Pippi and friends met that unfortunate personification of sadness by the name of Cherie Evans before they knew Bez, Matrix, Sigma, and Thande from the Nautilus, and even before they met Indianna Who during the Lady Une ousting.
In some unknown location in a dungeon-like place, several people including Jesse Lein and Titania Ross were kept against their will.
The captor turned to Cherie, his assistant. "The collars, if you would, my sweet..."
When she hesitated, he intimidated her with more long-winded threats. "Refusing me again My darling, you should know better than do anything to make me punish you along with the rest. You have been such a most charming helper to me, do not sully things between - us - with any...unpleasantness. Drusilla taught you how to activate and use them, before she was so sadly detained, did she not?"
Cherie only nodded, apparently not daring to look at him.
"That, by the way, is another affront for which those responsible will pay, and pay dearly! Make no mistake about that." he glanced at Titania and Jesse as he said this, then to his assistant again. "But for the present, the collars!" He commanded.
Cherie went through a door to another room and came back with the collars.
"Ah, there we are." the man said as he took them from her. "Very well. First, Mr Lein, my dear. Then Miss Ross, the rebellious disobedient child, then the other two. Prepare the remaining collars for all other expected guests this evening." He made the girl help him put the collars on the hostages.
They appeared to be something like leather dog collars until the girl touched the ends together around every victim's neck. Then those collars turned from leather to some sort of glowing metallic substance with the ends completely melded together.
The captor nodded approvingly at his obedient assistant and together they started their little psych-out game on their victims. "And you have the control, do you not, my sweet, dear girl?"
Cherie nodded and disappeared into that other room, returning with asmall glowing sphere.
"Ah, excellent, my sweet Cherie."
Eventually, everyone except Capri arrived at the place where the hostages were being kept.
While the captor was engaged in arguing and self-admiration, Pippi approached Titania, and though she could not remove the collar, she had freed Titania's arms from the bonds. Then got to work on the rest of the shackles.
Feeling herself free at last, Titania began to cry out of relief. "Thank you!" she said, and staggered to her feet.
"take it easy, Titania, you'll be all right." Pippi reassured her. then got to work, loosening and breaking the bonds of the other hostages.
The captor glared fire at Pippi for a moment, then looked at his assistant. "I believe another collar is an order."
Cherie protested weakly, and was met with yet another threat of being punished, so she complied. However, things didn't go as planned when she tried to put it around Pippi's neck.
Pippi seized the collar as it was metallicizing, but right before the ends joined together. In a mighty show of strength, she casually snapped the collar in two. "That," she said coldly,narrowing her eyes at the infernal captor, "Is quite unnecessary."
Actually losing his composure for a moment, he stared wide-eyed at pippi. "Madam, if you insist on making things difficult, may I remind you that while you succeeded in removing your own collar that it is advised you not try that with the others if you value their lives."
He was joined by NT's mocking voice on the last three words, to which she then added, "Somebody ought to teach that stupid bird a few new words!"
The captor flushed, furious that he hadn't managed to make every single one of these people shake in their shoes. NT's disrespect toward him was a big kick in the ego, though he would never admit it.
It took only a moment for him to calm himself enough to resume. "Just so you begin to realize who holds the cards here..." he paused as if considering, then turned to his assistant. "Perhaps a small demonstration is in order. The orange setting, if you please."
"What's her pleasure got to do with it?" Pippi snapped at him.
"If you WILL!" he corrected himself.
"Well, at least that's a little more honest of you." Pippi flung back.
"Oh brother, here we go with the Drusilla Benson pain/shock treatment again!" NT growled. "Give it up, Tompkins, I already know what you're going to have this girl do. You're so predictably cruel, you make me sick!"
Cherie showed hesitation again and was met with more hostility and threats from the captor.
"Are you so eager to be punished, my dear little sweet? Perhaps, perhaps, it has been too long."
