A Fox in the Works
                    Singularity Collapse

                             By

                         Fox Cutter

   Chapter Sixteen

The group of us rushed into the Palace, ignoring anyone we
encountered on the way. The High Mage was in the lead with
myself just a few steps behind, (my hood pulled up to once
more hide my features). Ravindar followed close behind me,
and Samantha and Aster brought up the rear.

The largest group of people we ran into was just inside the
courtyard, but they simply moved out of the way when the
Mage ordered them to move. Once across the courtyard we
hurried to the entrance of the throne room, coming to a stop
when we came to the large doors that guarded the entrance.

I paused for a moment to gather my wits, and to shed my
cloak and gloves.

"So what's the plan?" Samantha asked from behind my
shoulder.

"I don't know," I said, rubbing my chin and glancing at
Rodrick. The older man was leaning against the wall, his
chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath from the run.
"Maybe a hostage?" I suggested.

The Mage looked up at me as I said this, a slight frown on
his face. "I don't believe that threatening my life would
have any effect on Alexander. It would just anger him. I'm
expected, if I go in alone he will suspect nothing."

I sighed and shook my head. "We don't have that much time to
waste. We have to get in there and get Rhea before he kills
her. Rodrick, get in there, try to get the guards out as
soon as you can. We'll be coming through the door in two
minutes."

He nodded, gathering himself up for a few moments before
letting out a long breath. The four of us moved out of sight
of the doors as the Mage pushed them open and entered the
room.

"Aster, you keep to the back. I want you to stay on guard
unless everything goes wrong," I said.

The younger man nodded and pulled his sword free, looking
nervous. He was about to commit high treason, giving him
every right to be nervous.

I turned to look at my bodyguard. "You stick next to me, or
help Rhea if she needs it. Use your best judgment about who
to protect," I said. I then turned my attention to Samantha,
"As for you, just keep everyone occupied."

She nodded her head as she tugged her cloak around herself,
her fingers rubbing the hem. "I'll do my best," she said.

I nodded and judged that Rodrick's time was up. I moved into
position in front of the doors, pulling my gun free and
insuring it was ready to use. Slowly I counted to ten as my
friends took up positions beside the doors.

"Go," I said as I let out a long breath.

My friends shoved the doors open, surprising a trio of
guards that were about to leave. I walked in, pushing past
the men to glare at Alexander. The young King sat on his
throne, his sword held in his hand. He started to raise from
his seat as we burst in, then sank back down into the chair
when he realized who we were.

Zain was in the middle of the room, bent down over Rhea. The
lioness was bound with thick rope, her paws wrapped tight to
each other, and her muzzle tied closed. The High Mage was
standing against the far wall, looking concerned as we
entered. I did a quick double-take when I realized that he
was standing in front of two of the Holy Relics. Including
the one that we had been sent to retrieve!

"Stay back!" Samantha called from behind me, her voice
echoing through out the room. I glanced back for a second,
watching her form start to glow then burst into flame. The
fire rolled over her body, engulfing her in moments as the
flames rose high over her body, illuminating the room in the
deep red light.

She could still be seen inside of the flames, her eyes
bright with intensity as she seemed to rise up to stand
nearly seven feet tall. She looked down at the guards in the
room and pointed a burning hand at them. "Leave!" she
bellowed, her voice echoing like thunder.

The guards looked at her and hurried out of the room and
Aster closed the doors behind them.

Alexander let out a theatrical sigh as I turned my attention
to him, "Fox, you are supposed to be dead," he said as he
rested his hands on the hilt of his sword.

"So I've been told," I said as I walked across the room,
leveling my gun at Zain. "Step away from her," I ordered.

The older man looked at me, then at the barrel of my gun. He
nodded his head and moved away from my sister.

"Aster, cut her bonds," I ordered, looking towards the King.

The young man rushed forward, keeping his head down to stay
out of the King's view. When he reached Rhea he paused to
look her over, before starting at the ropes. I could feel
her talking to him, but I couldn't make out the words.

Alexander watched this, looking a bit amused by the whole
thing. "Now who is this? He's not one of your normal group.
You do know that you will be killed for this, don't you?"

Aster said nothing as we worked the ropes free.

"I don't understand what you are trying to achieve here?"
Alexander said as he rose to his feet. "So you have your
beast back, but what will that gain you? You are not going
to leave here alive," he said with a knowing smirk.

