When Jeff woke up he saw that Annie wasn't next to him in bed. At first he thought she had gotten up early to train or do something for work. But as he rubbed his eyes he heard movement in the kitchen. And since Britta wasn't living there anymore it had to be Annie. He threw on a robe before walking into the kitchen.

"Morning."

"Oh, morning Jeff." She opened the oven and pulled out a pan before setting it on the counter.

"What you making there?"

"Blueberry muffins. They're for Pierce."

"I thought he didn't eat blueberries. Something about them going against the beliefs of that damn cult of his."

"Well, he eats them when I make them. So I made him a batch."

Jeff reached over to pick the corner off of one when she slapped his hand away.

"OW!"

She brought her hands to her face in horror as she realized what she did. "Oh god, I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No. That wasn't super strength crushing Annie pain. That was just annoying slap Jeff's hand away pain. Seriously, is that a prerequisite if you're a woman who bakes? Because Shirley does the same thing whenever I'm in the kitchen with her. "

"Oh. Well, I'm still sorry."

"It's ok."

"Jeff-"

"Annie, it's ok." As she looked at him she knew he wasn't just talking about slapping his hand away. "So, you're seeing Pierce after work?"

"No, I'm calling in sick. I wouldn't be able to get anything done if I went in today. I'd just be looking at the clock waiting to leave."

"Ok." He leaned down to kiss her softly on the lips. "I'm going to get a quick run in. If you're gone when I get back tell Pierce I have a conference call at 10 but I'll stop by to visit after it's over."

As soon as he got in the bedroom he inspected his hand. Truthfully it hurt more than it would have if she had done that a month ago. But he wasn't going to say anything. Things were just starting to return to a sense of normalcy with them. And she would probably always be nervous she would accidently hurt him. So unless something happened where he truly was hurt, he wasn't going to say anything if she was accidently a little rough with him.

Despite being fully aware that she would take care of herself, he couldn't help being protective of her. The thought of anything happening to her tore him up inside. So he made sure she was protected. In ways she herself didn't even realize.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff pounded on the door at Hawthorne manor as he pressed the intercom. "Pierce, its Jeff. It's raining pretty hard out here. Can I come in?" He waited a few more minutes, pulling his jacket over his head to try and save his hair, before the door opened. He had expected a butler or staff member to answer the door. Instead to his surprise Pierce was standing in the foyer.

"Jeffrey. Well this is a surprise. Come in, come in."

He followed Pierce as they went into his den. "Drink Jeff?"

"No thanks."

"You sure? I just got a bottle of Jubilee brandy. Very rare and hard to find. And I have some Cuban cigars if you're so inclined."

"Pierce. I want you to train Annie."

Pierce stopped looking through the liquor cabinet as he slowly turned around. "What?"

"I want you to train Annie to fight. To be able to patrol."

"Well why would…I mean, Annie doesn't patrol. She does tech work. She finds information on criminals and crimes."

"Well, she wants to patrol and be an active superhero now. She said that now that Abed and Shirley have retired because of Aaron the city could use another hero out there."

"Jeff, I don't think-."

"Pierce, you trained Troy."

"Yes, and I've regretted it ever since." Pierce looked at Jeff with true seriousness in his eyes. "Jeff, we both know that being a superhero is dangerous and you're essentially putting your life on the line each time you go out there. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not glad those days are behind me. Every time Troy patrols I know that I'm the reason he's risking his life. And if anything happens to him it's my fault. I won't do it again. Especially to Annie."

Jeff sighed deeply as he ran his hand through his wet hair. "She's already gone out." He continued as he saw Pierce tense up in fear. "She's already gone patrolling twice. The first time was with me. The second time she went out by herself. She thinks she's fine because of those self defense classes she took. But if she's going to do this she'll need real training. She needs to be properly prepared to face whatever is out there."

"Jeff, do you want her to be out there patrolling?"

"Pierce, it-."