"Don't be stupider than you can help, Tompkins." said NT.
He ignored her, focusing on Cherie. "That, however, can be attended to later. For now...orange!" he bellowed the last word so violently that it would've made the worst obscenity sound nice in comparison.
Several of the others glared at him in extreme disgust and annoyance, but it was NT who took a reaction much further.
"You! Shut the heck up!" She yelled, glowering at Tompkins. She moved toward him and backhanded him viciously.
He braced himself, blocking the hit so NT's hand connected with one of his and not his nose.
NT grabbed a bunch of his hair and yanked as hard as she could.
He swiped at her hand, leaving part of his face unprotected.
NT took the opportunity to slap him before turning her back to him and walking back to Ariel.
Everyone else was as incensed with Tompkins as NT, and with her being so much younger and able to take care of herself against him, no one admonished her for it.
"Orange!" Tompkins commanded again.
SHUT...UP!" Nt roared, zapping him with a blast of magic.
He mewled and stumbled backward, but soon righted himself again.
The orange collar setting took effect as this was going on, and it caused the hostages to shudder with the mild shock sensation.
"Forget that!" NT said sternly, and she immediately counteracted the collars, making them ineffective, and the pain the captives felt, was dispelled. The collars had been rendered useless as torture devices long before they and the sphere reverted back to metallic and white.
"That is just the lowest setting. If you persist, it can be made higher." he said icily. "I trust you will all keep this in mind." He had not yet realized what just happened, but he would in a few moments.
"And you will keep repeating the same long-winded, antiquated, stupid prattle and actions over and over again and again!" NT shot back, fixing the evil man with the ugliest, most disdainful glare imaginable. "You are the worst broken record there ever was!"
What gave away NT's interference was that the hostages should've continued expressing discomfort until the infernal devices had gone completely white. Their shudders had stopped within a second of the time they had felt the discomfort.
The captor glowered at NT, he didn't have to have magic himself to know what she did. For everything he said, did, stood for, she was the exact opposite.
this was ridiculous. Obviously their enemy's new assistant was a mage, Drusilla was locked up, so, couldn't get to any of them, yet everybody was still being pressed into service for that evil man, who had not a shred of magic power himself. How NT wanted to take away that weird orb from the mage, and un-do all those infernal collars. They had been rendered useless now anyway, but they needed to be removed by either Drusilla or Capri.
"NT and Capri are absolutely correct," Pippi said sternly. "You are indeed the most predictably cruel person and obviously incapable of change, let alone originality. You will be lucky if that vampire only puts you in need of a blood donor and life support."
"We'll all be lucky if that monster kills him." Jesse muttered.
Presently, an unwelcome, saccharin sweet voice was heard. "Did somebody call for a vampire? Darling, I do hope I'm not too late. I have been aching to meet you and talk more on these...mutual benefits you spoke of to me in your note." Her cool blue eyes gazed wickedly at the captor, she did not even seem to notice the others in the room. She let her fangs show, then grinned as the others in the room either shuddered or sent her looks of extreme dislike.
NT knew she had to get away from this, or she'd totally lose it and go after Tompkins herself, which'd ruin the whole plan. She left some magic protection behind for the others that would go into effect if needed. She needed to get that mage to give up the orb, get Drusilla to deactivate it and the collars, and then NT would be able to destroy those evil devices.
"Ariel, Pippi, I have to go take care of something. If there's even a hint of trouble I'll be back here quicker than a blink." NT whispered.
And with that, NT approached Cherie, the young mage, put a hand on her shoulder and vanished with her.
Then it was at least several minutes of the fairy and the mage arguing over the magic device because Cherie prefered to tell NT all about her horribly sad life and how she had been abused, and that she was far too scared of consequences for "disobedience" toward Drusilla to just let NT have it.
NT had assured and reassured her over and over that this time things would be different, however, nothing short of getting cross got the magic orb into her hands. Precious time was wasting, and any delays because of fearful arguing and Cherie's insistance on talking and crying about her sad life story would definitely cost lives.
