Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue.

This takes place a couple of months after the events of Blood of the Hunted. Read that one first or risk being confused.

Note: I've changed what Pan calls her grandfather to Goku-ojiichan because she's around him all of the time and I've heard her use the familiar term in DBGT. She calls her other grandfather Satan-ojiisan because she doesn't see him as much. I also heard her call her parents 'mama' and 'papa' but I won't change that in this fic anyway.

---

Blood of the Warriors

Chapter 1: The Showing

"Marky-chan? You're counting on Mark's protection? Don't you know how low he is in the pack?!" - Son Pan

 

The day the vampires came out of hiding had began just like any other day. The sun had risen just like any other day, I had gotten up for school just like any other day, I fell asleep in math class just like any other day.

But around ten o'clock that night, on the late-night news, a small group of people took over the station only slightly similar to the way Cell had done so many years ago. There were no flashy demonstrations or no dramatic presentations. No, these people felt that it was only necessary to state their reason for all of this and leave the same way they came.

Kaasan, Tousan, and I had been sitting around the television as we always did on the weeknights during the school year -- Tousan thought that we needed 'family time' -- and calmly watched the whole thing. I had thought that it was someone's prank, at first, and that it would be over quickly but of course I was wrong. My parents looked over at me as I choked on my popcorn, staring as if I was the cause of everything.

Three vampires had been the representatives. I would later find out that they were what Joanna called the Council's flunkies. The one in the middle said a single sentence and the other two didn't say a word the entire time. When they were finished, the hole that was so conveniently placed in the wall behind the anchor desk served as their escape. But still it wasn't flashy. To me, it was more of a warning. To show everyone a little of the wide-range of powers that they possessed in hopes that they wouldn't cause trouble. Hey, there wasn't anything against being hopeful.

That single line will live on in the hearts and minds of the people forever. It will be timelessly frozen on both audio and visual, historically printed in both books and newspapers, and passed on endlessly from one generation to the next.

"We came, we saw, and we will eventually conquer."

***

"Joanna, Joanna, Joanna," I shook my head slowly, trying to figure something out. "Why did you pick now to emerge and demand for your place in society?" I was in her office, the following day after school. We had things to... discuss.

She simply stared at me, eyes weary, as if gathering her words.

"The Vampire Council is the final law. Whatever they say goes. I have no control over it whatsoever." She narrowed her eyes at this last bit.

"And that just ticks you off doesn't it?"

She sighed. "I am merely not powerful enough to hold a seat on the council. That's all."

I settled back down into her plush chair. "What do you mean by 'hold a seat'?"

"Exactly that. Once you are deemed fit to become a member of the council, you have to fight to keep the seat you had won by killing the previous council member. If you are strong, you will survive. If you are weak," she smiled grimly, "you get to find out if vampires are as damned as they say."

I nodded. Sounded kind of barbaric to me. Thinking that I had gotten all that I could from her, I stood to make my exit.

Then David, the very same vampire that had gotten me mixed up in all of this, materialized in the doorway and blocked my way.

"Leaving so soon?" He wasn't cruel or sarcastic about this, it was like he was just asking a simple question. But he sure as hell wasn't blocking the door for amusement.

"What do you want?" I said dully.

"We once again require your services."

"David!" Joanna barked this from the right. Somehow she had moved from her chair without me even noticing.

I narrowed my eyes. "Now wait a minute, what do you want from me this time? I'm just a tiny little teenager trying to live a normal life. If you ignore the small thing about having to help save the world occasionally, of course."

The small vampire sighed while David smiled in satisfaction. Then he stepped forward into the room so I had to choice but to step backward or touch his body.

I sensed that there was more to this, so I once again took a seat.

"You have to look The Showing over at every single angle." I took it that The Showing was what they called their little news broadcast. "The most obvious one was that vampires could be free and open amongst the people of this world."

I understood. "What's the bad part?"

"The lycanthropes," she said simply.

"Ah." The lycanthropes, for reasons I had yet to hear, hated their guts. I'm talking back-stabbing, spit-in-the-face, slit-the-throat hatred. It was like it went back centuries or something. I was slowly beginning to see the complete picture.

"Do you think they would hate this enough that they would fight you over it?" I didn't completely believe that but the looks on their faces said it all. "They would."

"Yes. That's the only bad part about it. But vampires still aren't legal and neither are any other preternatural being. When we get the vote, the lycanthropes are going to get ugly."

"That's where you come in," David stepped in smoothly. "You have a connection to them. Your best-friend is dating one of them. You could speak to them about it and clear everything up."

"Are you sure that it'll just be a discussion? I mean, tousan's just now starting to trust me again."

