[PRE-NOTES] Was originally a single chapter, but in the editing process, it grew too big, so I split it in two. Next part comes out either tomorrow or Sunday. [/PRE-NOTES] “Hey... lucy…?” Anon asked, his voice smooth and devoid of any harsh apathy borne of years of hardships and regrets. His eyes are set to the sky first, his sight set on the light of the stars above, their eons-old radiance ever-present and luminous. Next to the human stood a pterodactyl of beautiful light cyan skin and plumage and shining silver hair. Her presence, unlike his, was warm and reassuring even in the cold night air. So long as she stood next to him, everything would be right with the world. Lucy's brilliance would dispel any and all fears he may have carried in his heart. “I got a contract here with a studio here. I’m thinking…” Anon said, hesitating for a second. In that momentary pause, he took a fast yet deep breath of air to steel himself before continuing his words. “...Since I’ll be here for a good while, how about we get some dinner sometime. Y’know… together.” Anon, soon as he finishes speaking his words, turns his gaze towards Lucy. Lucy, for her part, has her eyes set to the night sky as well, but as the seconds pass by, a dusting of pink crosses her cheeks. “I would… I totally would, Anon…” Lucy answers as she brings her eyes to meet mine. “But I’ve got work like you wouldn’t believe!” she adds, all the while letting a slight sight escape her lips. Anon feels slightly deflated by Lucy’s response. “O-oh. Well, if it’s too much—” “HOWEVER!” Lucy interjects, cutting off whatever words Anon was about to say. She then places her hands over Anon’s, all the while her eyes remain fixed on those of the human. “I’ve got time in the morning. So how about breakfast?” Anon’s lips rise. “Is that a date then?” he asks cheekily. Lucy gives Anon a mischievous little simper. “Oh, I don’t know. Is it?” “It is then,” Anon reaffirms to Lucy. Lucy lets out a giggle, her cheeks growing ever pinker in the process. “You’re such a dweeb,” Lucy said as she shuffled closer towards Anon until their legs pressed together. “I know,” Anon replied to Lucy as he moved his chest ever closer towards Lucy. Lucy, in turn, leaned her head on Anon’s shoulder, who in turn wrapped his arm around her shoulder. ‘Feels like old times,’ Anon thought as he allowed Lucy’s warmth to fill his being. ‘Like no time’s passed since I left Volcadera Bluffs.’ He looked up to the sky, his gaze falling on the bright almost full moon. ‘I guess I never did say goodbye to Volcano High,’ he mused to himself. A short snort and a tiny giggle left Lucy’s nose and lips as she turned her eyes back on Anon. “Thanks, now my face is forever stuck in a cringe.” Anon rolled his eyes. “ Way to ruin the moment,” he said, the grin on his lips only growing wider by the second. “You ruined it first with you mumbling,” Fang retorted with a matter-of-factly look. “Fix it then,” Anon riposted. “You ruined it. You fix it,” Fang countered. Anon shifted Lucy in his arms and brought her up within inches of his face. “Fine. I will,” he said, his hand cupping Lucy’s cheek. Lucy, in turn, softly smiled and leaned in for a well-earned kiss… *** Anon jolted awake. With a groan of pain and a whimper of sorrow, Anon forced himself upright. His body refused to move for a full ten seconds before he forced himself to sit. As he did, he felt wrapped in something he hadn’t felt in what to him felt like decades: warmth and comfort. Anon breathed through his mouth. His mind struggled both to process what he had seen in his dream all the while fighting to preserve any memory of it before the cold uncaring oblivion of wakefulness claimed them. Anon brought a hand up to his face, wiping away sweat from his face. Except that what he was wiping from his eyes and cheek wasn’t sweat... For almost a week now, Anon had been experiencing the dreams. They always started the same, with him relieving the most important days of his high school life. The dreams would then go into wildly different directions than what his life had taken. Regardless of how they played out, all lead him to some happily ever after with Fang and Trish and Naser and Reed and Rosa and Stella. For almost a week, Anon had seen events that were far too good for an apathetic caveman like himself. Each dream resulted in happiness and joy for all his old friends… as well as for himself... ...Even though he knew deep down that he didn’t deserve happiness of any kind... Anon picked himself up from bed and raced for his fridge. Tossing out old food containers and empty bottles of juice, he found what he had been searching for. Another bottle of high-proof vodka, this one 120. Without equivocation, he chugged down what might as well have been rubbing alcohol. As the liquid traveled down his esophagus, he let out a hiss as the liquid burned his throat. He then walked to his desk and pulled out a blunt of weed from a homemade cigarette pack. Looking down, Anon realized that it was his last roll. With some hesitation—and a trembling hand—he lit a match and set the cigarette alight. A second later, he almost inhaled the whole blunt of weed, holding the smoke in his lungs for almost half a minute before exhaling. Within ten seconds, his mind became abuzz once again with memories of the various dreams he had experienced so far. Memories in which he saw his friends joyfully living lives they deserved. Memories in which he saw Lu—Fang, working a job she loved, following her dreams without compromise, and loving him as deeply as any woman can love a man… Anon once again brought his head to his hands, sweat once more pouring from his face and staining his hands, body, and floor. He tried to wipe the sweat away, but the more he rubbed his face, the harder the sweat flowed. Anon did his best to try and calm down, but as the minutes ticked by, he began to feel a strange sensation on his being. Little by little, his apartment began feeling far too small and far too hot for him to bear. The memories also returned in full force, sending his mind reeling with confusion and chaos. The memories of a happier home he would never have. Clean walls devoid of cracks and blemishes. Portraits of a happy family without a worry in the world... Anon stood on his feet and began glancing around his apartment in a panic. The very walls judged him for his failures. They jeered and laughed and reminded him how much of a real fuck-up he was.... Anon had to get away; find a place that was wide open, one where he could escape. One where the walls couldn't find him in. Wasting no time, Anon snuffed his blunt and slipped on his usual drab attire. After sliding on his black turtleneck and putting on the black and worn wool beanie he brought back from his time as a seaman, Anon headed for his apartment's exit. Right before he exited his home, Anon took another look at his bottle of vodka near his fridge. With a grimace, he snatches the bottle. Hesitating for a second, he downed another large swig. After yet another hard grunt, he placed the bottle in one of his pant's pockets and stepped into the hallway. Already feeling lightheaded, Anon struggled a bit with locking his door. After some fumbling with his keys, he successfully worked the door’s mechanism. With that small victory under his belt, Anon took off like a man on a mission. His pace was on the normal side for an ex-navy member. It was practically a jog when compared to the average person out on the street though. Within a matter of only ten minutes, he was more than halfway done with walking a mile. As Anon aimlessly moved down the streets of Skin Row, Anon's booze-addled mind couldn't fathom where his body was going. In the few instances where he had some form of lucidity, he course-corrected. By the time he had exited Skin Row, he was well on his way towards the shore. Anon wasn’t sure why his body moved towards the beach. Maybe it was because some part of him actually missed the smell of the ocean. Maybe it was because his body felt hot and he wanted—needed—to cool off. Whatever the case, it seemed like his lizard brain had settled on the course. Gradually, his pace became faster. First a power walk, then a full-on sprint. Anon’s legs pushed his body forward at a pace that could have matched Naser during his track and field prime. To any observer, the human looked like some kind of stereotypical robber. With the bottle of vodka in his hand though, he could pass for some kind of Gopnik after hearing the words ‘free vodka’ echoed in the distance. To further add to his Gopnik appearance, he took a swig of his vodka every few minutes. In his drunkenness, he had confused the bottle in his hand for water. While the human thought he was hydrating, he was in reality only getting drunker... on top of already being high. When Anon reached Volcadera Bluffs’ shores, he was well beyond drunk. The world was a spinning swirl in his eyes. What little of