Black Orchid meets someone who actually understands her, though she isn't ready to admit that to herself.

Ine’s Flowers: Black Orchid - Avenging Angel

By

Maggie Finson

The room may have been different from on her previous jaunt to Earth in quest of retribution against those who had wronged her in another life. But it was still dingy, cheerless, and nearly bare of everything except basic necessities. Black Orchid sat pensively in a threadbare armchair, absently stroking the stem of the parasitic, but lovely bloom that she had been named for.

The bloom she held and caressed so tenderly, while almost unconsciously filling it with the magicks she planned to unleash on her next target, was glossy black and breathtaking in its purity of form, color, and purpose. No matter how lovely it might be, the orchid was a weapon. A weapon aimed at not only the heart of an enemy, but at his very existence.

Just as she was. Only, her first act of retribution had been less than satisfying. If anything, the results had cast doubts on her sole remaining purpose for being. Revenge. The judge who had sentenced an innocent young man to prison, eventual rape by other convicts, and suicide, had been acting in accordance with his own personal code of ethics and honestly thought the man he had inadvertently sentenced to death had been guilty. But the white, middle class judge was now a pretty black
waitress, and that could not be undone. Not that Black Orchid cared to do so. He had been one instrument of her pain, and that instrument had been rendered harmless to others. So be it.

The architect of that pain, or one of them, was close. Close enough for her to feel him moving through the throngs of innocents in the dirty street below her third floor window.

Barry Cuevas, known to the streetwise as ‘The Fixer' had set up the frame for murder that had sent her original self to eventual humiliation and violation so terrible he had taken his own life. Payment for that would be extracted. Over a long period of time, and with a minimum of gentleness. Her peculiar abilities and magic would see to that once he had accepted the orchid she had been so lovingly preparing for him.

Her rage and hatred had suffered a setback in the earlier encounter with the judge. But those emotions had renewed themselves to the point where she could feel their heat radiating from within. Now, she knew, was the time and place to make use of them.

And to hope doing that might ease her torment at least a little.

"Soon, Barry, soooon," she crooned softly in her now dulcet voice. That and her sex were still sore spots that bled all too freely off and on. To be dead, at rest, then brought back by a well intentioned meddler in this lithe, beautiful shape had been a truly horrible shock to her still masculine sensibilities when she first awakened as Black Orchid.

Closing her large brown eyes on the street scene she had been vaguely watching below
her, Black Orchid’s mind took her back to the first stormy meeting with Ine...

* * * *

"WHY!!?" she had screamed in anguish so intense that the godlike being who had resurrected her flinched back. "I was DEAD! I wanted to be that way. There was nothing but that left for me, not even dignity, but you saw fit to bring me back. Back like this!"

"You weren’t meant to die, daughter." Ine recovered quickly and answered the shouted questions quietly. Even so, her voice carried to the newly awakened and christened Black Orchid. "Not by your own hand, and not for a long time. That is why I could reach you, pull you back. You weren’t through living. And I have need of one like you, humanity has need of you. You were brought back to right wrongs of a nature my other, gentler daughters would not be able to handle. Wrongs like you suffered."

"What do I care about Humanity?" Black Orchid hissed in fury. 'What did Humanity ever do for me but heap violation after violation on my spirit and body?"

"Gave you existence," Ine replied, with a conciliatory gesture. "Brought a fine, strong spirit
into the world and gave it flesh. A spirit that required flesh again or it would be condemned
to the worst kind of Hell imaginable. A spirit that hasn’t forgotten how to care, no matter how
you might deny it."

"I may not have forgotten," she nearly sobbed while taking another quick glance at the breasts
that now adorned her bare chest. "But I have lost the inclination. It was beaten and raped out
of me. I won’t do this."

"You have no choice, daughter," came the gentle answer.

"I never did," Black Orchid responded bitterly. "But why couldn’t you have at least brought
me back as a male?"

"It doesn’t work that way," the other sighed. "All my agents are female, that's the way it
must be. Even I cannot change that. It's out of my hands. You are here, as you are, and
will remain. There is no going back, not now. Get used to it, daughter."

"Don’t call me that!" she demanded and begged all at once. "I may be back from the dead,
but I won’t be doing your dirty work."

"As you choose, Black Orchid." Gesturing toward the distant globe of Earth, Ine gave her
newest, and most intransigent daughter a long, thoughtful, and sorrowful look. "But you will
not be able to avoid your purpose, your duty, for long. It is ingrained upon your very being;
the power for change and righting terrible wrongs is woven into the very fabric of your soul
now. Go, and find what peace you may. It is clear that talking to me is only making the
situation worse. Remember one thing while you stalk the Earth in your quest for personal
retribution. I still, and always will, love you."

