Mirror Cycle

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

05/15/99:

    Chapter 1

This was it, the big day. Everything I had been working on
over the past couple of months was all going to come
together today. Only a short time remained before things
were to begin, and I still had to get everything ready.

I had my backpack out, and was going through my female
clothes, picking something appropriate for me. Even if this
didn't work, I was still going to need them, so it was best
to keep them close at hand.

Joining them were other small items: the copy of Thrysten's
gem, Rhea's collar and the extra wedding band. All would be
needed today.

Stuffing the last of the clothing into the bag, I zipped it
closed, and slung it over my shoulder. Taking a quick glance
around the room, I made sure I hadn't forgotten anything.

Of course I had! I picked up my glasses case. I didn't
normally need them, but this was a special occasion. I still
wasn't quite sure if this was going to work, and I was
nervous as hell.

Stepping out of the bedroom, I picked up Ravindar at the
door. We both headed into the kitchen, where Oria was,
feeding Beca her breakfast. The twins were already happily
feed, and both seemed to be asleep in their carriers.

"Think you can spare some of your free time today?" I asked
my wife, not sitting down, instead standing across the
table, leaning forward to be close to eye-level with her.

She gave me a sidelong glance, "I might," she said, spooning
some more food into Beca's mouth. "Does this have anything
to do with the message you got last week?"

I chuckled, "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

She smirked at me and I smiled back to her. That was my
wife. The training she had gotten in the Guild might not
have made her happy, but it sure made her observant.

In fact, she had been talking to me about resuming the
training, once the kids were old enough. She said that with
Cain gunning for me (along with who knows else) that it
would be a good idea for both of us to be in better shape.

"Yes it does," I answered her original question, "and all
the other messages as well."

She nodded, "You're not going to tell me what this is about,
are you?"

"Of course not," I responded. This time I was smirking. "How
else can I keep my air of mystery and intrigue about me?"

She smiled, "If I didn't love you, I would hurt you for
that."

"Thanks, I think." I said as I walked around the table to
stand behind her as she helped Beca with more food. The
young lady had been fussy lately, mostly because she had
started to teeth last week. I wasn't sure if that was on
schedule or not, and would have to see if anyone knew.

I draped my arms over Oria's shoulders. "I will tell you
this... it's a birthday party, of sorts."

Her response was made up of a very puzzled look on both her
face and her ears. "A birthday party? For whom?"

I chuckled. "A party of sorts. It's not actually celebrating
the anniversary of a birth. You'll see. As for whom, well,
that's the surprise now isn't it?"

She sighed. "You can be so infuriating," she commented.

I kissed the side of her neck, both of her ears, then the
other side of her neck. "And you love me for it."

Oria laughed. "Thryn help me, I do." She craned her head
back, and we kissed, breaking away after a short time when
Beca protested that she was still hungry.

When we didn't respond right away, she leaned forward in her
highchair and grabbed the spoon. Holding it carefully in her
chubby paw, she managed to pull it from the bowl, to make
contact with her mouth, losing only a little along the way.

"Looks like she's not going to wait for us," I commented to
Oria, resting my chin on her shoulder.

She pushed the bowl closer to Beca, who proceeded to try and
continue feeding herself, with varied success from spoonful
to spoonful.

"She's going to be a smart girl," I said, nuzzling Oria's
cheek.

She purred, nuzzling back. "She already is."

I kissed her on the cheek, pulling back a bit. "Ready to go,
or would you like to wait a few more minutes."

Her eyes went wide, her ears laying back. "Now? I thought
this thing of yours wasn't until later."

"In about twenty minutes," I answered. "I can delay it
slightly, but not for long. It was the only time I could get
everyone scheduled for today. Trust me, though, this will be
worth it."

She gave me a slightly exasperated look, brushing some of
her hair from her eyes. "Can I go as I am, or do I need to
change?"

I gave a longer look at how she was dressed. A shirt and
jeans, same as I always wore. There were a few stains here
and there, but nothing that would be a distraction. "What
you've got on will be fine."

She nodded, standing up. "Then I'll go tell Kalie she needs
to watch the kids. I hope this doesn't take too long."

"No more than an hour," I told her, sitting down in her
vacated chair as she went off to find Kalie. I sat watching
Beca as she continued to eat. She was getting a bit better
at matching the food to her mouth. Still, more seemed to end
up on herself than she managed to eat.

A few minutes later Oria returned, with our baby-sitter in
tow. Kalie looked a bit ruffled, in her shirt and shorts;
her dark fur was a mess, and she looked a bit tired. A book
was clamped in her paws and she held it in front of herself
like it was some sort of shield.

"Sorry if we woke you," I told her as I stood up.

She shook her head. "No, it's all right," she explained in a
slightly strained voice. "I just didn't sleep very well last
night, that's all."

"Thanks for pitching in on such short notice," I said,
readjusting the backpack on my shoulders. "Oria won't be
gone that long, so don't worry."

Kalie nodded, sitting down in front of Beca. The large open
back of the chair allowed her tail to easily fit through,
unlike most chairs which weren't designed with a thick tail
in mind.

I took Oria's wrist, pulling her gently along as we walked
to where the fold was. Ravindar followed right behind, as
always.

Oria didn't say much as we slipped through the fold and
stepped into The Marble Hall. My first thought was of how
antiseptic everything looked. It was a strange thought.
True, the hallways were mostly white, but that was the
normal color of the Hall. In fact it's where the name itself
came from. It was just that the place had started to seem a
bit foreign to me now.

We continued along the hallway, my arm wrapped around Oria's
shoulder as we made small talk. We said nothing very
important, and nothing I can remember now. We just chatted
to fill the time.

Our destination was an unmarked door along the middle of an
unmarked hallway, both the same shade of white. The door
wasn't prominent against the wall, and in fact was something
that you would miss if you didn't know it was there.

Taking a deep breath, I found that I was suddenly a lot more
nervous than I was before. I tried not to show it as I gave
the door a trio of quick raps.

There was a few seconds pause before it opened, revealing
the golden-eyed face of N'Taki. He smiled when he saw me,
opening the door the rest of the way. "Come in, please, your
almost late."

We did, stepping into a slightly bare room, almost a lobby,
but there were only three chairs, and no receptionist, just
a bare desk. It was just set up in such a way that
everything that was actually going on in the lab was hidden
behind the two closed doors. One door I knew led to N'Taki's
office, the other was a hallway to the actual labs.

"And you must be Oriana," he said with a pleasant smile,
offering her a paw. "I've heard a lot about you. Fox may not
have mentioned it, but I'm a fan of the stories about his
exploits. I find them fascinating, as well as you. I hear
that you are married now, congratulations."

She blushed, a smile wrapped around her muzzle. "Thank you,
I'm glad you like our stories," she took his paw shaking it
swiftly. "I'm happy to meet you, for whatever's going on
here."

He smiled as he took his paw back, his focus returning to
me. "She doesn't know what you're planning? My, my, the
secrets that we keep," he chuckled, turning away from us.
"Come on, everyone is waiting."

"Where exactly are we?" Oria asked as we followed N'Taki
through the door, and down the long, white hallway. We
passed a few large, locked doors as we went.

"This is one of the Consortium R&D labs," I explained.
"They've been working on a project for me. I think you'll
like the surprise, so trust me about what's going on."

She turned her head back to look at Ravindar. "You knew
about this?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he responded. "I've been with him almost the
whole time he's been working on this."

Oria shot him a 'why didn't you tell me' look, before
turning back to face forward. N'Taki turned into an open
door, and we found ourselves in an almost empty room. The
only thing in it were four people, one was H'Naala, N'Taki's
wife, two were older Varii, that I didn't know, and the last
one was Ken.

The other thing in the room was a long table, with a body
laid out on it. The white sheet covering it was rising and
falling slowly as the body under the sheet breathed.

"What's going on?" Ken asked as he saw me, walking over
swiftly. "No one has told me anything! And what's with the
body? It's kind of creepy. It reminds me of Nata'razi'anra"
He shook his wings in a slight shiver at that. Couldn't say
I could blame him, that still gave me chills.

No time for reminiscing. I shrugged my backpack off, setting
it on the floor, and walked over to H'Naala. "Everything
ready?" I asked.

She nodded, her long white hair flipping about, a contrast
against her rust red fur. Her eyes were a dark emerald
green. They always took me by surprise every time I saw
them. "Everything has been prepared," she replied.

"Good," I responded, starting to relax slightly. "Who are
the other two, and why are they here?"

"They're senior healers from my Clan," she explained,
leaning slightly forward. "They wish to observe the
procedure. Nothing like this has even been attempted on a
Natural before, and they want to see how it proceeds."

I snapped my head in a nod. "Ok, that's fine by me, but
you're the only one allowed in my mind."

She nodded in return, and I stepped away from her. Looking
at both Ken and Oria, I smiled. "All right, time to explain
what's going on before we start."

"That would be nice," Oria remarked, looking a bit puzzled,
and just the slightest bit annoyed.

I walked over to her, kissing her on the cheek. "You'll like
this, trust me." I took my glasses off, handing them to her.

She blinked in slight surprise, but took them from me.

Next, I reached under my shirt and grasped my pendent.
Pulling it up, and over my head, I handed it to Oria as
well. I shifted into my lioness morph form as I stepped away
from her.

I adjusted my clothing slightly, my body being smaller in
this form than when I was human. I slipped my tail out over
the top of my pants, and checked to see if my earring had
transferred right. I had gotten my ear pierced in this form,
but some times it would fall free during the change.

"This is interesting," Ken commented, focusing on me, then
peering back at the body on the table. "The lady you were
just talking to, he said, a grin spreading over his muzzle,
"she's telepathic with Naturals, isn't she?"

I smiled, "Correct. I think you already know where this is
going," I said as I bent down to fish out the gem from my
backpack.

He nodded, "You said this was a birthday of sorts when you
called me. It's for Rhea, isn't it?"

"Rhea?" Oria said with a soft gasp of shock. "You mean,
that's a body for Rhea on the table?"

"Correct again," I answered, dropping the gem over my neck,
the stone sea-blue in color as it fell between my breasts.
"We have an interesting plan as well. With H'Naala's help,
it shouldn't take very long."

"Are you sure that it's safe? What if something goes wrong?"
She looked worried, and rightly so.

H'Naala stepped forward to answer that before I could. "I'm
not going to be doing anything that can cause damage to
either of them. I'm going to imprint an exact copy of Fox's
mind into the body's brain. Which, for a moment mean there
will be two versions of both Fox and Rhea. Then I'll just
block out the parts that make Rhea in Fox's mind, and the
parts that make Fox in Rhea's mind. Both are completely
reversible."

Ken wrapped an arm around Oria's shoulder, and a wing around
her back. "I've seen it done before, but not precisely like
this. The swapping out of Rhea's mind should not pose a
problem."

I took in a deep breath. "See, if anything goes wrong, the
worst that will happen is that we both end up having the
exact same mind. Which is also easily fixable. I would just
be twained for a while."

Oria stepped away from Ken, grabbing me for a short kiss. "I
trust you. If you believe this can be done, I'll allow you
to do it."

I returned the kiss. "Thank you," I finally said, taking a
step back, and grasping the gem in my paws. I started
'talking' to it, telling it to activate. With my eyes closed
I felt no changes to my body. I knew it was done, though,
when I drop the gem, and my paw settled onto the floor.

I was back into my full lioness form, my clothing gone,
shifted away for now by a spell Ken had provided a year ago.
The only thing I now wore was the gem, which had become
fire-red.

Taking in a long breath, I felt Rhea starting to peek over
my shoulder. She didn't know what was going on here either.
I gave her a quick explanation. This was her surprise as
well, and as I walked over to the table, she was ecstatic at
the news.

The idea of having her own body thrilled her, though she did
say she would miss being in my head with me. I reassured her
that this wouldn't be the end of our friendship, since she
was part of the family. It might give her a few added
responsibilities that she might not expect, though.

She didn't seem to mind. Not even when I mentioned she would
have to go morphic at times. To her it was just all part of
being part of the family.

I looked up at H'Naala, nodding my head slightly. She
understood this motion, placing one of her paws on my
forehead. The other slipped under the sheet, to be placed on
the other side of this mental transfusion.

Her mental fingers slipped gently into my mind. I was ready
for this, and didn't jump back. In this form, any reaction
to her probing would hurt her a lot more than it did last
time. So I tried to relax, and closed my eyes.

Time seemed to slow down after a while. My thoughts echoed
around in my head. I could still feel her fingers, but they
were moving all over my mind. There was a slight pulling
sensation that was growing stronger, and once I swear I had
a flash of seeing the sheet over my eyes.

I don't know now long the process lasted, it felt like
forever. I watched in my mental landscape, waves and ripples
in strange patterns passed over Rhea and me. Sometimes they
were small, sometimes large. Other times there were strange
spikes of light in the sky.

Then one moment, Rhea was standing by my side, the next, she
was gone. I was shocked at how sudden it was, actually
searching my mind for her for a few seconds before I
understood what had happened.

After that, H'Naala's fingers were gone from my mind. I
opened my eyes, to find her sitting in front of me, panting
hard. She looked a bit dizzy, and N'Taki was already at her
side.

I turned my head, looking up at the table. Only to find
myself looking back down at me.

'Rhea?' I asked in the strange, semi-telepathic language
that I seemed to have in this form.

'Fox?' came the response in the same form. She twitcher her
ears, tongue licking at her nose.

I raised up higher, nuzzling at her cheek. 'Good morning
sister, welcome to the real world.'

She purred. One of the other Vari came over, pulling the
sheet away from her. She flicked her tail, and pulled
herself up to her feet. She looked a bit shaky, but that was
to be expected, her body was not as fit as mine was yet.

I padded back to Oria, taking the gem once again in my paws,
and talking it into returning me to my morphic form. I stood
back up from the floor, stretching out slightly. "It
worked," I declared with a smile.

She returned it, hugging me tightly. "I see that. I'm just
glad you're still in one piece."

I purred softly, kissing her nose. "I still have a lot to
do. I need to take Rhea to see Doctor Videa, have her
checked out, and get a tracker put in her."

She nodded. "I understand. I guess I have to go back home
now."

"Almost," I told her, picking up my pack again, and fishing
through it. "There's still one thing left to do."

She gave me a quizzical look as I pulled my paw out of the
pack. When she saw what I was holding, she smiled. "A
wedding band for Rhea," she said, taking it from me. "I
didn't know you had it made in this size, I thought there
was just the normal one."

I grinned, taking her hand, and pulling her towards Rhea. "I
felt it was proper, after all, she is married to us."

She laughed, "Of course."

Everyone else had moved out of our way. All four Varii had
moved together, talking about how things had gone, and Ken
was standing back, minding his own business. Ravindar was
standing just inside the door, watching with a smile.

Rhea was still in the process of looking over her new body
when she noticed our arrival. Her ears pricked up as we came
close to her, her muzzle showing something close to a smile.
There was no doubt that she was far more than just an
animal.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her, reaching out to pet her
scruff.

'Good,' she answered back.

I didn't know that we could still talk in that fashion once
I was in a morphic form. It was a surprise, but a pleasant
one.

"Oria, would you care to do the honors?" I suggested.

She smiled, holding up the wedding band. "Rhea, a year ago,
when Fox had just returned to me, it was hard to imagine
that you would be anything good for our family. Now here we
are, married, which would never have happened without you.
We are bound together in a strange family that has no
precedent. So I hope that you will wear this with the same
pride and honor that I do, to show yourself as part of this
family."

Rhea nodded her large head, placing her right paw forward.

Oria smiled, and very carefully placed the band over the
large wrist. Closing it, there was the soft click of a
magical lock to keep it on.

Rhea looked down at the band, then pulled it to her cheek
and nuzzled it. She then leaned forward and nuzzled Oria's
cheek, licking her across the face.

"I think that means yes," I explained with a smile.

Oria laughed and slapped me with her arm as she bent
forward, and nuzzled Rhea's cheek. We were most assuredly a
family.

    Chapter 2

It took a bit of time, but I had managed to get changed into
something that fit slightly better on my current form.
Still, I looked like I always did, T-shirt and jeans. What
can I say, I have no imagination.

By now both Oria and Ken had left. Ken took my pendent, as
he wanted to give it a once over before I put it back on.
Oria, on the other hand, was a bit more insistent on staying
with me. It took a while to get her going; I had other
things to do, and so did she. I left her with a promise that
I would be home in a few hours.

Rhea had wanted to stretch her new legs, so we had all moved
into the lobby of the labs. The two older Varii had left,
satisfied with the way things had gone. H'Naala was checking
Rhea once more, to insure that everything she had done
worked. She had already done the same with me, and things in
my mind we're as normal as they ever were.

N'Taki was standing to the side, looking very relieved that
things had turned out so well. If something had gone wrong,
it would have been on his head. Something no one wanted to
see happen.

I smiled as I stepped out of N'Taki's office, noticing that
Ravindar had been guarding the door for me. Typical, not
that I minded. I was starting to find that, I would feel
uncomfortable without him around. Strange feeling.

"Everything intact?" I asked, walking over to Rhea, bending
down as I did so to fluff her ears.

"She's fine," H'Naala explained, "Even better than I
expected. Better than you, but your mixed bodies might have
something to do with that."

I grinned. "Makes sense to me. I'm surprised you were even
able to find my mind in that mess. It's hard enough for me
to deal with. I can't imagine what it would be like for an
outsider."

She chuckled as she rose to her feet. "There were no great
surprises in your mind. True it's a bit twisted around
itself, but I suspect for a Natural, that's normal."

My response was a smirk, which was echoed in both my ears
and tail. "Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment." I petted
Rhea's fur as I said this, and she was purring in return.

H'Naala smiled, then yawned loudly, her mouth opening wider
than I thought was possible. "I think I'm going to go home
and sleep for a month. This has really worn me out."

I nodded, pulling my backpack off my shoulders. "I
understand, we'll get out of your hair in a moment." I dug
into the pack, quickly I found and remove Rhea's collar. It
was the same one that was used on me the day the curse first
struck.

She knew the procedure for this, lifting her head, and
letting me strap it around her neck. I didn't bother with a
leash, she wouldn't be wandering off without me. It was more
of a formality than anything else, there was no law
requiring her to be leashed, or restrained, but she did have
to wear a collar.

"Come on, guys," I said, pulling my backpack on as I opened
the door. "Let's get going, we have other things to do. And
thanks, you two, if you need anything, anything at all, give
me a call, I'll see what I can do."

H'Naala gave me a tired smile, as she leaned against N'Taki,
who had his arm wrapped around her waist. "I'll keep that in
mind," he said, smiling as well.

I smiled back, stepping out into the hallway, Rhea at one
side, and Ravindar right behind me. Closing the door, I felt
Ravindar's paw fall onto my shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
he asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"You might be surprised," I told him, "I feel really good.
Everything seems right, but, I also feel kind of alone." I
reached down to pet Rhea as we started to walk along the
hall. "After all this time, it feels strange to be alone in
my mind again. I'm going to miss having her with me all the
time. Not that there's anything wrong with being separate,
it's just that..." I was at a loss for words, I couldn't
really say how I was feeling right now.

"I understand" he said, walking next to me for once, and not
behind. "She is something like a sister to you, isn't she?"

I chuckled. "More than something. If she was to use the gem,
we would be identical, except for the eyes." Her eyes were
gray, just like in my mind, and when she was in control of
my body. No one had planned that, it just happened on it's
own.

Ravindar gave a sage like nod as we continued to walk. The
three of us side by side. My hand was still in the back of
Rhea's neck, petting her scruff gently. She was watching
everything closely, taking it all in. There was nothing that
she hadn't seen before, but she was herself now, and even
the same things were new again.

I was going to take a fold to our next destination, but Rhea
wanted to walk instead. This struck me as a good idea, once
I had time to think about it. We didn't know if she was a
Natural or not, and I had forgotten to bring any temps for
her. So walking was the best choice. Anyway, our first stop
was only a few miles from the Hall.

We walked up the ramp, out of the Hall, and into the streets
of Corbin, the city that surrounded the Marble Hall. Turning
north we headed towards the Zoo. No, I wasn't going to put
Rhea there, Doctor Videa, my vet, worked there. She was
going to implant a tracker in Rhea, so we would be able to
keep tabs on her in the event that something happened to
her.

I, myself, have one, a strange thing for a person to have
implanted. It was done as a precaution to make sure that if
Rhea ever took control of the body again, Oria would always
be able to find me. Now it was no longer necessary, so I
could have it removed, once I had time to not be able to sit
down for a few days.

The sunlight felt good on my fur, which prompted me to start
purring. I had to admit it, I liked this body, even if it
was so off from who and what I really am, or what I used to
want to be. To some, the change of both species and gender
would be hard to overcome. For me it was simply something
else for me to learn to enjoy.

"So, what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Ravindar
asked.

I smiled, twitching an ear. "Well, first to see Doctor
Videa, then after that to get Rhea tested to see if my
ability as a Natural copied over."

He looked slightly surprised. "I thought it was impossible
to 'make' a Natural. You could only be born that way."

"Right," I answered, scratching the back of my neck. "But
the process that was used to make Rhea's body isn't a simple
cloning, or genetic manipulation. That, and with how strange
my luck is at times, it's just the kind of thing that would
happen." I shrugged,  "That's the way my family is."

He nodded his head, his eyes almost focusing on me as we
continued to walk. "Then after that, do you have any more
places you wish to go?"

'Someplace where I can run!' Rhea chipped in from my side.

I laughed, scratching the back of her ears, my claws out
slightly. "Well, Rhea wants to go running, and I think I'll
join her. I know this nice little place out where we used to
live. Hell, you could use the gem and join us. I would love
to see what you would look like as a full tiger."

"Remember, you're married," he cautioned, but with a
pleasant smile. "But I will consider it, I still need to
keep an eye on you. One question first, how did she tell you
what she wanted?"

"Telepathically," I answered.

He coughed, "You're a Natural, how precisely is that
possible?"

I shrugged, flicking my ears as I did so. "I'm not sure. We
could always talk before. And the Unicorn and I could talk
in the same fashion." He gave me a slightly strange look.
"Never mind about all that. I guess it's something us smart
animals can do."

Rhea nodded her head in agreement, skipping a few paces
forward of us as we turned a corner.

"You're not exactly an animal Fox," Ravindar told me, a bit
of a worried look on his face as we followed Rhea around the
corner.

"I'm not so sure anymore." I answered him, putting my paws
in my pockets. "I mean, on one hand, I spend most of my time
as a human, on the other, that's not the form I need to be
in. Since the curse, my human form has been something forced
onto the lioness form. That's why I have claws. The gem just
changes that to morphic. The thing is, for the past year, to
the day, I've been a lioness that can become a human, but
not really human."

He placed a paw on my shoulder. "Don't be too hard on
yourself. Once Ken does break your curse, you'll be back to
normal."

I laughed. "This is normal to me now! And if he does, what
do I lose? I'll be back to a standard human, and you know
I'm not like that anymore, and I like being Rhea, or rather
a lioness, that is. Both morphic and full. It feels good to
have more than one body, in a strange kind of way."

"Well..." he paused, grabbing my shoulder a bit harder,
pulling us both to a standstill. We were just in front of an
alley, and he was glancing into it out of the corner of his
eye.

Rhea had stopped a few feet away. The fur on the back of her
neck was brisling. Something was wrong here, and I was the
only one who couldn't see it.

Then in one move, Ravindar shoved me back into the alley,
following right behind, blocking my body with his. Behind us
I heard the familiar sound of bullets striking the wall
behind where we stood.

He shoved me back against the wall, arm over my chest,
holding tightly. He himself already had a gun out, holding
it at the ready. He was bleeding from a shallow wound along
his arm. I couldn't see Rhea, she must still have been out
in the street. I hoped she was O.K.

I followed suit, pulling my own gun out, and loading a round
into the chamber. "What are we looking at?" I asked him in a
hushed voice.

He glanced back at me, looking slightly surprised to find
that I was armed. I guess he forgot that I carried a pair of
guns almost all the time, or maybe he just assumed that, as
a female, I was unarmed. Not that it mattered right now.

"One gunman," he answered, pulling out some sort of
reflective stick from his pocket. He held it loosely in his
paw, leaning forward slightly. Reaching out of the alley, he
spun it around in a circle twice, then pulled it back. The
sound of two more bullets striking the wall followed,
sending a fine mist of dust into the air.

"Sniper position, three buildings over, fourth floor, two
windows from the left," he explained, putting his device
away. "There's a second man at the end of the street, not
armed, but holding something gun-like, but it is not a
weapon. I was unable to get a good enough look to see
exactly what it is." He sounded almost apologetic.

I was amazed that he could see all that in that short of a
time. Then again, this is what he was trained for, and as a
Crystal Master, he had to excel at his job.

"Rhea?" I prompted, shucking my pack.

"She's fine," he answered, "holding herself to the ground,
and being ignored."

I sighed, "Good, nice to know they're trying to keep from
killing anyone but me."

He glanced over his shoulder to me. "That is what's
confusing; the first shot was aimed to kill me, not you."

"Well, that's odd, don't you think?"

He shook his head. "The other man, if he has a tranquilizer
gun, then they're more likely trying to capture you alive."

I sighed, shaking my head slightly. "Ok, so they want you
dead and me in their possession. This is not a good position
to be in." I glanced down the alley way. "And this is a dead
end, perfect, not even a door we can open."

"They must have been following us to find the proper
location," he commented, leaning forward quickly to take a
shot, pulling back right away. More shots smacked into the
wall, one hit the far side of the alley. "Damn, this is a
terrible angle to shoot at. I need more than a fraction of a
second to hit him."

I nodded, trying to relax, and to take in my situation. The
alley was one I would expect to see anywhere, just wide
enough for a car, with a few doors along its length, none
with handles. It ended up against a brick wall after twenty
feet. No place to go, not even a fold.

There was something else, though. There were a set of stairs
leading down to a basement entrance of one of the buildings.
It looked like it had seen better days, but it gave me an
idea.

"What do you think of those steps over there? Would they be
good cover?"

He hummed, looking at me, then at where I was pointing.
"Yes," he answered after a second's thought. "The angle is
wrong to shoot into it. If you were down at the bottom, you
should be fine."

"Good, I'm going to give you a distraction," I told him with
a smile, right before I burst into a hard run. Falling to
the ground at full speed, I rolled under the handrail, and
into the stairwell. The landing hurt, smacking both my arms
and my shins on the stone steps. There was pain, but not
enough to pay attention to right then.

"Damn it, Fox," Ravindar said. I waved my paw at him over
the lip of the stairwell, keeping myself as low as I could.
No shots came in my direction, that was good.

Moving back farther, I rose up slightly out of the
stairwell. I could just see the sniper resting where
Ravindar said he would be. He wasn't shooting, just seemed
to be holding back for the next chance.

Resting my wrists on the lip of the stairwell, I took
careful aim. There was no way I could hit him at this
distance, I wasn't that good a shot. Instead, I just wanted
his attention.

I fired three rounds, ducking back down just in time to hear
a few shots hit the stone above my head. I wasn't sure how
many there were, but it ended when I heard Ravindar fire.

"You can come out now," he called a few seconds later.

I peeked over the edge of the stairwell. Ravindar was
standing just outside of the alley, gun still in hand, but
smiling.

Climbing out, I walked over to where he stood, to see why he
was smiling. It didn't take long for me to see what exactly
it was. The other would-be kidnapper, the one with the
tranquilizer gun, was currently pinned down under Rhea, who
had her jaws wrapped around his neck.

I smiled. "Nice to see we still have someone we can talk
to," I commented as I started to walk towards them. Ravindar
followed just behind me, gun out, and held prone.

As I got closer, I could see that this capture hadn't been
peaceful. Whoever our attacker was, he had been slashed down
the side of his face by Rhea, and was bleeding from his
shoulder, where there was an evident bite mark. Some of his
shirt, and a bit of flesh, was missing.

I grinned, leaning down once I was next to them, my left arm
over Rhea's back, my right still holding my gun. "Hello," I
said with a wicked smile.

He started to struggle more, looking panicked.

"I wouldn't do that, unless you want to find out how easy it
is to breath when your own blood is flooding down into your
lungs, hum?"

He froze, his eyes pleading with me. He really didn't want
to try and learn how to do that.

"Let up a bit, Rhea," I said, glancing up to Ravindar, his
gun was aimed right at our little friend's head. Good. "Now,
you're going to answer some questions, or she's going to eat
you, and she knows how to do it, and keep you alive while
she does it. Understand."

"Yes," he managed to choke out, his eyes locked on Rhea's
head.

"Good," I drew the word out so it took a few seconds to say.
"Who do you work for?"

He gulped, a look of panic crossing his face. I could
imagine that he wasn't supposed to tell me this if I did
capture him.

I tapped Rhea's shoulder, and she started to apply a bit
more pressure.

"Cain!" he yelled out, eyes wide in panic. He seemed to be
waiting for something to happen in response to this
admission.

I was worried as well, I knew I was going to face off with
Cain at some point in time, but I had hoped to have longer
to prepare for it.

"What does he want you to do?" I asked, leaning a bit closer
to him.

"To kidnap you," he gasped out, eyes unfocused slightly.

I placed my paw on his shoulder, still holding the gun as I
did so. "Why?" I demanded.

He gave me a dazed look. "To get your husband to come to
him..." the last word trailed off, his eyes rolling back
into his head.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked Ravindar, looking up
to him, slightly panicked.

"Cain may have done something to keep him from talking. A
mental command or an implant. It shut down his mind instead
of allowing him to talk. It might have been fear of Rhea
that kept him with us as long as it did."

"Shit!" I said, rising to my feet. "Cain thought I was
Oriana. Shit, he's after her, not me."

"It would give him a strategic advantage over you," Ravindar
commented.

"How do we get anything else out of him?" I asked, returning
my gun back to its holster.

He shook his head. "I can think of a few ways, but if Cain
could knock him out like this, anything we can do would be
useless."

I shook my head. "Unacceptable," I told him, glancing around
the street. It was still empty, no police at all. They
should have been here by now. I worried about that as well.

"Do you know any other way?" he asked, sounding snide.

"Yes," I said, the answer coming to me. "I know of another
way we can get the information out of him."

He gave me a worried looked. "How, he's dying as we speak,
he won't last more than a few minutes."

I grinned. "That's all we need. Grab the body, we have to go
see a vampire!"

    Chapter 3

As luck would have it, the nearest fold was only a hundred
feet down the next turn. So, as Ravindar heaved the body of
our attacker over his shoulder, I went back to the allay to
grab my backpack.

Dashing past him and Rhea, I ran to the fold and yanked it
open. Jumping through, I came out into the fold room at the
house. I dropped my pack and grabbed a pair of temps, then
jumped back through to the other side, closing it in the
process.

As soon I was back on the street, I went right down to my
knees. Rhea was already there, head bowed slightly. I shoved
the temps over her ears. They would stay on long enough to
get us all to the other side.

Getting back to my feet, I spun around, opening the fold to
Praxis. We stepped over the threshold, and half way across
Prid. Right into the middle of a busy street corner.

Rhea jumped through after me. Ravindar followed a bit more
carefully, the body slung over his shoulder. Closing the
fold, I paused for a few seconds to get my bearings.

"This way," I said, starting off in the proper direction. I
was moving at breakneck speed, or at least trying to. The
people on the street were blocking the way. We were in the
business section of town, after all.

We had to hurry. I didn't know if Elena could do anything
with a completely dead body. I was hoping that as long as he
was only mostly dead, something could be done.

"Can you clear a path?" I asked Ravindar, shoving past a
small crowd of people. The fact that my oversized companion
had an almost dead body over his shoulders didn't seem to
phase anyone.

He came to a sharp stop, taking in a deep breath. "Everybody
get the hell out of my way!" he bellowed out.

That got most peoples' attention, but they just stopped in
their tracks and stared at us. A few open mouthed, but no
one was moving out of our way.

Rhea then chipped in, pulling herself back and letting out
an ear splitting roar. Now, a lion's roar is jarring enough,
but there was nothing like a lion on Prid, or in the zoos.
This added to the effect. People scattered off the sidewalk
for us.

With the way clearer than before, we once more were moving
at a dead run. My feet we're starting to get sore from the
pounding they were taking on the pavement. I didn't have
shoes on; Oria's species just didn't use them, and I
followed suit in this form. I just didn't have the calluses
built up yet to do this type of thing.

We continued at that heavy pace, pushing past the few people
who managed to keep in our way. Of the three of us, I was
the farthest back. Rhea and Ravindar we're moving at a good
pace, but I was starting to fall behind.

Our destination was in sight! The front lawn of the 'Data
and Troubleshooting Services of Kenterra' offices was just
around the corner. We cut across the grass, ignoring the
path, and burst through the front door into the lobby.

Inside we were meet by a dozen very well armed dragons, the
particular kind from Elena's world. Their uniforms were
bulky, thick, and well armored. Each had the distinct look
of just waiting for us to do something wrong so they could
do their jobs.

Motioning for the others to stop, I took a few steps
forward, my tail lashing back and forth behind me. "I need
to see Elena right now. It's an emergency!" I called out to
whoever would listen. I glanced back at Ravindar; my
attacker was still breathing, but it was slowing down. "Come
on, people, we don't have time to waste!"

There was a slight commotion from the back of the room, one
of the guards was talking to the receptionist, in less than
hushed tones. Then the guard, looking a bit, annoyed snapped
an order to the others in a language I didn't understand. In
response the guards fanned away from the door that led into
the rest of the offices.

"The director's in hir office, at the end of the hall," the
guard said in thickly accented Prid Standard. Obviously
learnt, and not spoken with a translator.

I snapped my head towards him, running right past. For a
second I got a look at myself in the large sheet of glass
behind the receptionist's desk. I was a sight, dirty from my
trip into the stairwell, my hair was a mess, the ponytail it
was in (I had longer hair in this form, and my pigtail had
transferred into a ponytail) was coming loose. My ears were
flat down on my head, and there was no doubt I was pissed.

That lasted only a moment, though. Then we were through the
door, and moving down the long hallway that ran the length
of the office building. Of the people that usually worked in
the office, I didn't see a one, everyone was staying out of
our way.

We came to the large door at the end of the hallway. It, too
was guarded by a dragon who was holding a gun half his own
size. The other guard was an otter Theriamorph, but not in
armor. Sie was dressed in some kind of kilt getup, and was
holding a staff in hir paw. I suspected sie was just as
deadly as the guard, if not more so.

I started to tell them to open the door, but the otter was
already doing it for us. Sie said nothing, but just stood
aside to let us through.

On the other side of the door was Elena's office. It was a
large room, and dark. Once the door behind us closed, the
only light came from the bank of video monitors that lined
the wall behind the desk. The outline of a 'taur form was
visible behind it.

"Elena, I need your help," I said, taking a step forward.

There was a pause. "Step closer so I can get a look at your
companion," sie asked. Hir voice sounded bad, rough and
raspy, like it hurt for hir to talk.

We all shifted forward, the tension in the room was growing.
We didn't have much time to deal with this kind of play.

"I recognize Fox and Ravindar, but who is the lady lion?"
sie asked with a slightly worried tone, hir silhouette
shifting slightly. "Sie doesn't appear to be Oriana."

I shook my head. "I'm Fox. That's Rhea now." I told hir,
taking another step forward.

"Ah! I see, you've twained yourself. I suspected you were
planning something of this type, but nothing quite like
this." There was a pause, and the light over the desk
snapped on.

Elena looked like hell, or something worse for that matter.
Hir throat looked raw; the fur was stripped off and the skin
seemed to have been ripped open at one point. Hir right eye
was gone, leaving an empty socket that was disconcerting to
look at. Hir muzzle had been rent open, then healed badly,
leaving it deformed. There was a strange gap of skin over
hir muzzle.

Sie coughed, "So, why do you need me?" sie coughed again,
harder this time, hacking a bit. Although sie was in no
condition to be seeing anyone, sie must have known this was
going to be important.

I snapped a look to Ravindar, and he stepped forward,
dropping the body hard onto the desk. Our captive's face was
pale, and his skin was clammy. His breathing was shallow and
slow, and it rattled, loudly enough to make me think there
were only a few more breaths left.

"This man tried to kidnap me thinking I was Oria. His
compatriot tried to kill Ravindar in the process," I hastily
explained. "We were able to get some information out of him,
the fact that he was working for Cain for one. He doesn't
seem to know I have more than one body."

