Darkness Falls, an animaniacs fanfic

And this time we do it my way…

OP: This is an Alternate Universe fanfiction which features a lot of cursing, violence, blood and gore, and may get worse later on...So if you don't like these things, please read something else...

In this story, Dot is roughly 16, Wakko 18, and Yakko 21. Mindy is 17, Skippy is 19, Rita is 20, Runt is 23, and the Goodfeathers are around their late 20's, or early 30's...Slappy and Walter are...Iunno...11 years older than what they were...

Me: I see no reason to change that…

The original is currently on page 4 on this site (I tried to link it but it kept screwing up my story) Tell me what you think of mine in comparison.

And just in case you didn't know; silkies are mystical creatures. They are seals by day and huge hot men at night. As the story goes at night they go about and rape virgins, and nine months later come back to claim their kids (which are always boys).

Enter: Wakko

(This is a prologue type thing)

Hollywood. There's something to be said about the place. Some will tell you that its gone down hill and become a horrible place, filled with vampires, werewolves, ghosts and whatnot. I say that's shit, because its always been that place, just not as literal. No one is quite sure what started the whole thing, perhaps a disease or chemical. All the new cases of it have disappeared but now. The problem is vampires are producing more vampires, ect and the place is getting overrun. And wouldn't you know it, WB studio lot became headquarters for the vampires. Aka, the rulers of all the wonderful beasties and gules that have inhabited this little slice of hell. See, of all the creatures (Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, silkies, and demons) vampires are the smartest and most organized, thusly, taking charge. Demons come in second, usually right hand…uh…creatures to vampires. Silkies are usually used as spies and werewolves make good hitmen. Ghosts just kinda haunt stuff.

Shortly after all this happened a resistance formed. Slappy started it, but Brain runs it, Pinky at his side. The goodfeathers are in charge of surveillance and getting money. A lot of others too. And then you have Dot and I. We're field men…er…field man and field woman I guess. I've got a club that's been soaked in holey water that gets the job done. Dot has two silver swords and a pistol stocked with silver bullets. As for Yakko…

When it all started, people made a pretty big deal about it. Well, you can imagine. But we were still in our tower. That was…uh…oh god…8 years ago? Lets see…I'm 18 that would make it…yeah, 8 years ago. We were in our tower and it was dark. Somehow a vampire had gotten in, but we were just kids. We ran away from him the best we could, but when the dick cornered us, Yakko had shoved Dot and I behind him. Neither of us will ever forget the sight of our brother being sucked dry and turned vampire. Dot and I escaped out the window. That night we had all met at Slappys tree and the resistance had been formed. An underground hideaway had been built, right next to a pipe line which we had filled with holey water, making our hideaway vampire-proof. Its crude, but its home. Dirt walls, military cots, bare bulbs and all. Anyhow, Yakko rose in rank to the head vampire. King Yakko. It doesn't surprise me at all, really. He always was good at planning and talking his way in and out of stuff. I suppose there's not much else to say…

Wakko swung hard to his left, catching a vampire in the chest and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch and sizzle.

"Wakko! Your back!" Yelled Dot as she decapitated a vampire in front of her. Wakko swung behind him without even bothering to look.

"Thanks!" He yelled. He swung at another one, catching him in the gut. The vampire fell to his 'final' death, spattering blood onto Wakkos otherwise clean shirt.

"Haha, you slob!" Crowed his sister from the other side of the warehouse they were fighting in. Exterminating in, more like. Every time a cluster of vampires was found field men were sent out. This time it had been Wakko and Dot.

"Damn! That's my last clean shirt!" Said a dismayed Wakko, looking down at himself. He was feeling more comfortable now; coming to the warehouse had been nerve wracking. It just didn't feel right; the vampires where gathered around there, just standing there, as if they were waiting for them. Wakko didn't have a lot of time to mourn his shirt though, there were vampires to kill. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a vampire kick one of Dots swords out of her hand and pick it up, brandishing it at her. Dot rolled her eyes and reached into her back pocket, pulling out the pistol. Wakko looked away and swung and a fatass vampire coming right at him. If he had taken a better look at the now-finally-dead vampire before him, he would have recognized it as Plotz.

"Wakko! Get over here!" Screamed Dot as the vampires left in the warehouse started to converge around her. Wakko pushed his way in, club brandished, swinging and cursing for all he was worth. Why they were all coming around her, Wakko didn't know.

"Wakko!" Dot started to run towards him, but stopped halfway. The vampires suddenly stopped fighting, and Wakko looked around wildly, wondering what was going on. He looked at his sister.

"Dot…Dot are you ok?" Worry filled his voice, his pulse was starting to quicken. She didn't say a thing, but only looked at him with a slightly confused, slightly surprised face. It was then that Wakko realized her feet weren't touching the floor. Slowly, blood blossomed over the front of her shirt in two spots, one in the center of her chest and one directly below it in her stomach. "Dot!" Wakko charged over to her, but before he could reach her, her entire body lurched as one of her own swords was thrust the rest of the way through her, emerging right in the middle of her chest. The swords were tipped towards the ground and Dot slipped off their ends, landing with a stomach churning thud. Wakko nearly slipped in the pool of blood that had started to form around her as he kneeled at her side. Hands shaking, he gently rolled her over. Dot coughed, gagged and vomited blood.

"Yakko…" She whispered, equal parts blood and words coming out of her mouth. Wakko tore his eyes away from her; eyes that were spilling over with tears. Yakko stood over her, holding her swords.

"Sorry little sis. But hey, I stuck you so that you would die slowly, and have lots of time to say goodbye. Aint I the best big brother in the world?" Yakko laughed to himself.

"What to fuck do you want Yakko?" Wakkos words trembling with rage. He didn't wait for an answer. Instead he turned back to his sister, still dying in his arms. Her face was a mask of fear and pain. He cradled her in his arms knowing full well that there was nothing he could do to save her life. Her blood was slowly but surely soaking through his shirt, mingling with the blood of the vampires he had slain earlier. Wakko rubbed her back and did his best to comfort her.

"Its ok Dot, it'll be over soon." Was the best he could manage. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Yakko roll his eyes and start to lick the blood off the blades, like one would a spoon used to make a cake. He grimaced and threw a look towards his younger brother.

"By the way, she's anemic. Don't you have enough to eat in that underground city of yours?" Wakko ignored him, terrified as he watched Dots eyelids begin to droop. She bucked and coughed up more blood, her eyes rolling back into her head. She went limp.

"Took her long enough." Said Yakko, striding over. Wakko took in a rattling breath, tears dropping from his eye and landing with small drop drop drops in the pool of blood he was kneeling in. He kissed her forehead, not quite believing that she could be dead. Yakkos shrill laughter pierced his thoughts.

"Are you crying?!" He dissolved into peals of laughter, leaning on one of Dots swords to steady himself. Rage filled every inch of Wakko, he grabbed his club and lunched at Yakko, who easily ducked and caught Wakko hard in the back of the head.

"Lights out baby bro!" He laughed.

When Wakko awoke he was alone. Slowly he brought a hand to the right side of his neck, which felt oddly cold. When he brought his hand away there were two small spots of blood. Slowly putting two and two together he popped a finger in his mouth and, just as he suspected, felt two sharp fangs. He looked over at his sisters body and then to the spot where Yakko had been standing. Wakko didn't bother sitting up. He lay on the concrete ground, felt the coolness of the concrete on his body and tried to think. This entire thing had been a trap from the beginning, he was sure of it. The vampires had converged around Dot because that was all in the plan; Yakko wanted her dead. But why did he want Wakko to be a vampire? You were only turned vampire if the vampire that bit you drank all of your blood-every last drop, and that took one hell of an apatite. Most vampires only drank what they needed, but that was still a lot. Enough to kill the victim. His brother had obviously turned him on purpose. Wakko couldn't wrap his mind around it all. He closed his eyes and passed out for a second time.

"Wakko?" Wakko looked around. Something told him that this was a dream, but it seemed all too real. He looked over his shoulder and found himself-the real him-laying beside his sisters body.

"Helllloooo!" Said the same voice that had called his name just a second ago, this time sounding slightly annoyed. He turned around and there was Dot standing before him. She was clean of blood and wearing a plain white tank and shorts.

"Dot?"

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!" Cheered Dot, jumping around.

"What's…what's going on?" Wakko put a hand to his head and looked around. This was way too real to be a normal dream. The warehouse was empty of all vampires, but still covered in gore from their slaughter.

"I'm not dead yet."

"What?" Wakko turned back to his sister. She was chewing her lip nervously.

"I'm not dead yet, the real me, laying over there. I'm only mostly dead. Wakko, I need you to wake up and get me to swallow one of my special bullets, the ones filled with holey water and olive oil."

"What?" Wakko furrowed his brow.

"Wakko please!" Dot was getting anxious now.

"Ok, ok." Said Wakko, not sounding at all reassured. "How do I wake up?" A sneaky smile appeared on Dots anxious face as she pulled back a hand and slapped her brother across the face.

Wakko awoke with a start. It felt as if a metal vice had been clamped over his chest. Melancholy tears raced down his cheeks. He was a vampire. His sister was dead. He looked over at his club and wondered how hard it would be to…

Then he remembered the dream. Not really entirely sure of what he was doing, he crawled through the muck, blood and warehouse grime over to his sister. Sure enough her heart was still pumping. Faintly, and she wasn't breathing. Wild half-thoughts chased each other around in his mind. Had that just been a regular old dream? What the hell was he going to do? He shook his head and reached into Dots pocket, pulling out one of her special bullets. It stung when he touched it. Wakko looked at his half-dead sister, not really sure how to go about this. Finally he told himself that he didn't have time to be unsure, wrenched her jaw open and manually shoved the bullet down her throat. Nothing happened. Wakko choked back a sob and wondered if all this had cost him his sanity. Then Dot murmured and opened her eyes. She still wasn't breathing.

"Did…did it work?" She asked, squinting her eyes and looking up at her brothers shocked, then elated face.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" Screamed Wakko, picking her up and crushing her against his chest. "You're alive!" He said again, this time more to himself. He buried his face in her hair, ignoring the now somewhat delicious smell of blood. Tears of sheer joy poured out of his eyes. He smiled, laughed to himself, and wiped them away. "You're alive." He could say it all day. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Wakko pulled Dot away from him, holding her by the shoulders so that her face was level with his. He hadn't heard her take in another breath.

"I…I'm only half alive. I think. I don't know. I had this dream and…I knew what to tell you…and I knew it had to be done fast…but I didn't know why…" She looked scared, her hands shook and her eyes darted around. Wakko shook his head. Great. His sister was as confused about this as he was.

