You take what you want but you don't ask
You're future doesn't lie with things of the past
The search for freedom will never be found
As long as we stand upon this sacred ground

The curse of the curses upon the land
One day Tatanka will make a stand
Take back the soul of mother nature
Give back the spirit of a world endangered

Tatanka comes, stand and deliver
The souls of the brave live on forever
The tale of tears is a tale of courage
Tatanka comes from across the river

"Tatanka" - Molly Hatchet

Tuesday, May 22, 2007, late afternoon
Behind Holbrook Arena, Whateley Academy

Across the broad circle painted on the sod like it was a football field, Chou watched me warily, circling with her yanyuedao, a Chinese weapon that looked something like a short but heavy scimitar with a jagged back edge, mounted on a four foot pole, with a spiked ball on the butt-end, held in both hands, the wickedly-curved, spiked blade atop the long staff on her right, her eyes narrow slits as she focused on me and my comparatively puny weapons, a tomahawk and a knife. Even though it was a training weapon and could do little more than cause serious bruises, or in the worst case a broken limb, the ancient Chinese weapon was intimidating, and I gulped at the knowledge of how skilled my opponent was with her weapons. Her mentor insisted on proficiency to the point of perfection, and Chou worked hard to gain approval.

Chou feinted, and I dropped back a half step, wary of committing too soon; I'd made that mistake a couple of times already and had been rewarded with bruises from the spiked butt-end of the five-foot staff of the yanyuedao. Only Chou wasn't feinting this time; the blade swept toward me as Chou stepped aggressively forward. Late, but not too late, I swept my tomahawk up and to my right, hooking the blade and ducking so the scimitar-like blade went over my head. Stepping toward my opponent, I started an attack with my knife.

Chou grinned wickedly as she twisted her weapon in her hands; a notch by the spike on the blade's back snared the handle of my tomahawk - again! - and with a tug, the weapon was yanked from my hand, my wrist and shoulder twisting painfully with the abrupt motion. At the same time, she continued sweeping the yanyuedao so the heavy butt-end counterweight slammed into my left knee. With a cry of pain, I crumpled to the ground, but instinctively, I rolled to my side, because I knew that Chou would have continued with the motion of the blade. I wasn't wrong - the wickedly-curved training blade thumped the ground where I'd been a fraction of a second ago. Shit - I was running out of options fast. She still had the long-range, vicious weapon, and I had only my knife in hand.

Snarling, I rolled again, springing to my feet and backing away quickly as my right hand fumbled at the left side of my waist, looking for my other tomahawk. Chou didn't hesitate, but instead brought the blade around toward me again. Fumbling to retrieve my second tomahawk was a distraction I couldn't afford, and it showed; Chou thumped me in the chest with the pointed end of the weapon.

"Ow!" I cried, staggering at the pain and the force Chou had put into the blow - far more than I thought was necessary for sparring. Staggering back, my knee buckling, I took a desperate gamble. Reversing my knife and snapping my hand forward, I hurled it toward my opponent.

"Shit!" Chou cried out when the blunt knife nailed her hard in her shoulder; I hadn't let up even a little bit. She'd hurt me; I was going to hurt her back. Her arm dropped and her grip on the yanyuedao faltered.

"Enaji!" Mr. Two Knives called sharply, stepping into the arena between us to halt the battle. Both of us backed off a step, breathing hard, eyes narrow as we glared at each other, both of us wanting to continue the sparring until one or the other won decisively. Mr. Two Knives shot each of us a warning gaze, staring longer at me to silently chide me for my performance and behavior. "I'm calling this match a draw."

I drew back, indignant. Though injured, I'd basically taken her arm out of action, and she couldn't wield her weapon with one hand. I, on the other hand, still had my second tomahawk at my belt. "But ..." I started to protest.

"A draw!" Mr. Two Knives growled at us, his voice and expression hard and silencing my protest mid-word.

"Yes, sir," Chou said respectfully despite the intensity showing in her eyes. As she did with all her instructors, she bowed to him in acknowledgement.

Mr. Two Knives turned his glowering look at me. "Okahnige," I grumbled in Lakota acknowledging his comment, still looking unhappily at Chou.

Mr. Two Knives nodded. "Thoughts?" he asked simply. His debrief from combat and sparring was very unlike that of Ito and Bardue.

"It was an unfair battle, since you wouldn't let me use a spear - again," I growled, thoroughly displeased. "She had range with her weapon."

"You don't get to choose the weapons of your opponent," Mr. Two Knives reminded me in a scolding voice. He proceeded into a lengthy analysis of what each of us had done right and what we had done wrong. Like always, he seemed to spend much more time on my performance, leaving me stewing as I was berated like a little kid caught with her hand in a cookie jar.

"We're finished for the afternoon," he concluded after glancing at the sun lowering toward the horizon. "Hit the showers." Chou bowed again, and I nodded. We turned, glancing warily at the other, as Molly dashed from the sidelines to Chou's side. That, too, was irritating; it was a distraction to have her constantly cheering for Chou and sometimes laughing when I made a mistake. All of us carried our weapons back to the lockers or to keep on our persons. I had my bow, two tomahawks, and my knife. Molly had a bow, and Chou carried her training yanyuedao and bow, plus her normal plethora of real weapons tucked into a bag of holding. I had to find out where I could get one of those; carrying a bow and quiver of arrows was quite unwieldy.

We hadn't gotten but a few steps when Mr. Two Knives called after me. "Kayda."

Mid-stride, I stopped, turning a little and looking over my shoulder. "Yes, sir?" I was not about to let Chou out-polite me with my instructor.

"Knock off the 'sir' stuff," he chided me, causing me to blush with embarrassment, humiliated yet again in front of Chou and Molly. "Can you meet after dinner tomorrow night? We need to discuss your fighting style."

I winced. If he wasn't going to talk in front of the others, he had something to seriously criticize me for. "I have a Venus Inc. meeting after dinner, and then a Nations meeting. Can we talk at dinner?" I asked uneasily. "There are a few quieter tables.

"Very well. I'll meet you in the cafeteria right inside the entrance."

I turned back toward the gym where we could shower and change, and it took only seconds to catch up to the other two girls, who were walking - as usual - hand in hand. I couldn't help but wince; as much as I'd encountered gay-bashing - which had gotten quite a bit worse since I'd had to reveal things in the hearing - I was terrified of the hostile attitudes. Molly and Chou, however, seemed very nonchalant about the whole thing

"Um," Molly stammered softly; from her tone of voice, she was nervous about something. "Do you guys think you're maybe getting ... too intense?"

I gawked at her for a moment, and then glanced at Chou, biting my lip. The question had me thinking seriously - was I getting too competitive? "Um, I ... I'm not sure. Maybe."

Chou glanced at me and nodded slightly. "Maybe a little bit," she cautiously admitted.

Molly chuckled, shaking her head. "If that's just a little bit, I'd hate to see you in a full-fledged blood feud."

I sighed heavily, shaking my head. "I don't know," I said softly. "It's ... how do I put it? It's like ...." Struggling for words, I sighed again. "It's like ... I'm... it's depressing to keep getting my ass kicked by someone who's not even learning traditional Lakota weapons!"

Chou goggled at me for a second, and then looked down a bit, shaking her head, chuckling a little.

"What?" I demanded of her, scowling that she had the temerity to laugh at me.

"Chou was just complaining yesterday about how her tutor is having her fight anyone and everyone who uses different weapons and styles, and that she felt the same way!" Molly giggled.

"Yeah," Chou agreed with a chuckle. "And if Ms. Stone knew about your traditional Lakota medicine, she'd have me trying to learn that from your tutor, too!"

I snorted derisively. "And I bet Wakan Tanka would have my trying to learn traditional Chinese medicine from your tutor!"

Molly really giggled at that, and Chou couldn't suppress a loud guffaw. "Yeah," she said with a huge grin, "I guess both of our mentors would do that, wouldn't they."

I had a brief mental image, and I couldn't help but snicker, and then chuckle, and finally laugh aloud. Seeing their curious looks, I had to explain, "I just had a mental image of Wakan Tanka and your mentor sitting in my dream space at a fire circle drinking a blend of Chinese and Lakota herbal teas as they conspired against the two of us while Mr. Two Knives, Guan Yu, and Tatanka plotted challenges and duels to hone our fighting skills." That brief mental image and our joking had broken my temporary unhappiness at being beaten sparring - again.

"Shh!" Chou insisted even though she was giggling, putting her finger to her lips. "If they hear that idea, they'll do it!"

"I'm waiting for them to have us start training against more advanced weapons, like firearms and energy weapons - and you know they'll do that," I sighed.

"Yeah, the will." Chou shrugged. "At least then you'll have an advantage with your magic shield. You and Molly both." She chuckled with some sarcasm. "I'll be a sitting duck."

**********

May 22, 2007, Late Afternoon
Behind Holbrook Arena

"What do you think?" Gunny Bardue asked, standing 'at ease' and looking down on the trio of girls carrying their gear from the training area back to Laird Hall.

Ito Sensei tilted his head quizzically. "I'm a little surprised by how fiercely competitive they are. Bladedancer isn't nearly that ... intense ... with any other student."

Bardue nodded; as little as he gave away by his expression, his face could have been carved from stone. "Not even with Nex."

"I think that's the best we're going to do," Ito mused.

"Hell, I was figuring Truck would work, but ever since he started dating Alecto," Bardue snorted in disgust. "Wind Runner was shaping up to be a huge rival, based on what was happening in the Nations, but after the hearing ...." Indeed, after Kayda's admission in the hearing, it was hard to find any girl who was inclined to be a serious rival, and with rumors of her skill with tomahawks, guys tended to keep a distance as well.

"Let's put them early in the lineup," Ito suggested. "So they don't have a chance to learn anything from anyone else."

"Agreed. Right after the crashes?"

Ito shook his head. "No. Third up, right after Phase," Ito smiled sadistically. "I guarantee that'll set the stage for these two to get competitive."

Gunny shook his head, worry lines showing on his weathered face. "I really don't like that matchup. And you know why."

"Can you think of a better one?"

"Yeah," the old marine spat. "But I got outvoted." He sighed. "And we're out of time. I guess we'll talk it over at the committee meeting tonight. Maybe someone else will have a better idea."

**********

May 22, 2007, Late Afternoon
Between Holbrook and Laird

"Can I ask you a question?" Molly spoke hesitantly, interrupting the silence in which we'd been walking.

"Sure."

"How are things ... with everyone ... after, you know."

I sighed. "You mean after I had to publicly admit that I was raped and was pretty much outed?" I could have sounded snarky, but I was hoping it didn't come across that way. When I glanced toward her, I saw Molly wince a bit at my choice of responses.

"Yeah," Chou answered for the both of them. "Since the hearing, you haven't exactly been denying that you're gay."

I chuckled softly, shaking my head. "What's the point? Lanie hasn't been shy that she's bi, and, well, after being ... raped ...." I shrugged, trying really hard to be nonchalant, even though the memories of that brutal event still caused me nightmares and probably would for a long time. "The pictures and video kind of make it impossible to deny, too."

"Maybe ... we can make our own little support group?" Molly suggested. "I mean, we can't be the only gay girls on campus."

Chou goggled at her, stunned, while I smiled. "Yeah, there are probably a few. But ... I don't think many are brave enough to be out like you and Chou with Dorjee, or like me." I couldn't help giggling at a thought. "I've heard that guys fantasize about girl-on-girl action as a warmup to a threesome, so maybe that gives us more of a pass than gay boys would get."

"But you still get harassed a lot," Chou observed cautiously.

"Yeah, I still get harassed a lot."

Molly looked a bit thoughtful, and then, not surprisingly, she decided to change the subject. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

At those words, I couldn't help but think of Debra, and a smile spread unbidden across my face.

"Who is she? What's her name?" Molly had read my expression.

"Debra," I answered. "Cornflower. She graduated last year."

"How do you know she's the one?" Chou asked bluntly.

I chuckled, smiling pleasantly. "We're ... soul-bonded," I replied, noticing the two of them exchange glances. "When we dream-walked together, we bonded to each other."

"Have you ...?" Molly blurted out. I gawked at her, open-mouthed that she would ask such a question; Chou was also slack-jawed, but she was also blushing furiously.

"That's kind of personal," I said, trying to look stern, but memories of my special time with Deb probably put an uninvited smile on my face again. From her giggles, I knew that I hadn't hidden my feelings at all. "And no, I'm not going to kiss and tell, so don't even ask, please." A naughty smile crept over my face. "Turnabout is fair play. How about you two?" Seeing Molly's slight blush and Chou's jaw drop made me giggle. "Just kidding."

**********

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - Afternoon
Behind Holbrook Arena, Whateley Academy

"Tell me what happened, Kayda," Mr. Two Knives directed me.

The four of us - Chou, Molly, me, and my tutor - sat in the warm sun in a clearing in the woods behind Holbrook. It wasn't where we trained and sparred and rode horses; that ground was rather torn up by heavy use. In fact, that was the second area we'd been using, and we were now on the third training area. Mr. Two Knives, in keeping with traditions of respecting nature, hadn't allowed us to completely destroy one area, but moved us to another so the previous areas could 'heal'. No doubt we'd move again if we disturbed the ground too much.

I shot a sideways glance at Chou, and my features were probably clouded by my displeasure at my performance. "She kicked my ass - again," I grumbled. "Just like she always does."

"Yes, but why?" Billy demanded.

I wasn't in a mood to be particularly charitable to my own skills. "Because I suck at this!" My crossed arms and scowl punctuated my general disposition.

My instructor sighed heavily. Some days, I probably would have tried the patience of a saint, and that day was one of them. "Kayda," he scolded me gently.

"Well, it's true!" I was highly frustrated by the training; Chou had beaten me in all three matches. "What the hell am I supposed to do when my ghost-walking can't fool her and her sword, and the wind and earth spirits don't tell me where she is?" Chou and Molly were both looking nervously at me, as if I'd gone off the deep end. Maybe they didn't understand what it was like to be humiliated time after time after time!

"And how much longer has Chou been training?" Mr. Two Knives asked calmly.

"I don't know. A bunch?" I replied.

"I had basic martial arts and special mentoring last fall," Chou said almost apologetically. "In the winter term, I had a special mentor for weapons and combat training in addition to special topics martial arts, and this term I'm in advanced Aikido, not to mention my ongoing mentoring with Ms. Stone."

"See?" I griped. "There's no way I can ever beat her! Not with all the training she's had!"

Mr. Two Knives shook his head sadly, looking down. "Your goal is not to beat Chou," he said with a heavy sigh.

"No? What is it then? To get my butt kicked every day?" My eyes drifted shut as I shook my head slowly. "The fact that she's so experienced doesn't make losing all the time suck any less."

"Your goal is to learn. The problem, Kayda, is that you don't like to lose."

"Ya think?"

He just stared at me for several awkward moments, his eyes narrow and a frown of displeasure signaling his disapproval of my attitude. When I flinched, looking down to avoid his judgmental gaze, he continued. "Chou, when you're fighting, how much do you think about your sword?" Mr. Two Knives asked her.

Puzzled, she frowned. "I ... I don't think about it!" she stammered in reply.

"That's your problem, Kayda," my tutor pointed out. "You're still learning how to use your weapons, and so you're thinking about your weapons." He turned to Chou. "How do you practice with your sword?"

Chou seemed surprised by the question. "I do tai chi every morning to train my body to move with the sword. My sword is part of me in those exercises."

Mr. Two Knives nodded. "It would help if you had some ... katas, for lack of a better word ... to help you learn to move with your weapons instead of having to think about them."

"Last I checked," I tried to sound a little light-hearted and not so gloom-and-doom, but I wasn't sure if I succeeded, "Lakota warriors don't have a lot of katas to train with."

"True," Mr. Two Knives observed.

"But maybe ...." Chou began.

Mr. Two Knives perked up. "Go on," he urged her.

"In special topics in the winter term, we were using various weapons, and the kama is sort of like a tomahawk, and the sai is sort of like Kayda's knife."

"Of course!" he said, his face lighting up. "Those katas should help you be one with your weapons so you don't think, but instead move."

"Just great," I groaned. "More training."

"Who's the instructor?"

"Mrs. Beaumont," Chou replied without having to think. "But since the tomahawk is a little different, maybe Chaka would be better, because she's got the ki thing going and instinctively picks up weapons and techniques.

"I'm already working a bit on Sundays with Toni to help in my martial arts," I commented. "For all the good that does!" I added, not concealing my weariness with how slowly I was learning martial arts.

"I'll set up a meeting with them," Mr. Two Knives sounded enthusiastic, figuring that he'd found a way to improve my training, "and we'll see if we can find something that'll work."

"You mean, like ... maybe they can make some custom katas for my weapons?" I wasn't really excited about the prospect of even more homework and exercises, but I couldn't help feeling a tiny bit hopeful. A couple of mornings when I got up early because I couldn't sleep, I'd seen Toni and Chou and a few others doing Tai Chi early in the morning, and they looked so graceful. More importantly, as I thought about it, I could see the graceful moves of her Tai Chi routine were a fundamental part of how she used Destiny's Wave.

"Exactly," Mr. Two Knives replied, smiling that I was at least a trifle enthusiastic again.

"Okay." It was a struggle to keep hope and excitement out of my voice; custom katas would indicate that I was special and unique with my weapons and style - something that I didn't realize I desperately wanted.

Mr. Two Knives stood with deceptive speed and grace. "Let's get in a little friendly archery competition, and then we'll call it a day."

That went mostly okay. Chou and I were by now pretty even in horse archery and in standing archery, and when we finished, there was only a point separating us. In standing archery, however, Molly cleaned our clocks, and then was such a good winner that she smugly stuck her tongue out as us 'losers'. I wasn't convinced that teaching her how to enchant her arrows had been a good idea; it was hard to tell if she'd used a little magic to help her arrows fly truer to the targets.

Besides the packet of gummy bears that Mr. Two Knives had for a prize for standing archery, which had Molly giddy and bouncing around, I'd wagered a jar of Mom's jelly that I'd win. I was going to have to have Mom send me another jar; when I paid off the foolish bet, I'd only have one half-empty jar left. Word about Mom's jelly had spread rapidly through the cafeteria, and it was even getting interest from Chef Peter and a few faculty members.

We could have headed right back to Laird Hall, but at Chou's suggestion, we instead spent some time just free-riding, enjoying the pleasant afternoon and the feeling of being free and unfettered on our steeds. Of course, I had to rub it in to Chou that I was riding bareback, whereas she had to rely on a saddle. Judging from the look on her face, I suspected she'd defy her mentor and start riding bareback sometimes just to show me that she was as good a rider as I was.

**********

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - Late Afternoon
Franks Family Farm, South Dakota

Shutting off the diesel engine of the tractor, Danny Franks set the brake and opened the door to the cab, stepping down. It was so much easier a few months ago, even though it was the dead of winter, because he'd had a brother to help with the chores, and Brandon had always taken the harder tasks, but since Brandon had manifested as Kayda and had gone to Whateley, Danny found himself doing many of the chores himself, although his mom had been helping with the lighter tasks, like gathering eggs and milking the cow. And his dad had been putting in fewer hours in the implement dealership to help. Nevertheless, it cut into his free time for socializing with his friends.

Kayda's manifestation and change could have seriously impacted his social standing; after all, mutants were really feared in rural South Dakota, and the incidents and trial had strained some friendships, but overall, his life hadn't changed a lot. Scott and his younger brother Tim hated Danny, of course, because Scott now carried a conviction of misdemeanor assault and was facing possible federal civil rights charges for trying to shoot Kayda in public. But that wasn't Danny's fault, and realistically, with attempted murder and rumors about the group raping his sister, Scott and his little retinue were really unpopular.

As Danny backed down the ladder from the tractor's cab, he felt a little lightheaded, and as his head spun, he lost his handhold and fell from the lowest step, crumpling to the ground.

* - * - * - *

Oh! Now this is heavenly! a sultry female voice purred. I'm really going to like this!

Trying to steady himself from a spinning head and resultant stomach flip-flops, Danny tried to sit up. "Hello?" he asked hesitantly in response to the voice he'd heard. He tried to look around but was instantly rewarded with a resurgence of nausea.

Hello yourself! Oooh, Wakan Tanka was right! This is just divine! the voice continued.

Being much more careful after his first abortive attempt to look, Danny managed to slowly and cautiously glance around. "Who's there?" There seemed to be no-one else in the shop with him, just a couple of tractors, one of which hissed and creaked slightly as the engine cooled from very recent use.

It's just me, dear, the voice continued, putting a sultry, sexy edge on the word 'dear'.

"Where ... where are you?" Danny asked, looking around a bit more. "Show yourself." Seeing no one, he shook his head, which turned out to be a bad move, as he had to fight a new wave of nausea and pain. "I've got to be dreaming," he muttered to himself.

I can't show myself. Not yet, anyway! And besides, where do you think I am? the voice chuckled. She said you might be confused at first. Humans usually are.

"You're in my head?" Danny speculated very hesitantly, nervous if not terrified of the possible answer.

Of course, darling!

"How can you be in my head?" The answer caused his heart to race and he began to hyperventilate. "You can't be in my head!"

You know the answer, darling! You're an avatar, just like your sister!

Danny's head spun again, but for a different reason, and he promptly passed out

* - * - * - *

"Mom!" Danny cried, running into the house. "Mom!"

June Franks knew panic when she heard it, and panic was present in Danny's voice. "Are you okay, honey?" she asked as she rose from her project on the kitchen table, going into full 'Mom' mode, which meant that she completely forgot that Danny no longer liked being called honey, sweetie, dear, or any other terms parents used for younger children.

"I'm ... hearing a voice in my head!" Danny reported frantically. "I ... I think maybe I ... manifested! Like Kayda!"

June frowned. "Are you sure?"

"I got dizzy climbing down from the tractor. I think I passed out. When I came to, I ... I heard a voice, but there wasn't anyone around!"

June scooted her son into a chair, immediately starting to examine his head. "Did you hit your head?"

"I ... I think so," Danny said. "I've got a bad headache."

"Then you're probably just imagining things," June explained as she probed for a lump, finding a small one on the back of her son's head. "You haven't heard it since, have you?"

Danny winced. "Noooo ...," he said hesitantly. "But ... why would I imagine ...?"

"Honey, I know you've got the gene complex thing, and I know you're kind of hoping that you'll manifest and get cool powers like your sister," June said soothingly as she got an ice pack from the freezer, wrapped it in a kitchen towel, and handed it to Danny, "but it's probably just from hitting your head."

"Maybe you're right," Danny admitted, placing the ice pack against the lump.

"Of course I'm right," June said with a smile, patting his shoulder. "A mother is always right."

"I'm going to rest on the sofa for a bit."

**********

Wednesday May 23, 2007 - Before Dinner
Private Training Room, Laird Hall, Whateley Academy

"I think that will be enough for today," Tatsuo Ito said after he straightened and backed to the edge of the mat.

"I'm not tired, Sensei," Tansy replied, almost eager to continue her training.

"I am," Clover, also on the mat with her friends Abra and Palantir, whined. "You're makin' us work too hard! Right Pally?"

"Don't call me that," Palantir hissed to her friend. "Yeah. This is hard! It's supposed to be fun and cool and all Karate Kid and stuff!"

"A bonsai doesn't grow overnight ...," Ito said philosophically.

"Only by patient pruning and shaping does one get the desired result," Tansy completed Ito's statement, scowling at the impatient little witches. She straightened up, taking an authoritarian stance, towering over them. "You girls go shower. I'll meet you in a moment."

Nodding, the three junior-high girls bowed to Ito and scampered off toward the showers.

"I would hate to keep you from your dinner and your dining companions, Miss Walcutt," Ito commented sardonically after the three witches were in the locker room.

"These days, my circle of friends is rather ... limited." Tansy saw Ito's eyebrow shoot up. "As I've told you," the exemplar girl continued, a note of sadness in her voice, "I made some very poor choices as to friends and acquaintances, and now it's time to pay the piper."

"Do you count Miss Nalley among your ... poor choices?"

Tansy's eyes widened and her jaw dropped in surprise, at least momentarily, before she could compose herself.

"Or were you thinking more of Sebastiano, Hamper, Damper, Icer, and the other ex-Alpha bullies? If they are ... regrettable choices," Ito observed with a carefully-neutral expression, "your regret must be small since you still talk with them."

"The situation is ...," Tansy actually bit her lower lip, "complicated."

Ito shrugged. "It's your business. And you shouldn't be surprised," he said with a wry smile. "Your motives and schemes are pretty transparent." He observed the girl closely for a brief moment. "To be completely honest, your diligence in training surprises me. I wasn't sure that you were serious."

"As I said, I had a minor ... epiphany." She smiled at Ito. "I have time to correct my errors. I told you I would be a serious student."

"Your earlier classes quite obviously weren't a complete waste of time since you seem to have remembered some skills, but you could have been a better student."

"Better late than never," Tansy said. She bowed formally to Ito. "Thank you for your instruction today, Ito Soke."

Ito bowed to her, they watched her quick-step to the locker room - no doubt to make sure her charges weren't making mischief. He stared after the exemplar beauty, frowning ever so slightly. "You are playing a deep game, Miss Walcutt. Are you sure you're up to the challenge?"

**********

Wed May 23, 2007, Dinnertime
Crystal Hall, Whateley Academy

"How's this?" Mr. Two Knives asked, gesturing toward a table in a small conference room to one side of the faculty dining room. It had a glass wall facing the main dining hall, probably so faculty could have private discussions with students without allowing any appearance of impropriety.

"Okay, I guess," I answered uneasily, certain that every faculty and staff member in the dining room were most likely staring disapprovingly at me because I was intruding in their sacred domain.

Mr. Two Knives held the glass door open for me, allowing it to close behind himself after he followed me in. At his gesture, I set my tray down and eased into a chair, while he took a seat on the opposite side of the table. "I think you'll find the food a little better than in the student section."

I nodded mutely; on my tray, I had a beautiful piece of grilled salmon with some kind of fragrant sauce, with asparagus and what looked like chunks of potato in a creamy, cheesy sauce. "If this is what the chefs always bring to Ayla," I commented, staring at the delectable food on my plate, "I understand why he bribes them."

He let me have a few bites of food before he began to talk about the day's training. It was probably a good thing, too; his analyses could be brutally frank, and to be honest, after the sparring with Chou, I expected to lose my appetite at his post-mortem.

"What happened in the sparring today?" he asked simply. "And yesterday?"

"In what way?" I asked cautiously, not sure where he was going with his comments.

"It seems like you've lost control these past several days."

I frowned. "It's ... very distracting to have Molly cheering for Chou all the time," I said defensively.

Mr. Two Knives looked impassively at me. "When you get in a group simulation in the arena, you don't get distracted by all the other fighting that's happening around you. You didn't let yourself get distracted fighting the Canotila. You didn't get distracted fighting the boys in your hometown. You didn't get distracted fighting the son of Unhcegila."

I sat quietly, not wanting to volunteer anything.

"I could feel that you lost focus on the wind and earth spirits. You were fighting too aggressively because you were getting angry."

"I wasn't angry," I countered.

"You were angry and you let yourself lose focus," he explained patiently."

I let my head tilt down, my gaze at the edge of the table. "I .... All I do is lose when I spar," I grumbled. "It doesn't feel like I'm getting any better, because I always get my butt kicked."

"And you really hate to lose, don't you?"

I nodded slightly. "Yeah."

"That dislike of losing is making you fight aggressively."

"I'm In'oka. I'm supposed to fight aggressively!"

Mr. Two Knives sighed, shaking his head slowly as he looked at me, disappointment in his eyes. "If that's what you think, then maybe you weren't really ready to be In'oka."

To say I was stunned would have been a gross understatement. "But ...." I stammered, my eyes wide as saucers. His words stung painfully.

"You haven't learned the lessons Tatanka is teaching you. You're focused on Hoka, the badger. You approach every fight like Hoka." My tutor looked intently into my eyes. "You've forgotten the patience of the cougar, Igmu Taka. You're neglecting the big picture view of the hawk, Ceda. You are not even trying to be cunning like the fox, Sugila. When you fight, you are aggressive and focused to the point of being predictable."

By that point, I was pouting and sulking, looking down at my plate and resting my forehead in one hand with my elbow propped on the table. Mr. Two Knives hadn't mentioned anything that I was doing right, at least not that I'd really heard. I had certainly completely lost my appetite because of the criticism and wasn't paying close attention.

"Who teaches deception and misdirection?" he asked.

"The coyote, Sunmanitu," I mumbled unenthusiastically, not even looking at him. Better to answer - even if half-heartedly - than to have him continue to berate and lecture me.

"Kayda," he said, his voice less harsh, but still a bit reproving. When I didn't deign to look up, he spoke again to get my attention a little more insistently, "Kayda," he repeated in a voice that was much less critical, more along the line of how Dad and Mom used to try to get my attention to let me know that even if I was in trouble, they still cared.

With a heavy sigh, I looked up.

"Kayda," he continued when he had my attention, "you're only sixteen. You're still learning, and you're going to make mistakes. You'll be making mistakes when you're my age - just like I still do! Sulking and pouting about your mistakes does not help you learn from them."

I knew what he was trying to say - that I was human, and making mistakes was a part of being human. But it still stung. That crack about not being ready to be In'oka hurt a lot.

After an uncomfortable pause, Mr. Two Knives took out his cell phone and fiddled a bit, then handed it to me. "What does it say?"

The picture was a meme someone had done; it was a picture of five wolves in the snow, their fur gray and white. Above the wolves was a caption. "Be strong enough to stand alone," I read the words, "be yourself enough to stand apart, but be wise enough to stand together when the time comes."

"Hoka stands alone. You never see a group of badgers fighting as one," he said softly as I continued to stare at the picture. "The bear Mato stands alone. The hawk and eagle, Ceda and Wabli, hunt alone. The cougar Igmu Taka - who is my spirit animal - stands alone." He gave me a smile, which cut through some of my feeling sorry for myself. "All of them fight well - as individuals. But the People are more like the elk, Hehaka, who seeks his own kind for company, and Tatanka and the prairie dog, Pispiza, who dwells in a community. As warriors, we are more like Sugmanitu Hota, who lives with his clan. One wolf alone cannot bring down a buffalo, but together the pack can."

I shook my head, trying to sort out my thoughts. "I'm ... confused," I finally said softly. "I thought ... being In'oka meant I had to fight like a badger."

Mr. Two Knives nodded. "And you need to fight like Hoka," he said, "sometimes. I had a DI many, many years ago who pounded something into all of us jarhead newbies - 'a one-size-fits-all solution generally fits every situation equally poorly.' What does that suggest to you about what we've been talking about?"

I frowned; sometimes, I could be stubborn and I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to a conclusion. "That one fighting style isn't always good?"

"I know the Marine Corps LINE fighting style and Krav Maga, but I bet you didn't know that I'm spending my free time with Mr. Fitzgibbons learning Dragon-style kung fu and with Mr. Junzo learning advanced Aikido?" If he intended to make me gawk at him, he succeeded. "I know how to fight like Igmu Taka, but that's not enough." He smiled again. "Why do you think there are so many different spirit animals? Why do you think there are so many variants in kung fu? Each has its strengths, and each has its weaknesses. Do you understand?"

"I guess. I have to learn more fighting styles," I replied unenthusiastically.

"Kayda," he said gently, "please manifest Tatanka."

As I summoned the great white beast I had a sinking feeling that he was going to agree with my tutor.

He didn't disappoint me. "Your teacher speaks wisely, Wihakayda," the white bison said in his gruff voice. "You should know that." He sat back on his haunches like a puppy dog. "Why do you think I introduce you to all the different animal spirits?"

"The rest of this term," Mr. Two Knives continued, "I want you to focus on the lessons of the wolf, both in your training and in your life. Outside of your training, you need to remember the lessons of the otter, Ptan, and the hummingbird, Thanagila, and not be so serious all the time."

"In the simulations ...." I started to protest indignantly.

"The others in the Nations always choose you as leader, and your tactics usually play to your strengths, not necessarily those of the team," he finished sternly.

"A good leader is a good follower," Tatanka added gruffly.

I sighed heavily. "I know," I mumbled, letting my head droop out of fatigue and frustration. "It just that every time I think I'm getting a handle on something, someone shows me how bad I am at it." I shook my head, trying not to get too down on myself but not quite succeeding. "Chou kicks my ass all the time! Sometimes, I feel like I'm not learning anything."

"Who says you're not learning anything?" a voice said from the doorway behind me, startling me. I turned to see who was intruding on what I thought was a private conversation. The woman appeared to be in her mid-thirties - but as I knew from Mrs. Carson and Circe, looks were often deceiving at Whateley. She was dressed quite casually - cargo pants, tennis-shoes, and a lightweight sweater - and her light brown hair was pulled back in a short ponytail. The thing that I noticed most, however, was that her green eyes seemed to radiate calmness and tranquility.

"May I join you?" she asked politely.

Judging from his reaction, Mr. Two Knives wasn't at all surprised by her presence; in fact, he was acting like he was expecting her. "By all means." He politely stood and held a chair for her to sit, then resumed his own seat. "Kayda, I'd like to introduce you to Rebecca Stone ...."

"You're ... Chou's tutor?" I couldn't help stammering.

"Yes," she answered simply. "Her guardians asked me to help her. Another of my roles in life has been a healer, and I couldn't help but notice the healing you've done on the girl with the piercings."

"Skybolt."

"Yes. Quite a remarkable accomplishment."

I looked down, feeling my cheeks burning with embarrassment at the praise. "It's nothing really."

"Nothing?" Ms. Stone asked with a chuckle. "You purge Mythos Magic from her cursed piercings, and you say it's nothing?" I looked up in surprise and saw her warm smile. "All of the magic department is talking about it, and you have the temerity to say you're learning nothing?"

"It's ... it's really hard," I said, wincing. "It took everything I had and more - I couldn't have done it without Circe and Dr. Tenent, and even then, I ... I almost failed." I halted abruptly, not knowing what else to say. There was a reason she had joined us, but I wasn't in the mood to play guessing games, so I just sat silently.

"In answer to your unspoken question, I asked Billy if I could speak with you."

My eyebrows arched. "Why?"

"You're a shaman healer and magic user," Ms. Stone said simply. "I'm interested in learning about your healing traditions, and perhaps there are a few ancient Chinese traditions and methods that might be of use to you."

"More private lessons?" I groaned. "Sure, why not! It's not like I need to take time for all three meals or that I need more than three or four hours of sleep." I couldn't stop myself from sounding totally sarcastic.

"Kayda!" Mr. Two Knives said sternly, his one-word reprimand more than enough. I nodded, properly rebuked. "In exchange, Ms. Stone is going to help me with instructing you and Chou."

That got my attention. "What?"

"The martial arts I know are pure violence," he said. "There is no ... philosophical component to Krav Maga or LINE, no balance. No center. Not like the Eastern traditions."

"From what Billy has told me, you're trying to learn balance through nature spirits," Ms. Stone added, smiling pleasantly. "The Tao is also about balance. I think the two philosophies could be complementary, and another perspective of balance will help both of you."

"You're both getting so competitive that you're forgetting your lessons. For the rest of this term," he glanced at Ms. Stone, "we'll focus on the style of Sugmanitu Hota, of being part of a pack. I expect to see that in your sparring and in your simulations."

**********

Wednesday May 23, 2007 - After Dinner
Room 407, Melville Cottage, Whateley Academy

Sprawled face-down on the bed, propped on my elbows, I looked at Alicia, who was consulting a calendar. "Well," I said, looking expectantly at my friend, "what does it look like?"

Alicia wrinkled her nose, frowning at the same time. "Ah have a family get-together right after Ah get home, and Ah don't think Ah can get out of it." She looked at her roommate and then at me. "If it's like the last family bash, it'll be borin' as sin. Ah'd hate to subject y'all to that kind of misery."

Addy giggled. "Surely it can't be that bad!"

Alicia groaned, a sour expression on her face. "Y'all ain't never met my uncle Herbert! He'd either drive you bat-crap crazy or bore you to tears."

"I can't let my roommate suffer alone," Addy said sympathetically. "I shall just 'ave to be brave and go with you for moral support. I would 'ate to 'ave you driven fou and 'ave to break in a new roommate," she added with a giggle.

"That's mighty brave of y'all," Alicia chuckled, "but Ah'm more worried about your sanity!"

I felt the corners of my mouth turn up in a smile. "If you go down a week early, that it gives me time… with the Sioux Falls League." I know I had a dreamy look in my eyes, which the other two girls instantly recognized.

"Yeah, right!" Alicia giggled.

"I'm… way behind on…on ancient Greek history!" I protested weakly, very obviously scrambling for an excuse.

"The only thing you want to study is your girlfriend!" Addy laughed.

I felt my cheeks burning with embarrassment as my two friends joked. "Well," I said hesitantly and softly, "maybe I do miss Debra a little."

"And maybe I'm just a little bit French!" Addy said with a giggle.

"Okay," Alicia drawled, "we'll give y'all a little time to get some nookie!"

I responded maturely by sticking out my tongue at her. Hearing Addy giggling, I turned to the French girl. "Like you have room to talk!" I teased her. "Since you started dating Ayla, I bet Alicia seldom sees you in the room." But when I saw the glimpse of sadness and Alicia's eyes before the girl looked down, and I knew instantly why the Cajun girl was sad. I practically leapt off the bed and plopped down beside her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder supportively. "I'm sorry," I said, hoping my voice echoed my genuine regret for what I had said. Addy and I knew only too well that Alicia was jealous that we had special people in their lives and she didn't.

It really wasn't fair, I thought to myself. Before I came to Whateley, I would have considered Alicia cute, but here, surrounded by exemplars, Alicia was barely average and really didn't register on the boys' radars. Maybe Addy and I would have to enlist some of our mutual friends find someone who was interested in Alicia.

"That's okay," Alicia said unconvincingly.

"No it isn't!" I objected. "There's someone for you. In fact," I said, a twinkle in my eye, "I know a really nice, intelligent, guy down in labs would probably treat you…"

"Y'all are not setting me up!" Alicia protested, interrupting me and frowning. "Mah grandma and mah aunt have dibs on that!" she added with a light chuckle.

"So we will go down to Louisiana, to your 'ome," Addy said, "and you will join us when you finish fooling around with your girlfriend?" she added, waggling her eyebrows knowingly at me.

"How long are we going to stay in Louisiana?" I asked the obvious question.

"Ah figger two weeks will be plenty for sophisticated, non- country gals like y'all," Alicia said with a grin. "More than that and y'all will start soundin' like me!"

"'Eaven forbid such a fate!" Addy giggled. "After Alicia's 'ome, where should we go next? France?"

"Somehow, Ah think France will be a little more excitin' than South Dakota!" Alicia giggled

Once more, Alicia's poking fun at me got the raspberry it deserved. "How about if we get the boring one out of the way first, and go to South Dakota second so we can end the summer on a high note in France?" I asked.

"Don't you think y'all ought to clear that with your folks and your girlfriend?"

"Yeah, probably," I replied. Immediately I dug my phone out of my purse and began to dial. "I'll get my folks and Debra on a conference call so we can settle this quickly, and then we can make our flight reservations." Since I had both numbers on speed dial it only took seconds before Mom answered.

"Hi, honey!" Mom said enthusiastically. Then she paused before continuing. "There isn't something wrong again, is there?" She sounded more than a bit worried, but that was understandable given my adventures at Whateley so far.

"No," I assured her, "nothing's wrong. We're just planning our summer travels, and we wanted to clear up…" The sound of another line answering interrupted me.

"Hi, sweetie!" I heard Debra's voice say excitedly.

"I've got Mom on the other line, and my friends are with me on speakerphone," I said quickly to caution her against saying something she shouldn't. "We're planning our summer vacations, so we wanted to clear some schedule things with you and Mom."

"Are you still thinking of going to France?" Debra asked sounding both excited for my travel and disappointed that I wouldn't be spending all summer with her.

"Alicia has a family get-together the first week, so I figured I'd spend that with you, and then fly down to Louisiana to join Addy and Alicia at Alicia's house. Then, if everything works schedule–wise, we'll fly up to South Dakota for a little over two weeks, and then we'll fly to France, to Addy's home."

"I'm still worried about you traveling overseas alone," Mom interjected, doing her proper motherly duty of worrying. "I wish Debra was traveling with you; I'd be a lot more comfortable if you had an adult chaperone."

"Hold a sec," Debra said hastily. "Twinkletoes was talking about going to Bordeaux to see Mage Astra, but he hadn't lined up any travel dates. Let me grab him." The phone line clicked to hold. A few moments later it clicked back to life. "I've got Twinkletoes with me, so you can just ask him."

"Ask me what?" I heard Twinkletoes say in the background as he walked to the phone.

"My friends and I want to go to France this summer, to Addy's home near Bordeaux, but mom is worried about me traveling without an adult chaperone, and Debra said you might be available."

"Whatever gave her that idea?" Twinkletoes asked. I sensed that he was probably giving Debra a dirty look.

Before I could say anything, Debra answered. "You are still interested in Mage Astra, aren't you?"

"That's… my personal business," Twinkletoes said defensively. "Besides, airfare will be kind of expensive this late in the season, and I doubt I could get a visa in time."

I was about to say something when Mom interrupted me. "If you'd chaperone the girls and keep them out of trouble," Mom said, "Pete and I would be more than willing to pay your airfare. I'd feel a lot better if they had an adult traveling with them."

"I appreciate the generous offer," Twinkletoes said hesitantly, "but that doesn't take care of the visa issue."

Before anyone could say anything else, Addy piped up, "my Aunt Teri works in the French Consulate in Boston, and I know she could get visas processed in a day or two if I asked 'er. After all I am 'er favorite niece, and she'd do almost anything for me."

"What travel dates are you looking at?" Mom asked. We discussed and argued and proposed dates for traveling for a while before we finally agreed on a schedule. To Addy's dismay, both Alicia and I insisted on spending a couple of days in Paris. That, in turn, caused Mom to caution me about spending all her money while we were traveling.

