Work the next day just about drove Anni mad. How could she focus on selling manga, when her boyfriend had been framed for murder, and had the Awakasu-kai after him? After her shift ended, she decided to forego training again, and just headed out to the Second Raira field. Her trek started out as a casual stroll, but bumped up to a jog as Celty went galloping past, with her carriage and all three passengers. This is gonna be good! Anni thought with a wild smile as she pranced off.
Anni was practically bubbling with excitement as she snuck into the field and on top of one of the storage sheds. From there, she could easily see Kadota and Rocchi already going at it, though they didn't look like they'd been fighting for long. Their audience settled in and got comfortable, making sure she also had a good view of the bushes on the side. The fighting duo seemed perfectly balanced in matchup. They traded blow for blow, neither one ever seeming to have an advantage for long. It hurt a little to watch them both take such heavy hits, but neither flinched back. They just kept throwing themselves back into the flurry of punches, kicks, and headbutts. Just as she was getting immersed in trying to keep some sort of score, Anni was startled by a noise behind her.
"Oh, someone's already here?" the young boy wondered aloud as he climbed on top of the shed. His orange cat ears matched his yellow shirt rather well, though the whiskers he'd drawn on his face seemed a little over the top.
"Don't mind me, I'm just here to watch for a bit. Wanna join?" Anni offered, patting the spot beside her. She didn't particularly want his company, but she didn't want to cause any trouble of her own either.
"Ooooh! That sounds cool. The view is almost perfect from here too" he commented as he hunkered beside her. "Look at 'em go!"
"Shhhhh, you don't want them to hear us do you?" This kid really was a poor pick for recon.
"It's awesome!" he added, though more quietly this time. His commentary on the fight continued, in a whisper, until one last headbutt knocked Rocchi out. "And we have a winner!"
"Ya, we do" the little blonde sighed at him. She should have remembered that this is where he was watching from. Kadota slumped onto a bench by Rocchi's feet and caught his breath. One quiet minute passed before Rocchi stirred again.
"Who are you anyway?" Neko asked as Kadota and Rocchi started talking.
"Me? I'm nobody. You can call me Lizz" Anni answered. She wasn't fond of the kid, and she certainly didn't want her real name getting back to Aoba.
"Everyone calls me Neko, it's nice to meetcha" he said in greeting, offering his hand and a stupid grin.
"...You too." Anni shook his hand. They were both distracted then by the newest arrivals, as what she could only think of as the dregs of the dollars sauntered up. Led by a chubby man in a purple jacket, the small mob accosted Kadota and Chikage. Conversation quickly got heated, and the chubby man pulled a telescopic metal bat on Kadota. His weapon never got to complete its arch, as Chikage pulled his own weapon to block it. Anni finally managed to get back into the spirit of things and grinned as Kadota admired his new friend's helm splitter. She shouldn't let some kid with cat ears mess with her fun anyway. The chubby man attacked again and went down too easily with Rocchi's counter. It was then that those holding the hostages came out, grabbing everyone's attention.
A slight rustling over to the side alerted Anni that Mikado and Anri had arrived. She watched with a growing smirk as Varona snuck up behind them and attacked Anri. Annibel made sure to avert her eyes from the flashbang and watched Walker start his distraction instead. Even in such a small area, there was so much going on at once. This is exactly what she had signed on for. To top it all off, she still didn't even have a hint of a bad feeling. A few other dollars swooped in to rescue the hostages, and Toramaru announced their arrival with horns galore. Varona restarted her assault on Saika, and Anni started getting ready to go. Her spectating partner had gotten wrapped up in a call, recounting the event in horrible detail, so she didn't have to say goodbye as Toramaru's short brawl with the worst of the dollars started. Shizuo arrived, motorcycle and all, pausing only to talk to Mikado. Anni took her opportunity, smiling, to hop down quietly and take off at a run. No one seemed to notice her flight. The fight here would be over the moment they saw her boyfriend, and she wanted-, no, Anni needed to see at least part of Akane's rescue.
Having a head start was the only reason Annibel made it past the truck at all as she sprinted to be out as far ahead as possible. The little blonde pitted her feet against the cement in an endless battle to push forward faster. It wasn't enough to overcome her excitement. This part was another of her favorite moments of the series, for several reasons. Putting her awe and admiration of Shizuo and his capabilities aside, this scene showed a huge step in his control and motivations. While the Heiwajima Shizuo who appeared at the start of season one would certainly be able to ignore a few swords in his back and trust Celty to catch him from a moving truck, he would not have been able to choose to ignore an obvious enemy to do it.
