Disclaimer: see previous disclaimer dude.
It had been a few minutes since Itchy worked his mind feverishly to understand what Belladonna was being so coy about, she said her name was important, but her name was Belladonna… wasn't it? But what did that have to do with Annabelle being able to break a rule with a reaper floating around and he didn't think that thing was just for show, she even said it made sure the rules were followed so why didn't it react when Annabelle interfered and why would Belladonna's name allow that to happen.
Itchy was thinking about this hard as he stared at the calm looking Belladonna tilt her head to stare at the tip of her ponytail hanging down from the back of her head, the answer was in her name and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why, but then he went back to when she set the teams she never said her name… she said all of herself and the bird… no wait she said bird in a different tone.
"What was the name of that bird?" Itchy was curious, neither he nor Charlie knew the Birds name and Sasha mentioned something about it to Charlie but that was the extent of his knowledge as he hadn't been paying attention he was a honest and down to earth dog that knew something was nagging at the back of his mind about this but he couldn't figure out what, Belladonna's voice became dangerously edged as she answered him "Bird, that's her name, not her real one but it's what she goes by and that's all your likely to get from me, it's not her name that you should be focusing on anyway".
"Fine then what's your name" Taking on a thoughtful look Belladonna considered it for a moment and likely couldn't think of a way to drag this out any more unless she… well that might work "Think real hard about how I set my team up and how there can only be two people on it, after all I did say something pretty strange didn't I?"
Itchy considered that she did say 'all of me' but how in the world would that have included Annabelle, she was a separate entity a different dog entirely from her cousin Belladonna… wait… he didn't know Annabelle's full name and he didn't know Belladonna's full name so maybe it was because of their last names.
"Was it because your last names are the same?" Belladonna yawned and responded quite eloquently "Swing and miss Scratch, but you dinged the ball at least, but it still ended up foul like the fight, my friend and the whole affair of having to deal with you two and the pink puff with her head in the clouds all the time, ready to give up yet or do you want more hints".
Itchy knew Belladonna was baiting him, but he couldn't help it all this talk was interesting as he never really sat down and conversed with her when she was out and about doing conniving things, but she never actually forced anyone to do anything other than Carface… but Carface sold his soul to… Red… this is beginning to make some kind of eerie connection.
"How did you gain control of Carface…" Itchy said and Belladonna smiled, he wanted to continue playing her game at least this is keeping her busy, mental gymnastics were always fun but she couldn't match a person of alchemic wit, but her spirit makes up for it in cunning where she wasn't all that smart, just well informed with lots of connections.
"Funny, it's about time one of you realized something was up about that, but you never wondered about Killer either did you and Annabelle certainly might have an inkling to how I came about owning Carface and then getting him back to life, but Annabelle never brought It up and after he was alive again I had no control over him and that thing at Christmas made him a little better on the inside but he's still looking out for number one, I actually feel kind sorry for the poor old 'face plant' but I'm not going to explain it quite yet, I want to savor the moment when I tell everyone later " Honestly Itchy didn't know why the dog named Killer was still alive or still running around, but this was beginning to sound almost conspiratorial in the way Belladonna presented it and it was beginning to freak him out with how far Belladonna can actually plan things out ahead of time, but if she was this good then how come they've won against her so often or maybe they weren't winning at anything at all.
A deep chill ran down Itchy's spine and the wiener dog shuddered violently at the thought of being toyed with, but then again she toyed with Charlie and hardly ever did anything to him, he wondered if any conversation Charlie had with Belladonna had any hidden implications.
"Hello, earth to wiener schnitzel, are you actually going brain dead or are you going to start asking questions relative to the one you want answered which was how could Annabelle interfere in the fight and it still be fair without cheating the rules and my claims to having only two people on my team" Okay now that his attention was back on the straitjacketed dog that he hadn't seen a reason to put the gag back on yet as she might have tried to bite her own tongue off if left to it long enough while crazy, she looked to be having fun with this and he didn't want to outright ask the question that would simply settle the matter as he wasn't sure he actually wanted to know at this point.