I could tell it was going to be a very fun summer, but at the same time I felt disappointment that I wouldn't be sharing all of it with Debra. After visiting me twice already at Whateley, she didn't have enough vacation time to travel with me. Still, I'd get to spend time at the beginning, middle, and end of the summer with my love.

We talked another half-hour with Twinkletoes about what we were going to do in France, and after I hung up my phone, Addy and Alicia and I probably talked another hour, getting more and more excited as the night wore on. We all knew it was good to be a very fun summer.

**********

Wed, May 23, 2007, Evening
Dream World of the Ptesanwi

Sky sat next to Cav at the fire circle drinking the healing tea that I'd made for all of us. The last time we'd dream-walked, I'd found it necessary to do the tongues spell on them so they weren't intimidated or frightened by Wakan Tanka, so I'd started this dream walk the same.

Sky looked better than the first time I'd walked with her; in taking out a few more piercings, I'd given her reason to start feeling confident about herself again. Her mental image of herself still wore a very short, low-necked dress, with slut-heeled shoes and too much makeup, but her skin now had a healthier glow, not sallow like before, and she didn't have the needle-track arms of a junkie. In the real world, in our last healing session, I'd removed the hideous piercings in her tongue - although how she managed to stomach the healing brew on her taste buds was beyond me. We still had a ways to go; there were five piercings in each ear, and she had a nose ring and a stud on the side of her nose, plus two piercings in each nipple and some ... below, but with what we'd cleaned up already and support from the group, she looked a lot calmer and was slowly regaining her confidence.

In contrast, however, judging from his outer appearance, it was obvious that Cav wasn't nearly as far along in his recovery. I could tell how much of a struggle it was for his psyche to try to overcome having been a victim of such horrific crimes. I understood what he felt well, but I wished that he'd listen to me and talk to Cody. I knew the bear could help him, maybe more than I could.

"I think we're done for the night," I suggested after we'd talked for quite a while, enjoying the serene setting and the healing tea and giving the two horribly-abused lovers a chance to let their hair down, so to speak, because they didn't have to be constantly on guard about what they said or worry about what someone might be whispering behind their backs.

"I hope it's easier for you to talk to Dr. Bellows," I added, speaking to Cav.

"Thank you for whatever you did for him," Skybolt said cautiously. "He told me it's easier for him to discuss ... things ... with the doctor now."

I could sense something in her tone of voice. She seemed a little bit apprehensive, because she didn't know what I'd shown Cav to get him to open up. Wakan Tanka sensed it as well.

"You must show her, Wihakayda," my spirit mentor said out of the blue.

"What?" I practically screamed, getting the attention of both of them.

"Look at her," Wakan Tanka said as if they couldn't understand her. "Do you not see the tension in her, the way she looks at you? She knows you are keeping a secret, and it affects her trust of you."

Sky goggled at her, and then glanced furtively at me. In that instant, I knew that my mentor was correct. "Yeah," I said softly. "I know."

Sky glanced nervously between my mentor and me. "I ..." she started to say, hesitating.

"I have to extend my trust to you so that you fully trust me," I finally said. "I have no magic to keep you from sharing what you will see. Only your honor." I looked very intently into her eyes. "Do I have your word?"

Sky gulped nervously, and then glanced at Cav. He gave her a shrug, not deigning to speak for her on a matter this grave. With a nod, she answered, "Jawohl. On my honor I will keep your secret."

Nodding, I stood, offering her my hand to help her up. She glanced at Cav, who seemed a little pale. He shook his head. "I'm ... I can't ... I can't watch that again," he said, his voice cracking. "I'm ... I'm sorry, Elaine."

I put my hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "I'm not asking you to. And she'll understand in a few minutes. Rest. Have some more tea." With that, I took Sky's hand and led her out of camp, to a place where I could show her my dark memories.

Skybolt was pale when I escorted her back to camp, visibly nauseated from what she'd seen. Cav stood and helped her sit down, and Wakan Tanka had a special tea waiting for her. A couple of sips of the beverage restored some of her color, and she no longer looked like she was going to hurl.

"Now you know," I said simply as I sat down, somewhat shell-shocked myself. It was still very, very difficult to watch.

"Mein Gott!" Skybolt said over and over. "No wonder!"

"Yeah. I grew up thinking of girls as partners. I dated girls, I ... yeah." I felt my cheeks burn a little bit at the strong implication. "And then I changed. I couldn't be anything but a lesbian."

"They ... they were trying to kill you!" Sky exclaimed softly.

I nodded. "Now you can very clearly see that rape is not about sex. It's about domination and control and inflicting pain. It's about hurting the victim." Maria's words rang just as true for me then as they did the first time she'd spoken them to me. "They were trying to kill me in the most humiliating, painful way possible. They'd have done the same thing if I'd still been a boy."

The two were staring into the fire, eyes half-glazed from our conversation and what I'd shown them. I decided to not let things get more morose. "Well," I said, pulling myself to my feet, "if we're okay for the night, we can end the dream-walk and then we can go to Doyle for a healing."

Cav nodded, eager to escape this place that reminded him of seeing my assault and thus indirectly of his own assaults, and Sky agreed. "Can we do ...." She hesitated, not quite sure of herself.

"Go on," I urged her, thinking I already knew what she wanted to ask.

Sky looked at Cav and swallowed nervously. "As long as they are there," she said uneasily, "I feel like a ... a ... Hure!" She spat the final word disgustedly; even in German, the word's meaning was only too clear.

I shuddered involuntarily as I realized what she was asking. "Um," I stammered, "that's ... um ... pretty ...."

If there was one talent Skybolt had, it was the innocent, doe-eyed pleading look. "Please," she begged, almost batting her baby-blues at me. "I ... I can't stand them! They make me feel so ... cheap!"

I gazed steely-eyed at the German girl for a few seconds before I sighed and nodded. "To be honest, I was hoping to put those three off for a while, but ... okay." She was good, but not nearly as good as Jade.

Forgetting almost everything in her joy, Skybolt launched herself at me, wrapping me in a massive embrace. "Danke schoen!" she repeated several times enthusiastically. Tears of happiness were trying to leak from the corners of her eyes. "Viel danke!"

**********

Wed May 23, 2007, Evening
Doyle Medical Complex, Whateley Academy

With only a sheet covering her naked body, Skybolt shivered in the chilled air of Doyle. Cav sat in a chair beside the bed, holding her hand lovingly while I prepared the brews and ingredients I would need. Dr. Tenent was nearby to supply me with extra essence - just in case - and to remove the piercings at the right time in the sequence of rituals. One thing that these healings had made me realize was that I needed more control over my well and my will. I really, really didn't like Mrs. Carson's restrictions on how much I was allowed to do on my own, but I realized it was because of my lack of control - though I'd never tell her that. Learning that control gave me more essence for other things as well. I'd really been studying and practicing hard to get the kind of control I really needed so I wouldn't need babysitting on my essence. Nikki seemed pleased with my progress.

"Knock, knock!" a familiar voice called from the door. I looked up from what I was doing and recognized Ms. Stone standing in the doorway. "I heard you were doing a healing, and I wondered if you'd mind if I observe."

"I wouldn't mind," I answered, eliciting a gasp of surprise from Skybolt, "but it's not my call. It's pretty personal, so I think you need to get permission from the patient."

"Spoken like a true resident," Dr. Tenent chuckled. She walked over to the bed beside Skybolt. "Really, it is your call. Before you decide, though, Ms. Stone is faculty and she's a long-standing practitioner of Eastern Asian healing and medicine."

"Yes," Ms. Stone agreed, "and after talking with Kayda, I'd like to see her healing arts in action, as it were, so I can compare them to my own and maybe learn a trick or two."

"More likely, find places where I'm screwing up, like every other faculty member seems to like to do," I muttered under my breath. That got a soft giggle from Skybolt; she and Cav had a lot of experience with Whateley teachers, so she appreciated my dry humor. Sky was still very uncertain, so I sidled over next to Ms. Stone. "Skybolt has some piercings that are cursed by dark magic. The ones I'm working on today are in a very ... personal spot."

"Oh!" Ms. Stone mouthed to me. She put a smile on her face and turned toward Sky. "If it's personal, I don't want to intrude. I can ...."

"No," Skybolt gulped nervously, glancing at me and then back at Ms. Stone, "maybe it would be better ... if you stayed?"

I could have been offended that she didn't completely trust me, given where her piercings were, but I decided not to be. "I understand," I said softly to her with what I hoped was a gentle smile. "Don't worry about it."

Dr. Tenent leaned over to Cav. "We're about to get started, so you're going to have to leave," she whispered. I was close enough to hear, and my jaw dropped at what she said next. "I know you and Elaine have been intimate, but we do have to keep up appearances."

Cav was startled and blushing, but he followed Dr. Tenent's direction, pausing to give Elaine a kiss. At least now he was confident in my ability after we'd done four previous healings and decontaminations on her. Whether he fully trusted me in the current procedure was another story.

I'd found a few ways to streamline the process to save time and to conserve essence; with Ms. Stone watching me, I mixed up the healing and decontamination brews. While I knew the spells very well by that point - thanks to extra training by Wakan Tanka - I was nervous being observed by Ms. Stone; it was bad enough when Mrs. Carson, Circe, and Dr. Tenent had been scrutinizing my every move, and I was slowly resigning myself to having all my spells and potions under the microscope until I graduated.

Ms. Stone was pleased that I explained what I was doing as I mixed the potions; I had to do it then, because once we got started, I wouldn't have time for Q and A. I started with a mild healing and pain relief tea to calm her; we'd discovered that it made her ordeal significantly less painful. Immediately after that, she drank the foul decontamination brew and I slipped into dream space, where I did battle with the monstrous, living tapestry of magics to remove the shaman threads. Unlike the previous battles, I managed thus far without needing an essence boost from Dr. Tenent.

When I came out of dream space - battered as usual - I marked Skybolt with the decontamination brew and after Dr. Tenent removed the piercings, I poured on the rest of the foul liquid and then slipped back into dream space to finish off the remaining spell fragments. There was something different about this spell, and it took a little longer to unravel. I thought I recognized bits of it from what I'd learned from Wakan Tanka, which made me think I should have a talk with Skybolt in private to see if my suspicions were correct.

Once that was done, I let the doctor recharge me with essence, even though I figured I'd be able to complete this healing without more. But with what I was battling and healing, there was no real point in risking running out of essence. I painted Sky with the ritual markings again, and then performed the healing ritual, wobbling a lot as I finished. At least I didn't pass out and face-plant like I had the first three times I'd done this.

Feeling very tired, I let Ms. Stone lead me out of the room to a small lounge, where she mixed up some kind of Chinese herbal tea. It was refreshing and I didn't feel as fatigued, but I was sure I'd have to have someone walk me back to Poe to make sure I didn't pass out.

"Do you have enough energy to talk about your medical healing?"

I nodded. "There's one thing I have to discuss with Elaine first, if you don't mind."

When she nodded, I went back to the room Sky was in; she was resting peacefully, and I thought she was asleep. I started to leave, but she stirred, causing me to halt. "You said there was something you wanted to talk about?"

I scooted a chair beside her bed and sat down. "I told you that the spell seemed ... different?" She nodded uncertainly. "I have to ask you something kind of personal. Have you been ... kind of ... promiscuous?" I queried hesitantly.

Her steely gaze was a little unnerving, and I thought I'd crossed a line. But then she nodded as her eyes started tearing up. "Ja," she said very softly as the tears began to pour forth. "I ... sometimes cannot help myself. It's as though ...."

I put my hand on hers to reassure her. "I told you there was something about the spell. From what shaman magic I've learned, it seemed similar to a libido spell. My guess is that it was placed there to greatly enhance your ... desires."

"Oh?" Skybolt looked both intrigued and concerned. "What will happen now?"

"You should feel a lot less aroused," I said softly. "It may take a bit of getting used to, since your drive has been in overdrive up for over a year."

"So I won't constantly feel like I need ...?"

"To hump any guy near you? No." I patted her hand. "If you find the, um, opposite problem, talk to me. I've got a tea which can help with that - when you want."

She started bawling at that, which confused me, but then I realized that she'd been under one spell or another for so long that the thought of feeling normal was overwhelming to her. I leaned over the bed and let her cling to me, giving her emotional support that she desperately needed.

It didn't take Sky long to fall asleep; despite my pain-relieving potion, she had experienced some discomfort during the procedure, and with her huge emotional release, it wasn't surprising that she was physically and emotionally exhausted. I tiptoed back to the door, shocked to see that it was open a crack and Ms. Stone was watching me with a peculiar smile.

As soon as we were out in the hall, she gazed evenly at me. "A little post-procedure consultation?"

Walking with her back to the small conference room, I nodded. "Yeah. There was something ... different ... about this spell, and I had to confirm that it had been doing what I thought it had."

Ms. Stone put her hand on my shoulder. "Now, what was this nonsense you were saying about not learning anything?" I gawked at her, seeing the twinkle in her eyes. I slowly nodded, getting her message only too clearly.

Even before we sat down in the staff lounge, Ms. Stone began asking a ton of questions, and I tried to answer them, but I wasn't sure of everything, and she probably would corner me for follow-up and clarification. At the moment, though, she seemed particularly sensitive to how tired I was and kept her questions relatively simple. While Skybolt remained in Doyle to rest a little more, Chou was called to escort me back to our cottage, where I promptly collapsed in my bed and fell asleep within milliseconds.

**********

Wed May 23, 2007, Midnight
Franks Family Farm, South Dakota

Why won't you accept that I'm here with you? the now-familiar, sexy, sultry voice asked, sounding like she was pouting a bit.

Danny bolted upright in his bed, suddenly awake. For some reason, the room seemed brighter than he was used to, even in the middle of the night when no lights were on. "Where are you?" he asked again. "Who are you?" He looked around again, puzzled.

I'm in your head. You know that!

"Why?" Danny asked plaintively. "I don't want you there!"

Silly, you're an avatar, just like your sister, the voice purred, and with all the issues she's had, Wakan Tanka was not about to leave it to chance what spirit you got!

"Wakan Tanka? Kayda's spirit?" Danny asked, dumbfounded and more than a little shocked.

Technically, Ptesanwi is her spirit, the voice said. She just channels Wakan Tanka. Good thing, too - she was free to look out for you!

"Kayda's looking out for me?" Danny stammered. "But ... she's ...."

No, silly! You're not listening. Wakan Tanka is looking out for you. She asked me to be your spirit once she knew you manifested and had an empty hallow, and I just couldn't resist! You wouldn't want to have some silly spirit, like a butterfly or a cricket or a slime mold, now, would you? She was practically purring seductively.

"But ... you sound like ...." Danny's eyes were wide open, and his mouth hung ajar as a frightening possibility entered his mind.

Like a girl? Of course I do! I'm Wihinape, the spirit of Igmu Taka! I've always been a girl!

Danny felt an icy shiver run up and down his spine several times, and panic clutched at his throat. "You're not going to ... to turn me into a girl, are you?" He started shaking, and then sobbing. "I don't wanna be a girl!"

Now why would I go and do a thing like that? the sultry voice murmured. But when she continued talking, she sounded quite contemplative. But now that you mention it, that might actually simplify things a lot.

Confused, hyperventilating, Danny welcomed the darkness as everything faded to black.

**********

Thursday, May 24, 2007, Afternoon
Behind Holbrook Arena, Whateley Academy

Summer wheeled at the slightest pressure from my knee; we moved as one, and I was happy to feel the wind through my hair, which I had loose for a change. The spring sun was warm on my skin, and the air fresh; it was a glorious day to ride free. I'd done my share of training with my horse-bow, and I probably was being a little stubborn, but I needed some 'me' time while Chou and Molly worked with Mr. Two Knives.

In the distance, a couple hundred yards away, Mr. Two Knives was standing with two adults; the administration's club car sat next to them, and the two girls were sitting on the ground a few yards away. They were all looking my way, which worried me, so I leaned forward over Summer's neck. "Go, girl," I urged her in a whisper, while my moccasin-clad feet gently touched her flanks. She needed no more urging; she immediately put her head down, and with me hanging lightly onto her mane, accelerated quickly, galloping full-out toward the adults, while I balanced on her back, exhilarated at the raw, natural feel of riding her.

My horse pulled up sharply, her feet catching her momentum, digging into the turf, and sending a small shower of sod in front of her. I'd anticipated this, though, and brought her up short to one side of the adults; it wouldn't do at all for me to spray Mrs. Carson and Mr. Two Knives with grass and dirt. I gulped when I recognized the third man - it was Chou's mentor Guan Yu.

I slipped off Summer's back, holding her halter rope in one hand, and stepped toward the adults. "Mrs. Carson," I greeted her warily.

"I think you remember ..."

Guan Yu stepped forward, eying me critically. "You are skilled with your horse," he said in his deep, booming voice.

"But?" I asked, fully expecting some criticism from him.

He didn't disappoint me. "You would be more stable for using your bow or lance with a saddle. You could control your horse better with a regular bridle."

Maybe it was my being stubborn, or just that I really, really didn't like his condescending manner, but I was frowning very unhappily. Mr. Two Knives was smiling; I think he knew what I was thinking.

After staring unhappily at Guan Yu, I spoke. "Molly, can you give me my bow and quiver, please?" Still glaring at Guan Yu, I held out my hand and accepted my archery equipment from Molly. After strapping my quiver on my thigh, I vaulted onto Summer's back, galloping her away from the adults and parallel to the row of targets. At the end, when we turned, I paused to glare at Guan Yu again, and then I galloped down the line.

I know he expected me to merely shoot, but I had another Lakota trick in mind. Slipping to one side, I hooked one leg over Summer's haunches and an arm over her neck, and as she continued to run, I slipped down her side, using her body to shield me from the targets. After a few seconds hanging precariously on her side, I quickly pulled myself back onto her back and shot six arrows in rapid succession; five of the six hit their targets near the center. Satisfied with my demonstration, I turned and let Summer trot over to the adults.

"Let's see you do that with a saddle," I challenged Guan Yu sternly. Beside him, Billy was smiling, and Mrs. Carson was trying hard to not show a grin. "On an unsaddled pony, the enemy can't even tell that there's a warrior there."

"As I said," Guan Yu said with a nod of his head, "you are skilled. But you missed with one arrow."

Angry at his impudence, I slipped off Summer and handed my bow to Mr. Two Knives. "Chou can't do that. I bet you can't either."

Guan Yu roared with laughter, surprising me. "Don't make a wager you're certain to lose, young warrior! Over the years, I have fought in every type of terrain and battle, including mass infantry war and the raiding warfare for which your style is most suited. I've fought on foot, on chariot, and on horseback, with every weapon Chinese armies have ever used."

"The People fought in mountains and on plains, in snow and heat. Terrain and weather are no obstacles to a warrior." I thought that my tutor would be getting irritated by the Chinese man's seeming arrogance and know-it-all attitude, but he remained impossibly calm and unflappable.

"Our People fought in large battles, too," I added.

"With thousands and tens of thousands of warriors in each army, with infantry, cavalry, and archers?" Guan Yu asked, smirking at me. At least it looked like a smirk.

"The People seldom gathered in such numbers because we were nomadic tribes of hunters. But when they did, the war party could be truly fearsome, and every warrior was expected to be cavalry, infantry, and archer," Mr. Two Knives defended my position, but he seemed bemused rather than angry.

"You don't know the story of Brave Woman," I couldn't help but interrupt, which elicited a smile from Mr. Two Knives and a groan from Mrs. Carson. When Guan Yu arched his eyebrows in curiosity, I told the story of Brave Woman counting coup for her brothers. "She was a leader in a battle of armies, not a raid," I finished defiantly.

"Interesting. To shame an enemy instead of killing them?" I could tell the warlord was intrigued.

I nodded grimly. "When the Europeans came, the People learned the hard way that the newcomers had no honor. Many warriors died before they learned that the white man didn't understand and didn't respect the bravery of someone who counted coup on them." In the corner of my eye, I could see Mrs. Carson rolling her eyes at what probably sounded like cultural superiority.

"Yes, I see that such a feat would be meaningless unless the opponent had honor."

"And besides only counting coup, Brave Woman fought on horseback and on foot," I added proudly. Maybe it was cultural arrogance, but Guan Yu had needled me with is so-called superiority a little too much.

"Did the warriors of your people have blades," Guan Yu countered, "suitable for use from horseback like this," he drew a yanyuedao from what a pouch on his waist that had to be a bag of holding like Chou had. His weapon was larger than the practice one Chou used.

"We use the lance, the bow, the tomahawk, and the war club," Mr. Two Knives replied casually. "The People had no steel until the white man came and traded with us." He reached out his hand toward Guan Yu's yanyuedao. "May I?" Obligingly, the Chinese war god tossed it to him. Experimentally, my tutor swung it, getting a feel for it as he lunged and swept with the blade, made blocking motions with the staff, and swung the pommel end in counter-blows. It suddenly struck me that in all my sparring against Chou, Mr. Two Knives had never bothered to 'experiment' with Chou's yanyuedao. "This reminds me of the pugil sticks we trained with at Parris Island," he mused. "A different blade than a bayonet, but ... similar."

The raised eyebrow of surprise turned into a smile of delight on the Chinese man. "You have some experience with that style of weapon. Would you care to test your skill?" Guan Yu asked eagerly, seemingly excited by the prospect of combat.

Rolling her eyes skyward, Mrs. Carson rubbed her head in a way that suggested she had a headache. No doubt, based on Chou's stories, she feared the War God was about to cause mayhem on her campus again.

"Another time, perhaps," Mr. Two Knives replied with a smile. "At the present time, my task is to instruct my pupils, not to indulge my curiosity."

"Well spoken," Guan Yu chuckled. "But we must arrange time for a little match."

Mrs. Carson groaned; the thought of the Chinese War God sparring on her campus obviously filled her with dread.

"That sounds ... interesting. I look forward to it," Mr. Two Knives smiled. "As my grandfather always said, one cannot learn a skill from one who has no skill." He tossed the weapon back to Guan Yu, who caught it easily. "Right now," he continued, "it might be best to watch our charges spar so we can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses."

I groaned softly; I'd been riding Summer to take a break from sparring, and wanted to continue just relaxing. With various training classes and simulations, it felt like I'd been constantly fighting and training and simulating, and honestly, I was tired.

Mr. Two Knives had other plans, however, and from the look on his face, he wasn't going to let me out of sparring. In vain hope that I could somehow get respite, I turned my pleading eyes to Mrs. Carson. "I've been doing nothing but training and fighting," I said in soft protest, trying my best to imitate Jade's +10 Big Sad Puppy-Dog Eyes. "I need a break."

"Kayda," Mrs. Carson replied with nary a hint of sympathy, "you should know better than most that you don't get to choose when you fight. Tired or not, resting or not, you have to always be psychologically and physically ready to do battle with a foe."

I hung my head, shaking it sadly, knowing that I was going to be made to fight.

"Kayda," Mrs. Carson continued in a voice that caused me to snap up and look at her, "did the snake-demon wait until you were prepared and rested? Did you go into Dunwich expecting a battle?"

"No," I muttered unhappily. I could tell that I wasn't going to get out of sparring.

Guan Yu looked around. "Since you pointed out that your warriors fought in all terrains," he said with a wry smile, "I think that area over there," he pointed to a hilly, forested area to the west, "would be a good place to demonstrate your skills." He looked right at me, challenging me. "Would you not agree?"

"That would make a good setting for the 'hunter and hunted' scenario," Mr. Two Knives agreed.

I glowered at my tutor, concurring as he was with Chou's mentor to challenge my fighting skills. No doubt Mr. Two Knives found the whole thing amusing, even though he knew I was fatigued and sore from a very aggressive training week and that I just wanted a calm afternoon.

My tutor held out quivers of training arrows to Chou and I. As we strapped them on, he explained the scenario to Guan Yu. "One will be the hunted, and will try to avoid being captured. The other is the hunter, who will attempt to capture or kill the prey."

"And if the prey kills the hunter?" the Chinese man asked, scratching his chin.

"The hunter can't complete her mission, can she?" Mr. Two Knives said with a grin. As usual with these types of situations, he reached into his pocket, where he kept two colored stones for these situations. "I believe it's your turn, Chou. Blue or white?"

Chou didn't even think. "White."

Billy opened his fist. "Blue," he said as he showed the stone. "Kayda?"

"Hunter," I said without hesitation.

"You know the drill, Chou. Two minute head-start." He handed us each a small pendant on a chain with, which we hung from our necks; these electronic trackers would signal if either of us stepped out of the boundaries of the exercise area, in which case we'd automatically lose.

I turned away from Chou so she would have a head start into the exercise area, and sat down cross-legged to wait as was my habit. Surprisingly, Guan Yu sat down opposite me, ignoring the fact that he was getting dirt and grass debris on what looked like a silk suit.

"While we have a few moments," he said with a wry smile, "tell me another story about your people and their warriors."

I had to think for a moment, but I came up with a story - a short story - to tell him while I waited for Chou to get into the woods. As soon as Mr. Two Knives signaled me, I scrambled to my feet to pursue my adversary.

I knew Chou was tricky; I didn't know if she was going to evade or more likely try to take me out. I hadn't gotten very far into the woods before I learned to my dismay that it was the latter.

I paused behind the tree to reach out for the earth and the sky spirits, but as usual I felt nothing. With her mastery of ki, Chou was very, very good at hiding herself from the earth spirit. I felt a slight disturbance in the sky spirit to my right, and I turned; that slight turn was all that saved me from being hit in the middle of my chest with a training arrow. The padded blunt tip stung my shoulder hard, and reflexively I rolled away from the direction where I had felt the disturbance. Another arrow thunked off a tree just behind me. Mr. Two Knives frequently made Chou and I disregarded hits that would only cause an injury, stopping a fight only with obvious killing blows, or when his sadistic streak was sated.

Cursing inwardly, I'd darted to the side, hopefully perpendicular to the direction from which Chou had shot at me, all the while reaching out to the spirits to help guide me. I knew from past experience sparring with Chou that it was incredibly frustrating to not be able to feel the sky spirit and the earth spirit telegraphing her moves. Angry with myself at letting her get the first shot, I reached out to the spirits and asked them to obscure my position, and then I darted to a large rock outcropping on the hill.

I realized that I had been getting predictable, because Chou shot at me again just as I ducked behind the rock, and I heard the arrow goes thump on the granite boulder. Dammit, this was getting frustrating! I knew I could take her, but I had to get ahead of her sensing me with ki.

I suddenly had an inspiration based on something I'd experienced with Anna several weeks earlier. I slipped into my dream-world and called out for Tasnaheca and Zica. They understood immediately what I wanted them to do and they called to all the living squirrels and ground squirrels in the area. In a few seconds, I knew precisely where Chou was.

Now to see if I could get even trickier. I asked the squirrel spirits to move about together as if they were me. While they did that, I concentrated on letting the sky spirit and earth spirit flow around me without being disturbed. Creeping up to the top of the boulder, I looked around and was rewarded to see Chou stalking towards where the spirits were leading her. Pressing myself closely against the rock, lest she inadvertently see me, I waited, flitting back and forth to the dream-world to see where she was at.

I couldn't help gloating to myself as she crept toward the large boulder, thinking that she was sneaking up on me while I lay in wait. If she had chosen to just evading me, my tactic wouldn't have worked, but I was pretty sure I knew Chou. She was very competitive - as much so as me - and that winning by hiding would not sit well with her.

I don't know if it was the sound of my moccasin on the rock, or my sudden movement betraying me through the ki, but as I leaped through the air toward her, tomahawk in hand, she suddenly spun, drawing her sword in one fluid motion. I barely hooked the sword with my tomahawk, pushing it out of the way, and then I drove the palm of my hand toward her chest, hoping to throw her off balance.

I shouldn't have been surprised that Chou rolled with the punch, twisting her sword as she did so and bringing it back around to smack me hard on my already-sore shoulder. I swung my Tomahawk at her again with my right hand, while my left hand fumbled at my waist for my other weapon. She easily deflected the off-balance attack, and her sword smacked me hard in my knee.

Rolling to the side, I regained my feet, wincing at the pain. Only by luck did I deflect another sword strike, but this time, I had my other tomahawk ready and I managed to hit her - probably a lot harder than I should have, but I was very frustrated at that point.

Limping, I invoked my Ghost-walking spell and backed away to get out of range of her sword. She was just too good to go hand-to-hand, especially with a sore shoulder and knee. With the pain, I was having a hard time focusing on directing the sky spirit, so Chou was probably able to sense me through ki.

The less said about the battle from that point, the better. I had to be one-hundred-percent on my game to sneak up on Chou, or to fool her as to my movements, and if we got into close combat, her experience showed when she kicked my butt. Sore and tired, I wasn't even close to one-hundred percent. I hit her once with an arrow, but she hit me twice more. Eventually, we got into a melee, and she cleaned my clock. I lost, and was pretty badly battered by the time the scenario was declared over because she'd 'killed' me.

Sulking, I limped back to our tutors, where Molly was gleefully heaping praise on Chou for a job well-done. It sucked; I wanted someone to give me positive feedback when I accomplished something good. And the critical analysis by Mr. Two Knives, with added critique by Guan Yu, didn't help my self-confidence or mood at all. The main gist of the comments was that I'd let anger and competitiveness cloud my judgment. I didn't recall a single good point from either of the tutors, even though I knew, logically, that they had found something worthy of praise. As tired and depressed as I felt about losing again, I simply didn't hear anything good.

After the post-fight analysis, I was expecting to be dismissed. Instead, Mr. Two Knives picked up his own training weapons. "The two of you, against me," he ordered before turning and walking to a large sparring circle - about fifteen meters in diameter - that he'd had painted on the grass. It was far larger than the sparring circles in martial arts classes; he'd told us that to use all our weapons, including the bow, and to learn to change weapons, we needed a larger combat arena. All it did, in my opinion, was to make us more fatigued chasing each other around the circle.

Chou and I took positions on opposite sides of my instructor almost instinctively; as he hefted his tomahawks, his sadistic smile made me think that we'd already made a mistake. I took out one tomahawk, leaving my left hand free to adjust. My bow was slung diagonally across my back and I had a quiver of training arrows on my thigh. Chou had her yanyuedao in hand and was warily eyeing our opponent.

"Ohutetanaji!" he called; though it wasn't the familiar 'hajime' from Ito's class, Chou had long-since adapted to the Lakota words for starting and stopping a match.

Mr. Two Knives started quickly toward Chou, and as she adjusted her weapon, I made a decision, unslinging my bow as I put my tomahawk back in its holder.

I realized almost instantly from the earth spirit that Mr. Two Knives' turn to Chou had been a feint; he'd been planning to goad me unlimbering my bow for a ranged attack while Chou froze in preparation for his attack, and he'd succeeded. I managed to get one shot off which missed him - he might have actually deflected it - and then I had to drop my bow in a mad scramble to get my own close-in weapons out. I may have been somewhat skilled with quick-firing my bow, but a person charging from eight to ten yards away gets in your face really, really quickly, and I was really lucky to get even one shot at him.

Before I was completely ready, he hit me hard with a mad flurry of blows, overwhelming the one tomahawk I'd managed to get free of its holster; bruised and sore, I tried to skirt the circle away from him. At least I'd bought Chou some time; she was closing on him fast from behind, weapon ready.

Sensing from the spirits that Chou was coming, he spun away from me and threw a tomahawk at her, surprising her completely; it hit her in the right shoulder pretty hard, causing her to nearly drop her yanyuedao. Spinning again, he had his own knife out even before I could recover, and I was driven, further battered, from the ring. He spun again, dashing to Chou to administer the coup de grace.

Based on how she wielded her weapon, Chou's shoulder was obviously sore but she still managed to hold off his frenzied attack for a few seconds before she, too, succumbed to his onslaught.

We sat beside the ring for the post-mortem, which I was dreading. I suspected Mrs. Carson was going to say something, because she had quit the comfort of her club cart and stood behind my tutor.

"What was your first mistake?" Billy Two Knives demanded of us, getting right to the point.

"Getting out of bed this morning," I grumbled unhappily.

"In the sparring match," he added, giving me a slightly unpleasant look.

"Walking into the ring," I shot back, scowling at him as my snarky attitude came through loud and clear.

"Kayda!" Mrs. Carson shot at me, unhappy with my attitude.

I dropped my gaze from the adults, shaking my head slowly. "I'm sorry," I said, not sounding very contrite, "but I'm tired of being battered and bruised, tired of having to train so hard all the time, and just plain tired of losing! It gets old and really ... depressing!" I almost swore, but I caught myself because I really didn't want another lecture from Mrs. Carson on proper language for a teenage girl.

"You only improve if ...," Guan Yu started to say philosophically.

"If I fight someone better than me," I groused, completing the snippet of wisdom. "Yeah, yeah, I know." That sounded snarky, too.

"Did you two fight as a team?" Mr. Two Knives asked.

I glanced at Chou, who was slowly shaking her head, a grim expression on her face. "No," I answered for the both of us.

"That was very apparent," Mrs. Carson commented, startling me. "Why not? You took team tactics last term," she said to Chou.

I glanced at Chou again. "Um," I stammered to buy myself time to think.

"We haven't had time to train fighting together as a team," Chou spared me having to guess.

"And I haven't taken team tactics," I countered sharply. "So even if Chou knows how to fight with a team, I don't!"

"Well, we'll have to rectify that situation, won't we?" Mrs. Carson smirked.

"Another special class?" I sighed heavily. "At the rate they're piling on, I'll be in my mid-twenties before you let me graduate." Molly giggled aloud at my comment; Chou managed to stifle her laughter. Mrs. Carson, however, was not amused.

Mr. Two Knives ignored my comment. "What was the plan with your starting positions?"

"Um, I figured if ... if you came at me, I'd be ready, and if you went for Chou, I could use my bow," I said meekly.

"And how did that work out for you?"

I shook my head, sighing. "Not so good."

"Did it occur to you that I might feint to get you to commit to the wrong course of action?"

"No," I admitted, while Chou nodded and replied, "Yes."

"Didn't the earth spirit tell you how I was moving? Didn't my second step feel unusual to the earth spirit? Or by that point, were you too focused on getting your bow out to sense that I was doubling back?" He read how angry I was becoming with myself over my screw-ups. "You're improving with your bow, but you're not yet quick enough to use it against an opponent charging from ten yards or less."

"Yeah, that's obvious. But if you had continued toward Chou, I would have hit you with several arrows."

"Chou?" he asked an open question of her, inviting self-analysis.

"I hesitated when you feinted my direction so I could be ready for an attack. It took me a fraction of a second to recover, and by that time, you were already engaging Kayda."

"Splitting up as you did allowed me to choose how to engage you," he observed. The critique of our fight continued, and among the three adults, we were grilled almost as thoroughly - and roughly - as if it had been Gunny doing a debrief. Given how the day had gone, it was more than a bit demoralizing to me, but Chou seemed to not care, or if she did, she certainly didn't show it.

Unfortunately, the training wasn't over; Guan Yu decided it would be a 'fun' experience for us to battle him, and that little action was even less fun than the combat with Mr. Two Knives. We started near each other to avoid the mistake we'd made in the first sparring session with my tutor, but as I feared, things did not go better. Chou's situational awareness in combat was much better than mine, and she used that experience to her advantage. In some ways, though, it seemed to me that she was using me as a human shield or a decoy to try to gain an advantage over her mentor. I was certain that Chou wasn't so petty as to do that, but I still felt like I was in her way often enough to plant a seed of doubt. In the end, it didn't matter; Guan Yu still destroyed us as a team, and I had the distinct impression that he was taking it easy on us.

"We shall have to do this again," Chou's mentor said, beaming at the chance to flex his muscles a bit in a sparring match. Behind him, Mrs. Carson was rubbing her temples again.

"Perhaps, Mrs. Carson," the Chinese man speculated, turning to face our headmistress, "you would like a chance to instruct these two students in the sparring ring?" She goggled at him, and then really started rubbing her temples, as if her headache had gone from mild to migraine in a few milliseconds. "With your skill," Guan Yu continued - and at that point, I think he was having her on - "no doubt the two young warriors would have a very good lesson!"

Mr. Two Knives exchanged glances with the Chinese War God and then looked back at us, shaking his head and interrupting his line of conversation. "I'm going to try to get some simulator time in Arena 77 tomorrow. If I can schedule it, you two are going to have some close-quarters urban combat, both against each other and against me."

Chou and I both groaned; this was, for her, supposed to be an optional 'fun' training; it had morphed into something completely different and, judging by the presence of her mentor, something serious. I stole a glance at Molly; she looked nonchalant, probably because it gave her time to practice with a bow, which was increasing her ability to fight, and she was having fun experimenting with various spells on her magically-enhanced arrows.

"You must learn to lead armies," Guan Yu suggested imperiously, more of an order to Chou than a suggestion. "Alas, you have no armies.

Mr. Two Knives looked thoughtful for a moment. "Kayda, aren't you doing battle simulations with the Nations in Arena 99's sim suites?"

A groan escaped my lips before I could stop it. My expression of discontent was, however, nothing compared to the sound of dismay from the Headmistress, who I was certain was about to face-palm. No doubt she had disturbing visions of Guan Yu causing mayhem in the very expensive simulation suites.

"Yes," I muttered in reply, shaking my head and looking down because I knew what was coming. "We've talked about that," I reminded him.

No doubt he'd asked that question - to which he knew the answer - on purpose to let Mrs. Carson know how important battlefield leadership would be to Chou and me. "We should schedule some simulation time for you to practice unit leadership, then, too," he added.

"What can your simulators do?" Guan Yu asked, intrigued but puzzled.

"They can simulate mass armies if we want. Any terrain, any weather, any situation," Mrs. Carson answered with dismay in her voice.

"You know, Kayda," Mr. Two Knives looked thoughtful, "the Junior ROTC corps here teaches unit leadership and tactics. Perhaps ...."

"No!" I replied immediately, my eyes shooting daggers at him. "I am not joining the Grunts! I get enough crap from Gunny in the Nations' simulations as it is!"

"The Grunts?" Guan Yu asked, puzzled by the nickname.

"Junior officer training," Mrs. Carson explained. For the first time, she didn't look like her head was about to explode from stress, and a smile crept across her face. "That might be an excellent idea to keep the two of you out of trouble."

"I won't have any free time!" I practically wailed. "You've got my fall term so loaded with stuff I'll be lucky to find time to sleep and eat!"

"Did you stop to think that I did that on purpose to keep you and Miss Nalley out of trouble?"

I glowered at her for a moment, and then a sneaky thought entered my mind. "Or maybe, with all the things you're making us do together, you're trying to push us closer?" I asked, waggling my eyebrows to the growing shock on her face. "Hmmm," I mused thoughtfully. "I share her with Cody, and she shares me with Debra? You know, I don't think either of us would mind that!" I teased. From the corner of my eye, I saw Chou and Molly face-palm, and for a brief moment, I thought Mrs. Carson would as well.

"Don't even go there," Mrs. Carson replied with a warning glare.

Guan Yu ignored our little exchange and was gazing at Mr. Two Knives like he was scrutinizing him for flaws. From the way Mrs. Carson tensed, she was ready to go 'Lady Astarte' to break up what appeared to be an incipient fight.

Instead, Guan Yu clapped his hands on Mr. Two Knives' shoulders. "I like you," he said with a broad grin. "You are not a hot-head. You do not let yourself be needlessly provoked. Instead, you have balance. You fight and teach well. I approve of you as an instructor for the Handmaid. If you are able to work with the Handmaid's tutor, I give my consent for Chou to train with you and your pupil," Guan Yu said to Mr. Two Knives. "As long as part of the instruction includes generalship," he added.

Our beloved Headmistress looked like a feather could have knocked her over. "We can arrange something," she said once she'd recovered a bit of composure. "Mr. Two Knives, please work with Ms. Stone to develop a proposed course of instruction for Chou and Kayda. Also, consider instruction in tactics and leadership from the JROTC program if you deem it fitting."

"Well, there go the last bits of free time in the Fall," I grumbled to myself; Molly and Chou overheard, because they giggled again.

**********

Thursday May 24, 2007 - Early Evening
Franks Family Farm, South Dakota

"Well, that's under control - finally!" Pete Franks said wearily as he hung up his jacket in the mud room adjoining the kitchen area. He turned and accepted a hug and kiss from his wife.

"New parts all in?" June asked, gesturing to the dinner table. It was, unfortunately, late, and Pete had been in town at the dealership dealing with the recall issue.

"Yeah," he acknowledged, steering himself to the table where June had already begun setting out dinner. Danny was sitting, a glum expression on his downcast face. "Hey, kiddo," Pete said, mussing Danny's hair.

"Hey!" Danny protested, as he usually did, looking up sharply at his dad with a disgusted expression on his features. "I'm not a little kid!"

"Sorry," Pete said to apologize. "Habit, I ...." His voice tailed off and his eyes widened in shock. "Erk ...."

"Pete," June said uneasily, setting a casserole dish on the table and then sliding into her chair, "I think Danny might have manifested."

"Uh ...." Pete stammered, still staring at Danny. "Your ... your eyes!"

"Yeah," June winced. "I hadn't noticed because he's been wearing his glasses instead of his contacts, and they kind of hid things."

Danny looked down at his plate, avoiding looking at his parents. "Um, yeah," he stammered. "I ... the other day, when I fell off the tractor. After feeding the cattle."

"Didn't you say it was just feeling light-headed?"

"Um, yeah," Danny mumbled. "I ... I thought I was just hearing things."

"Look up." Pete leaned closer to his son. "Your pupils are ... oblong? And your eyes are ..."

Danny nodded glumly. Yeah, a little ... yellowish-brown."

"Have ... have you noticed anything else ... unusual?" Pete asked.

June winced. "The other day when he fell, he said that he heard someone talking to him - in his head."

"What?" Pete was startled at the revelation. He frowned at his wife. "You didn't tell me that!"

