Shadow's Mirror
Shadow's Mirror
Written by Shadow Foxx IV and The Goddess Ix
© 2008
Shadow looked in the mirror and sighed. Would this really be the last time he would see that face? There was really no going back on the decision he had made now, but that wasn't to say he wouldn't have regrets. This was the only way, right? That's what he kept telling himself.
"Okay Shadow, just one more injection and I think we should be ready," Ix's voice came form behind. Shadow turned around to see the plump cow in the lab coat standing behind him holding up a syringe. A big syringe full of a glowing pink liquid. He turned around again and took another look in the mirror. Ix couldn't be seen; just the syringe which seemed to be floating in midair. Vampires… he thought distastefully.
"Is that stuff really safe?" Shadow asked turning back around to face her.
"It will be fine… probably…" Ix said nodding Shadow over to the examination table.
The cold metallic table was uncomfortable as Shadow sat down on it, just like everything else in Ix's basement lab. This is where everything went wrong in the first place, Shadow thought. And now here he was back for more. Fate was cruel.
"Hold on. This is going to hurt," Ix warned before jabbing the needle into his stomach.
"Ahh!" Shadow yipped at the pain, but in an instant it was gone. A warm liquid feeling replaced it. It was like an orgasm inside his stomach. "Oh… Oh that feels nice… Don't stop…"
"Like that do you?" Ix smirked. "It's the feeling of the reagent actively changing your DNA." Shadow's ears perked up a bit at the word "reagent' and Ix noticed the worried look on his face. "Don't worry, it's not the same stuff I used on Patches," she assured him. "Now, into the Recombinator!"
Ix took Shadow by the hand and led him over to a large dome shaped device with lots of cables running out of the top. It had a cheap sci-fi look to it; like something out of a B movie from the 60s, but then all of Ix's lab looked like that.
"Recombinator?" Shadow asked. "Hasn't that name been used somewhere before? This thing won't turn me into a fly will it?"
"Just shut up and let me do my work," Ix said with a ting of bitterness in her voice as she stepped over to a control panel and started clicking a sequence of large keys with Egyptian symbols on them. The dome was lifted up off the ground and a burst of steam was released from inside. "Remove all your clothing and step under the dome," she instructed.
Shadow nodded and pulled off his pants; his shirt having already been removed at the start of his examination. He could feel his whole body shivering. It wasn't exactly cold in the lab, but the idea of putting himself into Ix's hands was enough to send anyone into a panic. Anyone who really knew her, that is… Looking at the platform under the dome he wasn't sure if this was what he really wanted to do after all.
"Why are you hesitating? Hurry up and get under it," Ix ordered. "I have already given you the reagent so there's no turning back now. If you don't go into the Recombinator now before that warm feeling in your belly starts to fade it will begin to break down your DNA."
"What?" Shadow asked surprised. Leave it to Ix to forget to mention something as important as that.
"Unless you want to become a living blob of genetic slime I suggest finishing this."
Shadow gulped with his hands on his stomach and stepped up onto the platform. This wasn't the time to get cold paws. "Okay… I'm ready," he said with a nod to Ix.
"I really don't care if you are or not," the cow commented and pressed two more keys on her control panel. "Say goodbye!"
"Say what?" Shadow yipped in a panic but before he had time to do anything else the dome slammed down over him and he was trapped. "Ix, I didn't like that look in your eye! Let me out!" he screamed while banging on the inside walls of the dome.
Suddenly a strange currant, like static electricity, started to flow over him. It became hard to think. He didn't know what he was doing. All Shadow knew was that he felt sleepy. So sleepy…
* * *
The alarm clock went off waking Shadow from what he felt for sure was a very pleasant dream, although he couldn't remember any of it now. Slapping the clock with his paw he rolled back over and looked at the skunk lying next to him with a smile on her face.
"Morning hun," she said sleepily.
"Mmm…" Shadow murmured.
"You are so cute when you are like that," Chaku smirked.
"Like what?" Shadow asked then stopped as a gasp caught in his throat. The moment he spoke he could hear it. His voice had changed; become softer, more feminine. Shadow quickly pulled down the covers and took a look at his chest. The bumps that pressed up against the fabric of his shirt from underneath were small. Just barely big enough to be called a B cup. But they were there; his, or should I say her, breasts.
"Damn it, I became a female again…" Shadow moaned, letting the covers fall back over her body.
"You say it like it's a bad thing," Chaku grinned as she scooted a little closer and put her arms around Shadow. "But I think you make a very lovely vixen. Any male would be thrilled to have you between the sheets with him."
"And what good does that do for me when I'm mated to a gorgeous, buxom skunk?" Shadow asked with a playful smile as she hugged Chaku tightly to her body and let her paws start to wander over the skunk's form. Chaku giggled and joined Shadow in a little morning playtime. Both girls fondling and enjoying one another's bodies under the covers.
"Well you are lucky this skunk doesn't really care what sex her mate happens to be," Chaku grinned then started to pull Shadow's t-shirt off. She had just straddled Shadow's lap and had locked her lips to the vixen's in a passionate, love filled kiss when the bedroom door flew open quite suddenly.
"Mom! I can't believe you are cheating on dad right here in his own bed!" the young black hare who stood in the doorway shouted upon seeing the two of them in the position they were in.
"Who's cheating on your father?" Chaku asked slightly aggravated as she looked around to face her daughter. "Don't you have any manners Night? Knock before just barging into someone's bedroom! Especially if you can hear them having sex!"
Shadow, instinctively trying to cover her breasts with her paws, sat up and gave her daughter an awkward smile. "Umm… It's me, Night…"
"Oh…" Night said a little embarrassed; hir cheeks burning a bright red that was noticeable enough to be visible through hir black fur. "Sorry. When I walked by the door and heard the voice of another woman I sort of jumped to conclusions. I didn't realize it was that time of the month already."
"That time of the month?" Shadow asked a little confused, but Night had already left on hir way down the hall, closing the door behind hir.
"Shall we go get breakfast before the girls eat everything?" Chaku giggled, ignoring her mate's obvious confusion.
Breakfast was always a big ordeal in the Foxx household. With the eight main residents and the countless freeloaders who come and go like the tides, there were always a lot of mouths to feed. Especially with four teenage girls in the house. And it didn't help that one of them was a taurform who had two stomachs.
Nolly was already busy cooking eggs, bacon, and country fried steaks for the meat eating residents of the house, despite her own distaste for it, when Shadow and Chaku came down into the kitchen. Chaku noticed the kangaroo's face was starting to border on nauseous and quickly took over the cooking of the predatory portion of their breakfast so Nolly could get back to fixing up her famous vegemite toast and breakfast salads. Chaku got a bad taste in her mouth just thinking about the stuff.
Shadow quickly took a seat at the bar across from the stove area and reached over to grab the bowl Nolly had been breaking eggs into. She started adding the rest of the eggs in the carton that was sitting out while she waited for Chaku to finish the bacon. Nolly never mixed up enough scrambled eggs when she made breakfast.
The smell of the cooking food quickly brought Brit into the kitchen in a sleepy daze. The big cattaur froze when she saw the vixen sitting at the bar in one of Chaku's tight pink t-shirts and black skirts then realized who it was and nodded quietly to herself before padding over to the table and squatting down at her usual spot.
Next came Night and Ripp. Night went right to the cabinet to get the dishes needed to set the table, but the smaller kangaroo had the same reaction Brit had only moments before. "Oh… Hey there dad," she finally said as the realization that it was her adoptive father hit her.
"Morning Ripp," Shadow said with a nod then went back to mixing up the eggs.
"Yeah, I had the same reaction," Brit commented grinning at Ripp. "It still ketches me off guard every time when dad goes on his period."
"On my what?!" Shadow burst out, almost dropping the bowl of scrambled eggs.
"Well, Night started it," Brit explained. "Shi called your transformation period "that time of the month' one time when we were talking about it."
"It does happen every month like clockwork," Night nodded in agreement.
"And since the term "that time of the month' is most commonly used to refer to a girl's period…" Brit went on. "We started referring to the time of your transformation as your period. It fits if you think about it. It's just like it, only a male's version."
"So when males go on their period they turn into girls?" Ripp asked, not quite understanding the whole conversation since she was a kangaroo who could mate year round and didn't experience things like a period or going into heat.
