The next morning when Ana showed Pennywise the golden sphere that she had only managed to crack, she had expected the matter of destroying it to be a longer discussion. All she had to say was that it had been used to open a portal to Dulcis, and he had snatched it away from her with his gloved hand.

"But Penny, what if I need to go back there in the future? This is the only safe way for me to do that - "

"There is no reason for you to go back there," he growled in reply. "If we keep it, it only gives the stupid fairies a way to get to you and the baby." Before she could have a chance to protest, his mouth started to open wide, showing his multitude of sharp teeth that were always hiding behind his painted face. He shoved the offending orb into his mouth and bit down hard; Ana shrieked slightly when it seemed to explode and sparks started to fly everywhere. But when her mate was finished, the sphere was nowhere to be found, and Ana felt relief wash over her knowing that it was gone.

"What did it taste like?" Ana teased as the clown sitting across from her at the dining room table brushed what looked like golden sparkles off of his silver costume.

"Nothing like fairy, unfortunately," he grumbled. Ana giggled and reached over to him, pulling out a small piece of glittering gold from his fiery orange hair.

"Do you want to hunt today?" Ana asked as she stood up and headed towards the fridge to get some milk. She was hungry, and cereal was pretty much her only option at the moment, although she seemed to be craving something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"No time," Pennywise replied shortly, and Ana furrowed her brow as she looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean, no time?" she asked, slamming the fridge door shut, completely forgetting to grab the carton of milk out.

"I'm leaving today. Soon. When I know you're settled in the house." He looked contemplative, and he was mumbling as he replied to her, as if his thoughts were on something more important than their current conversation.

Ana's mouth fell open, and she walked back over to the table, starting to feel panicked. "Penny, what in the hell are you talking about?" He didn't answer her right away, and his golden gaze was fixed on the empty air in front of him. "Hey!" Ana cried, placing her hands on his shoulders, and he shook his head slightly as he seemed to suddenly realize that she was trying to get his attention.

"The other entities, sweet girl. All of them must die."

"You're going to kill all of them?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes. All of them."

"That sounds dangerous!" she said, and Pennywise wrapped his long arms around her to pull her into his lap.

"I'll be fine, sweet girl."

"But, what if they have some power over you like Lamia had?"

"They won't have the chance to use them. I wasn't thinking about killing her even when I met her. That's why she had her chance to use her little mind games." It was refreshing for Ana to hear the cosmic entity finally speak of Lamia's powers for what they were, to acknowledge the hold she had over him.

"Why now, Penny? Why not wait for them to come here and then deal with them?"

"I'm not giving them a chance to come here," he replied, his voice dripping with malice as he spoke of the potential threats. "They have to be destroyed before they catch wind of my offspring."

Ana smiled as she settled her head into the crook of his neck. "I'm liking this overly-protective side of you."

"It's amusing that you find this arousing," he said, kissing the top of her head. "When Pennywise gets back, we'll take advantage of that."

"Like you've had so much difficulty seducing me before," Ana said, scoffing. She placed a kiss on his white jaw, and she heard a low hum vibrate through his chest. She thought it might lead to another round in the bedroom, but suddenly he was gently pushing her off his lap and standing.

"No distractions, naughty fairy. This needs to be done."

Ana's relief was very short-lived, and she started to feel anxiety grip her again. "Where will you go first?"

"Into the Macroverse to see if the tortoise can tell me about them." Ana nodded, and she felt tears well in her eyes as she realized that she was going to be very, very alone in Neibolt house. "Don't worry, sweet girl."

"I can't help it," she said softly, and Pennywise pulled her into a tight embrace. She could barely appreciate the tenderness that he was showing her now, because she was realizing that she hadn't even back on Earth for a full day and they were being separated again. They kissed, exchanged I-love-you's, and he started to head down towards the basement.

Ana's first day alone in the house was one filled with paranoia and anxiety. Every little noise made her jump, and she kept expecting something or someone to come bursting through the door unannounced. She barely slept that night, and only when she made it to the morning without anything eventful happening did she start to relax a bit.

By the second day, she felt confident enough to leave the house and run a few errands. She kept reminding herself that she had powers now, that she could handle herself. Part of her wondered if her strength had been enhanced by the intergalactic descendant that was growing inside her, that its inherent abilities were the reason she was able to kill Lamia so swiftly. But even as she shopped for fresh food and new bottles of cleaning supplies for the house, she couldn't shake the feeling that her time without Pennywise couldn't possibly be this easy. She forgot about her worries for a few precious moments when she went down the baby aisle at the drug store, wondering what color they would paint the nursery and when they would start gathering supplies for the newborn.