I shook my head, glaring back at the young ruler. "I don't
think you have much choice in the matter. We are just going
to leave, and be done with it. Is that clear?" I asked,
raising my gun and looking down the sights at him.

He sighed and took a few steps closer as he lifted his
sword. "Fox, you're in my Palace and however you may have
gotten in, you're not going to leave."

Ravindar moved in between the King and myself, separating us
for the moment as Rhea got to her feet. She padded over to
me, shaking her paws with each step as the circulation
return to them. Aster followed at her side, his sword held
at the ready.

"Samantha, check to see if that's the right item," I said,
never taking my eyes of the King.

Alexander watched her as she crossed the room to the Relics,
the fire on her cloak fading away as she moved. I watched
her from the corner of my eye as she picked up the item and
ran her fingers over the back. "It's the real thing," she
said.

I nodded, "Good, then that takes care of our reason for
being here. If you will excuse me, Your Majesty, we'll be
leaving now," I said, giving him a short nod.

"You have a high opinion of yourself," the King replied,
looking at his advisors then back to me. "You are not
leaving," he stated.

"We could just kill you... that would solve that problem," I
said with a smile.

He shook his head, lifting his sword up to rest it against
his shoulder as he drew closer to me. "If you were going to
kill us, you wouldn't have wasted your time talking."

I let out a sigh and shook my head. "We're gone," I said as
I started to turn towards the door, feed up with talking to
the young man.

"I will hunt you down and kill you before the week is out,"
Alexander replied with grim determination.

"I see," I said, clicking my tongue as I put my gun away and
turned to look at the young man. I gave him a smile, one
that started normally but soon pulled back to show him my
teeth. I pushed past Ravindar and leaped at the King, flying
at him paws first. The man yelped, trying to bring his sword
around, but I plowed into him before he could do more then
bring it forward. As we tumbled to the ground his sword fell
free, falling past my side, close enough to cut at the
clothing I wore.

We landed hard on the stone floor, him on his back with
myself above him. I rolled forward, twisting myself so my
knees land on his shoulders, pinning him to the floor. I
took his face with my paws, glaring into his eyes. "If you
come after me, I will strangle you with your own
intentions!" I said with a low growl.

The young man looked up at me, his eyes glowing as he tried
to get himself out of my grasp. At the edge of my vision I
saw my friends move to block both Zain and Rodrick, keeping
the two men at a distance.

Until that moment I honestly don't believe any of them
realized just how dangerous I could truly be in this body.

I lowered my head until my nose was pressed against the
King's forehead. "Here's a little reminder for you," I
whispered as I pressed my fingers against his cheeks. My
claws slipped free of my fingertips and dug into his flesh.
With a growl I pulled my paws back, cutting ten long gouges
into his face.

He let out a howl of pain as blood welled from the deep
cuts, rolling down his cheeks. I leaned back and pressed one
paw against his neck, pricking the skin with my claws, the
other paw pressing against his belly. "I don't care about
you, I don't care about your war or anything else. If you
leave me alone, I will leave you alone. That's fair, don't
you think?" I asked as I pressed my paws a bit closer,
digging the claws deeper into his skin.

Alexander nodded his head, looking panicked for a moment
before he managed to regain his composure. "Get out of
here," he said with a growl.

I smiled, "See, that was easy," I said as I got up, looking
down at him as he lay on the floor. "Let's get the hell out
of here," I said as I walked away from him. Pointedly
ignoring the King, I stalked across the room and pulled open
the wooden doors.

In retrospect it wasn't too surprising to find a dozen
guards standing outside the doorway, swords drawn. They
looked at me, and I glared back at them. "Tell them to let
us go," I called over my shoulder.

Alexander said: "Escort them out of the City."

I smiled as I watched the leader of the group quickly giving
orders, sending most of the other guards away.

"Fox," the King called out. I look back to see that the man
had returned to his feet, the sides of his face covered in
blood. "If any of you ever return, you will be killed," he
said.

I shrugged, "That's fine by me, I never plan to come back,"
I said, turning away from him we filed out of the room.

* * *

02/16/2004:

Much to my great surprise the King was good to his word. No
one followed us once we left the City, and we were
unmolested all the way back to the fold. Maybe he really was
a good person at heart, or maybe it was because of my
willingness to cause him harm. Whichever one it was, I was
grateful for it.

We had been on the road almost from the moment we left the
City of the Crown, only stopping to gather a few items from
Aster's home and to pick up Lady Sally. The two of them came
with us to the fold, both sure in the knowledge that if they
were recognized around the City that they would be killed.

