Double Hate

Disclaimer: DBZ (DB/DBGT) no owned by me humble self.

A/n: This is a short chapter. I apologize, but Rei and Autumn simply refused to help me. I had to sludge through this one on my own. I wonder if this is payback for my payback for their prank? (Thoughtful) Probably. Sheesh. Whoever thought that small butterfly fairy muses could be so troublesome…. And yet so cute! Hee! (Squeals) Yeah.

Anyhow, if this chapter seems boring, well, it sort of is. I'm sorry for that, too. But I had to make Pan get away from Marc and Jeff somehow, and then have her do something when she got home. Ach, I'm ruining the plot, so why don't you guys just go ahead and read now! (Eyes glint strangely)

Enjoy!

:-:-:-:

Previously, on Double Hate

"Well, I suggest that you ask them. They may surprise you," Jeff suggested. Pan nodded, keeping her thoughts to herself. The trio engaged in other small talk for the rest of the long steep walk down to the Harrison camp, Pan talking less and less as she concentrated more and more on getting down without tumbling. Marc was a great help, and Jeff caught her once, but it was mostly through her efforts that she was finally standing at the bottom of the mountain.

And then she collapsed.

:-:-:-:

Chapter Thirteen: Getting Home

:-:-:-:

"Pan! Are you all right?" Marc asked worriedly. Inside he was smirking knowingly, for Pan's slowly growing ki indicated that she was just faking it. However, he did have to keep up the act, as he was doing.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Pan's voice responded groggily from the crumpled heap resting at the bottom of the mountain.

Jeff said, "Would you have collapsed if you really were fine, Pan?" squatting down to check on her. Marc knew that Jeff knew that Pan was just faking it, and he had to suppress a smirk as his brother, the Master of Calmness, took charge.

"Yeah, yeah," was Pan's grumbled reply. Both of the Harrison brothers outright Grinned™ at this, striking Pan dumb again at their resemblance to her father's own Classic Smile™. But as Pan stared at them, they instantly reverted back to their former selves, settling back into Jeff and Marc, not two boys with her father's dazzling Grin™.

It helped Pan to clear her head of the amazing revelation she'd found when Marc remarked, "I must have gone harder on you than I though. Sorry." He shrugged a further apology as Jeff Looked™ at him, as if to say, "I told so."

Pan waved off Marc's apology, thinking that her father and Vegeta would never go hard on her as Marc had done. She was hard-put to keep up with them as it was, but she was proud to say that she could, indeed, keep up. She wouldn't ever hear those words that Marc had uttered or Vegeta, though.

"It's fine. I wonder how I'm going to get home, though," Pan finally said. From the expressions on the Brothers Harrison's faces, they were wondering the same thing.

"Well," Jeff started, "how did you get here in the first place? Surely you didn't hike over here from Mount Paoz," he said, his tone offering a chance to contradict his statement. A chance which Pan took, feeling both brave and sheepish at the same time.

"Part of the way, I did. I left my house on a hoverboard and went as far as Blazon Mountain before I ditched it and went on foot the rest of the way," Pan admitted nonchalantly, or tied to act nonchalant. She squirmed under the blank gazes of Jeff and Marc, though, belying the offhandedness of her delivery.

"Blazon Mountain," Jeff deadpanned. Pan nodded sheepishly again, even as Marc blurted out,

"You have a hoverboard?"

:-:-:-:

After Pan explained about her hoverboard (Prototype Y-750) and that it wasn't programmed yet to go into a capsule and also it was a prototype, it wasn't even out yet, and after Jeff finished giving his brother a head noogie for his insensitivity to Pan's plight, Marc came up with the idea of getting out the stretcher so that Pan wouldn't be hurt too badly on the way to the Harrison camp. Pan had adamantly refused to be carried by either Jeff or Marc, saying that she'd rather die than suffer such a blow to her pride.

The Harrisons had rolled their eyes at Pan's antics, but they had been forced to agree when Pan showed that she still had energy left to kick someone, and kick hard. Poor Jeff. Marc was smart enough not to get closer to her after that, and Jeff certainly retreated in a dignified way. Well, limping can't really be called dignified, can it? Especially as the limp was not real.

So Marc rushed off to find the stretcher, leaving a wary Jeff with an apologetic Pan. However, a shout came soon after from Marc's direction, and the pair instantly turned alert, both scanning Marc's ki for any trouble. There seemed to be none, but Jeff stood up anyway.

"Stay here, Pan. Don't move a muscle. I'll be back soon," he warned her. Pan nodded, inwardly scheming, and Jeff took off through the snow, startling Pan as white stuff rained down on her as he did. Jeff disappeared rapidly into the bare and brown-clothed forest where Marc had gone, and when he was sufficiently out of sight, Pan stood up. She was worried about Marc, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Besides, Marc's ki didn't indicate anything out of the ordinary, but Pan still felt anxious.