"No, I'm asking you to tell me if you want her out there patrolling. You two have been together for years, at this point marriage is just a question of when. Can you honestly tell me you're all right with her doing this?"

Pierce waited as Jeff was silent for several moments. "No. If you want me to be honest then no, I don't want Annie out there patrolling. But I know she's going to go out regardless of what I say. When she truly puts her mind to something she's going to do it. It's both infuriating and what I love about her. So if she's going to do this. If she really is committed to being a superhero, then I need to make sure she's prepared for what's out there. So Pierce, I'm asking you, to please make sure she's prepared."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Great speech Mr. Laybourne. You're really nailing it with your promise to end the vigilante plague that's taken over the city. When election time comes you'll be swept into office. Now, you have a meeting with the labor union at two, and I think you should-."

"Thank you Bideos. But I'd like a few moments to myself now."

'Ok Mr. Laybourne. I'll be in my office if you need-."

Robert Laybourne sighed deeply as he shut the door. Campaigning for mayor was a grueling job. They weren't anywhere near the election and already he was exhausted. But it would all be worth it when he was in office.

He poured himself a glass of whiskey, not caring that it wasn't even noon. As he brought the glass to his lips he thought about how lucky he was that Lieutenant Kane was killed last month. It wasn't that he was a sadist or hated Marshal Kane or anything like that. They had met several times, and while they hadn't exactly been friends, he had always respected the man. But his death had just been the catalyst he needed to get into office. It made people grow wary of their city being protected by vigilantes. And he was able to use that uncertainty to build a campaign that would get him elected. If anything Kane would be glad that his death was being used to rid the city of vigilantes. He had hated people who took the law into their own hands about as much as Laybourne did. If it had been the other way around he hoped Kane would have used his death to rid the city of the decay that had taken it over.

He groaned as he heard a knock at the door. "Bideos, I told you. I'll discuss the meeting in a few-." He opened the door, and gasped at what he saw. A large man with a robotic arm was holding a dead Bideos in his human arm. He threw the body inside as he marched into the room.

"Hello Robert. I've seen you a lot in the paper. Well, I'm here to tell you that tomorrow you will make your final appearance. In the obituaries."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie sat in the chair by the bed thumbing through her magazine. When she got there Abed told her Pierce was still asleep. She said she'd wait until he woke up, though after two hours she was growing restless.

She couldn't begin to describe how happy and grateful she was that Pierce was alive. While he always seemed to like her, they had grown very close in the years since they graduated Greendale. It was because of him that she was able to defend Greendale from criminals and stop those who sought to cause harm.

She put down her magazine as she saw Pierce stir. "Pierce?"

"Annie. How long have you been here?"

"A few hours. I made you muffins." She reached in her bag and gave him the container she brought. "I had a couple and they came out pretty good."

"Thank you." He opened the container and bit into one. "These are good."

She waited until he swallowed his mouthful before she started talking. "Pierce, there were so many times I wished you had been around to help me. I can't begin to tell you-."

"From what A-bed says you've done some amazing things all by yourself. You helped to take out a vicious drug ring headed by Rich. You stopped Leonard from putting high powered weapons on the streets. I'm proud of you Annie. You've really come into your own."

Annie wiped the tears from her eyes as she practically beamed from what Pierce just said. But after a moment the smile left her face as the thing that had been bugging her for the past two days spilled out. "Pierce, two nights ago something happened to me. I met a Britta from another universe. I had to use the Hawthorne stare on her and when I did I felt a yellow light go into me. The very same light that appears when you kill one of your other dimensional selves. And afterwards, I could run so fast I appear to be a blur. Pierce, why did doing the stare make me gain additional powers?"

"Because Annie, that's what the Hawthorne stare can do." He continued as she looked at him in shock. "Its main function was to incapacitate people. But it was discovered it could also be used to obtain dimensional powers. If you use the stare on someone who has powers they are copied to you, and whatever power level they are at you yourself will advance to. Can you create fire or move objects with your mind?"