"Don't worry Dot. Lets get you back to HQ, Brain will know what to do." Wakko knew he couldn't go back to the hideaway, being a vampire and all, but he could go near an entrance. A manhole that wasn't too near the Holey water pipes. Surely if he yelled down there someone would come. He picked up Dot, decided to come back for the weapons, seeing as he couldn't touch his club, and carried her out of the warehouse.

Walking out into the sunshine wasn't a problem for him; it was a common misconception that vampires couldn't stand the sun. It always struck him as ironic that you could still have bright and sunny days in a place like this. Honestly, in pretty much every monster/vampire/ghost movie ever made the skies were always gray. Then again…He thought to himself as he looked down at the still-weak-still-terrified-still-hurt Dot in his arms Horror movies cant even come close to comparing with real life. Someones best friend gets killed at the hero barely bats an eyelash. Do they honestly think that's how it is?

Wakko made his way through the streets. He noticed he was attracting a lot of stares. People still lived and worked in the city. Normal, everyday people who weren't part of the resistance. But they lived in constant fear of the gules and whatnot, not daring to stray too far from home and keeping close tabs on each other at all times. Police armed with crosses and silver bullets patrolled the streets and only idiots went out alone. However, seeing as the monsters usually came out at night ( out of habit more than anything ) there were still people walking the streets.

"Dot, you feeling ok?" Asked Wakko, looking down at her.

"I feel kind of weird…but…yeah, I think I'm ok." She looked up at him "Just…weird." Wakko nodded and quickened his pace a bit. After a few minutes they came to the ally with the manhole. Apparently it was a bit closer to the holey water pipe than Wakko had thought and as he neared it he noticed it became slightly harder to breath. Like the air was heavier than normal. He knelt down on his haunches and banged on the pig iron lid.

"Hey!" Came a voice. The lid lifted a bit and was shoved to the side with a clang. Skippys face peered up at him. His eyes widened as he caught sight of Wakkos fangs.

"H-h-holey crap!" Squeaked Skippy.

"Yeah, it's a long story. Look, Yakko has something planned. I don't know what it is. He tried to kill Dot, actually, he pretty much did, and then he knocked me out and sucked me dry. Then I had this weird dream thing, and Dot was there. She told me to get to her swallow one of her bullets, and I did. She isn't breathing, she's sorta half dead." Wakko got it all out in one breath. Skippys mouth hung open at a comical angle and Wakko wondered if he had done the right thing by coming here. After all, he was one of the enemy now…

"Get her to Brain." Commanded Wakko, passing Dot down to Skippy. He nodded dumbly and blinked a few times to snap himself out of it.

"Will do pal. Wait here." He disappeared into the darkness. Wakko sat back and wondered what Skippy had in mind. The two were best friends, they were both feildmen and had saved each other countless times. They joked together, pulled pranks together, fought together…

Wakko heard the pounding of feet and looked down into the manhole. Skippy hauled himself out and sat by Wakko.

"You ok? I don't know if being turned into a vampire is a pleasant experience. Feel any different?" Skippy might as well have been asking about oatmeal. Wakko couldn't help but break into a huge grin. His best friend had his back. No matter what.

"Duh, cant you tell? Being turned vampire has made me a thousand times more sexy! I'll be beating the vampire chicks of with a stick!" he laughed.

"Actually…" Started Wakko, his voice turning a bit more serious "The only different thing is the blood on my shirt is making me really hungry." Skippy nodded.

"Being sucked dry doesn't turn you evil. Hanging with other vampires and getting brainwashed by them. That's what turns you evil. Wakko…" Skippy knew he was entering dangerous waters "Your brother was only 13 when he became a vampire. He was really impressionable." Wakko nodded. They had long since realized that, but it was still a harsh reality to face. Somehow, it had always been easier to think of Yakko as having been turned evil by some sort of curse. Skippys face brightened.

"Oh, and you're supposed to meet us in the old HQ wing under the grave yard. Remember the one?" Wakko remembered. It was an old wing of the hideaway that had been abandoned when the portion of holey water pipeline had been shut off, leaving it free to attack from all the wonderful beasties. "Brain has Dot there," Continued Skippy, already lowering himself back into the manhole "See you there!" And he was gone.

Wakko stood up and started off.

It occurred to Scratchnsniff how ironic it all was. He stood calmly in the corner and watched Yakko throw a temper tantrum, hurling everything off his desk, throwing his chair against the wall, screaming and cursing…here was the king of the underworld, ruthless and clever, acting like a two year old.

Yakko had just caught word of a sighting. His brother, vampire as planned, carrying an undeniably alive Dot Warner, not as planned, in his arms on the way to a Resistance entrance.

"Goddamnit!" Shrieked Yakko as he threw his chair at the wall again, hard enough to knock a hole in it "He was always so stupid! He cant even do this right! He was supposed to come here! To me! Not to his fucking hideout! How the hell is Dot alive?! I wanted her out of the picture!!!" Yakko slammed his fists down onto his desk, splitting the wood open. Scratchy sighed and walked over to him.

"This will defiantly make things more complicated…but the plan isn't ruined." Yakko turned to him, chest heaving. Scratchnsniff was Yakkos advisor, servant, confidant and the only one on the face of the planet who could talk to Yakko during a tantrum without loosing his life.

"Calm down. I think we should send out some spies, we need all the information on this that we can gather." Yakko nodded and sighed, trying to regain some of his composure.

"Tell the chiefs to get dinner ready, and bring me something to drink." Scratchy nodded and left the room as Yakko lit a cigarette. Being king certainly did have its benefits. Anything he wanted, whenever he wanted, and at the highest quality-be it food, advisors, furniture, sex, or even TV. He squinted into his fireplace.

"Eight years of being like this…and you still manage to annoy me…"

It was dark when Wakko arrived at the grave yard, leaves scratched against grave stones, and the entire place had a decidedly creepy vibe to it. He walked among the graves and tried to remember which one the entrance was hidden under. It was the grave of one of the first people to die in this mess, he remembered that much. Now what was it…

Wakko wracked his memory, and sat down on a headstone. Suddenly he realized it looked very familiar. He looked under his rear.

Here lies Steven Spielberg

Beloved man and director, he will be with us for all time.

RIP

That's the one! Wakko hopped off and gave it a shove. The entire tombstone swung back on hinges to reveal a dank, dark hole beneath. He lowered himself in and closed the stone behind him. In the dark, he could make out light farther down the tunnel. A familiar gritty voice drifted over from it.

"That you Wakko?" Wakko squirmed. He was a freaking undead vampire and still he was a little wary of Slappy.

"Over here!" He called, jogging through the tunnel, only tripping over roots once or twice. He paused and looked around for everyone. Looking towards his left he found a door, opened it, and stepped inside. Dot was laying on a cot, cleaned, bandaged and looking a lot better. Skippy sat on a stool, while Slappy stood over a desk. On that desk where Pinky and Brain, the latter looking over charts. The goodfeathers where perched on a metal rod that ran across the ceiling, Mindy sat on the floor, and the huge German shepherd Buttons (who was great for sniffing out any sort of monster) lay across her feet. Rita and Runt were piled in a corner. Add Wakko to the mix and the room was decidedly cramped. Wakko shank a bit under the stares of his companions. Mindy rolled here eyes, grabbed Wakko by the tail sticking out of the seat of his pants and pulled him down beside her.

"Calm down, you're still part of the resistance, vampire or not." She drawled. Wakko grinned nervously.

"Thanks…hey, how you doing Dot?"

"A lot better." Dot turned to Brain. "So…? What's the deal?"

"Pipe down…" Growled Slappy. "Here kid." She thrust a clear plastic canteen at Wakko, not bothering to turn around. He took it and saw that it was filled with blood.

"Its cows blood." Explained Slappy, still not looking at him. "Vampires only need to drink human or toon blood about once a week to stay alive. Drinking one of those everyday should do you just fine." Wakko took the lid off and gave the blood a sniff. He had never smelled or tasted anything so delicious and chugged the entire thing without pausing for breath. When he was done he realized everyone was staring at him again. Thankfully Brain broke the silence.

"I've got it."

Everyone leaned in closer. Brain turned to Dot.

"I don't know how you knew to do it, you've become what's called a polovino. its pol-OH-viin-oh Its Russian for 'half'. You're quite right in thinking that you're only half alive. You've noticed that you no longer have to breathe already. With the right tools you can even cross over into the world of the dead and back again, and while in the world of the dead you can invade peoples dreams. What I don't understand is how you invaded Wakkos dream when you weren't even a polovino yet, and how you knew what to do."

"So…can I still die?" Asked Dot, still slightly confused.

"Yes. But the only way you can die is if your heart is completely removed from your body. And you can still be hurt." Dot grimaced.

"So, the big cheese know about his?" Asked a voice from above.

"We don't know if Yakko knows about his or not." Garbled Pinky. "That will be your job." Finished Brain.

"So…I can pass into the Dead World?" Asked Dot, laying back into the pillows and wincing slightly.

"Faboo…" Breathed Wakko.

"Yes, but in your current state I wouldn't even attempt it. Besides, you'd need several tools." Brain was only half paying attention to her now. Finally Slappy turned around to face the room.

"Alright. Wakko, you can stay in this room here. Everyone else, back to HQ. Yakkos sure to be upset about this, and we need to get where its safe, Goodfeathers get your fluffy asses out of here and gather as much information as you can." And with that she strode out the door, Mindy, Buttons, Pinky, Brain, Runt, Rita and the Goodfeathers in tow. Dot swung her legs over the cot and tried to struggle to her feet before Skippy scooped her up.

"Hey, Wakko, I'll bunk here tonight with you if you want." He offered. Wakko shook his head.

"No, Slappys right, it isn't safe here. I'll be fine."

Dot squirmed out of Skippys arms.

"I cant walk just fine, put me down." She grumbled. Skippy rolled his eyes and put her down.

"Wakko, are you sure your going to be ok?" Dot turned to her brother, still sitting on the floor, still covered in blood, empty container of blood still in his hand. Though he was smiling he somehow look defeated, and sunken into himself. After all, it had been a long, long day. I probably look the same way…Dot thought to herself. Her legs shook and started to give way. To hide it she carefully lowered herself down next to her brother and leaned against him. A second later Skippy plopped down on her other side.

"I'm more worried about you. Yakko isn't going to be happy about this. You're still hurt to and like it or not your going to let Skippy carry you back to HQ." Wakko commanded in his best I'm-your-big-brother-and-I-can-boss-you-around voice. Skippy smiled and threw his arm around her.

"Don't worry. If anyone asks you raced me back and won by half an hour." Dot grinned and let her head fall against his shoulder. He was her best friend too, and at times was another brother to her. Wakko looked into the empty canteen and found himself wishing it was full. Since becoming a vampire the taste of blood had changed dramatically. Where before it had been salty and metallic, it now tasted almost like chocolate, mixed with exotic spices, maybe even a hint of fine wine. It had melted in his mouth like butter.

