Disclaimer: How many of these things do I have to make before you get the idea that I'm not making these things for anything other than entertainment purposes, whether or not you were entertained is something to be discussed, otherwise I don't own half the stuff I write and I'm not really making these disclaimers any more entertaining am I dude?
Author Note: Sub-Episode of 'schism' that takes place on the extra day Bird asked to spend with Annabelle dude.
Story: Date.
Annabelle the pink angel whippet woke up in a strange place that wasn't a fluffy white cloud she like to sleep on and in fact it was a very lumpy… oh right, she slept over at Charlie's and Itchy's, but that didn't explain the butterflies in her stomach… she got up and wandered into the main room and looked around to see quite a sight, she was glad everyone she now knew accepted her and Belladonna's story, she expected some kind of dissension and chaos but they paid mored attention to what Belladonna has done in the background instead of what she has done in plain sight.
A pile of beer bottles that could only belong to one person was in the room, she walked over to the pile and picked out a bottle to reveal Belladonna's face which slowly yawned.
"Hey could you put that back I'm trying to get some sleep" Annabelle rolled her eyes at her other, she was such a loose cannon and quite literally at that with her ability to fire spirit around in concussive blasts of death and destruction, it was hard to get her drunk because she had a high tolerance for pain, alcohol and plenty of other stuff it would come to a surprise if you could find something that could poison Belladonna after having survived the underworld for so long, she gently put the bottle back in place not wanting to destroy Belladonna's rather peaceful slumber even if she didn't seem to be in a hangover at all from drinking such an absurd amount in this case Annabelle was jealous of that ability as it usually came up as "I'm not drunk" and "what inhibitions? I'm always like this" if anything she really could say Belladonna did some things better than she ever could, few of which she wasn't as proud of as she still disapproved of some of the things that Belladonna has done or might proceed to do in the near future but she could tolerate her now.
She looked to the couch to see Charlie and Sasha sprawled out in an awkward position, nothing she hasn't seen before in when checking in on her two workers they tended to never really do anything and incidentally roll around in their sleep to end up in these positions, she quickly wrote something down on a sheet of paper and left it on Sasha's face, she moved on to Itchy who was the more normal of sleeping positions if anything on the comfy chair, she wandered out and made for the roof to see bird sleeping on her back on the hard roof as the sun rose in the horizon.
Annabelle sat waiting as disturbing Bird wasn't a good idea as she couldn't feel anything even if she did shake her, she could feel emotionally but the physical side was lost on her and controlling her ability to swallow food seemed to be hard to do but she did well for herself as she looked perfectly healthy for someone who was half a person, well she understood the sentiment very well as she was the other half of Belladonna quite literally but they were pretty well off as two separate beings entirely without any ill effects, unfortunate that Bird did have these mentioned effects.
Birds eyes flicked open the second the light of the sun hit them and she was up and going through the motions of stretching herself out, while she couldn't physically feel anything and it was maddening it didn't mean she couldn't straighten out her pathways of energy flowing through her body after sleeping on her back for so long, at least now sleeping wasn't just conservation of energy it was actually revitalizing though she really didn't get much out of it and she really missed having emotions, but she missed having a sense of taste even more, she wondered what would have happened if she didn't get her emotions back but her ability to feel first, that would caused some awkward problems such as the ability to feel something but not enjoy it.
She was already aware that Annabelle was behind her, but she didn't know what they could do together that would be enjoyable as they couldn't very well walk the streets given she's a odd looking bird that would attract attention and she'd need something to hide her appearance, she was sure Annabelle had some method to hide her appearance from people but she at the moment did not, not in her current state would she even consider trying to and there were plenty of things wrong with her more so then the memories of things she wished she could go back and fix, but what was done is done no fixing it unless she accidentally found a time machine or made one herself but that would cause even more problems as time travel was inherently a bad thing that only involves in entering into alternate dimensions and timelines where everything was always different she was glad that earth and dimension X didn't have such a problem as they were parallel dimensions with no time discrepancy.