Finally, NT did get the orb, and she had a plan.
Drusilla had been asleep when it started.
("In the good old summer time
In the good old summer time--_
Drusilla awoke, screaming and covering her ears, but the music continued. "Demmit stop it! Stop it stop it stop the !@#$@%#%@@! noise!_
"There is only one way you can make it stop." a determined female voice said.
"This is not a circus for goshsakes, kill that music!" Drusilla screamed desperately.
"first, you must get rid of these enchantments.. Melt away the collars and then destroy this sphere."
There was a few more minutes of Drusilla and NT arguing back and forth as NT kept up the music, and Drusilla could not withstand it. Finally, Drusilla got the hint that it just wasn't going to stop unless she did as NT said. So, with great haste, nerves burning for the song to stop, Drusilla, looking for all the world like a drunken idiot, traced some weird symbols and uttered some drither that passed for magic words.
It was done, the enchantment was lifted, the power zapped out of the collars and the orb like a dying battery.
The music stopped.
NT threw the sphere as hard as she could onto the pavement. It shattered into a million pieces, then melted away.
And there was no more time to lose, NT needed to help get everybody out of that horrible place before the vampire decided to snack on them as well.
In a moment, NT had transported back into the room where the vamping was supposedly taking place.
"Ariel," Nt mouthed as she approached her mother, Then she indicated Titania and Jesse, and Pippi, you take her, indicating another woman." NT approached the other few hostages.
By this time, Pippi had freed them all from the bonds, and the collars had all been melted away along with the magic orb that had been used to make them.
In a while, everybody was transported back to Ariel's, then NT transported several people back to their own homes.
In the mean time, the vampire plan had been foiled by Capri.
_________________________________________________________________
More troubles with Cherie took place during what was called a Reckoning, a proceeding headed by Capri against Horace Tompkins and Drusilla Benson. It would accomplish what many failed trials had not, and finally put an end to their tyranny.
On the first night of this event, Capri was feeling like she needed to take a little walk and check on everybody, just to make sure no monkey business was going on.
Capri sighed and left the room. Some cool, fresh air would be very welcome right about now.
There had been a disturbance involving Cherie out on an open deck that Capri had to settle, and then she took some time to sit and relax before making her way back to her room to work.
Some time later, Capri had finished her notes for the evening, but couldn't seem to relax in her apartment.
So once again, she strolled about the complex, stopping to talk with people she met once in a while.
But as she came down a hall, she heard agitated voices up ahead...for the second time that evening!
Quickening her step, thinking it might be Melanie, Capri hurried along. And then she realized this was the hall where Ariel's and NT's room was, and it was NT and another girl, not Miranda for once.
It wasn't long before she was at the door, and it was apparent someone was trying to get NT to do something against her will.
"Hey, hey, hey, settle down, now, What the heck's goin on in here?"
Both girls fell silent but only for a moment. Then NT was so wound up now that she burst into tears. and it all came out. "She wants me to take her magic away - and I'm not doing that! She thinks she's like Drusilla and Tompkins because of her magic! Unbelievable!"
Feeling overwhelmed and rather sick, NT bolted from the apartment.
Capri sighed, watching her go, but didn't do anything to stop her. She knew that NT was just going to find a place and some time to calm down, and would be back without having done anything rash.
Next, she had the task of trying to get Cherie calmed down and listening to reason. That was easier said than done.
Cherie had always been frightened of Capri, so, once she got out of wench&moan mode and realized who she was actually talking to, she fled once again.
Then, Capri continued making her rounds.
Pippi was next to receive an urgent call for help, and she in turn, called Ameh and Capri. Ameh and Pippi arrived at the apartment where the trouble and out of control magic had caused a terrible scene and set Bonnie Greenslade, Cherie's current guardian in a panic. Now, they tried settling things down.
