=:= Zoe =:=

There was a faint rumbling sensation, and an even fainter shudder through the walls. Zoe left her daydream behind for now, and opened her eyes as she returned to reality. Did she just imagine that, or did it really happen?

She spotted some dust drifting down from the reinforced light fixture. She watched it settle on the floor in the centre of the cell, and knew it hadn't been her imagination.

She didn't know how long she'd been here. The lights were always left on and meals had been few and far between, but they were always the same thing. She read about that in a book once, it was some kind of psychological thing supposed to mess with people's sense of time.

With some discomfort, Zoe slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position. There was a quiet grunt of pain as she got to her feet, then she carefully limped over to the door. She knew she was in rough shape, but she wasn't beaten yet. Well ok, she'd been physically beaten a few times, but mentally she was still winning. And that was the important thing.

Whatever they did to her body, to this body, didn't matter. This wasn't her. After the initial shock wore off, she was almost glad the collar had returned her to this shape. It meant they couldn't really hurt her. The real Zoe was safe inside while whatever they did, it was to a body that she didn't particularly like.

It was actually pretty ironic, she thought. They were treating the collar like it was this big scary thing, but in truth it was probably helping her now more than it hurt her. She knew what sorts of nasty spells the Brotherhood had access to, but they couldn't use any of them on her. The collar took magic out of the equation, and Zoe was pretty sure these guys didn't have a lot of experience working without their spells.

She just had to hang on until Cindy and the others could come and rescue her. She knew they'd be coming sooner or later. And she was positive they'd be able to help her, despite what those Brotherhood assholes told her about the collar.

The fact that Zoe still had her initiation tattoo on her wrist told her the collar didn't dispell everything. The mark on her wrist came from the Goddess and the collar didn't remove it. She was confident that meant the Goddess could fix her, once her friends saved her. Till then, she just had to do her best to stay alive and try not to let them break her spirit.

Looking out the little window she could only see a few meters of hallway, and there wasn't anyone out there. The cell was pretty much soundproof so she couldn't hear anything either, and since that faint rumble there'd been nothing further.

Zoe watched and waited for a few minutes, but nothing seemed to be happening.

Finally she limped back to the cot. It hurt to stay on her feet, but then the process of laying down again was also painful. Normally she tried not to think about the injuries, unfortunately it was harder to ignore them when she was moving around.

She was sure there were a couple broken bones in her left foot. And a couple broken fingers on her right hand. They really hated when she gave them the finger. However it was the broken ribs and the burns that caused the most discomfort.

She knew her face probably looked pretty nasty too, though there was no mirror in the cell. That was just as well, she didn't need to be reminded what she looked like now. Even without the black eyes or the broken nose or the missing teeth, she was never a fan of this face.

It was even worse now, since her captors refused to provide her anything to shave with. It made her skin crawl, but the facial hair at least gave her some rough indication of time passing. She knew it was at least a week since she was captured.

There hadn't been any opportunity to shower, and no change of clothes either, which also annoyed her. She did her best not to let on though, she didn't want to give those guys any ideas of what things actually upset her.

So she tried to ignore the sweat stains and the dried blood on the t-shirt, tried to ignore the smell of herself like this. At least the Brotherhood guy had to put up with it too, when he was 'questioning' her.

Having a shower and putting on clean clothes were among her top-ten things to do once Cindy and the others rescued her. Till then, she just settled back down on the cot with another groan of pain. She stared up at the ceiling and pushed the pain and discomfort from her mind, and tried to relax again.

Right now the thing she was worried about most, was they'd give up on the beatings and switch to drugs. She didn't think she could hold out if they drugged her. The beatings though, she could handle that. Not that they weren't painful, and she wished she didn't have to endure any more, but they weren't going to break her spirit.

Thank her childhood for preparing her for this kind of treatment. The Brotherhood guy here was bigger than her dad, and he wasn't concerned about leaving scars. But he was nowhere near as scary to adult Zoe as her dad had been when she was just a kid.

She wasn't worried about whatever psychological crap they were attempting either, trying to mess with her sense of time. She used to work on an assembly line where she had to keep a robot happy for eight hours a day, and she'd become pretty good at dissociating while she'd been stuck at that job.

That's how she'd been spending most of her time here. Disconnected from reality, her mind in other places, other times. During these long quiet times when they left her alone, she'd let her mind wander off, and come up with elaborate new stories to tell that Joseph guy. She knew he'd have to report it all back to that Richard asshole.

