Chapter 24: Fairies and Choices

December 4, 2023 2:12PM

The group was completely silent as Isabella carried them back to her room. Isabella had offered to take them to the tram but neither her nor Sanders wanted to. They both knew the moment they stepped on that tram, the chances of either of them seeing Isabella or Flonne again were slim. There was a chance Flonne would be given to another Ranger squad, perhaps even one they would wind up in, but there was no guarantees and Aviel at least wanted to say good-bye.

For once, Sander didn't grip Isabella's finger in a death grip as they traveled. Instead, he sat in the center of her palm, staring off in thought. Isabella was doing much the same as her immense, comparatively, strides brought them closer to her room. And closer to having to break the news to Flonne...

It made Aviel want to puke thinking about how crushed Flonne was going to be. How could the Matriarchs do this and call it justice?! How could they break up THEIR squad simply because Slutice and her worthless, scumbag friends attacked THEM?!?! It wasn't fair! It wasn't...it wasn't right. And yet...and yet it was in a sense.

Aviel wanted to be angry. She wanted to feel her blood boil and to be stomping around Isabella's hand fuming and spouting off obscenities. And yet, she just couldn't do it. Because some part of her knew they had brought this on themselves. She should have stopped Isabella or at least said something. But no, she had wanted them to attack the Swords just as much as they had wanted to. She couldn't be angry, because she didn't want to be angry with herself...

Instead, she just sat in Isabella's hand wondering what tomorrow held for them. Would she still be in a squad with Sanders? Would she be in a new one? Would her new giantess commander hold her back or just give her the go ahead to be grown? Did she even WANT to be grown? That last one was really hard to answer after what had just happened.

Her questions were pushed aside as Isabella approached her room. She opened the door and stepped inside. Flonne was sitting on her bed and leap to her feet when Isabella came in. She flew up, all smiles and happiness, and hugged herself to Isabella's check.

"Isabella! I was really starting to miss you. So did they punish those bad ladies and let you go?" Flonne asked, though she already sounded sure of the answer. Aviel felt a pang of sadness hit her as she thought about what they were going to have to tell her. It was going to crush the poor fairy and Aviel couldn't think of anything she wanted to do less than crush her happy mood.

Isabella gave Flonne a half-hearted smile as she brought her free hand up to hug the fairy back. She looked down and her smile faded a bit as Flonne asked her question, but the fairy was too busy hugging her to notice. Isabella was silent a moment before she answered.

"Y-yes, yes they are being punished and they let me go," Isabella said glancing down at Sanders and Aviel. Aviel got what was happening immediately. Isabella was lying to prevent having to hurt Flonne. It was pointless and would only delay the inevitable, but Aviel figured a day of blissful ignorance was better for her in the long run. Sanders looked confused for a second before ohing and figuring out what was going on.

"Good, so what is going to happen to them?" Flonne asked as she let go of Isabella. Isabella opened her mouth, but looked to be drawing a blank on what to say. Aviel realized she needed to get the conversation on something else or they were going to have to make their lie grow exponentially. And she had the perfect distraction too.

"That can wait. You need to tell Isabella about what happened when you and I were alone. The visions and such," Aviel said. Flonne blushed a bit at her, incident, being brought up but nodded all the same. Isabella and Sanders both got mixtures of concern and confusion on their faces.

"Visions? What happened, Flonne?" Isabella asked motioning her toward Isabella's bed. Flonne fluttered over toward her own bed and sat down as Isabella sat down on hers.

"It was when we were in the cabin we found in the woods. I tried to heal my wings and it worked really well, but my head started to feel funny. I got dizzy and passed out and then I...I saw things," Flonne said looking away from Isabella. Isabella opened her mouth to say something, but Aviel interrupted her.

"I should mention that I had given Flonne a shot of the experimental nano-bots the night before. I thought they might help heal her wings quicker and give us a way to flee if need be. I don't know if that has anything to do with this, but just in case," Aviel said getting a nod from Isabella. Sanders, however, wheeled on Aviel with an angry look.