* * * *

Shaking herself loose of that reverie with bitter amusement, Black Orchid realized the truth
of what her putative mother had told her. There was no avoiding what she was, or what she
could, and must do. But there was nothing saying she had to operate on Ine’s timetable or
by that one’s agenda.

Her first actions would be to right the wrongs committed on her former self. All of them.
After that, maybe, just maybe, she could find the strength and inner peace to reconcile
with her near-goddess of a mother and more importantly, with herself.

But that, she thought while taking stock of her slim, well proportioned figure and lovely face
framed in thick, glossy magenta tinged black hair, might take more than a mere god to
achieve.

* * * *

Her old neighborhood was still active after dark. People gathered on street corners, in
small shops that remained open, on the steps of the apartment buildings and infrequent
houses, or simply moved around in the midsummer heat to find a cooler spot. She saw
many familiar faces, even some old friends. Even though many looked in her direction,
none showed the least sign of recognition. But she had been a tall, muscular male when
they had known her, and now she was almost tiny in comparison. She noted interest in
the men’s looks, even a little lust, and a different kind of interest from the women. The
females gave her a wary going over as she passed, judging the level of competition the
object of that scrutiny would be, and not liking their conclusions.

They need not have worried. Not mortal, and near perfect in her beauty, Black Orchid
was not interested in luring their men away. Not at all. Even the idea of being with a
male as a woman was still a bit repugnant to her, though her body was campaigning for
a change of sensibilities that was closer than she wished to believe.

Her prey was out, and moving. She could feel him, but not well enough to zero in on
where he was. Frustrated by her inability to track the man down, she examined the auras
she had been searching through to discover a disturbance that clouded all her magical
visions. Take care of that, and finding her victim would be an easy matter, she
thought.

"So," she said, with a shrug that had more than one male watcher wishing she was with him
that evening. She allowed a small smile to liven up her doll-like face. "A distraction that
isn’t caused by Ine. Interesting. Now, to find it and take care of the influence that keeps
me from my goal."

* * * *

Mama Juju tripped on the overzealous broom while turning toward the curtained doorway
leading to her shop. "Dammit, Broom! Get back into your corner, and stay there until I
tell you to come out. You’re still in trouble for chasing the cat. Poor Sylvie is still hiding
under the bed, and it’s been two days."

Grumbling under her breath about the poor quality of spiritual servants available these days,
she pushed through the curtains to see a stunning young black woman wearing a sleeveless
black leather jumpsuit that showcased her lovely figure, matching shoes, and carrying a
basket filled with rather extraordinary flowers examining the stock on her shelves with a
thoughtful expression on her delicately featured face. "May I help you, young lady?"

"Maybe." The woman’s voice was a sweet toned purr guaranteed to set a man’s libido into
overdrive just hearing it. "I’m looking for Mama Juju. Is she in the shop?"

"She is." Exasperated by people’s misconceptions just because she was a pretty, petite
young woman instead of an overweight, shambling old woman, Mama’s answer came out
a little sharply. "And you’re looking right at her."

The other woman’s eyes widened a bit, then she nodded as if in confirmation of something
she had seen that wasn’t widely advertised to the normal public. "Ah, yes. I see that now.
Your aura is wrapped in magic, and has links into the spiritual plane that are very strong. I
apologize for the mistake."

"Oh, don’t worry about it." Mama Juju shrugged, and gave the woman a rueful grin while
half grumbling, "Happens all the time. But it is rare for someone with the ability to read
auras so clearly to come into my shop. Your kind don’t often have need of help from the
likes of me."

"My kind?"

"Yes, your kind. You aren’t mortal, girl." Mama offered a friendly smile as she finished.
"Any spirit reader who was halfway competent would be able to see that. You are a
spirit made flesh. Would it be impolite to ask who and what you are?"

"I was hoping you could tell me."

"Sweet spirits, an avenging angel," Mama whispered after a short view into the being
standing in her shop and just across a very narrow counter from her.

"Oh, no," the young woman, who Mama couldn’t bring herself to call anything else under
the circumstances, gave a light but bitter laugh. "I’m no angel. Or anything close to that."

"A descriptive term," Mama distractedly answered, while peering more deeply into the
open spirit made flesh for more details. "What I see is a young, proud man, handsome and
in love. Betrayed, falsely accused of a terrible crime and sentenced to prison. Then a gang
rape in the showers, and a rope made of... Never mind that last. You poor child, what
you’ve been through would make anyone wish for death."

"I was brought back against my will," the woman softly, fiercely responded to that. "In the
shape you see now."

"And you aren’t happy about either, are you, dear?" Mama questioned, though she already
knew the answer.

"No." Letting out a small sigh, her visitor finished a bit weakly, "But I’m slowly getting used
to it."

