"I can't really say what to expect," Brian answered nervously. He privately agreed with Gary that the coming fight would not only be short but one sided in their favor, after all, they were lions, but he didn't want to appear stupid in front of his new pride, "Trevor and Paul did most of the fighting at our house. When we changed, one was retreating already with a wounded eye, two females were still distracted with Paul and the remaining two males had to divide their attention between Felicity and me. One ugly white male made one swing at Felicity, which was rather sloppy... and Felicity grabbed and twisted his arm until something snapped."
"I think I broke the arm too," Felicity nodded, "they're weak. REALLY weak. They ran shortly after that."
"Sounds like we ought to talk to Paul and Serenity then," Nellie commented, "I doubt they're THAT weak that we have nothing to fear, and your home wasn't theirs. They had no reason to fight you to the death there, and while they had you outnumbered, they could have won if they decided to do that."
"Uly was there too," Mary spoke up, "Him and purple female. He didn't want to fight and it looked to me like the female was helping the one that lost an eye retreat."
"He didn't want to fight?" Felicity asked.
"I didn't want to fight him either," Mary said weakly, "he is... was... he was my friend."
"Maybe that means we can avoid a fight," Wanda commented, "I want to stop this thing just as much anyone, but must this be violent? I mean Serenity said all of them are victims."
"Technically so are we," Mary spoke.
"No," Brian said firmly, "we did this willingly. Therefore, we AREN'T victims. We will be lions forever and we'll show them we're better because we chose what we are."
++++++
"You wished to see me, Jensen-Sama?" Amy asked as she followed the triplets into the main office with Pearl, June, and Zelipe following her.
Kaylee was absent, but with the pack rapidly evacuating the manor as quick as they could, she was likely off making sure everyone was on task.
"Have the triplets told you of Kaylee's idea?" Jensen asked calmly as he looked up again, still looking miserable.
"Yes, Jensen-Sama," Amy said, "and I must advise that it is a bad decision."
"It wasn't my idea," Jensen answered, "It was Kaylee's. She really wants the Pack to remain here."
"I know, Jensen-Sama, and you would do anything for her or your pups, if they asked," Amy said, "but we can not just keep treating people as potential wolves... at least those who are unwilling. It will only make them hate us, Jensen-Sama."
"Thanks to Serenity and those lions they will already hate us," Jensen grumbled, "and it is a fight that we can not easily win, and thus not worth fighting... not while we have the island as an escape..."
"I know, Jensen-Sama," Amy bowed, sensing her alpha's frustration, both at the overall situation and his perceived mistakes that lead to it, "but Alpha Female's idea is not entirely bad... just misdirected."
"Misdirected?" Jensen asked.
"Yes, Jensen-Sama," Amy answered, "there is a gallery that houses works of art that are all curse victims, and their souls are trapped in them. Their forms are not human, but their souls are. I might be able to transform them, and unlike the people living around us, they will be grateful to be freed from the prisons they have been put in. If I can transform them, they will be grateful and not just happy because their transform is for them to be so."
"And you think this will work," Jensen asked, his own continuing transformation into something more benign in terms of personality, keeping him interested. It would be good to free those trapped as lifeless pieces of art and would avoid the legal troubles he could potentially face because of the way the rest of the pack had been transformed, including himself in the beginning. He didn't know where this was coming from, but if it would help him keep his Pack, he'd let it go its course.
"I believe it will, Jensen-Sama," Amy bowed, "the gallery should still be open for a while yet."
Jensen then nodded and turned to the adult wolves in the room with him, "Fran, Darla, Julie, Pearl, June, take Alice and escort Amy to the gallery. Tell her you may need to appear outside the gallery and go in through an outside door. If you run into any trouble, leave as quickly as you can."
"But Master," Darla protested, "we can deal with whatever we come across."
"I had thought the same before the attack on Serenity and the people hosting her, now the lions that hate us," Jensen spoke, "that opinion was clearly wrong. If you run into any trouble, leave. Do not let Amy come to any harm."
"Can I go too?" Zelipe asked, "I want to stay with my sister."
"There shouldn't be any trouble at this gallery, Master," Pearl commented, "it's a public place, and I don't think walking in is a crime."
"Very well, but be careful," Jensen spoke, "all of you."
"We will, don't worry," Julie spoke.
"Can't help it," Jensen only muttered to himself as they left and then slumped back into the chair, his mind drifting back to seeing Marcy smile at using her turn at his request to see what the game could do... which of course would never happen. Even if there was a way in which he could keep his Pack at the manor, he didn't trust the Game anymore and wasn't about to risk his children to its whims.
++++++
"I'm tired, Serenity," Gill said as he sat down in his own office as the private investigator stood nearby with Trevor in her arms and Paul standing nearby.
