SIAD said:
As for your first point, perfectly on the Timeline that Trunks traveled (from the Cell Line), they could have discovered the planes of the Androids.
During those 10 days when Goku recovered, perfectly Bulma or Trunks or Krillin had decided to go to investigate again the Laboratory of Dr. Maqui Gero.
Regarding your second point, I strongly agree or maybe Cell to be reborn on the Main Timeline saw the image of Future Trunks killing Frieza and King Cold.
The thing is... this was never implied to have ever happened. For them to suddenly discover a lab not even the androids knew about just by pure coincidence goes against the logic of the time travels.
In DB, the message is that changes to the past have consequences on the new future from the TL those changes were introduced.
My theory of how this works from a thread I opened here, based on every piece of information the manga gives to us.
http://www.dbzeta.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12163
This is what the manga implied (and where it was implied) according to how I understand it:
Chronologically speaking (TL = TimeLine):
1st TL: No Cell here -> No Trunks here -> Goku & Z-Warriors beat Mecha & Cold in what's implied to be a hard fight -> Goku dies -> future androids kill nearly everyone -> Trunks goes to the past -> (2nd TL created here) Trunks fights Mecha & Cold with Goku & the other Z-Warriors -> Trunks goes back to the future and kills 17 and 18 -> Cell kills future Trunks and travels to the past (creating 3rd TL) -> Bulma lives a lonely life
2nd TL: No Cell here -> Trunks appears and fights Mecha & Cold with Goku & the other Z-Warriors -> Trunks goes back to the future (to TL1) -> Unknown 2nd TL developments, but there's no Cell from the future in this TL and we have no more info about it (there should be an embrionary Cell in that present TL in Guero's secret lab).
3rd TL: Cell arrives (3rd TL is created by an event triggered by Cell's arrival, prior to Trunks arrival) -> Trunks arrives from TL1 and kills Mecha & Cold just before Goku arrives (TL4 implied to be created here) -> Trunks goes back to the future -> Trunks goes back to the past without killing -or having fought, it's not specified- 17 and 18 -> Cell games -> etc.
4th TL: Identical to TL1 until Trunks travels to the past for the first time -> Trunks comes back from TL3 -> Trunks goes to TL3 again without killing 17&18 -> Trunks comes from TL3 after the Cell games -> Trunks kills future 17 and 18 -> Trunks kills Cell
And here the "in-depth" explanation:
1st TL:
TL1.0 No Cell here.
TL1.0 No Trunks here.
TL1.1 Goku & Z-Warriors beat Mecha & Cold in what's implied to be a hard fight.
Goku got ill because of the virus. Now, what do we know about that virus?
We know TL1 Goku got ill sooner (explained when Goku feels sick in his fight against N19).
We know that forcing the body just makes things worse (Vegeta comments it to Goku when he saved his ass from #19 in TL3, implying that if Goku hadn't turned into a SSJ he would've been less affected by the virus).
No one other than Goku was infected.
It was a virus from the earth (not something he could catch while he trained in Yadrat or travelled back to home).
It was a virus still not discovered in the present.
Now, those are my conclusions when taking into account those facts:
The virus wasn't something extraordinarily deadly, more on the contrary, it was a virus that only affected weakened bodies. That would also explain why it was only discovered years into the future: like in real life (for example, with cancers), deaths caused by illnesses that appear when people gets old are normally attributed to other common illnesses. In this case it's pretty understandable that this could be the case, since an old man dying from a heart attack isn't something that would cause suspicions of a virus, so it only got detected later when the technology allowed it or when a med inspecting an infected patient found it by pure luck (it doesn't matter really, since an explanation on that is not given, anyone is free to guess here).
We also know that Toriyama was aware of a virus being contagious, in other words, to apply real life logic in a manga is often dangerous because you don't know if in the author was knowledgeable about that "real life logic" when he drew the scene.
But we have a scene of Yamcha telling Chi Chi to take the medicine as well, and the explanation is precisely that it being a virus it could be contagious. So the fact that no one in the future got ill and died like Goku, and the fact that Toriyama took into account that viruses are contagious and commented on it, must mean that something was different with Goku's body.
Now, if something was different between Goku's body an the rest of the z-warriors bodies, it's also obvious that something was different between TL1 and TL3 (the one we see, since I number them in order of creation) Goku's bodies, since TL1 Goku got ill much faster.
We know of two things that at that point of the series cause stress to the body -the reason given as to why Goku's condition gets worse faster-, and are exclusive to Goku: the SSJ and the KK.