Lately she'd been working on a make-believe Goddess she named Lleuad Tywysoges. She was also figuring out a bunch of made-up rituals and myths to go along with the name. She figured that would keep them busy for a while, till they figured out 'Lleuad Tywysoges' was just a loose Welsh translation of 'Princess Luna'.

She smiled to herself. All that time spent watching cartoons with Ciara was paying off after all.

Zoe closed her eyes and let herself relax. She was just starting to let her mind wander back to her made-up Goddess, when she felt another shudder through the wall. This one was stronger, there was no second-guessing. That was definitely not her imagination.

Her eyes opened again, in time to see a shadow in the hall through the small window. It was only there for a moment as someone moved past. A second later something that looked a lot like blood was spattered across the little window.

Zoe's eyes widened, but she hesitated. Did she want to go to the trouble and pain of getting up and looking again, or should she just wait and see what happened next? Was it even safe to go and look, or was she better off staying put?

She was still weighing her options when the thick reinforced door was suddenly torn away, taking a significant section of the wall and ceiling with it. Concrete dust rained down in the gap where the door had been. Zoe gritted her teeth, pulling herself back up to a sitting position as someone stepped into view in the doorway.

Zoe frowned, tilting her head to one side.

It was a little blonde girl, she looked about ten years old. She was tiny though, smaller than Ciara. There was clearly something magical about her, she had blue eyes but there was an unearthly red glow in them. Something about this girl was unsettling, yet there was also something familiar about her.

Zoe stared, speechless. She recognized this kid. This scary child looked like a younger, smaller Cindy.

She finally asked, "Cindy? Is that you? It's me, Zoe!"

The eerie red glow in the girl's eyes seemed to flicker, then it was gone. Zoe saw a look of confusion come over her young face, followed quickly by a look of surprise. Then the girl blinked, and finally Zoe saw the look of recognition in the child's eyes.

"Zoe!" she grinned, then immediately frowned again. "What have they done to you?!"

"Cindy is that you?" Zoe asked, still staring at the girl. "Why are you so young?"

"Long story," Cindy replied, then added "Hang on."

The child closed her eyes and from her expression, Zoe figured she was working a spell. There was a look of intense concentration on the tiny blonde's face for about ten or fifteen seconds.

Then she opened her eyes and hurried to Zoe's side, standing next to the cot. "We hafta get you outta here, and get you all fixed up!"

Cindy frowned as she stared at the collar that was secured around her neck. She started to reach for it, but Zoe quickly moved her left hand up to stop her.

"Don't touch it!" Zoe exclaimed. "They said the collar kills magic. I don't know if it could hurt you, but it's messed me up." She sighed and added "They said it won't unlock until I'm dead."

"Fuck that!" Cindy scowled. She kept her hands back but she leaned forward, frowning as she inspected the collar.

While she was staring, Zoe asked, "What's going on? Is the coven attacking?"

"Nah, it's just me," Cindy replied. Finally she straightened up and said, "Ok, I wanna try something. It might feel a little weird though. Do you trust me?"

Zoe nodded, "Of course."

"Then lay back and close your eyes." Cindy instructed.

Wincing in pain, Zoe slowly lowered herself back down onto the cot and closed her eyes.

After a few seconds she felt a cold shiver, followed by a spinning sensation. Suddenly it was like she was floating up near the ceiling, looking down. Her vision wasn't clear though, colours seemed faded so everything looked dull and grey.

From this perspective she was looking down at her body. It wasn't a pretty sight. Cindy was leaning over it, and Zoe saw the tiny sorceress reach out and unhook the collar. It swung open on its hinge and Cindy took it from the body's neck, then stuffed it into her hoodie's kangaroo pocket.

It finally dawned on Zoe that she was having some kind of out-of-body experience. She suspected she was dead, or close enough that the collar had been tricked into unlocking.

Below her, Cindy had her hands on Zoe's body now, holding the body's left arm. It was hard to see what she was doing, but she seemed to be getting frustrated. Finally she straightened up and took a couple steps back. She had an angry pout on her face.

It seemed to Zoe that she was hovering up there near the ceiling for about a minute or two, before she felt that spinning sensation again. Then everything went white for what she figured was a few seconds.

She opened her eyes with a gasp. She was on her feet now but there was no pain, her injuries were all healed. And most importantly, she could feel her tail swishing back and forth in agitation.

"Aaaaah!" Zoe squealed happily as she grabbed her tail, pulling it around and hugging it against her chest. "I missed my tail so much!" She ran her other hand over her head, confirming her ears were in the right place again now too. She looked down at herself, still holding her tail to her chest. Everything was back where it should be, she was herself again!