"So what is it you wish from me?" Mama questioned, with a directness that both surprised
and pleased her visitor. "And you do have a name, don’t you? I’d really rather not spend
our time together calling you by something so trite as ’Hey You!’ or an equally silly name."

"Orchid," was the response, "and I want your help."

"Girl, I mix with spirits, talk with them all the time," Mama demurred. "But I can’t help you
achieve your vengeance so you can end this new and unpleasant existence."

"I don’t want or need your help with that," Orchid answered, then gave Mama an entreating
look. "I just want you to change me back into a male. Only that."

"You’re a spirit, child," Mama replied, slowly, regretfully shaking her head. "I can mold the
flesh with help from other spirits, but the soul, one’s spirit, is molded by themselves. Any
changes made in that are done with the person’s consent."

"Are you telling me that I agreed to becoming this?" Orchid drew back while nearly hissing
in outrage. "That I actually allowed this to be done to me? I wanted to stay dead! Not
return as some immortal male sex dream."

"I’m not so sure about that," Mama answered carefully, then opened the counter top to
allow passage to the store proper, and waved her visitor towards the back. "Go on back
to my work room and have a seat while I close up the shop. Then we’ll go upstairs, have
some coffee, and a good long talk."

It was hard to say if Mama was relieved or worried by Orchid’s acceptance as the lithe,
athletic beauty gracefully passed her, then went through the curtain.

* * * *

Orchid idly looked over the workroom she had entered, then grinned with amusement in
spite of her stated purpose. A small spirit, in the shape of a broom, pouted in a corner while
broadcasting almost shrill apologies and denials of any wrong doings.

"So, little one," Orchid spoke softly, "chasing the cat, were you?"

An almost resigned, reluctant agreement came in answer to that question as the broom
quivered in near outrage at being confined to a corner when there was clearly dirt to be
swept up and out the door. Not to mention several alley cats that could be chased without
risk of punishment once at that back door.

"Well," she chuckled in response, "next time, make sure you don’t chase Mama’s cat. I don’t
think she’ll keep you in the corner much longer, she doesn’t seem like the type. But you might
consider making up to the cat, maybe by chasing a couple of juicy mice her way off and on,
know what I mean?"

The broom handle quivered, as if nodding emphatically, and happily at the idea, then subsided
as Mama Juju passed the curtain wearing a grin of her own. "So, Broom. Do you think you
can behave yourself now?"

The object of her questioning nearly jumped up and down in its eagerness to agree.

"Then get to work." Mama waved at the wood floor. "And you might take our guest’s
advice regarding Sylvie. Cats have claws and long memories, you know."

After watching the suddenly industrious broom for a few moments, Mama reached out a
hand to pick up one of the orchids in her guest’s basket.

"No!" Orchid almost shouted, then stared in amazement as the other examined the glossy
black bloom, stroked its velvety surface, and even smelled it without adverse effects.

"Lovely." Mama Juju handed it back with a slight moue of distaste tempered with admiration
for a well done job. "So much hate and anger in you, dear child, so much talent spent on it.
So much beauty wasted in the coils of your thirst for vengeance. I pity the one that bloom
was meant for."

"He deserves all of it, and more," Orchid hissed.

"No doubt he does, dear," Mama quietly answered with a small sigh, then waved toward a rather plain door opposite the one that led to the alley behind her shop. "Why don’t we go upstairs and discuss it for a while?"

"There is nothing to discuss on that matter," Orchid flatly responded. "The bastard will get
what he deserves, no more, no less. I’ve crafted that flower very carefully with him in
mind."

"Yes, you have." Shrugging almost fatalistically, Mama opened the door she had
previously indicated, and waved for her unusual guest to climb the stairs that revealed.
"Since you don’t wish to discuss that, why don’t you come up and keep me company for
a while. I don’t get that many real visitors here for reasons I’m sure you understand."

"Well..." Orchid glanced toward the exit for a moment, hesitating as if pulled in two directions
at once.

"Come, come, child," Mama soothed with a brilliant smile. "Do you have many friends who
will invite you into their homes? Or any at all? Be reasonable, this neighborhood is your
quarry’s own hunting grounds. Why would he leave them, or even suspect that he is being
hunted? He will be out there later, I guarantee it."

"All right," Orchid agreed with a tentative smile. "But only if you stop calling me child. You
don’t look any older than I am, was, oh, never mind, you know what I mean."

"Yes, I do, ch -- Orchid." Mama nodded her agreement, then grinned. "I am older than I
look, you know."

"I can tell that," the other replied with a grimace, then shot her erstwhile hostess a questioning
look. "How old are you, anyway?"

"Now, that would be telling tales, Black Orchid, and it's still impolite to ask a lady her age,
isn’t it? Let’s just say that I have aged well and leave things at that, shall we?"

