Dagger had to admit, Zidane did have a point. Finding out more about Terra couldn't hurt before they went to Terra. They'd investigated Ipsen's Castle once again after recovering the mirrors and defeating the Chaos Guardians. Still, a little voice seemed to be telling her that this felt more like some kind of aside to the more important quest.
It also appeared to be an excuse by Zidane to have everyone split up again and pair off with her as they looked through Oeilvert. The anti-magic field was weakened allowing some lower-powered magic, but they needed to cover ground fast. And so, they'd been split into groups of two again, Quina and Armarant, Freya and Eiko, Vivi and Steiner.
Currently, Zidane was picking a lock. At least, he thought it was a lock.
"...Are you sure it's not just a hole in the wall?" Dagger tried again.
"Nah, I'm positive this is a door! I can feel it..."
Something clicked, and the wall retracted in on itself.
"It seems you're right," Dagger nodded, noticing that it had opened to a tunnel featuring small handholds, like a ladder.
"Well... It seems to go down," Zidane reported.
"Good, I can go second and keep my eye on you for any little 'accidental' placements of your hand..."
"It was one time, Dagger! One time!" Zidane pouted, but amusement twinkled in his eyes.
"One time you'd happily repeat."
"If you're giving me permission..."
"No."
"I'd give you permission!" He leered.
"Just get down the ladder or I'll strangle you with your own tail. And if you say that sounds kinky, I'll have Steiner beat you to death before I strangle you," She sighed.
"Okay, but I'd just like to point out two things, strangling dead people is a waste of time, and I've been told I have a very cute and pinch-able bottom, so really, you're missing out, Dagger..."
"You're increasingly getting a punch-able face, Zidane..."
He went down, smirking the whole way.
"Oh good. It's not a maze at least," Zidane looked down the corridor.
Only a handful of doors waited, much like the one he'd broken open to get here. Those on the side of the corridor seemed to be empty tubes with nothing in them. The end of the corridor away from the ladder, however, looked different. A shape like a seat lay there, with the strange holographic lights that littered all of the ruins glowing on the walls, but no faces. Near the chair sat two small pillars, containing empty recesses.
"I vote we call this the dentist room!"
"We're naming the rooms now?" Garnet sighed.
"Well, no but... it's kinda like a dentist, right? With this chair?"
"I'm afraid I wouldn't know, the castle dentist only ever came to my room."
"Lucky you. Boss sent us to a butcher... Not a literal butcher, they were next door."
Looking around the room, there seemed to be nothing. Even a treasure chest nestling in the corner was empty.
"There's nothing down here," Garnet noted.
"Maybe... Maybe not."
She looked over. Zidane had found something below the 'dentist chair' as even she was starting to call it.
"There's a drawer or something... Ah!"
A popping noise signalled Zidane's success, and out dropped a glowing pair of gemstones.
"Huh. Do you think they go in the recesses?"
"We can only try," Dagger offered.
"Well, good, because just in case this blows up in our faces, it's not just my fault now!" Zidane grinned.
He inserted the gems before she could protest, having only just realised his joke might have come true.
And nothing happened. At least for a second, before a high pitched noise began. The pair fell to their knees, clutching their ears as the screeching noise seemed to bore straight into their skulls.
"Pull them out!" Dagger shouted.
Zidane reached, but stumbled as he yanked one loose. The noise stopped, but a new one began: An alarm sound, matching sparks that began to fly from the loose gemstone.
"Crap, I've broke it!" Zidane tried to stand, but the noise had been so disorientating that he wobbled even as he made the effort.
And then the sparks became an explosion of light. They heard the roaring crackle and pop of the device destroying itself. They saw the bright light. They could smell ozone and mana. A sour taste erupted in their mouths as electricity confused their taste buds. And they felt pain as what felt like electricity seemed to arc through every cell of their bodies.
Then there was nothing.