A rumble started catching up to her, so Anni ducked into the next alleyway she could find. Drawing attention was always a bad thing at times like these. The truck rolled by without incident, but then Anni heard something else entirely. It was an expected sound, but it made her world come grinding to a halt.
It was the screeching of metal and the crunching of glass as it was repeatedly broken.
She remembered now. Anni's legs locked in place and her heart started racing. She was suddenly acutely aware of herself, and nothing else.
Shizuo passed her, kicking the car ahead of himself like a soccer ball, unaware that his girlfriend was standing in the alleyway there.
Had locking it all away really been that easy? Did it really take being this close to another car being destroyed to force her to remember again? She fell against the wall and slowly slipped down, feeling her bones start to tremble slightly. Oh, that's right. It was because she chose to forget.
-!February15th, One year earlier!-
They were on a road trip, out to a con. Since it was a longer drive, all three of them took shifts behind the wheel so they wouldn't have to stop for long. The order ran Alex, Mom, then Anni.
"Alright Annibel, your turn" her mother sighed as she pulled into the gas station. The daughter jolted out of her newly acquired nap at the sound of her full first name. It took her a brief moment to even put together that she was in the passenger seat of a car. "Here, you can deal with the pump too" she said, wrapping Anni's all too pliable fingers around a few twenties.
"Eh?" she asked, staring, bewildered, at the money in her hand. It wasn't until her mother pulled open her door and ordered her out that she understood what was going on. "I just managed to fall asleep…" she muttered as she fumbled with her seatbelt.
"That's not my fault, now is it?" Her mother's teasing and sarcastic nature always found a way into her tone.
"Yes it is! If you hadn't kept me up all night talking, I-"
"You're the one who volunteered to help keep me awake, now move your butt. That's my spot now" her mother ordered, giving her daughter's behind a love tap as she stumbled out of the car.
"Love you too, Mommy" the little blonde mumbled. She couldn't have told you at the time if it was sarcastic or not, however.
One filled tank and a few miles later, Anni still hadn't fully woken up. Her mother, on the other hand, had passed out with her bare feet up on the dashboard. Working night shift in the hospital had taught the widow all too well how to fall asleep quickly.
Annibel was beyond relieved to hear the rustle of her brother waking up in the seat behind her. "Hey, butt-face" she whispered just above the sound of wind whipping around their metal box.
"What is it Trouble?" came his drowsy reply.
"Do we still have any Dr. Pepper back there? I desperately need some caffeine" Anni asked as kindly as she could manage. Some more rustling later, she felt something tap against her right shoulder. It was far lighter than she expected though. The can she had been handed was open, and half empty. "Oh come on" she groaned.
"It's the last one. How badly do you need caffeine again?" Alex taunted, ending with a yawn. That yawn spread to the driver as well.
"Damn… it. Did ya do something to it?" she demanded quietly.
"No, just drink the damn thing. The war is over" he grumbled.
"So you keep saying" Anni growled back before downing the remains of her brother's drink.
"Love you too" Alex laughed at the back of her head.
It was another hour before Anni decided it was worth stopping for more soda. She simply could not hold out keeping her eyes open with how much sleep she'd gotten. She had pulled off the highway and onto surface streets to find a 7/11 when it happened. Alex had booted his DS up again, and so wasn't paying enough attention to the road to warn her. It was all Anni's responsibility.
It was just a hill. There were two signals on this hill, one in about the middle, and one at the top. They were each different colors. Anni didn't realize until much later that the green light was at the top, and not the intersection that she crossed.
Their car was hit from the right, on the passenger's side. Anni didn't know this at the time, she was knocked unconscious to the sound of breaking glass and screaming metal. She only found out later. It was thankfully Alex who delivered the news, while they were both in the hospital. The crash hadn't hurt either of them very much. It had, however, killed their mother on impact.
Anni blamed herself. She ran the light. She had gotten her own mother killed.
Alex blamed himself. He knew his sister wasn't fit to drive. He should have taken over the wheel with his full night's sleep, or at least forced her to stop earlier. His negligence had killed his own mother.
-!May4th, One year later!-
It was nearly six months after the accident that Anni and her brother made the link. She had been a lamentable wreck until then, barely able to function. All she wanted was to run away, so she ran to another universe and left everything behind. It came as no surprise that when she was given the chance, Anni cut ties to everyone and everything but Alex, and forgot anything bad had ever happened. Alex had stayed, to take care of everything she couldn't. He was never as much of a coward as she was.