"Fine by me," the lovely young woman who was spirit incarnate agreed with a halfway
embarrassed smile. "Sorry."

"No problem, dear," Mama smiled back. "How long has it been since you smiled like that,
so innocently and with real humor? Instead of that predatory baring of teeth you used when
you first entered my shop?"

"A long time, Mama," Orchid sadly admitted. "Longer than I care to think about, really."

"There, you see?" With a warm smile of her own Mama, shooed the other up the stairs. "I
seem to be good for you, dear. I think you might be good for me, too. It's a terrible thing
to go through any life friendless, isn’t it?"

"Yes," Black Orchid nodded, something glimmering in her inhuman but very real heart that
she refused to acknowledge as hope, or a potential for happiness as she did. "It's the
worst kind of Hell anyone might imagine."

"Well," Mama said, as she followed her guest up the stairs and into the second floor
apartment above her shop, "let’s see if we can relieve some of that loneliness, dear. At
least for a little while."

"Just having someone to talk with is more than I’ve had for quite a while," Orchid admitted.
"My other ‘sisters’ seem to be afraid of me and of what I do, except for one, which is okay.
I’m not all that excited about their sweetness and light methods, either."

"I’m sure they will come around in time, dear," Mama answered with a wide, beautiful
smile. "There must be some darkness before the light can shine like it’s supposed to, and
you are that darkness in your little family. Not that you’re bad, or evil, far from that in either
case, I can tell. You’ve simply been injured, almost broken, and it takes some wounds
longer to heal than others."

Orchid turned her attention to the small, but comfortable room the pair were in. Carpeted in
an easy on the eyes, soothing green, with muted beige walls covered with ethnic African
masks and artwork, along with several framed degrees. That took her by surprise, and she
looked again to make sure she had seen what she thought she had.

"Are these yours?" Moving closer, she noted that they were all for someone named
Deanne Rosalie Murphy. "Murphy?"

"Yes," Mama replied, letting out a sigh of resignation. "Murphy is my last name. Not very
Old World as far as names go, is it? At least not in the African American sense. And
Deanne just seems to fall short of anything most of my customers would respect. So, I
call myself Mama Juju to sound more credible."

"Psychology, Business Administration, and Biology?" Orchid turned back to see the
woman everyone in the area called Mama Juju with either respect or fear, but actually a little of
both, shrug. "With all that, why are you running a place like this?"

"Because I have always had the Talent, girl," Mama Juju said, as she shrugged herself.
"My own Granny told me that no matter what I did, the spirits would seek me out, along
with people needing help with or against them. The psychology helps me understand the
people who come in here, and believe it or not, still works on most of the spirits I'm in
contact with, too. Business Administration gives me the skills and knowledge to keep a
place like this running. And the biology? I would think that should be obvious, given the
amount of herbs and other organic substances I work with."

"Good points, all," Orchid agreed, then shook her head in near amazement. "It’s just that
you don’t often think of witches and Master’s Degrees in the same moment."

"No, I suppose not." Mama shrugged as she entered another room, evidently the kitchen,
because sounds of opening cupboards and rattling crockery soon emerged with her voice.
"Coffee or tea, dear? I also have a variety of juices, but no alcoholic beverages at the
moment."

"Tea will be fine, thanks."

"Hot or Iced?"

"Hot, thanks."

"Here you go, then." Mama reappeared carrying a tray that held a lovely rose colored tea
pot, matching cups and saucers, sugar, sliced lemons, milk, and a small selection of cookies.
"And please call me Dee. I’m only Mama Juju for the masses, keeps the would be thieves
and vandals away if they really believe that I’m some bad assed witch who could curse them
in a second."

"Aren’t you?" Orchid questioned, while taking one of the cups and saucers, then holding it
forward as Mama, or Dee, poured fragrant, steaming tea into it.

"Of course I am, Orchid my dear," Dee grinned wickedly, "but only if someone really pisses
me off. Otherwise, most folks do just fine at putting curses on themselves."

"Are you trying to tell me something here?" Orchid questioned with narrowed eyes, and
tenseness in her slim shoulders that warned of coming anger. "Like maybe, just maybe, I
brought all of this on myself?"

"Why should I do that, dear?" Dee leaned forward for a moment with a penetrating expression
in her eyes that her guest felt was boring into her deepest inner self. "When you seem to
have stumbled across the truth all by yourself?"

"I did NOT want things to turn out this way!" Orchid protested, while waving at her body in
general, then vaguely outward. "Ine did this to me! I wanted to be dead, and stay dead!"

"Did you, now?" The witch woman seemed unaffected by the other’s anger as she pressed
the subject. "It seems to me that you are protesting just a little too vehemently here, little lady.
Now, I want you to calm down and think for a moment or two."