She was still barefoot, but instead of the dirty grey sweat-pants and stained white t-shirt her captors had left her in, she was now wearing clean grey leggings and a new black top.

Cindy grinned up at her, "Welcome back!"

Zoe finally let go of her tail and pulled Cindy into a hug. It was awkward though, the tiny sorceress couldn't have been more than four and a half feet tall now, and probably weighed less than seventy pounds.

Finally Zoe let go of her and stepped back, asking "What did you do? How did you get the collar off?"

Cindy sighed, "Ok so I had to kill you to get the collar off, then I was gonna make your body back to normal and stuff you back in it? But the collar did something, like your body was just, it wouldn't work! Probably some aspect of the collar, like cursing the body to prevent resurrections or something, I dunno."

She scowled, then shrugged. "So I got a better idea. I conjured you up a brand new body that's like, already perfect for you and hasn't been messed with by anyone. I guess technically it was more like reincarnation instead of resurrection, except like you're the right age and stuff?"

Zoe stared at her, wide-eyed. "What?"

Cindy shrugged then gestured behind Zoe.

She turned around and gasped. Her old body was still there, laying dead on the cot.

Finally she turned back and stared at Cindy. "Ok, what the fuck is going on? How are you doing all this stuff? And why do you look like a little kid?"

Before Cindy could reply, there was another strong shudder through the building, and a lot more dust came down from the ceiling.

Zoe added, "And what was that? What's going on upstairs?"

"Oh, the building's burning down. I kinda set everything on fire upstairs." Cindy replied in a matter-of-fact tone. She added, sounding a little apologetic, "Um, after I killed everyone, that is..."

Zoe stared at her, speechless.

Cindy frowned, "Zoe you need to go back to the vineyard. There's one more guy I gotta deal with, the Brotherhood's leader, the guy who set all this stuff up."

Zoe scowled "That Richard asshole?"

"Nah," Cindy shook her head. "He's already been taken care of. It's his boss, some guy called Alexander."

"I'm not letting you go after the big boss alone, Cindy." Zoe stated. "I'm coming with you."

The tiny sorceress shook her head again. "Zoe it's too dangerous. This Alexander guy... I think he might be a God? I think he's been getting rid of all the other Gods, like getting rid of the competition? So he can rule the world or whatever."

Zoe gaped at her, "What?! Cindy you can't take on a God! I know you're strong, you're obviously a lot stronger than you were last time I saw you, but still..."

There were more rumbles from upstairs, and the lights started flickering as more dust came down from the ceiling.

"Zoe I can't explain right now. It's a long story. Trust me ok? I want you to be safe."

She shook her head, "Cindy you don't know how hard it's been waiting for you! Now that you found me, I can't just run off and hide while you go and get yourself killed without me!"

Cindy sighed. "Ok, fine. But if you get killed, I'm gonna bring you back and I'm gonna yell at you! I just found you, I don't wanna lose you again!"

Zoe grinned, "Deal! Now we should probably get out of here before the whole place falls down ontop of us, right?"

Cindy nodded, then said "Oh, wait!" She reached out, "Give me your hand first!"

Frowning, Zoe held out her hand and asked "Why?"

She realized the Goddess's initiation tattoo was gone from her wrist. Of course, it was a brand-new body, so it made sense there was no tattoo.

Cindy grabbed Zoe's hand with both of her own, and Zoe saw her girlfriend's eyes light up with a light purple glow. The light in her eyes was almost exactly the same colour as Zoe's hair and fur. She felt the tingle of magic in the air and grinned. She hadn't felt that since the collar was locked around her neck back in the school cafeteria.

The feeling of magic faded, and Zoe saw that Cindy had placed a new tattoo on her wrist. It was in the shape of a cat's paw print. She realized the tattoo was similar to what Tanya had showed them way back when. It was made up of tiny runes, a complex enchantment marked in purple ink.

"Protection enchantment in the tattoo?" she asked.

Cindy nodded, "Yeah! Physical and magic protection, and it'll hide you from scrying too."

"Cool," Zoe smiled. "But what happens when the Goddess wants to put a new initiation tattoo there?"

Cindy shook her head, "Don't let her."

"What?" Zoe asked, surprised. "Why not?"

Behind them, several square meters of the ceiling collapsed into the hallway and a wave of heat rolled over them both as the inferno that had been raging above finally arrived in the basement.

"I'll tell you later," Cindy stated. "Time to go!"

They were still holding hands, and Zoe felt the buzz of magic as her tiny girlfriend teleported the both of them clear.

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