Sie smiled, a decidedly unpleasant thing to view. "And you
wish for me to see if he has any more information, yes?"

I nodded. "Everything he knows about Cain, his operation,
and most of all, where he is located. I will not take an
assault on my family lightly."

Sie looked down at the body, setting hir paw over his chest,
licking her lips slightly. "I can provide that for you if
you wish, and more. When I interrogate a prisoner, I can get
far more information than you would think."

"I understand. Right now I'm just focusing on Cain," I
paused for a second, glancing at my attacker, then back to
Elena. I gave her a slight smile, "But you can keep him when
you're done."

"Really now?" sie asked, a look of hunger showing in her
good eye. Sie walked around the desk, looking over the body,
then back to me. The damage wasn't limited to just her face.
Sie had a series of bite and claw marks all down hir body. A
few places were clearly missing large chunks of flesh.
Everything was somewhat healed, but didn't look healthy.

"I shall accept that as your payment," sie quipped. "I need
the opportunity a good meal would provide." The last part
was said more to hirself than for us.

I understood this for what is was, our cue to leave. "So I
see. Have fun. We'll be back at the house. Stop by once you
have the information we need. I'm sure you already know
where the fold is."

Sie gave a slight nod of hir head, most of hir attention
focused on hir meal.

"Come on, let's get back home and clean up," I said it more
as an order than anything else. Quickly we filed out of the
room, leaving Elena to hir 'interrogation' as we headed back
towards the exit.

"I never expected you to have that in you," Ravindar
commented as we stepped out of the doors of the office. Much
to the relief of most of the staff that we saw, Rhea was
right by my side, panting a bit, and looking like she could
use a good lay down.

"What, to give my would-be kidnapper to Elena?" I
questioned, feeling a bit queasy about it myself.

He gave me a sharp nod. "That, and the fact that he won't
survive hir questioning."

"I knew that going in," I told him as we stepped back onto
the sidewalk, trying to look casual. "Hell, I never doubted
how sie would get the information. I was half doing that as
a gesture to hir, and half to make it clear that I
understood the implications of what I was doing."

He snorted softly, "Sie may not be around much longer
hirself. I do not quite understand what you hope to achieve
by this action."

I chuckled, "I know hir, I've seen hir in action before and
know exactly what sie is. When I called hir a vampire, I
meant that literally. You'll see when sie comes by the
house. Until then, we have other things to plan. Like what
to do next?"

"Next we call the Guild," he told me matter-of-factly, "and
put armed guards around the house, and your family. If Cain
wants Oriana we have to insure that he won't get her."

I nodded. "Do you think he knows what happened to his men?"

"I did not see any communication devices on our attacker.
They may be simply one of many teams hunting Oriana."

I nodded again, wrapping my paws behind my back. "Cain wants
Oria to get me to come to him. Get me mad, so I play by his
rules in this battle."

"Yes," Ravindar said, quickly sliding back to step behind
me, once more in a defensive position.

I said nothing more as we walked back to the fold. After the
events of the past-- I did a mental calculation-- maybe ten
minutes, I was starting to feel a let down as the adrenaline
wore off.

I was thinking, though, Cain wanted Oria to get to me. I
understood the plan, it made sense in its way. Basically, he
and I were the same person. Not exactly a good side, bad
side type thing. He just wanted different things.

Like getting his hands on my wife!

What struck me as odd was that he apparently didn't know
about the curse. This almost made sense, we had kept it low
profile since it started. He just might not be aware that I
had two forms.

Or rather, he knew that I did, but not about the split in
forms. To him, Rhea and Ravindar together was me and
Ravindar together. So the morphic lioness had to be Oriana.
That made more sense.

So what to do? The fact that I was now split was an
advantage for now. How to use it, though? Well, he wanted
Oria, and as far as his men knew, I was her.

Perhaps I should let them capture me, thinking that I was
Oria. That would be something they would never expect. The
thing is, it would only work if they could believe that we
didn't know what had happened. A bad assumption to go on.

My best hope was that my attacker knew where Cain was, and
we could move on him before he found out what happened. That
was iffy at best, though.

Shaking my head, I opened the fold back into the house. We
all stepped through, and I closed it behind us. "Call the
Guild," I told Ravindar, "And do what you said. Right now I
don't care if we know there around."

He smiled, "Yes, sir," then stepped out of the room.

I sank down to my knees, all my strength draining from me,
the fold snapping closed as I lost my concentration. Holding
myself up on my arms, I tried to keep myself calm without
getting ill.

Rhea was right there next to me, nuzzling my shoulder with
her nose. I glanced at her, noticing that she had some blood
on the side of her mouth, party dried and flaking off her
fur.

I sighed, wrapping my arm around her neck and burying my
face into her scruff. "You did a good job getting that guy,"
I told her, my other paw stroking her sides.

'Thank you,' she thought to me, lowering herself into a
laying position. 'I didn't want him to get away.'

I nodded, eyes closed, smelling her fur. There was still
touch of a medical smell from the lab, and a kind of a
chemical smell that reminded me of a factory. It took me a
few moments to think of where it had come from. I finally
settling on that it must have been remnants of the mixture
of chemicals used in the birthtanks.

To think, if it wasn't for Ravindar's quick reflexes, he
would have been dead, and I would have been captured. I
never saw it coming, but he and Rhea had known something was
wrong. I never saw it.

I sighed again, pulling myself up from Rhea. "This has
really shaken me up," I told her, as if she couldn't tell.
It's not every day something like this happens. It made me
glad I had Ravindar as a bodyguard.

"I'm going to need ships," I said. Noticing that there was a
mask of grime where my face had touch Rhea's fur, I added
"And I definitely need a bath."

I pulled myself to my feet, "But first, Oria." I stepped out
of the room, leaving the door open for Rhea, and walked to
the living room.

I was expecting to find Oria there; instead I found Kalie.
She was playing with Beca, rolling a ball around between
them. Kalie was all smiles and Beca was laughing up a storm.
The twins were asleep, curled up against each other just
beside Kalie.

"Hey, there," I said, getting her attention. "Where's Oria?"

She turned to look at me, letting out a gasp. "Fox! What
happened to you? You're a sight!" she paused, tilting her
head, "and," she paused again, "am I seeing things, or are
there two of you?"

Rhea was by my side, having just come into the room. She
walked around Beca and came to the twins, sniffing at them
gently. She then flopped on the ground and curled up next to
them.

I would have laughed if I had the strength to. "Yes, there
are two of me now. That's what was going on this morning.
Rhea has her own body now. As for what happened to me. Some
of Cain's men tried to kidnap me, thinking I was Oria."

A frown crossed over her muzzle, along with a worried
expression. "I see. That's not good at all. Oria went in to
take a bath about twenty minutes ago-- you might want to go
join her, your fur is a mess."

"Right," I answered, giving her a smile. "You keep watch
over the kids, and talk to Ravindar if you see him. He's
arranging some stuff."

She nodded an affirmation, and I left her there, heading to
the bedroom and undoing my pony tail on the way. Oria liked
to take three or four hour long baths, just to sit and soak,
read, or anything else that crossed her mind. Now, with the
huge tub that was part of the master bathroom, she could
float in as much water as she could use.

The idea of joining her was a good one. I didn't even bother
to look at myself once I got into the room. I just closed
the door and started to shed clothing as I went towards the
bathroom door.

I paused outside the door to finishing stripping down to my
fur, before I opened it and stepped inside. The room was
humid, but Oria loved the steam, and it was made to take it.
Every surface was tile, and it had fabulous ventilation, and
a shower big enough for Rhea to fit in easily, along with
others.

"Fox?" Oria gasped when she saw me, standing up in the tub,
sending a sheet of water cascading off her body. "What
happened to you?"

I shook my head, walking over to the tub. "Mind if I join
you?" I asked, waving a paw over the water.

She nodded, and I stepped down into the water. The tub was
just slightly raised over the floor, and the hot water felt
good as I sank into it. It slipped up over my legs, then
waist, then chest, and up over my head before I finally rose
up.

"Fox," Oria said, back down in the water, her paws on my
shoulders. Her hair spread out over the water as we both sat
in it. "What happened."

I told her everything that had happened, from the attack to
seeing Elena. She took this all in as I spoke, a look of
shock on her face. Shock and worry, she liked this as much
as I did. Which was not at all.

She just shook her head once it was all done. "You made the
right choice taking him to Elena," she commented, a grim
look on her face. "Sie'll be able to get the information
from him, and from the sound of it, sie could use the meal."
The way she said it left no doubt she understood what that
meant, and seemed to think it was a good idea.

"Now the question is... what to do next?" I said, pulling
myself to her, wrapping my arms around her and holding her
close.

"You have a plan, don't you?" she said, whispering it into
my ear in a conspiratorial tone of voice.

I nodded. "Yes, I have a plan," I said with a smile. "I'm
going to let him catch you."

    Chapter 4

Two hours later, I was clean, mostly dry, and dressed in
some fresh clothing. My hair was loose, hanging in a wet
mess down my back, but I didn't mind. Right now there were
other things to focus my attention on.

Oria was right behind me, almost dressed and looking a bit
flummoxed. She had managed to get her hair drier than I had,
although hers is longer than mine; it fell down almost to
the base of her tail, where my hair is only half way down my
back.

"You need to call Moriya as soon as you can," I told her,
brushing a damp strand of hair from in front of my eyes. The
strangest thing about being in this form was not the change
in gender, being shorter, or even having the tail, it was
not having my glasses.

"What am I calling about?" she asked, pulling on a pair of
pants as she did so. They were not very tight, but were snug
enough to show off her curves, some of my favorite viewing.

"Ships," I answered, tying my hair back, so it would stay
out of the way. "I need to know how many _Red October_ ships
we have ready to fly. I'm going to need some of them."

She nodded, standing up from the bed, tucking in the front
of her shirt as she did so. "What are you going to be
doing?"

"For this plan to work, I'm going to need more clearance
than I currently have." I left it at that, not wanting to
take up any more time. I had very little of it left if I
wanted to catch Rachel in her office.

Oria didn't say anything in return, so I gave her a quick
kiss on the nose, then rushed out of the room. To my great
surprise, Ravindar wasn't waiting for me outside the door.
It was a shock, but I suspected he was busy with the Guild,
which was, for now, more important.

To my office I went, which was only a few doors down the
way. Leaving the door ajar, I dropped down into my chair and
pulled up the video phone. I punched in the number of
Rachel's 'red' phone. It wasn't actually red in color, it
was the same plain black as her other phones. This one was
just for emergencies.

Her face appeared on the screen in only a few seconds.
"What's wrong?" she asked, a very concerned look over her
muzzle.

"Has the Security Council been approved by the Consortium
yet?" I asked, as I leaned slightly forward, resting my arms
on the edge of the desk. I tried to look a lot calmer than I
felt right then.

She blinked in surprise, a look of shock replacing the worry
on her face. "Fox, you shouldn't call me on this line to ask
me a question like that," she scolded, keeping her tone
level, but still there was a touch of anger.

"I know," I told her, "but this is an emergency. You told me
I was wanted as a special agent for the CSC, and that I
would have dominion over anything pertaining to any Earth.
Well, I need that authority in," I paused, checking the
clock on my desk, "three or four hours."

She frowned, causing a nest of lines to show around the
corners of her eyes. Her ears twitched back and forth as she
thought. "What's going on?" she asked, back to being worried
again.

I gave her the short version of the events of the morning. I
left out the part about Elena, that was something she didn't
need to know about.

Rachel sighed, shaking her head slowly. "The bill to create
the CSC was passed three months ago, but there's been no
official budgeting for it. It's official, on paper, but we
haven't pushed through all the other parts."

I nodded. "Good, the thing is, according to my schedule over
here, there is a meeting of the Consortium Council of Member
Worlds in ten minutes. Think you can force something through
to get me appointed as a Special Agent, as you described it
to me?"

She pulled a PADD from someplace out of range of the phone's
camera, and read over it quickly. Her eyes flashed as she
read, and her ears perked up slightly. "Yes, I can run it
though, but you will be the sole member of the Consortium
Security Council."

"I'll worry about the ID, just get me the authority, and
make sure it's in the system within two hours," I said,
relaxing back in the chair slightly.

She twitched one ear, and nodded. "I'll call you when things
are done. That should be in an hour and a half. Good-bye
till then."

I replied in kind, and with a flash, the screen shut off as
she disconnected it from her side.

Letting out a long, pent-up, sigh, I relaxed back into my
chair. One part down, one more to go. This part of my plan
would work as long as we had a clue as to where Cain was.
The rest of the plan would rely on my thinking about the way
he thought.

Having to out-think yourself isn't as easy as it sounds. If
we both came up with the same ideas, we would both come up
with the same ways around them, and how to prevent them from
working.

I was banking on the further confusion about me being Oria.
If that went deep enough, I could get in right close to him
without anyone noticing.

Back onto my feet, I stepped out of the office. This time
Ravindar was waiting for me. He had gotten the wound on his
arm patched up, but was still favoring his other arm
slightly. That was understandable.

"How are things going?" I asked him, walking towards the
living room. I figured Oria was using the phone in the
kitchen, if not, I could wait for her there.

He snorted, tail thrashing back and forth behind him. "The
Guild has doubled its watch around the house, and apologized
for the lapse that allowed this attack to occur."

"Nothing for them to apologize about," I said with a wave of
my paw. "Right now, though, we have other things to worry
about. First I need to talk to Oria, see what she found out
from Moriya, after that, we're waiting for Elena and Rachel.
I have a plan, my friend, but it depends on what we learn."

He nodded, but said nothing. This was his first time dealing
with some of my insane plans, and I didn't know what he
would think of it. I guessed I would find out as soon as he
told me.

Oria was already waiting for me in the living room, she and
Kalie were talking quietly. Both were seated on the couch,
with Beca in between them. Kalie had Adric on her knee, and
Oria was in the process of feeding Romana.

Ravindar, like a true gentleman, glanced away at the sight
of her bare chest. I didn't, I just walked over, grabbed one
of the chairs, and pulled it to the couch.

"Would you like some help with that?" I asked Oria,
conscious of one of the side effects of my female form. When
one female Lidr'ra was lactating, all the other females the
house did too. It was a shared responsibility, and it
affected me in this form. But to be honest, I didn't really
mind it that much.

"Adric didn't want to eat," she answered, adjusting her grip
on Romana, "so I'm going to wait an hour and try again with
him."

I nodded, "All right then. Now, what did you find out about
the ships?

She smiled just a bit. "There are three on the ground at the
yards, all in full working order. I already ordered Moriya
to put a hold on them for us. They'll be held back a few
days pending minor maintenance on the electrical systems."

"Good, good, that's perfect. That will keep them officially
grounded for as long as I need them."

Kalie looked up at me, "What are you planing to do, Fox?"

"An assault on Cain's base," I answered. "Either my attacker
will know where it is, or he will put us in a position to
start looking. Either way I'm going to need the ships--
four, counting _The Falcon_."

She looked a bit worried, a frown creasing over her face,
but she didn't say anything, and for now I didn't ask.

"Which reminds me," I said, standing up, "I need to make a
call."

I walked across the hallway to the kitchen, grabbing the
phone there and dialing up someone I hadn't spoken to in
quite a while.

There were a few rings before it was picked up, no video.
"Hello?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"Hi," I answered, leaning forward slightly, the camera on my
side on. "I'm calling for Milgrove."

There was a short pause, and a rustling sound over the
phone. Then with a snap the screen turned on. Milgrove's
face was outlined on the screen, hir small horns glittering
slightly in the light. "Sorry about that," sie apologized,
"My throat's been bothering me a bit," sie looked sheepish
as sie said that. "Who are you?"

I grinned, giving hir a short rundown on the whys and hows
of my current form. Sie smiled as I did so, understanding
right off the bat. Page had told hir about me when they were
dating, so sie wasn't surprised at the forms.

"So, what do you need me to do?" sie asked, stepping back a
bit from the phone, and stretching out hir arms. Mil was a
flying squirrel, and had these long flaps of skin between
hir arms and legs. Sie even had special clothing sie wear.
Sie could fly though, which is why sie is my pilot.

"I need you to go to the hanger, grab _The Falcon_ and fly
it to the shipyards," I paused for a second of thought, "Do
you know where they are?"

Sie nodded, "I've been there before I won't have any trouble
getting the ship there. Then what do I do?"

"Wait for me," I told hir, "I'll be there as soon as I can.
We have some business to take care of. While you're there, I
need you to call in the best three pilot and gunner pairs we
have. I'm going to need them as well."

"I see, there's something big going on," sie answered, a
smile creeping over hir face. "I'll get right on it."

"Good!" I said, smiling widely. We traded parting
pleasantries before ending the conversation. That was one
more thing taken care of.

That left one more problem. If we did have to track down the
base, I wouldn't be able to run gunner with Milgrove, and
run the fleet, as small as it was. Who else to ask, though?

The answer was in front of my face, almost literally. Kalie!
She was military, and special forces. I suspected she had
retired again, since she had been on Prid for so long, but
damn, who else could I ask! She was perfect for the job.

I walked back into the living room. Oria had finished with
Romana, and was now holding her in her arms. The cub was
wide eyed, watching the world, and looked like she was
purring ever so slightly.

Walking over to Kalie, I placed my paw on her shoulder. She
looked up to me, wide eyed, and looking very worried. I
didn't have time to ask her anything, because Ravindar let
out a sharp yell.

I spun around to find him, gun out, aiming it down the
hallway. I started for my gun, but stopped when he lowered
his.

"Our guest is here," he commented dryly, holstering the gun.

Stepping away from Kalie, I glanced down the hall. Just as I
suspected, Elena was here. Sie was still limping slightly,
but looked a lot better.

As she walked in to the room, I saw that hir side was healed
completely, but hir leg was still a bit banged up. Hir
missing eye was now covered by an eye-patch, so I couldn't
gauge how it had healed, but hir throat and muzzle were
healed totally.

"Welcome to my home," I said, waving my paw out. "That's
Oriana and Kalie, but I'm sure you know that already."

Sie gave me an annoyed glare. "Yes, I already do know that,
but there's no need to advertise it to anyone who might be
listening." Sie turned her attention to the ladies, "I am
Elena Khatika, Fox has asked me to retrieve some
information, and I am here to pass it onto you."

"Good," I answered, taking a chair and sitting down in it,
wincing a bit as I pinched my tail. I was still not used to
having one for any length of time. "Sit down and tell us all
about it."

Sie nodded, folding hir legs under hir, and lowering hirself
to the floor. Sie grunted as sie changed the weight on hir
damaged leg, but looked generally relaxed.

None of us said a word, we were all waiting for Elena to
speak first. Sie had to know this, and judging from the
twitch of hir ears, sie was playing it up appropriately.

"Let me start," sie said, breaking the silence with a smile,
"by saying that Cain has gotten sloppy." Sie said 'sloppy'
with a thick measure of contempt.

"Sloppy how?" I asked.

Sie snorted. "Trying to kidnap you with a sniper, instead of
a drive-up snatch operation. It would have been smoother to
do, and would haven't needed so many teams."

This perked my ears up. "Teams? How many teams?"

Sie smiled, showing a bit of hir teeth, "I'll get to that,
in my own time. For now, just listen." Sie paused again,
locking hir good eye on me. "To start, my meal thought of
Cain as a terrorist, not a kidnapper. And his plan seems to
show that. He also seems to be worried about Ravindar.
Cain's aware of his connection to the Guild, and is leery
about dealing with him."

"But he tried to kill me, none the less," Ravindar commented
from behind hir, his arms crossed and a bitter look on his
face.

Elena chuckled. "Yes, my meal didn't know why he decided to
kill you, but just that you were supposed to be killed. Now,
as for the target, it is Oriana, no question as to that.
They knew about Rhea as well, but not in any detail. Any
lioness morph with Ravindar was to be considered Oriana, and
if you were to be a problem Fox, you were to be
tranquilized, and left on the street."

"Oh, hell," I swore, shaking my head slightly. Oria sat
stone faced, no emotion showing at all, even her ears we're
held half up and half down. This was as bad a shock to her
as it was to me.

Sie nodded, "It is unpleasant to think about it." Sie
paused, twitching hir left ear, causing the dangling parts
of hir ear clip that held hir name to jingle against each
other. "That is not all. You have been lucky, there was no
coordination at all between groups. They were put in the
city to capture you, but they don't talk to each other."

"Badly run operation," Kalie muttered, the look of worry on
her face seeming to have deepened into dark lines of her
fur.

"I said he was sloppy," sie answered, slapping hir tail on
the floor. "All teams are suppose to check in when Prid's
first sun sets, at no time before then. It will be hours
before Cain knows what has happened to his men. There are
ten teams, these are their general locations," sie held out
a map. When no one moved to take it, sie set it on the table
just next to hir.

I nodded, crossing my paws in my lap. "What were they to do
once they had Oria?"

"Take her through the fold to their meeting place; the
number is on there as well." sie said, a slight frown
crossing over hir face. "She was to be taken from there to
Cain's base. My meal did not know where it was located, but
had been there. It's built inside of an asteroid, location
and layout, unknown." Sie said the last part with a touch of
frustration. Not knowing was foreign to hir, since sie was
in the business of knowing things.

Ravindar took a step forward, frowning deeply. "So how do we
find Cain's base? Go to this meeting point, and hope to pry
it out of the people there?"

"No," Oria said, standing up. Romana had be shifted to
Kalie's lap for the moment. Oria walked over to me, placing
a paw on my shoulder. "We simply let them catch me."

"What?" Ravindar asked in shock. I had never seen the tiger
look so stunned, his mouth was almost hanging open.

I chuckled, reaching up and placing my own paw over my
wife's. "Or rather, we let them think they've caught her."

He suddenly burst into laughter, "Of course! That makes
perfect sense! Let them capture you! That's a perfect idea,
damn, and I didn't think to get the tranquilizer gun."

"It's standard ephito-cylo-ematilizen," Elena told him with
a long smile. "I've brought an antidote with me. The dose
they had planned for Oriana is suppose to last fifteen
hours." Sie reached into the pockets of hir shirt, pulling
out a small vial of clear liquid. "This will prevent you
from being anything more than groggy."

I smiled. "Good thinking, Elena. Now, we have to plan. Oria,
show your wrists, please." She gave me a slightly puzzled
look, but pushed up her sleeves. "Ravindar, you see those
bands?" I was referring to the bands she had around each
wrist.

He nodded. "Yes, there's a note about them in her file. She
is supposed to never take them off."

"I don't," she commented, setting her paws back down on my
shoulders.

"Correct, she doesn't," I said with a smile, "and I need a
pair. One with a chip control built in, and the other with
one of your portal controls."

Oria chipped in as well. "It also needs something to hold a
few pills."

I gave her a questioning look, and she just smiled back in
return.

Ravindar gave me his own look, glancing down at his own
wrist. Wrapping around it was a portal control, almost the
same size as Oria's bands. It was one of the most compact I
had ever seen; it was also illegal, opening a fold so it was
totally cold, and preventing any fold it opened from being
traced.

"I assume it has some way to shoot a short message back
through a fold, like a full fold number, something you could
trace back to me?" I asked, leaning forward.

Looking down at it again, he tapped the cover slightly. "Not
this version, but there might be something like that in the
Guild, I will have to check. Regardless, I will provide you
with an identical set to Oriana's in two hours."

"Good, you do that," I said as I stood back up, and turning
towards Kalie.

Elena slipped between us; sie was quite agile for having
four feet. "Fox may I have a word with you before I go, in
private?"

I shrugged. "I can't see why not," I told hir. We stepped
out of the room and into the hallway. Ravindar was already
off to talk to the Guild, so it was just hir and me for now.

Sie had a strange look on hir face, reaching out to take my
left paw into hir own. "Your blood..." sie said in a lower
tone of voice.

I nodded, remembering the last time sie had drawn some. It
had made hir quite sick. I was hoping sie was not asking to
try again.

Sie licked hir lips, but not in hunger, in nervousness. "I
think I know why it tastes dead," sie said, dropping my paw.
"I felt it in another just before I lost to my previous
meal," sie stopped, looking deeply into my eyes with hir one
good one.

"Go on," I prompted.

Sie shook hir head. "The one I encountered had no shape,"
sie spoke the words quietly, as if they were dangerous to
say. That was all sie said as well, turning around in the
hallway, and starting to walk away from me.

"That makes no sense!" I protested to hir retreating rump.

No answer was forthcoming, instead sie just turned into the
fold room, and left.

"Hell," I muttered, walking back into the living room. Oria
was back on the couch, the twins in her lap, with Beca
sleeping next to her. Rhea had shown up as well, relaxing in
front of the empty fireplace.

Well, if I was going to be captured, I was definitely going
to need someone to command the fleet. "Kalie," I said,
taking a step forward.

She looked up at me, the worry on her face was gone for a
second, but was starting to return. "Yes?" she asked,
sounding timid.

"I'm going to need your help," I told her.

Her face seemed to fall as she stood up. "Fox," she said,
"I, I just..." she was stuttering, a look of pain crossing
her muzzle. "I... ah..." she tried once more.

Then, in a move that shocked me to the core, she burst into
tears and ran right past me and down the hall!

    Chapter 5

To say that I was stunned would be an understatement of the
largest order. In all the time I had known Kalie, I had
never seen her cry before, or even show signs of being sad.
So to see her rush away in tears was such a shock I had to
stand there for a moment to actually believe that it had
happened.

Oria had the same look on her face, her mouth hanging
slightly open, and her ears twisted sideways in surprise.
She seemed to recover first, turning to look back at me.
"What happened?" she asked in a hushed tone. "Whatever could
cause Kalie to react like that?" she asked again.

I shook my head. "I don't know," I answered her as honestly
as I could. "I knew there was something going on, but
nothing like this. Kalie... she's alsways been a rock;
I've... I was counting on that."

"I saw the same things," she answered, wrapping her arms
around the twins, holding them a bit closer, nuzzling their
cheeks as she did so.

I sighed, looking back down the hall where she had gone. "I
was waiting for her to tell me about it. I didn't want to
pry into her personal life."

"It's time to start prying," she said, her voice becoming
stronger, much more commanding. "You need to go talk to her
now. Find out what's wrong, and if we can do anything to
help her."

"Are you sure?" I asked, biting at my lip. "It was my
request that she reacted so strongly to. My going to talk to
her might cause more harm than good."

She nodded, "I understand that. Now go!" This time it was an
order, which was accompanied by a wave of her paw. "If it's
going to get worse, it will no matter if you're involved or
not. Just go and talk to her. Remember, you're her friend,
she knows you better than anyone else here, and the opposite
holds true as well."

I smiled slightly, nodding my head. "Yes ma'am, I'll get
right to it." I was tempted to respond with a salute, but
decided not to.

Then I turned away, and started walking down the hallway
after Kalie. I wasn't sure where she had gone, but her room
was in that general direction. It seemed to be the logical
place to check first.

Come to think of it, the fact that she insisted on staying
in the back corner of the house, so far away from everyone
else, might have been an indication that there was a
problem. Then again, she had always liked to be isolated
from other people. I knew that, that's why it hadn't seemed
suspicious when she took it.

I wondered for a short time if I should call Ken as well.
He, Kalie and I had been a team for a while. She only stayed
with us about three months, but in that time we had some
great fun. We were all close to each other, but I was the
only one here. If I needed to, I would call Ken, but for
now, I just had to press on.

Walking slowly, I gave myself time to think as I approached
her room. I didn't have a clue how to handle this properly.
What to say, what to do, how to approach her. It was all a
mystery to me. Assuming in the first place that she would
even talk to me, I couldn't just go in, pat her on the back,
and say everything is fine. That wouldn't do anything except
patronize her, and her problems. Not to mention make her
madder at me as well.

I chewed at my lip again, pondering this as I finally came
to her closed door. Even taking my time I couldn't come up
with an idea of what to do, I didn't have any options other
than to fake it. I didn't even know if she was inside or
not, and if she wasn't, where else she could be.

After a few moments I decided to just go in and talk to her.
I'd let her lead the conversation, and tell me what was
going on. So, taking a deep breath, I grasped the door
handle, and pushed it open. When there was a foot of free
space, I looked into the room.

Right away my ears perked up, Kalie was there all right,
standing on the far side of her bed, her arms on the window
sill, and her head on them. She was still sobbing, each one
hard enough that her body shook.

The room itself was nearly empty, the walls stark white. The
single window was on the wall opposit the door. There was a
dressed on the far wall, and the bed, with its head against
one wall, reached out into the room stretchnig between us
like a low wall, or a fence.

Rapping my knuckles lightly on the door frame, I spoke up.
"May I come in?"

No answer, she just seemed to slump down over herself
slightly.

Opening the door the rest of the way, I stepped inside the
room. Slowly I walked around the bed, moving so as not to
worry her. Without saying a word, I settled myself down on
the bed just behind her so that her back was to me. The
springs of the bed creaked softly as they took my weight.

Still not a word was spoken. We both stayed in the same
position. Some times she shifted her tail back and forth,
but I couldn't tell what, if any, expression it was
conveying. Sometimes that's hard to do with a thick tail,
like on otters, skunks, or kangaroos. They don't have the
same flexibility as thin tails do.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, lifting her face from her
arms. The smooth fur on her head caught the light for just a
second, creating a halo effect. It lasted for only a moment,
then was gone.

Her voice sounded wrong, like she was trying to put more
strength in it than was really there, and was failing. There
was also a soft quality to it as well, almost childlike. It
worried me a great deal.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," I answered in a soft
tone of voice.

"Oh, Fox," she said, her voice breaking as she did so. "I've
let you down." She gasped softly, starting to sob again. She
was trying to hold herself back, but didn't seem to quite be
able to manage it. "You ask me to help you, and I fall to
pieces in your lap. I'm sorry, you shouldn't have to see me
like this. I just shouldn't have come here."

I shook my head, even though I knew she couldn't see it.
"Kalie, you don't need to apologize to me. It is not
necessary. We're friends. I am your friend, and I care about
you."

She raised her head a bit higher, tail sweeping in a long
slow arc, from one side to the other, along the floor. She
reached up with one paw, wiping at her face with the back of
it.

There was a part of me that wanted to reach out to her, to
wrap myself about her, and hold her to me. I resisted it for
the moment; she was preparing herself to do something, and I
thought stopping her would cause more problems than before.

"How long have we know each other?" ahe asked, her voice a
bit more steady, stronger as well.

I blew air through my teeth as I thought about it. "Five
years, maybe six. Most of it seemed to make some kind of
sense at the time."

"In all that time I've never allowed you to get to close to
me," she explained, with perhaps a touch of regret creeping
into her voice. "All you know about me is what I've shown
you, and I haven't shown you very much at all."

Flicking my tail, I let that statement filter down through
my mind. She had always been protective of herself, it just
never had occurred to me that her protection had gone so far
as to keep people from getting close to her.

"I never told you why I joined the army," she continued, not
paying attention to my lack of response. "I've never told
anyone before. I didn't have a happy childhood, I came from
a broken home. My mother ran off when I was five, and my
father spent most of the time drunk. The day I turned
fifteen, the day I was old enough, I ran away. The army
promised to remake you into a better person, a different
person."

She shook her head slightly, "I didn't want to be me
anymore; being made into someone else was an attractive
idea. So after a few months on the street I got enough money
to enlist.

"Once I was in, once I was away from my life as it was
before, I dedicated everything to the army, but  I couldn't
walk away from the anger at my family. So I focused it,
honing it into a razor's edge. That's how I got into the
special forces. I had the right kind of drive, and the right
kind of," she stopped, taking in a deep breath and wiping
her face again. "The right kind of disregard for my own life
that made me perfect for 'rapid recon'.

"There was nothing that I wouldn't do. Darkest desert,
deepest jungle, edge of the fucking world, there was no
place that I wouldn't go into it. I had started to worry my
commanding officer. Yes, I was getting in and out with
everything they needed, but they couldn't send anyone with
me. No one else would take the same risks I would, nor
woukld they so needlessly risk their life in the process. I
would, it was only by shesr luck I always survived, and I
enjoyed being in the inch of space between my life and
death.

"Then I met you," a whimsical tone crept into her voice, and
she straightened up slightly. "I met you and Ken, and then
nothing was the same for me anymore. The three of us would
tear around the multi-verse, righting wrongs, doing good,
and trying to be heroes. I didn't care that I was AWOL for
three months, I felt good.

"Something inside me changed in that time, it wasn't a big
change, but it grew as time when on. When I went back home,
my commanders nearly skinned me for being gone. I was
knocked down three ranks, and it took me a long time to gain
them back. I was still doing recon though, but differently;
I started being careful, avoiding the edge of my teeth
escapes and the death defying stuff I used to do.

"Then the war toned down, we signed a few treaties, and the
fighting stopped in a lot of places. It wasn't peace, it
wasn't the end of the war, but it was an open time. It also
meant that I wasn't necessarily needed anymore."

She dropped her paws to her side, standing up a bit taller,
but her voice was weaker then just a moment ago. "So, it was
suggested to me that it would be a good time for me to take
some leave time. As long as I wanted. I was discarded,
almost retired, and away from the army.

"That was when, out of the blue, Ken showed up at my front
door. He gave a strange story about how you had sent him to
me. I didn't even know you were keeping track anymore. He
told me he was on the run, and soon enough, that Mason
fellow, the lion, showed up as well, to keep an eye on Ken.

"Then, once that little adventure was over, I stuck with you
for a while longer. We had a few adventures, it was great
fun. You weren't a kid anymore, Ken had mastered his magic,
and, however changed, the three of us were back together
again.

"One day, back home, a General showed up at my door and told
me I was off leave. The war was getting heavy again, and
they needed my 'skills' at recon. I went gladly; as much as
I loved being with you, the army was my life."

She had started to sob again, more softly this tim. She was
trying to hide it from me, but I could see it. She tried to
compose herself, resting her paws back on the window sill as
she did so.

"I wasn't the same anymore," she continued after a few more
moments. "I cared about my life now. I wasn't willing to
take the same risks, and didn't do my job as well as my
commander thought I should. Then on one mission, things went
badly wrong."

I finally stood up, walking over to her, and placing a paw
on her shoulder. She turned to look at me, her eyes red, her
cheeks matted down with tears. Reaching up with one paw, she
set it on mine. "What happened?" I asked, finding that my
mouth was dry.

"Something stupid," her tone slipped into a bit of anger,
aimed right at herself. "I was being too cautious and nearly
got myself killed. I managed to escape with only a busted up
leg, and some how made it back into our land, but that was
all I could do."

She locked her eyes with mine, they were emotionless. "I was
brought to the hospital, and they fixed my leg up, good as
new. Just hurt like hell all the time. It was healing, and
would be fine in a month, but the pain was almost
overwhelming.

"The doctors gave me some pain pills, they were quite
powerful, and I was only suppose to take one a day. They
only worked a little bit on me. So like a fool, instead of
telling the doctors about this, I just started to take two
pills. When that didn't work any longer, I took three, then
four."

I nodded, biting at my lip again. This sounded bad.

"I continued taking them after my bones healed, but ran out.
The pain was still there, but not in my bones, it went so
much deeper than that. So, just like a good daughter, I
started to follow in my father's footsteps. I started to
drink."

There was something missing there. Something that she wasn't
saying. There was more to this than a blown mission and
broken bones. I squeezed her shoulder gently with my paw,
letting her know I was still there.

"I wasn't a bad drunk," she said with a sigh. "You remember
how I used to drink. A little here, a little there, not a
lot, not all at once, but I loved to drink. I just started
there, but a little here and there became a little each
night, then a little more each night. One glass became two,
two became three, three became ten. Soon I was drinking a
lot each night, and morning, and any other time I could
drink."

"Soon, I got to the point where I was eithr drunk, or I was
getting drunk. The few times I was sober, I was miserable,
all the pain came back. The problem was, the pain was always
coming back, so I had to drink more.

"I lived like this for months, and during it all, I was
still doing my job. For a while I had deluded myself into,
believing that my drinking was making me better at my job. I
was back to living on the edge, risking my life to get all I
could. I just wasn't as good as it at I was before, and the
thrill of it was feeding the pain, making me drink even
more."

She pulled her paw off mine, and wrapped her arm around my
back. I put mine around her shoulder, and she started to
slump down in my arms.

