"I'm really glad you're working on the show now, Beowulf. You seem so much happier than the last time I saw you."

"Ha! You know it! Now people are finally starting to howl for the wolf again! Man I missed having fans... Thanks a ton for talkng Annie into bringing me on, Aileen."

"Oh, she was thinking about it for a while, actually. I just nudged her along a bit."

Beowulf took a swig of his coffee. "So uh... boss lady goes on vacation in a couple weeks. That means you're left to filiming. You up for it?"

"I'll do my best! I think she wanted to go over what we're doing... That's why she's calling us in..."

The two peeked into Annie's office to see she was talking on the phone. "Aww man, she finally took her first steps? Ugh... Wish I could have been there, but work is keeping me tied down so much lately... Yeah... Yeah... Thanks, kiddo...Yes, I know you're not a kid anymore, but to me, you pretty much always will be. Hahaha... I can't wait to see you guys. Yeah. Okay, see you in a couplr weeks." She hung up the phone, and both Beowulf and Aileen noticed she was happier than they had ever seen her. She turned to acknowledge them. "Hey guys."

"Hey yourself. Making plans with a friend?" Beowulf asked.

"No, I was just talking to my son. I'm going to see him, my daughter-in-law and my grandkids for the first time in months."

She immediately regretted saying that while Beowulf was in the middle of sipping his coffee. The spit take was legendary, and she took the full brunt of it.

"WHAT." The Wrestler asked, his jaw so unhinged, it practically fell to the ground. If Annie wasn't covered in black, dark roast coffee (her least favourite type of coffee, and least favourite way of taking it) she would've probably found it hilarious. But, here she was, covered in hot coffee, staring at the wrestler she had been working with for who knew how long, and somehow she hadn't expected this to be his reaction.

Slowly, Annie wiped the wall of coffee off of her face, and gave the wrestler a flat look, who was still staring at her like his opponent had just transformed like a werewolf, TWICE, in the middle of a fight. Honestly, now that she thought about it, she had never seen him this shocked. Again, take away the coffee, and it'd be hilarious.

Aileen was better, mostly because she sat in shocked silence, simply staring at Annie as if she had never seen her before. Her face changed between shock, confusion, disbelief, then confusion multiple times, before settling on 'emotionless confusion'.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I heard that correctly." Beowulf spoke calmly, folding his hands together and poitning them at Annie. "Your... SON?"

"Yeeees. My son. Adoption is a thing you know. Though technically my maids Maggie and Izzy are his moms, but that's yet another cover-up."

"But... You never mentioned anything about having a son on the show or otherwise." Aileen questioned with a tilted head.

Annie frowned softly. "Well, there's a lot of reasons... But there's quite the story behind it..." Looking over, she saw Beowulf sitting cross-legged on the floor like a little kid waiting for story time, Aileen standing next to him with her hands clasped over her dress.

Placing her chin in her hand, she lightly drummed her cheek, "It was about twenty years ago when I first found him, and I had just finished fighting off a Skullgirl. During the battle I had gotten a lead from one of my new comrades on a place that might have some answers on dealing with the heart for good. After traveling through a desert I ended up in a place called Death City."

The story begins with Annie parking her hoverbike in front of a large building: the DWMA. Stepping off the bike, she activated the built in security measures and stepped into the building, intent on meeting the head of the school, Lord Death.

Unfortunately, as with many new places she visited, the first thing people noticed about her was her young appearance. So of course a man with long red hair approached her, thinking that she was a lost student. Thankfully, he seemed to be genuinely concerned for her and not just looking down on her, because she hated the condescending ones the most.

And she was pleasantly surprised with how easily she was able to get the man's assistance in finding Lord Death. He lead her straight to him... But annoyed her to no end at the same time because he insisted on flirting with every attractive faculty member.

Her annoyance was slightly held in check by how the man had gushed about his young daughter not long after they had introduced themselves. She was still annoyed by him, but she was trying to give him a little leeway. Although one staff member had rubbed her the wrong way, the one Spirit had referred to as the school nurse.

She had dealt with more than enough dark magic in her day to recognize it when she felt a certain chill in the air, and this woman simply pulsated with dark magic. That, combined with the predatory gleam in her eye, put her on the defensive immediately.

Annie made a note to watch that woman like a hawk, but thankfully Spirit's flirting caused her to leave. However, the entire time they were near the woman she had kept a hand near her blade, and even afterwards Sagan kept an eye on her as she walked away. When she finally turned around a corner, Annie let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

She glared at the corner the woman retreated around before following after Spirit as he lead her to Lord Death's room. Amusingly enough, the two of them entered the room as Lord Death was watching Annie's show with his son, the father clearing enjoying it far more than the rather disinterested child.

Neither father nor son noticed them enter the room, and an idea quickly took shape in her mind. With a grin, she looked at Spirit and covers her lips with a finger, and he grinned back, quickly catching on to her plan. With skill borne of her many years, she padded across the floor like a cat before popping up behind the duo, "Oh wow, I remember this one, good times!"

Lord Death yelped and leapt several feet in the air. Kid simply turned to look at her in disinterest. Then he flinched slightly at her eyepatch. "Oh... I'm so sorry this happened to you, Annie. The asymmetry must be unbearable..." If not for how genuine his tone was, she would think he was making fun of her eyepatch. "Oh but your hair is just wonderful! Perfectly straight, no split ends-wait... no..." He saw a hair out of place near the bottom of her hair, which she was wearing down at this time. Annie blinked as he pulled out a hairbrush and started trying to fix her hair, muttering to himself all the while, but finding himself unable to get it right. Then it got just a tiny bit worse and he fainted.

Meanwhile Spirit was almost bent double trying not to bust out laughing while Annie quickly caught the kid before he smashed his head on the floor. Lord Death had a hand on his chest while he tried to stop his heart from leaping out of his chest, "You know... I was told that you might be paying us a visit very soon, but I didn't think it would be this soon." Annie gave him a grin as she laid his son on the couch.

"Sorry about the scare, but I couldn't resist after finding Death himself watching my show."

"Well, yes. Ahem, my son-"

"No."

"Er, that's... that's not important." Death awkwardly coughed. Annie had to admit two things immediately. One, Death wasn't as intimidating as she expected (although she sensed something really powerful beneath the surface) and two, Death was a lot friendlier than she expected. Which was weird, because he was death. But at the same time, if he was friendly, she wouldn't question it, because she figured she'd need all the help she could get. although, for the life of her, the weird oven-mitt hands were just odd. Then again, she was on a giant walking city, so she didn't really feel like she could complain too much.

'Besides, I'm an immortal kid who's played a tv show character for decades and fights an evil skull every seven years, things are weird all over.' She thought with a smirk.

Annie just smirked knowingly at him. "My show has a surprising adult fanbase y'know. No shame in enjoying it."

Death just turned away and poked his index fingers together as he was found out. Annie chuckled and gave him a pat on the back, "Sorry to drop in unannounced like this, but a mutual friend of ours pointed me in this direction after the last Skull Girl was stopped. Something about a possible permanent solution to the Heart."

Lord Death tiltrd his head. "Ah yes, the skull heart. Well, not much we can do for your curse, but thankfully we are going to punish the ones responsible for it. Those Miser Brothers are still arguing over which one gets to deliver the punishment though..."

Annie let out a groan and covered her eye with her hand and even Sagan facepalmed, "You let those two in on this? I still have their songs stuck in my head, and it's been years since I last saw them. In fact it was a few decades ago and I can still hear it clear as day, the big hams."

Lord Death chuckled. "They sing it every time they come in for the divine meetings." Annie blinked.

"Wait... Divine...? You're telling me you and those Misers are some kinda god? I though the Trinity were the only deities out there!" Lord Death shook his head.

"Not at all, Annie. They are not true goddesses. Their power is the result of their parasites, nothing more... Without them, they are as vulnerable as any human. They are just lucky we have chosen to spare them. The goddess Aeon has shown signs of reformation."

Annie felt a chill go down her spine, "Just what sort of parasite can give someone that kind of power..." Sagan was no slouch with his cosmic powers, especially when paired with her meteor sword, but even still he had his limits. She couldn't fathom a single parasite having that level of power, let alone three of them.

Lord Death laughed. "Oh, don't worry about a thing! Sure, the power of their parasites is immense, but compared to even the weakest of gods, they simply don't compare! Lord Beerus can erase you from not only the current timeline, but every timeline imagineable, and with a simple touch! Zarathos can ignite one's soul and erase their very existence! Kratos destroyed the original pantheon of gods singlehandedly, Dialga and Palkia boast MUCH greater control over time and space than Aeon or Venus, Palutena boasts the best army in the pantheon..." As Lord Death excitedly rambled on about how powerful his friends were, Annie is stunned at the raw power he lists off. She thought the Miser brothers were just goofy showmen. And now she finds out that Snow Miser could create cold temperatures strong enough to freeze time itself and frost over the sun, while Heat Miser could literally destroy the universe by creating a supernova if he wanted to. And they were among the weakest!

"And then there's those skeletons, the tall one isn't REALLY a true 'Divine Being' like the rest of us, but we just can't bring ourselves to break that to him. He's such a pure soul. But his brother? Ho, that is NOT someone you want to mess with! Even Lord Beerus thinks twice before picking a fight with him, and he destroys entire planets in mere moments! And then there's Disco-"

"Hey, Father? What does this have to do with the Skull Heart?" Kid commented, breaking his Old Man's ramblings, which while Annie wanted to know more, also knew she had to deal with one thing at a time. If that meant ignoring those others in favour of destroying the Heart for good, then that's what she'd do.

"Hm? Oh, right, right, right!" Lord Death coughed awkwardly, realizing he had been rambling on about things not attaining to the topic at hand. "As for the Heart itself, I've found that it is in a weird state of non-existence, as you did recently destroy it."

"Hm." Annie nodded, it had been a year or two since she last defeated the blasted thing, and she had since spent her time following the advice of what honestly felt like a dream, until she met an old man named Mordenkainen. From there, she had essentially been chasing potential leads about 'Death City' until she came across a map, which seemed to have been drawn long ago, and in crayon, oddly enough. Regardless, one thing had led to another, she had finally come across a Fox Feral who gave her a more complete map, and here she was.

She had one question on her mind... "These deities... If... if they are so powerful than why are the Trinity still causing trouble?" Death rubbed his chin with one hand,

"Well; Beerus is currently asleep, Zarathos bound to a human host and currently rather insane, Kratos retired to try and be a better father to his son, Dialga and Palkia are currently trapped outside of reality, Palutena has divine law preventing intervention from her champion, the Miser Brothers took an oath to never use their powers to such extremes ever again, the list goes on and on. However all of these can be circumvented if the Trinity strikes first, which unfortunately they are smart enough to know."

Annie rubbed her temples. "Great. So we're stuck with this stupid skullheart for good?" Lord Death tilted his head.

"Now who told you that? I'm a member of the pantheon, remember. And I happen to have a plan."

The plan mainly boiled down to two main phases. During the next Skullgirl outbreak the goal wouldn't be to outright destroy her, but to contain her long enough for Death to arrive. Next he would remove the heart intact and use it to either force the Trinity into a dialogue to hopefully stop their attacks for good, or as a last resort use the heart as a medium to permanently lock them outside of reality, or at least for as long as the seal remained intact.

"Wait, 'as long as it remains intact'?" Annie blinked, having thought this was a good plan until she heard that last bit. "No offence, Lord Death. But that seems like a pretty big risk to take. There will always be someone desperate or crazy enough to try and open that, and then we'd be back at square one if they did."

"Yes, tragically humanity may want to unleash such evil, but there is plans for that in and of itself." Lord Death nodded. "See, once the Trinity has been weakened, some of the Divine beings can once more return to this world, and Dialga and Plakia have volunteered to send the seal somewhere outside of time and space, so no one would be able to reach it. We've also had a newer arrival offer to take it to a place only they can reach, some place known as the 'Library of Eternity', where they would bury it among an uncountable amount of books, where it would be lost forever."

Death's words had two effects on Annie. On the one hand, they were reassuring that there truly was a chance that this could be it! That the Skull Heart could be defeated for once and for all! No more violence, no more Skullgirls, no more death... but at the same time, she was more than a bit nervous at how powerful some of these Deities seemed to be. Again, despite how goofy he may look on the outside, Death seemed to pick up on this.

"I understand this may be unsettling, but truly, the Deities I discuss are all sworn to a specific set of laws, and one of them is a law of non-interference unless necessary. They can't simply use their powers to destroy without repercussion. with a few exceptions, but even then, that's another story all-together."