"Missing your cow juice?" Asked Skippy. Wakko grinned.

"Lets just say I'm not sorry I'll be drinking it everyday." He stood up and put the canteen down on the desk.

"Be careful, ok?" Cautioned Skippy as he lifted Dot into his arms and started towards the door.

"Duh." Wakko rolled his eyes. He stayed standing until Dot and Skippy were out of sight before flopping down on the cot. Talk about a long day.

Dot lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling. She wasn't in pain anymore; Brain had given her a shot upon arrival in her room. He had given one to her earlier when Skippy had brought her down, but it had begun to wear off by the time Wakko had arrived. Dot laughed to herself in the darkness, remembering being brought in by Skippy. He had charged into Slappys planning room where Brain, Pinky, and Slappy had been gathered, covered in her blood and yammering about Wakko being a vampire and everything. That had been a fiasco if there ever was one!

She thought back to when she had entered Wakkos dream. How had she done that? She remembered loosing consciousness, and…looking. Mentally searching for something. Someplace comforting and familiar. She had somehow sensed her brother and was drawn to him, just like when she had been a little girl, and had called on Yakko and Wakko to chase away the nightmares. Next thing she knew, she was standing in a clean white tank top and shorts in the warehouse with a deep gut feeling of what she had to say.

Dot heard a deep guttural snore from under her bed that echoed around the room. It was a room she shared with Mindy, and consequently, Buttons. Of all the dogs she had to share a room with, she had to get the one that snored like a water buffalo in its forty second hour of labor. But Dot couldn't really stay mad at him. For what was probably the first time in his entire life Buttons had abandoned Mindys side, instead choosing to sleep under Dots cot.

She smiled a bit and forced herself to take in breath. Getting used to not breathing was not an easy thing. She had soon discovered that the only time she needed to breathe was when she was talking, and the air she took in was solely for moving through her voice box. Still, breathing was one of the only ways she knew she was still alive. Well…half alive at least.

She let out the breath in the form of a sigh and set her mind. She was going to give it a try. Dot let her mind collapse in on itself, slowly separating from the rest of her. It was a tactic she had long ago learned for forcing herself to sleep. She had developed it when the resistance had started, when thoughts of Yakko still haunted her and had perfected it later on.

Yakko…

As far as she was concerned he was as much a brother to her as the dirt that made up the walls of her room. She had sectioned him off completely. More than once she had had to remind herself that he was, indeed, her brother. After all, it had been this way for half her life now.

An hour passed and Dot felt herself coming close to where she had been back in the warehouse. In her semi-consciousness tiny spots of…what where they? Light? Soul? Mind? Penetrated the darkness. She projected her own mind towards the nearest one and the closer she got, the more she recognized it. This one belonged to Buttons. Dot 'looked' around and found a light/mind/soul that seemed farther off, in the direction of the old graveyard wing. She 'moved' closer to it.

But instead of entering Wakkos dreams Dot felt feeling slowly creep back into her limbs. The image of Wakkos new room filtered in from the blackness. She found herself standing in Wakkos room, wearing the same spotless loose tank and shorts that she had been wearing in the warehouse. Wakko was in a deep sleep, drooling slightly and still covered in her carnage. Dot remembered how many nights she, he, and Skippy had come back from fighting gules, exhausted and had gone to bed as-was. Waking up encrusted in entrails, bone fragments and things she didn't even want to know wasn't at all a pleasant experience. Mindy didn't like it when Dot did that. Mindy, being a detective, didn't have to get her hands dirty at all and never had liked to sight of blood. And Dot was pretty sure she wasn't a pretty sight to wake up to on those mornings.

Wakko sneezed, snorted, and woke up. Dot froze as he sat up and peered at her through the darkness.

"…Dot? You there?" He reached out a hand that went right through her without any trouble at all; it was as if she was made of nothing more substantial than smoke. She tried to say something, but couldn't. She might as well have been a shadow and, in retrospect, that was pretty much what she was. Wakko frowned and turned on the bare bulb that hung from the ceiling. Where she had been shadow-like in the dark, in the light Dot disappeared all together. He shrugged to himself, as if it were nothing more than a dream.

It was then that Dot made the mistake of looking down. In the darkness she had been able to see herself, but that had changed when Wakko turned on the light. She looked down at her legs and saw nothing. Before she could start rationalizing instinctive panic set in. She stumbled backwards on the legs she couldn't see her and fell.

Dot opened her eyes and found herself still laying in her bed. Before she drifted off to sleep, she made a mental note to tell Wakko and Skippy. And not Brain.

Wakko awoke to one of the most intense hungers he had ever experienced. Yakko had been right in thinking that the members of the resistance weren't always well fed; the money obtained by the Goodfeathers only stretched so far. Equipment, energy, medical supplies, batteries, and information all came before food, and clothing on the list of things to spend money on, so it wasn't uncommon to go one or two days without food.

But that sort of hunger paled in comparison to the one he was feeling now. It filled every inch of his being, invading every fiber and completely consuming him. Wakko groaned and got up, half jogging half stumbling out the door. Halfway down the dirt corridor he was brought face to face with reality of yesterday in the form of a holey water pipe line.

It was as if someone had gone at him with a sledge hammer, forcing him back against the dirt wall. His throat closed up, his lungs screamed for air and his eyes began to swell.

"Jesus Wakko, what's the matter with you!? Get away from here!" Mindys half condescending half scared voice barely managed to penetrate his agony. What did get him back on his feet was the smell of what she was carrying. Wakko literally leapt at the container of blood in her hand, not even minding the fact that it brought him that much closer to the pipe. He ripped open the top, stuffed it as far as it would go into his mouth and began to gulp, focused only on getting as much blood into his body as possible. Mindy recoiled from the grizzly and admittedly stomach churning sight; a sight made all the worse by the fact that she had known Wakko all her life. Gathering up her courage, she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and began to drag him away from the pipe. Wakko didn't even notice.

Once sufficiently away from the pipe Mindy stood on the opposite side of the hall from Wakko and waited for him to finish. Deep down, part of Mindy was terrified. She had witnessed her own parents being taken by vampires and had developed a strong fear of them. Consequently, no matter how many times she told herself that this was Wakko she was talking about, she couldn't bring herself to take another step closer to him.

Wakko slurped up the last of the blood and let out a burp that came dangerously close to causing a cave in. He looked into the empty container and frowned.

"Oh yeah…I forgot about that…" He looked up at Mindy, somewhat embarrassed. She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. I would forget being turned into a vampire too. Slappy told me to bring you that." She nodded towards the empty container.

"Thanks. I seriously needed that."

"I kind of got that impression…"

"Sorry. I…um…sorry." Wakko started to get to his feet. Mindy jumped and instinctively flattened herself against the wall she was leaning. It was Wakkos turn to roll his eyes.

"For gods sake its still me!" And the Wakko that was still him was starting to get a little annoyed, not to mention hurt. He quickly changed the subject.

"How's Dot?"

"Last time I saw her she was getting breakfast."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"She said she was in the mood for toast." Wakko looked at the container in his hand, an entire gallon, that had been emptied in mere minutes. He began to visualize what it must have looked like and apologized again.

"Look, it was just a tad disturbing. Lets leave it at that." Mindy crossed her arms and brushed a lock of pale blonde hair out of her eyes.

"Dot did say she wanted to talk to you and Skippy later. She said she would meet you in your room when she and him were done eating." Wakko nodded. "And Buttons and I are going to try and find someone who knows what Yakko has planned." Wakko couldn't help but notice that she stayed pressed against the wall when she passed him on her way back to HQ.

"Great…" Wakko got up and looked around. The underground 'city' was pretty large, spanning the entire area of the Warner Brothers move lot, and then some, reaching out into the streets of Burbank. But now a hallway and a tiny room were all that was available to him. The entire thing was very secluding. Still idly licking the rim of the container Wakko wandered up and down the hallway, waiting for Skippy and Dot to arrive.

It didn't take long.

"Wakko!" Skippy came into view, holding his fingers in a cross out in front of him. Never one to let his best friend forget how good his aim was, Wakko chucked the empty gallon container hitting Skippy square in the head with a very satisfying "bonk"

"Nice one, Mr. Maturity." Dot emerged, subdued, but standing on her own and smiling. She looked over her shoulder and motioned for them to go into Wakkos new room. Once there Dot plopped down on his bed.

"Hey, Wakko? Do you remember seeing me standing in your room last night? Or something that looked like me?" Wakko furrowed his brow.

"Uh….yeah, yeah I did! I turned on the light and there wasn't anything there, how'd you do that?"

"I don't know, really."

"I'm going to guess your not going to tell Brain or Slappy?" Skippy cocked an eyebrow. Dot looked down at the floor.

"Well, I guess not. Brain would probably just tell me to stop, but I swear I know what I'm doing."

"You just don't know how you did it."

"Oh shut up Skippy!" Dot crossed her arms and looked at the wall to her right. She only did that when she knew she was loosing an argument. Her gaze was drawn from the wall when Wakko leapt to his feet.

"Dot! Do you realize what this means?"

"You're going to tell me anyhow."

"You could get inside Yakkos mind and see what he's got planned!"

"…" There was an odd sort of silence that followed that. Skippy's jaw dropped, and he shook his head as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Dot blushed a brilliant and striking shade of red, embarrassed that she hadn't come up with the idea herself. Wakko was already starting to work out a plan.

"There is no way we're doing that behind Slappys back." Skippys voice could have crushed diamonds. "Do you realize how dangerous that would be? And Dot, you don't even know what your doing, Wakko, we cant keep you safe anymore!"

"If we were going to do it…" Began Dot, cautiously eyeing Skippy "I would need to be close to where Yakko was. Within…half a mile I'd say. The closer the better."

"Its not as if we don't know where he is." Added Wakko. Dot nodded.

"And as far as keeping you safe…back in the warehouse…Yakko didn't kill you, and you and I both know that he could have if he wanted to. He must have turned you vampire for a reason."

"I could go see him." It dawned on Wakko for the first time. "I could talk to him. It must be what he wants, right?"

"Shut up. Both of you." The weight of Skippys words was enough to send shivers up and down Wakko and Dots spines. Neither of them had ever seen him this serious. Wakko stood and faced him.

"Your in or your out, Skippy."

Yakko sat up and let the heavy covers fall off him. It had been a rough night. Not, he looked at the women still sleeping on either side of him, that had planned a peaceful night sleeping, but something was still eating at him. Not only was his plan not going right, it was falling apart completely. He dragged himself out of bed, letting the cold air in his room wake him up. Wakko was still in the Resistance. Dot was a polovino. And he was going to leave in a month. Crap.