"Then things went too far," she continued, sobbing more, and
not trying to stop it. "I got so drunk, I passed out while I
was on a mission. I was found the next day, still drunk and
only a mile from camp. I hadn't even crossed the enemy line
yet. It was too late though, when I hadn't reported in, they
decided to try the mission without my recon. A full squad
was lost.

"It was my fault," she whimpered, shaking her head back and
forth. "My fault, if I hadn't been so shit-faced drunk it
would never have happened. Those men would still be alive."

I didn't say a word. There was nothing I could say. Or
rather, anything I could say would be trite, and insulting
to her pain. I also suspected there was nothing else I could
say that she hadn't already heard, either from herself, or
from others.

"Command saw it that way as well. My drunkenness, so far,
had only gotten me a few reprimands, it hadn't gotten in the
way before, and I was damn good at my job. Now, it was too
late to do anything about it. I was court-marshaled and
dishonorably dischared a few weeks later. I was lucky enough
not to get jail time, but I had lost everything I used to
define myself. I was ungrounded, set adrift.

"I landed right back into the bottle. Back home, I was right
back to drinking, no longer hiding it from even myself. I
just drank, trying to drive away the pain, the anger, the
hurt. I drank through my savings, I drank through my
friends, I drank through everything I owned. Then, one day,
I came home to find that I had lost that as well.

"I only had a little bit of money with me, and I was ready
to spend that on a last few drinks. I'm not sure what
happened then; for maybe a second, I was thinking clearly. I
remembered what it was like to live on the street, how cold
and miserable it was. I decided that I had to get out of
there, get away from everything. I broke into my apartment,
got my portal controller. Then I," she paused here, dropping
her head to her chest. "I robbed a few places. Got enough
cash to get a cheap hotel so I could take a shower, get
clean. Then, still hung over, I came here.

"I threw the controller away, then went right to you. I was
going to tell you everything, all of it, not leaving
anything out. When I found you had moved, I just lost the
will to do so. Upon finding you again, I saw how much things
had changed with you. The curse, and being with Oriana,
and..." she broke down into tears again; she had been trying
to fight them back, but no longer could.

Turning, she fell into my arms. I held her close, in a tight
hug as she buried her face into my chest. There was nothing
else I could thing of to do. Holding her felt like the right
thing; at this moment, she needed more than kind words. So I
held her, letting her cry.

Nothing more was said for a long time. We did move to the
bed at some point, but that just let me hold her closer to
me. Kalie eventually stopped crying, but didn't pull away
from me. I continued to hold her, some times petting the fur
on the back of her neck, other times just keeping her close.

I didn't know what do do next, but I also needed her help.
It felt so selfish to be asking her to help me in a time
like this. She was in no condition to be do anything, let
alone something I was forcing her into.

This was an impasse, she was in no condition to do what I
needed of her, and I couldn't think of anyone else with the
capability to do what I needed done. Now was not the time to
bring it up, that I understood, and I would have to find
someone else to do the job, that was clear.

After perhaps an hour had passed, Kalie pulled herself away
from me. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. The fur on her
cheeks matted down by the constant flow of tears. The look
about her had changed just slightly. It was as if some
weight had been lifted from her by her confession.

"Perhaps we should talk to Oria," I suggested, still keeping
one paw on her back. "Her religion has some things that
could help you." I couldn't believe I had just said that!
Recommending religion to help a friend. I guess we all do
change in time, and maybe it would help her.

She nodded her head. "I'll talk to her," she told me, her
voice hoarse from crying. She tried to clear it, but didn't
seem to succeed.

I ran my paw over the back of her neck, as we both sat
there, neither of us saying a word. I was going to wait for
her to speak before I said anything at all.

"What did you need my help for?" she suddenly asked, her
voice sounding a bit clearer.

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. Now's not the time."

"When will be the time?" she asked, brushing at her matted
fur. "I've been dreading your asking me for help since I
found out what happened this morning. I've been dreading it
since I came here in the first place. I'm dreading it now,
but I've poured my heart out into your lap; I hope you can
understand that I need to do this."

"No." I flatly said, "If you're doing this to try and prove
yourself to me," I shook my head, "I won't ask you to do
something like that."

"I don't know what I'm doing," she responded, crossing her
chest with one arm, resting the paw on her shoulder. The
other paw sat in her lap. "But I do need to do this. To help
you right now when you need me."

I took my paw from the back of her neck, setting it down on
her leg. "You don't need to do anything. If you're sure you
can handle this, I will let you do so. You did come here for
a reason."

She sighed, "I came here because I needed to grab onto
something before my life slipped between my fingers. I was
barely able to manage to do that. For the last few months
I've been holding on for dear life."

Placing her free paw on her chest, she glanced at me. "The
pain is still there. It runs deep, almost into my soul, and
it's not going to just go away. Not without my doing
something about it. I haven't felt whole for so long, first
descending into pity, then wallowing in it. I've been
holding myself from sinking deeper into it, now it's time to
start to pull myself out."

I reached up, taking the paw against her chest, and pulling
it into my paws. "I can understand what's going on. I've
found myself shattered before, but nothing like this. I need
you in top form, the best you can be. Are you sure you're up
to doing this?"

She laughed, sounding just a bit like her normal self once
more. "If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't be trying so hard to
fight off tears. I will do my best, and do it as well as I
can. So please, tell me what you want me to do."

I gave her a quick summary of what I was going to need her
to do. With me on Cain's base, she would be responsible for
leading the attack. She would also be manning the gunner
chair on _The Falcon_ and would have to work with Milgrove,
whom she had never even meet before.

We slowly hashed out the plans for the mission; what she
would do, and how she would command the three other ships.
It was a small fleet, but when that's all you have, it's all
you have.

She seemed confident, strong, almost her old self again. But
there was still a hint of strain in her eyes. She was going
to try her hardest on this mission, but I suspected she
wasn't sure of her own judgment.

I was, and for now that was enough.

    Chapter 6

Kalie and I walked back into the living room. She had
cleaned herself up a bit, drying her face and her eyes. She
didn't look completely calm yet, but some of her strength
had returned.

I hoped that she would hold up thought all of this. Our
friendship was important, but there was so much going on! I
couldn't lose my focus on Cain. I had to stop him before he
did something else, something worse than trying to kidnap my
wife.

Oria was currently sitting on the couch, balancing Beca on
her legs, and reading to her. The twins were in the carrier
at her feet, both sleeping soundly, with Rhea curled up next
to them, guarding them from all harm.

Oria flashed us both a smile, mixed with a slight look of
relief. I would have to talk to her about what had happened,
and some of what Kalie told me. She might be acting better
right away, but Oria and I both knew that it was just that--
and act.

"Rachel called," she said after a moment, setting the book
down on her lap. "I didn't want to disturb you, so I took a
message. She told me that she has done what you wanted her
to do."

I smiled, brushing my hair back from the side of my head.
"Good, that will simplify things a lot. Right then, I need
to talk to Ravindar, then Kalie and I need to get to the
shipyards."

She smiled back. "That's good news then... but what exactly
has she done for you?"

"The Security Council, you might have heard about it on the
news. It's kind of the Consortium's investigative and
enforcement branch. Not sure I can go into it right now.
When it was about to be formed, Rachel told me that I was
wanted as a Special Agent. I said I would think about it."

She twisted her ears slightly, her paws, claws out, brushing
out Beca's hair. "I see," she said, sounding curious, as
well as annoyed, at the same time.

I nodded, relaxing my stance slightly, tail flicking behind
me. "The point is, I now have jurisdiction over all Earth.
Which means, I have direct jurisdiction over Cain. This
means I can pull rank to deal with him, and have the clout
of the Consortium behind me for now."

"Ah," she said with a smile, "so you accepted this job so
you could deal with Cain. That makes sense, but how will
this affect us after we've finished dealing with Cain?"

I shrugged, "I don't really know. There is no one else in
the CSC as of yet. It's just me, so I guess I might end up
setting some of the power base by accident. That's for
later, right now I need to get some ID made up, and have it
set into the system for authorization."

"Do you have anything in mind?" she asked. "I can make it
myself while you're at the shipyards."

For a second I was tempted to do something along the lines
of the classic 'FBI' id, but decided against it. "Keep it
simple, have the CSC big, and put everything you can on it.
If Rachel didn't give you the authorization information when
she called, it's probably sitting in the mail system."

"She sent it to me, don't worry. I have a few ideas, I'll
show you what I have once you and Ravindar get back from the
shipyards," she said the last part with a knowing smile.
Suspecting what she was smiling at, I glanced over the back
of my shoulder. The tiger was standing behind me, smirking
just slightly.

I chuckled. "Good, nice to see you can keep sneaking up on
me." I said, turning around so I was face to face with him,
or rather face to chest. "Do you have what I asked for?"

He nodded, holding up the pair of wrist bands. "If you will
hold up your arms, I will put them on for you," he said, his
voice softening just a touch.

"You're just a good old romantic," I told him with a smile,
pushing my sleeves up, and holding my arms out to him. He
snapped both bands onto my wrists, locking them tightly.

"The left band has the chip controller and the pill
container, the right is the portal control. To open either
one, you, and only you, must tap on it. Twice fast, twice
slow, and twice more fast."

I smiled. "Good, how about being able to track me through
the fold?"

"The Guilt is currently working on that as we speak," he
answered, looking slightly sheepish. "It will be ready soon
enough; I was promised no more than an hour. That's not all,
though. If you cross your wrists and tap the bands
together," he showed me as he spoke, tapping the insides of
his wrists together twice. "You'll find a small blade in the
right band. It's not much, but no one wants to see you
defenseless."

I smiled, glad to have him thinking of things like that for
me. "Good, now I have one more thing for you to do before we
head off to the ship yards. I'm going to need a bio-drone
for you. Nothing fancy, but if they're supposed to kill you,
I'd rather it be a fake you instead of the real one."

"That was already suggested," he commented with a sly smile,
his tail flicking back and forth as he spoke, "That will
also be here in no more than an hour."

I laughed, "Nothing left to chance. Very good! Well, then I
guess we had better go."

"Not so fast," Oria said. I turned back around to face her.
She was standing up from the couch, Beca already out of her
lap. "I need to talk to you for a moment before you go.
Kalie, would you watch Beca for me?"

Kalie nodded, a slight smile flickering over her muzzle as
she walked into the room.

As soon as Oria was near me, she grabbed my arm, showing a
sudden urgency that wasn't there a moment before. "Come with
me. Ravindar, you stay put for now. This is private." She
keep on walking, pulling me along with her.

I keep up, staying just a step behind her. "What's going
on?" I asked.

She sighed, flicking her ears in annoyance. "You're so hyper
about going after Cain, you're forgetting what body you're
in."

I shrugged. "Well, the body is an integral part of the
plan," I answered, sounding kind of sheepish myself.

She pulled me around a corner, then dropped my arm, stepping
around me so that she could look me in the face. "You're
leaking," she said, hissing slightly.

I blinked in surprise, glancing down at myself. A pair of
wet spots were spreading out along the front of my shirt,
one over each beast. "Oh," I said, dumbfounded, "I guess
that escaped my attention."

She sighed again, but smiled just slightly. "I thought you
liked that?" the sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

"On you!" I protested.

She took my arm again, pulling me along the hallway,
flicking her tail at me as I tried to keep up. "I like it on
you, too. Don't worry about it that much, it happens to
everyone at some time." I suspect that wasn't true, but
didn't want to contradict her at the moment. "You've got
your attention divided up in so many different directions
that you're not paying attention to your body. It's just
like when you forget to eat."

"Ah, yes. I see what you mean," I rubbed my forehead with my
free paw. "I'm most likely going to be in this form for a
few days. This could get in the way if I'm captured," I was
starting to be a bit worried, this could be more than just
an inconvenience.

Stopping in front of our bedroom, she opened the door with
one paw, pulling me into the room with the other. "I've
already thought about that. Change into a clean shirt and
bra, and double the pads, you don't need to have this happen
again before we can get you drained."

Not one to be told what to do twice, at least not when my
wife was telling me what to do, I shed my shirt and bra and
dried off my fur with the shirt. Putting on a new bra, I did
notice that things were starting to get tight. "I'm going to
have to do something about this soon," I commented as I
pulled my shirt on.

"Take this," Oria said, holding out a pill. I nodded, as I
took it from her and swallowed it dry. "And what was
'this'?" I asked once it was down.

She held out a pill bottle for me. "It's a hormone blocker.
It will prevent you from producing milk. It lasts about
twelve hours, so keep an eye on the clock."

I took the bottle from her, guessing what she was going to
tell me to do next. Tapping open the left band, I put a
dozen of the small pink pills into the little gap there.
While I was at it, I moved my Matrix chip from my watch into
the band as well, abandoning my watch on the bed. "If you
take them long enough, will they stop production of the
hormones?"

She nodded, taking the bottle back as I snapped the band
closed. "The less you nurse, the less milk you produce," she
explained by way of an answer, "and before you ask, I didn't
take them after I was done nursing Beca because there's a
slight chance they may cause birth defects. I didn't want to
risk it."

"Good plan," I told her, pausing for a second to tuck my
shirt back in. Then we both walked to the door.

"Just remember to take them," she told me, opening the door
and ushering me out into the hallway. "When you get back
from the shipyard you'll have to feed Adric, that will drain
you enough that it won't cause problems."

I was suddenly struck by the absurdity of the whole scene.
The whole idea just made me laugh. "Do you know how silly
this all is?"

Oria gave me a long smile, her tail twitching back to twist
around mine. "I know, love. But you are silly, so it all
seems to make some kind of sense doesn't it?"

I laughed harder, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, then
pulling her into a kiss. "I love you," I told her, kissing
her again.

"I love you, too," she answered between kisses.

We both had to hold ourselves back, this was the type of
situation between us that could degenerate into baser
actions. So, we managed to pull away after a few moments.
Both of us were a bit disappointed, but it was something to
look forward to later.

We reentered the living room, and Oria drifted back to the
couch. Kalie was reading to Beca now, who was starting to
drift off into sleep. They shuffled around a bit so Beca was
in Oria's lap, and Kalie came over to me.

"Are we ready?" Kalie asked, glancing over my new shirt, a
slight smile on her face.

I nodded. "We're ready. Come on Ravindar, lead onto the
shipyards."

He smiled a bit, and motioned for me to lead instead. I
shrugged, happy to oblige him. He followed right behind, and
Kalie was by my side, hanging back just a bit as we walked
down the hall to the fold room.

Once inside, I reached out, and with a twist of my mind,
opened the fold, connecting it to the one that was just
inside the shipyard hanger. Stepping over the threshold, I
came out into a back corner of the massive room.

The open hanger stretched into the distance, about half a
mile, and a third of that wide. Every hundred feet or so,
sat a _Red October_ class starship. Each one was in a
different phase of construction. This was the factory floor;
all the main parts were assembled here.

Clustered around this end of the hanger were four of the
ships, one was _The Falcon_. The other three had yet to be
named, the only things on their white hulls were their
registration numbers, and the shipyard's logo.

Lounging around along the side wall was a motley crew of
pilots and gunners. There were seven of them, each of a
different species, and all very good at their jobs. They
were talking among themselves, except for Milgrove, who was
watching us enter.

Sie walked right over to me as I closed the fold, Kalie and
Ravindar standing next to me. "I assume one of these two is
my gunner?" sie asked, placing hir paws on hir side, causing
the skin of hir wings to bunch out.

"Milgrove, this is Kalie," I waved the paw from one to the
other, "and Kalie, this is Milgrove. Kalie is going to be
the gunner, and in charge of this mission."

They shook hands, each looking over the other. Milgrove
seemed pleased at the arrangement, but Kalie looked a bit
wary. She was a land fighter, being in space wasn't part of
her training. But I had seen her work a gunnery system
before, and knew she would be able to handle it.

"Please to meet you," Milgrove said, offering hir paw out in
a motion to shake. Kalie responded in kind, but without much
enthusiasm, her species wasn't big on that type of contact.

"Now," Milgrove said, stepping away from us. "Would you care
to explain what's going on here?"

"Sure. Why don't you call the others over?" I told her with
a bit of a smile.

Sie did just that, bringing the other six over to stand in
front of me. Kalie stepped over with them, placing herself
next to Milgrove.

I gave them all a quick summation of what they were going to
do. That I was commandeering the ships on official business
for the CSC, then quickly explained what the CSC was. I gave
Milgrove and Kalie the authority to lead the group as well.
Hopefully that would prevent any major problems.

Once that was out of the way, I outlined what the mission
was going to be. That they were going to be needed to track
down a base, and prevent anyone from escaping it. Or, if the
situation called for it, they might have to attack the base
outright.

I would have Ravindar handle the actual location of the base
once I had been kidnapped. He would tell Kalie the closest
fold to the base, and he would also insure I didn't get shot
by my own ships if I was trying to escape.

There was a general look of worry shared between everyone.
Milgrove appeared slightly unsure, and Kalie's face was
stone, nothing was showing on it anymore.

I would have liked to be able to reassure everyone about the
success of this mission. At that time, I didn't have any
real idea what it would entail. I just hoped to use them to
shut down Cain's base, and to help me escape when the time
came.

Trying hard not to show the worry that I felt, I answered
all of their questions as best I could. A few people
questioned Ravindar, and he answered them, using what seemed
to be as few words as possible.

Finally there was nothing left to answer, and everyone was
satisfied about what was going on, although there was some
nervousness still floating around. No one backed out, and I
had given everyone the option three times during my
explanation of the mission.

They had reacted better than I would have, I suspected.

Leaving some final instructions, including that Kalie should
spend some time in the simulator, Ravindar and I left the
hanger. Once we were back in the house, I let out a long
sigh. I was feeling a lot more nervous now than I had an
hour before.

"May I speak with you," Ravindar said. I glanced back over
my shoulder at him, his ears were bent slightly in a look of
concern.

I shrugged both my shoulders and tail. "I don't see why
not."

He nodded, motioning me to step out of the door and into the
hallway. I followed behind him as he started down the hall,
away from the living room. It struck me as an interesting
reversal of our roles.

Once around the corner, he opened up the door to one of the
unused rooms. I stepped inside and was surprised to find
that it wasn't unused.

"So this is where you sleep," I commented, flicking my tail
as I looked around. There was a cot along one wall, with a
chest at the foot of it. Nothing more.

He grunted, closing the door, and walking around to face me.
The only light in the room was from the window, filtering
from the center enclosure of the house.

"You have no real plan do you?" he said, crossing his arms
over his chest. It wasn't spoken as an insult to me, more
that he was expressing his own worry about the situation.

I spread my paws out, "Oh, I wouldn't go as far as that," I
laughed nervously. "I just have so little information on
what's going on. Once I get to his base, you guys come
swooping in."

"That is not much of a plan. It occurs to me that this could
be a trap," he twitched his tail as he spoke, I suddenly got
the feeling that he was controlling himself, perhaps to keep
from showing his anger to me

I nodded, rubbing my chin and swishing my tail behind me.
"Yes, it is a possibility," I admitted with a sigh, "but I'm
sure they're not aware that I've twained myself, and if he
knows of my being Rhea, he wouldn't know of my morphic
form."

He nodded his head slowly, making the motion look
deliberate. "I concur. He has attacked you once before,
which Rhea stopped." Not true, I had stopped that, in Rhea's
body. "But to know of your morphic body would require him or
his agents getting closer to you than we know they have."

"So it might be a trap, but they're going to think they
captured Oriana?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Correct," he answered, twisting his ears around, "Tour
presence would take them by surprise. Though if it is a
trap, expect to be hit by a second tranquilizer. They would
assume you would already have taken a serum to prevent the
first."

"So, find out what other tranquilizers are safe to use in
conjunction with the first. Perhaps we can work out what the
second one would be and provide an antidote for that as
well."

"Fox," he frowned as he spoke, "You're stalling."

I sighed, slouching slightly. "Perhaps, but I want to be
prepared as best as I can be."

"Which is what you should be," he answered, walking over to
me and placing his paws on my shoulder. "But the more we
think about how things are arranged, how they could be done,
the more we will attempt to prepare for. We can prepare for
eternity, but we must move soon."

I shook my head feeling my hair flip behind me. It was
finally dry, and still hanging loose down my back. "I
understand, but is there anything we can do, in case I'm
drugged for a second time."

He shook his head. "Hope it doesn't last too long. We must
go soon, before it is too late, and we need to start from
scratch once more."

I sighed again, "I suppose so. Come on, let's hope the stuff
from the Guild has arrived, so you can track me down."

He nodded, walking around me to open the door. "After you,"
he said, motioning once more for me to walk ahead of him.

"You know," I told him as I stepped out into the hallway,
"Sometimes I wonder if you always walk behind me just to
look me up?"

He chuckled, placing a paw on my back, "You're married, Fox;
why would I want to watch as you strut around?"

I swished my tail at him, "Because of the view."

He laughed, patting my back softly. "You're a tease."

"Of course," I said, turning my head back to look at him,
and smirking as I did so.

He shook his head, closing the door to his room. "Go on,
Oriana will be expecting us in the living room."

"Right, right," I answered, starting to wall, grinning a
bit. Sometimes, having a female body could prove to be quite
fun. It also served to break the tension that sometimes
could creep into these situations.

He did have a point, the fact that it could be a trap had
never crossed my mind until he mentioned it. It had me very
worried.

    Chapter 7

Nervous would not be the best way to describe how I felt
right then. I was ten minutes away from being kidnapped, and
if all things were successful.I would then be able to deal
with Cain. Once I was on his base, we could close in and
take my double out.

Things were ready to go. Ravindar's bio-drone had arrived,
along with the promised tracker. I had fed Adric, and I felt
more comfortable now, my bra feeling a bit loose.

I had a gun as well. I probably wouldn't be keeping it
longer than a few minutes after my capture, but it helped to
keep things in character. Oria would not be caught without a
gun, no pun intended.

I took a deep breath, holding it in for a few seconds before
letting it back out. I brushed a few strands of hair from in
front of my face, and I looked up at Oria and Ravindar. We
were standing in the fold room, and almost ready to start.

"I'm beginning to get scared," I admitted, tucking my paws
under my arms. My ears twitched slightly as I spoke,
betraying my feelings.

Oria chuckled, placing a paw on my shoulder. "I have been
scared for a while. I'm just better at hiding it than you."
She pulled me to her, wrapping her arms around me tightly.
"Come back to me, safe and sound. Please?"

I let out a rough chuckle, kissing her on the cheek. "I
promise you I'll be back, alive and well. I'm just not sure
how long it will take."

She pulled away, a few lines of worry showing around her
eyes. She held herself a few feet away, paws on my shoulder.
There was a light in her eyes, a mixture of worry, dread,
and assurance. I smiled at her as we finally parted, neither
of us relaxing.

Taking another deep breath, I turned my head slightly to
look at Ravindar. "All right, let me see this tracker of
yours." I told him, holding out my paw.

He gave me a wary smile, holding out a flat black box-like
device. It was small; a foot tall and half that wide. Taking
it from him, I flipped it over in my paws. There were four
black buttons, smooth to the touch, that looked like
controls on one side They were almost invisible, there was
just a slight indentation around each one that even showed
they were there.

"How do I use it?" I asked, a little baffled. It could have
been a remote control for all I knew. It wouldn't be kept
with me once I was captured, it seemed too... obvious.

He shook his head, taking it back from me, flipping it so
the controls were placed under his thumb. "You don't use it,
I do. Turn around."

I tilted my head slightly, a bit surprised, but followed his
order, turning my back to him.

Then he grabbed my tail, right down near the base. I jumped,
letting out a slight 'eep' and looking over my shoulder to
glare at him. He smiled, holding the device up, then
lowering it back down, pressed it up against my rear, right
next to the base of my tail.

He then placed his paw onto my shoulder, pressing down
strongly. "Just relax," he said. I felt the device pressing
harder against my rear, then heard a soft click, followed by
a jolt of pain running through my skin. I tried to jump
away, but Ravindar held me as the electrical shock from the
device continued to flow through me.

Thirty very long seconds later it stopped. He relaxed the
paw on my shoulder slightly, then pulled the device away. I
pulled out of his grasp, and turned around to look at him a
bit unstable on my feet. "What the hell did you do?" I
asked, panting softly, one paw rubbing my ass, the other
over my heart.

"Reprogrammed your tracker implant," he answered with a
slight smile. "It will now monitor and send out location
information on a Guild frequency and encryption. It can't be
found, and it can not be removed. In theory, it can not be
jammed either."

I rubbed around the base of my tail, nodding slightly, and
dropped my other paw to my side. "Warn me next time, ok?"

He chuckled, "Maybe next time, but I felt it was better this
way. Don't you think, Oriana?" he glanced over at her.

She just shook her head. One arm was crossed over her chest,
the other was in front of her, her paw bent slightly and
resting under her chin. She had a half-smile, and a glint of
laughter in her eyes, but she remained silent.

I smiled, shaking my head slightly and flicking my tail as I
crossed my arms over my chest. "Thank you for your support,"
I humphed, I then turned to where the fold was, reaching out
to it with my mind. "Is the bio-drone ready?" I asked.

"Yes," Ravindar answered, shuffling around a bit behind me.

"Good," I answered with a slight sigh, I opened the fold to
a location just shy of where one of the teams of kidnapers
was located. All according to plan.

I held my breath as I stepped through onto the street,
brushing some more hair out of my face. Turning around, I
watched as the bio-drone stepped through as well. It looked
like Ravindar, but it was just wrong, the stance, the shape
of his face, the way the tail swished. It just wasn't him,
but only someone who knew him would be able to tell.

Snapping the fold closed, I drew in a long breath, and
shoved my paws in my pockets. I felt my pocket knife, and my
wallet, carrying the CSC ID that Oria had made. I hadn't
even gotten a chance to look at it yet.

"Are you ready?" I asked the 'drone. He nodded stiffly,
flicking his tail.

I hated bio-drones, hated to use them. The damn things just
gave me the creeps. They never actually seem 'right' there
is always something off. It felt stronger now than it did
before, perhaps because this one was going to be destroyed
in a few moments.

I started down the street, undoing my hair in the process,
allowing it to fall down my back with a few stands hanging
over my shoulder. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the
'drone walking along behind me, a slightly stupid look on
its face.

I chuckled as I walked around the corner, and moved towards
the kidnapers. I was breathing slowly, trying hard not to
show how I was feeling. I suspect that I failed, I didn't
have the same control over my ears and tail that someone who
had them all their life would.

We were halfway down the block when the attack finally came.
First I heard a loud shot behind me. Spinning around I saw
the 'drone falling to the ground, most of its throat gone.

I knew it was fake, I knew it was a type of biological
robot, but it made me ill anyway. Spinning around on the
ball of my foot I tried to keep myself from throwing up.
Then I felt a sharp jab into my shoulder, heavier then a pin
prick, and painful.

My paw went to my shoulder as I looked down to see what had
happened. There was a tranquilizer dart sticking out between
my fingers. I was now drugged. I had taken the serum Elena
had given me, but I was starting to feel dizzy.

I let out a long gasp, falling to my knees. This was normal,
it would pass in a few minutes, but for now it was helpful,
making my act all the more convincing.

There was a weight on my shoulder as someone wrapped a paw
around my arm. I closed my eyes, this was where I was
supposed to be passed out, so I played along with that idea.
I felt myself lifted over someone's shoulder, and carried
along.

I could hear a few voices behind and around me, but no one
seemed to be stopping my captor-- that was good I guessed.
If someone saved me now, this would all be for nought!

Then came the familiar feeling as I went through a fold. I
twitched my tail without thinking about it much. Things were
going well at the moment; I just hoped they would continue
to go well as this adventure went on.

There was a burst of conversation around me; a few people
were arguing in a language I didn't understand at the
moment. Given time my translator would pick it up, but I
wasn't sure how much time I had at the moment.

The arguing continued, getting stronger around me. I felt
something run over my body, and my gun was removed, just as
I had known would happen.

A few more comments were passed around, then I was moved
through another fold. I hoped that Ravindar's tracker was
working, telling everyone where I was going, because if it
didn't... I just didn't want to think about it.

Once I was on the other side, I felt myself set down on my
stomach on a metal surface of some kind. I kept my eyes
closed, flicking my tail as my face pressed against the
metal. I was feeling a bit better; the serum was working off
the final effects of the tranquilizer as I lay there.

I felt two sets of paws frisking over my body, down over my
sides and under me as well. One set paused a moment to cop a
feel, but I let it pass for now.

I heard more conversation in the background, the language
the same as before. Then they started to strip me, pulling
off all my clothing down to my panties and bra. They left me
in those, for now, and seemed to leave.

I continued to lie there, trying hard not to move. My left
paw was pinned under my waist, and was starting to go numb.
My leg had been left slightly hanging off the table and was
starting to hurt as the edge of the table cut into it. I had
to work very hard to keep from moving, and not shift to a
more comfortable position.

After what felt like hours, I heard footsteps approaching
me. Paws wrapped around my stomach, and I was hefted over
another set of shoulders. Feeling rushed back into my paw,
and pins and needles prickled all over my arms, it felt
good, but like I needed to rub it. I prevented myself from
doing so.

I was carried along for another few minutes, then was set
back down again. This time I was on a soft surface that felt
warm, and almost wrapped itself around me. Stinking down
into it, I had to work hard to keep from purring.

There was some whispered conversation in the back ground,
then I heard what sounded like a door being closed. I still
didn't move, holding as still as I could.

Another few minutes passed before I finally felt someone
else sit down next to me. Whatever I was laying down on
shifted as the weight changed on it.

"You can stop the charade," a deathly familiar voice spoke.
My voice, but deeper, rougher. It sounded like he had once
damaged his vocal cords. It was no other than Cain.

I didn't move.

He sighed, placing his hand on my shoulder. "Ms. Cutter, you
have done exactly as I knew you would. We know you're quite
awake, so please stop acting as if you're not."

I sighed... he knew! How the fuck did he know? He wasn't
supposed to know, he shouldn't have known, but he did! Damn!
I lifted my head, cracking open my eyes. "How did you know?"
I asked softly, finding myself looking across a large room.
Heavy tapestries covered the cut rock walls, and the stone
was thickly carpeted.

"That you would try something so foolish? I know you, I know
you both, I knew how you would act and respond. You didn't
think I really am this sloppy do you? I'm sure your
bodyguard easily dealt with the first team you came into
contact with."

I nodded, raising myself into a sitting position, my back
still towards Cain. I was on a massive bed, large enough
that five or six people could comfortably sleep on it. There
was a desk on the far side of the room. Plain and made of
wood, it look slightly used, but not often. A single
bookshelf, cut into the wall behind it, was half full with
books.

"I don't leave anything to chance. I put the proper
information into my men's minds. So that when you took one
to your vampire friend, she found out exactly what she was
supposed to. Now you are here, and things are going
according to plan."

I snorted, shaking my head slightly. "And what plan would
that be?"

He laughed, "Not for you to know, you're just bait. I'm sure
the cavalry is coming, and once your husband is here, then
things will proceed to plan."

Oh shit YES! He didn't know, he still thought I was Oriana!
Yes! This situation could still be saved. It was going to
take a lot more, and damn quick, planning on my part. Time
to start thinking on my feet.

"So it was a trap," I said, turning around to face my
captor. It was still a shock; he had my face, but it wasn't
my face. His hair was cut short, he was clean shaven, and he
didn't wear glasses. The most prominent part of his face was
a scar that ran down from his left ear down to the corner of
his mouth, giving him a slight sneer. It wasn't as large as
it has been the last time I had encountered him, but still
drew the eye.

He gave me an over-exaggerated nod. "Yes, a trap. I knew
once the first attack failed you would allow yourself to be
kidnapped, to lead your husband to me."

I sighed, shaking my head. "What are you going to do to me?"
I asked, a hint of anger in my voice. "I'm almost nude as it
is. Are you going to strip me the rest of the way, then rape
me?" An involuntary shiver slipped down my back as I said
it.

He chuckled. "Hardly my dear, I have no interest in you for
such a release. I stripped you to insure you didn't have any
concealed weapons that you could pull out at the worst
possible time. No, no, your clothing is right there," he
motioned back with his hand. I was surprised, he had both
right now. Last time we had meet, his right hand was just a
stump. He must have gotten a prosthetic, like the one I used
to have.

I looked where he was pointing. There was a table set up at
the side of the room, right next to a wooden slat door that
had a large lock on the front of it. My clothing was folded
neatly on top.

"Thanks," I told him with a snarl in my voice.

He smiled. "As lovely as ever. Now, hand over the Matrix
chip. I don't need you wandering away on me."

I made a show of hesitating for him, acting like I didn't
want to hand it over. As it was, I really did not want to,
but the plans I had made before, which needed the chip, were
worthless now. So after enough show, I eventually opened the
wristband up, and handed him the chip.

He smiled, slipping it into his pocket. "Very good. I thank
you, my lady. Now I'll let you get dressed. This is my room,
so don't make too much of a mess, I assure you there are no
weapons in here." He stood up as he spoke, walking over to
the door out of the room, a large, re-enforced metal door,
made to handle any loss of air pressure.

Flashing me one last smile, he pressed the button on an
intercom that was set by the door. He spoke into it in the
language everyone else was speaking. There was a short
conversation, then he nodded his head, letting go the
button.

He pressed another button that was slightly lower, causing
the door to slide open. Stepping through, he gave me a
little wave. I gave him the finger.

The door closed with a thump, and a few seconds later I
heard a series of snaps and thumps around the door. It was
locked quite well, I was sure.

I sighed, running my paw through my hair. I still had an
advantage, and I suspected that even if he had found the
tracker, he would have left it going. I also suspected he
hadn't actually found it, otherwise he would have mentioned
the implant.

Sliding off the bed, I walked over to where my clothing was.
First I tried the wooden door, but found that it was still
locked. Peeking through the slats, I saw what looked like a
steel door. I wasn't getting out this way.

Sighing, I pulled my shirt and pants back on. Everything had
been removed from my pockets, and set in a neat pile. I took
my belt and put it back on, then returned my wallet and
pocket knife to their rightful places.

"Now," I said to myself, turning to look back at the room.
"How do I get out of here?"

Cain was me, a bit darker perhaps, but me. And one I've
always been, is paranoid, I was sure that carried over, to
Cain, and to a much larger extent than I ever had it. That
good dose of paranoia had saved my life before, and I'm sure
Cain would be using it for the same thing.

If his room could be locked, I was sure there was still a
way out. He would not allow himself to be trapped in here.
If someone decided to turn him in, or take over the base, it
would not do to be locked in his own room.

Walking along the walls, I checked behind each tapestry, to
see if there were any changes in the rock face. When that
came up empty, I tried the bookshelf in the room, fiddling
and pulling out all the books... still nothing.

I went back to the door out of the room. The control panel
next to it had a few devices, including a thermostat
control. I adjusted it higher, setting it to blow hot air
into the room.

The system activated almost immediately, heating the room,
and showing me where the air vents were. Both turned out to
be too small for me to have any hope of getting into. I
pried both covers off, feeling around for any kind of
switch, but found nothing.

Sighing, I sat down at his desk, resting my paws on the
surface. Pulling each drawer out, I found nothing hidden
inside the desk, or under the lip, no buttons, no panels. I
did find a box of matches, which gave me an idea.

With a few in hand, I turned the blower back down, and
started to walk around the room. At any crack or distortion
in the rock wall, I lit a match, hoping to find a leak of
air. Each time, no luck.

Twice I went back to the desk for more matches, before I
noticed the thermometer. It wasn't out of place, sitting on
the corner of the desk, diligently showing the temperature.
It actually was attached to the desk, by it's base, so it
couldn't be knocked off.

What struck me was that it was reporting the temperature at
the equivalent of sixty degrees Fahrenheit, which I knew was
wrong. I double checked with the thermostat at the door, it
was showing seventy five.

I walked back to the desk, sitting down in the chair and
smiling a bit. It could just be broken, a fluke, but I was
starting to doubt it. I notice that the cover of the dial
stood out half an inch from the face of the thermometer. I
ran my finger under it; it came back with a fine layer of
soot.

Pulling a match out of the desk, I lit it, and held the
flame under the thermometer. The needle finally shifted,
rising up to what would be eighty degrees before I heard a
snap behind me.

Turning around, I saw that the bookshelf had slid back into
the wall just an inch. It was clear I had found my way out.

Putting the matches away, I dashed to the bed for a second,
stuffing pillows around to make it look like I was sleeping.
Then through the secret door I went, to who knows where, but
once more with the upper hand.

