Hey guys!

This is the last chapel of my story :( It makes me really sad, too, but I really hope you enjoy it! It's been amazing, and I really thank each and every one of you who read it.

...

Vegeta stared silently at the far wall. The warm blankets still covered his small body and he wasn't sore or deeply depressed after a horrible punishment or torture session. Yet, tears still escaped his eyes and travelled across his face onto the pillow. He hated crying. It made him feel weak and pathetic, but he had just woken up from a horrible nightmare.

Luckily, he hadn't woken up screaming, like he did sometimes. He had just woken up sobbing hysterically and pleading under his breath. Now he couldn't go back to sleep. Frieza was dead, in both timelines, but he realized that he could still haunt him and terrorize him even from Hell. He wondered briefly if his older self still had nightmares, but he doubted it. His older self was so strong and proud…

It had been two days since they had come to the future and started living in Capsule Corp., and he still acted like Frieza was sitting a few rooms away, waiting to call him into the Throne Room any moment now.

His door slowly opened, and he closed his eyes quickly. It was force of habit. Whenever he was awake at nights and someone entered his room, the safest option was to pretend to be asleep. Nothing terrified him more than watching Frieza come in through the door in the middle of the night to make him suffer.

Soft footsteps approached his bed and he tensed.

"Are you okay?" Bulla asked softly from behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Vegeta growled.

"I heard you crying."

"I'm not crying!" Vegeta said aggressively. Bulla sat at the edge of his bed and put a hand on his face. It was damp with sweat. Vegeta immediately sat up and pushed her hand away. He stared at his hands. "Leave me alone."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of." She said softly. "Can I tell you a secret? But you can't tell anyone, not even Nappa and Radditz."

Vegeta looked at her.

"Whatever." He said, although he really was curious.

"My dad has nightmares, too, sometimes." She said. Vegeta's eyes widened and he looked at her with wide eyes. "They've become much less frequent. Only once or twice every couple of months, but when I was a little girl he would have them quite often. But my mom would console him, and there's no shame in that. He is the strongest being in the entire universe, yet what you both went through was horrible."

"My father would be ashamed." Vegeta said. "I am the prince, I should be fearless. Yet, I… I'm not. They were all so strong, and so cruel… and I was so weak."

"I'd bet my right arm that your father wouldn't be afraid." She said. "Everyone is afraid of something. What matters is that you overcome the fear. And you have! You survived an entire crew of men who disliked you, and you're still fighting for pride!"

Vegeta swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I didn't survive." He whispered. "Frieza forced me to stay alive."

That sentence buried into Bulla's chest like a hot poker. She reached to caress his face but he flinched away and glared at her.

"Having nightmares doesn't make you weak. And being scared of Frieza doesn't make you weak either. He was stronger than you, and he was very cruel." She said. "Your father would be very proud of how far you've gotten."

Vegeta kept glaring at her and lied down again, giving his back to her and closing his eyes, pulling the blanket up to his shoulder.

"Leave me alone."

…

Goku watched as Vegeta taught the small kid a very complicated defensive stance. Past Vegeta seemed to master it easily; after all, Vegeta had always been a natural at fighting. His eyes travelled back to Nappa, who was doing some push-ups on one hand behind them. Before he could even wonder where Radditz was, a rough voice spoke from behind him.

"So, you're my baby brother."

Goku turned to him and grinned, putting his hand behind his head.

"Yeah, looks like it."

"You look exactly like our father."

"Yeah, I've heard that before."

"He would be proud of how strong you are." Radditz said, turning serious.

Goku blushed a little and smiled wider.

"It's nothing. I had the opportunity to train with the best, and I've had a few close encounters with the strongest in the universe, so, yeah." He chuckled.

"Frieza included." Radditz said. "And me." He added jokingly.

"You were a piece of work." Goku said. "I died fighting you."

"I heard." Radditz laughed. "But my future self died during that fight as well, didn't he?"

"We had to. You were trying to kidnap my son." Goku laughed.

Radditz shrugged. "Orders from the prince, I guess."

"Yeah. Vegeta was a lot scarier back then." Goku said.

They remained silent for a moment, watching the two Vegetas training. The smaller one seemed very concentrated. He was doing everything he could to get it right. After all, it was the first training session he had been in in a long while, in which he wasn't getting beaten until he couldn't move.

