Shifter/Vixen *finished*

by **rattyjol** 6/8/2009, 8:32 pm

The reason I've got two titles is because it's really two different stories, but they go together so I'm just putting in all in one thread.

Shifter:
Maturity: A little bit of mostly non-graphic violence at the end; suicide.
Fantasy: Powers; undiscovered planet, etc.

Vixen:
Maturity: Talking about being in love, but not actually showing it.
Fantasy: Same as Shifter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Diary,
I know I haven’t written in forever, but ever since Glen disappeared last month, I haven’t been able to do anything that wasn’t completely necessary. All the kids at school are scared out of their wits. They all think they’re gonna be next. Yeah, right. I’m the one who lives next door, aren’t I?
-Kritz

Prologue
When, I woke up, my bed seemed too hard. I expected my mother to yell at me to get up or my alarm clock to ring any second, but everything was silent. I opened my eyes to look at my alarm clock, thinking maybe I had just woken up early.
But when I rolled over to look at my night stand, I saw that there was no clock, no table, no room, and no house.
I was completely and utterly alone here. And the worst part? I didn’t even know where “here” was.

Chapter 1
The rock desert I was lying in was made of a shimmery, multicolored stone. It stretched as far as I could see in every direction as I got to my feet.
Where am I? I thought. And how did I get here?
Good questions.
I jumped. Another voice had answered me, in my head.
“W - where are you?” I stuttered out loud, looking wildly about myself.
Answer in your head, the voice replied. I can’t understand you if you speak out loud.
Where are you?
Right here. Suddenly, a shape materialized in front of me.
It was... me. An exact copy, from the top of my blonde head, to the soles of my extra-large feet.

Chapter 2
“H - how are you doing that?” I stuttered.
“I’m a shifter,” it answered, not really helping me at all.
“Where are we? Who are you? What is a shifter?”
“Which question do you want me to answer?” it asked crossly.
“All of them!” I was going slightly hysterical by this point. I mean, what would you do, if you were in my place?
I thought so.

Chapter 3
“One question at a time.”
“Fine. Who. Are. You?” I asked, straining to keep my voice under control, and emphasizing every word.
“How about you ask the other questions first?”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “You’re avoiding my question, aren’t you?”
“What question?” it asked innocently.
“Who are you?” I screamed. Not only was I hysterical, but boy was I mad.
I wake up in a place that is completely unfamiliar, and this... this... thing shows up in my form, and won’t even tell me who they are or where I am. All in all, not a good start to the day. And you could say I was in a rather nasty mood.
The thing made a mocking little bow. “Seal, at your service,” it said. “And you can stop calling me ‘the thing’ and ‘it’ now. I’m a she.”
“Fine, she,” I replied scathingly. “Now, where are we?”
“Planet Jalla,” Seal answered promptly.
My eyes bugged out. “Planet?”
Seal nodded. “Yep.” There was something familiar about her, but I was too busy being freaked out to dwell on it.
“How did I get to another planet?”
“Does it matter how you got here? You’re here, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. You’re never going back.”
“What do you mean I’m never going back?” I shrieked. I was really losing control now. Red spots were filling my vision. “I have to go home! I don’t belong on another planet! I’m a human!” Suddenly a growl ripped its way through my teeth. I looked down.
Black and orange fur had sprouted over every inch of my skin. Claws unsheathed themselves from my huge paws as I bared my ferocious new teeth.
I was... a tiger.
Not anymore! Seal laughed.

Chapter 4
“What’s happening to me?” I tried to yell, only my mouth was a tiger’s mouth, and it sounded like a roar.
Mind, Seal reminded me.
What’s happening to me? I screamed in my head.
Simple. You’re one of us.
One of who?
Seal sighed and shook her head. Follow me.
Can you please tell me how to change back first?
Concentrate on a picture of your normal self.
I did like Seal said, and when I looked at myself, I was me again. I sighed in relief.
“Now will you follow me?”
I shrugged, so Seal led the way through the desert.
As we walked, I thought of a new question. “What do you really look like?”
Seal stopped dead, causing me to run into her back. She turned slowly to face me, and once again I was unnerved by the perfect copy of my face.
“I look like... I look like this.” She closed her eyes, and her features began to shift into ones I knew better than my own.
The world started to spin around me as my brain sluggishly registered what, in my heart, I think I had known all along.
“Glen!” I screamed, and I threw myself into my best friend’s arms.

