Moontouched 25

Donna grew from a point back to full size once more, still wearing Gwen's body, with Gwen reduced to just a breast.  Donna sighed happily, but Gwen was concerned.  “Back to the Blue Vixen?  Really?”

“This place is practically my home on full Moon nights.”

“You have a home,” said Gwen.

Donna sighed.  “I'd rather be here, OK?  Among people who like what I can do, and have fun with it.”

“Perhaps too much fun.  Are you really going to leave Carmen and Tawny as Kate's skin?”

“Nah.  I didn't actually change their native form.  They'll be a dino-girl and her tattoo again in a week. or so.”

“Ah.”  Gwen chuckled softly.  “You do realize this means that next month, people will want to do it properly...”

Donna laughed, and nodded.   “I suppose they will at that.  They really are mad.”

“They trust you, and each other,” said Rowan, who had just entered the changing room where Donna and Gwen had appeared.  “Are they right to?”

“I... yes.  Even Carmen, crazy as it seems.  She's wild, but she's not actually mean.  Tawny trusted her enough to accept the change without fear.”

Rowan nodded, as if that settled that.  “There’s an hour or so left before we close up.  Did you want to dance, or help grant a few fantasies?”

“Can we dance?” asked Gwen.  “Pretty please?”

“Like this?  Sure.  Should get a fun reaction.”

Neysa didn’t mind scheduling them up next.  Many of the more altered dancers had found ardent fans and a lot of private dances and lapdances were happening.  Isolde was dancing on the bar-top, and between dances she’d slide drinks to patrons who would tip her for the service.  Neysa wryly noted that Donna probably should wear something up on stage, as that was sort of the point.

Donna startled briefly, as she hadn’t really noticed she was naked, it just seemed natural.  A wave of her hand clad her in fire-red panties and a half-bra that left Gwen’s face exposed on the one side.  Neysa nodded approvingly, so Donna headed up to the stage.

At first, Donna stuck to just dancing, getting the feel of the music once more.  Her body – technically, Gwen’s body – didn’t feel quite natural enough to dance with.  So without warning, Donna let her true self slip away from Gwen’s body, giving her full control mid-beat.  To Gwen’s credit, she recovered smoothly, and grinned at the new presence on stage from both her faces.

Donna grinned back from her shimmering, crystalline body.  Then she gestured to the roof above, and a spotlight that hadn’t been there before lit up, its bright beam falling through her body and sending shimmering rainbows of light through the room.  As they danced on, dancing more with each other than for the crowd, their audience watched as if mesmerized.

At the end of the song, a gesture from Donna sent Gwen’s top fluttering away from her body as a cloud of butterflies.  Gwen acted surprised, to laughter from the audience.

Leo cued up ‘True Colours’ next, which made Donna grin.  She pulled Gwen into a close dancing grip, and they waltzed slowly and gracefully through the song, completely ignoring the audience once more.  From the hushed reaction of the audience, nobody minded.

At the end of the song, Donna pulled Gwen in close for a scorching kiss.  Gwen was momentarily surprised, then kissed Donna back with vigour.  A moment after that, brilliant white light flared through the room, blinding everyone.  When the light died down, Gwen and Donna were in one body once more, and bowing to the audience.  Donna started to head back to the green room, but a nudge from Gwen sent her off into the audience again, in time to see the reactions of the crowd.  The burst of light had touched at least a dozen of them, starting a variety of changes.  Five of the guys in the audience seemed to be turning into busty women.  A good number of the others were looking subtly more muscular... and some not so subtly.

Over at the lapdance tables, Nissa had been doing a seven-winged dance.  Now, however, her arms were growing in, leaving all seven colourful wings intact.  She flashed Donna a grin, then turned back to the guy she'd been dancing for.  In his place was a shrinking pile of feathers and fluff.  Nissa picked it up and shook it out, revealing a beautiful feathery top.  She shrugged, and put it on.  “How long will he be like this?” she asked, as Donna moved closer.