Capri arrived in a few more moments, and she also put in her say.
Cherie continued stubbornly refusing to listen, preferring to wench&moan of things like "My magic is so evil, I don't want it, I'm so afraid of myself, I want NT taking it away!" blah blah.
This time, Capri was much firmer about it than she had been when encountering Cherie on the deck or back at NT's. She told the girl that everyone had a job to do while they were here, and if she was going to lose it over every non-issue and put others to a lot of trouble because of that, she would be sent home. Capri was already noticing that Cherie, for all her little shows of timidity toward her, had so far been much more willing to listen and do as Tompkins or Drusilla said, than listen to her or NT or anyone who was working to bring the dreaded duo down.
Finally, all three women left for their own apartments, having done the best they could, but not knowing if they had made any difference at all.
Capri was already out of patience with Miranda's tendencies to freak out over everything and make herself center of attention, she didn't need Cherie doing the same. She felt these girls could buck up and learn to keep in better control if they tried, and weren't so pre-occupied with themselves. She didn't think they should need to be taught self-discipline like little children. She certainly didn't want to end up in some sort of parentlike role for them, she was hear to make Horace Tompkins and Drusilla Benson face up and take the consequences for what they had all done. She did not want Miranda's, Iona's, Cherie's or anyone else's hysterias over every little thing, getting in the way of bringing about justice.
Because of Cherie's hysterics over magic, Capri was forced to call a meeting on the second night. She hoped that together with Ameh, Ariel and NT, she could help Cherie get a little more control over her magic and prevent any further dramatics from the girl that were wasting precious time and energy.
Ariel, NT and Ameh continued on their way down the various passages until they reached the main court room door, where Cherie was waiting.
Ariel opened the door for the others to go in.
It had been a rough night, and then a long, gruelling day, and Capri was exhausted. She had fallen asleep right there at the bench.
Ariel approached the bench. "Capri, we're here." She gave the woman a nudge.
Capri stirred, straightened up, rubbed her eyes and sighed. "Oh, heck, so much fer comin down early to try an' wake up."
"So you weren't in here all day?"
"Nah, I just kinda woke up in my room about...half an hour ago an' thought I better get my butt in here or..."
"Is she OK?" NT asked.
"Yeah, just tired." Capri responded through a stifled yawn, and put her hand over her mouth.
"Have you eaten?" Ariel asked.
"Hours ago. Didn't really have the time right now an' dunno what I want." Capri sighed as she straightened her position and smoothed her hair. "Let's get this show on the road."
The meeting started off okay, as the fairies tried to help Cherie with her magic.
They started by showing her how their own magic worked.
looking at Ariel and NT first, Capri said, "OK you two, why don'tcha try doin somethin magic to each other."
NT looked worried.
"It's all right, NT," Capri said, "just a little thing, you can turn 'er right back to normal in a few moments. Now, on the count o' three...one...two...three!"
NT turned Ariel into a likeness of Pippi, and herself into a cat.
"Aww, cute!" Ameh giggled.
"OK, change back now." Capri said.
instantly, Ariel was back to her natural form, and NT was standing a few feet away, back to herself as well.
Cherie nodded.
"Now, can either of you two try to change your immunity?"
"Believe me, I've tried, but I don't remember a time when I could resist other magic." Ariel replied.
"And I can't change either." said NT. "See, I'm trying right now and...Go ahead, try and turn me into something."
Capri tried. Nothing happened. "Right. OK, Ameh, you can resist magic a bit can't ya?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I know I sure couldn't when...Well, go ahead, Capri, I'm ready."
Capri tried to do some magic on Ameh.
"Yeah, I can feel you're attempting something, did it work?" Ameh asked.
"Nope, yer still you. How about now?"
"I don't feel anything."
"OK, I just fixed it so you can't detect me tryin somethin on ya."
"Wow. Did it work?"
"Nope."
"OK, try again. I'll tone the resistance down."