"I'm not on my… Guys don't go on a period!" Shadow protested angrily.
"Still you have to admit Shaddy, it is a pretty convenient way of phrasing it," Nolly chuckled as she jabbed the vixen in the side with a playful punch.
"There's nothing convenient about it!" Shadow snapped back. "I turn into a female every month. How is that convenient? And now you guys are making it worse by saying stuff like this as if it's perfectly normal!"
"Well if it bothers you this much then why don't you go ask Ix if there is any way she can stop it from happening?" Chaku suggested.
"Ix? Are you crazy?" Shadow asked her mate in pure amazement that she would even suggest such a thing. "That cow is the reason this happens to me in the first place! Why on earth would I want to put my life in her hoofs again when I can just… when I can… Why would I…"
"Shaddy, are you okay?" Chaku asked concerned as her mate started to wobble back and forth on the stool she was sitting on.
"Shaddy your nose is bleeding!" Nolly shouted.
Shadow felt as if she was falling. She couldn't tell if she had fallen off of her stool or not because after the falling sensation she couldn't feel anything. Her whole body was numb. Then everything went dark and all voices around her faded out as well.
Shadow was cold. She knew she was cold and in knowing that realized that she was conscious. Although she had no idea where she was. Her vision was still blurred but it was slowly coming back, as was her hearing.
"Hey, Shaddy's awake!"
It was Nolly's voice. She would recognize it anywhere. It made her feel better just being able to hear her best friend's voice.
"Shadow, are you okay?" another voice asked. Shadow recognized this voice too, but this one didn't make her feel warm and safe like Nolly's had. This voice sent a chill up her spine and made her feel sick to her stomach.
Slowly her vision cleared out enough for her to see the hazy image of the cow's face looming over her. "Ix…" she choked out but her voice was weak and she suddenly realized she was having slight trouble breathing.
"Shaddy, it's okay," Chaku's voice assured him and the fuzzy image of the skunk's face flooded into his vision. "We brought you here after you collapsed this morning. Nolly and Chessy are here too."
"Shadow, can you hear me alright?" Ix asked.
"Yeah… But I can't see too well and… I'm having trouble with… my breathing," Shadow gasped.
"Alright, your vision we can fix later, but for the moment I'm going to give you an injection to help your breathing return to normal. Just don't ask what's in it," Ix giggled a bit to herself at that last part and Shadow felt a sharp pinch in her chest. Only moments after however she found that her breathing had returned to normal. This didn't make Shadow feel any better though. Ix had always been the real life incarnation of a comic book mad scientist. There was no telling what she had just been injected with.
"What happened?" Shadow asked now that she could breath easily again.
"Okay Shadow, you had a brain aneurism," Ix explained with a strange sound of concern in her voice. Something that was really quite out of character for the cow. "But you don't need to worry. I already operated on you and I must say I did a much better job then those hacks at a conventional hospital would have done. My lab is light years ahead of anything they have, as you well know."
"Ix says she did such a good job you won't have to worry about any side affects and she didn't even have to put any microcoils in your brain!" Chessy's voice exclaimed sounding as up beat as ever.
"Well that's only half true," Ix interrupted.
Shadow bit her bottom lip. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear this but really didn't see how she was going to avoid it. One way or another Ix was going to tell her, so she might as well ask now and spare herself the anticipation. "What do you mean?"
"There would be no side affects yes… Providing you never had another aneurism that is. But if you keep having them there's only so much I can do, even with my lab, and it will eventually kill you."
"And you think he… err… she, is going to keep having them?" Chaku asked.
"I know so," Ix replied sadly.
"What are you not telling me?" Shadow asked with a sigh.
"You see, this wasn't a normal brain aneurism. There was really no reason for you to have one except…" Ix paused and sighed. "I'm afraid it's my fault. Your shifting back and forth from male to female is what triggered it. I would have to run a few more tests to be completely sure, but it looks like your mind can't handle the constant change. You're not sure of who you are or what's happening to you and your mind can't determine if you are really real anymore because it doesn't have any stability. I know this must sound like something out of a TV show, but it's what's happening."
"I'm lost…" Chessy said sounding confused.
"Shaddy can't figure out if he's male or female so his brain is exploding," Nolly translated.
"To phrase it non-scientifically that's about right," Ix agreed.
"Ohhh…" Chessy said sounding like she had just figured out the plot to a really confusing story.
"So if I keep changing back and forth I'm going to die?" Shadow asked calmly.
"I'm afraid so…"
"Well isn't there something you can do?" Chaku asked a bit more franticly. Her voice was finally starting to show signs of fear. "You made him this way Ix. Can't you fix it?"
Ix sighed again. Shadow hardly ever heard her sigh. It was because when she did she knew she had a real problem on her hooves; one she wouldn't be able to fix easily. And that was something that just didn't happen all that often.
"I really don't know how I even triggered Shadow's transformation cycle in the first place. It was sort of a freak accident," Ix admitted. "So I really don't know how to reverse it. The only option I can think of… is a more permanent change."
"Are you thinking about her offer?"
It was the fifth time Chaku had asked and Shadow was starting to get a little aggravated at this point. She looked at her new pure white eyes in the bedroom mirror as Chaku sat in bed waiting for an answer. The damage to her vision caused by the aneurism would have been permanent by regular medical standards, but that was nothing to worry about as far as Ix was concerned. All Shadow needed was a quick eye transplant and everything would be fine. Ix had just the pair of eyes lying around in her lab.
When Shadow asked why her new eyes were solid white or who they had belonged to before now, she got the same answer Ix normally gave regarding such things. "Don't ask and you will be happier for not knowing.' But her new eyes worked just fine despite looking a little creepy, so Shadow could live with not knowing.
"Shaddy, are you listening to me?" Chaku asked again. "This isn't the sort of thing you can just ignore."
"What Ix is offering isn't really the kind of thing you just accept the moment it's offered," Shadow sighed as she turned away from the mirror and slipped into bed with her mate. "Do you really want me to be stuck like this, a vixen, for the rest of our lives?"
"If the only alternative is watching you die and becoming a widow then I don't think spending the rest of my life mated to a cute vixen is such a bad thing…" Chaku was concerned, afraid even. She was doing her best to hide it but Shadow could hear it in her voice. To be quite honest, the skunk was terrified.
"Have you thought about what a change like this would do to our family? What it would do to our relationship? We will both be females from hear on."
"Our relationship won't change any," Chaku assured her. "You're already a female for about a week out of every month anyways, and we all love you just the same. Myself included. You will still be my mate; male or female. And besides… We can still have sex like this if that is what you are worried about… I mean, it's not like we haven't already, you know?"
"What?" Shadow asked a little startled by what Chaku had just said about having sex. Sure the thought had already crossed her mind more then once. Just how would this affect their sex lives if she had to stay like this from now on? Yeah, they had had a little sex as females, but it was something Shadow still wasn't so sure about. She hadn't even been penetrated yet, and didn't know if she wanted to be. In a way you could say she was still a virgin.
"Well I do have this nice strap-on. I normally use it with Nolly on those lonely nights when you are out on business but it will fit you just fine I'm sure. So you can still yiff me or I can wear it if you want to find out what it's like to be yiffed now that you are a-"
"Chaku!" Shadow interjected. "I'm glad to know you are so supportive of this particular aspect of the situation, but at the moment determining how you and I are going to have sex is not quite the most prominent issue on my mind!"
"Lots of big words there. You don't normally break out the vocabulary unless you are really serious," Chaku said scooting up against the vixen and putting a paw around her waist, hugging her close and nuzzling her shoulder.
Shadow sighed lightly and turned her face to nuzzle it against Chaku's but refrained from kissing her; another sign that told the skunk how serious her mate was right now. Shadow normally always kissed Chaku when he nuzzled her. "The girls won't be able to call me "father' any more. They will have to call me "mother'. I'll no longer be your husband, but your wife…"
"Husband? Wife? You are still my mate," Chaku assured.
"I won't even be straight anymore," Shadow went on, gazing off into nothingness with her blank white eyes as if she didn't hear Chaku's words of encouragement. "I'll be a lesbian. What about my mother? She'll have lost her only son. And then there's my career? How is this going to change that?"