Danny nodded. "Like Kayda's spirit. It ... speaks to me ... in my head."

So, you finally acknowledge that I'm in you? Well, that's a start, the sexy, feminine voice in Danny's head purred.

"It's a spirit," Danny said, wincing with fear of how his parents were going to take the news. The part he'd admitted so far was bad; he worried about how the next part would go over.

I told you, my name is Wihinape. She sounded a little cross, like she was chiding him. They are your parents; you should tell them.

"And ... and it's ...."

Go ahead. Tell them! I'm not embarrassed, and you shouldn't be either!

"It's ... Igmu Taka," Danny said glumly. "At least, that's what she said she was."

"Igmu Taka - that's the cougar, right?" June asked for Danny to confirm.

"She's a mountain lion!" Danny protested. "She said her name is Wihinape."

"Same thing," his dad commented dryly.

Tell them the rest, darling! the cat-spirit urged him.

"Wait," Pete's eyes widened. "You said ... she?" Danny nodded unhappily. "It's ... a ... female spirit?" Pete stammered again, slack-jawed. "Like ... your sister's spirit?"

"She told me that she wasn't going to change me!" Danny added quickly, a bit panicked at how his dad was taking the news.

Hold on, the spirit purred, I said I'd have to think about it! I told you it'd make a lot of things easier if I did change you!

"I don't want you to change me!" Danny protested to the spirit, not really noticing that he was talking out loud and that his parents were gawking at him. "You said you weren't going to!"

"She ... she talks to you?" Pete asked, dumbfounded and still in shock over the news and Danny's behavior. "Like ... Kayda's spirit?"

"Not like Kayda's spirit!" Danny protested to his dad, feeling like he was going to cry. "She said she's not going to change me! Not like Kayda!" He felt his eyes watering.

June patted his hand lovingly. "Now, dear," she said soothingly, "we'll find out what's going on. I'll get an appointment with Doctor Martin, and if we need to, we'll go talk to the Sioux Falls League. I know that nice girl in the League - Valerie? - knows something about spirits. You weren't in the discussions about Kayda, but she told us that a spirit doesn't always change a person."

"She promised me!" Danny wailed. His gaze wandered until he seemed to be staring at nothing. "You promised me!" he said to no-one, at least no-one visible to June and Pete.

I did not promise you, darling, the spirit purred. I told you I wasn't planning on it, but I also told you that it would make things a lot easier.

"But I don't want to be a girl!" Danny was almost in tears.

"Honey," June said, scooting her chair around the corner of the table so she could wrap her arm around her son's shoulder, "if you change, you'll still be our child, and we'll still love you."

"But we don't know that you're going to change yet," Pete continued. "So until we do, it's no use getting all worked up over it."

"And if you do change, like Kayda, we'll help you adjust. Kayda doesn't think being a girl is a bad thing."

"But Mom," Danny was in tears, "I don't want to change!"

"June," Pete said, giving June a 'look', "don't make Danny panic. We don't know if ...," he winced visibly, "we don't know how much he's going to change."

"I know," June apologized to Danny. "It's just ... it's a possibility that you could change all the way, since you have a ... a female spirit, and you have to be ready for that." Absently, she ran her fingers through Danny's hair, trying to soothe him.

Ummm, that feels nice! the spirit said warmly at the feel of June's fingers through his hair and against his scalp. I haven't felt like that in ... in ages! Danny suddenly felt a pleasurable rumbling in his chest that seemed to massage his entire torso and neck, and he involuntarily stretched himself more toward his mother's hand, his eyes drifting shut.

"Danny?" his mom asked after a second or two, shocked. "You're ... you're purring!" she said even as she continued to rub his head.

"Purring?" Danny asked, confusion fighting the intensely pleasant feeling. "But ... mountain lions roar, and a cat can't both roar and purr," he protested weakly. "We learned that in science!"

I'm a spirit; what makes you think I can't both purr and roar? the spirit asked, her voice sounding dreamy. I like this! It feels nice, doesn't it?

Danny found himself yielding to the almost hypnotic vibration in his chest, unconsciously rubbing his head against his mom's hand. "Mmmm, hmmmm." After a few seconds, he realized what he was doing, and with a major force of will and blush of embarrassment, he yanked his head away from his mom.

"Danny," Pete looked at him with concern, "your eyes are getting more cat-like and you're purring. We can't deny that you are changing, at least a little bit," he said cautiously.

"But I don't want to change!" Danny whined, feeling his eyes moisten. "I don't want to be a girl!" Starting to cry, he dropped his face into his arms on the table. Life was so unfair!

**********

Thursday May 24, 2007 - Late Evening
Near Schuster Hall, Whateley Academy

Dashing out of Schuster, I hoped I wasn't too late. I'd been detained at the end of a meeting of the Nations, and the person I wanted to talk to had already left. Glancing around frantically, I spotted the girl walking down the path toward Dickinson and Whitman cottages. "Maggie!" I called after the girl.

Lifeline halted mid-stride and turned, looking cautiously for whoever had called after her. In the light of one of the lamps by the pathway, I could read concern on her features, but that eased when she recognized me. "Hey, Kayda," she replied.

I trotted closer. "I was afraid I'd missed you."

"Nah," Lifeline said casually. "I'm not in any hurry to get back to my room. What's on your mind?"

"I was thinking about the campout next weekend," I hedged. That wasn't all that was on my mind, but I wanted to ease into the real subject.

"I presume you're going to go on the hunt," she said, frowning. We'd obtained permission from the Medawihla tribe to take a deer, and a lot of our group was eager to hunt Native American style.

I chuckled. "Not this time. Gunny managed to get the thrill of hunting knocked out of me."

Maggie smiled, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, he does that. But you wouldn't be hunting bison."

"Stonebear, Hardsell, and Mule are really gung-ho about the hunt, so I figured I'd let them have the fun." I shot her a wry smile. "Besides, with my tutor, by the time we get to the campout. I'll be exhausted and sore from all the training."

"Speaking of which," Maggie let her eyes dart back and forth, looking around us for someone who might be listening in, "what's this I hear about your rivalry with Chou?"

"What?!?"

"I heard a rumor that Mrs. Carson and your tutor - and some Chinese guy - were out in Mr. Two Knives' training area trying to keep you two from killing each other!" she whispered conspiratorially.

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. "Hardly," I rebuffed her gossip. "Her mentor wanted to check up on her progress, so Mrs. Carson brought him out to where we were training."

"Oh." Maggie sounded disappointed. "But are you two as competitive as I've heard? And ... I heard Gateway is out there a lot with her, too."

"I really don't like losing, and neither does Chou" I explained cautiously, "even in training. So yeah, sometimes we get a little intense. But ... we're friends, so we don't let it get out of hand." I shrugged. "And yeah, Gateway is out there sometimes; she's learning to use a bow with enchantments on her arrows, so the two of us work on that sometimes, too."

"Oh." She clearly hadn’t gotten any juicy gossip yet. "Are those two ...?"

"I haven't asked because it's none of my business," I said. Judging by Maggie's reaction, I might have been a little huffy with my response. "Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Maggie suddenly seemed defensive and wary.

"I know you and Lanie ...." That was as far as I got.

"Don't talk to me about ... that monster!" she snarled.

"Maggie," I pleaded, "she's your best friend!"

"Was," Maggie shot back.

"She still is. She's still the fun-loving, adventurous, sometimes insecure girl who misses your friendship." I paused, wincing, wondering if I should go on. "And sometimes," I decided to continue, "she cries on my shoulder about how much she misses you."

I thought, in the moonlight and lamplight, that I saw her lip quiver, perhaps with regret that she might have over-reacted. "I'm ... I don' t know," she said uneasily.

"Maggie," I knew Lanie wouldn't like me interfering, but she was my dear friend, my soul-sister, and I had to try, "Mrs. Carson went all Lady Astarte on the spirit to make sure it wasn't going to hurt her or possess her."

She gawked at me, eyes wide with disbelief. I wasn't sure if I was persuading her to think.

"I know I shouldn't tell you this," I said, cringing inwardly, "but Mrs. Carson really, really cares about Lanie."

"What?" Maggie's jaw hung open.

"I can't say any more, but ... do you think Mrs. Carson would let something happen to Lanie if she cares that much?"

She stood, staring at me, unsure what to say. "But ... she's ...."

"She's a dear friend," I continued. "And she's hurting because she misses you. I ... I can't stand to see her hurt so much." I gently put my hand on her forearm. "Please, think about it. Think about whether maybe you're over-reacting because she scared you?"

Lifeline let her gaze drop for a few silent moments, and then she looked back at me. "I ... I don't know," she said, wiping at a tear. "I ... I can't ...." With that, she turned and walked quickly away. But in her tears, maybe she was thinking. Maybe she would remember all that they'd meant to each other.

With a sigh, I turned back toward Poe. I hoped Lanie wouldn't be mad at me, but I had to try. I'd keep trying, too, because I really hated seeing the hurt in my soul-sister's eyes whenever she thought of her former best friend.

A thought struck me without warning, hitting almost like a physical blow; if Lifeline and Lanie did renew their friendship, I might be left out in the cold. My special relationship with Lanie - friend, soul-sister, one-time lover - might be lost. I fought tears all the way back to my room.

**********

Friday, May 25, 2007 - Late Afternoon
Between Laird Hall and Schuster, Whateley Academy

"Well, that really sucked!" I grumbled as the three of us walked from Laird after we'd put away our training equipment.

"How was it worse than yesterday?" Chou asked wryly, seemingly amused by my comment. As usual, she was holding Molly's hand as they walked. I wondered if I'd ever be brave enough to publicly display affection toward Debra the way those two did.

"I absolutely do not understand how you can be so ... so ..." Words were failing me.

"So casual about the whole thing?" Chou smiled. "Simple. I've been in serious battles with supervillains, and almost died once." She shrugged nonchalantly. "After that, it's hard to get rattled about simple training."

"And yet you get so competitive with Kayda," Molly smirked.

"Okay, so I hate to lose, too," Chou chuckled.

"Seriously," I tried to rein the conversation back on track, "we need to do something about teamwork. You know Mr. Two Knives is going to keep on us until we can fight better as a team." Not only had he made us spar against one another, but he'd made us spar against him in three bouts - kicking our backsides in all of them.

Chou sighed, nodding. "But we're running out of time for the term," she noted.

"Maybe we should at least get together a little this weekend to talk about tactics and fighting together?"

"Why don't we got to Dunwich and talk more about this over pizza?" Chou suggested.

"How about tomorrow night?" I countered. "Addy, Alicia, and I were going to get together in Melville for pizza and a movie tonight."

"Okay," Molly replied. "What time should we ...?"

She didn't finish her question; a blur of motion to our left was followed by a serious flash of light in a fractal pattern on the surface of my every-present shield spell as it was struck and collapsed. Molly took a shoulder block and was knocked backwards even as the attacker, dressed mostly in black but not hiding his face or the wild look in his eyes, swung a shiny, yellowish-brown object at Chou, even as she quickly and gracefully drew Destiny's Wave. She cried out in pain when the object struck her, piercing her right forearm and causing her to drop her sword.

As soon as I saw the light pattern on my collapsing shield, I had a sickening feeling that I knew what was attacking us. I reached for my tomahawk in what was by now almost an instinctive motion, but the figure attacking us - a boy I didn't recognize - was hellishly fast, and before I had my weapon halfway out of its sheath, he swung the sharp copper spike at me.

A nauseating wave of pain and something ... foul ... overtook me; my shoulder felt like it was on fire, and someone was screaming and I wished they'd shut up so I could focus. My hand wouldn't respond to finish unlimbering my weapon; I tried to look down toward the tomahawk, but my vision blurred - probably from the agonizing pain.

Even though the screaming stopped, I couldn't reach my weapon; I tried to focus my hazy vision, wavering with red tendrils that throbbed in time with the waves of pain from my shoulder, on the attacker. He'd turned back toward Chou, who hadn't yet recovered her sword. I could see clearly, as the world seemed to move in slow-motion, that he was in a position to strike her again with the spike because she seemed to be reeling from the first attack.

The boy swung at her, impossibly fast, but despite her injured arm, she intercepted the blow, deflecting his arm to her side and using a backhand into his jaw. From the grimace on her face, it was clear she was seriously injured. Even then, she crouched and did a foot-sweep, knocking him off his feet and onto his ass. As Chou struggled to rise, I could see a growing blood stain on the side of her clothing; he'd connected with her torso somewhere, and she teetered unsteadily.

The deranged boy had obviously been trained in martial arts; in a smooth motion, he rolled - faster than anyone but a speedster should have been able to, which led me to believe he was demon-influenced like Officer Matthews had been - and was getting to his feet.

A few steps back, Molly had regained her balance from being brutally knocked aside, and she opened a gateway; immediately, a salamander emerged into our presence. "How may I serve ...?" it started to say.

"Get him!" she screamed, interrupting the creature and pointing toward the deranged boy who'd attacked us and who was rolling back up toward Chou.

Spinning toward our attacker, eyes afire with purpose, the salamander leaped to defend us, his skin starting to crackle with flames. But with superhuman speed, the boy turned away from Chou toward the new threat, and the bloody spike swung in a new arc. An unearthly scream erupted from the salamander, caught mid-leap and impaled by the mythos-tainted spike, and as Molly watched in utter horror, the summoned creature convulsed and dissipated into nothingness. Recognizing the new danger of a summoner, the boy - eyes wild - turned on her, his copper spike hefted like a knife.

Chou tottered, a horror-stricken expression on her face as the threat spun toward Chou's love, and ignoring her pain, she struggled to draw Destiny's Wave left-handed to intercept the threat to Molly. I didn't hesitate, but with my head swimming in pain, I lurched forward past the teetering Chinese girl and launched a side-kick at the boy's back, striking him hard before he could swing at Molly, who was scrambling back away from the fight. The attacker stumbled to the side but managed to stay on his feet, and again the spike swung toward me in a downward slashing arc. I tried to dodge, but with the haze of pain slowing me, I was only partially successful in deflecting the blow; a sharp stabbing pain in my leg was accompanied by another scream.

And then there was a flash, and as I wobbled on an impaled thigh, my motion tore the spike from the boy's grasp. Momentum carried me past him; when I turned, he was immobile, frozen in place like a statue, his eyes wild and totally devoid of sanity. Fighting to keep any semblance of focus, I slowly turned and saw Molly, grim determination on her face, already nocking another arrow to shoot at him in case he hadn't been affected, while Chou succeeded in interposing herself between Molly and the attacker, Destiny's Wave held rock-steady in her left hand while her right arm held tight to her torso, blood seeping through her fingers as she clamped her hand over the puncture. I tried to smile approvingly at the two of them, but pain overwhelmed me and I collapsed to the ground, the red haze of pain fading to black.

**********

End of Part 1

Kayda 7 - Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon (part 2)

Author:

Elrod

Audience Rating:

General Audience (pg)

Publication:

17,500 < Novella < 40,000 words

Genre:

Transgender

Character Age:

Teenage or High School

TG Universes & Series:

Whateley Academy by Maggie Finson, et al

Permission:

Posted by author(s)

A Whateley Academy Adventure

Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon

By ElrodW

Part 2

(with thanks to EE Nalley and Phoenix Spiritus
for contributed scenes and idea)

The battles were fought and the damage was done
The wars not over it's just begun
The debt that's owed will never be payed
The promised land will never be saved

The curse of curses fire on the land
Today Tatanka has made a stand
Their forefathers dreams, hopes, and vision
Through children's eyes has it been forgiven

Tatanka comes, stand and deliver
The souls of the brave live on forever
The tale of tears is a tale of courage
Tatanka comes from across the river

"Tatanka" - Molly Hatchet

Friday, May 25, 2007 - Late Afternoon
Kane Hall, Whateley Academy

Franklin Delarose

A disturbance rippled through the entirety of the security offices as a boy was led in, manacled hand and feet, resisting and ranting semi-coherently about something. Chief Delarose was instantly out of his office, following the four officers who were escorting the boy to a secure holding room. Normally, misbehaving kids were held in less jail-like rooms, but since he'd been caught red-handed assaulting Pejuta, Gateway, and Bladedancer with some type of magical item, and then ranting something about paying a debt and that she - whoever she was - had to go home, security wasn't taking any chances.

"Halliwell!" Lt. Reynolds shouted out of the cell area, "What're his ratings?"

"Just a sec, Lieutenant," Halliwell yelled back. "I'm bringing up the file now."

Reynolds rolled his eyes; someone should have gotten the records as soon as they called in his name and that the squad was bringing him in. "I need that now!"

"Mike Reynolds, aka M2, aka Magic Mikey. Mage 2, Esper-1 projective," Halliwell called back from the dispatch area.

Reynolds knew exactly what to do. "Get whoever is on call from Psychic Arts - We need a psi block on him STAT!"

"I'm on it!" Halliwell called back to the holding cell.

"What have we got?" Delarose barked at the lieutenant, causing Reynolds to snap to attention. Ex-military people were like that - once trained, never forgotten.

"Security was dispatched when the cameras saw a disturbance. Our boy here," he jerked a thumb in the direction of Mikey in the cell, "attacked Pejuta, Gateway, and Bladedancer. Pejuta and Bladedancer sustained injuries from the fight before Gateway froze him with magic. Fortunately, she's uninjured."

"What was he using as a weapon?" Delarose asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Reynolds opened a pocket on the leg of his battle dress and pulled out a reddish-brown, metallic spike. "This," he replied. "I haven't had a chance ...."

Delarose's eyes bulged noticeably. "Who all touched that?" he demanded, color draining from his face as he interrupted the security officer.

"Me and Randall," Reynolds reported, confused and, based on his boss's reaction, getting concerned. "Why?"

Delarose grimaced. "Because that's Pejuta's missing spike - the one that's contaminated by something really, really nasty."

Reynolds paled and dropped the spike; Randall, standing in the doorway of the cell, went ashen. They both remembered only too well how Matthews had gone insane from one of Kayda's visitors.

"You two are off duty. Get yourselves over to Doyle stat and report to whoever is handling magic events. Take that thing with you, and don't let anyone else touch it." The Chief noticed the two gawking at him. "Move it!" he snapped to get them moving.

As soon as Randall and the lieutenant left, Delarose took a deep breath to calm himself and marched into the cell. He pulled up short, shocked at the appearance of the student sitting shackled on the cot. The boy's hair was mussed, and his eyes had the 'thousand yard stare' of incomprehension. His face was bruised from the struggle, and his shirt torn, but he didn't seem to notice. Instead, he sat staring nowhere and mumbling something over and over.

Delarose stood directly in front of the incoherent boy, staring down at him. "Mike? Can you tell me what happened?" He knew there was a time to be stern and harsh, and time to be gentle. Based on Mike's appearance, this was most likely a situation that called for gentle to break through the boy's mental barriers. "Mike?" he asked again.

The boy slowly looked up, and Delarose cringed at the lack of sanity in the boy's eyes. "She's going to leave now," he rambled. "She's hurt; she has to leave."

Delarose frowned. "Who? Who's going to leave?" he asked.

"I'm even now. When she leaves, I'm even!" he chortled madly.

"Who?" Delarose repeated sternly.

"Where's Amber? I need to tell her that it's all done now!" Mikey looked around frantically. "Where is she?"

"Someone went to get her," Delarose said, holding the boy's shoulders to try to keep him calm. "She'll be here in a few minutes." He glanced over his shoulder at Kretch, giving him a curt nod that Kretch understood only too well.

With a nod replying to his boss, Kretch spun on one heel and quick-marched out of the cell, leaving Breen and Halliwell, weapons at the ready, covering the boy. Out in the hall, Kretch was talking to another officer as they strode away. "Amber who?" he demanded.

"Call Mindbird," the other officer said, her voice fading as she and Kretch strode quickly to out of the holding area. "She or Thunderfox should know."

Delarose squatted down, his hands on M2's shoulders. "Mike, what did you do?"

"I had to make her leave!" the boy repeated, his eyes wild. "I told you!"

"Why?"

"Because he said so! She couldn't stay!"

"Why not?"

"Because ...," the boy looked at Delarose, his vacant stare fading for a brief moment, "... because he said she's the Ptesanwi!"

Delarose felt an icy sensation running down his spine; only a very few people knew that Kayda was the Ptesanwi, and they were trying hard to keep that secret. "Who said?"

"The old chief!" the boy exclaimed as if the answer was patently obvious. "The one my medicine man owes the favor to!"

Delarose sighed, leaning back. The boy was only semi-coherent and making no sense.

"Chief," a familiar voice called from behind him.

"What is it Foob?" Delarose asked wearily as he stood and turned to the Psychic Arts instructor.

"You better sedate him," Louis Geintz replied with certainty. "Heavily."

Delarose frowned. "Why? He's answering questions."

"He's babbling, and you know it. The best bet will be his girlfriend; I believe her name is Amber Prentice."

"Can you ...?" Delarose asked hesitantly.

"I ... I tried," the Psychic Arts instructor said, wincing. "We can't." He saw the Chief's eyebrows arch, so he answered before the Chief could speak. "He's insane," Fubar replied, "and you know it. His mind has been contaminated by that copper spike that he stole from Kayda."

"Are you sure?" Delarose was stunned. Before Fubar could answer, the Chief looked at Halliwell. "Call Doyle and get someone over here to knock him out. He's not an exemplar or regenerator, so their normal stuff should work." He looked back at Fubar and sighed. "Let's go out in the hall."

The two men stepped outside the door, but the Chief stayed in a position where he could watch the boy on the cot. M2 slipped onto his side, babbling some strange song as he stared vacantly at the opposite wall. "Okay, Foob, what do you mean by 'you can't'?"

Fubar glanced at the boy. "The spike has twisted his mind. He feels like Class X," the psychic insisted. "I know what that feels like, and that's what's affecting him. We don't dare try to touch him psychically."

A grimace affixed itself to the Chief's face. "So what do we do? ARC Black?"

"We might not have a choice, Chief," a grim-faced Fubar answered. "ARC Red can't deal with class X."

"Chief," the desk officer poked his head into the cell area, "Miss Prentice is in Room Three."

"Okay. Get two more officers in here to watch him, and let me know if anything changes." With Fubar trailing him, the Chief walked out of the holding area, pausing at the dispatcher's desk. "Get a team over to search M2's room. Tell them to be careful, but very thorough. And see if someone from the Magic Arts department is still around to help." Delarose turned to Fubar, but paused again. "And get his roommate ..."

The dispatcher looked at the records. "Sharpie."

"Get Sharpie over here for interrogation." He finally turned his attention back to the Psychic Arts instructor. "You said might, Foob. That means you think there might be something someone can do."

"Yeah, but you're not going to like it," Fubar replied, to which the Chief's eyebrows arched. "One of our students was at HPARC over Spring Break."

"Pejuta," the Chief said, his voice hollow like it came from a tomb. "She ... did something with that snake demon."

"She decontaminated the minds of two young scouts who'd encountered one of Unhcegila's spawn," Fubar reported cautiously. "And a lot of the remains of the snake-demon - including some of its hide."

Delarose shook his head slowly. "You're telling me that his only hope might be the girl he's harassed and tried to kill?" He sighed heavily. "That request is going to go over well."

**********

Friday, May 25, 2007, Evening
Near Dickinson Cottage, Whateley Academy

"Tansy, do you have a moment?"

Tansy turned from enjoying the lovely day towards the voice that had hailed her. It had been a beautiful day, clear, sunny and finally; finally it was getting warm. The high for the day had almost gotten to ninety degrees Fahrenheit, and was still well above eighty now in the early evening. The young blonde found her club president, living up to her codename of Poise walking regally towards her, head high, hair and makeup perfect, and her dress tasteful and elegant and yet simple and effortless. Tansy didn't have to look to know the seams on Poise's stockings were straight.

It brought a momentary flash of jealousy towards the older girl, but Tansy hung a smile on her face instead and nodded. "Of course, Coleen. What can I do for you?"

"Walk with me," the older blonde replied, linking her arm with Tansy's. Coleen's smile was perfect, of course, with just a hint of self-abasement. "Actually it's something I can do for you," she admitted. "I have to say, Tansy, I'm impressed with this turnaround you've started and I want to encourage you to continue down this road you've chosen."

Walcutt rolled her eyes and made a dismissive gesture. "Considering I'm only being a little less bitchy than I had been, I must have been insufferable before!"

Poise smiled at the humor but didn't laugh. "Why you've had this epiphany is none of my business," she declared softly. "But it has been noticed. So first, an apology."

The girls turned onto the path towards the Crystal Hall. "What do you have to apologize to me for?" Tansy asked with genuine curiosity.

Poise's smile became just a touch regretful. "Let me be honest with you, Tansy. I had considered, considered very strongly I might add, passing you over as the President Pro Tem of Venus, Inc. You're a beautiful young woman, an accomplished model, and you have a keen grasp and insight of the industry, but..."

Tansy shrugged. "But I was a first-class bitch," she finished for the older girl. "I'm not too proud to admit you would have been right to do so, and honestly, you might still be right to do so. But just out of curiosity, who were you considering?"

"Fey," Coleen said softly.

Walcutt sighed, turning her face away to hide her emotions. "Well, I ... that is to say ...." She sighed again before she stopped, lightly touching Poise's elbow so the senior stopped and turned toward Tansy. "Frankly, Coleen, yes, that would hurt and it would be very insulting." She paused, looking over Poise's shoulder for a brief second as if composing her thoughts. "But we both know that Fey is an emotional basket-case, and she's not ready..."

"I know," Poise replied softly.

"A month and a half ago?" Tansy reflected sadly, acknowledging that the red-headed Sidhe would have been good for the job.

Poise nodded. "It's been very ... distressing to watch her fall apart these last few weeks." She started walking again and Tansy fell in beside her.

A part of Tansy was aware that following Poise's action like she had showed that Poise was a leader, which made her a de facto follower. That fact was annoying, but it wasn't something Tansy should let slip just then so she kept her face carefully neutral. "Losing her spirit hit her pretty hard," Tansy admitted, shuddering as she considered that she was an avatar, and she could have been in the same position as Fey. Or Kayda. The shudder turned into an iceberg running up and down her spine at the memory of how badly both girls had taken losing their spirits.

"Yes," Coleen agreed, sharing a glance with Tansy. "But that's not all. Evidently, she's involved in some kind of legal imbroglio associated with modeling, and it's affected both her work and her work ethic. I have sympathy for her, of course, but a professional doesn't let her personal life interfere with business." She shook her head sadly. "Fey has been late, she's backed out at the last minute, and her modeling performance is, frankly, mediocre - at best." She glanced at Tansy again, measuring from the junior's reaction just how much of this was a surprise. "If it hadn't been for Kayda, we would have lost the Lorelei contract. The president of Venus Inc. simply cannot overlook things like that."

Walcutt blinked in surprise. "I ... I didn't realize it had gotten that bad," she admitted, feeling sympathy for her modeling rival, but after a moment, her anger flared too brightly to be ignored. "So why is she still a member then?" Tansy demanded, not bothering to conceal the outrage in her voice.

Now it was Poise's turn to sigh. "Mrs. Carson has made it abundantly clear that no matter how much I, or my replacement, might like to, Fey cannot be turned out of Venus, Inc."

"Special privilege for the princess," snarled Tansy in somewhat justifiable outrage.

"No more so than what was given to a bully who beat a freshman boy almost to death," the senior returned icily.

The anger flowed out of Tansy just as fast as it had flowed in. "Touché," she said, her head hanging her head in shame. "What do I have to do to make amends for that?" she asked softly. "Fuck him? Will that clear the slate? Haven't I apologized enough?"

"That's the last thing you should do," Poise declared, careful to keep her voice discreet as they neared the Quad and significantly increased foot traffic. "Honestly? It would be a disservice to the boy and far too easy for you," she said with a smile to soften her words. "Being a leader means dealing with your mistakes, Tansy. As well as dealing with challenges with no easy solution. Fey is going to be one of those challenges. Mrs. Carson wants her 'fixed,' and that, Mademoiselle President, is your first concern next year."

"Nothing says the other girls will vote for me at the first meeting," Tansy cautioned the senior, but Poise only smiled.

"We know Freeze Frame will support you, and I think you can count on votes from Kayda and Loophole. As for the rest? You're clever. I'm sure you'll think of something." She stopped and took hold of Tansy's shoulders. "I name you my successor in Venus, Inc., Tansy," she said formally, then removed a small box from her purse and handed it to the junior. "With that, of course, comes my seat on the Alpha Council."

"But, Kodiak said ...."

"I've already spoken with him," Poise interrupted. "My decision stands, and he won't give you any trouble. Welcome back to the Alphas, Tansy."

Solange opened the box and let her eyes play over the silver, cursive capital A that was the Alpha pin. She sniffed back a tear or two, surprised that something as simple as a piece of sterling silver could mean so much. "I...Thank you, Coleen. I ... I promise, I won't let you down..."

"Tansy!"

The moment Tansy recognized the voice behind her, Tansy's tearful happiness was almost instantly replaced with the snarling annoyance of what she had begun to call Old Tansy. Don Sebastiano's voice had begun to take on the nature of nails on a chalkboard to her, but Tansy was aware enough to notice Poise merely step back to watch, her face carefully neutral. And that was also annoying, but Tansy schooled her expression and turned to face her tormentor. "What do you want now, Sebastiano?" she demanded impatiently.

The former terror of the school was a ghost of his former self, pale, hair less than perfect, clothes no longer so perfectly pressed and polished. Nor were his mental shields anywhere near their old levels, as his mind radiated his constant low level state of fear. Still, he went through the motions of trying to be his old self, smoothing his hair and jacket before hanging what he thought was a winning smile on his face. It was actually quite a pathetic performance. "Sorry to disturb the girl talk," he purred with a wink at Poise.

This caused the senior to roll her eyes in obvious disgust, but she stayed silent.

"Nothing terribly serious," the boy replied, his thoughts turning from fear to naked lust. "My parents are being difficult, some kind of financial 'thing' at home, and they said they can't afford to fly me back and forth for summer - if you can imagine! If you could just whistle up a set of round trip first class tickets for me, and a little spending money ..."

"No," Tansy replied, surprising herself with her firmness.

The Don blinked in incredulity. "Excuse me?"

"I said, 'no'," Tansy repeated, standing a bit straighter as her resolve solidified inside her. "Do you imagine me to be some walking ATM machine? You think you can stick something in me and money pops out?"

He suddenly glanced over her shoulder, and the color drained from his face as his eyes went wide and his mental shields collapsed completely. Suddenly Tansy knew that was exactly what the Don thought of her as - a whore - and he imagined himself her pimp, using her for money and sex, and soon to whore her out to others to cement his revenge fantasies.

Just like Hekate had.

Just like her own father had.

Tansy literally saw red as she was consumed with rage. Without thinking she unleashed the full force of her beauty glamor on the Don, and with his shields down she reached into his hind brain and pulled from it the sum total of every lust-filled and depraved fantasy he'd ever had. To the Don's eyes, a vision formed around Tansy, great portions of which came directly from Fey. He mentally saw Tansy's short, flirty, blonde hair flow out in a river of wavy red tresses that cascaded over her shoulders. The image that formed was mostly Fey, part Aunghadhail, and generous portions of Tansy, Poise, and other goddess of the campus; in his mind, it solidified in front of the him as the embodiment of every wet dream he had ever had.

"Worm!" snarled Tansy, flooding his brain with icy terror, rejection, self-loathing, and guilt. "You dare think, even in your most secret fantasies, to whore out me? ME?"

The Don stumbled and fell to his knees before his enraged goddess. "Pl...pl...please, Fe..Ta..."

"I am your GODDESS!" thundered Tansy in her anger. "Worship me and despair!"

"Please, forgive me, mistress!" wailed the Don. "I beg of you! Beg!"

"Forgive?" shouted Tansy. "That I should lower myself to forgive? You?! I should order you to fling yourself into a furnace! And you would obey!"

"I would!" sobbed Sebastiano. "I would, mistress, please forgive me!"

Tansy felt Poise's judgmental eyes on her, and with great force of will, she supplanted the personality her power had created for the Don's perfect woman. It was not a power she used often and it repulsed her how readily and easily she became the fantasy of the person on whom she used the power. "I will not be trapped here all summer with you underfoot," she declared haughtily. "You will have your plane tickets, if only to rid my sight of you, but nothing further!"

"Thank you, mistress!"

Old Tansy couldn't resist turning the knife; she took a step forward to present the slightly scuffed Prada pump she was wearing. "Kiss my shoe and then be gone!" A small gasp ran through the gathering crowd as the Don leaned forward from his grovel, worshipfully kissed the shoe, and then turned and scampered away. Of course, no one else had seen the goddess she had shown the Don; they had only seen Tansy command and Sebastiano obey.

"And you're worried about a vote?" Poise asked with a sardonically raised eyebrow.

Tansy finally looked over her shoulder to see what had scared him, but she saw only a clutch of students from where the trails to Emerson and Twain joined. No one looked particularly terrifying, so she shared a glance with Poise and turned back to watch the Don flee, a small smile of triumph adorning her features. "Not so much," she admitted with a chuckle.

**********

Friday, May 25, 2007 - Early Evening
Doyle Medical Center, Whateley Academy

"My arm ... tingles," Chou complained, cradling her blood-stained forearm in her other hand. Despite her visible need to comfort Chou, Molly stayed a few steps away, looking helpless and anguished.

"It's the taint," I answered, grimacing. "I need to ... purify your wound."

"And yours," Chou said, grim-faced.

"Yeah," I answered. "It'll take longer to affect me because of my spirit. Since the spike touched your blood, the taint will spread faster." I sighed. "But we have to wait for one of the magic arts staff, or Dr. Tenent. Between another healing on Skybolt right after class, sparring, and purifying the two security officers, I used up my essence and I'm exhausted."

"We did okay ... as a team, didn't we?" Chou asked hesitantly.

"Yeah. Say," I continued, puzzled, "I thought you had the Tao thing going for you and it made you almost indestructible! How'd you get hurt so bad?"

Chou shook her head. "I would guess that us fighting together served the Tao." She saw my puzzled expression. "If it serves the Tao for us to be a team, then the Tao will let things happen that make us work together. The Tao does what the Tao needs."

"So you getting clobbered and hurt might be part of some grand cosmic scheme?" I probably sounded a little skeptical. Truthfully, I was thinking the same. Wakan Tanka and the white beast had been nagging me about working as part of a team.

"Ophy is on her way."

I groaned inwardly at the unmistakable voice of Mrs. Carson. "Okay."

"In the meantime, start mixing up that nasty stuff, and I'll give you the essence you need," she continued. "And tell me what happened. The last I saw you two, you were dragging yourselves away from the training area like you'd gone a couple rounds with Champion."

I frowned deeply. "Yeah. Because we were tired and sore, because someone has been making Chou and I spar a lot. And then we get chewed out by Mr. Two Knives and her war-god mentor!"

"Kayda," she clucked disapprovingly.

I sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired, and it seems the sparring and competitions get more and more intense every day."

"Kayda," Mrs. Carson changed the tone of her voice, "I know you must think that we're unfair because we've been pushing your training so hard, but you are doing a lot better than you're giving yourself credit for."

I looked up at her in disbelief. "Yeah, right."

"Kayda, you've had a lot of experience dealing with me, right?" she asked. I nodded slowly. "In all that time, have I ever lied to you?" She smiled when I shook my head. "You've had a lot more challenges - threats - this term than most students get in four years. You've had to train hard so you could survive them. Think of it this way - if you weren't improving, if you weren't learning, would you be here?"

I looked down, not quite sure what to think. "I guess not." Then I looked up again suddenly. "But ... everyone just criticizes everything I do! Nobody ever says I do anything right!" I let my head loll forward again, sighing heavily. "All I ever hear is criticism."

"That's not true," Mrs. Carson gently chided me. "You're getting positive feedback all the time. Your problem is that you're so competitive that you never listen to the positive feedback. The other day, Mr. Two Knives, Guan Yu, and I all had positive comments when you sparred."

When I looked at her, she nodded slightly, a faint smile on her lips. Not quite believing her, I looked at Chou, who, to my surprise, also nodded.

"I'd bet that you focused entirely on the negative, right?" When I didn't acknowledge that comment, the Headmistress proceeded to review all the positive comments that she'd heard while she was watching us spar. The more she talked, the more stunned I was; I didn't remember a tenth of what she said she'd heard. And then she had Chou review the positive comments I'd gotten that afternoon. In the end, I hung my head in shame, because I knew they were right. There had been a lot of praise at my performance, and I hadn't heard it because I was too focused on the criticism.

"Tell me, Kayda," Mrs. Carson continued, "in your Basic Martial Arts class, how are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess," I said with a shrug.

"And how do you do with sparring?"

A frown crept across my features. "I ... I don't always spar," I replied. "Not as much as the others, and when I do, it's so Sensei Ito and Sensei Tolman can demonstrate new stuff by beating me up."

"You'll probably never hear this from Sensei Ito," she said, smiling broadly, "but Sensei Tolman informed me that with your extra training, you're ahead of the rest of the class, so much so that they're treating you like a TA. Did you consider that?" Again, I goggled at her in disbelief. "Sensei Tolman told me that you're helping teach techniques and refereeing sparring, correct?"

I nodded slowly; the gloom I felt inside was melting away, dissipating like a fog in the sunshine as fact after fact was put in front of me so I couldn't miss them. "So ... people think I’m doing okay?"

"Kayda, you're doing very well. You're tutoring in math, you're advancing very rapidly in martial arts, and your performance in your other classes is exemplary. And if that's not enough, a very experienced Chinese healer wants to trade notes with you." I goggled at that again; at this rate, my eyeballs were going to be permanently bulged out and I'd look like Marty Feldman. "I want you to meet with Dr. Bellows; I'm going to send him notes about this conversation so he can help you learn to focus on the positive, okay?"

I sighed, and then nodded. "Okay."

"Now, getting back to the business at hand, what happened?"

"We put our equipment away in Laird," I answered, starting to get herbs out of my medicine pouch, "and we were on our way toward Schuster when he jumped us."

"It was Magic Mikey that attacked you."

I nodded. "I thought so.

Mrs. Carson looked askance at me and Chou. "And neither of you felt ...."

I shook my head vigorously. "With the Mishibijiw's magic in the spike and the demon taint, the wind and earth spirits aren't reliable." I knew what her next question was going to be. "And I did have my shield spell active, but if you remember, the last time he attacked me, the spike went right through my shield, collapsing it."

Before Chou could continue the narrative, the door opened and Ms. Stone came into the room. "You don't mind if I observe, do you?"

"Not at all," I answered. Who was I to tell an instructor and Chinese medic no.

Chou continued the narrative. "His first hit got Kayda in the shoulder. Then he hit me before I could get Destiny's wave out. Kayda kicked him away from me, and Molly summoned a salamander to attack him."

"A lot of good that did!" Molly snorted.

I nodded in agreement as I continued to lay out the herbs. "One hit from the spike and the salamander shrieked and dissipated."

"He was going to hit Molly, so I had to ... distract him," Chou explained.

"Which led to your second puncture wound."

"Yeah," she admitted. "And then Kayda attacked him, and he stabbed her in the leg. By that time, I had DW out, but Molly shot him with a 'special' arrow ...." If Molly had missed, Chou and Destiny's Wave would have made short work of him.

"I'm ready," I interrupted before Mrs. Carson could analyze our combat tactics. We had fought more as a team than any time during the preceding week, but maybe that was because we faced a common threat. M2 was a lot quicker than we'd expected, which had to have been a result of the Mishibijiw and snake-demon magics. "Chou, you're going to have to undress. At least to your panties."

"Molly, scoot!" Mrs. Carson ordered, shutting the door behind the pouting girl. It wasn't like she'd never seen Chou mostly naked before.

"Okay, I'm ready," I told Mrs. Carson as Chou finished undressing and laid down on the examining table. "Just don't touch any of my blood. Or I'll have to do this to you, too!"

A hand on my shoulder, and I felt my Well refilling. "Okay, that's enough," I cut off the flow of essence before any was wasted. First, I did the decontamination brew, and judging from Chou's face, it was as bad as I'd remembered it being when I'd had to drink it. Then I painted the ritual markings on her and did the healing spell, pouring the rest of the decontamination tea onto her wounds, followed by the healing mixture.

"That's ... weird," Chou said as the potions took effect. "The tingling is gone."

"And your wounds should be healing." I did a quick scrying and detected no taint left on her. "All the evil magic is gone now."

Mrs. Carson smiled. "Get dressed and then wait outside for Dr. Tenent to do a healing on you to speed up your recovery."

As Chou dressed, I stripped, and then I grimaced. "Well, this is going to be tricky," I grumbled to myself. "Painting the ritual markings on myself...."

"If you can do the incantation," Ms. Stone jumped in, "I'll paint the ritual markings. Unless you can teach me the proper wording."

"That would take a while," I answered. I incanted over the two brews, then lay back on the table. As Ms. Stone followed my instructions on the ritual, I incanted the spells, with her pouring more of the healing brew on my shoulder after I rolled painfully to my side. "I hate this part!" I said, grimacing. Steeling myself, I gulped down the awful, bitter drink. "Yuck!" Ms. Stone then helped me with the healing spell. Satisfied that I couldn't feel any more taint, I sat up.

"That smells bad enough! How on earth did you convince Skybolt to drink that and let you mark her tongue?" Mrs. Carson asked. She shook her head. "Never mind. She had incentive." She patted my shoulder after I'd slipped on my uniform jacket. "I have to say, you're doing a very nice job on her. She looks like a completely different person without all that metal, and her attitude is a lot more positive."

"Two more healings should take care of the rest of the visible piercings. I'm going to take out all of her ear piercings," I added.

Mrs. Carson frowned. "She had her ears pierced when she got here."

I nodded. "I know. She told me. And I thought that if she got all of them healed, then she can choose to have her ears re-pierced the way she wants and it won't seem like a reminder."