Annie took a deep breath and looked Lord Death in the... eyes? "Well... I'm still not entirely sure about this, but... You are a higher force of being, so... I trust you." She concluded. Then she extended her hand for Lord Death to shake.

The reaper returned the gesture, and wow did Annie realize how tiny her hands were. Sure, Lord Death's hsnds were cartoonishly large, but still, evdn for a fifteen yesr old girl, she had ridiculously tiny hands. Great, now she was self conscious.

She though she would've figured out how NOT to be after however long it had been since she was cursed, but what did she know? Seriously, she felt like her hands were the size of Sagan's, now.

(Presently)

"Wait, so there's just a giant robot city walking around, and we've NEVER seen it?" Beowulf asked, beyond confused at this point. "And on top of that, the Trinity AREN'T actual Gods?!"

"Yes, to both those." Annie nodded, taking a drink from the flavoured water she had (loathing the fact she couldn't actually drink). "Thing is, while Lord Death is unbelievably friendly, he tries to keep Death City out of the public eye, especially while we were trying to deal with the Heart."

She looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Last I heard, Death City's been quietly sitting in the desert for about thirty years or so... The only reason we haven't gotten the skull heart yet is because other people keep getting to it first..." She sighed. "Anyway, after that, I left the school, grabbed my hover scooter and took off into the desert to go back home..."

(Past)

Annie sighed as she drove her hover scooter through the desert sands. "I think we're lost, Sagan." Her little rabbit growled in response. She didn't know why he talked so sparingly, but that was who he was.

Stopping, Annie looked around, seeing... sand.

'Yup. That's sand.' She frowned. 'And that's sand. And that's sand. And that's sand. And that's a trail someone else made. And that's sand. And that- wait."

Her head snapped back to a faint outline in the sand, which thankfully hadn't been fully concealed yet by the light breeze pushing the piles of sand about. Jumping off her scooter, she got down and looked at it, noting it almost looked like a wheel had gone through the sand, or some sort of tail? Really, she had no idea. She also knew from experience that following random trails found somewhere usually ended really, really badly. But at the same time, she figured she could follow the trail, then leave it once she found her way back to somewhere more recognizable.

She put a finger under her chin, then nodded her head and hopped back onto her scooter, deciding she would follow the trail just for a while...

As she drove along, she found herself noticing some odd stuff around the area. It seemed like someone had been training out here previously... Rocks were cleanly split and shattered to pebbles, sword marks were dug into the sand, and there were bones scattered about...

She hummed in thought, then noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Looking over, she saw the blonde woman from the school. Flying through the air. On a broomstick... She did a double take. "What the fu-" Before she could finish that thought, she ended up driving into a rock. As Annie was sent flying over the handlebars, Sagan crashed facefirst into the front half of the scooter, looking up to see his host sailing through the air like a corkscrew, right towards a pile of sand.

It was about five minutes before Sagan could finally get her out from the sand. At first, he tried pulling her out, but even with his parasite strength, there wasn't much he could do. So, he had to dig her out. This took longer than he admittedly wanted it to, but he was small, and there was only so much he could do.

"Urgh. Thanks." Annie muttered, spitting sand out as she shook herself off. Rising to her feet, she looked around herself again, nothing the marks and cuts along the nearby rocks. "There's definitely something wrong with this, isn't there?" she flatly asked, already knowing the answer.

Sagan nodded.

"We should just turn around and leave, shouldn't we?"

Sagan nodded.

"But we're not gonna, are we?"

Sagan nodded.

"This is probably gonna get us nearly killed, isn't it?"

Sagan shook his head, and Annie smirked mirthfully.

"You've really got that much confidence in us?" She asked, then snorted when Sagan pointed to himself. "Of course."

Annie got back on her scooter. "All right. Let's follow this trail and find that woman... She's up to no good, I just know it..." Sagan nodded and climbed on next to her, and they took off.

It was getting close to the afternoon as they drove across the desert, and Annie noticed she had caught up to the witch. The woman, this time, actually noticed her. Their eyes met... and the witch rolled her eyes in exasperation before snapping her fingers. Before Annie had time to react, an arrow appeared in front of her and struck her scooter, sending her tumbling over the handlebars once more. She grunted as she landed on the sand and began to skid facefirst against it, slowly dragging herself deeper and deeper into the sand until she was eventually completely buried underneath it. Yet even when trapped under several feet of sand, she just kept going, creating a long furrow as she went and plowing through various rocks and cacti. Sagan drove the scooter after the furrow, making sure he didn't lose his host, frowning as the witch took a different route. After what seemed like an eternty, Annie finally came to a stop directly outside a large ominous cave. Her muffled groan was heard, the sand slowly began to rise... and then after a while her rear end popped out and wriggled feebly.

Similar to last time it took Sagan a few minutes to finally his friend, free. However, when Annie pulled herself up, she noticed Sagan seemed very, very nervous. Uncharacteristically frightened, in fact. She was going to ask him what was wrong, but she didn't have to, she just felt it in her bones. There was definitely something wrong with this place, and that witch was definitely doing something twisted.

"Well, last chance. You think we should walk away?" Annie asked, frowning.

Sagan nodded.

"Too bad." She shrugged, and the small rabbit sighed in annoyance.

"Nothing about this ever made it to the show... Crona's story is just... WAY too dark... And I was not about to let those bigwigs trivialize my kid's trauma by watering it down." Annie explained to her closest co-workers.

The wrestler started rubbing his arms as Aileen bit her lip. "You haven't even gotten to where you met him, and I'm already getting the willies. Just what the heck did he go through?" Beowulf asked. Annie smiled at her friend, knowing he wanted to use stronger words, but he refrained himself since she couldn't swear due to her curse.

"Well... It started when I went in that dumb cave..." A single tear fell down Annie's face as she continued the story. She still remembered the sounds of Crona's screams so vividly as she searched for any sign of wrongdoing... Never in all her life had she heard anyone in such agony and despair...

(Past)

"Hang on, is there someone else in there?" Annie blinked, taking a moment and listening to something or someone screaming in clear pain. The sound caught her off guard as it came from nowhere, and then it was clear there were more than one.

"-JUST KILL IT YOU IDIOTIC PRI-!"

"C'mon." Annie said with narrowed eyes, picking up her sword.

She hadn't taken more than a half dozen steps into the cave when she first heard the boy's voice. At first just a faint echo in the otherwise silent cave, they rapidly grew louder as she instinctively ran further inside. She didn't hear it very often, thankfully, but she knew the sound of a child in unimaginable agony when she heard it.

She gets more and more horrified and angry the deeper into the cave she gets... Then she reaches the door and hears a young voice whimpering. "Mommy... Please... I don't wanna... P-Put my skin back on my arm..."

Annie's eye widened in shock, and she looked down to Sagan, who seemed equally mortified by what they had both just heard. Annie closed her eye and then snarled, summoning some energy into her sword before slashing the door in two. The metal door was cleanly sliced in two, and Annie kicked what was left into the next room.

Annie narrowed her eye and looked around, seeing the woman from earlier looking up in confusion at the now missing door. She snarled when she put together who was there, but couldn't really care why she was there.

(Present)

Beowulf interrupted the story with his angered disgust. "WHOA! This rotten hag was FLAYING her own kid?!"

"Oh my gosh, I feel sick..." Aileen moaned, clutching her stomach.

"Yeah, that snake witch was nuttier than a peanut farm, and this was just the tip of the iceberg. Anyways..."

(Past)

Annie narrowed her eyes. Talk was cheap. She was going to destroy this woman. Thinking fast, she grabbed the discarded door and rushed into the room, using it as a shield to try and evade any attacks the witch may throw her way.

Before she could get very far, she was forced to leap back as several black arrows protruded through the door, very nearly impaling her. She landed in a crouch, then held up her blade with a glare as Medusa eyed her with a smirk. The witch wasn't going to bother saying anything. Why waste her words on some stupid kid?

Her smirk faltered when Annie casually batted away several black arrows that tried to strike her from behind, "You know, there was something about you that I just didn't like, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Turns out I could just feel your crazy even when you are trying to hide it." Medusa snarled and lunged towards her, only to be blindsided by a blast from Sagan.

She narrowly blocked it with a vector shield, then scowlsped at Annie before launching more of her vectors. Annie parried each and every strike, frowning at how precise the witch was. Clearly she was an extremely skilled fighter...

If Annie hadn't dealt with people who used similar tactics before ,she had no doubts that she would be seriously injured by the time the fight ended. Thankfully with Sagan keeping an eye on the room she didn't have a blind spot to worry about. She seemed to enjoy attacking from awkward angles.

She, luckily, was a very adept and agile dodger, avoiding every attempted strike with all the grace of a ballerina, an appropriate comparison due to her dance lessons, back before her mother made that ridiculous wish...

She forced those thoughts aside as a stray arrow was just barely deflected instead of piercing her shoulders. Scowling, Annie took a deep breath and let it out, 'Focus, one mistake and she'll skewer me from a hundred different directions.' The worst part was that wasn't hyperbole, the witch was one of the most skilled fighter she had ever faced.

Still, there was something about her which just seemed passé, as if she had spent so long honing her skills, but never bothered expanding them beyond the metaphorical 'tree' that they gave her. The Witch had powers and attacks Annie wasn't sure how to counter, but Medusa seemed too confident that she didn't need anything other than what she had to finish the job, something Annie knew wouldn't end too well for her if she kept it up.

As they fought, Annie had to question what Medusa was doing out here, and why. If she had been working in a lab on some sort of project she didn't need others seeing, that would've been one thing, but everything felt wrong. It felt sick, like the aura of the Skullheart, but genuinely threatening, as if this was beyond a petty grudge and evil itself had come into the room they stood in. That just set Annie more on edge.

Still, normally Annie would've been asking what was happening, or why, or simply insulting her foe because she could, but this time... Annie was quiet. She could feel in her bones there was something at stake here, and if the young voice was to be believed, then there was a literal infant being harmed, and she didn't want to waste her breath.

So she was just going to have to fight dirty then... Expertly dodging anothe arrow, she reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a handful of sand from when she had been buried earlier. She searched for an opening... And when she got it, she hurled the sand right into the witch's eyes.

To add insult to injury, she even screamed out, "Pocket sand," as she caught the witch full in the face. This gave her the precious few seconds she needed before Medusa could switch tactics and indiscriminately fire arrows. Acting quickly, Annie slammed the hilt of her sword into her forehead, knocking her out cold for the moment.

She took a deep breath, trying to weigh what to do next... Only then, a strange blob-like creature eruptsped from the unconscious child's back. "Now's my chance!" Grabbing the child, he leapt into the air, formed into a sword and impaled the unconscious Medusa through the heart.

Annie had been around a long time, she had seen a lot of villains, and she knew one thing about a defeated villain. They never really were. Ripping the sword out from Medusa's chest, she slashed Medusa across the neck, ensuring that she was dead. She took a step back and looked down at Medusa's body.

"Rgh..." She growled, looking down on a slash across her side she had received at some point, then picked up the tiny boy once more. "Little guy? Can you hear me?"

No response. He must have passed out from the pain. She could hear that voice still grumbling insults at the woman. The fact that they were coming from the sword honestly wasn't the weirdest thing she had seen that week, but it came fairly close.

She looked at the witch, who was gurgling on her own blood before she died for real, going limp before vanishing. Annie sighed, deciding not to focus on that at the moment, and just attend to the unconscious child.

Her mind instantly snapped back to what she had heard earlier, 'His arm!' Annie felt her heart drop as she looked at the mangled mess the witch had left behind. "How could anyone do this to a child?"

She clenched her fist, shaking in rage... then she saw that the skin was starting to grow back over his flayed arm. Her eye widened at the sight. In almost no time flat, his arm was as good as new... and the blob from before emerged. "Ugh... Damn... Good thing I'm faster at healing ya then I was before, kid... I know ya can't take the skinning, and I hate to hear ya cry..." Then he noticed Annie. "...So uh... you're pretty badass. You look about the right age to be a student at the DWMA. That where you come from?"

"I'm- ugh." Annie was about to retort, but realized that whatever was before her hadn't seen her before, so she probably DID look like a student. Stupid curse... "Look, it's a long story but I'm way older than you're expecting."

"How old?"

"I don't know what you're insinuating by that, and I don't like that."

"Fine. Whatever. Th'hell are you doin' here? You here for him?" The blob remarked, nodding down at the bloody, mangled body. "Because if you are, I got bad news. He won't be in any condition to go anywhere for a bit."

"Wh-what happened to him?!" Annie finally managed to get out.

"Torture. Lots and lots of torture." Annie stared flatly at the blob. Clearly that was all she was getting out of him. "Seriously, how old are you?"

