Author's Note: See, I told you I'd post this by Halloween! Enjoy
"I have to go," Emily monotones, hanging up the phone in a trance.
"What? Where?" Harry demands, at a loss. "Did you know that…person?"
"I…think so. I don't know anything for sure, but I can't help feeling that this is…important somehow. I'll be home before too long." She grabs her purse and walks out, leaving her husband feeling as though his normally sensible world had turned against him.
On the way to Brad's house, Emily's thoughts keep touching upon the overheard words that had produced such chilling reactions. She is suddenly overcome by the feeling that something horrible had happened and she only now realizes it.
"Magenta…Transylvania…Transexual…" Without knowing why, she closes her eyes with a heartfelt sigh. "Sweet Transexual, Land of Night…" Not knowing where the words are coming from, she sings softly to herself the formal salute to her home planet. "Magenta...she said I'm her mother. All three of them are safe. Three of them? And Brad knows her; how does he have anything to do with it? God, what am I doing? What am I thinking? Why do I feel sick all of a sudden? I remember…I've had this feeling before, but when? And from what?
She pulls into Brad's driveway and sits in her parked car for a few minutes to steady her quaking nerves, overcome by unnamable dread. Her legs, numb with anxiety, slowly find their way up his sidewalk. Through her dizzy state, she's mildly surprised to see Janet's car parked in the garage next to Brad's. She stands on the front doorstep, and rings the bell.
Magenta answers the door a split-second later, she'd been watching from the window. When the doorbell sounded, all of her mentally rehearsed explanations vanished without a trace. The two women stand rigidly, unable to speak. Luckily, Brad notices the tense situation and intervenes.
"Mrs. Weiss, come on in!"
She obeys, stepping past Magenta. Both women circle each other, still silently staring at each other.
Back in Brad's closet, Janet hears her mother being invited in. Knowing this is going to take everyone's help, she pulls herself together and comes out. She steps noiselessly from the shadows into the living room. Her sudden appearance and changed state cause her mother to shriek aloud, pointing urgently at her.
"Janet! Who…what…what's happened to you? You look…" Emily frantically looks her youngest daughter up and down. Pure shock drags words unconsciously past her lips: "You look like your Aunt Gardris," she sighs, giving no outward sign that she knows the name she just spoke. She claps a hand over her mouth, the other she brings to her forehead as she shudders involuntarily and tears spill down her face. Brad recognizes the symptoms of a violent flashback and guides her to a chair. Magenta squats in front of her on the floor, looking up at her curiously.
"Mother? Are you all right? Do you…do you remember anything? Do you know me?"
Brad takes Magenta by the shoulders and gently guides her away, "Not now, let Janet try. She's frightened."
"Good!" Magenta hisses, "It's good for her, she needs a shock to snap her out of it. We need to break her programming."
"I know," Brad agrees, "but gently." She fixes him with a withering scowl, but allows herself to be dragged away. Janet slides into her place, smoothing her mother's hair back comfortingly.
"Mom, look at me. Look at me," she insists. "This is important." Her mother forces herself to obey, stares at Janet in disbelief. Janet smiles benignly and brings one of her mother's hands to her face, hears her startled gasp at the contrast in skin color.
"What…what's going on? I feel… so confused, this awful feeling that something bad is about to happen."
"Shh…it's already happened. We got out, remember?"
Emily, Azelma looks deep into her daughter's hypnotic alien eyes, "It was cold…so bright…"
Magenta snaps to attention at this, "Yes," she whispers, a triumphant smile painting her face almost savagely. "Go on, Janus, you're doing it!"
"I have dreams sometimes that we're locked in a white room, in a cage…and your science teacher is there. Always the same dream."
Janet nods encouragingly, "Yes, that's right. And before that? What happened before that? Do you know?" Her mother shakes her head defeatedly, Janet tries another tactic: "You said I look like Aunt Gardris. Can you tell me who she is? Anything about her?"
