Anne and Nina began to work together again after facing Annie's Kira artwork. They eventually learned that Annie was killed and her gallery burned to the ground. Anne was still more aggressive, but Nina didn't mind. There was no sense of leadership, but rather they worked as equals.
But the number of Night Demon attacks have dwindled. Or they just had a harder time sensing them. Either way, the amount of people going out have decreased dramatically. The storm that was broadcast on the news made people stock up on essentials like food, water, and especially toilet paper.
Although, they thought that this would be a perfect opportunity for Night Demons to strike, there weren't any as far as they knew.
They noticed that Jack, Mary, and Yune were working together again as well. Sometimes, at night, they would be seen fighting Night Demons, but they never interfered with their own fights.
It was just quiet. Nina enjoyed the peace, but not Anne. She was used to the constant action from one monster to the next. But they felt like they had resolved their issues. Nina even surprised Anne with a little party to which she was grateful. She was starting to go back to the way she was before Kira died. They began to move on.
But just because there weren't many Night Demons, that didn't mean that they weren't around.
Underground in abandoned subway tunnels far enough away from the surface so that no Light Guardian could sense them, there were a group of monsters. A group of Annie's art projects and a few Night Demons. However, all of them regained their senses. They had no plans on hurting people after that. It was just a small group of monsters, but even a small one was capable of doing a lot of damage. They've never come together before the Dark Stars appeared, and they were grateful for their appearance.
This group had captured Tendra as a prisoner after they worked together to defeat her. At first they thought it would have been difficult, but after working together, defeating Tendra was a lot easier even if she managed to kill a few of them.
They all had one reason for this. One simple reason. To revive Annie.
Both kinds of monsters had their own reason for helping towards that goal. The art projects in the group felt like they owed their existence to Annie like a God. Meanwhile, the few Night Demons that were captured by Annie became fascinated by her work and procedures. They would have even preferred Tendra to worked with them as they considered her to be a servant of Annie's, but she resisted.
They worked tirelessly and efficiently especially the art projects. They were the most like fanatics. But eventually they were finished. They had only one needle left that had Annie's power still coursing through it. They stuck it into her belly button and the shock went into her. A spark of life. Her body lived, but it was just a doll. The needle stayed lodged inside of her even though it no longer carried Annie's energy.
They brought Tendra in for the last step. They just needed the memories implanted. The monsters saw it as a perfect model, but Tendra thought that it was amateurish even compared to Annie's. But Tendra was still their prisoner with her arms and one eye removed by her captors.
She lied naked on a flat table.
The body was sewn together using many kinds of hairs from different monsters. The top of her head had been covered in broken, crinkled blonde-hair. There were patches of her burned skin mixed together with other skin. Her face was covered in stitches. One eye was clearly Annie's. But her left eye had to be replaced with Tendra's which was off-center as well. Her left eye also drooped down a bit.
Her left arm had been entirely replaced. It was longer than her other. Although, Tendra didn't know where they got that arm, she knew it had to have been fresh even though there were still plenty of open cuts without any blood coming out of it. And then, Tendra was able to feel that her tendrils were inside of Annie's left arm. They had used Tendra's arm and repurposed it to be used for Annie, even though it had been stitched together and recolored to match Annie's skin tone.
If they wanted it to look like Annie, then they only did the bare essentials. But the creatures that made it thought it to be a work of art like themselves.
Then, they pushed Tendra forward yelling at her to implant Annie's memories. Tendra only had one working tendril left. They tore all the others in fear that she would use them against the group. It grew out of her mouth and stuck itself inside the doll's ear.
But Tendra saw her chance. Rather than giving them the satisfaction of giving Annie, she had a different idea. She implanted everything that she had. Every memory and mind that Tendra could muster. She figured that it would be too much for the doll to handle. Too much so for the brain to explode.
The body rapidly squirmed around.
The creatures realized their mistake. They grabbed onto Tendra and ripped out her last tendril without thinking. But it was too late. The damage was done. Tendra didn't feel like she was going to win, but she wanted Annie and anybody who followed her to lose. Realizing that Tendra was no longer useful to them, they killed her. And when the clink of the black coin dropped, the body's eyes opened wide.
As the monsters looked at their art, they felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. However, they celebrated too soon.
Even though they were too far to be sensed from above, Anne and Nina decided to scour many other nooks and crannies in the city. They came upon the group of Night Demons in a surprise.
They saw a naked girl lying there, not able to recognize it as Annie. They thought that it was somebody in distress from those monsters. Unlike Jack, Yune, and Mary, these two didn't talk to the monsters before attacking them. They just go straight into the fight. But even if those other three girls were there instead, they probably would have attacked to save that girl, anyways.
Anne and Nina attacked the monsters and they began to defend themselves. They screeched and gave battle cries. They said things like: "Protect our queen!" or "Defend our God!"
But each one was no match for both Anne and Nina.
And then, they looked at the body. She was still breathing although very lightly. They couldn't imagine what the girl had been through. She looked like she had been ripped apart and put back together by those monsters. She looked like she was in high-school, but the body was so badly damaged that it was hard to tell.
They assured her that everything was going to be fine, although they weren't sure to believe it or not.
They called the shopkeeper to help, but he couldn't do anything to it. He knew what it was, but kept that information to himself as he wasn't specifically asked.
Nina picked her up and the two of them dashed away in haste carrying their supposedly dying girl to the hospital. They left the black coins there to help her. But this girl wasn't dying. Her eyes were wide open. She watched as lights passed by them. However, she didn't feel anything from them. She didn't feel any pain or emotions. She was just another empty shell. But as she rested, her mind began to work. She began to feel different.