Even so, she wrapped he energy around her and shot up into the air, leaving behind her own storm of snow, grander and on a larger scale than Jeff's storm.

She dropped onto Blazon Mountain to collect her hoverboard, then jumped back into the atmosphere and traveled leisurely back home, thankful that she didn't need a lot of energy to fly, and that she didn't need to move much during that same exercise. She was definitely snatching a Senzu when she got home.

Behind her, on Mt. Meko, two boys were standing stock-still, looking up after her, and they were smiling.

:-:-:-:

Pan got home, had her Senzu, and relayed her whole adventure, especially her spar with Marc, even though she had lost it, to her family. Goku had been ecstatic to know that Marc was such a strong person, although he'd deflated when Pan told them that Marc didn't know anything about ki. Yeah, that had just knocked out all of Goku's enthusiasm in one single hit, although Vegeta, who had come over for his own spar with "Kakkarot", had risen an eyebrow and grunted. Whether the grunt had been disapproving or disbelieving, or something else, Pan couldn't tell. Knowing Vegeta, though, it was probably disbelieving.

Pan didn't blame him. Who could, when Pan had looked such a glorious mess as she'd been. No, no one could blame him for taking her statement with a grain of salt.

When the question was raised whether or not Pan would go back and spy on them, "them" being the Harrisons, it was unquestionably answered with a firm "no" from Pan, and Chichi, too, unsurprisingly enough. When Pan had come home bloody and bruised from her adventures, Chichi had raised a huge fuss. She'd complained about the Harrisons and how she was never going to be friendly towards them again.

She'd come close to face-faulting, though, as a weary Pan had pointed out that a) the Harrisons were justified in the handling of her; after all, she had been the one spying on them, and b) Chichi had never been friendly towards the Harrisons; she'd never even met them! Still, Chichi grumbled, her wrath unspent, throughout the day and snapped at everyone and glared at everything, except for Pan, of course. The Frying Pan of Male Starvation and Head Bumps was happy that day, however. Although it is a mystery as to how Teflon can so easily defeat a Saiyan's head when the latter is so hard, and can stand up to so many things that were stronger and more terrifying than the former.

Since Pan had planned to stay out at Mount Meko all day, she had done her homework the night before, all of it. Including the troublesome English, a subject that Chichi was surprisingly, at least from Pan's point of view, helpful with. Pan was relieved when Chichi explained that she had only glossed over the English part of her studies because she'd needed to teach Pan a lot of other things that were more important.

So it was not because her mother didn't know more than the basics of English that Pan was struggling. Thanks to this revelation and the help that had subsequently followed, Pan actually understood some of the intricacies of the complicated language that had previously escaped her. Some, but not all. Those were to come later.

All of this meant that Pan didn't have anything pressing to do, except for teaching Bra how to spar. Vegeta had told her that his daughter was out shopping that day, however, so there went that. Pan had made the Saiyan Prince promise to tell Bra that Pan was free tomorrow, and that she'd better get to work on practicing the drills she'd learned, or else. Vegeta had even said that he would personally see to it that his daughter practiced, which made Pan feel two things. One emotion was sympathy for her friend. Vegeta was an absolute tyrant when it came to practicing in terms of fighting. The second thing was that Pan realized more fully how just much Vegeta was worried about Bra right then. He wouldn't have had such a glint in his eyes as he promised otherwise. Vegeta really did feeling things, especially towards his own family; he just didn't show it as much as her father Goku did. This realization served to increase Pan's respect for him, a respect that had already been substantial in number.

Despite this, Pan still leered at him as he stumped in after beating Goku in their spar. Vegeta simply scowled back at her, well used to the teenager's antics. Pan smirked in response to his scowl as she got up to go to her room. Vegeta eyed Pan critically as she turned and walked out of the room. The girl appeared to be all right, but one never knew with humans. Chichi was living testament to that, as was his own mate Bulma. His daughter was not quite the same way, but Vegeta had a feeling that things would be different when she grew up.

Vegeta sighed, a deep whooshing sound. Thank Kami Trunks, at least, was stable with his emotions. That's all he had to say.

Still, there had been a sense of something not quite right with Pan, or wrong, either. Something was just off with Pan, and Vegeta hoped, no, prayed, that it wasn't anything major. The Saiyan Prince didn't know if he could handle any more stress that he'd had already.

Pan, on the other hand, had reached her room as Vegeta had stood unmoving in the kitchen. She sat on her bed and tucked her legs under her Indian-style. Placing her wrists on her knees and turning her hands palm-up, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She held it for two seconds, then released it slowly and stopped her lungs from expanding for another two seconds. She continued to regulate her breathing like this for a while, even as she thought about the events that had taken place that day. She focused specifically on one thing that subconsciously bothered her: Marc's statement of, "I must have gone harder on you than I thought. Sorry."