"You're a privet investigator who writes crime novels on the side. You can't still do that as a female?" Chaku asked confused.
"I'm sorry Chaku," Shadow said shaking her head as she forced herself back into the here and now. She gazed into her mate's one eye; the other covered by a gray eye patch that let only a little bit of a scar slip out from underneath. "I guess you have been through some hard changes already," she said slipping two of her fingers up under the patch and tracing them down the scar.
"I have," Chaku nodded placing her paw over Shadows and returning her gaze. "And I'll help you through this one just as you helped me adjust when I lost my eye." Chaku giggled a bit as the thought of her eye came to her. "I guess we have both lost eyes now haven't we?"
Shadow looked down with an inward sigh and turned around so that she was no longer facing Chaku. "I know I don't really have much of a choice… But I just don't know if I really want to go through with something like this."
There was a pause for a moment before Chaku said anything more. Then the skunk let go of her mate's paw and slid back over to her side of the bed. "Are you saying you would rather die then have to spend the rest of your life as a female?" she finally asked.
"Chaku…" Shadow started but was quickly cut off. The icy coldness of Chaku's voice, such a sudden change from the warmth and support she offered only moments before made the vixen shiver.
"If that is what you are saying then you are being selfish. Very selfish Shadow Foxx IV." She only ever used his full name with "the fourth' added on at the end when she was really mad at him. "Just what do you think your family is going to do without you if you selfishly allow yourself to die? You have two biological daughters, one adopted one, a wife, a kangaroo who is completely dependant on you, and a weird half sister of sorts who wouldn't even have the strength to go on living without you. Do you really think you can just abandon us because you don't want to deal with a hard change? Well I'm sorry but you have a responsibility to us."
"If we didn't know Ix… If she wasn't some kind of freak who was light years ahead of the rest of the medical community… Then we wouldn't even have such an option open to us!" Shadow stated in her defense.
"Is that how you justify this?" Chaku asked angrily as she stood up out of bed. "Because Ix is an Egyptian Goddess and modern-day mad scientist who by all rights shouldn't even exist, you think its okay to pass up her help? Maybe she shouldn't be allowed in our plain of existence, but she is here! And that means you have a responsibility to take her help. If you don't think so then I guess I can see just how much the others and I really mean to you."
"Chaku, wait!" Shadow called after her as the skunk stormed out of the room without even bothering to put any clothes on. Chaku just slammed the bedroom door shut behind her without saying a word, leaving Shadow alone to think about what had just happened. She was about to let out a sigh when the door opened back up and Chaku walked back in. The vixen's ears perked back up and she was about to say something when Chaku held up a finger to stop her. She then watched as Chaku pulled open a dresser drawer and retrieved her strap-on.
"I'll be sleeping with Nolly tonight," she said then left, slamming the door once again as she went.
"Hey dad, you getting out of bed any time soon?"
Shadow opened her eyes to the sound of her daughter Brit's voice. Her head was pounding. It was hard to think. The room felt like it was spinning.
"Oh, what happened?" Shadow moaned. She tried to think. After Chaku got pissed off and stormed out she pulled out that bottle of sake that was put up in the closet where Chessy wouldn't find it and… Oh but this couldn't be a hangover. She had only had one glass of the stuff. So what was this feeling?
"How should I know?" Brit shrugged. "Mom and Nolly left this morning for some "girl time' and you have been in bed all day. It's already after one…"
Shadow moaned and rubbed her aching head.
"Oh, did you realize you turned back into a male?" Brit asked.
"What?" Shadow said pulling up the sheets and taking a look at himself. Sure enough he was a guy again. The change had happened in his sleep once again. "Brit…" Shadow moaned as he tried to climb out of bed. His strength gave out however and he fell on the floor, his head pounding worse then before.
"Dad, are you okay?" Brit asked in a frightened voice as she quickly helped him back up. "Oh my god, your nose is bleeding!"
Shadow brought his paw up to his nose and felt something warm and wet. When he pulled it back away his paw was covered in blood. It was happening again. Just like Ix said it would. Only it was happening much faster this time.
"Ix…" he gasped… "Call…" He wasn't able to finish his instructions before everything went black again.
"Hey Shaddy… Hello! Earth to Shadow, do you read?"
"What the hell do you want Ix?" Shadow asked bitterly without opening his eyes. There was no need to look. He knew that annoying voice anywhere. Besides, he still had a headache and wanted to rest.
"You gave us a scare there," Ix sighed with relief. "I thought I was actually going to lose you a moment this time. Would have had to send a clone home with your daughter!" she laughed.
"Is Brit…?"
"Yeah, she's upstairs with my sister," Ix said in answer to his unasked question. "Along with Night and Ripp. They brought you in a little while ago. We haven't been able to get a hold of Chaku or Nolly yet. Chessy and Patches are out looking for them now."
"So it happened, didn't it?" Shadow asked despite already knowing the answer.
"Yeah," Ix sighed. "You had another brain aneurism. Can you tell me how quickly you had this one in comparison to the last one?"
"Last time I was up for about half an hour after waking up from my change before it happened. But this time I was already feeling it the moment I woke up. Why? What does that mean?"
"It means it's progressing faster then I had anticipated," Ix explained. "And it means that next time you change you won't wake up at all. It'll be over."
"So I have about a month to live?" Shadow asked with a sigh.
"Without treatment… yes."
"Okay then," Shadow said cheerfully, opening his eyes and sitting up on the examination table. He looked around the lab for the first time with interest. His sudden change in mood caused Ix to take a step back as if she expected him to do something rash. He had never looked this happy to be in her lab before. "Which of these contraptions here will turn me into a girl permanently?"
A sudden smile graced Ix's face and she quickly changed out her rubber gloves with a fresh pair. She gave them a snap and turned back to face Shadow. Her eyes were practically gleaming as she pulled the goggles that rested on the top of her head down over them. "Now we're talking! Right this way my little friend!"
* * *
The dome was raised back up off the floor and Shadow was aware of her surroundings once again. Ix started hooting and hollering in victory from behind the control panel, signifying that the procedure had been a success. Shadow looked down at her new female body to see for herself that everything had worked out the way Ix said it would. Sure enough, she was a vixen.
Shadow hadn't changed much in height. She was still her normal four foot, three inch self. However, her overall look had changed just slightly from the female form she had been changing back and forth from. For starters her hips were a bit more rounded then they had been before and her breasts where a bit bigger too. She didn't know anything about cup sizes or how to measure them but making an educated, or rather an uneducated guess, she would have put them at about as big as a B cup could go before becoming a C. Even her legs and arms seemed more shapely and feminine.
"Do you like it?" Ix asked still laughing happily to herself a little. "You'll notice it's a little different from how you use to look. That's because you no longer have any male DNA in your makeup. As of now you are completely female, one hundred percent, in every way. This way there is no male DNA for you to revert back to."
"Wait, you mean that's all there was to it?" Shadow asked looking up at Ix wide eyed in surprise. "All you had to do was destroy my male DNA? Then why didn't you just get rid of the female DNA instead if it was that simple?"
"Don't you ever pay attention when I'm talking to you Shaddy?" Ix asked shaking her head as she took the vixen by the paw and led her down and out from under the dome. "As I said before, I don't even know how I gave you that female DNA so there was no way for me to trace down its roots and eliminate it. Your male DNA on the other hand had always been there and was easy to seek out and destroy, so to speak… Leaving your female DNA to fill in the gaps from wherever it is it's coming from and take over. I'm just glad it worked. Since it wasn't the dominate strand I wasn't really sure if it would actually take over once I did kill the dominate strand."
Shadow stopped as the horror of what could have just happened sunk in. "Are… are you saying I could have been killed just now?" she asked in a shaky voice.
"Well not necessarily killed, but you would have been turned into a blob of slime for sure," the cow nodded.
"And you let me go through that thing knowing I could have become slime?!" she screamed angrily.
"Well I did tell you. It's not my fault you weren't listening to me when I-"
"This is why I can't stand you!" Shadow shouted, cutting Ix off in the middle of her sentence. "Where are my clothes? I'm leaving this mad house!"
Ix smiled smugly. Shadow was suddenly back to her old self again. She had been a bit worried when the fox had shown that sudden interest in going through with the procedure earlier. But it was nice to have things back the way they should be.
