Heirs to a Prophesy
By Tigris Euphrates (tigris@sbcglobal.net) and Cmage (c__mage@hotmail.com)
Chapter Six: EnslavementLanara awoke in a daze, slowly taking stock of herself. Once every part of her came back to life, she learned just how much pain she was in. "Oooooh... " she groaned. "How do I always end up like this?" She took stock of her situation. She was in a room by the way the sounds reverberated. Her wrists and legs were shackled. She pulled on them - trying to break them like she had when she had been captured by the society, but it was no use. These shackles were different somehow - there was no way she could break them. The shackles around her wrists were on a chain to the wall. Her feet were shackled directly to the floor. She was too short for the device it seemed so the shackles around her wrists were supporting her whole body weight, and they hurt. Her wrists, joints, and paws felt like flames were lapping at them.
A shifting noise in the room perked Lanara's ear. The room was dark, but being a gargoyle, her eyes saw warmth in the corner, facing her. It was female, and appeared to have wings. The only female gargoyles she knew were Kanthara, Robbie, and Angela. The wings were too proportionate to be Robbie. "Kanthara? Angela?"
The figure threw a switch on the wall, and light poured into the room - momentarily blinding Lanara. "None of the above."
Lanara's eyes adjusted to the bright lights. The source of them was over her head, shining straight down on her. Beyond the light she could see a blue female gargoyle, with a shock of flame red hair. She reminded Lanara of Angela - and of the gargoyle Lanara saw in the mirror. Who WAS this? Her blue colored skin was much lighter blue than hers. She was smiling. More than that - she looked insane - and evil. She had never seen that look on a gargoyle's face before. It made her skin crawl.
Lanara gasped. "Who are YOU?"
"Oh be patient, young human. You'll find out soon enough. You'll find out everything, right before you die."
Lanara's eyebrows furrowed. "Why do you want to kill me?"
"Humanity is a poison that must be purged from this earth. You desecrate me and my daughter."
"Desecrate? How? What makes you think I have anything to do with humans?"
"Don't play me for a fool, youngling. I've been watching you at the castle. There are passages in that castle only I know about. Your name was Lacy Myers, but called yourself Lana on the street. You are friends with the other human-changelings Kanthara, Robbie, and Richard. In fact... you recently told Kanthara and Angela you were in love with Richard."
Lanara's jaw was slack. "You heard - all of that?"
"A real gargoyle is so much more cunning than you humans are. I know ages of things you will never know!"
"Strange. If you know so much, how is it you can't see what's right in front of your face! I'm not a human!"
"I also know you were changed, using my daughter's blood. You are a human, violating the very soul of me and my child."
Lanara felt stunned. This woman was... Angela's mother! Oh shit... Lanara suddenly realized the depth of the danger she was in. She knew this woman was capable of a lot, being a gargoyle, and knowing how to tie down a gargoyle so that she couldn't get free. What else could she do?
Then another thought struck Lanara. This gargoyle... is my grandmother! And she hardly looks older than Goliath!
The other gargoyle saw the look of terror than was registering on Lanara's face, and smiled again. She produced a small black remote-like device from her pocket. "This device controls your shackles. All I have to do is press this button, which is connected to the van degraff generator - capable of pouring hundreds of volts through your body. If I keep it on for long enough, you'll die. That would be too easy. I'm going to let you slowly roast to death, and I assure you the amperage will assure your death is quite painful. There are three settings. We'll start at two hundred volts; go up five hundred, and then a thousand. Not even a TRUE gargoyle can withstand that without dying."
"Why? Why do this?" Lanara asked, droplets of sweat forming on her brow.
"I'm going to make you pay. PAY for desecrating my body and my daughter's - for brainwashing her into actually thinking you're her friend!"
"She did that on her own!"
Demona's face twisted into anger, and she raised the remote, pressing the first button. Lanara sudden felt her body explode in agony. It was different than her transformation, which was a slow piercing agony; this was sudden, hot, and excruciating. She screamed instantly, every part of her body on fire. She wished she could faint, sleep, or turn to stone - she screamed until her throat hurt. Her eyes felt like they were about to explode out of her face. Her tail thrashed uselessly against the floor, the muscles in her body flinching spasmodically.
