Glass slept quietly, laying on the beach. Created to be the most "powerful" of Kurse's creations she somehow sensed the anguish that went through the Pack and the Pride. Kaylee and Jensen were happy to be alive again... but strangely depressed at being separate persons rather then a singular statue. The gem wolves were glad to be who they were again, but simultaneously fighting with the duel nature of their minds... like multiple souls now resided inside them. The child minds wanted to dance and be free... which in and of itself wasn't all that bad, while their original minds tried explain to the other souls within them that that certain things that they would have to do in order to really live... which lead to arguments between the souls over whether or not "order" was really worth it. The worst of these came from Elise and Fox of the Pride, since they had each been split into four separate entities. And in a strange dreamscape, Glass sensed the conflicting misery that radiated from the Pack and the pride over the issue.
There was also the misery and fright of the people from the yacht. Six of their children were now in a town called Glendale, which they didn't know of. They'd heard of Glendale, Arizona, but the Glendale they were in was not that one. This then lead them to panic, especially as Abbey painfully explained unless they wanted to become female glass pups as well, they could not be taken to their children and their children could not be brought to them.
It was Pyrrhic victory in the sense of all the mental suffering the Pack and the Pride and Kurse's victims were going through now that Kurse was gone.
"They will recover," a voice spoke to Glass as she slept, "in time."
Glass's dream image seemed to ponder the voice, which seemed to come out of nowhere. She looked around until she saw a mirror that held a glass wolf, that looked identical to her.
"Who are you?" Glass asked.
"You," the other Glass spoke, "we are one of Kurse's creations... made to be her most powerful servant..."
"And we did nasty things," Glass retorted, "invading someone else's home and trying to kill someone else's children... and attacking those that came to save us..."
"Yes," the other Glass nodded, "but "mother's" transformations were sloppy... chaotic... and that ultimately that led to our defeat against the Pack and the Pride."
"Kurse wasn't our mother," Glass told her "double", "she merely created us... to do her evil... and that hurts the others."
"They will heal in time," the other Glass said again, "the struggle between Caroline and Cobalt will end and the two souls will eventually reach a compromise that allows them to live as normal a life as a humanoid wolf can."
"How do you know this?" Glass asked.
"You mean how do WE know this," the other Glass sighed, "well... mostly because of the powers Kurse gave us... we're free of her evil and are now able to think for ourselves now... but we can still sense and remember Kurse's intentions... because of what she did to us, we might have the best understanding of how her powers worked, exactly."
"She wanted their misery to be permanent," Glass spoke.
"Yes she did," the other Glass nodded, "but if it WAS to be permanent, then that wouldn't have been chaotic... which shows that even in her worship of chaos, Kurse was nothing more then a hypocrite... she worshiped Chaos, yet wanted ordered control and obedience to her... and as such, left her magics chaotic, making much of their effects incapable of being permanent... and that will allow the Pack and the Pride to heal the wounds they have endured, both physical and mental. The only question is how long will that take."
"So what do we do?" Glass spoke.
"We will need to move on," the other Glass told her, "be with our family and put the nightmare Kurse placed on the world behind us. Help our parents get used to what we are now."
"What about the others? The Pack? The Pride?" Glass asked.
"It is not our place to meddle in their lives," the other Glass almost whimpered, "and besides... our family will need our help more. The Pack and the Pride have others who will help them recover, and the one they called Amy to provide a "lighted" path to recovery."
"So, now I guess we wake up," Glass sighed, "what are we to call ourselves now? Glass isn't a name."
"Yes, the other Glass nodded, "I doubt Martin would be a good name for us now though... Kurse has made us female..."
"Martina?"
"No."
"The only other "M" name I can think of is Mary, but that's that cub's name."
"I doubt we'll be seeing much of her or her friends," the other Glass said, "Mary is a fine name, but there is also an alteration to that... Marie."
"Marie it is then," the renamed Marie spoke, "hopefully mother gets used to us."
