32. Aftermath
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=:= Samantha =:=

It was about half past five now, Monday morning. Neither herself or Nikki had gotten much sleep. After that strange little Goddess visited Ciara's room around three-thirty, the two of them returned to bed but they both had too many questions.

It was surprising enough that there was another Goddess awake now, and apparently embodied in a child. Why didn't their Goddess warn them though? Why didn't She give them any more information? Who is this new Goddess, what's Her name, what will She do? And why was She a child, why did She look like Cindy?

Eventually Sam gave up on sleep. She'd gone downstairs and put the coffee machine on. Nikki joined her after another half hour of failing to fall asleep on her own.

Then just before five in the morning, they'd both felt something unsettling. It was like a wave of unfocused magic had passed through their home. It happened twice more, the three waves coming less than a minute apart.

Jessica and Kara were both woken by that. Now all four of them were sitting in the living-room, sipping coffee in their nightgowns and pyjamas. Nikki stoked up the fire, and they were just quietly watching it as they enjoyed their coffee.

Samantha heard some faint sounds from upstairs, and figured Ciara was finally getting up. The child had been the only one to sleep through the whole night, but maybe she'd finally sensed that everybody else was already awake. Sam thought it was a bit ironic that after sleeping through the visit of a new Goddess and then three mysterious waves of magic, the kid would finally wake up while everyone else was sitting quietly by the fire.

She looked over her shoulder, up at Ciara's bedroom door, expecting the girl to emerge any moment. Instead it was Cindy's door that opened.

"...so dark?" Cindy asked, as she came out of her bedroom.

Zoe followed right behind her, saying "Different time zone, remember? It's like, five hours difference here."

Sam jumped to her feet, followed quickly by the others.

Jessica gasped, "Cindy! Zoe! You're all right!"

"What happened? Where've you been?" Sam asked.

The two of them smiled, Cindy waved while Zoe said "Hi gang."

They both came downstairs and went for the kitchen first. Zoe pulled out a couple glasses while Cindy got out a bottle of juice and a carton of milk.

As they were getting their drinks, Zoe suggested "Hey, see if you can get the news on TV. From England?"

Nikki moved over to the other sofa and picked up the TV remote.

By the time Cindy and Zoe had their drinks, Nicole had the BBC News up on the screen. There was aerial footage of the smouldering remains of what was probably once a large fancy building, with the street out front full of countless emergency vehicles.

The text marquee on the bottom of the screen described a possible terrorist attack in Westminster, not far from the Oxford Circus tube station. The voice-over was talking about an explosion, an intense fire that emergency services had been unable to douse, and that the death toll was as yet unknown. The voice also identified the structure as a private Gentlemen's Club that was established in the nineteenth century.

Kara stared at the screen for a few moments then looked at Cindy. They frowned as they asked in an accusing tone, "What did you do?"

Cindy and Zoe sat down in one of the large leather chairs, squeezing in together. They both took a moment to enjoy their drinks, then Zoe replied first. "That burning hole in the middle of London used to be the Brotherhood's headquarters. Now they're gone, and so is their leader."

Sam glanced at her wife, not sure if they should be celebrating or questioning how many lives were lost.

Nikki asked, "What happened?"

Cindy explained, "The Goddesses borrowed my body. They needed me to be a vessel for their sister. They said she could do what they couldn't."

Sam asked, "You became younger? Like Ciara's age?"

"Yeah," Cindy nodded. "I don't remember too much of what happened, but we went to London, and uh..." she gestured toward the TV screen. "We found Zoe in a prison cell in the basement. Got her out, then went after the boss guy. He was off in a big ritzy mansion in Oxfordshire."

Zoe took over, "There was a big duel, lots of magic fireworks, but our team won. Now Cindy's back to normal, and the two of us are back."

Jessica asked, "It's over then? For real? No more Brotherhood, no more threat, no more danger?"

Cindy shrugged, "I mean, there's still like fifty or sixty of those guys left, scattered across Europe? But they don't have any leadership, they don't have anyone telling them what to do or whatever. And the way they all kept secrets from each other, I doubt any of the other offices would even know that guys from England were sent to Canada."