Annie grined even as she carefully adjusted the kid, "Didn't anyone ever tell you it's not polite to ask a lady her age?" The blob looked like it was about to retort only to pause and rub its chin,

"Wait, I think I've seen you somewhere before. I think it was on tv a few years back."

Annie nodded her head with a smirk. "Yeah... That was me." Ragnarok frowned.

"You look exactly the same as you did all those years ago! You haven't aged a single day, how does that work?!" Annie sighed.

"A curse."

The blob scratcheed it's head and a question mark popped out, "What kind of weirdo puts a curse on someone to make them stay a teenager?" Annie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose,

"You ever hear of the Skull Heart? Dear old mom wanted me to always stay sweet and innocent."

Ragnarok stared blankly at her. "Yeah? How's that working out for her?" Annie rolled her eye.

"Well, she turned into a skullgirl, then she died, and now I'm pretty much the total opposite of innocent." The jaded magical girl said with a bored tone. "But enough about me..." She turned her attention to Crona.

He was a tiny child with pink hair and wearing what barely amounted to a long, black shirt. Annie frowned at just how light he was before turning back to his formerly flayed arm just in time to see the last remnants of his injuries fade away. Meanwhile Sagan had trapped Medusa's soul as she attempted to flee in a pickle jar.

Annie scowled at the soul before taking a deep breath. "Geez... What kind of stuff was she getting up to with you...?" She said softly before the child stirred, whimpering softly.

"Please no more... It hurts... I want my skin back, I want it, I want it, I want it..." Annie felt her heart clench when she saw tears in his eyes.

Slowly, she gave up and decided to try and calm him down. Deciding to try and keep him calm, Annie pulled him closer, resting his head on her shoulder, unsure what else to do. She may have had a fair of experience with children, but nothing like this before. So, she simply tried to be something she assumed this tiny boy had never felt or had in his life. A comforting presence.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Little guy, it's okay." Annie spoke softly, trying to move away from what looked like a twisted laboratory. She had enough sense to know this would probably just frighten the kid in her arms more, and she wasn't trying to do that.

He whimperef and sobbed weakly. Cradling him like a baby, she slowly rocked him in her arms, "Shh, it's ok she can't hurt you anymore." After several minutes, Crona started to calm down before slipping deeper into slumber. With a sigh, Annie carefully wiped his tears from his eyes and cheeks.

She carefully shifted her hold on him so that she was holding him up to her shoulder, gently stroking his back to keep him soothed. She felt a warmth in her chest that she couldn't explain. Looking the boy over, she realized just how tiny he was. Even though she had a youthful body, if she were to stand side by side with him, he would be just a head smaller than her knee.

With a sigh, she turned towards the door, but before she could leave, the blob stopped her. "Wait, I'm as eager to get out of this place as you are, but there are a couple things we need to get before we go." Annie frowned but motioned with her hand for him to continue, "Medusa, the witch we just offed, has all kinds of research notes on what she did to me and the kid. At the very least we need to destroy them so another witch doesn't get her claws on them and uses them."

Annie had to agree with that. It also may give her an idea just what the actual heck was going on here, aside from something so inhuman she genuinely doubted she'd ever get it out of her mind. The boy kept whimpering and sniffling, even in his sleep he was trying his best to hold back crying, but was clearly failing at that. Annie wanted to comfort him more, but knew whatever had come out of him was right, they needed to get rid of the notes, the research, anything. It all had to burn.

"So who exactly was that?" Annie finally asked as she kept gathering files and papers. The blob appeared again and looked to her, clearly tired.

"Medusa Gorgon, th'kid's Mom."

Annie closed her eyes and stopped walking. Just as she feared... "Uh... The files?"

Annie nodded her head in agreement. "Right... Never let the bad guy's plans fall into the wrong hands..." She muttered softly. Ragnarok piped up again. "Also, while we're at it, might as well pick up the kid's little rabbit friend."

Annie glanced at the blob, "I'm a little scared to ask since I'm pretty sure I know the answer but..." Ragnarok grimacesdand scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, she was trying to get him to kill it. Trying to break him by making him kill something he loves with his own two hands."

Annie gritted her teeth and clenched a fist before tightening her hold on Crona, trying her best to make him feel like he was safe and loved, even through sleep... Crona seemed to catch on to this, as he let out an adorable sound of content, snuggled in closer and clutched at her dress with his tiny fists.

She cast a glance down at Sagan, who clearly didn't like that revelation and she couldn't exactly blame him. But, there were just more questions going through her mind now, and she didn't know if she wanted them answered.

"To answer your unspoken questions, I don't know why she chose rabbits, I don't know why she chose her son, his name is Crona, and I'm Ragnarok." Ragnarok listed off a few things. "Oh, also, the kid is in an insane amount of pain."

As if on cue, Crona whimpered pitifully in her embrace. She slowly rocked him even as Ragnarok led her to a reinforced metal door. She watched in fascination as one of Ragnarok's fingers morphed as he holds it to the lock, "Thankfully with Medusa dead the spells she put on the door should be gone, so," a soft click was heard as the door opened. "it should open without a hitch." A small rabbit quickly hopped out from within, only to be carefully scooped up by Ragnarok.

Annie blinked when she saw the rabbit was missing an eye. Ragnarok shrugged his shoulders. "The witch figured physically torturing Crona wasn't working, so she went for mental torture and started hurting the rabbit."

Annie scowled over her shoulder where Sagan was shaking the jar holding Medusa's soul, "Just what sort of monster did I stumble upon?" Ragnarok idly stroked the rabbit with one finger.

"Yeah I've seen some pretty messed up stuff in my time, kinda comes with being a demon weapon, but Medusa didn't just take the cake she took the rest of the bakery with her. Even amongst her fellow witches she is absolutely nuts."

That just gave Annie MORE questions, but she figured asking them all now wasn't the best plan. If 'Ragnarok' was telling the truth, then the both of them were probably in a lot of pain. Crona looked to be in pain, and Annie could hear it in the Black Blob's voice, he was clearly trying to hold it together. So she had probably hurt both of them in some regard.

"She- but-" Annie tried to gather her thoughts, but nothing came. Her own Mom wasn't the best mom in the world, but Annie cared deeply for her, even after the cure was accidentally lain on her. But for a mother to willingly torture their own child? that was a level of depravity she didn't think was possible. The bar for common decency was set so low it was a tripping hazard in heck. Yet, here she was limbo dancing with the devil.

Annie sighed and stroked the rabbit behind the ears, noting the way it visibly flinched away from her touch before relaxing into it. She focused on Crona. "She must have kept a supply of food in here somewhere, right? I need to feed Crona..." Ragnarok nodded.

"Yeah, he hasn't eaten in almost a month..."

Annie's jaw dropped as she stared at Crona in shock.

"A month, just how..." Ragnarok shrugged his shoulders.

"The goop she melted me into has all sorts of weird quirks to it. I've been able to heal the kid from all sorts of stuff, so staving off starvation isn't all that strange. At least she gave him water to drink so we didn't have to deal with dehydration."

Annie narrowed her eye. "Tell me where the food is right away. I am gonna feed this kid right now." Ragnarok shrugged.

"Uh... Down the hall and to the left. Can't miss it. Hey, ya mind if I take a nap? Healing the kid's a real tiring job."

Annie nodded and placed the rabbit on Crona's chest, "Sure, I can handle things from here." Ragnarok yawned before stretching.

"Thanks, I should be back in a couple hours, four or five tops." The sight of him melting before retreating within Crona was body mildly disturbing and interesting to watch for Annie.

Annie sighed, setting on the mission to feed the tiny boy in her arms. Crona, she recalled, was his name. Although, she had a bad feeling that he didn't know that, he was probably only ever given a name, or a number, like 'Beta' or 'Omega', or '576'. Something to remind him he was less than human, nothing but an experiment, and that both shattered Annie's heart, and angered her to no end. He was so small, so frail, it felt like he had never eaten a decent meal in his life, and he was treated like a tool, not even seen as human. And he was her son! How could anyone-

She stopped herself, knowing this could happen at the best and worst of times. She'd go in a circle, asking the same question over and over, to a point it could be considered insanity, but there was no answer to be found. Still, she could help the boy right now, and that's what mattered more to her.

Annie looked down at Crona and noticed him stirring. He slowly woke up, flinching and whimpering as if he was expecting more torture. Annie hugged him close and shushed him gently. "It's okay kiddo, you're safe now..." She whispered softly. He tensed up at the unfamiliar voice, then slowly looked up and saw her for the first time.

A smile and a warm golden eye greeted him, "Your arm is all better now, but Ragnarok had to take a nap so it's just the four of us for now." Tilting his head in confusion Crona looked around to see a stuffed rabbit waving at him before realizing that a familiar weight was on his chest. Looking down, he smiled at his bunny and rubbed his head.

"Lucky, you're ok."

Annie chuckled. "Lucky, huh? Cute name. Now c'mon... You must be starving half to death..." She looked him over and winced as she realized she could see his ribs through the little black robes he was wearing. He held Lucky closer with a wince to hide his exposed ribs.

Annie frowned, and shook her head. This was clearly a thing which upset him, so she didn't want to bring it up right now. Finally, she found a door and opened it, finding reserves of food. She looked down at Crona, who seemed downcast, as if he thought she was showing this to him just to hurt him in some way. With a shake of her head, she entered, searching the room before settling on some simple soda crackers.

"C'mon, little guy, open up." Annie instructed, holding Crona in one arm and picking up some crackers with the other. Crona winced and shrank back, as if he was scared of something, and it took Annie all of fifteen seconds to realize what he was afraid of. She popped a few in her mouth and ate them, showing him there was nothing to be afraid of. She tried offering them to him again, and Lucky seemed to notice the food, and ate one of the crackers.

There weren't very many crackers in the bag, though, and she knew that they weren't going to be enough to satiate the boy. After they were gone, Crona put his hands over his little tummy and frowned, somehow feeling more hungry than he had before.

Annie smiled sadly before giving him a gentle squeeze, "Don't worry, we'll fill your little tummy very soon. Hopefully there is even some lettuce for Lucky to munch on." True to Ragnarok's word, she found a kitchen, but it was very minimalist, barely a stove, oven, and refrigerator.

She exhaled through her nose and pulled the refrigerator door open to find everything she needed to prepare a light meal for the boy. "Okay, a bowl of soup and a sandwich it is. And hey, she does have lettuce, awesome."

Placing the lettuce in a bowl, she smiled as Crona offered Lucky a leaf to munch on. Meanwhile, Sagan quickly handed her a can of soup. With a sigh, Annie inspected the expiration date, "Well, it's cutting it close, but it looks like it's still good."

Crona still said nothing, not sure what was happening, or who this woman was. Actually, she kinda seemed like a student at the school his Mom worked at. Was she working with his Mom? That didn't make sense. why would she promise him things were okay if she was gonna hurt him? Was this just some sort of trick?

"Hang on, little guy. I gotta set you down for a sec." Annie remarked, setting Crona on the counter, hearing him let out a pitiful whimper, as if he was unsure what was happening. Not finding a can opener, Annie decided to go with plan B, and used her sword to open the top of the can. Sure, it was a bit eccentric, and complicated, but it worked.

Now that the can was opened, she could safely pick the boy back up again. She held Crona in one arm as she expertly prepared Crona's meal, settling on simple cold cuts and lettuce in the sandwich as she waited for the tomato soup to heat up. Upon finishing the meal, she sat down. Holding Crona close, she began to feed him.

Annie smiled as she offered a spoonful of soup to him, "I know it's not much, but it should be enough until we can all get back to Death City." She was going to have to bring the research notes she found to Lord Death. On top of having to explain that the school nurse was actually a crazy witch.

She watched him take his first sip of soup and her smile turned sad as his eyes teared up slightly as he relished in the first taste of food he'd had in a long time. She fed him another spoonful, and as he ate, he slowly started to break into quiet sobs at the gentle way she was treating him.

Annie sighed, unsure of what to say. She simply patted his head and fed him another spoonful of soup, all the while, Crona kept his eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears which were coming regardless.

"Aww, it's okay little guy." Annie admitted with a small smile, feeding him another spoonful. "I know this is scary, but the nightmares are over now. That monster who was hurting you is gone, she can't hurt you anymore."

"M-M-Mama's gone?" Crona quietly said, looking up at Annie, and it was hard to tell if he was scared, happy or something else. Annie clenched her jaw, hating that Medusa was technically his mother.

