AN: Unknown, S1, I'm loving both your contributions and I'm hoping you both continue to
help move along the story. And I don't mind you guys replying to each other. It adds some
excitement to things.
Their duty concerning Big Bad Island complete, the Gargoyles simply returned to their
normal spots. They separated without even saying words to each other, they had no need
of them. The stone beasts merely stood atop their normal positions from which they had
taken their names and resumed their motionless poses looking like mundane stone sans
for how the moss and what no around the joints was not even with the rest of the 'statue.'
Frontdoor did not even show reaction to seeing Omega-Whitney was once again herself
instead of Jenny's shadow. Omega-Whitney was doing the duty assigned to her like a good
Omega would and should, keeping an eye on both Zelipe and Amy as she had been
instructed to by Prime-Omega-Martha. It didn't matter to her that she wanted to see her
own children badly, wanting to let them know their mother was okay and she loved them,
she had been given her duty to look after Gamma-Zack's pups and that was that. 'You
could have been a good Gargoyle Whitney.' Frontdoor would have thought.
Of course Frontdoor smelled the life in the fountain heads. He was a Gargoyle after all, but
he knew Alpha Kaylee's love of art with spirits so he saw no reason to mention it to anyone.
'Maybe she feels it gives her immortality always to be remembered art that remembers, or
maybe she really does love art that has it's own point of view.' Frontdoor thought idly.
Backdoor, was, of course, concerned for her step-brother Nicolas, she might have been
stone but she wasn't heartless. 'I've been out of position for far too long, I've been away
from my post for far too long... and if Nick is in the medical wing then I don't want to
cause a ruckus and if he's gone... that's the way of all flesh I suppose...' If Backdoor was
flesh herself she'd have shuddered.
The stone in the shape of a wolf/dragon hybrid larger than the Lupmans knew her kind
rarely grew attached those outside their own kind, after all, Gargoyles could live forever,
everything else, couldn't. Her father Library and her step-mother Molly were odd like that,
even more surprising when her father had dared to think to break taboo and offer Molly
immortality as a Gargoyle... while flattered... Molly had turned him down... apparently she
wanted to be ultimately rejoined with her mate, and Library could never -ever- blame her
for that!
Backdoor had nearly thought of committing the act herself with Nick, she was his brother
after all, there was more to family than stone, or blood as Man called it. But Nick had
Nicole, not to mention Alexandra, Beatrice, and Isabelle. Backdoor wasn't about to deny -
them- a family just to preserve some of her own, that would have been selfish. A part of
her honestly felt like she had been robbed on that fateful day she had been a bride's maid
(in particular Nicole's), on the day Nicolas formed his own sub-pack within the Big Bad
Wolf family.
And Backdoor had to admit, she had a great deal of respect for Nicole. On her wedding day
(along with Beatrice, Alexandra and Isabelle), Backdoor (at the time with the name Lobby
for where she had guarded the library and provided information when asked) had been
fusing over Nicole who had been pressured by her mother (who unlike her child had a head
of long hair while Nicole herself was 'baled') to wear a wig for the occasion. Lobby had tried
to take Nicole's precious red ribbon off her ear and tie it onto the back of the black curly
wig Nicole had reluctantly chosen to wear ... and Nicole, a mere Lupman... had managed to
actually FORCE Lobby to LET GO of the little red ribbon around Nicole's head. Nicole had
never turned around from the vanity mirror... she had simply reached back wordlessly and
applied pressure on the stone claw as such that forcibly released the little strip of cloth. 'I
don't know what the story is behind that ribbon, but it means a lot to Nicole... I don't think
I've ever seen her without it... ' Even odder since Nicole was about the only Lupman
Backdoor had remembered seeing who wore -anything-. There seemed to be no bad
blood about the incident though, since Nicole had Lobby with her when Nicole had burned
the hated wig her mother made her wear... Nicole might have had to obey her mother
before, but now she was a woman, she had control of her own destiny.
The gargoyles watched as the Gold Deer began to trek away from the mansion, Jack and
Marcine in back in another defiance that separated them from their empty headed cousins.
But this was actually a tactical devision on their part. It was a matter of principle among
Leomans and Lupmans the Prime Buck and the Prime Doe were never ever hunted. Jack
and Marcine used this to their advantage so hunters would have to go -around- them to
get at the rest of the Herd. After all, if the Prime Buck and Doe cared nothing for their
Herd, how were they any different from any stupid beast?