Kara frowned, "So there may still be a threat, but we're just going to assume it's safe."

Cindy frowned back at the enby and replied, "If you want to go and kill them Kara, I could probably get you their names and addresses. Then you can go round them up yourself."

The sorceress and the champion had their eyes locked on each other for a few moments, until Nikki spoke up. "I don't think we need to worry about that just yet. What else happened, Cindy? What can you tell us?"

Sam added, "A little over a half hour ago, there was some sort of wave of magic that passed through. Three of them, actually. Would you know anything about that?"

Cindy and Zoe looked at each other, and Sam knew right away that the two of them knew about it.

"Shit," Zoe said quietly. "If those shockwaves made it all the way here, do you think they went everywhere? Like right around the world?"

Cindy sighed, "Yeah, probably. Nobody would have noticed them though, unless they were already sensitive to magic."

"Cindy? Zoe? Care to elaborate?" Nikki asked.

"So when the big bad guy was going down," Cindy explained, "There were these three magical shock-waves that came off of him. They were pretty strong, but I don't think they were all that dangerous?"

Zoe frowned, "It wasn't pleasant up close, and it messed up his fancy mansion. But the news isn't talking about reality melting anywhere else, so yeah, it's probably ok."

"Reality melting?!" Jess gasped, her eyes wide.

"Uh, yeah..." Zoe grimaced. "Like right up close, things were really weird afterwards. I can't really describe it?"

On the TV, the news had shifted back to the anchor, with a map of the UK behind him. A section was highlighted, as the anchor was saying "...reports now coming in of some sort of event outside of Abingdon-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. Military vehicles have been sighted moving on a private estate a few miles outside the town..."

Cindy sighed, then shrugged "Well there's nobody there now. I doubt they'll find anything."

Nikki finally hit the mute button on the TV and said, "Ok. I'm sure we all have a lot more questions, and I suspect we're going to get more informative answers directly from Cindy and Zoe than what the BBC is able to offer. So let's all have some more coffee, maybe relax a little, and take things slowly."

Samantha nodded in agreement, adding "It's still early and some of us haven't had much sleep."

"Or any sleep," Cindy said. "I've been up at least a day now."

"Do you want a nap first?" Jess asked.

Before Cindy could answer, there was an excited squeal from the top of the stairs. "Zoe! Cindy!"

Ciara came racing down the stairs, plushie kitty in hand, and practically jumped ontop of the sorceress and catgirl, hugging them both.

Zoe grinned, "Hi Ciara, it's good to see you too."

Cindy smiled, "Hey kid." Then she smirked and asked "Why didn't the rest of you greet us like this?"

Nicole smiled as well, "I'm going to send word to the others, let them know Cindy and Zoe are back, and the danger appears to be over. I'm sure they'll all be happy to hear that."

Jessica suggested, "Why not invite them all over? It was just the four of us for the sabbat last night, but this is an even better reason to get together."

"It's Monday, Jess." Sam pointed out. "You and Kara are supposed to be at QSAW with Maria, Maria's girls have school, and Tanya and Brandi probably have classes too."

Nikki was tapping the message out on her phone, and said "If people want to come by they're welcome, but I'll leave it up to them."

After sending out the messages, Nikki got up and started making breakfast, since everyone was already up. While she was doing that, the others started talking again.

Jessica asked Cindy, "So where have you been hiding all this time?"

"Oh... I don't really want to talk about that right now, if it's ok?" Cindy sighed.

Sam nodded, "Ok Cindy." She looked to the catgirl and asked, "Zoe, can you tell us what happened to you?"

Zoe took a deep breath then nodded, "They had this enchanted collar. I think it came from their leader, Alexander. They were trying to get it on one of Maria's girls, but when me and Cindy showed up they decided to go for us instead. I got grabbed by one of them and before I knew it, the other one locked this thing around my neck."

She shuddered, and Sam saw Cindy slip an arm around her girlfriend, giving her a hug.

