A Girl and her Teddy Bear (Akhtar/Open)

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Akhtar was more than sure that Annie could take care of herself. He wasn't sure how long she had been on her own, with or without her brother but she was still alive. He just knew that there were people out there, both human and supernatural who would make Gil look like a saint. Havoc was one of the people...well if he were still alive. Akhtar actually had to chuckle thinking about Havoc. The hellhound who came in and turned Gil's very own pack against him. That was a very rough year for Gil. Annie was too young to understand all of that so it was a waste of time for Akhtar to try and explain the more adult side of things to the young girl.

For now he would focus on helping her finding her brother and hopefully a suitable home for the pair. There had to be someone out there willing to care for them. He was fairly certain that the brother was safe. There was no news of anyone finding a child with their unique features dead or anything. That would have surely been on the news. Perhaps he has found himself in a rather comfortable situation and doesn't want to be found.

Looking at the young innocent child Akhtar said, "I know you have to find him Annie. What I am saying is we can find him together. I know he probably wouldn't want me to come near him if he didn't see you with me. We can work together to find him. It just simply is not safe for you to be alone. Even with Mr. Tibbers. There are far too many powerful supernaturals out here who can seriously hurt you AND Mr. Tibbers and there are far too many regular humans who can cause harm as well. My home is a safe haven and it is fortified against a lot of intrusions." Akhtar couldn't believe he was pleading with a child to stay in his home. Well he wouldn't be the one caring for her. Thank God he had an entire staff that could do that for him. He was simply just the host house.

He didn't know what would happen in the end but he just wanted to make sure the child was reunited safely with her brother. He was always doing this. He wanted to always help whenever he could. He wasn't called, "The People's Prince" for nothing. It really did fit him. He always looked to help the underdog and help them better themselves and this was no different. Annie was definitely an underdog and she needed Akhtar's help to get back on the right track in life.

[Annie Cingolani]

It would be a lie to say that Annie wasn't tempted by Akhtar's offer. It had been a long time since Annie had ever had a stable place to stay. The only place she had ever had to call home was the cage she and her brother had grown up in. She had hated that cage, and for a good reason too. Since she and her brother had gained their freedom they finally got to see the world outside of that cage. The places they had seen and spent the night were much better than their stupid cages, but they never lasted forever. The twins were constantly on the move which made settling down anywhere hard to do. It didn't help that if they stayed in one place too long they either got into trouble or ended up burning the place down during one of their moodswings. Annie convinced herself for the most part that the constant moving was fine so long as she had her brother by her side but when she didn't it bothered her. She felt so lost and lonely sometimes that she just wished she could have somewhere she belonged. Would staying with Akhtar give her that feeling that she longed for?

Perhaps, but she would never find out. Annie couldn't allow herself to be happy for long without her twin. She was already beginning to feel worried again. Where had her brother gone? Was he scared and lonely like she had been without him? Or had he abandoned her? That last thought broke the poor girl's heart. If something had had happened to her brother, or if he ever left her she would drown herself. There was no one in this world that could ever replace Anthony. If he didn't want her then she might as well die. She had to find him. Now that she was feeling better the drive to find her missing brother kicked back in. As much as she wanted to stay with the nice prince she couldn't. Even right now she was wasting the time she could have been spending on finding Anthony talking to him. She had to leave, and she told the prince that. But Prince Akhtar didn't feel comfortable with that idea.

Akhtar explained that he understood how much she wanted to find her brother but felt the world outside was too dangerous to let her go search by herself. Annie frowned as she considered his offer. She had to admit that it would probably help if she had someone to help her out in her search. Since Akhtar lived in this city he probably knew the area a lot better than she did. Annie had a tendency of getting lost easily, it was because of that that she lost her brother in the first place. Having someone that knew the area better would help a lot with her search, but even then she wasn't sure. If they were going to go looking for Anthony that meant they had to be out on the streets all the time. She couldn't just leave her new friend to wander the streets for days like she had done while she stayed behind in the house. That just wasn't fair. She should go with him for sure. While she didn't know the layout of the city the best she knew how to survive in the outside world. She could easily help them find new shelter when they needed to. “If you want to help me look for my brother I can't just stay in the house silly. We have to go outside to do that. Why don't we both go? I can help us find shelter at night so that way we can both be safe!” that was a decent compromise in her book. He wouldn't have to worry about bad people coming to get them at night if they searched together.

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Akhtar couldn't help but to chuckle at the young girl and her innocence. She was truly naive to the world. It was probably this same innocence that has now caused her brother to disappear. While the pair seemingly had a bad life they still possessed the innocence that caused a lot of children to end up kidnapped or worst, murdered. Akhtar wanted to just lock Annie up and keep her safe until he could find her brother because he knew the girl was powerful and she had been taught from a very young age to abuse her powers. Abuse of power was the one way to get things accomplished.