Mercifully, Demona pressed the shutoff button on the remote. Lanara knew she smelled burned hair. Her body still spasmed occasionally, and could see the steam rising off her skin as all moisture on the surface of her skin had been instantly turned to vapor.
"Now you have learned your first lesson."
"What do you want?" she bawled, tears running down her cheeks. "You haven't even asked me any questions."
"There is nothing you could tell me."
"Then finish me. Just finish me!"
"Then your friend would not come."
Lanara's comprehension dawned. "Richard?" She was nothing more than bait. "This was all to lure him here, wasn't it?"
"Finally your brain works. It is so much easier to destroy two of you at once, while I have leverage over the other. You are easy leverage."
Lanara swore once more. Someday, she would be stronger - faster. She would learn everything she could. She was sick of being the weak one. Her eyes widened as the second button went down. Lanara was barely conscious. She couldn't think about the pain - her suffering was too intense. When it was finally let up an eternity later, her screams once again fell into sobs.
"What a weak, pitiful thing you are. To think you could possibly understand what it means to be a true gargoyle."
In a voice so weak she could barely force the words out she spoke her final words. "I know the one thing that makes a gargoyle who she is. I know how to protect the ones I love. Have you thought about how hurt Angela will feel when she hears you murdered me?"
"SILENCE, YOU FOOL!!!" Demona exclaimed, and down went the third button.
Lanara knew she was dying. She could feel it. Her screaming voice was no longer connected to her, and she felt detached, floating away from her body. She felt strangely at peace with the idea, a blessed release from so much agony and suffering.
Then something happened. Lanara couldn't understand anything going on, but the light had gone out, and the machine had stopped. Demona scowled, picking up a weapon. "I'll be right back." A metal door closed. Lanara didn't understand what was happening, all she knew was she was moving backward, away from herself. I'm not going back, am I? A bright light suddenly filled her senses, and she turned. The sun! She slowly moved toward it... ... but stopped. A single thought filled her mind. Richard.
Richard looked up from the wires he had just bitten in half, and looked up at the parapets of the little upstate retreat, which the ransom note had specified. He launched himself into the air, and became one with the night - his black skin making him a shadow in the mid-night darkness.
Pulling out a small two-way radio, Richard contacted Jeffrey. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes." He replied as he struggled to sneak into the building in the dark - hoping Richard would distract whatever dangers lay within.
"Find Lanara. Whoever took her will see me as a more serious threat. If I can draw their fire, you can get in and free her. Be careful."
"I'm too scared not to be." He replied, and the radios went silent. In the dark, Jeffrey began to mutter to himself, "I am NOT a commando... not a commando... "
Richard closed the connection and turned upwards, aiming for one of the perimeter guns, ripping it from its moorings and throwing it to the ground below. He moved immediately as the other guns turned to track him in. By the time the guns had moved into firing position, he was gone again.
Inside, Demona looked at her screens. The sensor readings were confusing. She was getting damage reports, but the sensors and many of the other systems were all on emergency power now. It looked as if the guns and other defenses were being taken out systematically. Demona gritted her teeth as she realized that she was now effectively blind to something that was as elusive as quicksilver, and powerful enough to rend metal - another gargoyle. Warning bells began to sound as guards failed to report in.
Demona cocked her laser gun, and listened to it whine as it's capacitors charged. "It's about time."
Jeffrey Warman spotted Demona, but hid before he was seen. She was talking on a radio now, shouting "Come in, team two? He's out there, somewhere. Move in!"
Jeffrey wasted no time in sneaking away and rounding a corner into another room that just happened to contain the unconscious form of Lanara - chained to the wall.
Richard had just added another group of human mercenaries to the list of casualties when he heard a voice, shouting on their radios, saying "Team two? Come in!!!"
Richard picked up one of the radios. "Team two won't be answering anything but the doorbell in hell. As soon as I finish with my... meal... I'll come right in and introduce myself properly."
"You won't live to see it." Demona's voice replied. The radio registered the sound of a crack then static as Richard crushed the radio.