    Chapter 8

I walked carefully down the tunnel, paw against one wall,
with the majority of my attention focused on watching where
I was placing my feet. The tunnel was carved out of rock and
unfinished, which left the walls jagged, and meant the floor
wasn't quite level and littered with debris.

The only light came from the occasional lamp in the ceiling,
placed every dozen feet. It was meager, hardly lighting more
than three feet of the floor under lamps.

Needless to say, it was slow going. The loose stones dug
into the pads of my feet. It made me wish Oria's species
wore shoes, but they do not. So to play Oria I had to be
barefoot, which was hindering me more than helping me much
at the moment.

I was also left with the problem of where I was going. If I
had made this tunnel, it would be geared more towards escape
than for anything else. Things would also be arranged so I
could cause some problems on my way out.

For Cain, I suspected things were arranged in the other
order, so that he could cause a lot of problems, up to, but
not limited to, destroying the base. Escape would be more of
an afterthought than a plan. Assuming, of course, my take on
my double was correct.

To be honest, I wasn't sure that I was correct. I hadn't
seen right through his trap, much to my great embarrassment,
but I had gotten out of his room. There was the possibility
that he had expected that, so I would have to keep him off
balance.

Walking around a sharp corner, I found myself in a darker
stretch of hallway, the only light was coming from a lone
source halfway down the tunnel. I shivered slightly, feeling
cold, but I mostly ignored it.

What was beginning to eat at me was the question of what did
Cain want? Why was he doing this in the first place? What
was he trying to accomplish from all of it? I knew that he
had attacked my other double, and nearly killed him, but he
had also had the chance to kill me, and did not take it.

I could just ask him, but he didn't seemed to be one to
gloat to his captives. He would keep me alive as long as it
suited him, or as long as he still believed me to be Oriana,
but he would not tell me his plan.

So I had a small advantage at the moment, I was out of my
prison, and was not who Cain thought I was. So what to do
next then? Well, the answer was to see where the tunnel led
me to, then cause some trouble if I could.

As I walked past the light source in the hall, I stumbled a
bit before coming to a stop, nearly falling in the process.
Thrashing my tail, I twisted my head back around, and looked
out... Far, far, out.

I was standing in front of an airlock, the top half of the
door was glass of some kind. Well, not glass, but something
transparent. On the far side was an awe-inspiring sight.

In the distance, but still taking up most of my view, was a
massive gas giant world. Split between day and night, it
still shone in dark reds with yellows, blacks, white, and a
few strains of blue. I had once seen Jupiter up close, and
what I was seeing now was almost as magnificent.

I reached out to touch the glass, finding it was so cold
that I pulled my paw away when I was a few inches from the
surface. The airlock was a single door, not the usual
double, and was just sucking out all of the heat from the
tunnel.

"There's the escape," I muttered to myself as I stepped
away. Then turning back around, I continued down the tunnel.
I had to give my double credit; it was one hell of a view. I
just hoped this rock was sitting outside of the radiation
belt, or else I just got a nice dose.

I kept walking, my paw still placed on the wall. Eventually
I rounded another corner, and found myself back on the
lighted path. It felt like the temperature was starting to
rise once more but I wasn't too sure yet.

After a few more minutes, I came to the end of the tunnel,
relatively speaking of course. There was a rock wall in
front of me, but it was cut smooth, as was the last ten feet
of the tunnel.

Also, carved into the wall was a handle. Wrapping my paw
around it, I felt a latch just under my fingers. I squeezed
the latch shut, and was rewarded with a soft snap and thump,
as the wall slipped a few inches back.

I pulled it open a few more inches, peeking into whatever
room was on the other side. It was mostly dark, with the
occasional light coming from different things on the wall. I
could not make out anything else except that there was no
one in the room.

I opened the door the rest of the way, stepping back to give
it space to open. The light from the hallway flooded into
what I now saw was a small room. Stepping inside I looked
around, and was surprised by what I found. Along three of
the walls were large racks of computer equipment. A thousand
different lines ran in through the top of the wall into a
rack of equipment. After a few seconds I recognized them as
network cables.

"Well, well, well," I said to myself with a slight smile.
"The computer room." Or rather cupboard-- damn thing was
small as hell, but there were at least three terminals I
could see. Now, if this was Cain's way of wreaking havoc, I
was pretty sure there wasn't an alarm on the room.

Stepping over to the terminal, I glanced over the keys. To
my surprise, they were labeled in Prid Standard. Not
whatever language everyone was speaking. This was a great
benefit to me.

Kicking the screen on, I found myself at a login prompt.. I
thought for a few seconds, then tried a few logon names as
passwords. Nothing came of it.

Stepping back from the keyboard, I shook my head. "I'm not
going to get in that way," I scolded myself, then turned to
look at the network rack.

The cables were divided into three colors: yellow, blue and
green. Each was also a different thickness, which made
sense. One was pure data, the second I suspected was to a
security system, and the third a video system. About what I
would expect; my base had a room just like this one.

Which meant there was something else here I could use.
Glancing around the room, I found it stuck in the back
corner, a diagnostics tool for the video system.

Pulling it out of the case, I opened the cover and pulled up
the screen. It was about the size of a laptop, but not as
complex. It was just used to listen in and test lines. But
at the moment that would be to my advantage.

Removing the connector cord from the base, I picked one of
the video cables at random, and plugged it in. With a pop
and a flutter, the screen turned on. There was some static
before the image started to clear.

I was surprised to see a corner of a hallway, with people
walking along it. There was a number displayed as well,
which didn't match what I was expecting, but this was much
better. The video cabling was for the security cameras.

With a quick yank, I detached the tester, this time I took a
closer look at the lines. At each connection point was some
writing, once again in Prid standard. It took a little work
to get enough light to read the script by, but soon I was
able to find the camera for the operations center of the
base.

It was busy, a dozen people were moving around inside, half
were raccoons, the other a mix of different species. Cain
was there as well, talking with one person then another, all
speaking their language. I didn't pay much attention to it,
for now I was just listening. I wanted to get the translator
chip speaking that language before I had to deal with Cain.
If I wanted to know what was going on. I had to keep feeding
it the language for the next couple of hours.

While that played on in the background, I continued to look
though the rest of the room. Everything was pretty much as
expected; the door out into the base, a few more terminals,
and lots more equipment.

But I wasn't satisfied with that. There had to be something
else in here, something Cain had left for use when he needed
it, which meant I would need it as well.

Taking another survey of the room, I looked for things that
were out of place, or at least looked wrong. I checked all
the walls and behind the terminals, moving everything that I
could-- with no luck.

Finally I started to look over all the labels that covered
everything in the room. Some were hard to read from the lack
of light, others written so badly they hardly qualified as
writing. So once more I checked everything again, looking
over everything I could, pulling, pushing, and once kicking
one of the racks, again with no luck.

I stepped back with a sigh, shaking my head. "I feel like
I'm in a Zork game," I said, brushing my hair out of my
face. "Trying everything I can think of, and nothing at all
works."

I shook my head again, this time with a smile on my face.
Funny what one remembers at times like these. I could never
win any of the text adventures, I would get stuck somewhere,
trying to do everything I could think of, and nothing would
work. It would always turn out to be something obvious,
something right in front of my face that I could just never
see.

All right then, what was I looking 'through' instead of
'at'? I mentally stepped back, looking at everything in the
room, from the flicking of the monitor screen, to the
flashing of the lights on the network rack.

Something started to tickle at the back of my mind. I was on
to something with the network rack, but I wasn't sure what
yet. I looked once more over it, going slowly this time.
Each block of network adapters was on and working. The
lights of all the readouts were flashing in time to show how
busy the network currently was.

There was something about the lights. Something was wrong
somewhere, I just wasn't sure where it was. I knew I was
onto something with the lights... but what?

Stepping back again, I tried to see what else felt wrong. My
eyes were still being drawn back to the lights, but I tried
to ignore them. Instead I looked up at the cabling. Most of
the cables went up the wall, slipping in bunches into the
ceiling. A few bundles went down the wall and into the
floor.

I went along each bundle, tugging on each cable gently,
testing to see if they went anywhere. I was disappointed to
find they all did. So that wasn't it. Stepping back once
more, I looked over how the bundles we're arranged: ever few
inches one went up into the ceiling, or down the corners of
the rooms for what went into the floor.

Bending down, I looked into the two inch gap under the rack
to see if I could see anything at all. If there was
something there, it was too far back for me to see it.

Rolling back on my heels, I looked at the lights once more.
Crouching down, paws on the bottom self of the rack, I went
from one block of adapters to another, following the cables
up and out of the room.

That's when I finally saw the pattern. It had been there all
along, and some part of my mind had seen it, but now I was
seeing it with my eyes. On one block of adapters the lights
were not flashing randomly, like the others. True, there
were a few seconds before the flashes repeated, but they
were not random.

Each cable was labeled as controlling part of the
environmental systems. That didn't seem strange, but I did
follow the cables back up to where they vanished in the
ceiling. Tugging each one gently, they felt like any other.
So I took one cable, and gave it a hard yank. There was a
moment of resistance, then a dozen feet of cable came
sliding out of the ceiling.

I keep pulling it out until I came to the end. It was left
open, like it might have been connected to something, but
glancing down at the adapter it was plugged into, it was
still showing there was traffic on the cable.

"Very good, Cain," I said with a smirk, as I started to undo
the thumb screws that held the block onto the rack. "I'm
impressed! I almost missed it," I grinned, slipping the
block out and disconnecting it from the power supply.

After a few more seconds I had found the latch that held the
top on, and I had opened the small box. Inside was a gun,
(good), a few control cards for the computers, some
explosives, and a detonator.

I chuckled. "Very good, Cain, excellent, in fact. This is
better than I expected."

Removing everything from the box, I sorted through the
contents. The explosive looked like leftovers from the
creation of the base. Hard pack high gain stuff, the
detonator was wireless and had a range of a several thousand
feet. It also had five different detonation circuits.

Taking a single bar of the explosive, I packed the rest back
into the box, attaching it to one of the detonator circuits,
then I returned it to the network rack, shoving the cord
back up into the ceiling so it looked like nothing was
disturbed.

Next I took the control cards, plugging them into the
diagnostic ports of one of the terminals. Turning them on,
the terminal hummed, and I found myself looking at a
cluttered screen that had a representation of a dozen
instruments on it.

Running through the list, I noticed there was a
communication system, a map of everything in the local area,
environmental controls, and the security system.

I decided it would be best not to play around just yet. I
adjusted some settings, cooling the base down a few degrees,
and turned off some of the security system, so that no one
could be tracked inside the base, myself included.

I thought about doing something more, but I decided not to.
I wasn't sure how much I could get away with before my
tampering was noticed.

With that much done so far, I sat back and relaxed, focusing
a bit on the video tester, watching everyone move around in
the control center. Cain was still there, looking a bit
worried, and barking out the occasional order.

As I waited, I took one of my pills; it was a bit soon by my
watch, but better to be safe. Then I reached into my pocket
and removed my wallet. I decided it was time to take a look
at this ID that Oria had created for me. Flipping it open, I
was surprised to have something fall out into my lap.

Picking it up, I held it to the light, the ID forgotten for
the moment. It was my gem, the norm-shift stone. Hot damn,
Oria must have stuck it in there. This was fantastic, it
would give me even more of an advantage!

Grabbing a loose strand of cable, I worked it though the
gem's mounting, making a quick necklace. Dropping it around
my neck, I tucked it under my shirt.

My attention was then turned to the screen on the tester.
The command center was suddenly busy, and to go with it, I
was able to understand what everyone was saying. I smiled as
I found out what was going on. My ships had finally arrived.

Turning to the terminal, I confirmed it with the local area
map. The four ships had just slipped into range.

Back in the command center, Cain was standing up, arguing
with a few of his underlings about what to do. He said he
was going to come and fetch me.

Swearing softly, I ran back into the tunnel. As I dashed
down it's length, I checked to see if the gun was loaded as.
Once I was sure it would work, I shoved it in my pocket.

Running past the airlock, I left the other explosives there,
so I could blow it open if I needed to, covering them
slightly to keep them from being noticed. I was glad the
detonator had enough control to allow me to do something
like this; I might be needing it.

Once back at the far end of the tunnel, I opened the door
into Cain's room. Closing it behind me, I went around his
desk, and slid into the bed, curling up under the covers,
moving the pillows I had left there a few hours before.

Forcing myself to breathe slowly, I waited for Cain to
return. He had this game all planned out... he thought there
was nothing I could do to win. It was time to start changing
the rules so I would win.

It was time to start cheating.

    Chapter 9

I tried to feign sleep, but was only mildly successful at
it. I was nervous, my paw was fiddling with the gun in my
pocket, and my feet were starting to itch.

Curling up in a ball, I scratched at them, digging out rocks
from between the folds in my pads. I grimaced, working with
one claw to get a particularly deep piece out. I was
surprised that I hadn't cut my feet open on my run back.

There was also a layer of dirt in my fur. I would have to
try and not let Cain see it, lest he guess what I had just
been up to.

Stretching back out, I curled my toes up, slipping my claws
out as I did so. Pulling the sheets tighter to me, I let out
a soft sigh. It was then that I finally heard the door to
the room slide open.

I tried to force myself to relax, but my tail flicked gently
against my legs, flipping the covers. I needed to work on my
control of that-- it gave too much away in this form.

The door cycled open, then closed, and soon after I felt a
weight settle onto the bed next to me. Nothing was said for
a moment, then Cain let out a long sigh, as he placed his
hand gently on my hip.

"So sweet," he said in a soft voice, shifting his weight
against me. "Sometimes I hate this job." He patted my hip
lightly, before sliding back from me. There was a shift of
the sheets, and I felt a hand reach in to tug on my tail
tip.

"Time to wake up Ms. Cutter. Your husband has arrived to
rescue you." He pulled on my tail gently.

I shifted slightly, tugging my tail away from him as I
pulled the covers back a bit. I didn't give any more signs
that I was awake yet.

He tugged at my tail again, a hand rocking my hip at the
same time. "Come now, Oriana, it's time to greet your
husband."

I let out a soft 'mew' as I pulled the covers back far
enough so I could peek over the edge. "It's you," I said
with a weak sigh, faking a yawn.

For just a moments, there was a look of worry on his face,
mixed with a look of great despair. It was almost enough to
stir pity in me. A few seconds later it was gone, as was any
emotion for him other than anger.

"I apologize for waking you," he said, slipping back away
from me. "Your rescue has arrived. It is imperative for you
to be there when we start negotiations. I feel it will get
your husband's attention."

I pulled the covers down over my head, and gave him a sharp
look. "And if I don't cooperate with you?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I would not like to force your paw, my
dear. I do hope you're clothed under those sheets, because I
have no intention of turning my back on you as you dress.
Your modesty is not worth my safety."

With a yank, I pulled the covers down over my legs. Pushing
myself into a sitting position, I brushed some hair from my
eyes. "You've forced my hand as it is. I can't believe that
you wouldn't continue to do so."

He laughed, standing up and walking a few paces away from
me. "I don't much care, right now. I have other things to
deal with, such as bringing your husband here so I can deal
with him."

I swung my legs off of the bed, letting the sheets hang over
them and pool at my feet, hiding them for the moment. "Why?"

He laughed, "Always with the questions. Why do you feel that
you deserve an explanation? I'm quite content to keep things
to myself."

"Because I know Fox," I countered, "and therefore I know
you. We have time; I'm sure you want to tell me what you
think is going on."

He laughed again, harder this time. "I am not Fox! Once you
understand that, things will go along much better than they
already are. Do you understand?"

I pulled myself to my feet, adjusting my top slightly. "I do
understand. I just don't like you."

He shrugged, "That's no concern of mine. Come with me to the
Command Center, I'd rather keep you under security than
worry about you making a dumb move."

"No dumb moves until we get to the Command Center, got it!"
I snapped.

He shook his head. Motioning me to walk ahead of him. "So
flippant, I had expected more of you than cheap jokes."

I chuckled as I walked to the door, coming to a stop once I
was there, my back to him. He came up behind me, placing one
hand on my shoulder as he punched in the code to the door.
"Don't bother memorizing it," he said with a slight smirk in
his voice, "It will only work for me."

"I wouldn't dream of it," I answered as the door slid open.
"How is that done anyway? Fingerprint comparison on the
control pad, or is it a DNA sample?"

He chuckled, pressing me forward. "Imaging of the subject's
body heat and blood flow. Not as accurate as a DNA scan, but
much faster."

I smiled as we walked, his hand was not going to leave my
shoulder. "See, I told you that you could boast."

He snorted, but I could tell that he did appreciate the
comment. His grip on my shoulder relaxed slightly as we
turned a corner, passing a few more raccoon morphs, and one
human. Only the human seemed to notice me, the rest kept
their eyes forward.

"You said that you put the proper information into your
men's mind' Also, the lady assassin that you sent after me
had her ability to talk removed from her mind. Do you remake
your people?"

He chuckled, pressing my to walk a bit faster. "I do not
wish my agents to talk, or to ever know or tell more than
they should. I have a mind ripper on staff, as well as an
expert in mind reconstruction. I don't hire my field agents,
I create them."

I huffed, "Out of your enemies I suppose? Or those that
betray you?"

"Hardly anything so retaliatory," he told me, once more
guiding me around a corner. "They are already dead, or
seconds from it. I just... borrow the bodies." The way he
said 'borrow' made me think there was a bit of distaste
there as well.

"You're not exactly what I expected for my husband's
double," I told him as we came to a stop in front of a steel
door.

He reached past me and punched a button on the control
panel. The door hissed open, splitting into six sections
that slid back into the wall. "I am hardly his double," he
told me, pushing me into the room.

It was busier than it had been on camera. Two dozen people
were running around, huddled over computer terminals and
display screens.

"As you can see," Cain said as he led me into the center of
the room, turning me to face a large screen carved into the
rock wall, "We are well prepared for your husband's
arrival."

"So I see," I answered as dryly as I could.

A small raccoon stepped forward. "Sir," she said, slipping
into the language everyone had been using, "We have a
matched carrier signal with the lead ship. We're ready to
talk to them any time you are."

Cain turned to face me. "It's time to make your
presentation," he said to me, speaking in Prid Standard.
Flicking his head back around he addressed the lady in front
of him. "Open the channel, video on Oriana only."

The command was relayed, down to three others, who went to
work. In a few seconds, there was a hum, and the screen went
live. I saw my face staring back at me. It was Ravindar in
the Matrix unit, of course. This part of my plan was working
perfectly.

"We have your wife, and have foiled your attempt to trap
me." Cain spoke, giving my false self no time to react. "If
you wish to retrieve her you shall do exactly as I say."

Ravindar feigned a good look of shock, but didn't say
anything.

"Perhaps you should say something, Oriana," Cain told me,
squeezing my shoulder tightly. "Convince them that we know
about this little trap you tried to arrange."

I turned my head back to look at him, smiling slightly, then
turned back to the screen. There was no way I was going to
tell them to attack or stay still... at least not like that.
We had come up with a quick arrangement of words to keep
things between us.

I knew Ravindar, even if wearing my face, was not in my
place. He was most likely sitting in the mess hall of _The
Falcon_, and I also suspected that, against my wishes,
Oriana was sitting just out of view.

Turning back to the screen, I smiled wider and slipped into
English. "Set course," I said my ears twitching in a laugh,
"Red route one."

The screen went blank, and the control room erupted with
conversation. It was moving fast enough that my translator
couldn't make it out, until one human came up to us.
"They've armed their weapons, and have moved into a wider
formation. They show no signs of immediate attack."

Cain gripped my shoulder hard enough that it made me yelp.
Twisting me back around he glared at me. "What the hell did
you say to them?" he barked out.

I was surprised, he should have not only understood what I
had said, but the reference as well. I was feeling slightly
disappointed here.

He pulled me closer, glaring at me. "Well?" he ordered.

"To arm weapons and hold position," I answered, omitting the
'and wait for a sign to attack' part. I felt he didn't need
to know that, since the signal was already set up. "I think
that was obvious?"

He shook his head and grabbedme even harder, pulling me
along as he went to another door. He jabbed the open button
hard, and shoved me through.

I found myself in a small office, a desk, two chairs, a
bookshelf and a computer. I smashed against the desk, and
slid to the floor.

He followed me in, shutting the door behind himself. "I
wanted you to be nice about this! I don't wish to hurt you."

I snorted. "You underestimate me," I told him as I stood up.

He walked forward, grabbing my shoulder and punching me as
in the side as hard as he could. I felt a snap and a jolt of
pain. A cracked rib for sure.

"That is just a start," he told me, stepping back, his hand
still in a fist. "You will get back on the line, and tell
your husband that if he doesn't surrender himself to me, I
will kill you."

I let out a short laugh as I slipped my paw inside my shirt.
Wrapping my fingers around the gem, I pulled it back out,
resting my paw against my chest. "Then you will kill him?"

He chuckled. "Killing him is not the intent of my plans. Now
will you tell him this, or do I have to hurt you more, Ms.
Cutter?"

I smiled at him, widening my eyes a bit. "There's just one
problem."

He looked surprised, blinking slightly and tilting his head.
"What's that?"

I leaned forward, looking him right in his eye as best that
I could. "You're talking to the wrong Cutter."

He tilted his head the other direction, his eyes getting
wider as he looked into mine, perhaps the color of my eyes
finally registering with him. "Fox!" he hissed, in both
surprise and anger.

I gave him a wide smile, then jumped at him, at the same
time sending my command to the gem. I crashed into him as a
full lioness, forcing him to the floor under me.

He retaliated instantly, hitting me in the windpipe with the
side of his hand, then kicking his feet up under my belly,
plowing them into my lungs. As I tried to recover, he hit my
neck again, snapping my jaw shut. Throwing his other arm
back he yanked my paw away and was suddenly all over me,
rolling me over so he was on top of me.

I roared at him, and he smacked me in the face. Somehow he
had me pinned down in such a way that I couldn't do more
than thrash my tail at his back.

He laughed, grabbed the gem from around my neck, and yanking
it away. "I knew about this body of yours, Fox," he snapped.
"Do you think I wasn't prepared for it?" He laughed,
smacking my face again. "This jewel must be the key to your
shifting. Now that I have it you're in my possession, so I
suggest you do exactly as I say."

I snapped at him with my jaws, roaring again, shifting
around under him. I tried to work a paw loose, or to do
something other than be pinned there.

Cain smirked, leaning down close to my face. "This makes my
plan much easier, I can now deal with you just as I please,
without worrying about having to fetch you. Now, you need to
shift back, and order your ships to stand down. I don't need
them getting in my way when I leave. Are we clear on that?"

I snarled at him, snapping my jaws at his face.

He shook his head. "Wrong answer!" Pulling his fist back, he
smashed it down against my face. Following that everything
went black.

* * *

When I came to, I found myself on a very hard, and very cold
floor. Slitting open one eye, I looked to see what I could
see. Grey stone made up all of the floor and the wall that I
could see.

Opening both eyes fully, I raised my head. I was facing a
blank stone wall. There was a soft tapping, coming from my
left. It grew stronger with each passing moment.

Lifting myself up onto all fours, I turned to look for the
source of the tapping. I found it on the next wall. A large
white door was carved into it, with a small window in the
center, a set of brightly light controls were placed just to
one side of the doorway.

Craning my head, I looked towards the far wall, to find an
identical door, with blackness outside the window. I was in
an airlock.

Returning my attention back to the tapping, I saw a hand in
the window. Tilting my head, and flicking my ears, I took a
few steps forward.

"Your stone is on the ground in front of the door," Cain
said, his voice muffled as it came through the intercom
system. "Return to your morphic form."

I did as ordered, walking forward I scooped the gem up in my
paws, then shifted myself back to morphic. Adjusting my
clothing, I stood up and returned the gem to my pocket.
Stepping forward, I looked through the window in the door.

Cain was staring back at me, an ugly look on his face.

"Well you have me now, so what the hell do you want?" I
demanded.

He laughed, "What I've always wanted," he answered. I was
glad to see that the intercom was still active. I didn't
want to be talking to inch thick glass.

"I suppose you wanted me awake before you killed me, right?"
I asked him, my arms folded over my chest as I glared back
through the glass.

He chuckled, tapping his fingers against the glass. "Not
yet, there are other things to do before your death. I have
my plans. No, no, no-- you see, you have four ships out
there, waiting to attack, which puts a crimp in my plans. I
want you to order them to stand down, or I will kill you."

I shook my head. "What would killing me gain you, if you
wish to do that already? I can just refuse to help. If you
have other things for me, I would have called your bluff.
You can't kill me."

"You're correct," he said with a nod of his head. "But try
to call this bluff-- fourteen dash one twenty seven, g."

I took in a long breath-- that was Oria's world! That fold
was right next to Rose's House! Damn it to all hell! This
was not good, not at all good.

He smiled. "So you see, your death may be inevitable, but
you can save the others you care about. Will you call off
your ships?"

I turned my back to him, walking to the other door. I stood,
looking out the glass and into space. We were facing away
from the planet, and the only things I could see were
unfamiliar stars.

Shaking my head, I placed my paw on the door, looking at the
controls closely. This was not an emergency airlock, it was
the standard system. Well, it was time to pull out my secret
weapon.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the remote detonator.
I quickly armed each of the circuits. Even if only two were
used, I wasn't sure which ones they were. Then I adjusted it
in my paw, hiding it from plain sight.

I spun back around on my heel, smiling to Cain as I took a
step closer to the door. "Just one question," I asked,
holding my paw out to one side.

He tilted his head again, the smile on his face fading just
a bit.

I decided to go for cliche; it felt appropriate. "Is it cold
in here?" I asked, opening the kill switch on the detonator,
in the process showing it to Cain. His jaw dropped, his eyes
opening up wide. "Or is it just me?" As I finished the line,
I hit the switch.

The explosion echoed throughout the whole base, throwing me
to the side as everything shifted. For a moment the gravity
system twisted around, and the wall became the floor before
the gravity gave out entirely. It left about a third of
normal gravity pulling me back towards the floor. The lights
flashed out for a few moments, being replaced by softer,
blue lights.

I threw the detonator away, and walked towards the door,
though it felt more like I was swimming rather than walking.
Cain was gone, and I could see smoke drifting along the
hallway, billowing and twisting along the ceiling in
strange, almost supernatural ways.

The controls for the door were dark. With the power and
computer down, only the emergency airlocks would be working.
Which saved me for the moment, but left me trapped.

"There's your sign," I muttered to myself, falling to my
knees, wincing as I twisted my hurt ribs in the process. I
removed my pocket knife, opening it and using the edge to
dig into a panel near the floor.

All airlocks have a manual control; no one ever builds any
without them. The standard place is down low, under the
automatic controls. I was hoping the access panel that was
there would be covering them. If I was wrong, there were a
few other panels I could try. It had to be under one of
them.

With a snap, the panel came free, floating down to the floor
in the low gravity. I was right. inside were the manual
controls including a hand crank, and some pressure sensors.
What struck me as strange was a thick round housing placed
near the crank point. There was a single switch on the side,
in a bright yellow color, that stood out against the gray of
the rest of the controls.

There were no instructions on the inside of the panel, so I
had to take a guess as to how things worked. The round
housing looked like it was connected to the crank point,
Perhaps it was something to give you more power as you
opened the door.

The yellow switch had two positions. I assumed one was for
opening the door, and one for closing it. Taking a guess
(these thing were always made so they couldn't be
accidentally broken, so I had no fear about what I was
doing), I flipped the switch into the other position.

With a whoosh and a spinning sound, the door slammed into
the wall, opening hard enough to cause it to bounce as it
came to a stop. I laughed-- a spring release, so you could
open it fast. An interesting design.

I stepped into the hallway, pulling the gun from my pocket,
and insuring it was ready for use. I didn't want to be
surprised just yet.

Pushing through the smoke, I headed up the hallway, moving
as carefully as I could. That only lasted a minute before
the base started shaking again, accompanied by the tell-tale
signs of weapons fire outside. My ships were attacking.

I continued around a corner, running into a small group of
men hunkered down over an access in the hallway. I didn't
have much of a choice in going around them, so I slipped
behind them, moving as quietly as possible them, while they
focused on their work. None of them noticed me as I moved
past and turned down the next corridor I found.

It wasn't a corridor, though-- it was a set of steps. They
looked like they went up and down the length of the base. I
only got down one flight before my passage was stopped by a
massive door that blocked my way. Blowing the airlock had
put a large part of the base in a vacuum.

I moved back up the steps, going up one flight, then a
second, then a third, which was four times as long as the
others, before I finally could go no higher. Up here I could
hear the sounds of weapons being fired. The gunnery deck, I
presumed.

I quickly glanced into the hallway, finding it empty. I
stepped inside of the hall, walking down its short length.
There were a dozen guns, all automated, each one shooting
like crazy.

It appeared that all the controls ran to a single box at the
end of the hallway. Prying it open, I found myself faced
with a dozen circuit boards, and a mound of wiring that went
down into the floor. Quickly I cut everything I could,
shutting down one gun at a time, until the only sound I
heard was the impact of my ship's weapons on the base.

I went back down the flight of steps, to the level below.
This time I found myself in a longer hall that stretched in
a curve. One side was lined with doors every fifty feet, the
other was blank.

Checking from one to another, I found escape pods behind
each. All had been disabled. "There goes an easy escape," I
muttered to myself.

I went back to the stairs, going down one more flight, to
the level above the one where I started. This had a short
hallway, with a few doors in it. All were open, with the
exception of one at the end of the hall. It was closed and
sealed.

I walked down the hallway, checking each room. I found a
medical bay, recently used, a weapons locker, empty, a
meeting room, and a single large room with a large chamber,
locked behind a set of air lock style double steel doors,
there was nothing I could see inside. I suspected it might
be the fold, but I couldn't feel anything inside it.

Then I was at the closed door. Tapping the control panel a
bit, I tried to get it to open, but with no luck. I had no
idea what was behind it, but I was starting to worry.

It was then I heard someone coming back up the steps. I
dashed into the conference room as fast as I could in the
low gravity, ducking behind the door just as I heard voices
behind me.

"We should have the guns back in ten minutes," a voice said
as they moved down the hallway.

"We'll be boarded in seven," Cain answered, his voice moving
closer. "Order an evacuation; everyone who survived should
get out while they can. If you see the lioness, shoot to
kill. I'm tired of playing with her."

There was a pause as they passed the doorway. "What will you
be doing, sir?" a second voice asked.

"I plan to blow the base up in five minutes. Activate the
escape pods, keep a double armed guard on all accesses, we
don't need her going out that way."

"Understood sir, good luck," there was a moment as the door
hissed opened, then closed again.

I shook my head, holding the gun tighter in my paws, my
finger resting on the trigger, and pulling it back slightly.
I waited there for a few moments, listening as a warning
sounded throughout the base to report to the evacuation
level.

After a minute had passed, I stepped back out into the
hallway, unsure of what to do. I had to get out of this base
before I got blown up with it, and there was not a lot of
time to do it in.

"So what are you going to do?" I heard Cain ask from behind
me.

I spun around, gun aimed at him, the trigger half down. If I
flinched the wrong way I was going to fire at him.

He just smiled at me, leaning against the large steel door.
"In a few more moments the base will be evacuated. Only and
I will be left."

"So you're going to die with me?" I asked with a snort.

He laughed, "I have no intention of dying today." As he
spoke the words, he walked forward, keeping his hands up,
and moving along the wall.

"I can kill you right now," I told him.

He smirked. "What, and risk blowing yourself up? I don't
think so." He kept moving and I kept tracking him, but did
not fire. Finally he slipped into the room with the set of
double doors.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked, following close
behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder at me, smirking. There was a
ding, and the lights grew brighter. "There we go, all pods
launched. Now it's now just the two of us in here." He
started to type at the console in front of him.

I stepped around to the side, my gun still at his head.
"What are you doing?"

He shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you. You're just
going to have to shoot me!" He said the last part with a
smirk

So I shot him.

    Chapter 10

That is to say, I pulled the trigger with the full intention
of shooting him right between the eyes. Instead I was
rewarded with the all too familiar thump of the gun
misfiring.

"Fuck," I swore, glancing down at the gun in my paws, then
quickly back up at Cain. He had cocked his head to the side,
and a smile had spread across the width of his face. "Do you
think I would leave any weapon on this station that could be
used to kill me?" His sentence was punctuated by the door
slamming shut, sealing us together in the room.

"Just the self-destruct," I growled, shoving the gun back
into my pants pocket, holding myself back from carrying
through my first impulse of throwing it in his face.

He chuckled darkly, hitting the control panel with the flat
of his hand. A deep hum quickly filled the room, starting
low, but building up louder every second; soon it was
rattling in my bones.

Looking satisfied with himself, he continued to work on the
controls. "Why? I haven't activated it yet. With you here,
everything is back according to plan."

I let out a low growl, unsheathing my claws as I lowered my
body into a crouching position. He gave me a short glance
out of the corner of his eye, and almost looked stunned when
I leaped at him. My paws out wide, mouth open and aiming for
his neck. He spun around, trying to hit a button on the
controls before I crashed into him. He failed. We both
sprawled out onto the floor, with myself on top of him.

He pulled his arm up to smack it against my face, twisting
my head to the side. His other hand came up and slammed
against the side of my head, causing my ears to start
ringing. I forced myself to ignore it, instead focusing on
tearing at his neck with my claws. I only managed to gouge a
row of cuts into his skin before he grabbed my paws, holding
them at bay.

There was a burst of noise in the room. The low humming
jumped an octave in a second as the outer of the two doors
slid open. The smell of ozone spilled out into the room,
hanging in the air around us.

Cain saw this, a smile playing over his face. In a sharp
move he yanked my paws to the sides, and smashed his head
into my face.

He stunned me for a few seconds. Dropping my paws, he
grabbed my ears and dug his thumbs inside. I let out a long
yowl at the sudden burst of pain. In spite of the pain, I
returned my paws to his neck, as well as digging at his legs
with my feet.

He let out a low scream of pain. Blood flowed up from his
legs, covering my feet, and the floor. It also provided a
catalyst for him, a focus; he twisted in a strange way under
me, and suddenly I found myself in the air. Tumbling in the
low gravity I crashed back-first into the controls, then
slumped to the floor.

With am annoyed grunt, he pulled himself to his feet. The
sides of his pants were stained red with his blood. It was
seeping at a rate that made me hope I had slashed open an
artery, something that would be terminal for the bastard. He
glared at me, almost snarling, it pulled at the scar on his
face, making him look even fiercer than he had the moment
before.

I pulled myself back to my feet, half standing, half
crouching, baring my teeth at him. He smiled back at me,
tensed his back, and dropped both hands to the ground. In a
single move, he pushed off the floor, throwing himself at
me.

But I moved faster than he did. My body was more agile than
his ever could be, and I had been trained in low gravity
situations before. Once he left the ground, every advantage
was mine.

I dropped my head down, sliding back to my knees as he flew
over me. He thrashed his hands out in surprise as I out
maneuvered him, but I was not about to let him sail over my
head. Shooting my arms up I grabbed his pants, my claws
sinking into the blood soaked fabric. I pulled him forward,
twisting as I did so. Then using all the strength in my arms
and legs, I threw him back over me, sending him tumbling
through the air to crash into the steel and glass wall of
the chamber that dominated the room.

He slammed against the lip of the door, the frame driving
into the side of his body, causing him to spin one more time
before coming to rest on the floor between the inner and
outer doors of the chamber.

With a snap of his head, his eyes cleared as he took in what
had just happened to him. A slow smile spread across his
face as he did so.

As I paused for a second to catch my breath, my ribs
screamed in pain. The move had aggravated the already
injured bones. I shifted my weight slightly, ready to take
him again.

Cain let out a bitter laugh, and grabbed the frame of the
door he was against to pull himself slowly up to his feet.
"I concede this round to you. But _only_ this round. I'll be
back for you," he said the last part with venom dripping
from the words.

The hum in the room rose another notch, growing loud enough
that I could feel it shaking the floor below me. My
adversary just smiled again, as the outer door slammed shut,
locking him away from me.

I stood there, stunned, as the inner door opened, and Cain
limped into the center of the chamber. The inside door had
closed behind him once he was over the threshold. Taking a
few steps to the side, I watched him though the window.

He looked back at me, smiling as he hit a short series of
buttons that were inside a small control box, mounted next
to the door. With this done, he turned back to face me,
flipping me off through the glass.