"Was it because Bird didn't exactly equal a full person?" Now he had to admit that it sounded stupid but he still had to ask "Wow, now you're just reaching, but that would have led to a good idea and it is a relevant thought, but that's still not it".
"I probably won't be able to figure this out unless I know your name… are you Annabelle's twin sister I know she said you were cousins but …" Belladonna actually gained a poker face at that bit of thought before looking thoughtful this caused Itchy to think that he had got it right but he was sadly mistaken when Belladonna face went flat and she gave a rather chipper answer "Nope you probably won't at this rate and my name is going to really make you flip out after it sinks in when I tell you, also we're technically not cousins or sisters, even if we were it wouldn't explain how there could only be two people on my team and no outside interference".
"But you definitely know the answer… fine what do you want from me?" At this point Belladonna burst out laughing, but after a moment of being glared at by Itchy she finally managed to calm herself down "Sorry, but this is all so funny I never actually expected you to think I wanted anything from you but given our history I can understand where you're coming from, but if you're taking request… can you get me some water and I need to use the facilities I can only guess that I haven't been housebroken for a while and I really must have done some embarrassing things but I actually have control of my bladder right now".
"You're really understating how much you put me and Charlie through these past few days and embarrassing doesn't even begin to cover it, but Charlie didn't want you to do anything harmful to yourself and neither did I for that matter if I'm going to be honest with myself, I'll get you some water and I'd rather not talk about the other request, but I'll think about it" Well this was beginning to get real awkward between the two of them "Thank you, you're a true gentleman unfortunately I'm none to gentle and I'm no lady either so don't go thinking I'm either of those".
"I never said you were" If anything Itchy was more tolerant of his guest now while he went trotting off and a few minutes later everything was taken care of and Belladonna was still in the straitjacket but Itchy helped her drink the water she asked for.
"Thanks but all things considered I still don't think you trust me, so I didn't bother asking for you to remove the jacket and decided to go with something more practical… and actually quite reasonable" If anything Belladonna looked bored now like she was getting tired of being wrapped up, she knew she could escape at any time but she didn't want to, she needed to unload a lot of history so that everything will be known and she was about done dancing around the issue with Itchy who spoke up "Well, what is your name and how does it fit in to all of this?"
"Okay, just to be sure you understand the full complications of what I'm about to say I'm only going to state my first, middle and last name slowly as it should make it all clear as to how any of what happened was possible" With that Itchy nodded waiting for her to go on and she did so in a very cheery voice while acting perky all of the sudden she enunciated quite clearly "HI, my name is, Anna… Belle…. Donna".
Itchy just sat there staring at her Bella… no he was staring at someone who just claimed that her name is… but if that was true then…
"What's Annabelle's real name?" No it couldn't be, none of this would make sense to Itchy and if it was true then this was going to be horribly weird, Belladonna answered quite bluntly "Anna Belle Donna, my name is derived from Belle Anna Donna I just swapped my middle and first name around abbreviated Anna down to the letter A remove the E and attached it my first and last name as to separate me from myself while she used the first and middle name forward to make it less confusing so we could identify ourselves, so she is in full Annabelle Donna and I'm Bell-A-donna Donna which is a little silly but I like it, of course being one in the same person really doesn't come up often in conversations and you must admit it'd get rather confusing if we both answered to the same name huh".
Itchy's reaction while priceless left him frozen sitting their wide eyed and unmoving so much so that Belladonna thought he had died, but he was still breathing but otherwise he was barely blinking at all or even moving, she only wished she had a camera as the implications of what she just explained finally hit him so hard it must have cause his brain to collapse in on itself.
The fact that she and Annabelle used to be one person was quite a real interesting story really, of course being separated for so long she didn't think she could ever go back to being combined back into one dog again and it was about this time that Charlie came in with a load of Chinese food in a cardboard tray in his mouth, to notice the strange scene.