"No. I don't think so."

"Then the Britta you encountered was only at level 2. Which means you now have two powers instead of one."

"So, I can…" As she thought about what she heard her eyes widened in horror. "Oh god, that means…the other Annie didn't have to die. I didn't…"

"No Annie. The Hawthorne stare only allows you to copy other powers. To heal from injuries you would have to fully take in a power level. It would truly have to be absorbed. The only way you could have been saved was if she had died."

Annie shook her head, looking like a child having a fit. "I can't, I can't do this. I don't want these abilities." Her eyes widened as a sudden idea came to her. "Can I use the Hawthorne stare to give up my powers. Can I use it to pass them to someone else, so they can fully absorb them?"

Pierce stammered as he thought it over. "I um, I don't know. It was never intended to pass powers to others. But maybe, with enough will and determination-." He suddenly stopped talking as Annie stared deep into Pierce's eyes. She concentrated harder then she normally did, pushing herself into it. Take it, she thought. Leave me and go into him, I don't want it anymore. She continued concentrating as her head started to hurt. The pain continued to build until she finally couldn't take it anymore.

"AW!" she held her head as Pierce shook his. "Did it work?"

"Did, did what work?"

Frantically Annie looked around until she saw a medal baseball bat lying in the corner. "Here, try to bend this in half."

"Annie-."

"Please!"

Pierce took the bat and pushed down at both ends. But the bat stayed in the exact same shape. She shrieked in rage. "IT DIDN'T WORK!"

The door opened as Abed stuck his head in." Is everything all right?"

"It's fine A-bed."

Still frowning Abed closed the door as Pierce looked at Annie. "Annie, please look at me."

She looked at Pierce as she tried to control her shaking. "Pierce, I can't. I can't have this in me. I'm not strong enough to handle it."

"Well, now you're just lying to yourself. Even if you don't realize it right now, you can handle this. Annie, you are one of the strongest people I've ever met. You continually risen up time and time again, and that was before you started patrolling. You meet challenges and conquer them. Annie, if there is anyone who can handle this, it's you."

"Pierce, look at me. I continually fuck things up. I got addicted to Adderall because I couldn't handle the pressure of school. I rewarded the amazing friendship of the group by trying to force everyone to fail Spanish. I messed up on that Intel about Duncan and almost got Abed killed. I'll just mess this up, like I eventually mess everything up."

"Annie, the true mark of strength isn't never making a mistake or doing something bad. It's being able to rise up when you've fallen or are faced with overwhelming adversity. When it comes to that, no one does it better then you. Yes, you became addicted to Adderall. But you also put yourself through rehab and got clean on your own with no support. Yes you almost had us fail Spanish. But you also confronted Chang about it, on your own. Yes you made a mistake on the info for Duncan's plan. But you figured out where he actually was so A-bed could be saved. That doesn't sound like someone who fucks it up. That sounds like someone who rises up and learns from their mistakes. "

As Annie listened to Pierce's words, finally beginning to believe them herself, Britta suddenly burst into the room, followed by Abed. "Guys, we're got trouble."

"What is it?"

Britta pulled out a police radio and turned the volume up. ::All units, report to the Hyperion office at once. We've got a call that Robert Laybourne is currently being held captive by an unknown assailant. Management says the suspect is a man with a robotic arm. Wait a moment. I just heard that the vigilante Bright Eyes has arrived at the scene. Show extreme caution and be prepared to arrest her if anything happens.::

Annie stared at the radio in shock as she vaguely heard Abed talk. "Evil Jeff and Evil Annie have kidnapped Laybourne, with Evil Annie dressed up as Bright Eyes. While we don't know what they want, it probably has to do with his stance on vigilantism…"

His words became drowned out as anger began to take Annie over. This evil version of herself had already taken so much from her. But now she was threatening to tarnish her reputation as a crimefighter. "NO!" Everyone quickly silenced as they looked at Annie. "I won't let her do this. I'm not going to let her do horrible things in the name of my superhero self. I'm going to stop her." With that she quickly marched out of the room.

