Trunks
This is an incomplete page. Please bear with me.
Trunks
In the Dragon Ball timeline, there are two distinct beings known as
Trunks. Unlike the Son Gohan that was Son
Goku's "grandfather" and the Son Gohan who is
Goku's son, these two Trunks are the same
person. Just in two different time periods and possibly two different
universes.
The older Trunks comes from a world in which he is the last of the Z Fighters. All the rest had died in some manner or other. Goku died from a heart disease he had picked up on some distant planet, and the rest from fighting a couple of evil androids. (Actually cyborgs.)
The two cyborgs had been made to find and kill Goku but since Goku was already dead, they decided to destroy the world. Anyone that got in their way was killed.
Buruma was convinced that had Goku survived his heart disease than the rest of the Z Fighters would not have died and the world would not be in the trouble that it was currently in. In an attempt to try to re-write history, Buruma created a time machine. Trunks took the time machine back in time and gave the necessary medicine to Goku. Needless to say, history was changed; but not in the way expected. A new threat emerged, one even greater than the two cyborgs.
This new threat had also come from the future. Its name was Cell because he had been created from the genetic coding of Son Goku, Vegita, Freezer, Piccolo, and various other fighters. He was the final creation of Dr. Gero, the creator of the two cyborgs. Cell was supposed to be the ultimate fighter.
The introduction of Cell confused the timelines further. In the future, even further along than Trunk's own time, Cell had absorbed the two cyborgs and then killed Trunks to steal the time machine. Now he was in the past to absorb the two cyborgs again. Once done, he reached his perfect form, Perfect Cell.
To combat the new threat, everyone quickly prepared themselves. Son Goku, Son Gohan, Vegita and Trunks trained using a special room that compressed a year into one day. Trunks, already Super Saiya-jin capable, became more powerful than his father had ever been in his universe, but not as powerful as his young friend Gohan.
Combatting the new threat ultimately lead to not only Goku's but also Trunks' demise. Trunks was recalled with the Dragonballs but Goku would not allow ShenLon, the Dragon, to recall him (much to everyone's surprise and Chi Chi's grief).
Once the threat was quelled, Trunks returned to the future. After telling his tale to his mother, Buruma, Trunks went out and destroyed the two cyborgs. Then he settled down to await the arrival of Cell, which was to come in three years. Because of Trunks' increase in power (although he never made it to second level Super Saiya-jin) and because Cell could not find the two cyborgs to absorb, Trunks easily eradicated Cell.
Confusing... Isn't it? There appear to be several paradoxes. The first one being that the first Cell, the one that eventually becomes Perfect Cell and is killed by Gohan, had absorbed the two cyborgs from the future as well as from the past. When Trunks returned to his own timeline, he went out and destroyed the two cyborgs. This ultimately prevents Cell from absorbing them later on. And since Trunks then killed him, Cell could not travel to the past to cause all the trouble. The only way that all the events could have happened is the theory of Diverging Timelines.
I'll plug that in when I can find it again...
During this time, dubbed the Cell Game, Trunks of the 'mainstream' timeline was actually still a baby. Eight years later every one of the Dragonball cast, including 'Chibi' Trunks' friend Son Goten, knew about the future Trunks except Trunks himself.
It appears that 'Chibi' Trunks will ultimately be more powerful than his future self.