He nodded. "Your father will have nothing to worry about."

"So that means I can tell him?"

He shrugged. "Why not? But please don't allow him to screw everything up for us. This is too important."

"Let me ask you two a question?" I stood to leave. "The lycanthropes used to be human before they became shapeshifters, correct?"

They both nodded.

"But aren't they still citizens of any country as long as the government thinks that they're still human? Isn't it the same for you guys? Once you have citizenship, how can you loose it?"

Joanna smiled without a hint of fang and I instantly didn't like it. To me, it was saying 'You poor, naïve child'.

"The government has total control over the way things are run," she explained to me, "They can choose to retract your citizenship if you become something not covered by law."

"In other words, not human."

"Yes."

"What if you're only half-alien? Are you only half-covered?"

"Like yourself?" I nodded. "I don't really know. That would be entirely up to them."

"You make the word them sound evil when you say it that way."

"Evil is in the eye of the beholder," David did the smiling this time and I knew the display of teeth was on purpose.

I glared at him and shoved him out of my way. "I'm leaving," I said over my shoulder. "And this is the last time you ask me or Bra for help, got it?"

But there was no answer. The door to Joanna's office closed and I found myself suddenly outside staring at the blank wall that hid their underground lair.

***

"Daddy," I said this in my best little girl voice. My tousan looked up from his desk and instantly narrowed his eyes.

"What do you want and how much is it going to cost me?"

I blinked innocently. "Whatever do you mean, Daddy?"

"Pan..." He sighed and then smiled. "I might as well hear you out."

I smiled as brightly as I could and perched my nearly grown self onto his lap. "I need permission for something. Something important." Then I stopped speaking.

He waited for a few moments and then prodded me for more.

"You know you can ask me anything, Pan, and I'll say yes. Within reason."

I took a deep breath and all of it rushed out.

"Thevampiresneedmetohelpthempreventawarwiththelycanthropes."

After the second it took him to process this information, he shook his head.

"Absolutely not Pan."

"But why?" I was whining, I admit it.

"You're too young for one thing."

"Otousan!" I jumped to my feet, hands on my hips. "I'll be eighteen in five months!"

"So we're back to being formal?"

I sighed. "It'll just be this last time. I promise."

He pinned me with a calculating stare. "Do you really promise?"

"Hai. Even though you were involved with people more dangerous than these."

"That's an entirely different thing!" he sputtered.

I raised my eyebrows. I think I had him. "How so?"

"Well..."

"When you fought Frieza, weren't you preventing a catastrophe?"

"Hai, but-"

I cut him off. "When you fought and killed Cell, weren't you preventing a catastrophe?"

"Well, hai-"

"What about Bojack and Garlic Jr. and Majin Buu and-"

"Okay!" My tousan shouted. He actually shouted at me. "I get the point!"

I frowned at him. "Jeez, you didn't have to yell."

While my tousan calmed himself, I though it was a good time to leave the room. It takes a lot to upset my tousan and I guess those fights were touchy subjects. I really should have left the Cell one alone.

***

A few hours later Bra and I were riding through town in her car, headed for Christine's house. She had agreed to gather her pack as well, as some other local wereanimal groups, and have the meeting at her house. Needless to say, I was a little nervous. That was a lot of man-eating (and saiyan-eating...) shapeshifters in one room.

"Are you scared too, Bra?" I asked her. She glanced over at me when the stoplight turned red.

"Well, sure, but not that much."

"What, dare I ask, is your secret?"

She smiled sappily and sighed. "My Marky-chan."

I blinked and burst into laughter. She didn't think it was very funny.

"Marky-chan? You're counting on Mark's protection? Don't you know how low he is in the pack?!"

She shook her head and pressed down on the gas when the light changed once again to green. "I know it matters, but that much?"

"He's not Ulfric, Freki, Geri, or Sköll. Hell, he's not even Fenrir." I knew that she didn't understand any of the terminology I used. That's okay, I would he happy to explain if she asked.

"Explain." Okay, so she didn't ask. I'll excuse it this one time.

"The Ulfric is the leader of the pack, the Freki is second to the Ulfric and so is the Geri. Whoever is Sköll is the head enforcer slash bodyguard for the Ulfric."

"What about the Fenrir?"

"The challenger for the Ulfric's position. It's sort of like old Vegeta-sei: you have to kill the king to take his place. Since your boyfriend is none of these, you might as well forget about receiving protection from him. How long has he been a werewolf?"

"Two years."

"You can *definitely* forget it then."

As she pulled to a stop in front of Christine's large house, she asked one last question. "How do you know all of this?"

"I'm psychic." She just shook her head. "Okay, okay. I asked Christine."