the beach he could see mixed together with bitter memories. Memories that were his and memories that he was sure couldn’t be his. In those memories, or hallucinations—Anon couldn't tell anymore—everyone he had once known was happy… something he was pretty sure he had destroyed with a nuclear bomb. In a brief moment of lucidity, Anon took in his surroundings. As he did, what little hold he still had on his sanity began to slip as he realized where his legs had carried him… ...The beach where he had fucked everything up... The exact same spot, even. Anon frantically glanced around, his addled and swirling vision doing him no favors. What his eyes couldn’t rationalize as an image, his brain filled in with repressed memories. Little by little, the past and the present mixed together. He could see Fang’s face of rage and sorrow as clear as if it happened yesterday. He could see her body language as he tore down everything the two had built together. He could feel the two teen's booze-addled minds loosening their lips and removing any and all inhibitors. Anon heard himself screaming all the horrible things that night as clear as if they were happening in the present... “Probably couldn’t fix you if I tried…” Anon felt ill. Like his very innards wanted to become his outwards... “You should be glad I’ve put up with your shit as long as I have!” ‘Please, no more!’ Anon demanded of his brain. “I deserve a fuckin’ prize or something!” ‘No. Please. That’s enough!’ Anon pleaded as he fell on his knees, his head feeling like it was getting squeezed by a vice. “Not like anyone else would put up with a mentally ill schizo like you!” ‘NO! NO! NOO!’ Anon squirmed out, unsure of if it was a mumble or in his head. In response to his confusion and all the self-loathing he felt in that instant, he began to punch himself in the face like some kind of lunatic. “YOU DON’T EVEN MAKE A PASSABLE FAGGOT!!” “NOOOOOOO!” Anon shouted as hard as his lungs would allow. His shout echoed in the empty streets behind him, but it carried out well out into the empty ocean and the cold uncaring sky. Sweat once again saturated his face and outfit as his body began to shiver. No. Not sweat. Tears. Tears long-suppressed flowed unhindered by any of the human’s many self inhibitions. Bitter tears that felt like acid upon his skin. Without wasting another second, Anon once more began to beat himself. While doing a poor job of actually doing damage due to the haphazard nature of his blows, they at least served to rattle his mind. Each successful punch brought him closer to the sweet embrace of oblivion. When Anon felt that his self-harm was failing to knock him out, he dragged himself towards the nearest hard surface he could spot. In that case, it was what looked like a cement bench. With no hesitation left in him, Anon began beating his head against the cold hard concrete. With every strike to his head, he cursed himself for his mistakes; the many, MANY mistakes he had made over the years: How he had been so cruel toFang when she had been the only person to care for his sorry ass. How he had been the catalyst for Fang cutting ties with all her old friends and family. How he had never bothered to bury the hatchet with Trish, which resulted in Fang falling out with her. How he hadn’t bothered to apologize—or even care—about Fang after their fight. How he had cut himself off from the world like some cowards. How he had run away from his mistake like a little bitch. How he had grown cold and detached from the world at large, to the point that he stopped caring about living. How he had again failed to do the right thing and apologized to Fang in that restaurant. How he had let his apathy once again ruin his chance at starting the healing process between himself and Fang. How he had tried to drink and smoke the dreams away instead of manning up and accepting the message they were trying to tell him... By the time Anon hit his head one final time, he could feel his awareness slipping from away. But right before the last of his consciousness left him, he raised a hand up towards the night sky. “Fuck… I… I’m not a religious man… b-but Raptor Jesus… if… if you are f-fucking hearing my w-words…” Anon’s eyes once more welled with tears, what little vision he had becoming distorted by the veritable dam. “Please… I’m s-so... so... fucking...sorry… for my f-fuck ups!” Anon took a deep breath and steeled himself for words that he never thought he would say out loud… “Please! G-give me... ano-another... chance! L-let me… l-let me set this f-fucking mess right! F-for their sakes a-and… not m-mine…” Anon again breathed soft, his vision becoming consumed by the dawning embrace of unconsciousness. “P-please…” Anon whispered one final time before the last bit of his consciousness left him. "P-plea..." "..." Anon’s body went as still as a corpse... *** It was five in the morning. At least, that’s what the clock on the car’s dashboard said. A lime-toned stegosaur rode on the passenger seat of a fairly modern van. She let out a tired yawn as she sunk her body deeper into the car seat. ‘I guess I shouldn’t have stayed up all night rewatching Gurren Lagann,’ she mused with a mixture of self-scolding and pride. ‘Ten hours well spent though.’ Despite her drowsiness from awakening ten minutes earlier, the steg scanned the city vista with interest. As the building whizzed by, her mind projected a small running dino parkouring in pace with the van’s speed. It made her giggle to herself. Stella knew it was juvenile to rely on a children’s trick to keep her boredom in check. She had never been one to follow 'standard' growing conventions though. In her eyes, it worked both to keep her entertained and awake. If it worked, it worked. Besides, the world already saw her as a cheerful weeb. It was an outlook that had been with her since elementary school. It was also an outlook she had no qualms in keeping. Short of an apocalyptic event taking society back to the Stone Age, she would stay a weeb until her dying days. A cheeky smile formed on Stella’s lips as she thought about what kind of funeral a weeb like her should have. There were plenty of themes she could pick. It had to be something she enjoyed, otherwise, what was the point? She first thought about Neon Genesis Evangelion. 'I mean, that can work,' she mused. NGE was the first anime she ever watched. An uncle had introduced her to it, and on seeing the first few episodes, it had been like love at first sight. From there, NGE served as her gateway to the world of mecha anime, which in turn served as her gateway to anime in general. She started with all the classics like the early Gundams, Macross, and Armored Trooper Votoms. From there, she moved to stuff like The Visions of Escaflowne, King of the Braves Gaogaigar, and Gunbuster. She then got into more contemporary stuff like the Big O and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Gurren Lagann and its celebration of mecha through the years—as well as its sheer galactic scope—made it her absolute favorite anime of all time. So with TTGL being Stella's absolute fave, it only made sense that her funeral should be TTGL themed. She pondered for a bit how that would work out though. After about ten seconds of thinking, she decided that it was a topic best saved for somewhere other than a car ride. After all, she had years to plan it out. 'Besides, it's the music that sets the mood,' she told herself with a bit too much excitement. 'When I go, I'm going to have Libera Me from Hell playing on repeat for at least twenty-four hours. If they refuse, then I'm not going to my funeral.' With her happy thoughts all but settled for the time being Stella closed her eyes for a few seconds. She had been using her eyes for hours after all, and it wasn't like she was going to fall asleep that easily. A few seconds of silence passed by; time in which Stella felt quite relaxed and quite at peace with the world... “Hey! ¡Despiertate!” the voice of the van’s driver, an orange ankylosaur, snapped Stella out from her trance-like state. “I-I’m awake!” Stella yelled reflexively. She blinked the haze out of her eyes and looked at her surroundings. Upon ascertaining that she was not in any danger, she snapped her sight towards her combined boss, business partner, and best friend. “Wha—wha’s happenin', Rosa?" Rosa let out an amiable chuckle in response to her friend's physical reaction. “Ah, ¡Disculpame! I was only making sure you didn’t fall asleep on me before we got started on our cardio!” she exclaimed. "We're two minutes away, so I don't want you sleeping on me!" the ankylosaur cheered as she turned the steering wheel left before accelerating. "But Rosa! I was getting comfy!" Rosa once again laughed. “Maybe you wouldn’t be such a dormilona if you hadn't stayed up so late watching anime." Stella crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks. “Oh come on. You know well that when I get into a show, I can’t just stop watching it!” Rosa let out a single laugh in response to Stella’s statement. “¡Que bichita todavia eres!” She said in her native Spanish before reaching out and rubbing the stego on the head, being careful not to ruffle her green hair too much. “I don’t have anything against you enjoying your anime. Just the anime getting in the way of your sleeping hours.” The orange dino's face turned stern as soon as she finished her words. "Can't have one of my employees tired at work. Oh, no, no, no, no, no! That’s when I gotta put my foot down!” Almost as if to augment her point, she hit the brakes a little harder than usual. As a result, the van came to a halt with a small jerk, causing Stella to lunge forward in her seat a bit. Stella, cheeks still puffed in annoyance, thought of something to say to Rosa. ‘You’re one to talk, what with how you obsess over your telenovelas!’ The sentence constituted in her brain, words taking shape at the tip of her tongue. She wanted to say it to Rosa too… But the more thought Stella gave it, the more she decided against saying anything. In the end, she deflated her cheeks and only nodded in acknowledgment. "¡Perfecto!" Rosa cheered as she started to better park her van. 'Yeah,' Stella thought as she tried to put their interaction in the back of her mind. Deep down, she knew Rosa was only looking out for her wellbeing. It had been that way for the last four years, ever since her own parents more or less washed their hands of her. In their own words, Stella turned out to be an *'anime-obsessed, mystic bull believing, socially stunted excuse for a daughter.'* and pretty much kicked her to the curb. And what had brought about such a hostile exile? Her dream of moving to Japan to become an anime voice actress while also taking up divination and fortune-telling. Sure, accomplishing either goal was a long shot... and she didn’t really have a plan to make any money in the meantime... but she was still determined to see that dream become real! 'Then again, I don't exactly have the best type of voice for an acting gig... nor do I really speak Japanese fluently despite watching thousands of hours of anime...' So her voice acting dreams needed work. She was still amazing at Tarot readings! From her own admittedly biased record-keeping, she had yet to make a wrong prediction. 'Then again, I haven't exactly been able to practice my fortunetelling much in the last four years. Most people on the streets aren't exactly open to some stranger telling them about their futures. Not to mention...' Stella's stomach suddenly felt like she had swallowed a cup full of ice. Her thoughts rewound to that one awful night. The night she made a huge mistake. The night that, with hindsight in its full and terrible might, she committed the single biggest mistake of her life. The night she gave that fateful fortune reading and failed to prevent a terrible fate from coming into fruition... ...All because she failed to explain what one single card meant to the one person who needed it most... Stella’s heart sank as she remembered the moment in Pizza Moe’s like it was yesterday... *** “I wanted to ask, what did you think of your fortune?” “Uh… I kinda forgot” “You got the Judgement, right?” “Doesn’t Ring a bell.” “O-oh. Well… uh… How would you like another?” “Eh… I got time to kill. Sure.” “Alright. Take one.” “Oh my… Inverted Empress. You... need to be wary about future negligence, Anon...” “What the fuck does that mean?” "Uh… er… Gottago,naturecalls,seeyouattheshow!” *** As the conversation played out in her memory, Stella had to ask herself why. Why had she rushed out from that situation despite Anon asking for clarification? Had it been her shyness overpowering her desire to help out Anon? Her lack of social skills in the face of such an important development in Anon’s life? Or some misguided belief that Anon had to face his destiny alone despite needing help in walking the right path? Stella didn't want to know the answers anymore. The answers wouldn't change the event that transpired that night, nor the aftermath. Friendships died. People’s lives abruptly changed. Joy turned to sorrow, and the world moved on regardless of who cried about it. Stella—for as naive and childish as some may have called her for it—desperately wanted to believe that there was some other timeline in which everything turned out alright. A timeline where she got her stuff together and made something of herself. A timeline where all her friends stuck by with each other and helped each other grow to ever-higher heights. A timeline where Anon and Fang stayed and had a happy life together... “Hey. ¡Bicha!” Rosa’s voice snapped Stalla back to reality. “We’re here! And look, we made it before sunrise! That'll give us plenty of time to do our cardio and—” Rosa paused in her tracks, her expression losing some of its cheer. “Are you okay? You look sad. REALLY sad.” the orange dino leaned closer to her friend’s face. “Are you teary-eyed?” Stella blinked a few times before running the back of her hand past her eyes. Sure enough, as she withdrew her hand, she noticed a few droplets of water glistening. Stella took a deep breath and buried her previous thoughts. “Oh, this! I, uh… I was just remembering this… super ultra-emotional scene in an anime. Yeah!” She once more put on a broad smile and widened her eyes. “It… it was this, uh, v-visual novel adaptation! Yeah. Two former lovers, torn apart by bad decisions and their own inability to let love reach their hearts, finally realize what they mean to each other and race back towards each other’s arms as the music swells and the sakura leaves fall and it’s super, ultra heartwarming and it’s just…” Stella brought the fingertips of her right hand up to her lips and, pinching all her digits together, kissed them, and dramatically tossed the metaphorical kiss away from her face. “So cathartic and perfect that it still brings tears to my eyes!” With a deadpan look on her face, Rosa raised an eyebrow. Stella, in turn, only kept a toothy smile on her lips. A few droplets of sweat formed on her brow as she struggled to keep smiling despite her mood being in no such disposition. Two seconds later, Rosa also put on a warm smile on her lips. “¡Hey! Mientras te haga feliz, ¡yo soy feliz!” she cheered, turning away from her friend and undoing her seatbelt. Stella let out a sigh. ‘Sorry for the lie, Rosa, but I don’t think remembering the past would be a good way to start your morning," She thought, all the while doing her best to keep the forced smile on her lips. "You have enough to worry as is with the business and stuff.’ She looked down at the spot on the back of her hand where the now dry tears had been. ‘Besides, I'm being too sentimental about the past. Not like being sentimental's going to change anything about it...’ A part of Stella wished it could do. Rosa shut off her van’s engine and turned to face her friend. “Lista?” she asked in an enthusiastic tone. The lime-toned dino hesitated for a second. Her previous thoughts still lingered in the forefront of her mind. It made pumping the brakes on her train of thoughts harder. Rather than risk some mental derailment, she redirected her perception towards thinking of the day yet to come. Stella gave her friend a toothy grin. “‘Course!” she answered as she unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of the van. Rosa followed not long after. The two friends grabbed their water bottles and shut their respective doors. Only when the two were standing out of the van did Rosa press a button on her car’s remote. With a cheerful chirp, the van's doors locked with loud mechanical clicks. Stella went over her workout outfit, hoping she hadn’t overdressed like last time. She had gotten her tracksuit on sale one week earlier, and only because it was the same style and color tracksuit that Subaru Natsuki from Re-Zero wore. Re-Zero was the ONLY Isekai show that she actually liked, the rest being hot garbage. She hadn’t bothered to premiere the outfit outside of checking that it fit her well. She almost would have forgotten about it had it not been for Rosa suggesting they go jogging on the beach at dawn. A part of Stella wondered why Rosa had decided to do a pre-sunrise jog at the beach. Their workouts at the gym already worked pretty well for them. 'Maybe Rosa wants to try something new?" Stella pondered as her eyes scanned the still darkened horizon. 