Annabelle watched as Bird turned to her and raised a wing in greeting, given that she couldn't say anything and looked slightly depressed pretty much spelled it out that she was having trouble with getting her emotions back, that and she's either been avoiding them or doing strange things like making pranks that she had at first thought Belladonna made until Belladonna herself made a comment that it was too well designed to have been her and she's not the greatest at building things, Birds way of dealing with trauma was a little strange but she really needed to relieve a large amount of stress as she could feel emotionally now.
"Well… Bird… what do you want to do today" Annabelle sat down next to Bird who didn't honestly know but she placed a wing on the pink dogs back and thought about maybe looking for a way to hide her appearance so she could walk around in public without garnering questions or having to dodge human sight among other things or more specifically she required a cloak, maybe gain some sustenance and perhaps talk about things important or not in a nice place to sit down too, maybe at Sasha's place.
"Okay… that sounds like a good idea, but are you okay you look distressed… is it something you want to talk about right now" Annabelle was worried about Bird's state of mind and birds response was that she'd wait here while Annabelle went to find a cloak she could use.
Annabelle sprouted her large pink wings but gave one look back at Bird who motioned for her to go on and Annabelle took flight as she sprung from the roof, incidentally because she was an angel she could become invisible as a perk of her job.
She made sure to find something no one would use or need before she could take it in good conscience, she had dropped most of Birds halfway noble thief kind of life style along with the fighting mystical creatures on the side as well, not that stealing was entirely wrong but actually necessary for some to survive it was just a sad truth of the world, one in which Bird hasn't been to in a long time things have changed slightly over the years but where Bird has been that would be a drop in the hat for technological advancements or any form of difference.
Bird herself has seen and operated more futuristic technology then anyone including what she used to be on earth alone, in comparison to the few people that Anna Donna met with Bird that has been to Dimension X and back, that universe still sent chills down Annabelle's spine whereas if Belladonna knew that bird was there she'd have charged straight into that dimension without a second thought and might have become a intergalactic bounty hunter to find Bird to bring her home which wasn't far from what she was doing here on Earth as her mirror in their acquired jobs on the opposite side of the spectrum of positive and negative, but now they were more like family and Annabelle couldn't be happier that they were getting along although Belladonna was still cantankerous as get out and violent, not to mention she's still the same dog she's always been except with her true motives brought into the open.
Of course Bird seemed to have accepted that Belladonna worked in a unsavory position to find her and that she herself was an angel, so far she hasn't commented on how things have changed given where's she's been it probably wouldn't surprise her how many things might have been different from when she was thought to have died, nothing about being on Earth bothered her but whatever happened to her out there must have been bad enough to cause her some emotional turmoil since she was running entirely on emotional indifference at the time so who knows what she has done with maybe a tiny bit of personality as much as her mind could give her on stopgap methods making decisions from her past actions.
As much as Annabelle had learned from Bird's recent abbreviated history in the X dimension she was sure she wasn't told the whole story or Bird couldn't tell the whole story for a reason, Belladonna was probably ignoring her story for the fact that she was just back mostly safe and sound after so many years of being away, even she herself found her heart fluttering at the signs of a lost friend returned only to find she was running straight back into danger again and thus the knife was back where it had previously been twisting in her, she so wanted to be Belladonna right now but she couldn't quit her job like Belladonna could.
Belladonna had no emotional attachments to her job like she did and her job was quiet… way to quiet if you asked her without Belladonna to make things interesting or hard for her as now it would be boring, now that she couldn't tell the tale of the wicked witch cousin Belladonna for whom she could say was wholly misunderstood in her methodology of doing things, but hey Belle set Charlie straighter then she ever did and that was something Anna herself had trouble accomplishing.
She landed on the roof proffering a brown cloak to Bird with a smile, Bird took it and slipped it on and immediately you couldn't tell it was a large bird wearing a cloak, except Bird was short for an adult human but no one could mistake her appearance as anything different from a human of maybe a young age unless they tried to get a look at her face and Bird nodded that this would do and gave her a tap that they should get walking, with that Annabelle retracted her wings and started to follow after Bird as she set down the stairs to the streets, along the way she fixed the cloak so that it was more to her size but Annabelle didn't say anything about it or complain about the time it took.
