Mirror Cycle

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

05/15/99:

    Chapter 1

This was it, the big day. Everything I had been working on
over the past couple of months was all going to come
together today. Only a short time remained before things
were to begin, and I still had to get everything ready.

I had my backpack out, and was going through my female
clothes, picking something appropriate for me. Even if this
didn't work, I was still going to need them, so it was best
to keep them close at hand.

Joining them were other small items: the copy of Thrysten's
gem, Rhea's collar and the extra wedding band. All would be
needed today.

Stuffing the last of the clothing into the bag, I zipped it
closed, and slung it over my shoulder. Taking a quick glance
around the room, I made sure I hadn't forgotten anything.

Of course I had! I picked up my glasses case. I didn't
normally need them, but this was a special occasion. I still
wasn't quite sure if this was going to work, and I was
nervous as hell.

Stepping out of the bedroom, I picked up Ravindar at the
door. We both headed into the kitchen, where Oria was,
feeding Beca her breakfast. The twins were already happily
feed, and both seemed to be asleep in their carriers.

"Think you can spare some of your free time today?" I asked
my wife, not sitting down, instead standing across the
table, leaning forward to be close to eye-level with her.

She gave me a sidelong glance, "I might," she said, spooning
some more food into Beca's mouth. "Does this have anything
to do with the message you got last week?"

I chuckled, "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

She smirked at me and I smiled back to her. That was my
wife. The training she had gotten in the Guild might not
have made her happy, but it sure made her observant.

In fact, she had been talking to me about resuming the
training, once the kids were old enough. She said that with
Cain gunning for me (along with who knows else) that it
would be a good idea for both of us to be in better shape.

"Yes it does," I answered her original question, "and all
the other messages as well."

She nodded, "You're not going to tell me what this is about,
are you?"

"Of course not," I responded. This time I was smirking. "How
else can I keep my air of mystery and intrigue about me?"

She smiled, "If I didn't love you, I would hurt you for
that."

"Thanks, I think." I said as I walked around the table to
stand behind her as she helped Beca with more food. The
young lady had been fussy lately, mostly because she had
started to teeth last week. I wasn't sure if that was on
schedule or not, and would have to see if anyone knew.

I draped my arms over Oria's shoulders. "I will tell you
this... it's a birthday party, of sorts."

Her response was made up of a very puzzled look on both her
face and her ears. "A birthday party? For whom?"

I chuckled. "A party of sorts. It's not actually celebrating
the anniversary of a birth. You'll see. As for whom, well,
that's the surprise now isn't it?"

She sighed. "You can be so infuriating," she commented.

I kissed the side of her neck, both of her ears, then the
other side of her neck. "And you love me for it."

Oria laughed. "Thryn help me, I do." She craned her head
back, and we kissed, breaking away after a short time when
Beca protested that she was still hungry.

When we didn't respond right away, she leaned forward in her
highchair and grabbed the spoon. Holding it carefully in her
chubby paw, she managed to pull it from the bowl, to make
contact with her mouth, losing only a little along the way.

"Looks like she's not going to wait for us," I commented to
Oria, resting my chin on her shoulder.

She pushed the bowl closer to Beca, who proceeded to try and
continue feeding herself, with varied success from spoonful
to spoonful.

"She's going to be a smart girl," I said, nuzzling Oria's
cheek.

She purred, nuzzling back. "She already is."

I kissed her on the cheek, pulling back a bit. "Ready to go,
or would you like to wait a few more minutes."

Her eyes went wide, her ears laying back. "Now? I thought
this thing of yours wasn't until later."

"In about twenty minutes," I answered. "I can delay it
slightly, but not for long. It was the only time I could get
everyone scheduled for today. Trust me, though, this will be
worth it."

She gave me a slightly exasperated look, brushing some of
her hair from her eyes. "Can I go as I am, or do I need to
change?"

I gave a longer look at how she was dressed. A shirt and
jeans, same as I always wore. There were a few stains here
and there, but nothing that would be a distraction. "What
you've got on will be fine."

She nodded, standing up. "Then I'll go tell Kalie she needs
to watch the kids. I hope this doesn't take too long."

"No more than an hour," I told her, sitting down in her
vacated chair as she went off to find Kalie. I sat watching
Beca as she continued to eat. She was getting a bit better
at matching the food to her mouth. Still, more seemed to end
up on herself than she managed to eat.

A few minutes later Oria returned, with our baby-sitter in
tow. Kalie looked a bit ruffled, in her shirt and shorts;
her dark fur was a mess, and she looked a bit tired. A book
was clamped in her paws and she held it in front of herself
like it was some sort of shield.

"Sorry if we woke you," I told her as I stood up.

She shook her head. "No, it's all right," she explained in a
slightly strained voice. "I just didn't sleep very well last
night, that's all."

"Thanks for pitching in on such short notice," I said,
readjusting the backpack on my shoulders. "Oria won't be
gone that long, so don't worry."

Kalie nodded, sitting down in front of Beca. The large open
back of the chair allowed her tail to easily fit through,
unlike most chairs which weren't designed with a thick tail
in mind.

I took Oria's wrist, pulling her gently along as we walked
to where the fold was. Ravindar followed right behind, as
always.

Oria didn't say much as we slipped through the fold and
stepped into The Marble Hall. My first thought was of how
antiseptic everything looked. It was a strange thought.
True, the hallways were mostly white, but that was the
normal color of the Hall. In fact it's where the name itself
came from. It was just that the place had started to seem a
bit foreign to me now.

We continued along the hallway, my arm wrapped around Oria's
shoulder as we made small talk. We said nothing very
important, and nothing I can remember now. We just chatted
to fill the time.

Our destination was an unmarked door along the middle of an
unmarked hallway, both the same shade of white. The door
wasn't prominent against the wall, and in fact was something
that you would miss if you didn't know it was there.

Taking a deep breath, I found that I was suddenly a lot more
nervous than I was before. I tried not to show it as I gave
the door a trio of quick raps.

There was a few seconds pause before it opened, revealing
the golden-eyed face of N'Taki. He smiled when he saw me,
opening the door the rest of the way. "Come in, please, your
almost late."

We did, stepping into a slightly bare room, almost a lobby,
but there were only three chairs, and no receptionist, just
a bare desk. It was just set up in such a way that
everything that was actually going on in the lab was hidden
behind the two closed doors. One door I knew led to N'Taki's
office, the other was a hallway to the actual labs.

"And you must be Oriana," he said with a pleasant smile,
offering her a paw. "I've heard a lot about you. Fox may not
have mentioned it, but I'm a fan of the stories about his
exploits. I find them fascinating, as well as you. I hear
that you are married now, congratulations."

She blushed, a smile wrapped around her muzzle. "Thank you,
I'm glad you like our stories," she took his paw shaking it
swiftly. "I'm happy to meet you, for whatever's going on
here."

He smiled as he took his paw back, his focus returning to
me. "She doesn't know what you're planning? My, my, the
secrets that we keep," he chuckled, turning away from us.
"Come on, everyone is waiting."

"Where exactly are we?" Oria asked as we followed N'Taki
through the door, and down the long, white hallway. We
passed a few large, locked doors as we went.

"This is one of the Consortium R&D labs," I explained.
"They've been working on a project for me. I think you'll
like the surprise, so trust me about what's going on."

She turned her head back to look at Ravindar. "You knew
about this?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he responded. "I've been with him almost the
whole time he's been working on this."

Oria shot him a 'why didn't you tell me' look, before
turning back to face forward. N'Taki turned into an open
door, and we found ourselves in an almost empty room. The
only thing in it were four people, one was H'Naala, N'Taki's
wife, two were older Varii, that I didn't know, and the last
one was Ken.

The other thing in the room was a long table, with a body
laid out on it. The white sheet covering it was rising and
falling slowly as the body under the sheet breathed.

"What's going on?" Ken asked as he saw me, walking over
swiftly. "No one has told me anything! And what's with the
body? It's kind of creepy. It reminds me of Nata'razi'anra"
He shook his wings in a slight shiver at that. Couldn't say
I could blame him, that still gave me chills.

No time for reminiscing. I shrugged my backpack off, setting
it on the floor, and walked over to H'Naala. "Everything
ready?" I asked.

She nodded, her long white hair flipping about, a contrast
against her rust red fur. Her eyes were a dark emerald
green. They always took me by surprise every time I saw
them. "Everything has been prepared," she replied.

"Good," I responded, starting to relax slightly. "Who are
the other two, and why are they here?"

"They're senior healers from my Clan," she explained,
leaning slightly forward. "They wish to observe the
procedure. Nothing like this has even been attempted on a
Natural before, and they want to see how it proceeds."

I snapped my head in a nod. "Ok, that's fine by me, but
you're the only one allowed in my mind."

She nodded in return, and I stepped away from her. Looking
at both Ken and Oria, I smiled. "All right, time to explain
what's going on before we start."

"That would be nice," Oria remarked, looking a bit puzzled,
and just the slightest bit annoyed.

I walked over to her, kissing her on the cheek. "You'll like
this, trust me." I took my glasses off, handing them to her.

She blinked in slight surprise, but took them from me.

Next, I reached under my shirt and grasped my pendent.
Pulling it up, and over my head, I handed it to Oria as
well. I shifted into my lioness morph form as I stepped away
from her.

I adjusted my clothing slightly, my body being smaller in
this form than when I was human. I slipped my tail out over
the top of my pants, and checked to see if my earring had
transferred right. I had gotten my ear pierced in this form,
but some times it would fall free during the change.

"This is interesting," Ken commented, focusing on me, then
peering back at the body on the table. "The lady you were
just talking to, he said, a grin spreading over his muzzle,
"she's telepathic with Naturals, isn't she?"

I smiled, "Correct. I think you already know where this is
going," I said as I bent down to fish out the gem from my
backpack.

He nodded, "You said this was a birthday of sorts when you
called me. It's for Rhea, isn't it?"

"Rhea?" Oria said with a soft gasp of shock. "You mean,
that's a body for Rhea on the table?"

"Correct again," I answered, dropping the gem over my neck,
the stone sea-blue in color as it fell between my breasts.
"We have an interesting plan as well. With H'Naala's help,
it shouldn't take very long."

"Are you sure that it's safe? What if something goes wrong?"
She looked worried, and rightly so.

H'Naala stepped forward to answer that before I could. "I'm
not going to be doing anything that can cause damage to
either of them. I'm going to imprint an exact copy of Fox's
mind into the body's brain. Which, for a moment mean there
will be two versions of both Fox and Rhea. Then I'll just
block out the parts that make Rhea in Fox's mind, and the
parts that make Fox in Rhea's mind. Both are completely
reversible."

Ken wrapped an arm around Oria's shoulder, and a wing around
her back. "I've seen it done before, but not precisely like
this. The swapping out of Rhea's mind should not pose a
problem."

I took in a deep breath. "See, if anything goes wrong, the
worst that will happen is that we both end up having the
exact same mind. Which is also easily fixable. I would just
be twained for a while."

Oria stepped away from Ken, grabbing me for a short kiss. "I
trust you. If you believe this can be done, I'll allow you
to do it."

I returned the kiss. "Thank you," I finally said, taking a
step back, and grasping the gem in my paws. I started
'talking' to it, telling it to activate. With my eyes closed
I felt no changes to my body. I knew it was done, though,
when I drop the gem, and my paw settled onto the floor.

I was back into my full lioness form, my clothing gone,
shifted away for now by a spell Ken had provided a year ago.
The only thing I now wore was the gem, which had become
fire-red.

Taking in a long breath, I felt Rhea starting to peek over
my shoulder. She didn't know what was going on here either.
I gave her a quick explanation. This was her surprise as
well, and as I walked over to the table, she was ecstatic at
the news.

The idea of having her own body thrilled her, though she did
say she would miss being in my head with me. I reassured her
that this wouldn't be the end of our friendship, since she
was part of the family. It might give her a few added
responsibilities that she might not expect, though.

She didn't seem to mind. Not even when I mentioned she would
have to go morphic at times. To her it was just all part of
being part of the family.

I looked up at H'Naala, nodding my head slightly. She
understood this motion, placing one of her paws on my
forehead. The other slipped under the sheet, to be placed on
the other side of this mental transfusion.

Her mental fingers slipped gently into my mind. I was ready
for this, and didn't jump back. In this form, any reaction
to her probing would hurt her a lot more than it did last
time. So I tried to relax, and closed my eyes.

Time seemed to slow down after a while. My thoughts echoed
around in my head. I could still feel her fingers, but they
were moving all over my mind. There was a slight pulling
sensation that was growing stronger, and once I swear I had
a flash of seeing the sheet over my eyes.

I don't know now long the process lasted, it felt like
forever. I watched in my mental landscape, waves and ripples
in strange patterns passed over Rhea and me. Sometimes they
were small, sometimes large. Other times there were strange
spikes of light in the sky.

Then one moment, Rhea was standing by my side, the next, she
was gone. I was shocked at how sudden it was, actually
searching my mind for her for a few seconds before I
understood what had happened.

After that, H'Naala's fingers were gone from my mind. I
opened my eyes, to find her sitting in front of me, panting
hard. She looked a bit dizzy, and N'Taki was already at her
side.

I turned my head, looking up at the table. Only to find
myself looking back down at me.

'Rhea?' I asked in the strange, semi-telepathic language
that I seemed to have in this form.

'Fox?' came the response in the same form. She twitcher her
ears, tongue licking at her nose.

I raised up higher, nuzzling at her cheek. 'Good morning
sister, welcome to the real world.'

She purred. One of the other Vari came over, pulling the
sheet away from her. She flicked her tail, and pulled
herself up to her feet. She looked a bit shaky, but that was
to be expected, her body was not as fit as mine was yet.

I padded back to Oria, taking the gem once again in my paws,
and talking it into returning me to my morphic form. I stood
back up from the floor, stretching out slightly. "It
worked," I declared with a smile.