Placing the spoon down, she pulled out her handkerchief to carefully dab his tears, "Shh, it's ok Crona." Annie held his little head to her shoulder as he cried, and it only became more apparent how small he eas. Even with her young teen sized body, she could comfortably hold him in her arms fairly easily.

She gently rubbed the back of his head, burying her face in his soft pink hair. It seemed Medusa had, at the very least, kept him clean, likely to avoid the discomfort of bad odours. He clutched at her dress with his tiny fists and began to cry louder.

Annie figured this had been a long time coming if Medusa had been trying to turn Crona into an emotionless killer. He was probably never allowed to cry or let out any pent up emotions. Kissing the top of his head, she started to sing him a song from her past, one her mom would sing to her when she was crying.

Crona was taken aback, both by the kiss, the fact that she was being nice to him, and the song. He didn't even know this girl's name, but she was showing him the things his mother had never even pretended to. Literally. In all their trials, in all the attempts to break him, Medusa had never once even CONSIDERED showing him 'false kindness' aside from the occasional bit of food, which was usually drugged in some way. So, this was an entirely new feeling to Crona, and it scared him. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to react. But he wasn't being hit for his lack of action, if anything, this girl seemed happy that he wasn't reacting. Gradually, his crying reduced to sniffling, and he kept his eyes shut, listening to the song which was being gently and sweetly sung to him. It honestly was like the voice of an angel, and it made him shiver in preemptive fear of what would come next. This kind of kindness had to end with something terrible, right?

It broke Annie's heart that any mother could break their child like this. Despite her resentment of her mother for trapping her in a teen body, she still loved her very much and appreciated all the things she did for her. As Crona slowly settled down to a rock still state, she gently pulled him away and smiled down at him. "Better?" He nodded slowly and she leaned down and kissed his forehead, letting her lips linger a moment before pulling away. "Good..."

After dabbing his eyes, she continued to feed him and soon the bowl was empty. Annie let out a soft sigh of relief as Crona lightly dozed against her shoulder, 'It's not much, but it's a start.' She had no doubts in her mind that Crona still had a long road to recovery, maybe not physically thanks to Ragnarok but definitely mentally.

She held him close, gently stroking his back and smiling softly. "You're a cute little guy, y'know that?" He blushed slightly and looked up at her.

"Um... Y-Your name... Can you tell me...?" She smirked lightly.

"Just call me Annie, kiddo... I'll be protecting you from now on..."

Crona looked up at her with a look that Annie thought was adorable. His eyes seemed so saddened and broken, but they shone with a small glint of adoration and hope. It was clear he was afraid this was some sort of trick, and Annie knew all she could do was try her best to help him understand this wasn't a trick. Still, for now, she just held him close and rubbed his back. Trying her best to soothe him after everything he had experienced.

'I think it's time we got the heck outta dodge.' Annie thought, looking down at Sagan, who was still aggressively shaking the soul-jar in anger. She smirked slightly, but said nothing. Although, she did have to admit, seeing a soul like this was such an odd experience. Sure, in the past she had seen one or two, but to see one for this long up close? Especially one so twisted? It was odd.

"Well... You'll be staying with me from now on... We'll be heading on out soon enough." She said.

Crona looked up at her with wide eyes before whispering, "R-really?" Annie smiled
before kissing the top of his head.

"Really, really, you, Ragnarok, and Lucky will be staying with me and Sagan from now on." The remote parasite waved from his spot on the kitchen counter.

Crona looked over at the rabbit-like parasite and his face lit up a bit. "Another bunny..." He said softly. Annie gave him a small smirk.

"Heh... If that's how you wanna see him, more power to ya." Sagan nodded.

Crona just tiltex his head cutely at her in confusion, and Annie chuckled and lightly ruffled his hair, "Sagan is... special, he's kind of like Ragnarok in several ways. A partner and a friend I've come to rely on after so long." She had been very surprised when she first met him all those years ago, while parasite weapons weren't that uncommon the remote types were pretty rare.

Sagan nodded his head and hopped off the counter, making his way over and extending his little rabbit paw up to Crona for a handshake. Crona looked at the parasite curiously before slowly reaching out and accepting his offer to shake.

Annie smiled as the two seemed to form some sort of bond immediately. That was good, if Crona was going to stay with her for the time being (which he was, at least until they got back to Death City) it'd help if they all got along. She couldn't speak for Ragnarok, but he seemed... okay, for the time being. She really couldn't get a good read on him, and decided to leave that be for the moment. He was clearly connected to Crona, somehow, she assumed he was somehow parasitically attached to his blood, but that was all she really knew for now.

"Hey, Crona? Do you know where any... files may have been kept?" Annie asked, and frowned she Crona looked like he was going to panic. "No, no, no. Don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to destroy anything left behind by that monster. I don't want anyone to ever try anything like this again."

Crona still looked uncomfortable, so she decided to change the subject. "Umm... How about I tell you about Sagan?" Crona sniffled and nodded slowly. "Sagan is what's known as a remote parasite weapon, and unlike most other parasite weapons he doesn't have to be attached to my body." In fact most parasites were kind of like Ragnarok, 'Hmm, I wonder if that's where Medusa got the idea for implanting him in Crona?' In fact it wasn't even the first time she heard of a parasite weapon with power over blood

She grimaced very slightly as she remembered that encounter with Eliza and her parasite Sekhmet. It was a very messy fight, but hey... the megalomaniac was dead at least... And Ragnarok was clearly far more benevolent than Sekhmet.

Crona noticed the eye in Sagan's mouth and nervously looked between the two of them. Annie gave him a sheepish grin and rubbed her eyepatch, "Yeah, while they don't attach themselves to their hosts body remote parasites still have a price to them. On the upside I can still see through that eye, and I can hear through Sagan's ears as well."

"Huh." Crona blinked. "Cool." He didn't say much else, and Annie had half-expected/half-hoped he'd comment on what he and Ragnarok could do, so she could get an idea of what she was working with. But at the same time, she knew Crona was probably in a lot of pain and a few states of shock right now. So simply destroying the files and getting out of here was a good idea.

But... what came after that?

She looked down at Crona as she walked, considering her options. Preferably, she didn't want Crona staying in Death City. No offence to Lord Death (as goofy as he looked, Annie could tell he was NOT the guy you wanted to anger.) there were far, far too many bad memories here for Crona. But at the same time, what was she going to do with him? She didn't know of anyone who was looking to adopt a child, and the thought of leaving him at an orphanage or a church was wrong, especially because she knew that shapeshifter lurked in the Maplecrest Cathedral, and the last thing she wanted was to hand a child over to that monster, especially one with Crona's powers.

Crona interruoted her train of though with a timid question. "Um... Does not having your eye hurt...?"

Annie laughed and shook her head. "Nah. Not at all." She lifted her bangs up to reveal her eyepatch. "See? I even get a cool eyepatch out of the deal. Yarr, matey." She joked to try and lighten the mood, even doing a pirate voice. She noticed the corners of his mouth twitch slightly.

With a grin, she began to lightly tickle Crona's sides, "Oh I know you can make a better smile than that." Soon she had him giggling and squirming lightly in her arms. Annie pulled him into a hug and lightly booped his nose, "Now that's much better," she coord happily as Crona hugged her back.

She looked him over and was pleased to see he had lightened up significantly. He was still scared and hurting... but she had managed to shed a little light on his difficult life. He slowly looked up at her with a look of adoration.

Honestly, it wasn't fair how cute it looked. Maybe it was his large, sad eyes, or maybe it was something else, but Crona had an adorable expression on his face and Annie couldn't explain it for the life of her.

'Honestly, I think he'd be happy anywhere that isn't here.' She thought as she walked, holding Crona to her shoulder, not noticing Crona snuggle down, beginning to grow attached to her. 'Still, need to get him looked at by an actual doctor, I have no idea what that monster did to him. Ugh. I hate that 'monster' is the worst thing I can say. there's so much more I wanna call her...'

Still, for now, she had found what she assumed was the room where the records would be, and she felt her spine freeze. It was clear whatever was in here was bad, but she knew she had to get rid of it.

With a sigh, she pushed the doors open to see the many files and documents tucked neatly into their respective areas. She looked around, pulling out everything she deemed important and ripping or smashing the rest to pieces. When she had all she wanted to bring to Lord Death in her skirt pocket, she turned to Crona and nodded. "We're good to go." He smiled back up at her.

Annie smiled back before kissing his forehead, a simple gesture that meant more than the world to the little guy. They first went to the kitchen area to grab Lucky, whom they had left to finish his salad. Glancing over at Lucky, she saw his bowl of greens was gone and he had settled down for a quick nap. Annie sighed as she took one last look around the room, 'Finally time to leave this place.'

She gently picked Lucky up, causing him to let out a quiet squeak, then handed him back to Crona, who took him and smiled as he fell asleep in his arms. Annie gave him a fond smirk before making her way down a nearby hallway. 'These evil lairs always have a secret exit of some kind...' She thought, feeling against the wall.

She slowly made her way down the hallway while keeping her hand on the wall trying to feel for a hidden switch, an air draft, or something that would reveal a hidden passageway. She felt her frustration grow after several minutes of fruitless searching before stopping to lean against a wall. Letting out a sigh, she tried to focus her thoughts, 'Oh come on she has to have a hidden door some-' her thoughts were cut off as she heard a soft click and the wall behind her suddenly swung open.

The blinding light caught her off-guard, and she stumbled backwards as the sun came pouring into the dark lair. Annie groaned, and turned away, shielding Crona from the worst of the blinding light that came their way. After about a minute, her eye adjusted and she sighed, stepping back out to the desert from where she had came. She didn't know what was next, but getting out of here was a good idea. Everything left behind would rust, be destroyed, or lost to the sands of time, and Annie wanted nothing to do with it.

'Well, time for however long this walk will be to find my scooter.' She thought, before setting off and missing that the door had opened about five feet from her scooter. She cursed herself as she began walking the parameter of the lair that she hadn't listened to that young new scientist at one of the labs, Stanley, when he offered to add a tracking device so her scooter could fly to her.

She searched around, but saw no sign of it anywhere. "Uuuugh... Sagan, did you see where my scooter went?" Sagan looked around, then shrugged his shoulders. "It got buried in the sand somewhere around here, didn't it?" Sagan nodded. Annie sighed, then held Crona up under his armpits and gave him a small smile.

"I'm just gonna put you over by the mouth of the cave while I look for my scooter. I don't want you baking in the sun." She explained gently.

Crona seemed a bit saddened that Annie wasn't holding him anymore (as he was beginning to really like the whole 'positive affection' thing she was doing for him, but nodded nonetheless. He knew what the heat could be like, and he didn't like it. Annie smiled and headed back out to look for her scooter, only for a strong gust of wind to appear from behind her. At first, she braced herself and smirked, knowing it would take more than wind to-

Thump!

The next thing she knew, the wind had changed course and hit her from the side, pushing her face-first into the sand. She grumbled something inaudible, and pulled herself back up.

"Okay, not the best impression for Crona, but whatever. Just ignoring that." Annie muttered, shaking the sand from her hair.

"Okay... Where is that scooter...?" She muttered. "I know I have my alarm system somewhere in here... Ah, here we go..." She clicked the button and heard the sound of her scooter's alarm several yards away. "Great. Bit of a walk to get there... Over rocky terrain, a bunch of cacti, a jest of scorpions and more sand than is feasibly possible for any normal place on the planet to ever have. And it's on top of a hill to boot. What could possibly go wrong?"

She was being very sarcastic.

Sighing, she turned back to Crona with a small smirk. "Be right back, kiddo, I'm not going anywhere!" She called over.

Crona nodded and waved back, watching her run further into the desert. Ever observant, he frowned. "Um... You're gonna trip over a-" Annie yelped. "...Rock..."

Annie was back face down in the sand and groaned audibly. This was NOT how she wanted her day to go... still, there wasn't much she could do now. Pulling herself up, she spat sand out and coughed in annoyance at her clumsiness.

"Ugh. I hate sand. It's coarse, and rough... and it gets everywhere..." She groaned, venting about her own frustrations. She looked around, feeling like she was being watched, then saw nothing. With a shrug, she returned to looking for her vehicle, only for a shark to leap from the sand and tail-slap her in the face, smacking her back down and burying her in the sand.

'I'm sorry. WHAT!?' Annie mentally screamed as she began desperately trying to free herself, only to feel another slap bury her further.

Her entire upper half was lodged in the sand, and with another slap, she was buried in it completely. The shark went in for the kill, only for her hand to burst out of the sand, holding her sword aloft.