++++++
Serenity slowly made her way through what was the new Smith manor, looking at the impressive structure that it was. As she went she saw several photographs along a wall, and a series of college diplomas... Jensen's in business and economics, Kaylee's in the law, Fran and Darla's in law enforcement, and Julies in biology and medicine. The first photograph looked like it had happened at Glendale's Episcopalian church with Jensen, Kaylee, Fran, Darla, and Julie all standing together before the alter... which startled Serenity a bit. At present EVERY mainstream Christian church disapproved of polygamy. The only denomination that did practice that had been the Mormons... and they had abandoned that when Utah joined the union... but the picture was there.
It was closely followed by a pair of pictures, one showing Kaylee heavily pregnant with Jensen standing beside her... and then one of her cradling a black and a reddish brown pup in her arms.
The next picture was of Darla and Kaylee standing together, both pregnant... although Darla looked further along at the time, and then ended with a picture of Jensen with a heavily pregnant Fran and Julie. It finished with pictures of Bart, Jenny, Kevin, Marcy, Abbey, Alice, and Samantha, with Mr. P laying in front of them.
"It's like their pasts are being rewritten," came Trevor's voice from behind her.
"Yes," Serenity nodded, "Like the Pack has always been here... like Jensen was always Jensen."
"Do you think this has anything to do with Kurse's death?" Trevor asked.
"Possibly," Serenity sighed, "although I'm not about to mess with all that... just looking at what is the result of a couple of kids who did something really stupid..."
Trevor only nodded.
"So how are you making out?" Serenity asked, "being back in a place that to you really smells of "wolf"?"
"It actually isn't as bad as it was before," Trevor commented, "I can really smell it around their bedrooms, but many of the rooms that the public would see the most if they visited here has been thoroughly cleaned..."
"Probably something to do with their minds being free now," Serenity commented, "no longer enslaved. Thinking more like a human they realize they need to clean and disinfect a lot... even if as wolves they don't need it... because humanity has a much weaker immune system compared with the rest of the animal kingdom."
"Yeah," Trevor nodded, "also, they have some of Kurse's victims here. A pearl colored wolf took me to a room they're sleeping in. She's taken the liberty of dressing them... though where a bunch of naked wolf people found children's clothing I don't know... in some pajamas. She also mentioned some wonder about how to get them back to their parents..."
"Alice, Abbey, Samantha and the mirrorverse," Serenity spoke, "Like how they got to the island."
"No, she said that option isn't available," Trevor spoke, "they'd become Alice, Abbey, and Samantha's glass sisters the instant they go inside the mirrorverse. It's part of their transform... only someone who's form has been locked... or has some immunity to the game can enter..."
"That'll make reuniting the families difficult," Serenity sighed, "Jensen told us that island was selected because it was so remote. We can't just fly the kids there... and while there are "passenger liners", they don't make such trips anymore. They're cruise ships now."
Trevor yawned, he was sleepy as he had been awake most of the day, and now much of the night, and had been through a tough fight in the curse world, even if the wounds there didn't show up in the real world.
"So what do we do?" Trevor asked, "I mean the Pack and the Pride still need to have their turns "killed"... we have all the victims that didn't revert when Kurse died to find, and see if they want to be changed back..."
"A lot of that will have to wait," Serenity sighed, "Once Fran finishes patching up the physical wounds sustained by the Pack and the Pride in the battle, I intend to go home and get some sleep... you're welcome to come with me or go with Brian and Felicity... although I don't know if they will go anywhere until Mary gets back."
Trevor caught a hint of depression in her voice.
"You okay?"
"I'll miss you, Trevor," Serenity said after a few moments, "I know we've never been friends... but I have always enjoyed having you around. You've helped so much with my work."
"Though it seems now that the curse is gone, and the largest collection of turns out there between the Pack and the Pride won't be used... even if you didn't have Merlin's cure," Trevor shrugged, "it's sorta like what happened with many of the guys drafted for WWII. Guy from Alabama meets a guy from Oregon and become friends and thanks to some miracle they survive the war... but are both going back to their homes... as with no war to fight and no need to stay in the army... what reason do they have to stay together?"
"They have to move on," Serenity nodded, "Although I wonder what I will do when we finally sort out all the fallout from this... I mean no Game to investigate, no curse to thwart... what is to become of ME now? The Pack will have each other and will likely resume much of their previous lives while staying a Pack... the Pride will do much the same thing... and you have Mary now... and you might be able to see your family again... I... meanwhile... have nothing. I've spent so long fighting the Game that I never stopped to think about what I would do when it was finally over."