After a pause, Zoe continued. "The collar was anti-magic. I couldn't work magic, it killed the enchantments on my amulets, and it changed me back to my original shape. I also got teleported to a uh, 'small locked room' at the Brotherhood headquarters in London. The anti-magic effect also meant nobody could find me with clairvoyance spells, and the whole anti-magic effect lasted as long as it was on me."

"I'm not going to talk about what happened after that..." Zoe glanced towards Ciara, making it clear she didn't want to discuss anything too upsetting infront of the child. "Anyways, the happy ending part of the story is Cindy showed up, got the collar off me, and now I'm me again."

They were all quiet for a few minutes after that. Sam knew Zoe's time with the Brotherhood must have been a nightmare. She was about to suggest the catgirl might want to talk with Maria, when Kara spoke up.

"That collar sounds like it could be quite a dangerous weapon. Do you know what happened to it?" the champion asked.

Cindy replied, "I destroyed it. It was the only way to get it off Zoe without killing her."

"Probably for the best," Nikki remarked.

Soon enough the food was ready, and they all sat down to eat together. Sam noticed Zoe seemed to have some trouble with her breakfast. She couldn't even finish one pancake, but she made up for that with an extra helping of bacon.

It was a fairly relaxing meal, everyone just enjoyed the food rather than inundating Cindy and Zoe with more questions while they ate. Afterwards while they were doing the dishes, a minivan pulled up in front of the house.

Amanda, Sadie, and Ashley emerged. They insisted on coming over before school to see Zoe and Cindy, to welcome them back and thank the two of them for saving them. The three teens stayed for about an hour, before Sam finally shooed them out, knowing the girls were going to be late for their first classes.

Then Jess and Kara went to QSAW and things were quiet for a little while, until Tanya and Brandi showed up around mid-morning. They visited for an hour or so as well, before Tanya had to teleport them back to Toronto to get to their own classes.

Maria was the next one to drop in, teleporting over from QSAW around noon. She stayed for lunch, before returning to the support org.

And finally, Jess and Kara returned home again in early afternoon.

Sam could tell Cindy and Zoe were both exhausted by this point. The two had been good about talking with everyone who came by to see them, though they were answering fewer questions as the day dragged on.

Finally they both had a very light, very early dinner, then trudged up to their room together. Before disappearing inside, Cindy said "Please let us sleep in tomorrow. Maybe let us sleep till Wednesday. We'll still be here in a day or two, we can answer more questions then."

Samantha agreed, "You two get all the rest you need. I'll make sure everyone else knows you're not to be disturbed."

"Thanks Sam," Zoe smiled, then Cindy closed the door.

=:= Zoe =:=

At last, she and Cindy got away from the others. It was only about five in the afternoon, but it had been a very long day for the two of them. And that wasn't even factoring in the time-zone difference from the UK to Canada.

They'd had round after round of questioning, from just about everyone else in the coven. There were a few subjects that neither had mentioned, of course. And a few details they'd straight-up lied about.

They'd both agreed before returning home not to tell anyone about Alexander being a God, or that Cindy had trapped Aeronwy, or that Cindy was still connected to Her. Cindy lied about not remembering much of the attack on the Brotherhood headquarters, she'd already told Zoe she remembered everything Aeronwy did. And they'd agreed not to tell anyone that the Goddess intended to double-cross Cindy.

Zoe wasn't too happy about that last part, but Cindy didn't want to alienate or upset anyone in the coven. She didn't want to be seen as trying to turn them against their Goddess.

In addition to answering questions, she'd had a few of her own. Among other things, she now knew how long she'd been gone. Today was the twenty-seventh, and she'd been captured on the sixteenth. It was only eleven days, but it felt like it was far too long.

Finally alone in their bedroom, she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and planted another kiss on the small sorceress's lips.

Cindy hugged her back and returned the kiss. "I missed you so much. I was lost without you, you know?"

Zoe nodded, "Me too. I knew you'd come though. I knew you'd find me."

"Sorry it took so long," Cindy sighed.

Zoe kissed her again, "You came as soon as you could. That's what matters."