If you think about it, it couldn't be the SSJ the one that caused this difference. Even if Trunks coming from the future saved Goku one transformation to SSJ (the one he would've had to make to fight Mecha & Cold), we know for sure that in the 3 year training with Piccolo and Gohan Goku constantly went SSJ (Piccolo knew how strong he could be, and without considering the illness), so if it was the SSJ that caused the change Goku should've had to get ill faster than his future self.
So we only have the KK which was much more harmful to the body. From what happens in TL3 after the androids appear, we know that Goku has completely abandoned the KK and concentrated on mastering the SSJ to bring out its full potential.
If this was a reality after the 3 year gap, it's only logical that it would also be the case during it (nothing in TL3 makes Goku realise that the SSJ can be evolved further while the KK is a dead end, which means that Goku already knew this from before -probably since he learned to transform into a SSJ in fact-).
In other words, the KK completely fits the bill. It's very harmful to the body (much more than the SSJ), Goku had the intention of abandoning it for the SSJ which also justifies why he didn't use it in his training in TL1/TL4 or TL3 and at that point in the series, it still offered (when at 20x) a higher power level than the SSJ so it's use in case of extreme necessity in a battle (the one with Mecha and Cold) was still justified.
Consequences of this event:
Unlike the fight in TL3, this was a huge battle (not with Mecha, but presumably with Cold). In TL3, after obliterating Mecha, Cold assumes that it's Trunks' sword that allowed him to kill Freezer so easily, tries to trick him, and gets killed without even being able to fight.
But Goku would never do that. In fact, I more or less imagine things going like this:
- Goku appears and kills Freezer soldiers.
- Mecha Freezer attacks and is easily handled by SSJ Goku.
- Goku comments on how weak Mecha is now and gives him an opportunity to leave.
- Cold gains confidence after knowing Mecha's real condition, plus this time there's no sword to justify Freezer's easy defeat, so no other option than to fight at maximum strength in his true form.
The thing is, if Goku was forced to use a KK the fight had to be very violent and at a level not even an untrained SSJ could handle by himself (he probably got beat as a SSJ, eat a senzu, and used KK in round two, or got beat as a SSJ but used KK on Cold before loosing too much strength).
A fight like this could easily affect Guero's lab and could justify most of the changes related to present and future androids. Let's say a ki blast impacted the lab indirectly, this could perfectly have an effect on N17 and N18's making process making them weaker than intended.
And unlike in TL3, TL1 Guero would be aware of the huge increase in power of the SSJs because of that fight, which would also explain why he directly went all out with N17 and N18 instead of making N19 turn him into a robot and try to beat Goku by himself.
TL1.2 Goku dies.
TL1.3 Future androids kill nearly everyone.
TL1.4 Trunks goes to the past.
TL1.5/TL2.1 Goku & the other Z-Warriors fight Mecha & Cold with Trunks in there:
We know Trunks wanted to avoid changing the future as much as possible (except for the things that went wrong, namely the androids and Goku's death), and we also know that if he acted (in TL3) just an instant later than he did, Goku would've teleported himself with the shunkanido.
So, my guess is that something (Cell) made Trunks act a bit later than he did in TL3, just that instant that would allow Goku to appear there instead of remaining on the space-ship trying to understand what was happening.
With Goku on the scene, my assumption is that Trunks waited hidden until the fight was over, and presented himself after the events. Trunks only acted because he assumed Goku wouldn't be able to arrive on time, so with Goku there, he probably just observed the fight (so, any direct consequences the fight could've had were the same way in TL2. In other words, no N16, N19 and N20 and also weakened N17 and N18 appearing instead).
So he observed Goku and the z-warriors fight Mecha and Cold, and those are the consequences:
- Trunks gave Goku the medicine and warned him about the androids.
- Trunks was reminded of the senzu beans or learned more about them. We know in the future he knew that the senzu beans existed in the past and that they were a formidable medicine, but I don't think he ever saw one in action. He could think of them as just very good medicines, but still be ignorant about the instant-full recovery properties of them, so after seeing them in the fight against MF&C, he took some for himself.
Another explanation could be that while still aware of their effects, those years since the last time he saw one made him focus his fighting strategies on getting stronger or learning new techniques so that's what he had on mind when he came to the past and didn't think about the the senzus until seeing the Z-warriors using them. This would have an impact on TL1.
TL1.6 Trunks goes back to the future and kills N17 and N18.
I've already explained this one a lot so I won't give a very long explanation.