He was gone for a week when her fears came to fruition. She was walking in downtown Derry, enjoying the sunny afternoon and licking at the ice cream cone she had been craving since the night before, when she sensed it. It was like a sixth sense alerting her to potential danger, and at first when she looked around her she didn't see anything that seemed to be out of place. Even so, she started to head back home, walking quickly but not so fast that she would look obviously alarmed.

She spotted him a few blocks from the house. Once she saw the entity, she didn't need an internal alarm to know that he was otherworldly. His ears were up a little too high on his head, and pointed; his chin jutting out and just a little too unnaturally sharp. But what really gave him away were the long, claw-like nails on his hands, a feature that reminded her a little too much of Lamia.

She debated attacking him right then and there, knowing that the element of surprise was what had helped her overwhelm Lamia effectively. But she didn't know if Pennywise's influence on the town was still there even with him out of the universe, and she didn't need to deal with being hunted down by police if she was seen assaulting some random guy on the street. So she kept walking, knowing he was openly following her even without having to look. Her blood was boiling, the audacity of these stupid infant entities to keep messing with her life making her look forward to killing this one.

By the time she was walking through the front door, all fear was gone, now replaced by anger and and the assurance that she was capable of dealing with this threat. She didn't even bother to close the door behind her, knowing that trying to lock him out would only delay the inevitable. And she didn't feel like having to replace the door.

Ana headed towards the kitchen for a large knife, and she wondered why she hadn't bothered getting a more efficient weapon for herself in the past week. She openly laughed at her naivety, and she was answered by a smooth voice almost instantly.

"You seem to think something is funny, little fairy," the entity mused, and Ana turned to face him. He was standing in the entryway, his clawed hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans as he looked around without apparent cause for concern. "I'm afraid you're going to be making different sounds very, very soon."

Ana snorted at him, her unimpressed reaction obviously catching him off guard. "I'm not really a screamer," she said, the knife in her hand, but even as she gripped the handle she began to imagine what it would feel like to tear his flesh with her bare hands.

"You're a cocky thing," he retorted, removing his hands from his pockets, his claws now in full view.

"I'd say the same about you," Ana said, taking a few slow steps towards him. She saw a twinge of surprise play across his pointed features, his toothy sneer wavering just a bit. "So did you come now because you knew he'd be gone? That's not exactly what I'd call brave."

Anger flashed in his eyes at her words. "I thought I'd send him a little message. Give him something to come home to after his little killing spree."

Ana nodded thoughtfully. "And do you think that after he killed all the others, that you'd even have a chance after killing me? He'd hunt you to the edge of existence to kill you for that."

"Even if he does, he doesn't deserve to have offspring after murdering this many of his own kind!"

There it was. The entity knew that she was pregnant, and suddenly Ana wasn't remotely amused by their banter. Her maternal instinct to protect what was in her womb completely took over her, and she sprang into action, rushing the entity and driving the blade into his torso without warning. He bellowed in pain, striking her hard in the face over and over again, then knocking her to the ground. One hand went to her neck while the other started to grip her head, intent on snapping her neck, when Ana had the sudden urge to open the wound in his abdomen with her bare hands. As her fingers splayed open the gash that had been created by the knife, the entity was momentarily distracted from trying to break her spine and his hands clawed at her arms frantically. She pushed her hand into his stomach then, a scream of rage and effort leaving her throat as she pulled him up to his feet and slammed him into the wall.

She felt wet, warm organs that still pulsated with life as her hand traveled through his body cavity violently. Blood was spilling out everywhere, onto her arms, on both of their clothes, onto the floor. She took in a deep inhale as she delighted in the creature's fear, the emotion satiating a craving she didn't know that she had. His screams barely registered to her as the life started to leave his body, and she found herself searching his eyes, taking immense satisfaction in the array of desperate emotions that were running through them.

"You're very stupid," she said to the dying entity. "All of you. Did you really think any of you would be able to destroy the Eater of Worlds?"

Part of her was annoyed that he couldn't answer her, as he was almost limp as she kept him pressed against the wall. Less and less fear was emanating from him, and just as she could barely sense it, she gripped his heart, crushing it in her hand with little effort. His lights tried to escape, much like Lamia's, and it was little work to destroy them, now that she had experienced it once before.