One blow from the sword pierced through the shark's scales, and with a quick flex of power, it was pumped up with so much energy that it promptly exploded into several pieces. Annie's upper half popped out of the sand with a gasp. "Ugh... Must be one of those Kishin things..." She muttered to herself.

Noticing a shadow looming over her, she looked up, and her eye widened as she saw a massivr chunk of shark kishin coming her way.

It jumped, and slapped her with its tail for a third time, smacking her back down into the sand. Annie screamed into the sand, lying face down and just waiting, waiting for another Sand Shark to come and attack her, but none did. After about five minutes, she pulled herself up and groaned in annoyance.

"Those were Sand Sharks." Crona spoke up from where he was watching.

'NO DUH!' Annie mentally screamed.

"Mommy said they're really rare, and apparently they don't attack people unless they feel a need to. They also never attack more than once, apparently."

'I'm calling shenanigans, but fine.' Annie mentally groaned. She didn't want to be upset with Crona, so she simply nodded. "Hey, kid? Is there anything else I need to be aware of?"

"Uh... there were Kishin's known as Grabboids, and they lived under the sand."

"They-" Annie blinked, only for a large worm-creature to shoot by underneath the sand and grab her foot by accident, dragging her along as it traveled mindlessly.

Crona sweatdropped aa he watched the furrowed tunnel sliding along through the sand, hearing Annie's muffled screaming.

He felt bad for her.

But he wasn't worried.

He had fought these creatures all his life. They were easy kills to him. And Miss Annie was a lot stronger than him.

Still, he probably should have warned her that his mother had set up spells to lure in kishin and monsters him to practice on...

Soon enough, the tunnel stopped moving.

And after several seconds, Annie's rear end popped out of the sand and shook feebly as, beneath the sand, Annie struggled to pry her sword free from the defeated beast.

It was another five minutes before she finally got fully free from her sandy prison and looked around, exasperated. By the weirdness of this city. Seriously, she lived in a world where there was a magic skull-thing that possessed people, but this was just getting ridiculous!

"Hey... Crona...?" She called, out of breath. "Those... things... they don't... travel... in packs, do they...?

"Uh, sometimes..." Crona timidly called back.

"Oh. Cool." She sighed deeply, using her sword for balance as she tried to steady herself against the heat, sand, and dizziness she was feeling from being thrashed about by a giant sand worm which had no idea she even existed.

Was her scooter even around at this point? Considering her rotten luck today, she was seriously thinking there was a very good chance that it was eaten by one of those monsters. Groaning to herself, she shook her head and set to taking a step forward, still dizzy and disoriented from her little misadventure.

She stumbled down the hill.

And she rolled all the way down.

She plowed through various rocks and cacti on the way down, then finally landed headfirst in the sand at the bottom of the hill, upper body lodged in the sand with her butt facing up in the air. On the bright side, she found where her scooter was buried,

Except another cactus she had smashed into came falling down and landed on her, forcing her further down again, and now with a prickly cactus stuck in her back.

"OowWwWw..." She weakly groaned. Not feeling like she wanted to try and dig herself out. At this point, she felt like she should just give up and live here, buried in the sane, with a cactus stuck to her. Honestly, at this point, it seemed like the best idea. She couldn't get hurt if she stated here, she coudln't get hurt by anything, other than the sand sharks, and giant worms and...

'Get up. Get Crona. Get out of here.' She mentally groaned in annoyance. 'This is worse than those slapstick filler episodes they made me film...'

Slowly, she forced herself to stand up, her legs standing on the sand and pushing to try and yank her upper half free.

After a long seven minutes, her upper half popped out of the sand. She stumbled back with a "Whoa!', and then she fell over... and found herself sitting on a smaller cactus. She squeezed her eyes shut, gritted her teeth and hissed at the pain, then slowly rose to her feet and ripped handfuls of needles out of her body.

Scowling, she pointed her sword at the sand and blasted a large enough crater to uncover her buried scooter.

Getting onto it, she powered it up and drove back over to Crona, only to hit the rock from earlier, and be sent flying off of it, crashing into a wall hard enough to crack it before falling down to the floor.

"Miss Annie! Are-are you okay!?" Crona squeaked, nervous that the only person who was ever half-way decent to him may have been injured.

"I feel like a rainbow..." Annie moaned, before pulling herself up and glaring a thousand unspoken curses (literally, as she couldn't curse) at the desert, and all its desert-ness. Around this time, Ragnarok woke up and re-emerged, trying to figure out what was going on. "Oh, you. Good." Annie sighed. "We need to get back to Death City, which way do we go?"

"Y'know there's a passageway inside the lab, right? It'll take us right back to the city." Ragnarok commented, not knowing what had previously transpired.

Annie's eye twitched several times as she felt her sanity rapidly deplete to a dangerous level. Then, she collapsed facefirst into the sand and intentionally buried her head in it to muffle the scream of pure rage.

Minutes later, the trio were entering the ensuing entrance to find herself in the sewers of Death City. "Great. I hate the sewers..." She muttered, shaking her head.

Looking around, she let out a sigh of relief, "At least it's all well maintained." Everything was well lit, the stone walls weren't crumbling, and it didn't even smell as bad as some sewers she had been in! Thankfully it seems that Medusa had carefully picked her secret passage location carefully as well, not fifteen feet away stood a ladder to the surface.

Carefully tucking Crona under her arm, she climbed her way out and looked around the city before sighing in relief. "Safe and sound, Crona... Safe and sound." She said, ruffling the boy's hair as she made her way over to the DWMA.

She had a LOT of questions for Lord Death right about now... she didn't suspect him of being behind this, but she also knew that a kind exterior could hide a deadly secret. Honestly, it was part of why she never suspected Eliza of anything for so long. Sure, she was self-absorbed, but she seemed like a genuinely good person. MAN was she ever wrong about that one, but Crona didn't need to know about that.

Finally she arrived back at the school, smiling slightly at the sight of Crona looking around curiously. It was clear he had either never been here before, it had been a while since he was last here, and now was trying to remember everything.

"Don't worry, Crona. This is a good place." Annie smiled. 'I think.'

With a sigh she looked up at the massive school for the second time that day. With a soft groan she mumbled, "I expected to come back here again, but not within a couple hours." Meanwhile Crona was looking up at the same building in awe, but not just that even the sun and clouds held his attention.

Annie gave him a wry smile before looking up at the sky with him. "Yeah, it's quite a sight, huh kid? Though I do wonder why Lord Death chose to make the sun and moon sentient in his realm. It's kinda creepy."

Suddenly a familiar voice was heard, "He has a flair for the dramatic," a grinning Stein stepped out of the main doors but his smile faltered when he noticed how disheveled she appeared to be. Annie sighed as she adjusts Crona on her hip.

"There was some complications when I was heading out. We should probably go see Death, he needs to be in the loop on this."

"...yeah... I can tell." Stein remarked before nodding towards a door. "C'mon, he's still in his office."

Annie nodded, and followed behind the scientist. Crona kept looking around, feeling an odd sense of relief at finally being free form the place he was forced to call 'home' for so long. Sure, there were countless scars, mentally and physically, which would never go away. But for once in his (relatively short, but extremely painful) life, he didn't feel terror and anxiety while he looked around. He didn't know if it would last that long, but he wanted to enjoy it while he could.

Stein looked over Crona with a curious expression. Annie caught on and narrowed her eye. "No. Just no. You are not doing any of your messed up experiments on Crona. Try it and I'll kick your butt." Stein sighed.

"Fine, fine..."

Unconvinced, Annie decided to get her point across by giving Stein a very close look at her sword, "I mean it, Stiches, you try anything and I'll show you just how good I am with this sword. You'd be surprised what having all the time in the world to practice and countless battles can do for a person." One of the few upsides of her eternally youthful body, without having to worry about aging she had been able to continually sharpen her skills without time sapping her strength away.

Stein raised his hands defensively. "Fine, fine, sue me for having a sense of curiousity." Annie gave him a pointed glare for several seconds. Then she pulled back her foot and kicked him in the shin as hard as she could.

Stein went the ground and groaned in pain. Annie sighed and decided to ignore Stein and entered Death's office. The embodiment of Death looked up ins surprise when he saw Annie in his doorway.

"Ah. Annie." He blinked. "Is something the matter?"

"Yeah." Annie frowned. "One of your staff was torturing a child." Death blinked, and seemed to be about to say 'Could you be more specific?' "Medusa, she was torturing her own son."

Lord Death tenaed up. "What?! How?! Why?! I...I must look more into this, one moment please!" He rushed off to check the security cameras for any suspicious activity Medusa may have gotten up to, anything he may have failed to see...

Crona felt a bit shaken up. The entire conversation between Annie and Stein left him not quite sure what had just happened, but the scary man had looked at him like his mama had... just not as scary.

Annie gave him a small smile and kissed his head. "Don't worry, he tries anything, he is gonna be the one that gets cut open." Crona whimpered and clutched at his tummy, bad memories returning to him.

"I want my thingies in my body..."

She held him tightly to her and gave him another kiss. "It's ok, she can't hurt you like that ever again, and I'll never give anyone else a chance to either." Her other hand was gripping her sword so hard the leather grip began to creak, she hadn't read all or even most of the research notes but now she feared what sort of horrors lay within. Meanwhile Sagan glareed at the witch's soul in the jar and began to vigorously shake it once more.

"...you gonna eat that?" Ragnarok asked, looking to Sagan, who looked to Ragnarok as if he had just appeared as the Archduke of Ferdinand wearing a racoon costume while making hotdogs. Even Annie was taken aback by the question, and looked to Ragnarok.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" She finally asked.

"Is he gonna eat that." Ragnarok asked again, pointing to the soul in the jar. "If not, I call dibs. That bitch had it coming for way too long."

'Okay. First of all, this thing can swear and I can't?! No fair.' Annie mentally pouted. 'Second, this thing EATS SOULS!? I didn't think that was possible! How do you- but what happens to- and then- what do they even taste like?!'

"I take it this is a new concept to you." Ragnarok flatly said, sighing slightly.

"We'll uh...discuss this later..." Annie said simply. She gave her parasite a smile and rubbed his head before turning her attention to Lord Death. Several large screens filled the skies of his room. One of them was Lord Death watching her show alone wearing an Annie t-shirt and a foam finger.

Death realized she had seen it and looked at her with a face that, despite being a cartoony skull, could only be called sheepish, "This... is exactly what it looks like." Annie blinkex in surprise as she looked at the shirt, because while the foam finger was new, the shirt was from what felt like ages ago.

"Oh wow, I haven't seen one of those shirts in years!" The shirt had an old version of her logo, with her hair and dress in a different style than what she currently wore.

Lord Death just chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "Yes, I've been watching since the early seasons... Not much else to do when you're trapped in the same room after all. But never mind that. I've noticed all of the suspicious activity Medusa has gotten up to... Where js she now? She must be found!"

Annie looked at Crona before stepping aside to reveal Sagan holding up the jar containing Medusa's soul. Lord Death gasped. He knew a witch's soul when he saw one. Annie sighed when she saw him stagger towards the couch, "Yeah, we both might want to see down for this one, I've seen some stuff in my time but this one's a doozy."

Lord Death blinked and set a sear for her.

Present...

"So I told Lord Death all about what happened. And let me tell ya, he may look like a big goofball, but when he gets mad? It is dang terrifying..."

"Really? You described his as someone with, and I quote, 'foam-oven-mitt-hands'." Beowulf commented, raising a brow. "How can he be that scary?"

"Because he is literally, death. Like, he is the living embodiment of death." Annie remarked. "Not just the idea of dying, but the concept of NOTHING EXISTING AFTER. When he got angry, it was like everything just... disappeared, all there was in the room was just this twisted inky blackness, it felt like everything that had ever existed, just ceased to. His powers got the smallest bit out from his control, and I couldn't speak, I couldn't hear anything, all I could do was think, and hear my thoughts echoing back in my head. I couldn't tell if I was even LOOKING at things or not. And that was him losing something like one percent of his control for about two seconds."

Her explanation was terrifying, and Beowulf realized one of the weirder, more abstract episodes had actually run with this concept. Annie had to deal with the usual monster of the week, some thing named Ozzie, but he had used his powers to make everything go dark. But that had been props and a sound stage, this was death getting pissed off. It was weird enough hearing that Death was a person, it was weirder hearing he ran a school, it was even weirder hearing he was actually a nice guy, but the weirdest part was hearing Death had emotions, which led to the terrifying concept of an either angry or simply apathetic Death, and the fact that no-one could stop him (realistically).

"Okay, I'll take your word for it."

Aileen shivered and hugged herself. "Wow... That's scary... I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it... But what about Crona...? Was he okay?" Annie sighed and looked down.