Library would learn of the battle Backdoor and the others had taken part in, proud to hear
they had been the cavalry to effectively turn the tide of the entire battle, breaking the lines
of the possessed Gold Deer and Living Gem Twin pups... Backdoor said if they had been a
few minutes later there would have been twenty-four new living gem wolf twin pups
dancing the dance of chaos in praise of Kurse's sick vision and who knows how many
diverse shapes Kurse would have warped the Pride into in the name of her ideal world
without laws or taboos.
Molly would admonish both Backdoor and Nick and her daughter in laws for engaging in
such a dangerous mission without tell her (who cares if it was the middle of the night when
they did so?). But she would also be proud of them, and baby them for what felt like
forever afterwards.
And for the Gargoyles, duty would remain as it had always remained, and would guard the
places they had been for however longer they remained in this world.
++++++++
"'Nothing' you say?" Penny asked about Kirk's time as a statue.
"The person who Transformed me, who I never even saw the face of, didn't exactly give me
many options to DO anything while I was stone laying back in the same position for
years... I remember you crying over me, I remember coming to visit me and talk to me at
the gallery I was moved to with other members of the pride who have been turned into art
over the years... but I couldn't DO anything about -anything- it might as well have been
nothing."
Penny thought about it, being a statue meant Kirk couldn't reply to another Transform or
Dare to become a person again... no, he had always been a person, only the game had
stripped him away his rights of one... It enraged Penny how the wolves in the old timeline
had managed to break into the gallery wing set aside for confirmed victims of the game
and do their business and leave magically assisted or not! 'It was supposed to be SAFE for
him there dammit! That was the only reason I LET him be put in there in the first place!'
"I'm sorry Kirk, I failed you." 'And failed Kathy.'
"I failed you, you were hurt trying to save -me-."
Penny looked at him, seeing the way he said that... Lionesses did the hunting, males
protected the territory. It was just natural that way. And it was a reminder that Kathy's life
as a human male was gone forever along with their previous gender roles.
"... you wouldn't say that if I was the male."
"... you're not thinking of using that awful Game are you?"
"NO! Absolutely not!"
"Penny, you don't need to make yourself the male to protect me just because I failed to
protect myself. It was my own mistake."
'Just how many judgements about ourselves are based on that one stupid little bit of DNA
anyway?' Penny thought.
"This reality has as much right to exist as the previous one Penny-San," Amy said, "to bring
back the previous one would mean to end the existence of this one, and that would be
unfair to those ... just as unfair to those who lost something or someone when reality
began repairing itself. Destroying one happy innocent family to restore another happy
innocent family is pointless."
"I don't suppose we could Transform or Dare reality to create separate timelines so
everyone can have the lives and families of both?" Kirk no longer understood what Penny
and Amy were talking about.
"There can be only one timeline per universe... otherwise our choices become meaningless
if it doesn't matter what we chose if all the doors are opened anyway. To decide is what
defines free will. One idea is realized, the other fades, that is why it is called 'decide.' 'De-'
for divide, and 'cide' for death... Gomennasai I've been spending too much time around
Alice."
Penny glared at her as she took Kirk around the waist. It was so new, but so familiar. Both
alien, yet comforting.
Amy bowed her head her paws together, "What Jesen-Sama's chose to use the game for
was selfish. And many families have been stolen from and torn apart as a side effect of -
Sama's selfishness and foolishness ... but tearing apart the new families that have been
born from this in the name of restoring the family that existed before would be just as
destructive as it was for -Sama to tear apart those family to begin with... Not that it
matters one way or not. With or without us, this world will keep turning. Weather we
approve or not... reality will continue to heal itself."
"Penny? What are you two going on about? What Jensen did? Old families? New families?"
Kirk looked at his mate wondering if things had caused her to go funny in the head.
"It's... it's nothing Kirk, Penny and I are just discussing previous lives." Penny now that she
written down Kirk's life as Kathy as dictated by him, she began to write her own life as
Penn.
"I thought you didn't believe in past lives."
"I don't." Penny gathered her courage.
Amy cross her arms and narrowed her eyes but politely said nothing.
Penny clenched her other paw in her lap, "This life, is the only one you get, you don't get
to play it over once it's done. And you don't get to pick and chose the details. You have to
deal with... with the hand given you, don't demand a new hand... that's what my parents
always taught me."