For once, luck was on our side. We encountered a caravan
going in the right direction on our second day and joined up
with them. Rhea and I stayed near the back as the humans in
our group took the lead. The pair of us were considered an
animal and a toy respectively. Neither of us did anything to
disprove this image.

Of course being perceived as a toy meant people wanted to
use me as a toy. Needless to say that was not something I
was interested in, not with the growing headache that had
started to creep over the back of my head. Ravindar had
words with the men who approached me, and there was that one
unfortunate 'accident'.

Aster and Sally had settled down into something of a tenuous
friendship, and were still feeling each other out. The
former Lady was used to the finer things in life, not the
few things a farmer had. Now that her husband was dead, and
she was assumed to be, she had nothing left but Aster.

A week after we left, news came to the caravan about what
King Alexander had been doing. Apparently Samantha had been
found, murdered, inside the Holy City. In response the King
had officially declared a War on the Church, and called for
the arrest and execution of the newly appointed Highest and
all the Church leaders.

This came as no real surprise to me, I knew that the King
was going to try something like this, I just hadn't known
what. I tried to put it out of my mind as the trip went on,
but both Sally and Aster wanted to talk to me about it.

The point of fact was that there was nothing I could do to
help them, even if I wanted to. It was just too big to do
anything to stop Alexander's plans. This was reinforced as
we neared our destination, when we heard that men loyal to
the King had stormed the High Church, killing the Highest,
his advisors, and everyone else with any real power in the
Holy City.

All in all it was a rather successful power grab. The dust
hadn't fully settled, but it appeared that the Crown and the
Church were now one and the same. All, I'm sure, according
to plan.

It was when Sally and Aster were telling me all of this that
I pointed out something they had both missed. As Sally was
married to the former Highest and therefor involved in the
day-to-day running of the Church, she was probably the
highest ranking survivor of the purge.

By that evening she and Aster were already starting to talk
about the revolution against the Crown. I even believed that
they might have been able to pull it off. It would be a hard
fight, and one that they might not survive, but if they
actually succeeded there names would go into the history
books. I didn't tell them that... they didn't need any more
pressure.

Samantha and Ravindar were recovering from their own
ordeals. We traded stories of what happened to each other,
though my bodyguard wasn't that forthcoming about all the
details of his. Personally I thought something had happened
to him, but I couldn't learn anything more than I already
had.

I was impressed with Samantha's escape... both of them. Of
course how much of it was truth, and how much was
embellished I didn't know. Still, she was in one piece, and
her captivity didn't seem to have any lasting effect on her.
She assured me that she had been through worse, and I
believed her.

I was glad for that. I didn't need anyone else hurt because
of my actions. I had started this whole mess by being
overconfident about my ability to easily pick up the last of
Graison's items. I had been failing in every part of that
from the first moment I had arrived on this damn world.

It was a blessing that the only one really hurt by this
total screw-up was myself. Everyone else had come through
with a few cuts and scrapes, but I took the worst of it. I
earned the worst of it.

The two weeks of the trip gave me a long time to think about
everything that had happened. I was able to run over every
single choice and action I took, and see how I failed at
every critical moment. Each and every step leading me down
the road until I had no choice but to sell my soul to save
my life.

If I couldn't see so clearly how my own actions had brought
me to that, I would almost believe that the Neverending had
stage-managed this whole affair. I knew better than that, I
just had to convince Oria of that fact.

Oh, Oria... how was I going to tell you what had happened to
me? It wouldn't be easy. I would have to keep her from
coming back and trying to avenge me. To that end I had told
both Sally and Aster that I wanted the man who had raped me
dealt with, assuming they ever caught him. I hoped that
would appease my wife. Even then there was the fact that I
was now serving the Neverending, and she wouldn't be happy
about that.

Rhea reassured me that I wasn't in the same boat as Rebecca,
but I doubted she really knew that for sure; and the lioness
was silent on how she had come to that conclusion. There was
something that she was hiding from me, for what I suspected
she thought was my own good. She could be just as stubborn
as I was about keeping secrets.

By the end of the trip I was starting to feel the onset of
soul sickness. The headache had been growing steadily worse
for the past week, and my appetite, what little I had in the
first place, had nearly vanished. We had planned for this,
bringing a spare norm-shift stone with us, but that had been
lost along with the rest of our equipment.

