Shantae burst out of the water in a blur of green and dark blue, transforming into a mouse the moment she landed on the snowy shore. She scurried forward, spotting a tree and quickly climbing it, her paws skittering and clinging onto the rough bark.

Now overlooking the general vicinity, she scouted out for her next objective. Apart from the massive hulk of building and machinery pumping out clouds like no tomorrow, the island seemed pretty natural, if very mountainous and rocky. But then again, Risky had said that there would be traps scattered around, hidden in places that Shantae could easily trigger.

Shantae shook her furry head, not wanting to think about the pirate, even if her words would help her with her task. She refocused, looking for any sort of entrance to the building, which was against a mountain, the front of it fortunately facing her. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no easy entrance into the monstrosity. If only there was some way she could let Risky know that she wanted her to blow a hole in the side of the building for easy access. Not very much the genie's style, but in her current mood…

Smacking the branch she was on with a tiny fist, Shantae retreated back down the tree and transformed back into her human form, keeping her body pressed against it. Taking a quick look around to make sure nobody was around, she exited the safety of her leafy friend and ran forward, straight towards the building.

Any enemies that came into her path were quickly dealt with via a whip of her purple locks or a blast of fire to the face. Gators, bats, and even harpy archers were either burned or flung far away by the genie's attacks and fury.

Anger was foreign to Shantae. She very rarely got angry, and most of her unhappiness was either from sadness or frustration. Even when she used to be more hot-headed, her expressions were out of annoyance rather than anger.

Since it was such a foreign and unknown emotion to her, Shantae didn't know how to deal with it. Risky would get more violent and vocal as she got madder and madder. Sky would sulk for a few days and keep herself locked in her aviary, tending to birds until she felt good enough to talk the problem through. Rotty would… was Rotty capable of being angry?

A question which was sometimes asked of Shantae, people didn't believe that the answer could possibly be 'yes.' She was renowned for a near-permanent smiled plastered on her adorably featured face, very rarely dropping it in the public eye. In privacy, Shantae still kept the smile, only ever dropping it in the presence of her most trusted peers. When she had last been angry, Sky was there to coax her through it.

Now she was alone. She had no Sky with her to act as something to shout at for a while, or bring her goodies to calm her down. With nobody to restrain her, Shantae took the Risky approach; she poured her fury into her attacks, whipping with such intense force it's a wonder she didn't snap her own neck, and turning up the heat so high on her fireballs that most enemies in her way were burnt on the outside, raw on the inside, and mentally scarred for life. Twitch and Vinegar probably wouldn't want these gator steaks any time soon.

As she jumped between floating dirt, rock, and metal platforms that were the sworn enemy of basic physics, Shantae began to lose herself in her wrath. She became reckless and violent, any damage dealt against her returned tenfold. Tears fell down her cheeks as she fought, gaining ground towards the massive cloud factory. She didn't know when she had started crying. She didn't care either. Everything she had worked so hard to gain had been tossed away like a rotten apple.

Risky killed her mother. The woman she believed could change, and admittedly, loved, had killed her mother. Risky was the reason she would never see her mother's face, hear her voice clearly, feel her touch. Why she'd never celebrate her birthday with her, participate in Mother's Day, ask for help in everyday problems.

Reduced to a teary mess, Shantae knocked the last gator off the path, breathing raggedly and coughing spit up, her injuries beginning to burn now that the adrenaline had worn off. Maybe she should return to the Tinkertub and grab a potion or two.

But she'd have to face Risky. She glared at the ground, not wanting to see that traitorous piece of…

Shantae had standards. She wouldn't say it. Well, not aloud at least.

In her renewed anger, she stepped forward, but in the middle of wiping her eyes, she tripped. Falling with a grunt onto the hard ground, alarms blared from the factory, and suddenly, all ready clouds began to release their load of snow. The temperature in the air began to drop severely, ice forming against Shantae's stained cheeks as she rushed to stand back up.

Snow blew against her harshly, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around her torso. Not that it would help, considering her outfit wasn't made with low temperatures in mind. All her foul emotions melted into fear as she pushed against the artificial wind, snow piling quickly around her legs, trying its hardest to root her to the spot.

Forcing herself to move forward, Shantae collapsed again, the somehow already packed snow not doing much to soften her fall. Snow landed on her, but she didn't have the strength to get up. Her injuries and energy spent in the last ten minutes were finally catching up to her at the worst time possible.

Shivering severely and her own body temperature falling, the purplette began to lose consciousness rapidly. Images of each of her friends, those she truly loved, flickered through her mind, resting on one final person.

Risky.

Hey hello, longish time no see.

Something short today - I've started uni and I'm prioritising everything I get from it over all my other things, which is why this chapter is both short and late.

Uni is super fun at the very least. One of my subjects is creative writing, and depending on how it goes, I might just make an entirely new fic up for the class and upload it. (Not with named characters - I'll just throw in placeholder OCs for the actual assignment and then swap them out with Shantae characters if it's appropriate.)

Anyway, I've also decided that I'm going to leave this fic for a while, while I figure out how best to go about the rest of it. It won't be too much longer - maybe 2-4 chapters depending on how long I make them. Maybe 7. Maybe 10.

Maybe 429,573,001 to be precise.

This doesn't mean I won't be posting fics still - I have two in the works that I feel like I'm enjoying writing a little bit more than this one at the moment, but once I feel I have a good strategy to come and finish this one I will do so. Maybe I'll actually use my Twitter to keep people updated if they care.

TL;DR Will be putting this on temporary hiatus as I focus on uni, figure out how to achieve a good ending to this, and work on other fics.

Anyway, this A/N is getting pretty long and nothing else I have to say is important. (Except that cats are great pets.) I'll see you in the next chapter! Or fic! Whatever comes first!

Reviews, feedback, and typo pointers welcome.

Till next time,

-Tommycats