“Okay sweetie, up you go,” said Duncan as he lifted Courtney out of her mother’s arms.  The five year old girl wriggled slightly, but didn’t wake.  Sidney on the other hand, did.

“How late is it?” she asked tiredly.

“Bit after eleven,” whispered Duncan.  “Let me get bunny here to bed and we’ll talk.”

Once Courtney was settled in bed, Duncan returned to the living room where Sidney was still lounging on the couch.  “You awake?”

“Mmh.  Enough.  How’d it go in Toronto?  You’re back in one piece, so it can’t have been too bad.”

Duncan couldn’t help but laugh at that.  Bitter laughter, followed by bitter tears.  Sidney sat up, and opened her arms for a hug.  It was Donna who curled up against her, bawling like a child.

Sidney soothed and patted Donna gently, and the tears finally slowed.  “What happened?”

“Gwen’s dead.”

“Oh, sweetie.”  Sidney pulled the weeping woman in her arms even closer, and said nothing more until the tears finally stopped.

“All dead, or ‘mostly dead’?  Around you, that needs to be asked.”

“Something else,” answered Donna softly.  “All that was left was my and Ettie’s love for her.  That and a burned-up cinder of her soul.”  Duncan dispassionately described the crystal incubator they’d made of Ettie.

“You won’t even know either way for a month?  Oh, love, that’s terrible.  You need a distraction.”

Duncan looked at her in surprise and confusion.  “Are you really suggesting what I think you are?”

“I’m exhausted.  I’ll be lousy company, and no kind of distraction at all.  The club makes you happy, and you could use something to smile about.”  Sidney gave him a nudge.  “Leave robo-Duncan here so I can sleep, and go.”

Duncan swapped to direct control of robo-Duncan long enough to see Sidney into bed, then kissed her goodnight.  “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.  Come back when you’re done.”

“Always.”

*** *** ***

Donna appeared in her sanctum at the Blue Vixen, the private dressing room that had been rechristened the Changing Room in he honour.  She stood there quietly, smiling as she recalled some of the things she’d done memories of things she’d done there.  Dreams made flesh.  She drew power around her like a shimmering cloak of moonlight, put on a brave face, and opened the door to the green room.

“Donna!” exclaimed Neysa.  Everyone in the room turned to face her, expressions of surprise and concern on their faces.  None of them showed the slightest sign of fear of her.

Donna smiled at them all, feeling their love and faith wash over her.  “Please, don’t do…  I just want this to be a normal night.  Please?”

Tawny laughed.  “It’s a full Moon night.  There’s nothing normal about it.  Screw normal, let’s have some fun!”  Her huge, bushy vixen-tail wagged excitedly to show its agreement.  “See, Carmen thinks so too.”

Donna rolled her eyes.  “You two are going to be trouble.  Just... can you stop being mean for one night?”

“Who said anything about mean?  Carmen’s had a blast as my tail, and I’m hoping she wins tonight at Crazy Eights so she can do something even wilder to me.”

“You could just draw cards, you know.  High card wins.  That way I wouldn’t have to worry about Crazy Eights...”

There was a collective indrawn breath at that.  “No Crazy Eights?  Please, please, it’s the highlight of everyone’s night.  We’ll be good, we promise,” vowed Tawny.  “I won’t try to tease anyone into being my boobs.”

Donna closed her eyes, and let her other senses soak in the emotions coming her way.  “You’re all mad, you know.  Despite everything, you...”

Vanessa hummed softly, the opening bars to House of the Blue Vixen.

Donna spun to face her.  “Please don’t do that.  I don’t feel worthy of that kind of faith.”

Vanessa smiled at her serenely.  “Silly goose, that’s not how it works.”

Donna grew feathers and a beak, tried to shake it off, then sighed and gave in to the inevitable.  She honked plaintively at Vanessa, who giggled.  “Did I do that?”

Donna nodded her head on its sinuous neck.  She honked again, interrogatively.

“Even as a magic goose, we still believe in you.”  Vanessa giggled again.  “I suppose I shouldn’t say anything about golden eggs, should I?”