'Like some kind of wish that she hadn’t been able to indulge until today?' Whatever the case was, Stella was happy that she had a sturdy and warm tracksuit with which to jog that morning. Sure, it was a bit warm for summertime, but it would more than suffice once winter rolled around. ‘I wonder…’ Stella thought as she turned to look at her ass. Sure enough, the pants did her no favors in hiding her wide hips. Hips that only seemed to grow wider with the passing years. Stella felt her cheeks warm up a few degrees as she remembered why she hadn’t used the outfit until today. If she wore that outfit in public, she was sure every male eye within a hundred-mile radius would lock on her. To try and get her mind off her little dilemma, Stella set her gaze on Rosa’s outfit. In some way, Rosa’s workout gear is the polar opposite of Stella’s. Unlike the thick jacket the stegosaur wore, Rosa sported a very light and very red cotton tank top that didn’t even go all the way down to her waist, leaving at least a hand’s worth of open space in which the ankylosaur’s orange belly was visible. Her light gray pants were also on the thin side, being something of a cross between joggers and yoga pants. Unlike Stella’s pants, Rosa’s pants fit her frame so well they neither increased nor decreased the size of her hips. On top of that, the outfit had an intricate set of floral patterns, gray on the shirt, and red on the pants. Stella couldn’t be sure, but something told her that the two garments were matching pieces, even if they didn’t look at them. It made her a bit jealous. It was a really nice ensemble. Rosa took a deep breath of air and let out a chuckle. “¡Ah, que gloriosa es esta amanecer!” She inhaled again, only this time wholly through her nose, the smile on her lips only growing wider by the second. Stella envied Rosa when it came to her olfactory prowess. She had always had the stronger sense of smell of the two on account of all her years tending to flowers. If what she said was true, botany was an old family tradition dating back at least five generations and two continents. She also didn’t suffer from any pollen problems, like allergies. Likely a perk of her family’s long botanical traditions. “Bien!” Rosa said as she pulled out her phone and readied her jogging log up. “We have about an hour before full sunrise. Let’s try and do four miles in that time. Sound good?” Stella pulled her own jogging app and also set her goal and pace on it. “Oui! C'est parti pour cette course!” she cheered in her native French without hesitation. Rosa guffawed at her friend’s use of her family’s native language. Not many knew that Stella's family had come from France. She had been born in Volcadera Bluffs, but she spoke French very well. It reminded the ankylosaur of her own family, and how despite also being born in Volcadera Bluffs, she spoke Spanish almost as well as her native parent. Without further words or interruptions from either of them, Rosa and Stella set off jogging. At first, they tried keeping to the paved road snaking along the beach. Soon, they entered the sandy beach itself, their footing becoming uneven in the sand. The extra work needed to maintain balance added to the workout, their combined footfalls muffled by the sand, yet still almost in pace with one another. Steadily, the two approached the first big landmark on their journey: a set of concrete benches erected to help beachgoers get some sand-free seating. The benches were plain. Aside from a bit of sun bleaching and some harmless graffiti, they were the definition of mundane. That was, except for the black form resting next to the benches. What looked like a body, sprawled out on the sand and almost dead looking... Rosa and Stella stopped in their tracks and turned to look at each other. A second of contemplation later, the two anxiously approached the body. Neither of the two girls wanted to say anything, but their growing fear was impossible to deny. Rosa is the first to show any emotion other than shock. She lets out a shriek and takes a step away from the body. “S-Stella!” she stammers, her eyes falling on her friend as she points a finger at the body by the benches. “Ese h-humano e-esta… esta…” she takes a deep breath and loses any semblance of composure she had. “¡Esta muerto! ¡Esta muerto!” the orange dino screeched all the while frantically running in place. Stella froze and swallowed hard. Unlike Rosa’s understandable and warranted freakout, she didn’t panic. At least physically. Even as a part of her brain told her to lose stability and give in to terror, she kept a coolheadedness that betrayed her actual emotions. Years of playing the aloof and mysterious fortune teller may not have helped her make many friends... but it had helped her develop control over her immediate reactions. Rosa looked to her friend with concern and fear still etched all over her expression. While still keeping a face full of anxiety, she took some cues from Stella’s calmness—feigned as it might have been—and began calming herself. There was still a sickness in her stomach though. It made her want nothing more than to turn right back around and leave. Stella, looking between Rosa and herself, inhaled as much as her lungs would hold and stepped forward. On seeing her friend move ahead, Rosa reaches out to Stella and grabs her by the right arm. She says not a word, only shaking her head and giving the lime dino a supplicating gaze. Despite her trepidation, Stella eased out of her friend’s grip and stepped closer to the body. As she did, she couldn't help but feel unusual by how calm she felt in the face of literal demise. Perhaps years of dabbling in such occult things as Tarot cards and Ouiji boards had made her apathetic to death? Or maybe all the people back in High School had been right and she was just weird. Rosa made a sound behind Stella somewhere between an ‘eep’ and a whine. Even though she didn't turn around to look, Stella could tell that Rosa had taken a few more steps back in fear. Fear of what, she wasn’t clear on though. ‘Maybe she thinks this is like the start of a zombie story, like with Highschool of the Dead?’ Stella mused as she continued to approach the body. She of course knew that it was complete nonsense to believe in zombies. Yet, there was always a minuscule chance that she could be wrong. That the instant she got within reach, the body would spring to life and bite her, turning her into a member of the great skeleton army. Stella shook her head to get the errant thoughts of zombies out of her head. The only thing that mattered was that there was a body lying on the beach. Neither Rosa nor herself even knew if the human was actually dead. It was hard to tell considering the body was face down. The first thing she needed to do was to check. The lime stegosaur gingerly closed the remaining distance between herself and the body. Hesitating for only a second, she crouched next to the human and placed her right hand on their back. With one last look back towards Rosa—who still looked like she was ready to take off running at the first sign of danger—she flipped the human face up. The first thing Stella's eyes noticed about the human, aside from his gender, were the many bruises and scrapes on his face. As she inspected the human closer, she also spotted a nasty gash on his forehead. The blood was dry, which meant the injury happened hours earlier. Next, she noticed the human's getup. He wore a plain black long sleeve turtleneck and a pair of navy blue jogging pants, as well as a black wool beanie. With a bit of doubt given the circumstances, Stella moved her hand towards the human’s chest. At first, she felt neither heartbeat nor lung movement. That changed when a second later, she sensed a very faint heartbeat. She let out a sigh of relief and turned around to face Rosa. “He’s alive!” Rosa, on hearing Stella’s words, exhaled the air she hadn’t even noticed she’d been holding in to for the last minute. After once again collecting herself, the orange dino made a flurry of movements with her right hand. First, she made a cross sign with her index and thumb. Next, she brought up the small cross up to her forehead, then moved to her lower stomach next, and finally both shoulders, starting with her left, and then moving to the right. Finally, she finished by kissing the cross sign and looking up to the heavens with a wide rapturous smile. “¡Oh, gracias Raptor Jesús!” Stella, also feeling relief, decided to take a closer look at the human’s face. She didn’t know many of them, but something about the injured man before her struck her as... familiar. Something about his lack of features that, ironically, made her think of a human she had known years ago... ‘But that can’t be,’ Stella thought as she continued staring into the human’s battered face. ‘He disappeared almost four years ago…’ The lime dino's eyes fell on the human’s beanie. "There's only one way to find out for sure…" she whispered as she reached for the human’s beanie. With a single pull, she removed the hat, revealing to the world a shiny bald head, nary a single hair. Stella almost tripped backward at the sight. Rosa, noticing her friend’s sudden change in disposition, rushed forward to provide support. She was about to ask her companion what had so shocked her when her eyes too fell upon the human’s face. The moment the ankylosaur’s eyes took in the sight of her, she too felt