"What is there to think about?" Orchid spat back. "I was quite happily dead. Now I’m not.
Who in their right mind would choose to have an existence like mine? I’m not dead, but I’m
not what anyone might call really alive, either. I’m supposed to be some kind of ’avenging spirit’,
didn’t you say? What is that supposed to mean? What in the Hell am I? And WHY am I even
here?"

"You came in to talk, I thought." Dee smiled gently while refilling her guest’s tea cup with
more steaming brew. "Looking for a friend in a world where you feel out of synch so badly
all you can do is rail at something that nothing on this earth, heaven, or hell could change now
that it has happened. What you are, my dear, is completely up to you. You could be the
most terrible demon on Earth, raging through existence with nothing but your hate and pain
to hold you here. You could be an angel, giving the help to others that you so desperately
needed before your human death. Or something between those extremes, something that is
both. What you are just now is pure potential, ready and waiting to become something with
a purpose other than mere vengeance driving you."

"Vengeance is all I have." Orchid nearly sobbed in mixed frustration and fear. "My old life is
gone, no one who knew me would recognize me now, and I wouldn’t want for them to. I
didn't want to turn out like this!"

"Which ’this’ are you referring to, dear?" Dee quietly questioned, still holding her eyes on
the distraught creature that was her guest. "The part about being a living spirit that should
be dedicated to helping people, or the part about being female?"

"I was a large man," Orchid whispered. "Strong, so sure of myself until everything went so
wrong. So sure that I could make a life that was worth having. I liked who I was, and look
at me now. I’m -- I’m..."

"Go on," Dee encouraged.

"I’m small, skinny, and have a body that would have had me drooling in my former existence if
I’d seen a girl with this body and face. I can’t go on like this, I just can’t."

"I fail to see what’s so wrong with the way you look, dear," Dee responded, while lifting her
own cup for another sip. "You are gorgeous, with a physical grace many athletes would envy,
and aren’t you strong now? Both physically and in your mind? Do you fear those that you
hunt now, as I know you would have in your other form? Do you flinch away from the
necessity to confront them on their own ground, or when surrounded by their own cronies?"

"But they can’t hurt me, now!" Orchid just about screamed at her hostess, hands bent into
claws that were ready to rend until she visibly forced herself to be calm. "Why - Should - I -
Be - Afraid - Of - Those - Damned - Low-lifes - Now? They couldn’t hurt me if they tried."

"Yes, they could," Dee flatly replied. "They are hurting you now, have been hurting you since
your return to the world of the living. Because you allow them to."

"That isn’t true!"

"No? Look at yourself carefully, and try to be as objective as you can about it," Dee
pressed. "Why do you hate yourself so much now? Because you believe in your heart
of hearts that these people who did you so much harm, are also responsible for your being
what you are now. And that is something you almost consider to be a demotion in status.
Isn’t that true?"

"Yes," Orchid sighed, her inner agony clear in her posture and face. "They are the reason
I died, and got pulled back from what peace I could find in this form."

"You were never at peace, child," Dee answered softly. "Your spirit was tortured from the
moment of your death. Ine felt that, and pulled you from the brink of whatever hell you
were making for yourself to give you another chance. Think about it for just a few seconds
with a clear head, and you’ll see that I’m telling the truth. Try and recall exactly what your
thoughts were just before you ended your life in that prison cell."

"I...I wanted to make them all pay!" Orchid was rising from her chair, wearing a fearful
expression. "I...asked any kind of god listening to help me make all of them pay for what
they’d done to me, and to get any others who prey on innocents like I was."

"Well." Dee nodded firmly. "Someone was listening, and gave you what you asked for.
Why are you so intent on blaming Ine for something that you wanted so badly that you
allowed yourself to be reeled in from the spirit world to take on a corporeal form once
again? When in truth, it was YOU who chose what you would be once back among the
living."

"No!" Orchid violently shook her head in denial. "I was a MAN, dammit! I DID NOT
want to come back as some pretty female, not even as one with more than human abilities
that I still don’t completely understand."

"Ine’s agents, or Flowers, as she calls all of you," Dee answered quietly, but with enough
force to penetrate the other’s anger, "are all female, you had to know that before you
accepted her bringing you back from death."

"I accepted nothing!" Orchid raged, moving toward a window that opened up to a small
balcony overlooking the street below. "I’ve had enough of this bullshit! Good-bye,
Juju woman!"

"You’ll be back, child." Dee watched the curtains swinging where her guest had exited for
a few moments before rising to close the window and shut out the chill of the night. "And
I’ll start sending a few of those abused innocents you were speaking about your way off
and on. We’ll see if that won’t soften your heart some more. The chinks in that armor of
isolation are only going to grow larger now that you’ve at least started to realize who you
are and why you are that way."