She returned it, hugging me tightly. "I see that. I'm just
glad you're still in one piece."

I purred softly, kissing her nose. "I still have a lot to
do. I need to take Rhea to see Doctor Videa, have her
checked out, and get a tracker put in her."

She nodded. "I understand. I guess I have to go back home
now."

"Almost," I told her, picking up my pack again, and fishing
through it. "There's still one thing left to do."

She gave me a quizzical look as I pulled my paw out of the
pack. When she saw what I was holding, she smiled. "A
wedding band for Rhea," she said, taking it from me. "I
didn't know you had it made in this size, I thought there
was just the normal one."

I grinned, taking her hand, and pulling her towards Rhea. "I
felt it was proper, after all, she is married to us."

She laughed, "Of course."

Everyone else had moved out of our way. All four Varii had
moved together, talking about how things had gone, and Ken
was standing back, minding his own business. Ravindar was
standing just inside the door, watching with a smile.

Rhea was still in the process of looking over her new body
when she noticed our arrival. Her ears pricked up as we came
close to her, her muzzle showing something close to a smile.
There was no doubt that she was far more than just an
animal.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her, reaching out to pet her
scruff.

'Good,' she answered back.

I didn't know that we could still talk in that fashion once
I was in a morphic form. It was a surprise, but a pleasant
one.

"Oria, would you care to do the honors?" I suggested.

She smiled, holding up the wedding band. "Rhea, a year ago,
when Fox had just returned to me, it was hard to imagine
that you would be anything good for our family. Now here we
are, married, which would never have happened without you.
We are bound together in a strange family that has no
precedent. So I hope that you will wear this with the same
pride and honor that I do, to show yourself as part of this
family."

Rhea nodded her large head, placing her right paw forward.

Oria smiled, and very carefully placed the band over the
large wrist. Closing it, there was the soft click of a
magical lock to keep it on.

Rhea looked down at the band, then pulled it to her cheek
and nuzzled it. She then leaned forward and nuzzled Oria's
cheek, licking her across the face.

"I think that means yes," I explained with a smile.

Oria laughed and slapped me with her arm as she bent
forward, and nuzzled Rhea's cheek. We were most assuredly a
family.

    Chapter 2

It took a bit of time, but I had managed to get changed into
something that fit slightly better on my current form.
Still, I looked like I always did, T-shirt and jeans. What
can I say, I have no imagination.

By now both Oria and Ken had left. Ken took my pendent, as
he wanted to give it a once over before I put it back on.
Oria, on the other hand, was a bit more insistent on staying
with me. It took a while to get her going; I had other
things to do, and so did she. I left her with a promise that
I would be home in a few hours.

Rhea had wanted to stretch her new legs, so we had all moved
into the lobby of the labs. The two older Varii had left,
satisfied with the way things had gone. H'Naala was checking
Rhea once more, to insure that everything she had done
worked. She had already done the same with me, and things in
my mind we're as normal as they ever were.

N'Taki was standing to the side, looking very relieved that
things had turned out so well. If something had gone wrong,
it would have been on his head. Something no one wanted to
see happen.

I smiled as I stepped out of N'Taki's office, noticing that
Ravindar had been guarding the door for me. Typical, not
that I minded. I was starting to find that, I would feel
uncomfortable without him around. Strange feeling.

"Everything intact?" I asked, walking over to Rhea, bending
down as I did so to fluff her ears.

"She's fine," H'Naala explained, "Even better than I
expected. Better than you, but your mixed bodies might have
something to do with that."

I grinned. "Makes sense to me. I'm surprised you were even
able to find my mind in that mess. It's hard enough for me
to deal with. I can't imagine what it would be like for an
outsider."

She chuckled as she rose to her feet. "There were no great
surprises in your mind. True it's a bit twisted around
itself, but I suspect for a Natural, that's normal."

My response was a smirk, which was echoed in both my ears
and tail. "Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment." I petted
Rhea's fur as I said this, and she was purring in return.

H'Naala smiled, then yawned loudly, her mouth opening wider
than I thought was possible. "I think I'm going to go home
and sleep for a month. This has really worn me out."

I nodded, pulling my backpack off my shoulders. "I
understand, we'll get out of your hair in a moment." I dug
into the pack, quickly I found and remove Rhea's collar. It
was the same one that was used on me the day the curse first
struck.

She knew the procedure for this, lifting her head, and
letting me strap it around her neck. I didn't bother with a
leash, she wouldn't be wandering off without me. It was more
of a formality than anything else, there was no law
requiring her to be leashed, or restrained, but she did have
to wear a collar.

"Come on, guys," I said, pulling my backpack on as I opened
the door. "Let's get going, we have other things to do. And
thanks, you two, if you need anything, anything at all, give
me a call, I'll see what I can do."

H'Naala gave me a tired smile, as she leaned against N'Taki,
who had his arm wrapped around her waist. "I'll keep that in
mind," he said, smiling as well.

I smiled back, stepping out into the hallway, Rhea at one
side, and Ravindar right behind me. Closing the door, I felt
Ravindar's paw fall onto my shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
he asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"You might be surprised," I told him, "I feel really good.
Everything seems right, but, I also feel kind of alone." I
reached down to pet Rhea as we started to walk along the
hall. "After all this time, it feels strange to be alone in
my mind again. I'm going to miss having her with me all the
time. Not that there's anything wrong with being separate,
it's just that..." I was at a loss for words, I couldn't
really say how I was feeling right now.

"I understand" he said, walking next to me for once, and not
behind. "She is something like a sister to you, isn't she?"

I chuckled. "More than something. If she was to use the gem,
we would be identical, except for the eyes." Her eyes were
gray, just like in my mind, and when she was in control of
my body. No one had planned that, it just happened on it's
own.

Ravindar gave a sage like nod as we continued to walk. The
three of us side by side. My hand was still in the back of
Rhea's neck, petting her scruff gently. She was watching
everything closely, taking it all in. There was nothing that
she hadn't seen before, but she was herself now, and even
the same things were new again.

I was going to take a fold to our next destination, but Rhea
wanted to walk instead. This struck me as a good idea, once
I had time to think about it. We didn't know if she was a
Natural or not, and I had forgotten to bring any temps for
her. So walking was the best choice. Anyway, our first stop
was only a few miles from the Hall.

We walked up the ramp, out of the Hall, and into the streets
of Corbin, the city that surrounded the Marble Hall. Turning
north we headed towards the Zoo. No, I wasn't going to put
Rhea there, Doctor Videa, my vet, worked there. She was
going to implant a tracker in Rhea, so we would be able to
keep tabs on her in the event that something happened to
her.

I, myself, have one, a strange thing for a person to have
implanted. It was done as a precaution to make sure that if
Rhea ever took control of the body again, Oria would always
be able to find me. Now it was no longer necessary, so I
could have it removed, once I had time to not be able to sit
down for a few days.

The sunlight felt good on my fur, which prompted me to start
purring. I had to admit it, I liked this body, even if it
was so off from who and what I really am, or what I used to
want to be. To some, the change of both species and gender
would be hard to overcome. For me it was simply something
else for me to learn to enjoy.

"So, what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Ravindar
asked.

I smiled, twitching an ear. "Well, first to see Doctor
Videa, then after that to get Rhea tested to see if my
ability as a Natural copied over."

He looked slightly surprised. "I thought it was impossible
to 'make' a Natural. You could only be born that way."

"Right," I answered, scratching the back of my neck. "But
the process that was used to make Rhea's body isn't a simple
cloning, or genetic manipulation. That, and with how strange
my luck is at times, it's just the kind of thing that would
happen." I shrugged,  "That's the way my family is."

He nodded his head, his eyes almost focusing on me as we
continued to walk. "Then after that, do you have any more
places you wish to go?"

'Someplace where I can run!' Rhea chipped in from my side.

I laughed, scratching the back of her ears, my claws out
slightly. "Well, Rhea wants to go running, and I think I'll
join her. I know this nice little place out where we used to
live. Hell, you could use the gem and join us. I would love
to see what you would look like as a full tiger."

"Remember, you're married," he cautioned, but with a
pleasant smile. "But I will consider it, I still need to
keep an eye on you. One question first, how did she tell you
what she wanted?"

"Telepathically," I answered.

He coughed, "You're a Natural, how precisely is that
possible?"

I shrugged, flicking my ears as I did so. "I'm not sure. We
could always talk before. And the Unicorn and I could talk
in the same fashion." He gave me a slightly strange look.
"Never mind about all that. I guess it's something us smart
animals can do."

Rhea nodded her head in agreement, skipping a few paces
forward of us as we turned a corner.

"You're not exactly an animal Fox," Ravindar told me, a bit
of a worried look on his face as we followed Rhea around the
corner.

"I'm not so sure anymore." I answered him, putting my paws
in my pockets. "I mean, on one hand, I spend most of my time
as a human, on the other, that's not the form I need to be
in. Since the curse, my human form has been something forced
onto the lioness form. That's why I have claws. The gem just
changes that to morphic. The thing is, for the past year, to
the day, I've been a lioness that can become a human, but
not really human."

He placed a paw on my shoulder. "Don't be too hard on
yourself. Once Ken does break your curse, you'll be back to
normal."

I laughed. "This is normal to me now! And if he does, what
do I lose? I'll be back to a standard human, and you know
I'm not like that anymore, and I like being Rhea, or rather
a lioness, that is. Both morphic and full. It feels good to
have more than one body, in a strange kind of way."

"Well..." he paused, grabbing my shoulder a bit harder,
pulling us both to a standstill. We were just in front of an
alley, and he was glancing into it out of the corner of his
eye.

Rhea had stopped a few feet away. The fur on the back of her
neck was brisling. Something was wrong here, and I was the
only one who couldn't see it.

Then in one move, Ravindar shoved me back into the alley,
following right behind, blocking my body with his. Behind us
I heard the familiar sound of bullets striking the wall
behind where we stood.

He shoved me back against the wall, arm over my chest,
holding tightly. He himself already had a gun out, holding
it at the ready. He was bleeding from a shallow wound along
his arm. I couldn't see Rhea, she must still have been out
in the street. I hoped she was O.K.

I followed suit, pulling my own gun out, and loading a round
into the chamber. "What are we looking at?" I asked him in a
hushed voice.

He glanced back at me, looking slightly surprised to find
that I was armed. I guess he forgot that I carried a pair of
guns almost all the time, or maybe he just assumed that, as
a female, I was unarmed. Not that it mattered right now.

"One gunman," he answered, pulling out some sort of
reflective stick from his pocket. He held it loosely in his
paw, leaning forward slightly. Reaching out of the alley, he
spun it around in a circle twice, then pulled it back. The
sound of two more bullets striking the wall followed,
sending a fine mist of dust into the air.

"Sniper position, three buildings over, fourth floor, two
windows from the left," he explained, putting his device
away. "There's a second man at the end of the street, not
armed, but holding something gun-like, but it is not a
weapon. I was unable to get a good enough look to see
exactly what it is." He sounded almost apologetic.

I was amazed that he could see all that in that short of a
time. Then again, this is what he was trained for, and as a
Crystal Master, he had to excel at his job.

"Rhea?" I prompted, shucking my pack.

"She's fine," he answered, "holding herself to the ground,
and being ignored."

I sighed, "Good, nice to know they're trying to keep from
killing anyone but me."

He glanced over his shoulder to me. "That is what's
confusing; the first shot was aimed to kill me, not you."

"Well, that's odd, don't you think?"

He shook his head. "The other man, if he has a tranquilizer
gun, then they're more likely trying to capture you alive."

I sighed, shaking my head slightly. "Ok, so they want you
dead and me in their possession. This is not a good position
to be in." I glanced down the alley way. "And this is a dead
end, perfect, not even a door we can open."

"They must have been following us to find the proper
location," he commented, leaning forward quickly to take a
shot, pulling back right away. More shots smacked into the
wall, one hit the far side of the alley. "Damn, this is a
terrible angle to shoot at. I need more than a fraction of a
second to hit him."

I nodded, trying to relax, and to take in my situation. The
alley was one I would expect to see anywhere, just wide
enough for a car, with a few doors along its length, none
with handles. It ended up against a brick wall after twenty
feet. No place to go, not even a fold.

There was something else, though. There were a set of stairs
leading down to a basement entrance of one of the buildings.
It looked like it had seen better days, but it gave me an
idea.

"What do you think of those steps over there? Would they be
good cover?"

He hummed, looking at me, then at where I was pointing.
"Yes," he answered after a second's thought. "The angle is
wrong to shoot into it. If you were down at the bottom, you
should be fine."

"Good, I'm going to give you a distraction," I told him with
a smile, right before I burst into a hard run. Falling to
the ground at full speed, I rolled under the handrail, and
into the stairwell. The landing hurt, smacking both my arms
and my shins on the stone steps. There was pain, but not
enough to pay attention to right then.

"Damn it, Fox," Ravindar said. I waved my paw at him over
the lip of the stairwell, keeping myself as low as I could.
No shots came in my direction, that was good.

Moving back farther, I rose up slightly out of the
stairwell. I could just see the sniper resting where
Ravindar said he would be. He wasn't shooting, just seemed
to be holding back for the next chance.

Resting my wrists on the lip of the stairwell, I took
careful aim. There was no way I could hit him at this
distance, I wasn't that good a shot. Instead, I just wanted
his attention.

I fired three rounds, ducking back down just in time to hear
a few shots hit the stone above my head. I wasn't sure how
many there were, but it ended when I heard Ravindar fire.

"You can come out now," he called a few seconds later.

I peeked over the edge of the stairwell. Ravindar was
standing just outside of the alley, gun still in hand, but
smiling.

Climbing out, I walked over to where he stood, to see why he
was smiling. It didn't take long for me to see what exactly
it was. The other would-be kidnapper, the one with the
tranquilizer gun, was currently pinned down under Rhea, who
had her jaws wrapped around his neck.