"I doubt it'll really be over," Trevor commented, "Kurse and the evils that went along with it are gone forever... but the Game still exists and may have even changed because of what Kurse did. You'll likely be called on to see just what Kurse's actions and death did to the Game... who knows... maybe "Transform or Dare" has become a game based off of love and devotion like the Pride's "true love" powers and the Pack's loyalty instead of the spite and hatred that it was under Kurse's influence."
"You make that sound like you want the game to continue," Serenity commented.
Trevor shrugged, "maybe it isn't our forms that makes us who we are. I mean, we've all adapted to it. You told me you've gone from being a heterosexual male to bisexual female and have accepted it. Kyle Perkins has gone from a dorky male kid to an adult female she wolf, who according to these pictures has given birth to two litters of pups already... clearly the problem doesn't seem to be the form we have... it's the actions that caused it to change in the first place. The guy who transformed me was some jerk who wanted my spot on the team and did it out of spite... but if a positive emotion fueled things rather then a negative one... would that be wrong? Like what Mary told Ashley at the station, we're all happy, so is that wrong?"
+++++
"I'm sorry we attacked your home," Ulysses said to Mary as they sat on the beach of Big Bad Island.
They had managed some conversation with some of the humans from the yacht, but it was still tough going. The parents wanted their children, and both Ulysses and Mary were forced to tell that that wasn't possible, which resulted in many of them crying into Ulysses's shoulder.
"I know," Mary nodded, "You didn't seem that interested in fighting then either... strange isn't it?"
"Yeah," Ulysses nodded, "I liked you, you know? I REALLY liked you. You would have made a very cute she wolf..."
"And you a very handsome lion," Mary nodded back, "but I guess we aren't meant to be mates. I mean, I'm a felid, you're a canid... instinctive rivals... even the lion's natural rival, the Hyena isn't a dog... and even if we weren't I'm eight years old again. You'd be robbing the cradle if we dated..."
Ulysses nodded, "We can still be friends right? It'll still be years before the Pack will expect me to contribute to their natural population growth... and the Pride will likely expect you to do the same when you grow up."
"Of course we can be friends," Mary said, rubbing a paw down Ulysses's back, his thick guard hairs on his back rubbing against her much shorter fur.
++++++
Sarah came up to the center of the island where she found Amethyst and the gem wolves, along with Caroline, Lawrence, Betty, Maxine, Robyn, and a few of the other wolves from the rescue team that had been youthafied and split by Kurse's powers and the physical transformations that Kurse had done was reversed, and Kurse's mental control was gone, but Sarah could plainly see that they were struggling with what happened.
"Are you guys alright?" Sarah.
The dance stopped.
"No," Caroline said weakly after a moment, "so much has happened. Our transformations, Sarah... you remember that? Both of us said "dare" and were dared to answer transform next."
"I remember," Sarah nodded, "but we were still provided for. And Jensen seemed to care about us more as Jensen then he ever did as Jennifer."
"Kurse wasn't really all that different," Caroline said, "her only difference from Jensen was while he rejected evil... she embraced it."
"I don't understand," Sarah said simply.
"Before she became evil, all "Kurse" wanted was to open up an infinite store of possibilities to the world," Caroline spoke, "which one can't really say was evil... and you can even argue is what free people have always tried to do... but when she was rejected... she somehow went crazy and evil and turned infinite possibilities for happiness into dark chaotic forces that resulted in perversions... death... evil... the exact opposite of what she started as."
"And those possibilities are all still there in a way..." Robyn commented slowly, "Freedom... not being restrained..."
"We need those things though," Sarah commented, "think about Hobbes. You leave everyone free to do whatever they want with no rules... the resulting chaos wouldn't make anyone happy. People would be killed by those stronger then them and everyone would live in a paranoid fear that someone stronger will come over the hill and kill them."
"Hobbes's solution to the problem was a totalitarian dictatorship," Garnett said, "that wouldn't have made anyone happy either."
"I'm not saying Hobbes had the best solution, I'm saying he recognized the problem," Sarah answered, "TOO much freedom and you allow the darker elements to do nasty things to the innocent, and as you say... TOO much order and control and the darker elements do the same things as when there is too much freedom. The solution is to find a happy middle."
