If T was a human being, a mere human, then Tammia's brain washing would
have absorbed him easily. The arrogant prince of the nine-tailed foxes should
have known better, combining souls always created dangerous amounts of
power in the new entity, making them nearly impossible to control, like his
new queen.
But T wasn't human, not in the least, he was an angel, which made him more
frightening than most living things on this planet! Of course he was being
submerged in an ocean with heavy chains covering his mind as the the mirror
awareness of Tammia created a giant coat of ice over the surface.
A human being wouldn't have stood a chance. But the Angel whose name
starts with T wasn't human. He superiors hated it when he did this next part,
they felt falling back on this sort of thing was seen as grandstanding in this
day and age. But it was this back-up plan, or be trapped in this magical
overhaul body as his spirit died a slow horrible death. T spread his wings.
Karther was also struggling. What was happening? His queen was supposed
to be his, he wasn't supposed to be her toy. He had even entertained the
thought that perhaps, they could even be equals! After all, he had made her to
be such. But Tammia, both of her, was laying layer after layer of emotional
modifications on him. He was the prince of kitesume. He was older than most
countries. But he had made his queen -too- well it seemed. He would have
normally cackled at the irony if he wasn't feeling more and more docile by the
moment. Still, he was a master magic user, and this place was kept in place
by his will! He used his power to create a slight rise in the floor ahead, which
made him trip, the quick bonk on the head and the healthy dose of pain
snapping him back to reality for the moment. What had gone wrong? No
matter, he'd figure it out soon enough and repair whatever run time error was
in his queen's brainwashing.
The Tammias turned around and smiled at their prince. "Now now dear, none
of that." They said at exactly the same time with exactly the same tone and
expression. They might as well have been mirror images. "We can't have you
getting hurt before you can enjoy us."
Karther felt a -double dose- of the emotion control assault this time. All the
times he had screwed with innocent people's brain, using them, playing with
them as if they were toys rather than sentient beings, he had never
experienced it for himself. And thus, he had no real defenses against it.
"Now maybe we should go deal with those vixens who can't make right in the
head anymore, maybe they'll made good sand sculptures." They said together
exactly the same, thou one of the Tammia's eyes twitched.
As Karther suddenly wondered just what he was upset about and just -why-
he wouldn't want to do what he queen wanted, and why he'd be hesitant
about enjoy her anyway, one of the Tammia's suddenly grabbed her head in
confusion.
Two shapes of light seemed to grow from her back momentarily, then things
seemed to explode, everything within a dozen feet sphere was returned to it's
original state of shapeless sand, and all where throw back causing a cave in
from the palace's sudden lack of support in that area, part of the ceiling of the
first floor and some of the walls collapsed.
A while later Tammia got up, and was confused that she could no longer feel
her second body. But looking among the rubble she saw her lovely prince
was perfectly all right. That was good. They were meant to be together after
all.
Shaking his head, T looked down at himself as the dust settled on the other
side of several tons of sand stone.
"Oh just great." 'He' said, not only was his body still not human, it was still not
male. This wasn't so much dismay as it was annoyance, he had gotten used
to that body and it had taken years to hone it. She hoped she'd be able to
revert her body back to it's previous form, it would be annoying to have to
work all the kinks out of a new form all over again. At least this form wasn't just
the fleshy love doll it had been a moment ago. While still decidedly female,
the chest wasn't stupidly huge, and she was at least muscular. She also now
only had one tail. She didn't mind the lack of clothing at all, after all, that was a
human tradition she observed out of manners and nothing more.
She felt something on her back, reached her fur covered hand behind her and
moaned in frustration. Her wings were now permanently a part of this body
rather than something she could call out and return at will. This was going to
make things more 'interesting.'
Looking at the rubble, she sensed Karther and Tammia on the other side. She
was so tempted to leave Karther to his fate, he had decidedly earned it. But
Tammia was still a victim, no matter how dangerous she was now.
Summoning up a spiked mace (and praying no DC comics fanboy ever saw
her wielding one), 'T' got ready to begin to smash through the sand stone to
get at the new queen of the nine tailed foxes.
'Where am I? What's going oh?'
T felt her head look around on it's own as she heard those words. Okay.
Check, now things had gotten Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting
times' interesting.
She knew that voice, the only voice it could belong to.
'Hello Janice.' She though and as expected, her mouth spoke thou the voice
was still that of the angel fox, the tone and inflection wasn't hers.
"Huh? Where are you? Who are you? And where did this mace come from?" T
let her body examine the weapon before she herself gave it a practice swing.
"Whao." T's mouth said. "My arm moved on it's own?"