I smiled. "Nice to see we still have someone we can talk
to," I commented as I started to walk towards them. Ravindar
followed just behind me, gun out, and held prone.

As I got closer, I could see that this capture hadn't been
peaceful. Whoever our attacker was, he had been slashed down
the side of his face by Rhea, and was bleeding from his
shoulder, where there was an evident bite mark. Some of his
shirt, and a bit of flesh, was missing.

I grinned, leaning down once I was next to them, my left arm
over Rhea's back, my right still holding my gun. "Hello," I
said with a wicked smile.

He started to struggle more, looking panicked.

"I wouldn't do that, unless you want to find out how easy it
is to breath when your own blood is flooding down into your
lungs, hum?"

He froze, his eyes pleading with me. He really didn't want
to try and learn how to do that.

"Let up a bit, Rhea," I said, glancing up to Ravindar, his
gun was aimed right at our little friend's head. Good. "Now,
you're going to answer some questions, or she's going to eat
you, and she knows how to do it, and keep you alive while
she does it. Understand."

"Yes," he managed to choke out, his eyes locked on Rhea's
head.

"Good," I drew the word out so it took a few seconds to say.
"Who do you work for?"

He gulped, a look of panic crossing his face. I could
imagine that he wasn't supposed to tell me this if I did
capture him.

I tapped Rhea's shoulder, and she started to apply a bit
more pressure.

"Cain!" he yelled out, eyes wide in panic. He seemed to be
waiting for something to happen in response to this
admission.

I was worried as well, I knew I was going to face off with
Cain at some point in time, but I had hoped to have longer
to prepare for it.

"What does he want you to do?" I asked, leaning a bit closer
to him.

"To kidnap you," he gasped out, eyes unfocused slightly.

I placed my paw on his shoulder, still holding the gun as I
did so. "Why?" I demanded.

He gave me a dazed look. "To get your husband to come to
him..." the last word trailed off, his eyes rolling back
into his head.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked Ravindar, looking up
to him, slightly panicked.

"Cain may have done something to keep him from talking. A
mental command or an implant. It shut down his mind instead
of allowing him to talk. It might have been fear of Rhea
that kept him with us as long as it did."

"Shit!" I said, rising to my feet. "Cain thought I was
Oriana. Shit, he's after her, not me."

"It would give him a strategic advantage over you," Ravindar
commented.

"How do we get anything else out of him?" I asked, returning
my gun back to its holster.

He shook his head. "I can think of a few ways, but if Cain
could knock him out like this, anything we can do would be
useless."

I shook my head. "Unacceptable," I told him, glancing around
the street. It was still empty, no police at all. They
should have been here by now. I worried about that as well.

"Do you know any other way?" he asked, sounding snide.

"Yes," I said, the answer coming to me. "I know of another
way we can get the information out of him."

He gave me a worried looked. "How, he's dying as we speak,
he won't last more than a few minutes."

I grinned. "That's all we need. Grab the body, we have to go
see a vampire!"

    Chapter 3

As luck would have it, the nearest fold was only a hundred
feet down the next turn. So, as Ravindar heaved the body of
our attacker over his shoulder, I went back to the allay to
grab my backpack.

Dashing past him and Rhea, I ran to the fold and yanked it
open. Jumping through, I came out into the fold room at the
house. I dropped my pack and grabbed a pair of temps, then
jumped back through to the other side, closing it in the
process.

As soon I was back on the street, I went right down to my
knees. Rhea was already there, head bowed slightly. I shoved
the temps over her ears. They would stay on long enough to
get us all to the other side.

Getting back to my feet, I spun around, opening the fold to
Praxis. We stepped over the threshold, and half way across
Prid. Right into the middle of a busy street corner.

Rhea jumped through after me. Ravindar followed a bit more
carefully, the body slung over his shoulder. Closing the
fold, I paused for a few seconds to get my bearings.

"This way," I said, starting off in the proper direction. I
was moving at breakneck speed, or at least trying to. The
people on the street were blocking the way. We were in the
business section of town, after all.

We had to hurry. I didn't know if Elena could do anything
with a completely dead body. I was hoping that as long as he
was only mostly dead, something could be done.

"Can you clear a path?" I asked Ravindar, shoving past a
small crowd of people. The fact that my oversized companion
had an almost dead body over his shoulders didn't seem to
phase anyone.

He came to a sharp stop, taking in a deep breath. "Everybody
get the hell out of my way!" he bellowed out.

That got most peoples' attention, but they just stopped in
their tracks and stared at us. A few open mouthed, but no
one was moving out of our way.

Rhea then chipped in, pulling herself back and letting out
an ear splitting roar. Now, a lion's roar is jarring enough,
but there was nothing like a lion on Prid, or in the zoos.
This added to the effect. People scattered off the sidewalk
for us.

With the way clearer than before, we once more were moving
at a dead run. My feet we're starting to get sore from the
pounding they were taking on the pavement. I didn't have
shoes on; Oria's species just didn't use them, and I
followed suit in this form. I just didn't have the calluses
built up yet to do this type of thing.

We continued at that heavy pace, pushing past the few people
who managed to keep in our way. Of the three of us, I was
the farthest back. Rhea and Ravindar we're moving at a good
pace, but I was starting to fall behind.

Our destination was in sight! The front lawn of the 'Data
and Troubleshooting Services of Kenterra' offices was just
around the corner. We cut across the grass, ignoring the
path, and burst through the front door into the lobby.

Inside we were meet by a dozen very well armed dragons, the
particular kind from Elena's world. Their uniforms were
bulky, thick, and well armored. Each had the distinct look
of just waiting for us to do something wrong so they could
do their jobs.

Motioning for the others to stop, I took a few steps
forward, my tail lashing back and forth behind me. "I need
to see Elena right now. It's an emergency!" I called out to
whoever would listen. I glanced back at Ravindar; my
attacker was still breathing, but it was slowing down. "Come
on, people, we don't have time to waste!"

There was a slight commotion from the back of the room, one
of the guards was talking to the receptionist, in less than
hushed tones. Then the guard, looking a bit, annoyed snapped
an order to the others in a language I didn't understand. In
response the guards fanned away from the door that led into
the rest of the offices.

"The director's in hir office, at the end of the hall," the
guard said in thickly accented Prid Standard. Obviously
learnt, and not spoken with a translator.

I snapped my head towards him, running right past. For a
second I got a look at myself in the large sheet of glass
behind the receptionist's desk. I was a sight, dirty from my
trip into the stairwell, my hair was a mess, the ponytail it
was in (I had longer hair in this form, and my pigtail had
transferred into a ponytail) was coming loose. My ears were
flat down on my head, and there was no doubt I was pissed.

That lasted only a moment, though. Then we were through the
door, and moving down the long hallway that ran the length
of the office building. Of the people that usually worked in
the office, I didn't see a one, everyone was staying out of
our way.

We came to the large door at the end of the hallway. It, too
was guarded by a dragon who was holding a gun half his own
size. The other guard was an otter Theriamorph, but not in
armor. Sie was dressed in some kind of kilt getup, and was
holding a staff in hir paw. I suspected sie was just as
deadly as the guard, if not more so.

I started to tell them to open the door, but the otter was
already doing it for us. Sie said nothing, but just stood
aside to let us through.

On the other side of the door was Elena's office. It was a
large room, and dark. Once the door behind us closed, the
only light came from the bank of video monitors that lined
the wall behind the desk. The outline of a 'taur form was
visible behind it.

"Elena, I need your help," I said, taking a step forward.

There was a pause. "Step closer so I can get a look at your
companion," sie asked. Hir voice sounded bad, rough and
raspy, like it hurt for hir to talk.

We all shifted forward, the tension in the room was growing.
We didn't have much time to deal with this kind of play.

"I recognize Fox and Ravindar, but who is the lady lion?"
sie asked with a slightly worried tone, hir silhouette
shifting slightly. "Sie doesn't appear to be Oriana."

I shook my head. "I'm Fox. That's Rhea now." I told hir,
taking another step forward.

"Ah! I see, you've twained yourself. I suspected you were
planning something of this type, but nothing quite like
this." There was a pause, and the light over the desk
snapped on.

Elena looked like hell, or something worse for that matter.
Hir throat looked raw; the fur was stripped off and the skin
seemed to have been ripped open at one point. Hir right eye
was gone, leaving an empty socket that was disconcerting to
look at. Hir muzzle had been rent open, then healed badly,
leaving it deformed. There was a strange gap of skin over
hir muzzle.

Sie coughed, "So, why do you need me?" sie coughed again,
harder this time, hacking a bit. Although sie was in no
condition to be seeing anyone, sie must have known this was
going to be important.

I snapped a look to Ravindar, and he stepped forward,
dropping the body hard onto the desk. Our captive's face was
pale, and his skin was clammy. His breathing was shallow and
slow, and it rattled, loudly enough to make me think there
were only a few more breaths left.

"This man tried to kidnap me thinking I was Oria. His
compatriot tried to kill Ravindar in the process," I hastily
explained. "We were able to get some information out of him,
the fact that he was working for Cain for one. He doesn't
seem to know I have more than one body."

Sie smiled, a decidedly unpleasant thing to view. "And you
wish for me to see if he has any more information, yes?"

I nodded. "Everything he knows about Cain, his operation,
and most of all, where he is located. I will not take an
assault on my family lightly."

Sie looked down at the body, setting hir paw over his chest,
licking her lips slightly. "I can provide that for you if
you wish, and more. When I interrogate a prisoner, I can get
far more information than you would think."

"I understand. Right now I'm just focusing on Cain," I
paused for a second, glancing at my attacker, then back to
Elena. I gave her a slight smile, "But you can keep him when
you're done."

"Really now?" sie asked, a look of hunger showing in her
good eye. Sie walked around the desk, looking over the body,
then back to me. The damage wasn't limited to just her face.
Sie had a series of bite and claw marks all down hir body. A
few places were clearly missing large chunks of flesh.
Everything was somewhat healed, but didn't look healthy.

"I shall accept that as your payment," sie quipped. "I need
the opportunity a good meal would provide." The last part
was said more to hirself than for us.

I understood this for what is was, our cue to leave. "So I
see. Have fun. We'll be back at the house. Stop by once you
have the information we need. I'm sure you already know
where the fold is."

Sie gave a slight nod of hir head, most of hir attention
focused on hir meal.

"Come on, let's get back home and clean up," I said it more
as an order than anything else. Quickly we filed out of the
room, leaving Elena to hir 'interrogation' as we headed back
towards the exit.

"I never expected you to have that in you," Ravindar
commented as we stepped out of the doors of the office. Much
to the relief of most of the staff that we saw, Rhea was
right by my side, panting a bit, and looking like she could
use a good lay down.

"What, to give my would-be kidnapper to Elena?" I
questioned, feeling a bit queasy about it myself.

He gave me a sharp nod. "That, and the fact that he won't
survive hir questioning."

"I knew that going in," I told him as we stepped back onto
the sidewalk, trying to look casual. "Hell, I never doubted
how sie would get the information. I was half doing that as
a gesture to hir, and half to make it clear that I
understood the implications of what I was doing."

He snorted softly, "Sie may not be around much longer
hirself. I do not quite understand what you hope to achieve
by this action."

I chuckled, "I know hir, I've seen hir in action before and
know exactly what sie is. When I called hir a vampire, I
meant that literally. You'll see when sie comes by the
house. Until then, we have other things to plan. Like what
to do next?"

"Next we call the Guild," he told me matter-of-factly, "and
put armed guards around the house, and your family. If Cain
wants Oriana we have to insure that he won't get her."

I nodded. "Do you think he knows what happened to his men?"

"I did not see any communication devices on our attacker.
They may be simply one of many teams hunting Oriana."

I nodded again, wrapping my paws behind my back. "Cain wants
Oria to get me to come to him. Get me mad, so I play by his
rules in this battle."

"Yes," Ravindar said, quickly sliding back to step behind
me, once more in a defensive position.

I said nothing more as we walked back to the fold. After the
events of the past-- I did a mental calculation-- maybe ten
minutes, I was starting to feel a let down as the adrenaline
wore off.

I was thinking, though, Cain wanted Oria to get to me. I
understood the plan, it made sense in its way. Basically, he
and I were the same person. Not exactly a good side, bad
side type thing. He just wanted different things.

Like getting his hands on my wife!

What struck me as odd was that he apparently didn't know
about the curse. This almost made sense, we had kept it low
profile since it started. He just might not be aware that I
had two forms.

Or rather, he knew that I did, but not about the split in
forms. To him, Rhea and Ravindar together was me and
Ravindar together. So the morphic lioness had to be Oriana.
That made more sense.

So what to do? The fact that I was now split was an
advantage for now. How to use it, though? Well, he wanted
Oria, and as far as his men knew, I was her.

Perhaps I should let them capture me, thinking that I was
Oria. That would be something they would never expect. The
thing is, it would only work if they could believe that we
didn't know what had happened. A bad assumption to go on.

My best hope was that my attacker knew where Cain was, and
we could move on him before he found out what happened. That
was iffy at best, though.

Shaking my head, I opened the fold back into the house. We
all stepped through, and I closed it behind us. "Call the
Guild," I told Ravindar, "And do what you said. Right now I
don't care if we know there around."

He smiled, "Yes, sir," then stepped out of the room.

I sank down to my knees, all my strength draining from me,
the fold snapping closed as I lost my concentration. Holding
myself up on my arms, I tried to keep myself calm without
getting ill.

Rhea was right there next to me, nuzzling my shoulder with
her nose. I glanced at her, noticing that she had some blood
on the side of her mouth, party dried and flaking off her
fur.

I sighed, wrapping my arm around her neck and burying my
face into her scruff. "You did a good job getting that guy,"
I told her, my other paw stroking her sides.

