I'm peaceful. All I want is for Bulma to take a look at this cheap copy here."

"And why would you do that?"

"I thought that would be obvious, even to you Vegeta. I want to make sure that he doesn't suddenly wake up, take control of me again. Or that he uses me to kill you."

"You have to admit, he has a point here. That is certainly something we want to avoid, right?" Gohan pointed out.

"And who guarantees that he won't suddenly wake up while my wife is working on him and attack her?"

"We can keep an eye on her the entire time." Goku's elder son suggested.

At this moment two other persons were landing next to them, Eighteen and Krillin.

His sister was looking at Seventeen a bit insecure. Then her eyes fell on the Clone Android lying on the ground and he saw a barely hidden wave of hatred going through her expression.

"17." She said.

"18." He greeted her.

Neither of them said another word right now.

xxxxxxx

Parallel to all that however, someone else was following the events.

`Mirai´-timeline, 23 years after the appearance of the Androids

"Why are you showing me this?" Trunks asked as he saw the events that were being displayed on a screen before him.

For the last few hours now he had been following several events from the other timeline. He'd been watching the future of the past, of the world, he had himself once visited. The timeline that he in fact had helped to create.

Trunks, this version of Trunks, had lived a life quite different from his other self, from that other timeline. He had grown up in a world that was once dominated by the Androids 17 and 18, two alternate versions of the same beings he was watching right now.

Some of what he had just witnessed had been mind blowing. A bit just hilarious, and some of it just plain frightening. He remembered his complete shock as he had seen Super 17 and even the other version of 18 and how his hands had been actually shaking at the sight. Just how dangerous could these cyborgs have become.

He was lucky, more than lucky. He realized that the two Androids he had been fighting against had never even come close to that level.

What also astonished him however, was just how different these two had become from the killing machines he knew from his world.

"Why? I wanted you to see." the monotone voice answered. "I wanted you to understand what could have been and what is waiting out there. The things you need to know." The being told him.

"Why should I trust you?" Trunks asked him.

"Can you truly afford to ignore what I have to tell you?" The unknown voice asked.

The half Saiyan was in deep thought. He had to make a decision.

To the continuity: The story contains elements from both Battle of Gods and GT. Meaning both Goku and Vegeta have become SSJ God at one point, but have it completely integrated into their usual ki at this point.

In the current timeline BoG took place 5 years after Buu, so 12 years after the Cell Games, GT 22 to 23 years after Cell.

What I also consider to have happened are Movie 9, a few months after Cell and the first Cooler Movie (but not the second) in the three years gap before the Androids.