I thought I saw a glimmer of approval on the Headmistress' face as she nodded in acknowledgement. "How are things going ... with the group?"

I glanced warily at Ms. Stone. "Pretty good, I think. Getting the piercings out is helping Sky a lot."

"And Cav?"

"It's slow," I admitted with a sigh. "Maria told me it probably would be."

"You told him?" Mrs. Carson asked simply.

"No," I replied, "I showed him ... in my dream space." I couldn't suppress a shudder at the mere thought of reliving those horrible memories, like I'd had to twice now. "I ... had to show Sky, too, because she could tell I was keeping a secret from her, and I needed her to trust me completely. We've been working through his memories in his dream-space, confronting them and showing him how he was powerless and was a victim."

"And I take it this is all helping you, too?" Mrs. Carson smiled when I nodded affirmatively.

"One last thing," the Headmistress added. "I know it probably seems like we're taking away all of your time with classes and special training, right?"

My jaw hung open in shock that she'd actually noticed. "Uh, yeah," I stammered.

"I'll set up a meeting with you and Mr. Lodgeman to plan a schedule for you. We'll set up a special topics class to cover martial arts and strategy and tactics. Since Ms. Nalley is going to be with you in my special topics class, we'll work the magic in that class since she needs it as well. With the core classes, we can ensure you have at least two free class periods for technical electives."

I was stunned almost beyond words. "Thank you," I managed to stammer, shocked that she was going to help with my academic advising.

Ms. Stone stayed after Mrs. Carson had left, keeping me for almost an hour to discuss my medicine in comparison to Chinese traditional medicine. She almost recognized the spells, but with different herbs, her spells and mine were a little different. She suggested, and Wakan Tanka later agreed, that we might want to experiment with a combination of our healings, fusing the Asian with the Native American. It was something she'd work into the special topics classes with Mr. Two Knives and Mrs. Carson.

**********

May 25, 2007 - Early Evening
Kane Hall, Whateley Academy

Franklin Delarose

"Chief?" One of the technicians poked his head into the 'briefing room' as they called the interrogation rooms, interrupting Delarose and Officer McGraw's discussion with Amber.

Delarose read the expression in the technician's voice. "Excuse me a moment, please." He stepped out of the room, closing the door behind himself. "Yes?"

"We did a scan of the knife from M2's room. Blood type matches Apathy. We'll have to wait a few hours for the DNA comparison to finish."

"How about size compared to the wound profile?"

The technician nodded grimly. "It's a perfect match."

"So Mikey is probably the one who killed Apathy?"

"He's number one on the suspect list right now. And we found this in his room." He held out a small charm. "It matches the one we found on the body. We caught Circe and had her give it a once over - it's the exact same magic spell."

"Any word from the psych department?"

"No. They'll get an eval of him tomorrow, but ..."

"Yeah," Delarose agreed. "He's probably clinically insane. Okay, thanks." Taking a deep breath to re-center himself and regain a neutral expression, he walked back into the room.

"Sorry about the interruption," the Chief said as he sat back down. "Now, do you remember Mike doing anything with Brad Collingsworth, Apathy?"

"Yeah," Amber said hesitantly, "I ... I think he met with him a few times."

"Do you remember when any of those meetings started? Or when he stopped meeting him?"

Amber frowned. "I think ... it was in late January? He said he found out something about Brad, and that they had some business." The brown-haired girl bit her lip as she thought more. "I'm not sure what they talked about - he never let me come along."

"I see. When did he last meet with Apathy? Do you know?"

Amber shook her head. "I'm not sure. I think it was a few weeks ago. It was just ... all of a sudden, he quit talking about Brad." A concerned scowl emerged on her features. "Why? What's going on? Has something happened to Mike?" She gasped. "You ... you think Mike killed Brad?"

The chief shot a quick glance at McGraw, and then shrugged. "We don't know. That's why we're asking questions."

"Mike would never hurt anyone! That's not who he is!" Amber protested firmly. "I want to see him!"

"Amber," the Chief said, trying to sound calm because he could tell she was getting worked up. "We don't know if Mike did anything. That's why we're talking to you."

"Is he okay? I want to see him!"

"I'm afraid you can't see him right now."

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Because he's ... heavily sedated." He nodded at her dumbfounded expression. "Have you noticed anything unusual about him lately? Any change in behavior or mood?"

Amber's scowl deepened. She could tell that they were poking for information, and she realized that the wrong answer could get Mike in serious trouble. "Not ... not really."

Delarose sighed, flinching slightly at her concern for her boyfriend, and at the same time, he knew that she was lying to protect him. "Amber, Mike attacked Kayda and Chou tonight."

"What?!?" the girl cried. "No! That can't be right! He'd never ...."

"Amber," Delarose interrupted her, "we caught him red-handed. He did attack them."

The girl was almost too stunned for words. "That can't be ...."

"Did Mike ever show you a copper spike, about eight inches long? Pointed on one end?" Delarose asked bluntly.

The girl started to deny it, but then she saw Delarose's concerned expression. He didn't seem like he was asking for information to hang Mike. "Uh, he didn't show me, but I saw it on his desk a couple of times." She frowned. "What's so special about that thing?"

"It has a very nasty demon taint on it," Delarose admitted, "which may have affected him. That's why it's important for you to tell us anything you know about his behavior, any changes you noticed. If you don't, we may not be able to help him."

Amber stared at the Chief for a few seconds, studying him. His expression seemed sincere, and he sounded like he was concerned.

"Amber, it's very important that you tell us everything you know. If you don't, we may not be able to help Mike," he repeated. "Fubar thinks that the demon taint has affected him. He thinks that Mike might be ... insane."

That was the detail that broke Amber's reluctance to talk. A torrent of information flooded from her - details that she remembered about Mike, what he said about Apathy, what he said about Kayda, his furtiveness about some of his schemes. In the end, the tear-stricken girl was escorted back to her cottage, with word to the housemother that she should be watched and given something to help her sleep, because she'd had a rough night.

It was nothing compared to the night Security and Delarose had already had, though.

**********

Friday May 25, 2007 - Dinnertime
Kane Hall, Whateley Academy

"Good evening, Kayda," the Chief greeted me practically at the door to Kane. After the attack, I wasn't surprised that he wanted to get my statement of what had happened, but I figured he'd at least wait until I felt better.

"It hasn't been so far," I replied dryly.

"Well, then," he said, "I'm sorry I can't make it any better." He looked at how I was moving. "I take it you got healed?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Shoulder still hurts like hell. He banged it up a little bit, and my knee, took a pretty good poke."

"I read the report. Torn rotator cuff, SLAP tear, serious gash in your leg, torn tendons and cartilage and strained ACL in your left leg? You call that banged up a little bit?" Delarose shook his head in disbelief. "And they let you out of Doyle?"

"They said I've overstayed my welcome," I answered with a shrug.

"I suppose Dr. Tenent got you all healed up?"

I winced at his guess, logical though it was. "She ... couldn't. The ... after-effects of the taint interfere with her magic. And I spent so much essence on removing the taint from Chou and myself that, well, I didn't have enough left for a healing."

"Do you have enough essence left to look at Magic Mikey?" the Chief didn't waste any time.

"Why?" I asked, frowning. "He tried to kill me - and if I understand things, several times, plus he harassed me a lot."

"Yes, I know," the Chief answered. "But we think he was ... tainted by that spike. I want to ask you to examine him to see if you can tell."

"No!" I shot back angrily. "Why should I help him? He tried to kill me!"

"Kayda ..."

"No!" I repeated.

"I can't make you," the Chief said slowly. "Mrs. Carson can't either, no matter how much she might want to. But she will ask, because it's very important that we know if he's been affected by that ... demon stuff on the spike. It's very important to the safety of the other students."

I thought briefly about the conversation I'd have with Mrs. Carson. And Ms. Grimes. And Circe. And every other instructor in Magic Arts. Those conversations wouldn't be pleasant. But .... It suddenly struck me that Wakan Tanka would have words for me, too.

"Yes, Wihakayda," my mentor said, gazing evenly across the top of her cup as she sat at the fire. "I do have something to say to you."

"You're going to tell me that I have to help him," I grumbled.

"No, Wihakayda," she answered. "I'm going to remind you that you are the Ptesanwi, the shaman of shamans. It is up to you to accept or reject the duty of a shaman to help even those who you battled."

I sighed, shaking my head. "Okay," I said grudgingly to the Chief. "I'll do it."

Mikey was nothing like what I expected. I thought he'd be more sinister - tall and dark and imposing - because I hadn't seen him in the daylight. Instead, he looked ... incredibly average. And at that point, lying on his side on the cot, he looked harmless. Marks on his arms showed that he'd been in shackles, and for an extended period of time, but at that moment, he seemed harmless.

With advice from Wakan Tanka, I incanted a spell, and then carefully touched him. The 'taste' was familiar, and quite foul. And yet, there was something else mixed in with the taint of Unhcegila - I recognized it immediately from the other spikes - it was the magic of the Mishibijiw. He'd be very fortunate if his mind wasn't completely scrambled.

"He's tainted," I reported grimly to the Chief as I left the cell.

Delarose grimaced. "Based on what his girlfriend and roommate said, that's what we were afraid of."

"And it's from the spike." I sighed. "If it hadn't been for the magic of the Mishibijiw, his mind would be totally gone. As it is ...." I shook my head; I honestly didn't know how bad he was.

"Is he going to get worse?" Delarose was clearly worried; the memory of Matthews was going to be with security for a long time.

"I don't think so. Not since he doesn't have the spike anymore."

"Okay, Kayda. Thanks for the info. You can go now. I'll get a report together for Mrs. Carson."

**********

Saturday, May 26, 2007- Morning
Room 205, Poe Cottage, Whateley Academy

The ringing phone stirred me from my a very pleasant dream I'd been enjoying, a dream of Whateley with no threats to me, no guys or girls harassing me, no-one objecting when Debra and I walked around hand-in-hand or when we kissed in public. I knew it was a dream because Hartford, Ito, and Bardue were very polite, even ... nice!

It took a few seconds for me to wake up enough to realize it was a phone ringing - long enough that Evvie groaned and muttered something about a hammer and stopping the noise. It was already getting light outside, so it couldn't be too early; a glance at my clock said it was a little after seven, and the number on the phone was from home - where it was a bit after six.

"Hello?" I muttered softly, stumbling across the floor and grabbing my robe as I unsuccessfully fought a yawn.

"Kayda?" It was my mom. "I'm sorry to interrupt you ...."

"It's Saturday! I was sleeping in, Mom," I grumbled, awkwardly slipping on my robe as I stumbled out into the hallway so Evvie could sleep in longer. Almost immediately, my ears picked up some noise emanating from the bathroom; I smiled to myself knowing that someone had forgotten to turn on the sound cancellation system. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"

I could practically hear Mom wince on the other end of the line. "It's ... it's your brother, Kayda," she said hesitantly.

"Oh, my God! Danny? What happened? Is he okay?"

"He's okay, Kayda!" Mom interrupted my rant of concern for Danny. "He's okay. It's just that ... well, it looks like he manifested."

A flood of relief surged through me. "Oh, thank goodness. Wait," I frowned. "You said he manifested? How? What ...?"

"I better let him tell you," Mom said to me. "He said your spirit had something to do with it."

"What?!?" I cried as I slumped into a chair in the common room. "My spirit? Tatanka?"

"Danny can tell you better than me."

"Um, hi, Kayda," Danny's voice sounded on the phone. "Um, I ... I manifested. I think."

"Mom said that my spirit had something to do with this?"

"I ... I hear a spirit talking to me. In my head," Danny explained hastily. "Mom is taking me to Sioux Falls this morning, so Valer ... so Card Trick and the others can help figure out what powers I have." Yup, he still had a thing for Valerie. Poor kid!

"And what does this ...."

"She calls herself Igmu Taka."

"The cougar," I finished for him.

"Puma!" Danny shot back, almost angrily.

I chuckled. "Same thing." Something he'd said belatedly caught my attention. "Wait, you said she!"

Danny had to be cringing at that moment. I wished I could see it. "Yeah," he admitted. "She said she's always a girl. And she said that Wakan Tanka put her in me so I didn't get a really lame spirit."

"Hold on," I had to slow down his excited - or frustrated - babbling. "You said Wakan Tanka put her in you? Are you an avatar?"

"She says I am." Prompted by my questions, he ran down what he knew, and what the spirit had told him. "Am I going to turn into a girl?" he asked at the end, his voice cracking. I figured he was near tears.

Now I was on the horns of a dilemma. After all the years of his bratty behavior toward me, I had a perfect situation to tease him, and rather brutally. But then again, he was my brother, and Mom was listening in. On the other hand, I began to catalog all the things he'd done to me .... Tempting as it was, I figured teasing could wait. "I don't know. Hang on a second."

I sipped the tea quickly, almost burning my tongue, and then sighed at Wakan Tanka. "What did you do to Danny?" I asked bluntly.

"He ... how do you say it? ... manifested. He is what you call an avatar, with a hallow, and he would attract a spirit."

"So you put a spirit in him?"

Wakan Tanka nodded, not in the slightest bit concerned or ashamed. "He would attract a spirit anyway, so I gave him one worthy of one of your blood-line."

"Igmu Taka." She nodded. "And ... Danny said it's a female spirit?"

"Yes," my spirit mentor answered.

"Is she going to change him? Into a girl, I mean?"

Wakan Tanka shrugged. "That's up to her. He may get some changes anyway."

"Why?" I demanded.

"Because his hallow is a little too small for her spirit." I goggled at my mentor. "It is nothing to worry about, Wihakayda. You can use the ritual to expand his hallow."

"Uh, are you guys on speakerphone?" I asked nervously.

"Yes," Mom answered. "We're all here."

"Are you sitting down?" I winced, giving them a moment to be seated. In the background, I heard a whimper of distress from Danny, guessing the worst. "Wakan Tanka confirmed that she put a spirit in Danny when she realized he was an avatar. And yes, it's Igmu Taka, and yes, she's a female spirit."

"Okay....." Mom sounded uncertain.

"She said his hallow is a little too small for her spirit," I continued. "What I learned in Avatars class," I quickly added before they'd ask the inevitable, "is when the Hallow is too small, the spirit might reshape the body to create more room for itself. We have a kid in class who's got a boar spirit, and since his hallow was too small, it was kind of ... reshaping him."

"She promised me she wasn't going to change me!" he cried out in distress.

"What can you do about that?" Mom asked. "You can do something, can't you? You have to fix this for Danny."

Ouch. "Well, maybe," I began, and then I explained both the ritual and the risks, including what had happened to Lanie. I omitted how much trouble I'd gotten in. "Look, when they check him in Sioux Falls," I added to try to calm them down, "they'll know more. And when I get a chance, I'll dream walk with Wakan Tanka and Danny to see what's going on, okay?"

"I guess," Danny said plaintively. He obviously wasn't reassured by what I'd told him.

"And me and your father," Mom demanded. When I didn't say anything, she pressed the issue. "You'll include us, too, right?"

There went my plans to torment my brother some more. "Yeah," I said reluctantly. "Have you had any changes?" I asked.

"My eyes are maybe getting a little cat-like," Danny said hesitantly, "and I can see a lot better in the dark."

"And you purr, too," Mom added, no doubt embarrassing the poor boy.

"Okay. I've got to get showered, get breakfast, and then get to my Saturday class. I'll call later this afternoon." I pondered a minute, and then because I couldn't help myself, I added, with a wicked grin, "And Danny? Don't worry. You'll quickly get used to being a girl. Gotta run. Bye." I hung up the phone quickly before anyone could say anything, smirking at the panic I had to have caused the brat. It wasn't like he hadn't earned some payback, after all. Smiling, humming to myself, I strolled back to my room to get ready for the day. Yup, I was going to have a lot of fun teasing Danny with this!

**********

May 26^th, 2007
Room 308, Dickinson Cottage, Whateley Academy

Tansy Walcutt

"Tansy?"

The soft knock on the door had been followed by a softer voice through it, but was sufficient to pull Tansy from CIA recruitment brochure she had been reading. "Come in," she called, returning the pamphlet to Sahar's desk and hung a welcoming smile on her face when she recognized her visitor. "Prue! Come in, please. Need to borrow something?"

Prudence 'Chemtrail' Tavori shook her head, midnight black ponytail flipping back and forth behind her head as she held out a FedEx envelope. "No, this came for you and I signed for it. I hope you don't mind ...."

"Not at all!" Walcutt replied as she took the cardboard mailer and ripped it open. "In fact, I appreciate the favor." In the envelope she found the tickets to Venezuela she was expecting she gave them a quick check to make sure they were exactly as specified, and with a small, cruel smile put them aside. Looking back up at Prue, Tansy couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Body-wise, they were practically identical - tall, lean and curvy, but above the shoulders .... Poor dear, she thought to herself. Such wonderfully perfect olive skin, but that over bite! And that nose! Well, between them, you almost don't notice the Neanderthal eyebrows ....

"Are...are you going to the big end of term social Kodiak is planning, Tansy?" she asked hesitantly. "You must have all the boys asking you ...."

Hope springs eternal, thought Tansy to herself. "No, dear," she replied with a rueful shake of her head. "I'm swearing off parties for a bit." A thought occurred to her and she asked incredulously, "No one has asked you?"

Prue shrugged and looked away. "Oh, you know how it is in the shop - you're so busy trying to prove you know what you're doing that all the boys get intimidated by you ...."

Tansy smiled as she pulled out her chair from her desk and waved the other girl into it. "Someone caught your eye?" she asked with a knowing look. Tavori's olive skin darkened with a blush. "Ah, who is he?"

Prue's gold flecked brown eyes looked away, bashful and dreamy. "Oh, he doesn't know I'm alive," she admitted wistfully. "He's in my advanced chemistry and polymers class. He's so smart and kind and his eyes ...." Prue saw Tansy smirking at her and gave a self-deprecating little laugh. "He'd never ask me, though - he's a freshman and I'm a sophomore."

"Didn't you tell me you'd skipped a grade once?"

"Fifth."

"So, you and this boy are the same age, right?"

Prue shrugged. "He wouldn't notice me, I'm nothing special ...."

"Didn't you have a number of lingerie shots last year when you joined Venus, Inc?" Tansy queried.

"Oh, sure," Prue replied nonchalantly. "Uh, Maidenform and J. C. Penny, but none of them showed my head. They were all body work ...."

Tansy reached up and pulled her scrunchie from her hair, freeing her pony tail to fall around her shoulders. "Dear, no one notices the windows without the right curtains." Tansy put a hand under Prue's chin and forced Prue to look her in the eye. "Did you sleep through Ms. Esiel's eye look lecture?" she asked in a weary tone. "Why don't you tame these brows?"

"Pluck?" she asked, fearfully. "It hurts, and daddy said I had Italian eyebrows and I just had to live with them ...."

"Dear, the cosmetics industry is a multi-hundred billion dollar industry because a real woman won't just give up and live with it!" She stood and went over to her vanity the far side of her wardrobe to get her tweezers. Drastic action was called for. "We will just have to make you noticeable! Who is the boy anyway? What's his name?"

"Adam," she whispered softly.

Tansy stopped and turned, astounded. "Lambert?" she demanded. "Greasy?"

"I know you don't like him..."

"No!" Tansy interrupted quickly. "I neither like, nor dislike him. And I owe him a very large apology for earlier this year ..." There is a God and He loves me! She beamed with the pleasure of a perfect plan dropped into her lap. Now was the time to pull out all the stops. "Come here, Prue, and have a seat. We're going to make you a star!"

**********

Saturday, May 26, 2007- Morning
Sioux Falls League Headquarters, South Dakota

Wish List and Vanity Girl sat on one side of the conference room's table, while June and Danny sat on the other, mom resting her hand reassuringly on her son's. "We'll start with a little psychic scan," Vanity Girl explained. "It's painless, and it should help us find out more about the spirit in you, okay?" Both of the women were dressed casually and not in their superhero costumes, and even in jeans, the two were stunningly beautiful.

"Okay," Danny replied nervously.

Wish List smiled pleasantly at him. "There's a very strict code of ethics for psychics," she assured him. "It's like doctor-patient confidentiality; nothing I find will be disclosed unless you choose to disclose it. That's my sacred promise to you, okay?" Danny nodded, glancing worriedly at his mother.

"Okay, now just relax. This won't hurt. You might feel like someone is looking over your shoulder, but that's normal. Are you ready?" Danny nodded, gulping uneasily.

As Wish List slowly eased into his mind, Danny tensed a moment, and then he visibly relaxed, his worried expression vanishing. A few minutes later, his eyes fluttered open, and he nervously looked around the room.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Wish List asked, smiling pleasantly.

"No," Danny replied, "but ...." He was suddenly uneasy again; Wish List had touched on some ... very personal ... memories.

"Word of honor," the girl reassured him, smiling.

"Did you find out anything?" June asked anxiously.

Wish List nodded, biting her lip for a moment as she considered how to explain things. "I could feel his spirit." She grimaced slightly, which caused mother and son to exchanged worried glances. "Your spirit is most definitely female. There is some ... dissonance ... between host and spirit because of that."

Danny's brow wrinkled with worry. "You mean she's going to ... turn me into a girl?"

Vanity Girl shrugged uncertainly. "We don't know. Dr. Winkler said that he sees signs that your auditory canal is a little higher than expected, and your eyes are developing a tapetum lucidum, the reflective layer behind the retina that enhances night vision and gives the 'eye shine' to animals. It's a typical cat adaptation. And your hyoid bone in your throat appears to be de-ossifying, which is to say, softening at least partially into cartilage - like great cats like a cougar, ...."

"Puma!" Danny snapped, unhappy at the cougar reference, given the connotation of modern vocabulary.

"Mountain lion," Vanity Girl said, shooting Wish List a wry smile. "So yes, you are changing. But, and this is the important thing for you to remember, nobody knows how much you'll change."

"Kayda said ...." Danny began before stopping.

"Go on," Wish List urged him past his reluctance. Or fear.

"She said that ... if my spirit is too large for my hallow, then ... it'll change me so ... it ...." He was distracted when Valery Hinson - Card Trick - walked into the room, joining the group.

Rowrrrr! Danny's spirit suddenly purred seductively. No wonder you think such naughty thoughts about her. She's cute!

"I don't ...." Danny abruptly halted his response to the spirit, realizing from the stares that all the women in the room were staring at him based on his sudden outburst. "Um," he muttered, blushing, "it's ... my spirit was ... talking to me," he finished, shrinking down in his chair and looking away from everyone else.

Maybe if you go sit in her lap, she'll pet us!

"Shut up!" Danny hissed, then glanced around again. He felt so humiliated that he wanted to crawl through a crack in the floor. "Kayda said she can fix the hallow thing," he muttered, "can't she?"

"Danny," Debra said from the doorway where she stood, "Kayda got in very serious trouble doing that, because it's very dangerous. And the girl she helped spent three days in a coma." She shook her head sadly. "Tampering with a person's hallow is not safe. There's a very good reason that she's prohibited from doing that again at Whateley without proper supervision, and that'll still take a lot of luck."

"So I'm stuck? I'm going to change no matter what?" Danny was almost in tears. He buried his face in his hands, sobbing, so Debra, in deference to her girlfriend, rushed to his side and wrapped him in a comforting embrace, while Card Trick hugged him from the other side.

"I didn't say that, Danny," Debra said soothingly. "It might happen, and it might not." She absently began to massage his neck and shoulders, much as she did to help soothe Kayda. Within seconds, she unexpectedly felt him relax, and then a trembling vibration coursed through his body with a throaty but soft rumbling sound.

"Ooh, he's purring!" Card Trick squealed with delight as she wrapped herself tighter around him and began to pet his head and neck, too. "That's so adorable!"

Danny didn't know whether to cry or not. While it was true that he had a bad crush on Valerie, and having her hold him close was one of his fondest wishes, she was stroking his neck and head like he was a pet cat, and he was purring in response! And she found it cute!

I like her, the spirit said happily, her voice contented and yet still sexy. Can we keep her?

**********

Sat, May 26-2007 - Lunchtime
Crystal Hall, Whateley Academy

"What is this, boot day?" I asked in astonishment as Team Kimba paraded into the dining hall, all wearing their boots - except Ayla; he was wearing his snake-hide high-heeled Doc Martens. Ros had her boots on. I glanced over at the Ghost-Walkers table, and Anna and Evvie and Alicia and Addy were wearing their boots. Further ahead in line, even Lanie had on the snakey-hide boots. And of course, Jade carried her special snake-hide 'Hello Kitty' purse.

"Who forgot to send Kayda the memo?" Toni asked with a smirk. "You get yo'self back to yo' room, 'hear, and get dem boots on. You can't be stylin' with us without 'em!"

She didn't see, or maybe she did and was pretending not to, but behind her in line, Scott was giving her the once-over, and who could blame him? It was finally warm enough to wear shorts and Toni was making the most of the opportunity to display her figure, with a tight, low-cut Tee showing her bare midriff and tight shorts clinging to her light they were sprayed on. She was screaming 'sexy' louder than if she'd have actually spoken.

"I should have put them on after class," I admitted sheepishly, "but I was on the phone with my family."

"Problems?" Ayla could have sounded like his interest was just a feigned social nicety, and perhaps there was a time when he would have sounded like that, but time and Team Kimba had mellowed him some and smoothed out his snobbish edges. He really did care.

I shrugged. "My brother manifested this last week, and I was on the phone with Debra and Mom. Everyone is worried about him."

"Oh?"

"Apparently, he's an avatar and he got a spirit," I said nonchalantly. "In fact," I lowered my voice, "a spirit I know personally kind of placed it there, because she was afraid he'd get something lame otherwise."

"What spirit did he get?"

"A cougar."

Eyebrows raised. "That doesn't sound too bad," Fey said hesitantly. I knew she was reading my aura - it was almost automatic for her - and wondered why I was amused.

"In some bands of Lakota," I continued, grinning from ear to ear, "the mountain lion is considered the embodiment of grace and sexiness. Female grace and sexiness," I added, unable to not smirk. I read the shocked expressions around me. "Yeah, it's a female spirit!" I said in a hushed tone.

"Is he ... going to change?" Fey asked quietly, shocked and echoing the sentiments of the girls around us. At least this amusing little tale was breaking through her despondency - if only momentarily.

I shrugged again. "He's already got a couple of minor things, so I don't know how much more he'll change," I replied, and then grinned again. "But until we know, I'm going to have a hell of a lot of fun teasing him! Like I did this morning!"

"You're bad!" Toni clucked, but I wasn't sure if it was disapproval or not.

"Yeah, I know. But he was such a brat growing up that I couldn't resist a little payback!" I started to laugh. "I really teased him about the fact that Valerie - one of the Sioux Falls League he was really crushing on over spring break - was cuddling him because - get this - he was purring and she thought it was so adorable!"

"He was probably dying of embarrassment," Billie remarked sympathetically.

"So ... he's a kitty-boy?" Jade asked, eyes wide with the same excitement as her voice. "Is he coming here?" She was practically bouncing up and down with anticipation. "He's got to come out here! Do you have a picture? I bet he'll be so kyooot! The girls will love him! He can join Wondercute!"

"Say, Toni," I tried to turn the focus away from Danny, because if he did come out here, I didn't want him stuck around Wondercute. He may have been annoying, but he hadn't done anything to merit that kind of revenge. "When we were sparring, my mentor and Chou suggested that you could help me make some katas that would help me with my weapons."

Toni grinned. "Chou already mentioned it. I've got a few ideas, so if you let me borrow your weapons for a bit, I'll get you some kick-ass routines, and you can start learning tomorrow morning during Tai Chi time."

"That's like five-thirty?" I groaned. "I hate waking up that early, especially on a weekend!"

"Do you want to get better with your hacky-choppy toys?" Toni asked, giving me a sly grin.

"Yeah." She got right to the point.

"See you at five-thirty."

**********

Sat, May 26-2007 - Lunchtime
Doyle Medical Complex, Whateley Academy.

Headmistress Carson

The headmistress gave one more glance to the boy strapped to the hospital bed, babbling to himself and mostly ignorant of the people around him. When someone spoke to him, he'd answer - sometimes - and occasionally made sense, but that was as all.

"What do you think?" Mrs. Carson asked the little huddle of her staff.

Dr. Bellows shook his head slowly. "Mr. Geintz and I concur, based on interviewing him, his girlfriend, and his roommate, that he's insane."

"If he is," Chief Delarose spoke up, "then we'll need outside expertise to confirm this. Otherwise, insane or not, he'll be facing a Murder-1 charge. There's no doubt he did it; we got a DNA match on his knife, he has a matching charm, hell, he even admitted it while we were talking to him."

"But?"

"But that admission won't hold in court because he didn't have an attorney present and he's not rational enough to understand his rights," the Chief said unhappily.

Liz Carson rubbed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, wishing she could massage away the difficulties of this issue. "How could one girl cause us so much trouble?" she said, mostly to herself.

"It's not Kayda's fault," Delarose countered, defending the girl.

"I know, Franklin," Liz admitted wearily. "Some of the kids seem to invite trouble, and she's unlucky enough to be one of them." She looked up at Dr. Bellows. "Alfred, what are our options?"

"Assuming he is insane, then our first priority has to be getting professional assessment recognized by the DPA and New Hampshire to confirm a diagnosis."

"And you're going to have to get agreement on jurisdiction. It could be the DPA, the BIA, or the State of New Hampshire," the Chief added.

"Okay. I'll get on the phone with the DPA and the Attorney General." She had a grim expression. "He may have killed a student, but if he's insane or demon-influenced, he should get treatment, not a death sentence."

"Then what?" Dr. Bellows asked the obvious question.

"Then we're going to have to persuade Kayda to try to heal him."

"After everything he's done?" Chief Delarose shook his head. "I'm glad that's your problem and not mine."

**********

May 26^th, 2007
Room 210 Twain Cottage, Whateley Academy

"Open the door and windows, minion! That crap stinks!" shouted Peeper.

Adam sighed with the grace of patience earned from long suffering as he put his soldering iron onto its holder and set down the spool of solder. "Okay, John," he said as he pulled his window open and then trudged across the room to open the door. It wasn't lost on him that Peeper was closer to the door and could have opened it himself.

There, he was startled by Mr. Filbert who was about to knock. "Oh, Adam, just who I was looking for," the house parent declared with a smile. "You have a guest."

"Me?" Lambert asked quizzically, but Mr. Filbert was already striding down the hallway toward the staircase.

"Stronghold! Put that down!" he commanded, glaring into one room, and then over his shoulder, he called back to Greasy, "You don't want to keep them waiting."

Thoroughly confused now, Adam trotted to and down the stairs. As he descended toward the common foyer he saw the normal comings and goings, guys from upstairs, talking with Whitman girls, nothing out of the usual there. His eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion at the sight of a pair of A list hotties from Dickinson - a blonde and a brunette. It wasn't all that surprising to see good-looking girls in Whitman, as there were a couple of fairly studly guys among the upperclassmen ... but wait. The two girls were exemplar babes, that was certain; why would they be here and not over at Melville? Drawn in spite of himself, Adam started walking over when the blonde looked up and turned, her blue eyes locking onto his green ones, and he very nearly pissed himself in fear.

Tansy Walcutt!

Greasy had had nightmares about Tansy for weeks after the vicious beating she had administered to him; once he had even wet his bed waking from a nightmare about it. Adam froze like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car, paralyzed with fright.

"Are you alright?" The touch on his arm startled him from the paralysis that had seized him. Adam was startled to realize he'd probably blanked out for several seconds - probably from fear - as it was Tansy's hand on his arm though he had no memory of the girls coming to him or him walking toward them. But suddenly, before the panic could really take hold, Adam felt relaxed and just a trifle confused. What did he have to be afraid of? Of course a pair of beautiful women had come to see him; he was a brilliant inventor after all, wasn't he? A scholar, a gentleman, and a prime catch for any woman.

Adam's spine straightened while he smiled an easy smile and dipped his head in a slight bow. "Perfectly alright, Miss Walcutt," he assured her, the words flowing off his tongue with an easy grace he never felt before but was strangely comfortable to him. "Forgive me, but with the sun radiant through the window making you both shine like stars, I was momentarily struck speechless by your beauty." Somewhere in his mind, it seemed odd that he was waxing poetic to these exemplars when he was usually tongue-tied around pretty girls, but that thought slid away to join his fears.

The brunette giggled and had trouble making eye contact, but Tansy was all smiles. "Such a flatterer," she declared, her tone make it obvious that she approved of his flattery. "Adam, I've been meaning to apologize about our little disagreement winter term. I was having a terrible day, which Peeper was making worse, and I took it out on you. I'm very sorry and I hope you won't hold it against me."

Lambert shook his head and dismissed her concern with a gallant gesture. "Making days worse is what Peeper does best," he assured her. "Please don't let our little misunderstanding trouble you." Greasy could remember precisely what had happened, but he couldn't for the life of him recall why he would stand up for Peeper and why he wasn't angry at Tansy. Though it didn't excuse what happened, he was also certain of the sincerity of her apology. And what kind of a cad would hold a grudge against a lovely young lady? Surely, he thought, the gentlemanly thing to do was to forgive and let bygones be bygones.

Tansy's smile was radiant. "That's very kind of you," she assured him, and in her voice there was a warmth and genuineness that told Adam that she really, sincerely was appreciate that he could be so forgiving.

"Think nothing of it," he declared. "I couldn't rest well knowing it troubled your thoughts for another moment."

Tansy made a gesture towards the brunette. "Well I don't want to take up too much of your time, but as you know, Kodiak is planning an end of term social, and I know it must be difficult for a young man of your talents to decide which lucky girl will be blessed with your company to the event. In that vein may I introduce Prudence Tavori, a friend of mine? Would you believe that no one has asked her yet?"

Adam turned the brunette who he now realized he knew as Chemtrail, and just as quickly he realized he didn't know her at all. How could any man overlook this Venus? He was at once awestruck that this delicate flower of feminine perfection could possibly not have dozens of suitors eager for her company, and yet at the same time was flooded with a tidal wave of manly confidence that the only man on this campus worthy to be in the same room and breathe the same air as this goddess was himself.

He took her delicate, perfect hand in his, dropped his lips to kiss the back of it, and told her with as much gallant smoothness as he could muster, "Adam Winfred Lambert, your humble servant."

Prue's cheeks darkened with a blush as she fought desperately not to giggle with excitement.

"And I would be honored if I could have the pleasure of your company for the social," he continued with unnatural grace and confidence.

**********

Sunday, May 27-2007 - Just After Midnight
Dream Space of the Ptesanwi

"Wait here," I said to Debra, pausing to give her a very prolonged, heartfelt kiss. She practically melted in my arms, and I in hers. "I've got to go get Danny."

"And your parents," Debra cautioned me, practically purring from the kiss. I felt the same way, tingling from head to toes as I scrambled to my feet. While Debra enjoyed another cup of tea with Wakan Tanka, I walked over the hill away from the camp, reaching out with my mind.

Mom's dream-space was easy to find; I'd dream walked with her a few times. Likewise, I found Dad, and I escorted the two of them into camp. "I've got to find Danny," I told them as they sat down. Mom immediately began chatting with Debra like mother and daughter, and Dad was even talking some; they really made her feel like part of the family, which she practically was, considering how bonded we were.

"Wakan Tanka," I asked, "can you come with me, please?" She rose and joined me, and together we walked back out of the camp. That earned a wary, eyebrow-raised look from Mom, but Debra distracted her by refilling her tea-cup before she could say anything.

As soon as we were out of camp, Wakan Tanka lightly touched my arm. "Why do you wish to talk to me, Wihakayda?"

I hesitated. "I don't know," I finally replied. "I feel like ... like ...," I shook my head, frustrated and confused. "I don't know."

"Is it possible, Wihakayda," my mentor asked, a wise and knowing tone that suggested she understood precisely what I was feeling, even if I didn't, "you are upset by your brother also being an avatar? That it makes you feel less special?"

I gawked at her for a moment as her words sank in, and then I looked ahead again. "Maybe." After another second, I looked down, feeling my cheeks warm. "Yeah, I suppose so." We walked in silence for ten or fifteen yards. "He was always the special one, Mom's baby, and ... and I never felt like I was special in their eyes. Until I manifested." Slowly, I shook my head, still hanging my head. "I feel like ... like it's him in the spotlight once more."

Wakan Tanka chuckled softly, but it was a gentle sound, not a mocking one. "You have your Debra, your tegila. You will never be second in her eyes, will you?"

"No," I replied. "But ... it's still not fair! He's getting all the attention, just like he always does."

She stopped and put her hand on my arm, halting me and gently turning me toward her. "Wihakayda," she said reprovingly, "you are a shaman. You must think of helping others first. Danny, your brother, is confused. He needs help. Can you think of him first, knowing that Debra will never stop giving you attention?"

I nodded slowly, knowing she was right. Danny did need help and guidance; he was confused and scared by the whole experience, and more-so because the spirit was female and he seemed terrified of changing like I had. "I'll help him."

It took a bit of searching to find Danny's dream-space; I'd never dream-walked with him before so it wasn't familiar, and Wakan Tanka refused to help me, smugly insisting that I was a shaman-in-training and had to learn to do these things on my own.

* - * - *

"This is so neat!" Danny said enthusiastically as we walked between the tepees; he was looking around almost in awe. "Am I going to get one of these - my own cool dream-space?" He was hardly being quiet, which was okay; I didn't want to surprise Mom and Dad.

"It depends on your spirit and you learning how," I replied with a shrug. "I am a shaman, you know, so my dream-space is a little special.

Behind us, Wakan Tanka walked beside Wihinape, chatting away with the cat spirit in Lakota, but I wasn't paying attention because I was too busy answering Danny's incessant stream of questions. Wihinape was a large, powerful-looking mountain lion that walked with an almost unnatural feline grace. Mom and Dad had heard us coming - no surprise given how loud Danny was - and had risen to greet him, but they both started when they saw the big cat walking in behind us. Mom's goggled at the cat and took a half-step behind Dad, and Dad was a little nervous as well, absently groping his hip for the pistol he always carried.

Wakan Tanka, the cat spirit, and I stopped, while Danny was tugged behind Dad, wrapped protectively in Mom's arms.

"Mom!" he protested, "I'm not a little kid!"

"But ... the cougar ...!" Mom stammered, still frightened.

"This is my spirit," Danny informed them. "She's ... not going to eat you or anything."

The large, tawny cat stepped forward toward our parents, and then her form flowed gracefully into an upright woman, albeit a woman with cat ears and a tail. "The boy and I are joined, spirit and host. I will not harm him, so you need not fear me." Her sultry, contralto voice oozed sex-appeal, and she moved with a feminine grace that was arousing just to watch.

She was also buck-naked, and seemed not to care one iota, if she even noticed.

Both Dad and Danny were staring at her very shapely body, her flat, toned abdomen, lovely rounded hips, long tawny hair that spilled down from her shoulders in front and back to partially hide her firm, generous breasts. In short, she looked like everything a woman would envy - except maybe the triangular cat ears high on the sides of her head.

"I'm going to enjoy being joined with you." She licked her lips seductively as she wrapped her arms around Danny's shoulders, leaning her head against his and all but wrapped her legs around him. Even from where I stood, I could hear the purring coursing through her.

Danny's eyes betrayed mixed emotions - having a naked ultra-sexy cat-woman rubbing all over him was more than slightly arousing, but the thought that he might be changed by that spirit to looking somewhat like her was disturbing. Dad shifted uncomfortably to take pressure off ... vital parts, while Mom sort-of glared at the cat-spirit practically dry-humping her son.

"What's she saying?" Dad gulped, trying to focus his concentration on the cat-woman's race and not her nude body.

Of course! I'd forgotten the languages spell on Dad. Mom spoke Lakota, so I just had to take care of Danny and Dad. Incanting, I touched his forehead, and then turned to Danny, who flinched, drawing back a little.

"Oh, he won't need that, sweetie," the cat-woman purred at me, taking the time to deliberately look up and down my body and licking her lips. "I let him understand the tongues of all the different People!"

Debra noticed her gaze and rose from her seat, practically stomping to my side and wrapping her arms possessively around me and glaring at the cat-woman. "I'm the soul-mate of the Ptesanwi!" she declared angrily, marking her territory so the sultry woman would keep her hands off.

"I see." She eyed Dad hungrily, then looked at Mom. "I suppose this one is yours?"

Mom glared at the cat-spirit as well, putting her arm around Dad's waist. "What do you want with my son?" she demanded.

"Let us sit and talk," Wakan Tanka said with a bemused expression. "The boy has many questions, as do his parents."

"You may call me Wihinape," the woman purred Mom, Dad, and me, while still nibbling on and practically licking Danny's ear and causing him to squirm uncomfortably.

We all sat, and Debra and Wakan Tanka passed out cups of tea. "I understand from Kayda that you had something to do with slut-kitty there being bound to my son," Dad growled at Wakan Tanka once she'd sat down again.

"My name is Wihinape!" the cougar-woman protested, a sexy pout on her face. "Not slut-kitty!"

"What do you want with him?" Mom demanded.

Wihinape shrugged, and she made even that simple act an exercise in sex-appeal. "To have a host to walk the earth again. To give him my powers in exchange for a little of his core essence."

"It is the same as all avatar spirits," I explained quickly before Mom and Dad got the wrong idea. "Humans with a hallow have a kind of spiritual energy that feeds the spirit. It's a symbiotic relationship - the spirit gets sustaining psychic energy, while the host gets physical power from the spirit."

"Okay," Mom acknowledged, still frowning at the overly amorous and unashamedly woman who had twisted herself onto Danny's lap and was hanging all over him, "but why did you give him this ... this ... slut?"

"Hey! I'm not a slut!" Wihinape protested indignantly.

"Would you rather he had the spirit of a garden slug, or perhaps a moth?" Wakan Tanka asked, scowling at Mom and totally ignoring Wihinape. Mom gawked at that, too stunned to answer. "Or would you rather that I left his hallow empty so that an evil spirit, an enemy of the People, could dwell in him?"