Donna hissed at Vanessa then her eyes went wide.  Three loud honks later, a large golden egg was sitting between her webbed feet.  She eyed it balefully, then poked it with her beak and rolled it over to Vanessa’s feet.

“I can keep this?” asked Vanessa.  At Donna’s nod she picked it up, with some effort.  “Ooof, heavy.   “But it’s... this is thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gold.”

Donna honked affirmatively.

Vanessa set the egg with her other things, then turned back.  “Are you going to stay like that?”

Donna turned a beady eye on her.  Vanessa met the silly goose’s gaze with a grin.  “Because if you are, I think you need a throne.  Any volunteers?”

“Oooh, we volunteer!” said Tawny, waving her arm as her tail flagged its excitement.  In moments she was changing, her fur going white and feathery as her neck elongated and her body shrunk.  While she was changing, her tail was becoming much more goose-neck like as well.  Soon two long goose-necks swayed above a cushion-shaped body.  They twined together into a column, then arched over to form the heart-shaped back of the chair.  The necks elongated into arms, leaving a glass-eyed goose head at the end of each arm-rest.

Donna flapped her wings three times, and lofted herself into the throne.  She sat there regally, and beckoned Vanessa to approach.

Vanessa giggled, then curtsied before the throne.  “Oh Silly Goose, please change me as you see fit.”

Her belly expanded slightly, then became glassy and smooth.  The effect rippled upward over her torso and through her breasts, turning the lot crystal clear.  A tiny mermaid dropped from above and started swimming about her new tank in wonder.

Vanessa stared down at the mermaid, and the mermaid stared up at her.  “I’m the mermaid, too?  Oh, this is wonderful.  Thank you!”  She hugged the silly goose tight.

Nissa had watched the whole thing, and was next to approach.  “Do we have to do the whole spiel?”

“Yes,” said Vanessa emphatically.  “Or you’ll get turned into an egg.”

Nissa giggled.  “That sounds like fun.  Hey goosie, do your worst.”

Donna mock-glared at the giggling nordic woman, and Nissa started to shrink.  Her giggling if anything intensified as her arms and legs sucked into the pale white orb she was becoming.  The giggles didn’t even cease when her head was sucked away, leaving a featureless goose-egg where she’d been standing.  A few moments later the egg cracked open, revealing a six-inch tall Nissa with a beak, and wings for arms, but otherwise recognizably her.

Nissa experimented with the wings, and found that with some effort she could fly.  She flitted up to nuzzle against Donna’s side.  “Thanks.”

Donna blinked down at her curiously.  “Honk?”

“I’m serious.  This is cozy, and I’ve wanted to try flying ever since Silvie got her bird.”  Nissa cozied up against Donna’s downy flank and settled in.  

Donna watched her fondly for a time, then Rowan approached her.  “Oh Silly Goose, Change me as you see fit.”

Donna studied her supplicant carefully.  The easy part was making Rowan younger, but she needed another touch…  Swan wings sprouted from Rowan’s back.  Rowan reached around to touch them and smiled.  “We’ll do Swan Lake here someday.  But perhaps not tonight.”  Her smile turned serious.  “There’s a request from the Crimson Kitten for a ‘Donna Special’.  I told them you were unavailable at the time, but they decided to wait.  The restaurant’s closed, but we let them stay.  They look like nice people…”

Dia appeared beside the goose as a crystal fairy, complete with wand.  “She needs to be here.  We’ll handle it.”

“I…  Aren’t you her?” asked Rowan in confusion.

Dia shrugged.  “It’s complicated.  And to answer your other question, fantasies are go, as long as she doesn’t need to be in the room.”

Leaving Donna to the form Dia had locked her into, the crystal fairy vanished from the green room and reappeared on the table of a booth in the Crimson Kitten.  Two people were sitting there, one wearing a suit, the other a flattering little black dress.  They only had eyes for each not her, and neither noticed Dia’s arrival.   She cleared her throat, and got matching squeaks of surprise.

“What on earth?” asked the startled brunette in the dress.