When the hum stepped up one more notch, the whole room
started to shake. Cain moved back, pressing his back against
the wall. I jumped away, turning to the controls where he
had been working. Scanning over the buttons, I found they
were all labeled in a language I had not encountered before.

I raised my head to once more look at my double. I was
greeted with a blast of mental static burning behind my eyes
as an ugly, glaring fold ripped itself open in the center of
the enclosure. The edges were ragged, like a torn cloth, and
twisted around themselves in wrong ways.

With one last look Cain dived through the strange fold,
before it snapped closed almost too soon. At the last moment
I attempted to catch onto it, to find out where it had
opened to. But there was nothing to hold onto; the fold just
wasn't there, even though it was.

The shock when it closed was enough to cause me to stumble,
lose my footing, and fall on my tail. I let out a yelp and
jumped back to my feet, but Cain was gone.

I tried the fold one last time, but there was nothing I knew
there. Just a strangeness I couldn't place, a burning
feeling in the back of my mind, an oddness in spacetime. But
no way to follow Cain.

A frustrated sigh escaped my lips, as I returned to the
floor, and pulled my knees up under my chin. I tried to
relax a bit, drawing in a few long breaths and thinking
about what to do now. Cain was gone, that was true, but just
for the moment. He would be back, maybe in a day, maybe in a
week, but he would be back.

It was time I started acting against him, instead of
reacting to him. I was going to have to go after him...
before he came back for me.

I was still in that position when Ravindar discovered me
half an hour later. Oria was right on his tail, and was by
my side as soon as she got into the room. Bending down next
to me, she placed a paw on my shoulder. The weight of her
fingers caused me to wince, with the adrenalin gone from my
system, I was feeling the pain in my shoulder and ribs
again.

"I lost him," I said before she could ask the question. "He
went that way," I waved to where the strange fold had been.

"It's ok," she said with a sigh. "Let's get you back to the
ship."

"Not yet," I told her, standing up, wincing as my ribs
ground against each other. I stepped to the control panel
holding my paw over the buttons, but not touching them.
"This thing made a fold," I explained, looking up at my wife
and my bodyguard.

A look of surprise washed over Oria's face, Ravindar just
twitched his ears.

"I'm not sure how, but it created a fold in that chamber," I
pointed to the room Cain had escaped from. "I think it
somehow pulled ripples together, or perhaps something
weaker, and forced them to open." I yanked my paws apart as
I spoke, then winced in pain, grabbing at my side.

Oria was right next to me, arm around my side and a paw over
mine. "You're hurt. We need to get you back to the ship, and
get you taken care of." It was phrased as an order, instead
of a request.

I nodded, "I agree, but we do have to figure out how this
thing works, and where the hell he ran to."

"Think you can?" she asked, gently pushing on my back,
leading me towards the exit.

"No, I answered frankly, "But I know someone who does."

* * *

"Absolutely not!" The squirrel morph Captain protested,
looking as angry as such a being could. "I am not going to
divert this ship from a three year research project for you
or anyone else."

I shook my head slowly, my shoulder numb from the painkiller
that had been applied there a few minutes before. Once back
on board the ship, Oria had proceeded to bandage me up,
wrapping my ribs as best she could, and applying a pain
killer for the ugly bruise on my shoulder.

Right now I was relaxed in a soft chair inside the galley of
_The Falcon_. I was wearing just a bra, panties, and an
annoyed look on my face, whole my feet soaked in warm water
to clean the blood out of my fur.

"I'm not requesting this Captain Banes, I'm issuing this as
an order. I'm transmitting you my authorization codes now."
Reaching forward, I dropped the ID card Oria had made into a
slot in the console, and hit a quick series of buttons.

The Captain turned his attention to his left, leaning
forward slightly. He looked puzzled for a few seconds, then
turned to the other side of the camera's view, working
quickly at what I assumed was a computer there. A look of
surprise was growing on his face.

After a few moments he turned back to me. "I have never
heard of the Consortium Security Council before," he stated
flatly, glaring at me through the screen.

"Check the code," I told him, sounding as annoyed as I
could, "It is valid."

"Already did," he snapped back, "It's perfectly valid, and
has a ranking higher than my Commander's. We'll be coming to
you. Would you please be good enough to transmit the
location?"

I nodded, hitting a few other buttons. "On sub-carrier
three," I told him, relaxing back in the chair, resting my
paws on my lap.

He nodded, turning away from the camera again. "This is well
out of any explored space," he said, turning back to me.
"What is out there important enough to pull us away from our
current mission?"

I smiled at him, looking as pleasant as I could. "I have a
machine here that can make a fold."

He blinked in slight shock. "You mean a machine that can
capture and open a ripple?" he asked.

My response was to laugh. "I'm not that given over to
hyperbole. No, when I say make a fold, I mean _make_ a fold.
I'm not sure how, but it ripped open the ugliest, nastiest
fold I've ever seen."

On the other end of the line, the Captain's face was
slightly slack-jawed. "If that's true..." he trailed off,
leaving the statement to finish itself.

"I see you understand," I told him, adjusting my position
slightly to lessen the pain in my side. "When can I expect
you to arrive?"

He paused, leaning forward, hitting at something below my
view. "If we leave our temporal observation equipment here,
and set it to continue monitoring the event, the ship and my
crew can be there in seventeen hours."

"I will have one of my ships waiting. I won't be here, but I
will be returning as soon as I can. I have other things to
attend to." I shifted again, unintentionally wincing as I
did so, but it had the proper effect.

"Understood, ma'am. We'll be on our way within the hour.
_Benthic Explorer_ out." There was a few seconds pause
before the link broke, leaving me staring at a blank screen.

"What was all that about?" Oria asked from the doorway into
the galley. She was looking relaxed, her hair tied up in a
pony-tail, and dressed pretty casually.

I turned the chair around so I could face her. "The _Benthic
Explorer_ is a Council Research Ship, one of the three that
are out right now. It's currently been out of port for
almost two years doing research on a temporal event."

She came down the three squat steps from the hallway to the
galley. "This doesn't involve time, though," she stated,
looking puzzled.

I smiled. "One of the researchers is Re'ka Benathia. I meet
him soon after I came to Prid. He's the one who told me
exactly what I was, and what I could do. He is an expert in
folds, and how they work against and with each other. He
belives that a way to make anyone a natural will be
developed in as short as five hundred years."

"Five Hundred Years? I wouldn't describe that as short," she
said, walking over to the single table, pulling out a chair,
but not sitting down.

I responded with a laugh, "Nor anyone else. The man is an
elf, so he's long-lived to start with. To add to that, he's
supposed to be immortal, or as close to it as one can get."

She gave me a sharp look, and shrugged the statement off,
just as I had when I was first told about the immortality
bit.

"He's the best person to have on this, which is why I called
them here. I need to know where Cain went to, the how is not
important right now."

"I've never seen you this spooked before," she observed.

I nodded, shifting again, and groaned as my ribs shifted
slightly. Twisting the chair, I hit the bridge intercom.
"Kalie, Milgrove. Tell the rest of the ships to keep in
orbit around the base. Have them wait till the _Benthic
Explorer_ arrives, and have someone call me then. For us,
set course back to Prid, best speed."

"Laying in the course right now," Milgrove's response came.
Kalie followed hir, "Passing your orders on now, Fox."

I nodded, letting go of the intercom, and turning back to
face Oria. "Not to disparage your medical work, but I really
need to see a doctor about my ribs."

She smiled, finally sitting down at the table. "I'll make an
appointment."

With another wince, I pulled myself to my feet. "That sounds
like a good idea, but for now I think I need to sleep. It's
been a long day, far too long. Care to join me?"

She stood back up, smiling. "Are you sure you want me to? I
could smack your ribs in my sleep."

I walked over to her, wrapped my arms over her shoulders,
and kissed one cheek, then the other. "I'll take that risk."

She returned the kiss, this time on my lips, as we both
headed to our little bedroom on the ship.

* * *

05/16/99:

A few hours, and a trip to the hospital later, I was back
home. My ribs had been patched up, but we'=re still a little
tender. Things were worse with my shoulder, even my fur
hurt, and I winced every time I moved my arm. The doctor had
said it was pretty badly bruised, almost to the bone, and he
just couldn't fix it. The shot they use for bruising was the
same chemical used in a regen tank, and I had an allergy to
it that was bad enough to kill me.

So, as soon as I got through the fold, I went right to the
kitchen, stripping out of my shirt on the way. Once there, I
removed one of the ice packs from the freezer and plopped it
right down on my shoulder, letting out a little whimper as
the cold sank into my skin.

Shutting my eyes, I let my whole body relax as I leaned back
in my chair. I was tired, not having slept but for the two
hours that was the trip back to Prid. Every muscle in my
body was telling me that I had overstressed them on Cain's
base; even my bones hurt all over. The only thing free of
some kind of pain was my tail.

"You look like hell," Sora commented. Sliding open one eye,
I looked at her as she stood in the doorway of the kitchen's
far wall. She had her arms crossed, her wings wrapped around
her body, and a smug look on her muzzle.

"Astute observation," I muttered, closing my eye again.

She chuckled softly as the sound of a chair being pulled
from the table filled my ears. "Hard to miss. Oriana gave me
a once over of what was going on when I came back. I find it
hard to belive that Cain would try something like this on
you."

I shook my head slightly. "What I can't belive is that I
fell for his trap... and it was a trap, don't doubt that.
Oria and I both fell for it, hook, line, and sinker." I let
out a low sigh. "The only saving grace was that he didn't
know about my fem-form. Otherwise, this would have ended a
lot worse."

"I see," she said, sliding her chair against the floor. "Did
you kill him, or manage to capture him at least?"

"No," Oria's voice said, entering the fray. "He used some
kind of device to create a fold, and escaped through it.
There's a team on their way to his base as we speak, to try
to find out where he went, and how he did it."

"I see," she answered with just a hint of worry in her
voice.

I opened my eyes again, sitting a bit straighter in my
chair. "I'm just mad at myself for not seeing it sooner, or
even suspecting it for a moment. In fact the only person who
even thought of the possibility was Ravindar."

"Don't berate yourself," Sora said, fanning her wings out
slightly as she finally sat down in the chair. "You couldn't
have known, and you should not have expected to."

I snorted through my nose. "I should have questioned it; the
whole plan as we saw it was so damn contrived. The idea of a
trap should have been the first thought to cross my mind,
not the last."

With a slow shake of my head, I stood back up, wincing again
as I swung my arm in the process. "I've had the whole trip
back to think about this. I seem to be blinded by the fact
that he's me. I think it's causing me to over look the
obvious."

Oria walked over to me, placing her paw on my good shoulder.
"Under the circumstances you did as well as anyone could
have. Now that you know you're doing this, you can handle
him better the next time you face off."

"Next time we face off," I said, turning my head to look her
in the eyes, "I plan to be going after him. We can't allow
him to run free over the multi-verse. The damage he could
do..." I left the statement there, unfinished. It didn't
seem worth continuing.

Which reminded me. "Where's Ravindar gotten to," I asked,
not finding him at his usual place in the room. "I need to
talk to him."

"The Guild left a message for him while you were gone," Sora
offered. "He took it as soon as you got back, then left
through the fold.

I frowned slightly, it was an inconvenience for the moment,
but would have to be accepted for now. "I don't suppose you
know what the message said?" I asked, leaning forward
slightly.

She shook her head, "I couldn't read the language."

A smile played over my face and ears. "It's all right, must
have been something important if he left right away." I
paused for a second, brushing some of my hair out of my
eyes. "I need to make a call anyway."

"Who are you calling?" Oria asked as I turned away from the
table and started walking towards my office.

"Ken," I answered her. "He made a comment a few months ago
that I want to follow up on."

"About what?" she asked, following me into the office. I
smiled at her over my shoulder before sitting down at my
desk.

"It involves the pendant," I explained as I dialed his
number.

She nodded, settling down in a chair next to me. She rested
one paw on my leg, the other was on my good shoulder,
squeezing me gently.

I place my paw over the one on my leg, and squeezed back, my
tail brushing up against hers as the phone started to ring.
It only lasted for a moment though, as the screen snapped on
to show a profile of Ken's face, his jaw gapping open in
surprise at something that was in front of him.

"Ken?" I asked, leaning forward slightly.

He seemed to jump, twisting his head around to look at the
screen. Trying to cover up the look of shock, he quickly
started talking. "Fox, I was just about to call you! Ah...
to tell you that you could come get the pendant." He was
speaking faster than he usually did.

I chuckled gently. "That's what I wanted to talk to you
about. A few months ago you mentioned something about my
being able to shift back to human earlier than normal."

He nodded his head quickly, "Yes, yes, I remember that," he
said, turning away from the phone, and fiddling with
something in front of him. "A short gap between changes
might allow a faster relax time for the spell." He froze for
a second, then snapped his head back to the screen. "Are you
asking if you can do it?"

"Yes," I answered.

With a sharp nod of his head, he was out of his chair, and
out of frame. There was the sound of rustling and falling
paper in the background before he dropped back into the
camera's view. He had a bundle of papers held in his fore
claw. "Let's see," he muttered to himself, paging through
them like one might with a book. After a quick scan of each
page he muttered something to himself in his own language.

After a few seconds had passed, he yanked out a sheet of
paper, letting the others drop to the floor. "Here it is,"
he said, holding it close to his face. I could see his eyes
scanning over the writing. "Yes, it can work," he said as he
continued to read. "I need to make one small change to the
pendant. It shouldn't take more than an hour."

"And if it doesn't work?" I prompted. I didn't want the
spells on the pendant to break, leaving me stuck in this
form.

"It will be a short exposure," he answered, dropping the
paper onto the table in front of him. "The spells will not
be affected. I'll be there to insure that. If you'll give me
the opportunity to add the spell to the pendant, I can be
there with it in..." he paused, snapping his head around to
look at something on the wall that was out of camera range.
"An hour and fifteen minutes."

"Sure," I answered, starting a sentence, but before I could
get a second word out he had hung up the phone.

"I've never actually seen him work before," Oria observed,
"At last not under normal circumstances. Is that the way he
usually is?"

I smiled, "Oh yes, that's exactly how he is!" I crossed my
arms, letting out a low groan from the pain again. "Though I
wonder what he was doing before I called."

"You mean what had him so surprised?" she asked.

I nodded.

"I don't know, but if it's important, he'll tell us as soon
as he can."

I took in a long breath, nodding my head. "Of course he
will."

    Chapter 11

I lay on the couch in the living room, my good shoulder on
the cushions, and my injured one in the air, the ice pack
perched precariously on my injury. The condensation had
started to drip down my fur and onto my neck, but I didn't
want to bother to wipe it off my fur.

Rhea lay in front of the couch, her head resting under my
dangling paw, my fingers just brushing the top of her head.
Every time I touched her, I felt a little chill, and would
once more feel the strangeness of being alone in my mind.

It was a good strangeness. I enjoyed being alone for the
first time in a year, even if there was a touch of sadness
now that Rhea and I were separated. She and I shared
something of the same bond Oria and I shared, that of having
joined souls.

With short, brushing strokes, I petted her between her ears.
She would twitch them in response, a low purr filling the
room. It was a shared voice between she and I, mine higher
pitched than hers. It was a joyous sound.

It was broken by the sound of a familiar voice. "Fox, I need
to speak to you."

I opened one eye, looking up to Ravindar as he towered above
me. His white fur looked slightly ruffled, his ears bent to
the side, and a severely annoyed look graced his muzzle.

"Is there a problem?" I asked him, holding down the ice pack
with my good paw as I sat up.

"Not a problem," he answered with a slight snap of his ears
and tail. "More of an inconvenience for me. Come with me; I
need to speak with you in the kitchen." Then with that said,
he walked away from us, his tail tip flicking in irritation
as he moved.

'Do I really want to know what pissed him off?' Rhea asked
tilting her head back as she looked up at me. 'Or should I
just run away as fast as I can?'

I chuckled, swiping at her ears with my tail as I stood up.
"Find out first, then run away. That way you know what to
avoid when he catches up with you."

She gave me a mental laugh before resting her chin on her
paws, closing her eyes, a contented look quickly falling
over her face as she fell into a light slumber.

Stepping over her, I walked into the kitchen. I found
Ravindar standing at the table, paws down on it, fingers
spread out. His tail was moving even faster than before, if
that was possible. Oria was sitting on the far side of the
table from him with an annoyed look on her face. Adric was
propped in her arms, sleeping after his just finished meal.

"Is there going to be a problem here?" I asked, taking a
seat for myself. The tension between the two of them had
waxed and waned since his arrival, but this was the most
palpable it had ever been.

Ravindar shook his head, standing straight up. "I need to
quickly explain some things to you," he said, turning back
to focus on me. "Which I have found your other bodyguard has
neglected to mention to you before." With that he shot Oria
a dark look.

"Can the attitude," I snapped, "or I'll personally tie you
down until you do. This is not the time, nor the place for
it. Understood?"

For a second he looked stunned, every motion in his body
stopping for just a moment. A strong reaction for what I
thought was a simple ultimatum. It was obviously more to
him, but I wasn't in the mood right now to go deeper into
it.

"I believe you have been made aware that there are normally
just three Crystal Masters at any given time. From which you
may have gathered that my being assigned to you made room
for a fourth Master to protect my former charge."

I nodded slowly, adjusting the ice pack on my damaged
shoulder. "That I know already."

He gave me a sharp look. "To the point, Crystal Masters are
very rarely reassigned, and only under the worst of times.
It is not an assignment for life, but it is as close as it
can come. As long as your survival is in the Guild's best
interests, I shall stay assigned to you."

"How long does an assignment normally last?"

He gave me a wary smile. "This is the fourth time in the
Guild's history that there has been a person important
enough to rank a fourth Master. It is also the fourth time a
Master has been reassigned."

I relaxed back into the chair, letting my tail tip brush
against the ground. "I see."

He nodded his head, then turned back to glare at Oria. "The
Elders have decided that a greater break with tradition is
now needed. You are important to the Guild, and therefore so
is Oriana." I blinked, I was almost sure that was the first
time he had called her by her name. "So for the first time
in the Guild's thousand-years history, there will be a fifth
Crystal Master."

"What," Oria snapped, "none for the kids?"

He said nothing, swinging his head back around to look at
me. "So I have been told to select a Copper Master, to raise
to the level of Crystal Master. I have done this, her name
is Santhara. She is a master of many arts, and will provide
a good defense for your wife."

I looked at Oria. "Would you be willing to accept this?" I
asked her.

She snorted, glaring back at the tiger. "I am still a member
of the Guild. If the Elders decree that I need a bodyguard,
so be it. I have no say in the matter." Oh, she was bitter.

"That's the first time I've heard you admit you were even in
the Guild," Ravindar snapped back, uncharacteristically
showing his stronger emotions.

Oria let out a deep, rolling growl, starting to rise from
her chair. She stopped only inches from her seat, looking
surprised as she fell back down.

'That is enough!' Rhea said, her voice strong in my mind, as
she keep her forepaw placed tightly over the end of Oria's
tail. 'You have our son in your arms, and I will not have
you hurting him because of some silly fit! Do you understand
me?'

For her part, Oria looked quite stunned, her eyes wide as
she looked back over her shoulder. "She just didn't say what
I think she did... did she?"

Ravindar had a surprised, bemused look on his face. He
obviously hadn't been privy to Rhea's comments.

I nodded my head to her.

'Well?' Rhea said impatiently as Oria let out a yelp.

"I understand," she said with a shake of her head, "and you
didn't have to use your claws."

'Call it incentive,' she said with a smug look on her face
as she let go of Oria's tail. Turning in a tight circle, she
padded her way out of the kitchen. 'By the way,' she said,
looking back over her shoulder look at us. 'Ken is here.'
She flashed us all a smile before leaving the room.

Oria looked up to me, very surprised. "Do I want to ask how
she was able to do that?"

I smiled, setting the ice pack on the table as I stood up.
"Don't bother, it will be better that way. Why don't you go
put Adric to bed? I'll meet Ken in the living room, and you
can join us."

The stunned look was still covering her face as she rose to
her feet, holding Adric tighter to herself in the process.
Shaking her head slowly, she walked away, towards the
bedroom, her tail flashing slowly behind her.

I then turned my attention to Ravindar. The look on his face
turned to worry as he saw the anger in my eyes. "Listen," I
said, a slight hiss creeping into my voice. "You seem to
have a problem with Oria wanting out of the Guild. That's
just fine with me, but you had better keep it under wraps
from now on." I started walking closer to him, and he
actually took a hesitant step back.

"I do not need to deal with this right now. This is *your*
problem, but do not go try to goad Oria into a fight.
Especially when she is holding one of my children in her
arms." By now I was standing inches from him, looking up at
his face, ears back and teeth showing; the only place my
anger was not showing was in my voice. "Because if any of my
family get's hurt because of your damn problems, you're
going to see exactly, how evil, I can be."

He stared down at me, silent, the look on his face a mix of
dread and fear. Neither which looked proper there, but at
the moment seemed correct. His ears were held to the side
and his tail was down on the floor. By Thryn, he was
actually afraid of me!

Spinning on the ball of my foot, I stalked out of the room,
tail waving behind me in agitation. Once I was outside of
the kitchen, I paused to take in a couple of deep breaths
before I went into the living room to meet Ken.

Passing the threshold, I found Ken settled down on the edge
of the couch, his large tail lying beside him, my pendant in
his fore claw, which he was looking at with some attention.

I settled down next to my dragon friend. "Thanks for
coming," I said, placing my paw on his shoulder.

He turned his head, a smile spreading over his face. "You're
welcome, my friend."

"I talked to Elena yesterday," I said, making conversation.
"Sie mentioned something quite interesting. About why my
blood tasted 'dead' to hir."

He nodded, half his attention returning to the pendent. I
wondered what had gotten into him about the thing. "Sie told
me sie had encountered the taste again. In something sie
said had no shape."

He snapped his head around so fast that I wondered how he
managed not to break his neck. His eyes widened in surprise.
"Had no shape?" He asked, speaking fast once more. "Did she
elaborate on that point?"

"No, in fact those were hir very words... 'had no shape'.
Sie wouldn't tell me any more," I answered, shaking my head
slightly.

He nodded his head, jumping from the couch to his feet.
"It's interesting, and presents a certain amount of leads,
but nothing hard and fast." He let out a little sigh which
seemed forced. "I'll look into it, see what I can find."

"Good!" I answered with a clap of my paws as I joined him on
my feet. "That's very good. It's a minor mystery I wish to
have solved some day. Now, are we ready with the pendant?"

He looked at me for a second, like he hadn't understood what
I had said. Then with a short moment of realization, he
looked down to where the item in question rested in his
claw.

"Yes, of course," he said, taking the length of chain that
was holding it, and raising it up in his paws. We shall have
to do this quickly, so close your eyes."

I nodded my head, closed my eyes, and pulled my ears down to
the side, keeping them out of the way of the necklace part
of the pendant. I felt Ken as he moved closer to me, his
breath puffing lightly on my face. A moment later I felt the
necklace fall over my head, as the pendent landed on my
chest with a thump.

Ken chuckled. "Your male form looks quite peculiar in a
bra," he said, suppressing laughter.

I smiled at him as I opened my eyes. The blurryness of my
vision proved that I was once more, my normal, human male
self. With a quick move I undid the bra and pulled it off,
dropping it to the floor. wincing in the process from the
pain in my shoulder.

"Maker!" Ken hissed, his attention drawn right to my injury.
I looked as well, surprised to find a dark yellow and purple
bruise covering the skin.

I made a slight hissing sound when I saw it. "I thought that
wouldn't carry over?" I asked in slight wonder.

He shook his head, rubbing the top of his muzzle with one
hand. "The original spells weren't suppose to, but I've been
working with them so much that side effects are bound to
happen."

I grimaced at the mention of side effects. There were
already enough of those to satisfy me for a lifetime.
"Should I remove it?" I asked, taking the pendent in my
hand.

He shook his head. "No, not at all! Nothing I changed here
would have caused it. It more than likely dates back from
when I adjusted the spell for your morphic form."

I dropped it back onto my chest. "That's good. If you don't
mind, I'm going to get some proper clothing on, and put
something on this bruise now that it's on the skin."

He smiled, and waved his foreclaw out in front of himself,
"Be my guest."

With a smile, I turned and left the room. Oria was waiting
for me at the door, and followed along with me as I went to
the bedroom.

"Ken's right, your human form does look silly in a bra," she
said with a slight touch of mirth in her voice.

I stuck my tongue out at her as we walked along the hallway.
"You didn't think that last week."

She gave my arm a playful slap, a laugh escaping from her
lips.

"Think you can handle having your own bodyguard?" I asked,
changing the subject. "I know you have problems with
Ravindar, but how would you work with one of your own?"

She shook head , her eyes focusing down for a moment. "It
depends on how this Santhara acts towards me. If she's like
Ravindar, there will be friction."

I gave her a grim nod. "I understand," I told her, opening
the bedroom door, and motioning for her to enter before me.
She walked in, her tail swishing slowly behind her. Walking
right behind her, I grabbed it, pulling it up, and nuzzling
her tail tuft with my cheek.

She started to purr, slowing her pace down, and twitching
her tail tuft in my face. I keep holding it, purring myself
as she walked to the bed, leading me along like I was on a
leash.

"You're cute when you do that." she commented once I had
finally let her tail free.

I laughed, quickly stripping out of the rest of my clothing,
and grabbing my glasses. "Thanks!" I said once the process
was done, and I was on the way to the bathroom.

"That really is a nasty bruise," she commented as she walked
along behind me.

"Yes it is," I muttered, pulling out some topical cream, and
started working it into my skin, wincing hard as I did so.
The pressure of my fingers was enough to send shooting pains
down my arm and throughout my shoulder.

Oria watched with slight interest, her eyes more on the
reflection of my face in the mirror. "Perhaps we should ask
Jadith to heal it," she commented, placing her paw on my
good shoulder.

I chuckled, looking back at her though the mirror. "That's a
fantastic idea. It hadn't even occurred to me."

"She saved your live twice, and you forget she's a healer?"
she said in mock shock. "Is that any way to repay her?"

I chuckled again, while I continued to rub my shoulder. The
pain slowly ebbed away as I did so. I knew that with an
injury this bad, the cream wouldn't relieve all the pain,
just the worst of it.

She smiled, which changed into a slightly thoughtful look.
"How are you feeling? I imagine that an encounter with an
evil version of yourself can't help but shake one up a bit."

"Try a lot," I said, turning back around to face her. "A
whole lot to be honest. I haven't quite dealt with it yet.
Other than perhaps wondering why he's turned into what he
did. I mean, when were we diverged into different people?"

"It's not easy to think evil thoughts about yourself is it?"
she asked, a sight hint of concern showing in her eyes.

I snorted, turning back to walk in to the bedroom. "It's
actually quite easy to think of myself as evil," I
explained. "In fact, many times I have felt that things
would have been easier for me if I was evil."

"What!" she said with some measure of shock as she walked
right behind me. "You've thought about being like this
bastard?"

I nodded as I started to pull on some proper clothing. "Not
like him, but many times in my life I've thought of remaking
myself into such a being."

"When?" she asked, her ears drooping slightly in shock.

I smiled. "Many times in my life. More so after I had
discovered my powers, back in school, almost every time I
was hurt." I sighed as I fastened my pants. "The last time I
really gave it thought was when I found that Becky had been
killed. Right then and there I was more than willing to
embrace that dark side." I let out a forced laugh. "That was
the last time though."

"Perhaps that's where the two of you split?" she suggested,
her face registering more shock than just the moment before.
This was a side of myself that I had never even hinted at
before.

"More than likely," I admitted, walking over to her, looking
into her eyes. "I wonder if he knows that she is still alive
some where?"

She shook her head, but provided no comment.

I bent forward, kissing her nose. "Those things are over
now," I explained to her. "Such a course of action would now
destroy things I don't wish to see destroyed. Like our
family."

She nodded, a touch of relief showing in her eyes.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to become evil," I said to her
with a wide smile. Then everything went to black.

    Chapter 12

I had experienced this enough times in my life so far to
know that what was happening was simply a flashback. More
than likely it was prompted by something in the
conversation. But instead of remembering the event, I was
about to relive it.

The darkness around me slowly became infinite. A vast
emptiness, inside a vaster emptiness. Having already
experienced a dozen flashbacks, I was used to it. Keeping
myself in a standing position, arms held behind my back, I
just relaxed and waited for my memories to replay themselves
before my eyes.

So it came as a great surprise when I heard a soft voice
whisper into my ear, "You're not that pure. Fox."

I jumped in place, twisting around to see who was there, but
in the darkness I could not tell that I had even moved, let
alone who had just spoken to me.

Then the darkness rippled, and changed into shapes and
color. I found myself standing behind a large wooden desk,
five feet long, and half that wide. It was covered in papers
and books, with a small computer propped on top of one of
the piles.

I lifted my eyes from the desk, and looked around the room.
It was large, with wood paneling all over. Book shelves
lined the back wall, pictures hung on every surface, and a
large fireplace dominated the shortest wall in the room.

It was a place of prickling familiarity, but nothing I could
place yet. I cast my eyes around the room, finally finding
myself standing just a few feet away. A much younger version
of myself, six years my junior, and looking every year of
it.

I... He... The younger me looked pissed, and panted like he
had just finished yelling at someone whom I had yet to see.
His cheeks were bright red under the few hairs of thin
beard, glasses askew, and his fists were shoved into the
pockets of the old green army jacket that I used to wear.

"You are a bitch," he spat out, "and you have no idea what
you are dealing with." With that said, almost like it should
end the conversation, he turned on his heal, and stormed out
of the office.

I walked around the desk as he stormed out. I quickly
followed him to the door before I came to a sharp stop. I
understood what, and when, this memory was.

Turning around, I focused my attention to the back of the
room, my eyes coming to rest on the person that was the
other side of the conversation. A well endowed raccoon
female, who was looking quite pleased with herself. It was
the same look as she had on her face when I explained my
plight to her years before, somehow under the assumption
that she would care.

Her name was Dra, and she was a woman who was very willing
to kill many others for her own interests. By war or plague,
she had killed anyone she thought was standing in her way.

I also knew that her mind was not her own. Behind those
bright eyes lay something dark and evil. Ruhk lurked there,
waiting to destroy the multi-verse.

"I'm flattered that you remember me," she said, folding her
paws on the top of the desk. "But then, I'm unforgettable,
aren't I?" she asked with an evil smile, looking directly at
where I was standing.

Naturally I jumped back in shock; this was not something I
ever remembered happening! I sidestepped across the room,
and her eyes followed right along with me. She knew I was
there-- some-how she was in my mind!

Standing up, she walked around her desk towards me. With
each step she took, the room behind her started to dissolve,
melting away into an empty grayness. Her smile was wide, and
growing wider by the moment as she approached me. "Is this
any way to treat your goddiss?" she asked, just inches away
from me now.

I growled, and swung my fist at her, connecting with the
side of her face, sending her head snapping back. She held
it there for a moment, before turning back to face me, her
face, her body, reforming into that of one I knew too well.
It was Ruhk hirself.

Slowly sie shook hir head, hir hair falling loosely down
over hir back. Long and black, it seemed to shine
poisonously in the grayness that now surrounded us. Hir
clothing shifted, becoming a simple set of black pants and a
shirt, with a long cloak falling from hir shoulders, to the
ground behind hir, and trailing back as far as the eye could
see. This was quite unlike the previous time we had met,
then sie had been nude, and covered in filth.

"Get the hell out of my mind, you bitch!" I ordered with a
sharp growl.

Sie shook hir head slowly, reaching out with a paw towards
my face. I tried to jerk away, but found I could no longer
move.

"Silly boy," sie said, placing hir gloved paw against my
cheek. "I'm here because I wish to look in on my newest
child."

I managed to force out a low growl between my closed lips,
finding that I was also unable to talk to hir. Sie would not
get hir filthy paws on my children.

"No, no, no," sie said, a smile creeping across hir muzzle.
"I mean you. You will be mine soon, I will see to that. You
are too powerful to simply abandon. You are not that pure,
Fox, and you are not free of Evil. You are mine, whether you
know it or not!" The last words were said as a sneer played
over hir lips.

Sie ran hir paw up the side of my face to my forehead, hir
fingers stroking gently through my hair. "I see your powers
are developing nicely." As she spoke there was a shot of
pain through my skin. It focused on two familiar spots on my
head, an inch behind my hairline, almost where my ears would
have been if I had been in my lioness morph body. This was a
place that had bothered me before, but never as badly as
this. It felt like my skin was being ripped open.

Ruhk pulled hir paw back. A few drops of blood clung to the
tips of three of hir fingers, which sie proceeded to gently
lick off the glove.

I finally was able to move. I jumped back from hir, my hands
moving to the top of my head. There were two... somethings,
pushing up from under the skin. Not totally breaking it, but
already ripping through in a few places.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" I demanded.

She took a few steps forward, hir cape fanning out as she
walked. "I did nothing, nothing at all. This predates my
interest in you by some months." Sie smiled at me, a long,
toothy smile that sent shivers down my spine. "You don't
even know about it, or understand it. My, my, it will be
quite fun showing it to you once you are worshiping at my
feet."

"Something I will never do, and you know that." I snarled
back to hir. My attention was more focused on what was on my
head. Pressing the skin tight around the growths, I ran my
fingers around them. It was slightly distorted, but it felt
like whatever they were, their outsides were shaped
something like a spiral.

"You know I want you, and I will have you. Someday, you will
be my slave," sie laughed softly, smiling a bit wider. "You
don't have to come willingly. In fact I would prefer you
fight every inch of the way. It will be so much fun to break
you."

I snorted, dropping my hands to my side. "You can try. I
will win."

Suddenly sie was right up on me, hir paws resting on my
shoulders, hir fingers digging tightly into my skin. "Try I
will, and you shall fail. But you will be worshiped with me
once you are at my side. I will elevate you to my level, I
will even spare your world, and your wife's world, from my
wrath."

"Oh, you're just all heart." I snapped back. "I weep at your
generosity, and beg your mercy for those whom I would die
before leaving. I do not wish to stand at your side, because
it's not where I belong."

Sie lifted hir paws from my shoulder, holding them before
hir, a slight look of annoyance on hir face. "Then I will
put you where you belong, lower than any other servant I
have. That's where you will belong."

I smiled, "I'll still be higher than you could ever hope to
be."

"Don't get cocky," sie said, pointing one gloved finger at
me, a smile on hir face.

I said nothing in return.

"Tell my way-ward child that once you are in my control, I
will send you hunting hir. Sie and I both know that sie can
not stop you."

I shook my head slowly. "Sorry she-bitch, you can deliver
your own messages."

Sie reached forward, snapping hir fingers closed tight
around my neck. I responded by shoving my hand under hir
chin, the palm tight aginst hir neck, my claws out at hir
Adam's apple, and dug deep into hir skin. In one swift move
I could kill hir, if I really thought such a thing was
possible.

Hir eyes darted down to my hand, then back to look in my
eyes. I looked back at hirs, and found a look of surprise in
them; this was not something that sie had ever expected. I
was happy about that.

The pressure on my neck increased, cutting off my flow of
air entirely. In return I pushed my claws in deeper, pulling
up along hir neck a half inch. Leaving four gashes behind,
bleeding thick, dark red blood down onto hir chest.

We held each other like that for a few moments. I didn't
know if sie could kill me in the midst of my own mind, but I
wasn't in the mood to risk it. I knew that sie had to know
that I could not really kill hir, but it seemed to make hir
hesitate.

Finally sie released hir grip, dropping hir paw to the side.
I let go of hir neck, pulling my hand away at the same time
sie did. The cuts I left in hir skin healed up in just
moments, the only sign of their presence was the blood left
on hir fur.

"I'll have you soon," sie growled at me, taking a step back
in the darkness. "Perhaps sooner than even you think."

I started to protest, but sie just glared, pulling hir cloak
around hirself in one fast move. Then sie was gone, and I
was alone in the darkness.

I let out a long breath looking around the infinity I was
in. Once I was sure sie was gone, I reached up to feel my
head again.

Pressing hard against the skin, I winced from the pain. I
felt over whatever was under there, so close to the surface.
It felt like... it felt like some kind of horns.

Why would I be growing a pair of horns?

"Fox?" Oria asked from my side.

I jolted, sitting up, once more back in the real world. I
was sitting on the edge of my bed. Oria was next to me,
looking a bit worried.