"Annie, wait." She stopped as Britta and Abed approached her.

"You're not stopping me."

"Who said anything about stopping you? We're going with you." Britta said.

Abed pushed open a hidden storage space on the wall, revealing spares of all six of their costumes. "We need to hurry. Because whatever they have planed is going to happen soon."

"Annie!" Annie quickly walked back into Pierce's room as he propped himself up. "Annie, listen to me. The Hawthorne stare doesn't let you copy powers from your own other selves. If you use it on Evil Annie you won't be able to copy her powers."

"Pierce, thank you. But if I'm going to take that bitch's abilities, it's not going to be from staring at her."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"You should be proud." Evil Jeff said as he paced in front of a bound and gagged Laybourne. "You've been so adamant about cracking down on vigilante crime fighters. Well, you're wish is about to come true. Your death will be blamed on the interference of vigilantes and will be the final catalyst needed for every masked crime fighter to be hunted down and either killed or arrested."

The door was kicked open and Evil Annie marched in wearing her makeshift Bright Eyes costume. Evil Jeff glared at her as she struck a mocking pose. "Did you make sure the police saw you enter?"

"Yes, I'm not an idiot you putz." As they heard the police run up the stairs she waved her hand. They screamed as the staircase collapsed to the ground floor. Laybourne's eyes widened in fear as she smiled at him. "It's just you and us big boy."

Just then the windows on the side smashed in, following by Annie, Britta and Abed swinging through them. "Get away from him you bitch!" Annie screamed.

"Well since I'm you, I guess that makes you one also." With that both Annie's jumped at each other, crashing into one another in mid air. Annie sprang back up and pulled out a pair of sharpened Sais as Evil Annie mentally threw objects in the room at her. Annie blocked the objects, her arms a literal blur as the objects flew in all directions. She jumped in the air as Evil Annie waved a hand and threw a heavy wooden desk at her. Annie kicked the desk, reducing it to a pile of splintered wood.

Britta pulled out her pair of handguns and fired at Evil Jeff, who zipped around the room in a blur to avoid them. "Hey Jeff, are you going to keep that face forever?" She quickly leaped out of the way as he snarled and charged at her, his metal arm formed into a blade. She rolled on the ground and jumped up, firing at him. One of her bullets hit his metal arm, which began at spark and malfunction. He grabbed it as he mentally lifted Britta up and roughly slammed her onto the floor.

Abed ran over to Laybourne and pulled the tape off of his mouth. "Sir, it's ok. We're here to rescue you."

"Get me out of here! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Abed pulled a knife out and quickly cut Laybourne's restraints. Sensing someone approach he pulled out a collapsible baton and swung it in the air just as Evil Jeff swung his human arm at Abed. He hit Evil Jeff's body repeatedly before he grabbed Laybourne and pulled him out of the way. He managed to get them behind an overturned cabinet as Evil Jeff threw a barrage of fire balls at it, causing the metal to glow orange with heat.

Evil Jeff yelled out as his metal arm was again hit with a bullet. He looked to his side and just had time to move out of the way as Britta shot at him. Seeing that both opponents were distracted Abed pulled Laybourne to the window and fired one of Britta's grappling hooks onto a nearby ledge.

"Just hold onto me and I'll get you to the ground sir."

"This doesn't change anything."

Abed looked at him for a moment before he clipped the gun to his belt and grabbed Laybourne. Before the man could protect Abed jumped out of the window, swinging through the air like Batman.

As Evil Jeff stopped moving as fast as a blur he looked around the room and saw that Laybourne was no longer in it. "Fucking Shit!" He took a running start and swan dived out of the window, just barely avoiding being hit as Britta shot at him.