"No." T said verbally now. "I moved my arm."
"Huh?" T's voice, or rather, Janice said.
T signed. "What do you remember?"
"I remember I'm not supposed to be a fox, OR female, OR a slave to this crazy
fox guy. And I remember my best friend being turned into an even freakier
version of how she already was. Then...I remember... feeling.. faint... without
limits... but smaller... or rather.. that I could -see- how small I really was in
comparison to everything else. Then... like I was a cup of water that got
poured into an already partially full pitcher... then it's all even more messed
up."
"I see. I would guess when I dared use my real form for a split second in a
material universe, my power mixed with the fox magic. Oh and all those TV
Shows were dead on the money about that. You -don't- mix magics unless
you want big trouble. Basically this body tried to be two things at once, it
couldn't be of course, so it went for a middle ground. Your soul got pulled out
of the mix and ended up in this pitcher."
"So... if this is your body, where's mine?"
"It . . . . no longer exists... it was assimilated into Tammie's when Karther
decided to add another layer of magic brainwashing to her."
"WHAT?" 'T' felt the pain of her voice scream through the sensitive fox ears.
He let Janice throw a tantrum for a few seconds as she smashed the floor a
couple times with the mace before reasserting control.
"I'm sorry. I know it's not the same, but after I complete my mission and punish
Karther for abusing the wording of his vow -and- repair the damage he's done
to so many innocent people. I'll let you have this body, I won't need it after my
mission's done."
"Huh? Mission? What are you anyway?"
"An angel."
"BS. I don't believe in god."
"TOO BAD! Just tell yourself it's just a near death experience you're having, or
maybe you're having a drug trip, you won't have to compromise your beliefs
then."
"I don't have beliefs."
"To have no beliefs, in of itself, IS a belief."
Janice had no retort to that. "So what's your name?"
"Which one? Sorry, I end up with a new one nearly every time I go on an
errand it seems. Since I'm currently in a female body, I think I'll follow suit with
you, just call me Tabra."
"So Tabra... are you going to go save my friend now?"
"WE are. Weather I like it or not, you and I are a package deal right now.
Which means you're going to have to learn quick."
"This is too weird! Being in a girl body that used to be mine was bad enough,
being in another girl's body that used to be a guy's is too much! I want out!"
"That would kill you. I won't do that."
"Kill?"
"That IS what you call it when you forcibly separate someone's spirit from their
body. Besides, two heads are better than one. Now please, relax, I have some
things I want to teach you, and doing it the clumsy verbal way would waste
time we don't have."
"What are you going to do?"
"Just give you some quick lessons on how to use this body's abilities. The one
advantage this gives us for now is that one mind can observe and analyze
while the other acts. But for either role, you need to, forgive me, smarten up."
"What did you mean 'for now?'"
Tabra sighed. "You can't have two souls in the same body. It doesn't work like
that. You weren't in Tammia's long enough for it to take effect. But the longer
you and I are in one body, the more you and I will parallel each other until our
spirits become one. You cease to exist, I cease to exist."
"That's horrible!"
"I'm not happy about the idea either."
"You gave the impression you could leave this body, could you do that for
me?" Janice tried to sound 'girl next door' though she hadn't been born female
and Tabra was currently female as well.
"I'd rather slowly fuse with you than let yourself get killed. Which is EXACTLY
what will happen if you try to rescue your friend on your own."
"Killed?"
"What do you think personality death IS?"
"Oh."
"Karther has centuries of experience with fighting and magic... I just have
experience that you don't that no amount of teaching can transfer to you. On
the other hand, you know Tammie better than I do. And part of her is still that
fox queen. In a way... I need you, and you need me."
".. Okay.. for Tammie."
Tabra open her mind and let a flood of information wash into Janice's... sword
fights from before the tower of babel fell. Having shed tears at Hiroshima AND
Pearl Harbor. Dismembering an undead five ways from Sunday after it
promised to rape someone dear.
The fox angel gasped for breath fall to her knees as one of her souls
shuddered from the sudden influx of information.
"Give it time. You'll digest it all soon enough." Tabra said.
"Okay." Janice said haltingly.
The fox angel stood up and looked at herself.
"... if I can make things the way Karther can change things... can I create some
clothes?"
"We really more summon things from sub-reality storage and alter their atomic
structure slightly than 'create' them out of thin air."
"Do you have any clothes in that magic closet of yours then?"
"I'll never understand why you humans continued to wear clothes for modesty
after the first sin was finally forgiven."
"I'm not going around naked! And I'm not letting that prick get any more views
of my body!"