Mom, Dad, and Danny all gulped, wide-eyed, as they contemplated what Wakan Tanka had said, that Danny could have had something really nasty or undesirable in his hallow.

"I didn't think so, either," my mentor finished. "The brother of Ptesanwi should have a noble spirit, worthy of the family. So I selected the spirit of the mountain lion."

"But what if she ... changes him?" Dad asked, also astonished at Wakan Tanka's logic.

"I said I wouldn't," Wihinape replied angrily. "Probably not." She purred as Danny found himself absently running his fingers through her hair. "Not much. Maybe not." She stretched luxuriously, a most feline move for the woman that was ultra-sexy in her nudity. "I might have to, though - it is pretty tight in his hallow!"

Danny's eyes widened at that, and though he was shocked, something about the cat-woman's purring kept him rubbing her head. "I don't want to change!" he wailed.

"Don't worry, Danny," I said, winking at Debra. "We'll all help you adjust." Dad's mouth dropped, and Mom glared at me. "I know you'll have a ball shopping when you visit Sioux Falls - we'll make it a girls' day and get you some really nice, pretty outfits ...."

"And a girl has to have at least one set of naughty underwear!" Debra chimed in.

"And a little black dress!" I added without interrupting.

"And heels!"

"Kayda!" Dad said sternly to me, giving me his patented 'Dad glare of disapproval' at how I was teasing Danny.

"Oh," I added, ignoring Dad, "while we're in France this summer, we'll make sure we pick up a few nice outfits for you, too!"

Danny's lower lip trembled as he visibly fought off tears, while Wihinape cuddled and purred and Mom stared in disbelief at Debra and I, both of us giggling madly at how we were making poor Danny suffer. I was going to get a serious talking-to about it, but I had to do it while I had a chance. But it was worth it.

I did get chewed out by Mom and Dad for teasing Danny. And by Wakan Tanka. I expected my little brother to relish in the fact that I was in trouble, but he was so upset at what Wihinape might do to him that he didn't even gloat a little bit. We talked a long time, me and Wakan Tanka trying to answer their questions. When we were finished, it was pretty much agreed that the best thing for Danny would be for him to come to Whateley next fall.

Great. Now I'd have my little brother - or little sister if Wihinape changed him - underfoot. I'd have to talk to my soul-sister, because she had her pesky little brother on campus too. She might know some coping strategies.

**********

Sunday, May 27-2007 - Very Early Morning
Outside Poe Cottage, Whateley Academy.

"Oh, shut up!" I grumbled at the alarm clock, which of course did no good, but the slap I gave it managed to stop its noise - hopefully before it woke up Evvie.

No such luck. "What time is it?" she groaned, sounding at most half-awake.

"Too early!" I muttered back, letting my head flop back on my nice soft pillow, fully intending to go back to sleep and ignore the reason I'd set my alarm so early anyway.

That, too, was not to be. Moments later, a rapid knock sounded insistently on the door. With my eyes mostly shut, grumbling softly, I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled to the door, cursing loudly when I stubbed my toe on a bedpost. "Damn!"

"Just get out of here and go exercise so I can get back to sleep!" Evvie snapped at me.

Hopping on one foot, trying to rub my now-sore toes, I unlocked the door and pulled it open a crack. "Oh, no!" I moaned.

"I figured you might have a hard time getting up," Toni said, looking bright-eyed bouncing on the balls of her feet. "So I figured I'd make sure you were awake."

"Tell me this is a bad dream!" I muttered.

"No," Evvie replied from under her covers, "you said you were going to exercise. So go! Let me get back to sleep!"

"Come on, sleepyhead!" Toni bubbled energetically.

Trying to keep my eyes open, I grabbed the exercise outfit I'd laid out the night before and then stumbled into the hallway with Toni. "Stop bouncing!"

"It's hard to be still at this refreshing time of the morning!" Toni countered.

"You're sick. You know that, don't you?"

"You're almost as bad as Nikki," Toni replied with a grin. "Now come on."

Half walking, half pushed, I changed in the bathroom, and then, dumping my nightie back in my room and grabbing my weapons, I was half-dragged by a bouncy-ball on speed down the stairs and outside.

We were at a high-enough elevation that the night air still had a serious nip to it, and I was instantly awake. "Damn, this is too cold!"

"Invigorating," Toni countered. "The word you're looking for is invigorating!"

We met a group of Tai Chi enthusiasts - far more than I thought would be insane enough to get up at insanely-early on a Sunday morning - and went to a flat, grassy area behind Poe. Chou was already outside, and she smiled at me in acknowledgement.

"Chou will lead the others in their normal routine," Toni said, tugging me off to one side as the group started to limber up and stretch. Toni did the same, but she was stretching in ways that looked anatomically impossible. I found myself gawking at how incredibly flexible she was. "You better stretch," she chided me, "or you'll regret it later."

After we were warmed up, Toni held out her hands. "Let me have your weapons," she ordered. I gave her the tomahawks, and she backed away and felt their balance and heft. "Watch me; I'll do the kata I came up with at normal speed, and then at slow speed. Then we'll walk you through it so you learn."

The way she wielded the weapons looked like normal speed - for Addy! She was a blur of motion, and it struck me that if Mr. Two Knives was to spar with her, he'd get his ass handed to him, despite years of experience and training. Toni was that natural with martial arts.

"Okay, did you catch that?" she asked when she was done.

"No," I shot back. "I'm not a speedster."

"Well," she admitted with a wry smile, "it might have been a tiny bit fast."

"Ya think?"

She walked through it slower, and I still missed a lot. I felt like I was asking her to practically stand still the third time. Then she walked me through the exercise.

"This feels ... weird," I muttered halfway through. "Like ... it's supposed to be this way, but not the way Mr. Two Knives is teaching me."

"Yeah, I suppose not." She grinned. "I went through it with Mr. Two Knives yesterday. He said I was doing it all wrong, but when I beat him sparring, he had me demonstrate it to him again." She laughed, her grin broadening. "I bet he's probably doing this routine at his apartment."

After another three run-throughs, I had the routine down and felt good - until Toni spoke up. "Okay, tomorrow we'll work on part two."

"Part ... two?" My eyes had to be bulging from their sockets.

"Yeah. There are four parts to the tomahawk kata, and ...," she frowned. "We need a cool name for it. Tomahawk kata got no zip!" She shook her head. "Anyway, then we'll work on the knife and tomahawk kata."

"How many parts to that one, four also?"

"No, that's more complicated. That one has five parts."

"I better film this so I can remember it all, then," I said with a heavy sigh. "Some of us aren't ki-queens!" I put on a look that said I was lost in thought. "I wonder if Naomi has a super-slo-mo camera I can borrow ...."

"I know you've got exemplar memory, so you don't have an excuse to forge it!" Toni shot right back, still grinning. I had a feeling that she looked at this as a challenge.

"What weapons is this based on?" I asked as together we walked back toward Poe.

"Kama and sai," Toni answered.

"Damn," I feigned grumbling. Chou was only a step or so ahead of us and no doubt overheard everything we were saying. "Chou was right. She's never going to let me hear the end of it!"

Chou tried to suppress her chuckle at my comment, but she failed, and she turned to try to glare at me, but she failed miserably in that feigned endeavor. "Darned right I won't." Breaking out in giggles, she gave me a quick hug.

As I hugged her back, I felt a stab of pain in my shoulder and knee, enough that she noticed. "Are you okay, Kayda?"

I shrugged off her concerns - and my own. "Yeah. Probably overdid things a little practicing. Toni's katas aren't exactly natural positions for a normal human being!" I shot her a look - narrowed-eyes, but grinning playfully.

"Isn't that the same side you got hurt the other night - when we were attacked?" Chou expressed a concern that had gone through my mind.

"Probably just a coincidence." I'd considered that and discounted it. I would have felt any residual contamination, after all, and that would have been the only way to interfere with my healing. I glanced, and both Toni and Chou looked like they weren't exactly convinced.

**********

Monday, May 28, 2007 - Noon
School Grounds, Whateley Academy

"I really don't want to eat in the cafeteria today," Laurie said, sighing.

"I know," Alicia groaned, standing in line with the rest of us waiting for the serving line to move a little bit - slower than usual since all us students were eating in a trickle rather than a swarm. "It's too nice a day to eat inside."

"Why don't we eat outside then?" Adrian chimed in, giving the first hint of enthusiasm about our meal.

"It's Memorial Day," Alicia retorted. "We're supposed to have a big barbeque, with ribs and chicken and potato salad!" She looked around at the rest of us. "At least that's what mah folks always did."

Vasiliy, Addy, and Chat Bleu - who was becoming a fixture at Vasiliy's side - gawked at Alicia. "Do not understand," Vasiliy said, laying his Russian accent on thick. If he was trying to impress us, it was a wasted effort. If he was trying to impress Chat Bleu, he needn't have bothered because she'd already become enchanted with him, or so it seemed.

"Memorial Day is a holiday to honor all the members of the armed forces who gave their lives in service," I said solemnly. Though it might be passé to some kids my age, respect for servicemen and women - and especially those who died in service - was something my town took seriously.

"Ah," Vasiliy said, eyes opening in understanding. "Is like Victory Day. May Ninth is day we celebrate victory of Red Army over Nazi Germany and honor all veterans."

Addy nodded. "In France, we 'onor the war veterans on Armistice Day - November Eleventh."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "From what I remember, our Veteran's Day used to be called Armistice Day, but it was changed to honor all veterans, not just the dead."

Naomi shuddered. "Can we talk about something besides war and dead veterans?" she asked. "It's kind of ... depressing."

"Why don't we have a ... an Armistice Victory Veterans Memorial Day picnic?" Evvie chimed in, her face lighting up. "We'll get our food in to-go bags ..."

"Except Vasiliy, who'll get a cart," Chat Bleu giggled.

I couldn't help but laugh as I picked up on where Evvie was going. "And we can hike to the lake and have a picnic!" I completed the thought. "That sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Better than sitting in the caf," Adrian agreed. "Or the fixer's patio."

Evvie glanced out to the side of Crystal Hall. "Yeah, it looks like everyone wants to sit outside today.

Addy suddenly perked up. "I'm going to talk to Chef Peter," she said, then she zipped off - walking slowly for her but running for everyone else - toward the kitchens. I looked at Evvie and shrugged; I had no idea what she was up to.

Her intent became apparent a few minutes later when she waved us all over to the doors back into the kitchen area. Not knowing what else to do, we all walked over, and were surprised - and delighted - to find a basket of picnic supplies and a few somewhat large carry-boxes that were normally used to keep food warm for transporting it to catered events.

"Go get some food," Addy said with a grin. "We 'ave a picnic to go to!" She read my questioning gaze. "Chef Peter said if I ever needed a favor to ask 'im. So I asked."

We loaded up as much food as we thought we'd need - potato salad, hot dogs, hamburgers and all the fixings, all the food we'd all traditionally had at picnics. Sadly, though, there were no good barbequed ribs or brisket, and both Laurie and Alicia let us know that it just wasn't going to be a proper picnic. With the muscle we had, carrying the boxes to the lake wasn't difficult, and by noon, we had cloths spread out on the grass under a spreading shade tree, the sky clear blue overhead.

Eventually, we got around to our summer plans. Everyone knew that Addy, Alicia, and I were going on a whirlwind three-homes tour. I glanced at Laurie and saw her smiling faintly, glancing at Adrian.

"Okay," I said to her, smiling. "Spill it. What are you planning?"

"Um," Laurie tried to stammer her way out of telling us, "nothing. I'm just going home to Houston."

"And?" Evvie asked, one eyebrow cocked. "What else?"

"Nothing," Laurie repeated, but we could tell she was hiding something.

"You're taking Adrian home to meet the folks!" Naomi guessed, which after her behavior was a good guess.

"It's not like that!" Laurie protested, looking rather embarrassed which confirmed Naomi's supposition. "His parents are back in the UK, so ...."

"A likely story!" I laughed before turning to Adrian. "If one of her folks starts saying 'welcome to the family'," I giggled, "run!"

Adrian shook his head. "You guys are bad! It's not like we're engaged or anything."

"Be careful," Evvie chuckled. "Her daddy might have a shotgun, and then you'll be proposing real quick!"

"I've got a summer job helping around the offices in the Windy City Guardians," Evvie said proudly. "And so does Naomi."

My eyebrows lifted at that. "This wouldn't be because your brother pulled some strings, would it?" Evvie looked a bit embarrassed. "And weren't you going home to Montana?" I said to Naomi.

"Hmmphhh," Naomi snorted. "You know what there is to do in Montana? Nothing! But Chicago - jazz clubs, lake Michigan ... that'll be a fun summer!"

'And Evvie is there, too,' I thought to myself, giving Evvie a covert wink which made her flush slightly. Of course she wanted to spend the summer with her girlfriend!

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Addy interjected suddenly. "I was talking with Ayla last night ...."

"A little pillow talk?" Laurie chuckled. It was well-known around school that Ayla considered himself a boy, and that he was still equipped like a boy, and thus spending time with Addy had romantic and sexual overtones.

Addy blushed a little - she and Ayla did spend a lot of time together, and no doubt there was some hanky-panky going on. "It is not like that!" she denied vehemently, but in my mind, I kept hearing the line, 'methinks the lady doth protest too much.'

"Ayla 'as to go to France to work on the deals with Vera and with papa, so 'e is traveling with us! Since Ayla only travels First class, 'e upgraded all our tickets!"

"No wonder you're so happy about the trip!" Alicia giggled, waggling her eyebrows.

Addy responded in a very mature, dignified fashion - she stuck her tongue out at her room-mate.

It was just that kind of a picnic, where we talked about our summer plans and kidded each other and enjoyed the weather. It was one of the most fantastic days' I'd had at Whateley.

**********

Monday, May 28, 2007 - Evening
Outside Poe Cottage, Whateley Academy

"You're moving like you're in pain," Toni observed as we strode from the grassy area she'd been instructing me in another part of the kata she'd created.

"I told you," I shot back with a smile, ignoring the ache in my shoulder and leg, "those positions you put yourself in are not natural!'

"But they shouldn't hurt you like that," She countered. "Mr. Two Knives hasn't mentioned anything about stiffness or pain."

I chuckled derisively. "He's a former marine. He wouldn't complain if you nailed his foot to a floor!"

Toni wasn't convinced. "Isn't that the side you were attacked the other night?"

I didn't even have to think. "Yeah, but I did a healing and fixed it."

"Maybe you should go to Doyle and get it looked at." Hearing that suggestion from Toni startled me. If she thought it was bad enough to have it looked at, it was probably bad.

"Nah," I replied. "It's just a little strain from those weird movements you put in the kata."

Toni eyed me warily. "Okay," she said slowly, hinting in her tone that she didn't believe me. But since I was being stubborn, she decided to drop it. "By the way," she changed the subject, "you need a name for your fancy workout."

"Why?" I was genuinely puzzled.

"Because every kata has a name. Tai Chi has names for the various parts. Every kata in the martial arts class has a name." Even in the fading evening light, I could see her broad grin as I stared at her in surprise. "You want to be cool, you gotta name the kata."

"I don't think so," I replied.

"Hmmm, let's see," Toni mused aloud. "You're Lakota, right?"

"Yeah?" I wasn't sure where she was going, but I was reasonably certain I wasn't going to like it.

"And you've got Tonka Trucka." I could see the smile creeping across her face, worrying me. "How about 'Tonka Trucka Kata'?" she asked. "Or 'Tonka Truckata?"

I groaned my disapproval. "I don't think so."

"I don't think you get to decide," Toni clucked at me. "It's the master who names the katas, and in this case, that's me."

"Oh, God, please, spare me!"

"Or ... Lakota kata?"

"That's dumb!" I tried to change the subject. "After a workout like that, maybe we should round up the gang and go have a nice soak in the hot tub?"

"That's an idea," she perked up. "It'd be good for Nikki, especially if Bugs is free. And Rip?" A cheery laugh erupted. "Although the last time she was in the hot tub, she almost got banned!"

We walked into the cottage through the back door, but I had to know. "Why?" I had a feeling that it was something that one had to be there to really appreciate.

"She, um, kind of made a mini-waterspout," Toni giggled. "In the pool with Beltane and some of the older girls."

"Yeah, that'd do it."

"So, where were we?" She thought a moment or two. "Lakata?"

I groaned at that one. "You make it sound French or something!" I protested.

"Tomakata?"

"That's almost as bad!"

"I like it! It's the tomakata!" Toni said triumphantly.

I shook my head. "Now I suppose you're going to tell everyone. Sheesh, I'm going to be teased mercilessly whenever someone finds out I'm doing a tomakata!" I grasped her arm lightly, turning her toward me. "Why couldn't you have called it the White Buffalo kata or something?"

"Let's get the gang together for a hot tub party," Toni ignored my input and went to another subject. She looked up at a status board by the stairs, the cottage's 'special' stoplight board to let everyone know whether they had to be careful with their displays of affection and such. The secret most cottage residents knew, but no-one else, was that there was a little marker that slid back and forth on the bottom of the board, revealing either a small pink bead or a small blue bead, indicating which gender was using the hot tub, if any. If the bead was centered and showing both beads, as it was at that moment, the hot tub was open. The bead position was also magically linked to the access controls for the hot tub grotto, thus ensuring that when the girls had it reserved, boys couldn't get in and vice-versa.

"Great!" Toni sang cheerfully. "Reserve it for us while I go start rounding up the troops!" Before I could protest, she was halfway up the stairs, actually doing cartwheels and backflips to climb them.

"Who gave her sugar today?" I said to myself, shaking my head. She was so energetic at times that she was tiring to just watch. I moved the slider to cover up the baby-blue marker, and then trudged up the stairs myself, wincing a couple of times as my knee throbbed. Those katas were going to take a long time to get used to.

Over the next forty minutes or so, girls trudged in twos and threes out the back, disappearing into the woods behind Poe to the underground grotto. Eventually, most of the girls were there, save for some like Marty, who was probably with Steve, and Lily, who we knew was with Hank.

Bugs was doing a good job with her continued 'comfort-therapy' for Nikki; I hadn't seen such a contented, peaceful look on the redhead's face in a long time as she cuddled with the blonde devisor. Rip was making waves in all three of the pools - literally - until she was threatened with expulsion, at which time Toni decided to distract her.

When Ros came down the ladder and shed her robe, I smiled. "Over here," I called to her, indicating an empty spot beside me. Several of the girls turned to stare at me in shock because they knew Ros had been hunting me and I'd been unhappy about the unwanted attention. But Ros and I had come to an understanding after I learned what she'd been doing. We talked some, with her trying to not be obvious staring at me and me doing the same with her.

For a brief moment, I considered the last time I'd been in the hot-tub with Ros, and I felt strangely warm thinking about the birthday kisses I'd received from her and Lanie. No doubt I was broadcasting my emotions, because Fey and Evvie both perked up and stared at me, somewhat in disbelief. Of course, that made my cheeks burn with embarrassment, which only deepened when Evvie winked at me. I wondered how many other girls were receptive empaths or telepaths, but I dared not look around to see who else was gawking at me.

I glanced to the side and saw Ros sitting, looking relaxed, but her eyes still reflected her loneliness. I glanced again at Fey, who simply shrugged. "Aw, what the hell?" I muttered to no-one in particular before turning, taking Ros' face between my hands, and kissing her, long and passionately, ignoring the murmurs and whistles and catcalls among the girls.

When I finished and drew back, almost breathless, Ros stared at me, her expression a mixture of confusion and delight. "What ... what's that for?" she asked timidly.

"I don't think I thanked you enough for what you did for me," I replied with a smile. "But mostly, I heard your birthday is in July and I won't get to give you a birthday kiss then."

"Birthday girl?" Some of the girls knew what that meant, and they queued up to also give Ros sisterly birthday wishes, which led to the discovery of another summer-birthday girl and more kissing. Neither Fey nor Bugs participated in the well-wishing; based on how they were sitting and cuddling, I really hadn't expected them to. Still, it would have been a lot of fun if it had been Fey's birthday. She was so gorgeous and shapely that I couldn't help occasionally entertaining a momentary thought of her, and I suspected nearly every other girl in Poe did the same.

I was walking back to Poe a few steps behind Ros, who was walking alone. I did a couple of quick steps and got to her side, somewhat starting her. "Um ...," she started hesitantly.

"Shhh." I placed my finger across her lips to silence her. "We'll talk once we're in the cottage. Maybe the second floor study room?" She nodded, so we walked in silence the rest of the way. But no sooner had we entered the common room than she threw herself around me, clinging to me like a drowning man to a life ring.

"Thank you," she finally stammered, and I could tell she was speaking through tears, although I didn't know the source of them.

"For what?"

"Nobody ...," she started, backing up so we were looking eye-to-eye, "nobody ever remembered my birthday. Since it's in the summer, it kind of gets overlooked."

I leaned my forehead against hers, still looking her in the eyes. "Ros, I want you to do something for me."

"What?" she asked hesitantly, her eyes wide.

"I want you to be happy. I want you to find someone or something that puts a smile on your face, and enjoy life." She nodded slightly at that. "Promise?" I asked insistently.

For a few seconds, she stared at me wonderingly. "I promise," she finally said softly.

"Good," I hugged her tight again. I really, really hoped she'd listen; she'd been way too quiet and reclusive since that one morning in Mrs. Horton's apartment. I worried about her, and as her former lover, I knew Debra did too.

**********

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - Morning
Arena 99, Whateley Academy

"So this is combat finals?" I was with my friends in the stands at Arena 99, looking through the force-field into a simulated city-scape. Lining the top of the force-field were several very large displays showing views that were hidden from the audience's direct view; no doubt they were also used for close-ups and replays of significant events. The stands were pretty full - the juniors and seniors were doing their finals that week, so those not in class were often at the arena. And the freshmen and sophomores had nothing else to do but watch others in the hope of finding a winning strategy and hopefully seeing people they'd rather not fight in the arena with someone else.

"Yup," Adrian replied first. "This term it's a hostage rescue."

"Oh? What's that? How do you make a competition out of that?"

Naomi shrugged. "Based on all the combat finals I've been in, if you rescue the hostage, you get the win. If your opponent does, they win."

"Hmmmph!" I snorted derisively. "Sounds like a contest for the right to challenge the champion. Why don't they just team up?"

Evvie laughed. "You weren't here last fall. Loophole tried that with Sizzle."

I didn't like the sound of that laugh. "What happened?"

"Gunny wasn't very happy. He turned the simulation on the pair of them. He got pretty nasty," Adrian reported.

I couldn't help but wince; I'd been on the receiving end of Gunny's sadistic streak. "Ouch!"

"Loophole had her revenge," Evvie laughed. "She actually manifested because of the stress, and it just amped up her gadgeteer power. She figured out how to crash the whole simulator. Hard. It took a long time to get everything back on-line." Evvie shook her head, still chuckling. "Mrs. Carson was really, really pissed."

My eyes must have been bulging at that - for two reasons. First, I couldn't imagine Gunny being thrilled with someone crashing his precious simulator systems at all, let alone for days. Second, I knew that the spirit binding I'd done had cost Lanie that very system power. If she got in a similar situation in this combat final, she didn't have her power to help her. Despite all her protestations to the contrary, I still felt very guilty about that.

"Good morning," Gunny's voice boomed through the PA system. "Welcome to the combat finals for Spring, 2007. This year, the theme is hostage rescue; you will have some variation of that theme in your individual finals. The hostage takers may be armed. They may kill the hostage or they may flee at the first sign of trouble; you don't know which. There may be few or many henchmen. The hostage taker may or may not be super-powered. Your goal is simple: to rescue the hostage and deliver him or her to law enforcement. How you achieve the rescue is entirely up to you. If, however, you in any way damage the simulator systems, you will fail immediately, and you will be called to a disciplinary hearing where you may attempt to justify your continued presence at Whateley Academy."

"Told you," Evvie chuckled.

"Due to heavy student betting on the outcomes of these finals, which by the way is strongly discouraged as noted in the student handbook," Gunny continued in his gruff voice, "this term, we will be identifying the contestants by number until they are in the arena, at which time their MIDs will be displayed. Each of you was given a random number by your academic advisor or house-parent; that number is your identifier. As with all combat finals, from the time you are called, you have twenty minutes to report to the check-in, regardless of your location on campus."

"Even if you're eating? Or ...?" I asked.

"No matter what you're doing, you have to report," Adrian confirmed with a grim nod, "or you fail."

I leaned close to Evvie, who was next to Naomi and whispered, "I guess that means no 'nooners' for you two since you might get called at any time." Evvie frowned, while Naomi stuck her tongue out at me.

"How long do the matches last?" I was quiet curious.

Laurie shrugged. "It all depends. Figure around three-hundred twenty or thirty freshmen and sophomores when you leave out the NCs ...."

"NCs?"

"Non-Combatants. The ones who won't - or can't - fight. Some of the Thornies, some for religious reasons," Naomi explained for me.

"I should have done that."

Evvie laughed. "Too late now. Besides, with your experience, do you really think the administration would let you out of a combat final?"

The PA interrupted further teasing of me. "Students four-twenty-six and one-seventeen report to the arena. Students four-twenty-six and one-seventeen, report to the arena."

A few of the kids pawed in their wallets or purses for their ID note to check, while two rose and walked toward the arena entrance. As soon as everyone realized that Hippy and Belphegor were going to fight, many students swarmed down the stairs and under the stands - most likely to the bookies to make their bets. Others had their cell phones out and were frantically typing; where there was money to be wagered, the bookies would find a way, and it looked like cell phone apps were a very popular way.

Hippy was glaring at Belphegor, who looked more than a little nervous floating in his chair, various gadgets and devises attached to the contraption.

"Anyway, as I was saying, in five days, they have to get a hundred-fifty or so combats. They average about a half hour between them."

"A half-hour combat?" I was more than a little scared at the prospect.

"Eight to ten minutes usually. Sometimes more, but more often less. It all depends on who's fighting," Adrian continued his explanation. "Then it takes fifteen to twenty minutes to clean up the mess from one simulation and get ready for the next."

Because they didn't have to reset the sim, it only took a couple of minutes for Sergeant Wilson to brief the two, and then after donning their costumes or masks, they entered the arena, with Belphegor floating around nervously while Hippy glared at him and growled. I'm glad I wasn't fighting her; since Sara Waite had disappeared, Hippy had been extra surly, trying to goad anyone she thought was tough into a serious fight, spending a lot of time in security and detention, and getting a lot of counseling. More than a few of us wondered if maybe she didn't have a death wish. In fact, all of Sara's 'Pack' were taking her disappearance hard; Paige Donner wasn't being let out at all because almost anything tripped her blood rage. Feral and Gypsy were morose - moping and dejected. And Jet - part of the J-team that seemed to be bound to Sara somehow, was spending all her time searching anywhere and everywhere on campus in an attempt to find Sara.

When the horn sounded to start the sim, Hippy stomped toward Belphegor, who turned his chair and fled. Following that display of manly courage, the big Amazonian girl stalked around the arena, looking carefully around herself, scrutinizing all the people. It was easy to tell when she found the hostage-holder's location.

From the monitors, we could see that the hostage and villain - there was a collective gasp in the crowd when many of the students recognized that the villain was Titan - were on the third or fourth floor of what appeared to be a new and still vacant building adjacent to a construction site. She took a few moments to look at the people around her; I think she noticed the construction workers who seemed to be focused on the building and not the construction work - obviously muscle.

With an angry roar, Hippy charged right into the muscle closest to the target building, bashing him into the building so hard that it was unlikely that he was going to be any further threat; instantly, the other hired goons began to run toward her, drawing weapons and shooting, but as she was a high-level exemplar, the bullets had no effect. She charged into the core of the building, to the elevator shafts, which perplexed us, until she alternated decking the hired help and ripping open the elevator doors and ripping the cables apart. Within thirty seconds, she had killed all the ground-level henchmen and disabled all the elevators, leaving the stairwell as the only access to higher building levels. She dashed up the stairs, snarling angrily and no doubt taking her out anger and frustration at Sara's disappearance on the simulation.

While she was demolishing the elevators and racing up the stairs, Belphegor turned up the anti-grav on his chair and darted up the side of the building, pausing to look in the windows. Having found something, he paused, backing away from the window a little bit, waiting.

Hippy burst through the door onto the third floor - which was mostly empty, devoid of partitions and furniture - and right into a very large man. Snarling, she threw herself at him, knocking him over before turning to Titan. Screaming in rage, she charged at him, and to her total surprise, he easily took her charge and then grappled with her.

Belphegor was satisfied - the unoccupied people were the large henchman and the hostage; he pressed a button and a ray shot out from his chair, shattering the mostly-unbreakable glass and then his chair darted through the opening. Ahead of him, the stooge struggled to regain his feet after being run over, watching Hippy and the brick fight. At the sound the glass shattering, he turned suddenly to the new disturbance. Instantly, he drew a pistol and started swinging the barrel toward the hostage, who looked to be a prominent businessman or politician - it really didn't matter.

We all dreaded the shot that would end the scenario, but before the henchman could react, Belphegor pressed another button, and some kind of energy ray shot out from another of his devises; the goon and the hostage froze, while in the background, Hippy had barely noticed as she continued to take her anger out on Titan. The anti-grav chair sped to the brick, ramming him and sending him flying away from the hostage.

"Hey!" Hippy roared, having finally noticed Belphegor, "get the fuck out of here!" In her moment of distraction, Titan slammed into Hippy again, knocking her into and through one of the building's windows. Despite her rage, she couldn't help but scream as she plummeted three stories toward the ground. The scream became an ear-splitting screech of extreme pain, startling everyone, while back in the building, Belphy pulled the still-inert hostage onto the back of his chair and sped back toward the window and escape.

We all sat, stunned beyond belief, eyes riveted on the simulation. Hippy was a high-level exemplar and level 6 regenerator - she couldn't be injured, at least not seriously. Or so we thought.

By dumb luck, she'd fallen onto a concrete pier under construction, and more specifically, on the re-bar sticking up from the concrete. Two of the bars impaled her, one through her neck and the other through her chest. The horn sounded immediately to end the simulation even as medics swarmed into the arena toward Hippy.

Around me, more than one student hurled their breakfast at the gruesome sight, while I leaped to my feet, already fumbling at my medicine pouch as I ran three-at-a-time down the stairs toward the portal through the force field. I got to the scene so fast that the medics had just begun evaluating her condition - Banned Aids was first there, with Jericho and his medical scanner right behind him.

"It's through the left ventricle!" Jericho practically screamed. "We have to leave it in or she'll bleed out before the heart muscle can regenerate!"

"Her body is trying to regenerate!" Banned Aids countered, panicking. "And if we move her much, the one in her neck is going to crush the medulla and spinal cord!" He looked up at Jericho. "Can you stop her regeneration?"

Jericho shook his head, his expression grim. "I got nothing."

Dr. Guitterez, working with the two boys, looked at me. "Can you do anything?"

I started to shake my head, but then I had a sudden thought. "Maybe ... the unpurified spike - it interfered with Chou's and my healing!"

"Do it!" Dr. Guitterez ordered me.

"I don't have it with me!" I cried. "It's in Kirby!"

Dr. Guitterez looked at Banned Aids and Jericho. "Can you guys keep her stable long enough to get over to Doyle?"

Both Jericho and Banned Aids winced as they looked at her. "Maybe," Jericho said uneasily.

"Get the bars cut off and transport her with them in." The doctor looked at Banned Aids. "Try to stop her regeneration!"

I'd never heard so much doubt and fear in Kelly's voice; normally, he was the epitome of calm. "I ... I don't know how!" he sounded like he was almost in tears. "I don't know if I can."

"You have to try it! Try to use your power in reverse to suppress her natural healing. Jericho, watch her vitals!" She didn't even look up at me. "Get your spike and meet us in Doyle! STAT!"

I didn't wait, but dashed as fast as I could out of the arena, while behind me, the team was working carefully to cut the re-bars from the concrete to free Hippy, doing their best to not disturb her injuries.

**********

I stumbled, weary, to my seat, plopping heavily down beside Evvie. All of my friends - and indeed many students around me - were staring intently at me. I knew the question on everyone's mind. "She's going to be okay." A collective sigh sounded from all in earshot, and a wave of low conversation rippled outward.

"What happened?" Laurie asked.

"Exemplar-6s are almost bulletproof," I replied. "Almost. Her body falling that far impacted harder than a .50 BMG round. One of the re-bars penetrated her heart. If they'd have taken out the bar, she would have bled out before she could regenerate, and if they let the regeneration happen around the bar, it could have cause bad complications. And the other crushed several vertebrae and almost severed her spine."

"What did you do? Couldn't Banned Aids and Jericho and Dr. Tenent handle it?"

I shook my head. "We had to turn off her regeneration until they could get her on a heart machine and surgically repair her heart." I shook my head, sighing heavily. "I ... I deliberately ... contaminated her with the last spike."

"You what?!?" Evvie and Laurie and Naomi screamed all at once.

"I had to stop her regeneration. That was the only way I knew to stop it." I looked at my hand and saw I was shaking. "She's in surgery now," I said, "the old-fashioned kind - at least until they get her heart repaired enough to let her regen take over. Kelly is wiped - it turns out he can use his power to slow healing, but it totally drained him."

"What about you?" Evvie asked, concerned with how tired I looked, which if it was anything like how I felt, had to be bad.

"I ... had to do a couple of spells to slow her bleeding, once they started to take out the re-bar pieces. And I'll have to go back later to purify her to remove the contamination." I looked down, to where the crew was starting to reset the simulator. Notably, the concrete and re-bar construction set pieces were gone. "What did I miss?"

"Ayla fought Tissy," Adrian reported.

"And you missed Generator's final!" Laurie chuckled. "You have got to watch the replays later. It's abso-freakin-lutely hilarious!" It must have been - by the time she finished saying even that simple descriptive sentence, she was nearly in tears from laughing.

"Little girl is insane!" Vasiliy chimed in, shaking his head in disbelief while simultaneously laughing. "Would not want to fight her. Understand why she has UV armband."

"What did she do?" I was more than curious.

"She ...," Evvie started, "she ... and that Kitty Compact of hers ...." Evvie could barely speak, she was giggling so hard. "It flew right ...." I was afraid she wasn't going to be able to breathe through her laughing. "You should have seen the look ...."

"I have so got to get a tape of that!" Naomi chimed in, leaning on Evvie as she, too, was rocked with laughter.

"Yeah!" Evvie agreed, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes and gasping for breath. "I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of the Windy City Guardians when we show that!"

Damn - it must have been good if just thinking about it had them laughing so hard they could hardly speak. I really wasn't bothered by missing it, though, because Hippy had needed my help.

**********

End of Part 2

Kayda 7 - Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon (part 3 of 3)

Author:

Elrod

Audience Rating:

General Audience (pg)

Publication:

17,500 < Novella < 40,000 words

Genre:

Transgender

Character Age:

Teenage or High School

TG Universes & Series:

Whateley Academy by Maggie Finson, et al

Permission:

Posted by author(s)

A Whateley Academy Adventure

Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon

By ElrodW

(with thanks to EE Nalley and Phoenix Spiritus
for contributed scenes and idea)

Le Lakota tolowan yelo
Channi tatanka oyate ki
Icic' upi nahan taku un
Umnipi nahan unkotipi kte k'un
Lepa unk' upelo

Wasicu ki ahi nahan
Wicakasota pi tka
Tatanka tawowakan ki lena
Hecenanhgluhapelo

This is a song for the Lakota

Long time ago the buffalo nation gave themselves
So we can survive and have shelter
The white man came and wiped them out
But we still have the spirit, the power of the buffalo

Tatanka comes, stand and deliver
The souls of the brave live forever
The trail of tears is a tale of courage
Tatanka comes, Tatanka comes

"Tatanka" - Molly Hatchet

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - Late Morning
Arena 99 Student Seating, Whateley Academy

As soon as the PA system turned on with its distinctive 'click', every student perked up a bit, unsure if they were next in the arena. "Students two-ninety-six and three-forty-two report to Arena 99." The verbal announcement was also displayed on the arena's video screens and throughout campus.

"Damn!" I muttered angrily. I'd really, really hoped I could watch a lot more finals to get some idea of a strategy before I had to do my own. That and my right shoulder and knee still had a little twinge of discomfort.

While all the other students milled about, some going to the bookies but more going to the concession stand and restrooms, I trudged down the stairs toward the locker rooms where I'd change before getting instructions in a small briefing room. I'd finished my costume on Saturday, so I couldn't help being a little bit eager to try it out, but at the same time, I was very nervous about the combat final. I'd only watched two combat scenarios, and I was intimidated by what I'd seen. It was a contest to see who was going to get the good grade, and it looked pretty cut-throat. Plus I'd heard stories from the fall combat finals.

This was the first time I got to wear my costume, and I was pretty proud of it, even though it did resemble my shorter buckskin dresses more than a little bit. Like with figure skaters' costumes, the arms and neck of my shirt and my tights were Kevra dyed to match my skin tone. Over that, my dress looked like light-blue-dyed buckskin, with a little intricate beadwork in traditional Lakota patterns and frills at the neck, waist, and skirt hem; besides being attractive, the beading had a little additional armor value in critical spots. I wore over-the-calf moccasins, like usual, but like everything else on my costume, these were made of a little sturdier material than leather. I put on a simple diamond mask to hide my eyes and I trudged to the briefing room. Gunny and Ito were there, stern-faced as always, and a girl sat with her back to me. With a sinking feeling, I recognized her immediately; it was Chou. She wasn't wearing a costume that I could tell - just dark pants and a sleeveless blouse that looked like it was red silk with wide dark collars in a sort-of wraparound style. She had a bag that was slung over her shoulder like a hippy purse. I knew the bag was really not very innocuous; Chou's bag of holding contained a wealth of surprises. No doubt Destiny's Wave was slung over her shoulder - as usual. In all our conversations walking to or from sparring, I knew that thanks to the Monkey King, it was invisible when she had the sword in its sheath. I couldn't help but wonder what other holdouts she had hidden away.

Mr. Two Knives had been working with me on holdouts; I had a couple of throwing knives in one of my high moccasins, and some throwing spikes in the other one, even though I wasn't very good with them yet. And since the rules said that we could only carry what we normally carried, I didn't have my bow. I was going to have to get a bag of holding like Chou so I could carry my bow and other weapons.

Damn! I was supposed to fight Chou? Or compete with her to be the first to rescue the hostage? I was quite overmatched and I knew it. I sighed heavily, sensing my grade plummeting, because she was so much better than I was. And she'd been in some genuine supervillain fights, and had taken team tactics with lots of experience in the simulators.

"Your setup is pretty basic. A villain has taken the daughter of a senator hostage. He has threatened to kill the hostage if his demands aren't met within the next ten minutes. He will kill the hostage if an attempt is made to rescue her. The number of henchmen helping guard the villain's hideout is unknown. The powers of the hired muscle are unknown. There may be one or more emergency exits from the hideout. The villain is a low-level wiz and a regenerator, and he has in the past been known to hang out with a brick. Your job is to rescue the hostage." Gunny looked evenly at us, but I caught a twinkle in his eye - perhaps of mirth. It would be like Gunny to enjoy torturing students with these kinds of convoluted scenarios.

"Our grade is based on what?" I asked cautiously. No sense in pissing off the referee.

The PA system crackled to life. "In the next final, Pejuta and Bladedancer." No doubt our MIDs were on display on the screens. Immediately, there was a dull rumble from the seats over our heads as students raced to the bookies to place their bets before the match started.

"Your grade is based on how you apply your powers and training to rescue the hostage," Ito answered.

"Is this a winner-take-all scenario like the fall combat finals?" Chou asked.

"Your grade is based on how you apply your powers and training to rescue the hostage," Ito repeated.

"Is it permissible to ... interfere with her rescue to help me perform the rescue?" It was my turn to try to pry information out of the inscrutable duo.

"Your grade is based on ...." Bardue began.

"... how we apply our powers and training to rescue the hostage," Chou and I groaned together.

"Any questions?" Ito asked with a nasty smirk.

"Like we'd get any useful answers if we did have any questions," I shot right back under my breath. From the look Ito was giving me, he'd probably heard my comment.

"If you have no questions, Pejuta, to the south entrance, Bladedancer, to the north. You will be led to your starting positions."

"Aren't you going to wish us good luck?" I asked sarcastically. The scowls I got from both instructors more than answered my question.

We walked out of the room like Roman gladiators to the cheering of the crowd, which made me tremble with uncertainty. I shot a glance to my side to see if Chou was also affected by the crowd, but she seemed calm. We turned, each toward our respective entrances, but I paused and turned. "Chou!" I called to her. She halted and looked over her shoulder at me, her face unreadable beneath her mask. "Good luck."

Chou simply nodded. "You too."

* - * - * - *

Trembling with nervous anticipation, I stood in my designated spot, amid the buildings and streets of a simulated town so realistic that I forgot what lay beyond the force-field; in fact, holographic displays lit up our side of the field as well as the distant walls of the arena, extending the landscape into the far distance. The people - ANTs in various disguises - were going about their business so convincingly that I started at the 'woman' arguing with a shopkeeper over the freshness of his produce. The entire experience was so immersive that it was momentarily disorientating.

Casting a ghost-walking spell to avoid attracting attention, I began to trot through the streets, looking for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. The sadists in the control booth hadn't told us anything about where the hostage was held. The only thing I knew as I jogged past it was that there was a small police station, most likely the destination if either of us managed to rescue the hostage.

I was surprised that there were cars - probably 'dressed' ANTs - that I had to dodge, but then again, I'd heard how realistic the combat finals could be. All the while, I was watching for ... something. Something unusual or out of place - and that was difficult, since I was from a small town and this was clearly a large city, with multi-story buildings, each of which had apartments over storefronts, like a deli or hardware store or drug store. Scowling to myself, I rued the fact that I'd grown up in a small town, where a two-story building was as tall as they came. H ow the heck was I supposed to know what was out of place in ....

