Mirror Cycle

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 12

I had experienced this enough times in my life so far to
know that what was happening was simply a flashback. More
than likely it was prompted by something in the
conversation. But instead of remembering the event, I was
about to relive it.

The darkness around me slowly became infinite. A vast
emptiness, inside a vaster emptiness. Having already
experienced a dozen flashbacks, I was used to it. Keeping
myself in a standing position, arms held behind my back, I
just relaxed and waited for my memories to replay themselves
before my eyes.

So it came as a great surprise when I heard a soft voice
whisper into my ear, "You're not that pure. Fox."

I jumped in place, twisting around to see who was there, but
in the darkness I could not tell that I had even moved, let
alone who had just spoken to me.

Then the darkness rippled, and changed into shapes and
color. I found myself standing behind a large wooden desk,
five feet long, and half that wide. It was covered in papers
and books, with a small computer propped on top of one of
the piles.

I lifted my eyes from the desk, and looked around the room.
It was large, with wood paneling all over. Book shelves
lined the back wall, pictures hung on every surface, and a
large fireplace dominated the shortest wall in the room.

It was a place of prickling familiarity, but nothing I could
place yet. I cast my eyes around the room, finally finding
myself standing just a few feet away. A much younger version
of myself, six years my junior, and looking every year of
it.

I... He... The younger me looked pissed, and panted like he
had just finished yelling at someone whom I had yet to see.
His cheeks were bright red under the few hairs of thin
beard, glasses askew, and his fists were shoved into the
pockets of the old green army jacket that I used to wear.

"You are a bitch," he spat out, "and you have no idea what
you are dealing with." With that said, almost like it should
end the conversation, he turned on his heal, and stormed out
of the office.

I walked around the desk as he stormed out. I quickly
followed him to the door before I came to a sharp stop. I
understood what, and when, this memory was.

Turning around, I focused my attention to the back of the
room, my eyes coming to rest on the person that was the
other side of the conversation. A well endowed raccoon
female, who was looking quite pleased with herself. It was
the same look as she had on her face when I explained my
plight to her years before, somehow under the assumption
that she would care.

Her name was Dra, and she was a woman who was very willing
to kill many others for her own interests. By war or plague,
she had killed anyone she thought was standing in her way.

I also knew that her mind was not her own. Behind those
bright eyes lay something dark and evil. Ruhk lurked there,
waiting to destroy the multi-verse.

"I'm flattered that you remember me," she said, folding her
paws on the top of the desk. "But then, I'm unforgettable,
aren't I?" she asked with an evil smile, looking directly at
where I was standing.

Naturally I jumped back in shock; this was not something I
ever remembered happening! I sidestepped across the room,
and her eyes followed right along with me. She knew I was
there-- some-how she was in my mind!

Standing up, she walked around her desk towards me. With
each step she took, the room behind her started to dissolve,
melting away into an empty grayness. Her smile was wide, and
growing wider by the moment as she approached me. "Is this
any way to treat your goddiss?" she asked, just inches away
from me now.

I growled, and swung my fist at her, connecting with the
side of her face, sending her head snapping back. She held
it there for a moment, before turning back to face me, her
face, her body, reforming into that of one I knew too well.
It was Ruhk hirself.

Slowly sie shook hir head, hir hair falling loosely down
over hir back. Long and black, it seemed to shine
poisonously in the grayness that now surrounded us. Hir
clothing shifted, becoming a simple set of black pants and a
shirt, with a long cloak falling from hir shoulders, to the
ground behind hir, and trailing back as far as the eye could
see. This was quite unlike the previous time we had met,
then sie had been nude, and covered in filth.

"Get the hell out of my mind, you bitch!" I ordered with a
sharp growl.

Sie shook hir head slowly, reaching out with a paw towards
my face. I tried to jerk away, but found I could no longer
move.

"Silly boy," sie said, placing hir gloved paw against my
cheek. "I'm here because I wish to look in on my newest
child."

I managed to force out a low growl between my closed lips,
finding that I was also unable to talk to hir. Sie would not
get hir filthy paws on my children.