Chapter 5
“Hey, Kritz,” Glen said.
“I’ve missed you so much!” I sobbed. “What happened to you? What happened to me? Why are we here? Please, please, answer me, Glen. Please.”
Tears were streaming down my face as Glen pulled me down onto the ground with her. She sat cross-legged and cradled my head in her lap as I cried myself out.
Finally, she took a deep breath and began to speak.
“I don’t know how it started. Nobody does. But for as long as anybody can remember, some humans have been born with powers. Powers that allow them to shift into any living creature they’ve ever seen.”
As she talked, we slowly stood up and continued to walk.
“We try to find these humans, and take them away, just before their first shift. It’s dangerous, very dangerous, if we fail. You know those creatures that people claim to see? Big Foot, Nessie and the like? Us. They’re all shifters who we didn’t get to in time. Without training, they turn into mixtures of different creatures, and remain that way forever.”
“But why do we have to come here? Can’t they train us on earth? What’s so special about this place?”
“I think Viper can probably answer you better than me.”
“Viper? Who-”
Glen held up a hand, silencing me. She had stopped in front of an outcropping of rock. Stepping forward, she placed a palm flat against the surface. To my surprise, the rock trembled slightly and then split apart at an invisible seam.

Chapter 6
We stepped inside the rock and the “doors” slid shut behind us. Immediately, a girl with a chestnut braid down her back stepped forward to greet us.
“Seal, Eagle wants you at Defense,” she said.
Glen nodded. “On my way, Vixen. By the way, do you mind taking Tigress to see Viper?” She handed the girl a tiny golden key.
“No problem. Come on.” Pocketing the key, Vixen turned around and walked towards another flat rock wall, which opened automatically. I thought I saw Glen shoot her a worried glance, but maybe I was just imagining it. Vixen seemed fine to me.
I hurried to catch up with her. “Why did Glen call me Tigress?” I wondered.
Vixen turned towards me, her face puzzled. “Glen? Oh, you mean Seal. That’s your shifter name. It’s usually the first thing you ever shift to, and most people find it’s the easiest shift for them to do.”
“Huh.” I wasn’t watching where I was going, pondering this new bit of information. Suddenly I ran into something hard.
“Hey, watch it!” someone said. I looked up just in time to see a sullen-faced boy cross his arms tightly across his chest.
“S - sorry,” I stuttered. The boy brushed past me in the narrow hallway and stalked away. I turned back to Vixen, who laughed at the expression on my face.
“Oh, don’t worry about Tabby,” she giggled. “He’s all bark and no bite. He’s had a bit of a swelled head since his promotion last week. Now come on, I’ve got to take you to Viper.”
After a few more minutes of walking, we came to an enormous cavern. Nearly all of the floor had been dominated by hundreds of mats, some black, some blue, and a few green. On every one of them sat a person, mostly kids of all ages, although there were plenty of adults, too. Vixen briefly introduced some of them as we hurried by.
“This is Captains Lemur, Eel, and Ox, and over there is Rhino and Salamander...” The list went on and on, and I dutifully tried to remember each name and the face that went with it as we went through the cave like a whirlwind. But my heart slowly sank, because the person I hadn’t even known I was looking for wasn’t there.
Finally we came to another stone wall, only this one was ornately decorated with gold and silver, and there was a little key hole cut into the rock. Vixen pulled out the golden key Glen had given her and inserted it into the hole. The wall slid open like the other two had and I stepped cautiously inside.

Chapter 7
Vixen stood straight up and down, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead. “Shifter Vixen reporting for Shifter Seal with Rank Tigress!” she barked.
“Shifter Vixen, you may go,” a new voice said calmly. Vixen back out of the door, leaving the key on a table just before it closed. I searched for the source of the voice. In a corner of the room, a young woman was just shifting to snake.
Viper? I asked tentatively. The woman shifted back.
“Good,” she said, nodding approvingly. “Shifter Seal has taught you shiftspeak. Now, let’s see you shift.”
I remembered Vixen telling me that the form of my first shift would be the easiest, and I wanted to do my best, so I conjured up the tiger in my mind, and when I opened my eyes, I was standing on four huge, orange-furred paws.
You may shift back now, came the voice in my head. So I did.
“You may go. Report to Captain Tabby for duties.”
I gulped, remembering how the bad-tempered boy had snapped at me before. “Yes, ma’am.”