“Someone ordered a Donna Special?”

“Yes, but…  What are you?”

Dia looked over to the familiar face on the other side of the table.  “I’m here to show you something amazing.  And fulfill Gary’s lifelong dream.”

With aplomb, Gary introduced the well-muscled woman across from him.  “Donna, meet Jessie.  Jessie, this is Donna from my therapy group, I’ve told you about her but not what she can do.  She can use magic to transform people, and has offered to give me the body I should have been born with.”

Jessie’s eyes went wide.  “Really?  Oh, honey, that’s wonderful!  And here I thought you were going to propose…”

“Disappointed?” asked Gary with a grin.

“No!” enthused Jessie.  “This is even better.  Can I watch?”

Gary looked to Dia, who nodded.  “The better for you to believe Gary when you see the new him.  Our power goes beyond simply changing gender, and he wants a body that’s quite a bit different from the one before you.”

“How different?” asked Jessie.  “I love him as he is.”

“That’s another reason I wanted you here,” said Gary.  “So you have input.”

Jessie’s eyes went very wide.  “I get to help design the new you?”

Gary nodded.  “Mostly I want to be taller.  And stronger.  I mean, I like my face well enough, but it could be a little more masculine.” He turned to Dia.  “I’d be able to grow a beard?”

Dia nodded.  “Of course.  One hundred percent male, in all respects.”

“Fertile?” asked Jessie with stars in her eyes.

“If that’s what he wants.”

Jessie grabbed Gary’s hands in hers.  “Please?  I want kids so badly.  That they could really be our kids...”

Gary chuckled softly.  “You know I can’t deny you anything.  Will it bother you if I’m stronger than you?”

Jessie started to laugh at that.  “Seriously?  Gary, you know me better than that.  I hope you’ll be strong enough to keep up with me when hiking and rock climbing.”

“So that’s it?  Taller, slightly more masculine face, fertile?” asked Dia when the two lovebirds got too caught up in each other’s eyes.

Gary grinned lazily.  “That would be wonderful.”  He closed his eyes as he felt the changes start, his clothes growing with him as he went from just under five and a half feet tall, to over six.  The facial changes were subtle, just a slight squaring of the jaw, but the muscles were pronounced.  When Dia was done he looked just as toned as his sweetie.

Jessie was staring at him and appeared to be drooling slightly.  She fanned herself with a napkin.  “Oh, wow.  You look smoking hot.  C’mon, let’s go home and celebrate.”

Dia grinned at the two of them.  “Take care of each other.  And Jessie... if you ever want an upgrade, Gary knows where to find us.”

Jessie giggled breathlessly.  “I can’t even imagine what I’d ask for.  This is perfect.  Thank you so much.”

Gary swept her up into his arms, and by the way he tensed up it seemed he’d expected it to be more effort than it was.  He spun Jessie around twice and set her gently on her feet.  “Maybe we can go dancing first?”

“It’s a date.”

As they headed out the door, Gary waved to Dia.  “Thank you!”

Dia smiled at them happily, and blinked back to the Blue Vixen’s green room the moment the door was shut behind them.

Donna was still on her goose-throne and had acquired two more goslings tucked against her flanks.  Vanessa had just stepped away from her and her head was still transforming, becoming that of yet another pop-star.  She also seemed to have added a few breasts, as had several other girls around the green room.

Dia approached Donna.  “How are you doing?”

Donna fluffed her wings over her goslings, then glared at Dia and warked at them sharply.  She coughed twice, then found she could speak.  “You did this!  Not Vanessa.”

“Bit of both,” replied Dia.  “This body of yours is all her doing.  I just kept you from changing back.”

Donna arched her neck in a graceful bow.  “Thank you for that.  The girls and I had fun with it.  Thanks for letting me see Gary and Jessie through you, too.  They’re so cute together.”

Dia giggled softly.  “We know!  Their happiness felt wonderful.  Can we do more?”

“This isn’t like you.  What are you doing?” asked Donna.

“That’s for me to know and you to figure out,” sang Dia.