Yakko rubbed his temples. He would give Wakko a week to come here on his own. If he didn't show up, he would have to find someone to bring Wakko to him. And as for Dot, he would take care of her later. Polovinos were hard to kill, but he knew just the right werewolf for the job; one that had experience with her kind. But that would have to wait. Yakko had just one month to Yakko had turn Wakko into a king. Or, at least, someone fit to rule this pathetic slice of earth and follow his directions. Yakko smiled to himself. Directions that would be coming from Europe, and in one month he would be moving there to start a new colony of vampires, werewolves, silkies, demons and ghosts. Effectively, taking over whatever city he was in. Then the country. Then, like he was planning to do with Wakko, he would find someone to rule that colony while he started a new one. Within ten years he planned to rule France, England, and Spain. In twenty, most of Europe. In thirty, he would tackle Asia. After that? Yakko smiled to himself. Yakko: King of the World. He like the sound of that.

At first he hadn't planned on killing Dot. While Wakko ruled Burbank he had imagined her working on Washington D.C; taking over the nations capital was a job for someone with a good strong mind. But then it had occurred to Yakko that Dots mind might be too strong to break and bend to his ways, and Yakko couldn't have a mind like that working against him. After all, she was only 16, who knew how powerful she could become in a few years? No, she had to go. Yakko walked over to his desk and scribbled down the number of the werewolf that would take her out. He could not let himself forget that. Very important. Yakko pushed a button on his desk that controlled a small intercom system.

"Scratchnsniff. Are you awake?"

"I am now. What do you want?" Yakko chuckled at how funny Scratchy sounded when he was annoyed with that accent of his.

"Get to my room, I want to go over some plans with you."

"….fine. I'll be right there."

"Oh, and Scratchy?"

"Yes?"

"Bring breakfast."

"Yes Yakko."

Ten minutes later Dr. Otto von Scratchnsniff entered the room carrying two plates of breakfast. Summer sausage, French toast made with bourbon, quail eggs, and syrup - nothing but the finest. Which Scratchy didn't mind. Seeing as he was Yakkos right hand man, he got a good share of whatever Yakko had. This included the five star breakfast, but, Scratchy frowned as he looked at women in Yakkos bed, not everything. He would have to talk to Yakko about this…

"Bring it over here." Yakko didn't look up from the papers on his desk. Shoving a few maps and papers aside, Scratchnsniff made room for both the plates, grabbed a chair and sat down opposite Yakko.

"What's on your mind?" He asked as he popped a piece of summer sausage in his mouth. Yakko went to work on a quail egg before answering.

"We give Wakko one week to come here on his own. And hire this" Yakko shoved a scrap of paper with a name and phone number on it "to take care of Dot. What do you think?" Scratchy swallowed the toast in his mouth.

"Are you sure Wakko will come here on his own?"

"If he doesn't we'll bring him here by force."

"A whole week?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"We don't have to get him here within a week, but why not get the idea in his mind as soon as we can? Give him a while to think about it, eh?" Yakko finished off his eggs.

"How are we going to do that?"

"We be diplomatic. Have a demon or silkie or such talk to him." Yakko nodded.

"Alright, you can take care of that. And…" he sat back in his chair "While Wakko is away, it would be a perfect time to send that werewolf after her. What do you think of that?"

"I think that's a good idea. I also think that this month couldn't go by fast enough." Scratchnsniff closed his eyes and sighed. He had missed Europe ever since he had moved to America. Though Yakko planned to station them in Paris, maybe he would be kind enough to let Scratchy go back to Austria, if only for a week. But it wouldn't be a good idea to bring that up now.

"I don't care how slow or fast this month goes by, just as long as I get everything done." Yakko closed his eyes and let his head flop back. It was in moments like that when Scratchy remembered Yakko was twenty one. After all, he had known Yakko since he was ten, and part of Scratchnsniff would always see him as the goofy smartass ten year old that ran around the studio lot after his show was done filming. Ran around with his brother and sister. Scratchnsniff peered at Yakko. Just eleven years ago Yakko had been tying his sisters shoes for her, and now he had not only hired a werewolf to kill her, but he had attempted to do it himself… But.

Part of Scratchnsiff suspected that Yakko; a dark, hidden, secret part of Yakko, still loved his siblings. Or, at least tried to, but had somehow forgotten just how one was supposed to go about it. There were many good, clever vampires about. Ones hat were fiercely loyal to Yakko. Why else would he want Wakko of all people, to rule Burbank?

I guess some things never really change…Thought Scratchy. He cleared away the breakfast plates, wincing slightly as he did so. Damn arthritis…

At age sixty three, Scratchnsniff was getting up there, though he still looked the same as he had eleven years ago. Unfortunately, it was a common misconception that vampires didn't age. Well, for the most part. You still aged regularly until you hit your very early twenties. After that you started to age slowly, and eventually the aging process nearly stopped all together. Yakko had grown tall and lean, still resembling the child he had been back in his filmmaking days. Wakko was shorter than his brother, and a bit more stocky. Dot was quite small and wispy for her age. Yakko would probably look like he did right now for the next ten years, but Scratchy? Oh no, he would have arthritis and wrinkled for the rest of his long long long long long long life.

"Aw, cheer up Scratchy. You've got to arrange for someone to talk to Wakko today." Yakko caught sight of the disgruntled look on Scratchnstiffs face. Rolling his eyes behind his glasses Scratchy grabbed the plates and stalked out of the room.

"Fine." Skippy said at length.

THUD THUD THUD

Wakko leaned his head out the door. The sound was coming from the graveyard above them.

"Wakko WARNER!" A voice powered its way over to where Wakko, Dot, and Skippy sat.

"Dot, HIDE!" Hissed Wakko. Dot slipped under the bed and Skippy sat in front of it, effectively shielding her from view. Wakko jogged over to the graveyard entrance, heart racing. Grunting slightly he reached up and pushed on the bottom of the tombstone, allowing it to swing back on its hinges. He yelped in surprised when he was shoved aside as someone, or something, dropped into the tunnel beside him. Wakko reached for a certain holey water soaked club that wasn't there, then franticly looked around for something to defend himself with.

"Calm down." Wakko looked at the intruder. He was easily eight feet tall, and built like a basketball player, with pale green skin and tusks that curled out of his mouth. Stringy black hair hung past his shoulders and sunglasses hid his eyes; he was wearing a nice shirt and pants. A perfect example of a demon with a high profile job.

"We want to talk to you." He had a French accent. Wakko looked up at him, somewhat confused.

"Wha…?"

"Your brother is sending someone to talk to you; meet him at McHarks Pub, tonight at ten."

"What does Yakko want with me?"

"You'll find out tonight at ten, wont you?"

"…fine."

"Smart move. Oh, and one more thing."

"What?"

"Take a shower before you come." The demon curled his lip in a sneer and climbed out of the tunnel. Wakko looked down at himself; he had yet to shower and was still covered in vampire guts, his sisters blood, his own sweat and grime from the warehouse floor. He walked back down the tunnel and into his room.

"All clear." He announced and Dot crawled out from under the bed.

"What was that all about? Don't tell me I'm going to regret this decision already!" Skippy glowered down at Wakko who smiled uncertainly.

"Yakko…he's sending someone to talk to me at McHarks Pub at ten."

"…don't go."

"Look he obviously doesn't want to kill me. I think I should listen to what he says."

"And while you do that, Skippy and I can go to 'his majesties castle' and I can see if I can find out anything else." Dots face lit up.

"WHAT?! Don't think your going to get me to go with you, I just said I wouldn't tell Slappy and Brain!" Skippy was nearly beside himself, looking from Wakko to Dot and back again.

"I'm still rather sore from being skewered with my own swords. Some help might be appreciated." Dot snapped. Skippy sighed and half sat half collapsed onto Wakkos bed. He covered his face with his hands and stayed like that for a long time. Neither Wakko nor Dot said a word, choosing to let him think in silence. Finally he uncovered his face.

"Find out as much as you can tonight, Wakko. Dot, you and I will get close to Yakkos place and listen in on his dreams or whatever. No matter what, we all meet back here at two. Got it?" Wakko and Dot nodded solemnly.

At nine thirty Skippy, Dot, and Wakko were gathered in the grave yard. A cool breeze swept through the grounds and twisted its way between the three solemn figures. Wakko was showered and wearing a clean tee and jeans. Most of the trios clothing came from the military, seeing as it was made tough and functional. Most of the stuff was also a bit big for Dot, so she got along fine with tank tops and shorts that didn't get in her way when fighting and running. But they did have some regular clothes, such as the ones he was wearing now. Skippy and Dot however, were dressed for action.

"We meet back in your room at two." Skippy said, his voice like concrete. Wakko nodded. They walked together in silence out of the graveyard, and then split up, each lost in their own fears, worries, and questions.

McHarks Pub was smack dab in the middle of monster territory and saw all types; werewolves, demons, vampires, silkies and was even rumored to be haunted by several ghosts. Seeing as, in addition to drinks, McHarks Pub served up blood for vampires and usually had its back stocked with fresh people to be later killed by said vampires, the rumors were generally believed. The smoke inside was so thick it stung your eyes, but the place was generally calm and a good place for beasts of any nature to hang.

Wakko walked in, somewhat lost After all, the demon hadn't said who - or what - would be meeting him. He stood there, in the doorway, hands in pockets, unsure of what to do for a good minute before a voice drifted over on the smoke.

"Hey Wakko!" Wakkos ears literally perked. He could barely make out his own hands in the smoke, let alone the owner of the voice.

"Uh…yeah?" He ventured, coughing a bit on the smoke. Slowly, he walked into the middle of the bar. A huge silhouette materialized in one corner of the pub at a table. It waved him over. Up close Wakko saw that it was a silkie. The silkie smiled at him and pushed out the chair nearest Wakko with his feet.

"Have a seat kid!" Wakko sat and a cold bottle of beer was pushed into his hand.

"So, your Yakkos brother, eh?" The silkie smiled and took a drink of his own beer.

"Figures. You two look nearly exactly alike. Heard your sister does too. He wasn't lying when he said I wouldn't have a hard time picking you out!" Wakko cautiously took a sip of his drink. Drinks weren't even on the list of things to buy for the resistance.

"What does he want?" Wakko was trying hard to keep from liking the silkie. All silkies had pretty much irresistible charm, and Wakko knew that was probably why one was chosen to talk with him.

"Simple, really." The Silkie smiled again, wide enough to show his ever-present seal teeth. "See, Yakko has this thing planned. He want to go to Europe. He says its to start a colony of new vampires and stuff, but I say its all the European girls, eh?" The silkie leaned back and laughed. "And he wants you to run things here in Burbank while he's away! Think of it, kid. You'll be a king! You'll be eating all that caviar shit and getting more tail than you know what to do with! Now what do you say to that?"

Wakko choked on his beer, spraying the entire table. Undeterred, the silkie leaned over and thumped him on the back.