He wanted to teach her that, that was not the way to use her powers. She could possibly do great things but right now she was focused on finding her brother, as she should have been. Perhaps AFTER she found him or some family somewhere they would be able to learn to use their powers the correct way and not the way that their former masters taught them. It was clear that if the proper measures were not taken Annie could easily turn into a sadistic psychopath. Akhtar didn't want that. She was a sweet little girl...well up until she hears Gil's name.

He said to her, "Annie no...bad people can live in shelters and you have to pay to stay in a lot of them. The people who are there are not going to be so willing to help us. A lot of people around here do not think we exist. They think people like us are all made up and that we are just parts of their imagination. My home is the safest place to set up base to find your brother. I have a lot of powerful frirnds who can also help us in the search for your brother. You just have to trust me on this." He looked at her knowing this would be a hard thing for her to do. Annie had been through so much. Granted breaking into the homes of people have caused some of her strife but aside from that it was a lot of unjust grief. "We can do a lot more in my home than what we could do in a shelter...look."

He waved his hand and in front of them a high tech screen popped up on the wall. It showed the location of several powerful "unidentified" magical beings. Okay...so he sort "borrowed" PIDA's technology but they would never know. It was just a mirror image of one of their high tech computers. This was a bit of difficult magic seeing as it was mixing magic and technology but Akhtar did well with it. He could always call in a favor from TB and Jesse. "You see Annie? We can have everything we need AND we can call my friends who specialize in finding supernatural beings. So what do you say?"

[Annie Cingolani]

Annie didn't feel too comfortable with the idea Akhtar wanted to go with. The child couldn't see how helpful it was for her to stay in the house all day. Sure she liked the place, it was nice and spacious, had good food, and comfy beds, but it wouldn't help her find her brother. No matter how nice a place was it meant very little to Annie to live the life of luxury when she didn't have her twin brother. Losing Anthony was like losing a part of herself. Without him her life had no meaning, and if her life had no meaning she was better off dead. How could she live happily while knowing her brother was out there somewhere miserable and alone? That was the way she saw it. Anthony had to be feeling sad right now. It was hard to think that he wasn't, if he didn't then that meant he had intentionally left her and didn't care about her anymore. No, she couldn't think about such things. To do so would break her fragile heart. Anthony was out there somewhere and she needed to find him. That search might mean that she would have to leave. It was a little sad having to think about leaving the new friend she had just made behind but he wasn't her priority.

Little Annie tried to rake her brain for some kind of alternative that they could both settle on. Akhtar wanted her to stay with him, but there was no way that she could help search for her brother if they separated. Why didn't they just go together? That was the perfect solution! If Annie went with him then Akhtar didn't need to worry about her, and she could feel at ease that she was being helpful. Besides, Annie was pretty sure that the wizard prince wasn't used to the kind of lifestyle she and her brother were a part of. The poor man if left to his own devices might not know where to go looking for Anthony, let alone how to get a place of his own when he didn't have time to buy it. She could help with that. Annie brought this proposal out on the table, hoping that the prince would be satisfied with that. But he wasn't.

Akhtar was a pretty stubborn person, almost as much as she was it seemed. The man tried to explain that there could still be dangers with her plans, that there would be fights if they went with her plan, he even mentioned that there were people in this world that didn't know about people like them. Annie didn't really understand that last part. Why wouldn't anyone know about people like her? It wasn't like she and her twin were the only two solari around right? Then again she had never seen another one of her kind before, and the fact that she could turn bad people to ashes meant that a lot of people didn't have her kind of power. Okay so he had a point about that last one, but the other points didn't really phase her. “It's okay Akhtar, bad people can be dealt with. I don't need my brother to punish bad people. And if you are with me we can use our powers together!” Akhtar had told her that he was pretty strong, and from what she could see of his powers the prince was no weakling. What was the problem with her tagging along?

Akhtar mentioning that he had powerful friends that could help them here caught her attention. More hands to help out were a good thing, she couldn't doubt that, but how exactly would that help her by staying here she didn't understand yet. While the girl was still debating his offer the prince showed her something interesting. The girl's eyes looked on in wonder at the strange screen that the man conjured up. “What is that?” she asked curiously. She didn't understand what the thing was displaying to her, but the prince said it was something that could help them in their search, and that his friends who specialized in finding supernaturals could help her out. The girl looked away from the screen to the prince. Perhaps he had a point after all. Annie had tried looking for Anthony by herself but had failed to find him. Either something had happened to her brother, or her methods weren't working. What harm would come of trying his way? He seemed to know what he was talking about, though some of what he was saying flew over her head she could still understand the gist of what he was trying to say. “Okay mister I'll trust you.” the little girl beamed at him. “So...what are we going to do to find him?”