by **rattyjol** 6/8/2009, 8:32 pm

Chapter 8
I nervously approached the boy called Tabby. “Rank Tigress reporting for duty, Captain.
“Rank?” He seemed surprised. “Go to Captain Lemur for your Shifter band, then report back to me.” He pointed to a blank wall that I recognized as a door.
“Yessir,” I mumbled, turning towards it. It opened for me and I stepped inside.
A middle-aged woman was talking to someone I remembered being introduced to, although I couldn’t remember his name. As I watched, the young man nodded and walked away. The woman turned to me. “Yes?”
“Captain Tabby sent me for a Shifter band,” I explained.
“Name?”
“Rank Tigress, ma’am.”
She nodded and spoke into a little machine in her hand. “Tigress,” she repeated. The device began whirring and humming. Lemur looked back to me. “Press your hand to that panel,” she instructed, indicating a small panel on the wall. As I did so, she explained, “Now the Cave will recognize you and let you in.”
As I removed my hand from the panel, the little machine fell silent, and out popped a tiny black arm band. It landed in my hands, and I could see a beautiful tigress embroidered on the cloth. She was in mid-pounce, and seemed so lifelike that the eyes seemed to move and follow me.
“Thank you,” I breathed. “But... what does it do?”
Lemur smiled kindly, pulling another band, a blue one, off of her arm. “When you need a place to sit” -- the band shimmered and transformed into a mat like the people in the cavern hand been sitting on, still adorned with her well-sewn lemur -- “or a place to rest” -- it once again shimmered, and grew into a mattress complete with sheets, just the right size for the Captain -- “it will provide. And when you need nothing” -- it morphed back to the little band, and she slipped it back onto her arm -- “you can take it wherever you go. As you move through the ranks, it will change colors, from black to blue, blue to green, and finally, from green to red. Welcome, Shifter Tigress.”

Chapter 9
I slipped the band onto my arm as I stepped through the sliding door, searching for Captain Tabby. Suddenly, a terrible howl went off over my head. The other shifters around me glanced at each other with eyes bright with fear, or, in a few cases, anticipation, whispering fearfully.
I spotted a girl I vaguely remembered from the cavern. A salamander glistened on her black arm band. “What’s happening?” I asked her over the howling.
“The Soulless,” she hissed. “Get to your battle station!”
Battle station? I didn’t have a battle station!
“Tigress!” a voice called from behind me. I turned to see Vixen haring down the hall toward me. “Do you have a station?” she panted.
“Tabby didn’t have a chance to give me one!”
Vixen cursed under her breath. “You’d better come with me, then. Let’s go!” She continued the way she had been running. I followed without hesitation.
After just a few seconds, a cheetah appeared around a bend in the corridor.
Seal! Vixen cried. You were on Defense; what happened?
Nothing! Glen panted. I have to let everyone know, it was a false alarm! Tell everybody you see! And with that, she raced past us and out of sight.

Chapter 10
“This is where girls our age sleep,” Glen explained. “There’s an empty spot next to mine.” She pulled off her arm band, which immediately changed into a black mattress, the sheets embroidered with a very lifelike seal. I did the same.
I ran my fingers over my tigress, loving the way her eyes seemed to follow me, as if she was guarding me from harm.
“What’re the Soulless?” I asked.
Just then, the door opened and Vixen stepped through, stopping on Glen’s other side. She slipped off her band and sat on her bed a moment later, blocking the beautiful red fox from view.
I opened my mouth to ask about the Soulless again, but Glen shot me a warning glance. “Never mention them around Vixen,” she hissed in my ear. I closed my mouth and glanced at Vixen, wondering why. She met my gaze and I quickly dropped it down to my bed.
I looked up again a few seconds later to see Vixen lean close to Glen and whisper, “Who set off the alarm?” She looked casual enough, but I detected a slight tension in her voice.
Glen glanced about furtively, as if saying something she shouldn’t. “You’ll never guess - Lieutenant Eagle!”
“Not for long,” Vixen giggled. “I smell a demotion.”
Glen opened her mouth to reply, but just then the door opened again and a stream of other girls rushed in. Vixen’s face fell. It seemed this put an end to our conversation.
Suddenly I realized just how tired I was. I don’t even remember closing my eyes.

