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Subject: RP TG: A Change of Direction (21/22) (Magic, TG)
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A Change of Direction
Part 21
by Tigger Copyright 1997, all rights reserved.

Archiving/publication of this author's work on any system that
requires payment in any form is prohibited by the author and
is in violation of my copyright to Chapters 7 and beyond. No archiving
or redistribution of this work is permitted without this copyright
attribution included, intact and complete, in the posting/archiving. 

A Change of Direction
Chapter 27

Bronwyn and the other members of the Sisterhood gathered
around the distraught Laurie.  Funneling their combined power
through one or two Sisters with "finder" talents, the Sisters
had spent the better part of the evening and night searching
for the mental touch of Laurie's daughter, but to no avail. 
"I can't sense her, Bronwyn.  I know she is still alive
because I would know if her life-strength died, but I cannot
sense her well enough to help the Sisters of the Finder craft
locate her.  Somehow, she is using her own powers and she is
blocking me.  Dammit, why did she have to be so powerful?"

"It is why we Transformed her, Laurel, because she could be so
powerful.  Now, we must assume she is being noble, and trying
to protect us so that we will be strong when the time to
confront the Brotherhood arises."

"We cannot let her do that, Bronwyn." Laurie whispered
desperately.  "She is my baby.  We have to get her back."

Bronwyn nodded solemnly.  "Indeed we must, Laurel, but not for
that reason alone.  Remember, she carries an un-Transformed
daughter of the Sisterhood in her womb, and we cannot let the
Brotherhood have that child.  Especially since we have not
taught Jacqui the Birth Rites that would protect the still-
male child from the Dark Power."

Laurie's eyes lit up. "The child!  I have touched her child
already.  I know his aura!"  She sent her senses outward once
again and almost immediately touched and found, "The child! 
Bronwyn!  I know where he is.  She forgot to shield him from
me.  I have found her!"

A short cheer went up from the assembly of witches, only to be
cut short by the realization they would now be facing the
Brotherhood directly.  For the first time since the ancient
times, the forces of the Goddess and the Dark One would openly
confront one another.  The days of the Sisterhood manipulating
men of power from behind the scene were over.  By kidnaping
Laurie's unborn grandchild, still in his Mother's womb, this
new High Leader of the Brotherhood had gone too far.

Lancaster had returned to Jacqui's cell, and was seated across
the room from her, watching Jacqui with eyes heated by
madness.  His followers were outside, standing guard around
the perimeter of the factory complex.  She felt so bloody
helpless.  What was the point of having magic powers if you
could not *do* anything with them??  Nothing Jacqui had been
taught to date by Laurel or by Bronwyn was adequate to the
task of protecting herself or her child, not against a madman
with the destructive power Lancaster seemed to possess.

She hoped that her spell of concealment had prevented her
Mother from finding her.  She did not want her impulsive
Mother getting herself killed running to her rescue.  What
could she do, anyway?  Hell, What could Jacqui do?  The only
positive thing in this mess was that Lancaster wanted to make
her conceive a child.  Since she was already pregnant, that
gave her at least a month to come up with some way of
escaping, while Lancaster awaited a menses that was not going
to happen.  Or at least, coming up with some way of preventing
Lancaster from hurting her child.

"Your child will be great, woman, because he will be my son,
and because I, Lancaster, High Leader of the Brotherhood, will
make him so.  I will teach him the power of the Dark One.  He
will take my place at the head of the Brotherhood, and he will
destroy your precious Sisterhood once and for all.  It is too
bad we did not know of you.  You have great reserves of power
in you, but now, it is a pale, weak and useless thing.  It
cannot no longer destroy.  They took that from you when they
Transformed you, and more.  They took from you your will to be
great, your will to conquer, your will to dominate."  His
words began to run together, to slur, as his tirade grew. 
"Through your son, I will rule the world."

At the very instant of that arrogant claim, the heavy door
exploded inward and first Bronwyn, then Laurie rushed in
followed by four other members of the Sisterhood.  Bronwyn
gestured at Jacqui, and the glowing bands that had been
holding her immobile disappeared.  Recovering quickly,
Lancaster struck out, sending globules of black light flying
at the six women.  Bronwyn, Laurie and two of the women
managed to shield themselves in bubbles of incandescently
bright white light.  The globules hissed and sputtered and
then disappeared against the shining globes.  The other two
women did not shield in time and the globules struck them full
in their chests.  They screamed, hideously, and then simply
dissolved into foul smelling puddles on the floor.