I halted suddenly, so abruptly that a pedestrian ran into me and bounced off, jostling me and probably startling the heck out of the woman who .... I caught myself with that thought. Damn! This was so much more realistic than the virtual sims - and those were pretty realistic - that I was getting lost in this artificial world!

On the steps of a stereotypical apartment building, a man sat reading his newspaper, but as I looked more closely, something seemed wrong. An older, retired man? Okay. Someone who looked like he was down on his luck? Sure. But this rough-looking, solidly-built man was looking over his newspaper, and he was not casually attired. He was scanning up and down the street, his eyes alert and his expression hard. I stopped to look around a little more, suddenly wary of this situation.

There! - another one out of place. The stereotypical customer at a deli was definitely not a burly-looking construction worker leaning against the wall and pretending to eat a sandwich, while looking around alertly. A closer examination revealed a slight bulge inside his shirt at his waistband. A gun? Probably.

My surveillance was interrupted by a girl walking down the street - out-of-place in her costume. Despite my ghost-walking spell, Destiny's Wave would see me and Chou could easily take me out of the game, so I scurried away from her, still watching over my shoulder. She walked cautiously down the street, trying to appear normal as she hunted for me and for the kidnappers, but none of us were trained or experienced as undercover agent, and a couple of men - one of whom I'd already figured as a henchman - shifted alertly. Damn, it was so cliché to have the man getting his shoes shined be one of the thugs; I should have seen that.

With Chou scoping out the street, I scooted around a corner. The kidnapper was in one of the three-story buildings, but which one? A glance around the corner gave me a hint - the shop by the deli was the most obvious choice. Time to have a closer look, but then I remembered what Gunny had said - the villain might flee with the hostage. An escape route? That made sense. So there was a second entrance. But where? Out one of the other buildings? Down the sewers? It could be anywhere.

I started down the street at a trot; the clock was ticking and I had to find the back entrance. Halfway down the street, nestled between two shops, was the entrance to a narrow alley. A drunk with a bottle in his lap lay in the alley, leaning up against a wall, head lolling to one side. Something about him wasn't quite right, though.

Still ghost-walking, I crept down the alley, estimating the distance until I figured I was behind the deli. Like all the other buildings, the one I suspected had an exit to the alley. Cautiously, I eased the door open a crack, peeking in.

Jackpot. The villain had to be in the building; otherwise, there was no reason to have a bear of a man sitting on a stool by a stairway, looking up and down the hallway with a serious frown. I paused to listen to the earth spirits; they didn't work well in a city, evidently, but well enough to confirm the large goon, plus somewhere above - second floor? - I sensed three more people. Probably the villain, one more goon, and the hostage. I carefully let the door shut and then crept back out of the alley, past the drunk.

Time for another look on the street. I trotted back to the main street, and as I rounded the corner, I could see that two of the men I'd pegged as thugs were talking to Chou. Hmmm - could that be enough of a distraction? Another look told me not. Two other men were still in watch positions, and if I went in the back, they'd charge in the front of the building, trapping me. Somehow, I had to take out the front goons and the heavy in the hall at the same time.

Closing my eyes for a moment to think, I decided on a course of action. The ghost-walking spell dissipated, and I walked briskly down the street toward Chou. "There you are!" I called out loudly. "Did you get lost again?" That startled the men, just as I'd figured it would. "Come on! The other girls are waiting!" I took Chou's arm and tugged her down the street, babbling about a huge sale in a dress shop like I figured girls would.

"What are you doing?" Chou demanded when we got around a corner, out of view of the thugs.

I bit my lip for a moment. "Look," I said, wincing, "I don't think either of us can win this alone."

"Oh?" Chou was wary, but at least she was listening instead of attacking me.

"Gunny didn't say that we had to win this alone, did he? He didn't say it was winner-take-all, did he?"

Chou frowned. "Are you suggesting we cooperate? Because the last time that was tried, by your friend Lanie, it didn't work out so well."

"You have a better idea?"

She thought for only a second. "No." She stuck out her hand toward me. "Deal?"

I nodded, shaking her hand. "Deal."

I laid out what I'd already found. To her credit, she'd reconnoitered the setup in the opposite direction as I had; she found a man pretending to be drunk at the other end of the alley which didn't surprise me at all. Unlike me, she hadn't investigated the alley to find the rear entrance to the villain's lair because she smelled a trap. She explained that she knew there was more to the setup, so she wanted to verify that there wasn't more muscle - which there was. And it looked like all were armed.

"You've got your shield spell," Chou noted. "Will that protect you to take out the men in front?"

I winced. "I wish I had my bow. I bet I could speed-shoot and take all of them out. That's my only ranged weapon." I had another thought. "You've got your bow in your bag, right?" She nodded. "You're just as good with it as I am with mine."

"You could use my bow ..." she started.

"I can use my shield and ghost-walking to go in the back," I continued quickly, interrupting her. I had a plan; I had to explain it quickly and sell her on it. "And my weapons and fighting style are better for close-in. I can ghost-walk right past the big thug and find the hostage taker. It'll be a surprise strike."

"Can't you cast the ghost-walking spell on me? Or I could use my Robe of Midnight to walk or hide in the shadows?" Chou obviously wasn't happy with my plan. Did she want the glory of making the rescue? Surely she wasn't that petty, was she?

I pushed that thought away. "In the middle of the day? Are you sure your robe would work when there aren't any shadows?"

"I think you'd be better on the street," Chou argued. "You could take out the muscle in front and then come in that way. We'd have the goons inside in a pincer."

"What if your stealth cloak can't hide you?" I shook my head. Something gave me a mental nudge, more than I should have allowed. "Look, Chou," I argued, "time's wasting. I know my ghost-walking spell will hide me. You're not absolutely sure if your stealth cloak will in this situation."

Chou shook her head, frowning. "Fine," she said, clearly unhappy but not wanting to keep arguing. "I did take team tactics, you know."

"You walk down the street and take out the goon on this end," I continued, ignoring her sage comment. "I'll ghost-walk and run down to the other end, and I'll take the other guy out when I see you attack. Then you go back to the main street. I'll wait outside the back door for the sound of a disturbance out front, okay?"

"You're burning your essence pretty fast," Chou observed. "Do you have enough for all of this?"

I nodded. As soon as Chou pulled on her costume - a dark tunic over her silk blouse - and put on her belt with her weapons and holdouts, I incanted the ghost-walking spell again and then touched Chou to give her an extra edge. She nodded, and I ran back down the street, past the unsuspecting thugs, heading toward the opposite end of the alley, while Chou walked to her destination.

Attacking the two thugs or sentries was anti-climactic. I saw Chou's weapon smack hard into the guy who'd been pretending to be a drunk. As soon as she struck, the guy on my end bolted to his feet, his bottle forgotten and his hand reaching inside his coat, probably for a gun. A thrust from Wakan Mila ended his ability to interfere.

While Chou was presumably heading back toward the street, I slipped down the alley to the doorway. It seemed like forever before I felt the earth spirit telling me that one of the 'men' had fallen over.

I yanked the door open and darted in, but there was a huge tingle through me - almost a severe static shock, and all evidence of a ghost-walking spell vanished. Shit! Some kind of magic wards, like at Doyle!

The big goon was already pulling out a gun, looking toward the front where Chou was attacking, but he spun as soon as he heard the door opening. Startled by my spell collapsing, I hesitated, and gorilla-goon's gun swung toward me.

My tomahawk hit his hand before he could shoot, and the gun clattered to the floor. A moment later as he stared in shock at his badly wounded hand, I hit him again with a backhand blow right in the side of his neck. The big guy's eyes popped open, and then he slowly toppled.

* - * - * - *

Chou Lee

Something about Kayda's plan nagged at Chou; it seemed the girl was being too quick to rush in. On one hand, her weapons were suited for close combat, and if it worked, her shield spell might be the difference between success or failure. On the other hand, Destiny's Wave would be better if they were against a mutant or someone empowered or if there were magic wards. There were too many unknowns, and the time deadline didn't give them the luxury of more time to do reconnaissance.

With a deep breath to center herself, Chou drew her bow from beneath her cloak, four arrows already in her right hand just as Mr. Two Knives had taught her. The first arrow had barely left the bow when she nocked the second, drew it as she spun to the second target, and let it fly. The third was on its way just as quickly, even before the first man had fallen.

Unfortunately, the fourth man had been - by chance - looking at Chou, and by the time she was shooting the third arrow, he was starting to react. Seeing her swinging her bow his way, he ducked as he reached inside his jacket. It wasn't much motion, but it was enough to cause the arrow to hit his arm instead of his chest. Following its programming, the man-shaped ANT recoiled from what would have been, to a human, a sudden, sharp pain of an arrow piercing the upper arm. The pistol coming from a waist holster bobbled just as the ANT pulled the trigger; the shot went wide of Chou.

She wasn't exactly standing still; her bow had been unceremoniously abandoned, and a throwing spike flipped forward, impaling itself in the ANT's shoulder. The gun clattered to the ground, but the opponent growled, stepping away from the building toward Chou, reaching up and angrily pulling the spike from his body.

Chou gulped; the guy was possibly a regenerator, which made her task a little more difficult. Her hand went to the hilt of Destiny's Wave, pulling it out in a smooth, practiced motion.

"Put down the pig-sticker, little girl," the man snarled at her, "and walk away, and I'll let you live." Deliberately, he

"I don't think so," Chou replied, her body sliding gracefully into a fighting position, her sword at the ready.

* - * - * - *

Taking the steps two-at-a-time, I raced up to the second floor; there was nobody in sight, so I paused to feel the earth spirit. The trio were a floor above me. Another floor up, and I realized that the element of surprise had been lost. A shot rang out, and the plaster behind me shattered. Damn! I jumped up the last four steps, dodging another two shots, close enough that the plaster splintering off the wall stung me lightly. My shield spell would have been really nice at that point. The guy shot once more, missing me wildly, just before my two-tomahawk attack decapitated him. No PTSD; the bastard shot at me, so I had a right to fight back. At that point, though, I'd lost sight of the fact that it was only a sim. It felt too realistic; the adrenaline rush I was experiencing didn't help.

Holstering a weapon to free a hand, I twisted at the doorknob. Locked! That figured. I kicked it, and the door casing splintered under the impact.

The room was empty. Damn! But then - the curtains were blowing lightly - and the window was open! I ran to look, finding a ledge of a fire escape right outside. Worse, the villain, an older hawk-faced, balding, thin man, was trying to climb down the fire escape holding his hostage - a small girl of probably five or six!

I practically leapt out the window and did a fireman's slide down the metal ladder; below me, the villain, slowed by his burden, crashed through a window into a second-floor room. No doubt he thought the only attack was from the rear and that he could go down the stairs and escape out the front. Chuckling to myself at the surprise he was going to receive, I swung over the railing on the second-floor landing, swinging myself down, and then dropped a few feet to the ground, already pulling out my knife and tomahawk.

Darting in the back door, past the big gorilla-goon, who was, remarkably to me, slowly clawing his way back to his feet with no apparent damage, I met the villain just as he got to the bottom of the stairs. A shoulder-block hit him hard, staggering him, while I scooped the child out of his arms, careful to not hit her with my knife.

Since the villain was struggling to his feet, his face a mask of rage, I turned to dash out the alley. Then I pulled up short - Brutus was on his feet blocking most of the hall and extraordinarily angry. Turning to see if I could get past the villain and out the front, I was startled by a flash of something in the air, and then my arm screamed in pain. I stole a quick glance down and saw a shuriken sticking out of my arm.

Please, Chou, if there was ever a time for the cavalry to ride to the rescue, this was it! Get in the front door and take out this bad guy from behind! Alas, from the shadows on the front door, Chou was engaged with someone of high skill, and I realized the cavalry wasn't coming, at least not at that moment.

Clutching the girl in one hand, I turned back to hawk-face just in time to have to block a serious punch; with one arm full, I was quite limited, he wasn't, and from the vicious grin on his face, he knew it. And I dared not set the girl down. It looked like Hoka-time. Using a flurry combination that my tutor had taught me, I attacked Mister Ugly, surprising him with my aggressiveness and driving him back.

And then there was noise coming up the hall behind me. Ignoring hawk-face for a moment, I spun toward the approaching hulk of a henchman, getting a sinking feeling that I was trapped in a very bad spot.

My knee exploded with pain as I was turning, giving out beneath me and dumping me unceremoniously on the floor. It turned out to be fortunate; the massive, charging thug crashed into hawk-face, who'd kicked my knee as I turned to gorilla-goon. The two went down in a heap, so I clambered to my feet, wincing in pain, and started hobbling toward the rear door.

"Get her!" the villain screamed angrily, struggling to disentangle himself from his chief henchman. Grimacing, I limped quickly toward the back door.

I happened to glance over my shoulder at the sound of a massive, surprised grunt of pain behind me, concerned about how things had gone to shit and how much worse they were going to get, but I was surprised, even shocked, to see Chou pulling her sword out of the upper arm of gorilla-goon.

"He's a regenerator!" I screamed at Chou. She didn't look at me, but focused on her opponents, ducking a return blow from gorilla-goon and parrying a punch from hawk-face.

"Run!" Chou yelled at me.

That got hawk-face's attention; as gorilla-goon tried to batter Chou, he ducked behind his henchman and dashed toward me. "Forget her! Get the one with the kid!"

Genuinely scared of having two relatively healthy villains chasing me on a bum knee, I turned to run - only to find hawk-face in front of me, leering evilly at me, a gun in his hand. What the hell? Was he a warper? "Give me the kid!"

As I gulped, trying to come up with some kind of action I could take, the huge man hit me from behind, smashing me into hawk-face, startling him just as much as me, and the four of us smashed into a wall, with hawk-face taking the brunt of the impact and the hostage, held at my side, hopefully escaping injury. I let the girl fall to the floor because I simply couldn't hold her as much as I hurt from the impact, and my tomahawk fell from my other hand.

Gorilla-goon backed up and recovered his balance, winding up to smash me with his fist. I ducked, falling to my knees and grabbing at the terrified hostage. With her clothing clutched in my hand, I scrambled under gorilla-goon toward Chou, who was running toward the battle, Destiny's Wave in hand.

"Take her!" I cried to Chou, hoping she'd get the girl out of harm's way. She looked torn because the battle was still raging and she knew she should defend her team-mate.

"Not so fast, little one!" hawk-face's gravelly voice hissed. His hands clutched at my leg and he yanked me back toward himself, to where the big brick could hit both of us.

"Take her!" I yelled again, using all my strength to thrust the girl toward Chou. "I'll try to slow them." I saw the hesitancy on her expression. "Go!" I screamed again.

Chou sheathed her sword in a fluid motion and then scooped up the girl, hesitating again before she turned toward the door.

Gorilla-goon turned, following her with his eyes, so I took the one weapon I had at hand, my ceremonial magical knife, and thrust upward into his leg. He tottered, and I rolled away - back toward hawk-face, lest the goliath of a henchman fall on me and crush me.

"Game over, little girl," hawk-face sneered at me, raising his pistol to my face at point-blank range.

There was a Krav Maga technique Mr. Two Knives had drilled into me over and over; hopefully I'd learned it well enough. Otherwise, my sim was over. I snapped my hand up, pushing his hand - and the gun barrel - to one side. Normally, that would be followed up with a takeaway and I'd have the gun in my hand. But that wasn't on my mind. As I blocked his entire arm to one side; he pulled the trigger in response to my movement, but I had the jump on him, and the gun was pointed harmlessly to the side by that time. The second move was already underway; my knife slashed upward into his abdomen and up behind his ribs. I willed Wakan Mila to dump all its stored essence, just like I had with old snakey. Hawk-face's eyes bulged and his jaw dropped in shock, and then he crumpled to the ground, and it sounded like his body was sizzling from the magic discharged into him.

I didn't have time to even sigh with relief; gorilla-guy had regenerated enough and started limping down the hall after Chou; he was definitely a mutant and very well might be able to catch Chou before she could get the hostage to safety. I grabbed at the one tomahawk still in its holster and scrambled to my feet. A quick windup and the weapon buried itself in the goon's thigh just above his knee, crumpling him.

It wasn't over yet, so I grabbed the tomahawk I'd dropped and limped past the fallen brick out the front door, following in Chou's footsteps, toward where we knew the safety-point was, the police station we'd passed much earlier.

Chou was less than fifty yards from the goal when I heard the running behind me. Glancing fearfully over my shoulder, I was dismayed to find gorilla-goon bearing down on me fast. Redoubling my efforts, I tried to ignore the excruciating pain in my knee, but with a sinking heart, I realized that I was unlikely to get to the goal before the goon caught me.

My team-mate was almost there. I was almost there! Just a few more yards. A few feet. And ....

The air horn sounded, signaling the end of the scenario, and I let up; we'd won. Then I was hit hard in the back; the hulking goon must have launched himself to tackle me just as or after the horn sounded. There was a sickening crunch when I landed on my shoulder - the side without the shuriken hole - and that shoulder and my ribs exploded with pain. As I rolled on the ground, the hulk rolled over the top of me, carried by his momentum and grinding me into the arena floor. Mercifully, I passed out so I didn't have to listen to whoever was screaming.

* - * - * - *

"Kayda, are you with us?" The voice sounded upset, urgent, like something was wrong. I wanted to ignore it, but it kept nagging, like the pain all over in my body, and I simply couldn't wish it away.

I groaned in discomfort, then probably screamed when I was rolled onto my back and my knee twisted and my shoulder complained mightily. The stab of pain from my lower-right ribcage didn't help.

"Sorry about that," the voice said, sounding remorseful.

"Doyle?" I managed to stammer, realizing only after I'd spoken that it didn't sound like Doyle; there was some loud background noise, which sounded like booing and catcalls.

"You're in the arena," the voice explained.

I took a chance and opened my eyes, wincing at the bright light which stabbed into them. "How ... how bad?" I risked asking. I felt like I'd been run over by a tractor.

"It looks like you twisted your knee pretty good."

"Shoulder? Ribs?"

"Your shoulder isn't dislocated," the medic reported. "Can you move your arm?"

Slowly, cautiously, I moved my arm a little, gasping at the pain it caused, but I kept going, determined to show that I was okay.

"I'm going to put a sling on you to immobilize your arm and shoulder," he said, explaining what he was doing so I wouldn't panic. "Then we'll get you into the locker room so Doctor Guitterez can check you out a little more thoroughly." He slipped the sling on my arm, adjusting the neck strap, and then carefully helped me sit up; I couldn't see, but no doubt he was flinching at my tiny gasps and cries of pain.

"Do you think you can stand up?"

"Yeah," I said, trying to move my body so I could get leverage to stand, but my knee and ribs hurt pretty badly. "With help, maybe." The medic and an assistant carefully helped me upright.

It warmed my heart that the crowd started cheering when I was on my feet, momentarily making me forget about my injuries. As soon as I was standing, the medic asked, hovering about me, "Are you doing okay?" I nodded, so he continued, "Let's see if you can walk." Slowly, very carefully, I took a step with my left foot, supporting my weight on my damaged right leg. That went okay even though it hurt quite a bit.

Limping heavily, my right arm in a sling, and flanked by two medics, I made my way out of the arena and toward the tunnel into the locker area. "I've got her," Punch said firmly, and then she picked me up gently, taking weight off my damaged knee without putting pressure on my shoulder.

"Thanks," I said, sighing with relief of not having to walk and for my roommate's reassuring presence.

"Girl, you're going to be the death of me," she chided me softly in the same way my mom always had.

"At least we won," I said with a forced smile.

**********

Room 3, Arena 99, Whateley Academy

"Well?" I asked when Dr. Guitterez was done poking and prodding, "Am I going to live?" She hadn't taken the sling off my arm.

"Yes, and you're going to Doyle," Dr. Guitterez frowned at me. "I think you only sprained your shoulder, but I want an MRI to be sure you didn't tear something since you injured it just a few days ago. The same goes for your knee."

"Can you get me a non-metal cup about half full of water?" I asked simply, "so I can do a healing?"

While the medic scurried to find what I'd requested, Chou came in and sat beside me. "We did it," she said, sounding happy but also a little tired. "We won."

"Pretty ugly win," I said dryly.

Chou chuckled, shaking her head. "A win is a win." She looked at me, smiling. "But yeah, we could have done better."

"Let's talk about that, then," Gunny Bardue's voice boomed from across the locker room. I hadn't seen him enter, and from the way Chou reacted, she hadn't either. Ito, standing beside Bardue, took a paper from his clipboard, folded it, and strode to me, the paper outstretched for me to take. He repeated the process and handed one to Chou.

"B?" I asked, a little disappointed. No, that wasn't accurate; I was a lot disappointed. We'd won, after all.

"B minus?" Chou asked in disbelief.

"The plan was at best half-baked," Bardue started his usual harsh critique. "Whose plan was it, anyway?"

I let my head hang, raising my left hand. "Mine."

"Did you have a contingency plan for your magic not working in the building?" Ito asked critically. "Did you consider - ahead of time - the possibility that the villain might use the fire escape as a secondary escape route?"

"No," I answered.

"Who was better equipped and trained to fight close-quarters indoors?" Bardue asked. I let my head hang a little lower; I knew the answer to that, and it wasn't me.

"Once your magic failed inside the building, you forgot to use magic after you left the building, correct? Once you were outside, a shield or invisibility spell would have let you and Bladedancer and the hostage escape. Or you could have used other spells to neutralize your pursuer," Ito commented, still with that damned inscrutable stare.

I shook my head, feeling even lower. I had forgotten the obvious things. I could have done what Ito said, and probably things he hadn't thought of, because I was the one on the magic track not him. "Yes, sir," I muttered, angry at myself for forgetting to go back to magic once I was outside the warded building.

Ito turned to Chou. "You had team tactics in the winter term, right?" He didn't wait for Chou to answer. "Were you satisfied with the plan?"

"No, not really," Chou admitted softly.

"And yet, despite more experience and better training, you let yourself be buffaloed into what appeared to you to be a flawed plan? A plan that had weaknesses that you recognized from team tactics?"

Chou nodded glumly. "We were running out of time ..."

"Bullshit!" Bardue barked, making both of us flinch. "You should have made time to debate the merits of the two plans if you felt her plan was flawed. You have more experience. You have training. You should have taken the lead."

"The equipment ...." I started to say, defending Chou against what I considered to be very unfair attacks.

"And you should have listened to your team-mate, and thought about your relative levels of experience!" Bardue snapped at me. "Isn't that the lesson I've been hitting you with sim after sim with the Nations?"

"Yes," I admitted sheepishly.

"Once you decided to cooperate," Bardue said, scowling at the two of us, "you could have easily let Pejuta use your bow for the ranged attacks while you handled breaching the interior. You could have had Pejuta give you a shield spell, like she did the invisibility spell, to help protect you in the entry."

I lowered my gaze, feeling like a total screw-up as I stared at the blank floor. Thanks to my poor planning and unwillingness to listen to Chou, we'd done worse than we could have and should have.

Ito must have sensed my mood. "Why did you decide to team up?"

"I realized we probably couldn't win solo, so I knew we'd have to team up to win the scenario," I said with a shrug, which hurt. Chou simply nodded her agreement.

"That's a point in your favor. Other things you did right - you both did reconnaissance, and you combined your knowledge. You located the escape route. You accounted for all the outside henchmen in the front and the back, and you formed a plan to neutralize them. You cooperated in the rescue to the point that you ensured safety of the hostage over individual safety, and you," he was looking directly at me, "made the right call in having Bladedancer get the hostage to safety."

Bardue cocked his head a tiny bit. "Did it cross your mind that, by letting Bladedancer take the hostage to the 'finish line', you might be sacrificing your grade?"

"Honestly, once we got in the sim, I wasn't really thinking about my grade or anything," I confessed, shaking my head. "Then I got ... busy with the medical team, so ... no." I looked at the two instructors, perhaps hoping for something other than the inscrutable expression they usually had, maybe a little hint of approval. Both, however, remained stony-face, betraying not a hint of emotion.

I opened my medicine pouch and began to get out the ingredients for the healing potion, while the two instructors filed back out. It was a difficult task to do one-handed. The medic brought me a plastic cup of water and then sat down beside me, trying to continue tending to my shoulder.

***********

Room 3, Arena 99, Whateley Academy

The medic was still fussing with my shoulder - and making me gasp occasionally in pain - when the speaker in the briefing room crackled to life. "Next Match, Students Two Forty and Three eighteen."

"Someone else's turn to get tortured," I commented dryly.

"Great," the medic commented sarcastically, "more overtime for the medical staff." She shook her head. "I wish we got double-time at combat final time." She grasped my arm, giving me a frustrated scowl. "Hold still!"

"Sorry," I gasped because she had hurt me a bit. "Um, can you let me take a restroom break? I haven't ... since before Hippy's combat."

"Sure, go ahead." She helped me to my feet, and with a slight limp from residual pain my spell hadn't taken care of, I hobbled down the hall to the restroom.

A couple minutes later, I limped back into the briefing room ...

... and halted, jaw dropping. Lanie was standing, goggling with her mouth hanging agape. Across the room was Maggie, glaring at Lanie with her arms crossed, her posture declaring her anger even if one missed it in her expression.

"No!" Maggie snapped defiantly. Without taking her eyes off her former best friend, she continued. "I will not do a combat final with that ... that ... thing!"

"Miss Finson," Gunny said sternly, "combat finals are not optional, and you will enter the final against the opponent you drew."

"Maggie, please!" Lanie pleaded, her voice cracking and her eyes moist.

Maggie's eyes hardened into a glare that was positively malicious, lips pressed tightly together and breathing deeply through flared nostrils.

"Miss Finson," Sensei Ito's demeanor was strangely calm, "you will go into the final with Miss Nalley."

"I will not be in the same place as that ... thing that possessed her!" Maggie shot right back. She hadn't taken her gaze away from Lanie.

Just as Mrs. Carson quick-stepped into the room, I slid to Lanie's side, wrapping an arm around her waist

"Maggie," I butted in, "Lanie is not possessed! She's an avatar now, and she has a spirit!" I was dismayed; a few days earlier, I'd been hopeful that Maggie was reconsidering. "I know her spirit!"

"What's going on?" Mrs. Carson asked, looking back and forth between the two girls questioningly.

"Miss Finson ..." Bardue began

"They want me to go into a simulation with that ... that ... spirit that possessed Elaine!" Maggie practically screamed in reply.

"Miss Finson," Mrs. Carson said in her voice of supreme authority, having drawn herself up to full height, "Elaine is not ...."

"That monster is controlling her!" Maggie was getting irrational. "I know it, and how dangerous it is!"

"Miss Finson," Gunny said, "you will participate in the combat final. You will participate with your randomly-selected opponent. Those are requirements for every student in this school. Is that clear?"

I pulled Lanie down to the bench as tears rolled from her eyes, wrapping my arm around my cuwe ki. "It'll be alright, sister," I tried to assure her before I turned my attention to Lifeline. "Maggie, I'm a shaman! I know spirits."

"You were duped!" Maggie growled. "You'd defend your lover anyway!" she added. I gasped at her positively vicious words, and under my arm, Lanie flinched like she'd been stabbed, Maggie's words cutting her to the heart.

"That will be enough of that, Miss Finson!" Mrs. Carson snapped at her. "Combat finals are not optional. Sit down so your instructors can brief you on the scenario."

"No!" Maggie snarled defiantly. "I don't want to be near that thing!"

"What's going on here?" Wyatt's voice boomed as he burst into the room. His eyes went immediately to Elaine, and he slid onto the bench, wrapping an arm supportively around his fiancée.

"This is not your concern," Mrs. Carson said evenly at Wyatt, her narrowed eyes, stern expression, and deadly-calm voice promising serious retribution if he tried to interfere.

Tansy entered a few steps behind Wyatt, carrying a bag, and she fidgeted nervously as she listened to what was going on, retreating to an unobtrusive corner to stay out of the way. There was something about her expression that puzzled me, but I was more concerned about Lanie so I forgot about it.

She took the elbows of the two men and led them to a corner, where they huddled to discuss how to handle this. While they conferred, Maggie glared at Lanie, if anything, becoming angrier and angrier the longer she had to be in the same room with my soul-sister.

The teachers separated and turned to Maggie, looking sternly at the defiant, angry girl, Mrs. Carson at the front with Ito and Bardue behind her. "Miss Finson, this is your last chance," she said, attempting to stare down the girl.

Mrs. Carson didn't' budge Maggie's determination. "Mrs. Carson, I refuse. I don't care if you fail me. I don't care if you even expel me! She may have all of you fooled, but I will not socialize, work with, cooperate with, or be around that ... that monster!"

My arm was pushed aside as Grizzly manifested around Lanie, tears on her muzzle, and the bear leaped to its feet, towering above everyone in the room. "You bitch!" the bear roared at Maggie. "You want a piece of me? Bring it on! But leave my host alone!"

Maggie spun away from Mrs. Carson toward Lanie and Grizzly. "That's right! Show everyone what you really are, monster!" I recoiled involuntarily from the pure, unadulterated hate in her eyes, and it was only then that I noticed that she'd drawn her athame.

Mrs. Carson's eyes widened in shock at Maggie's actions, and she took a step toward the girl. "Miss Finson!" she thundered, probably convinced she was going to have to break up a fight.

Maggie clenched her athame with her left hand, knuckles white, bale-fire burning around the blade as blood soaked it, oozing through the girl's fingers. "By the blood of my life, by the love of my friend ..."

"Miss Finson!" Mrs. Carson's voice echoed the stunned look on her face. But like me, she knew it was already too late. Even if Maggie didn't speak the words, the moment her blood touched her blade, her Will and Essence sealed a blood oath. Mrs. Carson couldn't stop it; the magic was already done by her Will.

"... there will be no peace between us! I will burn you from her body and free her soul from your filthy grasp!"

Wyatt's eyes were big as saucers, and Tansy gawked, just like Ito and Bardue and the medic who'd interrupted tending to my shoulder, our attention riveted by the spectacle playing out before us. The others, however, didn't understand. Only Mrs. Carson and I knew what Maggie had just done.

"By Solomon's Pact, I seal my oath!" Releasing her grip on the bloody blade, she snapped her hand, shaking off her blood toward Grizzly's face.

The Headmistress seized Maggie's wrists painfully, causing her to drop her athame, and smoothly, effortlessly, pinning the girl's arms behind her - painfully, from the expression on Maggie's face. "Do you have any idea what you have just done?!?"

"By my hatred!" Maggie snarled, ignoring the pain. "By my hatred, so mote it be!" She spat at Grizzly.

"Get ahold of yourself, Miss Finson!" Mrs. Carson yelled in outrage as she forced Maggie from the room. "You should know the consequence of a blood oath! That was stupid!"

I pushed away the medic and stood, ignoring the stabbing pain in my shoulder and wrapping my arm around Grizzly's waist. No doubt Grizzly knew what Maggie's action and blood oath meant, and she'd communicate that to Elaine - that her former best friend had just sworn to Grizzly's destruction, no matter how badly that would injure Lanie if she succeeded. Knowing Grizzly's rage at what Maggie had done, Wyatt was firmly restraining the manifested bear, until the bear faded and Lanie collapsed slowly back to the bench, her face in her hands as she wailed, her heart shattered by her former best friend's action and hatred.

Lanie, naturally, was an emotional wreck. Despite the throbbing shoulder, I sat down beside her and hugged cuwe ki closer, shrugging off the medic who was still trying - futilely, it seemed - to tend to my shoulder. My soul-sister was far more important than a little discomfort. Wyatt sat beside her, encircling Lanie's shoulders; his expression was a strange mix of rage at Maggie and concern for his fiancée; his lip trembled and his jaw was clenched in anger that she could have so brutally hurt Lanie.

And Tansy stood a few feet away, looking sympathetically at the redhead. When I glanced at her, I saw something else in her expression that puzzled me. I turned back to my friend to try to comfort her. I didn't have time to worry about Tansy.

It hit me like a hammer; Tansy was jealous! She was envious of my friendship with Lanie! I gasped softly, then winced to make everyone think that my shoulder was hurting, but ... was Tansy trying to come between me and my soul-sister? I knew Tansy had no real friends, which was not surprising based on the stories I'd heard, but was she now going to try to take away my best friend? My soul-sister? My cuwe ki?"

I was not going to let that happen. At that moment, I had no idea how I could stop it, but I was absolutely determined that Tansy was not going to take Lanie away from me. And then I considered something, and I gasped again - what if Lanie didn't want to be my best friend anymore? What if she wanted Tansy as a best friend? My heart skipped a few beats in fear that such would come to pass.

Sensei Ito cleared his throat. "Nalley-San, Miss Finson forfeits and has failed. Do you wish to attempt your trial alone?"

With great effort, Lanie tried to push aside her grief as she pulled herself to her feet, her cheeks glistening with tears and her lip trembling. "Ah'll ..."

At that moment, I knew what I had to do. I might have been hurt a little, but I was not going to let my soul-sister, my cuwe, go through this alone. "I'll help her," I said firmly.

I looked in shock at the other girl in the room; Tansy had said the exact same thing at the exact same time. I swallowed hard and pulled myself away from the medic still trying to tend to my shoulder; forcing myself to ignore the pain and not limp, I stepped to Lanie's side, putting my arm around her waist. "We'll help," I declared, nodding slightly toward the junior beauty. Silently, I invoked a spell that should significantly reduce my pain level; based on what Wakan Tanka had told me, I guessed it to be about the same as a Vicodin.

Gunny glared at me. "You're injured, Miss Franks," he growled.

I was trying to shuck off the sling, but the medic put her hand on my shoulder to stop me. "It's probably just a bad sprain," the other medic in the room said, giving me a cautioning look, "but it might also be worse. Without an MRI, it's impossible to tell, but she didn't dislocate it, and she probably didn't tear her rotator cuff." He shot me yet another warning look. "NFL players play with worse."

"I've played with worse!" I declared defensively to justify my decision. "I played a whole game with a broken ring finger!" The words had come out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I flinched, staring at Tansy wide-eyed, realizing that she might figure out my secret. If she did, she was good at schooling her expression, because she did no more than glance at me.

"Brave and stupid aren't selling points," Bardue growled at me. Then he berated Tansy for volunteering as well, since the only PE classes she'd taken had been survival and escape. And he reminded Tansy that she was a junior and her final was the following week.

Unexpectedly, contrary to what I would have thought, Tansy stood her ground, drawing herself upright, showing poise and determination. "Venus Inc. is signed up for a team final, because Poise wants to go out with a big splash. So I'm already prepared to fight instead of run away." She glanced toward the bag at her feet. "I've got a costume and holdouts ready for that fight." She smiled wryly. "I might as well test them before the Venus Inc. battle, and now is as good a time as any."

Bardue wound up to say something else, but Ito put his hand on the burly marine's arm. "We do try to teach them to deal with injuries and mixed skills. Let's let them try." Bardue's eyes widened in surprise, and Ito continued. "Scenario A-4."

Lanie squared her shoulders. "Ah assume from your evil smiles that Scenario A-4 is a crash?" That elicited a raised eyebrow from Ito as the two exchanged a knowing glance.

I knew what to expect from my simulation. "I'm carrying my bow," I announced firmly. "And I think we better cooperate as a team." I directed that comment at Lanie and Tansy.

"Miss Franks," Bardue was frowning at me, "there are several strategies ...."

"Oscar," Ito interrupted him, "Pejuta has run her test. She knows the setup. And it is a crash." He took a breath and exhaled slowly. "And need I remind you that I predicted the students would figure it out and that we should tell them that cooperation is one of the permissible strategy."

Gunny glared at me and my new team-mates, and then he slowly nodded.

**********

May 29th, 2007, Late Morning
Arena 99, Whateley Academy

I grimaced as we stepped into the simulation - Tehran under an almost blindingly-brilliant sun beating down on us. In the distance, we heard gunfire from other elements of Operation Eagle Claw, an attempted rescue of the commander of the embassy Marines. I didn't have a good feeling; the real operation hadn't gone well. And Gunny was in charge of the simulation.

Lanie put her hand on my shoulder, wincing with an apologetic look when I cringed from discomfort at how she'd placed her hand. "You're injured, mitaka ki," she said softly. "Hang back and take care of anything Solange and I miss, okay?" I don't think she'd realized just how sore my shoulder was.

I tried for a little light-hearted banter about what I remembered about the scenario from history classes, but Tansy wasn’t in any mood for it. "Save the history lessons for later," she hissed at us.

We were in a narrow alleyway by what appeared to be a warehouse, and after briefly examining the door, Lanie displayed the titanium claws on her hands. "You want me to open it?" She actually seemed eager to attack something. I shuddered inwardly; she was dealing with serious emotion from Maggie's rejection, and it was coming out as anger. That wasn't healthy for her.

Tansy smiled and shook her head. "Let's try something quieter," she answered. From her pouches, she took a ring of keys. "Master keys," she explained as she went to work. "I tricked dad into signing corporate papers, so I'm head of a locksmith company." Though she was focused on the lock, she had to have known that we were gawking at her. "It's handy to break into the liquor cabinet."

The door opened to release a dank, awful stench of something rotting. Something really stinky with the added smell of rot. I nearly gagged; at least, Tansy was having the same reaction, so the two couldn't call me a wimp. The smell just seemed to enrage Lanie more.

The first door revealed a hallway with about a dozen uniformed men, who were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. I overcame a momentary hesitation - probably exacerbated by being fatigued from the first final and healing from my earlier injuries - but by the time I had my tomahawks out, it was all over. I was kicking myself; Lanie was counting on me to help, and all I'd done was gawk stupidly at the fight. If she or Tansy had been hurt, it would have been my fault for letting myself be frozen into inaction.

We crept further into what had to be an office area on one side of the warehouse, pausing to look in various hallway doors for other surprises or for the hostage. One seemed to have been an improvised sleeping quarters. It was now an improvised morgue for all the once-breathing occupants.

"We're going to run out of luck if we keep this up," Tansy observed after we'd cleaned out a kitchen area of its two occupants. "They're using this as a barracks, and we don't know how many are here, or where."

"So we have to kill a few more of them," Lanie growled. "So what?" Yup, she was relishing the battle. We were going to have to talk - maybe in dream-space with her and Wyatt. I could understand channeling her hurt into anger, but this was approaching an unhealthy level.

Tansy calmly put her hand on Lanie's arm. "We're wasting time and energy. There's a better way to see what's going on here," she said soothingly. For several agonizingly long seconds, the bear-woman looked at her, and I could almost see Lanie's blood-lust abating. Tansy looked at me, smiling. "You have an invisibility spell, right?"

Lanie's expression slowly turned to a grin, and she clasped her hand on my shoulder - hard - making me gasp in pain and flinch. "Ah'm sorry, sister," she immediately apologized, horrified that she'd hurt me. She and Tansy were probably also rather shocked that my shoulder was hurting as much as it apparently did, because the sim was already a challenge, and we hadn't gotten to what we knew would be the worst part. Gunny would not give us an easy sim.

"I'll scout out as much as I can," I agreed, and when Lanie nodded - I wasn't going to take direction from Tansy, because I was in this to help Lanie - I cast my ghost-walking spell, determined to help the group. So far, Tansy and Lanie had done almost all the fighting, and I felt like a drag on cuwe ki's combat final. I couldn't do that; I was here to help Lanie, not get in the way.

Moving as quietly as I could, I crept up the wooden stairs to the second floor of offices, wincing as they creaked slightly. Moving about invisibly wasn't worth a crap, it dawned on me, if I made noise or left tracks. I was thinking of a lot of improvements I could make to the ghost-walking spell - like adding a silencing component at the very least.

At the head of the stairs, one of the guards or rebels was walking toward me, pistol in hand, a curious but cautious look on his face. He peeked down the stairs, confused; no doubt he'd heard the stairs creaking and was investigating. The only thing he learned, though, was that a pair of tomahawks could kill very, very quickly and almost noiselessly when the attacker - me - had the element of surprise.

The first three rooms were empty, almost disappointingly so. The fourth, however, was not; about a half-dozen soldiers were sleeping on mats scattered about the room. The first thought was that fighting a bunch of men wasn't really fair, and that I couldn't silence them all without someone raising an alarm, but then I recalled a line from an old show - 'four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man.' I shook my head, suppressing a chuckle as I did so - and I'd accused Lanie of being a nerd!

Slipping into the room and closing the door behind me, all the while cautiously watching the men, I took a deep breath to steel my nerves. 'This is a sim. This is just a sim,' I repeated to myself over and over, trying to quell an uneasy feeling about killing a half-dozen sleeping, unarmed men. Of course, my rational brain knew that they were only ANTs that appeared to be men, but the sim was so realistic that my emotional brain wasn't quite convinced that it was fake.

The less said about the room, the better. Suffice to say that when I left the room, all of the men were dead, I was shaking and covered with simulated blood, and by some miracle, the alarm hadn't been raised.

To be certain, I checked the other rooms, finding one man sitting at a radio with earphones on his head, probably listening to reports of the action elsewhere in Tehran. He didn't survive, either. Then I found a door out onto a series of catwalks running high over the floor of the cavernous warehouse. I glanced at my watch and cringed; the drop-ship was going to arrive in a little bit, which meant that we were running out of time. But from the catwalk, I had an excellent view around the piled crates around the room's periphery in the large warehouse; in the open center of the vast space, two men were watching over a third blindfolded man who was sitting on a short stool.

* - * - * - *

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" I asked Tansy and Lanie; my appearance had startled both of them to the point I was afraid they were going to jump me.

"What's the good news?"

"Five men sleeping, and a radio-man on the second floor. All are ... permanently napping." I smiled. "And I found the colonel. He's in the center of an open area out in the warehouse."

"And the bad news?"

"American witches!" a man's voice boomed, echoing through the warehouse, "show yourselves or your infidel baby-killer dies!"

"That," I said, flinching.