Donna shrugged.  “The usual.  It takes more than that to make permanent changes.  I suspect we should give him a chance to change back before you take him home, though.”

“Aww.  He looks so cute like this.  I bet I could talk him into staying for the week, at least.  He goes so well with my wings!”

Donna shook her head with a wry chuckle.  “He's doomed.”

Isolde waded her way to Donna, cutting through the crowd with ease now that she stood over seven feet tall.  “Thanks for the boost, D.  Flying was fun, but I'd prefer to be big.”

Donna looked up at her.  “Yeah, it looks impressive on you.  If you need a little off later, you know who to ask.”

“Nah.  Im going to milk this as long as it lasts.”

“A little birdie told me you were thinking about going human again for a while, just so you could get out in the world again.”

“Well that little birdie should keep her beak shut,” said Isolde, hotly, throwing the weight of her glare at Nissa.  “I like my wings way too much to give them up.”

“Ah.  What about if your horns were... I don't know, magnetically attached?  So you could take them off, and fold your wings under a cloak?”

“These babies don't hide very well, I've tried the cloak thing and they stick up too far even when folded.”  Isolde demonstrated, closing her wings in tight against her back.  The topmost joints poked well above her head.

Donna and Gwen studied the wing structure, asking Isolde to turn around.  It was Gwen who spoke up first.  “If we added an extra joint to them, we could set them up to fold tighter when you furl them.  What do you think?”

Isolde's broad grin was the first honest expression she'd shown all night.  “I could keep my wings, and go out?  I mean... sure, see if you can pull it off.  Um, and the removable horns, too.”

Gwen started the change, with Donna pushing the power behind it, accelerating the change.  Isolde strode back to the bar and the mirror behind it.  She spread her wings to their full fourteen foot span, ignoring the complaints of the patrons.  She grinned at how the complicated joints smoothly moved into place.  “They're gorgeous,” she breathed.  “Can I keep them?  Please?”

“If I make this your natural form, you'd be seven and a half feet tall, too.  Should I shrink you a bit, first?”

“No.  I like this size.  If I get tired of being immense, I can always talk to you next month, right?”

Donna nodded.  “Plus, there's lots of room at the estate.  I'm sure you'll be fine.  Done.  Have fun playing monster!”

Isolde grinned a very toothy grin, and turned to one of the louder patrons complaining about her wings.  He gulped, and quickly scurried away from that gaze.  “Oh, I will.  I will indeed.”

Donna noticed a small figure hiding under one of the barstools, and crouched down beside her.  “Are you OK?”

“Just a bit overwhelmed,” squeaked what looked like a tiny version of one of the serving girls.  “It looked like fun running drinks on the bar.  Didn’t think about how I’d get up there.”

Donna held out a hand, and quickly carried the woman to the bar’s surface.  “Have fun, then.”

She flashed Donna a smile.  “I will.  I’ll have to find someone to carry me home, too.  That was a blast!”

“So you want to stay like this for a while?”

“It’s only a week, right?  I’ll manage.  My roomie is over there,” she gestured at another server, “and she’s pretty open minded.”

Donna nodded, and nudged a few new changes to the girl on the countertop.  “OK.  I’ve made you stronger and more durable, so you should be safe.  Good luck!”

Several of the newly-female patrons thanked Donna for their change, though at least one was nervous about changing back sooner than later.  She reassured the blue-furred vixen that she’d come around at closing time to change back those that wanted it.  Donna also noted slyly that if she wanted to stay like that, the place could use a mascot...

Before much longer Donna had had her fill of dealing with crowds pressing in against her, and retreated to the green room for a break.  She sought out Rowan, and apologized for messing up the night’s fantasies with her transformation pulse.

Rowan laughed.  “Are you kidding?  Dozens of requests have just come in.  We’re not going to be able to do them all before closing.”

“But...  I just gave away a dozen or more changes for free.”

“And three of those want to dance up on stage.  Neysa’s going to busy the next half hour training them.  Two others want bigger chests.  Then there are the ones that hesitated when the moment came, and are now regretting they didn’t change.  Plus the usual grab-bag of famous faces people want to see naked.  One guy, this time.  Think anyone’s up for that?”