'Thank you,' she thought to me, lowering herself into a
laying position. 'I didn't want him to get away.'

I nodded, eyes closed, smelling her fur. There was still
touch of a medical smell from the lab, and a kind of a
chemical smell that reminded me of a factory. It took me a
few moments to think of where it had come from. I finally
settling on that it must have been remnants of the mixture
of chemicals used in the birthtanks.

To think, if it wasn't for Ravindar's quick reflexes, he
would have been dead, and I would have been captured. I
never saw it coming, but he and Rhea had known something was
wrong. I never saw it.

I sighed again, pulling myself up from Rhea. "This has
really shaken me up," I told her, as if she couldn't tell.
It's not every day something like this happens. It made me
glad I had Ravindar as a bodyguard.

"I'm going to need ships," I said. Noticing that there was a
mask of grime where my face had touch Rhea's fur, I added
"And I definitely need a bath."

I pulled myself to my feet, "But first, Oria." I stepped out
of the room, leaving the door open for Rhea, and walked to
the living room.

I was expecting to find Oria there; instead I found Kalie.
She was playing with Beca, rolling a ball around between
them. Kalie was all smiles and Beca was laughing up a storm.
The twins were asleep, curled up against each other just
beside Kalie.

"Hey, there," I said, getting her attention. "Where's Oria?"

She turned to look at me, letting out a gasp. "Fox! What
happened to you? You're a sight!" she paused, tilting her
head, "and," she paused again, "am I seeing things, or are
there two of you?"

Rhea was by my side, having just come into the room. She
walked around Beca and came to the twins, sniffing at them
gently. She then flopped on the ground and curled up next to
them.

I would have laughed if I had the strength to. "Yes, there
are two of me now. That's what was going on this morning.
Rhea has her own body now. As for what happened to me. Some
of Cain's men tried to kidnap me, thinking I was Oria."

A frown crossed over her muzzle, along with a worried
expression. "I see. That's not good at all. Oria went in to
take a bath about twenty minutes ago-- you might want to go
join her, your fur is a mess."

"Right," I answered, giving her a smile. "You keep watch
over the kids, and talk to Ravindar if you see him. He's
arranging some stuff."

She nodded an affirmation, and I left her there, heading to
the bedroom and undoing my pony tail on the way. Oria liked
to take three or four hour long baths, just to sit and soak,
read, or anything else that crossed her mind. Now, with the
huge tub that was part of the master bathroom, she could
float in as much water as she could use.

The idea of joining her was a good one. I didn't even bother
to look at myself once I got into the room. I just closed
the door and started to shed clothing as I went towards the
bathroom door.

I paused outside the door to finishing stripping down to my
fur, before I opened it and stepped inside. The room was
humid, but Oria loved the steam, and it was made to take it.
Every surface was tile, and it had fabulous ventilation, and
a shower big enough for Rhea to fit in easily, along with
others.

"Fox?" Oria gasped when she saw me, standing up in the tub,
sending a sheet of water cascading off her body. "What
happened to you?"

I shook my head, walking over to the tub. "Mind if I join
you?" I asked, waving a paw over the water.

She nodded, and I stepped down into the water. The tub was
just slightly raised over the floor, and the hot water felt
good as I sank into it. It slipped up over my legs, then
waist, then chest, and up over my head before I finally rose
up.

"Fox," Oria said, back down in the water, her paws on my
shoulders. Her hair spread out over the water as we both sat
in it. "What happened."

I told her everything that had happened, from the attack to
seeing Elena. She took this all in as I spoke, a look of
shock on her face. Shock and worry, she liked this as much
as I did. Which was not at all.

She just shook her head once it was all done. "You made the
right choice taking him to Elena," she commented, a grim
look on her face. "Sie'll be able to get the information
from him, and from the sound of it, sie could use the meal."
The way she said it left no doubt she understood what that
meant, and seemed to think it was a good idea.

"Now the question is... what to do next?" I said, pulling
myself to her, wrapping my arms around her and holding her
close.

"You have a plan, don't you?" she said, whispering it into
my ear in a conspiratorial tone of voice.

I nodded. "Yes, I have a plan," I said with a smile. "I'm
going to let him catch you."

    Chapter 4

Two hours later, I was clean, mostly dry, and dressed in
some fresh clothing. My hair was loose, hanging in a wet
mess down my back, but I didn't mind. Right now there were
other things to focus my attention on.

Oria was right behind me, almost dressed and looking a bit
flummoxed. She had managed to get her hair drier than I had,
although hers is longer than mine; it fell down almost to
the base of her tail, where my hair is only half way down my
back.

"You need to call Moriya as soon as you can," I told her,
brushing a damp strand of hair from in front of my eyes. The
strangest thing about being in this form was not the change
in gender, being shorter, or even having the tail, it was
not having my glasses.

"What am I calling about?" she asked, pulling on a pair of
pants as she did so. They were not very tight, but were snug
enough to show off her curves, some of my favorite viewing.

"Ships," I answered, tying my hair back, so it would stay
out of the way. "I need to know how many _Red October_ ships
we have ready to fly. I'm going to need some of them."

She nodded, standing up from the bed, tucking in the front
of her shirt as she did so. "What are you going to be
doing?"

"For this plan to work, I'm going to need more clearance
than I currently have." I left it at that, not wanting to
take up any more time. I had very little of it left if I
wanted to catch Rachel in her office.

Oria didn't say anything in return, so I gave her a quick
kiss on the nose, then rushed out of the room. To my great
surprise, Ravindar wasn't waiting for me outside the door.
It was a shock, but I suspected he was busy with the Guild,
which was, for now, more important.

To my office I went, which was only a few doors down the
way. Leaving the door ajar, I dropped down into my chair and
pulled up the video phone. I punched in the number of
Rachel's 'red' phone. It wasn't actually red in color, it
was the same plain black as her other phones. This one was
just for emergencies.

Her face appeared on the screen in only a few seconds.
"What's wrong?" she asked, a very concerned look over her
muzzle.

"Has the Security Council been approved by the Consortium
yet?" I asked, as I leaned slightly forward, resting my arms
on the edge of the desk. I tried to look a lot calmer than I
felt right then.

She blinked in surprise, a look of shock replacing the worry
on her face. "Fox, you shouldn't call me on this line to ask
me a question like that," she scolded, keeping her tone
level, but still there was a touch of anger.

"I know," I told her, "but this is an emergency. You told me
I was wanted as a special agent for the CSC, and that I
would have dominion over anything pertaining to any Earth.
Well, I need that authority in," I paused, checking the
clock on my desk, "three or four hours."

She frowned, causing a nest of lines to show around the
corners of her eyes. Her ears twitched back and forth as she
thought. "What's going on?" she asked, back to being worried
again.

I gave her the short version of the events of the morning. I
left out the part about Elena, that was something she didn't
need to know about.

Rachel sighed, shaking her head slowly. "The bill to create
the CSC was passed three months ago, but there's been no
official budgeting for it. It's official, on paper, but we
haven't pushed through all the other parts."

I nodded. "Good, the thing is, according to my schedule over
here, there is a meeting of the Consortium Council of Member
Worlds in ten minutes. Think you can force something through
to get me appointed as a Special Agent, as you described it
to me?"

She pulled a PADD from someplace out of range of the phone's
camera, and read over it quickly. Her eyes flashed as she
read, and her ears perked up slightly. "Yes, I can run it
though, but you will be the sole member of the Consortium
Security Council."

"I'll worry about the ID, just get me the authority, and
make sure it's in the system within two hours," I said,
relaxing back in the chair slightly.

She twitched one ear, and nodded. "I'll call you when things
are done. That should be in an hour and a half. Good-bye
till then."

I replied in kind, and with a flash, the screen shut off as
she disconnected it from her side.

Letting out a long, pent-up, sigh, I relaxed back into my
chair. One part down, one more to go. This part of my plan
would work as long as we had a clue as to where Cain was.
The rest of the plan would rely on my thinking about the way
he thought.

Having to out-think yourself isn't as easy as it sounds. If
we both came up with the same ideas, we would both come up
with the same ways around them, and how to prevent them from
working.

I was banking on the further confusion about me being Oria.
If that went deep enough, I could get in right close to him
without anyone noticing.

Back onto my feet, I stepped out of the office. This time
Ravindar was waiting for me. He had gotten the wound on his
arm patched up, but was still favoring his other arm
slightly. That was understandable.

"How are things going?" I asked him, walking towards the
living room. I figured Oria was using the phone in the
kitchen, if not, I could wait for her there.

He snorted, tail thrashing back and forth behind him. "The
Guild has doubled its watch around the house, and apologized
for the lapse that allowed this attack to occur."

"Nothing for them to apologize about," I said with a wave of
my paw. "Right now, though, we have other things to worry
about. First I need to talk to Oria, see what she found out
from Moriya, after that, we're waiting for Elena and Rachel.
I have a plan, my friend, but it depends on what we learn."

He nodded, but said nothing. This was his first time dealing
with some of my insane plans, and I didn't know what he
would think of it. I guessed I would find out as soon as he
told me.

Oria was already waiting for me in the living room, she and
Kalie were talking quietly. Both were seated on the couch,
with Beca in between them. Kalie had Adric on her knee, and
Oria was in the process of feeding Romana.

Ravindar, like a true gentleman, glanced away at the sight
of her bare chest. I didn't, I just walked over, grabbed one
of the chairs, and pulled it to the couch.

"Would you like some help with that?" I asked Oria,
conscious of one of the side effects of my female form. When
one female Lidr'ra was lactating, all the other females the
house did too. It was a shared responsibility, and it
affected me in this form. But to be honest, I didn't really
mind it that much.

"Adric didn't want to eat," she answered, adjusting her grip
on Romana, "so I'm going to wait an hour and try again with
him."

I nodded, "All right then. Now, what did you find out about
the ships?

She smiled just a bit. "There are three on the ground at the
yards, all in full working order. I already ordered Moriya
to put a hold on them for us. They'll be held back a few
days pending minor maintenance on the electrical systems."

"Good, good, that's perfect. That will keep them officially
grounded for as long as I need them."

Kalie looked up at me, "What are you planing to do, Fox?"

"An assault on Cain's base," I answered. "Either my attacker
will know where it is, or he will put us in a position to
start looking. Either way I'm going to need the ships--
four, counting _The Falcon_."

She looked a bit worried, a frown creasing over her face,
but she didn't say anything, and for now I didn't ask.

"Which reminds me," I said, standing up, "I need to make a
call."

I walked across the hallway to the kitchen, grabbing the
phone there and dialing up someone I hadn't spoken to in
quite a while.

There were a few rings before it was picked up, no video.
"Hello?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"Hi," I answered, leaning forward slightly, the camera on my
side on. "I'm calling for Milgrove."

There was a short pause, and a rustling sound over the
phone. Then with a snap the screen turned on. Milgrove's
face was outlined on the screen, hir small horns glittering
slightly in the light. "Sorry about that," sie apologized,
"My throat's been bothering me a bit," sie looked sheepish
as sie said that. "Who are you?"

I grinned, giving hir a short rundown on the whys and hows
of my current form. Sie smiled as I did so, understanding
right off the bat. Page had told hir about me when they were
dating, so sie wasn't surprised at the forms.

"So, what do you need me to do?" sie asked, stepping back a
bit from the phone, and stretching out hir arms. Mil was a
flying squirrel, and had these long flaps of skin between
hir arms and legs. Sie even had special clothing sie wear.
Sie could fly though, which is why sie is my pilot.

"I need you to go to the hanger, grab _The Falcon_ and fly
it to the shipyards," I paused for a second of thought, "Do
you know where they are?"

Sie nodded, "I've been there before I won't have any trouble
getting the ship there. Then what do I do?"

"Wait for me," I told hir, "I'll be there as soon as I can.
We have some business to take care of. While you're there, I
need you to call in the best three pilot and gunner pairs we
have. I'm going to need them as well."

"I see, there's something big going on," sie answered, a
smile creeping over hir face. "I'll get right on it."

"Good!" I said, smiling widely. We traded parting
pleasantries before ending the conversation. That was one
more thing taken care of.

That left one more problem. If we did have to track down the
base, I wouldn't be able to run gunner with Milgrove, and
run the fleet, as small as it was. Who else to ask, though?

The answer was in front of my face, almost literally. Kalie!
She was military, and special forces. I suspected she had
retired again, since she had been on Prid for so long, but
damn, who else could I ask! She was perfect for the job.

I walked back into the living room. Oria had finished with
Romana, and was now holding her in her arms. The cub was
wide eyed, watching the world, and looked like she was
purring ever so slightly.

Walking over to Kalie, I placed my paw on her shoulder. She
looked up to me, wide eyed, and looking very worried. I
didn't have time to ask her anything, because Ravindar let
out a sharp yell.

I spun around to find him, gun out, aiming it down the
hallway. I started for my gun, but stopped when he lowered
his.

"Our guest is here," he commented dryly, holstering the gun.

Stepping away from Kalie, I glanced down the hall. Just as I
suspected, Elena was here. Sie was still limping slightly,
but looked a lot better.

As she walked in to the room, I saw that hir side was healed
completely, but hir leg was still a bit banged up. Hir
missing eye was now covered by an eye-patch, so I couldn't
gauge how it had healed, but hir throat and muzzle were
healed totally.

"Welcome to my home," I said, waving my paw out. "That's
Oriana and Kalie, but I'm sure you know that already."

Sie gave me an annoyed glare. "Yes, I already do know that,
but there's no need to advertise it to anyone who might be
listening." Sie turned her attention to the ladies, "I am
Elena Khatika, Fox has asked me to retrieve some
information, and I am here to pass it onto you."

"Good," I answered, taking a chair and sitting down in it,
wincing a bit as I pinched my tail. I was still not used to
having one for any length of time. "Sit down and tell us all
about it."