"Your father's sister. She and I used to…" she languidly confesses, cutting herself off with a blush rising in her cheeks. "She introduced me to Rolf, and I was his," she recalls with a smile, stroking her chest significantly. Slowly, it dawns on her what she's been saying, and she looks horrified at the thought. She casts a worried look all around her; everyone had drawn nearer as unbidden memories spilled from her.
"Mom, it's all right. We're from another planet, Transexual. We came to Earth and got caught and used for medical experiments. We were turned human. You and I were separated from the rest of the family." Magenta and Riff-Raff come into view, hand in hand. Janet looks up at them with shining eyes, "And here they are."
With some trepidation, Emily/Azelma looks up at Magenta, "You…Magenta, you called me 'Mother' earlier…" Looking between the two of them, her face is a mask of confusion and guilt, her eyes fall on her son. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name…?"
This is more than Riff-Raff can tolerate: his face twists into a vicious snarl, "We waited for you for ten years! We thought you were dead! Why else would you have stayed away for all this time?? You must've been dead, or you would've tried to find us, right? And here you are, not a scratch on you. How quaint."
Magenta gives his arm a squeeze, "Riff, don't."
He jerks away, now on a roll, his mother cringing back in alarm. "You have no idea the hell we lived through. The Master, the Prince, that…" words fail him on how to describe Frank N. Furter. "He took his filthy pleasures with my sister!" He punctuates his revelation by pulling Magenta close. "Both of them. He turned the castle into a madhouse, ruled by his own spoiled whims. There was no order, no adults, nobody to stop him. You could have stopped him! You could've done something, you were a grownup! He would have listened to you!"
"Do you really believe that? Would he really have behaved himself if a servant slapped him on the wrist?"
The first one to fully pick up what Mrs. Weiss had just said was Brad. "You said 'servant'." She nods shakily.
Magenta breathes, "You remember vhat you vere on Transexual."
"Not everything, not as well as you three, it seems. Oh! Oh, god, that's what he meant! Oh my god… 'all three of you are safe'! All three of you." As though seeing them all for the first time since she arrived, she leaps to her feet, embracing them each in turn. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but try to understand, Janus and I were prisoners too."
At this remark, Janet drops into a dead faint. Luckily, Brad, as always, is there to catch her. As he pats her face, coaxing her to come around, he looks up to watch Riff-Raff endure being hugged, wearing a grimace that isn't quite convincing.
Janet shakes herself out of her swoon, murmuring, "She called me by my other name!"
"I'd like to get to know you two. It's been so long," Azelma looks fondly at the pair of them. She still looks a little uncertain; naturally the day's revelations have taken their toll on her. "I'd better get back home. Harry…my husband is probably wondering what's been going on."
Magenta's lip curls, "You married a human?"
"I am a human, dear."
"We can change that…Mother," Riff-Raff offers subtly. "I actually built something that can rearrange your DNA, to make you Transylvanian again."
"Incredible," she breathes. "How…?"
"We actually have Doctor Scott to thank for the development. His nephew had been one of the Master's…especial companions. He'd mentioned it in passing that his uncle made a hobby of studying extraterrestrials. After some…persuasion, he brought back the files he'd taken from one of the more lengthy experiments, which involved taking a Transexual and genetically manipulating it into an Earthling. I used this material to find a way to do the opposite. We can change you back," he concludes earnestly.
Azelma smiles, feeling a mother's pride for a son that she can barely remember having, impressed by the intricacies of his plotting. She's obviously tempted by the offer, but… "I don't think I can. I know things aren't perfect, but it's what's familiar to me by now. I don't want to go through that. But thank you for the offer. I take it that Janet…Janus," she corrects herself, "has had this…treatment?"
Janet nods, looking on the verge of saying something but hesitating to do so. "M-mother? I, uh…speaking of that…Brad and I, we…last night I…I was asleep when I started, it was kind of a shock, but…he made me…I…" Her stammered confession is stopped when Brad pulls her close to him, taking her by surprise and making her suddenly start purring loudly. "Oh, Brad!" She gasps, backing into him to support herself.