“I know I wouldn’t be comfortable doing it,” said Donna, quickly.  “Maybe Carmen... if she wasn’t stuck as Kate’s skin for the next week.”

“Week?  I thought she was going to be stuck indefinitely.”

“Nah.  Here, Kate will want this in a week or so.”  Donna handed a wrapped package to Rowan.  “Can you see that she gets it about the right time with my apologies?”

Rowan smiled.  “I think I can arrange that.”

Donna set up a couple of female celebrity look-alikes.  Nobody was willing to dance nude as a male, so that fantasy got a pass.  The one involving a room full of jello was a hit, though.  Rowan was especially happy that cleanup was simply a matter of dispelling the jello from the room, the walls, and especially from the clothing of the three dancers who had wrestled in it.

Just before last call, Beth asked Donna to come out to the main room, and took her to a lapdance booth where a shy, slightly rumpled looking guy was sitting.  Beth introduced him as Clarence, and said that he’d overheard Donna talking about making changes permanent.

“I knew I should have kept quiet about that,” said Donna with a sigh.  “What do you want to be?”

“Something fuzzy and comfortable.”

“Like a cat?”

Clarence shook his head.  “I was thinking more inanimate...”

“A soft, fuzzy bathrobe for Beth to wear?  And maybe some matching bunny slippers?”

Beth clapped her hands.  “Ooh, that would be lovely.  Think of it, Clarence, I’d wear you every day, for hours.”

Clarence smiled sadly.  “I’d like that.  Better than what’s facing me, that’s for sure.”

“How bad can things be that a life of being someone’s possession would be an improvement?”

Beth looked pained.  “I don’t think going over that would be...”

Clarence put a hand on Beth’s.  “No, really.  For such a big change, it’s right that she should ask. Long story short, I’ve failed at everything I’ve tried.  The longest I’ve been able to hold a job was a couple of weeks.  Nobody wants a slow-witted, weak white guy for pretty much any job, ever.  And if anything, my luck with the girls is even worse.”  

At Donna’s curious glance over at Beth, who was still holding Clarence’s hand, he added, “Beth’s an old friend, who’s stood by me through thick and thin.  That’s why I’m asking her to take me in, as it were.  You see, to top it all off, my apartment building burned down tonight.”

Donna winced.  “Over by the old hospice?”

Clarence nodded.  “It was all I could afford.  Everything I own is gone.”

“You’re lucky you weren’t there tonight.  You’re not wearing silver.”

Clarence looked worried.  “What do you mean?”

“Everyone in your building who wasn’t wearing silver tonight is dead,” Donna said bluntly.  “You’re alive.  That’s a blessing in and of itself.  And you could be alive and... say, a female.  Would your life look any brighter like that?”

Clarence shook his head.  “To be honest, I’d rather be a robe than a woman.”

Donna arched an eyebrow.  “Really?  Consider who you’re speaking to, and with.”

Clarence let go of Beth’s hand to raise both of his defensively.  “No!  I like women well enough, but the idea of being one...  I can’t wrap my head around it.  And doing that just so I can find a job?  Thanks, but no.”

“Fine.  A robe it is.”  Clarence started to shrink and soften as soon as the words left her mouth.  He offered up a smile before his face folded into the collar of a very fluffy, very pink bathrobe.  A pair of bunny slippers were tucked into its pockets.

“And he’s going to stay like this?” asked Beth, wonderingly.

Donna concentrated for a moment, felt the happiness of the robe before she smoothed away his prior natural form.  “Yes.  He will.  But I charge you with a debt in this.  Bring him back to me three times, I would have three more chances to find a form he would be willing to live as.  If I fail, so be it, he becomes your robe forever after.”

Beth picked up the robe, and tried it on.  “A perfect fit.  You do good work.”