“Go ask Rowan to give you some fantasies to fulfill, then.  Or see what Jeremy is moping about.  I thought he enjoyed dancing here.”

Dia blinked away from Donna, and appeared on the counter in front of Jeremy, who was staring down at a bag of makeup.  “Hi!”

Jeremy looked toward Dia listlessly.  “Hey, Donna.”

“We go by Dia, like this.”

That perked Jeremy up, and he straightened to look at Dia properly.  “Oh!  I am sorry, I thought...”

“No, it’s okay,” said Dia soothingly.  “We are confusing at the best of times.  And this is not the best of times for any of us.  What is troubling you?”

Jeremy poked the makeup bag on the counter.  “I love the dancing.  But I can’t keep doing it as a girl.  This isn’t me.”

“Okay.  What do you want... oh.  Well, that’s simple enough.”

Jeremy started changing... right back to the male form he’d had when he’d arrived that night.  He sighed happily.  “Better.  But they’re not going to let me dance like this, are they?”

“Is that what you really want to do?”

Jeremy nodded eagerly.  “More than anything.  I love dancing, and all the pretty, silky outfits...  I just don’t want to be female to do it.”

“And you want an audience.  Come on, let’s go talk to Neysa and Rowan.”  Dia flitted into the air, leading the way to the two women in charge of the performances at the club.  She stated Jeremy’s request simply and bluntly.

Rowan studied Jeremy.  “You want to dance as you are now?”

Jeremy ducked his head, abashed.  “If that’s okay.”

“The audience is here to see woman take their tops off,” mused Rowan.  “I don’t think they’ll find your bared chest titillating.”

Jeremy sighed.  “I know.  I don’t expect to be popular.”

Neysa laughed.  “The way you dance?  Anyone in the crowd with an inkling of artistic appreciation will see your talent.  But, yeah, the big tips go to the big tits.  I don’t suppose you’d be okay with growing huge ones courtesy of Dia, but otherwise staying as you are?”

Jeremy considered the idea, then shook his head.  “I want to be me.”

“A skin-suit?” offered Dia.  “You would be yourself underneath.  I could make it so realistic that nobody would know.  Unless you took it off on stage, anyway.”

Jeremy grinned at that.  “Can you imagine the reaction?”

“Less negative than you’re thinking,” said Dia.  “At least, if they don’t want to be turned into frogs.”

Rowan raised an eyebrow at Dia, who giggled.  “Okay, no turning the paying customers into frogs.  Can I give them boobs of their own?”

“No.  I will make sure the bouncers are aware of the plan,” said Rowan.  “I don’t expect anyone will be stupid, but I am occasionally disappointed.”

“So you’re okay with the plan?” asked Jeremy incredulously.  “I can striptease out of a female skin?”

“I look forward to seeing what you do with it,” said Rowan with a nod to Jeremy.  With a glance to Neysa, the two of them moved off, leaving Jeremy and Dia alone.

“So what do you want this skin to look like?” asked Dia.

“Uh… Female, chesty…  How much more is there?”

“Look around.  You’ll be the only two-breasted dancer here.”

Jeremy blinked owlishly as he looked around the room, blushing faintly as he began to realize he was the only male in a room full of women.  “Woah.  This place is crazy.”

“That’s right!” giggled Dia.  “This is your first full Moon night back here.  You haven’t seen anything yet...  So.  Do you want fur?  Feathers?  Scales?  Something even cooler?  And of course, whatever colours you’d like.”

“Scales,” mused Jeremy.  “The image of a snake shedding its skin to reveal the truth underneath is appealing.”

“One snakeskin suit coming right up.  Want a sort of lizardy face, or more human?”  Dia spun a full-size scaly bodysuit into existence, standing beside Jeremy and aping his poses.  The face looked like more like a snake’s than a human’s.

Jeremy studied it and started to smile.  “I can work with this.  What about the tongue?”

“Kinesthetic feedback.  You can see through the suit’s eyes and move its tongue and tail while you’re wearing it.”

“How?”

Dia giggled and shrugged.  “Magic, of course.  It’s connected only to you, and sized to be a perfect fit.”