They stood there a few more moments, just quietly embracing each other.

Eventually Zoe pulled away and said, "Hey, I didn't get a chance to ask about this earlier. When I distracted that guy for you, it seemed like I had claws?"

Cindy blushed slightly, "Oh. Yeah. When I was doing that whole 'reincarnation' thing, I kinda made your new body a teensy bit more feline. I didn't think you'd mind?"

Zoe looked down, studying her hands. Her fingernails looked normal at first glance, but on closer inspection she discovered they actually seemed thicker, stronger, and sharper than before.

After thinking about it for a few moments, she shrugged. "Nah, I don't mind. It was a surprise at the time, and that Alexander guy was pretty surprised too."

Cindy grinned "Yeah, pretty easy to guess he never had a pet cat. He had no idea what an angry kitty could do!"

Zoe giggled, then asked "Any other surprises, or anything else I should know about?"

"Not really," Cindy shrugged. "I mean, you're a bit stronger and faster than normal, cat-like reflexes and stuff?" She hesitated. "Um, ok maybe there's one other thing. You're probably not gonna age normally. Like, barely at all. So I hope you weren't looking forward to being an old lady any time soon."

Zoe wasn't sure how to respond to that. She ended up just staring at her girlfriend for a few moments.

Cindy blushed, "I just figured...since I kinda stopped aging last year or whatever, maybe it'd be ok for you too... If you don't like it I could fix it or whatever... Like, I guess if you want I can make things however you like. I just thought..."

It took a few more moments before Zoe finally replied "It's fine, Cindy. It's a surprise, but I'm not complaining. Maybe someday I'll feel differently but right now, this is alright."

Her girlfriend was looking down at the floor, embarrassed or bashful. Eventually she added, "Oh, and this body can't be dispelled or whatever, like what that collar did to you before. There's no 'turning you back to normal' because this is normal. This is the real you."

"That's good to know," Zoe smiled. Finally she reached out and lightly booped Cindy on the nose, "Let's go to bed, cutie."

Cindy nodded, looking relieved that Zoe wasn't upset with her. They both started to undress, letting their clothes accumulate in a pile on the floor for now. As Cindy wriggled out of her leggings, Zoe heard something hard fall out onto the floor. She spotted something sparkly as it rolled into a corner of the room.

"What was that?" she frowned.

Cindy bent down and picked it up, and Zoe saw what looked like a large multifaceted diamond in her girlfriend's hand. It had to be almost a half-inch across. It also seemed to have a faint glow inside it, shimmering and sparkling on its own.

Her girlfriend stared at the crystal in her hand and sighed. "Aeronwy decided to take that Richard guy prisoner. She thought he might be useful, or maybe he had more information she wanted. She was gonna 'examine' him later on, after the fighting."

Zoe was still frowning, staring at the diamond. "You mean he's inside that? Like how you put Alexander and Aeronwy into stone, she put Richard into a diamond?"

Cindy shook her head. "Not quite. He's not inside it, she transformed him into this. I guess the glow is because it's 'alive', sorta?"

An uncomfortable feeling settled in Zoe's stomach as she stared. She had no idea a person could be transformed into an inanimate object, and trying to imagine what that would mean for the guy turned her stomach. Even if he was an evil callous prick.

Cindy finally opened the drawer on her bedside table and dropped the diamond inside. She was frowning and looked like she felt uncomfortable about it too. "I don't wanna think about that right now."

She closed the drawer, then finished getting undressed and finally slipped into bed.

Zoe did the same, pushing all the thoughts of Richard out of her head for now. She settled down under the duvet and sighed, "Oh, it's so good to be in our own bed again."

She was on her side, facing Cindy. Her girlfriend was laying on her back at the moment, staring up at the ceiling.

"Zoe," Cindy said quietly. "There's some stuff I should tell you. You'll hear about it soon enough, but I figure it's best if you hear it from me."

That didn't sound good, and Zoe felt her mood starting to dip again. "What is it, Cindy? What's wrong?"