"Alright girls, let's get out of here!" Shadow yelled as she practically burst through the door that led up from Ix's lab.
Brit, Night, and Ripp, along with Ix's sister, Annabelle, all looked up from where they had been sitting around the living room coffee table playing a card game. The new vixen standing before them dressed in Shadow's black silk pajamas and scowling with an angry face was a bit of a shock at first but it quickly dawned on everyone just who they were looking at.
"Dad! You're okay!" Night squealed and shot up from the floor to pounce the vixen. They both tumbled to the floor with the hare sitting on top of the vixen's chest, looking down at her. "You're face looks different…"
"So dose the rest of her," Brit pointed out.
"Oh my, Shaddy… You didn't let my sister stick you in that machine of hers did you?" Annabelle asked as she hurried over and pulled Night off of the crushed vixen. "That was incredibly dangerous. Are you sure you are okay?"
"I'll be better the sooner I get out of here," Shadow gasped after having the wind knocked out of her.
"Umm… Dad?" Ripp asked somewhat timidly from off to the side. She looked as if she wanted to approach her adoptive father but was unsure of this new vixen before her. "Is this going to be… permanent?"
Night and Brit both looked from their sister to the vixen who had been their father with new concern on their faces. "You mean you aren't going to be our dad anymore?" Night asked.
"That's right! From this moment on you will have to call her mom," Ix said coming up the stairs behind Shadow.
"Ix! Statements like that are not going to make the situation any easier on them," Annabelle scolded giving her sister an angry glance.
"No girls, I'm still your father if that's what you want me to be," Shadow said trying her best to reassure her daughters before turning around to give Ix a hateful glare. "But I would really rather talk about this back at home where we don't have to worry about bothersome cows butting their noses in on things that don't concern them."
"Sure Shaddy, you've had a trying experience," Annabelle said hurriedly helping the vixen back up and herding her and her daughters towards the door. "You should go home and get this all sorted out with your family. Don't worry, I'll be by later this week to check on you and make sure everything is okay. I won't let my sister near you for a while okay?"
"I'd appreciate that," Shadow said with a nod and a bit of sour resentment in her voice towards the topic of Annabelle's sister.
"Okay then off you girls go. You have a lot to talk about I'm sure. I don't know exactly what Ix did… yet… but let me apologize in advance." And with that Annabelle had shoved them all out the door and closed it behind them. No sooner then had this been done she quickly turned around to face her sister.
"Don't give me that look," Ix said rolling her eyes and pulling her gloves off as she plopped down on the couch.
"What do you think you are doing?" Annabelle asked in disbelief. "It's bad enough you had to screw up her DNA, but trying to fuck with her head and the heads of her daughters like that too?"
"Honestly sister, such language…"
"Ix, I thought you were finished with all that? First the clone, then the whole vampirism incident, then what you did to his daughters, Patches, and the experiment that started this whole mess with him changing into a female."
"Yes, I'm very aware of everything I've done to our dear Shadow," Ix nodded. "What are you getting at?"
Annabelle sighed heavily and put her hoofed hands on her hips. She could see that this wasn't getting her anywhere. It was like trying to talk to a brick wall. A heartless, scheming, and downright evil brick wall, but a brick wall nonetheless. "Don't you think you've done enough to the poor fox?" she asked exasperated.
Ix patted the spot on the couch next to her motioning for Annabelle to come sit down with her. At first Annabelle just looked at her sister in disgust but Ix gave her that look she always used to turn her sister to her will. Those big puppy dog eyes and that innocent smile with her fangs just barely poking out from behind the lips was so cute in a strangely creepy way that it always worked on poor Annabelle for some reason. Finally giving in she sat down next to Ix allowing her to put an arm around her shoulder.
"Now I know you don't always agree with your big sister's methods, but what I do to that fox is very important for "The Outcome'. You know this."
Annabelle sighed and rolled her eyes. Again with this "Outcome' stuff. She didn't understand it and probably never would. It all seemed so pointless to her. But whenever Ix needed her to sit back and keep out of things while she made life harder for Shadow and his family she started going on about this apocalyptic end of the world prophecy crap called "The Outcome'. Something Annabelle herself would never understand being only a half goddess.
"I know you don't understand it right now," Ix continued. "But don't you fret. It will all come together soon." She then patted Annabelle on the head, got back up, and started towards the door leading back down to the lab when Annabelle stopped her.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"I just remembered I left something running down in the lab," Ix said with a grin and left her sister in the living room. She hurried back down to the lab and locked the door behind her. A large screen on a seemingly unimportant and unattached device next to the Recombinator was flashing the words "Sample Collection Complete".
Ix quickly tapped the screen and a touch screen menu popped up. "Perfect…" she mused as she looked over the data. After reading it she closed down the program and walked over to a large tube full of a dark liquid that was set up in another strange looking device in a dark corner of the lab. A quick flip of a switch on the device and an ultraviolet light illuminated the liquid, allowing one to see through it as clearly as water, where as it had been so murky only moments before that nothing could be seen in it. The liquid was affectionately called "fog juice" and was one of Ix's own inventions. But it was what was hidden inside the fog juice that was probably the most interesting thing to behold.
"It won't be long now Wodahs…" Ix said running her hoof along the glass of the tube that contained a motionless fennec fox who bore the blended features of both Shadow and Ix.
* * *
~Epilogue~
Shadow smiled as she wrapped her arms around Chaku and nuzzled the skunk's face under the covers of their bed. It had been three weeks since she had come home from Ix's lab as a full vixen and things were just starting to settle down. The girls had finally accepted the idea that there father would be a woman from now on and had started calling her "Momma Shaddy'. It was a little strange at first, and Shadow had been a little upset that they didn't call her dad anymore, but once she realized that they were still treating her with the same insolence, disrespect, and cheekiness they had when she was a male it really didn't seem to matter.
Nolly and Chaku came around much faster then the girls had. The fact that the both of them were already bisexual helped quite a bit when it came to excepting her the way she was. Shadow had been a bit worried about how she herself would feel towards them at first. Seeing as how she had been changed into a female right down to her very DNA she wasn't sure if she was still going to like girls or if she would want a male mate. But luckily for everyone, Shadow found that she was quite the little lesbian. Having lived her whole life as a male up until this point was probably the reason for this. You could change someone's DNA in an instant, but their mindset took years to build up, and would take just as long to tare down.
But no one was complaining about it. Especially not Chaku, who was very happy to know that her mate still held sexual interests in her. She expressed this by pulling Shadow up against her, wrapping her arms and legs around her, and pressing her lips up against the vixen's in a long, deep kiss. "Oh Shaddy, I love you so much…" she whispered as she broke the kiss.
"I know," Shadow said softly running her fingers through Chaku's fur. "You've told me that more times in the last three weeks then you ever did when I was a male."
"I just want to make sure you know how I feel," Chaku said giving Shadow a slight frown. "I want you to know that this hasn't changed a thing between us. You were so upset and worried before going through with the procedure, I just want to assure you, that's all. Annabelle said I should give you lots of support while you adjust to your new life."
"Oh well if Annabelle said…" Shadow said mockingly and rolling her eyes. Although with her new all white eyes it was hard to really tell what she was doing.
"Hey, I just want you to be happy," Chaku said giving her mate another kiss.
"There is one thing that's bothering me," Shadow said after Chaku broke the kiss.
"Oh? And what's that?"
"I haven't been able to get a hold of my mother since this happened."
"Well you know how hard it is to track her down once she goes off on one of her little walkabouts," Chaku said.
"Yeah I know," Shadow agreed. "But I just don't know how she's going to take it if she pops back up again like she always does only to find that her one and only son has had a sex change and she wasn't even informed…"
"Hey, don't worry about your mom. No matter what happens she'll love you. You know that," Chaku assured Shadow, hugging her tightly and practically smothering the little vixen with her large breasts. "But should it be a problem, we will deal with it together, okay? I know this is a big change and things are going to be hard for a while, but I'm right here for you."
