One of the biggest protagonists in Super Dragon Ball Heroes is Xeno Trunks, a variant of the fan-favorite Super Saiyan introduced in the Xenoverse. The Xenoverse mirrors the main Dragon Ball Multiverse, sharing some of its most iconic moments across its various timelines and alternate universes, but exists outside of the official canon established by Akira Toriyama's core story. In a twist from the versions of Trunks seen in Dragon Ball Z and its sequel series Dragon Ball Super, Xeno Trunks has been given a particularly raw deal on how to carry out his existence -- although it's still better than the life of Future Trunks in his alternate timeline within DBZ and Dragon Ball Super.
Xeno Trunks and the Xenoverse were introduced in the 2010 video game Dragon Ball Online, before the immersive gameplay world and its characters were rebranded as the Xenoverse and served as the primary setting for the popular video game and non-canonical manga/anime adaptation Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Xeno Trunks acts as the players' guide for the initial titles in the Xenoverse, recruiting player characters onto the Time Patrol to keep the various timelines free from the tampering and machinations orchestrated by the villainous Mira Towa. However, as the Time Patrol works closer with Xeno Trunks, it's revealed that this iteration of the Super Saiyan isn't serving on the Time Patrol of his own free will.
Like his Future Trunks counterpart from the official Dragon Ball continuity, Xeno Trunks has used a Time Machine to prevent Androids 17 and 18 from devastating an alternate timeline. As this violated the Time Patrol's strict policy of preserving the natural course of history in each timeline and universe, Xeno Trunks is eventually captured and charged with tampering with the space-time continuum by the Time Patrol's guardian deity Chronoa.
Rather than face conventional imprisonment, Xeno Trunks is sentenced to serve on the Time Patrol for an undetermined amount of time, acting as a mentor to new recruits while protecting various threats to the timelines and universes -- all as he encounters twists on various familiar faces and moments from across Dragon Ball history while growing stronger himself.
Despite this life of being forced to root out corruption and intruders on various timelines under the instructions of a temporal god for the foreseeable future, this beats the life that Future Trunks has in the prime Dragon Ball Multiverse in several ways. When Future Trunks was last seen in DBZ, he had the unenviable task of rebuilding the entire planet after it was ravaged by the Androids for decades, with humanity on the brink of extinction.
Dragon Ball Super made this alternate future even more apocalyptic, as Goku Black and Future Zamasu attacked this iteration of the universe years later, resulting in Future Zeno erasing the timeline from existence entirely. This left only Future Trunks and Future Mai to rebuild a reborn universe together after Zamasu's systemic corruption.
As harrowing as the work on the Time Patrol can be, Xeno Trunks seems thoroughly committed to his task and gets along with Chronoa in preserving the timelines. Chronoa, for her part, tricked Xeno Trunks into serving on the Time Patrol, as his actions preventing the Android timeline from taking place were not a crime; Chronoa simply was lonely and wanted an assistant to help her in her mission. This implies that Xeno Trunks could potentially leave this life behind if he so chose; however, having witnessed the importance of the Time Patrol's mission firsthand, he remains dedicated to defending time, whereas his canonical counterpart rebuilds an entire world.