Jeffrey discovered a small remote control on a table by the wall. The lights were out, so he couldn't see much. He stabbed at one button, and found that nothing happened. It was probably because the power was out, he deduced, and stabbed at another button. This produced more results, as he heard the shackles around the unconscious Lanara's wrists and ankles release. Jeffrey quickly dragged Lanara into a nearby utility closet. After that was done, Jeffrey collapsed next to her, shivering with the fright he hadn't let himself feel till that moment.
Demona stalked down a hallway, searching the darkness for any trace of heat. Richard watched her approach, silently from the rafters. "You won't survive this, human." Demona said aloud. She knew he was there somewhere - she could feel his eyes on her. Unfortunately, Richard notes, Demona was too much of a two-dimensional thinker, and never thought to look up. Richard waited for her, muscles tensed.
Richard dropped behind her, growling angrily. "BET YOU ALWAYS KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING LIKE ME WAITING IN THE DARK FOR YOU... "
"You flatter yourself." Demona replied, and fired in Richard's direction, down an empty hallway.
"You missed." Richard replied, standing directly behind Demona.
"Enough GAMES!" Demona snarled, firing again.
Then Richard was in her face. The shot went wild, impacting harmlessly against the wall as a thick black claw appeared in Demona's face, attached to a night-black gargoyle. "You must be Demona." He stated flatly. "I've heard a great deal about you. Ruthless, dangerous, conniving, beautiful... so far though you're only batting a point-seven-five in my book. Now TELL me where Lanara is!"
Demona tried to fire again, but found her weapon destroyed. She attacked Richard be hand. "You forgot deadly. Search if you want - you will not find her before you die."
Richard's sense of smell was flooding his brain with the wretched scent of burned hair. Could it be he also smelled an ever-so-faint trace of Lanara's lavender perfume? "What have you done to her, witch?"
Demona laughed, lunging at him again. "Oh, she's... hanging around."
"Oh... cute. Humor." Richard moved forward suddenly, leaving a gash across her extended arm. Richard smiled as he realized that there was an easier way to find Lanara. "Well, Demona - it's been LOTS of jollies playing with you - but I'm going to get Lanara now that I know where she is." He taunted her, and vanished like smoke in the wind. Demona, confused now, went over to the room where Lanara was kept, only to find Lanara was no longer there. That was when the queen of gargoyles was given a drop-kick to her head, hard. "Thanks for leading me to her, Demona." Richard smiled.
Demona picked herself up from the floor, moving closer. "Led you to her? Where is she then? Not here, you fool - look around."
Richard waited until Demona got herself close enough to Richard for him to kiss her. "I have friends, Demona - that's something I guess you'll never understand." Richard slipped one hand into his belt, a small action Demona never saw as her eyes were glued on the face that she HATED. There was a popping sound just before Demona's enraged expression melted and she crinkled to the floor with a tranquilizer dart protruding from her middle. "In a straight fight you would have won, Demona." Richard admitted, tossing the tranquilizer gun off to one side. It had been loaded with enough drugs to take down an elephant. "But I'm sorry, luv - there ain't no Marcus of Queensbury rules here. This isn't exactly the Olympics."
Richard followed Lanara's scent, which was very strong here and found her and Jeffrey huddled in the closet. Carrying Lanara, they made a quick escape together.
Lanara felt the warmth of the sun on her skin like she hadn't known in all the weeks since her change. It's light held old friends, dead and gone. She longed to touch them, and to walk toward the light.
"Lanara, No!" shouted a voice. "Don't give up on me yet!" It was Richard's voice, Lanara realized. She paused. "Oh, by HARRY what did Demona do to you? Hang on, Lanara! Come back to me!"
Lanara called out his name, anxious and excited. "RICHARD!!!"
At the house they shared by the sea, Richard put cold packs on Lanara's burns and bandaged them. She was alive, but unconscious. As the sun rose, it captured a perfect pose of Richard's concern for Lanara, etched in his face. Even the greatest sculptor could not capture it's great intensity, for nature is the master sculptress.
The following night
"I'm going to do it." Richard concluded.