"Thanks Chaku…"
Shadow, Chaku, Nolly, Chessy, Patches Brit, Night, and Ripp are all © ThreeFur Productions
Ix and Annabelle are © The Goddess Ix
Written by Shadow Foxx IV and The Goddess Ix
© 2008
Shadow looked in the mirror and sighed. Would this really be the last time he would see that face? There was really no going back on the decision he had made now, but that wasn't to say he wouldn't have regrets. This was the only way, right? That's what he kept telling himself.
"Okay Shadow, just one more injection and I think we should be ready," Ix's voice came form behind. Shadow turned around to see the plump cow in the lab coat standing behind him holding up a syringe. A big syringe full of a glowing pink liquid. He turned around again and took another look in the mirror. Ix couldn't be seen; just the syringe which seemed to be floating in midair. Vampires… he thought distastefully.
"Is that stuff really safe?" Shadow asked turning back around to face her.
"It will be fine… probably…" Ix said nodding Shadow over to the examination table.
The cold metallic table was uncomfortable as Shadow sat down on it, just like everything else in Ix's basement lab. This is where everything went wrong in the first place, Shadow thought. And now here he was back for more. Fate was cruel.
"Hold on. This is going to hurt," Ix warned before jabbing the needle into his stomach.
"Ahh!" Shadow yipped at the pain, but in an instant it was gone. A warm liquid feeling replaced it. It was like an orgasm inside his stomach. "Oh… Oh that feels nice… Don't stop…"
"Like that do you?" Ix smirked. "It's the feeling of the reagent actively changing your DNA." Shadow's ears perked up a bit at the word "reagent' and Ix noticed the worried look on his face. "Don't worry, it's not the same stuff I used on Patches," she assured him. "Now, into the Recombinator!"
Ix took Shadow by the hand and led him over to a large dome shaped device with lots of cables running out of the top. It had a cheap sci-fi look to it; like something out of a B movie from the 60s, but then all of Ix's lab looked like that.
"Recombinator?" Shadow asked. "Hasn't that name been used somewhere before? This thing won't turn me into a fly will it?"
"Just shut up and let me do my work," Ix said with a ting of bitterness in her voice as she stepped over to a control panel and started clicking a sequence of large keys with Egyptian symbols on them. The dome was lifted up off the ground and a burst of steam was released from inside. "Remove all your clothing and step under the dome," she instructed.
Shadow nodded and pulled off his pants; his shirt having already been removed at the start of his examination. He could feel his whole body shivering. It wasn't exactly cold in the lab, but the idea of putting himself into Ix's hands was enough to send anyone into a panic. Anyone who really knew her, that is… Looking at the platform under the dome he wasn't sure if this was what he really wanted to do after all.
"Why are you hesitating? Hurry up and get under it," Ix ordered. "I have already given you the reagent so there's no turning back now. If you don't go into the Recombinator now before that warm feeling in your belly starts to fade it will begin to break down your DNA."
"What?" Shadow asked surprised. Leave it to Ix to forget to mention something as important as that.
"Unless you want to become a living blob of genetic slime I suggest finishing this."
Shadow gulped with his hands on his stomach and stepped up onto the platform. This wasn't the time to get cold paws. "Okay… I'm ready," he said with a nod to Ix.
"I really don't care if you are or not," the cow commented and pressed two more keys on her control panel. "Say goodbye!"
"Say what?" Shadow yipped in a panic but before he had time to do anything else the dome slammed down over him and he was trapped. "Ix, I didn't like that look in your eye! Let me out!" he screamed while banging on the inside walls of the dome.
Suddenly a strange currant, like static electricity, started to flow over him. It became hard to think. He didn't know what he was doing. All Shadow knew was that he felt sleepy. So sleepy…
* * *
The alarm clock went off waking Shadow from what he felt for sure was a very pleasant dream, although he couldn't remember any of it now. Slapping the clock with his paw he rolled back over and looked at the skunk lying next to him with a smile on her face.
"Morning hun," she said sleepily.
"Mmm…" Shadow murmured.
"You are so cute when you are like that," Chaku smirked.
"Like what?" Shadow asked then stopped as a gasp caught in his throat. The moment he spoke he could hear it. His voice had changed; become softer, more feminine. Shadow quickly pulled down the covers and took a look at his chest. The bumps that pressed up against the fabric of his shirt from underneath were small. Just barely big enough to be called a B cup. But they were there; his, or should I say her, breasts.
"Damn it, I became a female again…" Shadow moaned, letting the covers fall back over her body.
"You say it like it's a bad thing," Chaku grinned as she scooted a little closer and put her arms around Shadow. "But I think you make a very lovely vixen. Any male would be thrilled to have you between the sheets with him."
"And what good does that do for me when I'm mated to a gorgeous, buxom skunk?" Shadow asked with a playful smile as she hugged Chaku tightly to her body and let her paws start to wander over the skunk's form. Chaku giggled and joined Shadow in a little morning playtime. Both girls fondling and enjoying one another's bodies under the covers.
"Well you are lucky this skunk doesn't really care what sex her mate happens to be," Chaku grinned then started to pull Shadow's t-shirt off. She had just straddled Shadow's lap and had locked her lips to the vixen's in a passionate, love filled kiss when the bedroom door flew open quite suddenly.
"Mom! I can't believe you are cheating on dad right here in his own bed!" the young black hare who stood in the doorway shouted upon seeing the two of them in the position they were in.
"Who's cheating on your father?" Chaku asked slightly aggravated as she looked around to face her daughter. "Don't you have any manners Night? Knock before just barging into someone's bedroom! Especially if you can hear them having sex!"
Shadow, instinctively trying to cover her breasts with her paws, sat up and gave her daughter an awkward smile. "Umm… It's me, Night…"
"Oh…" Night said a little embarrassed; hir cheeks burning a bright red that was noticeable enough to be visible through hir black fur. "Sorry. When I walked by the door and heard the voice of another woman I sort of jumped to conclusions. I didn't realize it was that time of the month already."
"That time of the month?" Shadow asked a little confused, but Night had already left on hir way down the hall, closing the door behind hir.
"Shall we go get breakfast before the girls eat everything?" Chaku giggled, ignoring her mate's obvious confusion.
Breakfast was always a big ordeal in the Foxx household. With the eight main residents and the countless freeloaders who come and go like the tides, there were always a lot of mouths to feed. Especially with four teenage girls in the house. And it didn't help that one of them was a taurform who had two stomachs.
Nolly was already busy cooking eggs, bacon, and country fried steaks for the meat eating residents of the house, despite her own distaste for it, when Shadow and Chaku came down into the kitchen. Chaku noticed the kangaroo's face was starting to border on nauseous and quickly took over the cooking of the predatory portion of their breakfast so Nolly could get back to fixing up her famous vegemite toast and breakfast salads. Chaku got a bad taste in her mouth just thinking about the stuff.
Shadow quickly took a seat at the bar across from the stove area and reached over to grab the bowl Nolly had been breaking eggs into. She started adding the rest of the eggs in the carton that was sitting out while she waited for Chaku to finish the bacon. Nolly never mixed up enough scrambled eggs when she made breakfast.
The smell of the cooking food quickly brought Brit into the kitchen in a sleepy daze. The big cattaur froze when she saw the vixen sitting at the bar in one of Chaku's tight pink t-shirts and black skirts then realized who it was and nodded quietly to herself before padding over to the table and squatting down at her usual spot.
Next came Night and Ripp. Night went right to the cabinet to get the dishes needed to set the table, but the smaller kangaroo had the same reaction Brit had only moments before. "Oh… Hey there dad," she finally said as the realization that it was her adoptive father hit her.
"Morning Ripp," Shadow said with a nod then went back to mixing up the eggs.
"Yeah, I had the same reaction," Brit commented grinning at Ripp. "It still ketches me off guard every time when dad goes on his period."
"On my what?!" Shadow burst out, almost dropping the bowl of scrambled eggs.
"Well, Night started it," Brit explained. "Shi called your transformation period "that time of the month' one time when we were talking about it."
"It does happen every month like clockwork," Night nodded in agreement.
"And since the term "that time of the month' is most commonly used to refer to a girl's period…" Brit went on. "We started referring to the time of your transformation as your period. It fits if you think about it. It's just like it, only a male's version."
"So when males go on their period they turn into girls?" Ripp asked, not quite understanding the whole conversation since she was a kangaroo who could mate year round and didn't experience things like a period or going into heat.
