First, let's follow the original MK timeline:

Does anybody recall back in UMK3, when Human Smoke had an ending where he escapes from his cyborg body and goes into hiding, and studies the special abilities of all the other ninjas? Then, in MK Trilogy, we suddenly see this new unlockable character named Chameleon, who has the moves of all of the ninjas. The connection is strong enough to make you wonder if, back in the day, Chameleon was actually supposed to be an evolution of Smoke.

Now, people have speculated that Chameleon is another Saurian like Reptile, and indeed his female counterpart, Khameleon, is one. But with Chameleon, his history has actually never been clear. In MKT, he had no bio or ending; he was basically an alternate like Meat in MK4. And like most of the characters in Armageddon, he never had a bio there, either -- and his ending reveals nothing of significance about his past except that he's "always" been around, hiding in the shadows while the events of Mortal Kombat played out, waiting for his opportunity to emerge. You might notice that Smoke had a reputation of hiding in the shadows, too -- peeking out from behind trees in the Living Forest while fights are going on, and, you know, hiding away while secretly learning how to become Chameleon.

Of course, there is an obvious objection to this line of reasoning: if human Smoke became Chameleon, how do Cyber Smoke and Chameleon exist at the same time?

There might be a reasonable answer to that question, actually. If Cyber Smoke had some human awareness, he could potentially use his power to turn into smoke to create a shadowy doppelganger of himself, thereby "escaping" his cyborg body and taking a form that would probably be somewhat translucent... kinda like Chameleon. And while he's out and about doing the stuff he wants to do as Chameleon, his cyborg body lies unused and apparently dormant in Shao Kahn's trophy room until Noob recovers him in Deception.

And speaking of Deception, there are several hints in that game that Cyber Smoke does have some human awareness and is leading a double life. While under the command of Noob Saibot, he enlists Shujinko to help relay messages to Sub-Zero in Konquest mode, and Ashrah's ending shows Smoke having a crisis of conscience. In the battle of Armageddon, he fights on the side of Light.

If Smoke is capable of keeping these kinds of secrets from Noob Saibot, who programmed him to obey, what's to say that he couldn't also engage in more elaborate deceptions, like becoming a whole other person on the side? He probably has the ability, and he certainly has the motivation. You might wonder why he never used his Chameleon form to intervene and stop Noob Saibot, but then again, if he's had a good thing going all this time, why blow his cover? Why not just keep lying in wait until it really counts, like Chameleon does in Armageddon?

Okay, so now let's look at the new timeline. Smoke escaped the cyberization of the Lin Kuei, but has fallen into the clutches of Quan Chi. But if we have learned anything about Smoke over the years, it's that the strength of his will can trump any effort to control or enslave him. And in Revenant (or Enenra) form, Smoke would presumably be at the height of his powers. If it were "reasonably possible" for him to create a smokey clone of himself before, then now it should be relatively easy.

So let's say that Smoke decides to "split off" a piece of himself to go and do the whole Chameleon thing that he's always dreamed of. But now, instead of having to escape from his cyborg body, what if he actually took some inspiration from the Cyber Initiative? A cyber shell can enhance his natural abilities, it's a great disguise, and there is no shortage of other cyborg ninjas he can emulate by sneaking around and collecting their powers, Chameleon-style. While Smoke's main body is under the thumb of Quan Chi and Shinnok, Triborg can be doing some secret work behind the scenes without arousing suspicion.

This actually offers an answer to some of the mysteries about Triborg. Why is there a Smoke variation when Smoke never got cyborged in this timeline? Because it is Smoke, and he built it himself this time. Why is there a Cyber Sub-Zero variation, if CSZ no longer exists? Because Smoke recreated it. How does Triborg split into three different bodies in his intro? Because Smoke has had a lot of practice at doing just that.

Of course, it's rather doubtful that this is the real story behind Triborg. After all, that would require NRS to be paying attention to their existing canon in deciding how to go forward, which hasn't exactly been their shining strength in this new timeline (or... ever, really, when you think about it). But the story makes enough sense, and even though it probably isn't actually true, wouldn't it be cool if it was?