Sie nodded, folding hir legs under hir, and lowering hirself
to the floor. Sie grunted as sie changed the weight on hir
damaged leg, but looked generally relaxed.

None of us said a word, we were all waiting for Elena to
speak first. Sie had to know this, and judging from the
twitch of hir ears, sie was playing it up appropriately.

"Let me start," sie said, breaking the silence with a smile,
"by saying that Cain has gotten sloppy." Sie said 'sloppy'
with a thick measure of contempt.

"Sloppy how?" I asked.

Sie snorted. "Trying to kidnap you with a sniper, instead of
a drive-up snatch operation. It would have been smoother to
do, and would haven't needed so many teams."

This perked my ears up. "Teams? How many teams?"

Sie smiled, showing a bit of hir teeth, "I'll get to that,
in my own time. For now, just listen." Sie paused again,
locking hir good eye on me. "To start, my meal thought of
Cain as a terrorist, not a kidnapper. And his plan seems to
show that. He also seems to be worried about Ravindar.
Cain's aware of his connection to the Guild, and is leery
about dealing with him."

"But he tried to kill me, none the less," Ravindar commented
from behind hir, his arms crossed and a bitter look on his
face.

Elena chuckled. "Yes, my meal didn't know why he decided to
kill you, but just that you were supposed to be killed. Now,
as for the target, it is Oriana, no question as to that.
They knew about Rhea as well, but not in any detail. Any
lioness morph with Ravindar was to be considered Oriana, and
if you were to be a problem Fox, you were to be
tranquilized, and left on the street."

"Oh, hell," I swore, shaking my head slightly. Oria sat
stone faced, no emotion showing at all, even her ears we're
held half up and half down. This was as bad a shock to her
as it was to me.

Sie nodded, "It is unpleasant to think about it." Sie
paused, twitching hir left ear, causing the dangling parts
of hir ear clip that held hir name to jingle against each
other. "That is not all. You have been lucky, there was no
coordination at all between groups. They were put in the
city to capture you, but they don't talk to each other."

"Badly run operation," Kalie muttered, the look of worry on
her face seeming to have deepened into dark lines of her
fur.

"I said he was sloppy," sie answered, slapping hir tail on
the floor. "All teams are suppose to check in when Prid's
first sun sets, at no time before then. It will be hours
before Cain knows what has happened to his men. There are
ten teams, these are their general locations," sie held out
a map. When no one moved to take it, sie set it on the table
just next to hir.

I nodded, crossing my paws in my lap. "What were they to do
once they had Oria?"

"Take her through the fold to their meeting place; the
number is on there as well." sie said, a slight frown
crossing over hir face. "She was to be taken from there to
Cain's base. My meal did not know where it was located, but
had been there. It's built inside of an asteroid, location
and layout, unknown." Sie said the last part with a touch of
frustration. Not knowing was foreign to hir, since sie was
in the business of knowing things.

Ravindar took a step forward, frowning deeply. "So how do we
find Cain's base? Go to this meeting point, and hope to pry
it out of the people there?"

"No," Oria said, standing up. Romana had be shifted to
Kalie's lap for the moment. Oria walked over to me, placing
a paw on my shoulder. "We simply let them catch me."

"What?" Ravindar asked in shock. I had never seen the tiger
look so stunned, his mouth was almost hanging open.

I chuckled, reaching up and placing my own paw over my
wife's. "Or rather, we let them think they've caught her."

He suddenly burst into laughter, "Of course! That makes
perfect sense! Let them capture you! That's a perfect idea,
damn, and I didn't think to get the tranquilizer gun."

"It's standard ephito-cylo-ematilizen," Elena told him with
a long smile. "I've brought an antidote with me. The dose
they had planned for Oriana is suppose to last fifteen
hours." Sie reached into the pockets of hir shirt, pulling
out a small vial of clear liquid. "This will prevent you
from being anything more than groggy."

I smiled. "Good thinking, Elena. Now, we have to plan. Oria,
show your wrists, please." She gave me a slightly puzzled
look, but pushed up her sleeves. "Ravindar, you see those
bands?" I was referring to the bands she had around each
wrist.

He nodded. "Yes, there's a note about them in her file. She
is supposed to never take them off."

"I don't," she commented, setting her paws back down on my
shoulders.

"Correct, she doesn't," I said with a smile, "and I need a
pair. One with a chip control built in, and the other with
one of your portal controls."

Oria chipped in as well. "It also needs something to hold a
few pills."

I gave her a questioning look, and she just smiled back in
return.

Ravindar gave me his own look, glancing down at his own
wrist. Wrapping around it was a portal control, almost the
same size as Oria's bands. It was one of the most compact I
had ever seen; it was also illegal, opening a fold so it was
totally cold, and preventing any fold it opened from being
traced.

"I assume it has some way to shoot a short message back
through a fold, like a full fold number, something you could
trace back to me?" I asked, leaning forward.

Looking down at it again, he tapped the cover slightly. "Not
this version, but there might be something like that in the
Guild, I will have to check. Regardless, I will provide you
with an identical set to Oriana's in two hours."

"Good, you do that," I said as I stood back up, and turning
towards Kalie.

Elena slipped between us; sie was quite agile for having
four feet. "Fox may I have a word with you before I go, in
private?"

I shrugged. "I can't see why not," I told hir. We stepped
out of the room and into the hallway. Ravindar was already
off to talk to the Guild, so it was just hir and me for now.

Sie had a strange look on hir face, reaching out to take my
left paw into hir own. "Your blood..." sie said in a lower
tone of voice.

I nodded, remembering the last time sie had drawn some. It
had made hir quite sick. I was hoping sie was not asking to
try again.

Sie licked hir lips, but not in hunger, in nervousness. "I
think I know why it tastes dead," sie said, dropping my paw.
"I felt it in another just before I lost to my previous
meal," sie stopped, looking deeply into my eyes with hir one
good one.

"Go on," I prompted.

Sie shook hir head. "The one I encountered had no shape,"
sie spoke the words quietly, as if they were dangerous to
say. That was all sie said as well, turning around in the
hallway, and starting to walk away from me.

"That makes no sense!" I protested to hir retreating rump.

No answer was forthcoming, instead sie just turned into the
fold room, and left.

"Hell," I muttered, walking back into the living room. Oria
was back on the couch, the twins in her lap, with Beca
sleeping next to her. Rhea had shown up as well, relaxing in
front of the empty fireplace.

Well, if I was going to be captured, I was definitely going
to need someone to command the fleet. "Kalie," I said,
taking a step forward.

She looked up at me, the worry on her face was gone for a
second, but was starting to return. "Yes?" she asked,
sounding timid.

"I'm going to need your help," I told her.

Her face seemed to fall as she stood up. "Fox," she said,
"I, I just..." she was stuttering, a look of pain crossing
her muzzle. "I... ah..." she tried once more.

Then, in a move that shocked me to the core, she burst into
tears and ran right past me and down the hall!

    Chapter 5

To say that I was stunned would be an understatement of the
largest order. In all the time I had known Kalie, I had
never seen her cry before, or even show signs of being sad.
So to see her rush away in tears was such a shock I had to
stand there for a moment to actually believe that it had
happened.

Oria had the same look on her face, her mouth hanging
slightly open, and her ears twisted sideways in surprise.
She seemed to recover first, turning to look back at me.
"What happened?" she asked in a hushed tone. "Whatever could
cause Kalie to react like that?" she asked again.

I shook my head. "I don't know," I answered her as honestly
as I could. "I knew there was something going on, but
nothing like this. Kalie... she's alsways been a rock;
I've... I was counting on that."

"I saw the same things," she answered, wrapping her arms
around the twins, holding them a bit closer, nuzzling their
cheeks as she did so.

I sighed, looking back down the hall where she had gone. "I
was waiting for her to tell me about it. I didn't want to
pry into her personal life."

"It's time to start prying," she said, her voice becoming
stronger, much more commanding. "You need to go talk to her
now. Find out what's wrong, and if we can do anything to
help her."

"Are you sure?" I asked, biting at my lip. "It was my
request that she reacted so strongly to. My going to talk to
her might cause more harm than good."

She nodded, "I understand that. Now go!" This time it was an
order, which was accompanied by a wave of her paw. "If it's
going to get worse, it will no matter if you're involved or
not. Just go and talk to her. Remember, you're her friend,
she knows you better than anyone else here, and the opposite
holds true as well."

I smiled slightly, nodding my head. "Yes ma'am, I'll get
right to it." I was tempted to respond with a salute, but
decided not to.

Then I turned away, and started walking down the hallway
after Kalie. I wasn't sure where she had gone, but her room
was in that general direction. It seemed to be the logical
place to check first.

Come to think of it, the fact that she insisted on staying
in the back corner of the house, so far away from everyone
else, might have been an indication that there was a
problem. Then again, she had always liked to be isolated
from other people. I knew that, that's why it hadn't seemed
suspicious when she took it.

I wondered for a short time if I should call Ken as well.
He, Kalie and I had been a team for a while. She only stayed
with us about three months, but in that time we had some
great fun. We were all close to each other, but I was the
only one here. If I needed to, I would call Ken, but for
now, I just had to press on.

Walking slowly, I gave myself time to think as I approached
her room. I didn't have a clue how to handle this properly.
What to say, what to do, how to approach her. It was all a
mystery to me. Assuming in the first place that she would
even talk to me, I couldn't just go in, pat her on the back,
and say everything is fine. That wouldn't do anything except
patronize her, and her problems. Not to mention make her
madder at me as well.

I chewed at my lip again, pondering this as I finally came
to her closed door. Even taking my time I couldn't come up
with an idea of what to do, I didn't have any options other
than to fake it. I didn't even know if she was inside or
not, and if she wasn't, where else she could be.

After a few moments I decided to just go in and talk to her.
I'd let her lead the conversation, and tell me what was
going on. So, taking a deep breath, I grasped the door
handle, and pushed it open. When there was a foot of free
space, I looked into the room.

Right away my ears perked up, Kalie was there all right,
standing on the far side of her bed, her arms on the window
sill, and her head on them. She was still sobbing, each one
hard enough that her body shook.

The room itself was nearly empty, the walls stark white. The
single window was on the wall opposit the door. There was a
dressed on the far wall, and the bed, with its head against
one wall, reached out into the room stretchnig between us
like a low wall, or a fence.

Rapping my knuckles lightly on the door frame, I spoke up.
"May I come in?"

No answer, she just seemed to slump down over herself
slightly.

Opening the door the rest of the way, I stepped inside the
room. Slowly I walked around the bed, moving so as not to
worry her. Without saying a word, I settled myself down on
the bed just behind her so that her back was to me. The
springs of the bed creaked softly as they took my weight.

Still not a word was spoken. We both stayed in the same
position. Some times she shifted her tail back and forth,
but I couldn't tell what, if any, expression it was
conveying. Sometimes that's hard to do with a thick tail,
like on otters, skunks, or kangaroos. They don't have the
same flexibility as thin tails do.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, lifting her face from her
arms. The smooth fur on her head caught the light for just a
second, creating a halo effect. It lasted for only a moment,
then was gone.

Her voice sounded wrong, like she was trying to put more
strength in it than was really there, and was failing. There
was also a soft quality to it as well, almost childlike. It
worried me a great deal.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," I answered in a soft
tone of voice.

"Oh, Fox," she said, her voice breaking as she did so. "I've
let you down." She gasped softly, starting to sob again. She
was trying to hold herself back, but didn't seem to quite be
able to manage it. "You ask me to help you, and I fall to
pieces in your lap. I'm sorry, you shouldn't have to see me
like this. I just shouldn't have come here."

I shook my head, even though I knew she couldn't see it.
"Kalie, you don't need to apologize to me. It is not
necessary. We're friends. I am your friend, and I care about
you."

She raised her head a bit higher, tail sweeping in a long
slow arc, from one side to the other, along the floor. She
reached up with one paw, wiping at her face with the back of
it.

There was a part of me that wanted to reach out to her, to
wrap myself about her, and hold her to me. I resisted it for
the moment; she was preparing herself to do something, and I
thought stopping her would cause more problems than before.

"How long have we know each other?" ahe asked, her voice a
bit more steady, stronger as well.

I blew air through my teeth as I thought about it. "Five
years, maybe six. Most of it seemed to make some kind of
sense at the time."

"In all that time I've never allowed you to get to close to
me," she explained, with perhaps a touch of regret creeping
into her voice. "All you know about me is what I've shown
you, and I haven't shown you very much at all."

Flicking my tail, I let that statement filter down through
my mind. She had always been protective of herself, it just
never had occurred to me that her protection had gone so far
as to keep people from getting close to her.

"I never told you why I joined the army," she continued, not
paying attention to my lack of response. "I've never told
anyone before. I didn't have a happy childhood, I came from
a broken home. My mother ran off when I was five, and my
father spent most of the time drunk. The day I turned
fifteen, the day I was old enough, I ran away. The army
promised to remake you into a better person, a different
person."

She shook her head slightly, "I didn't want to be me
anymore; being made into someone else was an attractive
idea. So after a few months on the street I got enough money
to enlist.

"Once I was in, once I was away from my life as it was
before, I dedicated everything to the army, but  I couldn't
walk away from the anger at my family. So I focused it,
honing it into a razor's edge. That's how I got into the
special forces. I had the right kind of drive, and the right
kind of," she stopped, taking in a deep breath and wiping
her face again. "The right kind of disregard for my own life
that made me perfect for 'rapid recon'.

"There was nothing that I wouldn't do. Darkest desert,
deepest jungle, edge of the fucking world, there was no
place that I wouldn't go into it. I had started to worry my
commanding officer. Yes, I was getting in and out with
everything they needed, but they couldn't send anyone with
me. No one else would take the same risks I would, nor
woukld they so needlessly risk their life in the process. I
would, it was only by shesr luck I always survived, and I
enjoyed being in the inch of space between my life and
death.