"I'm not on my… Guys don't go on a period!" Shadow protested angrily.
"Still you have to admit Shaddy, it is a pretty convenient way of phrasing it," Nolly chuckled as she jabbed the vixen in the side with a playful punch.
"There's nothing convenient about it!" Shadow snapped back. "I turn into a female every month. How is that convenient? And now you guys are making it worse by saying stuff like this as if it's perfectly normal!"
"Well if it bothers you this much then why don't you go ask Ix if there is any way she can stop it from happening?" Chaku suggested.
"Ix? Are you crazy?" Shadow asked her mate in pure amazement that she would even suggest such a thing. "That cow is the reason this happens to me in the first place! Why on earth would I want to put my life in her hoofs again when I can just… when I can… Why would I…"
"Shaddy, are you okay?" Chaku asked concerned as her mate started to wobble back and forth on the stool she was sitting on.
"Shaddy your nose is bleeding!" Nolly shouted.
Shadow felt as if she was falling. She couldn't tell if she had fallen off of her stool or not because after the falling sensation she couldn't feel anything. Her whole body was numb. Then everything went dark and all voices around her faded out as well.
Shadow was cold. She knew she was cold and in knowing that realized that she was conscious. Although she had no idea where she was. Her vision was still blurred but it was slowly coming back, as was her hearing.
"Hey, Shaddy's awake!"
It was Nolly's voice. She would recognize it anywhere. It made her feel better just being able to hear her best friend's voice.
"Shadow, are you okay?" another voice asked. Shadow recognized this voice too, but this one didn't make her feel warm and safe like Nolly's had. This voice sent a chill up her spine and made her feel sick to her stomach.
Slowly her vision cleared out enough for her to see the hazy image of the cow's face looming over her. "Ix…" she choked out but her voice was weak and she suddenly realized she was having slight trouble breathing.
"Shaddy, it's okay," Chaku's voice assured him and the fuzzy image of the skunk's face flooded into his vision. "We brought you here after you collapsed this morning. Nolly and Chessy are here too."
"Shadow, can you hear me alright?" Ix asked.
"Yeah… But I can't see too well and… I'm having trouble with… my breathing," Shadow gasped.
"Alright, your vision we can fix later, but for the moment I'm going to give you an injection to help your breathing return to normal. Just don't ask what's in it," Ix giggled a bit to herself at that last part and Shadow felt a sharp pinch in her chest. Only moments after however she found that her breathing had returned to normal. This didn't make Shadow feel any better though. Ix had always been the real life incarnation of a comic book mad scientist. There was no telling what she had just been injected with.
"What happened?" Shadow asked now that she could breath easily again.
"Okay Shadow, you had a brain aneurism," Ix explained with a strange sound of concern in her voice. Something that was really quite out of character for the cow. "But you don't need to worry. I already operated on you and I must say I did a much better job then those hacks at a conventional hospital would have done. My lab is light years ahead of anything they have, as you well know."
"Ix says she did such a good job you won't have to worry about any side affects and she didn't even have to put any microcoils in your brain!" Chessy's voice exclaimed sounding as up beat as ever.
"Well that's only half true," Ix interrupted.
Shadow bit her bottom lip. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear this but really didn't see how she was going to avoid it. One way or another Ix was going to tell her, so she might as well ask now and spare herself the anticipation. "What do you mean?"
"There would be no side affects yes… Providing you never had another aneurism that is. But if you keep having them there's only so much I can do, even with my lab, and it will eventually kill you."
"And you think he… err… she, is going to keep having them?" Chaku asked.
"I know so," Ix replied sadly.
"What are you not telling me?" Shadow asked with a sigh.
"You see, this wasn't a normal brain aneurism. There was really no reason for you to have one except…" Ix paused and sighed. "I'm afraid it's my fault. Your shifting back and forth from male to female is what triggered it. I would have to run a few more tests to be completely sure, but it looks like your mind can't handle the constant change. You're not sure of who you are or what's happening to you and your mind can't determine if you are really real anymore because it doesn't have any stability. I know this must sound like something out of a TV show, but it's what's happening."
"I'm lost…" Chessy said sounding confused.
"Shaddy can't figure out if he's male or female so his brain is exploding," Nolly translated.
"To phrase it non-scientifically that's about right," Ix agreed.
"Ohhh…" Chessy said sounding like she had just figured out the plot to a really confusing story.
"So if I keep changing back and forth I'm going to die?" Shadow asked calmly.
"I'm afraid so…"
"Well isn't there something you can do?" Chaku asked a bit more franticly. Her voice was finally starting to show signs of fear. "You made him this way Ix. Can't you fix it?"
Ix sighed again. Shadow hardly ever heard her sigh. It was because when she did she knew she had a real problem on her hooves; one she wouldn't be able to fix easily. And that was something that just didn't happen all that often.
"I really don't know how I even triggered Shadow's transformation cycle in the first place. It was sort of a freak accident," Ix admitted. "So I really don't know how to reverse it. The only option I can think of… is a more permanent change."
"Are you thinking about her offer?"
It was the fifth time Chaku had asked and Shadow was starting to get a little aggravated at this point. She looked at her new pure white eyes in the bedroom mirror as Chaku sat in bed waiting for an answer. The damage to her vision caused by the aneurism would have been permanent by regular medical standards, but that was nothing to worry about as far as Ix was concerned. All Shadow needed was a quick eye transplant and everything would be fine. Ix had just the pair of eyes lying around in her lab.
When Shadow asked why her new eyes were solid white or who they had belonged to before now, she got the same answer Ix normally gave regarding such things. "Don't ask and you will be happier for not knowing.' But her new eyes worked just fine despite looking a little creepy, so Shadow could live with not knowing.
"Shaddy, are you listening to me?" Chaku asked again. "This isn't the sort of thing you can just ignore."
"What Ix is offering isn't really the kind of thing you just accept the moment it's offered," Shadow sighed as she turned away from the mirror and slipped into bed with her mate. "Do you really want me to be stuck like this, a vixen, for the rest of our lives?"
"If the only alternative is watching you die and becoming a widow then I don't think spending the rest of my life mated to a cute vixen is such a bad thing…" Chaku was concerned, afraid even. She was doing her best to hide it but Shadow could hear it in her voice. To be quite honest, the skunk was terrified.
"Have you thought about what a change like this would do to our family? What it would do to our relationship? We will both be females from hear on."
"Our relationship won't change any," Chaku assured her. "You're already a female for about a week out of every month anyways, and we all love you just the same. Myself included. You will still be my mate; male or female. And besides… We can still have sex like this if that is what you are worried about… I mean, it's not like we haven't already, you know?"
"What?" Shadow asked a little startled by what Chaku had just said about having sex. Sure the thought had already crossed her mind more then once. Just how would this affect their sex lives if she had to stay like this from now on? Yeah, they had had a little sex as females, but it was something Shadow still wasn't so sure about. She hadn't even been penetrated yet, and didn't know if she wanted to be. In a way you could say she was still a virgin.
"Well I do have this nice strap-on. I normally use it with Nolly on those lonely nights when you are out on business but it will fit you just fine I'm sure. So you can still yiff me or I can wear it if you want to find out what it's like to be yiffed now that you are a-"
"Chaku!" Shadow interjected. "I'm glad to know you are so supportive of this particular aspect of the situation, but at the moment determining how you and I are going to have sex is not quite the most prominent issue on my mind!"
"Lots of big words there. You don't normally break out the vocabulary unless you are really serious," Chaku said scooting up against the vixen and putting a paw around her waist, hugging her close and nuzzling her shoulder.
Shadow sighed lightly and turned her face to nuzzle it against Chaku's but refrained from kissing her; another sign that told the skunk how serious her mate was right now. Shadow normally always kissed Chaku when he nuzzled her. "The girls won't be able to call me "father' any more. They will have to call me "mother'. I'll no longer be your husband, but your wife…"
"Husband? Wife? You are still my mate," Chaku assured.
"I won't even be straight anymore," Shadow went on, gazing off into nothingness with her blank white eyes as if she didn't hear Chaku's words of encouragement. "I'll be a lesbian. What about my mother? She'll have lost her only son. And then there's my career? How is this going to change that?"
