Radditz looked at Vegeta lying on the bed, laying against the headboard, and tried to compose a smile.

The kid was stronger than him and Nappa, and would one day grow to be one of the strongest soldiers in Frieza's base. Hopefully, he would've grown to be stronger than the lizard himself if he hadn't died. But seeing him like that, laying on the bed with his tiny body covered in blankets and his childish face looking more confused than angry, reminded him of how young he actually was.

It was only after Frieza's brutal beatings and tortures that Vegeta let himself be comforted by his men, and it was then that Nappa and Radditz got cruelly reminded of the fact that Vegeta wasn't their age. He shouldn't be a soldier, yet. Let alone a soldier on Frieza's ship, where everyone hated him to the point of enjoying his pain. It wasn't fair. It had never been fair.

He noticed the sweat drying on his face and knew that he had had another nightmare. He looked pale and nervous. And no wonder, since the last memory he had before falling into unconsciousness was Frieza torturing him brutally.

"Hey." He said softly, closing the door behind him. "How are you feeling?"

"Where are we?" Vegeta asked, clearly still shaken up. "Is it true? Did they kill him?"

Radditz sat at the edge of the bed and nodded, his smile broadening.

"It's kind of a long story, actually." He said. He rubbed his forehead. "Goku, Bulma, Bulla and Trunks actually come from the future."

"What?"

"I had a long talk with Bulla before you woke up. She told me lots of things. She told me that Goku is actually my brother. Y'know, the lost little brother I kept telling you about? Looks like he made it. Well, that's beside the point. Uhm, the other three are… well, they're your family. From the future."

"You're lying." Vegeta said. "That's ridiculous."

"It sounds like it but it isn't. Bulma is your future wife, and they are your kids. When you were unconscious, your future self came into action. And let me tell you, he is one badass motherfucker. I wish you could've seen it. The entrance was amazing." He said.

"And what happened?"

"We escaped while he fought Frieza and killed him. Took him less than half an hour to finish him off. To be honest I think he was taking revenge on Frieza, more than actually battling him, but we didn't get to see that. Then we got on the machine and came here." He explained. He smiled as Vegeta's face brightened up slightly.

"So he's really dead." He whispered. "A-and I killed him. I mean, it wasn't actually me but… if my future self came back to save those freaks, it means… It means that in the future I would've escaped Frieza on my own anyway." And then it sank in on him. "Are there future versions of you and Nappa?"

Radditz chuckled and shook his head sadly, looking down at his hands.

"Apparently, you sent me to Earth to recruit my brother and I died in the process. And then you – uh, you killed Nappa." He said.

Vegeta paled.

"I – what? Why?"

"I don't know. It happened twenty years from our present, or something like that. I'm guessing you got tired of his stupid bald head." Radditz said, trying to make a joke out of the situation.

Vegeta's eyebrows furrowed and he swallowed, rubbing his temples.

"This is so weird." He said.

"Maybe when your future self comes back we can ask him what the whole story is." He said.

Vegeta got nervous about that.

All his life he had faced people who hated him intensely, and made sure he knew. But none of them actually expected anything from him, so he had never faced someone who had been disappointed in him. Frieza would always be too happy about him making mistakes, and his father, well, he didn't remember him much. What would his future self think? Would he understand, or would he hate his past self as much as the past version hated himself?

The future Vegeta seemed ruthless enough if he had killed Nappa.

Then again his children seemed a bit spoiled.

He would have to meet the man to know.

…

Vegeta cursed as he stared at the control panel. It was constantly beeping and showing numbers and forms that made no sense. Bulma was frantically trying to type things on the small keyboard to the side, but nothing was working. Goku was behind them, his eyes closed in concentration as he tried to find his friends' kis, so that he could use Instant Transmission to get them all out of there, but he couldn't feel a thing. They weren't on any physical plane, travelling between timelines and dimensions.

Nappa stared at all of them and sighed deeply. He felt extremely out of place.

"We shouldn't have left without finishing the machine." Bulma said, frustrated.

"Why didn't you fucking finish it, then?" Vegeta shot back.

Bulma tensed and turned around to glare at him. Nappa raised his eyebrows. He had never seen such an intense glare, except in the prince himself.

"Because I had no fucking time, you stupid moron!" she shot back.

Nappa was positive the prince would punch her, but he just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. He was beginning to understand just why he had married that woman.

"It's no use." Goku said. "I can't sense anything."

"Of course you can't, clown." Vegeta shot back, fuming. "We're nowhere."

"Kami, this is bad." Bulma said. "If it doesn't fix itself we'll end up wandering between timelines forever."