What had Marc really meant by that? Had he been holding back on her? Or had he really gone all out on her like he'd acted like he had? That didn't make any sense however, that last one. Marc had not been as bad off as she had been, or had at least acted like he was not as bad off as she was.

Kami, this was so confusing! What was the truth, and what was simply assumption? What had been the emotion in Marc's eyes as he had said what he had said? He had been casual, yes, and there had been a lilt of amusement in his voice, but Pan had see, or thought she had seen, something else in those black eyes. But what was it?

Stop worrying so much, Pan, her inner voice demanded, abruptly making its return after being absent for months. It sounded suspiciously like Jeff. Pan groaned inwardly, but another voice chimed in before she could answer.

Yeah, you're giving us all a headache, the new voice said. This one, too, was familiar, but it sounded like Marc's voice this time. Pan was too shocked at the appearance of the second voice to register it, however. The only thought that was running in her head under her still-regulated breath was I'm going insane.

She didn't hear the two voices say, Yes, you are.

:-:-:-:

When the Brother Harrison returned to camp, they found the rest of the family grouped around in the tent, having reached the summit they were aiming for in the demi-Saiyan's absence. All three of them looked up expectantly, their cups of hot chocolate revealed in their hands by this group movement, at the arrival of the youngest Harrison members. The air tightened with tension and it seemed as if the whole world held its breath with Linda, Myna, and Jack.

Finally Marc's face warmed into a smile. Jeff smirked not long too long afterwards, and said simply,

"I have a feeling that they won't be bothering us for a while."

Three faces smiled, no, beamed, at that, and the world celebrated. Hey, it was only they near Mount Yonito. It seemed that they were the only ones left alive in the world. So it was okay to feel as if the world felt what they felt, saw what they saw, and far more than that, heard what they heard, and still more than they, and all else. But the world would never tell what the Harrisons told. No, it would never do that, not even in echo form, not with the snow muffling the sounds all around.

Of course, the Z-senshi could send someone else to spy on them, Marron for instance. It was a possibility. But, for some reason, Jeff didn't think so. Marc agreed: he felt that they had earned Pan's respect at least, or at least enough of it to prevent any more moles from coming through. If Marc's judgement was incorrect, and the Z–senshi did employ one of its members for the task of espionage, well, Jeff and Marc wold just treat that spy the same way that they had treated Pan.

With this in mind, the Harrisons looked forward cheerfully to the next bout of climbing, especially as Jeff and Marc had some catching up to do.

The weekend passed, and no especially strong kis were spotted, and a lot of laughter sounded in the mountains because of that. They would never know how badly the Z-senshi wished to "check" on them, or how many times Pan had to tell the Z-senshi the news that Jeff and Marc, well, Marc anyway, did not know how to sense ki. Because of this message, the Harrison Brothers were finally in the process of being acquitted of the charges of being Son Gohan and Son Goten, although all of the members of Earth's Special Forces would forever believe that the Harrisons to be the Lost Sons. Therefore everyone kept asking Pan over and over again if she was sure that Marc couldn't sense ki.

No, the American family would never know of the struggles of several Japanese families not very far, or very close, to them, although they would suspect something of it. It could not be said whether the Brothers truly cared about the subject of the inner problems of their former families, or not, for they just kept on living the way they lived: laughing, having fun, fighting, being angry, moping, being sad, working, being stressed, and meditating, relaxing. But there were indeed times when a shadow passed over Marc's face, and Jeff's head was bent, a closed look on his own countenance. So, as aforementioned, it could not be determined whether the Brothers cared or not. But life went on for both parties, the Harrisons and the Z-senshi, into the winter months of December, in which Christmas would be celebrated by the Harrisons, and the American and Japanese dates for New Year's Eve and Day. Before the celebrations could happen, however, the Brothers, Pan, Trunks, Bra, and Marron had to go back to school. There they would have to confront each other, and Marron, for one, was positively dreading the encounter.

:-:-:-:

A/n: Ahh… my feet. They hurt so much…. Stupid D.C. trip…. Couldn't have the charter buses to carry us everywhere, so we had to walk instead, except for using the metro…. Ow, my feet/Nurses aching feet/ My poor feet….

Well, anyway, this is the thirteenth chapter. This took me days to write, despite the fact that it was so boring. I don't normally take so long to write a chapter except if school gets in the way. And did it get in the way big time. Inspiration would not come to me, no matter what I tried, so this chapter was torture. Arghh. /Leaves feet alone and rubs temples/ Yeeks. I'm just glad to get this chapter over with, so I can move on. And look, I even a cliffie! Yippee! Mayhap this will convince Autumn and Rei to work harder now. Hmph.