"Wait, you gave her the nano-bots? Those things are experimental and are only meant for nor-," Sanders caught himself but keep an angry look, "humans. What if they had reacted badly to her or if...hell any number of things had happened?!" Aviel glared back at Sanders, mad at him for implying she hadn't thought things through. Her lingering anger at what had happened in the jail made her far angrier than she would have been and she lashed out in rage.

"And what would I have done if Lutice and her bitches found us, huh? I could have hidden from them, but what would Flonne do? Without her wings she would have been at their mercy. Is that what you would have wanted? And if they didn't find us how were we to get back to Atlanta if Isabella didn't find us either? Walk? I used the nano-bots and risked something going wrong because I thought it was our best chance to survive and I DON'T appreciate you thinking otherwise!" Flonne shot back at Sanders. Sanders look of anger slowly faded as Aviel laid into him. By the end he was looking rather pathetic and downtrodden. Aviel felt a little bad about going off on him like that, but it was mostly drowned out by her anger.

"Stop it, Aviel. Sanders didn't mean it like that and you know it," Isabella said, looking down at her with a disapproving stare. Aviel glared up at Isabella, but calmed down enough to know she was right. Sanders didn't deserve her anger... no the person who deserved it was off getting "punished." Dammit...

"Sorry Sanders, I jus-" she started to say before Sanders interrupted.

"No, its fine. I shouldn't have made it sound like I didn't think you had thought it through. Let's...let's just get back to Flonne's visions," Sanders said rubbing the back of his neck. He looked back up to Flonne and tried to get things back on track and away from potentially having to reveal what Aviel was really angry about.

"So you saw things after you passed out, right?" Sanders asked. Flonne was looking between them with a confused look, but nodded at Sanders question. She looked a bit annoyed she was being left out of something, but told her story nonetheless. Aviel added a few parts here and there of what Flonne was doing while she was having the visions. Between them both, Sanders and Isabella heard the full story of Flonne's...oddity, including her conversation with Aviel just before Sanders had arrived.

"That's...if what she is seeing is true," was all Sanders said as he leaned back against Isabella's hand.

"It could be just a memory from the original person Flonne was cloned from," Aviel suggested hoping to stop Sanders from jumping to any conclusions.

"And that makes it better?! Fuck, if any of that is true."

"What if it is? That town could have been a Resistance base in disguise and that little girl wouldn't have known," Aviel said trying to defend the Society. She didn't...she didn't want this to be true. It just...there HAD to be some explanation for why they would do that there...there just had to be.

"Even if that is true, how do you justify them taking a little girl and using her as a science experiment to make clones of her?" Sanders said sitting back up. Aviel simply looked down at Isabella's palm at that question. There was was no justifying that and she knew it. And hated it, however...

"Maybe it was someone like Lutice who ordered her taken. Could have not told anyone she was a-" Aviel started to say, but was stopped as Isabella's voice came booming down.

"Enough! All of that doesn't matter right now. We can worry about the why's and rightness of this after we make sure Flonne is alright," Isabella scolded them. Her slight raising of her voice was enough to make both Aviel and Sanders wince. Aviel felt angry with herself for forgetting this was about Flonne and not the Society. She and Sanders could debate the ramifications later.

"Right, sorry. So what are we going to do about this? I mean, Flonne looks fine," Sanders said looked back at Flonne.

"I feel fine too. Well, except for my head. It still feels kinda...fuzzy and weird," Flonne admitted rubbing her head as her antenna twitched a bit. Isabella thought for a moment before looking back up.

"There is someone we could take her to, though I would rather no one know why we visited her. If the research division found out about this they might decide to experiment with Flonne. Best we keep this between us for now," Isabella said. Sanders nodded in agreement and Aviel did as well. Normally Aviel would be against hiding things from the Society, normally, but this wasn't a normal situation.

Isabella didn't say it out load, for Flonne's sake, but the Research Division would probably wind up dissecting Flonne at some point if they found out about this. Horrid as it was, Flonne WAS just a clone, to them, and thus was considering expendable. A few months ago Aviel might have agreed, but now she knew that was a narrow and horrid mind set. Flonne no more deserved to be someone's science experiment as anyone else, even if she, technically, was one already.