* * * *

Black Orchid stormed out of Mama Juju’s unsettling presence, moving across the
neighboring rooftops with only the goal of putting distance between them. While doing
that, she considered just how easily such acrobatics came to her, how her breathing
remained even, and none of her muscles or bones protested at a workout that would have
all but the most accomplished gymnasts gasping and searching for a place to rest. Her old
self would never have been capable of such things, she admitted unhappily, as she lightly
landed in a darkened alleyway where no one was likely to see her swoop from the rooftops
without so much as a grunt of effort.

Barry Cuevas was out here somewhere, she could feel him, the stench of his evil personality
filled senses that she could only call spiritual in nature since those feelings did not come from
the usual five. But she also felt, tasted, something else. Terror, despair, and a silent cry for
help from very close by. Things that she remembered feeling herself in a previous existence,
things that she could hardly bear to look at for long at a time. Things that drew her like iron
filings to a magnet.

"No!" shaking her head, she whispered. "That witch was wrong. I have my own problems.
I don’t need to take on any more. Isn’t there enough on my own plate for anyone to handle
without adding more? I’m not some supernatural guardian. I’m not!"

Cuevas was gone; during her hesitation, he had slipped out of her detection range. The
other, though, was still broadcasting strongly. Staring longingly at the direction she had last
felt her quarry for a moment, Orchid shook her head in dismissal, then turned toward the
other with a grumbled, "Oh, damn! All right, all right, I'm coming!"

* * * *

"What do I do with her? Or for her?" Mama Juju's second supernatural visitor of the
evening questioned almost plaintively. "There is no undoing what has been done, but
there is so much hate in her, so much anger. She actually threatened Tulip with a knife
earlier!"

"You do nothing, dear," Dee answered quietly. "Events will turn her to the proper path
as we see it, or they won't. Either way, there is going to be no method of gentling her
down, or soothing that raging spirit that she is, available to either one of us without her
own cooperation."

"Which may be never," Ine sighed, with real tears running down her cheeks, as Dee
thought she approved of the fully female Ine. "What have I done? What have I
unleashed on the world with my overweening pride?"

"All of us who work with the magicks of the world ask that question of ourselves at least
once in our lives," Dee returned imperturbably. "Good intentions aren't always enough, in
fact, they rarely are, but I think your current problem child will return to the fold in time.
Although her presence may never be as comfortable for you or her siblings as you might
hope. Just leave her to me, dear, you have plenty of problems to deal with yourself. If she
gets too out of hand, there are ways to banish her, for at least a while."

"Kegare is strong in her, Dee," Ine warned.

"Oh, that one," Mama waved the warning aside,thinking of the spirt that fostered hatred and all the other failings of humaity, with a small shrug, "has been with humanity and the spirits we have generated since the beginning. Kegare drives all of us on occasion, as I see you have found out yourself."

"Yes, a certain Wizard pointed that out to me very strongly not so long ago," Ine answered
quietly. "Kegare drove me to trying to destroy him when he told me such things. Yet that
anger and rage can be channeled, which was the lesson he was trying to pass on, I think.
But there is another evil, subtler and more insidious, that is manipulating Kegare, interfering
with humanity's true growth and causing far more harm than Kegare would be capable of in
the long run."

"Ah, child, now you reach the proper conclusions!" Dee congratulated the other, accompanying
that statement with a broad, warm smile that faded into an expression of worry. "Kegare is
not the enemy, just something the true enemy is using against us. That is the evil we must find,
and defeat, if any of us are to progress as our potential hints we may.

"Which brings this conversation back to your wayward child," she continued. "Black Orchid
is hunting things she has no true conception of as of yet, but she truly hunts them with purpose.
For now, it is those who wronged her in her former existence she pursues. Most of those, I
believe, are actually active, if unknowing agents of this other evil. Your uncontrollable, all too
violent, child is already involved in the fight we are speaking of now without even being fully
aware of the fact. Given time, I truly believe she will understand this, and join willingly with
you and her siblings to combat this thing. Until then, we must both be patient. She will return
here, to me, often. I have given her a sanctuary, a place where she may speak freely of her
inner conflicts and self. Drop back by off and on, and I will keep you apprised of her progress
in this self exploration she has embarked on so recently."

"I will, Dee," Ine smiled her gratitude. "I do feel badly over how Black Orchid turned out,
though Tulip did bring some of my darkest daughter's rage upon herself."

"Now, that doesn't surprise me at all," Mama chuckled. "Black Orchid's rages never occur
without a reason, though quite often those reasons are more than a bit obscure to everyone."

"Well, they certainly are to me," Ine answered with a small grin. "Though I think Tulip will
think twice before teasing my dark child again."