"Was it a flashback?" she asked, placing her paw on my
shoulder.

"Yes," I answered, before correcting myself. "No. It seemed
to start like one, but it turned into a message from the
Uber-Bitch," I explained, reaching up to feel my head. It
might have been my imagination, but I felt some kind of
distortion under the skin in the same spots as the strange
horns had been moments before. Was it just possible that
they were real?

A frown creased Oria's lip. "Ruhk?" she asked with some
distance. Not that I blamed her; Ruhk and Thryn had once had
an encounter that cost many lives.

I nodded, standing up from the bed. "That's the one. How
long was I out for?"

"No more than five minutes," she answered quickly, walking
with me to the doorway out of the bedroom. "What did sie
have to say to you?"

"Mostly that sie still wants me under hir control," I
explained as I opened the door, letting Oria lead the way
out into the hall. I smiled to myself as I watched her tail
swish just behind her feet. "I told hir to fuck hirself."

She chuckled softly at that. "Not that hard from what you've
told me."

I smiled, moving to her side, and draping my arm over her
shoulder. "I'd rather not get into that, if you don't mind."

She laughed. "I suppose not."

We walked like that back into the living room. Ken was
relaxing on the couch, with Rhea at his feet. He was bent
over and carefully petting her between the ears. She had her
eyes closed, and tail swishing, and looked to be in heaven.

I smiled to myself as I saw this. "Enjoying yourself?"

They both nodded, Ken with a slight smile.

"Ken," Oria said, setting down in the couch next to him.
"Something strange happened a few minutes ago. We were in
the kitchen, and Rhea was able to talk to us telepathically.
She wasn't able to do that in Fox's body, why now?"

He paused, turning his head slightly. "More than likely,
Rhea herself is not a natural, so that communication is no
longer blocked."

"Yes, but I heard her," I pointed out, "I have since she
woke up yesterday."

He paused, sitting up to his full height, his wings
adjusting over his shoulders as he did so. "Then I can not
say without some study on the matter."

"I see," Oria answered, looking a bit dejected.

I crossed my arms over my chest, and decided to ask Ken
about what had just happened to me. "Ken, can I speak with
you for a moment."

He nodded.

"In private, please."

Oria looked slightly surprised, but Ken just nodded again,
and stood up. Stepping over Rhea he walked to my side. We
then left the room, moving into my office down the hall.
Once inside, with the door closed, I addressed him.

"Can you check here and here," I said, pointing to the two
spots on my head in turn.

He nodded, walking over to me, and laying his foreclaws into
my hair. "What am I looking for?" he asked.

"Anything at all," I suggested, "perhaps a distortion in the
bone maybe."

He muttered a few short words under his breath, and leaned
forward slightly. "Well, now that you mention it, there does
seem to be some slight growth on your skull here," he
commented, pushing some of my hair aside. "Perhaps another
side effect."

I shook my head, "No, I've been getting some pain there off
and on for months. The first time I really noticed it was a
few days before you returned my pendant to me, after I had
used Thrysten's gem."

"Right, it could be a side effect of that."

"How about horns?" I suggested.

He took a step away from me, crossing his arms over his
chest. "Horns? Are you serious, Fox? More than likely it's a
hold-over from your full lioness form. The connection points
for the muscles of your ear."

I shook my head. "My ears are more to the side of my head,
the muscles connect here," Using both hands, I touched two
points, one on each side of my head. "The problem is here,"
I touched the two points, now feeling the distortion under
them.

He shook his head. "Be that as it may, I don't think they
are horns."

"Then what are they?" I asked.

"They could be anything," he answered with a shrug. "There's
so much magic wrapped around you, this could be a side
effect of any one of them."

I nodded. "Yes, but is it possible that they _could_ be
horns?"

"I doubt it," he answered slowly, narrowing his eyes
slightly. "I can't think of any reason why you could be
growing horns."

I balled my hands into fists, slightly exasperated. I wanted
some sort of confirmation of what I had seen in the
flashback. There was something about them, and the feeling
was starting to build that Ruhk hadn't lied to me about them
being there.

"But is there any way?" I asked, a slight growl of
frustration creeping into my voice.

Ken suddenly looked angrily at me. I quickly realized that I
hadn't sounded like I was asking him for information. In his
eyes I was telling him that he didn't know what he was
talking about. I was challenging his ability to do his job.

"Yes, there is a way," he snapped. "There are a thousand
ways and more. You have a damn vortex of magic around you,
added to that, you seem to have an ability to absorb
transformation spells, among others. First you have that
damn fox-morph spell Oriana did for you," he ticked it off
on his finger, "which is still sticking around even though
it seems to have been absorbed."

"Ken," I said, trying to explain myself.

He gave me a sharp look, but continued on, "Then we have
that mind switch spell between you and Oriana," he ticked
that off on his finger as well. "In fact we have it twice!
Both of which are still clinging to you."

"Ken,,," I tried again, a little more force in my voice.

"Then there is some kind of underlying extra magic that I
have no idea how it got into you, but that seems to have
infected first your blood, and now most of the rest of your
body."

"Ken..." I tried once more, this time my voice almost
demanding.

He raised his voice as he spoke. "An infection which doesn't
seem to be even possible. Then of course we have your curse,
which is affecting every other spell on you, and doesn't
seem to sit still long enough for me to do anything about
it, then--"

"Keieniska!" I finally said, with some measure of
frustration in my voice. The word wasn't even the one I was
trying to use. It just slipped out on its own.

He flinched like he had been slapped in the face, his jaw
slightly slack, his foreclaws caught in mid-protest. "You
haven't called me that in years," he whispered.

"Since the day you left me," I commented. taking his paws
into my hands, holding them gently.

He looked down at my hands, looking slightly amazed before
pulling his paws away. He looked almost hurt.

I grabbed them again, holding them tighter. "Listen, I'm
sorry, I didn't mean to challenge your work," I explained.

He shook his head, but didn't pull his paws away this time.
There was a look of sadness in his eyes. "Why did you call
me that?" he asked, his voice still a whisper.

I had no answer, The name had just slipped out in the
moment; before I could even bite it off, it was in the air.
The name itself was what I used to call Ken when he and I
were lovers. Before he had left me, over the guilt of what
he had done to my mind. I had never spoken the name again,
once that bond had been separated, and I suspected I
shouldn't have spoken it now.

"Ken, I haven't said this to you in a long time," I said in
a quiet voice. "I should have said this much sooner." I
looked up into his eyes, looking as deep as I could into
them. "I trust you. I trust you as I always have. I trust
you to solve this problem. I trust you because you're my
oldest friend in the multi-verse."

He looked shocked. "Even after what I did?"

"Your intentions were good," I answered, "even if what you
did was wrong. I have forgiven you for it, remember that.
You have done so much for me as it is. If it wasn't for you,
I would still be stuck on all fours. You found a way to
bring me back. No once else could have done that. You have
atoned for what you've done, in more ways than even you
know."

He took in a long, slow breath, before letting it back out.
"Thank you for your trust," he spoke the words quietly, with
a slight wavering in his voice.

"Let's go back to the others, we have more things to deal
with now," I said after a few more moments had past.

This time he held my hands in his paws, not letting me slip
away. "Fox, I was wrong. You are not a child."

I smiled back at my old friend. "Thank you."

    Chapter 13

Ken and I walked almost casually back to the living room. He
was a few paces in front of me, and seemed to be walking
more lightly than he had in a very long time. His wings were
fanned out slightly, and even his tail seemed to be moving
more than usual.

I smiled to myself, happy to see him like this. It was now
so clear just how much what had happened between us had been
weighing on him. Not just mentally, but physically as well.
It felt good to see him that way once more, like an old
friend who had returned from a trip that had lasted far too
long.

While we had been gone, Ravindar had rejoined the group in
the living room, and was waiting for me by the door.
Standing next to him, looking slightly nervous, was a
younger tigress. Her fur was the more traditional orange and
black colors, which made her stand out even more next to
him.

Physically well built, she somehow seemed small next to my
bodyguard. Her frame was defined by the muscles that lay
just below her fur. Relaxed, they gave her a pleasing shape
that seemed to emphasize that she was female. She was
dressed in a pair of long pants that hung loosely around her
legs, and a sports top that covered her chest, leaving most
of her midriff exposed. Her hair was black, and tied back
behind her, so it spilling down her neck to just under her
shoulder blades.

She occasionally glanced down to the small badge on her
chest which bore the symbol of the Guild that both Ravindar
and Oria wore. It was the simple image of a heart, with a
dagger laid over it. The color of her dagger matched the one
that Ravindar had on the side of his belt. It was clear as
crystal.

"You must be Santhara," I commented, offering her my hand.

Instantly she stopped fidgeting and was instantly standing
straight as an arrow, a small smile playing over her muzzle
as she took my hand. "And, of course, you're Fox. I've heard
much about you."

I nodded. She had a very strong grip. I could even feel the
tips of her claws pressing against my skin. That meant she
wasn't of Ravindar's species. I let my own claws slide out
slightly in return as she shook, pressing them gently
against the pads of her palm.

If she was surprised she didn't show it. She just let her
paw drop from my hand.

"I assume you've met Oriana," I asked.

She paused, glancing up at Ravindar, he just twitched his
ears, and turned his head slightly. "I have not," she
answered, focusing her yellow eyes on my wife.

Oria snorted slightly.

Santhara moved from her standing position, walking past me,
and gently stepping around Rhea, who almost seemed to notice
her as her tailed twitched in her sleep. She stopped before
Oria, offering her paw out. "Is it true what they say about
you?" she asked my wife.

Ravindar tensed slightly as soon as the question was in the
air. Oria responded by taking her paw in an obviously hard
handshake. "Yes, I am technically out of the Guild."

She looked surprised at this revelation, stopped her paw in
mid-shake. "What?" she shook her head slightly. "I meant
about Dr. Grafrin... did you really kill him?"

Oria visibly stiffened, the fur on the back of her neck
actually lifted up for a moment. The man had been Oria's
first, and only, Work she had done for the Guild. He had
been the man who released The Plague onto the Third planet
to see how it progressed. He had willing and knowingly
committed Genocide. The Guild had sent Oria to find out if
that was true, and if so, to kill him. She had done both,
far too well for both our tastes.

"Yes," she hissed out slightly, dropping Santhara's paw.
"That was me."

"That was what I studied to become a Copper Master," she
explained. Sitting herself down on the far end of the couch
from Oria, she stayed just on the edge of the cushion, her
tail tip flicking slowly.  "It was a clean kill. You did a
very good job, especially for an Apprentice."

For less than an eye blink, a smile seemed to flash across
my wife's face, before it was forced back into a deep frown.
Her ears held for just a moment longer, there was a hint of
pride there, and she was pissed at feeling it. "I would
rather not talk about it," she whispered, turning her face
away from the tigeress.

Santhara looked slightly surprised, her ears twitching as
she glanced first to Ravindar then to me. I shook my head
gently, as her eyes found mine, mouthing the word 'no' to
her.

She returned her attention to Oriana, lifting her paw
slightly before hesitating. Curling her outstretched fingers
against her palm, she let her paw fall to the side. She
lifted herself from the couch, standing rigidly at
attention. "Ms. Cutter, I present myself to you as a
bodyguard, assigned by the Guild Elders to protect you and
your children from all harm that I am able."

A look of surprise rolled over Oria's face as she turned
around to look back at Santhara. The comment about the
children had been unexpected. Even Ravindar looked slightly
shocked by it.

My wife stood, facing her new bodyguard. "I accept the offer
of protection," she said, her voice emotionless, but I could
see her fighting them behind her eyes. "For both myself and
for the children. Just let me explain a few things to you.
One, as I said before, since I am technically out of the
Guild, it's in your best interest not to ask about it. Two,
you may call me what you wish, but keep it honorable. I
would prefer you to call me Oriana. Lastly, you will respect
Fox's and my privacy when ever he or I ask for it. If you
can not abide by these rules, you are to keep your mouth
shut, and do it anyway. Is that understood?"

She gave a sharp nod of her head in reply. "Perfectly
understood. I belive I shall be able to follow your rules
without causing you problems."

"Good," she responded with a smile, relaxing slightly. "I'll
make sure you know it if you get out of line." She sat back
down on the couch as she spoke, folding her paws in her lap.

I clapped my hands together. "Well, now that's settled,
perhaps I should give you the rest of the introductions," I
said, taking a step forward. "The dragon behind me is Ken;
he's a good friend, and our resident Mage. His main job is
keeping my curse and the other spells on me in something
resembling order."

I heard Ken chuckle as he fanned his wings. "He makes it
sound easy, it's much harder than it looks."

Santhara smiled, quickly walking over to him, and shaking
his hand. He shook it in return, as a smile played over her
muzzle. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she told him.

"You'll meet the kids later, about the time they're ready
for lunch." I commented, crossing my arms behind my back.
"Sora is around here some place; she a kind of bat, and
generally pretty nice. As for the rest of the group, the
lioness asleep on the floor is Rhea, she's my identical twin
sister."

At the mention of her name, Rhea lifted her head, smiling a
bit on both her muzzle and her ears. The newest member of
our group looked at her, then back to me. "That's quite
amazing, as you don't look anything alike, nor are you the
same species, or for that matter the same gender."

Ravindar chuckled, resting a paw on her shoulder. "I can
assure you that it's also true. You'll understand soon
enough," he glanced at me, "We do have to leave some
surprises for later."

I laughed to myself, even Oria snickered. "Oh yes," I said
with great glee. "We must leave some, mustn't we?"

Santhara looked a bit shocked, turning from me to Oria then
to Ravindar. "Now I really don't want to be left alone with
any of you people," she muttered, her own smile crossing
along her lips.

Good-- now that the tension had been broken, things felt a
little bit closer to normal. It wasn't going to be long
before she understood that while we had been joking with her
a bit, we were also very serious. She would see in time.

Switching my attention to other matters, I turned to face
Ravindar. "Has the Guild responded to my request?" I asked
him, changing to a more serious posture and voice.

This brought Oria to attention as well. On the return trip I
had asked Ravindar to have the Guild place guards around
Oria's old House. I didn't want Rose or anyone else getting
hurt because of my mess with Cain.

"I have," he responded, standing up a bit taller. "A team
has been dispatched to your sister's house. If she is
willing, they will blend in, both as clients and employees.
The fold will also be constantly guarded, as will your
sister-in-law herself until such time as this has been
resolved."

A look of relief spread over Oria's face, much of the
tension of the last few hours falling away now that she knew
her family would be protected. "Thank you. I'm glad the
Guild is still willing to help me like this."

He paused, almost debating behind his eyes whether or not to
say something in return. I gave him a slight warning glance,
which he caught. Whatever it was he was thinking of saying
fell back into his mind, no longer on his lips.

"This had gotten me thinking," Oria said, rising to her feet
once more. "If Cain knows where my fold is, could it have
been he who left the curse there for me?"

Ken let out a slight 'hum' sound, "That might be possible...
I would have to get a sample of his own magic to know for
sure," he answered.

"I don't think so," I said, looking between the pair of
them. "When I was in jail, Grasion pretty much confessed
that it was his doing, or at least that it was some thing
that his people would do to get revenge on both of us."

"Oh," she said, sounding slightly dejected, and started to
sit back down. Then with a start, she jumped back up to her
feet. "Wait a second! Grasion? What did he say that prophecy
of his was?"

I frowned, "No, that's not an option."

She walked over to me, looking me deep in the eyes. "Wasn't
it something about you asking for his help against your own
greatest enemy?"

"Something like that," I said with a snort, looking away
from her. "It's bullshit either way."

"You said he mentioned the Neverending to you," she
continued, "That it was part of this prophecy of his.
Perhaps he's right, perhaps he can help you against Cain. If
he is, maybe Grasion can give you some help, some angle you
can't see?"

I looked back into her eyes, looking deeper than she ever
had, and much harder as well. "How can you even suggest
that?" I hissed. "He tried to kill both of us, after his
involvement with the HammerHeads! The man is insane; he may
know of Cain, he may not, but he's bullshiting us. There is
nothing!" I said the last part with quite a bit of force,
and anger.

She frowned, lifting her paws, setting one down on my good
shoulder, the other on my arm. "Can't you even consider it?"

I shook my head.

She nodded, "Then at least just talk to the bastard? If he
knows about Cain, perhaps he could offer some advantage, if
he doesn't, then let him rot."

"Perhaps she is right," Ken suggested, talking a step around
me, "Talking to him could not hurt."

I shot Ken a dirty look. He of all people had the best
understanding of what that bastard had done to me. To have
him suggest such a thing felt like an insult.

Both Santhara and Ravindar looked slightly confused by this
conversation, the lady more so than the gentleman, although
only because he was better at hiding it.

"I can't--" I started, but Oria cut me off.

"Fox, we need every advantage we can get! You need every
advantage you can get. Cain has threatened both you, me, our
family and my family." A slight growl hung under her voice
as she spoke. "You might have to compromise. If you have to
make a deal with one to stop the other, that maybe the only
way."

"I refuse to believe that," I told her, my voice quavering
slightly. "I can't believe that anything I could do would
need that monster's help." I was literally shaking as I said
this, old emotions rising to the surface faster than I could
force them back down.

She frowned, looking deep into my eyes. I held her vision
for a few moments before turning my back to her, trying to
hold myself still. I was inches away from saying something I
didn't want to say, and I was not going to let it find it's
own way past my lips.

I felt her paw return to my shoulder a moment after, her
second resting on the back of my neck. "Fox, what exactly
did he do to you?"

"You don't want to know," I whispered, biting back the
truth.

We stayed like that for only a few moments, but they felt
like hours. I could feel the warmth of my wife's paw pads
against my skin, but I said nothing more. Eventually she
took them from me. "We must be leaving soon, if we're to
meet the ship at the base," she commented in a somewhat
monotone voice.

"I assume you're coming with me," I stated, composing myself
for the moment, turning around to face her again.

She smiled, "Of course, at least for now." There was
something else she wanted to say, but she didn't speak it.
It was just under the skin, I could see it plucking at her
face as she started to say something, but stopped before a
sound was made.

I nodded slowly, talking a few steps towards the hallway. "I
need to get a few things. Once that's done, we can leave." I
remarked, glancing over my shoulder back at Oria, before I
exited the room without further comment.

As I walked down the hallway, I made sure to keep my ears
open. I was fully expecting Oria to follow me out of the
room. In fact I would have been disappointed if she hadn't,
it would be against her nature to just ignore this,
especially after that performance I had just put on.

Slipping into the bedroom, I walked straight to my dresser.
Dropping to one knee, I opened the bottom drawer. Resting
inside was a lock box, holding my guns. Lifting it from the
corner of the drawer, I set it on the top of the dresser.
Glancing into the mirror as I unlocked and opened the case,
I found Oria's reflection standing behind my own.

"I'm not going to tell you," I told her, returning my eyes
to the guns, checking each of the three to insure they were
in working order. Not that I expected anything less; I had
only put them away the day before. Once I was sure they were
safe, I loaded each of them, leaving the chambers empty for
the moment.

"I can see how this is hurting you," she said with a soft
sigh. "You don't like Grasion, and I suspect with good
reason."

I snorted, double checking the coils on the plasma gun,
"You're a little off-base. 'Don't like' is quite an
understatement. The man is a monster, a cold blooded,
emotionless monster."

"Much like you fear yourself becoming?" She suggested, her
voice sounding distant.

To that I gave no response, instead I opened the top drawer,
removing the holsters for the guns, as well as a pouch for
the extra rounds and clips. I quickly loaded the pouch,
including a few caps for my plasma gun and snapped it onto
my belt. I attached the two holsters, moving them into their
familiar position before putting the guns inside.

Oria put her paw on my shoulder. "Please, Fox, what did he
do to you?"

I bit my lip, continuing with my work as I considered giving
her something of a response. Instead I took the ankle
holster sliding the plasma gun inside of it, then bent over,
strapping to into position, finishing by pulling my pant leg
down over it. When I was once more upright, I turned around,
walking past Oria to pick up my jacket from where it had
been left yesterday morning.

She huffed, not appreciating my refusal to answer. She was
worried, and I could understand why. She wanted to know what
had happened, she wanted to be able to comfort me, but I
wasn't going to let her.

"What the hell did he do to you," she asked with an
exasperating sigh, "Rape you?" It was in jest, she was
trying to joke it out of me, a tactic that had worked
before.

I shrugged my jacket on as I opened the bedroom door. "Among
other things," I answered her, as honestly as I could in the
situation.

She gasped, and I instantly felt her paw on my shoulder. My
bad shoulder I might add, but at the moment I don't think
she was thinking about that. "You're not serious?" she said,
her voice shaking. In her career as a prostitute, being
raped was one of her greatest fears, and I had just tapped
into it.

My response was simply a slow nod of my head. "Oriana, what
he did to me is the reason why _I_ sometimes wake up at
night screaming. Maybe someday I'll tell you, when we're
both old and tired, and he is long dead. But not today, and
not for many days to come."

She walked around to stand in front of me, putting her paws
on both of my shoulders, her fingers rubbing my neck.
"How... How can I... do anything, if you won't tell me?" she
said in a quiet voice. The words hard for her to say. "If he
raped you, I... I... I..." she stumbled for the words, her
ears twisting in a kind of panic. "I'm sorry I even
suggested it," she finally finished.

I gave a short shake of my head, lifting one hand to cup her
muzzle. "You have nothing to be sorry about, my love," I
purred to her, "You knew nothing of it, as you were meant
to. He and I are the only ones who know what he did to me.
But yes, he did rape me, in more ways than you can know. Now
is not the time to talk about such things."

With a soft breath, she fell onto my arms, wrapping herself
around me and holding me softly. "Have you ever dealt with
it?" she asked, leaning her muzzle next to my ear.

"No," I answered honestly. "I prefer not to remember what he
did to me. I've been trying to hide it from myself for a
long time now, and have succeeded better than even I could
imagine. Still, it comes back to me, in the darkest hours of
the night."

She nuzzled my neck, letting out a soft purr. "Fox, you
won't tell me, but I think you need to tell someone about
this someday. You need to talk to someone; this is hurting
you so badly, you have to do something about it."

I gave her ear a soft kiss. "What do you suggest?"

Lifting her head, she looked me in the eyes. "Go to my
Temple, talk to the people there. I know you're against it,
but... in many ways this is what they're there for."

I bit my lip for a moment. She was right about that-- this
was what the people at the Temple were trained to do. I had
already suggested Kalie go there for the exact same thing.
Perhaps if she could, so could I. "All right," I whispered,
"Kalie and I will go together."

She looked at me in amazement, her eyes wide for the moment
before she pulled me back into a tight hug. I hugged her in
return, nuzzling her cheek, and holding her as tightly as I
could. Hoping that it wouldn't be the last time.

    Chapter 14

I winced slightly as Oria's brush caught at a knot in my
hair. She tisked softly as she worked at it, using her claws
to pry it loose. "Fox, you need to keep your hair in better
shape. Now that you're letting it grow long, it's going to
become prone to being a mess."

"Yes, ma'am," I commented, keeping my eyes closed, but
purring happily. She worked at the knot for a few more
moments before getting it loose, then returned to the brush,
working it back down through my black hair.

There was no easy way I could hide how much I was enjoying
this. I was purring contently as I rested in my chair, Oria
in a second one behind me. She had been working over my hair
for the last half an hour, and it felt wonderful. This was
something she had not done for me before, not slow and
loving like this.

She continued with the brushing, tickling my ear gently as
she neared it. My purr deepened in response. It felt quite
nice to purr; it was kind of a rumbling deep inside my
throat, almost soothing in it's own way. I quite enjoyed it.

This was all going on in the Mess on board _The Falcon_. We
ere two hours into our trip, and almost to Cain's base. It
had all started with a simple comment, and had flowed from
there. I was going to have to look into this; if she could
make me feel this good with what hair I have, I could just
imagine what I could do with her body of lovely fur.

The ship was filled compared to what it was before. Milgrove
was flying once again, but Kalie had elected to stay home
for the moment, and to watch over the kids. Ravindar and
Santhara were both on board, and of course Oriana. Rhea had
joined us as well, and she was laying by my feet, asleep for
the moment.

"I love you, Oriana," I purred as she stroked my hair. As
always, the words were known, but it felt good to speak them
aloud.

She kissed my ear, "I love you, too, Fox," she purred in
return, then hugged me around my neck. I returned it as best
I could for the moment.

Breaking away after a few seconds, she began braiding my
hair into the usual pig-tail. She was very careful about it,
feathering it down the back of my head, pulling in more hair
with each passing row. When finished, she tied it off, then
gave it a flick. "There, perfect," she said, walking around
to the front of me.

I smiled at her, pulling her into my lap, and nuzzling her
neck. She broke into a fit of laughter, pawing at my sides
gently. "Hey, watch it," she giggled.

Pulling back just for a moment, I stuck my tongue out at
her, then gave her a kiss. She returned it happily, wrapping
her arms around me as we embraced, kissing deeply for the
moment.

Her body pressed closer to mine as we continued the kiss. I
wrapped my arms around her back, my fingers tickling at the
base of her tail. She broke away, laughing. "Hey, that's not
fair! You don't have a tail!"

"Yep," I answered, giving her nosepad a quick lick. "At
least for the time being. You'll have all the chanced you
want to get my tail next time I'm female."

Santhara shoot us a strange look from the table where she
and Ravindar had set themselves. He had the majority of his
attention focused on the gun I had brought from Cain's base.
Ignoring this, she started to ask him something. He stopped
her with the flick of an ear, never diverting his attention
from the gun.

"You know, we're really going to hurt her head when she
finds out about me," I commented to Oria, my fingers playing
with the tuft of fur on her tail.

She flicked it out of my touch, twitching her ears in a
suppressed giggle. "It hurts my head when I try to work it
all out," she purred, giving me a second light kiss on the
lips.

I returned it for a moment, then hugged her close again.
"Well that's why I have Ken around. He can work all of this
out for us, and we don't have to worry about it!"

"We don't," she said with a smile, "but you do," she told
me, running the side of her paw down my face, flicking
gently at my ear.

I purred happily at her touch, my own fingers working up to
tickle her ears. Then tracing the around her hairline, I
moved one hand to the back of her head, the other I pulled
back away, leaving just a single finger placed at the top of
her muzzle, between her eyes.

She returned the gesture on myself for a few moments before
we both pulled away, and into a hug. "I'm glad I have you,"
she whispered into my ear.

"I'll never leave again after this," I whispered in return,
nuzzling her gently. "Not if I can help it," I added a
moment later, somehow suspecting my life wouldn't allow me
to stay away from such adventures for long, or allow such
adventures to stay away from me.

Holding me tighter was her only response.

We stayed like that for a few, short moments, before I
noticed Ravindar was standing a few feet away. He was
looking relaxed, his tail swaying gently, a slight smile,
almost hidden, on his muzzle as he watched us. Once he
noticed my attention, it quickly slipped into a more serious
look.

"It's time for work, love," I told Oria.

She nodded, giving me a little pout as she slid out of my
lap. I took the opportunity to run my fingers over her rear,
I got her tail in my face for my troubles.

With a laugh, I brushed it away, relaxing slightly in my
chair as I turned my full attention to my bodyguard. "So,
what's up?"

"The gun you brought with you from Cain's base," he said,
his posture changing slightly. "You said that it would not
fire at him?"

"That's correct," I answered.

"I have been looking over the weapon, and I believe I
understand how it does this," he explained, taking a step
over to his table, where the gun lay. A piece from the
handle had been removed, and set to the side. It revealed
some small bits of circuitry.

Picking up the gun, he held it pointed to the ground. I rose
to my feet, and walked over to him. "Care to fill me in on
the secret?"

He nodded, turning the weapon to show me the exposed
electronics. "The barrel of the gun seems to have some kind
of sensor net woven into the metal. It works in conjunction
with this to provide a biometric reading of the subject in
the gun's sight. If it matches one in the system's memory,
it puts a small shield over the primer of the gun when the
trigger is pulled, preventing it from firing."

"Clever," I commented, rubbing my chin, "but seems a bit
academic, unless you know how to reprogramming his weapons."

"Not easily, I fear," he answered, adjusting the position of
the gun. "But I can change this weapon's systems so that it
will prevent a shot at you instead of Cain. It might be
useful if you can switch this with whatever gun he may have.
It will give you an advantage that he will not be
expecting."

I laughed, "That is a very good piece of thinking," I told
him, placing my hand on his shoulder. "It might be worth the
extra effort to try," I paused, turning back around to look
at my wife. "What do you think, Oria?"

"I'm not sure it's practical," she commented, twitching her
ears as she thought. "It would be hard to switch his gun for
that one, and even then you couldn't be sure it hadn't been
switched back."

"I would agree with Oriana," Santhara added, taking a small
step forward. "This seems more like a plan of convince than
assuredness. There is also the problem of the ammunition
being slightly larger than standard size. I suspect you have
nothing that would fire safely. That would limit you to the
few rounds you brought with you, once they are expended, the
gun will become dead weight."

I looked between the two ladies, then back to Ravindar. "I
think you have been overruled. They both have some very good
points. If this was something where I had more of an
advantage, and we could guarantee the weapon would be used
by him, then it would be useful. It is a good idea, I will
give you that, just not for this situation."

He nodded his head, his tail standing still behind him. In
his position I would have been quite discouraged to have my
idea so casually shot down. I suspected he was feeling much
the same way, but excelled at hiding it far better than I
ever could.

"May I continue my investigation of the weapon?" he asked,
in a much more formal tone. "I might fine a way to use our
knowledge of it's design to disable them from a short
distance."

I couldn't tell if he was pissed, embarrassed, or just what,
but it was clear he wasn't very happy. Such a formal request
was not normal from him, and it felt strange having him ask
me such a simple question in that manner.

"You don't need my permission for that," I told him. "You
are free to do what you feel is necessary to protect my
safety. Some ideas don't work, it's nothing you should worry
about."

He nodded his head, though it was more of a snap than a nod
really. Then settling back down at the table, he returned to
his work.

To be honest, I wasn't quite sure how to respond to this
situation. The idea did have some merit to it, and in
another situation I would be more than happy to use it as he
described. In this situation, on the other hand, it would
not be practical. Not to mention I would have to set aside
one of my normal guns to carry the extra, which would have
inconvenienced me more.

The situation was broken by the intercom flaring to life for
a moment. "Fox, can you come to the cockpit," Milgrove
asked, hir voice calm. "There's a ship identifying itself as
the _Benthic Explorer_ holding position behind us. It's very
large, and doesn't appear to be armed.."

I moved over to the intercom as she spoke. "Thanks," I
responded, "I'll be right there."

"I'll be right back," I told everyone, before climbing the
steps into the hallway. It was a short distance to the
cockpits, only seventy feet at most. I took my time though,
or at least tried to. I was feeling kind of nervous. All of
our plans revolved around getting the fold opened again in
short order.

Once there, I hit the open button for the door. It split
down the middle, the seam made up of overlapping sections of
the doors. It was strong enough to withstand hard vacuum on
either side, along with any attack someone could put up
against it.

With the doors opened, I stepped inside the small room. It
was dominated by one large chair, set in front of the
controls for the ship, and the view screen, Milgrove sat
alertly in the chair, her paws resting on the flight
controls.

The rest of the cockpit was made up of some side consoles
along one wall, to be used by people in my current position
of standing behind the pilot. The other wall had the access
hatch to the gunner's cockpit bellow, my usual location,
when it was needed.

"Have they hailed us?" I asked, glancing over Mil's
shoulder.

Sie shook hir head, touching the communication controls.
"Not a word from them, they've just matched course and speed
with us, following us in."

"Right," I said, stepping back to the console, and calling
up the communication system. It took only a moment to have
it request a channel to the larger ship. Once it was opened,
I started speaking. "_Benthic Explorer_ this is The
_Falcon_; I'm glad to see you have joined us. I would like
for you to head to the base that's about," I did a quick
check of the distance, "20 light minutes ahead, and take up
a docking position. We'll be right behind you."

Their response came a few moments later, "Acknowledged
_Falcon_, course has been approved, executing now. _Benthic
Explorer_, over and out."

"Good," I said, shutting down the system, and turning back
to Milgrove. "Tell the rest of the fleet out there that
we're expecting this ship. Then pull back a bit, I want to
see this."

Sie craned hir head back to me, hir fingers dancing over the
controls with practiced ease. "What are you hoping to see?"

I smiled, placing a hand on the chair, my other hand
reaching over to the view screen controls, turning on more
of the systems. In the blink of an eye, the plain white
ceiling and walls of the cockpit flashed away, leaving us
with a wide view of the space around us.

"That's not an answer," sie scolded, adjusting her headset
slightly. "And I wish you wouldn't play with the controls
like that." Hir short spiraled horns caught the starlight as
she spoke, causing them to glitter for a moment.

With a short chuckle, I turned to the console, pulling up
the local area map. The other ship stood out clear as day,
huge next to us, and starting to overtake us. Only five
miles away, it should be something of a view. "I've never
actually seen one of the R&D ships," I explained, "This is
my chance to take it all in. Once we get to the base,
everything will be to busy too just stop and admire it.
Could you up the zoom on the view screen?"

Sie nodded, dialing it up a few notches, then lifted hir paw
to motion me to stay silent as sie relayed the orders to the
other ships, still hanging in orbit around the base. They
were broadcasting a navigation beacon so we could find the
base easily enough from this distance, as it wasn't even a
speck of light yet.

Taking a step back from the console, I waited, it was only
another minute before the ship started to pass us. It was
going to be a fantastic sight. I didn't even bother to look
as Rhea joined my side, sitting on her haunches, looking up
at the twinkling stars. Oria, on the other hand, got my
attention as she slipped her arm around my back.

I wrapped my own arm around her, pulling her close. I could
feel the tension in her body, just under her fur. She didn't
like being in the cockpit, it was the main reason why she
wasn't flying the ship, as had been the original plan a
lifetime ago. It brought back memories of a tragic accident
she, and a few others, had lived through, that many others
had not.

As I stroked my fingers through her soft hair, we waited in
silence, as slowly, silently, above us the ship slide into
view. It was hard to describe in words; it wasn't a
magnificent ship by any measure. There was no art to its
shape, simply ease. The front was made of a large cone,
covering the whole width of the ship. The once white
surfaces were pelted with small craters from years of travel
in space.

Behind the cone was the majority of the ship. Dark and light
metal, crisscrossed within a maze of pipes and conduits, all
wrapped in a thick scaffolding. In a few places, there was
some hull plating covering the frame of the ship-- only what
was needed to show the ships name and registration.

The ship continued to sail by. The lights from scattered
windows illuminated it's bare structure. After a short time
the layout changed. A large open section in the hull showed
itself. Docked inside were a dozen smaller craft, each
hanging open in space, their windows dark, with the
exception of one. The last ship had its running lights on,
and I could see people moving inside, prepping it for use.

After the docking bay, the ship thinned down to the basic
scaffolding, with a few pipes and other needed devices
wrapped around them. Halfway through this section came a
large ring, circling around the whole ship, attached to the
framework. A massive explosive bolt, designed to separate
the ship in two, if ever needed.

Why such things would be needed was clear a few moments
later as the hull was once again filled. This time with a
massive tank, painted a bright red with writing down the
side in white. In over a dozen languages it reported itself
as liquid fuel, and to be handled with the utmost care. The
tank was specially made of layer upon layer of some of the
hardest metals and alloys known wrapped inside a shield that
had its own power system. It was the weakest point of the
ship, and had to be protected at all cost.

As the tank passed, there came the return of hull plating to
the ship's structure. Not a smooth transition, but more of a
ragged edge that slowly picked up into a constant layer of
metal. Under it pounded the heart of the ship, a massive set
of four power systems, some of the largest ever constructed.
Behind which sat fifteen of the most powerful engines in use
today. The bell of each was over a hundred feet tall, and
half that wide. Even at the low level of power they were now
using, it was to bright too look at. The display
automatically blocked it out.

"How can anyone afford a ship like that?" Oria asked as it
passed us by. "It's huge, it must be over a mile long," her
voice was a mix of shock and awe.

"This is one ship of three," I explained. "Meant for ten
year missions without ever resupplying. I have to admit that
I've no idea how such things could be paid for, but once
they are launched, they are totally self-sufficient. You do
lose some things, though; at that size you could never get
the ship into hypospace."