"We're not arguing that Sarah... and we'll still follow Jensen..." Caroline spoke, "it's just that so much has happened... so much has been done to us... we're conflicted by so much... I'm Caroline again... but I can still feel Cobalt's mind inside me... she isn't the evil thing that Kurse created anymore... more like an innocent child who can't understand things... who wants to be free... yet I'm restraining her. Doesn't that make me wrong? For holding a child back? Not letting her be free? Is it wrong for me to love Opal? I barely know him... yet I love him more then anybody... Jensen, my parents... anybody."
"You think its wrong for you to love?" Sarah asked.
"No... it's that everything happened so fast so out of control, I don't know what to think anymore," Caroline sighed, "and a part of me wishes we can free the world... I mean look at what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those places are and were nightmares. Saddam Hussein wasn't a good guy. The Taliban weren't good people and even with them gone... the news hasn't reported anything good out of those places."
"Kurse wouldn't have made those situations any better," Sarah warned, "she might have even been willing to make the fighting worse for her own amusement."
"We know," Jasper said in a frustrated voice, "we all know... It's just so hard to sort things out when you multiple voices in your head."
Sarah then turned to Amethyst, who was strangely quiet.
"What about you?" Sarah asked the second biggest she wolf after the Japanese wolves, although Fran had said something to a wounded Chiyoye that Julie was of the opinion that they should have surgery done to make their breasts smaller.
"It's all so sad," Amethyst whimpered after a moment, "Kurse made me a bubble head from the very beginning... probably to match Caroline's transform for me to become this... busty... and well to be honest... I WANT to go back to that."
"What?" Sarah gasped.
"I was always happy, nothing ever got me down, and I still functioned well within the Pack," Amethyst spoke, "Now... after seeing what Kurse did to us... made us do to the people on that yacht... made us fight with our pack mates... and then being freed... I'm so sad... guilty... ashamed. And it hurts."
"But you got your smarts back," Sarah pointed out.
"What good is being smart when your miserable," Amethyst finished.
"I want you all to talk with me about these things," Sarah said firmly, "You need help... I can see that. And I want to help."
"Why?" Tourmaline asked, "we barely know each other."
"But we're pack now," Sarah answered, "the past doesn't matter. I'm sure Jensen wants us to be happy and to function well with the pack and in society. And if you're miserable... by extension, the rest of the pack is miserable. Let me help."
"You aren't a psychiatrist," Lawrence commented, "HOW can you help us with all of this? I got a little boy's voice in my head that only wants to run around, chase cars, bark at squirrels and howl at the moon... and he's conflicting with the rest of me. He isn't in control, but that doesn't mean it's not difficult."
"I can help you by being a good pack mate," Sarah answered, "I helped all of us get used to being wolves... I helped Ulysses get used to being too young to take a mate... I'm sure I can help you just let me listen. And besides, you know we're ALL going to be leaving here eventually. The people won't stay here forever."
"Cobalt thinks we could turn this island into a resort," Caroline commented, "a place where people could live a little more freely..."
"Who would come here though?" Sarah answered, "the pack and the pride are horrified by this place after fighting Kurse. You know that... and it's so out of the way that people won't likely come here either... and how knows what the nations of the world will do when the people on that yacht tell their governments about what Kurse did here..."
"But Kurse is dead," Lazuli spoke, "she can't threaten anyone ever again."
"Doesn't mean that the fear and consequences of her actions are gone," Sarah warned, "just because one evil is defeated doesn't mean that the consequences aren't there."
They all slowly sighed, unable to really counter Sarah's logic.
++++++
Glass, who had rechristened herself Marie awoke find herself laying in a sheltered area among a several rocks. Abbey stood guard over her while Julie and Darla stood nearby, both of them heavily bandaged, and Darla having one arm in a sling.
"Are you okay?" Abbey asked.
"I guess," Marie spoke, "I'm sorry for what I did."
"It was Kurse's doing, not yours," Darla spoke.
"Where is mommy?" Marie asked.
"One of the passengers from the yacht?" Julie asked, "or one of the pack?"
Julie asked this to make sure that "Glass" wasn't in the same sort of brainwashed state that the pack had once been in.
"The yacht," Marie answered, "Mommy's name is Eliza. I want to go home."