* * * *

She rode the darkness as if it were a willing, tractable steed. Which for her, it was when
she followed the trails her senses set her upon. Within the time of that short journey, she was
able to make out both the source and cause of the despairing, terror stricken cry for help she
was reluctantly answering.

What she saw made her feel better about things in general. A small figure, obviously
female, cowered in the corner of a darkened alleyway, fearful of even moving away from
the regard her tormentors were giving her.

Those, three in number, were typical gang toughs, hardened to the difficulties of any but
their own acquaintances and relatives, and uncaring of the feelings for their latest victim.
They were atypical in another very important aspect, though. All three bore the same taint
that those she hunted did, the very selfsame texture of corrupted soul and mind she had
come to associate with her own quarry. Though she knew these weren't ones who had
directly wronged her former self. Not that it mattered to her. They were targets for her rage
to expend itself on, for her sense of personal violation to ravage in response, and most
importantly, a focus for the hatred that so painfully burned in every fiber of her being.

A focus that was far from innocent, and well deserving of what she might do.

"Well, well, well," she commented after reappearing into real time instants after she had
begun her short ethereal journey. "Whatever are you boys up to here? Something not
nice at all, I think."

"Back off, bitch," one of the males gruffly responded, showing her the naked blade of a
wickedly curved knife. "Unless you want to join our little party."

"Now, that's an interesting idea," Orchid calmly returned, while giving the object of their
attentions a disparaging glance. "What could you possibly see in that poor kid, when you
could have me?"

The three turned their gazes from the girl, little more than a child, really, Orchid judged her
to be about thirteen if that, to regard this brazen, stupidly fearless bitch with the wide smile
and thick magenta hued raven hair. Who widened her smile even more with a gleam of
anticipation in her eyes as she went on in a silky voice while arching her back invitingly.
"Come on now, don't I have more to offer you than she does?"

The three were big, physically, and confident in their size and masculine strength. Not that
it worried Black Orchid as she sized them up without dropping her smile of open invitation.
It took all the self control she had left not to leap into the middle of them right then and there
while showing them how much size and strength meant to her. And to hold the contempt
she held them in away from her expression.

"What you offering us?" another of the three questioned, lust clearly shining from his eyes as
he ran them up and down Orchid's lithe, athletic form. "Your body in exchange for hers?"

"Something like that," she grinned, while taking another provocative pose for their benefit.
"Is it a trade, boys?"

"How 'bout we take both of you, you dumb cunt," the third one grinned. "But thanks for
the offer, we'll sure take you up on the first part of it."

"Good," Orchid grinned at them, letting her true emotions show. "I've been needing a little
of what I can get from you guys for quite a while now."

"We'll give you more of that than you want, mama," the evident leader of the trio answered
with a wicked grin, mistakenly believing her open contempt was fear. "And keep on giving
until you can't take no more."

One of the three, in response to a wordless gesture from the leader, broke off to make sure
their first intended victim didn't bolt while their attentions were on the newcomer. Orchid
shrugged as the other two approached her with expressions meant to be menacing and
intimidating. Those only brought a smile to her own face. "Oh, you don't understand what
I have for you guys at all.

"But you will," she promised softly, while she left the ground as if propelled by a tightly wound
spring. She sailed over the heads of her two erstwhile assailants to land lightly beside the one
watching the girl. "You first."

Without another word, Orchid leaped upwards again, delivering a spin kick to the man's head
with all the force her combined weight and momentum could provide. After the very satisfying
impact and thud of an unconscious, possibly dead body could be heard, she hit the ground with
a flex of her knees to remain upright between the child and the other two thugs, gesturing at the
lighted end of the alley while urging, "Run, kid. I'll keep those two occupied."

Shouting nearly incoherent curses, the remaining pair rushed her at the same time. A quick
little leap, two well executed kicks to first one side, then the other followed by ninja perfect
hand jabs, and both were down and as immobile as their companion before either realized
they had been hit.

Not even breathing hard, or showing the strain of exertion from her gymnastic and martial
display of moments earlier, Black Orchid retrieved her basket and drew out three flowers so
black they pulsed with the color, or lack of it. "I'd made these special for some other guys,
but think you three should have them."

Groggy from the precisely placed openhanded punch that had impacted on nerve centers
and paralyzed him temporarily, the first to receive one of the curiously beautiful, but sinister
black orchids began to feel the tingling of returning feeling. At least he thought that was what
he felt after the woman had gently wrapped his unresponsive hand around the bloom.

The other two were given flowers as well, and Orchid stood back to observe her handiwork
in action with evident satisfaction. "Since you three are so intent of having sex with someone,
I think it only appropriate that you get something more than simple pleasure from the act.
Hope you enjoy your new lives. I'll sure enjoy seeing you living them whenever I run across
any of you."