She left the body lying in the entryway, not sure what to do with it, and suddenly feeling like taking a hot shower and having a nap. Figuring it would be a nice visual warning to any other evil beings intending on killing her, she decided to leave it there until Pennywise came home to deal with it.

He returned to her that evening unscathed, and he didn't even question her on what had happened when he saw the corpse. Instead, he praised her actions immensely, giving some credit of the horrific way to how she murdered the intruder to the offspring in her belly. They discussed her sudden desire to feel fear, deciding that it was because of the baby, and that Ana would have to try to be around it while she was pregnant.

"Are they all dead?" Ana asked, referring to the infant entities.

"Every single one, sweet girl," he reassured her. It made her feel the safest she had in a long time, knowing they were gone, and for once, she could confidently hope for some stretch of normalcy, whatever that looked like for Pennywise the Dancing Clown and his mate.

So for the next several months, she accompanied Pennywise on his hunts, sometimes participating, sometimes just being there to absorb the emotions. The demon clown continued to be protective of his lover and future offspring, and at times Ana had to remind him that if she was capable of taking down cosmic entities, then she would be safe around humans. But he continued to be concerned for her safety, even insisting that she see a doctor on a regular basis. Her pregnancy seemed to progress just as a human child's would, its movements and size moving along at the expected course.

They shopped for infant clothing and bottles and toys, just like any other couple would. Ana even made him help paint the nursery, after having an intense debate about whether red and white stripes were considered soothing enough for an infant. They had settled on a soft orange instead.

For the better part of a year, they led a relatively uneventful existence. Ana played homemaker and helped Pennywise find his prey. He hunted and spent time with Ana. Sometimes she looked into the lives of Cassandra and the kids, but only observed, not having the desire to have any close acquaintances in Derry, knowing they would likely be gone when they woke up next anyway.

They fell into a familiar routine, something they hadn't had at all since being woken up early. Ana was so content, she barely thought of Dulcis and her memories of it. In a sense she had been given a new start, one that offered her freedom to live her life, even if it hadn't exactly started out that way. The only worry she really had was taking care of a baby with a shapeshifter that had about as much knowledge on the subject as she did. And she wondered how the baby would do when they went into their deep slumber. But Pennywise assured her that it would be fine, and after a while she started to feel confident about it.

They decided to have the baby at home. Even if she had complications, Ana pointed out, she would heal quickly. So Pennywise stayed by her side the entire time, from the first sign of labor until Ana was holding the infant in her arms. It was a girl with a small tuft of bright, flaming orange hair. Her eyes were blue, but even as Ana was breastfeeding her for the first time, they changed to gold and then back again.

She was two days old before they decided on a name, as Ana was much more worried about whether or not only her breast milk was enough to sustain her, or if she would need something...else. But the child seemed to thrive just with that for the time being, and finally Ana had peace of mind to pick something out.

"So, do you have any ideas?" she asked Pennywise as the three of time were in the bed together. Her heart swelled as she watched the clown awkwardly, yet gently cradle the small girl in his arms.

"No."

"Come on," she teased. "You picked out Pennywise and Robert Grey for yourself. I know you're capable of doing it!"

"Pennywise hasn't thought about it, because you already have your mind set on one, sweet girl."

He was right, of course. Ana had done some digging at the library. "But I want your input, too, Penny."

"Fine. Roberta."

Ana started laughing. "Robert Grey's daughter will be Roberta Grey? I don't think so!"

He gave her a large, toothy grin. "Then let's go with yours."

"Okay. Teneia it is," Ana said. It was one that meant 'prophetess' or 'seer', a name that honored both Newlyn and the Sordidus female that had helped her.

Ana was saddened that she only had a couple of months to enjoy with their daughter before it was time to go into their slumber again. She found it hard to wrap her head around the fact that Teneia would only experience life one year at a time, and then have to wake up decades later to a new Derry. But after talking about it with Pennywise many times, he had managed to reassure her that it was fine, that they would have each other.

When it was time to go into their slumber this time, Ana felt a much deeper sense of joy as she held Pennywise's offspring in her arms. It made her feel purposeful and full of pride.

"See you in a few years," she said as she settled into her spot in the cavern, and the baby cooed up at her. One eye was blue, the other gold at the moment. "I love you."

Pennywise walked over to her and planted a kiss on her lips, then one on the baby's head. "I love you," he said, wrapping his arms around Ana, just as he had the first time he put her into a deep sleep. As his mouth opened and the deadlights caught her eyes again, Ana felt a deep sense of warmth and contentment wash over her, pleasant dreams of her little family starting to take shape immediately.