We left the caravan about an hour outside the walls of the
town from which we had started. Instead of going inside we
took our horses up into the hills, heading towards the fold.
Aster and Sally followed along with us, not really
understanding what was going on.

"We are almost there," Ravindar said as he lead the group of
us up the hill, winding his horse between the thick trees.

"So this is where you are from?" Aster asked me as we rode.

I glanced at him, and then shook my head. "This is how I got
here, it's hardly where I'm from. I'm not exactly a native
to this world; none of us are," I said as I hunched over my
horses neck.

Sally snapped her head around, giving me an intense look.
"You're not of this world? You mean you're of the Dominion?"
she asked.

"Hardly," I said as I glanced towards her. "We are not part
of your religion in any way, other than being present for
this mess. Well... that and a few other things, but they are
of no importance," I told her with a smile.

"So what are you, then?" she asked.

Samantha jumped in with the answer, "I'm human, it's a
little harder to explain everyone else," she said.

The older lady turned her eyes to Ravindar. "What about
you?" she asked my bodyguard.

He turned his head back to look at her, then moved his eyes
back to me. "We're almost done, you might as well," I told
him.

"Very well," he replied and touched his arm, deactivating
the Matrix chip. Aster and Sally both brought their horses
up short as his disguise fell away from him, revealing his
familiar white and black fur.

Aster shook his head in amazement. "So you're the same as
Fox," he stated.

"We are still different species," he replied.

<<Fox is closer to me then he is to Ravindar, and not just
because of her species,>> Rhea added from where she walked
beside my horse.

Sally looked between us in amazement, and then shook her
head. "Why are you telling us this? What reason could you
have unless you are of the Dominion?"

I shrugged as Ravindar came to a stop. I could feel the fold
only a few feet away, dancing at the edge of my mind.
"Because there is no reason not to, so that you know most of
what really happened. We are not gods, or angels, or
Dominion. We are just people, on a mission that went very
wrong," I said with a sigh.

"To steal the Third Relic," Aster said as he came up to my
side.

I nodded. We had admitted that part of the plan as he had
been part of the theft. "At least you have the replacement,
it's indistinguishable."

"But if you had to take it, doesn't that mean you are Holy?"
Sally asked.

"The item itself wasn't Holy, it was just a joke played by a
psychopath," Samantha said as she swung down from her horse.
"A joke that only he would find funny," she added after a
moment's thought.

I nodded as I slid to the ground as well, adjusting myself
once I had landed. "That's over now, this whole thing is
over now. You can keep the horses; I'm sure you can use
them."

"I don't understand," Sally said, watching as Ravindar
dismounted and Samantha gathered up the bag holding the
item. "What are you going to do here?"

I smiled and walked towards the fold. "Go home," I declared
in an overly serious tone as I opened the fold, feeling warm
as I watched it expand to full size.

"I will never understand," Sally said, back pedaling away
from the fold.

"It's OK, you don't need to," I said, ushering Rhea through
the fold. "Good luck in your revolution, you'll need it," I
told them as Ravindar and Samantha went through, and I
followed just behind.

Even before my vision cleared from the transition through
the fold I heard my wife call out my name, a few moments
later I felt her in my arms.

"Oriana," I said with relief as I looked into her green
eyes. I hugged her body close to mine as I leaned in for a
firm kiss, and held it as long as I could. Both of us were
purring in time as for a moment we became one.

"I've missed you," I said as I pulled from the kiss. I
noticed that Ravindar and Santhera were doing the same by
the door.

My wife nodded and pressed herself close to me. "Why are you
female?" she asked.

"It's a long story," I said as I wrapped my arm around her
waist and pulled her towards the door. "A lot happened to
me... most of it wasn't good," I added.

A look of concern flashed over her face for a moment, but
she said nothing as we walked down the hall. As soon as we
got into the bedroom, with the door closed firmly behind us
she turned to look at me, "What happened?" she asked.

I paused for a moment, debating what to say, or what to do,
before I let out a long sigh and told her everything. From
the destruction of the pendent to the Neverending, then
finally I told her about the rape.

She looked at me in horror as I told her, and then finally
just took me in her arms, holding me tightly, and giving me
everything I ever needed.

I had no idea what the Neverending wanted me to do, but I
knew I had a short time to prepare, and I had to start
pulling myself back together. I knew that it would come too
soon, and that I would fight every step of the way, but I
had sold my soul, and had no choice.

I was a servant of the Neverending.

-----

This story is copyright 2005 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy
reprints limited to one per person, all other rights
reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except
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