weak on the knees. A strange and powerful mixture of nostalgia and melancholy began coursing through her as the full weight of recognition hit her like a runaway popemobile. “¡No lo creo!” Rosa shouted before almost kneeling next to her friend. “S-Stella… is it... really him!?” she stammered her question. Stella looked between her friend and the human a couple more times before the full weight of what she was seeing also sunk in. In the end, there was no other human in town—possibly the world—who had such plain, almost nonexistent features yet had still caused such a large impact on their lives… “It’s Anon...” Stella whispered “It’s An-On!” Rosa shouted. Rosa and Stella stayed in shock for a few seconds before Stella broke the silence. “What… what do you think happened to Anon?” she asked, her voice barely holding coherence. Rosa looked over the human and grimaced. “Looks like An-On got beat up and got left for muerto.” She lets out a snort, her face twisting into a scowl of rage, her very orange skin turning a deep shade of hot crimson. “¡¡SI ENCUENTRO A LOS PENDEJOS QUE MALMATARON A AN-ON, LO JURO POR RAPTOR JESUS Y DIOS TODO SANTO QUE LES VOY HACER LLOVER FUEGO, FURIA, Y AZUFRE EN SUS CULOS!!” Stella swallowed hard again. As a pious follower of the holy cave paintings, Rosa’s whole MO when it came to grievances and affronts to her sensibilities was to turn the other cheek. Her disappointment in you was often more than enough to make even the most hardened offender beg her for forgiveness. To see Rosa be livid enough to threaten fire and brimstone was nothing short of apocalyptic… Rosa continued breathing hard for a few more seconds. Each puff of air that left her nostrils was steam. After a minute of barely restrained rage, the dino closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Five seconds of seeming introspective self-calming later, Rosa turned to face Stella. Her expression had shifted from one of rage to one of apprehension. “We gotta wake An-On,” she proposed to Stella. For her part, Stella wholeheartedly agreed with Rosa. The question was, how did they go about rousing a beaten human back into consciousness? What if they did something wrong in the attempt? The idea of causing Anon more harm than he already had suffered wasn’t appealing to either of them. Especially since they hadn’t seen him in nearly four years. Humans could change a lot in that timeframe. Who was to say that Anon had a whole different range of physical functions? “Uh, Rosa,” Stella started, her hands already withdrawn from Anon’s vicinity. “I think this is beyond us. Maybe we should… try and get professional help?” After a few seconds of contemplation, Rosa let out a sigh and a nod of acceptance. “¡Quedate aqui! I’ll bring the van around and…” she paused, giving Anon another worried glance. “...We’ll drive An-On to the hospital. I’m sure they can help him there...” Stella gave Rosa a nod, Rosa taking that as her cue to stand back up and rush back in the direction the two had come in one of her fastest sprints ever. Stella found it a bit surprising to see her friend burn rubber as she was. Then again, the life of an old friend was on the line. If that fact didn’t make someone move faster than they had before, then they weren’t exactly a friend. With Rosa gone, Stella looked westward towards the rising sun. She didn’t quite know what to make of the unfolding situation. One thing was certain to her though… Anon's entrance into Volcano High and into their lives had once caused everyone’s story to change dramatically. Maybe his return was also a sign that great change was coming? Whether that change was good or bad was still anyone's guess… The big hand on the clock ticked over to the four. Somewhere in the sterile white hospital room, the sound of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s main theme, ‘Sorairo Days,’ snapped Stella awake. The lime stegosaur let out a yawn, stretched the soreness on her neck away, wiped her clear, and looked down at the phone’s screen. A picture of Rosa was glowing back at her. Groggily, she pressed the answer button and placed the phone to her ear. “H-hello.” “Hey Stella. Como estas?” It took Stella a few seconds to translate her friend’s Spanish in her head before answering. “I’m good. Fell asleep though.” “I’m guessing An-On’s not woken up yet?” Stella turned her eyes towards the bed to her right. Lying there, with an IV bag attached to his arm and wrapped in bandages was Anon wearing a white polka-dotted hospital gown. “No. Still out cold.” “Did the doctors tell you anything about what happened…?” There was a pause, though Stella could almost hear Rosa’s hands clench into a white-knuckled fist. “...And who beat him up?” Stella thought back to what the doctor had told her… *“Your friend there suffered a major concussion, I'm afraid. He also suffered minor fractures on his cheekbones and forehead. We also found shockingly high levels of alcohol and cannabis on his system. I’m shocked he didn’t overdose. Unfortunately, it's still too early to know if all that bad stuff in his system will result in permanent damage…”* Stella sighed. “Still no word on who beat Anon up. The only thing the doc told me is that he suffered an... what did he say… oh, a ‘major concussion.’ He was also jacked up with so much alcohol and weed that… well… he was REALLY jacked up on the stuff. At the same time, too.” Stella could hear a gasp from the other end. Her mind played an image of Rosa doing another sign of the cross before her friend spoke again. “¡Santa Madre del Raptor Jesús! Is he going to die!?” Stella sat up straight on hearing her friend’s words. “No!” she almost shouted before clearing her throat. “I-I mean, Anon’s not dying! He’s stable… just... really, REALLY hurt....” She thought about the last few words the doctor had told her about Anon’s possible brain health. She considered telling Rosa that last part, but in the end, decided against it. The last thing she wanted was for Rosa to feint from worry. “Did the doctor say when An-On’s going to wake up!?” “No. Not really…” There was another moment of silence before Rosa once again spoke. “I’m going to close shop early for the day. I’ll be there in three hours.” “Are you sure?” Stella asked, the full weight of the events now playing before her sinking in. ‘Rosa’s never once closed early or taken a vacation…’ “An-On needs help, and I doubt anyone else in this town’s going to help him. Especially considering what happened between him and the others.” Stella was about to say something, but she only nodded in agreement despite being on the phone. “Hang in there for a few more hours, Stella. I’ll take over when I get there and you can go get some real rest.” “Thanks,” Stella said, a warm smile forming on her lips. There was a crashing sound from Rosa’s end. What almost sounded like the shattering of a vase. “Maldita sea. Gotta go! A customer’s kid toppled over some flowers and spilled water everywhere. ¡Te veo al rato!” Rosa said before shouting something she couldn’t quite catch in her native Spanish. Seconds later, the call dropped. Stella was once more left with a still unconscious Anon by her side. Stella put away her phone and stood up to stretch. She had been Sitting for almost nine hours now. Though she hated to admit it, doing nothing but waiting for Anon to do anything other than lay on the bed like a vegetable irked her. Compared to her daily work routine, her current situation couldn’t get any more boring. At the same time, the reason she was even in a hospital was because of Anon’s sudden and violent reappearance. As Stella’s eyes fell on Anon’s battered face, the dino couldn’t help but wonder what the human had been up to for the last four years. He, alongside Fang, stopped going to school after prom night. They had ditched prom itself too, which should have been the first red flag for everyone. Talking to Naser had revealed very little aside from the news that Fang had broken up with Anon and had wound up in a bad place. Stella and Rosa believed—or maybe they convinced themselves—that Fang and Anon only needed time to work through the break-up. That they would return to school once they got over the depression. None of them could have known at the time how far-reaching the problem was. When a week passed by with Fang still locked in her room, Naser tried taking matters into his own hands. He talked to Trish and Reed. Trish refused to talk about what happened between herself and Fang. Only when she wasn’t around did Reed tell Naser that Fang had broken off her friendship with them. With that venue dead, Naser then searched for any trace of Anon. Despite looking for the human high and low, he found no trace of him anywhere. He almost got his father involved at one point. But he realized that doing that would mean setting his very angry father on the person who had hurt his daughter. That would have not been survivable for Anon. In the end, Naser gave up and tried to get Fang to return to school… only to discover that she had run away the night prior. She left no note and nothing to track her with. Stella sighed again and plopped back into the couch next to Anon’s bed. As she did, she eyed Anon up and down, taking in all his visible physical aspects in an attempt to piece together some kind of past that would explain the human’s four year absence. Stella stared with Anon’s face first. The bandages made it hard to see much skin, but what was visible looked rough. There was a certain tan coloration to it, almost as if Anon had been getting a huge amount of daily sunlight exposure. Going down his neck, she noted a little bit of dryness to his skin. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol-induced dehydration, or if it was because of Anon’s last four years somewhere other than Volcaldera Bluffs. Moving to his chest, she noticed that it was far, far bulkier than she recalled in High School. The Anon from High School was scrawny. Not a stick by any means, but certainly lacking in the musculature this Anon had. The arms attached to the chest were also bulked. In some ways, they reminded her of Rosa’s arms, which were naturally heavy thanks to all her garden work. Curious and maybe a bit drawn by the muscles on display, Stella inched a finger forward and poked Anon’s right arm. The instant she did, she felt a huge level of resistance, the arms holding almost no flabbiness to them. Stella poked the arm again, this time holding her finger down on the bicep. As she pressed down, she felt the strands of muscle underneath contract, further increasing the arm’s hardness. Having already gone that far, the dino decided to wrap her hand around the human’s bicep. It was then she felt the full level of volume in Anon’s arms. As she withdrew her hand, she couldn’t help but feel slightly warm around the face, her heart racing a bit faster than before. She could hardly believe just how beefed Anon felt. He was almost beefier than the jock she had somehow managed to ask out to prom. The discovery of such muscles gave Stella pause. Anon had to have been doing something physically demanding if he had gone from a scrawny guy who could barely pull weeds, to now feeling like he could lift several hundred pounds with one arm. As she inspected Anon’s arm closer, he spotted something that she had somehow missed. She inched closer to get a better look, at which point the shape of an anchor came into her view. Stella blinked a few times, unsure of how she had missed such an obvious tattoo. Thinking fast, she reached for her phone and looked online for what an anchor tattoo could mean. Less than two minutes later, she had found a page detailing the exact meanings of sailor tattoos. She only needed to take one look at similar tattoos in the arms of other sailors to put two and two together. ‘The dry, tanned skin, the well-toned muscles, and the anchor tattoo...' Stella shut off her phone and once again sat back down on the couch. As she did, the full weight of her discovery hit her like the fist of one of the Getter Emperor. She again looked to Anon, this time with amazement. Of all the people she had ever met in her time at Volcano High, she had never once imagined Anon as someone to join the Navy. ‘Though, now that I think about it, it would explain his sudden disappearance...' Stella thought. If she had to take a guess as to what happened after prom... ‘So Fang and Anon break up. The two fall into a deep depression. Anon stops going to school. Probably drops out. Fang also drops out and runs away from home. Anon then joins the navy because he either didn’t have anywhere else to go or wanted to vanish. Spends the next four years on a boat crossing the pacific, hence his tattoo. Got buff and probably did a lot of cool navy stuff. Gets released after his service and comes back to Volcadera Bluffs four years later and then... gets beat up on the beach...?’ Stella shook her head and started rubbing her chin. ‘It doesn’t make any sense. None of it does!’ she thought with growing frustration. Anon became a sailor. Sailors were tough. Anon, being a sailor, was tough too. ‘I mean, the muscles on him are pretty hard to deny,’ she mused, again feeling warm around her cheeks. She changed her mental tracks and returned to her previous ponderings. ‘Whoever beat him up had to be tougher than he was. Then again, the doctor also said that he was super drunk and super high at the same time. With his senses impaired, it makes a bit more sense that someone would be able to jump him. What would anyone gain from beating up a sailor though?’ The dino brought her hands up to the temples of her head and looked to Anon with a growing grimace. “Oh Anon, why won’t you wake up and tell me what happened to you!?” the lime dino groaned as she again collapsed on the couch. With a sigh of defeat, Stella looked up at the clock on the wall. The minute hand had only moved thirty whole minutes. As she narrowed her eyes, the minute hand moved forward one space. That caused the stegosaur to drop back her head in defeat. She considered for a second putting on an anime on her phone to pass the time, but one side glance towards Anon killed that plan. Not because she didn’t think it was in poor taste to watch something fun and entertaining next to a man who may or may not be braindead, but rather because she would have much preferred to share that show with that man. If Anon was suffering, then she too deserved to suffer. If nothing else because she had helped to lead Anon down the road that led to his current unconsciousness. With grim determination in her heart, Stella pulled out her phone and logged into her Rocktube account. With some hesitation, she navigated towards a playlist titled ‘Only play this if you want to feel absolutely, UNEQUIVOCALLY terrible.' She moved to tap on the list, but her finger hung a few centimeters away from the screen. Some subconscious part of her brain was forcing her hand to freeze in place. She glared at her hand before putting the rest of her willpower into moving that finger. At last, though, she got the result she wanted and managed to tap on the playlist. With a click, a sixty-video long list of the most terrible anime openings ever put to both screen and music loaded up. The first song on the list, titled ‘Gundoh Mushashi OP’ began playing. Within the first few seconds, Stella felt a jolt run down her spine, down her legs, and right into her tail. She had heard buzzsaws carry a better tune. She could almost feel the blood pouring out from her ears as the song played for an agonizingly long one minute and thirty seconds. When that song at last ended, the next song on the list, ‘Spiral OP’ began playing. The female singer’s high-pitched voice combined with what sounded like an unfiltered drum played through a broken speaker followed. The two sounds combined so horribly that Stella was certain that VVRUM DRAMA back when they were still using two bases could have done a much better job playing the song. When that at last ended, a song titled ‘Kill Me Baby’ played its uneven, chaotic melody. The singers obviously did very little in the way of caring aside from getting a paycheck, something that made Stella grind her teeth in rage. Stella was doing her best to hold together and not turn off her phone in disgust. ‘Suffering tempers the soul,' she told herself as another horrible OP, this one titled ‘Hentai!’ of all things, played. As the absurd lyrics talking about all kinds of lewd things and the less than subpar animation performed before her, the lime stego actually began to envy Anon. For in his inability to listen to such horrible music, he was in true bliss... ...That was until Anon’s hand very suddenly dropped on top of Stella’s phone, pausing the video and bringing about ecstatic silence once again. '...Wait a sec...' Stella thought as her eyes fell on Anon's arm. Stella let out a sharp scream as she recoiled from the surprise. Anon, meanwhile, glared daggers at the dino, his eyes sunken yet glowing with absolute fury; like at that very second, he wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands around Stella’s neck and wring the life right out of her for even thinking about playing such foul abominations of the melodic arts. “Your… taste… in... OP’s… is absolute… dog shit… St-Stella...” Anon hissed through clenched teeth, his hand shaking as he struggled to keep it placed over the screen. Shock soon gave way to surprise, which then gave way to confusion, which then gave way to relief and joy, all within the span of less than a second. “ANON!” Stella shouted as she tossed herself on Anon, wrapping her arms around the still weak human. Anon, for his part, was utterly confused about what was going on. One moment, he had been lying in his flat feeling hotter than he’d ever felt and getting drunker and higher than he’d ever been. After that, he saw