His best friend Itchy sitting there with a lifeless look on his face and quite a strange one at that, Belladonna awake and looking at him quietly before smiling slightly which unsettled him slightly and the fact that she didn't have that crazed look in her eye made him even more nervous.
"Hey Chucky good news, you won't need the funnel anymore" Charlie blinked at Belladonna's perky attitude, he didn't know why she was so perky but if he had to guess it had to do with why Itchy looked like a bird could build a nest in his mouth without him noticing and while he was glad they didn't have to use the funnel anymore he was freaked out by the blank faced Itchy, what in the world could Belladonna have said to get him to stand there like that with a gawking look on his face.
Itchy's mind race with all the possibilities of what he just learned, but he was to shaken up they were both the same person… well that might have made some sort of sense as Belladonna or what was supposed to be Belladonna could actually take on Annabelle's form or what was supposed to be Annabelle but otherwise she didn't change her form to anything else, he was so confused and he was messed up mentally which was an understatement.
If they were both the same person does that mean Annabelle actually toys with them herself, is their existence all based around being the plaything of one dog claiming to be in two places at once, this was horribly messed up and it made almost less sense now that he knew what Belladonna was hinting at, there were only two people in the fight against Red, the bird and Anna Belle Donna, there is no third person… but that still doesn't explain how it works, he heard a voice say something to him and even heard the snapping of fingers from a paw, but his mind was still wrapped around the fact that Belladonna was in fact Annabelle and that the reverse was true.
"What in the world did you do you him?" Charlie said angrily and Belladonna sniffed derisively while snickering slightly, she sounded to be having fun at Itchy's expense whatever that was and she couldn't have possibly done anything as she was still in the straitjacket "Nothing physical, but I certainly enjoyed seeing that look on his face when I told him about myself and it was just priceless, I just hope you deal with it better than he does because you're going to learn about it eventually, I wouldn't worry over him, he'll come around eventually when he works out the kinks in his brain as what I told him was probably quite a shock … is that Mongolian beef I smell".
"Don't change the subject, what did you do to Itch Belladonna" Charlie didn't listen sometimes, she told him she told Itchy about herself and here she goes being ignored "I gave him a large mental breakdown and considering the facts, you and Sasha are going to have some breakdowns of your own too when the whole story gets out, oh how I love messing with people sometimes and this time it's rather innocent fun".
A while ago some distance away standing on top of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridges highest points staring at the city was a green feathered figure looking at the gleaming spires of rock and melted sand, a pang of loss swept through the figure as it stared at the moving cars that passed underneath, some color had returned to her eyes.
Bird had been touring the city for a while, still not sure whether or not she should drag her along as she might end up getting either half hurt in feelings or in her travels, but they were autonomous of each other which even if they equal one they were still two of her now, she had heard of such things before but now that she had actually come to be a witness to a twin soul and it was her best friend; rethinking what she just thought, she decided to reiterate that it was her best friends that were now on her mind and technically they would eventually be more then friends but that was for another time and it couldn't happen until she had her voice back anyway.
The one that called herself Belladonna apparently came for her and never stopped trying to find her, which was evidenced by the fact that she now had her emotions back and she was driven slightly to tears for a bit but she had to be on her own for a while as all her emotions raged at once when combined with the blank logical memories that had no emotions put to them, not only that she had to deal with the fact that she emotionally knew that all her senses weren't in working order or more importantly the ones centering around touch which encompassed everything but sight were now messed up until she could calm herself down to control herself.
Her logical half just had to be drawn to that stupid crystal, which unfortunately touching it made her emotions ram into her head like a freight train and while she had garnered an unceasingly large amount of mental anguish dragged into her she still couldn't feel physical sensation or work her voice, but at least with two parts of herself in full working order she had at least managed to somewhat stabilize her situation on her own power now.