Chapter 11
I didn’t get another chance to ask Glen about the Soulless for a while, although we were on the same Defense shift. We sat with our backs to one side of the rock outcropping with Shifter Eagle, who had tripped the alarm by accident my first day and been demoted two ranks. Other groups of three sat on each side of the rock. Eagle watched the two of us like... well, like an eagle, making sure we didn’t talk, probably looking for a chance to earn back his ranks.
But about a week and a half after I came to Jalla, Eagle took a bathroom break in the middle of the shift.
“Quick, Glen, who are the Soulless?” I hissed.
She paused. Finally, she began speaking slowly, her voice little more than a whisper. “Well, they’re technically not really soulless, but they might as well be. Panther was once the red-band, like Viper is now. But slowly his mind became corrupted, or maybe it was always like that, I don’t know. He delved into dark magic. He” -- her voice broke, and she wouldn’t meet my eyes -- “he performed a terrible experiment on one of us, and was banished forever. But the one he used could not be saved. He was controlled my Panther. His name was - his name was Sloth. And the two of them captured more of us, and slowly, they built up an army.”
I hesitated before I asked the inevitable question, fearing the answer. “What were the experiments?”
She turned away. “He tore out his soul, and when Sloth was screaming for mercy, he put it back, But he set it crooked, twisted, wrong, and Sloth cannot be saved.”

Chapter 12
I sat in stunned silence for a minute, absorbing the information. Then I put my hands on my friend’s shoulders and turned her so she faced me. She still wouldn’t meet my eyes, and there were tears in hers.
“Glen, there’s something you’re not telling me, I know there is.”
She sighed and shook her head slowly. “You know me too well, Kritz. I - I was there. When he did it. It - it was...” She shuddered. “I’ll never forget it, never.”
I felt a flash of sympathy. Then I looked at her closer, and when I spoke again my voice was flat. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
The tears overflowed. “I... I can’t tell you, Kritz. It - it would ki-”
She froze, mouth half open, staring in horror over my shoulder. I turned to see a dust cloud moving across the horizon. Finally Glen came to her senses. “They’re coming!” she shrieked, slamming her hand down on the inconspicuous gray button on the rock face. Instantly the howling alarms went off. The doors on each side of the outcropping slid open and hundreds of shifters poured out in various forms, ready to fight.

Chapter 13
As the Soulless grew nearer, I began to make out individual figures. Two of them were leading the army across the rock desert.
One, Panther, was in his first-ever shift. The big black cat strode lithely and confidently across the shimmery rock.
The second, Sloth, was in human form, walking just behind Panther. I had to wait until he was closer to see the details of his face. When I did, I wished I hadn’t.
Sloth had a face I would know anywhere. It was a face I had last seen three years before, entering his bedroom as I entered mine.
Three years had made a lot of difference.
Everything about him seemed darker, as if in shadow, from his twisted expression, to his messy blonde hair, to his very core. His very soul.
But still, I would know him anywhere.
It was Blake.
Blake.
“Hey, sis,” he said casually, like we weren’t about to battle.
My twin.

Chapter 14
Blake.
Blake.
Nononononononono...
“No!” I screamed. My head felt like it was about to explode.
Blake.
Gone.
No.
My body couldn’t take the beating it was receiving from my tortured mind. It curled up in a ball and simply shut down.

The next thing I remember was someone shaking me as if from very far away.
“Kritz!” a voice yelled. A chorus of screams echoed around my head, and not all of them were from inside the confines of my battered and useless mind. “Kritz, you have to get up, you have to fight with us! Please, Kritz, you have to! Do it for him, if no one else. Do it for Blake, Kritz, he’d want you to, I know he would!”
That got the attention of about half my mind. The other half was still screaming, with no signs of stopping in the near future.
But the half paying attention forced my body to uncurl. I got to my feet, dazed, dizzy, and uncoordinated. The screaming half of my brain didn’t know what was happening. I tried to focus on my tigress. It was hard, but I managed to concentrate just long enough to shift. I staggered towards Panther, heedless of the one-on-one battles raging around me. He had started all this, and he was going to pay.