"Fuck that." Vegeta growled. "I'm the prince of all saiyans, I won't be wandering around time and space."

Nappa felt his chest swelling with pride, before he felt dread as Vegeta pulled his wife backwards, oddly gently, and punched the control panel. The machine beeped shrilly, before shaking strongly, sending them all to the floor.

"Landing on unrecognized territory."

Bulma groaned before getting up and staring at the coordinates panel. There were only zeros. She huffed.

"Well, now we're in the middle of nowhere. I don't know where or when, and I don't know if this thing will work again." She said. "Great job with those anger issues, buddy."

Vegeta got up and rolled his eyes, before pushing the machine door open and walking outside. They were on a completely red planet, but here was nothing around it. Only barren land. The sky and land reminded him a little of Planet Vegeta, and he wondered if they were in some sort of mixed timeline, where the planet was there but at the same time it wasn't. Apparently, he wasn't the only one with those thoughts.

"This looks like Planet Vegeta." Nappa said.

"It's not." Vegeta answered, despite his previous thoughts.

Goku came out next, looking around. He seemed frustrated and angry at the whole situation. He sighed before walking away from them, to sit on a rock and try to concentrate on feeling his friends again. Bulma stayed inside, trying to fix the machine. She didn't want to admit it, but Vegeta's punch made it work better than before.

"I know." Nappa said after a short silence. "It got completely destroyed by the meteor, so there's no way it would be. If we had travelled to the past, it would be crowded with people. Saiyans."

"You're wrong." Vegeta said, looking at the horizon. He debated whether to tell him or not before deciding. "It was Frieza who destroyed our planet."

Nappa felt cold and looked at his prince with wide eyes.

"What?" he uttered weakly.

"He was scared of a saiyan revolution, so he destroyed it and lied to us." He said. "He killed my father personally, though, when he tried to save us."

Nappa stared at him, wide-eyed and dumbfounded, before crying out in rage and kicking a rock next to them.

"That bastard!" he shouted. Vegeta stared at him stoically. The saiyan cursed some more and kicked the rock before regaining his composure. He took deep breaths and tried to control his shaking, raging body. "I fucking knew he was behind it."

"It doesn't matter, now." Vegeta said. "The bastard's gone in both our timelines."

Nappa stared at Vegeta's hard face and scowl and didn't recognize him. He was so different from the small kid.

"Was it you who killed him in yours, too?"

"No." he said. But he didn't add anything else.

"But you escaped him, didn't you?" Nappa asked.

"I did."

"How?"

Vegeta took a deep breath as he recalled his time on Namek. He had mixed feelings about those memories. They symbolized the start of his new life, his freedom, his life without Frieza. It hadn't been by his hand, but the bastard had died, and that thought alone had been exciting enough when he had walked past the whole torture and Kakkarot winning his battle. But it was exactly that; those days had been so full of anger and dread. He had been terrified of escaping Frieza, and so goddamn angry of his life under the bastard. He was so full of hatred that it choked him… and there was of course his shameful failure, and the torture he had received afterwards, which still haunted him at nights. Frieza had never beaten him with such strength… granted, Frieza hadn't intended to kill him before that beating.

And then the bastard had killed him without a second thought. And made sure it was slow and painful. The despair and pain he felt as he cried at Kakkarot's feet… Kami, it was all too much.

"It started because we finally let Radditz go get his stupid brother from planet Earth while we purged Arlia." He began. "His brother is actually that idiot over there." He said, pointing at Kakkarot still meditating.

"Really? No wonder he looks like Bardock so damn much."

"Yes, but he's an idiot. He's more human than saiyan. While Radditz was battling him to drag him to our service, Kakkarot and his friends spouted something about dragon balls, which are some orbs that can grant wishes. So I decided to travel to Earth and get them to wish for immortality and finally defeat that bastard. Radditz was killed on that battle." He said. Nappa raised his eyebrows. "I told Frieza some Arlians had escaped and that we were going to follow them and kill them, and we travelled to Earth. Kakkarot was damn fucking strong, just like his thridclass father, who was too strong for his class. He beat you up and… I killed you."

Nappa sputtered.

"You… you killed me? Why?"

Vegeta sighed. He wasn't prepared for such a conversation. How could he be? Nappa was supposed to be dead, never to come back and ask.

"I don't know." He admitted. "I was evil. I was more like Frieza than I wished to admit. I would've killed anyone who stood in my way and at the moment, you being weak, well, that was an obstacle. So I just killed you."

"For the gods…" Nappa muttered, his eyes wide.

"I'm not that bastard anymore, if you want to know. But I wasn't the small kid who looked up to you by then. By the time we went to Earth, I was a fucking monster. The people on Earth, my wife's friends, they still don't trust me, and I don't think they ever will. But that's not even important to me."