Penny looked down at the book containing written in blood memories of things that no
longer happened.
"Why are you writing that in -blood- anyway? You should keep up your strength."
"... I'll explain it after we're Prime Mates."
"Okay honey."
Penny wondered if by writing this she was sealing her memories in stone. That she'd never
be completely comfortable with Kirk, since a part of her that was still Penn would always
be pinning for Kathy. 'But, it just doesn't feel -right- for everything we did as Penn and
Kathy to just, never be. No one to even remember it.'
Ami sat down still watching her brother and packmates as the cubs came around the
corner, the cubs surprised to see Mary, along with four of the twins missing. While others
around the estate were experiencing the price of jet lag, the quadruplets were as full of
energy as if today was the day they were born.
Amy began writing in her scroll again, again in her own blood, glade that Whitney couldn't
see that detail from where she was being huggled by Amethyst on her return from zombie-
land.
Penny had to ask, "What are you writing?"
"The details of my wedding night as Randy with my wife Zelda."
Kirk groaned, this past life business was too confusing and too disorienting for him, 'Better
to just the past -stay- buried if you ask me.' Kirk thought.
+++++++
As Alice and Abbey had tea with the dictionaries, having now been joined by a pair of
glasses with a funny nose and mustache who was discussing the proper way to speak
improperly, Alice looked over a piece of paper she had drawn in her dreams. Contrary to
popular belief, it was possible to read in your dreams, it was just a matter of it actually
making sense.
'If I would stay in the outside world long enough... without going within the world within
the mirror. Abbey and Smantha's ages could slowly catch up with me?' Like the pups of
the omegas, the glass pups knowing they weren't the same as their parents left feelings of
discomfort... The half-sisters/cousins being more alike had been a small fantasy for the
young children to appease her parents.
Alice realized the power of the game could fix it all... and with her talent with words and
with the witches' shades gone forever, there was no danger of it backfiring. The twins
could have the extra bits their parents had like the twins wanted, and Alice and her sisters
could be identical like their mothers like glass pups wanted to.
A sentient part of the curse had been phobic of the abuse of the game somehow gaining
unwanted attention, this had been in fact only a paranoid echo of the three witches'
impulsive behavior that made it all the easier for Maria Cruz to find them.
Alice saw the twins fuse into Shivas like their parents were, Alice saw herself and her two
younger half-sister/cousins perfectly the same in appearance, heart, and mind like their
mothers none of them less a person because of it... It would be so simply, so easy. So
perfect. So happy.
'But why does using the game to give myself, my sisters, and the gem twins what we all
want feel to me somehow like cheating?' Alice wondered in her dreams. But deep down,
Alice like Father Mike and Father Paul, in particular after the loss of the Omegas, and the
deaths of Fox and Elise... felt the game had done enough.
++++++++
As Opal led Caroline Cobalt up the stairs to their room, he whispered, "You know, we could
use the game, separate you from Cobalt, she could your little sister, could have always
been, and that'll be that. She won't have to vanish."
Caroline thought of the sets of twins who no longer existed, Cobalt's friends, gone forever.
She thought of the gem wolves who now existed only though the twins who were now the
children of the shiva wolves in her new memories.
"No."
"But why?"
"Because Cobalt loves you as much as I do... "
"Could wait until she grows up and you could share."
Cobalt/Caroline shook her head, "In a way, I'm as much Caroline as she is. And I'm as much
Cobalt as she is. When Kurse split us in two, we became unique. But we both had a crush
on you, and you, the pair of twins you became... now they don't exist anymore. We still do.
But we didn't want to die... it was scary... We both love you Opal, we both want you... "
"And why can't you that separate? We're both Lupmans."
Caroline and Cobalt both thought about it. "Maybe deep down this is what both of us know
we have to do."
Maxine and Robyn meanwhile had taken one direct rout to the medical wing, to see Millie
and give their adult identities a final farewell for a decade or so.
"Whao dere girl-friend this ain't wha' Ah all expected." Robyn said her accent coming
through thicker when she was excited or intense.
"Okay, our packmates and our buddies bedding up I expected... two of the omegas Bart
and Jenny turned into puppets surprising but acceptable... but whao... didn't expect Mother
Glenn here..." Then Maxine grabbed hold of Robyn's hand as she pulled her inside, "But it
does provide a nice distraction for us to get inside and chat with Millie and not get drafted
into medical duty, now let's get this show on before Millie and we forget."