Britta spun around and pointed her guns towards the two Annie's. Both women had their arms around each other as they struggled to strangle the other one. And with their identical outfits it was impossible for Britta to know who was who.

As they struggled Annie looked out of the corner of her eye, seeing Britta pointing her guns towards them. "Britta, I need a new sex toy!" Instantly Britta remembered lunch and what Annie had told her then. Before they could move she fired at the Annie to the left, hitting her in the side. Evil Annie screamed as she threw herself off of Annie, moving at lightning speed as Britta continued to fire at her.

Just as Annie tore off her glove to expose her burn mark she heard an empty click, meaning Britta was out of bullets. As Britta holstered her empty guns they both looked up as the ceiling started to shake and crack. Evil Annie laughed as she mentally pulled at the ceiling. Annie looked around, trying to figure out how to get out of there. Knowing there wasn't any time she grabbed Britta and before she could think jumped out of the window. They fell through the air before they hit an awning, which broke their fall before they hit the ground.

As they pulled themselves up the people outside screamed as the top of the building collapsed into itself. Not wanting to take any chances they ran down the street. Britta quickly stopped Annie when she saw a Saleen Twin Turbo. Before Annie could say anything Britta elbowed the window, shattering it as she got in and started hot wiring the car.

"Br-Anarchy, this is stealing and defacing property."

"Right now we need this more than the owner does." She grinned as the engine roared to life. "Jeff is going to be so jealous. This thing can go 250 miles an hour."

A small figure smashed into the ground beside them, with Annie and Britta realizing that it was Evil Annie. Knowing she had to help her friend Annie waved her arms and jumped around. "How, come and get me why don't you? Let's see who can get those powers." With that Annie started running just as a reluctant Britta sped off in the supped up car.

Annie only got past several blocks when she realized Evil Annie wasn't following her. As she paused to think a terrible thought came to her. "No. She wouldn't." Annie ran back in the opposite direction and saw that her suspicions were horrifyingly true.

Instead of going after Annie Evil Annie was instead chasing Britta. Britta was weaving through the streets like an Indy 500 driver, and Evil Annie was easily keeping up with her on foot. Annie raced to catch up with them as several police cars sped after the car. Evil Annie threw several fire balls at the police cars before she jumped and landed on the roof of Britta's car. With her bare hands she punched right through the metal and ripped a large chunk of the roof clean off. Britta violently swerved, forcing Evil Annie to dig her fingers into the metal to hang on. Seeing her chance Annie gave a burst of speed and jumped high in the air. But just as she reached Evil Annie the evil doppelganger threw a fire ball at her. Annie threw her arms in front of her as it hit her, badly burning her hands and right arm. She crashed to the ground just as the car approached the same bridge she had been on just a few nights ago. Just before the car reached the bridge Evil Annie jumped off and waved her hand towards the car, mentally pressing down on the acceleration pedal. Britta tried to slow down and turn out of the way, but she had no control of the car. As Annie watched in horror the car smashed through the bridge and crashed into the water, where with impossible speed it completely sank within seconds.

"BRITTA!" Annie ran to the bridge, making it there in only moments. Without breaking stride Annie leaped off the bridge and dove into the water. Ignoring the pain from her burns she furiously swam towards the sinking car. But the car was sinking faster then she could swim and reluctantly she swam to the surface for air.

As soon as her head broke the water she heard shouts, following by gunfire. She quickly dove again, swimming to avoid the bullets that whizzed by her. She tried swimming towards the car but the bullets prevented her from going in that direction. Reluctantly she swam further out, only surfacing a moment for air before diving again. She did this three times until she was far enough where the police couldn't see or shoot at her.

As she watched them in the distance she felt her eyes sting. As she wiped them she realized they weren't stinging from the water, but from her tears. As she treaded water she cried for the loss of her friend. Of her sister. Of Anarchy. Of Britta.