Donna smiled at the compliment, but her eyes held Beth’s.  The other woman broke her gaze away first.  “Of course.  I’ll bring him back.  I don’t know if you can find something that’ll change his mind or not.”

“I don’t know either, but I have to try.  There is an outstanding request for someone to be a giant snake for a few months, maybe he’ll find that appealing.”

Beth shuddered.  “I hope not.  Seeing him become a...”

“You’re sweet on him.  Why didn’t you tell him when he could hear you?”

“Because he doesn’t believe it’s possible.  Maybe a month or two as my robe will teach him otherwise.  I hope.”

Donna patted her shoulder softly.  “It’ll work out.  Somehow.  I’ll turn you two into matching slippers if I have to.”

Beth giggled at that, and gave Donna a quick peck on the cheek.  “Thanks.”

Leo’s voice came over the PA system.  “That’s it for tonight, folks.  Anyone who isn’t in their right form and wants to go home normal, rather than waiting for a week, please stay behind and we’ll take care of it.”

“That’s my cue,” said Donna, and she headed to the bar where a small crowd was gathering.  It didn’t take long to set them to rights, though one of the feminized guys asked to have her chest reduced to something more passable, but not to be otherwise restored.  She worked from home, and figured it’d be interesting to spend a little longer in high heels.  Donna gave her one of Doctor Sakurai’s cards, in case she wanted to talk about it with a professional who also knew about magic.

The shrunken waitress was waiting for Donna as well, in the hands of another waitress who’d been touched by Donna’s outburst.  The tall one had acquired a dusting of blue fur and vixen ears.  The vixen got her ears returned to normal, and the vixen ears as a really realistic pair on a hairband.  She sighed to see the fur go, and Donna promised to change her into the club mascot next month, which cheered her up.  

The tiny serving girl asked to be grown a little taller, but not back to full size.  She figured that a foot tall would be ‘pet-sized’, and just about perfect.  She cuddled up in her friend’s hands as she grew, looking content.

A somewhat different scene played out in the green room.  Nissa kept her wings, and figured she’d head back to Ray’s until they faded.  Her top didn’t agree to stay as a top, much to her disappointment.  Ray kept his lynx-girl form, hoping Ana would like it.  

Pat asked to be reduced to mouse size, as a mechanical toy for Ana and probably Ray to chase.  “It’ll wear off in a week, right?  And I’ll still be mousey?”

“Yes, your natural form is the mouse-girl you were earlier.  Being a mouse really suits you, it doesn’t feel at all wrong to admit that.  Are you happy?”

The mouse-sized form cupped in Donna’s hands nodded.  “This is going to be great!”

“I thought you hated being hunted by Ana.”

“Only when she sneaks up when I’m not expecting it.  It’s great fun the rest of the time.  Here, give me to Kate so she can help surprise Ana with me.”

Donna even made a little gift-box for Pat to ride home in.

Ronnie also needed a custom change, as she didn’t want to go back to normal, she wanted to keep her girlfriend Rachel in her boobs for the week.  Ronnie just asked to have a normal number of breasts once more.  She even mulled keeping the change longer, and to Donna’s amazement Rachel didn’t object, but in the end Ronnie felt it would be too disruptive... this time.

Neysa lost the tails without regret, but kept a little bit of the stretched torso.  Donna cautioned her that she now had two extra vertebrae, and that she should probably avoid X-ray machines for a week or so.  Much as Ronnie had, Neysa agonized over the option of keeping her change longer.  In the end, she figured it barely showed, so she went for it.

Beth approached Donna quietly after all the others had left.  “I... is there any way I can do something a bit like Kate?  A way to look human for the normals, but when I’m here, be all this?”  She gestured to her body.  She’d changed when Donna had flashed the club, too.  Her catlike ears and vixen tail had been replaced by deerlike tags, and she had hooves.  Her blue and black fur hadn’t changed, though.

Donna considered the problem, conferring softly with Gwen.  Her engineering side was playing possum, and it was Gwen that came up with a solution of sorts.