Jeremy stroked a hand over the suit’s scaly arm.  “Just needs one more thing.  These bland colours, green and black?  They simply won’t do.”

Dia laughed then, and the suit started changing colours before Jeremy could even say what he wanted.  He giggled at the pink and purple paisley that resulted.  “OK, maaaybe dial it back a step.  But keep the sparkles.  Those look good.”

The result was a snake-like suit in mottled red and purple interspersed by thin rows of black scales, that all shimmered in the light.  Jeremy practically jumped into it, and zipped it up the front.  He flexed his scaly arms, and waved the tail.  “Thisss isss awesssome!  Why am I ssspeaking with a lisssp?  Ssstop that!”

Dia kept giggling, rolling back and forth on the counter.  “It sounds hilarious.”

“It’ssss not funny!”  Then he grinned.  “Okay, maybe it issss.  Ssss.”  Jeremy flickered his tongue at Dia then went in search of Neysa to get scheduled to dance.

When Dia returned to Donna the goose was grinning.  “I see what you’re doing,” she honked.  “If you’re cheerful, I’m cheerful.  And vice versa.”

“Ding ding ding.  Give the goose a ceeegar.”

Donna spat out the cigar that had appeared in her beak, and it exploded into sparkles halfway to the floor.  “I could tell it was going to do that.  How?”

“You already know the answer.”

Donna snorted.  “Then why am I stuck as a goose?”

“Because I’m the real one.  You’re a figment, and always have been.”

“Does that mean I’m not responsible for the mess in Toronto?”

Dia hugged Donna around the neck.  “Oh sweetie, you never were.  None of that was your fault.”

“But the nukes!” protested Donna.

“Built by Duncan.  Yes, we all authorized the launch.  Would you really have gone through with the full detonation?  Be honest now, it’s just the two of us.”

Donna blinked, and looked around the room.  Everyone was moving in super slow motion.  “Nice trick.”

“You and Gwen used to do it all the time.”  At the pained look on Donna’s beak, Dia continued, “and will do so again in time.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You don’t know otherwise,” rallied Dia.  “So stop this.”

Donna looked away, then sighed.  “It’s just hard to hope.  I’m scared.”

“And that’s fine.  Be scared.  Be worried.  We are here for you.”

“You and everyone else.  I know.”  Donna closed her eyes.  “And about the nukes?”

“Yes?”

“I would have done it, if it wasn’t for Gwen.”

“You want to know a secret?”

Donna rolled her eyes, but her beak flexed into a hint of a grin.  “Go on.”

“I would have too.  So would a lot of people, given ability and cause.  Ruby said as much, if you recall.  Don’t let the dark thoughts win.”

Donna nodded sharply.  “Then let’s get back to having some fun here.”

So of course when they slowed their perceptions back to normal, Rowan was the first to approach them, to say that Agent Mackie had requested a chat with Donna.

“I don’t suppose he’s here to go up on stage?” asked Donna hopefully.

“Not him, no,” said Rowan.  “Go on, we’ll keep things going here.  I’ve put them in the private room at the Crimson Kitten.”

Dia flicked the two of them to their destination, and Donna appeared on the other end fully human.  She opened and closed her hands, grinning down at them and enjoying the sensation of having them once more.

“Done?” asked Agent Mackie.

Donna looked up and smiled to see that both Mackie and Armstrong were there.  “Spent a little too long as a... nevermind.  What can I do for you two?”

“Ottawa has more questions than answers,” said Mackie.  “I’ve been asked to debrief you on the incident in Toronto.”

Donna shrugged.  “There isn’t much more to say.  We met Marcus, an old friend of Henry’s.  He tried to persuade us Wilhelm was too strong, by saying he’d killed the ghoul from Halifax, Liam.  That didn’t work, but the death-infused bomb he was sitting on took a toll.  Hurt Bunhill, nearly killed Henry but for the crystal shield I’d put around his soul.”

She went on to describe the sniper attacks and their result, including the nature of the weapons she’d used against them.  Mackie did not comment when she said it could have been much worse, and only asked, “Then Wilhelm?”