"Ya all see hur?"
"Just look for the little heart on her butt."
++++++++
That all species of Man had the same number of chromosomes (the first major hurdle
keeping any two species from breeding) was interesting enough: but due to Marie's
appearance, it was a safe guess that the two sets of genes from the two separate species
of mammals were not codominant when mixed together.
That it really mattered to Marie. She had a story to tell.
++++++++
Madam Serenity stayed the entire day with Trevor's family of gray and black lion people.
They were polite, friendly, open, and eternally grateful for looking after and returning their
cub to them.
She looked through the family albums after asking Trevor where they had been kept... In
them she saw human beings... That was when the lioness Marie, Trevor's mother, eyes the
color of bright honey and gray and black fur like her son began to explain her family's
history. And before Serenity's eyes, the pictures morphed into naked lion men and naked
lion women as lioness Marie spoke of them. Muscle growing, height increasing hair
vanishing from the women's heads, and manes appear around the heads of the men. Golds
and browns seemed to be on Jacob's side, Trevor's father. While on lioness Marie's side
black and grays seemed to be dominant, though this was harder to tell in the earlier
photos.
"And that was my great-great-great-uncle Ervin," Marie said without missing a beat as the
overweight balding man in the photo wearing a stripped sweater became a only slightly
round naked lion man with a black mane. "He was excommunicated from The Pride when
his Prime Mate found out he had mated with multiple females without her consent. She met
another Leoman a couple years later who become her new Prime Mate Leo -no his parents
didn't have much imagination- though one of her daughters from her litter with Uncle
Ervin had a litter with Leo as well since she had yet to find her Prime Mate yet."
"YOU'RE JOKING!" Madam Serenity exclaimed.
Marie shrugged, "Not everyone finds their Prime Mate at the same pace, I had nearly given
up hope when I met Jacob-"
"No, no no, I mean, she really had -children- with her own step-father?"
"What?" Marie blinked confused, "It's not like they were related by blood."
Madam Serenity put on her poker face, "Oh nothing, Trevor just never mentioned that
before." 'Has every new species created by this damn game have nothing but sex on their
minds-?!'
Madam Serenity found herself thanking God that Marie chose NOT to press the issue, after
all, this woman HAD brought home her son... Marie wasn't about to ask things of her that
might upset this happy occasion.
'Okay, this might be just delaying the inevitable as far as their ancestors go but,' "So how
long has your family lived here?"
"This has been one of the Pride's houses for decades, I've been living here personally since
Jacob became my prime mate." Marie chose to leave out that she hoped nothing was wrong
with her having had two litters of one in a row, but didn't want to bring that up.
Now that Madam Serenity had a moment to think she thought, 'The wording of the
transformation power of the pride said that only those who they loved and who loved them
changed into lions when interacting with them. Yet this Uncle Ervin in spite of being
unfaithful changed anyway... did he make up with his family eventually?' Madam Serenity
however didn't want to ask more about family knowing it would just cause more relatives
to mutate retroactively.
Madam Serenity had of course volunteered to help with an early dinner. Being elderly and a
guest did nothing to deter her. Outside the kitchen window she saw Trevor playing with
his now big sister by two years in the back yard apparently wrestling covering themselves
with dirt and grass as they did so. Trevor acting like any other little boy.
When they came in Marie licked Trevor clean, the cub moaned he was old enough to clean
himself now, but his mother didn't seem to care at the moment, Sabrina 'Nala' managed to
sneak past during the confrontation. After that, Trevor got on the phone and called some
people in a row... apparently boys his own age (being too young to be interested in girls
besides Mary who was Pride anyway so she didn't count). Of course Madam Serenity heard
how all but one of the phone calls had the voice on the other end turned from shouts of
amazement into purrs and cub cries, the young voice on the other end saying how it was
great to have their pack-mate back.
'It's like a plague.' Madam Serenity thought, 'Love between friends?' What were the four
types of love again? 'Love between couples, love between family, love for one's god, and
love for one's friends. Or are there more? Or are there less?' If there was one thing Madam
Serenity hadn't studied in her two lifetimes it was a deconstruction of and the opposing
schools of thought on love. 'Maybe when the game is gone, the magic that's with the Pride
and the Pack will vanish too...' She could HOPE it did...