“We can’t do a human suit over this.  It would never work.”  Beth looked crestfallen, but Gwen continued, “Turning your current furry skin into a top-notch suit on the other hand... that is doable.  If you want to keep the hooves, we’d have to make you a bit taller when suited up.  And there’s the matter of the eyes, and touch, and all.  The suit would have that, even when you’re not wearing it.  So you’d have to make sure to put it somewhere dark when you’re not wearing it, or it would get really confusing.”

“I... wow, really?  That would be so cool.  Would this be one of those goes away in a week things, or could it, you know...”

“I can make it your native form, yes.  If you’re sure.  It seems... easier to deal with than Clarence’s, anyway.”

Beth smiled so happily that Donna changed her on the spot.  Once she’d tried taking the suit-part off, though, she got very dizzy.  “Seeing out of two sets of eyes is weird, especially when one flops around.  Can you give the suit an off switch, like you did for Kate?”

With that change, Beth pronounced herself very happy with the results.  Donna asked Gwen if she would do the honours, and watched as Gwen carefully smoothed out Beth’s old normal self.  It was a delicate operation, as old Beth and new Beth were actually very similar, other than the new suit.

“Very good.  You could do those without me.”

Gwen wobbled on Donna’s chest.  “Not a chance.  Did you happen to notice just how much juice that took?  Way more than just changing her did.”

“Oh...” Donna said, disappointedly.  “I haven’t really been able to get a good reading on that small a flow of power any more.”

“That small?” sputtered Gwen.  “Thats...  Good God, how much power did you channel when you defeated Brunhilde?”

“Everything the Moon would give me.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it the rest of the city saw the Moon go dim while we fought.”

Gwen shuddered.  “That’s...  Do you have any idea what you could do with that kind of power?”

Donna whispered softly, “Yes.  And it freaks me the hell out, so please let’s not talk about it tonight.”

Rowan approached them, and handed Donna a huge wad of bills.  Donna stared at it uncomprehendingly.  “But... I didn’t do all that much tonight, not like some.”

“Beth gave you everything she made, as did a couple others.  Tina, the waitress you shrunk, gave you a big chunk of her tips, too.”

“But...”  Donna looked from the tips, to the tiara that Rowan was still wearing.  Rowan took it off, weighing it in her hands.  “Is this real gold?  And will it go away in a week?”

“Yes.  And not any more, no.”

Rowan laughed softly.  “It’s worth more than all the tips you’ve made tonight, easily.  This is tens of thousands of dollars worth of gold alone, and the craftsmanship is exquisite.”

“That’s... kind of my point.”  Donna hefted the money in her hand.  “Should I even be taking this any more?”

“It’s also a token of esteem, and of the value the girls put in you.  Perhaps the most honest one possible.  Don’t sell that short.”

Donna nodded.  She tucked the bills away and picked up Brunhilde’s box as she headed out the door.  Back to her car, back to her home.

Sidney took one look at her, with Gwen’s face peeking out of the robe, and sighed.  “Good grief.  What madness have you two been up to now?”

Donna just stared at Sidney.  It was Gwen that lit into her.  “What f-ing madness...  Do you have any idea what happened tonight?  Didn’t you see the news?”

“I kind of fell asleep on the couch after the kids were in bed,” Sidney admitted.  She returned to the couch, and turned the TV on, then flipped through the local channels.  All showed images of dozens of buildings aflame.  All she could do was stare in horror.

“The fires are out.  I put them out,” said Donna, softly.

“What happened?”

Donna told the story, again, of the fight with the crystal entity, and of the losses that had come from it.  Sidney’s eyes got wider and wider as the story went on.

“Wait, she’s still alive?”

Donna pointed at the box she’d set down on the coffee table.  “Yes.  Chained in silver.”

“You brought her here?” she screeched.

“I can’t think of anywhere else that would be better.  She can’t do any further harm as she is now.  I need to create a case for her that won’t involve her touching it, though.  Otherwise she’ll come to think of herself as a simple crystal.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” said Sidney, viciously.  “How many people did she kill?”