"It isn't that late," Trevor commented.
Gill glanced at the cat and then sighed, "No I'm tired of this mess. I've lost twelve officers to this game, fourteen if you count Frank and Daryl, and to top it all off, the most recent twelve practically threw their humanity away."
"Brian and Felicity seem to think that their wording will keep them "civilized"," Serenity told him, "and they have agreed to stay with the police."
"And what do you think?" Gill asked, "Honestly."
"I think they've all gravely underestimated the curse's powers and whims," Serenity sighed, "especially since the word civilized doesn't necessarily mean entirely what they think it means. Technically the Romans were civilized, and they did some barbaric things, Medieval society considered itself civilized and they did some barbaric things, the Mormons considered themselves civilized and their "civilization" was hated by nearly everyone else, and the Nazis considered themselves civilized and they committed the greatest acts of pure evil this world has ever seen... and shoot, Mary can understand house cats, just like Trevor can. Who is to say the "civilization" they follow is a LION'S civilization, not a human's."
"But lions are animals, they don't build cities, they don't have religion, they don't have an organized government, they don't have the concept of right or wrong," Trevor protested, trying to defend the Hardy's and their decision.
"That doesn't mean that an ordinary lion doesn't consider itself civilized in its own life," Serenity commented, "and as for religion, I believe I heard you muttering something about Queen talking about Bast when she was pursuing you. If they have no religion, why would an animal mention a Deity?"
Trevor didn't know how to answer that, and it did hurt him to have Serenity mention Queen's name. He had accepted that she was gone and gone forever, but strangely, it didn't mean that he wouldn't miss her.
"Brian and Felicity Hardy and the Pride they've formed are going to find out that the curse does not do what one thinks it will do," Serenity sighed, "their original wording was okay, but I'm no language expert, so I can't troubleshoot any possible holes, so I'm going to assume the the transform they used to transform the Pride and lock them in their forms has something in it that the curse can twist to its own ends... and when that happens, I'm not sure they'll like what happens. Especially if the definition of "civilized" the curse follows is a lion's view of civilization or some combination."
+++++
And Serenity didn't know how right she was. The curse had great hopes for the Pride. One, was because Brian and Felicity were not Alice. Eventually something would happen that would reveal just how the curse had interpreted their respective transforms, and the Curse was one hundred percent confident that the results would make the entire pride miserable.
The other thing the curse liked was that it finally gave it something to feed on off the Pack. Most of it was fear at being torn apart and Megan's fury and guilt at not helping her brother. Jensen feared the Pride and the police and feared that they would take away his pack, everything he ever TRULY cared about, and the curse did enjoy that, even if it didn't have anything directly to do with the the pack's use of the curse, which thanks to Alice, the curse around the pack knew that it would have to feed off of them in a different way.
++++++
Penny was winded when she arrived outside the gallery, and was panting hard. But her goal was to free Katie, and she hoped her "true love" powers would do that. It didn't occur to her that Katie had NEVER been a cat person before, and that her prized pet had been a parakeet she'd named "Tweety", but in Penny's mind, she was certain that Katie would love being a lion... or lioness, she wasn't quite sure what form Katie would take.
After a few minutes of panting she calmly walked into the gallery and began moving toward one particular piece of artwork, that she knew to be Katie.
"Hi, Katie," Penny spoke, placing a paw on it softly.
She held it there for a few seconds, but nothing happened.
"Katie?! Don't you love me?" Penny spoke to it, her voice sounding weak and heartbroken after she'd gotten her hopes up.
"Why are you crying lion-san?" came an almost Japanese sounding voice from behind her, making Penny jump a little.
She turned and looked down to see a white furred female wolf pup, who's fur carried red highlights that almost looked brushed on. She couldn't help but find it somewhat cute, not as cute as Mary, but cute nonetheless. Beside the female pup was a male pup with faded pink fur, and behind them were a pearl colored female, a silver/gray colored female, and three identical blond she wolves, whose bust lines were easily bigger then even Bobbi's. Behind them was what looked like a glass statue of a seven and a half year old female wolf pup.
"Why are you crying Lion-San," the female pup asked as she and the male pup were nervously gripped by the first two she-wolves.
Penny guessed these two were the mothers of the pups, and her disgust at Jensen stealing families was completely beaten by the fact tat the female pup had engaged her in a conversation.
"You're part of Jensen's pack!" Penny gasped.
"Jensen is our Alpha Male, yes," June spoke, "I am June. This my daughter Amy."
"Konichiwa."
"I am Pearl, this my son, Zelipe," Pearl introduced herself.
"Hi ya," Zelipe said weakly, but moved to him his mother between him and the lioness.
"We are the Pack's Betas," the triplets said together, almost freaking Penny out with how uniform they sounded.
"I am Fran."