"We're married," Brad summarizes.
"Oh…congratulations," Azelma voices, looking uncertainly between them. "Well, I really need to get back, but I'm…glad I came. I'll see you all soon."
"You won't tell anyone, will you?' Janet implores.
"Not a word. No one would believe me anyway." And she takes off again.
After their mother is gone, Riff-Raff and Magenta slink off to the kitchen, leaving Brad and Janet alone with lots to think about.
"Tell me…about…before you came here. About…" he looks up at the ceiling, "home. How much do you remember? Keep in mind I'm just a human, I've never even left town."
Janet smiles at him, pleased by his sudden curiosity in her background, and that for the first time she has a background to share with him. "Well, back home," she too gives the ceiling a glance, as though she'd merely lived in the attic and not in another galaxy, "our line had a bit of prestige to it. My grandparents on my mother's side were both heads of the household staff."
Brad looks surprised at her definition, "You call that prestige?"
"For the Royal Family, in the palace," she elaborates, as though that explains everything.
He doesn't know what to think of this, he remembers now that Magenta had told him the same thing before. For some reason, at the time, it hadn't been hard to swallow Magenta being a servant, but now it disturbs him greatly to think of his fiancée in such a lowly state. He sits down again, she follows suit. Brad stares down at the floor, but Janet has other ideas. Lifting his chin up, she forces him to look at her, now silently blazing in slighted pride.
"We weren't just servants, Brad, we were the best! There isn't anything wrong with it, and we were never ashamed of what we did. My family taught me the craft, and don't you dare think it's easy! It's a highly refined art. Yes, I was raised in the servants' quarters, but my home was the palace. It was a very proud heritage. We—were—the best! We were very well-respected, and we got to go to school, so we weren't ignorant slaves if that's what you think. Riff-Raff was top of his class! I wish I could show you, I wish you'd been there, Brad. It would have been such a wonderful time if you'd been there, too." She's stricken with a strange dreamy look, seizes up, and promptly faints into his lap. Brad shakes her, patting her face.
"Janet? Janet, wake up! Come on, snap out of it! Magenta, Riff! Hey, you two, come quick!" They both dash back in hurriedly.
"What's the matter with her?" Riff demands. His tone said more along the lines of "What did you do to her?"
"We were just talking."
"About vhat?" Magenta inquires, "Home?" Brad nods, Magenta rolls her eyes. "Brad, hold her up; Riff, get a bucket; I'll hold her hair." Sure enough, Janet comes around a minute later and promptly throws up. Brad holds her steady while Riff cleans her up and gives her a glass of water. After she's feeling better, Brad helps her lay back down and she continues as though there had been no interruption.
"We were…important p-people," Janet murmurs with a disoriented shudder. "We had more to do than just polish the brass." This drowsy remark is all it takes for Riff and Magenta to guess the topic of their conversation. As one, they turn and face him stonily, daring him to speak Brad had just insulted the woman he loves, as well as her home and entire family, all in one blow. He is now bound to make up for it. It had just been such a shock to hear her speak so plainly about being a servant. Far from contrite, she sounded proud of her ancestry.
"So, back at the castle…Frank's castle…that was your original home?"
"Part of it, and I can't say I love what he's done with the place. The section he took to Earth had been his apartments and private chambers. The rest of the palace is back on Transexual. My whole family lived down in the servants' quarters, like a nest of mice in the lower levels," Janet reveals with a reminiscing smile.
Brad is appalled, "You lived in the dungeons?"
Magenta huffs loudly, rolling her head back in disgust, "There veren't any dungeons, you stupid human! Vhat year do you think this is?" And she stomps out with her brother in tow.