Lanie looked at Tansy, who nodded, their silent conversation a little creepy. "Invisible, mitaka ki," she said. "Focus on the colonel." I felt an eyebrow arch up in curiosity. "We'll distract that loudmouth." She and Tansy stood. "We're coming out!" she shouted.

I followed them out to the large, open area, and then circled to one side, skirting the area illuminated by a bare bulb hanging down from the ceiling so far overhead. The colonel was sitting tied and blindfolded, and an Iranian man stood by him, holding a pistol and waving it toward the hostage. Near him, a large man in a stupid throwback Arabian Nights costume stood with a huge scimitar hanging off his belt. Cautious so I didn't make a sound, I crept toward the man with the gun.

Tansy and Lanie continued to distract the man with various insults and taunts, and the man finally had enough. "Baig - kill them!" he ordered. The man with the absurd sword drew it, grinning, and practically leapt toward Tansy, but Lanie intercepted him, snarling viciously, her titanium claws slashing at the killer.

At the sound of some crashing out of the light circle, Tansy continued to taunt the man. "That sounded like it hurt," she sneered.

"Silence!" the man roared, "I will spray you with this infidel's blood! Then, American infidel bitch, I will rape you! Over and over until you call me husband! And you will bear many warriors of Allah for me!"

I was creeping up on the loudmouth when he started to threaten to rape Tansy. That tripped something in me; I don’t remember precisely what happened, except that I went all Hoka on him. Tansy told me later that after I'd severed his hand with a vicious cut, I'd delivered an uppercut to his groin while screaming about his raping days being over, calling him a mother-fucker and so on. Then I decapitated him. No doubt Ito and Gunny were entertained - or shocked. From the look on her face, I knew Tansy was a little shocked.

Wiping some blood from my face, I bent over, holstering my tomahawks and used my knife to free the hostage. "Are you alright, Colonel?"

The marine nodded. "Give me a weapon and I'll be great!" he replied as Lanie flew through the circle of light and into the shadows; I gasped; she was covered with blood, but how much was hers and how much was the Arabian Night goon's was questionable.

"Get him to the roof," Tansy ordered, handing a pistol to the colonel. "And don't forget the Triple-A battery! You have to take that out before the drop-ship arrives!"

"But ..."

"Go! Lanie and I will take care of this idiot!"

I hesitated, but then took the colonel's elbow and, moving slowly at first because he was stiff and probably sore, we ran to a metal stairway that would take us up to the roof.

"Who are you people?" the colonel demanded, somewhat shocked, as I led him up the stairs, wincing in pain but determined to not let it show. Lanie wouldn't forgive herself if I was hurt more, and I was not going to give Gunny and Ito the satisfaction of saying 'I told you so.'

"Princess Leia," I shot back, grinning. "We're here to rescue you."

I had visions of a gun platform, like a German 88, or a quad 20mm, like in the war movies and pictures, but when we peeked through the door onto the roof, my heart sank. There were half a dozen or more clusters of Iranian rebels and soldiers on this and other nearby roofs, and they had a mix of AK-47s and RPGs. "Shit!" I swore; these things could take out a tank, and they'd easily destroy the fragile drop-ship if we didn't take them out.

"Helicopter extraction?" the colonel guessed while shooting calmly at the nearest surprised opponents.

"Close enough. I hope you're good with that thing." I unslung my bow from over my shoulder and grabbed five or six arrows in my right hand.

"I know you super types like your themes, but a bow and arrow?" the colonel asked, a little dismayed by my choice of weapons.

"Your man Custer thought the same thing," I shot back, grinning. In reality, I was a little uneasy; my right shoulder still hurt like hell, and I didn't know how effective I could be with my bow - and I had no other ranged weapons.

"He was Army," the colonel corrected me. "Marine," he said, smiling and thumping his chest. "Besides, the Indians had Henry repeating rifles, not 1874 Springfield trapdoors like the cavalry."

"Enough with the history already. Time to go all 'shores of Tripoli,' then. Hokaheh! I screamed as I burst through the door, already nocking an arrow as I turned to one of the groups furthest away. No matter how good he was, the colonel was not going to get the distant groups with Tansy's force pistol.

My first shot hit the chest of one of the furthest group, the one with the RPG. It didn’t matter; this was one of the 'special' arrows Molly and I had made. An essence-driven burst of energy rippled out in an explosion, blowing them away from the impact point. I heard an explosion but didn't see it; I was already swinging my bow to a second group. "Holy shit!" the colonel swore behind me, having glanced at the sound of the explosion.

"Told you," I said as I let the second arrow go. I didn't know if this was an explosive arrow, or a paralyzing arrow; in either event, anyone within about 4-5 meters of the impact point would be out of action.

The force pistol barked a couple more times, and then, after a short pause, the unmistakable sound of an AK-type rifle behind me sounded, and another group - the one I was about to shoot - fell, cut down by the colonel.

I was switching targets when the colonel pulled me down behind a piece of machinery; the sound of bullets tearing into the metal was unmistakable. "Thanks," I said. From where we were hunkered down, I could see a group that were running along the neighboring roof. I turned, thanking Mr. Two Knives for the short-bow that I could wield even while crouched down.

"Okay," the colonel said, grinning and shooting at another cluster of soldiers on a nearby building, "the bow thing is definitely working pretty well for you."

"This may not be the best thing, though," I replied, standing and quickly loosing an arrow at another group. Our opponents were starting to coordinate their actions; it was only a matter of time before they shot at us with one of the RPGs.

RPG! That was the answer! My team-mate by that name had shot snakey - damn, how long ago was that? - and I'd shielded myself from the blast with my shield spell. "Give me a second; I'll get us a shield."

"Huh?"

"Magic." I let an arrow to the ground and began to incant. The shield started to form, but then the spell fizzled. "Damn!"

"What?"

"No shield! I'm out of essence!"

"That's inconvenient," the colonel said dryly.

I shot another group, and another RPG was caught in a magic-induced explosion, but there were three more groups shooting steadily. And as I'd ducked, I'd noticed one of the teams was about to shoot us. I rose and drew back - and felt like my shoulder had been torn apart. Screaming, I let the arrow fly, probably way clear of the target, and I collapsed to the ground.

"Well," I said, gritting my teeth against the serious agony in my shoulder, "it's been nice fighting with you, colonel." Had I been shot, or had my shoulder just given out? It didn't really matter. We were outnumbered, outgunned, I had no magic left, and I couldn't use my bow.

A shadow - a large shadow - suddenly blotted out the sun. I couldn't make out the shape, but a roar like a thousand buzz-saws deafened me temporarily, and a blast of pressure would have knocked me down if I'd been standing. To my right, the neighboring rooftop erupted in a shower of dust and debris.

"Twenty millimeter Gatling gun!" the colonel said, grinning at me. "The cavalry is here!"

"I thought you Marines didn't like the cavalry."

"I'll make an exception," he chuckled as the Vindicator craft turned, skidding through the sky a few meters above the rooflines, and the Gatling-gun canon roared again, shredding another cluster of soldiers - and the building they were on.

Behind us, the door burst open, and I pushed aside the colonel's AK as he swing it toward what could be a new threat. "It's my friends," I explained, grateful to see Tansy and Lanie, though my heart sank at the sight of mass amounts of blood on Lanie and the fact that Tansy was half-carrying her.

The air-horn sounded, ending the simulation, and I sank back to the roof, sitting on my butt and smiling at Lanie. "We did it!" I said, wincing through my pain.

***********

May 29th, 2007, Late Morning
Room 3, Arena 99, Whateley Academy

The spell had worn off, and I limped - seriously limped - into the locker room. Tansy was half-carrying Lanie, whose side was ripped open and bloody, though the bleeding had mostly stopped. She'd taken a hit in her side from the heavyweight inside the warehouse, having the misfortune to have his knife hit her on her suit's zipper, which wasn't as durable as the rest of her suit.

Tansy set Elaine on a training bench, and immediately a medic went to her wound, while another was looking at me - again. He scowled at the way I hobbled across the floor, limping badly and holding my right forearm against my body, using my left arm to try to keep it immobile.

"But it hurts!" Lanie cried from across the room, drawing my attention to where the medic was treating the wound. I sighed as well; my own injuries were throbbing painfully again, and at times, as the medic attending to me moved my arm, I felt like crying out, too.

"Is everyone decent?" Gunny's voice boomed from an outside door which led to the arena's control booth.

"Yeah," all three of us called out at the same time. Tansy opened the door, and Gunny came in, followed by Sensei Ito; both teachers were carrying clipboards.

"Well," Gunny said, "that was entertaining!" It was hard to tell if he was being complimentary or sarcastic; with the big marine, it could have been either or both. He handed me a folded paper. "Since you participated in an extra final, your efforts earned you ten extra-credit points," he said, his voice as close to complimentary as I'd ever heard. "You can use them all for one grade, or you can spread them around."

When I frowned in confusion, Tansy smiled at me. "If you've got a class where your grade is on the bubble, you can use them to bump up the grade. If I remember right, they apply to the semester average, not like a test or quiz. Want an 'A' in a class, but you're getting a 'B'? There you go."

A thought occurred to me. "Can I bank them ...?"

Gunny shook his head, grinning. "Nice try, but they're good for this semester only." He frowned a bit. "Explain to me why you tried to use a bow instead of magic, or summoning your buffalo - especially since you started with an injured shoulder."

I winced - this was starting to remind me of the hyper-critical analysis Gunny and Sam always did after sims. I told him what had happened, and that I wasn't sure if I could use Tatanka, but he and Ito just shook their heads. Chuckling, Ito told me that I could have used any and all of my capabilities unless they explicitly told me otherwise. That got me thinking; I'd been a little too hesitant in using Tatanka for combat purposes, thinking of him instead as an advisor in my head. I hoped he didn't think I was slighting him, because he did say that he was responsible for defending the Ptesanwi.

Ito and Bardue were very unhappy with Tansy, as if she'd been holding out her capabilities for years - which she had been doing. Nevertheless, she got an A for her grade. And that brought them to Lanie.

"C plus?" she practically screamed, almost perceptible waves of fury rippling from her as she gave voice to her outrage. "Ah can't win, can Ah?" she growled. "When I use mah brain, you dock mah grade and Ah get chewed out. When Ah play it by your rules, you dock mah grade and Ah get chewed out!" From her tone of voice and expression, she was extremely angry at what she obviously considered to be unfair treatment at the hands of the two sadistic instructors.

That got both Ito and Gunny upset. "All you did was to use brute force, wading in to score a body count to take your anger out on the sim!" Gunny lectured her. "Didn't you hear what I said about Miss Walcutt about the things she did and which you did not do?"

"You took your anger about what happened between you and Miss Finson into the simulation. You let your personal life ...."

"Mah personal life is none of your ..." Lanie roared angrily, her face burning. Only the gentle restraint of the paramedics kept her from leaping to her feet.

"You made it our business! You made it your team-mates' business when you wanted to use the simulation to take out your personal anger. You're damned lucky one of your team-mates didn't get hurt because of your fit!" Gunny's tone was lower, a controlled fury in a lecture that actually made Lanie shrink away from him.

Satisfied that Gunny and Ito, who were conferring on the other side of the room, were finished, the medic returned his attention to Lanie, while the one looking at me gave me instructions. "That's the side you were injured last week, right?"

I nodded. "Yup."

"Something isn't right. It seems like it didn't heal right, and between the two finals, you've pretty seriously re-injured both your shoulder and your knee. You need to get to Doyle right away. I'll call in a request for X-rays and an MRI. Can you walk?"

I eased myself forward and stood hesitantly; I couldn't help grimacing aloud in pain and wincing visibly when I tried to put weight on my leg. "I can probably manage," I lied.

He didn't believe me. "We'll carry you out to a club car in a minute." He walked over to join the huddle of instructors.

Lanie sighed heavily and then looked at us, a very contrite expression on her face. "Ito was right. Ah'm sorry ...."

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Tansy chided her gently but firmly. "If they thought you were a danger, they should have given you time to cool off. It's their fault, not yours."

Smiling, Lanie clambered to her feet and gave Tansy a hug. "Thanks."

I felt a little disappointed and angry at the same time. It was my place as Lanie's soul-sister to comfort her. But ... that would mean I was jealous of Tansy! I couldn't be! And yet, I couldn't quell the burning fear that Tansy was displacing me. Ignoring my pain, I lurched off the bench, wincing as I hobbled two steps and joined the group hug. "I ... we ... understand, cuwe ki!" I said to Lanie in support. I wasn't going to let Tansy be the only one offering support to my sister!

I thought I saw an odd expression on Tansy's face as she glanced at me from the corner of her eye. Was she vying to be Lanie's best friend? Was she trying to displace me? Or was she simply unsure about how she would fit into Lanie's and my special bond? I decided that I should give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, unlike Tansy, I could dream-walk with Lanie - and use that time to reinforce our friendship. Plus Lanie and I had shared something very, very special that Tansy and Lanie probably never would. I chided myself; that very thought sounded both possessive and paranoid.

"I'll let Poise know you're injured and can't be on the Venus Inc. team right now," Tansy said to me graciously. She looked at me with what looked to be a critical eye. "You know, Kayda," she said with a smile, "you'd look even more stunning if you added a little makeup to your skin-care routine! Don't get me wrong - the natural look works well for you, but ...."

I winced - adding makeup seemed ... a stretch.

"If I were you," Lanie looked puzzled for a moment, "mitaka ki, I'd take her up on that offer. There's no-one in Venus Inc. that's as good with makeup as Tansy. And she is one of the top five beauties on campus, so she does know what she's doing."

The Tansy I'd heard about would probably have acknowledged Lanie's compliment with haughty airs that announced, "Yes, I am, aren't I?" Instead, she looked a little ... humble? "Maybe I better not help you too much," she said with a shy smile and a half giggle, "because you'll look much better than me!"

"There's a club car outside in the tunnel," the medic interrupted our little girl-chat. "Can you walk that far?"

"Ah'll carry her," Lanie announced determinedly, "so she doesn't hurt herself more."

Tansy shook her head. "No," she said firmly, "you're hurt, too. I'll take care of Kayda." She lifted me, which surprised me greatly; she was rated an exemplar 1 but carried me like she was far stronger, and set me gently in the club car. "Get yourself healed, Kayda," she said softly. "I can tell Lanie is really worried about you."

Stunned, I looked up at her, and saw a reassuring, gentle smile. "Okay."

She walked back into the locker room, and the driver directed the car through the tunnels until we arrived at Doyle, where a nurse waited with a wheelchair at the sub-basement elevators.

**********

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - Late Morning
Doyle Medical Complex, Whateley Academy

"Your knee and shoulder did not heal properly from last week's injuries," Dr. Tenent clucked, a frown on her face. "And then you do two combat finals and further aggravated the damage?"

"They should have healed," I protested. "I healed a lot faster from a lot worse injuries!"

"That's what worries me," Dr. Tenent said. "It's like ...." Her eyes narrowed. "Like Hippolyta. And like your previous injuries - with the tainted spike and the tainted bullets."

My jaw dropped. "Like ... I've still got ... taint in me?" I shook my head. "That's impossible. I did the decontamination to remove the taint! I felt it!"

Dr. Tenent had turned back to the X-rays and was scrutinizing them. She recoiled suddenly, startled by something. "Kayda," she said warily, turning toward me, "how much ... substance ... does it take to transfer the taint?"

"I don't know," I answered simply. "Why?"

She frowned. "Copper is a soft metal, right?"

"Yeah." I had no idea where she was going.

"Was the spike damaged?" She didn't wait for an answer, but strode quickly to the door. "Please bring Kayda's copper spike here," she called out to whoever was outside the examining room.

"You can't ..."

"It's in a sealed box with a ward around it," Dr. Tenent reassured me. She put an X-ray up in the light box beside the examining table. "What do you make of this?" She pointed to a tiny, slightly-brighter, curled spot in the middle of my shoulder joint. "Does that look like a metal shaving?"

Before I could answer, a nurse came in, carrying a translucent plastic box. She offered it to Dr. Tenent, but the doctor gestured to me. I took the box, feeling an odd tingling, and then took the lid off and picked up the copper spike. It looked perfectly fine as I turned it in my hand - except ....

"There's a gouge in it near the tip," I said, frowning. "Maybe a millimeter wide and five or six millimeters long."

"The attack did chip a bone," Dr. Tenent said, "and copper is a soft metal. Scraping copper against sharp bone - that'd probably be enough to shave off some metal." She sighed. "We'll have to go in with a scope and get it out," she said firmly. "And since you're an exemplar and have regeneration, I can't guarantee that the anesthesia will take care of the pain."

"Just do it. I'll try not to scream." I put the spike back in the box and put the lid back on.

"By the way," Dr. Tenent said, smiling, "that was pretty clever thinking to use the spike on Hippolyta. When a regenerator has a foreign body in him or her, the regen will either try to expel it or will try to encapsulate it, like a cyst. In Hippy's case, if it had encapsulated the re-bar through her heart, it could have killed her."

"We were lucky that I hadn't purified it yet. Is she okay?"

"She's still in surgery, but they've got the re-bar out and the worst of the heart damage is repaired." She winced. "But you're going to have to use your spell to get the taint from her as soon as she's out of surgery so her own regeneration can take over, especially with her neck injury."

"Then I better not use my essence for my discomfort. I'll save it for when Hippy comes out of surgery."

Dr. Tenent chuckled. "No need to be a hero. Ms. Grimes is coming over to help you with essence. It's pretty normal during combat finals. Any and every faculty member with a wiz rating is on standby to donate essence to the medical staff."

"That's a relief. 'Cause I don't know if I'll make it through you digging that junk out of my shoulder without something for pain, let alone have enough essence for Hippy."

**********

Tuesday, May 29-2007 - Afternoon
Doyle Medical Complex, Whateley Academy.

I'd hadn't even finished eating when I was summoned to Mrs. Carson's office. It had been a very hectic morning - major healing spells on Hippy, two combat finals, a major healing spell on myself, and decontamination spells on myself and Hippy. I was out of essence, quite exhausted, and my injuries from the morning still hurt a lot; I figured that with the contamination having been in my shoulder for so long, my healing was going to take some time to get revved back up.

Oddly, Ms. Claire waved me right into the conference room. Timidly, I opened the door, nervous about being summoned to yet another meeting. Was I in trouble for the second combat final? Had I done something wrong helping Hippy? Was there something weird going on with Magic Mikey?

Surprisingly, Chief Delarose wasn't in the room, which eased my fear a bit. Mrs. Carson waved me in, gesturing to a chair. As I sat down, I looked around. Mr. Lodgeman, Dr. Bellows, Fubar, and a doctor I'd never met were all seated and looking at me.

"Mrs. Carson," I greeted her hesitantly, wondering what this was about.

"Miss Franks," the headmistress began the meeting, "we have Dr. Hazel Two Bears from NACAC and Dr. Schmidt from HPARC on telecon with us."

"Cante waste nape ciyuzapo, Ptesanwi," Dr. Two Bears' voice sounded from the speaker.

"Wakan Takan kici un," I replied almost automatically, blushing at Dr. Two Bears' greeting.

"You honor me, Ptesanwi." From the way Mrs. Carson was smiling, I had a feeling that she understood the gist of what Hazel was saying to me, even if she didn't understand the words.

"Can we please drop the Ptesanwi thing?" I asked. "Please?" I added in English, because Hazel and I were the only ones who spoke Lakota - at least as far as I knew. I almost chuckled aloud at the thought that Mrs. Carson might very well have started learning Lakota, since I was such a frequent visitor to her office. She was extremely intelligent, and even though I had no proof, I was dead certain that she had Exemplar mental enhancements.

"Kayda," Mrs. Carson got the meeting back on track, "what do you know about what's happened to Mike?"

"He was contaminated by the taint of Unhcegila via the Mishibijiw spike," I said simply, shrugging. "If he's lucky, it only drove him insane."

Fubar frowned at my words. "What do you mean by that?"

"The last guy who touched the tainted Mishibijiw is locked in a padded room in HPARC," I said softly. "Dr. Schmidt can verify that." I gulped nervously. "The taint is bad enough that ... just gazing at Unhcegila's eyes, or those of his son, will ...." I choked up, thinking of the two boys who, though alive, might have been better off dead.

"The demon magic is strong enough to wipe a mind," Dr. Schmidt finished my thought, saving me from the difficult words.

"Is it your opinion," the unknown doctor asked, "that Mike is possibly insane?"

"No 'possible' about it," I replied immediately. "He's not a Lakota shaman. The taint of Unhcegila would have instantly driven him insane if it wasn't for the magic of the Mishibijiw's copper spike." I looked at the stony expressions on Fubar and Dr. Bellows. "Is he? Insane, I mean?"

"We ... don't know," Dr. Bellows answered cautiously. "I'm not going to speculate until we can confirm his mental state."

"If he is ... contaminated and insane," Mrs. Carson began slowly, "could you heal him?"

I goggled at her. She was asking me to cure the kid who'd try to kill me several times.

"Like the boys in HPARC," Hazel continued, just for the edification of those at the table. "You are a shaman, Wihakayda," she added in Lakota.

"No!" I replied angrily. "He tried to kill me!"

"But you could," Hazel prompted in a soothing, understanding voice.

"Maybe," I answered hesitantly, looking down at my hands for fear of the looks I figured I was getting from Mrs. Carson and Dr. Bellows. And Mr. Lodgeman.

"Kayda," Mrs. Carson said in a quiet yet firm voice, pausing until I looked up at her. "I want you to think about it." She rose and walked beside my chair, offering her hand so I would rise, and then she escorted me to the door. "Ask yourself, Kayda - if you can help him and you refuse, can you live with the fact that he's going to be permanently insane?"

"He tried to kill me!" I hissed.

"Kayda," she said, her words hard as iron, "we both know that was the demon-taint that drove him to do that, not Mike. Would you condemn him because of something he couldn’t control?"

I stared into her eyes for a second before I looked down, feeling the weight of a seemingly impossible decision. To heal Mike, I would have to forgive him for all the misery he'd caused me. He'd started it, not me. But ... Wakan Tanka had repeatedly chided me about a shaman's duty to heal, no matter what. A Lakota version of the Hippocratic Oath. "I'll think about it, ma'am," I replied formally.

"That's all I'm asking," she replied before opening the door for me to leave. No doubt they were going to talk about me and my ability to heal Mike, and what that would mean. "Oh, and Kayda?" I turned back toward her. "Dr. Schmidt, could you please repeat for Kayda what you'd told me a few minutes ago?" she called out to the speakerphone.

"Kayda, I was asked to thank you on behalf of the families of the boys you saved?"

Dammit, now my eyes were starting to water at the memory of the boys whose minds had been wiped by Unhcegila's son. I hadn't been able to help them, only to leave them mindless vegetables.

"They are ... slowly improving." My jaw almost hit the floor. "Our therapists say they're like newborns, relearning everything, but they are learning. Their brains apparently were only wiped clean, not destroyed."

"So ... they're ...?" I didn't want to get my hopes up that I had helped them after all and not condemned them to a life as brainless shells.

"It'll take time, but they are learning. At the rate they're progressing, in a few months, they'll be toddlers again, and can go back to their families. They - and their families - have a long road ahead of them, but they will recover - eventually."

That broke the dam, and my eyes started leaking. I'd thought myself a failure for not being able to help them, and in the long term, they might not completely recover, but now their families were going to get their sons back. "Thank you," I said, my voice cracking as I wiped away tears.

"Now why don't you go back to Crystal Hall and treat yourself to a nice, big piece of cake?" Mrs. Carson said, smiling, as she gently nudged me out of the door. As it shut behind me, I paused to wipe at my tears again.

When I turned, I was startled to see a girl sitting, staring at me, her eyes sad and pleading.

As soon as she saw me, Amber rose to her feet, looking at me uneasily. "Can ... can we talk?" she said nervously.

"Sure. I'm going to the caf to get some dessert," I answered.

As soon as we were in the hall, Amber stopped me. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't know that Mike was doing all this stuff to you."

"It wasn't your fault." I looked down as a though whose seed had implanted earlier sprouted. "It ... it wasn't his fault, either." I couldn't believe the words coming out of my mouth.

"I heard ... that you can help him," she half-said, half-asked.

"Maybe. I don't know."

"If you can, would you please help him?" She was practically begging, her cheeks dripping tears down onto her school jacket.

"I don't know if I can," I repeated. "If I remove the demon-taint," I explained, wincing, "he might be left ... empty." Her eyes popped open, goggling at me. I simply nodded. "His mind might be wiped, a blank slate."

"But there is a chance he'd be ... sane?" Amber pleaded, grasping at straws.

"Maybe." I sighed, shaking my head. "Amber, he tried to kill me - several times. It's ..." I looked down, collecting my thoughts. "It's not easy to forgive something like that."

"But ... you could help him?" she asked again, her eyes more than slightly misty. "Would you please try?"

"I have a lot of essence to recover," I begged off, "so I couldn't even try for a few days. But ... I promised Mrs. Carson that I'd think about it."

**********

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - Early Evening
Sally's Restaurant, Dunwich

"You did better than okay," Molly said, sitting on one side of Chou. "You did great! Not that many people beat the simulation today!"

"I screwed up," I said again, still feeling bad about how my poor plan had probably cost Chou part of her grade.

"And for the umpteenth time," Chou retorted sternly, "you did not screw up!"

Dorjee nodded in agreement with his girlfriend. This was the first time I'd done anything with all three of them, and it was a little bit strange. I could easily understand Chou, as a changeling, being interested in Molly, just like Zenith was going with Sahar, Toni with Rip, and Fey with Bugs. I could not understand, however, any of them being interested in guys - like Toni with Scott, Megs with Steve, or Chou with Dorjee. It was just ... weird. Then again, they hadn't had my experiences, so maybe it was more natural for them. I felt a shiver - I didn't want to ever feel normal about something like that.

"It wasn't as funny as Generator's, though," Dorjee chuckled aloud.

"She's the only one who won the scenario single-handed," Chou noted.

"And ... were those remote-controlled girl-scout cookies flying around everywhere attacking the bad guys?" Molly observed, which made Dorjee almost choke while sipping his soda.

"Could be. With Generator, anything is possible - and the crazier the idea, the more likely she'll do it!" Chou said with a knowing smile.

My eyes closed of their own accord, accompanied by a heavy sigh, shaking my head slowly. When I finally looked back up, all three were staring at me. I took another deep breath. "Okay, what should we have done?" I asked the question I'd had in my head since the debriefing so many hours ago. "What would you have done?" I know my voice quavered, because it was hard to contemplate hearing just how badly my partner thought I'd screwed up.

Chou sighed, glanced at Molly, and then looked at me. "I think Ito and Bardue are right. In close-in fighting, Destiny's Wave is much better than your tomahawks, plus my bag of holding gives me access to a lot of holdouts that can be crucial in close combat."

"Meaning - if you had entered through the rear door ... you would have been able to take out the brick instead of just ... pissing him off? But I can take a little more damage than you," I protested weakly. There had to be reasons to justify my plan.

"You took out the guards in phases," Dorjee observed uncritically. "The two at the end of the alley. Then the brick and the four outer guards. The third phase was the villain and henchman with the hostage."

"Which means that we could have swapped roles and attacks between the phases," Chou completed the thought.

"You're a lot better than Chou at rapid-fire with the bow," Molly added. "You were better suited for taking out the goons in front of the building."

I looked at her, stunned at that comment; more surprisingly, Chou and Dorjee nodded their agreement. I'd thought we were pretty evenly matched, and that as competitive as we were, Chou would never say I was better.

"And you forgot to check for wards and other magic barriers," Molly continued to dissect our performance. She suddenly giggled, which elicited a frown from me. "Do we sound like Ayla's post-mortems?"

Chou laughed aloud at that comment. "Maybe a little bit," she admitted, grinning.

I nodded at Molly's observation. "If I had checked," I said, chiding myself, "when I was scouting the situation, I would have noticed the wards." I shook my head slowly, looking down at my rapidly-cooling pizza. "And maybe I wouldn't have insisted on charging in myself."

"We both forgot to watch the fire-escape as a possible exit route."

"Which, if you'd have gone in, I could have covered with the bow."

"And since it was outside the building and the wards, you could have enchanted arrows for the frontal attack," Molly added. "Plus, if Chou breached from the rear, you could have cast a shield or invisibility spell on her if there weren't wards."

I was quiet for several long seconds. "Sorry I screwed up your grade," I finally apologized to Chou. "You had a better plan, and Bardue was right - you have more experience, so I shouldn't have been so stubborn at doing it my way."

"For your first combat final," Dorjee said, smiling at me, "you did pretty good. For the setup you had, you were smart enough to realize you'd be better off cooperating."

There was at least that. And the instructors had noticed it, and not chewed us out about cooperating - which meant that Ito and Bardue approved, even though they had a funny way of showing approval.

The conversation drifted to other finals we'd seen, and Chou was quite concerned about our fellow Poesie Hippy. As we talked, the pizza slowly disappeared

"I'm wondering," Molly said through half a mouthful of pizza, "what's up with Elaine Nalley and Tansy?"

"Yeah. We saw Elaine and Maggie go into the prep area, and then Wyatt and Tansy went in, and then the three of you came out for that scenario," Dorjee said.

I winced, not quite sure how much I could say. "Lanie and Maggie have been ... at odds ... since I helped Lanie get her spirit," I said cautiously. "Maggie got scared when Lanie manifested the bear one morning, and she's convinced that Lanie has been possessed."

The trio's eyes widened; no doubt there had been rumors. "You guys did well in that scenario," Chou observed, changing the subject from what he sensed was an awkward subject for me to discuss.

"Yeah," Molly agreed. "How can you be so down on yourself when you won two combat finals back-to-back?"

"It's a talent," I deadpanned.

"So how did you and Tansy end up in Elaine's final?"

"Things got really ... tense ... in the briefing room," I said cautiously. "Maggie refused to participate with Lanie so adamantly that she failed the final, so Tansy and I volunteered." I chuckled at the irony. "And Bardue pulled a nasty scenario on us."

"Like normal."

"Yeah."

"But ... Tansy and Elaine hate each other! Earlier this term, everyone thought Elaine was going to kill Tansy." Chou giggled. "No-one would have tried to stop her, either! They would have cheered instead."

I shrugged. "I don't know."

Molly narrowed her eyes, looking critically at me. "You look like you're jealous of Tansy."

"Preposterous!"

"You two did share something very intimate," Dorjee said, his voice devoid of criticism. "And it's pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that the two of you are perhaps a little more than casual friends."

"There are even rumors that you two are still lovers," Molly informed me, talking as if it was a state secret, even though I'd heard such talk many, many times every single day since the incident.

I felt my cheeks burn; and I looked down, afraid that they were going to somehow guess that I was still highly attracted to Lanie. "She's like ... a sister."

Bless her heart, Chou decided to come to my rescue from further speculation or discussion. "You can't be an expert in tactics and teamwork without training," she commented, abruptly shifting the conversation away from what was potentially very embarrassing to me. "You'll get there. For not having training in teamwork, you did pretty well today."

"But I could have done better?" I half-asked, half-stated.

Chou smiled. "All of us can improve."

**********

Thursday, May 31, 2007 - Early Evening
Dream Space of the Ptesanwi

Despite the clear, moonlit sky and the flickering fire warming us around the fire ring, despite the solitude and peace of my dream-world, the mood around the circle that evening was rather glum. Mom sat on a log, morosely sipping her tea, while Dad stared into the fire. Wakan Tanka was serving tea, but Danny refused, sitting with an angry frown on his face. Beside him, Wihinape snuggled against him in her human-kitty form, unashamedly naked as usual.

"Is he going to change?" Dad finally bluntly asked the question that was the elephant in the room. He was occasionally glaring at the nude cat-woman rubbing herself against Danny.

I glanced nervously at Wakan Tanka. "Probably," I said slowly, watching Mom and Dad's reactions. "In my avatars class," I continued, "we learned that many times if the spirit doesn't fit in the hallow, the spirit tends to push parts of the host's body - which makes it get some GSD."

"So you're saying I'm going to turn into a ... a ... a girl?" Danny wailed his distress at the idea.

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

"Wait," Mom interjected, "can't you fix his ... hallow? Or whatever it's called? Like you did for that ...?"

I shook my head even before she was done asking, my countenance conveying my firm resolve. "I'm not even going to try."

"But ...." Danny and Dad were desperate, probably more for Danny. Strangely, Mom seemed a little more resigned about the whole thing.

"Please don't ask," I almost begged them.

Debra, sitting beside me with her arm around my waist and leaning her head on my shoulder, shook her head. "Kayda really hurt her friend," she explained, "and it cost the girl her power, at least temporarily. I think she's still afraid that Lanie will miss her power and resent Kayda for it, and it'll cost her a best friend."

"And Mrs. Carson said I can only do that ritual when it's highly supervised, and even then, only in desperate cases. She thinks it's that dangerous."

Debra nodded. "After what happened to Lanie, I agree with her."

"But ... you're willing to let your brother get changed ... into ... that?" Dad pointed at Wihinape. "A cat-girl?"

"Dad," I practically begged, "don't ask me! I don't want to see Danny change, but it's too dangerous!" In the ensuing silence, I bit my lip. "Mrs. Carson had me try to help one kid named Peccary. He has the spirit of the boar, and like Danny, his hallow was too small." I cringed at the memory. "Dr. Hewley and Dr. Aranis in the power-research labs are calling it 'Hallow-Spirit-Mismatch-Deformity'."

"It's like having a Body Image Template," Debra explained so Mom and Dad would understand. "The body changes to a pre-determined template or shape."

"It's a syndrome where the spirit is bigger than the hallow and causes the body to get some type of deformity." I paused, thinking of Peccary and others. "The theory is that a spirit has a form, and it has only a limited ability to shape itself to a hallow. There's always wasted space in the hallow. So when the hallow is too small, the spirit reshapes the hallow by deforming the body, giving it room to fit more comfortably."

"So ... you're saying that I am going to change? Into ... her?" Danny asked fearfully. "You can't let me! You have to do the hallow thing!" He sounded a little desperate.

"Danny, when I tried to expand his hallow using the shaman ritual," I caught myself, thinking of that almost disastrous day, "it knocked his spirit out of his hallow. He ... became catatonic."

Debra decided to add some explanation, to reinforce what I was saying - perhaps so Mom and Dad didn't accidentally think I was coming up with some bullshit explanation. They did know that I'd been having fun teasing my brother. "A spirit and host form a very tight bond," she said. "If that bond is broken - as Kayda experienced when her magic was sealed," she held my hand, knowing that she was stirring up very painful memories for me, "it can be very, very traumatic for the host." She looked grim. "When a host loses a spirit, it can cause severe depression, suicidal tendencies, or even insanity."

"If Mrs. Carson hadn't been there to catch the spirit so I could rebind it to Peccary ...." My voice cracked; I'd almost hurt him like I'd hurt Lanie.

"If it hadn't been rebound to him," Debra took over, patting my hand reassuringly, "the boy would probably be in the psych ward - ARC Red." She saw the confusion on their faces. "ARC Red is for very bad psychological cases for mutants. People in ARC Red sometimes never get released."

"Sometimes," I said firmly, "Danny may be a pest, but I am not going to take a chance at hurting him like that. It's too risky."

"But ... that means I'm going to change!" Danny was almost in tears. "Into ... a girl?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"Danny," I said firmly, knowing that Mom and Dad were listening as well, "would you rather be insane in a psych ward that you might never get out of, or sane and maybe change some?"

Mom slid over and wrapped her arm around my brother. "Danny, honey," she said, trying to sound reassuring, "I'd rather you were healthy and not insane - even if it means some changes."

Dad nodded. "And Kayda did say that she doesn't know if you're even going to change, or how much." I could tell he was clutching at straws; he had no more idea of what was going to happen to Danny than I did, but was just trying to offer some kind of hope.

**********

Friday, June 1, 2007 - Pre-Dawn Morning
Birdtail Sioux First Nation, Manitoba, Canada

"See you Monday?" the older man asked, standing in the door of the community center and looking back at a table of friends. He had a weather-lined face, and his white hair was in stark contrast to his reddish-brown skin. Still, he was an affable older man, and his smile matched those of the group still seated at the table.

"Do you have to go so soon?" the woman at the table asked, her voice sad at his departure.

"I have much to do to get ready for the ceremony," the man at the door said, looking squarely at a boy at the table whose eyes were wide with anticipation and excitement.

"It shall be a good ceremony," a man at the table said with a grin and a nod. "Ed has talked of nothing but his coming-of-age ceremony for months! He's getting insufferable!"

The eager boy, seated with two brothers and two sisters and his parents, nodded. "It's important," he objected.

The father tussled the hair of his son, much to the boy's chagrin. "And it's a rite of passage that we tease you about it, too," he said with a broad smile. "Is Billy coming home soon? I know Ed and his brothers want to spend more time learning from him."

Jimmy Red Lake smiled and shrugged. "I think so. The last time I talked to him, I got the impression that he really likes the job he got in the States."

The boy's eyes narrowed as he frowned. "But ... it's important that we learn! I want to learn to be a warrior, just like him!"

"And you will," Jimmy Red Lake said, smiling assurance toward the youth. "His pupil is not in class during the summer, so he'll probably stay with me."

"His pupil? One pupil?" The mother shook her head. "It seems like such a waste, when there are so many boys here who he could teach."

Jimmy nodded, a wry smile on his face. "Yes, but this one pupil is very, very important to the People."

"Who?"

"I can't tell you her name," Jimmy said, "but if you knew, you'd be grateful that Billy was chosen to teach her."

"Hmmmph," the dad snorted. "You make it sound like she's as important as the White Buffalo Calf Woman!"

With a knowing smile, Jimmy nodded at the family. "I'll see you on Monday at the ceremonial house. I've already made arrangements with the chief and the elders, and they've summoned the warriors to attend."

"Thank you," the mother said, beaming at how the ceremony was coming. It was important to parents and child - the 'coming of age' ceremony marked the transition from boy to man, and she was anxious that everything be perfect.

"It's a shaman's job to tend to these things," Jimmy said with a smile. "Well, good night." With that, he walked outside into the cool spring evening air and climbed into his truck for the short drive to his house.

As he drove, his mind mulling over all the things he had to make sure were perfect for the ceremony, the hairs on the nape of his neck suddenly bristled; he felt that something was wrong. Eyes narrowed as he looked around, he eased off the gas and eased his truck to the side of the narrow gravel road. No sooner had he stopped the truck than he let himself slip into the Astral plane. As shaman went, he was good, but not that good that he could drive from the Astral plane.

Jimmy Red Lake cringed; something very sick and foul and demonic was around, but he couldn't seem to locate it, which was very unusual. It didn't make sense, so he slipped back into the real world and cast a ghost-walking spell and stepped from his truck, looking around cautiously. It seemed to be coming from the northwest; slowly, his mind now focused laser-like on his surroundings, the earth spirit, and the sky spirit, he stepped toward whatever was disturbing the world around him.

As he looked around, his mind raced through the tribe's legends and lore. Sure, there were demons and spirits of foul nature, but he knew all of them, and knew at least from lore what they should appear and feel like. This was not like any of those; it seemed to be almost flickering like it was present, and then it wasn't.

Perhaps another tribe's legends or demons? Try as he might, though, Jimmy Red Lake couldn't think of something which was described as feeling like this thing.

An unholy noise sounded from the trees in front of him, startling the shaman so much that he backed toward his truck, incanting quickly his magic. A tree snapped with a loud crack, and then it appeared, a large thing with mottled brown and white fur, a mouthful of scimitar-like fangs and dagger-like teeth and a positively evil fire burning in its eyes. The creature - or more likely demon because it was also on the astral plane - was easily twenty-feet or more tall and so broad that its chest was at least ten feet wide. It looked at Jimmy and roared again, a terrifying, unearthly sound.

Jimmy was a good shaman; he immediately invoked his magic shield and his invisibility and scooted around his truck to where he kept his weapons. He was startled when the beast's frightening gaze followed his every step as it stomped forward; it wasn't fooled by his ghost-walking spell. His nervousness changed instantly to genuine fear as the creature roared again - in both the Astral and physical planes. He took a lance from the back of the truck, and using it like a spear, hurled it at the abomination.

It didn't even try to block the lance, and its point bounced off the demon. With nothing else to do, Jimmy scrambled into the passenger side of his truck, slamming it into gear as his foot reached across for the gas pedal. It was a futile gesture; as he scrambled, the creature leaped to the truck, it's claws raking at the vehicle and gouging the roof and ripping it to shreds. Jimmy scrambled back out the door, dodging the creature's vicious claws as he added more shaman magic to his shield spell.

The creature stomped over toward the fleeing shaman, and he slashed viciously at the man. The last thing Jimmy Red Lake saw was brilliant fractal patterns of unnatural light on his shield spell as it tried to absorb Kigatilik's assault, but the shaman hunter's magical nature rendered almost all of the shaman's defensive spells useless.

**********

Friday, June 1, 2007 - Near Midnight
Dream Space of the Ptesanwi

I started, which startled Debra, who'd been leaning on my shoulder, her arm around my waist. "Are you okay?" she asked.

I couldn't stop the shudder that raced up and down my spine. "I ... felt something," I said softly.

"Was it a disturbance - like millions of voices suddenly cried out and were silenced," Debra teased.

"I think we shouldn't tease Wihakayda," Wakan Tanka gently chided her, taking my side - for once. "Wihakayda is right - there is something disturbing in the spirit world. I felt it, too." She looked into her tea cup. "But I don't know what it was. Only that it felt wrong."

"What am I supposed to do?" I changed the subject, looking plaintively at my spirit guide. "He tried to kill me!"

"You are a shaman," Wakan Tanka said firmly.

"But ... he admitted trying to humiliate me, and trying ..."