"No, no, no," sie said, a smile creeping across hir muzzle.
"I mean you. You will be mine soon, I will see to that. You
are too powerful to simply abandon. You are not that pure,
Fox, and you are not free of Evil. You are mine, whether you
know it or not!" The last words were said as a sneer played
over hir lips.

Sie ran hir paw up the side of my face to my forehead, hir
fingers stroking gently through my hair. "I see your powers
are developing nicely." As she spoke there was a shot of
pain through my skin. It focused on two familiar spots on my
head, an inch behind my hairline, almost where my ears would
have been if I had been in my lioness morph body. This was a
place that had bothered me before, but never as badly as
this. It felt like my skin was being ripped open.

Ruhk pulled hir paw back. A few drops of blood clung to the
tips of three of hir fingers, which sie proceeded to gently
lick off the glove.

I finally was able to move. I jumped back from hir, my hands
moving to the top of my head. There were two... somethings,
pushing up from under the skin. Not totally breaking it, but
already ripping through in a few places.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" I demanded.

She took a few steps forward, hir cape fanning out as she
walked. "I did nothing, nothing at all. This predates my
interest in you by some months." Sie smiled at me, a long,
toothy smile that sent shivers down my spine. "You don't
even know about it, or understand it. My, my, it will be
quite fun showing it to you once you are worshiping at my
feet."

"Something I will never do, and you know that." I snarled
back to hir. My attention was more focused on what was on my
head. Pressing the skin tight around the growths, I ran my
fingers around them. It was slightly distorted, but it felt
like whatever they were, their outsides were shaped
something like a spiral.

"You know I want you, and I will have you. Someday, you will
be my slave," sie laughed softly, smiling a bit wider. "You
don't have to come willingly. In fact I would prefer you
fight every inch of the way. It will be so much fun to break
you."

I snorted, dropping my hands to my side. "You can try. I
will win."

Suddenly sie was right up on me, hir paws resting on my
shoulders, hir fingers digging tightly into my skin. "Try I
will, and you shall fail. But you will be worshiped with me
once you are at my side. I will elevate you to my level, I
will even spare your world, and your wife's world, from my
wrath."

"Oh, you're just all heart." I snapped back. "I weep at your
generosity, and beg your mercy for those whom I would die
before leaving. I do not wish to stand at your side, because
it's not where I belong."

Sie lifted hir paws from my shoulder, holding them before
hir, a slight look of annoyance on hir face. "Then I will
put you where you belong, lower than any other servant I
have. That's where you will belong."

I smiled, "I'll still be higher than you could ever hope to
be."

"Don't get cocky," sie said, pointing one gloved finger at
me, a smile on hir face.

I said nothing in return.

"Tell my way-ward child that once you are in my control, I
will send you hunting hir. Sie and I both know that sie can
not stop you."

I shook my head slowly. "Sorry she-bitch, you can deliver
your own messages."

Sie reached forward, snapping hir fingers closed tight
around my neck. I responded by shoving my hand under hir
chin, the palm tight aginst hir neck, my claws out at hir
Adam's apple, and dug deep into hir skin. In one swift move
I could kill hir, if I really thought such a thing was
possible.

Hir eyes darted down to my hand, then back to look in my
eyes. I looked back at hirs, and found a look of surprise in
them; this was not something that sie had ever expected. I
was happy about that.

The pressure on my neck increased, cutting off my flow of
air entirely. In return I pushed my claws in deeper, pulling
up along hir neck a half inch. Leaving four gashes behind,
bleeding thick, dark red blood down onto hir chest.

We held each other like that for a few moments. I didn't
know if sie could kill me in the midst of my own mind, but I
wasn't in the mood to risk it. I knew that sie had to know
that I could not really kill hir, but it seemed to make hir
hesitate.

Finally sie released hir grip, dropping hir paw to the side.
I let go of hir neck, pulling my hand away at the same time
sie did. The cuts I left in hir skin healed up in just
moments, the only sign of their presence was the blood left
on hir fur.