Jacqui tried to move to the four remaining women, but
Lancaster cut her off, grabbing her with a choke hold about
her throat.  "We seem to have a standoff, High Priestess. And
I sense that you are the High Priestess. My men have been
dealt with, I assume?"

"Neutralized, High Leader.  Unharmed, but the stench of the
Dark One has been forever washed out of their souls."

"Leaving them without power or the will to use it properly if
they still had it.  And your Goddess," the word was hissing
curse, "Considers that to be nondestructive, to brutally rip
from a man the very characteristics that first gave him
dominion over this planet.  You cannot do that to me - my
power is too great.  And you cannot destroy me - your Goddess
forbids it. Sadly, it appears I cannot destroy you either
while you hide behind your cowardly shields.  It seems my best
course of action, then, is to take my leave and face you again
some other day."  He started to drag Jacqui toward the back
door.

"We will not let you leave here with her, Lancaster.  We can
stop you."

He stopped and regarded Bronwyn.  The red haze of madness had
receded from his dark eyes, replaced by animal cunning. "I
suppose you can at that. I don't know how, but your words have
the ring of truth."  He shook his head sadly and turned his
head to Jacqui.  "This one held the key to our ancient
struggle.  Obviously, I will not be the one to use her to
unlock that final victory."  The madness burned brightly again
and his right hand rose high above Jacqui.  "But NEITHER will
YOU, High BITCH!"

The raised hand turned black and began to shimmer and pulse
with a strange glow that heralded the total absence of light
instead of its presence.  The glow coalesced into a writhing
mass above the pair and then it began to beam down onto
Jacqui, who was still struggling to free herself.  The instant
the light grazed her, she screamed in utter agony.

"NOOOOOO!!!!"  Laurie's scream answered her daughter's and she
reacted without thinking, forging a healing link with her
child and the child in her womb.  Her power, backed by
Bronwyn's own, flowed into Jacqui, deflecting the soul-
consuming black light and healing the damage already done. 
Lancaster tried to increase the power of his spell, but the
combined power of the Sisterhood and Laurie first deflected
his thrust and then reflected it back into him.  The force of
his destructive burst backfired on him, and blew him bodily
away from the reeling Jacqui.

Jacqui regained her senses to see Bronwyn and the Sisterhood
and her Mother.  She took a tentative step toward them when
her Mother collapsed to the floor.  Instantly, Jacqui tried to
forge her own link with her Mother, but failed.  Her Mother
resisted her, and what Jacqui saw in the instant she was in
touch with her chilled her soul.  Laurie had not guarded
herself in the link with her daughter.  Jacqui should have
died and Laurie had taken the damage done to her child into
herself.  Now, her Mother was dying.

Lancaster struggled to his feet.  Jacqui saw him gathering
himself, felt the power growing in him again, and wanted to
strike out at him, to turn him into puddles of sewage as he
had just done to her Mother's friends.  Her Mother's hand
gripped hers and she knew she could not.

She had to do something.  He had to be stopped.  What had he
said?  "You take from men the power of the Dark One."?  The
followers of the Goddess were weak because they lacked that
power?  Her soul in torment, Jacqui tapped the full resources
of power she had been told time and again were hers.  The most
powerful magic she knew was the one enchantment she still
could not control well enough to use safely on herself, but
she could still use it . . . other ways.

Bronwyn was the first to sense the change in Jacqui, and
fearing Jacqui was retaliating in kind, called out to her to
stop.  Jacqui heard nothing save her Mother's scream, and saw
nothing save the man whose lust for power had fatally injured
the woman who had twice given birth to her.  

The air about Jacqui literally began to seethe with visible
power and she quietly intoned the words she had been taught .
. . . .

The world exploded in a cold flash of pure blinding white
light, with her at its fiery center.  In the core of the
swirling maelstrom of power, Jacqui sang the song her Mother
and Bronwyn had taught her and bent the fabric of life to her
will.  When the storm faded, the power of the Dark One had
been banished from that room.

Moments later, she was kneeling beside her Mother, crying.
"Mother," she begged.  "Let me in.  Please, let me try to help
you.  I love you.  Don't leave me."  

"No, my love. You cannot help me.  There is not enough life-
power in you to heal me without the cost of your own life."

"Bronwyn, help me." Jacqui cried.  "Make her let me in.  Help
me help her."

"I don't think we can, my love." Bronwyn said sadly. 
"Certainly not if she resists us."

