While the doctor would have liked to observe more of Lucie during one of her ‘episodes’, since she wasn't in one right now and her last one seemed particularly draining from a morale standpoint. So the best he could do was to let her go back home and recommend her to stay calm, taking a nap if necessary.
Samatha and Tabby helped Lucie, still under the shock of her last vision, to Sam's car. There, while Samatha drove to Lucie's, the man-turned-werecat fell asleep, not even waiting to be home.
- – — – -
Lucie was nude, in a dark and almost empty place, some sort of void, but still saw herself like she was in broad daylight. But none of this disturbed her somehow. Not far from herself she could see what looked like an hollow version of Luc Damocles full of holes, hanging on a coatrack by one of said holes.
Before she could ponder the meaning of this, a black furred form jumped on her. Now on her back, Lucie saw her aggressor was none other than her fursona, who was now rubbing her muzzle against her cheek.
Then the cat stopped and sat herself beside her human self. Taking on a serious face, she said “I know it can be worrying to see your former self, but like the phoenix is reborn from his cinders, you were (re)born from the shattered pieces of his mind. Being reborn mean it isn't the same phoenix, not really, just like you aren't Luc Philippe Damocles, and technically never was.”
“You may have all his memories, along with some things in common,” insisted the cat “but there is just as much differences between you two, there already was before I entered the picture. You don't really act like him either. Would Luc have tested the potions on Zeke and Lola? Would he have lied about why he absolutely needed to become a werecat? Because it wasn't to be the same species as Tabby, was it?”
“No…” Timidly admitted Lucie “Because while the potions alone are enough to make small animals, like rats, exchange gender, they aren't to do the same on a human. For them to work on me, it needed the help of a gender-specific strand of the were-virus.”
“And I know we lied to Tabitha for fear of loosing her, but don't we should be honest with her, that the least we could do for her. Don't you think, miss Lucie Phoenix Damocles?”
“Lucie Phoenix Damocles, hm? I like it!”
— – - – —
While Lucie did mumble during her nap, she hadn't said anything understandable, which prevented Tabby and Samantha from worrying about her disassociating herself from her past as Luc, even if it only delayed the inevitable. The only thing they could understand the last thing she said in her sleep, as they arrived in front of Lucie's home: “Lucie Phoenix Damocles… I like it.”