Finally, Radditz spoke.

"Frieza recruited Nappa, and Nappa dragged me along a few days before Vegeta-sei explo – uh, got destroyed by Frieza. The day before I left, my father told me they were going to send you on a your first mission soon, and how he was very excited about it." He paused for a moment. "I was so worried for everyone when Frieza delivered the news. I tried calling every scouter, but nobody answered. I sneaked into the Computer Labs and searched for every name I could think of… Everyone was dead. Especially my father. They dedicated a full report on him… and just when I was about to shut the computer down and give up, your name came up on my head. I had only seen you once, and you didn't seem like much… but to my surprise, you were alive." He said. "And that gave me some weird hope. Like, if you were still alive maybe we could do something, join forces to get out of there. Of course, Vegeta and Nappa always ignored me, y'know, me being the thirdclass and all. I guess they finally decided to listen."

Goku's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at his brother.

"It was… weird." He said. "When your future self came to Earth, he simply said you – we were a fighting race that purged planets as business. You demanded me to come with you, and when I refused, you took my son away."

Radditz didn't say anything for a few minutes.

"We were probably in a hurry."

Goku smiled.

"What were mom and dad like?"

Radditz looked at him with a very older-Vegeta-like expression. Goku half-expected him to tell him he was pathetic and weak, but the past-version man simply rolled his eyes.

"Father was very, very strong. Physically and mentally. Mother was, too, but she was a little less emotionless than our father." He swallowed. "Our parents were famous because they were thridclasses, but they had the skills of elites and often took on elite missions with their crew."

He didn't say anything else, and Goku sighed through his nose.

"Goten wants to invite you over for his birthday in a few weeks." Goku said. "My wife will probably try to hit you with her pan once she sees you, but other than that you should be fine." He chuckled.

Radditz smirked.

…

Bulla stared through the window as past Vegeta sparred with Nappa. She remembered the talk they had had earlier and it suddenly struck her how much Vegeta was enjoying the spar. She wondered how long it had been since he had sparred without the constant thought of getting stronger so that they wouldn't hurt him anymore.

"Are you alright?" Future Vegeta said from behind her, startling her.

She looked behind her and smiled up at him. He grunted and sat next to her, looking out the window as well.

"I was just watching them spar."

"Funny, you never watch me and Kakkarot, or Trunks, when we do." He said.

"It's different."

"Because you pity him."

Bulla's eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't pity him." She looked pointedly at her father. "And in case it's crossing your mind, I don't pity you. What you went through was horrible, but I don't pity you. I know you hate pity more than anything."

Vegeta smirked at her.

"Your mother told me how strong you were throughout it all." He said. "How fearless. You faced Frieza."

"I couldn't just stand there and watch. Even if it wasn't your younger self, he was still a small kid getting tortured for something we convinced him to do." She said.

"You didn't convince him of anything. He would've jumped off of the ship if someone would offer him freedom for it." Vegeta said. "Living with Frieza is suffocating."

"I know." She said softly. "Even without the things he did, the place is so full of darkness and anger. I was desperate to leave."

They stayed silent for a while.

"Bulla…" he began. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that, when I was killing Frieza."

"He deserved it." She answered, but her face betrayed her troubled emotions.

"He did." Vegeta said. "But that doesn't mean I should've done it. I'm not that person anymore, and I wanted you to know that… Seeing him again after what he had done to my younger-self snapped something within me."

"I know."

"I'm not a psychopath anymore."

"I know."

"I don't enjoy killing, or blood, or gore."

"I know, daddy."

"It was just – "

"Dad." She said, putting a hand on his arm. "I can't say I wouldn't have done the same if I was strong enough, just for the way he was treating you. You snapped, you beat him up, and that was it. I'm not… I…" she took a deep breath and smiled widely at him. "It was a gruesome scene. It makes me shudder, I won't lie, but only because there was so much blood. I know Frieza was a special case, and you'd never do it again. It wasn't you. You're my daddy, and nothing you or anyone does can change that."

Vegeta smiled, a genuine smile, and nodded before putting a hand on her head and getting up, walking away.

…

Trunks exited his room in time to see his father crossing the hallway to get into his room. He swallowed.

"Hey, dad." He said. Vegeta turned to him. "I… uhm… how are you?"

"What do you want, Trunks?" Vegeta asked, annoyed.