Chapter 15
I staggered across the battlefield, the screams of the dying and the new Soulless echoing around me. My eyes were focused so intently on Panther that I didn’t see him come until it was too late.
Blake stepped in front of me and laid a hand on my orange-and-black-furred chest. Now he was ripping
Out
My
Soul!
The agony!
It’s impossible to describe.
The sheer pain forced me to shift back to human.
Glen was screaming in my head. Kritz, the knife! You have to do it! The knife! The knife!
My agonized brain took time to figure out what she meant. It could have been only a few seconds, or it could have been years. Time had ceased to mean anything.
Time had ceased to be.
But then I remembered the Swiss Army Knife Glen had given me for my last birthday. My fumbling hands somehow found the ice-cold handle in my pocket and flipped out the knife attachment.
The pain grew. Somehow, I managed to lift the hand holding the knife and
Drive
It
Into
His
Heart.
My brother fell backwards, blood spurting out of the hole in his chest, a mixture of a cruel smile and stunned disbelief frozen on his face.
My soul snapped back into my chest.
Straight.
Set.
Whole.
But my heart would never be any of those things again.

Epilogue: Glen
The battle was over. We had won.
But my best friend was lost.
I shifted back from bear and knelt beside her. “Kritz?” I asked tentatively.
She didn’t answer, her body racked by sobs. “I k- I killed- I-”
“No, Kritz,” I said softly. “You didn’t kill him. He’s not dead, not really. He’s free, Kritz. He’s free.”
“No!” she screamed, sudden rage flashing from her tear-filled eyes. “I did! I killed him! He’s dead!”
And with that, she drew the knife from her brother’s chest and sank it deep into her own.

by **rattyjol** 6/8/2009, 8:34 pm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prologue
I picked through the bodies of friend and foe, searching for two faces in particular.
I found Seal crouched beside the still form of Tigress. Seal had her face buried in her hands, and as I drew closer, I could see why.
Tigress had a knife buried up to the hilt in her chest, both hands still clutching it, not as if to pull it out, but to drive it in. Beside her lay Sloth, her twin brother, who had a wound from the same knife in the same place.
“Oh...” I whispered. Tears leaked out of my eyes as I gazed at the scene of destruction in front of me. My heart ached, and not only for my friend.
Seal gazed up at me with tear-filled eyes and the expression of one who has just witnessed great horror written on her face.
“Why did it have to be Blake, Vixen?” she sobbed. “Why did it have to be Kritz?”
I wrapped my arms around my friend. “I don’t know Seal. I just don’t know.”

Okay, so, as you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering a few things. Like, for example, what happened here? Don’t worry, I’m getting to that.
You’re also probably saying, “What’s with the names? Who are these people and why do they keep getting called different things?”
I’m getting to that too.
But first, let me explain who... no, what we are.
Sometimes, humans are born with a certain power. Nobody can tell who has this talent until just before it shows itself. Seal, Tigress, Sloth and I all have this talent.
We are the shifters.
We can shift into anything living creature we’ve ever seen. When we are brought here, to Jalla, we take the name of the animal of our first shift, but sometimes if you’ve known someone on Earth, you’ll still call them by their old name.
Okay, now you’re thinking, “What do you mean, ‘on Earth?’ This girl is crazy!”
But really, I’m not. It’s all true.
We’re transported to planet Jalla before our first shift for our own safety. And we stay there.
And now I’ll answer the first question you asked. What happened?
Once upon a time, on Earth there lived a girl named Kritz, her twin brother, Blake, and her best friend, Glen...
But who am I in this crooked story, you ask?
Oh, I’m nobody, just a random girl named Vixen who happened to become friends with Kritz and Glen as they came to the Shifters one by one.
And also, a long time ago, or so it seems to me... in love with Blake.

Chapter 1 - Two years earlier...
My name on Earth was Kari.
A typical Monday. Drag myself out of bed, get dressed, eat a few bites of cereal, miss the bus, beg a ride from my dad.
Y’know, the usual.
During fourth period math, I began to daydream. The room went kind of fuzzy, and then disappeared altogether.
That made me pay attention real quick.
I hurtled through an empty whiteness for who-knew-how long.
When I landed, someone was there to greet me.
“Hello,” he said kindly. “My name is Sloth. You have been brought here for your own good...”
He went on to explain everything about the shifters. Very straightforward. I liked that.
When he had explained all he could, he stood up. “Come,” he said. “I’ll take you to Panther.”