"Take it easy kid, you've got a week to decide."

"What?! I cant do that! Is he CRAZY!?"

"Well, some would argue…" The silkie laughed again. "But think about it kid. Yakko wants to talk to you in a week, at his place." The silkies face turned serious. "He also told me to tell you this. You're a vampire now, weather you like it or not. Things have changed. Do you really think you can keep doing what you're doing with your friends? You're one of the enemy now, Wakko. And he also told me to tell you that cows blood wont sustain you for long. Think of it as some sort of filler, he says. It will last you about a month, but after that you'll start wasting away and go insane. You need to drink human blood. Do you think your friends will be happy with that at all? And what happens when you haven't had your blood in a while, and your friends start looking mighty tasty? The way your brother sees it, you've got two options. Either make it as a vampire alone here, where half the monsters hate you and be killed in a few weeks. Or, live as a king. Your choice Wakko."

Wakkos face went pale. He was torn. Half of him screamed that this was all lies. But the other half whispered that everything the silkie said was right. His head began to pound. What was he going to do? Oh good god this was for real…this cant be real…

The silkie put a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"My work here is done, but that doesn't mean I've got to leave. Your just a kid, I know how it is. This has got to be pretty hard, eh?"

Wakko stared straight down at the table, the bottle of Miller never leaving his lips. At length, he came to a conclusion, and a decision. He informed the silkie of this. The silkie looked somewhat shocked.

"Well you didn't have to decide right away…but ok, what is it?"

"I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to be able to decide what I want to do for a while."

"…then whats your decision, kid?"

"For that, I'll need a favor from you."

"Sure kid."

"Don't let me leave here until I'm really, really drunk."

"Will do kid. Will do."

Dot stared up at the Warner Brothers tower. She had called it home for years, but now she approached it with caution. This was Yakkos home now; he had made it his headquarters and rarely left. It shone with fresh paint, but other than that, it looked exactly the same as it had eleven years ago.

"This close enough?" Skippy mumbled as he burrowed deeper into his jacket. Dot nodded.

"I think so. I'll give it a try." Dot sat down and leaned up against the old trash trough they were hiding behind. She let her mind draw up upon itself, like she had in her cot. It happened quicker this time. Much quicker. Too quickly. Much too quickly.

Dot felt as if all the air had been sucked from her already air-less lungs. Her vision shrank to pinpoints and disappeared altogether, leaving her looking at an array of soul/light/mind things. She was vaguely aware of Skippy shouting her name. The very next instant she was forcibly shoved towards one. Hard. The mental equivalent of behind pulled off an eighty thousand foot cliff by a polar bear on steroids.

Dot stood in her old room. It was just as it had been when she was a kid, only covered with a thick layer of dust. It was everywhere, the dust. Motes of it hung in the air and still more of it was kicked up by her feet. She walked through the room on legs that were, if she had taken the time to notice, where undeniably solid. Dot touched the soft pink sheets of her bed and remembered how she had snuggled up in those very same sheets and listened to Yakko tell her story after story until she fell asleep. And there, on the vanity, was her autographed picture of Mel Gibson. There was her favorite necklace, the one with pink beads. Next to the bed was a beanbag that was gray with dust, but had once been purple. Over on the bookshelf were books she hadn't thought of in years. Dots mind swum in the memories. Hanging in the closet were all her old clothes, including the pink miniskirt she had worn for her TV show. They looked so tiny now… Why had Yakko left everything as it was? Dot shook her head in the darkness.

She turned and froze. She looked around again. Same room, same stuff. Dot shook her head again. For a moment, as she turned, Dot could have sworn she was standing in a room filled with desks and chairs, and in each one of those chairs was a uniformed werewolf guard. Dot walked out into a familiar hallway.

Surprisingly, with each step she took, Dot found herself remembering exactly where everything was. It helped that everything was as she had left it all those years ago. When she entered the living room she knew something was wrong. Everything was the same, right down the Don Knox videos spread out in front of the TV.

"Yakko?" Dot ventured. She was met with silence. "Wakko?" Still nothing. She was starting to get anxious now. Not only did she not know where she was, and not know how to get back, but Skippy was right. She had no clue what she was doing, and now she was paying the price.

Taking the stars two at a time, Dot sprinted to Yakkos old room. Everything was the same there as well.

"What the hell?" Squeaked Dot. She was starting to get scared now. She closed her eyes and opened him again in a desperate attempt to somehow make what she was seeing make sense.

Dot leapt about a foot in the air. Just has she had been squeezing her eyes shut, the room had changed. Just as it had when she had been in her own room. Only this time it had expanded. There was a huge king sized bed, expensive carpet, a fireplace, desk and other things. But as soon as she opened her eyes, she was standing in her brothers old room again.

Dot squinted again, now more determined to find out what was going on than she was scared. Slowly, a new room came into focus; the one she had seen before she had shut her eyes. It was vast. Yakko had obviously knocked down some walls to make it bigger. At one end was a king sized bed, neatly made. In one of the walls Yakko had had an immense fire place built, of white marble and what looked like gold trimming. There was a mahogany desk, covered in papers, letters, pencils, and pens. And, slumped over it fast asleep, was a familiar looking king.

On legs of jelly, Dot made her way over to him. He looked so much like the boy that had made her breakfast and told her stories that Dot found herself blinking back tears. After eight years of hating him, she was finally having to face the reality that he was still her brother. Weather she liked it or not. Sleeping like that, drooling slightly on the papers he was using as a pillow and a pen dangling from his limp hand, it was hard to believe that this was the same person that had run her through with her owns swords. And, according to Wakko, had laughed when she 'died'.

"Yakko?" Dot reached out and touched his shoulder. Or, rather, tried to. Her hand passed through him as if he was made of smoke.

Remembering why she was here, Dot looked at the papers on his desk. Most of them were in French, but a few were in English. One of them was on a torn up scrap, that had a phone number on it. Dot rolled her eyes. Imagine, King Yakko begging some girl for her number…Next to that was what looked like a letter from a pilot. It was informing him of how long his flight would be and when he would arrive. She figured he was probably going to Paris for a vacation or something.

Yakko sat up and Dot jerked out of her thoughts. He had startled her, and she accidentally let the room go out of focus. It took her a moment to get it back, but when she did, she found Yakko wiping the drool off his face and looking down at the papers on his desk with bleary eyes. Dot froze and watched him. He rummaged around in the papers before picking up the one with the phone number. Yawning and stretching he pulled out a cell phone from his pocket, flipped it open, and punched it in.

"Hello?" Dot could hear the voice that answered, it wasn't human, she could tell that much. It was deep, throaty, and had a slight lisp.

"Roan, that you?" Yakko sat back and gazed into the unlit fireplace.

"Yes."

"I've got a polovino job for you." An iron vice clamped down on Dots stomach. Her eyes widened.

"…Who?"

"Dot Warner."

"…You bastard."

"You're one to talk."

"…How much?"

"A proposition."

"…You sick bastard. It had better be a good one for me to take out one of your own kin."

"Oh cut the crap Roan. I've told you about my plans, now I want you to come with me. You'll be head of military forces. Every single soldier under your complete control. You decide how they train, where they go, when they piss, what they fight with. Everything."

"I'm not going to sit on my ass in some palace in fucking France. Find someone else to take her out."

"I didn't say you would be sitting on your furry ass, Roan. You could be right in the thick of the battle if you wanted to. You could do whatever you want."

"…where is she?"

"I'm not entirely sure."

"I'll be over. Don't move."

"I'll be right here."

Dot sprang up as soon as she heard the line go dead. Every synapse in her brain screamed HIDE!!! She let the image of the room go and was plunged into the Tower she knew when she was a kid.

Dot ran down the hall at top speed, looking wildly about. Her foot came down on an empty bag of chips and flew out from under her, sending her tumbling down the stairs. She landed at the bottom with a loud 'oof'. Not even taking the time to look around she dashed into the room nearest her. Dot and looked for a place to hide. She was in the kitchen. Suddenly, Dot remembered how she used to hide in the cabinet above the stove when she and her brothers played hide and seek.

Well, people always say I'm awfully small for my age…Dot thought as she slowly climbed onto the stove and opened up the cabinet. Using the cabinet doors she hauled herself in. It was defiantly a tighter fit than it had been when she was five, but she could close the door easily enough and, if she sat with her knees to her chest, it wasn't all that uncomfortable. She listened. Not to what was going on around her, but what was going on under the surface, without bring the current room into view.

"Scratchnsniff…" A voice drifted down from over her head. It took Dot a moment to remember that Yakkos room was directly above the kitchen.

"What?"

"Roans on his way."

"Wait, what?! Here?! NOW?!"

"Calm down Scratchy."

Dot heard the tower door open, followed by heavy footsteps. She didn't even dare to blink. She listened to the footsteps grow louder. Thankfully though, they started to die away as whoever it was climbed the stairs to Yakkos room.

"Hey Roan."

"Yakko."

"So, when can you get Dot?"

"…when do you want her gone?"

"As soon as you can get her gone."

"You don't know where she is?"

"No."

"Do you have anything of hers?"

"Ah…I think might, somewhere around here. I don't know, maybe I've still got something of hers in storage. Why?"

"I'll need her scent."

"You some sort of bloodhound?"

"Shut the fuck up your highness. I'm not a blood hound, I'm a hell hound, and this isn't the time to be a smartass."

"You know I could have you killed for saying that?"

"Go ahead. And you can try killing Dot yourself. After all, it went wonderfully last time you tried." Dot heard some indecipherable mumbling and then some rattling of drawers.

"Ah, here. I think this old house key belonged to her. Yeah, it did, I remember she painted it pink; you can see some flecks of pink paint still on it. Will this do?"

Dot strained her ears for a response, which took a while to come.

"You've got to be shit'n me…"

"What, not good enough? She hasn't touched it in years."

"She's here."

Dot recoiled back into the depths of the cabinet. If he could sniff her out, no hiding spot could keep her hidden.

"What do you mean here?"

"She was in this room. Not too long ago. Maybe…fifteen minutes."

"WHAT?! You liar, I was in here fifteen minutes ago."

"I would have expected better reasoning from you. Dot is a polovino. She can pass into the dead world, meaning if she was here in the dead world you wouldn't have seen her. But I can smell her, dead world or not. Odds are she's here to get some dirt on you, Yakko."

"WHAT?!"

"You just hope she didn't get anything." Dot could hear Yakkos voice get higher as he began to panic. She could feel her own heart rate speed up, and her palms begin to sweat.

"Is she still here?"

"…yes." Dot exploded out of the cabinet and began to run towards the door. She got to the living room before she heard a noise behind her. She turned and squinted. The living room turned into a bar/living room. And entering that room was a werewolf. It's a common misconception that werewolves changed shape in the light of a full moon. They were always halfway between wolf and human. Many were huge, well over six feet tall and ripped with muscle. But this one was small, maybe five foot nine. And, to Dots surprise, he was old. His eyes were clouded over with cataracts and his fur was a dingy grey. He was carrying an old leather case. He sniffed. And looked directly at her.

