**Back**

If they had been through the Healing Den before, it was only a distant memory - growing more so now that Sarah's body seemed to be 'rejecting' the other spirits in it. It was hard for her to concentrate, but even harder for the others, who would slip into their alternates almost at random. They tried to have a semblance of normal life, cooking and reading or hosting parties.

But once they had visited Crazy Doc Sanger, Shy and the others, things changed. The stress on Sarah Vogel's body and brain was becoming evident. At the Healing Den, they performed detailed examinations on her - and all the others.

Baeris muttered to herself constantly, while they were doing this. She was amazed that it was possible, but she knew perfectly well from experience that more than one spirit could inhabit one body, look at some of the dragons that had played host to their ghostly bonds? It was more that this one poor shapeshifting girl had to bear the brunt of all their weird powers or abilities or bodies.

And mainly, that Shy had to be there for this that made Baeris stiff with anger. But over time, a lot of time, the desire to throttle the elegant slender man had subsided. True, he'd created the monsterous girl who had managed to kill half a dozen riders - the 'sculpture garden' was still there as evidence of this - but she'd watched the way that Kalkin, or any of his dopplegangers from around the Nexus would behave when they were given a project. Breeding things was in their blood. She had taken it to the draconic extreme, while most of her male counterparts did so with human kind. She would never vocally forgive him, but she wouldn't really truly wish him all that much ill any more. Much.

They brought in another of her favorite people, Vanya of Zekira, to the event to help out. His blue dragon Ruarth nestling beside several other blues - all Sanger's dragons. Even the little dinosauroid Beaker was aware that this was an important case and helped out efficiently as he could.

"This process will take a while, but I believe you will be happy with the results," said Vanya, "I understand that you would rather have carried the children yourselves, but that is not very healthy at this time. Sarah here is exhausted from the effort of your using her body, and frankly I'm not surprised she wants it back."

He was actually only addressing Vogel herself, but the others were all wide awake and active in her mind. It had struck Summoner a while back, that Vogel's other powers were weakened severely by all this: she didn't have a colorful aura or little dancing illusions around her any more, or if they were there, no one could really see or be affected by them. They really had done a job on the poor girl.

"So we will want to get genetic materials from each of you, in order to begin this process. Sarah, this will be hopefully one of the last times you will have to go through this." Vanya said softly, with a smile. For such a scary Sanger otherwise, when he turned on the bedside manner - and was dealing with Breeding for the first time in literally a hundred thousand years - he simply exuded charm.

Shy did as well - but perhaps that was because he was in a room surrounded by one of his favorite hunks of manflesh. Several of him. The Vella Crean scientist acted in exactly the manner one might expect of a serious doctor, examining the women as they shapeshifted into their full forms. This time though, they were meant to have cell extractions done, in order to pull what was necessary and insert it into...

Well, no one had really stated what was going on with that. Would they just be using their own eggs? Summoner and even Scarlett knew that a true clone couldn't be made from a sex cell, it didn't have a full set of DNA to work with. So...

"Oh tell me that you're not going to be the-" Scintilla started to say, but then she shut up. It wasn't Shy, it was Vanya. But why? Well, aside from the fact that he among all of the men was able to psionically adjust his own sperm to match his mate? If they didn't know any better, one might actually say that Scintilla was one of the Sanger bunch too - what with her dark skin and flashy black hair. Her eyes were not blue, they were yellow. That may have been the only thing he had to change, for her child.

"So," Scintilla said while they were busy with the cells, "now what?"

"When we are finished taking all the samples," Vanya said over the microscope he peered into, "we will mix them up and begin replicating your full DNA."

"It's all very complicated," Shy said, obviously in an attempt to blow her off. If there was an ego to match Scintilla's it would be Shy's, in this room. "We can find perfect matches for all of you," he gave off a subdued giggle, "in this very room, really."

"Not entirely," said Doc Sanger, "but now that we know what to look for, I'm sure that finding another couple of me with the right traits won't be that hard. We've been rather successful at rooting out specifics."

"How are you going to find one of her, then?" Said Shy, holding his maincured finger up toward the 3-D image of Splash. "I was under the impression that you were... somewhat aversive to deep water?"

Crazy Doc Sanger waggled his eyebrows and winked. "Well you never know, there's a dinosaur, two elves, horses and peacock versions of me, I can't see why there wouldn't be a flashy merman for her to swim around with..."

***

"Since it wasn't safe to actually cause any one of you to become pregnant," Shy said, gently sipping at his tea, "we decided it was best to keep the new ... children ... in their Breeding Chambers until they are ready."

"But they'll be adults, right?" Said Sarah, who appeared cheerful but still had dark rings below her eyes, and looked more the worse for wear than ever. Her dragon Kenzepten was fretting, beside himself in the dragon's common area. Others had to assure him that no one would allow his rider to perish here. This was the Healing Den after all.

"Yes, they will be grown to whatever level of maturity you wish them to be," Shy said. "Have the meditations I recommended you practice been working?"