"Then I met you," a whimsical tone crept into her voice, and
she straightened up slightly. "I met you and Ken, and then
nothing was the same for me anymore. The three of us would
tear around the multi-verse, righting wrongs, doing good,
and trying to be heroes. I didn't care that I was AWOL for
three months, I felt good.

"Something inside me changed in that time, it wasn't a big
change, but it grew as time when on. When I went back home,
my commanders nearly skinned me for being gone. I was
knocked down three ranks, and it took me a long time to gain
them back. I was still doing recon though, but differently;
I started being careful, avoiding the edge of my teeth
escapes and the death defying stuff I used to do.

"Then the war toned down, we signed a few treaties, and the
fighting stopped in a lot of places. It wasn't peace, it
wasn't the end of the war, but it was an open time. It also
meant that I wasn't necessarily needed anymore."

She dropped her paws to her side, standing up a bit taller,
but her voice was weaker then just a moment ago. "So, it was
suggested to me that it would be a good time for me to take
some leave time. As long as I wanted. I was discarded,
almost retired, and away from the army.

"That was when, out of the blue, Ken showed up at my front
door. He gave a strange story about how you had sent him to
me. I didn't even know you were keeping track anymore. He
told me he was on the run, and soon enough, that Mason
fellow, the lion, showed up as well, to keep an eye on Ken.

"Then, once that little adventure was over, I stuck with you
for a while longer. We had a few adventures, it was great
fun. You weren't a kid anymore, Ken had mastered his magic,
and, however changed, the three of us were back together
again.

"One day, back home, a General showed up at my door and told
me I was off leave. The war was getting heavy again, and
they needed my 'skills' at recon. I went gladly; as much as
I loved being with you, the army was my life."

She had started to sob again, more softly this tim. She was
trying to hide it from me, but I could see it. She tried to
compose herself, resting her paws back on the window sill as
she did so.

"I wasn't the same anymore," she continued after a few more
moments. "I cared about my life now. I wasn't willing to
take the same risks, and didn't do my job as well as my
commander thought I should. Then on one mission, things went
badly wrong."

I finally stood up, walking over to her, and placing a paw
on her shoulder. She turned to look at me, her eyes red, her
cheeks matted down with tears. Reaching up with one paw, she
set it on mine. "What happened?" I asked, finding that my
mouth was dry.

"Something stupid," her tone slipped into a bit of anger,
aimed right at herself. "I was being too cautious and nearly
got myself killed. I managed to escape with only a busted up
leg, and some how made it back into our land, but that was
all I could do."

She locked her eyes with mine, they were emotionless. "I was
brought to the hospital, and they fixed my leg up, good as
new. Just hurt like hell all the time. It was healing, and
would be fine in a month, but the pain was almost
overwhelming.

"The doctors gave me some pain pills, they were quite
powerful, and I was only suppose to take one a day. They
only worked a little bit on me. So like a fool, instead of
telling the doctors about this, I just started to take two
pills. When that didn't work any longer, I took three, then
four."

I nodded, biting at my lip again. This sounded bad.

"I continued taking them after my bones healed, but ran out.
The pain was still there, but not in my bones, it went so
much deeper than that. So, just like a good daughter, I
started to follow in my father's footsteps. I started to
drink."

There was something missing there. Something that she wasn't
saying. There was more to this than a blown mission and
broken bones. I squeezed her shoulder gently with my paw,
letting her know I was still there.

"I wasn't a bad drunk," she said with a sigh. "You remember
how I used to drink. A little here, a little there, not a
lot, not all at once, but I loved to drink. I just started
there, but a little here and there became a little each
night, then a little more each night. One glass became two,
two became three, three became ten. Soon I was drinking a
lot each night, and morning, and any other time I could
drink."

"Soon, I got to the point where I was eithr drunk, or I was
getting drunk. The few times I was sober, I was miserable,
all the pain came back. The problem was, the pain was always
coming back, so I had to drink more.

"I lived like this for months, and during it all, I was
still doing my job. For a while I had deluded myself into,
believing that my drinking was making me better at my job. I
was back to living on the edge, risking my life to get all I
could. I just wasn't as good as it at I was before, and the
thrill of it was feeding the pain, making me drink even
more."

She pulled her paw off mine, and wrapped her arm around my
back. I put mine around her shoulder, and she started to
slump down in my arms.

"Then things went too far," she continued, sobbing more, and
not trying to stop it. "I got so drunk, I passed out while I
was on a mission. I was found the next day, still drunk and
only a mile from camp. I hadn't even crossed the enemy line
yet. It was too late though, when I hadn't reported in, they
decided to try the mission without my recon. A full squad
was lost.

"It was my fault," she whimpered, shaking her head back and
forth. "My fault, if I hadn't been so shit-faced drunk it
would never have happened. Those men would still be alive."

I didn't say a word. There was nothing I could say. Or
rather, anything I could say would be trite, and insulting
to her pain. I also suspected there was nothing else I could
say that she hadn't already heard, either from herself, or
from others.

"Command saw it that way as well. My drunkenness, so far,
had only gotten me a few reprimands, it hadn't gotten in the
way before, and I was damn good at my job. Now, it was too
late to do anything about it. I was court-marshaled and
dishonorably dischared a few weeks later. I was lucky enough
not to get jail time, but I had lost everything I used to
define myself. I was ungrounded, set adrift.

"I landed right back into the bottle. Back home, I was right
back to drinking, no longer hiding it from even myself. I
just drank, trying to drive away the pain, the anger, the
hurt. I drank through my savings, I drank through my
friends, I drank through everything I owned. Then, one day,
I came home to find that I had lost that as well.

"I only had a little bit of money with me, and I was ready
to spend that on a last few drinks. I'm not sure what
happened then; for maybe a second, I was thinking clearly. I
remembered what it was like to live on the street, how cold
and miserable it was. I decided that I had to get out of
there, get away from everything. I broke into my apartment,
got my portal controller. Then I," she paused here, dropping
her head to her chest. "I robbed a few places. Got enough
cash to get a cheap hotel so I could take a shower, get
clean. Then, still hung over, I came here.

"I threw the controller away, then went right to you. I was
going to tell you everything, all of it, not leaving
anything out. When I found you had moved, I just lost the
will to do so. Upon finding you again, I saw how much things
had changed with you. The curse, and being with Oriana,
and..." she broke down into tears again; she had been trying
to fight them back, but no longer could.

Turning, she fell into my arms. I held her close, in a tight
hug as she buried her face into my chest. There was nothing
else I could thing of to do. Holding her felt like the right
thing; at this moment, she needed more than kind words. So I
held her, letting her cry.

Nothing more was said for a long time. We did move to the
bed at some point, but that just let me hold her closer to
me. Kalie eventually stopped crying, but didn't pull away
from me. I continued to hold her, some times petting the fur
on the back of her neck, other times just keeping her close.

I didn't know what do do next, but I also needed her help.
It felt so selfish to be asking her to help me in a time
like this. She was in no condition to be do anything, let
alone something I was forcing her into.

This was an impasse, she was in no condition to do what I
needed of her, and I couldn't think of anyone else with the
capability to do what I needed done. Now was not the time to
bring it up, that I understood, and I would have to find
someone else to do the job, that was clear.

After perhaps an hour had passed, Kalie pulled herself away
from me. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. The fur on her
cheeks matted down by the constant flow of tears. The look
about her had changed just slightly. It was as if some
weight had been lifted from her by her confession.

"Perhaps we should talk to Oria," I suggested, still keeping
one paw on her back. "Her religion has some things that
could help you." I couldn't believe I had just said that!
Recommending religion to help a friend. I guess we all do
change in time, and maybe it would help her.

She nodded her head. "I'll talk to her," she told me, her
voice hoarse from crying. She tried to clear it, but didn't
seem to succeed.

I ran my paw over the back of her neck, as we both sat
there, neither of us saying a word. I was going to wait for
her to speak before I said anything at all.

"What did you need my help for?" she suddenly asked, her
voice sounding a bit clearer.

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. Now's not the time."

"When will be the time?" she asked, brushing at her matted
fur. "I've been dreading your asking me for help since I
found out what happened this morning. I've been dreading it
since I came here in the first place. I'm dreading it now,
but I've poured my heart out into your lap; I hope you can
understand that I need to do this."

"No." I flatly said, "If you're doing this to try and prove
yourself to me," I shook my head, "I won't ask you to do
something like that."

"I don't know what I'm doing," she responded, crossing her
chest with one arm, resting the paw on her shoulder. The
other paw sat in her lap. "But I do need to do this. To help
you right now when you need me."

I took my paw from the back of her neck, setting it down on
her leg. "You don't need to do anything. If you're sure you
can handle this, I will let you do so. You did come here for
a reason."

She sighed, "I came here because I needed to grab onto
something before my life slipped between my fingers. I was
barely able to manage to do that. For the last few months
I've been holding on for dear life."

Placing her free paw on her chest, she glanced at me. "The
pain is still there. It runs deep, almost into my soul, and
it's not going to just go away. Not without my doing
something about it. I haven't felt whole for so long, first
descending into pity, then wallowing in it. I've been
holding myself from sinking deeper into it, now it's time to
start to pull myself out."

I reached up, taking the paw against her chest, and pulling
it into my paws. "I can understand what's going on. I've
found myself shattered before, but nothing like this. I need
you in top form, the best you can be. Are you sure you're up
to doing this?"

She laughed, sounding just a bit like her normal self once
more. "If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't be trying so hard to
fight off tears. I will do my best, and do it as well as I
can. So please, tell me what you want me to do."

I gave her a quick summary of what I was going to need her
to do. With me on Cain's base, she would be responsible for
leading the attack. She would also be manning the gunner
chair on _The Falcon_ and would have to work with Milgrove,
whom she had never even meet before.

We slowly hashed out the plans for the mission; what she
would do, and how she would command the three other ships.
It was a small fleet, but when that's all you have, it's all
you have.

She seemed confident, strong, almost her old self again. But
there was still a hint of strain in her eyes. She was going
to try her hardest on this mission, but I suspected she
wasn't sure of her own judgment.

I was, and for now that was enough.

    Chapter 6

Kalie and I walked back into the living room. She had
cleaned herself up a bit, drying her face and her eyes. She
didn't look completely calm yet, but some of her strength
had returned.

I hoped that she would hold up thought all of this. Our
friendship was important, but there was so much going on! I
couldn't lose my focus on Cain. I had to stop him before he
did something else, something worse than trying to kidnap my
wife.

Oria was currently sitting on the couch, balancing Beca on
her legs, and reading to her. The twins were in the carrier
at her feet, both sleeping soundly, with Rhea curled up next
to them, guarding them from all harm.

Oria flashed us both a smile, mixed with a slight look of
relief. I would have to talk to her about what had happened,
and some of what Kalie told me. She might be acting better
right away, but Oria and I both knew that it was just that--
and act.

"Rachel called," she said after a moment, setting the book
down on her lap. "I didn't want to disturb you, so I took a
message. She told me that she has done what you wanted her
to do."

I smiled, brushing my hair back from the side of my head.
"Good, that will simplify things a lot. Right then, I need
to talk to Ravindar, then Kalie and I need to get to the
shipyards."

She smiled back. "That's good news then... but what exactly
has she done for you?"

"The Security Council, you might have heard about it on the
news. It's kind of the Consortium's investigative and
enforcement branch. Not sure I can go into it right now.
When it was about to be formed, Rachel told me that I was
wanted as a Special Agent. I said I would think about it."

She twisted her ears slightly, her paws, claws out, brushing
out Beca's hair. "I see," she said, sounding curious, as
well as annoyed, at the same time.

I nodded, relaxing my stance slightly, tail flicking behind
me. "The point is, I now have jurisdiction over all Earth.
Which means, I have direct jurisdiction over Cain. This
means I can pull rank to deal with him, and have the clout
of the Consortium behind me for now."

"Ah," she said with a smile, "so you accepted this job so
you could deal with Cain. That makes sense, but how will
this affect us after we've finished dealing with Cain?"

I shrugged, "I don't really know. There is no one else in
the CSC as of yet. It's just me, so I guess I might end up
setting some of the power base by accident. That's for
later, right now I need to get some ID made up, and have it
set into the system for authorization."

"Do you have anything in mind?" she asked. "I can make it
myself while you're at the shipyards."

For a second I was tempted to do something along the lines
of the classic 'FBI' id, but decided against it. "Keep it
simple, have the CSC big, and put everything you can on it.
If Rachel didn't give you the authorization information when
she called, it's probably sitting in the mail system."

"She sent it to me, don't worry. I have a few ideas, I'll
show you what I have once you and Ravindar get back from the
shipyards," she said the last part with a knowing smile.
Suspecting what she was smiling at, I glanced over the back
of my shoulder. The tiger was standing behind me, smirking
just slightly.

I chuckled. "Good, nice to see you can keep sneaking up on
me." I said, turning around so I was face to face with him,
or rather face to chest. "Do you have what I asked for?"

He nodded, holding up the pair of wrist bands. "If you will
hold up your arms, I will put them on for you," he said, his
voice softening just a touch.

"You're just a good old romantic," I told him with a smile,
pushing my sleeves up, and holding my arms out to him. He
snapped both bands onto my wrists, locking them tightly.

"The left band has the chip controller and the pill
container, the right is the portal control. To open either
one, you, and only you, must tap on it. Twice fast, twice
slow, and twice more fast."

I smiled. "Good, how about being able to track me through
the fold?"

"The Guilt is currently working on that as we speak," he
answered, looking slightly sheepish. "It will be ready soon
enough; I was promised no more than an hour. That's not all,
though. If you cross your wrists and tap the bands
together," he showed me as he spoke, tapping the insides of
his wrists together twice. "You'll find a small blade in the
right band. It's not much, but no one wants to see you
defenseless."