"You're a privet investigator who writes crime novels on the side. You can't still do that as a female?" Chaku asked confused.
"I'm sorry Chaku," Shadow said shaking her head as she forced herself back into the here and now. She gazed into her mate's one eye; the other covered by a gray eye patch that let only a little bit of a scar slip out from underneath. "I guess you have been through some hard changes already," she said slipping two of her fingers up under the patch and tracing them down the scar.
"I have," Chaku nodded placing her paw over Shadows and returning her gaze. "And I'll help you through this one just as you helped me adjust when I lost my eye." Chaku giggled a bit as the thought of her eye came to her. "I guess we have both lost eyes now haven't we?"
Shadow looked down with an inward sigh and turned around so that she was no longer facing Chaku. "I know I don't really have much of a choice… But I just don't know if I really want to go through with something like this."
There was a pause for a moment before Chaku said anything more. Then the skunk let go of her mate's paw and slid back over to her side of the bed. "Are you saying you would rather die then have to spend the rest of your life as a female?" she finally asked.
"Chaku…" Shadow started but was quickly cut off. The icy coldness of Chaku's voice, such a sudden change from the warmth and support she offered only moments before made the vixen shiver.
"If that is what you are saying then you are being selfish. Very selfish Shadow Foxx IV." She only ever used his full name with "the fourth' added on at the end when she was really mad at him. "Just what do you think your family is going to do without you if you selfishly allow yourself to die? You have two biological daughters, one adopted one, a wife, a kangaroo who is completely dependant on you, and a weird half sister of sorts who wouldn't even have the strength to go on living without you. Do you really think you can just abandon us because you don't want to deal with a hard change? Well I'm sorry but you have a responsibility to us."
"If we didn't know Ix… If she wasn't some kind of freak who was light years ahead of the rest of the medical community… Then we wouldn't even have such an option open to us!" Shadow stated in her defense.
"Is that how you justify this?" Chaku asked angrily as she stood up out of bed. "Because Ix is an Egyptian Goddess and modern-day mad scientist who by all rights shouldn't even exist, you think its okay to pass up her help? Maybe she shouldn't be allowed in our plain of existence, but she is here! And that means you have a responsibility to take her help. If you don't think so then I guess I can see just how much the others and I really mean to you."
"Chaku, wait!" Shadow called after her as the skunk stormed out of the room without even bothering to put any clothes on. Chaku just slammed the bedroom door shut behind her without saying a word, leaving Shadow alone to think about what had just happened. She was about to let out a sigh when the door opened back up and Chaku walked back in. The vixen's ears perked back up and she was about to say something when Chaku held up a finger to stop her. She then watched as Chaku pulled open a dresser drawer and retrieved her strap-on.
"I'll be sleeping with Nolly tonight," she said then left, slamming the door once again as she went.
"Hey dad, you getting out of bed any time soon?"
Shadow opened her eyes to the sound of her daughter Brit's voice. Her head was pounding. It was hard to think. The room felt like it was spinning.
"Oh, what happened?" Shadow moaned. She tried to think. After Chaku got pissed off and stormed out she pulled out that bottle of sake that was put up in the closet where Chessy wouldn't find it and… Oh but this couldn't be a hangover. She had only had one glass of the stuff. So what was this feeling?
"How should I know?" Brit shrugged. "Mom and Nolly left this morning for some "girl time' and you have been in bed all day. It's already after one…"
Shadow moaned and rubbed her aching head.
"Oh, did you realize you turned back into a male?" Brit asked.
"What?" Shadow said pulling up the sheets and taking a look at himself. Sure enough he was a guy again. The change had happened in his sleep once again. "Brit…" Shadow moaned as he tried to climb out of bed. His strength gave out however and he fell on the floor, his head pounding worse then before.
"Dad, are you okay?" Brit asked in a frightened voice as she quickly helped him back up. "Oh my god, your nose is bleeding!"
Shadow brought his paw up to his nose and felt something warm and wet. When he pulled it back away his paw was covered in blood. It was happening again. Just like Ix said it would. Only it was happening much faster this time.
"Ix…" he gasped… "Call…" He wasn't able to finish his instructions before everything went black again.
"Hey Shaddy… Hello! Earth to Shadow, do you read?"
"What the hell do you want Ix?" Shadow asked bitterly without opening his eyes. There was no need to look. He knew that annoying voice anywhere. Besides, he still had a headache and wanted to rest.
"You gave us a scare there," Ix sighed with relief. "I thought I was actually going to lose you a moment this time. Would have had to send a clone home with your daughter!" she laughed.
"Is Brit…?"
"Yeah, she's upstairs with my sister," Ix said in answer to his unasked question. "Along with Night and Ripp. They brought you in a little while ago. We haven't been able to get a hold of Chaku or Nolly yet. Chessy and Patches are out looking for them now."
"So it happened, didn't it?" Shadow asked despite already knowing the answer.
"Yeah," Ix sighed. "You had another brain aneurism. Can you tell me how quickly you had this one in comparison to the last one?"
"Last time I was up for about half an hour after waking up from my change before it happened. But this time I was already feeling it the moment I woke up. Why? What does that mean?"
"It means it's progressing faster then I had anticipated," Ix explained. "And it means that next time you change you won't wake up at all. It'll be over."
"So I have about a month to live?" Shadow asked with a sigh.
"Without treatment… yes."
"Okay then," Shadow said cheerfully, opening his eyes and sitting up on the examination table. He looked around the lab for the first time with interest. His sudden change in mood caused Ix to take a step back as if she expected him to do something rash. He had never looked this happy to be in her lab before. "Which of these contraptions here will turn me into a girl permanently?"
A sudden smile graced Ix's face and she quickly changed out her rubber gloves with a fresh pair. She gave them a snap and turned back to face Shadow. Her eyes were practically gleaming as she pulled the goggles that rested on the top of her head down over them. "Now we're talking! Right this way my little friend!"
* * *
The dome was raised back up off the floor and Shadow was aware of her surroundings once again. Ix started hooting and hollering in victory from behind the control panel, signifying that the procedure had been a success. Shadow looked down at her new female body to see for herself that everything had worked out the way Ix said it would. Sure enough, she was a vixen.
Shadow hadn't changed much in height. She was still her normal four foot, three inch self. However, her overall look had changed just slightly from the female form she had been changing back and forth from. For starters her hips were a bit more rounded then they had been before and her breasts where a bit bigger too. She didn't know anything about cup sizes or how to measure them but making an educated, or rather an uneducated guess, she would have put them at about as big as a B cup could go before becoming a C. Even her legs and arms seemed more shapely and feminine.
"Do you like it?" Ix asked still laughing happily to herself a little. "You'll notice it's a little different from how you use to look. That's because you no longer have any male DNA in your makeup. As of now you are completely female, one hundred percent, in every way. This way there is no male DNA for you to revert back to."
"Wait, you mean that's all there was to it?" Shadow asked looking up at Ix wide eyed in surprise. "All you had to do was destroy my male DNA? Then why didn't you just get rid of the female DNA instead if it was that simple?"
"Don't you ever pay attention when I'm talking to you Shaddy?" Ix asked shaking her head as she took the vixen by the paw and led her down and out from under the dome. "As I said before, I don't even know how I gave you that female DNA so there was no way for me to trace down its roots and eliminate it. Your male DNA on the other hand had always been there and was easy to seek out and destroy, so to speak… Leaving your female DNA to fill in the gaps from wherever it is it's coming from and take over. I'm just glad it worked. Since it wasn't the dominate strand I wasn't really sure if it would actually take over once I did kill the dominate strand."
Shadow stopped as the horror of what could have just happened sunk in. "Are… are you saying I could have been killed just now?" she asked in a shaky voice.
"Well not necessarily killed, but you would have been turned into a blob of slime for sure," the cow nodded.
"And you let me go through that thing knowing I could have become slime?!" she screamed angrily.
"Well I did tell you. It's not my fault you weren't listening to me when I-"
"This is why I can't stand you!" Shadow shouted, cutting Ix off in the middle of her sentence. "Where are my clothes? I'm leaving this mad house!"
Ix smiled smugly. Shadow was suddenly back to her old self again. She had been a bit worried when the fox had shown that sudden interest in going through with the procedure earlier. But it was nice to have things back the way they should be.