Trunks said he could fight the future (weakened) androids fairly well, and now he had some senzus from TL2 with himself, which compensated for the unlimited stamina the androids had.
If Trunks was able to competently confront them without a senzu and knowing the androids had unlimited strength, it's not difficult to imagine why something completely impossible without the senzus suddenly became a possibility with them.
TL1.7 Cell kills future Trunks and travels to past (creating 3rd TL).
TL1.8 Life continue without the androids, any Z-warrior or Cell.
2nd TL:
TL2.0 No Cell here.
TL2.1/TL1.5 Goku & the other Z-Warriors fight Mecha & Cold with Trunks in there (exactly as described at TL1.5).
TL2.2 Unknown 2nd TL developments. My speculations.
Since TL2.1/TL1.5 is the reason behind the changes related to the androids and Guero's actions, these went like in TL1. So Guero activates a weakened N17/N18 instead of robotising himself, he is killed by the androids at his lab and the androids attack.
On the other hand, Goku was warned about his future disease and given the medicine, and this time he forced his body like in TL1, so he would take the medicine on time and be healed to fight the androids.
With Goku and Trunks in the picture, Vegeta attained the SSJ form like in TL3 and I also assume Piccolo powered up as much as he did in TL3, so the fight with 17 and 18 didn't went like in the future, more on the contrary.
If Trunks could fight them reasonably well, Vegeta and Goku could perfectly kill them without the need of a single senzu bean, and with them and the help of the other z-warriors, I can't imagine anything that wasn't a clear win for them over the androids.
The story continued, presumably with Bu involved (the justification behind Babidi's arrival in TL3 and not in TL1 was that he came to the earth looking for energy for Bu. It's pretty understandable why he wouldn't do this in the timelines where the androids had already eradicated most of the life of the planet), but from here onwards everything is just speculation.
Goku probably reached SSJ2, but not SSJ3 due to him not being killed (and we know that being dead was a huge help for him to be a SSJ3). Vegeta probably reached SSJ2 as well (it could even be assumed that he could be above his TL3 Bu saga counterpart, since with Goku alive his motivation to get better and better would only be much higher).
Gohan would be much weaker than he already was (without Cell I don't even think he would've had entered the RoSAT ever), maybe not even a FPSSJ but with Goku there one can't be that sure (Goku could push Gohan to train, but he didn't do it with Goten so I don't think he would be much different with Gohan if there wasn't an enemy to fight against...)
3rd TL:
TL3.1 Cell arrives from TL1.
We know what caused that, so only the consequences need to be explained. We know that he arrived from the future inside his egg, that he grew until he had that insect-like body Gohan & Trunks will find later and then he mutated into what's normally called 1st form Cell.
His arrival somehow affected Trunks' actions when he came back from the future for the first time, but Cell only feed himself and buried for years, and the fact that the body of his pre-1st form self was very close to the time-travel machine implies that whatever he did, he didn't go far from there.
But since Trunks actions only needed to be affected a mere instant for TL3 to be different than TL2, I think it can be justified with something as simple as Trunks being surprised by the wildlife of present TL earth in TL2, Cell having killed those animals in TL3 before Trunks arrival, and Trunks not having that distraction making him act before he did in TL2 (that's of course a random excuse of me because I don't remember anything said about this that could give us a hint of what really happened, but since it's just an instant anything will do, it doesn't need to be very big).
TL3.2 Trunks arrives from TL1 and kills Mecha & Cold just before Goku arrives (TL4 implied to be created here).
We already know the consequences of that. Since there was no brutal fight between MF&C and the z-warriors, Guero's investigations weren't affected by the fight, and Guero himself felt confident enough to try to invade the earth himself (with the help of N19) instead of sending N17 and N18 like he did before.
Also, Trunks returned to the future just after warning Goku about his future illness but without the senzus from TL2 which is what created TL4.
TL3.3 - until end of TL3: The events seen in the manga.
4th TL:
TL4.0 Identical to TL1 until TL1.5/TL2.1.
Since this timeline is created by Trunks going back to the future after some modified events he wasn't aware off, TL4 is identical to TL1 until Trunks travelled to the past for the first time.
TL4.1 Trunks doesn't fight the future androids.
TL4.2 Trunks comes from TL3 after the Cell games and kills future 17, 18 and Cell.
With this theory, I think nearly everything is explained. The only black spot I haven't found a clue on how to justify is how Cell affected Trunks' entrance, but as I said, that was only an instant, so any change with a bit of imagination can do the trick.