I stood in a small cavern. A young man was sitting on a blood-red mat as we stepped in the door. He got up and stood in front of us, and his movements were silent and graceful, like a panther’s.
He turned to Sloth, standing beside me. “Has she shifted?”
“No, not yet, sir,” Sloth admitted.
And then Panther looked at me. His black eyes were like falling into a cold, deep well. I felt like I was about to drown in them, and hurriedly looked away.
“Try,” he ordered.
“H - how?” I stuttered.
“Focus on the animal,” Sloth told me.
I closed my eyes and pictured my very favorite animal. When I opened them, I was a fox.
“Welcome to the shifters, Vixen.”

Chapter 2 - Twenty-three months later...
I had just one friend in the shifters. Sloth, of course.
And yet, I was happier on Jalla than I had ever been on Earth.
Sloth and I were inseparable. As a lieutenant, he rearranged our schedules so we could be together nearly every minute of the day.
Except once.

Panther called to his chamber Sloth and me specifically. I was afraid he had noticed how much time we had been spending together, and was about to forbid us from interacting.
I turned the key in the lock nervously and the doors slid open. This time I avoided falling into the deep well of Panther’s eyes. If I had looked at him, seen the evil glee written on his face, perhaps I would have been able to stop what was about to happen. But I did not.
“Shifter Vixen,” he began, “you will go and find our latest recruit.” The screen on the wall flashed a picture and Sloth’s eyes widened. Panther continued, “Brief her on the situation and bring her back here for her test. Go now.”
Relieved, but still slightly apprehensive about why Sloth had been called as well, I backed out of the room.

The girl I was assigned to sat up, staring around her in confusion. As I approached, she jumped up to face me boldly. “Where am I?” she demanded. “Who are you?”
As an answer, I shifted to my favorite form, my vixen. The girl stepped back with a gasp.
“W - who are you?” she repeated, more uncertain now.
I am Vixen. Think your words and I will hear. What is your name?
Glen, she said. My name is Glen.

Chapter 3
I explained to Glen what Sloth had explained to me all those months earlier. I explained about the rules, and the Ranks, Shifters, Captains, Lieutenants and the red-band.
Her first shift was a seal.
That will be your name now, I told her. Your name is Seal. Now come. I will take you to Panther.

When the outer door slid open, I knew right away that something was wrong, although everything looked normal on the surface.
I got a horrible feeling in my gut and raced through the halls to Panther’s chamber, not caring if Seal was behind me or not.
I stuck the key hastily into the lock. And as the door slid open, I heard the screams.
Panther was crouched on the floor, a hand on Sloth’s chest. Sloth was writing in agony, screaming for mercy. And then the screams stopped. Sloth lay on the ground, eyes blank and empty, wide and staring. Panther turned something indescribable over in his hands, almost reverently. And then he slapped it back into Sloth’s chest.
Right away, Sloth sprang up, a cruel smile twisting his features. He caught sight of me and Seal in the doorway and shifted to leopard, slowly advancing with claws unsheathed.

Chapter 4
I glanced at Seal, standing beside me. Her eyes were wide, but not with fear.
“B - but... that’s...”
“That’s Sloth,” I whispered, fighting back tears. “Panther...” My voice choked off, and I couldn’t finish.
Seal shook her head, as if to clear it. “No,” she said. “That’s Blake.”
And then he spoke.
Why, hello again, Glen. I never expected you to become a shifter. You, of all people! He gave a short purr of laughter from his leopard throat.
“Wait... you know him?” I asked, confused.
Seal nodded, her eyes filling with tears as well.
“He was... he was my best friend’s twin brother,” she whispered. “They were so close before his disappeared...”
By this time, Sloth had come close enough to reach out a huge paw and leave a long gash on my arm. And that’s just what he did.
I gaped at the would, then turned to glare at the red-band, who had shifted to panther.
What did you do to him? I screamed.
Oh, I merely modified his soul, he said calmly.
Twisted it, you mean! I spat.
He shrugged his muscular black shoulders. Same thing. All that matters is that he answers to me now.
I wanted to kill him right there and then, but you don’t get to be a red-band for nothing. Instead of shifting to something that could rip his throat out, I concentrated on a falcon.
Seal, shift to bird! I ordered. We need to warn everyone!
Without waiting for a response, I flew off, searching for Lieutenant Viper. She’d be able to defeat Panther if anyone could.
I hoped.