“Hundreds.  But I’m not prepared to be judge, jury and executioner when it’s not the heat of battle.  Besides, something she said...  Magic was sun-based, in her time.  And she was trained in the magic of the era.  I’m working blind, here, and I desperately need more information.”

“Fine,” Sidney said with ill grace.  “Now what the hell are you doing sharing a body with Gwen?  And where’s Duncan, anyway?”

Donna’s eyes went wide.  “I... I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” wailed Sidney.  “You have to know.  You’re Duncan.  Duncan is you.”

“Give me a minute...  It has been a really, really rough night.  I’ve learned and grown so much in such a short time, Duncan got a little left behind.”  After a moment, Donna shook her head. “This body is too Donna.  Let me try something...”

A ghostly image of Duncan formed standing beside Gwen and Donna’s body.  It flickered a few times, then dove back into the safety of Gwen’s familiar shape.  “Uh... yeah.  He hasn’t really had the same time to adjust.”

“Adjust?” asked Sidney, eyes wide again.  “What the hell was that, anyway?”

“Me.  I’m... more a spirit of magic than human, now.  It’s so easy to change myself I have to focus on it continuously or my body sort of... disappears.”

“Or turns into crystal,” added Gwen.

“Crystal?”

“Show her,” said Gwen, grinning.  “I think she’d like the look.”

“Fine.”  Donna flicked herself out of Gwen’s body once more, and stood before Sidney as a pillar of shining crystal.

Sidney studied the crystal, even getting up to touch it reverently.  “My God... you’re beautiful like this.  A single crystal of... what are you, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” sang the crystal in its pure fluting voice.  “Crystalized magic, perhaps.”  It went quiet for a few moments.  “No.  Pure diamond.”

Sidney’s jaw nearly hit the floor.  “A six foot tall crystal of pure diamond?”

“No turning me into jewelry, now...”  Donna said with a ringing giggle.  “I can do it myself.”  She shrunk and floated herself in front of Sidney as a brilliantly sparkling cut diamond about the size of an orange.

“Can I keep you?” asked Sidney, much more seriously than usual.  She reached out to cup the diamond, and it settled into her hands.

Donna flickered into ghostly existence once more, but the diamond stayed behind.  “I can leave that with you, yes.  Think you can make something with it?”

“I could wire silver around it to keep it from disappearing...” mused Sidney.

“No!  No more silver.  You don’t need to, anyway.  It’s not going to go away.”

“But... but...  It weighs almost a pound.  This is really a diamond?  And I can keep it?”

“Yes and yes.”

“That’s... that’s thousands of carats.  There are literally no diamonds in the world even nearly this big.  I’d never be able to wear it, it’d be way too much...  But it’s so pretty.”  Sidney stared into the glittering depths of the diamond in her hands, cradled as if it was the most precious thing in the whole world.

“I think you broke her,” Gwen stage-whispered to Donna.

“She’s a magpie.  Should have known I could bribe her with sparklies.”

“Caw, caw,” said Sidney softly.  She looked up at Donna. “Bribe me to do what?”

Donna gulped softly, then her body flickered away, becoming part of Gwen’s body once more.  “I need Gwen.  Like this.  I don’t...  Moonset is scary, now.  If I blink at the wrong moment I could be stuck as anything... or as nothing.  Bonded to her, I’m safe, but... this.”

“So... you want to be a woman, with Gwen as your breast.  For how long?”

“Um...  At least a month.  Maybe a few, depending on whether or not I learn how to cope on my own.  She needs a place to stay, anyway.  Her apartment was destroyed.”

“And in return for my husband being some weird hybrid of two women, I get a diamond worth more than some small nations?”

“You get the diamond, yes.”

“Okay,” said Sidney distractedly, still staring at the diamond.  Then she looked up and sighed.  “No, damn it, wait.  I have to know.  Do you love her?”

Donna closed her eyes.  “Yes.”

“Oh,” said Sidney sadly.

“It doesn’t mean I love you any less.  But I don’t love her any less, either.”