"Too big for my tastes," Oria commented, pulling herself
against me. "I much prefer _The Golden Phoenix_ large enough
to find quiet spots in, without getting lost."

I smiled, kissing her nose. "I'll second that." I turned my
attention to Milgrove. "Well, the show's over," I said with
a smile. "Follow them in to the base."

Sie nodded. "Yes sir, we should be there in just over an
hour and ten minutes."

Oria laughed, wrapping her tail against my wrist, "Good,"
she purred, pulling me out of the cockpit. "We'll be back by
then."

I let out a soft laugh as she pulled me through the door,
taking her tail in my hands, and following her like a lost
cub, the pair of us purring all the way.

* * *

Two hours later, I was once more in the room from whence
Cain had escaped. Some of his blood was still on the floor,
dried into a set of black smears along the ground. That had
all happened less than a day ago, but it felt like years.

Rubbing my wounded shoulder, I waited against one of the
walls as a few of the _Explorer's_ techs were running
around, working on the control panel for the portal machine.
They thought it could be reactivated to the same location,
but were not completely sure.

Oriana was next to me, her eyes darting around the activity
in the room. She was nervous, and understandably so. She
knew, just as well as I did, that if we could get the fold
open to Cain's destination, I was going to follow him right
then and there.

Rhea was also in the room, but not with us. She was at the
center of the fold chamber, sniffing at the air, her tail
flicking in slight agitation. This was the first big thing
to happen to me that she wasn't a part of, and she was
trying to get a feel for it.

"Fox," Ravindar said, stepping in through the doorway. "Your
friend has arrived."

I nodded, turning my attention to the door as Re'ka stepped
through. He was short for most of the elves I knew, standing
a hair under five feet tall. Dark skinned with bright green
eyes, his face was framed by his long white hair, which
parted around his long ears. He broke into a smile as he saw
me, walking over quickly and taking my hand.

"It's a pleasure for me to see you again, Fox," he said.

"As I you. I wish it could be under better circumstances
than this," I told him as I released his four-fingered hand.

He looked me up and down for a moment, and chucked softly.
"Got quite a tangle of magic about yourself. It seems to
suit you, as do your eyes," he looked past me, towards Rhea.
"And you seem to have a connection to the feline lady in the
back room there," he closed his eyes for a moment, humming
softly before looking at her again. "Well, well, well, she's
you, and you're her, almost. You're also no longer human.
Which also suits you."

"You're quite observant," Oria commented, taking a step
around me.

He smiled to her. "I've been around for quite a long time.
You have to learn to keep your eyes, ears, and magics open,
or else you end up dead. I can not easily observe who you
are, other than someone important to Fox."

"Oriana, I'm his wife," she responded, offering her paw to
him.

Re'ka took it, but instead of shaking it, he brought it to
his lips and kissed the back of it. "A better husband you
could not find."

"Nor could I find a better wife," I told him, pulling her to
my side.

He smiled, taking a step back. "It's good to know that
you're both so happy with each other. Now, might I see this
machine that you called me for?"

I nodded, stepping away from Oria, and escorting him first
to the control panel, then to a large opening in the rock
wall, which we had discovered an hour before. Inside of it
was a massive wall of equipment, most of it doing things I
couldn't understand.

Re'ka clicked his tongue as we looked over everything, some
times humming a bit. "It's about what I would expect," he
commented as we looked at the fold room. "A few things are
done differently than I would have done them."

"You've been planning a machine like this?" I asked, then
paused for a moment. "Not that I'm surprised that you have."

He chuckled, as he looked behind one wall panel, "Of course,
I suspected it would take a few more centuries to perfect.
I'm surprised to find a working machine so soon."

I smiled, bending down to pet Rhea's neck. "Your being
surprised is something quite unexpected."

As he removed himself from the wall, he ran his fingers
through his hair. "Oh, I'm always surprised, this universe
is too wondrous not to be. I also think, with what I learned
at the Temporal Event. I might just be able to make a
working time machine."

"How long do you think that would take?" I asked, my
curiosity piqued. I knew I was going to need access to such
a machine when the children were grown up.

He shrugged, bending down next to me, petting Rhea's ears
softly as she placed her head in his lap. "I can't say until
I get down to it, but maybe fifteen years, twenty at the
worst perhaps. If I can get the funding... the cost will be
astronomical."

I grinned, tickling my sister's whiskers. "You'll have full
funding for as long as it takes."

"Really?" His face showed deep lines of surprise, his eyes
glowing softly. "I wish to finish my research on the Event
first, once that's done, I suspect it will go faster."

I nodded. "Don't take too long, we do have a timeline to
keep in sync."

With a long laugh, he shook his head slightly. "I suspected
something along those lines. Don't worry too much, time has
a way of keeping itself in check."

I nodded again, lifting myself to my feet. "Back to the
matter at hand. Any chance you could get this thing running?
I need to track where it went last time."

He hummed, petting Rhea one last time. "Perhaps. This does
seem to be locked into one location, so you won't have to
retrieve the coordinates for the destination. That also
leaves it open to be a trap."

"I really don't think so," I commented, walking to the
control panel. "This seems more like a back door to escape
through. I don't think the base was ever meant to survive
any situation where it could be used."

"That could be," he answered, looking over the control
panel. Most of the buttons had been labeled in Prid standard
once it had been worked out what they were connected to, but
that didn't tell us what they did.

With my arms resting against the top of the panel, I watched
the elf as he skimmed over the controls. "Does it make any
sense?" I asked.

"In theory," he responded. "We know what most of the
controls do, and I know what type of order they need it to
be done in. I should be able to activate this now."

"Care to risk it?" I asked Oria as she drifted behind my
shoulder.

She placed her paw over my hand. "The sooner you go after
Cain the better. If we can open this now, then you should do
it whenever you're ready."

'Go and kick his ass,' Rhea added, moving to stand next to
us, her tail brushing against my other hand..

I let out a soft sigh. "I wish it was that easy," I
muttered. With a quick turn, I gave the rest of the room my
attention. "Everyone who doesn't need to be here now, please
step outside. I don't want anyone getting hurt."

With some muttering and groaning, most of the techs filed
out of the room. Ravindar and Santhara helped them out, and
closed the door behind them. The only people left in the
room besides Rhea, Oria and I, and Re'ka, we're a pair of
techs that the elf had brought with him, and he insisted on
having them stay.

Once that had all been settled, he started to work at the
control panel. With a slow, deliberate grace, he started
working the controls. Like music conducted under his knowing
fingers, a familiar hum started to fill the room. At the
same time both the inner and outer doors of the fold chamber
slid closed.

I took Oria's paw in my hand as the hum continued to grow.
Rhea was at my other side, her head against my free hand. I
held onto them both as the noise grew in intensity.

"The system is automatic from here," Re'ka said, coming up
behind us. "In a few moments the door should open, and you
can step inside the chambers."

As if on cue for his comment, the noise of the machine
kicked up another notch as the outer door opened. The smell
of ozone filled the room once more. Everything was unfolding
just has it had before, but there was an eerie quality about
it all.

"Take this," he said, handing me a piece of paper. "When you
are inside the inner chamber, activate these systems in this
order. That should open the fold. Good luck."

I nodded to him, holding the paper tightly in my fingers as
I pulled Oriana to me, and gave her a kiss. "I'll be back as
soon as I can."

"Don't take too long my love," she responded, before letting
me slip out of her grasp.

Pulling in a deep breath, I took a few quick steps to the
chamber, stepping past the outer doors. I stood there, my
back to my love and my sister, waiting for the inner door to
open.

It seemed like hours, but finally the machine grew another
notch in volume, and the outer door closed behind me,
trapping me between the two walls of metal. A few moments
later the inner door opened as the smell of the ozone grew
heavier.

Stepping inside the chamber, the inner door closed as well,
locking me inside. There was an energy in the small room, a
kind of static that filled the air. I could almost hear it,
twisting its way around the walls tighter and tighter as it
went. Through the window I could see Oria and Rhea watching
me, both had looks of worry on their faces and ears.

I gave them a short nod, to let them know I was all right,
then turned to the small control box by the door. Labeled as
well as the control panel outside, I used the quickly
written directions to press the buttons in what I hoped was
the correct order.

The shaking of the machine started to run it's way up my
legs, making my knees feel watery. I quickly pressed myself
against the wall of the chamber, the static in the air
gaining cohesion in the center of the room. The noise inside
growing into the range of my hearing, and then louder.

Then, as if I was suddenly thrown into the eye of the storm,
it all stopped. The noise, the shaking, it had all ceased,
leaving only a blanket of stillness in the chamber.

I found that I had closed my eyes at some point in time.
Upon opening them, I saw what I had been hoping for. In the
center of the chamber was the large jagged fold. It's edges
were like tears against the empty space, twisting and
writhering as if the air itself was in pain.

It felt different from this side of the glass, but I didn't
have much time to study it. I could already feel it starting
to lose cohesion. With a quick glance back to my loved ones,
I mustered up all my courage, and stepped through.

The transition was rough, like back when I had first used
the folds, only more so. Twisting and turning, in ways I had
never felt before, it was like I had been shot through a
meat grinder, then put back together again on the other
side. Only it took a few tries to get everything in the
correct order.

As I reached the other side I was disoriented, and almost
ill. Crouching down over my knees I took a few gasps of air,
panting hard. My mind was still spinning and only slowly
were the bits coming back into place.

On the other hand, I was coherent enough to recognize the
feeling of the barrel of a gun pressing gently against the
side of my head. And a woman's voice speaking the words. "So
Cain, we meet again."

    Chapter 15

It's really reassuring to know that no matter wherever I go,
and whatever I do, when I'm troubleshooting, trouble would
ALWAYS being shooting back. This was a good example of just
that.

"I'm not Cain," I told the mystery lady, sure that she
wouldn't believe it.

"Right," she responded, the one word dripping with enough
sarcasm to fill a novel. "I'll believe that when you are
dead."

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. "Just take a
look at my face. I'm not Cain-- the bastard is my double."

Footsteps walked around to the front of me, the gun moved as
well, but never lost contact against my skin. I was able to
get a look at her, once I was able to look past the weapon.

She was human, standing just slightly taller than me. The
term buff seemed to be what came to mind first about her
build. She clearly had been working out, her body moved
easily, with a controlled grace. Her hair was dirty-blond,
and fell down her back, and I couldn't see her eyes. She
dressed all in black, from her shoes, to her pants, to the
shirt she wore, and the vest she wore over that, from under
which I could see another gun peeking.

From the look of the two other guns she wore around her
waist, not to mention the one over my left eye, she would
have no problems killing me in a second.

"My ID is in my front right pocket," I offered, not knowing
if she could read Prid Standard or not. Hopefully she could
gather enough to know that I wasn't Cain, as looking at my
face didn't seem to convince her.

"Pull it out slowly," she said, moving the gun back from my
head a few inches, "then toss it to me. Don't try anything
stupid."

I nodded, the gun was communicating that very clearly. It
was kind of strange. I had been around guns all my life. I
grew up with them in the house, and always knew how to treat
them with respect. But as I was digging out my wallet, and
tossing it at her feet, I couldn't help but notice how big
the end of the barrel was. Conceptually I knew the opening
was only a short width, not even half an inch, but here and
now, it looked more like a foot.

She bent down, picking up my wallet, never taking the gun
off me. Flipping it open she looked over the IDs I kept
inside. "I can't read this," she grumbled, flipping past my
Prid IDs, among others. A second later she seemed to freeze,
flipping back to one ID, and looking at it with some
intensity.

The gun vanished in a second, as she was suddenly down to my
level and in my face. "Where the hell did you get this?" she
growled, shoving my wallet under my nose.

She had my driver's license out. The Washington State one I
had gotten a few trips home ago. She also was clearly in
shock, her hand shaking slightly. That was also when I
realized she had asked me the question in English.

"Back home," I answered in kind, "back on Earth."

"Well that means you're not Cain," she said, her composure
snapping back like a mask over her face. She stood, throwing
back my wallet. "So Cain is your double, Mr. Fox Cutter."

I nodded, picking it up and returning it to my pocket, as I
lifted myself to my feet in the process. "Yes, another me
from another Earth."

She snorted, "Hardly from Earth. He doesn't know English,
Spanish or even French."

I nodded again, looking around where I had landed. It was
some kind of back alley, not dirty like I normally saw. The
pavement was laid bricks, the buildings had been keep free
of graffiti. The only light was coming from a fixture a few
feet behind the mystery lady; the sky behind her was dark
and overcast. It seemed more like the back alleys of The
Market on Prid than any street I knew.

"He has to be from Earth," I told her, "if he's my double,
he can't be from anywhere else."

She tilted her head. "Perhaps he's not your double?" she
suggested, walking over to me. "But he does have your face,
although with a few changes. The eyes are a dead giveaway
that you're not him."

"Well thanks for noticing that after you put the gun away,"
I muttered, scratching a slight itch on my arm. "I haven't
caught your name just yet."

"Why would you need it?" she snapped, crossing her arms over
her chest, putting another layer of defense between us.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because you obviously are
after Cain, and seem to have a much better start than I do.
How long have you been waiting for him at this fold?"

"Not long," she answered. "I just arrived in town today. I
knew Cain has some kind of base here, and this fold seems to
be the key to it."

I chuckled, "Some kind of base, yes. I captured it about
half a day ago. In fact I'm following Cain. He came this way
to escape, about half a day ago."

Her eyes went wide, a look of shock rolling over her face.
"You have to be kidding me." if anything her voice was
calmer then before. "I got here only an hour after he came
through? Shit! No wonder the fold was still warm." She shook
her head a bit, dropping her arms to her sides once more.
"Now you really have my attention. I know Cain has some kind
of safe house in this city, he'll be there, but not for
long. He'll be leaving as soon as he can."

"He's not expecting me to follow," I said, lifting my hand
slightly. "He used some kind of machine to rip open a fold
without even a ripple. Fortunately, I had the right people
who could reactivate it in a short time, which is why I'm
here now. Cain isn't expecting anyone to have followed him
through."

She smiled slightly. "Really. Now that is useful
information. If you're correct, we have a window of a few
days to track him down." As she spoke, I noticed what looked
like a tail sweeping behind her feet. It was black, but
didn't look like fur, the light was shining off it wrong.

"I have a friend who specializes in knowing such things," I
explained, digging my hand into my other pocket, pulling out
my portal controller. "So, where is that safe house of his?"

"I'll find out," she said, placing her hands on her hips.
"I'm Samantha St. Claire, since you asked so nicely."

I smiled, opening the controller. "I'm Fox Cutter, nice to
meet you, I hope," I said, turning back to face the fold,
and setting the controller to pull out the full number for
it.

"So, other than your ruining his good name, why are you
after Cain?" Samantha asked, stepping over to stand next to
me.

"Lets see. He tried to kidnap my wife, kill me, I think," I
answered, locking the fold number into the controller.
Closing it I pulled out a pad and pen from my jacket pocket.
"Threatened my life, the lives of my family, and my wife's
family, and one of his agents shot my wife."

She laughed. "I see. All the bastard did to me was try to
blow me up in one of his bombings."

I smirked, jotting down a quick note for Oriana, telling her
to follow me after a week. "Does he blow things up a lot?"

"He's a terrorist for hire," she commented. "Blowing things
up is part of his job."

"Lovely man," I mused, tearing the note off, folding it
twice, and closing it in my controller. Reaching out, I
opened the fold back to the house on Prid. With a quick flip
I threw my controller through before closing it again.

She looked at me, smiling again. "So you're a Natural as
well?"

"Cain's a Natural?" I asked, I had suspected as much from
the first time I understood he and I were the same person.

"No! Don't be silly. I'm a Natural." She demonstrated this
by opening the fold herself, to a different location. After
a moment she snapped it closed, leaving it cold.

I smiled, partly in relief, partly from the demonstration.
"You know a lot about Cain?"

She nodded. "I've spent time with the man, I know more about
him than probably even his God, and come to think of it, I
do belive he may have mentioned you before. But not as a
human, as a fox."

"There's a third me in the Multi-Verse," I explained,
thinking how it was because of Little Fox that I first
learned of my evil self. "He's a fox-morph now, no longer a
human. All three of us are from Earth, at least some version
of it. It still strikes me as odd that you say he doesn't
know English."

"With your eyes, I would say you're not the same person,"
she commented, digging into her vest for something.

I smiled. "Actually, my eyes are like this because of some
magical problems. Normally they are the same color as
Cain's."

"Right, I can see a bit of that now," she commented, pulling
out what I realized after a moment was a pack of cigarettes.
She pulled one out, putting it to her lips. With a snap of
her fingers, she summoned up a small flame on her fingertip,
which she used to light it.

"So you're a Natural, and a Mage," I said, tapping my chin.

"A Natural, a Mage, a Teak," she said her tail flipping
around to her front. With a good view I could easily see
that it was made of cloth of some sort. "And a Bitch, but
not in that order," she finished by exhaling a puff of
smoke, which twisted into a triangle shape. At the same time
she dropped her tail back behind herself; it moved as if it
was real, not fabric.

I chuckled, "I'm glad you're on my side."

She gave me a look. "Who said I'm on your side? I'm just
after Cain, same as you. 'Sides' are irrelevant at the
moment." She looked me over for a few seconds. "Do you even
know where you are?"

I shook my head. "Just got here, don't even know what
universe I'm in."

"Not mine," she snapped, taking in a long breath of her
cigarette. "Now, how do you expect to find Cain without even
knowing where you are?"

"I'm still working on that part of the plan."

She rolled her eyes, flicking some ash away. "Well I've
already taken care of that part of the plan. We need to find
his safe house. For that we need to ask the right people the
right questions. That's part of what I do, and I do it well.
I don't like working with others, but in this case, I think
there are enough reasons to warrant it."

"Well thanks," I commented, crossing my arms.

She laughed. "Come along, I have a hotel a few blocks away.
We can't do anything until the morning, so we might as well
rest." She turned as she said this, and started walking, her
cloth tail swishing behind her as she moved. I could see
from here that it was attached to her pants in the right
location to be a tail, but was clearly not a limb. Even the
shape was wrong.

I was slightly annoyed at her presumption, but she was
correct. She clearly knew what she was doing better than I
did for the moment, but there were other matters. "Why
should I trust you?" I asked her retreating back. "If you
remember, you had a gun in my face less than five minutes
ago!"

She glanced over her shoulder at me. "Because I want Cain,
although no where near as much as you seem to. I also have
my own reasons for helping you in this situation. For now,
I'm sorry for putting a gun to your head. Is that
acceptable?"

"For the moment, but that still doesn't allow me to trust
you. As far as I know, this could be some elaborate trap on
Cain's part. You could just be working for him.

With a startlingly fast move, she had her face right up
against mine. "I will never work for the bastard again, and
if it was a trap, I would have just killed you."

I shook my head. "Sorry, he wants me alive, most of the
time. Anyway, look at it from my point of view. Here you
are, with all the cards I need. I have nothing to offer you,
and I clearly need your help. So you simply offer it to me.
No offence, but why exactly are you that willing to help me?
You have nothing to gain from it."

She smiled, moving back from me slightly as she took a drag
from her cigarette. "I have my motives, and quite a bit to
gain. I will need your help after this is over. For now, my
interest is in dealing with Cain, and aiding you is the best
way I can think of at the moment."

"That's not very convincing," I told her, smiling back to
her in return. I found myself starting to like this lady,
even if I didn't trust her. A bad combination on my part.

"Look, if I was working for Cain, I could have killed or
captured you right now, and you couldn't do a thing to stop
me." She smiled as she said it, and took another long draw.
Confident she had made her point.

It was a challenge, one I was willing to accept, as I wanted
to give her an idea what I was able to do. In one swift move
I grabbed both her wrists, one was at her hip, the other
more to her side, holding her cigarette. She tried to react,
but by the time she knew what I was doing, I had both hands
held together in front of her, my claws pushing gently into
her skin.

"I'm faster than that," I told her with a smile, happy to
see the surprised look in her eyes.

The surprise lasted a few seconds, before melting into a
smile of her own. Leaning forward, she blew the smoke into
my face. To which I didn't react at all--- that seemed to
annoy her. "I see, very fast. Is that magical, or natural on
your part?"

"Natural, same with the claws." I let her hands go, taking a
step back. "And I can be just as mean as you if I want to
be."

She smiled wider, rubbing her wrists gently. "Now I'm
impressed. People can't usually move through my defenses
that easily. If you can shoot that fast, we might just be on
even ground, from a distance."

"So, why do you wish to help me?" I asked her, folding my
hands behind my back. I was pretty sure that this wasn't
some kind of trap, it would have been sprung already if it
was.

She nodded, taking a final puff from her cigarette before
flicking it away into the darkness, the butt glowing for a
few seconds before fading out. "I'm from Earth, as you
already know. However I have a problem that can be summed up
simply; I don't know how to get back. You suddenly seemed to
be my best chance to make it home."

"Very well, then give me a reason to trust you." I took a
step closer to her as I spoke, dropping my arms to my side.

She paused for a moment of thought, her tail flicking behind
her much the way I would expect Oriana's to in the same
situation. "Perhaps, because I know the local language, and
I suspect you do not. I know how to find Cain, also which
you do not. I need your help, which I can not get if you're
dead, and then, there is also this." She fished into her
pocket, pulling out a small card. She started to hand it to
me, then paused, pulling her hand back for a moment, before
extending it once more.

Taking it from her hand, I looked it over. It was a student
ID card for a high school in California. It gave her name,
her ID number, the fact that she was a senior in the '94,
'95 school year, the school's name, and part of its address.
From what I saw, the girl in the picture was no where near
as hard as the lady who stood before me.

The card itself was battered pretty badly; it had been bent,
folded in a few places, the plastic creased over the center
enough that it was almost in two pieces. One corner was
seared and melted slightly, and another had a piece ripped
away.

"I got that three weeks before I found out about the multi-
verse," she explained. "I had no idea of what I could do at
the time, I couldn't dream of it. Ironic that what I am now
were some of the things that gave her nightmares."

I nodded, handing the ID back to her. She took it gently
from my fingers, returning it to her pocket. It was the last
shred of a life she lost so long ago, and something that she
would die before ever truly giving up. It was her hope of
returning home, returning back to who she once was. I
suspected that I was one of the very few people to whom she
had ever shown it.

"So, how do we start looking for Cain?" I asked, smiling
slightly to her.

She smiled in return. "It's become too late to do such
things. We'll return to my hotel room. Compare our notes on
Cain, then get some rest. We'll need it in the morning."

I nodded to her, motioning her to lead the way. I decided to
hold my tongue that it was still mid afternoon by my
internal clock.

We moved out of the alley, and towards a black convertible
that was parked in front of what looked like a closed
restaurant. The car was pretty much what I expected from any
land car. Four wheels, side mirrors, doors. There was a
serial number stenciled along the side of the front end.
Samantha walked to the driver's side, jumping in without
bothering to open the door. I entered the passenger's side
the more conventional way.

A few moments were spent fumbling around to find the
seatbelt. As I strapped myself in, my new friend was working
under the dashboard, the result of which was the engine
firing up with a soft hum.

"All this, and you can hot wire a car to boot," I muttered,
relaxing into the seat. It seemed to soften now that the car
was powered."

She laughed, strapping herself in. "You have no idea of all
my talents," she shot me a slight smile, as she turned on a
few well placed switches in the center console of the car. A
soft hum filled the air around my head as she moved the car
onto the road. I shifted a bit, placing my hand outside of
the car. I felt significantly less wind than I would have
expected at our apparent speed.

"Environmental shields on the car?" I asked her.

She nodded. "And other systems. Relax, this is perfectly
safe."

I nodded, folding my hands in my lap, watching the direction
we took from the fold. "So, tell me about Cain."

Frowning, she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye,
keeping the majority of her focus on the road ahead. "He's a
terrorist for hire. If you need something blown to bits,
people killed indiscriminately, or a target taken out, along
with everything around them, he's the man you call."

That agreed with the information Elena had gotten from the
man we had captured. "How do you know him?"

"I've worked with him before," she commented, passing
another car who was moving at a much slower rate than ours.
"He's an interesting man, smart, single minded, and treats
his killing as a religion. He makes each one an offering to
his God. Nasty business, it came as no surprise to me when
he attempted to take my life."

I gave her a sidelong glance. "Are you one of the good guys,
or one of the bad guys?" The question was honest, and to the
point. The fact that she had worked with Cain threw me a
bit, now I wanted to know exactly where she stood with me. I
didn't want to give her too much trust.

She laughed, taking another turn into a parking lot, pulling
the car into a slot. "Neither. I don't think of myself in
either term. I do what I need to survive, and I work for
those who pay me. As I said before, sides are irrelevant."

I hummed, lifting myself out of my seat. "I suggest that if
you want my help getting back home, you stay good. Deal?"

"Deal," she answered, slipping out of the car herself.
Resuming her position in the lead, she led me into the
complex we had parked next to. It was a long, low cluster of
buildings, pretty much what I've seen in most Hotels.

Her tail swayed behind her as she walked, moving in a long,
slow arc along her legs. I didn't think the control of the
tail was conscious on her part; it was too fluid, too
natural to be directly controlled.

"What's with the tail?" I asked her as we continued down the
hallway, rooms passing around us.

She flicked it back in my direction in a sort of a wave. "It
was part of my training to use my Telekinesis. After a while
it became such a part of me, it's as if it's a real limb."

I hummed, watching it closely as we walked. The now bright
light in the hallway showed it to be some sort of silk
fabric, reflecting the light as it moved. It was clearly
part of her clothing, and upon closer observation there
seemed to actually be a normal tail hole in the pants, with
the tail attached though it.

For the moment that was interesting, but what got me was
simply how well she moved it. It moved as a normal tail
would to keep her balance as she walked. I thought back to
the time I had spent in Oriana's body. The tail movement was
always clumsy with me; I didn't have the instinct. That was
no longer true in my female form. She had the instinct to
move the tail, it wasn't simply learned.

"How about your claws?" she asked in return as she fished a
card key out of her pocket, "How did you end up with them?"

I shrugged. "The honest truth is that I'm not human." That
felt strange to say, but it was the truth. I really wasn't
human anymore. "I mean, I was once, but I'm not anymore.
It's hard to explain to be honest."

She laughed, fumbling with the door lock for a moment,
before succeeding in getting it open. "I see! You'll have to
tell me more!"

"Sometime," I answered, following her as she led me into the
room. Flipping the lights on, I was unsurprised at what I
saw. A pair of beds, a small deck, some dresses, a
television, and a bathroom off to the side.

I closed the door as Samantha walked across the floor,
pulling off her vest and throwing it onto the far bed. In a
practiced motion she removed the guns from her shoulder
holsters. Setting them on the desk, she followed them with
the two from her belt. Lastly she removed another one from
an ankle holster.

"My, you're well armed," I commented, turning on the TV. I
flipping through what channels it could receive, and finally
settled on what looked like a news program.

"It's necessary in my line of work," she commented, removing
the various holsters from her body, along with a small pouch
from her belt, and setting them all by the weapons ."And
what are you doing? It's after local midnight, it's a bit
late for television."

I smiled, taking a seat on the bed she wasn't using. "I need
to get the local language in my translator. Watching a few
hours of TV will do the trick."

"It takes a few days for my translator to learn a language,
a few hours is a marked improvement," she mentioned, pulling
off her belt, and hanging it over the back of the chair,
then kicking her shoes off, then her socks.

I chuckled. "They've been working on the type I have for a
few centuries, there's been time to perfect it."

"Impressive," she commented, pulling her shirt off and
dropping it to the floor. "I'll have to look into getting
one." She shot me a smile for a second, removing her pants
as well, leaving her in just her underwear.

Of course I looked away, giving her some measure of privacy
as she threw back her sheets. I did catch, out of the corner
of my eye, when she picked up one of the guns, and put it
under her pillow.

"Don't try anything funny. I want a good night's sleep, and
if you even breath the wrong way, I'll be awake. So don't
try to sneak out, and don't try to hurt me. Got it?"

I gave her a quick glance once she was settled down, she had
kicked off most of the heavy covers, leaving her with just a
light top sheet that she pulled closer to her body. If I
didn't have Oriana I would have been very tempted to hit on
her, that is, if I trusted her.

"Scout's Honor," I responded, turning back to watch the
images play out on the television screen.

"It only counts if you were a Scout," she answered.
"Tomorrow, we'll track down Cain. I know just where to start
looking." She then closed her eyes, and almost immediately
fell into a light sleep.

I shook my head slowly. "Famous last words," I muttered to
myself.

    Chapter 16

05/21/99:

Five days had passed since Fox had gone after Cain, and I
was worried sick. literally. I had spent the night before
retching up what little in the way of food I had managed to
swallow down at dinner.

If I did what he told me to do in his note, I still had to
wait three more days before I could follow him. But it
seemed so long and I had become so worried about him that I
was almost ready to jump the gun.

Ravindar was starting to agree with me on that fact. Even if
he didn't say it, I could see it in his eyes. Since
protecting Fox was his job, he liked this even less then I
did, and seemed almost willing to join me if I left early.

It was starting to get late for me, and was nearly time to
go back to bed for another night of fleeting sleep. Instead
I just sat on the couch, staring at the empty fireplace, my
fingers playing over the trigger stud on my needler.
Occasionally I would slip it open, and re-arrange the
cartridges.

Santhara had taken her own seat on the far side of the room,
slightly curled up slightly with a book. She was giving half
her attention to it, the other half was watching me as I
stared into space.

I could catch her frequent glances, even though I wasn't
looking towards her. It was part of my training from the
Guild that hadn't left me just yet. For the moment I was
thankful for that.

Flipping the needler around in my paw, I shoved it into my
front pocket as I rose to my feet. Santhara did the same,
tucking her book in the side of the chair. Her tail flicked
a bit as she waited for me to do something.

I had opened my mouth to speak to her when my ears caught a
sound in the distance. Twisting them hard to see if I heard
anything else, I slowly turned my head around.

"Is something wrong?" My guard asked, taking a step closer,
one of her paws gravitating to the holster at her hip. She
glanced quickly to the baby monitor on the table, then back
at the hallway.

Slowly I turned the rest of my body, followed by a few short
steps into the hallway. "I swear I heard the door to the
fold room open," I said in explanation.

"I see," she responded from a few feet behind me. "I didn't
hear a thing."

"You don't know what it sounds like," I said, taking a short
step forward, removing my needler, and setting it to stun.
At the moment the firing stud felt very familiar under my
thumb. I was absolutely sure that Santhara had her gun out
behind me.

There was movement down at the end of the hallway. I could
see it in the twilight falling out from one of the rooms at
the end of its length. Taking a careful step to the side I
used my free paw to turn on the lights.

As the lights came up, I almost jumped. Hunched over at the
end of the hall, was Fox. Rhea was already at his side, and
he was almost hanging over her. I was at his side before I
quite realized it. His jacket was gone, and his left arm was
covered in blood. I could easily see why-- he had been shot.

"Fox," I said, reaching out to touch him.

He nodded, and grabbed my shoulder with his right hand, as
he lifted himself to his feet. "I have a friend who's hurt;
she needs to be taken to the hospital now." He was panting
as he said this, his eyes slightly wild.

I nodded, helping him to his feet. I was not surprised when
Ravindar came to his aid, holding his far side. Looking into
the fold room, I found no one else.

"Where is she?" I asked him.

He rolled his head around to look at me. I noticed a crack
across the left lens of his glasses, the frame had been bent
as well. "On the other side of the fold," he answered, and
then went limp in my arms. At the same moment the fold
sprang to life before us.

"Santhara, Ravindar, go find her now." I ordered, taking
most of Fox's weight onto my shoulders.

Neither of them questioned my orders, they both simply
rushed through the fold. A few moments later they returned
with a female human draped over Ravindar's shoulder. I
physically winced when I saw her, the whole of her right arm
from above her elbow had been blown off.

The fold fell to the ground behind them, all of Fox's weight
falling onto me as I held on to him. Santhara quickly came
over, taking some of the weight from me.

I adjusted myself a bit, and removed my controller from my
pocket. Punching in a few familiar numbers I opened a new
fold.

"Come on," I said, taking more of Fox's weight as we walked
through the fold. The light cleared as, we arrived in a
simple white room, just off the Emergency room of our
hospital.

A gurney arrived just seconds later, with two nurses helping
the human female from Ravindar's shoulder. I saw that what
was left of her arm had been cinched tight with Fox's belt,
but was still seeping blood.

Another pair of nurses arrived a few moments later, taking
Fox from my arms, and helping him onto his own gurney. Both
of them were whisked off into the Emergency Room.

I let out a long breath. It felt like I had been holding it
forever. Both Santhara and Ravindar had looks of concern on
their faces, and blood on their clothing.

"It's going to be a while. Maybe we should go back and get
some clean clothing," I suggested in a weak voice.

Santhara walked over to me, placing a paw on my shoulder.
"You don't have a drop of blood on you, Oriana. Go, be with
Fox. We'll get cleaned up, and get things back together at
the house. We'll be back soon."

I nodded. "Very well then. Go wake Kalie, and tell her to
keep an eye on the children. Come back as soon as you can."

They both nodded, Ravindar tapping at his portal controller
before they both vanished back to the house.

Slowly I walked into the waiting room of the ER. There were
only a few people about at this time of night. I approached
the wolf morph at the front desk. He glanced up at me, and
held out a folder. "Mrs. Cutter?"

I nodded, taking it from him, "When can I see my husband?" I
asked in a quite voice.

"He's currently in the examination room," he answered. "Once
that's finished we'll have an idea how long it will be." He
held out a pen for me as well.

Taking it from him, I gave him a short nod. "I want to be
with him the moment I can be, understand?"

"Yes Ma'am. I'll call you as soon as you can join him."

I nodded, turning away to fill out the paper work I knew was
waiting for me inside the folder.

"Ma'am?" the wolf asked.

I paused, turning back around to look at him. "Yes?"

"Do you know anything about the human female that was
brought in with your husband?" he asked, leaning forward
over his computer terminal.

"Not a thing. She's a friend of his, apparently," I
answered, as honestly as I could.

He nodded, touching a button on his screen. "Very well then.
She's already being treated for her injuries. If you
wouldn't mind filling out what you do know about her?" He
asked the question as he handed me another folder.

I took it from him without saying much of anything, and
walked away. This time I wasn't called back for anything
else.

Trying to find a comfortable position in the hard plastic
chair, I opened Fox's folder. Luckily most of his
information was already in the Hospitals' system, and was
printed out on the forms. I just had to fill in a few items,
and confirm everything was still correct.

I spent all of five minutes filling it out before signing
it. Nothing there left to add. In the meantime, Santhara and
Ravindar had returned, each taking a seat flanking my own.

The next folder belonged to the mystery lady. It had all the
Hospital knew about her printed up on the form; which
amounted to her body type being human. There wasn't much I
could add to that, so I jotted down a note that we would
handle her bills until we knew more, and signed it as well.

After taking both folders to the front desk, I returned to
my seat to wait. Ten minutes passed before a nurse came for
me... ten minutes that seemed to take a lifetime. I was
escorted to an examination room, but they didn't allow they
others to come along.

Fox was sitting on the examination table, looking a bit
pale. He had his glasses off and resting in his lap. His
shirt had been removed, and his arm was tightly bandaged and
resting in a sling tied around his shoulder.

"Are you O.K.?" I asked him, lifting myself to sit next to
him.

He nodded. "Ya, I'm all right, the bullet went straight
through my arm. No major damage, thankfully."

"That's good to know," I said, moving my paw to rest against
the center of his back.

He let out a long sigh, bending over slightly, his eyes half
closed. He wasn't relaxing. If anything, he was becoming
even more tense.

I started to stroke my paw down the length of his spine, the
same way I did when the children started to get a bit huffy.
It seemed to work on him as well, his back at least started
to relax a bit.

"Care to tell me who your new friend is, seeing as we're
paying for her stay?"

A small smile played over his face as he lifted his head to
look at me. His clear eyes caught the light in just the
right way that for a moment they seemed to glow. "Her name
is Samantha. Without her help, I suspect I never would have
got to Cain."

I nodded, stroking down his spine once more, slower this
time. He managed to let out a soft purr, almost it seemed in
spite of himself.

"She's currently being treated from what I've been told."

He sighed softly, turning his head to look back down at his
hands again. "Hope they can get her in a re-gen tank before
it's too late."