"I'll have you soon," sie growled at me, taking a step back
in the darkness. "Perhaps sooner than even you think."

I started to protest, but sie just glared, pulling hir cloak
around hirself in one fast move. Then sie was gone, and I
was alone in the darkness.

I let out a long breath looking around the infinity I was
in. Once I was sure sie was gone, I reached up to feel my
head again.

Pressing hard against the skin, I winced from the pain. I
felt over whatever was under there, so close to the surface.
It felt like... it felt like some kind of horns.

Why would I be growing a pair of horns?

"Fox?" Oria asked from my side.

I jolted, sitting up, once more back in the real world. I
was sitting on the edge of my bed. Oria was next to me,
looking a bit worried.

"Was it a flashback?" she asked, placing her paw on my
shoulder.

"Yes," I answered, before correcting myself. "No. It seemed
to start like one, but it turned into a message from the
Uber-Bitch," I explained, reaching up to feel my head. It
might have been my imagination, but I felt some kind of
distortion under the skin in the same spots as the strange
horns had been moments before. Was it just possible that
they were real?

A frown creased Oria's lip. "Ruhk?" she asked with some
distance. Not that I blamed her; Ruhk and Thryn had once had
an encounter that cost many lives.

I nodded, standing up from the bed. "That's the one. How
long was I out for?"

"No more than five minutes," she answered quickly, walking
with me to the doorway out of the bedroom. "What did sie
have to say to you?"

"Mostly that sie still wants me under hir control," I
explained as I opened the door, letting Oria lead the way
out into the hall. I smiled to myself as I watched her tail
swish just behind her feet. "I told hir to fuck hirself."

She chuckled softly at that. "Not that hard from what you've
told me."

I smiled, moving to her side, and draping my arm over her
shoulder. "I'd rather not get into that, if you don't mind."

She laughed. "I suppose not."

We walked like that back into the living room. Ken was
relaxing on the couch, with Rhea at his feet. He was bent
over and carefully petting her between the ears. She had her
eyes closed, and tail swishing, and looked to be in heaven.

I smiled to myself as I saw this. "Enjoying yourself?"

They both nodded, Ken with a slight smile.

"Ken," Oria said, setting down in the couch next to him.
"Something strange happened a few minutes ago. We were in
the kitchen, and Rhea was able to talk to us telepathically.
She wasn't able to do that in Fox's body, why now?"

He paused, turning his head slightly. "More than likely,
Rhea herself is not a natural, so that communication is no
longer blocked."

"Yes, but I heard her," I pointed out, "I have since she
woke up yesterday."

He paused, sitting up to his full height, his wings
adjusting over his shoulders as he did so. "Then I can not
say without some study on the matter."

"I see," Oria answered, looking a bit dejected.

I crossed my arms over my chest, and decided to ask Ken
about what had just happened to me. "Ken, can I speak with
you for a moment."

He nodded.

"In private, please."

Oria looked slightly surprised, but Ken just nodded again,
and stood up. Stepping over Rhea he walked to my side. We
then left the room, moving into my office down the hall.
Once inside, with the door closed, I addressed him.

"Can you check here and here," I said, pointing to the two
spots on my head in turn.

He nodded, walking over to me, and laying his foreclaws into
my hair. "What am I looking for?" he asked.

"Anything at all," I suggested, "perhaps a distortion in the
bone maybe."

He muttered a few short words under his breath, and leaned
forward slightly. "Well, now that you mention it, there does
seem to be some slight growth on your skull here," he
commented, pushing some of my hair aside. "Perhaps another
side effect."

I shook my head, "No, I've been getting some pain there off
and on for months. The first time I really noticed it was a
few days before you returned my pendant to me, after I had
used Thrysten's gem."

"Right, it could be a side effect of that."

"How about horns?" I suggested.

He took a step away from me, crossing his arms over his
chest. "Horns? Are you serious, Fox? More than likely it's a
hold-over from your full lioness form. The connection points
for the muscles of your ear."

I shook my head. "My ears are more to the side of my head,
the muscles connect here," Using both hands, I touched two
points, one on each side of my head. "The problem is here,"
I touched the two points, now feeling the distortion under
them.