“Oh.”  Sidney stared at the odd hybrid person before her for a time.  “So now what?”

“I don’t know.  The next month is going to be the hardest.  I can feel a nervous breakdown waiting to happen when I really confront what I’ve become.  I just hope I can put it off a little longer.”

Sidney set the diamond down on the coffee table.  “What have you become?”

“More powerful than I ever dreamed.  Over the course of a handful of minutes, I put out all those fires.  Gwen helped guide me, I just... became one with magic, even more so than in the fight.  I am magic personified.  That’s why the setting of the Moon scares me so.  I’m still not sure what I will become without it.”

“Just hold on to some silver, then,” suggested Sidney.  She offered up one of her rings.

Donna stepped out of Gwen’s body once more, turning solid though with a hint of crystal to her skin.  She held out her hand, wordlessly.  Sidney put the ring in her hand, and it fell straight through to the floor.

“Silver doesn’t affect me any more.  I can’t even touch it, not directly.  But indirectly...”  Her eyes went wider for a moment, and she flickered out of existence for long enough that Sidney sought Gwen’s eyes in worry.

Donna reappeared as a crystalline version of herself, and picked up the ring.  “Indirectly, I can do quite a bit.”  She set the ring in Sidney’s hand once more.

“How?”  Sidney peered at it closely.  “Wait, it’s wrapped in some sort of clear plastic.  So you can pick it up, because you’re not touching the silver directly?”

Donna nodded.  “And I can do that to any silver.  Even while you’re wearing it.  There’s no point to it any more.”

Sidney clutched her silver necklace, but it slipped out of her grasp and floated away, settling on the table.  The ring in her hand, and the other one she was wearing on her other hand followed it.  “What are you doing?” she whispered, fearfully.

“Removing a crutch.  Do you trust me?”

Sidney stared at the small pile of plastic-wrapped silver sitting on the table, gulped once, then nodded.  “I trust you not to do something intentionally.  But accidentally?  You turned me into an eclair, and ate me.  Just because of something I said.”

“I did.  And if you asked nicely, I’d do it again.”

Sidney shuddered, and looked away.  “Why?”

“Because you enjoyed it.  ‘An it harm none, do what you will.’  Were you harmed?”

“I...”  Sidney hung her head.  “No.  Scared, yes.  But it didn’t feel bad.  Is that enough?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t think anyone does, really.  There is much more to morality than ‘first, do no harm’, but I can’t think of anything that’s more solid, more basic than that.”

“Religion?” asked Gwen.

Donna shrugged, drawing the Moon’s power about her so her crystalline form glowed, filling the room with pale radiance.  “What am I?  One night a month, I am a Goddess, the equal of any from the Greek pantheon.”

“And look what paragons of virtue they were,” snarked Sidney.  “I’m not sure that’s a good standard to go by.”

“But who is to judge me?  Or tell me what I shall and shall not do?”  Donna glowed brighter.

Gwen stood tall before her, staring unblinkingly into the radiance.  “I will.  For I must.”  She turned to hold a hand out to Sidney.  “Will you stand with me?”

Sidney took her hand, timidly.  “I can’t.  She scares me.”

“Be not afraid, for know that I love you with all my heart.”

“Heart?  You’re a pillar of crystal?  You don’t have a heart!”

Donna flickered and disappeared, taking the radiance with her.  Her expression shaped Gwen’s body’s face once more.  “And that is why I need Gwen.  She will tell me when I’ve gone too far, and stop me when I need to be stopped.  But no sooner.”

Sidney cowered away from Donna.  “I don’t know what you are any more.”

“Nor do I.”  Donna reached a hand out to Sidney.  “But I should like to find out with both of you by my side.”

Sidney tentatively took Donna’s hand.  “I’m scared.  But... somewhere in there is the man I love.  Right?”

Donna didn’t hesitate.  “Yes.”

“Then no matter how mad it gets, I will stand with you.”

Donna folded her into a hug, and kissed Sidney soundly.  “Thank you.”