"Are you sure? If so, we can have it ready by tomorrow." Lanara reassured him as she lay in bed, recovering a little from the past day's encounter.
"I've already nearly killed you twice this week - both because I did things that could have been prevented if not for this uncontrollable bloodlust." Richard explained. "I don't know what might happen next, and whatever it is I can't have it on my conscious."
Lanara nodded. "That makes sense to me."
Lanara and Amy awoke the following evening with their usual fanfare. Amy reacted with a little surprise but recovered quickly and she brushed the bits of dust from her body. Lanara commenced immediately searching through Richard's old clothes, searching for something - anything that used to be a part of his body before he was changed. She was quickly becoming frustrated. "DAMN! Richard sure was fastidious!!!" However, it was then that Lanara found a hairbrush of Richard's - with hairs still stuck in it. "Ah hah!" she exclaimed.
Amy nodded. "Now we just need the hair of a male gargoyle, to mix."
"Leave that to me. I'll meet you back at the coffee shop in thirty minutes."
When Amy Klein saw Lanara enter The Last Mug later that night, Lanara carried three bags under her arm. One was the bag of that disgusting brown regurgitated goo, and two small bags filled with hairs - one labeled "Richard" and the other labeled "Goliath". Luckily for Amy, Jeffrey was still away at his new job, and luckily for Lanara, Richard was already there by the bar eating fresh shrimp by the mouthful.
"They had a great buy down on the wharf." He explained. "I missed you." He said tenderly, as her hugged her.
"I missed you too." She replied.
"Is this it?" Richard asked, dubiously.
"Yep."
Richard's jaw was slack as the two girls began to work like cooks at the bar. Amy pulled out the steel pan, and dumped the goo out of the bag and into the pan. Lanara twisted two hairs from different bags together, and when Amy was done, dropped the hairs into the pan. With a puff of steam, the goo coagulated into a bar once more. Richard stripped down to just his underpants.
Lanara smiled, and handed the bar to Richard. "Hungry still?"
"STILL?" he chortled humorlessly, and then added.
"I say do like the Little Tea Cake said: 'Eat Me'." Lanara smiled.
Richard looked at Lanara and the bar dubiously for several seconds before popping it in his mouth. "I don't feel any taller." Amy and Lanara watched, but at first nothing seemed to happen. Then, slowly, his form began to shimmer and change. His hair grew long and curly, lightening in shade to blonde. His skin tone lightened to lavender, with tall shapely legs with filled out and delicate curves, and large, firm breasts with dark lavender areolas.
Had they been cartoons, Lanara and Amy's jaws would hit the floor like anvils.
Richard hacked and choked on the substance he had eaten, and vomited it back up, into the pan. Richard saw the way the others were looking at him. "What?!!!" His voice had risen nearly a fifth step, and had a more melodic cadence. He touched his throat for a moment. "That's not my voice... " Lanara and Amy watched, eyes wide and stunned as Richard's hands followed his body's new curves straight to his crotch.
"YYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Richard screamed in terror, running for the 'Men's' room. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!!! YOU'VE TURNED ME INTO BLOODY LARA CROFT!!!" Lanara and Amy looked at each other, too stunned for words. "I LOOK LIKE MY OLD GIRLFRIEND! YOLANDA!"
Lanara and Amy exchanged the most forlorn look possible. "Oh SHIT." Lanara cursed. "She didn't, by any chance, have curly blonde hair and big breasts?" Lanara's brain was racing. She'd gotten one hair from Goliath himself, so she KNEW that was not the problem, which only left...
Lanara slapped her forehead with one paw. "Richard's hairbrush!" she exclaimed.
"It had to be." Amy nodded.
"What about it?!!!" Richard demanded, having overhead.
"How did a hair from Yolanda get in YOUR hairbrush?" Amy asked.
"She used to borrow it. I've never gotten around to cleaning it out since I was changed." Richard scowled. "Why does it matter, Lanara?"
"I hope you've got some more spares at the apartment." Amy looked at Lanara pleadingly. Lanara gathered up the brown substance quickly into it's bag.