"Our body." Tabra reminded her.
"Well, I'm not letting -us- move from this spot until I do."
"You don't need to act like a child about it. Just feel out what you need, picture
it in your mind's eye."
Light appeared around the fox angel... it bent and molded to her body. When
the light died down, Tabra looked down.
"Aw. Not a dress?" She grinned. She was in a pair of blue genes and a white
blank shirt with button up holes for her tail and wings. She couldn't figure out
how to make shoes and socks for feet like those.
Then she frowned. "Just cause I'm in a female body doesn't mean I've given
up hope on getting my original gender back! And my original name!!!!"
"Normally I'd say names are just road signs... but honestly, I CAN imagine...
and actually FEEL what it's like to lose something that important to you." Tabra
said. The fox angel looked at the rubble and gripped the mace with both
hands. "Now let's get going."
"Why not just use some high explosives?"
"We'll bring the entire place down on top of us even more than we have, and
not all of Karther's slaves are magically built like tanks. We're just lucky this
area was empty except for the lot of us when I opened up my wings. Which
means we need to do this the old fashioned way. Outside the palace walls we
should be able to teleport without fear of being trapped in solid walls. . . Now
make a wish, and say a prayer that Karther and Tammia are so distracted by
each other and us that they don't try to harm Vicki or the other slaves I de-
brainwashed."
+++
Eight of the nine fox girls, all of whom had been men original so Karther could
get around his promise of not kidnapping girls, all looked to Vicki for some
kind of decision for what to do next.
This was, of course, just force of habit, she had been kidnapped and
brainwashed first. Thus she was seen as 'chief concubine.'
Vicki wasn't even her real name. She gripped the unremovable cross around
her neck. Victor! She remembered! Her original name was Victor! She felt a
wave of memories that Karther had buried under a desert of sand begin to
come back. She had been a cop, a policeman, she protected and served
others because she -chose to- not because she was -made- to! She let go of
the cross bitterly. But what was the POINT of remembering if she couldn't BE
Victor anymore? She couldn't even live in normal society like this!
But... if her brainwashing could be undone, then perhaps the rest of the
violations to her body could be too! And even then... she was STIL a cop...
and she had a duty!
"Vicki." Barbara asked, "Do you think we can get out of here?"
Vicki smiled at her. "We -have- to."
One of the other nine fox girls was shivering, though they were still in the
battle armor that Karther had put them in before leaving his dummy behind. At
least they weren't in their harem outfits they had happily wore while serving
their 'lovely master.'
"This is like an anime I watched once. It was a comedy about an alien
princess who got turned into an eight year old. Her cat girl maid, to prevent
any girls from stealing the princess' 'fiancee.' Transformed any poor girl who
happened to look at or WAS looked at by him into a cat girl maid and the ray
gun she was using also instantly brainwashed them into being loyal maids to
the royal family who answered to their 'Chief Maid' without question. The
anime concluded without so much as one of them being de-brainwashed.
None of the characters even DISCUSSED how it was wrong to transform and
brainwash innocent girls! They weren't important enough... and we aren't
either."
"Keiko." Vicki said. "That's NOT going to happen to us! We're not going to get
re-brain washed, and we are -not- stuck like this forever! We've been given a
chance to try and live our lives again... I'm not going to let it go."
Starting with Baraba, the other seven foxes nodded their heads.
Another fox girl however looked out at the desert and out at the moon. "I'm
worried, mom, dad, bro, sis, Alice. They must all be worried sick about me by
now! That's assuming of course that bastard didn't erase us from existence
when he stole our lives!" She turned around at the others. "But even if I'm now
'nobody' I'm going to pay that bastard back in full! Even if I'm doomed to be
Luna for the rest of my life, I'm going to make sure he gets his for killing who I
was before!"
Vicki sweet dropped. "Whatever gets you up in the morning."
Luna picked up the spear she had been using when Karther had turned his
sex toys into weapons. "Come on. Let's go. If magic really exists, then those
who use it I don't think will be able to keep quite about it anymore if -we- show
up at a major city. Then they might be forced to actually DO something about
Karther. And maybe help those two girls who escaped before us and the rest
of the lot here who likely weren't born foxes either." She was about to march
out the door spear in hand when she stopped and looked at Vicki. "Heh heh...
if that all fits with you Vicki."
Vicki smiled and nodded. "I couldn't have said it better myself."
+++
In the culinary section of the palace, Alexsander put a paw to her forehead as
she felt a sensation pass through her. She almost dropped the cutting knife
she was holding.
"Something has happened to my prince." She whispered solemnly.