The Hard Way Failed, So Now Here Comes the REAL Hard Way

Mina

"Whyyyy hello there biggen," she purrs, touching MY Allan in a place that causes him to jump and back away quickly. "Wanna have a good time?"

"Oh I do not think so!" I huff, forgetting for a brief moment that this . . . woman before me has no say in how she . . .

How she is trying to seduce my husband right in front of me!

. . . .

Inquirer and the others were right, this sorceress . . . has much to answer for.

. . .

Maybe Chiana is correct? Maybe we should "ice her".

. . .

Oh, no. Let us not go down that path, but I can see just why our young gray woman here is much more than disgusted with Queen Helia’s magic maker. Too close to home, what has befallen . . . this poor woman that Inquirer has now again put under by spell.

"The hard way didn’t work," B’Elanna sighs. "Now, the only chance left to us is the REALLY hard way! We would MUCH rather wrestle a Targ than do it this way!"

B’Elanna

Helia, Princess Astra, Xyllis, Norla and Dr Vincent (as well as our newest Companions) all have the same questioning look on their faces but it is Chiana who beats them all to the punch. Answering before they voice the question.

"Think of it something like a Earth Tiger except maybe at LEAST three to four times worse when it is in a good mood," she say simply.

Actually, they can be worse than that...but that is hardly important right now

Anyway, the hope had been we could break the spells on both sleeping bawdy girls here (Astra and "Freda") at once with what we had at hand on Terra Prime. The damnable thing is that with so many other off reality spells, the key ingredients for the best counter/cure either never had come into existence upon Terra Prime . . . or had gone extinct. Bane of our existence, it seems for us Champions sometimes whenever we run into stuff like this! And not like we can go traipsing off on some random parallel world looking for the ingredients (what with "our" Dr. Vincent’s teleport log being scrambled as it is).

Have suspicions why that happened in part, (betcha it has something to do with why Princess Astra has no doppleganger reactions here AND why those magical test that hack used to test for Astra and Freda from being off reality failing . . . . I’m thinking she’s come kind of magical cipher or some such). Will touch on that . . . when it’s safe (i.e. when we isolate Princess Astra, just in case she can blow herself up like a bomb if discovered).

Right now?

The hope had been that we could break both, but it only worked on Astra the bawdy girl. The acid test with the men being present proved that Freda was still under that curse, as you saw.

That was what we were told to expect if we should fail, according to the recounting of what had been . . . done beforehand to drive home with Dornas to a defiant Fred/Freda back when the curse had first been put upon her and Astra (re: 48428).

Now and why would it be "really hard"? Well as for what now, after we give explanations to the remaining "guests" here we shall have to perform a really risky ceremony using the very same b*tch who cast the spell in the first place. Painful for us (but not to the point of debilitating), but the danger here is pretty high.

It is really hard and risky, this ceremony. It had been held off to the end here because it probably will NOT work at all the way we want it to, but either way (success or failure) by the time we finish with that ancient (and long winded) ceremony there will not be enough time for anything else. Time is ticking away and while we have time for explanations, we . . .

Well, you get the idea.

The real danger of this ceremony (besides the real probability that it will not work out for Freda) is what could happen to the one members performing it which we shall be using as a focus: Xyllis. See, she is not only perfect for the focus (the medium with which to bear down the magical energies upon Freda), but being that Xyllis is the one who put Freda in this fix in the first place. There is a connection between the two that makes what would otherwise be an impossible situation to reverse now . . . difficult but still salvageable. Just is that there are so many things that could go wrong. The curse could reach out and "shatter" the focus, killing Xyliss instantly. The curse could imprint itself upon Xyllis, turning her into another bawdy girl, leaving us permanently with two of them. The curse could just stand unmoved, meaning we'd wasted our time for nothing. The curse could somehow rebound and somehow shatter Xyllis' mind. A whole range of bad things, in other worlds, could happen to Xyllis!

And frankly, while she is not exactly popular with us right now, we don't hate her enough to have risked that up to this point. However, she herself has pointed out that there is nothing else for it and practically demanded it.

Had almost winced, expecting . . . something when that distressed sorceress had shouted to the heavens for her deities to spare her nation and her queen for this crime (accidental or not) and instead have this curse settle squarely upon her. Thankfully, whatever that sigil upon her cheek does (and Whoever or Whatever is perhaps paying more attention to things down here because of it for the moment) did not do anything.

Maybe it has something to do with Xyllis and Helia being of a different Amazonian faith other than the Roman/Greco kind back in "our" Aqualaria? Maybe that could....

Oh, give it a REST, B'Elanna! Stop being a Star Fleet officer and . . . .

. . . .

Pray that this works, after we're done with this last piece of business: explanations.

I’m hoping for it working.

Then, after all this (if all goes well) we have something like eight possible destinations (which we could pull up but couldn’t get the coordinates so we could use the TARDIS) to look through. By process of elimination we could eventually come upon the reality that Belboz and Fred hails from (13741, option 4). Could find the reality that Freda and Astra hale from (4172, option 2). However, we have three others which . . . . could or could be near duplicates (for 4172- options 1, 3, and 4 and 13741-options 1,2,3, and 7)!

Oy, we have our work cut out for us!

1. But right now, I’m the one who’d going to explain to our guests what gives here!

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