August 10, 1689
Joella stood quietly by the front window of Running-Bear's home, nervously watching the smoke and listening to the explosions sounding in the distance. She could even hear the pained roars of the Witch Pride.
"Hunters gonna die, hunters gonna die," Lark sang in the background while hopping around the old furniture, "Hunters gonnaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee!"
Joella turned in shock at the scream to see Lark, cringing in pain trip over the back of a couch and fall face first onto the floor. She lay there quietly for a few moments before either Joella could respond, or Running-Bear could enter the room.
"LARK!" Joella screamed and moved toward the unconscious and naked girl.
Running-Bear also came in quickly and found Lark there.
"Is she alright?" Joella asked.
"She is alive," Running-Bear answered as he checked the girl for breath, "just sleeping. Probably over did it with all the running and dancing. I will take her to bed and make sure nothing is broken if you could fetch some sleeping clothes and blankets for her."
"But mama said..."
"Clothing would protect her better," Running-Bear answered, "this old home has fallen into disrepair over the years. It doesn't keep all the pests out that it used to."
Joella didn't fully understand, but figured that Running-Bear knew what he was doing.
+++++++++++
"Wait, wait," Lawrence cut in, "if the shock-wave of the geass being shattered knocked out the witches, their familiars, the guardians at witch manor, the Witch Pride, and the child familiars, and even Free, which I don't understand. Nick's never said anything about gargoyles sleeping... why didn't it knock out Joella or Running-Bear as well. They were just as connected to he witches as the others, if not more so."
"Yes," Marie sighed, "but Joella, other then being regressed back a year, every year, was not bathed in the Infinite Chaos the way the Child Familiars were, and to a great extent her free will was far more intact then the Witch Pride, Benjamin and his family, Free, and the Child Familiars did. Joella defended them and would defend some aspect of them for the rest of her days, but the witches won her support by using some of the things they were actually trying to destroy more then using magic."
Marie then turned to a nearby mirror, and the image of Mal'akh's dog attacking Gaal and getting Solome.
"Remember how they explained the death of Solome, they said the dog was rabid and had to be put down," Marie explained, "Joella knew the disease was dangerous and accepted it." The image then changed to Benjamin complaining about the witches use of 20th Century anti-tank weapons, "by contrast, when Benjamin gave a rational argument for why they shouldn't be sitting on a pile of explosive weapons that they didn't know how to handle, they simply poured more magic in to Benjamin and removed any concerns he had... Joella's free will was still in tact and she was not swimming in the infinite chaos the way the others were."
"And Running-Bear?"
"Running-Bear, wasn't affected because he kept his distance from the things the witches were doing," Marie sighed, "he tried to persuade them to stop and tried to educate them on the right thing. He urged them to try and find some middle ground. Essentially tried to peacefully stop the witches, and in doing so earned their wrath on many occasions. They let him be with the excuse that he didn't understand... that he would turn to their way of thinking on his own eventually..."
"But he did not," Alice commented, "he even helped Marie Cruz even though he know that if they succeeded his foster daughters would die."
Marie-Eliza nodded.
++++++++++
Vatican's slow trek slowly continued with Free struggling against him, when the female wounded gargoyle suddenly roared in pain and collapsed against him.
"Free..." Vatican breathed as he stopped and held the female gargoyle out in front of him.
"Is she okay?" Monica asked while Rosa looked on. Mal'akh glared at her.
"I do not know," Vatican answered, "Her soul is still there... but she does not seem to respond."
"Is she sleeping?" Rosa asked.
"Gargoyles don't sleep," Vatican answered, "we do not need to."
"All is quiet," Mal'akh spoke up from the rear of the formation, looking back toward the witches manor.
Vatican turned his head. The roars and explosions had stopped. Even the smoke appeared to be dissipating. Something had happened.
"Marie..." Vatican said nervously, and then turned to the two young Leomen with him and the age regressed teacher, "go back to the edge of the witches property. See if Marie is alright. If the witches have won and Marie is dead, come back to me. If Marie has won... I suppose it will be up to her what you do..."
"We'll find a way to let you know," Rosa said slowly, "it is the civilized thing to do."