"May we enter your camp?" The voice was familiar, startling me. Debra and I spun, and the look of concern faded instantly. "Of course," I replied to Lanie, smiling and leaping to my feet to hug her. A step behind her was Grizzly in her bear form, standing tall and looking menacing. Deb, too, jumped up, tapping me on the shoulder after a momentary hug. I'm sure it was part jealousy and part eagerness to hug her old photographer and friend.

"Why ... did you come?" I asked as they sat. Suddenly, it made sense that Wakan Tanka had a very, very large pot of tea and many more cups. My eyes narrowed as I counted the cups, seeing the three extra after accounting for Lanie and Grizzly. "Who else is coming?

"You're too suspicious," Debra chided me, rubbing my shoulders and guiding me back to my spot on the log. I wasn't even halfway to sitting when there was another noise outside the camp. I was back on my feet, looking between tepees for the source of the noise, my sacred knive Wakan Mila in hand.

"You do not need that," Wakan Tanka said as she tended to the tea.

I glanced over my shoulder at her, frowning, and then I paused, reaching out to the earth and sky spirits as I turned back to the intruders. There were ... three? ... others approaching. My eyes widened when I recognized the unique 'spirit signatures' of two of them.

"Why have you come to my dream space, Wyatt? Kodiak?" I demanded, holding my knife at the ready. "And who have you brought with you?"

Wyatt and the bear stepped closer, their forms slowly gaining substance as they stepped out of the darkness. "May we enter your camp?"

"No bad double-entendres tonight?" I asked, my voice dripping sarcasm.

"They both know that under the circumstances, I don't exactly approve of such jokes." The third figure emerged from the darkness, halting at the boundary of my camp between Kodiak and Wyatt. "Cante waste nape ciyuzapo, Kayda," Mrs. Carson said formally.

"Um," I was quite startled by her presence. "How ...?"

"How did I get into dream-space?" she asked with a knowing smile. "Over the years, I've found it necessary to learn a few things about extra-dimensional planes and spirits." She glanced at the big senior. "And some people are a little protective of you and thought you might need a little ... guidance."

"I have my spirit mentors," I said defensively, not quite sure I wanted more people crowding into my cozy little camp, especially since I was certain of their reason for visiting.

"Yes, of course, dear," Mrs. Carson said politely. "But you're very troubled and in need of advice. I've found that the more points-of-view that I consider, the better my decision."

"You're just going to tell me to heal him," I groused, frowning.

"Wihakayda, invite them to your camp," Wakan Tanka called to me as if it was an order.

Kodiak stood quietly, looking around with a smug expression, while Wyatt looked over my shoulder into the camp, probably staring at Lanie by the fire.

"Wakan Tanka told me I should invite you in."

"That doesn't exactly sound like an enthusiastic invitation," Mrs. Carson observed.

My scowl deepened at being called out on poor manners. "Please, join us at the fire circle," I said to them. Then I stuck a finger in Wyatt's nose. "If you do anything with my buffalo, I will kick your ass!"

I led them to the fire circle, and as they sat, I passed out cups of tea. "Okay, get it over with."

"What?" Mrs. Carson asked calmly. In the firelight, I could see that she was wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, and tennis shoes. "What do you expect us to do?"

I frowned. "To tell me that I have to heal Mike," I answered, a little confused by her attitude.

"You know that's what we think you should do," Wyatt replied with a smile.

"It's not fair!" I protested, being more than a bit petulant. "He tried to kill me!"

"Was it his fault?" the Kodiak asked. "After the first pranking, was he really responsible for what he did?" I glared at him, and then stared down at the fire, angry that I was being pushed so hard by so many people.

"This tea is delicious," Mrs. Carson said graciously to Wakan Tanka, then turned to me. "Kayda, Without Mike, we might never finish the investigation to find out who's behind what he did. He didn't do all of that on his own. He was reporting to someone. For your safety, we have to find that person so we can stop them." Her expression was sympathetic but firm. "If that person can't get you through Mike, he'll find another way."

"It's the right thing to do, sister," Lanie said softly. "He wasn't responsible, and you know it."

I looked around the fire circle. Deb's expression told me everything - she didn't want to tell me what to do, but she thought I should heal Mike if I could. Lanie simply nodded, as did Wyatt. I knew where Wakan Tanka stood without having to ask or look. The Kodiak had a peculiar expression on his usually inscrutable face. "What?" I demanded impatiently.

"A shaman is first a healer," he said. "Grizzly and I were both healers. We both helped those against whom we'd fought."

A heavy sigh escaped me as I looked down. "I ... don't think ..." I shook my head; part of me was wondering how long they'd keep badgering me, and part knew that they were right. "I ... I'll try," I finally said.

Debra wrapped me in a comforting hug, and a moment later Lanie joined the hug from the other side.

"Now," Mrs. Carson interjected when the huggy-feely moment was past, "since I'm here, let's talk a little about the classes you and Miss Nalley will be taking this fall. I have some ideas that might help you make the best use of your time."

I glanced at my friends knowingly, unconsciously pulling Debra tighter against me. "Um, we've already thought some about that," I said hesitantly. That began a conversation about tutoring in magic in the dream world, which led into Mrs. Carson talking with me and Wakan Tanka about the Lakota shaman traditions and all that I'd learn from her and from her special class the next fall. Then, to my horror, Tatanka got into a discussion with our headmistress about my training with Mr. Two Knives, and both Wyatt and the Kodiak ganged up on me by joining in - much to Mrs. Carson's amusement. I think she'd have stayed longer, but Debra made a show of yawning and going into 'our' tepee to rest, and Lanie and Wyatt exchanged knowing looks before they, too, feigned yawns. Mrs. Carson took the hint, and after bidding me good night, she left with Lanie, Wyatt, Kodiak, and Grizzly, leaving me alone with Debra. And having agreed to try to heal Mike, I felt a little calmer inside, like a burden had been taken from me.

**********

Saturday, June 2, 2007 - Morning
Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota

"What do you want?!?" The sharp anger in the voice on the other end made Dan Bear Claws cringe.

"It's me - Dan Bear ...."

"I know who you are. What do you want?"

"Um, my ... operative at Whateley was ... unmasked," Dan said hesitantly.

"So I've heard."

Dan grimaced - did he have any secrets from the shaman. "But it's good news."

"How do you figure?"

"He'd gone rogue," Dan explained, his tongue nearly stumbling over itself to get the explanation out quickly before Gray Skies interrupted him again. "He's not a threat anymore."

"Only because your operative tried to kill her again!"

Dan fell back into his chair, shocked. "Uh, he ... he did?"

"Yes. And I bet the only reason you know he's been apprehended is that some investigator or security official traced your number on his phone and has called or paid you a visit." Gray Skies sounded beyond angry; Dan had never heard someone speaking with such controlled, icy fury that made him want to run in terror.

"Um, yeah."

"They better not be able to trace this to me!"

"They can't," Dan tried to reassure the shaman. "I'm using disposable phones, so there's no evidence."

"You're doing at least one thing smart!" The shaman breathed deeply, angrily, a couple of times, either seething with rage or trying to think. "How the hell am I supposed to get her to the reservation now?"

"Um," Dan started to suggest, hoping to salvage something from this debacle. "She's coming home for the summer, right? Can we maybe ... pressure her parents or friends? Remind them that the school is dangerous ...?"

"Most of the danger has come from your idiot!" Gray Skies thundered back. "And now she knows it, her parents know it, the school knows it! How do I convince them ...?"

"We could ...."

"You could do nothing!" Gray Skies roared. "I'm done with you. I'll find someone who's reliable and competent to do the job." The phone clicked off.

Dan stared at the dead phone for a moment, eyes wide and hand shaking, before he shut it off and let it fall from his hands. His plans had backfired, and worse, his operative had put the girl in serious danger. Now, the shaman was angry at him. His dream of returning to lead the tribe to new glory was shattered, and to the shaman, he was now an obstacle.

His trembling grew worse as he considered that little fact. It would be trivial for the shaman to arrange an accident - dream-walkers could easily arrange something fatal if they so desired. And he wasn't sure that Gray Skies was ethical enough to not do such a thing.

Slowly, he came to the conclusion that he had only one choice if he wanted to live. Painfully aware of his arthritis, he bent over the arm of his chair and picked up the dropped cell phone, then dialed the information number. When it answered, he spoke softly, almost conspiratorially. "I'd like the number for the Franks residence. Sanborn County, I think. Or Jerauld County." He paused a moment, his mind racing in the silence while the operator looked up the information. "Um, I think it's Pete or Peter and June Franks," he said.

**********

Saturday, June 2, 2007 - Lunch
Crystal Hall, Whateley Academy

"It's not fair!" Lanie scowled into her coffee cup, sitting across from me in the Melville coffee shop. Wyatt was coming to join us.

I shrugged. "Nothing I can do about it now."

"One credit? One lousy English credit?" Lanie protested. "You've got more than enough credits to be legitimately a junior, like me!"

A knowing, smug smile crept across my face. "What?" Lanie asked, curious about what I was up to.

"First, sister," I said over a sip of coffee, "if I was a junior, I wouldn't be on the same wing with you."

"There is that," Lanie grudgingly agreed with a nod.

"Second, I think Mrs. Carson was deadly serious about keeping the two of us together, whether it's for damage control or so we can keep each other out of trouble."

"Ah'd considered that." She screwed up her face thoughtfully. "But she knows ... what happened, so surely she's concerned about ..."

I nodded. "That crossed my mind. But I think she trusts us because of our SOs, cuwe ki."

Lanie studied me for several seconds while I took another sip. "Ah get the feelin' that you've got something planned," she said with certainty.

"Of course," I grinned. "After all, Ah did learn from mah sister!" I ducked as she slapped my arm playfully in response to my feigned Georgia accent.

"Okay, you've got mah curiosity stirred up. What is it?" She didn't even look up when a giant hand lightly touched her shoulder, but just rubbed her cheek against Wyatt's hand. Beaming at his fiancée, he sat down beside Lanie.

"I'll study a little during the summer, and as soon as we get back, I'll test out of English IIb and then register for English IIIa. That'll make it impossible to say I'm not a junior."

"But if you test out too early," Lanie cautioned me, "they'll put you on the junior floor."

I nodded. "Timing is everything. Once all the upperclassmen are moved in and registered, I'll ask to test out, which by rules they have to allow, and when I pass that, I'll re-register for English III - as a junior - before the registration cutoff at the end of Friday. All our room arrangements will be locked in the databases, so I'll be a junior on the sophomore floor with cuwe ki." My triumphant grin was infectious; I could tell the rules lawyer of Whateley was impressed by my plan.

"What are you doing this summer?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Ah don't know," Lanie answered, a hint of sadness in her voice. "After what's happened," her voice cracked a little, "Ah need some time to think.

"I'm sorry I made things worse with ...." I didn't need to complete the sentence; we both knew how much Maggie had hurt Lanie.

Lanie put her hand on mine to reassure me that she wasn't blaming me. "Ah know you were trying. Thanks." She read my curious expression. "For being a friend. For being my soul-sister."

At that moment, Conjure and Stiletto walked from the serving counter right past us, carrying their cups of coffee. "Why don't you dykes take your PDAs out of here - maybe to the quad?" Stiletto snarked. "Or the nuthouse!"

I couldn't help but laugh at her attempted nasty comment, surprising Lanie and Wyatt. "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

Stiletto stopped so abruptly that Conjure had to stutter-step to not spill her coffee. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I shrugged, giving my best charming smile. "Nothing, except that maybe you're both jealous that I have someone so beautiful paying attention to me, and perhaps you're more than a little curious."

Both girls turned red with anger, and they stormed off, to the amusement of Wyatt. "Um," I hesitantly asked Lanie after they were out of the coffee shop, "did I do that right?"

My soul-sister was chuckling and grinning. "Ah think you did just fine!"

"Are you going to drive your car all the way home?" I asked, a little concerned about Lanie taking a long road-trip by herself. "I'm worried about you."

Lanie smiled, a small ray of sunshine on her otherwise thoughtful and morose expression. "With friends like you and Tansy and Wyatt," she replied, "Ah know Ah'll be okay."

**********

Sunday, June 3, 2007 - After Breakfast
Doyle Medical Center, Whateley Academy

Grimacing, forcing myself, I walked into the room where Mike lay on a bed, covered by a sheet and mildly sedated. To be doubly sure, I knew his arms and legs were strapped down. "I'm ... I'm ready. I think," I added nervously. I glanced at a rolling cart on which my supplies were laid, prepared and organized for me. Gulping, I avoided looking at the prone figure because the bulge in his crotch was noticeable. Because the taint was spread throughout his body, I had to do a full ritual, which included significant body markings - and that was the part I was most nervous about. Beneath the sheet, Mike wore only the briefest of underwear so as not to interfere with the markings. Normally, such a ritual would have the patient entirely nude, but no-one - least of all me - was willing to risk me reacting to such a sight.

Lanie was right behind me, her hand resting on my arm to reassure me, and to let me know that she was there in case I started having a panic attack. "Okay," I said to Dr. Tenent and Ms. Stone; I suspected both of them were also ready in case I had problems with the ritual.

Taking a deep breath, I focused as narrowly as I could on my potion and spell to the exclusion of all else. I had tunnel vision, seeing only the part of Mike that I was marking as I went through the ritual. When that part was done, I incanted further while someone - I really couldn't say who - lifted his torso up, holding his head so I could pour the bitter potion into his mouth.

He sputtered and spat out the foul concoction, but the staff was ready for that. Once more they held his head while one also held his nose, forcing him to open his mouth. When some of the mixture was in his mouth, they clamped it shut, forcing him to swallow.

No sooner had he swallowed the awful drink than his body convulsed in a mighty spasm. Again and again, we forced more of the potion down him, but there were no further major convulsions, and when the potion was gone, the nurses immediately eased him back onto the bed and covered him back up.

Lanie's hands were suddenly on my arms, supporting me, and it was only then that I realized how bad I was shaking. I let her lead me out of the room, and as soon as we got near a bench in hall, I practically collapsed.

"Thanks," I said, letting her cradle and comfort me. I just hugged her tightly, trying to forget about applying the ritual markings to Mike. Eventually, I felt like someone was standing behind me, waiting patiently. I sat up, turning, and that's when it dawned on me that I'd been crying, at least a little bit.

"Is he okay?" Ms. Stone nervously asked the question that was on her and Dr. Tenent's minds

I shuddered, trying to control how thoroughly rattled I was. "I ... couldn't feel any taint," I answered, my voice quavering. "But ... I don't know ... what's left. Upstairs, I mean."

"I guess you're done," Dr. Tenent said, glancing at Ms. Stone to see if she knew of anything else I needed to do. "Go find somewhere quiet where you can relax, preferably not alone in case you have a delayed reaction."

"Ah'll make sure she gets to her cottage," Lanie volunteered, her arm around my shoulder.

"You're being so helpful that people are going to start talking," I commented dryly as we walked down the hall.

"Ah think they've been talkin' for a while," Lanie giggled. "And Ah think a lot of them are jealous!"

A figure stood up from a bench, intercepting us as we neared the exit door. "Um, Kayda?" Amber Prentice said nervously as she approached us.

"Yeah?" I had no idea what to expect from her.

"Um," she winced; I think she was nervous about how I was going to react. "Is Mike ... is he okay?"

"I did the ritual to take away the demon taint," I said, shuddering again. "So that's gone from him. But ...." I shook my head uncertainly. "I don't know. There's a chance his mind is gone. No-one will know until he wakes up."

Amber nodded, fighting tears. She wrapped me in a hug, her head on my shoulder as she lost the battle and started to cry. "Thank you," she said softly. "Even if it ... didn't work all the way, thank you for trying."

I just stood, numb, not knowing how to respond. As Mike's girlfriend, she had to have known about some of his plots and plans, and she'd done nothing. It felt weird.

**********

Sunday, June 3, 2007 - Afternoon
HPARC, Black Hills, South Dakota

Hazel Two Bears leaned back, frowning and studying the computer display projected on the wall. "What the hell is it?"

"I don't know," he said. "All shamans. And look at this ..." he touched a control and the map cleared, but then red dots marched across it as the computer updated the display in a time sequence. "And we got another one - a shaman in the Birdtail Sioux tribe in Manitoba. The Canadian Bureau of Indigenous and Northern Affairs just sent us word an hour ago."

"Is it ... hunting shamans?"

Ernst grimaced. "It looks like it. The only people attacked are shamans. And none of them have been able to stop it."

Hazel stared at the display, trying to will it to reveal its pattern. "Put up the other ones - in the Dakotas." Ernst's fingers danced across the keyboard and a new series of dots appeared. "Now run the time sequence." A few more controls and the time sequence repeated, with the new dots added.

"You think those are related?" Ernst asked.

"No," Hazel said with certainty. "The Canadian attacks look like following a pattern toward some ... destination. The Dakota attacks are irregular and scattered."

"So you think they're only coincidental?"

Hazel looked grim. "I don't believe in coincidences. Especially with periodic psychic emanations from our friend downstairs." She couldn't completely hide her nervousness about Unhcegila in cold storage in the lower levels. Her fingers danced across the keys of her laptop.

"What are you looking for?" Ernst couldn't contain his curiosity. "We already did searches in the database for shaman killer and similar terms."

"Where did the line start?" Hazel asked knowingly, a twinkle in her eye.

"Northwestern Canada," Ernst replied instantly.

"Inuit country," Hazel said. "And here it is..." She leaned closer and stared at her screen, then she stiffened. "Oh, shit!"

"What?"

"Look up Kigatilik. K I G A T I L I K."

Dr. Schmidt typed the name into his search engine, accessing all the databases of North America's paranormal research centers. The blood drained from his face as hit after hit showed up on his computer with a brief summary. He clicked on one, and as he read, he paled further. "If that's what we have here, it's really not good."

Hazel looked up from her computer. "You don't catalog news from Native American papers and such, do you?"

"No, why?"

"I've got something on the NACAC database that you might want to look at. An Inuit shaman disappeared. His son claimed it was a monster that attacked him - several days after the father said that Kigatilik had awakened."

"And you think it might be tied in to Unhcegila's son?" Ernst frowned, shaking his head. "It doesn't make sense. Why isn't it moving to the south, toward the Dakotas?"

"More than that, how does it tie in to Unhcegila's son?" She frowned as she stared at the computer. "He's after something!" she declared. "But what? And how does Kigatilik factor into this?"

**********

Monday, June 4, 2007 - Early Evening
Poe Cottage, Whateley Academy

The ringing phone seemed so intrusive and so far away; I was sprawled on my bed reviewing the material from Power Theory - which was pretty dull, but with my class load, I had to get ahead in review for my finals.

"Are you going to get that?" Evvie grumbled, sitting at her desk across the room from my desk and the ringing phone.

"I suppose." The book was put face-down, open to where I'd left off reading, and I rolled over, scooting toward my desk. "Hello?"

"Hello, Kayda?" It was Skybolt, and she sounded very uneasy. "Can ... you come over, please?" Her voice was quavering; something had rattled her.

"I'll be right over." Hanging up, I slid to the edge of my bed and pulled on my moccasins - the short ones because I didn't feel like lacing up my calf-length boots. I could have slipped on my snakey boots, but being understated rather than sexy was probably better for Sky.

"Going out again?" Evvie asked, barely turning from her studies.

"Yup. House call."

"I thought you were done with Sky and all her piercings," my roommate observed, eyeing me warily. "Is there something going on?"

"Nope. Going to work a bit on her tattoos," I lied. Evenings were still a little cool so I slipped on my jacket - a beaded buckskin jacket in a Lakota style that Dad had given me for my birthday.

On the walk to Melville and the elevator ride to the fifth floor, I had time to contemplate what might be bothering her. We'd gotten all her piercings out, but after the last cleansing and healing, she broke down in tears to the point she was wailing aloud and several people were afraid that she was having an emotional breakdown. Perhaps now that she was free of the physical reminders of her mental enslavement, the full emotional impact of the year was hitting her. Or maybe without the piercings, she realized - finally - that she was free of Hekate's influence. Damn, but that bitch had really messed her and Cav up, and it was going to take people far more experienced and knowledgeable to get them over it.

I had an uneasy feeling when Sky's door opened before I could knock; something must have been really bothering her if she was that anxious for me to get there. "I came as fast as I could," I said, stepping in.

The door shut behind me, startling me a little bit, and I found myself goggling at Sky; she'd apparently been getting ready for bed or had just taken a shower because she was in her robe. "Are you okay?" I asked.

Slowly, Sky approached me, but her steps were hesitant, even a bit fearful, and the look in her eye reflected her uncertainty. When she was a step away, she slipped her robe off her shoulders, revealing a very see-through baby-doll teddy in black and lace, and she was wearing a very sexy perfume that was making me somewhat aroused. "I ... need to thank you," she said, taking advantage of my being stunned nearly senseless, stepping closer to me and putting her arms on my shoulders, "for ... giving me my body back."

"Um ...," I stammered, really taken totally by surprise by this unexpected turn of events. "That's ..." I gulped, trying to talk, but I was highly distracted by how beautiful she was and how sexy she looked in the teddy.

"I know you are a lesbian ...," Sky continued.

"You don't have to ..."

"Shhh," she said, swallowing nervously as she put a finger across my lips. "While I was ..." she hesitated only momentarily, "I was made to ... serve women."

"Elaine," I tried to insist, "you don't ..." I was backing away from her, and she stayed right with me, until I backed into one of the desks and could retreat no further.

"I know how to give you pleasure," she said bluntly, "to thank you for ..."

"Sky, stop!" I finally managed to get my addled brain functioning so I could talk again. I gently reached up and too her arms off my neck.

"But ...," she was actually confused that I wasn't taking advantage of her.

"Elaine," I said firmly, holding her hands so our arms were between the two of us, "you owe me nothing! Do you understand?"

"But ...." She looked like she was about to cry.

"I didn't help heal you because I wanted to seduce you." My brain was clearing after being more than a bit overwhelmed a few moments by her blatant and sexy advances. "Do you understand?"

She stared at me for several silent moments, and then her lip quivered and tears began to flow. "Is it because ... I'm ... so horribly mutilated?"

I suddenly understood; she thought my rejection was because I thought she was ugly. Now I felt like I was in a no-win situation. She actually felt like she needed to seduce me to thank me, but if I rejected her, it hit at her self-image because she'd figure she wasn't attractive

"Sky," I said, reaching up to wipe at one of her cheeks, "I'm very, very flattered, and if I wasn't attached - and if you weren't - I'd be a fool to turn down your offer."

She looked up at me with big, soft blue eyes that were brimming with tears. "I ... don't understand," she sobbed. "Is it because ... you ... think I am not attractive?"

There it was - just what I'd worried about. I held her cheeks between my hands, looking gently into her eyes. "Elaine, you are very, very beautiful," I tried to counter her self-doubt. "I didn't help you because I wanted to seduce you, or because I wanted you to feel like you owed me something," I said, gulping as the enormity of her self-doubt hit me. "I helped you because I'm a shaman and that means I'm supposed to heal people."

She continued to stare at me, not quite believing that I could give her such a gift without asking anything in return, especially after she'd had everything taken from her the preceding year. Slowly, I lowered my hands and then wrapped her in a hug, pulling her close to me to reassure and comfort her. I felt her body convulsing softly as she cried, and gradually, her tears soaked through to my shoulders, but I just kept holding her, letting her cry because I knew she needed an emotional release.

"Cav is a very, very lucky man to have someone as beautiful as you to love."

A fresh burst of sobs wracked her body. "I'm ... I'm not ... not worthy of him," she cried. "I ... wasn't faithful ... to him." I held her tight my shoulder in what I hoped she'd see as a comforting embrace. "I ... they made me say ... very hurtful things about him, about how ... poor he was ... as a lover. I ... I hurt him." She slipped from my arms and turned away, crying softly. "I ... don't know how ... how ... he can stand to be with me ... after ... after what I ... did! What I said! After I was ... a whore for the Alphas!"

Stepping forward, I put my hands on her shoulders in a supportive and not sexual gesture. "Sky, I'm sure he understands," I tried to reassure her. "If anyone does, it's Cav, because he went through the same thing." She said nothing but continued to sob. "Do you forgive him for his infidelity?"

Shaking her head, her body trembling, she answered, "But what I did ... was far worse!" Her gaze slowly lowered. "When we are ... together," she admitted through her tears, "it's ... so different. I'm sure ... when he looks at me, all he sees is...." She didn't have to finish; it was obvious that she feared that whenever he looked at her, or held her, or loved her, he saw not Skybolt, his love, but the Alpha whore.

"Then don't," I said, suddenly figuring out what the two of them needed. At least I hoped I had figured it out. Sky turned, looking over her shoulder in shock. "Don't."

"But ...." She was thoroughly confused.

I turned her so she was face-to-face with me. "Don't force things. Don't try to use sex to hold his attention. Instead, you two need to take some time to get to know each other again. Go on a few dates."

"What?" Sky shook her head. "But ... we are ...."

"Elaine, I want you to answer a question if you can, okay?" She nodded nervously. "Are you perhaps trying to prove to Cav that you're a better lover to him than you were forced to be to others?"

She bit her lip as she thought about what I'd said. "I don't know," she finally answered.

"And do you think that maybe he is trying to prove to you that he can love you better than all those who raped you and made you say how good they were? That maybe he needs to prove something to you or to himself? That maybe he's very insecure about being your lover?"

A visible wince betrayed her stark realization that maybe those fears were haunting Cav, that she'd never considered his insecurity and anxiety. "Maybe."

"You're both trying to compensate for all the evil that they made you do sexually. So take that out of the equation," I continued. "Go on a few dates - without the promise of or need for sex. Rebuild your trust and friendship. Rebuild your love. Show him that you care for him as a person, not just as a lover. Let him show you the same thing."

She looked up at me, her moist eyes and cheeks glistening in the light, her eyes wide with uncertainty and even fear.

I knew what I could do; Ayla had said that he owed me a favor for the math class. He'd probably help even without calling in a favor, just because he could. "I'll set up a dinner date for you two. A nice intimate setting where you can rekindle the romance, but not so it looks like sex is the expected outcome. Okay? With maybe a movie after dinner?"

"But ... if it's intimate ...."

I had an answer to that fear. "Maybe we can arrange things so it's like a restaurant. Cozy, intimate, but still public. A place for a few couples - like maybe Anna and Jerry, and Tissy and Nitro - to have a nice date." I smiled at the surprised look on her face. "A setting where you can enjoy each other's company and fall in love again without feeling like it has to end in intimacy. Does that sound good?"

Sky nodded, and in the reflected light, I could see tears coming anew. I hoped they were tears of gratitude, but she might be afraid of things not working out, of losing Cav. Or tears because she was so emotionally overwhelmed. Instinctively, I pulled her into a comforting hug again, letting her once more wet my shoulder as she cried. "Shhh," I said, holding her head gently like she was a little child, "it's okay." Just like Mom had done when I was little and she was comforting me, I kissed her head. "Everything is going to be okay."

I had a growing, visceral hatred toward the girl who could have done this evil to Skybolt. She had shattered Sky's self-image and left her feeling like a broken slut, and then after she was healed, left her feeling so worthless that she was convinced she had to give her body to pay even small debts of gratitude.

**********

Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - Early Noon
Schuster Hall, Whateley Academy

I was surprised to find two armed guards in full kit outside Mrs. Carson's conference room when I got to the administration wing; Ms. Claire and Ms. Hartford looked grim-face; Ms. Hartford more than usual, I mean. Being summoned to the Headmistress' office out of the cafeteria was unusual enough; with the events of the past week, it was nerve-wracking.

Before I even shut the door behind me, Ms. Claire looked up. "Go on into the conference room. Mrs. Carson is expecting you."

Gulping, glancing nervously at the guards, I padded softly to the door, and with a glance to Ms. Claire to confirm things, I twisted the knob and pulled the door open a crack.

"Come in and have a seat, Kayda," Mrs. Carson said as soon as she could see my face in the doorway peeking in.

I pulled the door further open and immediately halted, surprised at the number of people looking at me. There were three gentlemen and a woman seated at the conference table that I didn't recognize, Eloise Donner of the Medawihla tribe, Chief Delarose, Circe, Dr. Bellows, two more armed security guards standing behind Magic Mikey, Mike's girlfriend Amber, and another professionally-dressed person who I thought was part of Doyle's psychiatric staff. All of them were looking expectantly at me. Gulping nervously, I crept into the room and sat down.

Mrs. Carson looked at the three gentlemen. "Gentlemen, this is Kayda Franks, a student who is very involved in this entire ... series of events." I reflexively lowered myself in my chair, feeling uncomfortably in the spotlight, but she continued. "Miss Franks is a Lakota Sioux and a shaman-in-training for her tribe. A rather important shaman-in-training."

I really did want to sink beneath the table and slide out under the door; the scrutiny paid me by the four was extremely uncomfortable. To make things worse, I recognized one of the men - the Attorney General of the state - from the little fiasco of a hearing I'd endured weeks earlier. His head nod and friendly smile told me that he remembered me as well.

"This is Attorney General Ethan Moore of the state of New Hampshire," Mrs. Carson introduced the one man I knew of the three.

"Yeah," I replied, wincing a little at the still-fresh and still-painful memories of the last time I'd seen the Attorney General. That had been a holo-conference. It was still quite intimidating. "I, um, remember you."

"And I remember you," Attorney General Moore said with a pleasant smile. "I'm glad I could meet you in less ... stressful circumstances."

Mrs. Carson waited until he was finished. "Beside him are Dr. Terrence Holmes and Dr. Kurt Swanson, both licensed psychiatrists with the New Hampshire Department of Corrections who work with the Attorney General's office. Finally, we have Dr. Marcia Hines of the Department of Paranormal Affairs. You know everyone else."

That introduction sounded ominous. I nodded politely at them.

"Dr. Holmes, Dr. Swanson, and Dr. Hines were here to evaluate Mike last weekend with my staff," Dr. Bellows explained. "We've also been in contact with Dr. Two Bears and Dr. Schmidt of HPARC, and have reviewed notes from your work at HPARC this past April."

Beneath the table, my hands were trembling; I had no idea what they were talking about, but it really didn't sound good. I nodded, because I didn't trust my voice to not crack if I'd have spoken. Involving HPARC and the DPA was some serious shit.

"They've also reviewed the case files from Security Officer Lyle Matthews, both ours and ARCs."

At that point, I was visibly trembling all over, unable to control the panic trying to clutch me in its icy grasp. Not only was this bringing up bad memories, but it sounded very, very important and threatening. Still, Mike continued to stare at the table, unable or unwilling to look up at anyone, and Amber stared doe-eyed at me, silently pleading with her gaze for something, though I knew not what.

"Kayda," Dr. Bellows continued in a reassuring tone, "you're here because you best understand the demonic cleansing you performed, and can thus best explain what happened, both with the contamination and with the ritual cleansing."

Everyone, except Mike, focused on me while I stammered my way through a brief explanation of Unhcegila and his spawn, and their demon-taint. I had to remember and relate my futile and heartbreaking efforts with the boy scouts whose minds had been wiped by the snake-demon, and I shook horribly as I told of Officer Matthews and what snakey had done to him. Finally, I told them of 'decontaminating' wounds in myself and in Chou, and then with Mike.

"I see," Dr. Swanson, an older, balding, grandfatherly man with white hair said, thoughtfully scratching his neatly-trimmed snow-white beard. After a few seconds of pondering, he spoke again. "Do you believe he's safe now? That all the taint is gone?"

I glanced nervously at Mrs. Carson, who simply nodded to me, indicating that I should give my honest opinion. "Yes, sir," I answered, my voice quavering a little.

"Safe enough that you'd attend class with him? That you'd dine in the same cafeteria as him?" Dr. Hines probed further.

I gulped at that one, glancing at Dr. Bellows, then at Mrs. Carson and the Chief, and finally, I caught Amber's moisture-laden eyes that were begging me to be merciful to her boyfriend. I closed my eyes for a moment, taking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly.

"What are you thinking, Wihakayda?" Wakan Tanka asked me bluntly.

"I ... I think," I stammered to her, "that I should be merciful to him. That's what a shaman is supposed to do, right?"

"If you cure a man of a dangerous illness," my mentor asked cautiously, "do you continue to treat him as a danger to yourself and others? Or do you accept him back into the tribe?"

"He hurt me!" I protested, trying to justify my own selfish interests.

"Do the Akicita continue to punish a member of the tribe after his punishment is over? Is he shunned? Always an outcast?"

"Miss Franks?" Dr. Hines was staring at me, a concerned look on her face.

Mrs. Carson chuckled. "I think Miss Franks was just consulting her spirit mentor." She smiled at me. "Is that correct, Kayda?"

I nodded sheepishly. "Yes, ma'am," I answered my headmistress. "Um," I winced, not sure I wanted to answer, but I knew I had to. "Yes, ma'am," I replied meekly to Dr. Hines.

"Do you mean you would feel safe with him around?" she asked, a bit surprised I think.

I nodded. "Yes, ma'am." Mike looked up sharply, a look of genuine astonishment on his face and his jaw hanging open in utter shock. "As long as he was honest enough to tell me why he did what he did," I added. It was easy to read the disbelief on their faces. "In my tribe, when a person has completed his or her punishment, it is as if the crime never happened," I explained. "Having been ... corrupted ... by demon taint is punishment enough, I think."

Amber's eyes released the moisture that had been accumulating; silently, she mouthed 'thank you' to me as tears spilled down on her cheeks, tears that I would be spiteful and vengeful removed.

"As spokesperson of the tribe," Mrs. Donner said, "I am satisfied that the boy was demon-tainted and thus not competent, and I'm satisfied with the removal of the demon taint."

"Mike?" Mrs. Carson prompted the boy who had been my nemesis.

He glanced at her, startled, and then nodded slightly, looking down. "I'm sorry, Kayda," he said softly, his voice trembling.

"Why?" I asked simply.

"Because ... my family owes favors to my tribe's shaman ...."

"Mike is one quarter Cherokee," Mrs. Carson interjected to explain.

"And ... my shaman owed a favor to a former chief in one of the Lakota tribes," he continued.

Ice ran through my veins. "Is it ... Chief ... Dan Bear Claws?" I asked, already convinced beyond doubt that I knew the answer. When I'd met him at the reservation, he'd given me the creeps, like he was not trustworthy.

Mike shrugged. "I don't know. He never mentioned his name. He ... gave me a cell phone and paid expenses, with direction that I was to make you leave."

"So ... you recruited Apathy ... Brad Collingsworth ... to help you? By blackmailing him?" Chief Delarose connected the dots for me. "Because he lives in the same cottage as Miss Franks and has access to her?"

Mike nodded, looking down in his shame. "Yes, sir."

"You had Apathy copy my poster? And steal my copper spike?" I asked knowingly. Mike simply nodded.

"And then what? When he didn't want to help any more, you killed him?" I continued to press. Brad had been a cottage-mate, and his death had upset all of us Poesies.

Brad started to cry, burying his face in his hands. "I ... I don't remember!" he bawled. "I ... I couldn't kill anyone! I ... I ... wouldn't hurt him!" He completely broke down, and Amber leaned close, clutching the weeping boy to her to comfort him.

"DPA is satisfied with the mental health evaluation," Dr. Hines said simply, interrupting the awkward silence.

"How shall we proceed?" Attorney General Moore asked. "Do you want to handle this at the DPA? Does jurisdiction belong to the Bureau of Indian Affairs?"

"The Medawihla tribe will prosecute him under Tribal Law. Since a shaman has testified that he was not mentally competent but was demon-tainted, and licensed psychiatrists concur with that judgment, I'm authorized by the tribal council to accept a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity," Eloise Donner said solemnly.

"And then?" Dr. Swanson asked the obvious question still to be decided.

"He will be transferred to the custody of the Arkham Research Center for psychiatric treatment until such time as he's judged fit to be released," Mrs. Carson responded.

"Very well," Attorney General Moore said, sitting back in his chair, his posture declaring that he was satisfied. "The State of New Hampshire will not contest the tribal decision, judgement, and punishment."

Ms. Hines nodded. "The DPA concurs."

I turned back toward Mike. "I ... I ... forgive you," I said hesitantly; the words came hard, especially as I remembered what difficulties and injuries he'd caused me. No, I caught myself. Mike hadn't done it. The demon taint had done it. He hadn't been responsible for my injuries. "Get better."

**********

Sunday, June 3, 2007 - Midnight
East River, South Dakota

A large coil of black foulness huddled under a bridge in a dry gulch. He was frustrated; he'd followed clues until he had an identity, but it seemed that every time he neared the shaman called Gray Skies, the shaman would move in one of the steel horses, going all over. It had been a stretch of his powers to track the shaman, and every time he neared, the shaman moved.

"Son!" a voice called to him psychically, startling the second son of Unhcegila.

"Yes, father?"

"Why have you not killed Gray Skies and taken the sphere?"

"The shaman moves around frequently, using a large mechanical horse that is too fast to follow. It travels from the big river to the sacred hills in only a tiny part of a sun. It is difficult to follow when he moves so much."

"Have you found a pattern to where the shaman goes?"

"No, father. It is random."

"Have you found the shaman's lodge?" Unhcegila demanded.

"I have not found it."

"Then go to one of the places the shaman travels. Wait, and when the shaman returns, kill him and take the sphere."

"It shall be done, my father."

**********

Saturday, June 9, 2007 – Afternoon
Lobby, Melville Cottage, Whateley Academy

"Mr. Ramirez, a word?"

The Don flinched at Mr. Forrest's tone of voice that cut through the general din of the post-graduation excitement of Melville cottage. He took that stupid miter board cap off his head and turned to face the house parent, becoming more concerned, both with the expression on his face and the envelope in his hand. "What can I do for you, jefe?"

"We try not to be draconian in our rules and guidelines, Mr. Ramirez; whatever you find attractive or exciting is your business," Mr. Forrest declared, practically growling in his displeasure. "That said, your current door decorations are well beyond the pale. I want them down and no repeats next year. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?"

The Don felt his blood begin to boil, but kept his expression neutral and his tone calm. "Perfectly, sir. My apologies, but I can assure you I had no part..."

"I'm not interested in excuses, Mr. Ramirez." He proffered the envelope. "This came for you."

"Yes sir, thank you sir." After a moment of seething at the house parent's back, The Don trudged upstairs to find his door covered with magazine covers for deviant life styles. Some were gay, but the vast majority were BDSM and bondage types with titles like Sub Times, Under Her Thumb, and Dominated. But in pride of place, in the exact center of the door was a medium close-up shot in perfect focus and clarity. On it was not the goddess the Don remembered, but a still beautiful and regal-looking Tansy Walcutt, hands on her hips, one foot cocked forward imperiously. And before her, on all fours, just kissing the shoe was Sebastiano Lorenz Valensuera y Ramirez.

With a snarl of rage, The Don ripped down the pictures and magazines, glaring at some of the bolder boys who dared to stand in their doorways and smirk at him. "You'll pay!" he shouted at no one in particular. "You'll all pay!"

"Sell it to someone who's buying!" one of those enjoying the Don's humiliation shouted.

Sebastiano stomped into his room and slammed the door, the mocking laughter of the other boys like daggers through his ears. "You think you're funny?" he growled, flinging the paper into his trash can and settling his eyes on the image of Tansy at the top. "Just wait until Kallysta is back next year, you bitch! You'll all pay then!"

He tore open the envelop to find twelve tickets fall out onto his desk. They were all stamped in bold red, NONREFUNDABLE/NONEXCHANGABLE. Frowning, he took a closer look and became dismayed. The first flight would leave at 3am, and he would have to change planes six times each way, all of them Tourist class, and then the final insult.

"Standby?!" he shrieked. "They're all standby?!?

**********

Saturday, June 9, 2007 - Afternoon
Holbrook Arena, Whateley Academy

"It's not fair," Addy and Alicia agreed. We'd just finished the spring graduation which, unlike any I'd ever seen, had 'promotion' roles for us all, and were at a rather elaborate reception, enjoying a little bit of celebration with all our friends before we all headed home for the summer.

I simply shrugged. "It's not fair to Fey or Tennyo, either; they're in the same boat as me, with enough credits to technically be juniors, but short one or two core classes. It's no big deal." I grinned. "Besides, if I was a junior, we'd only have two more years together!"

Addy's eyes widened. "I 'adn't thought of that!"

Alicia leaned a bit closer. "You just want to be closer to Lanie next year," she teased, then she giggled when she saw me blushing.

"Well, my brother is coming next fall and he's got ... some severe challenges. So I got permission to move in early, and Mrs. Carson thinks I can help do the freshmen orientation and tours and stuff."

Addy sighed. "If she manifests, which I think she will, then Amelie will be here, too." She got a conspiratorial look. "Do you suppose we could get them together?"

I gave her a look, and then started giggling. "I think we can have some fun with that!"

"I wish they had triples in Melville," Alicia mused sadly. "I want to room with both of you!"

"That hasn't stopped us so far," I giggled, recalling some of our fun adventures, "so why should we let it interfere next fall?"

"Okay, please line up in order," one of the teachers yelled over the background din.

"It's show-time," I said with a grin. "And then, it's going to be a great summer!"

"Ah can't wait!" Alicia agreed. "The three musketeers - les trois Mousquetaires - off on our grand world tour! It's going to be so much fun!"

I hoped so. Fun and calm, although after my first term at Whateley, asking for both fun and calm was wishing for just a bit much. We'd just have to see.

**********

Kayda 7 - Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon

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Kayda 7 - Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon (part 1)

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Kayda 7 - Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon (part 2)

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A Whateley Academy Adventure

Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon

By ElrodW

Part 2

(with thanks to EE Nalley and Phoenix Spiritus for contributed scenes and idea)

End of Part 2

Kayda 7 - Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon (part 3 of 3)

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A Whateley Academy Adventure

Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon

By ElrodW

(with thanks to EE Nalley and Phoenix Spiritus for contributed scenes and idea)

Finis

(with thanks to EE Nalley and Phoenix Spiritus
for contributed scenes and idea)

(with thanks to EE Nalley and Phoenix Spiritus
for contributed scenes and idea)