"HIYA KID!" Came Robbie's voice from the doorway. Lanara turned to see her other roommate standing there, with her boyfriend Marcus. Lanara felt Robbie's hand on her shoulder. "Who are your new friends?"
Lanara looked at Richard and Amy, pleadingly. "This is a new sister, and... Richard."
Marcus spoke up softly. "Uhhh... correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't 'Richard' a boy's name?"
Richard grumbled to herself. "It is. I'm going to have to change that."
"Why?" Marcus asked in confusion. "Weren't you born a gargoyle?"
Richard looked at Lanara. Marcus thought Richard used to be a human girl. "No, Marcus - I was not born a GIRL."
Robbie's eyes widened, and she began to laugh. "You're Lanara's boyfriend!"
Lanara paled. "It was an accident."
"I figured that out already, kid. Unless, of course... " she laughed some more, "... your a lesbian and haven't told me!"
Lanara blushed furiously at this statement, and walked right out of the coffee shop. Amy and Richard follow her. Robbie looked momentarily concerned, but did not follow.
"What are you doing?" Amy was asking.
"Fixing things." She said, climbing the building.
"No Lanara! What if it goes wrong again?" Amy protested.
"I didn't mean that problem." Lanara sighed, breaking into a glide. "Richard, I know your cravings are gone, but I hope you can live this way until we can fix this."
"How am I supposed to get used to THIS?" he exclaimed, grabbing her breasts, and hefting them with her paws for effect. Lanara blushed.
"Just try not to hit them with you arms or on doors, poles, and things. Then you'll never know they're there." Amy observed.
"Whatever!" Richard retorted.
"Hope and pray you never have to have a mammogram. Or a Gyno. Or a Papsmear. DAMN! Now I have to see about getting more Tampons in the house... " Lanara thought the last part to herself and had not intended Richard to overhear. However, he heard.
"TAMPONS?" Richard's jaw fell.
Richard held up the small cardboard tube like it was a worm. It was pink and had the word "Tampax" on it.
"Richard, you are a girl now." Amy observed. "You have to be prepared." She had chosen to simply be addressed as 'Sister', like in the old Gargoyle tradition. It stuck, and Richard and Lanara used it like a name for her.
"Please, God... " the former male muttered. "Please let this particular transformation right itself SOON... "
Lanara was busy explaining the ends and outs of menstruation to her feminized boyfriend. "We don't know when you're going to start cycling, so don't risk ruining your clothes. Do you KNOW how to use these? Now is the time to ask. How much did... Yolanda show you?"
"Nothing - I haven't the foggiest."
Lanara physically dragged Richard into the bathroom. "Undress." She instructed. Sister followed them, and closed the door behind them. She-Richard slowly undressed, Lanara and Richard doing the same to make her feel less exposed. Lanara had the thought that whoever Yolanda was, she was really well endowed. "Place one foot on the toilet seat. Insert it like this, pull back on the tube, and it leaves the string hanging out like this." Lanara demonstrated on herself. "If it's uncomfortable, something's wrong - take it out and get a new one."
Sister raised an eyebrow. "Do our cycles work like humans?"
"Mine has since I was changed. Thankfully that DIDN'T change - I don't know what I would have done if I had been changed into something totally unfamiliar. My periods have been regular - thankfully." Lanara mused.
"What if Richard gets pregnant? That'd be really weird... " sister muttered. She-Richard gulped at the thought. "... and creepy."
Lanara turned back to Richard, who was fiddling with the carboard tube in her new genitals. "I'm sorry if I'm laying this all out a bit thick right now, but I don't know what else to do!" Lanara explained. "I can't see Richard spreading her legs anytime soon, fortunately."
She-Richard did not look up. "It's alright... it's... just a lot to get used to all at once."
Lanara sighed, holding her head in frustration. Sister held her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"Just feeling... guilty. This is my fault. I got too anxious and wasn't thinking."
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have done this in the first place." Sister began blaming herself.
"I think we just had a wrong hair in the batch, that's all." Lanara sighed. "If Richard wants to try again with the chocolate, leave me out of it - I still feel too guilty."