++++++++++++
Present Day
"But how do we fix it's incompleteness?" Sydney asked Sarah as she approached Luna's form, "Alpha Jensen's father had to cut the commission off at three when adding the remaining two would have risked the Pack losing the manor..."
Sarah sighed and shrugged her shoulders and slowly touched Sunny's hip.
"I don't know..."
Sarah then jumped as she felt her hand suddenly harden, painlessly into polished lavender stone. It rapidly progressed up her hand to her arm and then the rest of her, clothing similar to to what Sunny and Luna appeared on her, and covered her in the same way that Sunny's and Luna's covered them. She glanced over to see the same thing happening to Sydney, though it also looked like there was a plate of meat in her hand.
"What the devil..." Sarah gasped, "what just happened?"
"Where are we?" Sydney asked.
"We're still in the entryway," Kira spoke to them, "welcome to my world..."
"You did this?" Sarah questioned, half demanding.
"In a way, though from what an avatar told us, one could say this was fate," Kira sighed, "My name is Kira... and I've been dating Luna and Sunny, here, for the past couple of nights... and well, in the course of the last one, I got them both pregnant..."
"How can a statue be pregnant?" Sydney asked.
"How can three pups be made of glass, yet are able to move around, and are indestructible?" Kira retorted, "it's the magic that has resided in Glendale for years..."
"So, you're all supposed to be flesh and blood..." Sarah began.
"It was all willing, I assure you," Kira answered, "no one made me become like this. I can take any shape or form while as "living art"..."
"You did this for Alpha Kaylee?" Sarah asked.
"I guess... though there were other factors that lead to my decision to do this along with four others," Kira answered.
"We found out he was alive one night after our shift ended and we ended up joining him," Sunny answered, "and well... having single male, around we sorta jumped at the chance... and well... I guess we'll be learning about what Kaylee, Julie, Fran, Darla, June, and Pearl go through on a normal basis..."
"Kira has proposed though, so there is no deviation from Pack rules, and to be honest, Kira is polite and kind, loving and gentle," Luna added, "and he is an extremely exceptional male."
"I have been single because I am not out mindlessly chasing tail, to get a male's penis in me," Sarah answered, "there's more to life then that."
"Of course dear, and I am not about to force myself on you or you, either..."
"Sydney." "Sarah."
"Ah ha," Kira answered, "although I will warn you, while you are here with me, you will be recognized as one of Amy's Shinto Gods... I don't know which... It's a perception camouflage that the Pack's living art has."
"Yes... I've heard Amy call you the "Monkey Prince" and Sunny "Amaterasu" and Luna "Tsukiyomi"... or something like that, and the kids have used Sunny and Luna as an easier way then using the Japanese names," Sarah commented.
"Yes the the Sun and Moon gods," Luna's image nodded, "we're supposed to represent their avatars of them among Lupmen. Kira was calling to you if you'd want to complete the "shrine" Pack."
"I assure you both that I intend to be a gentleman," Kira added.
"I guess it couldn't hurt to hang around for awhile," Sydney commented.
"Sydney!? You're staying, just like that?" Sarah gasped.
"Sarah... I have been paying for my father's sins all my adult life," Sydney answered, "and anyway, I'm not talking about staying permanently. I'm talking about testing it out, getting to know Kira. And seeing if I can be respected for who I am and not derided for what my father did."
Sarah silently sighed at that. The pack's records generally kept some indication as to who was related to who, as inbreeding was one of the Pack's cardinal sins, but it could be extremely complicated to learn for those outside the Pack... even those within the Pack had trouble at times. As a result, the adult Lupmen who recognized Sydney would know her as one of Jessie's pups. Sarah also knew how hard what Jessie had done had hit the pack. She could understand it to a certain extent.
"And you won't hold us here?" Sarah asked, "it felt wrong that the statues were incomplete, but I have responsibilities to the Pack, I can't play statue goddess because you are incomplete..."