Capri tried again and in a moment it had worked. Ameh was 6 feet tall.
"Holy crap." said Ameh as she saw herself towering over everyone present except Capri.
Ariel burst out laughing at the sight of the much taller Ameh.
NT joined in.
Even Capri had to laugh.
All of this giggling was contagious, and Ameh couldn't help but laugh along with them.
"OK," Capri said once the giggles died down, "I'm gonna try to keep ya that height an' you try gettin yerself back to normal."
The two struggled magically for a while, then Capri relaxed, and Ameh restored herself to her normal stature of somewhere under 5 feet.
Then the roles were reversed as Ameh tried to change Capri's appearance. Capri too, could change her resistance to being totally immune to completely vulnerable. When she let her resistance down, Ameh concentrated a moment and turned her into a little girl.
Now, Capri looked to be maybe two years old.
"Wow, what a cute little kid you were!" Ariel laughed.
NT grinned and laughed out loud. "Aw, cute!" Unable to help herself, she approached Capri and picked her up.
Ariel laughed.
"Hey!" Capri exclaimed, and her voice had changed along with her appearance so that she sounded exactly as she would have as a child. "Down!"
NT hoisted Capri high in the air and brought her down fast, causing Capri to laugh, but NT didn't put her right down on the floor, instead, she lifted her up in the air again and repeated the procedure. Capri laughed some more and NT was giggling right along and nearly as hard. Before setting Capri down, NT took her and stepped away from the others. Then, she spun Capri around, causing the child to shriek with laughter. Then, she finally set Capri down in a sitting position on the floor, just in case she might be too dizzy to stand up.
The others were laughing right along with them.
Immediately, Capri, still laughing, turned herself back to normal. "NT you crazy kid." she said through a much more subdued adult laugh. Then, standing up, she went back to the others and reset her magic resistance. "OK, Cherie; now that we've had a little fun," she grinned, We need to see if you got immunity an' if ya can change it an' all that.
Unfortunately, all the questions and talk about magic resistance, and who could and couldn't take it away, lead to the subject of Capri's and Horace's battles back at the mansion, and the exposition concert that followed. Cherie jumped at the chance to steer the conversation right back to talk of the wrath of both Drusilla and Horace being poured out on her and others along with her yet again once the concert was over.
Once again, everyone, especially NT was stressed and upset at finding out there had been even more abuse done by Drusilla and Horace, and NT ran from the room, inconsolable.
Capri advised Ariel to just let her be, NT would be no use in the meeting this upset and just needed to be left alone for a while.
When it was over, Ameh left for Pippi's apartment, and Capri went to Ariel's to make sure she and NT would be all right, and because she needed to talk about something.
There, they found NT, much calmer, but drained.
A few minutes later, Ameh knocked at Ariel's apartment door.
"Oh, Ameh." Ariel smiled, but looked puzzled.
"Pippi's out, I guess, so I decided to come back." said Ameh. "I was wondering if you and NT would like to go out for a treat?"
NT's eyes lit up at this idea, and Ariel gave her permission.
"What about you guys?" Ameh asked, looking at Ariel and then at Capri. "I guess you're probably too tired."
"Another time, Ameh, but thanks." said Ariel.
"Yeah, you two go ahead. I'm going back to my apartment pretty soon anyway." said Capri.
"And going without dinner - not good." said Ariel.
"That's for sure, especially with that work load and all this other crap in addition." said Ameh.
NT nodded.
"Too tired to make anything, but need more than just a snack. I'll just have a good breakfast tomorrow." said Capri.
"Well, I'm in need of some comfort food, and thought NT could use some too." said Ameh.
"Definitely." Nt replied.
"Then let's go."
"See you later, have a good time." Ariel said.
"Thanks." NT responded, and she and Ameh left.
Ariel was determined to make sure Capri didn't leave without a good hot meal. "Would you like some coffee or tea?" she asked.