Chapter 5
I winged my way to the alarm button, shouting a message to everyone I passed. Panther has practiced dark magic on Lieutenant Sloth! I screamed as I shot by overhead.
I slammed into the alarm button and, instantly, unearthly howls went off throughout the entire maze of tunnels. I slid to the floor, stunned mentally as well as physically, still in falcon shift.
Just as my body ached from hitting the alarm button, so my mind ached from the unfathomable idea that Sloth was no longer Sloth. He would kill me if he got the chance. And I couldn’t stand it. I just let go...
I don’t know how long I lay there. But eventually Seal found me.
Vixen? she asked. I could hear the concern in her voice. Are you all right?
The words were meaningless. My mind couldn’t understand.
Large human hands picked up my aching falcon body and cradled me gently.
Vixen, everybody’s searching for you.
Ung... I moaned.
Still cradling me in her hands, Seal carried me through the tunnels. After a while I was set down on a hard surface.
Vixen, can you hear me? a new voice asked.
My mind, still dazed and only half-conscious, wouldn’t respond. Hands prodded my tiny body gently, and I twitched uncomfortably.
Physically, she’s only a little bruised, the second voice reported. Mentally, who can tell? She was very close to Sloth.
At the name, my mind revived itself.
Aaah! I screamed. My eyes snapped open and I hopped to my feet, flapping my wings in panic.
Vixen, it’s okay, the second voice said soothingly. I now recognized her as Viper.
No! I screamed, my mind in turmoil. That was all a dream! It has to to be a dream!
Seal laid a hand gently on my falcon head. I’m sorry, Vixen.
I shook her hand off and flew out of whatever room we were in.
I winged my way out of the tunnels and into the bright alien sunlight. Now, more than ever before, I wanted to go home. I flew and flew and flew until I dropped out of the sky from sheer exhaustion. I landed on the rock face and shifted back to human.
But only because I wanted to cry.

When I had cried myself out, I shifted to horse and sprinted back to the rock outcropping that hid the maze of tunnels we lived in. I was surprised by just how far I had flown.
When I was human again, I laid my hand on the rock and waited for it to split open.
As I stepped inside, I made my decision.
I would act like nothing was wrong...
Even though everything was.

by **rattyjol** 6/8/2009, 8:34 pm

Chapter 6 - One month later...
“Shifter Vixen!” Lieutenant Eagle snapped.
I looked up. “Yes, sir?”
“Find Shifter Seal and tell her to get over here!”
“Yessir,” I sighed, climbing to my feet.
As I wandered through the familiar halls, I tried not to think about what had happened only a month before.
Just as I was passing the entrance to the tunnels, the door slid open and Seal stepped inside with another girl I had never seen before.
“Seal, Eagle wants you at Defense,” I told her.
She nodded. “On my way, Vixen. By the way, do you mind taking Tigress to see Viper?” She held out the key to the red-band’s chamber.
“No problem,” I said, even though it was. I still had trouble being in that room. All the bad and painful memories... “Come on,” I told the girl. I stuck the key in my pocket and began to lead the new girl through the halls, explaining and introducing as we went.
I unlocked the door and introduced her, keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead. Tigress probably thought it was like a military camp here, but really I just wanted to look at blank wall rather than the place where... I shook my head slightly to clear it. No, I ordered myself. Don’t think about it. I was excused and hurriedly left. I think Viper could tell that I really didn’t want to be there.
I went to a little crevice of the meeting cavern where I often sat and placed my mat on the ground. Nobody ever found me there.
I let a few tears escape, then leaned my head against the wall behind me and closed my eyes. Instantly, I was mentally transported through time back to the happiest months of my life...