Zidane groaned, feeling groggy... then realised something felt very off about the groan. And looking down, something felt off about his hands... they seemed thinner.
"What the..."
He blinked. He'd thought that, he thought he'd said it, but that voice sounded... feminine.
He looked down.
His chest seemed a little.. lumpy.
"Uh..."
He double-checked. He was definitely in his own clothes, but something seemed to be protruding from his chest a little.
He gingerly reached a slender hand to check.
She froze stiff like she'd been petrified as she felt the wrong thing.
"Ugh..." a male voice groaned, and Zidane turned to see Dagger was trying to stand, and...
...she had changed too.
"Wait, that's... Is that my voice?!" Dagger asked himself.
He looked her way. Their eyes locked, and two plus two added up.
They both screamed.
They'd managed to slightly calm down.
"Why would this happen?" Dagger groaned.
"I've no clue, but I really screwed up here," Zidane sighed.
"...Yes, you did, but like you said it's my fault too."
"I was joking, I didn't think it'd actually blow up in our faces. I especially didn't think it'd turn me into a girl and you into a guy!"
"Well, we'd better find the others. Esuna won't work even with the field weaker, and I didn't bring any remedies."
"Me neither. Well, this is going to be embarrassing..." Zidane sighed.
"Um, speaking of embarrassing... I don't quite think my clothes are, uh... designed for a male body," Dagger managed to say.
Zidane considered this for a moment and felt herself blush at the implications.
"Uh, well... if you go one side of the chair thing and I go the other, we can swap, uh... trousers, at least. Like, I give you mine and I take your suit-thingy...
"That... that might work."
One awkward swap later, and a careful use of a blade to make a new tail-hole in the orange garment, the pair were going back up the ladder.
Zidane yelped, and Dagger's mortified face glowed.
"...I-it was an accident! I never meant..."
"It's fine, I guess the tables are really turned..." Zidane groaned.
They resumed the climb, Dagger very careful about placement of his hands.
Zidane would later recall she'd (he'd?) given him (her?) permission earlier. She filed it away for later blackmail, hopefully when Zidane was, er, back male.
They found Freya and Eiko first. They didn't have a remedy either, it turned out, but first, came the surprise. Brief for Freya, who was now losing composure as she held in giggles.
"How?!" Eiko screeched again.
"We don't know," Dagger sighed.
"...Well, at least you make a cute guy, Dagger, but this is just weird," Eiko sighed.
"Sure, Eiko, you try changing genders, 'weird' is an understatement," Zidane sighed.
"Oh, hey, does that mean your peepee is gone and now Dagger has one?"
Bright red faces were the reply.
"Yes, yes it does," Freya managed to say, before giggling.
They found the four others soon after, and explained. Yet again, no remedy. Vivi was embarrassed, tugging his hat worriedly. Armarant smirking. Quina puzzled as to what the big deal was, and as for Steiner... Steiner's reaction surprised them.
"...Your Majesty, permission to speak and act freely?" He said, stone face.
"As long as you don't hit Zidane," Dagger said.
"...You're both a pair of blundering idiots."
"Um... Yes, I agree, actually, we are."
"You've got us there, Rusty," Zidane sighed.
"Good work with the gender neutral form of address, by the way," Armarant grinned.
"Piss off," Steiner retorted.
"Steiner!"
"I had permission to speak and act freely, Your Majesty."
Zidane began clapping applause.
"Nice, Steiner! Didn't know you had it in you!"
"Let's just go outside from the magic field and use Esuna or a remedy..."
To general dismay, mortification, and horror, neither of them worked.
"This... might be permanent?" Zidane said in shock.
"You're still who you are. There will be some way to reverse this, I am sure. We can perhaps check in Daguerro or another location for ideas, perhaps seek a more powerful remedy..." Steiner tried to reassure them.
"We might not have time. We need to go to Terra..." Dagger noted.
"We'll look when we're back, I guess..." Zidane agreed.