"Darla, this is my daughter Alice, my sister's daughters are not here with us."
"A pleasure to meet you, I hope," Alice spoke.
"Julie, we're triplets."
That really through Penny for a loop. These three were the two lost officers and the wife of one of them. She couldn't believe it... she also couldn't believe they were being so calm and civilized. Everything the Pride had been told had left them thinking Jensen's pack to be only slightly smarter then mundane wolves, although much of that was coming from the seemingly ever present rivalry between cats and dogs... despite the fact that the lion and the wolf did not interact in nature.
"Why are you crying Lion-San?" Amy asked again.
Penny glanced at Katie, nervous that the wolves were here to try something.
"Why are you here?" Penny found herself asking.
"This gallery holds people who were cursed by the game and have no choice but to view themselves as trapped," Alice spoke, "they can not view themselves as blessed as we all here consider ourselves blessed for our forms."
"Their souls are trapped lion-san," Amy added, "I am here to free them. My brother is here to watch and the rest are here to make sure I do not come to any harm."
Penny didn't like where that was going. If what Ashley had told the pride was accurate, these two pups could make more wolves without using the game, which Penny considered horrid and evil, paying no attention to the fact that she was there to do the exact same thing.
"They do not want to be enslaved to your "father"," Penny retorted, "I'm afraid I will have to place you all under arrest until my pride can undo your brainwashing."
"And what crime have we committed?" Fran asked before Penny could reach for her cell-phone.
"You've been cursed by Jensen," Penny said, "we're only trying to help you."
"Unless you have a warrant or have proof that we have committed a crime here, you can not do anything," Darla answered, "Fran and I were transformed because we jumped the gun a little when we first met our Alpha Female. Legally, she hadn't done anything that warranted much more then a citation, but we tried to arrest her, and she defended herself with the game."
"And that is why you quit?" Penny found herself asking.
"Yes," Fran and Darla said together.
"Don't you want to come back?" Penny asked, thinking maybe she could use her past association with Frank and Daryl to break Fran and Darla's brainwashing, "I'm sure Gill would put you with the canine unit."
The triplets shared glances. Julie couldn't really advise, as her time before her transformation was mostly that of a stay at home mom with Abbey and Samantha. It was Darla who spoke.
"Sometimes, but our Pack needs us," Darla spoke, "the Pack is our family now."
"And we are all happy in it," Julie finished.
Penny only sighed, as this wasn't getting her anywhere.
"And why are you here?" Penny asked again, "You couldn't have known I was here, so it can't be to pick a fight."
"This is a public place with other people present," Darla spoke, "if you want a boxing match, we'll have to take it outside and to a more secluded place."
"And as I said before, lion-san," Amy spoke, "we are here to free the souls trapped in these pieces of artwork."
"They do not want to be wolves," Penny spoke.
"Neither do they want to be statues or paintings, lion-san," Amy told her, "I would think that they would gladly be a wolf if it meant being able to move again and talk and be with those that will love them. Wouldn't you give anything if you were one of them, lion-san?"
"My name is Penny," Penny told the pup, and then admitted, "Yes. I guess if I were in their "shoes" I would give anything to be able to move again."
Amy nodded and then moved over to a statue nearby and placed one hand on it. Before Penny could do anything, the pup spoke, "You are a Big Bad Wolf."
Penny nervously prepared for the statue to turn into a wolf that would have to be cured of brainwashing. But nothing happened. Just like with her attempt to free Katie.
"No!" Amy cried, "No! It can not be! Their souls are human! I must be able to transform them! I must free them! Their souls cry to me to be free, Penny-San!"
"There there," June said, lifting up the whimpering pup, "You did your best. Maybe the form HAS to be human in order for it to work, not just the soul."
"But it's horrid, mommy," Amy told June, "they are trapped and even if the Game were trustworthy, they can not answer."
"Trustworthy?" Penny wondered.
"We have noticed that the game does not behave the way our Alphas want it to, so when we brought Zelipe and Amy into the pack," June explained, "we gave them the ability to permanently transform humans into wolves to secure our genetic future without having to rely on the game."
"I had hoped to free them, mommy," Amy whined, tears staining the fur under her eyes, "my heart aches for them."
"I know you did," June told her pup, "Perhaps someone will find a way to undo what was done to them... someday."
"We should be going now," Fran spoke and ushered the she wolves and pups. She and her sisters brought up the rear of the formation, as if to protect them. When they reached the door Fran turned and looked at Penny directly, "please tell Gill that we are happy as we are."
They then disappeared out the door. After a moment Penny realized she could transform or dare the adults back to the personalities they had before they were transformed and rushed after them.
"Wait! I can still save you!" Penny pleaded, only to see the wolves departing into the side view mirror of a parked car nearby, "Gill's not gonna like this."