Who's who? || Empires Swap AU

Chapter 1 - Who's Empire is this?

It was a normal day, the sun shining, the sky clear of any clouds. Lizzie was in Critter City town square, greeting her citizens as usual. They were great company and even better listeners. Lizzie spoke to them in their language, as they didn't understand English.  She was talking to them about building a moat around the kingdom, to keep them safe. As water seemed to be a good defence mechanism. At least against cats.

After a few hours of being at work getting her moat together, Lizzie heard, and felt, a deep rumble within the ground. Is that an earthquake? Lizzie thought, laying down in the half dug moat to protect herself. As Lizzie lay there, looking up at the sky in fear as the ground shifted beneath her, a haze of blues purples and a hint of magenta filled the sky. The haze was followed by what looked like a mushroom cloud from an explosion of the same colours,

"What in the..." Lizzie trailed off at the sight. It was... beautiful? Or odd. She couldn't tell.

The haze began to eerily lower towards the ground, and Lizzie was scared frozen. She had so many questions. What was it going to do to her? Would she pass out? Was it toxic, if so, how long would she have left? Most importantly, were her friends okay?

Lizzie was uneasy. Very uneasy. The rumbling had stopped, but that was beyond her priorities right now. She needed to get out. She sprang up like a cat and began trying to get out of the moat. She had planned to make a way out when she was done, not now. She scrambled at the wall, jumping as the haze reached the top of the moat and descended even lower. Time was running out, the haze like an impending doom on her reality. It reached her head, she was beginning to hyperventilate.

It was no use, Lizzie couldn't get out. The cat lady slid down against the wall of the moat, with her knees tucked up to her chest and her arms warped around her legs. Her head firmly tucked in.

"Joel.." She muttered, longing for the comfort of her close friend.

Tears ran down her furry face. The haze reached her mouth and she tried holding her breath. It didn't work. Her head began throbbing and it tasted sweet but foul. Slowly but quickly, Lizzie lost all feeling, and after what seemed like an eternity, lost consciousness, her body doubling over and falling to the cold stone ground. The haze all around her, engulfing her like a blanket.

. . .

Lizzie looked around, she could smell fire. She was on The Lost Panda Trail, on her way back to Animalia. She could see smoke. Animalia was on fire! She had just been out for a little while gathering recourses! How could this have happened!?

"NO-" Lizzie dropped the piles of wheat, diamonds, and other goods she'd gathered and ran towards her burning Empire, tears in her eyes, coughing from the clouds of black smoke emerging from the devastation.

"NO NO NO!" She screamed, it was all black.

This was a disaster. Father Floof, her villagers, Ariana Goate! All gone. Dead. Burnt. And she wasn't there so save them. That was what crushed her. She could have saved them! But no, she was on a stupid rescores gathering outing! She'd let them die. Lizzie turned and ran over down to Critter City, hope that this was all fake getting dimmer and dimmer. She walked into a charred and wrecked Critter City. This was too much, Lizzie choked up. She couldn't help it.

She broke down, crumpled to the ground and cried. Just cried. It was all gone! Everything she's worked so hard for, gone. Just like that. The same haze from before rolled into the scene, slowly, but there. Like all her sorrows crowding in on her. This time it was a much lighter haze and it didn't affect her. It was so serene, but she didn't have time to acknowledge it. Her chest was tight, her throat was closed over, it was unbearable. Everything slowly faded into endless void around her, and Lizzie welcomed the seemingly warm embrace of darkness.