"And I will resist, Bronwyn, for even with the combined power
of the Sisterhood, it may not be enough.  Bronwyn, remember my
Death Wish?"  Shocked, Bronwyn paled, then nodded.  Laurie
turned back to Jacqui.  "You can be Jack again.  The High
Leader's attack has all but stripped me of my life-power.  The
enchantment that I put upon you, the magic that forces you to
do the Transformation yourself will die with me.  The power is
in you, daughter, and the Sisterhood can help you.  You may
never be this powerful again.  Don't let me destroy your
dreams."

Bronwyn sighed.  "It may not work, Laurel.  She has killed
with the power of the Goddess.  She won't have the power to
complete the spell with us."

"I did not kill him."  Jacqui snarled.  "I Transformed him. 
See for yourself."  

One of the Sisters, a woman Jacqui recognized as her high
school vice principal, ran over to where Lancaster had fallen
under Jacqui's onslaught.  She made a cry of wonder and
returned, carrying a newborn baby in her arms.

"The child is female, High Priestess." Thea said in hushed
awe.

"She can't wield the Dark One's power, and she can be raised
again, this time without the Dark Power's taint.  I don't have
the control Mother had.  I could not focus the spell on just
him.  So, I attacked any "Y" chromosome I touched with my
spell.  I don't know what the range of the enchantment was,
but whatever it is, there is not a male creature inside of
that perimeter."  Jacqui whispered, still trying to focus her
power to pierce her Mother's defenses.

Bronwyn nodded and knelt down beside Mother and daughter.  She
rested a hand on each of them. "Then what your Mother said is
true, Jacqui. Her spell dies with her.  Given what I have just
witnessed, your power is now so great, that with all of us
acting together, we could reverse your mother's spell
together." she paused, her voice catching, "once your Mother
crosses over, but you will leave here as Jack once more."

That was what she wanted, wasn't it?  "But what about Mum? 
What about..."  She choked back a sob.  "What about my baby?" 
Tears flowed down Jacqui's cheeks, cutting tracks in the sooty
aftermath of Lancaster's magical attack.


"Your mother wants you to have your dream."  Bronwyn said
gently.  "She will resist healing if it costs you your dream. 
We can do nothing for her without her help.  We do not have
the power to overcome the greatest healer of our age.  As for
your child, he is the product of your lover's sperm and your
Transformed egg. Two sperm cannot make a child, Jacqui, and
that is precisely what they will become once you Transform
back. Your baby will simply revert into two separate sperm
cells. One which came from the father, and one which used to
be your egg.  Now come, the time is short.  The optimal time
for the spell is just as your Mother's spell is broken."

Jacqui knew that was a euphemism for "just as your Mother
dies."

Jacqui bent over her mother, crying on her shoulder. "Do it,
Jack."  Laurie's voice was only a weak, thready whisper as she
called him by a name he had not heard on her lips in over a
year and a half.  The end had to be near.  "Take this chance
to be your dream again.  Let the last sight I see in this life
be the power of the Goddess encircling you. Let me pass over
knowing that the wrong I committed against you will be
corrected in that next instant."


Bronwyn took Jacqui's hand. "One more thing you must know.  A
man cannot wield the power of the Goddess, Jacqueline.  When
you do this, you do so understanding that you will lose your
powers forever.  The Gift of the Goddess is given only once. 
I will still love you and watch over you, but you will be as
you were before - a normal human man."  

Jacqui did not really have time to consider what to do.  It
was all happening so fast, and everyone was doing their part
to help her return to "normal".  She watched as the combined
power of the Sisterhood began to light the room above each of
the surviving sisters.  Their individual lights then merged,
and continued to grow until their power became a visible,
living thing enfolding the group circled about Laurie's body
on the floor.  Finally, the light seemed to move from the
group, to coalesce into a shimmering halo above and about the
High Priestess and Jacqueline. 

Jacqui reeled momentarily as she fought to contain and control
the power given her by the other Sisters.  "You must say the
incantation, Jacqueline.  You must complete the rite to change
yourself back.  I give you the power of your Sisters.  I give
you my power.  Make it one with yours and Make your dreams
come true."

Once again, Jacqui murmured words of power, and sang a song of
love.  The power seemed to implode into her, filling her soul,
where it resided for long eternities encompassing
infinitesimal fractions of a second.  The incredible totality
of the merged power threatened to explode from her, flying out
uncontrolled, in all directions, but Jacqui fought against
that explosion, fought to bend the seething light to her will.

Fought, and won.  

With the last vestige of her mental strength, she completed
the incantation and focused the combined power of the
Sisterhood.

And the world went black.


End Part 21 - Continued and Concluded in Part 22



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