I smiled, glad to have him thinking of things like that for
me. "Good, now I have one more thing for you to do before we
head off to the ship yards. I'm going to need a bio-drone
for you. Nothing fancy, but if they're supposed to kill you,
I'd rather it be a fake you instead of the real one."

"That was already suggested," he commented with a sly smile,
his tail flicking back and forth as he spoke, "That will
also be here in no more than an hour."

I laughed, "Nothing left to chance. Very good! Well, then I
guess we had better go."

"Not so fast," Oria said. I turned back around to face her.
She was standing up from the couch, Beca already out of her
lap. "I need to talk to you for a moment before you go.
Kalie, would you watch Beca for me?"

Kalie nodded, a slight smile flickering over her muzzle as
she walked into the room.

As soon as Oria was near me, she grabbed my arm, showing a
sudden urgency that wasn't there a moment before. "Come with
me. Ravindar, you stay put for now. This is private." She
keep on walking, pulling me along with her.

I keep up, staying just a step behind her. "What's going
on?" I asked.

She sighed, flicking her ears in annoyance. "You're so hyper
about going after Cain, you're forgetting what body you're
in."

I shrugged. "Well, the body is an integral part of the
plan," I answered, sounding kind of sheepish myself.

She pulled me around a corner, then dropped my arm, stepping
around me so that she could look me in the face. "You're
leaking," she said, hissing slightly.

I blinked in surprise, glancing down at myself. A pair of
wet spots were spreading out along the front of my shirt,
one over each beast. "Oh," I said, dumbfounded, "I guess
that escaped my attention."

She sighed again, but smiled just slightly. "I thought you
liked that?" the sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

"On you!" I protested.

She took my arm again, pulling me along the hallway,
flicking her tail at me as I tried to keep up. "I like it on
you, too. Don't worry about it that much, it happens to
everyone at some time." I suspect that wasn't true, but
didn't want to contradict her at the moment. "You've got
your attention divided up in so many different directions
that you're not paying attention to your body. It's just
like when you forget to eat."

"Ah, yes. I see what you mean," I rubbed my forehead with my
free paw. "I'm most likely going to be in this form for a
few days. This could get in the way if I'm captured," I was
starting to be a bit worried, this could be more than just
an inconvenience.

Stopping in front of our bedroom, she opened the door with
one paw, pulling me into the room with the other. "I've
already thought about that. Change into a clean shirt and
bra, and double the pads, you don't need to have this happen
again before we can get you drained."

Not one to be told what to do twice, at least not when my
wife was telling me what to do, I shed my shirt and bra and
dried off my fur with the shirt. Putting on a new bra, I did
notice that things were starting to get tight. "I'm going to
have to do something about this soon," I commented as I
pulled my shirt on.

"Take this," Oria said, holding out a pill. I nodded, as I
took it from her and swallowed it dry. "And what was
'this'?" I asked once it was down.

She held out a pill bottle for me. "It's a hormone blocker.
It will prevent you from producing milk. It lasts about
twelve hours, so keep an eye on the clock."

I took the bottle from her, guessing what she was going to
tell me to do next. Tapping open the left band, I put a
dozen of the small pink pills into the little gap there.
While I was at it, I moved my Matrix chip from my watch into
the band as well, abandoning my watch on the bed. "If you
take them long enough, will they stop production of the
hormones?"

She nodded, taking the bottle back as I snapped the band
closed. "The less you nurse, the less milk you produce," she
explained by way of an answer, "and before you ask, I didn't
take them after I was done nursing Beca because there's a
slight chance they may cause birth defects. I didn't want to
risk it."

"Good plan," I told her, pausing for a second to tuck my
shirt back in. Then we both walked to the door.

"Just remember to take them," she told me, opening the door
and ushering me out into the hallway. "When you get back
from the shipyard you'll have to feed Adric, that will drain
you enough that it won't cause problems."

I was suddenly struck by the absurdity of the whole scene.
The whole idea just made me laugh. "Do you know how silly
this all is?"

Oria gave me a long smile, her tail twitching back to twist
around mine. "I know, love. But you are silly, so it all
seems to make some kind of sense doesn't it?"

I laughed harder, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, then
pulling her into a kiss. "I love you," I told her, kissing
her again.

"I love you, too," she answered between kisses.

We both had to hold ourselves back, this was the type of
situation between us that could degenerate into baser
actions. So, we managed to pull away after a few moments.
Both of us were a bit disappointed, but it was something to
look forward to later.

We reentered the living room, and Oria drifted back to the
couch. Kalie was reading to Beca now, who was starting to
drift off into sleep. They shuffled around a bit so Beca was
in Oria's lap, and Kalie came over to me.

"Are we ready?" Kalie asked, glancing over my new shirt, a
slight smile on her face.

I nodded. "We're ready. Come on Ravindar, lead onto the
shipyards."

He smiled a bit, and motioned for me to lead instead. I
shrugged, happy to oblige him. He followed right behind, and
Kalie was by my side, hanging back just a bit as we walked
down the hall to the fold room.

Once inside, I reached out, and with a twist of my mind,
opened the fold, connecting it to the one that was just
inside the shipyard hanger. Stepping over the threshold, I
came out into a back corner of the massive room.

The open hanger stretched into the distance, about half a
mile, and a third of that wide. Every hundred feet or so,
sat a _Red October_ class starship. Each one was in a
different phase of construction. This was the factory floor;
all the main parts were assembled here.

Clustered around this end of the hanger were four of the
ships, one was _The Falcon_. The other three had yet to be
named, the only things on their white hulls were their
registration numbers, and the shipyard's logo.

Lounging around along the side wall was a motley crew of
pilots and gunners. There were seven of them, each of a
different species, and all very good at their jobs. They
were talking among themselves, except for Milgrove, who was
watching us enter.

Sie walked right over to me as I closed the fold, Kalie and
Ravindar standing next to me. "I assume one of these two is
my gunner?" sie asked, placing hir paws on hir side, causing
the skin of hir wings to bunch out.

"Milgrove, this is Kalie," I waved the paw from one to the
other, "and Kalie, this is Milgrove. Kalie is going to be
the gunner, and in charge of this mission."

They shook hands, each looking over the other. Milgrove
seemed pleased at the arrangement, but Kalie looked a bit
wary. She was a land fighter, being in space wasn't part of
her training. But I had seen her work a gunnery system
before, and knew she would be able to handle it.

"Please to meet you," Milgrove said, offering hir paw out in
a motion to shake. Kalie responded in kind, but without much
enthusiasm, her species wasn't big on that type of contact.

"Now," Milgrove said, stepping away from us. "Would you care
to explain what's going on here?"

"Sure. Why don't you call the others over?" I told her with
a bit of a smile.

Sie did just that, bringing the other six over to stand in
front of me. Kalie stepped over with them, placing herself
next to Milgrove.

I gave them all a quick summation of what they were going to
do. That I was commandeering the ships on official business
for the CSC, then quickly explained what the CSC was. I gave
Milgrove and Kalie the authority to lead the group as well.
Hopefully that would prevent any major problems.

Once that was out of the way, I outlined what the mission
was going to be. That they were going to be needed to track
down a base, and prevent anyone from escaping it. Or, if the
situation called for it, they might have to attack the base
outright.

I would have Ravindar handle the actual location of the base
once I had been kidnapped. He would tell Kalie the closest
fold to the base, and he would also insure I didn't get shot
by my own ships if I was trying to escape.

There was a general look of worry shared between everyone.
Milgrove appeared slightly unsure, and Kalie's face was
stone, nothing was showing on it anymore.

I would have liked to be able to reassure everyone about the
success of this mission. At that time, I didn't have any
real idea what it would entail. I just hoped to use them to
shut down Cain's base, and to help me escape when the time
came.

Trying hard not to show the worry that I felt, I answered
all of their questions as best I could. A few people
questioned Ravindar, and he answered them, using what seemed
to be as few words as possible.

Finally there was nothing left to answer, and everyone was
satisfied about what was going on, although there was some
nervousness still floating around. No one backed out, and I
had given everyone the option three times during my
explanation of the mission.

They had reacted better than I would have, I suspected.

Leaving some final instructions, including that Kalie should
spend some time in the simulator, Ravindar and I left the
hanger. Once we were back in the house, I let out a long
sigh. I was feeling a lot more nervous now than I had an
hour before.

"May I speak with you," Ravindar said. I glanced back over
my shoulder at him, his ears were bent slightly in a look of
concern.

I shrugged both my shoulders and tail. "I don't see why
not."

He nodded, motioning me to step out of the door and into the
hallway. I followed behind him as he started down the hall,
away from the living room. It struck me as an interesting
reversal of our roles.

Once around the corner, he opened up the door to one of the
unused rooms. I stepped inside and was surprised to find
that it wasn't unused.

"So this is where you sleep," I commented, flicking my tail
as I looked around. There was a cot along one wall, with a
chest at the foot of it. Nothing more.

He grunted, closing the door, and walking around to face me.
The only light in the room was from the window, filtering
from the center enclosure of the house.

"You have no real plan do you?" he said, crossing his arms
over his chest. It wasn't spoken as an insult to me, more
that he was expressing his own worry about the situation.

I spread my paws out, "Oh, I wouldn't go as far as that," I
laughed nervously. "I just have so little information on
what's going on. Once I get to his base, you guys come
swooping in."

"That is not much of a plan. It occurs to me that this could
be a trap," he twitched his tail as he spoke, I suddenly got
the feeling that he was controlling himself, perhaps to keep
from showing his anger to me

I nodded, rubbing my chin and swishing my tail behind me.
"Yes, it is a possibility," I admitted with a sigh, "but I'm
sure they're not aware that I've twained myself, and if he
knows of my being Rhea, he wouldn't know of my morphic
form."

He nodded his head slowly, making the motion look
deliberate. "I concur. He has attacked you once before,
which Rhea stopped." Not true, I had stopped that, in Rhea's
body. "But to know of your morphic body would require him or
his agents getting closer to you than we know they have."

"So it might be a trap, but they're going to think they
captured Oriana?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Correct," he answered, twisting his ears around, "Tour
presence would take them by surprise. Though if it is a
trap, expect to be hit by a second tranquilizer. They would
assume you would already have taken a serum to prevent the
first."

"So, find out what other tranquilizers are safe to use in
conjunction with the first. Perhaps we can work out what the
second one would be and provide an antidote for that as
well."

"Fox," he frowned as he spoke, "You're stalling."

I sighed, slouching slightly. "Perhaps, but I want to be
prepared as best as I can be."

"Which is what you should be," he answered, walking over to
me and placing his paws on my shoulder. "But the more we
think about how things are arranged, how they could be done,
the more we will attempt to prepare for. We can prepare for
eternity, but we must move soon."

I shook my head feeling my hair flip behind me. It was
finally dry, and still hanging loose down my back. "I
understand, but is there anything we can do, in case I'm
drugged for a second time."

He shook his head. "Hope it doesn't last too long. We must
go soon, before it is too late, and we need to start from
scratch once more."

I sighed again, "I suppose so. Come on, let's hope the stuff
from the Guild has arrived, so you can track me down."

He nodded, walking around me to open the door. "After you,"
he said, motioning once more for me to walk ahead of him.

"You know," I told him as I stepped out into the hallway,
"Sometimes I wonder if you always walk behind me just to
look me up?"

He chuckled, placing a paw on my back, "You're married, Fox;
why would I want to watch as you strut around?"

I swished my tail at him, "Because of the view."

He laughed, patting my back softly. "You're a tease."

"Of course," I said, turning my head back to look at him,
and smirking as I did so.

He shook his head, closing the door to his room. "Go on,
Oriana will be expecting us in the living room."

"Right, right," I answered, starting to wall, grinning a
bit. Sometimes, having a female body could prove to be quite
fun. It also served to break the tension that sometimes
could creep into these situations.

He did have a point, the fact that it could be a trap had
never crossed my mind until he mentioned it. It had me very
worried.

    Chapter 7

Nervous would not be the best way to describe how I felt
right then. I was ten minutes away from being kidnapped, and
if all things were successful.I would then be able to deal
with Cain. Once I was on his base, we could close in and
take my double out.

Things were ready to go. Ravindar's bio-drone had arrived,
along with the promised tracker. I had fed Adric, and I felt
more comfortable now, my bra feeling a bit loose.

I had a gun as well. I probably wouldn't be keeping it
longer than a few minutes after my capture, but it helped to
keep things in character. Oria would not be caught without a
gun, no pun intended.

I took a deep breath, holding it in for a few seconds before
letting it back out. I brushed a few strands of hair from in
front of my face, and I looked up at Oria and Ravindar. We
were standing in the fold room, and almost ready to start.

"I'm beginning to get scared," I admitted, tucking my paws
under my arms. My ears twitched slightly as I spoke,
betraying my feelings.

Oria chuckled, placing a paw on my shoulder. "I have been
scared for a while. I'm just better at hiding it than you."
She pulled me to her, wrapping her arms around me tightly.
"Come back to me, safe and sound. Please?"

I let out a rough chuckle, kissing her on the cheek. "I
promise you I'll be back, alive and well. I'm just not sure
how long it will take."

She pulled away, a few lines of worry showing around her
eyes. She held herself a few feet away, paws on my shoulder.
There was a light in her eyes, a mixture of worry, dread,
and assurance. I smiled at her as we finally parted, neither
of us relaxing.

Taking another deep breath, I turned my head slightly to
look at Ravindar. "All right, let me see this tracker of
yours." I told him, holding out my paw.

He gave me a wary smile, holding out a flat black box-like
device. It was small; a foot tall and half that wide. Taking
it from him, I flipped it over in my paws. There were four
black buttons, smooth to the touch, that looked like
controls on one side They were almost invisible, there was
just a slight indentation around each one that even showed
they were there.

"How do I use it?" I asked, a little baffled. It could have
been a remote control for all I knew. It wouldn't be kept
with me once I was captured, it seemed too... obvious.