The kitchen would smell greatly of blood of course, but Madam Serenity endured it. She
had been a police officer once after all, she had been to a very unpleasant homicide once...
she shuddered as she thought how much the smells were the same.
Madam Serenity was offered some utensils that were used for guests, and graciously
accepted them. She didn't ask if he lions normally cooked their food or if it was for her
benefit. However she knew she had to start collecting notes so she could hand them off to
Gill, he'd be having trouble with this as well. But being a police chief, he'd be in a position
where any mistakes he made would come off as much much worse.
After dinner and more ice cream (it was milk after all), Madam Serenity had taken Trevor
aside and looked in his eyes, an relatively innocent little boy looked back at her. 'Is he still
bound to die some time before he turns twenty? All the other changes made by the game
seem to have been internalized... ' Madam Serenity chose not to wonder about that, if those
rules applied, it wasn't like anything could be change about that anyway. "Trevor, tell me
what happened on the day we met."
"I was still hiding from the man with red skin. I had helped this pink Felman from getting
mugged by this big human who Dared her to sing all the songs from The Aristocat, he ran
off. I talked with her for a bit. I went away without tellin' her my name, and I fell asleep on
your door step when looking for a place to hide for the night...."
Madam Serenity sensed no call sign, no performance, this was Trevor now, the Trevor who
had now always existed, who had never even thought of highschool yet, who had never
been a house cat, and had never been human.
"Trevor, who is Queen?"
".... she's the weird tabby... the nice tabby who died when Mr. P thought she was a
trespasser when helping -me- trying to see the Pack's pups..."
Madam Serenity saw his eyes misting up. "It's okay dear, it wasn't your fault, remember
that please."
"Yes Madam Serenity." The little boy nodded.
"There's a brave lad."
"Like when I helped the mouse who was really a little boy escape all those rats?"
"Yes Trevor, like that."
Madam Serenity gave Trevor another hug, and bid Trevor's family farewell. Though she
WAS surprised when Marie asked if she was the same Madam Serenity who tried to help
'Beta-Julie' try to find the parents of Anne's adopted pups.
Madam Serenity adlibbed that she indeed way and made a note that she'd have to go see
the wolf woman that Julie had become personally now.
Madam Serenity left Trevor's house with his family. 'He has what he wanted, to be with his
family again.. that's what's important right?' She thought to herself.
She drove until she was at Glendale's Catholic church and stepped inside, finding it wasn't
locked yet. She found Judas lazying about on one the pews.
Madam Serenity had no idea what the cat would say, but she had a fairly good idea that it
understood what she was saying in spite of having a brain the size of a peach pit.
"Take me to your owner." She said simply.
The black cat Judas nodded and moved off the pew it was sitting on and began to skip
along the isle.
Judas led her to the pack of the church, and to the surprisingly large basement underneath
it that Father Mike kept various things from his predecessors. Judas left between her legs
back upstairs.
She found Father Mike working at what looked like a cruder version of her own Alchemy
lab using his monkey tail to handle this and that. That was when Father Paul dropped in
from behind her.... the orangutan was in bandages...
He hand sighed, 'Hello, welcome, what are you doing here right now?'
Madam Serenity said, "While the shadow of the witches are gone, it seems that the side
effects of the game having been used so much so fast has left realty warping by itself
almost it seems, I've decided to help you prepare as much as the cure is needed to spread
it through Glendale's pipe system to have it then blessed and dissolve the game in one
swoop... "
"Thank you Madam Serenity," Father Mike said turning around, "Maybe it's due to the
wording of our own curses, or being exposed to the cure almost constantly, or maybe it
has to do with that cat of mine. But I DID notice people coming in to service today naked
and half animals like Anne was Sunday and some lion people like Paul told me the police
became..."
"Whose to say how long you being able to notice that will last." Serenity said, "And that's
the reason why I want to pitch in, I left Trevor with his family and he couldn't be happier to
be with them again... I was scared at what I'd do with myself once the game was gone, but
I'm seeing too much of existence changing tra-la-la to just stand by. The cure might not
undo the changes or even stop them, but if it finishes off the game itself... then the sooner
the better."
"Welcome aboard." Father Mike said simply.
"Here," Madam Serenity said, "Let me show you some tricks with doing Alchemy I've picked
over the years .... "