Sarah nodded, but said, "mostly, it's just... all I want to do is sleep. And whenever I do that, one of the others winds up popping into the body, and moving it around."

"You cannot take much more of that, I'm afraid," Shy patted her hand, noticing that it was almost frigid. Perhaps in the back of his mind he knew that they had to hurry. But even if there was an emergency, one could never quite see Shy in the position of a rushed or harried type.

Clearly he would rather take the risk, take the time, and do it all right the first time. "Well, we can always have one of the others monitor you, keep them under control. You will need to be the dominant owner of the body, for this next few days."

"Is that all it'll take?" She asked, "really?"

"We hope so, yes... If not," Shy glanced away with his slitted eyes, "then we might have to fret a bit."

"Well don't fret on my account," Snowbird stood unsteadily and gave him a bow of respect. "I can't say it hasn't been a great journey, it's been pretty ... weird sometimes."

"I can certainly say that I understand, my dear," Shy said with a soft smile.

***

The tubes were lined up, one after another, in the darkened room where they'd done most of the work. Vanya stood proudly looking on, as Vogel examined each of the tubes. Actually it was the others, looking through her, giving their appraisals of the situation.

"They think it looks good, so... now what?" She said.

"Now, it's time I brought in one of the few people who can help get those spirits out of your body for you," Vanya said. He glanced at the doorway, and another Zekiran walked through it. Even Baeris had to admit, though she knew who this woman was, and all the attendant stories about her from the Zekirans that came through here, seeing Mirage in person was like watching a river or a sunrise as though you'd never seen one before. She moved with confidence, like she knew precisely where she needed to be. Though she looked young, much younger than that bearing could have given her had she been only three decades old, Baeris knew that this woman had been dead for millions of years, recently alive.

She knew some secrets, Baeris thought, about how to get dead spirits back into living bodies.

"My great grandmother, Latelenae, was a spirit shaper," Mirage said. "I used to have the ability to see spirits, I grew out of it, but now I have it again. And like some of my own descendants," she said while gazing into Vogel's eyes, "I have the power that is needed here, to separate your group." Sarah nodded, and Mirage continued, "you may have the urge to fight it, but try not to. Try to relax, let the spirit come through to me, you just concentrate on keeping your body to yourself.

She stood near the first chamber, which held the stately Summoner. A huge mop of dark brown hair fell over her shoulders, eyes closed. Long legged and wide hipped, even as this body had been created from practically nothing, one could see that the fingers were strong - able to use signals and casting signs for magic.

Crazy Doc Sanger leaned over to Baeris and said, "That's mine," and she rolled her eyes.

Mirage performed some strange, deeply disturbing psionic 'magic'. Anyone with the ability could see she was reaching into not just the mind, but the aura of the girl beside her. She sought out the shade of violet that had been known as Summoner's voice, pulling on her spirit. Sarah gave off a kind of shuddering sigh, and almost appeared to let control over her body lapse, but then regained her feet and watched as Mirage then walked toward the tube. The tube itself had been drained of any liquid, and was now being lowered to a horizontal state. The others were moving slowly as well, flattening down instead of being upright.

When Vanya pressed a button, the glass tube opened, a kind of hiss escaping. The body was breathing, but lifeless otherwise. That was a trick that one of their non-Sanger counterparts from Dawnlight had taught them - how to make a mindless clone, without allowing it to wake up and be its own person.

Mirage then commanded Summoner's spirit into this body before her - and a whoosh of air stirred everything. Coughing on the table, the naked body came to real life, moving consciously instead of merely breathing quietly. She opened her eyes, violet, and sat up carefully.

Though her voice was hoarse, unused, a whisper, she said, "you've done it, I'm alive."

Sarah felt the others in her head leap for joy. This would work - it really would! One of the Sangers escorted Summoner off the platform, and into some clothing. Mirage turned back to Sarah, who strode up to the next tube: Scintilla.

"And who's this one?" Baeris asked casually of the Crazy Doc.

"Vanya's, thought that was obvious."

This went on for another two hours. Sarah, while tired, looked more and more like her old self as it went on. This tremendous weight that she'd been carrying for years now, lifted in a matter of an afternoon.

"Where'd you get the mermaid?" Asked Cynonix, who had come in because the dragons outside were all getting hyperactive. They wanted to see their bonds.

"Found him on a planet without any dry land," commented Kalkin, whom Baeris rather much insisted did not contribute to this little adventure. She was growing more and more possessive of that Sanger. "He's all fins and scales, still, one of us. Getting us to him was the problem really. You know how we are..." Kalkin gave a shudder, "but his Jon was a shark, you know."

From some distant land where elves and trolls did battle, they'd found a reptilian type for Serpentina. Shy contributed to Sabre's, a more natural choice than most of the Sangers they'd found. (And, reminded that their one real 'asian' type had been killed years ago, through no fault of his, Shy tsked his tongue and praised their work again. He looked great as a woman...)