Capri thought a moment. "Coffee's just fine."
"Good." So, while Ariel got the coffee on, she also warmed up something for dinner.
With NT gone, Capri grabbed the chance to talk to Ariel in private. "I've been thinkin, is it such a good idea, NT associating with this Cherie?"
Ariel shrugged. "I'm not sure. Not that NT wouldn't be sympathetic, or that Cherie doesn't need a sympathetic friend, but after the scene tonight...?"
"Exactly. As far as NT was concerned anyway, that meeting was a disaster...and not the first. Every time those girls are together, she is upset." said Capri.
Ariel nodded. "NT's been upset over that child's situation since they met, and hearing more about her terrible experiences at the meeting just upset her all over again."."
"All of us, really, but NT's the one taking these things hardest, if this doesn't let up, she could become clinically depressed or go insane." Capri said. "As for Cherie, something's definitely off with her, she's a walking 'woe is me' billboard and seems to be doing everything in her power to put everyone else in a similar state or panic, I just don't know yet. Whatever her problems are, she could really make a mess of NT."
Ariel said nothing, but looked helplessly at Capri, silently mirroring her concern.
Capri continued. "How was NT last night?
"She was okay, before I left for a while in the evening. By the time I came back, she was already in bed with a headache and queezy stomach." Ariel shook her head. "But I could tell something else wasn't right."
"While you were out, I came in on a shouting-match between Cherie and NT. Cherie tried getting her to - take away her magic."
"What!?" Ariel exclaimed, horrified.
"You probably know something about the violent magic flare-up last night."
Ariel nodded.
"That was Cherie again. NT wouldn't take it away, so she went and all but wrecked her apartment with out of control magic. Caused quite a panic. And tonight she sent NT running out of a meeting in tears, a meeting I wouldn't've had to plan in the first place if it hadn't been for last night. All this because Drusilla and Horace have convinced her she's dangerous and some fanatic told her she's evil because of magic - Like I said, a little off."
"Oh my gosh." said Ariel.
A couple days later, a strange virus hit, and the proceeding had to be put on hold until it passed.
During this time, Drusilla, who had used magic to cause the sickness, had also used magic to help her buddy Horace so that he could get revenge on his ex-wife.
Nt and Pippi put a stop to it but they hadn't been able to prevent it completely, the abuse was in progress with Cherie guarding the door when NT arrived inspite of having just got out of the hospital.
Pippi came on the scene and helped calm things down, and Cherie had disappeared by the time the woman Horace had been abusing was taken to the hospital.
On what was supposed to be the second last day of the proceeding, Cherie changed that so Capri had to wrap it up all in one day.
The session for the day had just ended, and Ariel was back in her room with NT, who had been crying and just couldn't get herself to calm down. Ever since what'd happened to Tompkins's ex-wife in that cell, NT started slipping further into depression. Cherie's stories and the magic issue, what had been done to Ameh, just everything NT knew of that Tompkins and Drusilla had done was just getting to be too much for her to take.
In a while, NT and Ariel had company. It was Cherie. Ariel had not known that Cherie had used magic to disappear right before Bonnie's eyes in her room, or she would've called Pippi or Capri to help get Cherie settled down and back where she should've been.
Ariel kept in the back of her mind what she and Capri had discussed concerning the girl, but smiled warmly. "Cherie, please come in. I'll put on some more tea, or maybe you'd rather have juice or milk, or lemonade, or cocoa, or ice-tea?"
As the visit went on, it went badly, as Ariel had feared. Cherie just continued on crying, and refused every plea to return to her guardian, and every afirmation that she was not to blame for what Horace and Drusilla did. She was falling apart far worse than NT ever had. At least NT tried to calm herself down and listen when being spoken to, and if she couldn't, she was usually better about it once she had cried it out in private. Cherie was turning out to be another matter, far more difficult to handle. She could carry on forever about herself with all her bad karma, and Ariel just didn't have the forcefulness required to snap her out of it.