"I...I think he was...used to that kind of existential dread..." The room fell into silence at that. "...So... back to the story..."

Past...

For a brief moment the entire school shook from the indescribable anger boiling within the normally jolly being. Death couldn't even begin to describe what he was feeling, that someone would dare to unseal Asura after all this time. After everything it had cost them to seal him away in the first place?

But what really made him reach his boiling point was the fact that she had used Crona to try and do it. Not only used the boy, but shamelessly tortured and abused him in horrific fashion. As a father himself, he simply could not abide by such a thing!

However, he forced his anger back under control when he saw Crona hiding his face in Annie's shoulder, afraid to look at him, but even with the willpower forged through countless years and battles, it was still a struggle. With a weary sigh, he dropped the file of horrors on his desk and slowly wiped his hand down his face. Annie sighed, knowing just what really stung him, somehow Medusa had done all of this under his nose, "That woman was a sociopath, they are by nature manipulative and can fake regular human emotions. Add in a little magic to hide her witchiness and even I barely got more than a slightly unnerving feeling from her."

He paused for a minute, then simply cursed. One, four-letter word. That was it.

Annie was jealous, honestly. It was kinda funny hearing Death say that, but knowing she couldn't? Ugh.

"I don't wanna be rude, but who was Asura?" Annie finally asked, and when Death looked to her, his expression was Grim, to say the least. There was something almost pained about the way he looked down at her, as if his eyes (or lack thereof) had experienced an eternity of war, and no amount of time would ever let them shut to sleep peacefully.

"I'll put it like this, Asura, in its weakest state, would make the Trinity, and every single Skullheart and Skullgirl that ever has or may ever exist look like mere child's drawings in terms of power. To put it another way, it would be as if Stevie from your show was made to fight the Trinity, and even then, that's barely scratching the surface of how powerful Asura can be. Also, keep in mind, this is all when its weakened to the point of death."

NOW Annie really wished she could curse.

Something that powerful?! How was she supposed to react!?

And that woman wanted to revive the darn thing?!

Annie nodded silently, looking over at Crona. "Tch... That old hag was Crona's mom... Totally unreal... She didn't deserve a cute little guy like this at all..." She muttered with a sad expression as he timidly looked up at her with a few tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

She carefully wiped his tears away before holding him close, "Shh, it's ok Crona." Crona clinged to her while she lightly bounced him in her arms. Meanwhile Ragnarok chose that moment to erupt from his back in a groggy panic after waking up from Death's outburst.

"All right, all right, I'll get him to... Oh right... the witch is dead... Wait... This place is... Oh wow, I'm back in Lord Death's room, aren't I?! Oh man, it has been forever and a day since I last got to see this place!"

Seeing that they weren't in danger, his muscled form deflated like a balloon, leaving him at a fraction of his previous size. Death tilted his head in confusion at Ragnarok, "Wait, I think I know that voice, but that would mean..." The demon sword waved happily at the reaper.

"Hey, Lord Death, long time no see!"

Lord Death approached and looked down at the blob. "Ragnarok? Is that you? My goodness, you certainly gave us all quite a scare disappearing like that... What in the world happened... Oh... You are the weapon she melted down."

"Yeah. Fun times." Ragnarok said flatly. "Hurt like hell. Hurt almost as much as being injected into th'kid, here. Because for some reason, that's what she did, and I am now his blood... look, I'm telling you this because I gotta ask, can you separate us?"

Lord Death was quiet for a minute, as he seemed to consider multiple options before sighing.

"That didn't sound like a good sigh." Ragnarok remarked, dryly.

"Removing you will most likely kill him." Lord Death admitted. "He has no blood of his own, anymore, if you are to be believed."

Ragnarok looked to Crona, then to Death, then to Annie, then repeated that cycle a few times, as if debating if this was something he could/couldn't live with. It somewhat angered Annie, but she also understood where his anger was coming from.

Ragnarok eventually sighed and looked down, a storm cloud forming over his head. "Care to tell me what happened?" Lord Death asked.

Ragnarok scratched his head and looked away sheepishly. "Yeah, that snake slipped something in my drink while she had me distracted. One minute we're chatting away in a pub, and the next thing I know I'm goop! A while later she's implanting me in Crona like a blood transfusion."

Death clenched his fists. "And she even harmed one of my students... Damn that witch..." He took a deep breath. "Thank you Annie... You have done us all a great service and prevented a terrible disaster..."

Annie shrugged her shoulders, "I couldn't turn a blind eye to something like this. Even if she didn't have the whole 'drown the world in madness' plan I still would have stepped in." Death let out one more sigh as he sank into his couch.

"Now I just have to find a new nurse or doctor, that isn't Stein, on very short notice, and try to prevent another witch from sneaking in."

"I don't know any in this regard." Annie shrugged. "Sure, there was Caleb back at the studio, but he isn't the kinda doctor you'd be looking for. Even then, we still need him for when one of the stunt doubles gets hurt inevitably." She muttered the last part under her breath, sometimes feeling like she was the only person on set who knew what they were doing. Admittedly, Caleb knew what he was doing, but the sloth feral seemed to get amusement from watching the stunt doubles try something they weren't prepared for, but insisted they could do, only to then fall on their faces and have to go to him to get their wounds patched. Annie was sometimes included in that group, and was thankful her contract had specifically said 'No bloopers in home video releases'.

Death nodded in understanding, clearly feeling like this was his responsibility (and it was). Speaking of great power and great finish-the-quote-you-all-know-it, Annie looked down to Crona, who was now curled up against her, clearly frightened again after hearing (and reliving, mentally) about his past and what was truly meant for him. On top of the brief mention that he could die if Ragnarok got bored and left him. That wasn't true, but it was how he understood it.

Annie gently rubbed his back. "Hey... It's okay... He's not going anywhere..." She said softly. Annie nodded her head at Lord Death. "Well... I gotta find a place to get situated for the night... Crona here has had a really big day, and he just needs his beauty rest right now..." She smiled fondly at the tiny boy and gave him a soft kiss on his brow.

Death held up a hand to stop her as she sto9d to leave, "Please, Annie, the least I can do is provide a room for the night after all you have done. In addition to Saving Crona and Ragnarok, you stopped the revival of a terrible threat." Even now the thought of Asura was painful for him, the sight of his friends descent into madness haunting him ever since the day it happened.

Annie looked over with a small smile and nodded her head. "Thanks, Lord Death. Really appreciate it." Lord Death nodded.

"It's no trouble at all. It seems you've already formed quite the bond with this boy. And as a parent myself, it is my obligation to do what I can to help you."

Annie nodded, silently agreeing with Death. She had to admit, she liked Crona. Not just because she had saved him, but because he was pretty cute. He was just a small, innocent little boy who had been through heck, and Annie wanted to help him in any way he could, even if that was just keeping him company tonight during what she assumed would be the inevitable nightmares he was going to experience.

Annie smiled down at Crona as he sleepily leaned against her shoulder while Death gazed warmly at them. He stood up and waved his hand at them, "Please, follow and I'll lead you to the guest rooms." Soon enough Death opened a door for them leading to a very nice suite, "These rooms are primarily for my Death Scythes when they are in the city, but we occasionally have other guests in need of some hospitality."

Annie nodded her head in affirmation. "Thanks again... C'mon, Crona. Let's go and get ourselves situated. You can take a nap when we get to the room." She said gently, promptly getting a happy coo from the small sleepy boy in her arms.

Death chuckled warmly as he watched her dote on Crona, a heartwarming sight that gave him hope for the poor child's future. Meanwhile Ragnarok wss looking around at everything as they passed by. "Man, this place hasn't changed a bit. I wonder if any of my old classmates are still hanging around?"

As if on cue, an electrical explosion went off in a room as if something had been blasted open by a shotgun, followed by two voices yelling at one another.

"Gah! What the heck, 'Stick!? I just rebuilt D.U.M.M.I.! You can't just shoot him like that!"

"Hey! You said he could withstand ANYTHING!" A deeper voice yelled back. "I asked if that included my leg, you said yes, so I shot him, and it turns out you lied!"

"I was being sarcastic!"

Annie looked to Ragnarok, as if asking for an explanation. the Black Blob shook his head dismissively, as if shooting down an idea.

"Nah, not a good call." He muttered. "Those two are old friends of mine, but they're not the kinda guys Crona should be around right now. I can't stand when the brat was crying, and they'll probably just remind him of Medusa..." He muttered, and didn't elaborate. Annie blinked, but decided not to press. She noticed Crona had tensed a little, and rubbed his back, trying to calm him down. It seemed like no matter where she went, there would always be people who had rather 'explosive' personalities. Honestly, it kinda made her like Cron more, as his shy, timid personality was a cute contrast.

'Cute? I... huh... that was a weird thought.' She blinked. 'Sure, the kid's cute, but that sounded like something a big sister would say.'

"Figures they'd still be around, I didn't see them graduating any time soon... Stick's a dumbass and Wiz blows ass at fighting... Bet most of my old friends are death scythes by now... Guess I won't get to be one, unless you plan on swinging the kid around like a weapon..."

Annie decided to cut in, "If Crona wants to fight then that's his choice, I'll even teach him myself. However, I think he's had enough violence for a long time." Ragnarok winced and scratched the back of his head.

Crona shook his tiny head rapidly. "No...I hate fighting, I really hate it... Lady Medusa always brought in these big scary kishin thingies and let them beat me up until I started to fight back..." He whimpered out at the awful memories.

Annie held him to her shoulder and lightly bounced him in her arms, meanwhile Ragnarok grimaced and rubbed his neck, "Yeah I remember those times, thankfully I still count as a demon weapon so I eventually managed to put them down. Thankfully they were lower level kishin so they weren't too bright." What went unsaid was that it was because of those times that he learned how to make Crona's body more durable to protect him.

Ragnarok wasn't sure how Annie would react to that, so he decided to leave well enough alone for the time being. The kid was in enough pain as it was, and the last thing Ragnarok wanted to deal with was him having another mental breakdown that would last for a few days and be a real pain in the ass to deal with. Namely because he was the only one who could/would have to put up with it.

'Ugh, it ain't his fault, ya jackass.' Ragnarok muttered. 'He didn't ask fer any'a this crap t'happen. Then again, neither did I.'

Annie meanwhile was concerned about how much and how little she knew at the same time. There was clearly more, she'd be an idiot of she believed she knew everything, but she didn't know how to ask him about it.

Annie scowls over at Lord Death's office where Medusa's soul resided, sitting quietly in Lord Death's hand. "Just looking at that stupid witch's soul is really ticking me off... What I gave her was way better than she deserved..." She growled out softly, furious about all that evil monster had done to her own child.

Ragnarok smirked. "Don't worry, where she's going she'll get what's coming to her. With so much bad karma on her soul that's a guarantee" He had an inkling just which witch she had been from the reptilian appearance of the soul, and the Gorgon sisters all had a rather infamous reputation. He just wished he had recognized her before that...

Annie smirked lightly. "Well, whatever happens to her next... I hope it's neverending pain." Ragnarok chuckled.

"Oh, it will be. But for now, let's focus on getting to that room so we can relax." He looked at a door and gestured to it. "This should be the place!."

Nov 6Annie nodded and opened the door. Since all of Death City was styled off of Death, skulls, death, skulls, and, well, death. Annie expected the room to follow suit. Maybe some sort of Halloween flair, or something along those lines. What she didn't expect was how normal and peaceful it seemed. Really, it was almost dull (not that she was complaining) and it just caught her unaware.

"Huh, the rooms got bigger." Ragnarok muttered, looking around. He paused then looked up at Annie. "Don't you say it."

"Say what?"

"Exactly." The Black Blob muttered.

"That you got smaller?" Crona innocently asked, and Ragnarok glared art him.

"I swear, if we weren't connected..." He muttered, turning away, sulking. Annie was reminded that these two were now connected, literally. So, was it if one got hurt, the other felt it?

She... didn't want to think about that right now. She woukd just... look around at the room. Annie gazed around at how nice the room is. In fact, it was even nicer than some of the hotels she had stayed at in the past! A comfortable looking king sized bed, an equally comfortable looking recliner, she could even see a kitchenette tucked away in a corner of the room, and that was just what she could see from the door.

"Wow, this place is almost as nice as my dressing room." As impressive as this room was... her employers spared no expense to keep their star comfortable, so her private qiarters back home were off the charts cushy. Still, it was a very nice room.

She looked down at Crona and felt her heart almost melt as he cutely looked around at everything in the room. Although a cynical part of herself whispered that much of his curiosity was because he had, quite literally, never seen so much as a bed before. His room in the snake's lair had been beyond spartan with bare stone walls and floors.