Hearing was the first thing easily restored from the emotional scrambling but it took some work, but that was all her logical mind could fix in the first place when she didn't have her emotions her sense of taste is connected to touch and so was her sense of smell and the only reason why should could hear is because she can feel vibrations of energy and work it out in her mind as baseless sound, approaching danger, calm movement or auditory vocalization through a rather interesting system her mind worked up while her emotions were away, she had to admit she had learned a lot but she couldn't feel happy now as she was horribly depressed about everything, she was glad her logical portion put a quick lockdown on her suicidal thoughts from all that she did while she didn't have her emotions.
She didn't know what to do honestly her emotions were all over the place, she was happy to still be alive and know that Donnie or at least one side of her cared to find her promising to restore her to normal working order, she was miserable at still having chunks of herself missing and about what the other half of Donnie thought about her return, her anguish at some of the things her mind had done under the idea of what she would have done from her memories worked to a extent but some of those things were downright horrible if it wasn't so necessary at the time.
Her feeling of accomplishment was somewhat there as she had in all rights managed to survive entirely off one facet of herself through a ridiculous amount of artificial stopgap keeping her alive longer than anyone else would have in the same position, which was brought down by her anger at herself for letting this kind of thing happen in the first place as she wasn't there to save Donnie from whatever it was that happened to her after she was torn apart.
One of the bigger emotional impacts was mostly for Donnie coming to her aid and she actually clung to that one desperately to ignore how much damage her psyche was actually in, the fact that even her mind recognized that she had done so much stuff she'd knew she'd later regret was nothing short of surprising that she wished that she'd logically prepared herself for this, but that was asking a little too much of her tired and battered mind now that her emotions were beginning to soak up damage even if it was only the mentally exhausting kind for the first few days.
She'd feel better eventually and she must be hungry as her stomach was empty and there were no chemical reactions coming from there, she should probably scrounge for something to eat and she can't even begin to imagine what will happen if her ability to physically feel anything comes back, her voice was the lightest amount of damage dealt to her when the incident that ripped her up and dropping her into Dimension X yet again happened, she was really beginning to get annoyed with how many times she's actually crossed paths with that dimension and she was glad she had any emotions to be annoyed with.
Otherwise life was fan-fucking-hellish-tastic considering she felt she'd never survive worse, in any case now that she could operate her energies into doing more powerful things and didn't need to absorb energy to live or a stabilizer to stop from dying, but for now she was still trying to answer the question of where to go from here, because obviously she wants answers for whatever happened to Donnie, where in the world the rest of her was, how was she going to deal with the maddening effect of having emotions yet no physical senses to enjoy anything with and how to deal with yet another oncoming mental migraine as she can't get headaches as she is right now or she could but she couldn't feel them happening.
With all these thoughts buzzing around her head Bird leapt off the Golden Gate Bridge and while she wasn't able to fly due in part to the fact unlike normal birds her species had more solid bones, she could still glide and even if its a shaky glide it's still something even with the inability to feel the air currents surrounding her body, her species had only one capable of true flight and that was the carrier of the artifact something she left behind for someone else when she chose to travel the world, she couldn't feel the wind hitting her eyeballs but she knew she still needed to blink, her subconscious was amazing in its regulations of her body up to this point.
She landed on top of a building and looked around to see if there was any good trash she could go through, she wasn't above eating garbage but right now she needed something particularly healthy which made her wish she kept some corn with her when she left the suburban areas with Grape Donnie, she also should have made a corn spear which would have been better than nothing as a weapon but at the time her mind didn't think it was worth the energy or effort to maintain one and at this point in time she agrees with its assessment but now she had the ability to actually upkeep a weapon of any kind, she had her idea's but it wasn't spear shaped at all.
After searching around for a while she notice a familiar looking dog carrying Chinese food and smiled, she had forgotten where the guy lived and she was pretty sure Donnie was still there… oh right, now she remembered one of the Donnie's was absolutely insane and it was from recently using 'that' ability, when in fact the 'frozen heart' ability would have been more useful as it is better against more opponents whereas the 'burning blood' was more of a one on one deal, but given the circumstance Belladonna probably can't use that ability anymore so she had to fall back on 'burning blood', also she seemed to be horribly out of practice despite the fact that she still swiftly responded to her presence when she finally got back to Earth.