"Alright." Nappa said, trying to sound calm. "And then what? Don't tell me you got the wish."

"Not by a long shot. Kakkarot put up one hell of a fight, and I turned into an Oozaru to kill him but one of his stupid friends cut my tail off. Then Kakkarot's son turned into an Oozaru, too and almost killed me before I cut his tail, too. Then, I escaped and went to this planet, called Namek, where there were other dragon balls, because the ones on Earth had been destroyed."

Bulma listened as Vegeta told Nappa the whole story. She smiled a little as he told him when he had seen her for the first time and how she had "stupidly lusted after Zarbon". She giggled before punching a long code. The control panel rejected it and she cursed, rubbing her forehead. Her blue eyes rose to see Goku, still concentrating. His face was scrunched up and drops of sweat ran down his temples. She sighed and listened to Vegeta again. Nappa cheered as he recounted his battle against Dodoria and Zarbon and how he had successfully killed both… Zarbon of course on the second battle, after he escaped Frieza's ship again following his first failed fight. He was talking slowly and calmly, his voice stoic and even. She tried to tune him out as he told Nappa about how Frieza had beaten him in his last transformation and tortured him until he was inches from death in front of the others.

Goku and Gohan had told her that story before. It was unsettling and deeply upsetting for her.

"…Kakkarot arrived then. I was somewhat happy, despite having been beaten. I knew that bastard would achieve the super saiyan status against Frieza and I couldn't wait to see it." He said. "But Frieza killed me, sending a lazar through my chest and I choked to death."

"That fucking bastard." Nappa growled.

"But Kakkarot made it. He turned into a Super Saiyan and beat Frieza. Then they used their wish to bring the people that he had killed back to life and that included me. Then they sent us to Earth and Bulma let me stay in her house."

Nappa took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"I see." He said.

Vegeta didn't say anything.

After a few moments, he turned around to see his mate. She had a face like she was going to give up.

"Still nothing?" he asked.

"No." she said.

"Fuck that." He growled. He walked into the machine and, once again, delivered a punch to the control panel.

"Vegeta, no!" Bulma shouted. But he didn't listen to her. He punched it again, crying out in rage. The machine beeped twice before smoke began to come out of it. "You stupid monkey, it will blow up!"

"Vegeta, what are you doing?" Goku asked, alarmed, running into the machine as the prince didn't stop punching it, until it cracked and electricity came out of it.

"Connection re-established." The machine beeped, before all of the screens turned to black. Then they all came back to life, beeping madly, and Goku gasped.

"I can feel them!" he said, before he grabbed Bulma's arm and touched Nappa's shoulder. Bulma grabbed Vegeta's hand and they disappeared from sight.

…

Bulla and Trunks jumped as the four people appeared suddenly on the lookout.

"Daddy!" Bulla squealed, before jumping to Vegeta's arms. Vegeta put a hand on her back and smiled at Trunks. Nappa was extremely baffled.

"I don't know what you did," Bulma said, staring at him "but you fixed the goddamned machine."

"Damn straight I did." He growled.

Bulma rolled her eyes and slapped his shoulder playfully.

Dende came out then, smiling at them.

"Welcome back, Bulma, Goku, Vegeta." He said cheerfuly. "And welcome, Nappa. Prince Vegeta is in his room, if you'd like to see him."

Nappa stared at the small green man doubtfully.

"It's okay." Vegeta said. "He's harmless. And the kid needs you."

Nappa bowed his head at the prince and followed Dende into Vegeta's room.

…

"Prince Vegeta." He said as he saw the prince stuffing his mouth on top of the bed, and Radditz doing the same on a chair next to him. His own stomach growled and se stole some food from Radditz. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." The kid said, between bites.

"I have news for you." Nappa said. "I know how your future self escaped Frieza."

Vegeta almost choked on the meat and his eyes widened. Nappa sat at the edge of the bed and began to tell him the story. He tried to sound nonchalant as he spoke about his and Radditz's deaths, but Vegeta still blushed a little and looked down. He left out the part about Frieza's torture, and simply said that Kakkarot had been the one to deliver the killing blow.

…

Bulma stared at Vegeta, who was standing at the edge of the lookout, his arms crossed and his face stoic as he looked down. She took a deep breath and walked up to him, hugging him from behind. He didn't move.

"Don't worry. We won't have awkward conversations about what we saw." She said. She smiled as his shoulders shook a little with laughter.

"I'll go talk to the kid." He said, before squeezing his wife's hand fondly and walking up to his younger-self's room.