"Look, you two." She-Richard pointed out. "I chose this too... nobody crammed that candy bar down my throat."
"Oh now don't YOU start too... " Lanara protested.
She-Richard began to wince a little as Lanara began to try bras on Richard for size. Richard was no very busty, and finding one that fit her in a house full of flat girls was a difficult proposition. "No... that pinches there." She said.
"What's pinching - the bra?"
"No... " she pointed to her crotch.
"Outside or inside?"
"Inside... I just had to adjust it a bit."
"You shouldn't feel it at all."
"I think it was the tube."
Lanara's jaw fell. "The... THE WHOLE TUBE?!!!"
She-Richard then held up the small pink tampax tube. "Gotcha."
Lanara laughed. "You twit."
"Twit-ette now, luv." She corrected, smiling brilliantly at having elicited a smile from Lanara. She felt like wrapping her arms around her, but hesitated. "What's wrong?"
"I've just never hugged another girl before." Lanara replied, finally hugging her. Sister joined the hug. "So what do I call you now?"
"Call me... Gwendolyn."
"Okay... Gwen... " Lanara smiled.
Demona awoke in the hallway, rubbing her head. She moved to her feet and headed back to the control room, passing the unconscious, dead and dying guards. She bolted through the main door and stopped. The dark intruder was waiting for her. "Hello, Demona. I came as soon as I heard of your failure."
"He came with reinforcements. I... "
The figure raised a hand and Demona was suddenly wracked with a bolt of searing pain. She dropped to one knee and gasped. "You are a true gargoyle, one of the Chosen. Your purpose for existing is to protect others, yet you could not even defend your own home from a genetically-unstable mutant and a human. A HUMAN." Demona's pain intensified and she roared in pain. "Suffer in silence," she intoned and Demona's voicebox locked up. "I'm not done, slave, be so kind as not to interrupt. You may be powerful, but you are not my superior. I am yours. I give you a task I believed to be within your capabilities, and you failed me. I expected better."
Demona fell to both knees, her strength drained, her every nerve on fire. Her hands went to her head, forcing her eyes up to the sorceress. Her face was calm, but the computer screens turned red... and began to bleed. "However, I never expected you to be perfect. You underestimated your quarry because you believed them to be greatly inferior to yourself. They are unworthy, yes, but they are not without strength and intelligence. And, it seems, a certain flair for the dramatic." The figure smoothed out her gown and sat down as Demona slipped to her side, her mouth open in a silent scream. "You will remember this, Demona, because our task is not complete. There is much to do, Demona, and if you want a place in the New World, you're going to have to learn that these creatures are unworthy, but they are also powerful. You must not make this mistake again."
The pain abated and Demona felt her senses return to normal, afterimages of light in her eyes, a dwindling roar in her ears. She got to her feet, shooting daggers at her mistress with her eyes. "I am worthy."
"Then prove it. Do not disappoint me again." The shadowy woman looked around the room. "Next time, use the powers that you were born with and the lessons about humanity you learned from your dealings with them throughout history." She stood up once again. "There is much to do, and your incompetence has set back my timetable. Collect your resources and return to your haven. I will contact you later." She walked out of the room, still as calm as ever, but everything her shadow touched warped into strange shapes. Stone cracked and twisted, wood rotted, metal glistened and shimmered as it melted.
One thing's certain... one can always tell when the woman gets angry, despite her cool façade. Demona rubbed her icy skin, trying to rub the pins and needles from her muscles. I accept your authority for now, fey witch. But do not disappoint me, sorceress. Maintain your purity of purpose as I do mine and I'll serve you. But if you betray our alliance or our vision, and I will destroy you, no matter how powerful you think you are.
The Sorceress's voice sounded in her mind. Should I betray our vision, noble Demona, I will surrender myself to your claws.
Demona cursed silently. "How long have you been in my mind?"
We are of one mind, you and I. It was easy. Now, to your tasks and I to mine.
Demona nodded. Despite the pain, she smiled. Demona was beginning to appreciate the woman's style, and despite her punishment, she respected her use of control. "What do I call you?"
The name you may call me is Madame Gladstone.