Kira didn't struggle, but moaned in pain. It's ever staring eyes pierced harder than any blade.
"Kira's Rose?" Nina muttered while still shaking. Nina shook her head to try and overcome her fear. She stood her ground with her katanas out.
Anne felt more angry than afraid by what Annie did. She used their friend to make a grotesque monster.
Both of them knew that they had to fight. It didn't try to harm them, but, no matter how hard it was for them to witness and remember this thing, they had no choice but to destroy it.
"Please tell me all your opinions about my latest piece. Are you thrilled to see a monumental piece of history to come?," Annie said.
"Piece!? You took our friend and created a monster!" Anne shouted.
"Aww. Is that any way to speak to a fellow Light Guardian," she replied.
"I don't care what you are. You're just a monster," Nina said.
And it wasn't the first time that Annie was called a monster. And she certainly believed that it wouldn't be the last. It wasn't the first time she used another's body for her art. She watched plenty of Light Guardians. Annie just waited for them to die, so she could pick them up later for her art projects. Then, Tendra would worry about adding the memories that were required using whatever the spiders reported.
She said, "If it's any consolation, I didn't kill her. I think that was the work of a couple of Night Demons."
"I don't care if she wasn't killed by you!" Anne shouted, "I'll make you suffer for what you've done!"
Nina continued, "You're worse than the five monsters that took her away!"
"Five?" Annie muttered quietly without the other two hearing, "I thought my spiders saw three."
While Annie was thinking about that, Anne and Nina both charged forward. They tried to go towards her, but Kira blocked the way with a wall of prickly vines. Some prickly vines grew around the rose's large stem like armor. Other vines came out from underneath the ground. They had dinosaur-like heads with jagged thorns on the ends of each vine. They slithered around and hissed towards Anne and Nina.
Annie said aloud no longer caring about the slight discrepancy, "It doesn't matter. My art piece will protect me and itself. You'll have to destroy a valuable work of art and your friend if you want to get to me."
Anne and Nina looked at each other.
"We need to fight that rose," Nina said, "I know it's hard seeing Kira again, especially like this, but we need to work together. We need to end her suffering, then we can make that girl pay for what she's done."
"Right," Anne replied, "Let's try to destroy this plant first."
They nodded in agreement and went in to fight. It was hard and grueling, but they fought valiantly. Anne continued to punch and kick her way through. Nina cut down the vines with her blades.
Meanwhile, Annie felt frustrated that they were damaging her art. Her face turned red and her facade vanished. She no longer maintained an elegant smile. She yelled, "Damn it. Vandalizing my art? When Kira's Rose kills you, I'll use your bodies for something next!"
But Anne and Nina ignored Annie's comments. They focused on fighting the monster in front of them, then they would deal with the other monster known as Annie.
While they continued to fight while paying no attention to Annie, she tried to revert her posture back to the way she preferred. She still felt like she was in control, however she was disappointed by her first guests. She had hoped that they would at least appreciate the effort. They should even be happy at seeing their once dead friend used for such a piece of art. She was intelligent and creative, but didn't understand people that weren't like herself.
And when Nina and Anne were being pushed back, the vines bit into their arms and legs spraying blood.
Annie stared at the sight of blood with the usual feeling of ecstasy. She licked her lips and was reminded how good it felt to see it after so long. She always enjoyed seeing others suffer. She always kept the Night Demons alive while she worked on them. But it was so much more satisfying to see it happen to a human like herself. The fact that she knew that her sadism was wrong meant nothing. All that mattered what that It made her happy. Just like how keeping Jack around makes her happy. Just like making new pieces of art. It's all that she cared about. Just feeling happy and in control.
The fight continued for some time. Neither side looked to be winning, but Kira was far more resilient. She kept growing more and more serpentine vines. Meanwhile, a small spider had to bring some news to Annie. It avoided all the fighting and crawled up the vines. It crawled up Annie and went up to her shoulder.
"What is it? I only told you to contact me if there were any problems," Annie said.
The spider made a couple of clicking sounds. It began to make clicks in Morse code that Annie understood. Annie taught the spiders Morse code, or, more specifically, made Tendra work on the mother spider's mind to know Morse code.
"Visitors? More Light Guardians?" Annie asked. She wasn't expecting anybody else to come, but she was thrilled in having more guests.
The spider shook it's head.
"No? Night Demons?"
It shook it's head again.
"Just regular humans?"
It shook again.
Annie sighed, "I didn't tell you to tell me if an animal like a cat wandered in. I told you to just shoo those kinds of pests away."
It made some more clicking sounds.
"Not an animal? What is then?"
The spider started to click, but didn't finish. It shuddered.
"Mon...sters...Dark...Stars," the spider muttered to Annie's surprise. They were never able to speak before. She's never met a single Night Demon that could speak and have a conversation. It was impossible.
A roar trembled throughout the gallery. Everything froze. The creatures that watched the fight looked towards where the sound was coming from. Kira held Anne and Nina down with her vines. But the roar was familiar to all three of the girls.
Other monsters were there and were getting thrown around. A blaze of fire erupted amidst the chaos. Anne and Nina recognized that raging power. And even Annie recognized it, although she didn't believe it.
A blade came flying out from the flames. It went straight at Annie with haste and without any time for her to react. Luckily for her, Kira's amalgamation of vines bundled together and shielded Annie. The blade was a flaming machete. It was stopped by the vines, but it pierced deep and caused the whole part of the plant to burst into flames.
Annie knew who that was, but couldn't believe it.
Then, there she was breathing heavily with a horde of her art pieces decimated behind her.
"Annie!," the girl yelled with hate and excitement, "Annie! I found you! I FOUND YOU!!"
She couldn't believe her eyes. It wasn't the same one that she had kept, but that rage was all too familiar. Annie muttered with disbelief, "Impossible. Jack?"