But that still didn't account for the other Donnie named Annabelle and why she didn't immediately come running or why she had the necklace she gave to them both as a collective whole, not to mention the color of their fur was still quite bizarre, but who was she to judge by color she had green feathers with hot pink tips and hardly noticeable orange coloring around the centers, that was par for the course that the rest of her race had oddly colored feathers as well as there was no set precedence when it came to the random colors they came born in, dalmation was a particular favorite pattern of hers and she was sad that she only got a standard three color.
Shrugging to herself she silently followed Charlie and came across a female dog while trailing him by about a block, Bird had guessed that stopped Sasha in her tracks because she saw her following Charlie.
"You, I've been looking all over for you and you don't know how many strange looks I got for describing a big green bird with pink and orange highlights, huh wait a minute where are you going" Bird recognized her as well as the other dog, but motioned for her to follow as she continued to trail after Charlie and it took the other dog a moment to notice Charlie but decided to follow along wondering why Bird was following Charlie around or being secretive about it, she also wondered why Bird seemed less blank then usual but she just wrote it off as a trick of the light.
"Is that Mongolian Beef I smell?" Belladonna's voice with a hint of perkiness rose up in trying to avoid whatever it was she had done to Itchy, both Bird and Sasha waited on the other side of the door listening to what was going on and Bird gave a grin, that was pure Donnie for you, she never stopped making messes "You are aware that you're friends with an evil person right?"
Bird gave Sasha a blank shrug before she knocked on the door, well no time like the present after all Donnie just admitted to messing with that guys friend now she would make a perfect distraction like usual and pull Donnie's fur out of a fire even if it was a nonlethal situation, she sounded to be in better health and sanity at the moment, but the other one was not here at the moment as far as she could tell then again it was to be expected given the side effects from her ability should have worn off long ago as they would of made her slightly reclusive for what they did.
While Charlie went to answer the door, Belladonna like an inchworm quickly made her way over to the Chinese food and through careful use of her tongue and jaw she manage to pry the right box open and headed to town on the juicy meat inside while Charlie was distracted.
"Sasha, you found her… where was she?" Charlie asked happy to see Sasha was okay, she could take care of herself but he did worry sometimes "Following you after you got the Chinese takeout which looks like someone's already getting into it".
Charlie quickly turned around ignoring Bird passing by him going to a corner of the room to sit down, mostly to watch Donnie eat while still tied up in a straitjacket and she noticed a funnel nearby… she smiled at that as she remembered the horrors that were wrought by trying to feed her friend while she was insane, those were strange yet happy memories of long ago, she wondered if Belladonna; being only half of who she was, still did the Napoleon thing.
"Hey" Charlie said looking to Belladonna who pulled her mouth out of the beef and gave a rather sheepish toothy grin before she belched loudly and didn't bother to excuse herself "I'm good, you guys can have whatever you want Chucky".
"You ate all the Mongolian Beef" Charlie said dryly checking the now empty container as Donnie didn't look apologetic in the slightest with her vibrant smile "Your name wasn't on it and you shouldn't let food get out of your sight… say were you around when I went Napoleon?"
The powerful shudder Charlie gave made Belladonna happy, oh yeah Charlie was definitely around for the Napoleon act and he was obviously very disturbed by whatever might have happened at that time, Bird just smirked to herself as her internal question was answered by another question.
"Napoleon" Sasha asked in a questioning tone as Charlie paled even further "Don't ask, let's just say Belladonna won at Waterloo and would have actually been better as Joan of Arc".
Bird stood up and walked into a nearby bathroom and proceeded to wash her wings, then walked out shaking them dry of water before looking at what they had to eat, she figured the lack of energy in her body meant she needed something to eat so she looked at the Kung Pao Shrimp, she took two feathers and rapidly jabbed them into the food chunking it up then she scooped out half of it into Donnie's empty container and took half the rice from another contain and started mixing it and making sure that it was chunked up enough so she wouldn't unknowingly choke to death.