Chapter 7
The howling of the alarm went off overhead, I sprang to my feet, slipping my black shifter’s band back onto my arm.
I raced along the corridors to my battle station. Up ahead, the new girl was looking lost and confused.
“Tigress!” I called. She spun around to face me. “Do you have a station?”
“Tabby didn’t have a chance to give me one!”
I cursed under my breath, although my mind was completely blank of emotion. “You’d better come with me then,” I told her. “Let’s go!” I sped up, and heard her footsteps behind me.
I rounded a corner to see a cheetah sprinting towards me.
Seal! I cried. You were on Defense, what happened? This I did care about. The only thing that caused me any real feeling at all had to do with... No, I reminded myself.
Nothing! Seal panted in reply to my question. I have to let everyone know, it was a false alarm! Tell everybody you see! And with that, she raced past us and out of sight.

Chapter 8
I opened the door to the room where Seal and I slept, along with about a dozen other girls. The room was empty except for Seal and Tigress, who were sitting on their beds. Tigress was leaning forward with her mouth open, like she was asking Seal a question, but Seal muttered something in her ear before she could go on. Tigress glanced towards me with a puzzled look.
I didn’t have to be a genius to know what they were talking about.
I quickly banished the thought from my mind, but not before a flash of pain showed in my eyes. Seal glanced at me worriedly. I thought I had acted normal ever since... that day, but apparently she hadn’t been fooled.
I set up my bed like nothing was wrong and leaned towards Seal, faking an eager expression. “Who set off the alarm?” I asked. It was the kind of question the old Vixen would have asked. But the new Vixen didn’t care about the answer.
Seal glanced about furtively. “You’ll never guess,” she whispered. “Lieutenant Eagle!”
“Not for long,” I giggled, even though I really didn’t find it funny at all. But the old Vixen would have, so I faked it. “I smell a demotion!” Just then, a group of girls streamed in and set up their beds. I let my face fall, like I was disappointed to have the conversation end.
For the past month I‘ve faked all my emotions and reactions to trivial things, acting just how I would have if it had never happened.
But inside, I never really care about anything but Panther.
My life is a lie.

Chapter 9
A few weeks passed, same as always.
I was on Defense. Seal and Tigress were on the same shift, but on a different side of the enormous rock. That one day, I heard a bit of their conversation.
I caught just a few words. Soul. Panther. Sloth.
I tuned it out.
I was so focused on not hearing their conversation that I missed hearing Seal shriek, “They’re coming!”
I did hear the alarm.
I sprang to my feet and shifted to fox. I wove through the crowd of shifters in various forms that had poured out of the tunnels, searching for my friends.
As the Soulless grew closer I heard a scream from near the front.
“No!”
It was Tigress’s voice.
I raced to the front. Tigress was staring at Sloth in frozen horror. Seal was shaking her, trying to get her to come to her senses.
As I watched, Tigress slowly sank to the ground and curled up in a ball.
Seal was still shaking, yelling...
Tigress slowly uncurled herself and staggered to her feet, shifting to tiger as she walked unsteadily towards the big black cat pacing the edge of the battle.
Panther.
But just as I was about to go after him, something hit me. I turned to Seal, who had shifted to bear and was fighting a Soulless in gorilla shift.
Seal! That day, you said Sloth was your friend’s twin. That wasn’t... that couldn’t be... Tigress?
It was, Vixen. That’s Kritz and Blake.
Suddenly an ear-piercing scream rent the air, but there was no lull in the fighting.
Sloth had his hand on Tigress’s chest, forcing her to shift back to human. Ripping out her soul.
Seal screamed something at Tigress as she dodged punches from the Soulless she was fighting.
Tigress yanked a Swiss Army Knife from her pocket. Her hands fumbled until she found the dagger attachment. And then she sunk it deep into her brother’s chest and fell wailing to the ground.
My eyes fell on the lithe black figure who had caused so much suffering to so many people.
Me.
Tigress.
Seal.
Sloth.
With the best growl I could manage from my fox throat, I leapt at Panther and tore at his flesh with tiny fox claws and sharp little fox teeth.
With a roar, he flung me off his back. I hit the rock with a weak yip, and then I let the painless blackness envelop me.

Epilogue
When I awoke, I limped over to the spot where I had attacked Panther. Blood was splattered everywhere. At least I’d hurt him.
Then I found my friends.
And so we’ve come full circle. You know what happened on planet Jalla. You know what I felt and why.
And if you knew two girls, best friends, and the twin brother of one of them, who all disappeared, one at a time, or another girl who vanished in the middle of math class...
You know what happened.

THE END

Shifter/Vixen *finished* Cover