Dot made it out the door and began to slide down the ladder, but she lost all sight and sound of Roan. She couldn't keep the real world in focus when she was panicking and fleeing for her life. Her foot slipped on one of the rungs of the ladder and she plummeted the last ten feet to the ground.

"Dot!" Dot was pulled to her feet by Skippy. She looked around and found herself in the same lot she had entered. She was out of the dead world. Unfortunately, Roan was also there, and gaining. They both bolted out of the lot, with Roan at their heels.

"I saw that guy come in a few minuets ago!" Panted Skippy, but Dot wasn't listening to him. Though she was a polovino and healed at an amazing rate, she wasn't completely invincible. Her chest and stomach were starting to hurt from all the running, and Dot was praying that they wouldn't starting hurting bad enough to affect her speed. Skippy looked over at her and put two and two together.

"We're nearly to an entrance, don't slow down."

"Duh."

Roan was gaining on them, and it was getting a little too close for comfort. Luckily an entrance within a half mile and the werewolf soon figured out that there was holey water running near. Skippy and Dot slipped into an abandoned building, charged into the back, down the cellar and into the mess hall of HQ. Dot was shaking visibly, and had she been needed to breathe, probably would have been gasping and wheezing like a wounded hippo.

"He's hired that werewolf to kill me" She choked out.

"So I figured. Did you get anything else?"

"He's going to France."

"Why?"

"How the hell should I know?" Dot leaned back and put a hand to her tender stomach. Skippy sat beside he and looked over at the old clock that hung from the wall opposite them.

"Its just past twelve. We'll stay here until Wakko gets back. Everyone else should still be asleep, so lets just hope no one comes in here for a midnight snack or we're busted." Dot nodded. No one really kept a close eye on them, and Mindy probably figured she was with Wakko and Skippy destroying some monsters somewhere.

An hour went by. Then another. Skippy and Dot took turns going into the newly named "Wakkos Wing" to see if we was back, but each time they found in Wakko-less. By the time it was two both of them had the feeling something was up. Dot drummed on the tabletops nervously, and Skippy paced around the room. At two fifteen they had had enough.

"That's it." Skippy growled as he marched over and grabbed his jacket from the chair he had stowed it in. "I'm going to go look for him."

"I'll come too." Dot pushed herself to her feet. Running from Roan had taken a lot out of her.

"The hell you are." Skippy rolled his eyes. Ten minutes of shushed yelling and swear words ensued. At the end of it all Dot was pissed, but staying put.

Skippy stepped out into the night, and started to regret his decision a bit. McHarks Pub was a place for monsters. What would happen if he went there? Maybe if he kept his mouth shut he could pass for a vampire…

He plodded into monster territory. This was the part of town that no normal person in their right mind would set foot in. It was in shambles. The streets were torn to pieces of asphalt, building were abandoned and in various stages of disrepair. During the day it was deserted. But at night it came alive with activity. Skippy reached into his coat pocket and looped his fingers around his silver bullet soaked in holey water gun. In an abandoned basketball court to his left, he could see a group of five or so demons setting some cat on fire. To his right was a nightclub for vampires, and the music shook the very ground Skippy stood on. He saw some guys enter with a bunch of human girls more or less under their spells to be later raped, drained and killed.

He made it to McHarks pub without too much trouble. Coughing on the thick blanket of smoke that enveloped everything in the tiny building Skippy made his way back to the bartender.

"You seen Wakko Warner?" He wheezed/

"Who?"

"Uh, my friend. A vampire. Toon? Black fur, red nose?"

"Eh, yeah. He left just a few minutes ago. Totally smashed! I've never seen a vampire drink that much booze in one night. You guys generally aren't that good at holding your vodka." Skippy nodded and tried to look annoyed, instead of relived that the bartender thought he was a vampire.

"Any clue where he went?"

"No, but I don't think he would have gotten far. The poor bastard could barely keep his own feet under him. No, he was stumbling all over the place. Finally I had to kick him out. Some silkie had given him enough money to buy his weight in alcohol, and it looked like he was going to dry and down every last drop he could!" Skippy sighed and ground his knuckles into his forehead.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Skippy resisted the strong urge to stay right where he was. Unfortunately he knew he couldn't do so without feeling terrible so, not without a little swearing, he dragged himself out into the night.

"Now…if I were a drunk Wakko…where would I go…" He mumbled to himself. Thinking that maybe Wakko might have started home, he headed back towards the entrance. He ran into a number of drunk vampires on his way, nearly having to blast one of them, but none of them were Wakko. Skippy sat down in an ally and wracked his brain for knowledge of monster bars. There was one not too far from here that maybe Wakko would have sniffed out. On the other hand it was in one of the more destroyed parts of the cities and was half buried under ruble. It was doubtful a drunk could make it there on his own if it was his first attempt at finding the place. There was another one a mile east of here-

A loud crash jarred him out of his thoughts. A dark figure picked itself up from the pavement, only to stumble again, this time into a couple of trash cans. It groaned. The groan sounded awfully familiar.

"Wakko?" Skippy got to his feet and jogged over. Wakko had looked better. A lot better. His eyes were bloodshot, and you could smell the alcohol off him from a mile away. He smiled up at Skippy.

"Skippy!" Wakko thrust a half drunk bottle of Southern Comfort up at him and grinned. Skippy was resisting the strong urge to pummel his best friend into a pulp. The idiot chose now to get drunk?

"Wakko, what did the person Yakko send tell you?" He said it slowly, holding Wakkos head so that it was level with his. Wakko wrinkled his brow. Then his face lit up.

"Oh yeah! The silkie! He's a real good guy dude." He slurred, bringing the bottle to his lips. Skippy snatched it out of his hands.

"What did he tell you, Wakko?" Skippy was loosing his patience. Wakko looked pretty pissed that his booze had been taken from him. He was just about to yell at Skippy for it when he broke into a huge grin.

"Skippy!" He grabbed Skippy by the ears and pulled him right up close to his face. "I'm gonna be a king!" Wakko laughed and smiled at Skippy, who wasn't sure if is friend was telling the truth, or had traded sanity for alcohol. But he could figure that out later. He pulled Wakko to his feet. Unfortunately the momentum of this also meant that Wakko stumbled into him nearly crushed him against the opposite wall of the ally. Skippy made a mental note to beat him into a pulp later. Throwing his arm around Wakko he somehow managed to half support and half drag him to the nearest HQ entrance.

Dot was waiting in Wakkos room when they got there. She took one look at him and burst out laughing. Wakko, however, was no longer in a laughing mood and was soon sitting on his cot with a bucket between his knees.

"So, what's this about you being a king?" Dot asked from her perch on the desk.

"Yakkos going to France." Panted Wakko, who, with every upchuck, was swearing he would never let a silkie buy him a drink again. Skippy was in a slightly better mood now that Wakko was miserable.

"I know that, I saw the papers on his desk. He going on a vacation?"

"No. He's moving there. He wants me to rule Burbank."

Skippy snorted.

"I'm going to guess you told him to blow it out his ass?"

Wakko managed to fill the awkward silence with the sound of his own retching. Dot and Skippy, however, knew something was up.

"…what did you tell him?" Dot peered at him.

"I didn't tell him anything."

"What do you mean? You're not considering it are you?!" Skippy stood up in alarm. Wakko wouldn't meet his or Dots eyes.

"He…uh. He told me some other stuff too. Like that cows blood wont keep me alive for very long. Maybe a month. And…well…Mindy knows how I get when I haven't had cows blood in one day. Think of how I'll be when I start craving human blood. Or toon blood. Dot, Skippy," Wakko finally looked up at them. "This isn't going to work out."

Skippy shook his head in disbelief

"Wakko…you cant be serious!. Slappy will think of something. If you don't stay here, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I'm not exactly well liked by all the monsters around here, am I? If I just move out I'll be dead in a week, but if I take up Yakkos offer…" Dots slap knocked him clear off the bed. Before he could even stand up she had one foot down hard on his chest.

"Yeah, because I need both of my brothers to be rulers of the underworld while I'm here with a crack team of resistance fighters. I hope you find some good hitmen, because I don't care if you're my brother; I'll work just as hard to take you out as we've worked on Yakko."

"Dot that's insane! I would never-" Wakko began to protest. Dot stomped down on his chest before he could finish, leaving him gasping.

"You would have to, wouldn't you? You'd be working to kill all of us and everything we've worked for."

It hit Wakko like a ton a bricks. She was right.

"I…" He couldn't think of anything else to say. Skippy walked out, followed by Dot, who threw Wakko a look as she pulled her foot off his chest and left. It was a look not unlike the one he had given Yakko just a few days before. It was a look of pure hatred.

Wakko stayed where he was for close to an hour, laying on the floor. Thinking about everything. He could join Yakko and rule Burbank, but kill his sister and his friends. He could stay in the resistance, but then go insane from lack of blood and possibly kill someone. He could run away from both of these only to be killed on the streets. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't. He was damned no matter what he did. Unless…

Wakko thought back to the warehouse, when he had woken up from his dream and had looked over at his club. He found himself wondering if it would have been better if he had just ended it all right then and there. No…He told himself then Dot wouldn't be alive. But maybe it wasn't too late for him…

Wakko jumped up and literally slapped himself in the face, shocked at what he had been thinking.

"I'll think of something!" He told himself. The dirt walls seemed to soak up his words, laughing at their weakness. "I'll think of something soon…" He added, already crawling into his bed. It occurred to him that he hadn't had his container of cows blood that day. It also occurred to him that McHarks served human and toon blood, and that after a little bit, he wasn't sure what he had drunk…

Dot awoke to a soaked pillow. She wasn't particularly aware that she had spent the night crying in her sleep. She wasn't really aware of anything right now. Mindy hadn't noticed, seeing as Dot hadn't made a peep. You need air in your lungs to sob, and Dot had noticed that, now that she had become used to not breathing, she had to concentrate pretty hard to pull air in.

She lay facedown on her cot and wondered how long it would be until Rita or Mindy came in wondering why she wasn't having breakfast at the mess hall. Her brain felt twice its normal size. She curled herself into a tiny ball and tried to remember how she had stopped loving Yakko. Of course, she had realized when she had seen him in the tower that she hadn't, really. But before that it really seemed like she had severed the bond. Dot remembered when she was little and all this had started. She remembered how she had lay down at night with Wakko, Mindy, and Skippy (at the time the HQ had one room and no beds) and had begun sectioning off Yakko in her mind. Brick by brick she had built a wall between them. Little by little she had convinced herself he was no longer her brother. Bit by bit she had stopped loving him. Now she had to do the same for Wakko. It was the only way to make the pain stop.