Still, if he thought this was nice... he was right. It was really nice. She smiled and sat him down on the bed, before sitting on it herself. Crona seemed to push on the mattress a little, as if amazed by what he was sitting on.

"Before you ask, yeah. This is literally that new to him." Ragnarok said, dryly. "I figured yer smart enough t'tell that on yer own, but hey." Annie sighed deeply at the confirmation of her fears, but didn't comment. She didn't want to ruin things for Crona. Not after all he had been through.

'Still, what's gonna happen to him?' Annie wondered as she patted his head, almost like a kitten. 'I suppose someone in Death City could take care of him, but, ugh. Can I just take him away from his home? What am I saying?! I already did!' It was a repulsive thought that Crona's 'home' was a lab covered in blood, but that seemed to be the truth for him. So, Annie's argument about taking him away didn't work. Furthermore, the counterargument was 'Do you want to leave him THERE!?' Which the answer from everyone (Death included) was a resounding 'HECK. NO.'

'Aaaagghh- dang curse!' Annie tried to curse, only to fail.

She looked at him sadly Something as mundane as being held by another person was foreign to him, let alone a bed. Smiling sadly, she picked him up. "Here ya go, kiddo... Take it for a spin." She whispered softly before setting him down and gently tucking him in up to his chin.

His first experience with a warm blanket and a soft bed had Crona out like a light in a matter of seconds. Annie smiled sadly as she rubbed his head, "He looks so peaceful when he's sleeping like this." Lucky curled up on top of Crona to join him in a nap.

Smiling warmly, she leaned down and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Sleep tight, hun." She whispered softly into his ear. Then she turned over to the door to find that Lord Death had come to check up on them. She blinked at Lord Death, who tilted his head to the side.

"Mmm... In spite of your condition, your maternal instincts have persevered."

Nov 7"...Not sure what you're getting at, Death. He's just an abused kid, I think anyone would show compassion to that." Annie commented.

"Medusa didn't."

"She was the one who hurt him."

"Yes, and at any point, you could've left him, yet you're still here with him."

"Again, I'm just making sure he's okay after everything he went through." Annie reasoned, still not totally sure what Lord Death was getting at. Sure, she liked the kid, but she didn't think she was his mom or anything like that. But, at that moment, she realized Crona may feel that way in some regard.

Annie shrugged before placing her sword on the room's dresser, "Immediately after dear old mom did this to me, I ended up in an orphanage, not the last time either, and I would help look after the younger kids. Some even younger than Crona is now, but I always loved caring for them. Once the tv show got rolling, though, I finally had enough money to not get dragged to an orphanage every time a well meaning adult found me all on my own."

Lord Death nodded. "Ah yes, it must be quite frustrating to be stuck in an orphanage when you're self sufficient. I must ask though, Annie... What are your plans for the poor boy? He loves you dearly... Do you think you're up to the task of becoming his mother?"

Annie shrugged her shoulder, "He needs me, and I think that takes priority over whether I'm up to the task or not. There is little doubt that I am the first person to show him unconditional kindness and concern, and if I were to abandon him now... well I might just do I one fell swoop what Medusa tried to do for years." Annie genuinely meant it as well, if she were to walk out of Crona's life here and now it would very well break him.

Lord Death nodded in understanding, leaving the two to their rest. There were many things he had to deal with now... the Heart, Medusa's soul, finding a new doctor, cleaning up this mess in general. He felt like he had failed, and he knew that technically, he had. He had at the very least failed Crona, but hopefully Annie wouldn't.

Annie settled down on the bed, gently running a hand through Crona's hair while he slept. She smiled at the small snores he let out, noting he seemed content, he seemed at peace for the first time in who knew how long. Possibly his entire life.

"Rest well, little guy. Things are gonna start looking up for you." She whispered.

Ragnarok emerged. "So you're just gonna... bring a kid home with ya?"

She looked back at the sleeping child with a warm smile and gently ran her fingers through his hair. "Yep... I'm honestly pretty attached by this point. He's adorable... So yeah. I'll take him in. I can take care of him... No one can stop me from being there for him."

Ragnarok gave a thumbs up. "Well, anything is better than the witch's lair." Annie stifled a giggle at the absurd sight.

"Besides it's not like I would struggle to provide for him," her show had ended up being a success beyond her wildest dreams. Add on her rather Spartan lifestyle and the nest egg she sat on was more like a dragon's hoard.

"Riiiight. Well, I'mma take a breather. Talk to ya later!" Ragnarok retreated back into his host.

With a sigh, she carefully inched closer on the bed next to Crona. A smile tugged at her lips at the sight of him bundled up in the covers, 'He looks so darn cute right now.' Reaching down, she spends several minutes rubbing his head in silence, just listening to his soft breathing.

It was honestly adorable just how cute he looked while he slept. He honestly looked like a small stuffed animal lying on a bed. Annie smiled as she settled against the headboard, content to finally catch her breath after the long day she had been through.

Nothing felt normal anymore, from how much smaller the world felt, to how much smaller she felt, in all honesty when compared to what she had been exposed to. There were deities and Entities out there who were literal world-killers, and she was so concerned over the Skull Heart. The only good side to it, was apparently they all hated the Trinity as much as she did, and were now ready to show them what happened when you messed with the real powers that be. Still, there was a lot to unpack, and Annie wasn't sure how to take all of it.

Well, yes, she did. She didn't really care. It didn't affect her directly, and if anything, these newcomers were allies to her cause. So she was thankful for them. Plus, all this had led her out to the desert, where she had ended up saving Crona, and she always did feel great after helping someone in need. Granted, she could've done without the humiliation she suffered earlier, but still.

She looked over at Crona with a small smile. She felt her heart overflowing with a powerful love for this little boy. And she was surprised at this fact. Her motber's wish was that she would remain youthful forever, and that meant that many things adults did, she never could. She was incapable of swearing, and alcohol would change to grape juice the second it touched her lips. So she had thought she would never be able to experience this motherly feeling of love.

Just how many happy families had she seen over the years? Many of them people she had watched grow up and start families of their own. A part of her would always resent her mother for what she had taken away from her, forcing her to stay the same even as the world changed around her.

But even still, it seemed that it did have a silver lining. She had lived long enough to encounter Crona and rescue him from the hellish nightmare he was stuck living in. Still, would the curse let her be his mother...? Deciding to test it out, she knelt down by his side. Just to see if the words would come out unhindered, she softly whispered "Mommy's here, Crona..." And much to her joy, it worked.

She smiled as Crona let out a cute coo in his sleep, and seemed to squirm closer to her in his sleep, as if he had heard her. With a smile, Annie decided that this was how it was going to be. If Crona wanted to see her as his Mom, then she was just fine with that. Wrapping an arm around Crona, Annie pulled the tiny pink-haired boy closer to her, letting him snuggle against her. This small gesture meant the world to Crona, it was an act of kindness, an act of compassion, and it gave him a sense of warmth he felt in his sleep, even if he didn't understand it.

She just couldn't believe it worked. No choking on her words so she couldn't speak, no twisting her words so she couldn't say what she meant, nor any of the countless other ways her curse had stopped her in the past. For once she was able to make a choice that went against her mother's wish and not be stopped cold. Her hands reached out shakily, with one going towards his hair while the other gently took one of his hands in her own.

She teared up slightly, then slowly leaned down and pressed her lips against his forehead, then kisses him on both of his cheeks. With a teary smile, she gazed down at him. "...I'm gonna be your mommy... Yeah... I'm a mom now... No curse can take that away from me..."

She wiped her tears away as Crona smiled in his sleep and relaxed into a deeper slumber. Annie lost track of time as she listened to his soft breathing while softly humming a lullaby.

Meanwhile, in the present Beowulf loudly blew his nose even as he cried much to Annie's amusement, "You know, under that wrestling legend exterior you're a huge softie."

"Oh, c'mon! How do you expect me to react?!" Beowulf protested, and Annie just laughed at that. Aileen was crying herself, just not as vocally, the younger girl was a compassionate soul, and Annie had fully expected her to cry when she heard what Crona had been through. And they weren't even at the nightmares yet... "So you killed the kid's mom, and then just adopted him? Seems like a weird way of doing things, but sure."

Annie gave the wrestler a flat look, one which said; 'what-did-you-want-me-to-do?!' but she knew he was joking. Mostly.

"Is Death City still out in the desert somewhere?" Aileen asked, tilting her head slightly. Annie thought it over, then nodded.

"I think at one point it went to Scotland and hid among the old castles, but then went back to the desert because of the constant rain. I've kept in touch with Lord Death every now and again, but I haven't been back in a while if I'm honest."

"Yeah, well... This is one hell of a nice story... Sounds like you were a good mom..." Annie beamed with pride.

"Yeah, I'm proud of how my little guy turned out... Still a bit shy and timid, but he grew into an amazing man..."

"You know, I think it makes sense that the curse didn't stop you from being his mom." Aileen piped up. Annie tilted her head. "Think about it. Your mom wished for you to stay young and pure. You're fifteen, which isn't... out of the question for parenthood, and while stuff like swearing and drinking alcohol would mess up the purity aspect... honestly, I can't think of anything more pure than the relationship between a mom and her child..."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out after a bit." Annie smiled, nodding. "I don't know why this worked at first, but I really didn't care if I'm honest. Taking care of Crona gave me something to do, it gave me someone to care for, and there was part of me which hadn't experienced that in ages, and I wanted to remember that feeling."

"So, how was Crona doing after all this?" Aileen asked, and Annie frowned.

"Not great." She remarked.

In the past, Annie slept like a rock. But Crona was trapped where he normally was, in a nightmare. No matter what he told himself, the nightmares kept coming, and for some reason, he couldn't wake himself up this time. It began to terrify him, what if everything with Annie had been a dream, and this was the real world!? What if all the warmth and love he had felt wasn't real!?

Bolting upright in bed, Crona would've let out a scream, but he was too frightened. He still feared being hurt over being 'weak' and merely looked around when he felt... comfortable. It took him a moment, but then he saw Annie, still asleep, next to him.

He breathed a sigh of relief and laid down to nuzzle in closer to her. He would just enjoy her warmth for the time being... Just rest... He fell asleep again.

Annie briefly stirred from her slumber and felt something against her back. Turning around, she saw the sleeping Crona. With a smile on her face, she wrapped her arms around Crona and held him close. She gave him one last kiss on his temple.

Closing her eye with a smile, she let sleep take her...

And then she woke up a mere five hours later, used to sleeping for short periods of time, and she smiled softly at the small weight in her arms. Not really feeling tired anymore, she decided to just hold Crona and watch him sleep.

She felt like her heart might explode after finding him snuggled into her chest with his tiny fists innocently clinging to her dress. A greater warmth filled her heart as she realized why he was doing it, 'He's listening to my heartbeat.' Meanwhile, off to the side, Sagan and Lucky had curled up together for warmth.

Annie let out a sigh as she relaxed on the bed, with Crona snuggled close to her chest. The small boy was so sweet, so tiny... she felt more and more of a need to take care of him. He had suffered so much, and Annie wanted him to be happy! So, starting today, Annie was going to show Crona all the love and affection that he was never given. She wanted to take care of him, to help him grow, and nothing was going to stop her!

'Wonder if he's seen my show.' Annie thought with a smirk. 'Doubtful, really. That witch probably just tortured him and experimented on him. I couldn't see her letting him watch tv or stuff like that.'

She sighed and shook her head. The boy had likely never seen a luxury in his life... Annie smiled over at the rabbits before looking back at Crona and resting her chin atop his head. "Oh gosh you're just too darn cute for your own good..." She whispered softly, closing her eye. Then she heard him say one word:

"Mama..."

That one word caused Annie to stiffen up, 'So this is how it ends, after so many battles and facing down the Skull Heart over and over its not them that got me. In the end I die of cuteness overload.' After finally over coming her shock, she placed several kisses on top of his head before leaving one last kiss on his forehead.

The way he smiled happily in his sleep and let out a content little coo sound melted her heart further and she let out a small giggle, something she did not do terribly often. Seemed the boy brought out her soft side... as well as a fiercely protective side.

Well, that was just fine with her. Aside from Sagan, she didn't really have anyone she showed a 'softer' side to, aside from the fans, but that was different. They knew her as an actress who played a character, Crona knew her as someone who saved his life. As someone who cared for him, rescued him, and was now taking care of him.