Inside her head Bird was recalling all the events up to when she stole Terra Ground her artificially alive intelligent friend in a large metallic toad like body hanging about in space invisible to the human world, the screams, the deaths, the destruction and if anything it was nothing like it had been with Donnie, she had been cruel, merciless and everything she did up to this point… was absolutely necessary and she couldn't see any way around it from a emotional standpoint , as she would still have done all the things she had anyway and that just made her feel more guilty about it, all those vibrations from all the sounds separated into every single thing that had occurred in-between then and now by her mind into a cacophony to bring it all together as her mind was good at reproducing her hearing but she wished it hadn't been able to with her wondrous recall of memory giving her an estimate of how many people might have perished at any given location.
Bird felt horrible and now that she thought about it she was sent on what would be considered a suicide infiltration mission to where she found Terra Ground, if she succeeded she did them a favor, if she failed then she wouldn't be able to cause any more destruction and might have wiped out their enemy so their section of Dimension X was finally at peace… for a while anyway, it had a rather disturbing mind numbing effect when the emotions were promptly added to all the situations she's been through and what was worse… someone else out there knew her name and the thing is she didn't know if that person hated her guts after all that had happened and she couldn't very well leave without telling Annabelle about it, she could tell Belladonna at any time but she wouldn't know what reaction that would cause, she was scared really and that a person had forcefully entered her mind to find out what her name was, only to find the stipulation behind learning it a little too late which she wouldn't know the end results of as she never got the chance to communicate with the being, her mind had failed to successfully guard her secret so the person was worthy of learning it and she didn't know what the person was like either or if even they were alive, because her mind was too busy focusing on her constant rapidly dwindling lifespan at the time and dodging extremely deadly existence threatening obstacles.
"Bird is everything okay, do you… do you want to talk about it, if you have me worried then Belladonna will be as likely worried as she's not as blind as you would think she is but right now she's only happy that you're alive and eventually she'll start wondering about your state of mind before too long, I know her… well because I am her" Annabelle's eyes kind of hurt to look at for Bird as that kind of deep rooted friendship was hard to find, but the more she looked into Annabelle's eyes the more she saw of what Annabelle wasn't saying and just how terrified for her she really was.
They had walked into a nearby park and Bird went over to a bench and sat down near some flowers whereas Annabelle laid down next to her on the bench, waiting for Bird's response which was a gentle touch of her feathers sliding on to her back followed by Bird communicating a thought if she could keep a secret and wouldn't go ballistic from the news.
"Is what happened to you that horrible, I'm sure Belladonna wouldn't be able to control herself if she heard you ask something like that, I'm obligated to help you in any way I can as I'm an angel as a job after all and I'm your my friend first over that and it has been a while, I know of the horrors Dimension X can bring about and that's why I hardly ever leave the safety and comfort of the overworld I'm so afraid to tread where Belladonna will without worry and Earth has changed so much I find it hard to tell the difference between a skunk and a cat, but she dragged me down to watch that fight and until I saw it for myself I couldn't believe how close to dying you actually were and that my paw had been forced in that fight, I just wished it hadn't have happened in the first place the side effects of using that ability made me feel like I should keep my distance longer then I should have; you know what it does to me, if you can't trust me to react correctly to the information then I can't trust myself to listen to it" Annabelle knew that staring Bird in the eyes wasn't a good idea right now but Bird was hurting and she wanted things to be alright, Bird slowly closed her eyes and transferred everything that happened from the pain of being ripped apart to the blank knowledge of how things went from there with her mind working to continue its dilapidated existence.
Annabelle wrapped her paw around Bird's wing tightly, she was witnessing everything, the whole story this time and not only that but the person who entered her mind and thought that they were trying to help and only made things worse, Belladonna would be pissed if she ever saw this person and learned about it, that was hardly the worst thing that happened but still it was a horrifying amount of circumstances that finally made Annabelle start crying and Angels hardly ever cried even when she slaughtered Red but that was different as she couldn't cry under the circumstances the frozen heart ability was something she really didn't like using but it was the fastest way to bring Red down.