"Of course not," Kira answered, "and if you feel that devotion to duty, I'd even encourage you to carry on with that devotion. But when you have free time, I would tend to think this is a fine place to rest for a while."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"And that is sort of how my relationship with Sunny and Luna has gone," Kira finished, "they've come to me when their responsibilities to the pack are completed for the day... although, for warning if the two of you eventually decide to join Sunny, Luna, and I in marriage, I would warn you that if you become pregnant, as Sunny and Luna have become, you won't be able to shift back into your flesh and blood form until after the pups are born."
Sarah thought for a moment. She had her duties to the Pack, and she was fearful that she'd lose brother/sister bond she shared with Ulysses (even if they weren't actually brother and sister), but there was something about this whole thing with Kira and "living art" that intrigued some curiosity on her part. Though, if she ever decided to stay as "living art", Sarah was ready to tell Kira that the camouflage needed to come down and that everyone would fully know and understand her decision.
"I am off shift for the moment," Sarah commented, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to learn a few things..."
Outside them, Akane hurried by in search of something Yamato had requested. She looked up to the five statues and bowed politely. She and Eri were actually Buddhist, but she did think the five Shinto statues did look well together.
+++++++++++
1689
"Are you alright?" Marie asked as she slowly staggered down the front stairs.
She found Linus staggering to his feet, made difficult with the stumps halfway down his forearm, though after reverting out of what the familiars had done, the skin looked unbroken, undamaged. As if he had always looked like that, rather then having them blown off by an exploding weapon.
"As well as I can be," Linus gave a pained grunt, as his shoulder still hurt, "the witches...?"
"Unconscious for the moment," Marie sighed, "I have them tied up and held down, with the last of my "ivory" daggers as a sort of fastener."
"You didn't kill them?" Linus nearly yelled, "if they revive, we'll be looking at fighting them all over again..."
"We might get additional help if they do," Marie said slowly, "my sixth sense... my second sight... seems to indicate that the geass was... or rather became the link between them and the "Witch Pride", the children, the man that shot you... once the geass was broken that link was severed. The child familiars might still be able to channel the witches powers, but they aren't blindly loyal to them anymore. We'd actually stand a chance of convincing them to join us."
"You're certain?" Linus asked.
"They're beyond arrogant, Linus," Marie sighed, "they couldn't understand how we had got as far as we did. The couldn't understand how they could lose..."
"May be that second sight thing, you've mentioned," Linus commented, "if you see one event that is bad, you may have to take that with a grain of salt. As even if you alter that one event, things after it will change. I mean, suppose some sorcerer finds a spell that enables him to go back in time and saves the Roman Empire from falling and restores it to the height of its power, that sorcerer might prevent the Dark Ages in Europe, but things would change. There would be no England, no France, none of the Principalities of Italy, no Austria, no German principalities west of the Rhine or south of the Danube. The world as we know it would not exist."
"So the witches saw something, sought to change it, and our victory was the result," Marie answered.
"And all the more reason to kill them before they revive," Linus answered, "we can not be certain the "Witch Pride" will side with us, even if their minds are now free."
"NO!" Marie said firmly, "they were my friends as children... or at least could have been..."
"I think it's safe to say they aren't your friends now," Linus told her.
"I know, but what I intend will be just punishment for them," Marie answered, "they've been worshiping chaos so thoroughly and completely, that an orderly trial will be the last thing they want. If they die, they want us to just kill them. Their souls would simply confirm to themselves that WE are evil. By trying them, it will be proved that they in the wrong."
"And how are you to do this?" Linus questioned.
"Draco and I brought a fairly powerful opiate before coming," Marie explained, "the witches magic will keep their mind clear of the drug's effects, but in doing so, the drug will also cripple their ability to use their magic on anyone. Though we will have to move quickly to get things ready. Once they're drugged, we can start."
"You'd need witnesses other then us," Linus commented, "not to mention that someone would need to observe the trial other then us. And with their prisoners out cold and the rest of Glendale stuck as children until the witches are killed, where are you going to get the witnesses..."
"We can settle that once they've been drugged," Marie spoke, "for now, we must move quickly to insure that they do not revive before they are drugged."
"I suppose we're to get to Draco then," Linus sighed as the two began to make their way through the house.