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.

   To Be Continued...

-----

This story is copyright 2000 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy
reprints limited to one per person, all other rights
reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except
by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may
not be removed.