Annibel had the piece of mind to realize she was curled up in a ball again, making some sort of horrible noises.
She had abandoned almost everything to start again here, in her favorite story, and she simply forgot about her old life.
-!DRRR!-
Akane clung to the back of her new big sister as the shadow things wrapped around her back again. It was still really strange, but it made her feel safer about being on this oddly silent motorcycle. Big Brother Shizuo waved at them one last time as they started moving, heading back to Kishitani-sensei's house. He said he had to go back to work, and couldn't join them.
They didn't make it far down the street before she heard something else that was strange, like someone crying. Celty pulled them over by an alleyway, where the horrible sound was coming from.
"What's going on?" She asked hesitantly. Akane was lifted off the bike and made to stand on the sidewalk before Celty started typing an answer.
"I'm going to check it out, you stay right here and wait for me, ok?"
"Whoever it is sounds really sad... Are you going to help them big sister?" Akane couldn't help wanting to save whoever was hurt enough to make crying noises like that.
"I'm going to try" Celty showed her quickly before walking around the corner and into the alleyway.
-!DRRR!-
Celty had thought she recognized Anni's voice, but it was so distorted by her hysterics, the fairy was still somehow surprised to see the little blonde curled up against the wall there, apparently losing her mind. The girl didn't seem to notice Celty at all, even as she was shaken by her shoulder and had a PDA shoved in her face. Her pained wail faltered after a minute of this, and Anni finally realized she had company.
"Cel-" she choked out before stopping to read what the fairy had been holding at her this whole time.
"Are you ok?! What happened?"
"No, no I'm…" the girl muttered before her speech was taken over by another, softer wail. Celty was not prepared to deal with this, whatever this was. She carefully made an eared helmet around the poor girls head, to hide her face and hopefully muffle her cries a little. Celty really didn't want to dump this on Shizuo either, but it was his girlfriend, and he was still hopefully nearby.
"Shizuo should still be around here, I can get you too him quickly so we can sort this out" Celty offered, impatiently waiting for her new charge to read the message. Anni's response was to shake her head rather violently, until she found her voice again.
"Please, no. I can't… I don't want him to see me… like this…" she managed to force out. "I live… just around the corner…"
-!DRRR!-
Akane waited as patiently as she could. The horrible crying slowly got quieter, until all Akane could hear was a broken whispering. Eventually, Celty came walking out, leading another girl in a closed-faced helmet, just like the one Akane was wearing. "This is a friend of mine" Celty explained. "She lives nearby, so I'm going to drop her off at home on our way, is that alright?"
Akane nodded her approval, before asking "Is she going to be ok?"
Big Sister took a moment to think before answering, but typed quickly once she did. "She just needs to get home and get some rest, she'll be fine" Celty reassured. Then she made a sidecar appear on her motorcycle, where the woman with pretty hair climbed in. The strange woman never said a word, and the black helmet never let Akane see the woman's face. Even when they stopped to drop her off, the tall blonde only gave Celty a deep bow and kept her hair hanging in front of her face. Akane sure hoped she was going to be alright.
-!DRRR!-
Shizuo was tired, but overall in a good mood when he unlocked his door. He felt like he'd actually accomplished something, and he was looking forward to seeing Anni again after two days now. "I'm home" he called as he came inside. It was darker than he had expected though, it looked like Anni hadn't bothered to turn the lights on at all. Had she gone to bed already? No, that must be her, that lump on the couch under her blanket. Was she… crying? "Anni? What happened?" he asked as he rushed to the side of the slightly shaking lump.
"I can't-" she choked at him, revealing her tearstreaked face from under the blanket as she threw her arms around him. "I can't explain right now. Just d-don't let me go" Anni begged in a forced whisper. Shizuo wrapped his arms around her and held on as tight as he dared, his precious blonde whimpering helplessly. Shizuo eventually got a chance to sit on his couch, careful to follow the one order he'd been given, and never letting her leave his grip. After a while of this, she calmed down enough to slowly explain what had happened a little over year ago. He could only listen and hold her close as she told him about how her mother died, and how she had run away from her universe to come here. He never bothered to get her any tea this time, it was obvious that he was doing far more good by being here to hold her. He felt so strangely helpless, not being able to do anything for her but sit and listen. By the time Anni agreed to try and go to sleep, it must have been 3 or 4am.
-A/N-
Edited by my dear friend Faded Phoenix.