flashes of things he did. Running down a street, walking on the beach, punching himself in an attempt at self-punishment, smashing his own head against concrete... He couldn’t recall more particular things than that. The only thing he knew was that his face and head both hurt like hell. One of the nurses burst through the door a second after Stella had screamed. “What’s goin—” she cut off herself the instant she saw Anon’s eyes fix themselves on her. “Holy mother of—” she began but paused before turning around. “Get the doctor! The patient’s awake!” she shouted as she walked into the room. Without a word, she motioned for Stella to relocate. Reluctantly, the lime stego moved as the nurse rushed next to Anon. Within the second, she checked his IV drip and the rest of his vitals, all the while adjusting the bed so that Anon could better lay on it without having to strain his back. Less than a minute later, the doctor rushed into the room, his eyes falling on Anon with a mixture of surprise and delight. He walked up to Anon’s bed and gave his nurse a nod. “Thank you so very much. I’ll take this here case from here.” With a respectful nod, the nurse left the room, leaving only Anon, the doctor, and Stella. “Well, color me surprised, but you had us scared for almost nine hours now. Glad to see you awake, uh… Anon, was it?” Anon gave the doctor a nod before bringing a hand to his head. The instant he touched one of the bandages, he retracted his limb with a hiss of pain. “Woah. Easy now!” the doctor said, stepping closer to anon and gently patting him on the shoulder. “You’re still very tender. In fact, I’m shocked you’re even awake at all!” Anon blinked a few times, his eyes traveling between Stella and the doctor. “Why?” he asked, his voice still raspy and weak. “Well, for starters, someone beat the living tar out of you. Secondly, you were so loaded on alcohol and cannabis that I’m shocked you didn’t give up the ghost then and there. Finally, you took such a hard knock on that there nogging of yours that I’m astonished you’re even aware right now!” He grabbed a clipboard from the front of the bed and began writing down on it. “Yes sir. You, my homo-sapien amigo, are very lucky that this here young lady found you when she did. Had you stayed on that beach after sunrise, you would have died not just from all those there injuries, but dehydration too.” The doctor turned to look at Stella. “What was your name again, miss?” “S-Stella,” the stegosaur stammered. “Well, Miss Stella and Mr. Anon. Vitals are looking good. The only thing left now is observation.” The doctor finished writing on the clipboard and set his eyes on Anon. “We’ll keep you overnight and see if any complications arise. If nothing seems to be going south, then we should be able to let you go tomorrow morning. I suggest you get yourself some grub, catch up with your friend here, and get yourself some rest.” The doctor placed the clipboard back on the bed’s front. “Oh, and don’t worry about any medical expenses. Half of it's covered by your GI benefits. The other by a family member of yours.” The doctor let out a well-meaning chuckle. “I really do love it when family sticks together.” As the doctor left the room, Anon couldn’t help but wonder who this ‘family’ the doctor had told him about was. Last he checked, his own parents had written him off for dead. It couldn’t be any of his Navy comrades either. He never got along with any of them beyond the whole team building bull. He had no other people on earth that could claim to care about him either… Anon’s head began throbbing, and he took that as a sign that he needed to stop thinking. He lay his head back on the now angled bed and turned to look at Stella, who for some reason was wearing what looked like a very familiar tracksuit. He blinked a few times and let out a dry laugh. “Why… are you… wearing... Subaru… Natsuki’s... tracksuit?” Stella’s eyes lit up like they were Christmas decorations. “Y-you can tell!?” she almost shouted, her tail instinctively wrapping around her leg. Anon sighed and turned away from the stegosaur. “Four… years. I don’t… fucking see you… for four… years… and you’re still… the same… weeb…” He let out another dry chuckle as he closed his eyes. “People… never… change…” he whispered bitterly. Stella tilted her head to the side, not sure what to make of Anon's comment. Not that it mattered anyway, as her previous excitement returned in full force as she rushed back to Anon’s bedside, eyes once more aglow with barely-contained glee. “So, did you watch any good shows while in the navy!?” Stella asked with almost child-like energy. Anon turned back to look at Stella’s eyes. At first, he felt tempted to make a snide remark about growing up. That thought fell away as a question formed on his lips instead. “How… did you know… I was in the… navy?” “Your anchor tattoo!” Stella answered, pointing at Anon’s right arm. “Also... your new musculature…” she bashfully said as she tapped her fingers together and looked down at her feet. Anon let some air out of his nose. “So…” he started, his eyes once again falling on Stella’s light blue eyes. “Why did… you… save me…?” Stella again tilted her head in confusion. “Why did I save you?” she repeated the question with some incredulity. “Why WOULDN’T I save an old friend!” she answered with such sickening sweetness that Anon couldn’t help but feel that one in his heart. “I haven’t seen you in four years. NO ONE has. We… we all thought you had died, Anon. DIED!” Anon’s face turned into a grimace at Stella’s words. “I might... as well... have died...” he whispered. Stella gasped, a grimace forming on her face. “Why would you say something as awful as that!” she almost shouted in rage. Anon opened his eyes as wide as he could and stared right into Stella’s soul. “I have... nothing... to impart on to you. I straight fucked it… this life…” Stella’s tail dropped along with her mood. “I guess you haven’t exactly had the best four years of your life, huh?” Anon didn’t even dignify Stella with an answer, only continuing to give the lime dino a soul-piercing glare. Stella stood up straight and put on a determined face. “Anon, listen to me and listen well. Just because you feel like you’ve screwed your life beyond repair doesn’t mean you actually have. You’re still here and are still alive, aren’t you?!” Anon opened his mouth to speak, but he promptly shut it when Stella once again moved forward, her face only inches away from his. “As long as we are alive, we can work towards a better tomorrow. So what if we suffer along the way? So what if we stumble and fall? We have to get back up and keep moving ahead!” “I don’t... think I’m capable of that…” Anon whispered, his eyes shifting away from Stella's own soul-piercing stare. “I… I have committed horrible sins… and I hate myself for it…” He bit his own lip and turned to look at Stella, yes shimmering. “I fucked up so, so bad!” the human shouted, his voice still coarse, but his tone uninterrupted and heartfelt. “I ran away when I should’ve faced the consequences of my actions. I tried to numb the pain with booze and weed and apathy. I… I had a chance to start over… and I still chose to be apathetic!” The human took an uneven, wavering breath as he again looked away from Stella. “I… I think I even tried to kill myself last night… which is why I’m this fucked mess of a man…” He closed his eyes, a tear flowing from his right eye. “People don’t change, Stella. I haven’t changed… I don't believe in myself anymore…” Anon opened his eyes to both clear the tears and to see Stella’s face of devastation over his words. Instead, he opened his eyes to see a lime-toned stegosaur with the most outraged expression he had ever seen. While her eyes shimmered also, her cheeks had turned a deep crimson, the heat radiating from them almost overwhelming to the human. Before Anon had a chance to say or do anything, Stella placed a foot upon his bedside and crossed her arms, holding her head up high, all the while still looking deep into Anon’s eyes. “If you don’t believe in yourself, then that’s fine!” Stella started in a boomy voice that Anon had never heard from her. “Don’t believe in yourself, Anon!” she thundered, all the while pointing her right index finger at Anon. It was now Anon’s turn to tilt his head to the side. “...What...?” he asked, unsure of what to make of Stella’s words. “Don't believe in the me that believes in you, and DON’T believe in the you that believes in me. Instead, believe in yourself who believes in you!” Stella again leaned towards Anon, a wide and confident ear to ear smile on her lips. “Don't get distracted by the what-if's, should-have's, and if-only's. The one thing you choose for yourself… that is the truth of your universe!” she ended, once again crossing her arms for emphasis. There was silence in the room for almost half a minute. In that time, Stella still pointed her finger at Anon, all the