"Dot?" Dot looked up to see Mindy leaning into the room holding a MRE. (for those of you that don't know, that's Meal Ready to Eat. They are used in the military. Surprisingly they aren't bad tasting at all. Most of them anyway.) "Hungry?" Her voice was filled with concern. Dot shook her head. Mindy sat down on the foot of Dots cot.

"Come on, you've got to eat something."

"I'm not very hungry."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Dot," Mindy pulled her into a sitting position and gave her a stern look. Seventeen year old Mindy was a far cry from the child she used to be on that old TV show. Seeing her parents sucked dry had really changed her, and from the little she had told them, it hadn't been a pretty sight. Or a slow one for that matter. Mindy was cynical, critical, and logical. She had trouble connecting with people, but make no mistake, she really did care about Dot, and everyone else.

"I'm not an idiot." She continued "Something's up. You've been gone a lot lately. Dot, come on, you can tell me."

Dot shook her head.

"No, I cant." She let her head fall on Mindys shoulder. "And its not because I don't want to. I really cant."

"…is it bad?"

"Yeah."

"Then we're probably going to find out about it eventually."

"…I think you will."

"Is there anything we could do?"

"No. I don't think there is. I mean, there's a polovino killing werewolf after me, but that's not what I'm worried about."

"Holy jeeze…must be bad then…"

Dot nodded.

"Alright. I'll leave you alone. Just promise me you'll eat something, ok?"

"Fine."

Mindy stalked out of the room. Dot looked at the tin tray of food. It looked about as appetizing as a pigs tongue stuffed with roaches. Not to back out of her promise, she walked over, put one crumb in her mouth, then promptly swept the tray into the trash can. Promise fulfilled.

She bit down on her lip. She knew she had to do something. She wasn't going to just sit here and let both of her brothers…Dot paused to think at what all they had done. To her, and Burbank. To many things to count. She paced the room, round and round in a circle, chin in hand, thinking. What could she do…

Ten minutes later Dot leapt a foot in the air. She had it! She jumped around and smiled like a madwoman, literally bouncing off the bed and walls.

If he was planning a takeover of Paris, Yakko was probably talking to some pretty powerful people. If she could sneak into his room and get the contacts to those people she could turn them against Yakko. Then they would be so busy fighting each other, Yakko would forget about Burbank! And as for Wakko, perhaps they could get people to donate their blood to them once Yakkos control over Burbank disappears. They could go public as heroes. Dot smiled to herself. It was perfect.

She forced herself to sit down and stop bouncing. No one, not even Wakko or Skippy would go for the plan if it involved her actually sneaking into the tower; she would have to do this behind their backs. She could do it that night.

It would be easy enough, Wakko thought as he stood outside his room, facing the long hallway that led to the current HQ. Just start walking and don't stop, right? He looked down at the hall and wondered how long it would take. He vaguely remembered what had happened to him that morning when he was craving blood and that Mindy had saved him. He remembered it hadn't been pleasant, but he supposed that was the way it had to be. He started walking.

About twenty feet in he felt his throat close up. It was alarming to say the least, and he almost turned back right then and there. But he mustered up his courage and kept walking. He could feel his eyes begin to swell painfully, and started to wonder if this hadn't been the best idea in the world, but too late to go back now, right? He got a good forty feet in before he sank to his knees. It was as if someone had placed one billion pounds of lead on his shoulders, pressing down hard enough to make his back and chest scream in pain. He started to feel light headed from lack of oxygen, and his eyes were beginning to bleed. But somehow, it was comforting. Just knowing that it would all end soon. His pain, both physical and mental, would cease to exist, and he wouldn't have to face Yakko, he wouldn't have to face Dot, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone. Despite his circumstances, Wakko let a small smile grace his face. Just as he was beginning to watch the room swim when a voice penetrated his thoughts.

"Wakko? Wakko!" He felt someone grab him by the shoulders and pull him into a sitting position. He was aware of the person talking to him, but he couldn't make out what was being said. Just as the room was going dark, Wakko felt himself being lifted over the persons shoulder. He didn't remember much after that.

Wakko opened his eyes to find Skippy hovering over him. He groaned and tried to roll over, but ever inch of him hurt. It was as if he had been pummeled by every schoolyard bully that had ever existed. He coughed. His lungs seemed to be filled with sand. Skippy looked more serious than Wakko had ever seen him. His face was like a slab of lead.

"Urgh…what happened?"

"I was going to ask you." Wakko honestly didn't know for a moment. Then it hit him; the memories flooding back to him as fast and as hard as if a mental Hoover Dam had broke.

"I…" How was he going to tell his best friend this? Skippy took on look at Wakkos face and put his head in his hands.

"Was that what I thought it was?" He squeaked, almost pleaded, in a slightly muffled voice. Wakko nodded. Skippy sank down, knees in his chest, arms folded, head down. It wasn't until Wakko saw his shoulders shaking that he realized that Skippy was crying.

"Skippy…look…I…" Wakko put a hand on his shoulder. Skippy looked up at him, his face alarmingly haggard and worn. He looked far older than his nineteen years, as if life in the past few days had carved away his youth.

"What? What do you think you could say?"

Wakko was silent.

"Wakko, do you honestly think that's the only option?"

"Its too dangerous to have me here. I don't want to rule Burbank, I'd have to kill all of you. I cant live out on my own, I'd be killed in a week, what other options have I got?"

"Your going to stay here until we can figure something out."

"What if you never figure anything out?"

"We will."

"You wont. Not in time."

Skippy was fighting back more tears.

"Wakko, if we leave you alone again, will you…will you try to…" He couldn't bring himself to say it. Images of his lifelong best friend throwing himself off a bridge, in front of a bus, or on a pike filled his mind. After a long silence, Wakko nodded.

"It's the only way."

Skippy shook his head. This couldn't be the same Wakko Warner he had known as a kid. That Wakko had been easygoing, laid back and was never one to jump to conclusions. And that Wakko certainly wouldn't be contemplating suicide, let alone attempting it.

"Think of all you'll be leaving behind!" Skippy offered. "You'll never get to see me drunk, you'll never get to get out California and go somewhere spectacular. What about Dot? You'll never see her again, you haven't seen her since last night. Think about it; if you go through with this, the last thing you ever said to her was that you were going against everything she ever worked for and believed in. You could at least say goodbye."

"…You're going to try and stop me."

"Wakko…you're my best friend. I know you, and I know our lifestyle. I couldn't stop you no matter how hard I tried."

Wakko managed to grin a bit.

"Look, if…" Skippy swallowed hard "If this is really the only way…I wont stop you. I mean, I cant can I? If…if you need help…I mean, walking into HQ wasn't exactly the best way to go about it." Skippy couldn't believe what he was saying. Wakko stared straight down at the ground.

"Your gun." He said at last, looking his friend in the eye. "The one with the silver bullets. I don't think I could pull the trigger myself, I really don't."

"You cant ask me to-" Skippys voice cracked.

"I am." Wakko voice fell like concrete slabs. Skippy nodded and tried to keep his lunch down.

"Ok. Are you going to stick around to say goodbye to Dot?"

"I don't think so. She'd know something's up."

"You're right."

"Just tell her that I love her, and that to keep doing what she's doing here."

"Ok." For some odd reason, Skippy was feeling calmer. But maybe he was in some sort of shock.

"Do you want it now, or…uh…"

"Now. Before you change your mind."

Skippy reached into his pocket and pulled out his silver bullet loaded gun. It took everything Skippy had to point it at his best friends chest. He tried to stop his hand from shaking. He couldn't look at Wakko. The calm feeling dissolved. His chest bucked with sobs and salty rivers ran from his eyes. His jaw trembled as he took in short choppy breathes. He dared not look in front of him and instead looked over at the wall and the clock.

"T-time of d-death; 10:32 pm"

THUD

Skippy and Wakko both looked at each other, then out the door.

"WAKKO WARNER!" A growling voice shook the walls of the room from the entrance. Skippy looked over at Wakko. For a moment, neither of them did anything. At last, Wakko got up and jogged out to the entrance. There, standing under the open tomb-stone trap door was the same demon that had told him to meet the Silkie at McHarks. Wakko was obviously not happy to see him.

"What do you want?"

"Yakko wants to see you. Again."

"Tell him he can-"

"Its off."

"…what?"

"Its off. Somethings happened. He needs you there now." The demon narrowed his yes. "That isn't a request." Wakko looked back at Skippy.

"I'll be here when you get back." Skippy reassured, trying not to show how relieved he was. It was getting hard, seeing as he couldn't stop smiling and his knees threatened to give out from under him. Wakko nodded and followed the demon out.

Dot pulled her dark gray tank top over her head, looking at the clock on her wall when the room came back into view. 8:07. Perfect! She pulled on her soft yet tough and flexible rubber shoes. She cast a glance at Mindy.

"I'm going to check on Wakko. Don't bother staying awake." Mindy blew a pink bubbled which popped loud enough to make Buttons start.

"Duh."

Dot slipped out. Silently, she jogged through the deserted streets of Burbank. It was then, before night but too late for normal humans and toons to be safe - sunset- when everything was still. She felt as if all the things around her were starring at her, angry with her for being the only living moving thing in sight.

The tower came into view, shimmering with a fresh coat of paint. It was easy enough to climb up one of its legs, she had done it countless times as a child and was standing on the little balcony within ten minutes. She padded around to the back and slid down onto her stomach. There, just where it had always been was a tiny window that led to a basement. It had also been painted shut. After an arm-killing ten minutes with a nail file, Dot had cracked it open. Carefully pushing out the pane of glass so as not to set off and alarm, she squeezed through and replaced the glass.

Dot found herself in some sort of storage room, filled with boxes. It smelled like old musty paper, and seemed much to bright for a room with one tiny window. It was also obvious the water heater had leaked at some point. She carefully made her way to the door on the other side of the room, avoiding boxes and random pieces of junk on the floor. Dot opened the door just a crack and took a peek.

On the other side was a kitchen, deserted, but still smelling of dinner. Dot felt her stomach kick her intestines and let out a growl of discontent. When was the last time she had had a good meal? One that didn't come out of an MRE, or that wasn't a packet of ramen? She drooled a bit involuntarily. Maybe there was still some left?

She tip toed into the kitchen, not making a sound. There was a pot left on the stove. She opened it up and found, to her delight, Creole style gumbo, with all sorts of goodies in it. Dot couldn't help herself. She reached for the ladle and spooned some into her mouth. It was like super-spicy liquid heaven. She let her eyes roll back into her head with pleasure. She went for another. And another. After this bite I'll go upstairs…this is the last spoonful…ok, THIS is the last spoonful…Dot half heartedly told herself. She had been so absorbed in the gumbo that she hadn't heard the figure enter the room, until he gasped. Dot jumped a foot in the air, spilling the ladle of gumbo all over the place. Scratchnsniff gaped at her.