Flonne tried to hide her fear at hearing about them experimenting on her, but didn't hide it well enough. Aviel didn't blame her for being scared.

"How are we going to do that? People are going to wonder why Flonne needed to be checked out by someone you trust and...well," Aviel asked, not saying the fact she was supposed to be suspended. Isabella paused a moment to think as Flonne began to look more and more worried. Sanders moved to the edge of Isabella's hand and waved Flonne over.

"Hey, Flonne, you mind taking me down to the lobby area so I can get something to eat? There's a normal-sized snack machine down there, right?" Sanders asked Flonne and Isabella. Isabella looked up from thinking and nodded, giving Sanders a confused look. Aviel was equally confused as Flonne answered.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I can. But umm..." she said looking between Aviel and Isabella.

"Come on, I am starving here. I'll get you something too," Sanders said, getting Flonne's eyes to brighten up a bit. She nodded and lowered her hand to pick up Sanders before heading for the door.

 Sanders gave Aviel a wink as Flonne flew to the door and headed out. Aviel was still confused until a second later she got what he was doing. He was getting Flonne out to let them talk without having to hide things from her or making her more worried.

"Damn I am glad he is still alive..." Aviel heard herself saying. She blushed a bit after saying it, but Isabella only smiled at the comment and nodded her agreement. Her smile vanished as she stood up and carried Aviel to her dresser. She set her down on it before opening a few of her drawers, slowly so as not to cause an earthquake for Aviel.

"We need to figure out what to do while Sanders is keeping Flonne busy. Having these kinds of talks in front of her is just going to make her worry," Isabella said as she began to go through some of her clothing.

"Yeah. I take it you have an idea and are not just changing clothes," Aviel said as she moved away from the edge, a bit worried about getting swatted by a piece of clothing or just slipping. A dresser being a potential death sentence...dammit Aviel hated being this small.

"Yes, partly. If I can find some baggy clothing, I might be able to smuggle Flonne in without anyone knowing I have her. These things do give me a lot of room to work with," Isabella said gesturing to her chest. Aviel was glad Sanders was not around to ogle them so she could focus on the task at hand and not him starting to drool.

"That still, however, leaves the problem of WHY I would go see Valery at her work station. Not exactly usual to go and bug the Head Researcher of the Shields..." Isabella trailed off, with a sigh. Aviel had figured that was who Isabella had meant and had been thinking on that too. She thought a few minutes, her thoughts still troubled by what happened back in the jail. Back in the jail... Aviel smiled as she realized how obvious the answer was.

"Because you just got kicked out of the Rangers," Aviel said getting a confused look from Isabella as she was inspecting a large purple sweater. "You are going to see her because you just got kicked out of the Rangers and need to find a new position once your suspension is over," Aviel explained fully. This time, Isabella eyes light up with understanding and she smiled as well.

"That is perfect. Good thinking Aviel," Isabella said causing a swell of pride to fill Aviel, though she tried not to show it. She wanted to help for Flonne's sake not Isabella's praise. Doubly so since she was still angry with her over holding her back.

Isabella pulled out a sweater that looked a bit too big for her as Aviel snapped out of her thoughts. Isabella smiled at it as she studied it. The sweater had a few old stains on it around the collar and Aviel had a feeling it was a sweater Gabriella had left here. The woman didn't eat so much as throw food at her face and hope some got in her mouth. While her table manners were lacking, she was not in sheer size. The sweater looked at least two sizes too big for Isabella, but that also made it perfect for what they needed.

"This will work. I can hide Flonne in here while she holds onto you two. Once we get into Valery's office, we should be safe to talk," Isabella said as she stepped back from the dresser. She took off her long sleeve shirt and quickly put the sweater on. It looked a bit odd on Isabella, but no one would really delve too much in her odd fashion choice. Best of all, her large breasts gave the perfect area for Flonne to hide under. This could really work, though Aviel was less than pleased with the idea of being shoved up under Isabella's breasts. Doubly so with Sanders too... This was going to be a long trip.