while holding one leg up and striking her crossed arms pose. Anon, meanwhile, was trying—and failing—to make sense of Stella’s words. Despite his throbbing headache, he did force himself to try and make some semblance of reason when it came to Stella’s motivational speech. Only when he ran the words over his head for the tenth time did he recognize that the words didn’t belong to Stella at all. Anon narrowed his eyes. “You... stole that from Kamina... didn’t you…?” Stella’s reaction to Anon’s discovery was twofold. First, Stella lost all composure and nearly fell on her rear. The only thing that kept her upright was her tail. Next was her putting on a goofy little simper. Finally, the stego gave Anon another wide-eyed and glowy stare, as if trying to divert his attention. Try as he did, Anon couldn’t help but find Stella's stare adorable... Anon sighed and rolled his eyes. “You know that quote only works if the person I’m going to believe in is strong and full of hot-blooded spirit, right?” Stella finally let go of her pose and moved next to Anon again, once again taking on a more conservative posture. “Am I not someone you can put your full unquestioning trust in?” Stella asked with a bit of disappointment in her voice. Anon shook his head and let out a soft chuckle. “Honestly, no.” Stella’s expression soured a bit as she again looked down at the floor. “However,” Anon added, his words snapping Stella from her low. “I… think I get what you were trying to tell me…” The human looked at his hand, which he clenched into a fist. “I can’t keep living in the past and beating myself over mistakes that I already made. I have to learn from those mistakes and face the future. Have to man the fuck up and set right what I so stupidly set wrong in the first place.” “Not just you...” Stella interrupted meekly. “I’m also responsible.” Anon narrowed his eyes. “How the fuck are you responsible? You were at prom enjoying yourself while I went and fucked everything up with Fang.” Stella sighed and reached into the purse next to the sofa. She pulled out a deck of tarot cards, one Anon was very familiar with. “Oh, you’ve got to be fucking with me!” Anon bemoaned as he raised his hands up in the air. “Tarot cards? That’s your big ‘mistake’!?” “You don’t understand. The day Fang and the others played at Dino Moe’s I gave you a reading that… I... that I failed to explain…” Anon rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, I remember. ‘Inverted empress,’ followed by some cryptic warning before you… fucked off to the bathroom.” Stella nodded, again sitting down on the couch. “I pulled the card, but I neglected to tell you what it REALLY meant for you. Then, despite knowing of your confusion, I said nothing else because…” Stella closed her eyes and sighed. “...Because I was afraid. Afraid that you would make fun of me. Afraid that you would do the opposite to prove me wrong. Afraid to..." the dino's whole body trembled as she pushed past some self-imposed inhibitor. "... Afraid to realize that I WANTED to help you… even though you never liked me as more than a friend. If I was even a friend to you at all…” She slammed the tarot deck on the nearby table and left it there, her face scrunching into a scowl of both pain and anguish. “I so wanted you to like me back then. I… I mean, we were both weebs and outcasts. Why couldn’t we help fill each other’s loneliness too?” She sobbed deeply. “The real reason I ran out on you that night was because a part of me wanted things to fall apart for you. If you… if you messed everything up with Fang... then you would have been all alone again. Then I could have found you, and we would have bonded and become happy together as fellow lovers of anime..." She brought her hands up to her face, the damn finally breaking as the dino began to weep in the most heart-wrenching way imaginable. Anon, despite his desire to keep a stoic expression, couldn’t help but feel the same sadness that Stella did. His experience in Dead End had left him wary of ever showing that he loved something. It got to the point that he began vilifying the very idea of showing his passions to anyone, hiding it all away so that no one could ever use his passions to hurt him. When he had first met Stella, he immediately pegged her as someone to avoid and belittle, and all because she was more open about a love he felt he had to hide from the world. Yet when his true power level became known to all, she was, along with Fang and Rosa and Reed, all there to support him through it... With a still shaky arm, Anon put his right hand on Stella’s shoulder. As the lime dino turned to look him in the eye, he tried his best to put on a sympathetic smile for her. He had no words to tell her, but he hoped his expression—as battered as it was—would be enough to convey what he wanted to tell her; that even in his fucked, broken, and apathetic life, he didn’t hate her. Maybe in some alternate universe, they could have been something more than friends. A happy pair of dweebs whose idea of romance was rewatching old mecha shows while planning out their next trip to an anime convention... Stella grabbed Anon’s hand with her own two hands and cuddled it. He felt a goosebump run up his arm and down his spine when he felt Stella's skin. He hadn’t felt anything so soft in nearly four years. The two friends stayed silent for another minute before Stella let Anon’s hands go and once again picked up her Tarot deck. “Anon… I know you don’t believe in fortunes and stuff… but do you… do you want me to give you a quick reading? For old time’s sake.” Anon hesitated for a second. He really didn't have the best memories when it came to Stella’s fortune-telling. At the same time, he couldn’t deny that she loved it, her flair for the occult being second to none. He also didn’t want to upset her again, especially bearing each other's hearts to one another. “Sure. I’d… love to,” Anon said in as neutral a tone as he could muster. His voice felt like it was about ready to give out from the previous strains. With Anon’s blessing, Stella shuffled the tarot deck several times over with a showy level of showmanship that he hadn’t quite ever seen from the lime stegosaur. Seeing her twist the cards, shuffle and re-shuffle them, divide the two into piles that she then pulled and brought together was mesmerizing. After about thirty seconds of shuffling, Stella held the deck out to anon. “Take one,” she told Anon. With a still shaky hand and a heart bearing some hesitation, Anon placed a hand on the top card of the deck and drew it. He waited exactly one second before turning the card around. The card's art was that of an angelic being—one that looked like a cross between a human and dino—residing on top of a cloud while blowing a trumpet. Below it, a human male and a ptero female reached out to the angeling being, as if either asking for salvation or begging for forgiveness. Anon looked at the card’s name. Before he could say the name himself, Stella spoke it for him. “Upright Judgement,” Stella stated as she leaned her head next to Anon’s. “You are being called to follow a new path or incorporate a new practice in your life. What you have and where you are is not who you're meant to be. It’s time to embrace change. A new era is about to begin...” Stella explained. “Anon… I think… I think this means that…” the dino didn’t finish her words, the weight of the card’s meaning hitting her so hard that it forced her to take a seat. Anon and Stella once more grew quiet as they absorbed the meaning of the card. As the two reconnected and reconciled friends looked at each other, they both knew that all the events the led to this point couldn’t all be mere coincidence. The odds were too low and the world too chaotic. Yet what else could it be? Anon wasn’t one to believe in such things as hokey religions and fate, but even he was finding it hard to rationalize it… Before either Stella or Anon could say another word to each other, the door to their room opened. In walked a pterosaur doctor, his light brown skin accentuating the orange crests on his head and underbeak. Unlike other dinos of his species though, one of his wings looked shriveled. From the scars and missing pieces, it looked like it had gotten crippled many years earlier... Anon’s eyes went wide with shock as memories began flooding back to him. Stella, for her part, stood up, her hands moving up to her mouth as she tried, and failed to suppress a gasp. The pterosaur looked at the stegosaur and human before his gaze fell squarely on Anon. As it did, his expression changed to a mixture of nostalgic delight and barely restrained wrath. “Hello... ‘brother'...” the dino spat, his every syllable laden to the brim with vitriol, almost as if speaking the words caused the dino’s beak to ache and his very stomach to turn. Anon’s eyes, still wide—and mouth just as widely agape—could only form one name on his tongue... “N-Naser?”