Homicidal Hyacinth which could also be called 'Killer's Beauty' based on the mythology where beauty got someone killed, being the frozen heart ability it had side effects that Bird was only all too well aware of but this; what Anna was seeing, was far beyond anything that could come of that, Annabelle just wrapped her paws around Bird, who might not have felt the hugging or the tears but she understood what was taking place behind it though she didn't know how to comfort Annabelle, at least she was taking this well.
"Promise me when you head back into dimension X that you'll take me with you… I'm going to need to stop Belladonna from killing that person when the time comes and I also want to be there for you to make sure everything is alright in the end… except I'm afraid I might be guilty of wanting to kill that person too if it turns out they did that on purpose" Bird nodded and carefully scooped up a nearby flower sprinkled some of its seeds on the spot it had grown from and with a twitch of green energy another flower a lot younger than the one she plucked was in its place, she held it up to show some form of symbolism to Annabelle, who took the flower in her paws and looked at it while giving it a sniff.
"I like the smell of that, a forget-me-not Bird? I'm assuming you'll keep the memory of this day huh? I'll be waiting for you and I'll have plenty of free time by then just remember to get Belladonna to call on me as you might have some trouble finding me given where I live" Bird didn't smile but she nodded looking somberly at the sky, she wondered what she gave up when she dropped the chance at true flight to travel the world without limitation of a schedule, she got more travel then she ever bargained for along with frequent flier miles for everything she's been through, she felt a lot better that at least Anna accepted what has happened to her even if she was sad that any of it happened and what was more Anna was giving her the memories of all that has happened to her as Belladonna already shared her less than good memories.
Getting up Bird and Annabelle continued along the path walking Annabelle stopped for a moment to find something to carry the forget-me-not in, before they continued trying to converse silently it was mostly Annabelle trying to reassure Bird she'd be fine, that everything would be okay, that Bird was still good in her eyes and that they were still friends.
The day was going by pretty fast as Annabelle and Bird just meandered around San Francisco taking in the sites together, considering how little Annabelle came to down to Earth she was enjoying her time; however, any time she spent on Earth tended to make her hungry and her stomach growled so she looked to Bird sheepishly who gave wonder if they should grab that sustenance she mentioned earlier.
Bird ended up getting a thick chunky soup in a Styrofoam cup that she could easily drink and Annabelle got some beef though she did fret that something died so she could eat it; Bird chalked that up to a problem of being an angel as you tended to care about everything except how they got the food in the first place apparently, neither Belladonna or Annabelle ever ate anything resembling chicken out of the fear that they might accidentally end up eating a cousin of hers which would have been awkward or as far as Annabelle has told her during the meal, since they really would have been disturbed to have eaten something that reminded them of their best friend.
They were walking down the street now when three huge dogs blocked their path, in comparison of size they were larger then Annabelle was, but they certainly didn't have her caring nature or her endearing if slightly simpering personality, the one thing they also didn't have was a clue as to what Annabelle could do to them if she ever felt like harming someone.
"Well look here boys, looks like a human but it smells like a snack and with a girl we could be all buddy, buddy with after we're done eating the chicken" Neither Bird or Annabelle were amused in the slightest and Bird thought Anna seemed a little more panicky then Belladonna but when push came to shove she would fight back and it wouldn't be pretty when she did.
"Now, now… we don't want any trouble if you leave us be then I'm sure you'll find somewhere else to find something to eat and…" The three dogs began to approach with their leader.
"But what if I wanted trouble…" The leader growled out slowly.
"Then I'm certain you won't be feeling well after either I or my friend here teaches you ruffians not to pick on people…" Annabelle wasn't being brave she was being accurate that these guys had nothing on them.
"Teach us a lesson… LADY, you have no idea how much trouble you're…" before the leader could go any further a familiar voice cut him off at the pass and the person who said she wouldn't interfere in anything today burst onto the scene as an indistinct purple blur.