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December 4, 2023 2:32 PM

Aviel had been right, she had not been pleased to be stuffed up under Isabella's breasts. Their plan was working, for now, but it was not comfortable for anyone involved. Including Sanders to a bit joy from Aviel. Aviel was holding onto Flonne's shirt and trying to keep herself from slipping off her shoulder. A few cables were tied to Flonne's shirt and to Aviel's waist to make sure Aviel didn't fall to her death, but Aviel was not eager to be swinging from them as Isabella walked. Sanders was on Flonne's other shoulder doing the same along with trying not to lose the snack he just ate.

Flonne could do little for either of them, though, as she was busy holding on to the winching cables withe her arms and legs. Flonne hadn't been big enough to wrap her arms, or her legs, all the way around Isabella and having her try to hold on with them only halfway around proved too difficult for her. Sanders, however, had come up with an ingenious idea of having her use the transport cages cables to hold on. While neither could hold her completely, together they were able to hold her weight. Sadly, the cages had crumbled apart when she had tried to use them as foot holds forcing her to use the cable itself. It was not comfortable at all considering the look on Flonne's face.

Aviel could only guess it wasn't comfortable for Isabella either. They had to remove the padding to keep the cables from making too large of a profile on her shoulder. Without the padding, no one could see them through her sweater, but there was nothing keeping the metal devices from digging into Isabella's shoulders. Not to mention Flonne' occasionally bumping into her breasts as Isabella's strides rocked them, causing Sanders to urp and gag each time.

The trip seemed to take forever as they all suffering privetly, though Aviel had a feeling Sanders suffered far worse than the rest of them. Finally, they heard the muffled sounds of Isabella opening a door followed by the beeping of machines and bubbling of chemicals. There were some muffled voices, too dimmed to understand that greeted them just past the door.

"I am looking for Valery, is she here?" Isabella asked, her voice still coming in mostly clear. Again more muffled voices to which Isabella thanked and started to move again. Sanders nearly gagged again, but bite it back as the rocking started again. Aviel felt sorry for him and wondered why he hadn't just stayed behind. They stopped after only a few seconds as a new muffled voice came from outside. This one sounded friendly and welcoming, though still was too distorted to understand.

"Its good to see you too, Valery. I wish I was just stopping by, but I am here for a specific  reason a....well," Isabella trailed off. Whether she was faking not wanting to talk about being kicked out of the Rangers or not, Aviel couldn't say. The voice came back, but this time was just barely loud enough for Aviel to catch a few things.

"Ahh yes, ...ard about that. I..so sorry, Is..... But le.....talk about th.... here.... into my off... and w....alk in pri.... You, three! Keep working on this I will only be a few minutes!" was all Aviel understood. Sanders groaned as Isabella started to move again, though this trip was even shorter than the last. They heard the muffled sounds of a door open then close which brought a sigh of relieve, turned gag from Sanders.

"So, what was so important that you needed to talk in private about it?" Valery asked as Isabella hands appeared from the bottom of her sweater. She waved to them and Flonne let go of the cables while Isabella held her sweater out to give her room to get out. Sanders and Aviel held on as Flonne flew out of Isabella's sweater and into the freedom of the room.

Now out of Isabella's sweater, Aviel could get a good look around the room. The room was rather spacious, or it would have have been if it was not covered in books, desks, computers, and a number of other scientific instruments Aviel couldn't identify. Most of the equipment looked to be in use or was doing something, though what Aviel had no idea. Only a few of the instruments she recognized from school while most looked like something out of a science fiction novel. Advanced Science indeed...

The only clear area of the room looked to be where they were standing, a small section of the room with a desk which looked starkly clean and tidy. A single computer and book rested on the desk and nothing else. Valery was standing in front of it looking between Flonne and Isabella in confusion.

"I assume your...issue involves your fairy," she said before her green eyes noticed Aviel and Sanders tiny forms on Flonne's shoulders. She began to stroke her brown ponytail, which she had draped over her shoulder, as her eyes narrowed.
"And your scouts as well."