"I'm sure they will," I answered, working my paw against the
back of his neck, rubbing the muscles there gently. I could
feel them loosening under my fingers.

"Cain's dead," he said after a few moments.

I nodded, motioning for him to turn around on the table so I
could work his back with both paws.

He didn't turn, instead he just shook his head slightly. "I
didn't kill him." He spoke the words almost like a
confession, as if he was asking my forgiveness.

"Would you like to tell me about it?" I asked him, running a
finger along his neck where the band from the sling dug into
his skin.

He paused for a moment, and then turned his head to look at
me. Our eyes connected for a few seconds, my green eyes
focusing into his crystal clear eyes. My pupils slitted, his
round-- my eyes feline, his human. There was a moment there
when it seemed we connected as I reached out to touch the
side of his cheek.

That lasted for a few short seconds before we both heard
footsteps approaching. With his good hand, Fox pulled my paw
away. Lacing his fingers about mine, he resting them
together in his lap.

A moment later a doctor pulled aside the curtain and stepped
into the room. He was a deer morph, and was dressed in the
familiar blue clothing I always associated with the medical
profession on Prid.

He introduced himself as Doctor Baker, then he and Fox spoke
for a few moments, mostly about how to deal with his arm in
the couple of weeks it would take to heal. After a few
questions, Fox asked something that caught my attention.

"How's Samantha?"

"Is that the lady who came in with you?" The doctor asked,
flicking an ear.

"Yes, her name is Samantha St. Claire. How is she doing?"

The doctor pulled out a PADD from one of his pockets, and
punched a few buttons. "She is stable," he answered, "but
still at risk. She lost a significant amount of blood, if
you had gotten her to us any later, we wouldn't have been
able to do anything at all. She's currently having proto
blood cycled though her system until her body produces
enough of her own to keep her alive. A re-gen tank is being
prepped for her. She'll be put inside in a couple days. It
will take ten weeks for her arm to be regrown."

Fox gave a slow nod as he took all of this in, a small frown
playing over his face. "All right, give her the best care
you can. We'll be paying for it. I would also like a sample
of her hair if I can, enough to track her home Universe and
Verse."

Dr. Baker nodded, pressing a few more buttons. "The billing
is now on your account, but I'm afraid we can't give you the
hair sample. Privacy issues."

"Right, right," Fox answered, shaking his head slightly. "Is
she going to wake up before going in the tank, or is she
going to stay out cold till she has her new arm?"

"We don't expect her to regain consciousness that soon.
She'll be fully recovered once she leaves the re-gen tank,
but will need physical therapy for her new arm."

Fox nodded, "That's understandable. Thanks, Doctor. Unless
there's anything else, I think I want to go home."

"Just the pills you need to speed up your healing. I've
already sent the prescription in, they should be delivered
to your home in two to three hours."

"Right," he responded, sliding off the table and onto the
floor. He held his good hand out to me. "Come on, we should
go."

"You might want to think about a new shirt," I commented,
taking his hand in my paw.

Dr. Baker walked over to one of the cabinets in the room,
and pulled out a shirt in plastic wrap. "Here you are," he
said, handing it to me.

I smiled, snagging my claw on one corner of the plastic, and
ripping it open. Removing the white shirt from the bag, I
helped Fox get it on, getting his good arm though a sleeve,
and buttoning it down the front for him.

Once that was finished, we walked out of the examination
room, and into the waiting room, picking up the pair of
tigers on the way through. They both fell in a few steps
behind us, once to each side, covering their respective
charges.

On returning to the house, I left Fox in the bedroom, and
made a quick check on the kids to make sure they were al
right. Adric was a little fussy, but he settled down with a
few minutes of being held.

Once they were all asleep, I took the baby monitor for
Kalie, and joined Fox in the bedroom. He wasn't there, but
there was a trail of clothing leading into the bathroom. I
followed quickly, glancing into the room.

He had the bathtub half filled, and was looked like he was
trying very hard to relax, but with his arm in the sling,
and dried blood speckled all over as he fiddled with his
glasses, it was clear he was failing.

"May I join you?" I asked, stepping inside of the room.

Not looking up, he smiled just a bit. "Please, my love, I
would enjoy you close to me at the moment."

A smile rolled over my face, my ears perking up as I pulled
my own clothing off, throwing it into a pile on the floor
before shutting the door with my foot. I took a quick glance
at his arm as I slipped down into the still filling tub. "Is
it safe to get that wet?"

"I'm suppose to soak it for at least an hour, to allow the
dura-skin to bond tightly to my own." he answered, setting
his glasses to the side as I moved to sit next to him,
leaning on his good arm. The bruise on his shoulder had
nearly faded. The only colors left were soft blues, and a
few purples under the skin.

He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. In
returned, I threaded my arm behind his back and pulled him
just as close to myself, and started to nuzzle his cheek.

Fox nuzzled back, a soft purr escaping from his lips as the
water level rose around us until it came up to our
shoulders. Reaching back I undid his pigtail, letting the
hair fall back into the water. I took his earring off as
well, as he had forgotten to remove it.

He sighed, and leaned up against me as I shut off the water.
"I suppose you want to know what happened?" he asked.

I smiled. "It had crossed my mind love, but I didn't want to
press you into telling me about it."

A short smile played over his lips, and he leaned over me.
"Thanks love, but I do want to get this off my chest," he
murmured and then gave me a quick kiss.

I returned the kiss for as long as I could before he pulled
away. "Then start with who Samantha is?" I suggested.

He smiled and nodded. Then he proceeded to tell me how he
had met her on the other side of the Fold, and learned that
she was after Cain as well, and was also from another Earth.

I raised an eyebrow when he told me that he had spent the
night in her hotel room. I knew he didn't sleep with her or
anything, he was too honest for that, and I trusted him
enough not to suspect it.

Still I gave him a kiss when he told me he hadn't done
anything that night but stay up all night watching TV and
learning the local language.

He kissed me back for a few a seconds, pulling away far
sooner than I wished. "That afternoon," he continued, "we
started hitting the bars, trying to find out about Cain.
Mostly I let Samantha lead, with her (at times brutal) form
of questioning."

"It took several days, but we learned a few things. The base
I shut down was Cain's main base, and home. I gather he was
rather pissed that I took it from him. Second, the local
base was some sort of safe house. The scuttlebutt was that
he had started some major construction there, building a new
home."

He smiled a bit. "And of course, we found out where the base
was. It was under an old warehouse in a business district a
few miles from where the fold was. We managed to get in the
day before." He smiled wider, "Don't ask how we managed it.
Just leave it that it involved three guards, a piece of gum,
a laundry cart and five sticks of dynamite."

I let out a soft laugh, quickly smothering it with my paws.
Fox chuckled in return. "Don't worry, it was far sillier
than it sounds, and the dynamite was actually only... you
know, just in case."

"Needless to say, we did manage to get inside, and that's
where things started to get interesting again."

    Chapter 17

The drop from the air vent was longer than I would have
liked, but in the current situation my choices were
significantly limited. Samantha was in the process of
removing the vent cover to give us access into one of the
hallways of Cain's base.

I adjusted myself around in the air duct, glad this one vent
shaft hadn't been locked off like the others we had found.
It worried me a bit that just this one vent was set up for
this type of access.

It had occurred to me that such a thing could be a trap, and
I had voiced that before Samantha and I had entered into
this area. She just brushed it off, insisting it was more
important to get inside.

"Got it," she muttered, as she finally levered the cover
off. She worked it to the side and slid it down behind her.
I leaned over the hole, and looked down at the floor below.

"Think it's safe?" I asked, pulling my head back and
shuffling around so my feet were over the vent.

She gave me a one-sided smile. "It never is."

"Right," I answered, pulling one of my guns from its
holster, and thumbing off the safety. I replaced it, but
left the strap off as I dropped my legs down through the
hole. Leaning forward I grasped the other lip with my hands,
then in one swift motion slipping down though the vent.

For a moment I was in free fall before my arms took my
weight. I moved my momentum into a swing outwards, letting
my hands go a second later to drop to the floor. The landing
sent a shock up my legs, but it was nothing my body couldn't
take. As I dropped to a crouch my hand was already on my
gun.

I spun on one heel, coming up with my back to the wall.
Looking in both directions I found that the coast was clear,
with no one in sight at the moment. The hallway was short,
dead-ending to my left, but there were signs of recent
construction work on the rock. A dozen feet to my right the
hall intersected another in a T-junction.

"It's clear," I said, rising to my feet, keeping one hand
near my gun. I cast a short glance up to Samantha. She had a
smile on her face that was reflected in her eyes. Then in
one smooth motion she kicked her legs out of the ceiling and
dropped to the floor.

She landed hard, taking most of the impact with her legs,
but still ended up sitting on her ass. She let out a soft
gasp as she landed, and looked dazed for a moment.

I went to her side, offering a hand up, which she took
silently. "Are you all right, nothing hurt?"

"I'm fine," she said as she came to her feet. "Just wasn't
expecting a shock like that landing. This world's gravity is
stronger than Earth normal." She looked at me for a second,
a befuddled look on her face, "How did you handle it so
well?"

I shrugged, "I have a different bone structure then a human,
I can take more force to my body then you." I paused,
furrowing my eyebrows for a second. "Or something along
those lines. So, now where do we find Cain?"

"We look," she answered, slipping a gun into her hand. "He's
taken this as his home for now, he's got to have a room.
Once we find that, we'll find him."

"Do you have a suggestion how? It's not as if there will be
signposts on the walls pointing us to the different
locations in the base."

She shook her head. "Nothing like that, no. On the other
hand I don't think it will be to hard to find someone that
we can ask for directions."

"Sounds good to me," I said with a nod, and then took a
quick look down each side of the junction. I only saw a
single human about a hundred feet away, working on something
in the wall. "I think I found a volunteer for you," I said
when I ducked back, in a voice close to a whisper as I
motioned down the hallway.

Samantha slipped past me and took her own glance, and
holstered her gun for the moment. "Looks good to me," she
said, then stepped into the hallway, and started walking
towards him. I quickly followed her, walking as casually as
I could by her side.

For the moment, no one expected us here, or even suspected
we had found the place. That could change at any time
though, once the guards we left up above came to. Luckily
this world was mixed species, a human type and a raccoon
type, so we weren't too terribly out of place.

We walked up to the man, flanking him. I was on the left,
Samantha on his right. I hooked my thumb into the pocket of
my jeans, looking causal but also in a position to grab my
gun fast if things went bad.

"Excuse me?" she asked in a normal tone of voice. "I was
wondering if you could help us?"

He never looked up, but did stop his work for a moment. "It
all depends on what you're asking," he answered, setting
down the tool he had been using and picking up a new one. He
never took his eyes off the equipment in the wall that he
was working on.

"You see, we're trying to find Cain's office, and we got a
bit lost. If you can give us some directions, we would
appreciate it."

The man let out a long hum, "Down that way," he said,
pointing to the right. "Second left turn, the first right,
it's the second door on the right."

"Thank you," Samantha said with a smile. Then in a quick
move grabbed her gun with her left hand, spun it around and
struck the man on the back of the head with the butt of it.

He stopped his work, swaying for just a moment before
dropping to the side, out cold.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I asked, bending down to
check his pulse. It was relatively normal. I checked the
back of his head as well; no damage.

"No need to risk him telling someone we asked anything," she
explained, holstering her gun. She then began to adjust his
work area, moving the cover from the equipment into a
position that would look to the untrained eye like it had
fallen loose and hit him.

"Well it's a little late for me to protest now." I snorted
as I stood back up. "He'll be out for a bit, but nothing
damaged. Let's get out of here before we have to knock
anyone else out."

She gave me a short nod of her head, and we took off.

Following the directions, we soon came to a simple door set
into the rock face of the wall. It looked just the same as
any other door at first glance, but on closer inspection I
could see the locking controls on the side were more
extensive than on any other door I had seen.

"It's probably locked," Samantha mused, taking a step back.

"Could be," I said, looking closer at the controls. I
couldn't read the language on the flat buttons, but I could
get a good idea from the layout what each did. "Let's try
this first," I suggested, pointing at the larger button on
the panel.

She looked over my shoulder. "'Open'. Well, it's worth
trying, you never know."

"And if he's in there?"

She smiled, her tail flicking behind her. "Then things end
here and now!" With that she reaching past me and pressed
the button. There was a hiss and the door slid into the
wall.

Samantha already had her gun out, and I followed suit,
holding it tightly with both hands.

"Hello," she called into the room, "Maid service."

There was no answer.

She looked at me, and I shrugged in return. She nodded, and
put her right arm into a guard position, then turned the
corner in to the room.

After a moment she looked back out at me. "It's clear."

"Pity," I mused, and followed her inside the room. She
closed the door as soon as I was clear, pressing a few extra
buttons in the process.

The room was much less home-like what Cain had back on the
base. There was a simple desk at one wall, with a computer
terminal and papers scattered all over. A plain bed took up
another wall, along with a wardrobe, the doors of which were
hanging open.

There was also a single wooden slatted door placed against
the last wall of the room. More elegant than the rest of the
quarters, it stood out more then anything else.

"Now what's that?" I asked, pointing at the door with one
hand. "There was a door like that in Cain's room on the
base. It didn't seem out of place there, but here it really
does."

"The shrine to his God," she answered, only giving it a
short glance as she looked around the room.

"Give it a once over, make sure no one is inside."

"Right," she answered, and opened the door. Glancing around
for a few seconds she closed it again. "Nothing much, a few
statues and candles. It's a closet."

I laughed. "All right, so he's not in here. That's good to
know," I said, still checking under the bed.

She didn't say anything. Instead she moved over to his desk,
flipping though the papers on top as I checked around the
wardrobe, moving the clothing around a bit. No one was
hiding there.

"Well this is interesting," I heard Samantha comment.

I looked over in her direction. "What did you find?"

She looked up from the papers. "Layouts of some place. Looks
like plans for some kind of assault."

That did strike me as interesting, so I began to walk
towards her when there came a soft beep from the direction
of the door.

I turned my head around to look in its direction, but
Samantha already had her hand in an iron grip around my arm.
"Shit, someone's about to come in," she hissed as she pulled
me towards the only real cover in the room, Cain's shrine.

"What, how do you know?" I asked, following behind her at a
run.

She opened the door and shoved me inside, pulling it tight
behind us so fast I couldn't even get a good look at the
small room.

"I rigged the door when we came in. Now hush!" she
whispered, pulling me down to the floor. The wooden slats of
the door let some light into the room, and allowed both of
us to look out.

A moment later, no more than seconds after the door had
beeped, it slid open. Cain walked stiffly into the room. He
looked pretty bad, like he had only been getting short flits
of sleep the last few days. His eyes were dark, and his hair
had been cut short since our last encounter.

He was followed into the room by a raccoon morph, who was
shorter than Cain by a head. He was dressed in more of a
business-style attire, and held himself in way that was
completely opposite to the human. He appeared proud and
strong where Cain was more sulking and tired.

They were in the middle of an argument as the door closed
behind them.

"I do want a straight answer about why you are so obsessed
with this man?" the raccoon asked, taking up a position
standing a few feet away from where we hid.

"I can't adequately explain it to you," Cain answered,
taking a seat behind his desk. He paused to look at his
paperwork before stacking it into a small pile in front of
himself.

"That's Leib," Samantha whispered into my ear. "Cain's
oldest advisor, and financier."

I nodded, leaning forward so I could hear more of the
conversation.

"That's the answer you've been giving me for the last
month," Leib responded, his posture stiffening as his large
tail swept in a short arc behind his feet. "I'm tired of how
you're acting about this one man. It's blinded your
judgment, and caused you to lose your home. I cannot
understand why you continue to pursue this."

"I have my reasons," Cain answered, keeping his voice slow
and measured. "And I do not need to explain them to you."

"The hell you do," he snapped in return, taking a slight
step forward. "I've been working with you for years. The
only thing you have ever hidden from me is how you got your
new body, and this. I saw some of the pictures of this
Cutter person, he has your face, or rather you have his. Now
please, grant me some kind of explanation."

Well, I had been starting to suspect it over the last few
days, but now this was almost proof. Cain was not my double,
not some twisted and bizarre version of myself. He was not
me, and that felt like a load had been lifted from my chest.

My double paused for a moment, and slowly leaned back in his
chair, resting his hands on the edge of the desk. "Yes, I do
have his face. It was given to me on the world of Triya, to
save my life."

I took in a short gasp of breath, which I bit off before
anyone could hear. I knew the world Triya. Six years before
that was where I had my first real adventure. Where I first
decided to do some good with my ability as a Natural, to
play at being The Doctor.

It was also the world where I first met Ruhk in the guise of
Dra.

I suddenly had a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach that
hir appearing to me before was more than just a social
visit. I suspected sie was somehow working with Cain.

Leib had said something in return, but I missed what it was.
Instead Cain continued on, "The body was a gift, with a
price. The giver became my new God, on the condition that my
attacks of terror we're to be blessings, sermons of
destruction in hir name, feeding hir the power from havoc I
caused."

The use of the hermaphrodite pronouns clinched it for me. I
twisted around and in the half-light grabbed one of the
statutes that filled the shrine. Bringing it to the light I
looked it over.

It was made in the image of the bitch hirself.

Samantha gave me a strange look, but I just shook my head,
leaning back towards the door.

Once again, I had missed the raccoon's response. It felt
like I was listening to the better side of a phone
conversation. "Oh yes," Cain said, responding to the unheard
question. "There is a price. My God wants my body double for
hir own uses. Sie has charged me to retrieve it for hir--
alive, and in one piece."

"And why didn't you tell me about this? I'm your advisor the
point of having me around is to give you advice."

Cain nodded, rising to his feet. "And do you have any for me
now?"

"Don't run into this guns blazing again," he said, as Cain
dropped an arm over his shoulder, and began guiding him out
of the room. "That has never yet worked for you. Do what you
do best; blow things up! I'm sure you can find a few
creative things to destroy that will bring him to you."

"Perhaps," he responded, opening the door. "I will consider
that, but for now I have much to think about. So if you will
give me some privacy for now?"

Leib nodded, and walked out of the door, silently.

Cain shut the door as his friend passed over the threshold,
then pressed a few more buttons. A red light lit up on the
control panel in response.

"He's locked the door," Samantha hissed in my ear.

I nodded to her, expecting Cain to return to his desk, or
maybe his bed. Instead he started walking towards where we
were hidden.

I rose to my full height behind the door, pulling my gun
out. I rested it in front of my body, about chest high, held
tightly in both hands.

Behind me I heard Samantha stand as well, as there was no
room for us to be side by side. At the same time I pulled
the hammer back with my thumb.

Taking in a short breath, I watched through the slats as he
reached forward to open to the door.

    Chapter 18

I was tempted, just for a moment to kick the door open as
Cain reached for it, but there wasn't enough time even if I
had wanted to do something as foolish. By the time I would
have gotten into position, he would have opened the door.

So instead I watched as he grabbed the outside handle, and
swung the door wide. I responded by extending my arms out
into firing position. I didn't have to aim. My target was so
close I couldn't miss him.

"Hello," I said casually. "Surprised to see me?"

He cracked a smile, letting go of the door and slightly
lifting his hands. "Quite a bit, I didn't expect you to find
me at all. I have to say I am very impressed."

"Thanks. Now, care to take a few steps back to the center of
the room? I don't want you getting any stupid ideas." I
didn't make the mistake of motioning with the gun. I just
stared down the barrel at him.

He took a few steps back, his eyes focusing behind me for a
moment. "Hello there, Samantha, what a pleasant surprise."

I stepped to the left, allowing her to stand by my side.
"Which surprise do you mean?" she asked, taking a second
step forward. "That I'm here, or that I'm alive?"

A thoughtful look passed over his face for a brief moment.
"Both actually. I was sure that I had killed you, and I have
no idea how you found my base, but I suspect Fox had
something to do with it."

"I got lucky and caught a ripple," she replied, taking
another step closer. "Got out just in the nick of time. As
for finding you, I didn't need any help for that," her cloth
tail flickered quickly behind her as she spoke.

He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, still holding his
hands in the air. "You know, Sam, I'm really starting to
regret having slept with you."

"You're not the only one," she snapped in response, taking
another step forward, coming almost within arm's reach of
him.

"I'm in favor of witty banter as much as the next person," I
commented, taking a short step to the side. "But I don't
think this is the time or the place for this type of
conversation. Samantha, please take a step back. If you get
any closer he's going to be able to attack you."

She muttered something under her breath, and took a couple
steps away from Cain. For the moment he looked disappointed,
rolling his fingers down into his palm a couple times before
snapping them back up into the air as he smiled at me. "I
take it you heard most of my conversation with Leib?"

"Quite a bit of it," I answered, making eye contact with him
for a moment. "Funny, I actually think I remember who you
used to be back on Triya. Pity you survived that mess.
Though if it's any reassurance, if it wasn't for your timely
explosion I would never have made it out of the base with
the vaccine for the plague."

"What was that you were saying about witty banter?" he asked
with a touch of a smirk on his scarred face.

"I just had a thought," Samantha said, her tail sweeping in
a low arc. "Why are we sitting talking to him right now,
when we should be killing him instead?"

Cain's face lost all expression, his eyes catching the light
from the fixtures in the ceiling for just a moment. "Because
it would bring every guard in here down on you in a minute."

"That's a good point," I said. "We need something a little
quieter if we wish to kill him."

Samantha snorted, "He's a bastard. I say just kill him now.
We can fight out way out after words if we have too."

"No," he snapped in return, a surprising lack of emotion on
his face. "I'm not a bastard, I'm a killer, a terrorist and
a mass murderer. Get your terms right."

I frowned, looking him over as she again took a step
forward, motioning outwards with her gun. "You forget
terrible in bed." There was obviously quite a bit of hatred
for him in her. The argument was just a fraction of it. Far
more was being shown in her body language.

She edged forward again, holding the gun tighter, her tail
twitching at full speed behind her ankles. Cain simply just
stood there as she pushed her gun out. His expression never
changed.

"I grow tired of you, Sam," Cain said, "And you Fox-- I have
plans for you, as does my God."

I quickly moved over to Samantha, pulling her a few steps
back from Cain before moving to her other side, my own gun
still pointed at my double. "You can tell the Bitch, I have
no interest in working for hir, ever."

"You don't have much of an option," he responded, his eyes
never changing position. In fact he wasn't even focusing on
me anymore, or Samantha for that matter. He was looking off
into space, beyond the wall, not really focusing on
anything.

I suddenly had a very bad feeling. Something was going on.
People don't act like that. They don't hold perfectly still
and expressionless, especially with a pair of guns pointed
at them.

This wasn't Cain.

At least it wasn't anymore. It had been before, but not now.
I suspected some how he had switched himself with something
else.

I glanced around the room looking for anything that seemed
different. The door was still locked, his desk wasn't
disturbed in any way, and the wardrobe was still hanging
open. As I looked closer  thought what clothing I could see
seemed to be moving, like a breeze was blowing past them.

"Shit," I said as I snapped my head back to look at him.
"You're not even here!"

The copy of Cain laughed, deep and long, but again without
moving. Then it simply broke apart into beads of light and
collapsed into itself, the particles drifting down to the
floor as it vanished into the air from whence it came.

"What the hell!" Samantha yelled, running to where the image
had vanished. "He was an illusion! When the hell did that
happen?"

"I don't know," I answered, moving swiftly to the open
wardrobe and grabbing a handful of clothes, throwing them
out onto the floor. The back wall was gone, swung away,
revealing a passage through the rock. Light from a few feet
down its length fell onto the floor at my feet.

"Another secrete passage," I muttered. "I should have known.
Come on, we have to follow him."

"It's a trap," she said from over my shoulder.

"Everything in here is a trap," I responded, stepping
through the wardrobe, and into the passage. It went a few
feet before making a sharp turn to the right. I followed
around the corner very carefully, my gun held back and my
arm in a blocking position in case someone tried to attack
me. Nothing. It was just a tunnel in the rock.

We both dashed down the tunnel, unsure of how much of a head
start Cain had on us. After another sharp turn the tunnel
came to a sudden end, opening out into a small workroom.

There were a few tools and various parts laying about on a
workbench, but no one was waiting there for us. Nor was
anyone waiting in the hallway on the other side of the door.

I looked down both directions of the hallway. "Two guesses;
care to make one?"

She turned her eyes to the floor for the moment, scanning
down both directions. "That way," she said, pointing to the
left.

I started down that direction, "Why do you say that?"

"Rock dust from the tunnel; you can see his footprints," she
explained as we moved carefully down the hallway.

I glanced at the floor. She was right, I could see faint
gray footprints heading in the direction we were going. Each
print was light and short; Cain had been running this way.

Just as the prints were finally fading away, they turned and
went through a doorway. The light on the side said it was
locked.

Samantha was immediately at the door, working the controls.
I took up a cover position to her left, making sure no one
surprised us in the hallway.

I glanced back down at the footprints again. Cain had paused
in front of the door for a few moments. I could even see a
small pile of the rock dust in the doorway. I could easily
follow the prints back down the hallway the way we came.

What struck me as odd was that there was only his set of
footprints. Neither Samantha or I had left any. I reached
out with my foot, and pulled it across one of the prints.
The dust smeared easily.

They were fresh, that much was for sure, and I had got some
on my own shoe just by smearing it.

That meant Cain had led us exactly where he wanted us to be.

"Got it!" Samantha said, standing up and hitting the
controls for the door.

I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back with all my
strength. I was too late, as the door exploded outward in a
ball of fire, blowing the door frame away and sending bits
of metal out around us as the force thrust us onto the
floor.

The landing was hard, knocking the wind out of me as
Samantha landed half on my chest and half on the ground.

"You ok?" I asked.

She didn't say anything.

Pushing her to the side, I sat up, holding her head in my
hands. I was all right, nothing more than a sore back from
the landing, and my glasses had been thrown somewhere.
Samantha, on the other hand, was much worse. Her right arm
had been caught in the explosion and was simply gone from
her elbow down. She was bleeding pretty badly.

I reacted quickly, almost ripping my belt off. I wrapped it
around her arm, above the wound and pulled it as tight as
possible, then tighter. It was cutting into her skin,
pulling in deep, but the flow of blood had slowed from
spurting to seeping. I buckled the belt tightly, glad I wore
a mesh one, so I didn't have to worry about making holes.

I pulled her to the side, and took my jacket off, putting it
under her head. Then I picked up my second gun from where it
had fallen when I took my belt off. Sliding it out of the
holster, I flipped the safety off. My other gun had been
dropped during the explosion, and I expected it was in the
debris that was left of the door.

After a moment of searching, I found my glasses a few feet
away, and worse for the wear. The frame had been bent down
the middle, and a crack was running down the left lens.
Forcing them back into something close their to proper
shape, I put them back on my nose.

"I'll be back for you," I told Samantha as I stepped away
from her, and through what was left of the door. It led into
a short hallway, which I followed to another door.

Inside it was a small garage, with a few cars parked on the
side, and a large door at the top of a small ramp,
presumably leading to the surface. Cain was standing next to
one of the vehicles, a smile on his scarred face.

"There you are!" he said, leaning back against the car; "I
was hoping the blast hadn't killed you. Though as you're
alone, I hope I have finally managed to kill Sam."

Saying nothing, I just pointing my gun at him. He was too
far away for me to be assured of hitting him. I wasn't that
good a shot, but I wasn't simply going to let him get away
for a third time. I started walking towards him.

Cain suddenly moved, and I heard a series of thuds from the
floor and the ceiling, as well as the sound of the door
shutting behind me. A short look around told me all I needed
to know. A thick yellow gas had started to fill the room.

"Time to go to sleep, Fox. When you wake up you'll be at
your Mistress's feet." Cain said, smiling at me as he
brought a mask up to his nose and mouth. The gas already
waist high and was still flooding into the room.

I fired off a shot at him, which I could hear as it hit the
car, missing him. A moment later the gas enveloped me,
closing over my head.

Holding my breath, I tried to see through the gas, but it
was like being in a heavy fog, and it was starting to sting
at my eyes.

It must have been some sort of knock-out gas from what he
had said. Which didn't give me much time to work out
something to do. As it was, the lung full of air I had was
already running out. It was a fight to keep my body from
breathing in the gas.

My lungs and throat were starting to burn as I feel to my
knees, trying to use my shirt as some sort of makeshift
filter for the gas when I remembered that I already had one!

At the beginning of the year, all the people in charge of
the Consortium, myself included, had been implanted with a
kind of gill to filter out any gases and poisons in the air.
This was the exact situation it had been made for.

Sitting up, I very slowly let out the stale air in my lungs,
first out my nose, then transitioning it to my mouth. I
adjusted it back and forth until I was exhaling out of both.

There came a sudden, and strong, snapping feeling at the
base of my throat. I let out a cough, and involuntary
brought in a large breath of air.

I held it for a moment, then let it back out again, then
took in another longer breath. There was a peculiar feeling
just under my Adam's apple, an electric tingling. After a
few more moments, when I felt no effects from the gas, I
knew for sure that it was working.

I stood up, but didn't say a word. Just stood there in the
thick gas, starting at where I thought Cain was waiting. I
didn't want to give away that the gas wasn't affecting me; I
wanted him to think he had knocked me out.

Minutes passed before I heard a heavy whine start up, and
felt the gas start to move again, this time to the sides of
the room, letting the center clear.

As the visibility returned I could see that Cain had moved.
He was now against the wall working a set of controls as
fans on each wall pulled the gas out of the room. He wasn't
looking at me, or even for me, he just continued to work at
the controls.

I slowly walked towards him, my gun held outwards as the
last of the gas drifted from the room.

"That was a bit of overkill, wasn't it?" I asked, now only
just a few feet away.

He spun around, fire in his eyes as his face pulled into a
snarl. He said nothing, just dropped his mask and leapt at
me. I fired the gun, but he rolled under my line of fire,
coming up right in front of me and punching me in the chest.

I staggered back, as he grabbed my hands and kicked my chest
again, twisting at the gun. I fell to the floor, and the gun
was left in his hands.

Cain flipped it around so it was pointing at me. "Get up,"
he snarled at me. "Now."

I pulled myself back to my feet, coughing a bit as the
implant deactivated now that the air was clean. I glared at
Cain, keenly aware that if I had gone with Ravindar's plan,
it would have worked perfectly.

"You should have killed me when my back was turned," he
snapped. "You're too keen on talking to me to kill me."

"It won't happen again," I replied in a dry voice.

He smiled. "Oh I know it won't. I'm just going to kill you."

"I though you were working for Ruhk," I commented. "You're
suppose to deliver me to hir aren't you? Killing me would
piss hir off."

"I don't fucking care," he replied. "I am tired of dealing
with you, and I'm sick of hir constant fucking demands. So
if I can't use you to kill hir, I'm just going to kill you
now." He let out a short laugh. "You know, I've killed you
once already, before sie even told me to capture you."

I nodded, "Yes, Little Fox, my real double. He actually
survived that. He was found and brought back to the Keep.
They have good healers there."

He smirked. "Well, this time I have the right one. I won't
simply leave you for dead. I'll make sure of it," and with
that he fired the gun.

I tried to dodge; I could see where the gun was pointed, I
could work out its trajectory, and as his finger squeezed
the trigger, I dodged the other way, but I wasn't fast
enough. The all to familiar pain ripped though my left arm
as it hit me. I twisted around, and lost my footing, falling
to the floor.

Cain took a step towards me, pointing the gun at me once
more. I could see a look of pain on his face, as well as
blood. Streaks of it were also running down the side of his
hand.

He tried to fire again, but this time nothing happened. The
cause was not the gun. His hand had locked as he tried to
fire. He was just holding it there, looking down at his
hands, as blood started to drip from them.

More started to run down his face and from his wrists and
neck. As the blood fell from his skin it darkened, and
became a black color as it landed on the floor.

The scar on his face almost ripped open, wider and longer
than the scar itself, a gash leading from his mouth all the
way back into his hair. His hands released the gun, dropping
it to the floor as they shook in the air.

His eyes rolled back into his head as he tried to say
something, but more blood came out of his mouth. More gashes
were opening on his face and neck, like something was
chewing at him from the inside out.

I picked the gun up, rising to my feet, My arm was in a
great deal of pain, but it hadn't lost too much strength.
Taking a step back, I raised the gun up to point at Cain.

He let out a gasp, and fell to his knees in a puddle of the
black blood. More of the gashes opened around his neck. His
body started to convulse as he tried to let out a scream,
and collapsed on the floor.

His body twitched for a few moments, his blood turning black
all over his body, still seeping out, but in a slow, thick
mess.

I stood over him, gun pointed at his head for a few moments,
before stepping forward and nudging his head with my foot.
His head rolled to the side, and I could see that most of
his face was gone.

He was dead.

* * *

"I managed to get one of the cars running with a few minutes
of work, though only because Samantha had shown me how the
day before. After that, I went back and got her from where
she was laying. She was barely alive, and what was left was
just slipping away."

Fox sighed as he sat down on the bed. "I took a little time
to get the doors leading to the outside open. I actually had
to shoot the lock off. What surprised me the most was that
no one ever came to see what had happened. Neither the shots
nor the explosion brought any attention."

"That is strange," I said with a frown. "It doesn't make any
sense."

He shook his head, adjusting the sling around a bit. "None
of it does; Cain's death, or that we were left alone. I can
only think that either the base was evacuated when Cain ran,
or we were in some isolated section of the base and the only
way to it was through the passage."

"I don't think it matters," I said, sitting down next to my
husband. "He's dead, and we still have to take care of the
rest of his people. We just can't leave them there."

"I've already handled it," he answered, wrapping his good
arm around my shoulder. "I had Ravindar go to the Guild with
the fold number, and directions to the base. They will deal
with it; I'm sure of that."

I nodded, remembering some of my training. Cain had crossed
the Guild enough that they would retaliate to insure that
his people were stopped. To what level, I couldn't hazard a
guess. Most of them would not be hurt, but some would, they
would have to be.

"I also asked him to go back to the car," he continued, his
fingers running through the fur on my shoulder. "To picked
up my jacket, I left it there, and some blood samples from
the back seat."

"Why?"

"It's Samantha's blood," he answered, "I hope to have a way
home for her when she comes out of the re-gen tank. I can
use the blood samples to track down her native universe. If
we're lucky, it's one of the three Earth's in the Database."

"And if you can't find it?" I asked, wrapping my arm around
his waist, and pulling him closer to me.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I'll find something out.
We'll at least have a good idea of what her universe is. We
know she's from an Earth. Not mine, her home doesn't jive
with the local folds, and not the version that Elena is
from, which isn't even considered an Earth. So there are two
possible ones left in the database. We'll work from there if
we have no luck."

I nodded, flicking my tail against the bed sheets. "And what
about Cain?"

"He is dead," Fox answered, his head dropping a bit. "I wish
that was the end of it. Something, or someone, killed him.
More than likely it was done to save my life. I do not like
that idea at all. I like less the only answer to the
question of "who?" The only person I can think of who might
be in any position to do that is Ruhk."

"That's what I was thinking," I responded, taking his good
hand in my own.

He shook his head a bit. "It's hard to believe. Last I
heard, sie was in a small box, covered in more spells than
most magic talismans have, and guarded by a legion. Hir
capture happened after she gave Cain my body, and he
admitted to feeding hir power with his destruction. There
might have been some kind of connection, some kind of hole
in hir prison. One that sie must have destroyed to kill
him."

"Sie probably has other agents out there," I said, feeling a
slight chill run over my spine and tail. "And sie will send
them after you now that Cain has failed."

He nodded. "I know, I'm worried about that too. I've called
Elena, but sie is out off-world right now. I've told hir
people that I need to talk to hir as soon at it can be
arranged. I gave them a good idea what's going on, but they
said sie won't be back for at least a week. First thing in
the morning I'm going to send a message through formal
channels to hir world as well. Not in full detail, but
enough to get the Senate looking into it."

"So what do we do next?" I asked, hugging him gently.

He laughed, returning the hug with his good arm. "I'm going
to bed. I'm going hold you close, and sleep with you in my
arms, because I love you, and I want to hold you forever."

Fox then pulled me closer, and kissed me. Sometime later we
curled up around each other in bed, and slept in each
others' arms.

-----

This story is copyright 2001 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy
reprints limited to one per person, all other rights
reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except
by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may
not be removed. Ruhk and Elena is copyright 2001 by Chris
Bradford, and used with permission. Milgrove is copyright
2001 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used with permission.