"GANGWAY COMING THROUGH, BEING CHASED BY A DEMON HUNTING PSYCHO HERE!" Belladonna rammed straight through all three dogs without stopping being chased by a man on a motorcycle wielding a sword, both Annabelle and Bird sat there looking to their left as Belladonna continued on down the road outrunning the motorcycle at an extreme pace, leaving the three dogs laid out on the ground knocked flat by the charging Belladonna.
"Well at least she's getting plenty of exercise today, how she came to end up in that situation is a tad distressing as is seeing it in action, come on lets go… huh…" Bird place a wing on her back and asked her to take her towards the nearest police station, Annabelle wondered why they weren't going to help Belladonna, but now that she thought of it something about the motorcycle had changed as it passed straight by her and Bird, she stared at her cloaked companion with a hint of suspicion and a raised brow, but she had watched as Itchy and Charlie ran around the city well enough to know where the station was.
It took them thirty minutes but when they arrived they saw the motorcycle and the guy was being dragged into the station yelling that the dog; Belladonna of course, was pure evil incarnate, she waved at him causing him to get angry with her as he was pulled into the station by multiple cops for resisting arrest and he was disturbing the peace by yelling loudly that the dog was mocking him.
"I keep telling you that dog is evil!" one of the cops jokingly pulled out a rubber ball and threw it to Belladonna who was wagging her tail and set off after it and brought it back to the police officer while snickering to herself silently as she was getting patted on the head before she yipped and slobbered all over the guy before leaving the scene.
"I swear people are getting worse every day, seeing pink winged dogs, flying saucers and rumors that a TV show dog actually having super powers just because a support structure in a house was accidentally broken by a couple of robbers" While the cop was commenting on things going on in the world Annabelle looked questioningly to Bird who carefully pulled out a wallet and the missing turnings signals to the motor bike that had been chasing Belladonna and not only that but she also pulled out its license plate, it caused Annabelle to roll her eyes, of course Bird was on top of things as usual she forgot how annoying that was of Bird when she was still a single entity.
After donating the crazy guys money to an honest charity and putting his wallet in a easy to locate spot at the police station, along with the missing stuff from his mode of transportation they made their way to the bay to watch the sun set, though Annabelle disliked theft in general it went to a good cause as Bird wasn't greedy but she was amoral in some situations and at least Annabelle couldn't doubt Bird as being who she was, a mysterious creature that could do things no matter how horrible that you'd still care for her afterwards and it was odd to Annabelle that she had a penchant for liking people with what would be considered bad behavior, she hoped that she managed to relieve Bird of some of her stress by sharing her memories with her, like raising little puppy angels and Anna thought that nobody could frown at the thought of them being as cute as they were.
Speaking of bad behavior she liked Charlie who was a bad dog sometimes, she liked Belladonna despite how wicked she seemed to her in the past and Bird was just a ambiguous bit of nature of good and evil, she was grey neither black nor white and despite her main color being green, she leaned on Bird as they watched the sunset this had been a decent day and nothing went wrong, well maybe except Belladonna who has been doing who knows what with her time, after they finished Bird led Annabelle back to Sasha's bar where they heard someone singing a particular song.
"How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad, tried hard not to smile though I felt bad, I'm the kind of gal who laughs at a funeral, can't understand what I mean well you soon will, I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve, I have a history of taking off my vest" Belladonna sang as they entered and she was singing Karaoke and doing a damn good job of attracting a crowd to herself.
Bird and Anna sat down watching Belle as Sasha came over bringing some food with her as she watched Belladonna amazingly sing so well and wondered where the dog learned that, if anyone had bothered to look they would have seen a silver furred cat sitting in a corner with a large dog watching the performance with a smile and the dog was snuggling up to her, nobody seemed to notice the cat was there and that's the way the cat probably liked it as she seemed invisible to all the dogs here.
"It's been one week since you looked at me… threw your arms in the air and said you're crazy" Annabelle could only laugh at that and Bird wished she could laugh as they spent the past few weeks under that kind of analogy, the song really fit well with Annabelle and Belladonna's relationship, it also fit well with Bird's current situation of being loaded with emotional baggage.
"Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon, cause that cartoon has got the boom, anime babes, they make me think the wrong thing" Bird didn't know what anime was but it certainly made Annabelle blush and look away from Belladonna, she coughed a bit before she excused herself and made her way for the stage, with a curious Sasha cocking her head as to what Annabelle was going to do as she sat down with Bird who she finally recognized under the hood and greeted promptly, before getting a nod and smile in return.
Annabelle suddenly jumped into the song with Belladonna surprising her but she kept it going, despite the interruption, they sang together in a duet pretty well for two battling personalities that tended to get at each other's throats, Bird silently thought that they would never change from what they've always been, very close friends.
"It's been..." was around the time that Annabelle joined in.
"One week, since you looked at me, dropped your arms to your sides and said I'm sorry" They both mimicked each other scratching the back of their heads awkwardly and it actually sounded like they were actually apologizing each other for all the antagonizing they did to each other, but everyone else would consider it an act unless they personally had to use a funnel on Belladonna that is, this caused the sides of Bird's beak to curve up slightly.
"Five days since I laughed at you and said, you just did just what I thought you were gonna do" Belladonna sang cheekily actually referencing how she's been playing with Annabelle for the last week or so, only Sasha and Bird who were here were aware of that fact, on a more serious note Bird considered it could be referencing the reapers fight as well.
"Three days since the living room, we realized we're both to blame, but what could we do… yesterday you just smiled at me cause it'll still be today (two days) till we say we're sorry" the slip of tongue wasn't caught by anyone that easily as they actually sang the word 'today' adding a hiss to it instead of two days, they finished and hugged at the end causing them to get a nice barking ovation.
"So how was your day Annabelle" Belladonna said flatly as they made it to the table, while she was commenting on meeting some crazy sword wielding demon slayer not being able to tell she quit her day job.
"It went well enough, but I guess it's time to help you for once and give you some stuff for your trip, did you get everything Sasha… oh and Belladonna no matter what you might of said I was expecting you to interfere in my day, I just didn't think it would be lead to such a positive effect, thank you for helping us out" Sasha smiled and nodded to Annabelle, hey it was for a good cause but she still wondered how Bird and Belladonna were getting out of here, if anything they still had time to enjoy some hospitality.
And thus Belladonna talked about how she ended up getting chased by the demon hunter because she got bored and was spotted using her spirit energy to make shadow puppets on a wall, then she berated the guy for calling her evil out loud and in a understandable English language which she admitted was a rather stupid way to respond to the guy, the night went on with easy conversation until they all left Sasha's place.
Bird had really enjoyed her time spent with Anna she was a tad meek but that didn't stop her from being as protective and as powerful as Belle was, now she had to summon their mode of transportation, she was going to do it yesterday but then she decided she needed to spend some time with the other Donnie.
They were standing out in a field around the forest they were in yesterday and Belladonna pulled out a square shaped object which she handed to Bird, who opened it and started typing things on it sending a signal to their ride to find their location and land without being detected as a standard protocol.
It wasn't long before Charlie, Itchy and Sasha learned that they weren't alone in the universe when Terra Ground the alien toad ship landed on the ground only for Belladonna to start antagonizing the thing making Annabelle give off a false sense of hurt that she wasn't Belle's favorite anymore, causing Terra to take an immediate liking to her asking if she could be taken along instead of Belle who she seemed to hold a grudge against because she enthusiastically slammed her pilot through a wall made of wood.
Annabelle gave her final farewells to Bird and Belladonna before watching them launch off into the sky, mentioning that they were going to New York as Bird knows of a way to obtain the help of an omniscient oracle that could help them, Annabelle wished they would find what they were looking for and that Bird would be back to normal the next time she saw her.
End Story Dude.
Annabelle may not be very violent, but she is powerful there should be no doubt about that dude. She also has the tendency to overlook people's flaws when she feels like it dude.
Next story is 'Storm' where Belladonna and Bird have to boringly save the world before they can progress on with their lives, after which they can finally take time to go meet the oracle dude.