He shook his head. "Be that as it may, I don't think they
are horns."

"Then what are they?" I asked.

"They could be anything," he answered with a shrug. "There's
so much magic wrapped around you, this could be a side
effect of any one of them."

I nodded. "Yes, but is it possible that they _could_ be
horns?"

"I doubt it," he answered slowly, narrowing his eyes
slightly. "I can't think of any reason why you could be
growing horns."

I balled my hands into fists, slightly exasperated. I wanted
some sort of confirmation of what I had seen in the
flashback. There was something about them, and the feeling
was starting to build that Ruhk hadn't lied to me about them
being there.

"But is there any way?" I asked, a slight growl of
frustration creeping into my voice.

Ken suddenly looked angrily at me. I quickly realized that I
hadn't sounded like I was asking him for information. In his
eyes I was telling him that he didn't know what he was
talking about. I was challenging his ability to do his job.

"Yes, there is a way," he snapped. "There are a thousand
ways and more. You have a damn vortex of magic around you,
added to that, you seem to have an ability to absorb
transformation spells, among others. First you have that
damn fox-morph spell Oriana did for you," he ticked it off
on his finger, "which is still sticking around even though
it seems to have been absorbed."

"Ken," I said, trying to explain myself.

He gave me a sharp look, but continued on, "Then we have
that mind switch spell between you and Oriana," he ticked
that off on his finger as well. "In fact we have it twice!
Both of which are still clinging to you."

"Ken,,," I tried again, a little more force in my voice.

"Then there is some kind of underlying extra magic that I
have no idea how it got into you, but that seems to have
infected first your blood, and now most of the rest of your
body."

"Ken..." I tried once more, this time my voice almost
demanding.

He raised his voice as he spoke. "An infection which doesn't
seem to be even possible. Then of course we have your curse,
which is affecting every other spell on you, and doesn't
seem to sit still long enough for me to do anything about
it, then--"

"Keieniska!" I finally said, with some measure of
frustration in my voice. The word wasn't even the one I was
trying to use. It just slipped out on its own.

He flinched like he had been slapped in the face, his jaw
slightly slack, his foreclaws caught in mid-protest. "You
haven't called me that in years," he whispered.

"Since the day you left me," I commented. taking his paws
into my hands, holding them gently.

He looked down at my hands, looking slightly amazed before
pulling his paws away. He looked almost hurt.

I grabbed them again, holding them tighter. "Listen, I'm
sorry, I didn't mean to challenge your work," I explained.

He shook his head, but didn't pull his paws away this time.
There was a look of sadness in his eyes. "Why did you call
me that?" he asked, his voice still a whisper.

I had no answer, The name had just slipped out in the
moment; before I could even bite it off, it was in the air.
The name itself was what I used to call Ken when he and I
were lovers. Before he had left me, over the guilt of what
he had done to my mind. I had never spoken the name again,
once that bond had been separated, and I suspected I
shouldn't have spoken it now.

"Ken, I haven't said this to you in a long time," I said in
a quiet voice. "I should have said this much sooner." I
looked up into his eyes, looking as deep as I could into
them. "I trust you. I trust you as I always have. I trust
you to solve this problem. I trust you because you're my
oldest friend in the multi-verse."

He looked shocked. "Even after what I did?"

"Your intentions were good," I answered, "even if what you
did was wrong. I have forgiven you for it, remember that.
You have done so much for me as it is. If it wasn't for you,
I would still be stuck on all fours. You found a way to
bring me back. No once else could have done that. You have
atoned for what you've done, in more ways than even you
know."

He took in a long, slow breath, before letting it back out.
"Thank you for your trust," he spoke the words quietly, with
a slight wavering in his voice.

"Let's go back to the others, we have more things to deal
with now," I said after a few more moments had past.

This time he held my hands in his paws, not letting me slip
away. "Fox, I was wrong. You are not a child."

I smiled back at my old friend. "Thank you."

   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. Ruhk copyright 2000 by Chris Bradford.