"Alright girls, let's get out of here!" Shadow yelled as she practically burst through the door that led up from Ix's lab.
Brit, Night, and Ripp, along with Ix's sister, Annabelle, all looked up from where they had been sitting around the living room coffee table playing a card game. The new vixen standing before them dressed in Shadow's black silk pajamas and scowling with an angry face was a bit of a shock at first but it quickly dawned on everyone just who they were looking at.
"Dad! You're okay!" Night squealed and shot up from the floor to pounce the vixen. They both tumbled to the floor with the hare sitting on top of the vixen's chest, looking down at her. "You're face looks different…"
"So dose the rest of her," Brit pointed out.
"Oh my, Shaddy… You didn't let my sister stick you in that machine of hers did you?" Annabelle asked as she hurried over and pulled Night off of the crushed vixen. "That was incredibly dangerous. Are you sure you are okay?"
"I'll be better the sooner I get out of here," Shadow gasped after having the wind knocked out of her.
"Umm… Dad?" Ripp asked somewhat timidly from off to the side. She looked as if she wanted to approach her adoptive father but was unsure of this new vixen before her. "Is this going to be… permanent?"
Night and Brit both looked from their sister to the vixen who had been their father with new concern on their faces. "You mean you aren't going to be our dad anymore?" Night asked.
"That's right! From this moment on you will have to call her mom," Ix said coming up the stairs behind Shadow.
"Ix! Statements like that are not going to make the situation any easier on them," Annabelle scolded giving her sister an angry glance.
"No girls, I'm still your father if that's what you want me to be," Shadow said trying her best to reassure her daughters before turning around to give Ix a hateful glare. "But I would really rather talk about this back at home where we don't have to worry about bothersome cows butting their noses in on things that don't concern them."
"Sure Shaddy, you've had a trying experience," Annabelle said hurriedly helping the vixen back up and herding her and her daughters towards the door. "You should go home and get this all sorted out with your family. Don't worry, I'll be by later this week to check on you and make sure everything is okay. I won't let my sister near you for a while okay?"
"I'd appreciate that," Shadow said with a nod and a bit of sour resentment in her voice towards the topic of Annabelle's sister.
"Okay then off you girls go. You have a lot to talk about I'm sure. I don't know exactly what Ix did… yet… but let me apologize in advance." And with that Annabelle had shoved them all out the door and closed it behind them. No sooner then had this been done she quickly turned around to face her sister.
"Don't give me that look," Ix said rolling her eyes and pulling her gloves off as she plopped down on the couch.
"What do you think you are doing?" Annabelle asked in disbelief. "It's bad enough you had to screw up her DNA, but trying to fuck with her head and the heads of her daughters like that too?"
"Honestly sister, such language…"
"Ix, I thought you were finished with all that? First the clone, then the whole vampirism incident, then what you did to his daughters, Patches, and the experiment that started this whole mess with him changing into a female."
"Yes, I'm very aware of everything I've done to our dear Shadow," Ix nodded. "What are you getting at?"
Annabelle sighed heavily and put her hoofed hands on her hips. She could see that this wasn't getting her anywhere. It was like trying to talk to a brick wall. A heartless, scheming, and downright evil brick wall, but a brick wall nonetheless. "Don't you think you've done enough to the poor fox?" she asked exasperated.
Ix patted the spot on the couch next to her motioning for Annabelle to come sit down with her. At first Annabelle just looked at her sister in disgust but Ix gave her that look she always used to turn her sister to her will. Those big puppy dog eyes and that innocent smile with her fangs just barely poking out from behind the lips was so cute in a strangely creepy way that it always worked on poor Annabelle for some reason. Finally giving in she sat down next to Ix allowing her to put an arm around her shoulder.
"Now I know you don't always agree with your big sister's methods, but what I do to that fox is very important for "The Outcome'. You know this."
Annabelle sighed and rolled her eyes. Again with this "Outcome' stuff. She didn't understand it and probably never would. It all seemed so pointless to her. But whenever Ix needed her to sit back and keep out of things while she made life harder for Shadow and his family she started going on about this apocalyptic end of the world prophecy crap called "The Outcome'. Something Annabelle herself would never understand being only a half goddess.
"I know you don't understand it right now," Ix continued. "But don't you fret. It will all come together soon." She then patted Annabelle on the head, got back up, and started towards the door leading back down to the lab when Annabelle stopped her.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"I just remembered I left something running down in the lab," Ix said with a grin and left her sister in the living room. She hurried back down to the lab and locked the door behind her. A large screen on a seemingly unimportant and unattached device next to the Recombinator was flashing the words "Sample Collection Complete".
Ix quickly tapped the screen and a touch screen menu popped up. "Perfect…" she mused as she looked over the data. After reading it she closed down the program and walked over to a large tube full of a dark liquid that was set up in another strange looking device in a dark corner of the lab. A quick flip of a switch on the device and an ultraviolet light illuminated the liquid, allowing one to see through it as clearly as water, where as it had been so murky only moments before that nothing could be seen in it. The liquid was affectionately called "fog juice" and was one of Ix's own inventions. But it was what was hidden inside the fog juice that was probably the most interesting thing to behold.
"It won't be long now Wodahs…" Ix said running her hoof along the glass of the tube that contained a motionless fennec fox who bore the blended features of both Shadow and Ix.
* * *
~Epilogue~
Shadow smiled as she wrapped her arms around Chaku and nuzzled the skunk's face under the covers of their bed. It had been three weeks since she had come home from Ix's lab as a full vixen and things were just starting to settle down. The girls had finally accepted the idea that there father would be a woman from now on and had started calling her "Momma Shaddy'. It was a little strange at first, and Shadow had been a little upset that they didn't call her dad anymore, but once she realized that they were still treating her with the same insolence, disrespect, and cheekiness they had when she was a male it really didn't seem to matter.
Nolly and Chaku came around much faster then the girls had. The fact that the both of them were already bisexual helped quite a bit when it came to excepting her the way she was. Shadow had been a bit worried about how she herself would feel towards them at first. Seeing as how she had been changed into a female right down to her very DNA she wasn't sure if she was still going to like girls or if she would want a male mate. But luckily for everyone, Shadow found that she was quite the little lesbian. Having lived her whole life as a male up until this point was probably the reason for this. You could change someone's DNA in an instant, but their mindset took years to build up, and would take just as long to tare down.
But no one was complaining about it. Especially not Chaku, who was very happy to know that her mate still held sexual interests in her. She expressed this by pulling Shadow up against her, wrapping her arms and legs around her, and pressing her lips up against the vixen's in a long, deep kiss. "Oh Shaddy, I love you so much…" she whispered as she broke the kiss.
"I know," Shadow said softly running her fingers through Chaku's fur. "You've told me that more times in the last three weeks then you ever did when I was a male."
"I just want to make sure you know how I feel," Chaku said giving Shadow a slight frown. "I want you to know that this hasn't changed a thing between us. You were so upset and worried before going through with the procedure, I just want to assure you, that's all. Annabelle said I should give you lots of support while you adjust to your new life."
"Oh well if Annabelle said…" Shadow said mockingly and rolling her eyes. Although with her new all white eyes it was hard to really tell what she was doing.
"Hey, I just want you to be happy," Chaku said giving her mate another kiss.
"There is one thing that's bothering me," Shadow said after Chaku broke the kiss.
"Oh? And what's that?"
"I haven't been able to get a hold of my mother since this happened."
"Well you know how hard it is to track her down once she goes off on one of her little walkabouts," Chaku said.
"Yeah I know," Shadow agreed. "But I just don't know how she's going to take it if she pops back up again like she always does only to find that her one and only son has had a sex change and she wasn't even informed…"
"Hey, don't worry about your mom. No matter what happens she'll love you. You know that," Chaku assured Shadow, hugging her tightly and practically smothering the little vixen with her large breasts. "But should it be a problem, we will deal with it together, okay? I know this is a big change and things are going to be hard for a while, but I'm right here for you."
"Thanks Chaku…"
Shadow, Chaku, Nolly, Chessy, Patches Brit, Night, and Ripp are all © ThreeFur Productions
Ix and Annabelle are © The Goddess Ix