She didn't really know what to think about the other one, Ragnarok, she recalled his name. But, she also knew there wasn't much she could do about it. Lord Death had made it clear that removing him would kill Crona, most likely, and there weren't any magic users she could think of who could keep someone alive when they had no blood. The closest thing she could think of would be making Crona a zombie, and she just wasn't going there. She didn't know how, and she didn't want to. From their brief interactions, Ragnarok was crass, uncaring and bitter. But, Annie couldn't really blame him for any of that. According to Lord Death, he had either been a person, or a weapon, and was then melted alive and injected into Crona. She didn't expect anyone to come out of that feeling like everything was awesome, but she also had a bad feeling that he wasn't the best person for Crona to have around during his time as an experiment.

Her eye glanced over to her trusty meteor forged sword. There was little doubt in her mind that any threat to Crona would feel the sting of her blade. With a wide grin, she placed another kiss on her son's head.

Resting her chin atop his head, she closed her eyes. 'Gonna sleep right through that creepy moon... I do not wanna look at it...' The Death City moon was unlikely to ever stop haunting her deepest, darkest nightmares, and considering the life she lived, that spoke volumes.

Carefully wiggling, she turned Crona and herself away from the window for good measure. Even then she could swear she still felt it's eyes on her even through the windows. With a soft sigh she mumbled to herself, "Just ignore it, Annie, it's not that bad," and then she she could faintly hear laughter.

'Great.'

She settled down, deciding to just enjoy the feeling of the little boy snuggled close in her arms. It was almost therapeutic, in an odd way, as if the terror and stress of fighting the Skullheart, and even Medusa yesterday, just disappeared in an instant. As if none of that mattered while she held Crona close and kept him safe and warm.

'I really hope he knows things will be okay.' Annie frowned slightly, remembering how shattered Crona had seemed yesterday. Even now, he seemed happy, but he also seemed scared, part of him seemed to be holding onto her as if he was afraid of letting go would mean he would be taken away from her.

She tightened her hold on him and stroked his back, just trying her best to make sure he knew that she was right here and she was going to protect him.

Oh no, the moon was shining right through the window, it was laughing even harder... "Great. It knows I'm freaked out by it..." She muttered before closing her eye. "For crying out loud, I need to get over it. How am I supposed to be a mom if I act like a little girl hiding under the covers from a harmless moon?"

Sagan's eyes snapped open as he felt her unease and he glared at the covered window before marching over to it. Annie couldn't see what happened next, but she heard what unmistakably sounded like Saga firing off a ray of cosmic energy followed by the latter stopping. As he climbed back inside, Annie slowly looked at him over her shoulder before whispering, "Did you just blast the moon?!"

Outside, the moon was actually frowning over a hole in one of its teeth. Sagan just huffed and nodded. Annie chuckled and payted his head gently. "I really appreciate that..." Sitting up, she cuddled Crona close to her breast and gently stroked his hair.

Unbeknownst to all, Annie had just done the impossible. She made enemies with the moon. No, that didn't make sense, but somehow Sagan had done just that. Granted, nothing may come of this in her lifetime, but still. She could add that to the list of things that made no sense with her life, but were still part of her life. Next to the whole 'unaging' thing, fighting the Skullgirl every seven years, and now being a mother.

Granted, she was looking forward to that third thing, Crona was an adorable child, and she was going to do all she could to take care of him. Right now, that was holding him close and keeping him feeling safe and warm.

Crona let off a soft, happy coo in his sleep as he snuggled into her embrace before wrapping his arms around her. Meanwhile, Sagan gave Annie a hug before flopping back onto the bed in exhaustion. Firing off enough energy to reach such a distant target always took a lot out of him.

Annie chuckled and rubbed her parasite's head to lull him to sleep. Then she felt a small weight jump on her. She smiled as she realized it was Lucky, feeling the rabbit nestle in between her and Sagan. So this was her little family...

Reaching down, she gave him a loving scratch behind his ear. It had just been her and Sagan coming in and now they were leaving as a family of five. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would ever have anything like this.

Still, it was a nice feeling. There was a connection she felt she had lost long, long ago. After her Mom became the Skullgirl, Annie really did have a hard time making connections. Not just because of the 'unaging' curse, but also because... how was she supposed to? After losing her Mom, Annie wasn't sure how to move on. It was part of why she started training, because she refused to ever let another child loose their family like she had. That had been a large driving force for her quest, but it had come at a cost she never realized until now; her own connections. Any family she had left would grow older and die, and more than a few had cut ties with her because of her Mom's actions. Annie was hurt by that, but also knew they were just as hurt by the loss.

Now, with years and years gone by, Annie was a master with a blade, a skilled tactician, a successful actor... and was completely alone. It really hadn't hit her until - quite literally - just now, but she suddenly felt all that time that had passed catch up to her, and she tightened her hold on Crona, now wanting to feel that connection he gave her, more than anything. Sure, she had Sagan before then, but this was a connection of another caliber.

Smiling softly, she cuddled Crona close, content to just enjoy the moment... until the need to use the little girls' room ruined the moment. Sighing softly, she gave Crona a kiss and left for the bathroom to let nature run its course. As if flipping a switch, the second she left, Crona's dreams became nightmares.

Eventually, Sagan and Lucky woke up as the bed started to shake from Crona's tossing and turning. Rushing over, he tried to shake Crona and wake him up, but to no avail. Meanwhile in the bathroom Annie wzs washing her hands when she suddenly saw Crona caught in a nightmare in her eye... the one currently in Sagan's mouth, "Oh sugar honey ice tea!"

Rushing out of the bathroom, she hurriedly snatched Crona into her arms and cuddled him tightly against her shoulder, resting his head in the crook of her neck as she softly whispered into his ear to try and calm him down.

"Hey- hey- hey... it's okay, Crona. It's okay..." Annie whispered, rubbing his back in an attempt to calm him down. "It's just a bad dream, it isn't really happening! Crona, Crona, wake up!"

"AAAH!" Crona suddenly jolted awake, looking around in an absolute panic, tears in his eyes, but he still refused to cry. It was clear how terrifed he was of even making a sound, but when he saw Annie, his cries turned to stuttering breathing.

"M-M-M-Miss-Miss-Miss Anni-Annie?" He struggled to even get those two words out.

Crona took several deep heaving breaths. He looked around the room wild eyed before locking onto Annie and throwing his arms around her. Annie lightly bounced the trembling child in her arms, "It's ok, Crona, it's just a nightmare it can't hurt you."

She sat back down on the bed and cuddled him closely. She felt his violent trembling, and her heart clenched as she heard him letting out a soft series of pained, terrified sobs. She groaned sadly and patted his back soothingly.

Annie placed a kiss on the top of his head before whispering to him, "It's gonna be ok, Crona, I'm here for you, so is Sagan, Lucky, heck even Ragnarok is here for you." Annie placed another kiss on top of his head before rubbing the back of his head, "That woman," Annie refused to acknowledge Medusa as Crona's mother, "can't hurt you ever again, I promise." Crona just clinged to her even tighter as Sagan and Lucky walked over to join the hug.

It took him a moment, but Crona's whimpering finally seemed to settle down to him sniffling every now and then. It was clear he wanted to cry, it was cleat he wanted to cry so badly, even though he had just stopped, but right now, he couldn't. `

"I promise you, all those nightmares are behind you. You're never gonna be treated like a lab rat again. I promise." Annie repeated herself, feeling almost like a broken record, but knowing Crona needed to hear this, more than anything.

Sagan hugged Crona from the side as Lucky rested his front paws against his back. Annie smiled softly and closed her eye as she hummed to him softly. She felt him slowly relax, and patted his back gently. "There... see? I'm right here...I'll always protect you..."

She could just see one of his eyes as he peeked up at her, "P-promise?" Annie smiled sadly and placed a kiss on his forehead.

"I promise you that I will always protect you, no matter what stands in my way. An army of thousands wouldn't be able to stop me."

She rested her chin atop his head and stroked his back. "You're in good hands, Crona... I'm your guardian now. And no one can hurt you as long as I'm still standing." Crona teared up once more.

"I...I love you, Miss Annie..."

"I love you too, Crona." Annie said sweetly, sitting down on the bed and letting Crona make himself comfortable. The tiny boy buried his face into her chest and continued whimpering. Annie patted his back, trying her best to be a comforting presence to him, something she knew he had never experienced before.

Sighing, Annie listened to Crona trying to calm himself down, only for something to work him up every time he nearly succeeded. The poor thing was so far gone, that he was left struggling to even understand why it had happened to him, and now all he knew was the fear and pain that constantly came with all that had happened.

But he had Miss Annie now, she took care of him... He decided to say it againl just to say it. "Love you miss Annie..." He mumbled.

Annie felt a tear roll down her cheek even as a wide, goofy grin spread across her face, "I love you too Crona." Tightening her hold on him, she tilts her head so she could rest her cheek against his hair. There was no other way to describe it, Annie was happy, and happier than she had been in a long time.

Those five little words were all it took to bring this joy to the forefront, and she really did mean it when she gave him her response. She truly did love and care for him, just like he was her own child. In fact, as far as she was concerned, he was her child.

There was only one thing left to make it completely official in her mind. However that was a choice Crona had to make for himself. She wouldn't push him to call her his mother, not so soon after rescuing him from Medusa.

Crona, on his hand, wanted to call Miss Annie his mother, but he wasn't sure if she wanted to be his mother. Crona was simply happy to be with her, really. She was kind, gentle with him, and didn't hurt him. Crona didn't care if she was or wasn't his Mom, he just wanted to feel those things, and Miss Annie gave him said feelings.

"There, are you feeling better now, Crona?" Annie softly asked, settling back down on the bed.

"Mmhm..."

"Raugh... ugh... oh. Right."

Annie blinked in confusion at the new voice, then saw Ragnarok pulling himself out of Crona's body. He rubbed what she assumed where his eyes and looked down to Crona, then up to Annie.

"Holy crap." He muttered, eerily quiet. "It's actually over."

"...what's over?" Annie asked, knowing the answer.

"The experiments, the nightmares. All that." Ragnarok muttered. "Usually when the kid had nightmares, it was because Medusa was starting something on him while he slept."

Annie closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and exhaled through her nose. "Thank you for that new tidbit of infkrmation, Ragnarok, you can go back to sleep now..." She sighed. Ragnarok got the sense he was intruding on something and retreated back into his host.

Smiling softly, she climbed back underneath the covers, resting Crona atop her tummy and looking at him tenderly. He responded by curling up into a tiny ball on her chest, clutching at her dress and giving her a small smile.

Annie began running her fingers through his hair with one hand while the other hugged him lovingly. She chuckled softly as he nuzzled her hand like a kitten, however she noticed his eyes started to close as he started to doze off. Leaning forward, she placed a kiss on the top of his head, "We should try and get a little more rest, in fact we can even sleep in if you need the extra sleep.

Crona snuggled in close and tiredly looked up at her. "Um...I just wanna...stay with you... so... whatever we do is...okay... Doesn't really matter if I'm awake or not, because it's all just...better when you're here..."

"Heh, of course, sweetie." Annie smiled, wrapping her arms around him. Crona sighed in relief, nuzzling down on Annie's lap, closing his eyes once more and allowing himself to fall back asleep.

'Poor little guy...' Annie frowned. 'He's so shaken from all this... what can I do to help him?' She frowned, thinking it over, but couldn't come to a clear conclusion. Sure, she was going to care for him, raise him, love him, and so on, but she wasn't a psychiatrist. Once he was settled down in his new life, Annie reasoned it'd help him to have someone to talk to about his pain.

For the time being, Annie decided to just relax with Crona on the bed, hoping being close to her would keep any nightmares away. She knew he was going to have them regardless, and she wasn't looking forward to that. While she didn't like talking about it, Annie knew all too well what nightmares could do to a person, and Crona was so little, she couldn't imagine what they were doing to him.

He mumbled something as he snuggled closer to her. "Donleaveme..." He mumbled.

Annie smiled and started to softly stroke his head, "It's ok Crona, I promise I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here when you close your eyes, and I'll still be right here when you open them again." She started to softly hum him a lullaby as Crona contently smiled.

He nuzzled in close to her, resting his head over her chest, no doubt because he wanted to listen to her beating heart again, and she teared up slightly. "Oh my gosh you're so dang cute... It just isn't fair..." She whispered.

She gave him one last nuzzle before closing her eyes for her own rest with a smile stretching Alex across her lips. However before she could fully close her eyes, she felt a cold nose poke her cheek. Without even looking, she lifted up the covers, "Alright, get under here you two."

Sagan and Lucky both looked to her, then scurried under the blanket, getting comfortable and falling back asleep. Annie sighed in relaxation and decided she could try and sleep a bit more. Closing her eye, she found herself falling back asleep.