"Yes, though Flonne and Aviel would be better at telling it. Flonne had an...issue and I wanted you to hear it and see what you thought about it," Isabella said. Valery nodded as she went back to her desk for something. She dug through a drawer until she came back with two devices she plugged into her ears and a noetpad with a pen.

"New invention I made a few days ago. Works like an ear-aid only its tuned to specifically pick up voices and magnify them. Should allow me to hear your scouts without the use of the radio or going deaf if you talk. Speaking of, turn them Aviel and...new scout. Someone might pick up their transmissions, otherwise, and I assume you want this keep on a need to know basis considering you smuggled yourselves into my office," Valery said as she flipped the notepad to a random page and leaned back against her desk.

Sanders looked around Flonne's neck at Aviel and gave her a "what the fuck" look. Aviel smirked at him before mouthing that he would get used to this. She turned off her radio as Sanders leaned back around and, hopefully, did the same. Flonne seemed a bit nervous in starting, but a reassuring smile from Isabella got her to start.

Flonne retold the story of what happened, with Aviel adding here and there again. Valery, at first, looked rather bored and seemed to at times be barely listening. That changed with Flonne began to talk of the visions. Valery look was dead serious and her eyes were either locked onto Flonne or her notepad. She paid the same level of attention to Aviel when she added things after that point as well. Any signs of boredom or inattentiveness were gone. She wrote down a number of things on the pad, evidently filling up two pages worth of notes. Finally, Flonne wrapped up the story with what had happened when her and Aviel were alone in Isabella's room.

Valery was silent as she turned back to her notes. She looked through the again before moving past Flonne and Isabella toward her equipment in the other part of the room. She began to mumble a few things to herself, but looked to have completely forgotten they were there. Instead, she began to pick up random books and thumb through them.

"Isa-" Sanders caught himself, "Flonne, ask Isabella if this is usual." Apparently Sanders had turned off his radio and had nearly forgotten. Flonne nodded and flew closer to Isabella. Aviel would have answered herself, but Flonne's voice was too loud to yell over.


"Isabella? Sanders wanted to know if this is usual," Flonne asked getting a slight chuckle from Isabella.

"Yes and its a good sign. Valery tends to be...obsessive when something gets her attention. She'll figure this out even if it takes her weeks to do," Isabella said as she looked down at Sanders. She turned back to Valery as she suddenly stopped mumbling and, instead, took a deep breathe. She sighed and stroked her ponytail again and seemed torn on something.

"What is it, Valery?" Isabella asked. Valery turned away and muttered something under her breath as she keep stroking her ponytail.
"Valery, tell me," Isabella said this time more forceful. Valery turned back and looked at Isabella's face before sighing and slumping a bit.

"Very well, but you will not like it," Valery said before moving back to her desk.

"First and foremost, I will have to admit to not being an expert on Monstergirls. Very few outside the Swords have intricate knowledge of them. Those outside of them, which includes myself, only know the bare bones, so my theories must be taken with that in account. However, the nano-bots themselves I AM well versed in having been one of the main designers of them. I can say they were never intended for use in Monstergirls, but I doubt they would have caused any harm to Flonne. They are programmed to detect if they are causing unneeded stress on the host and to cease function if they do. And while Flonne is not 100% human, she is close enough that the nano-bots should have affected her much the same as a human.

"However, that does not account for her strange visions and headaches. In that, I believe that may have been a side-effect caused by Flonne using her healing psychic powers," Valery said barely stopping for breath.

"Psychic healing? Don't you mean magic?" Sanders asked in confusion. Aviel was just as confused as he was. She had never heard of fairies magic being referred to as psychic powers. Valery turned an angry glare at Sanders.

"No, I mean psychic. There is no such thing as magic, despite what High Command seems obsessed with having normal people think. Useless idiots, what does it matter if they think its magic or psychic power?!" Valery said looking frustrated and about to continue with her rant. Isabella cur her off, though.

"Valery, that is supp-... let's focus on Flonne. You said Flonne's psychic healing caused the visions, what do you mean?" Isabella asked in a calming tone. Isabella stopped herself, but Aviel could guess what she had been about to say. Why would that have been a secret? She didn't have much time to think on that, though as Valery bite back her rant and sighed as she went back to explaining.