Her girlfriend sighed, then confessed "When those guys took you... I went kinda crazy, trying to find you. I killed them. The other four Brotherhood guys they'd sent here? I killed the three who attacked the high-school, then a few hours later I found the last one on a plane, on his way back to England. And I killed him too."

Zoe was quiet for a few moments. Finally she said softly, "Cutie, this morning you wiped out, what did he say? Sixty of them? Why are you worried about those four?"

Cindy sighed again, turning to her side to look Zoe in the eyes. "That was Aeronwy this morning. She used my body but it wasn't really me. Or even if it was me, it was her influence. Those four guys before though... That was all me. It wasn't even... I killed two of those guys in cold blood. I was just... I was angry, and desperate to find you."

Zoe sighed, thinking through what her girlfriend said. She finally shook her head, "I don't care, Cindy. If it was you that'd been taken, I'd have done the same thing. Now c'm'ere cutie." She reached out and pulled her closer, drawing her into a hug.

Cindy didn't resist, and slowly wrapped her arms around Zoe as well.

For a few minutes they just lay together, holding each other. It was a little bit of bliss for Zoe, and she suspected Cindy felt the same. After being apart for so long and enduring so much, it was wonderful to just enjoy each other's presence for a while.

Eventually though, Zoe broke the silence, as a question came to her. After everything that happened, she figured she'd be coming up with questions for a while yet.

"Hey Cindy," she asked softly. "What are you now? I mean, you've gotten crazy-powerful since I last saw you. You defeated two Gods. Does that make you a Goddess? Or still a sorceress, but more powerful?"

Cindy remained silent for a few moments, as the two continued to hold each other. Zoe could feel her girlfriend tense slightly, as she thought about her answer.

Finally she whispered, "I don't know, Zoe. I think I'm still just me? I feel like I'm still just me. But I know that's not true. Aeronwy is contained and can't control me, but we're still connected. I can draw on her power. But maybe just being connected to her will influence me?"

She hesitated, then admitted "Even before that though, I changed. When they took you, when I couldn't find you anywhere? I realized something, or maybe it was a decision. I decided I was done playing by other peoples' rules. The coven's rules, even like, normal laws. I realized I could do whatever I wanted and nobody could stop me, and I was gonna do whatever it took to find you. I was throwing fireballs in public, teleporting around in plain sight, and I killed those guys. Some people saw me do that. And I didn't care. And I still don't."

She paused again, and the two lay together in silence for a few seconds.

Finally Cindy said, "If police showed up to arrest me cos I fireballed three guys and broke one of their highways, I wouldn't hurt them, but I wouldn't let them take me."

She sighed, "Maybe it's already gone to my head but I don't think there's a force on Earth that could stop me now. I don't know if that makes me a goddess or a monster. I don't want to hurt anyone, but if someone threatens you or any of my friends, I won't hold back."

Now it was Zoe's turn to lay there silently. She felt a little tense, and a little awed. The thought that she was cuddled up against someone who could literally wield the power of a God or two, someone that the laws no longer applied to, was slightly unsettling.

Then she realized something, and it helped put everything else in perspective.

Zoe leaned forward and gave Cindy a kiss. She whispered, "You know, it's pretty flattering to think that my girlfriend decided the laws of neither God nor man could hold her back, because she needed to find me."

She smirked as she added, "When those assholes were 'questioning' me, I told them you were a Goddess and I was your priestess. I had no idea that would come true though!"

Cindy smiled slightly, but shook her head. "I don't want anyone worshipping me. Especially not you, Zoe. If anything, I'd rather have you watching me and keeping me in check, and holding me back when you think I need it."

"I know, cutie, I was joking." Zoe gave her another kiss. "And if you want, then I promise I'll keep an eye on you, and I'll tell you if I think you're getting out of control."

"Thanks Zoe," Cindy whispered. "It's nice to -"

There was magic in the air, and Cindy vanished in mid-sentence. Only her three amulets remained, sliding off the pillow onto the mattress.

Zoe stared at the spot where her girlfriend had been as a feeling of dread came over her. Having Cindy teleported away like that, but without her protective amulets, had to be a very bad sign.

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