It actually had been Scarlett that had posed more of a problem, flying, fire-haired girls just didn't appear much in their geneology.  Yet they did manage to locate a world somewhat parallel to a previously explored one, where magic was rampant but genders were switched... Or muddled perhaps... Shhee was happy to oblige, this fire mage they'd located, but that did mean Vanya had to work out some strange gender issues from this one.

So finally, after nine years of sharing - and fighting over - this body, they were now truly separate and alive.

Though they had all but sprang at each other's throats in the mind, and sniped at each other constantly, bickering...

The first thing they did was collapse into a big group hug, weeping and laughing to one another about how good it felt to actually see themselves, touch each other, for once.

***

The dragons felt the same way, certainly. There was much bugling and noise, flying and flapping in the main dragonry chambers. Though now they were faced with a bit of a dilemma.

"What are we going to do now?" Asked Scarlett. "I mean... I really want to start my career back up. Crescent's got some heroes, and some placement services. How about you?" She looked at Snowbird.

"I plan on resting. Sleeping." She laughed, "slacking."

"But where?" Sabre said, darkly. "I would jump at the chance to leave your presences yet... I find that we really have little other than each other just now."

That sobered the group, until Summoner said, "well we do have a house."

"A stolen house," Snowbird pointed out.

"From another planet, it's not even there where we left it," said Scintilla. "It's our house now."

"And it is here, or - there, on Twoarth," Summoner said reminding herself mentally that while they could aim thoughts at one another before, intentions and meanings were perfectly clear in a split moment. But now, she had to go through the words to explain that they weren't even on Twoarth at this moment, they were at the Den. It would take a while for all of them to get that old habit broken.

"It is a large house," Serpentina said, hands still full of her sponsorling's black and white fur. "Perhaps we could share it."

"It has a lake," Splash said, "a nice one. Fortundoross wants to stay there." Hers was the only dragon who hadn't been brought, the one thing the Healing Den didn't have while it was in the Nexus was a good lake. She was seated comfortably on a slightly damp spongy couch in the meantime. "It would be nice to return."

Scintilla blinked, mulling this over. It had really been her wiles that had gotten them their home anyway, but it would have to be on all their terms now.

"Well, I'm sure that you'll come to some kind of agreement," Baeris said, hustling them out of the Den and through the portal to Talon City, "and you can feel free to visit whenever you want. Have fun."

"She's rather rude," Snowbird said on their way out, and Kenzepten gave a chuffle of agreement. But she wants to have sex with that man, in the office there. Why would they do that? Don't they have a proper place for that? Snowbird choked and followed the others back to the sunny world where they lived.

***

Shy had left a few ... surprises for the girls. The mansion was really quite nice, after all, they had all the room they'd need. Splash mostly lived in the lake, full time. Serpentina tended the gardens during the day and remained with her sponsorlings keeping warm all night. Sabre and Scarlett remained as distant to one another as they could be, though whatever Sabre did for her money, it might not have been killing people any more. Something as mundane as martial arts classes? Perhaps. But she wouldn't speak of it, and no one asked.

But the little gifts... Followed them around.

They were Shy. Tiny versions, though, barely even waist high at the tallest. And Summoner detected a strange theme to them, as well. One was always grabbing for the shiny things or food. One was always munching on teacakes and drinking exotic steamy beverages. Another was aloof and snippy. Others were alternately oggling someone or proclaiming how they didn't deserve whatever it was they had.

They were little sins, Summoner decided. Cute, little sins. She reserved one that didn't seem to be anything less than herself: prideful. He followed her about the mansion, but in such a way that the others even stayed clear of. Naturally it was Lust that remained with Scintilla...

So... The seven who were one, are now really seven for the first time. Where will they go, what will they see?

Snowbird
aka Sarah Vogel
Bonded Silver Zappy Kenzepten at Azon

Powers: Mental Illusions
Light Illusions
Minor Shapeshifting

Chibishy: Gluttony

Scintilla
Bonded Green 5-headed Saeora at Cy's Bipedra 2

Powers: Illusions / Light-sound
Darkness and Light control
Hypnosis

Chibishy: Lust

Summoner
Bonded Land Shadow Queen Fahz'ien at Lantessama

Powers: Magic Spells (Summoning, demonic, domination)
Mind Control / Willpower based

Chibishy: Pride

Sabre
Bonded Black Hathian Katana at the Warren

Powers: Martial Arts and Killing attacks
Acrobatics
Stealth Techniques

Chibishy: Wrath

Splash
Bonded Indigo Fortundoross at Vegliante Cove

Powers: Sonar/Sonic attacks (water only)
Control seaweed (water only)
Water Control (minor)

Chibishy: Child

Serpentina
Sponsors Grim Corrolary and Tiaromiss from Offworld Avengaean Bonding Project

Powers: Control, sense and sense through reptiles
Armored skin
Reptile healing

Chibishy: Envy

Scarlett
Bonded Varileath Rufasilex at Mirus

Powers: Flight
Fire manipulation and attack
Fire Shield

Chibishy: Girly