Letting out groans that were more than simple pain, or the return of feeling to numbed senses,
the trio of would-be rapists were aware of very odd feelings throughout their bodies as the
numbness indeed faded. To be replaced with sensations that made their former lack of
physical feeling into a pleasant memory.

Black iridescent glows spread from the orchids each had been given until they completely
covered the three male forms, which began to alter as the glows became more intense. All
three shrank perceptibly as the author of their changes watched, and body proportions altered
as they shrank. Hips broadened in relation to the rest of their bodies, legs lengthened, midriffs
shrank and shortened, arms grew thinner, hands and feet smaller and more finely shaped, while
soft flesh filled out to replace vanished muscle until three very attractive young black women lay
in the alley, still clothed in very oversized male attire.

A problem that was adjusted almost immediately. Clothing shrank just as its wearers had
moments before, becoming colorful and flagrantly feminine. Soon enough three stunned, but
gorgeous and very well endowed young prostitutes wearing tight, revealing outfits weakly
managed to stand while tottering upon the stiletto heels all of them wore, and staring at each
other in horrified wonder mixed with disbelief as now dainty hands and long, smooth fingers
explored the alterations in themselves.

"Looking good, girls!" Black Orchid laughed, as she watched the trio of transformed males
begin, barely, to understand what had happened to them. "The guys are going to pay big
bucks to shag your pretty young asses, you can bet on that. And you'll all be getting more
sex than you probably will really want after a while."

"What...?" one of the newly made girls began, stopping at the sound of her now sultry voice,
and reaching to her choker covered neck with one hand in more shock.

"Have I done to you?" Black Orchid smiled a little cruelly. "I'd think that would be obvious,
even to empty headed sluts like you. I made you into girls, who happen to be in the proper
profession to get what their former selves were so intent on getting just a few minutes ago.
Now wiggle your pretty behinds out of this alley and get to work. The night is young, the
johns are out looking for gashes just like you, and you're all so horny you can't wait to have
some guy spread your legs and crawl on top of you. Enjoy!

"For the rest of your miserable lives," she finished, as the three newly minted hookers swayed
out of the alley to do as she had told them. "Or until you wise up and find other ways of
making a living."

"Wh -- who, what are you?" a small and completely terrified voice interrupted her
satisfied observation of her latest handiwork.

"Thought I told you to run, kid." Orchid turned to offer a hand to the girl still cowering in
the corner she had wedged herself into when the three toughs had decided she would be
their night's entertainment.

"Couldn't," the girl, young as Orchid had surmised, and very pretty in a wide eyed manner
that would draw all of the wrong kind to her in times to come, flinched away from the offered
hand for a moment, then took it. "Hurt my ankle running from those assholes, I think it's
broken."

"Let's have a look." Orchid reached gently for the indicated ankle, then grimaced as the girl
flinched away again. "Dammit, kid, if I was going to hurt you I would have just let those three
go ahead and do what they had planned. Now, show some sense and let me have a look at
that, okay?"

"Okay," the girl meekly replied, still unsure, but beginning to believe in Orchid's non-hostile
intent. "You aren't going to do anything weird to me, are you?"

"Nope, weirdness is reserved for assholes who hurt innocent people. You aren't one of those
are you?" Orchid grunted while gently feeling the girl's ankle. "Just a sprain, but those can
be more painful than a break. You got somewhere to go tonight? People waiting for you to
come home?"

"Yeah," the girl answered, gingerly trying to stand, but ending up bracing against the wall.
"But I sure won't get home with this ankle. I'm Gloria, by the way, and guess I ought to
thank you for what you did."

"S'okay," Orchid smiled, a real smile with more than a hint of warmth in it. "Come on,
I'll get you into a cab or a safe ride that'll get you home."

"You still haven't answered my first question," Gloria reminded, as she supported herself
on Orchid's arm.

"You don't really want to know what I am, sweetie," Orchid answered almost absently,
while wrestling with the idea that she actually felt good about something she had done for a
change. "My name is Orchid, and all you need to know is that I won't ever hurt you, or
anyone else who hasn't preyed on innocents like you are...and I used to be a long time ago."

"I'm not all that innocent!" Gloria protested.

"Maybe not," Orchid chuckled, as she helped the limping girl out of the alley. "But you are
from my viewpoint. Now, don't argue with me, and let's get you home."

* * * *

"Well, it sure wasn't easy," Mama Juju sighed, as she watched the pair slowly make their way
to the lighted street. "But I think you've discovered the entrance to the right path to follow, my
girl."

"As for you," with a wave of her hand the water in her scrying bowl rippled and changed views
to show the form of Black Orchid's original quarry, "I shielded you from her this time, because
of a greater need. I won't do it again. She'll get you next time, and I won't stop her."