She can't feel physically, she can't taste, she' can't smell and she was beginning to feel at a loss for what to do next now that she was able to handle the emotional fallout of all that she did to get here or maybe she was deluding herself that she was handling it that well, now she had to find the rest of herself… what would she need, she knew she'd be here until all the questions about what happened to Donnie between her absence and now so she had plenty of time to think instead of wandering aimlessly as she figured one of the two Donnie's would suggest.
"Yeah and the entire thing was videotaped, I still have the tape stashed away and everything" Belladonna was being the life of this meal time by regaling the two with a story about the few times she was driven to insanity, but then she looked towards Bird instantly shifting her eyes to glowing solid blue to look at Bird and whistled gaining Birds attention.
"SO THAT WAS WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS, I've been following a heart Bird and it was yours, but before I think anything of it any change in your situation" The dog watched as Bird waved shyly at her with a smile and then turned it into a full blown smirk as she started swallowing her kung pao shrimp, since she couldn't taste it she had to sense whether she had anything in her mouth or not, but once it was past her throat she stopped caring.
"So you're e back to normal" This was shot down by Bird's frown and grabbing her right shoulder with her left wing looking solemnly away from her and Donnie continued to try and put a positive spin on it "Yeah I was hoping for too much there… so you're emotions are back at least right?"
Bird rolled her eyes and shrugged in Belladonna's direction smiling a bit, causing the mauve dog to beam in happiness now all she had to do was figure out their next course of… Bird was touching her now, she had carefully moved her wing to tap Belladonna's neck and the dog stared blankly off into space before frowning.
"Yeah well I guess now is as good a time as any, but I guess we'll wait for Annabelle to show up and for the Tramp and Lady to finish their food, how's the Lo Mein you two and when can I get out of this straitjacket" No one bothered to untie Belladonna, so Bird took the initiative to unwrap her from the jacket to let her stretch her legs out and use the bathroom "Finally, it's about time someone helped the sane dog".
Itchy throughout all this had been standing still staring at the wall while Charlie and Sasha blushed about Belladonna's comment towards them as they were sharing the Lo Mein, he was still out of it after hearing that Belladonna and Annabelle were both the same person but were so vastly different in personality.
Bird studied the dog and waved a wing in front of his face, no reaction and Belladonna came over and sat down next to her after having finished her business, Bird continued inspecting Itchy while she continued to eat her shredded Kung Pao she turned a blank yet intrigued look to Belladonna knowing this was her doing.
"Do you want me to break him out of the trance" Bird just stared at Donnie and knew what was coming but she nodded anyway just to get a move on and finally get to discussing what in the world happened while she was gone.
Inspecting her target Belladonna lifted one of Itchy's ears then proceed to inhale before she gave a keen high pitched whistle that only dogs and some creatures could hear, Bird could feel the vibrations shoot through her as she watched Itchy became startled and slammed straight into the wall face first before turning around and trying to climb up the wall backwards while pointing a paw at the toothily smiling deviant.
"YOU… YOU… YOU'RE… YOU… YOU ARE ANNABELLE AND SHE'S…" Itchy was still trying to come to terms as a voice interrupted by making a gentle cough getting everyone's attention to the pink winged Whippet appeared from the glass window that was now standing amongst the group.
"I'm Anna Belle Donna and she's Anna Belle Donna, it's true we used to be one person, but not anymore we're not" Annabelle looked sadly to all the other dogs in the room and Belladonna just had to get the last word in edgewise "Well speak of the Angel, that or it was the whistle that got you down here, ready to discuss everything, I'm going to tell Bird everything regardless of what you say".
What followed was news to everyone about how involved in their lives the purple mutt actually was, except Bird who was interested in learning what's been going on and why the purple Donnie became a dark angel.