Janet looks up at him curiously, "Is that what you thought? Oh, Brad, that's silly! It was home; with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Playing in the kitchens, learning the craft, it wasn't a bad life for us. I don't want you feeling sorry for me, okay? I was happy; it's what I was born and bred to do."
"Magenta mentioned something about escaping the tyranny," Brad remembers.
Janet nods, somber, "Things weren't perfect by any stretch, but the royal family knew it was unwise to oppress the people who prepared their meals." She sighs, tinged by melancholy, "Father wanted a better world for us, where we could be more than what we were born into. Riff-Raff was a more able scientist than Frank, but you saw who took all the credit for 'his' creation. He should have been more then what he was. Magenta and I were happy, though, satisfied with our lot in life. We were too young to know any better. It just amazes me, of all places for you and me to end up that night, that it would have to be--"
"Your home. So all of that, where we were, was just…Frank's 'private apartments'?"
"The Prince's chambers, yes," Janet supplies helpfully.
Brad fights to grasp this idea, "Wow! The rest of the palace must've been huge!" Suddenly, the idea of 'the lower levels' takes on a different image: one of grandeur rather than squalor.
Heedless of her fiancé's pensive expression, Janet goes on, sounding relieved to talk about her childhood, the life she knew before Earth. With a naughty grin she affects a 'grand' air, for all the world a serving girl mocking her mistress behind her back, "When the Royal Family would get called upon for diplomatic journeys, sometimes they'd take some of us along, as a show of status. Other times, they'd just leave and we'd get the whole house to ourselves!"
"'House'?" Brad gasps, "Janet, god! You just say it like it's perfectly normal. Most people wouldn't call that having free run of the 'house'!" She giggles at his flummoxed state, pleased that she'd succeeded in impressing him. Having been a born and bred scullery maid, she's naturally house-proud. Brad is still reeling from her matter-of-fact delivery.
"Janet, this is…this is…you were a servant in a goddamn palace?!"
"We prefer 'domestic', actually," she gently corrects.
"On another planet!" He interjects wildly, beside himself.
"We've already covered that part, Brad," she replies smoothly, taking him by the arm and forcing him to look at her. She strokes his face soothingly as he calms back down. "Okay?" Janet asks hesitantly.
Brad nods, taking her hand in his. "I'm all right, just…the more I find out about you…" he trails off, his expression uncertain. Fearing the worst, Janet shakes her head in growing agitation, silently pleading for him not to cast her off for being 'different'. "Why would you want to marry me?" he demands suddenly, "What can I offer you that compares with what you grew up with? I can't give you a palace or a prestigious family name, or status, or any of that…what do I have to offer you?"
There's a heavy silence, finally Janet takes his hand and holds it to her chest where he feels her soft vibrato, now grown familiar and dear to him. "Just this," she whispers, looking him steadily in the eye with a hopeful smile. A slow smile touches Brad's face, as reassurance returns. Janet moans softly and closes her eyes, and her purring grows louder. "It's enough, believe me. Don't ever doubt that. Is it enough for you? That we have this?"
Brad just stands there, with his hand still on her chest, shaking off remaining thoughts of doubt. He steadies his resolve by asking himself, how many people can provoke a physical manifestation of pure love from their significant other? And he does it to her! This strange, beautiful, alien woman is absolutely in love with him: a stupid, clumsy, ordinary Earth man. Brad just stares at her, listening to her 'motor running', and it suddenly scares him how many times he'd worried Janet into thinking he might stop loving her. Finally, he hears himself say, "It's enough."
She smiles up at him earnestly, her cat-like iridescent eyes shimmering with emotion, "We're still all right?"
"We're still all right."
"You don't mind that I'm…not local?" Brad shakes his head and kisses her neck. "You don't mind that I was a castle brat?"
Brad laughs, "A what?"
Janet giggles at the memory, "That's what the other kids at school would call us. There were the city kids, the country kids, and the castle brats. That's us. You wouldn't want to pick on one of us, though, or you'd find out how many of us there were!" She slides into a far-away look with a soft sigh.