"Uh…" Dot wracked her brain for something that could get her out of the mess she was in "this is a dream! You're asleep in your office, there was something in the gumbo, Yakko has poisoned you!" She half instructed, half pleaded in her most convincing voice. Like she even had a shot…

"GAURDS!!!" He shrieked. Dot bolted for the basement. She could hear what sounded like a troupe of elephants mobilizing somewhere above her head. About ten feet away from the window, she leapt and pushed the pane of glass through, hearing it shatter on the other side. Now was not the time for subtlety. She scrambled to pull herself through, fingernails scraping against the metal mesh of the balcony. But before she could get the rest of her through she felt two - very furry - hands grab onto her legs and pull.

The tug of war was brief; werewolves had some serious muscle, but Dot had anticipated that, and her front half came out of the window swinging. What she hadn't anticipated was that the uniformed werewolf held her tight in a bear hug, and didn't try to rip her to shreds. Kicking and screaming for all she was worth, Dot looked around for something - anything - to help her. But there were nothing but old damp boxes and a few dead mice.

"Stop your thrashing. It wont do you any good." A low, gravely, slightly lisping voice found its way through the boxes to her. Dot looked over at the door and saw none other than Roan walking towards her, old leather case in hand. She started to panic.

Maybe it was destiny. Maybe it was just sheer dumb luck. But at that moment, the water heater decided to blow a pipe directly over their heads. It went with an ear torturing bang showering the werewolf holding here with boiling water under high pressure. He screamed, dropped her, and Dot hit the ground running.

She was out of the basement, dodging random werewolf guards as she went, in record time. She skidded into the kitchen, narrowly missing two more guards waiting for her. One came so close to getting her that she felt the gust of wind from his hand. Jeeze, how many of those guys does Yakko have?! Dot franticly thought to herself as she ran for the stairs. Her plan was shattered, she knew that. Now she was looking for a new way out. There were a number of options that she remembered from her childhood, but since she wasn't sure what the rooms had been turned into, she dared not try them. She also dared not look behind her; the werewolves were so close she could hear every individual footstep they made. Dot decided it was time to give them the slip.

Waiting until she was at the stop of the stairs and in a hallway she put on the breaks. The werewolves hadn't expected that, and barreled right past her, feet flying out from underneath them as they desperately tried to stop. She slipped into the nearest room without a sound, knowing that they hadn't seen which room she had entered, and would now have to systematically search each one. A little trick she had picked up over the years.

It was then that Dot realized where she was. The fancy fireplace, huge neatly made bed, mahogany desk. This was Yakkos room. Thankfully, he was nowhere to be seen and the room was completely deserted. She felt a balloon of pure joy rise in her chest.

"The plan, she is saved…!" Dot chuckled to herself as she zipped over to Yakkos desk. She skimmed over the papers in French. Even though she didn't speak a word of the language, she could make out some of the words. Some of them were only a few letters off from their English counterparts. "Dum de dum de dum…phone numbers, phone numbers…" She sang under her breath as she leafed through the pages. She came across one with a number scribbled down. "..wonder if this is even a phone number…" She mused out loud; it had been so sloppily written that she could barely even make out the letters.

"It is." Said a voice behind her. Dot spun around to find Roan standing just a few feet behind her. Before she could run he had her in a rib crushing bear hug. Old or not, he was still a hundred times more powerful than she was. He carried her over to a wall just beside the door and shoved her against it, pushing her to the ground so that she was sitting with her back against it. One hand still pinning her down, he used his other to open up the leather case. Inside, nearly organized, was a jar, a few knives, and some hypodermic needles. Picked up the jar, opened it and set it on the ground. Then he selected two knives, setting a small smooth one aside and keeping a bigger serrated one in his hand. Dot was beyond panicking at this point, screaming and swinging and snarling. She swung and snarled and swore right up until Roan plunged the knife into her chest, right next to her sternum. Then she just screamed, because polovino or not, it hurt. A lot.

Liquid fire filled her lungs and her screams turned silent; she was in too much pain to concentrate on pulling air into them. The knife was in up to the hilt. Roan pulled on the knife, dragging it downward so that Dot could hear it crunch through a rib. Then another. It was slow going. When he had the knife down to roughly the middle of her chest, he twisted it, turning it sideways and sliding it along another one of her ribs. Blood was dripping from her chest onto the floor know, and Roans hands were coated in it, making it slightly harder to keep a good grip on the knife.

As Dots body slipped into shock, the pain subsided until she could hardly feel it at all. Instead she tilted her head forward and watched. She could see the blood pump out in pulses, with each beat of her heart. She figured that the littler knife was probably for cutting her heart free of its sinewy tethers, and the jar could only be for containing it once it was removed. The sound of a door opening and closing could be heard over the sound of her ribs crunching. Roan stopped and Dot let her head flop to one side so that she could see Yakko walk into the room and hang up his cell phone.

"You can stop Roan. Its off." He didn't even look at them. Roan looked rather confused, but pulled the knife from her chest, packed up, and left without a word. Yakko leaned against his desk and sighed. After a moment he walked over to the side of his bed to a wicker hamper and pulled out a towel. Dot watched as he dragged it over to her. Shaking his head, he knelt down and pressed it to her chest. He didn't meet her eyes.

"Its off. D.C got word of my plans; I don't know how. I think it was one of the pilots anyhow. I'm getting the fuck out of here, and I'm pulling the Burbank plan."

Wakko climbed the ladder to Yakkos tower. He wasn't sure how he felt right then. Sad, yes. Confused, yes. But at the same time, he felt nothing at all. Numb to the feeling of the smooth cold metal under his hands, the cool nigh air blowing across him and making his short fur shudder in the breeze. He reached to top and looked down, halfheartedly wondering if a fall from this height would kill him. But he did want to hear what Yakko had to say. Out of curiosity if nothing else.

The door was unlocked, and he let himself in noticing, before he stepped inside, what looked like broken glass over on the other side of the balcony.

"Hello?" His words bounced around the walls for a while before finding their way back to his ears.

"Wakko, its been a long time." Someone spoke up in the darkness. Someone with an Austrian accent. Wakko squinted at a particularly dark spot in the darkness.

"Scratchy?" The figure walked closer. Sure enough, it was him. Not even aged a day.

"Until tonight I had only seen pictures of you and your sister. You really haven't changed all that much." Was that sentiment in his voice? Perhaps pity?

Wakko opened his mouth to argue, but then realized what Scratchnsniff had said.

"Dot's here? I thought she was back at HQ, what's she doing here?"

Scratchys face fell.

"You didn't know?"

"Didn't know what?!"

"Well, seems your sister had some alternative ideas about how to go about bringing down Yakko."

A small old werewolf, matching the description Dot had given him of her hitman, carrying a blood spattered leather case chose this moment to brush past them on his way out the door.

Wakko barreled over Scratchnsniff on his way to Yakkos room, suddenly finding that he remembered where it was. He put on the breaks a little too hard when he saw the door though, falling on his side in the hallway. He scrambled to his feet, half charging half stumbling into the room. Dot lay against the wall, Yakko kneeling beside her holding a blood soaked towel to her chest. Despite the towel, Wakko could see that the entire left side of her chest cavity was butterflied open. He could even see her heart pumping.

Yakko turned to him.

"Its off, Wakko. I'm pulling out of Burbank."

Wakko ignored him.

"Dot?"

"She'll be ok."

Wakko walked over and knelt on her other side. Dot seemed to be only semi conscious, but he knew what Yakko said was true. He turned to his brother.

"What do you mean its off?"

"I think one of the pilots leaked my plans to D.C and their sending over troops. I getting everyone over to Paris. I think I'm going to tackle America after I conquer Europe." Wakko tried to absorb what was being said.

"Everyone?"

"I'll try."

"What about us?"

"…I suppose you're off the hook until I come back to America. About a decade or so. You and Dot can have the tower. And Wakko, I've got a stash of human blood in the basement that should last you a while. Don't ask where I got it."

Wakko sat back and took it all in.

"Heh….I don't know what we're going to do with our time…"

"I already contacted the other resistance members. Their on their way. And so am I." Yakko stood up. "I'm out of here. Hope you're ready when I come back."

Wakko watched as Yakko walked out the door.

Enter Wakko

It took a long time to get used to. The life of a normal teenager I mean. Yakko was good to his word, and within a week there was hardly a trace of vampires, silkies, werewolves, or demons. I cant say the same for the ghosts, but they seem to have become less active as of late. So there was no ass kicking, no reason to stay in HQ and all those years of being trained in the art of monster slaying were pretty much a waste. At first it really sucked. For eight years our lives had been all about plans, missions, and staying alive. Not exactly your average teenagers life, eh? But after a bit, it got better.

Skippy, Mindy, Dot and I moved into the tower. After years of living together, you'd think we would get tired of it, but in truth not having them with me when we re-entered society would have made it a hundred times harder. We've got some of the old resistance money to live off of and selling some of Yakkos stuff helped. Skippys got a job as buss boy at some fancy hotel, which is all he can handle because he's going to night school. Mindy is a freelance P.I - if anyone asks she is twenty one - and Dot's got a job in a music store. I've got one too, at some fast food place that didn't bother to look at me long enough to notice my teeth before they hired me.

True to his word, Yakkos got a stash of blood that should last me a long time, which is great. Just as long as I don't stop to think of where it must have come from. Its one of our many 'hush hush don't ask don't tell' things.

But there are a lot of unanswered questions. What happened to the rest of the group? We lost touch after a while, and the only connection we have with them are Skippys rare visits with Slappy. Where's Mindy? She'll disappear for days at a time. We never ask; she never says anything. What's going on with Dot? She'll disappear too, only to reappear out of thin air. Maybe some morbid part of her likes the dead world. Sometimes I think she goes there to cry or something. Since becoming nearly invinsible she's pretty much stopped caring about which end of town she hangs out at, or what kind of risks she takes. I really wish she would be more careful, but there isn't much I can do. Unfortunately another one is "Is Wakko going to be ok?". Skippy especially has been keeping an eye on me. It terrifies me; thinking back on those thoughts I had. I don't have them anymore, but I cant help but lay awake at night and look back at just how close I had been…

Another one of those questions didn't occur to us until a few weeks after Yakko had left, and was brought up by Dot herself. Why did he stop Roan? He could have gotten rid of her right then and there, so why didn't he? Why did he leave us his tower, and the blood? Does he still love us, deep down? Or is this all part of some master plan? I suppose we might never know. But then again, we might…

I don't age. Not very much anyway, and apparently neither does Dot. So I guess when Yakko does come back, we'll both be right here, waiting for him…