He shook his head, taking it back from me, flipping it so
the controls were placed under his thumb. "You don't use it,
I do. Turn around."

I tilted my head slightly, a bit surprised, but followed his
order, turning my back to him.

Then he grabbed my tail, right down near the base. I jumped,
letting out a slight 'eep' and looking over my shoulder to
glare at him. He smiled, holding the device up, then
lowering it back down, pressed it up against my rear, right
next to the base of my tail.

He then placed his paw onto my shoulder, pressing down
strongly. "Just relax," he said. I felt the device pressing
harder against my rear, then heard a soft click, followed by
a jolt of pain running through my skin. I tried to jump
away, but Ravindar held me as the electrical shock from the
device continued to flow through me.

Thirty very long seconds later it stopped. He relaxed the
paw on my shoulder slightly, then pulled the device away. I
pulled out of his grasp, and turned around to look at him a
bit unstable on my feet. "What the hell did you do?" I
asked, panting softly, one paw rubbing my ass, the other
over my heart.

"Reprogrammed your tracker implant," he answered with a
slight smile. "It will now monitor and send out location
information on a Guild frequency and encryption. It can't be
found, and it can not be removed. In theory, it can not be
jammed either."

I rubbed around the base of my tail, nodding slightly, and
dropped my other paw to my side. "Warn me next time, ok?"

He chuckled, "Maybe next time, but I felt it was better this
way. Don't you think, Oriana?" he glanced over at her.

She just shook her head. One arm was crossed over her chest,
the other was in front of her, her paw bent slightly and
resting under her chin. She had a half-smile, and a glint of
laughter in her eyes, but she remained silent.

I smiled, shaking my head slightly and flicking my tail as I
crossed my arms over my chest. "Thank you for your support,"
I humphed, I then turned to where the fold was, reaching out
to it with my mind. "Is the bio-drone ready?" I asked.

"Yes," Ravindar answered, shuffling around a bit behind me.

"Good," I answered with a slight sigh, I opened the fold to
a location just shy of where one of the teams of kidnapers
was located. All according to plan.

I held my breath as I stepped through onto the street,
brushing some more hair out of my face. Turning around, I
watched as the bio-drone stepped through as well. It looked
like Ravindar, but it was just wrong, the stance, the shape
of his face, the way the tail swished. It just wasn't him,
but only someone who knew him would be able to tell.

Snapping the fold closed, I drew in a long breath, and
shoved my paws in my pockets. I felt my pocket knife, and my
wallet, carrying the CSC ID that Oria had made. I hadn't
even gotten a chance to look at it yet.

"Are you ready?" I asked the 'drone. He nodded stiffly,
flicking his tail.

I hated bio-drones, hated to use them. The damn things just
gave me the creeps. They never actually seem 'right' there
is always something off. It felt stronger now than it did
before, perhaps because this one was going to be destroyed
in a few moments.

I started down the street, undoing my hair in the process,
allowing it to fall down my back with a few stands hanging
over my shoulder. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the
'drone walking along behind me, a slightly stupid look on
its face.

I chuckled as I walked around the corner, and moved towards
the kidnapers. I was breathing slowly, trying hard not to
show how I was feeling. I suspect that I failed, I didn't
have the same control over my ears and tail that someone who
had them all their life would.

We were halfway down the block when the attack finally came.
First I heard a loud shot behind me. Spinning around I saw
the 'drone falling to the ground, most of its throat gone.

I knew it was fake, I knew it was a type of biological
robot, but it made me ill anyway. Spinning around on the
ball of my foot I tried to keep myself from throwing up.
Then I felt a sharp jab into my shoulder, heavier then a pin
prick, and painful.

My paw went to my shoulder as I looked down to see what had
happened. There was a tranquilizer dart sticking out between
my fingers. I was now drugged. I had taken the serum Elena
had given me, but I was starting to feel dizzy.

I let out a long gasp, falling to my knees. This was normal,
it would pass in a few minutes, but for now it was helpful,
making my act all the more convincing.

There was a weight on my shoulder as someone wrapped a paw
around my arm. I closed my eyes, this was where I was
supposed to be passed out, so I played along with that idea.
I felt myself lifted over someone's shoulder, and carried
along.

I could hear a few voices behind and around me, but no one
seemed to be stopping my captor-- that was good I guessed.
If someone saved me now, this would all be for nought!

Then came the familiar feeling as I went through a fold. I
twitched my tail without thinking about it much. Things were
going well at the moment; I just hoped they would continue
to go well as this adventure went on.

There was a burst of conversation around me; a few people
were arguing in a language I didn't understand at the
moment. Given time my translator would pick it up, but I
wasn't sure how much time I had at the moment.

The arguing continued, getting stronger around me. I felt
something run over my body, and my gun was removed, just as
I had known would happen.

A few more comments were passed around, then I was moved
through another fold. I hoped that Ravindar's tracker was
working, telling everyone where I was going, because if it
didn't... I just didn't want to think about it.

Once I was on the other side, I felt myself set down on my
stomach on a metal surface of some kind. I kept my eyes
closed, flicking my tail as my face pressed against the
metal. I was feeling a bit better; the serum was working off
the final effects of the tranquilizer as I lay there.

I felt two sets of paws frisking over my body, down over my
sides and under me as well. One set paused a moment to cop a
feel, but I let it pass for now.

I heard more conversation in the background, the language
the same as before. Then they started to strip me, pulling
off all my clothing down to my panties and bra. They left me
in those, for now, and seemed to leave.

I continued to lie there, trying hard not to move. My left
paw was pinned under my waist, and was starting to go numb.
My leg had been left slightly hanging off the table and was
starting to hurt as the edge of the table cut into it. I had
to work very hard to keep from moving, and not shift to a
more comfortable position.

After what felt like hours, I heard footsteps approaching
me. Paws wrapped around my stomach, and I was hefted over
another set of shoulders. Feeling rushed back into my paw,
and pins and needles prickled all over my arms, it felt
good, but like I needed to rub it. I prevented myself from
doing so.

I was carried along for another few minutes, then was set
back down again. This time I was on a soft surface that felt
warm, and almost wrapped itself around me. Stinking down
into it, I had to work hard to keep from purring.

There was some whispered conversation in the back ground,
then I heard what sounded like a door being closed. I still
didn't move, holding as still as I could.

Another few minutes passed before I finally felt someone
else sit down next to me. Whatever I was laying down on
shifted as the weight changed on it.

"You can stop the charade," a deathly familiar voice spoke.
My voice, but deeper, rougher. It sounded like he had once
damaged his vocal cords. It was no other than Cain.

I didn't move.

He sighed, placing his hand on my shoulder. "Ms. Cutter, you
have done exactly as I knew you would. We know you're quite
awake, so please stop acting as if you're not."

I sighed... he knew! How the fuck did he know? He wasn't
supposed to know, he shouldn't have known, but he did! Damn!
I lifted my head, cracking open my eyes. "How did you know?"
I asked softly, finding myself looking across a large room.
Heavy tapestries covered the cut rock walls, and the stone
was thickly carpeted.

"That you would try something so foolish? I know you, I know
you both, I knew how you would act and respond. You didn't
think I really am this sloppy do you? I'm sure your
bodyguard easily dealt with the first team you came into
contact with."

I nodded, raising myself into a sitting position, my back
still towards Cain. I was on a massive bed, large enough
that five or six people could comfortably sleep on it. There
was a desk on the far side of the room. Plain and made of
wood, it look slightly used, but not often. A single
bookshelf, cut into the wall behind it, was half full with
books.

"I don't leave anything to chance. I put the proper
information into my men's minds. So that when you took one
to your vampire friend, she found out exactly what she was
supposed to. Now you are here, and things are going
according to plan."

I snorted, shaking my head slightly. "And what plan would
that be?"

He laughed, "Not for you to know, you're just bait. I'm sure
the cavalry is coming, and once your husband is here, then
things will proceed to plan."

Oh shit YES! He didn't know, he still thought I was Oriana!
Yes! This situation could still be saved. It was going to
take a lot more, and damn quick, planning on my part. Time
to start thinking on my feet.

"So it was a trap," I said, turning around to face my
captor. It was still a shock; he had my face, but it wasn't
my face. His hair was cut short, he was clean shaven, and he
didn't wear glasses. The most prominent part of his face was
a scar that ran down from his left ear down to the corner of
his mouth, giving him a slight sneer. It wasn't as large as
it has been the last time I had encountered him, but still
drew the eye.

He gave me an over-exaggerated nod. "Yes, a trap. I knew
once the first attack failed you would allow yourself to be
kidnapped, to lead your husband to me."

I sighed, shaking my head. "What are you going to do to me?"
I asked, a hint of anger in my voice. "I'm almost nude as it
is. Are you going to strip me the rest of the way, then rape
me?" An involuntary shiver slipped down my back as I said
it.

He chuckled. "Hardly my dear, I have no interest in you for
such a release. I stripped you to insure you didn't have any
concealed weapons that you could pull out at the worst
possible time. No, no, your clothing is right there," he
motioned back with his hand. I was surprised, he had both
right now. Last time we had meet, his right hand was just a
stump. He must have gotten a prosthetic, like the one I used
to have.

I looked where he was pointing. There was a table set up at
the side of the room, right next to a wooden slat door that
had a large lock on the front of it. My clothing was folded
neatly on top.

"Thanks," I told him with a snarl in my voice.

He smiled. "As lovely as ever. Now, hand over the Matrix
chip. I don't need you wandering away on me."

I made a show of hesitating for him, acting like I didn't
want to hand it over. As it was, I really did not want to,
but the plans I had made before, which needed the chip, were
worthless now. So after enough show, I eventually opened the
wristband up, and handed him the chip.

He smiled, slipping it into his pocket. "Very good. I thank
you, my lady. Now I'll let you get dressed. This is my room,
so don't make too much of a mess, I assure you there are no
weapons in here." He stood up as he spoke, walking over to
the door out of the room, a large, re-enforced metal door,
made to handle any loss of air pressure.

Flashing me one last smile, he pressed the button on an
intercom that was set by the door. He spoke into it in the
language everyone else was speaking. There was a short
conversation, then he nodded his head, letting go the
button.

He pressed another button that was slightly lower, causing
the door to slide open. Stepping through, he gave me a
little wave. I gave him the finger.

The door closed with a thump, and a few seconds later I
heard a series of snaps and thumps around the door. It was
locked quite well, I was sure.

I sighed, running my paw through my hair. I still had an
advantage, and I suspected that even if he had found the
tracker, he would have left it going. I also suspected he
hadn't actually found it, otherwise he would have mentioned
the implant.

Sliding off the bed, I walked over to where my clothing was.
First I tried the wooden door, but found that it was still
locked. Peeking through the slats, I saw what looked like a
steel door. I wasn't getting out this way.

Sighing, I pulled my shirt and pants back on. Everything had
been removed from my pockets, and set in a neat pile. I took
my belt and put it back on, then returned my wallet and
pocket knife to their rightful places.

"Now," I said to myself, turning to look back at the room.
"How do I get out of here?"

Cain was me, a bit darker perhaps, but me. And one I've
always been, is paranoid, I was sure that carried over, to
Cain, and to a much larger extent than I ever had it. That
good dose of paranoia had saved my life before, and I'm sure
Cain would be using it for the same thing.

If his room could be locked, I was sure there was still a
way out. He would not allow himself to be trapped in here.
If someone decided to turn him in, or take over the base, it
would not do to be locked in his own room.

Walking along the walls, I checked behind each tapestry, to
see if there were any changes in the rock face. When that
came up empty, I tried the bookshelf in the room, fiddling
and pulling out all the books... still nothing.

I went back to the door out of the room. The control panel
next to it had a few devices, including a thermostat
control. I adjusted it higher, setting it to blow hot air
into the room.

The system activated almost immediately, heating the room,
and showing me where the air vents were. Both turned out to
be too small for me to have any hope of getting into. I
pried both covers off, feeling around for any kind of
switch, but found nothing.

Sighing, I sat down at his desk, resting my paws on the
surface. Pulling each drawer out, I found nothing hidden
inside the desk, or under the lip, no buttons, no panels. I
did find a box of matches, which gave me an idea.

With a few in hand, I turned the blower back down, and
started to walk around the room. At any crack or distortion
in the rock wall, I lit a match, hoping to find a leak of
air. Each time, no luck.

Twice I went back to the desk for more matches, before I
noticed the thermometer. It wasn't out of place, sitting on
the corner of the desk, diligently showing the temperature.
It actually was attached to the desk, by it's base, so it
couldn't be knocked off.

What struck me was that it was reporting the temperature at
the equivalent of sixty degrees Fahrenheit, which I knew was
wrong. I double checked with the thermostat at the door, it
was showing seventy five.

I walked back to the desk, sitting down in the chair and
smiling a bit. It could just be broken, a fluke, but I was
starting to doubt it. I notice that the cover of the dial
stood out half an inch from the face of the thermometer. I
ran my finger under it; it came back with a fine layer of
soot.

Pulling a match out of the desk, I lit it, and held the
flame under the thermometer. The needle finally shifted,
rising up to what would be eighty degrees before I heard a
snap behind me.

Turning around, I saw that the bookshelf had slid back into
the wall just an inch. It was clear I had found my way out.

Putting the matches away, I dashed to the bed for a second,
stuffing pillows around to make it look like I was sleeping.
Then through the secret door I went, to who knows where, but
once more with the upper hand.

    Chapter 8

I walked carefully down the tunnel, paw against one wall,
with the majority of my attention focused on watching where
I was placing my feet. The tunnel was carved out of rock and
unfinished, which left the walls jagged, and meant the floor
wasn't quite level and littered with debris.

The only light came from the occasional lamp in the ceiling,
placed every dozen feet. It was meager, hardly lighting more
than three feet