Anyway, onto reviews! I haven't been near my computer forever, so I was disappointed to find that I had no more reviews than when I left. I was particularly disappointed in the fact that I got a well-written flame. It was well-written, though, which makes it more like extremely harsh constructive criticism, if accurate, and although I replied to it by email already, I shall also answer it here, so the world knows what's going on.

However, thanks to go to Be'lal and everyone else for their patronage; I deeply honored! (Bows) Onward!

:-:-:-:

The Corner of Reviews

1) Be'lal—Yes, Jeff, a SS2, got hurt in a surfing accident. Beware the forces of nature, they hurt even Saiyans. Yes, he may have had the time to just power up and fly, but the funny thing about minds is that they tend to lose all sense of logic when they're in a strange situation—and in Jeff's case, a strange situation is defined as any dangerous situation in which there's no martial arts fighting involved. Also, Jeff was not in a right state of mind even when he started surfing that day, for his best friend's suicide had rattled him deeply, adding to his problems. There, ya happy?

Yes, Bra almost drowned with FOUR demi-Saiyans all around her. No, it did occur to them to just fly in and save her. Jeff and Marc weren't trying to hide their powers when they saved Bra, either—they had fallen so far out of practice in using their ki for anything other than a spar that they completely forgot the conveniences of using ki for rescuing people. Pan and Trunks could fly, yes, but look up above. IT DID NOT OCCUR TO THEM TO JUST FLY IN AND RESCUE HER. Ya know? Sheesh. Get off my back already.

Yes, it was on purpose that I didn't give much life to the Harrisons. I will try to start developing them later on in the plot as I go on (what little plot there is, if any), and have started a bit on Linda already, but not that much. Eek.

As for the normalcy thing going on, that's really the whole theme of this fiction. Normalcy. I'm TRYING to make Jeff and Marc "normal" in the human sense of the word, and I'm glad to see that I'm succeeding. Now go away and leave me to my "soap opera" of a fic and find some story that you actually like. Thank you for your patronage and excuse me for my rudeness. Arigato. /Bows/

2) Dark Willow aka Admiral2—HI! Long time, no see,Admiral:D You see who updates from the review history? ...O...K... I think I did that a few times myself, but mostly I rely on my Favorite Stories list to tell me. Oh well! To each her or his own! Yes, it was a cliffie, and a cliffie here too! Muahaha! Let us be evil together:D Happy belated V-day to ya too!

3) demi-legend—Yep, Jeff has a no-fighting policy, except where it concerns his brother. Marc, he is happy to fight. Anyone else, bugger off. ;) Yes, Jeff can still fight—haven't you been reading my hints about the spars? Oh well, I guess not. Many people feel the same way as you do about Pan. Me, I liked writing the spar! Very cool. ;)

4) Frying Pan of DOOM—HIYO! Long time, no see for you too, FPOD! NO! NO ROMANCE! I can't write romance—at least not yet. I might be able to later, but definitely not now. No way. :) You will have to see whether or not Marc and Jeff forgive their former family or not. Actually, I was watching the episodes of the Cell Games just before Gohan ascends, ya know when Cell is pushing Gohan to find his hidden power, it occured to me just how uncaring Goku was being, and I was so surprised! It definitely made me feel disappointed in him, that's for sure. I don't hate him, not yet, but ya never know... I updated! I feel sorry for you if your own "father" is as bad as Goku. /Sadness/ My No. 1 fan? YAY! I think you'll have some competition for that title, though. LOL! Prepare yourself for the ultimate fight! LOL!

5) chris—HEY! Thanks for the compliments! I actually feel that last chapter was a good chapter that I've written. The best of all DH chapters, I reckon. Maybe not the greatest chapter I've ever written, but yeah. Oh, did Pan get her butt whooped. Whew! She recovered quickly though. Darn Senzus. Pan, kicking Videl's butt? A nice idea... I'll think about it! Jeff's not going to fight her, though, no matter how much the Devil tries to rile him up. No siree. Thanks for the review!

6) DBZ Chick1—thanks for the review! Good God, Mom! Can't you let her on for an hour at least, just so I can get a decent review! Golly gee whiz!

7) MarshmellowDragon—Yep, Pan's still doubting the Brothers' IDs. Maybe she will, maybe she won't. We'll have to see. /Shrugs/ Thanks for reviewing!

:-:-:-:

Thanks to DBGT Goku, Be'lal, Dark Willow aka Admiral2, demi-legend, Frying Pan of DOOM, chris, DBZ Chick1, and MarshmellowDragon for their reviews!

Well, I haven't got anything else to say, and now that everything's done, onto the next chapter! Sinon!

TheShadowPanther, Autumn, and Rei, from AASN

AASN; Writing is what we do for you at AASN. Enjoy.

Updated 03.20.05