"Right, of course. Let me explain. The healing physic power causes the body's own natural healing to go into overdrive. This allows a person to heal from wounds at incredible rates and even heal wounds that would normally be fatal. However, this is much the same as what the nano-bots do as well though they do it by accelerating it themselves, rather than with outside force. This it stands to reason that having both affect her may have caused a doubling up of its affects. Normally, that would just mean Flonne would have healed completely in a matter of seconds rather than minutes or hours rather than days, however..." Valery paused her and seemed to debate again on whether to talk. She glanced up at Isabella again and sighed before continuing.

"However it could also allow a person to heal from injuries that normally would be permanent such as lost limbs, eyesight damage, or....or brain damage... Like what might be caused from a person who has had memory restructuring surgery," Valery said as Aviel felt her eyes go wide. Isabella reacted the same way before moving toward Valery.

"WHAT?! Are you...but she is a clone. Why would they do that to her?!" Isabella demanded to which Valery sighed even further.

"Because she is not a clone. If Flonne were a clone, their would have been no memory to recover. I am not an expert in Monstergirls, but I do know that clones retain none of the original memories. If Flonne was a clone, she would not be having strange visions of her past, as she would not HAVE a past to remember. Its the only explanation possible. Flonne is not a clone, but a person who has been mutated into a fairy," Valery said as she went back to stroking her ponytail. Isabella froze on the spot and stared at Valery with a face Aviel could not read. She turned away and began to rub her forehead in thought.

"That's...but then someone did..." Sanders said from around Flonne's throat. Flonne drifted down to the ground and flopped to the ground. She stayed there just staring straight ahead, her eyes seemingly staring off into another time and place.

Aviel couldn't believe it. There...there had to be some mistake. The Society COULDN'T have done this. Maybe it...maybe Flonne was a fluke or maybe... maybe...DAMMIT, THERE HAD TO BE A REASON, THERE HAD TO BE! She couldn't...if the Society was evil and the Resistance was evil too then what the hell was she supposed to do?! Who was she supposed to fight for? What was her point in living if the very people she needed to get revenge were just as evil as the people she wanted revenge against?! What-

Her thoughts were interrupted as Sanders spoke up.

"Fuck...if every monstergirl is like Flonne....fuck they are all PEOPLE! People they have used like experiments! And if High Command is lying about that and the magic stuff, what else are they lying to us about?" Sanders said in shock. It was more than Aviel could stand.

"Shut up, Sanders! We don't know if all of them are like Flonne or not. For all we know, Flonne is just a fluke maybe done by someone like Lutice. We can't condemn the entire Society on just this one instance and two lies they told us," Aviel said. She just couldn't accept they were bad. They couldn't be not after...

Sanders was about to fire back when Valery spoke up.

"Aviel has a point. Flonne might be a fluke, a captured child taken in either by a Sword who thought it would be funny or one who wanted to give her some form of mercy. With her Mother dead and the village she was in destroyed, her chances of survival would have been near zero. And since taking anyone from the outside into Atlanta is forbidden, maybe they decided turning her into a fairy would have been better. Or I may be wrong with how Monstergirls work and maybe they DO retain some memories. There are many possibilities and not all of them are condemning of the Society as a whole. We do have our good and bad eggs like all organizations," Valery stated without any hint of emotion.

"I...yeah...yeah you are right. Sorry, just...after being attacked by Swords and then this I...I guess I just wanted to believe they were evil in some way..." Sander said before swearing under his breath. Aviel stayed quiet letting Sanders stay to his own thoughts as she turned back to Isabella. Isabella turned back to Valery and looked to have made a decision.

"Valery, can you keep Flonne hidden here and get Sanders and Aviel to the tram? I need to go check on something," Isabella asked. Valery's eyebrow raised as she slowly nodded.

"Yyyyeeesss, though I have to wonder what you are checking on," Valery said eyeing Isabella. Isabella simply nodded and moved to the door without a word.

"One condition," Valery added quickly before Isabella could leave. Isabella stopped and turned back.
"Where are you going?"

"Outside Atlanta."