"I just, uh…" Trunks began. Vegeta interrupted him.

"You don't need to say anything, son."

"I want to. I mean… my entire life I always thought you were… evil, when you were younger. I mean, when you came to Earth, I thought you were just plain evil, wanting to destroy the universe and whatnot… After what we saw, I understand that – "

"I was evil. I wanted nothing more but to destroy." Vegeta said. "I don't care what you think or thought of me." He said rudely. When he noticed Trunks flinching slightly, startled at his tone, he sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. "I don't care as long as you understand that no matter what you saw back there, or what I did, I'm not that person anymore. And that's all you need to understand."

Trunks smiled.

"What you went through – "

"What I went through was bad. But I'm here now, with you, your sister and your mother. And that's all that matters." He said. He placed a hand on Trunks's shoulder and squeezed slightly before walking into his room and shutting the door.

Trunks couldn't shake the smile off his face.

…

Depression didn't even begin to describe how he was feeling.

He had just come out of a week inside the tanks, after getting horribly tortured by Frieza for his escape attempt. His eyes closed tightly and he hugged his knees closely, trying to stop crying, but his mind was a mess. He had never felt fear like that before: it was all-consuming, numbing, petrifying. Knowing what Frieza was capable of, and the fact that he was trapped, locked away like a slave, living with a man whose mind could conjure such things… It terrified him.

The sole memory of Frieza's laughter as he slowly skinned his tail until only the bones remained made a new wave of tears fall from his eyes. He had thought that them ripping it off was the worst they could do…

A shuddering breath shook his tiny body from head to toe and sobs began to rack his body again.

He didn't know what he had done to deserve such a life. He had tried to get away from Frieza's beatings, from the bullying, the constant abuse, the hatred he received from others… and oh, gods how he regretted it. He never thought he'd regret something as hard as he was at that moment. He'd gladly take a training session with an angry Zarbon every hour; every day for the rest of his life if that could make him forget what Frieza had put him through.

He had even begged Frieza to kill him…

But what else could someone wish for when they're getting whipped to shreds after their skin has been burnt to a very tender crisp?

He placed both hands on his mouth as a wail formed in his throat.

He would never disobey Frieza again. He would never even try to defy him. He wouldn't even look at him wrong. He was too afraid now. He never thought anyone would ever be able to make him really wish for death… and that thought brought forth deep shame. He cried harder as he thought of his people.

His father.

His mother.

His comrades.

He had failed them all. Frieza had broken him. What did anything matter now? He couldn't fight back. The thought of getting out of his room paralyzed him. He couldn't face anyone like this. Deep fear, anger, pain and sadness mixed inside him and crushed his spirit.

How could he do anything if the thought of seeing Frieza again was enough to send him into a river of tears?

Little Vegeta's eyes opened slowly. The sun was shinning through his window. He sat up and realized that, even after the nightmare he had had, he wasn't feeling sad or scared. A very different thought crossed his mind: At the lowest point of his life, he had thought he would never be able to face Frieza again.

But he had.

He had faced him, his beatings and his abuse many times after that. He had talked back, and argued to the point of getting his tongue cut. And suddenly all his scars shone in a new light: He had survived Frieza's worst tortures, and he kept fighting back.

And even if he had stayed in the past, he would've eventually escaped. His future self was living proof of that. He had been destroyed physically and mentally; he had begged and cried and followed humiliating orders… But he had always fought back until they beat him down. He had always built his spirit back up.

Maybe…

Maybe his father would be proud of him.

And with that encouraging thought, the small prince got up from his bed to start his training for the day.

...

The End.

...

Well, what can I say? Once again saying good-bye to one of my babies :')

Dark Past was one of the stories I enjoyed writing the most. Your reviews encouraged me a lot, your ideas, your love... it was all amazing. Took me three years, but I finally finished it!

I'm all happy and melancholic right now.

I really hope you enjoyed the story, and I hope to see you all again on the next few stories I write!

Also, I should've done this a long time ago: Special thanks to Vetygas Rath, the author of The Trouble with Vegge. (Seriously guys, go read that story. It's my all-time favourite story about Vegeta-angst. I've never, in all my years at fan fiction, read a better story than that.) Vetygas Rath and TTWV were my inspiration, and without it, this one would've never happened.

Thank you all so much!