Marie-Eliza mused, "In a way, the witches engineered their own defeat, or at least,
Golgatha did."
"Yes we figured that." Maddex said blandly.
Marie-Eliza shook her head, "That's not what I meant. Months later, when summer had
turned to fall, Golgatha had a final vision. She saw Marie Cruz throwing a white dagger at
Golgatha, Joella, pacifist she was, came between them much she did between the mob and
the witches... only this time her Geass didn't save her, the bones didn't know friend from
foe, and struck Joella dead right into her brainpan. Before Joella's corpse hit the floor a
vengeful Golgatha incinerated a shocked Marie, and the witch's world came about with no
opposition...
"Golgatha and the witches weren't about to be slaves to fate however. They wanted to prove
they were stronger than fate and -didn't- need to sacrifice their 'daughter/best friend' to
liberate the world. So, the morning that fated final encounter was going to happen,
Golgatha and Herodias personally took Joella to her grandfather and insured that she
wouldn't leave the house until the final conflict was over... And so Joella wasn't there to be
a human shield, and so the witches' world never came to be. Because the witches wanted to
prove once and for all they could defy destiny and could win without it's 'help' of sacrificing
Joella."
ALL of her audience was stunned silent by this revelation. They simply stared in shock.
"And remember, like I said before, Joella was told that her foster-mothers had died
fighting against the madness and trying to bring happiness to others. Even when she
learned much later the witches were behind the game of Transform or Dare, she thought
the evil done with it was simply their good intentions being blown back in their face."
"You think, with how the witches at the end were fixated on Joella, that Kurse would have
mentioned her or tried to remake her." Betty said.
"That's why Kurse was only their SHADOW, an echo, something left over of themselves
within the game itself. Kurse had no feelings towards Joella, and certainly didn't feel
anything about her grandmother and god-father. It was more empty and warped than the
witches were."
".... So..." Lawrence said shaken, "Marie eventually went to the graveyard to dig up the
bones of the witches' grandmother?"
Marie-Eliza nodded grimly, "Yes, eventually, after Joseph-RunningBear had created and
perform the ceremonies to try and give Marie some form of protection from the witches'
security precautions. Sadly.. Golgatha had a vision of someone trying to rob their
grandmother's grave. Being too busy when she envisioned it happening, yes, too busy,
they instead had one of their child familiars there with one of their leoman bodyguards
there as a welcoming committee. And for all the bones EXCEPT their grandmothers to rise
up out of the ground and rip to shreds the grave-robber if that failed..."
Maddex's two heads scoffed, "So they were willing to desecrate the corpses of everyone -
else- buried there but not-"
Marie nodded violently, "Yes yes, it's pretty clear at this point, yes they were hypocrites.
Can we stop mentioning that now? Marie Cruz would walk away from that encounter with
more than a few new scars on her back."
+++++++
1689
Thirty-three children later, (fifteen of them having been children given candy, and
eighteen of them being former thugs with guns including Rosalie.)
"Lark. Human. Brown-Black." Said the girl with her hair in a ponytail. Some of the children
giggled at her odd name.
"Jimmy. Human. Blond." Said the boy behind her who always seemed to be close by.
Nudity was the last thing the witches punished, but both Lark and Jimmy were wearing the
simply cloth outfit with cord.
"And I'm Flora Renard!" "And I'm Peter Renard!" Said the two leoman cubs who were shades
of red and crimson.
Joella nodded writing down the two cubs names down last. Happy to have all the
'shipmates' names down. It didn't include the adults of course, but that wasn't the point.
Joella simply felt the need to have something to remember them all by, and it made a nice
game.
More fun than the teasing of the two silver twin adult women lupmans they often saw in
the market who were apparently omegas and acted like loyal 'robots' (though the term
wouldn't be invented for centuries). The lupmans had been very precise that their brightly
colored pups did not need 'help' from the witches' care giving.