Donna nodded.  “At the plaza under the CN Tower.  He tried to distract me with a deadman switch and a bomb, then with claiming he knew what had happened in Detroit.  Something about someone tinkering with the Worldstone.  That nearly worked, his twin almost got control of me.  Then we fought, I blinked out of the way of their attacks, causing Wilhelm to destroy his twin.  I was able to end him easily then.”

“We should probably track down more on the Worldstone, then.  Does that mean anything to you?”

“Bunhill said something similar once.  See what she can dig up.”

Donna’s ear perked, turning feline to do so.  “Oh, Jeremy’s about to go on.  Can we put this on hold to go see?”

Agent Mackie chuckled.  “I’ve got most of what I came here for, the rest can wait a few minutes.”

Armstrong hobbled along beside Mackie as they made their way through the connecting doors to the Blue Vixen.  They were just in time to hear Leo announce, “And now, the always fabulous but tonight even more so... JJ!”

Jeremy’s scales sparkled and shone under the sun, and the red highlights over the more subdued purple looked like flames.  A jet black bra and panties broke up the patterns.  He strutted onto the stage and put on a performance that showed off all his efforts over the past month.  When Duncan had first seen Jeremy dance, she hadn’t made much use of the three poles on the stage.  JJ was now using all of them to artful effect, and even managed a spinning leap from one to the next.  As Jeremy had wished, his female suit wasn’t massively endowed like all the other dancers, but nobody in the audience seemed to care.  When the first song ended with Jeremy dancing his bra off, there was loud cheering as those sparkling scaly breasts were revealed.

The loudest cheering was from the snake-lover, Dave, who had moved up front and center and tossed what looked like a small roll of bills onto the stage.  Jeremy scooped them up and crouched low before Dave to give him an even better look and a sibilantly whispered thanks.

The next dance was even more athletic, and as it wound down Jeremy drew his hand down his chest, opening the otherwise invisible seam there.  He lithely shed the scaly skin, and took another bow.  Dave led the cheers of “encore, encore!” and Jeremy, taken aback, looked to Leo.

Another song spun up, big-band swing.  Frank Sinatra’s voice came in, crooning “I’ve got you under my skin”, and Jeremy started a slow ballet-inspired dance, flaring out into a bow for “wake up to reality” then on again.  After the early giggles at just what song he was dancing to, the crowd went silent.  He danced on to the end of the song, then dropped into a low bow as the song faded out.

Dave and Donna started the applause, and it was picked up quickly by the rest of crowd.  Jeremy bowed once more, then gathered his things and retreated off the stage.

Donna blinked to the green room so she could be the first to greet Jeremy as he entered.  “That was wonderful!  I think you surprised the punters, but they took it well.”

Jeremy grinned and nodded.  “I’ve had worse crowds at ballet rehearsals.  That was amazing!  Thank you so much for this suit.  Can I keep it?”

Donna took half a moment to make sure the suit wouldn’t revert, and nodded.  “It’s permanent, as is the link to you.  You’ll be able to use it for dancing or...”  Donna gave him a saucy wink, “just about anything else.”

Jeremy blushed.  “I...  I don’t even know who I’d...”

“I would,” said Nissa, who’d been released from being a gosling when Donna herself changed.  “Half of the girls here are bi, and you make a good two-fer.”

“I’d rather be me,” said Jeremy softly.  “But thank you.”

Nissa chuckled warmly.  “Hey, there’s more’n a few girls here who go for that bishie look you’re rocking.  Ask around if you’re interested.”

Jeremy’s flustered grin made several of the other girls cheer.  Silvie, the bird-girl, approached him and whispered something in his ear that made him blush even brighter... but also follow her over to a corner of the room where they sat together, head to head, whispering in hushed tones.

Donna watched them with a huge, satisfied grin on her face.  Dia perched on her shoulder.  “Aww, how sweet.  Done playing matchmaker?”

“I guess.”

“Good.  Mackie isn’t done with you, and his request is a doozy.”