NT, unable to take any more of Cherie's doom and gloom, retreated to her room, hoping Cherie would listen to Ariel and go back to her apartment.
_________________________________________________________________
Pippi and Capri were next to stop by, and they also tried to make Cherie see things rationally, the way Ariel had been trying but failing to do.
At every turn, no matter who tried to reason with and reassure Cherie, she was just too far gone to even register anything being said to her, and continued on, hysterically crying about how she was destined to become just like Horace and Drusilla as soon as they were gone, all because of her evil, out of control magic.
At the end of her patience, Capri raised her voice at the girl. "What the heck's wrong with you, Cherie? You're actin like you don't want it to be over! Stop feelin sorry for yerself, settle down, an' listen fer once!"
Ariel nodded at Capri, thankful somebody had it in them to be this direct with Cherie.
For her part, Capri had been pushed to the limit with Cherie's fits and stubborn clinging to these twisted pearls of wisdom from everybody who had something negative to make up about her, especially Horace and Drusilla. Why was it what they said seemed much more valuable to Cherie and worth hanging on to, while everything Pippi, NT, Ariel, Ameh and Capri said just got ignored or argued against?
Finally, Capri ordered Cherie to go back to her own apartment and stay there. It was clear that everyone had talked themselves blue in the face, trying to get that girl to see reason, and she was bound and determined not to listen.
Suddenly, the apartment door was thrown open, and Ameh came rushing in.
"There you are!"
"Ameh!" Pippi exclaimed, looking at her questioningly.
"You've got to stop Melanie!"
"From what?" Pippi asked, giving Ameh time to catch her breath a little.
"Out on the main deck - on the ledge! I froze her, but you've got to help me get her off of there and somewhere safe!"
"Let's go!" Capri said, and she and Ameh hurried away.
Pippi and Ariel were still talking back at the apartment when Capri came storming in.
"Meet me back at court in half an hour." she said.
"But what about dinner?" Pippi asked.
"You can bring food into the courtroom an' eat there. This isn't gonna be put off a second longer!"
During this last session, another mage found out for herself that Horace had tried to become a vampire and failed. This revelation finally made her see him in the right light. She hated vampires because of experiences in her own life, which had nothing to do with what was going on now, but Cherie wanted to take time and help this person express all of these nightmarish experiences via magic for everyone to see and understand. Capri denied Cherie's request and said things had to keep moving along.
Finally when Drusilla Benson had been dealt with, it was Horace's turn. Neither were to be killed, but permanently enchanted, turned into other things that couldn't harm another soul.
Cherie nearly botched this plan, set the crowd in a panick, and the villains could have escaped if the chaos had gone on any longer.
Cherie had conjured up a huge knife, run forward, brandishing it, and threatened Horace with it, but that wasn't the sickest most dramatic thing she did to set everyone in a panic. She topped that off with a show of screaming about how she would do away with first him and then herself, to rid the world of evil magic again.
Disgusted and at her absolute wit's end with Cherie, Capri had to get everyone to simmer down and go back to their seats if they were out of them. Then, she applied some magic of her own to make the knife burning hot so Cherie would have to let go. Once that was done, Capri decreated it, slapped Cherie sharply across the face and yelled at her to get back to her seat and stop behaving like a narcisistic brat so things could get done.
Horace Tompkins and Drusilla Benson's reign of terror was permanently stopped, but Cherie wasn't through scheming, not by a long shot.
One day, feeling down and needing to clear her head, NT took a walk. Wandering around somewhere outside, NT had managed to evade notice until someone tapped her on the shoulder.
NT startled and looked around. Recognizing Cherie, she started to run. Cherie was definitely not someone she needed to deal with.
Cherie had done a magic search, testing her skill, and decided to look for NT. Unfortunately, she found her at the worst time.
But Cherie failed, perhaps intentionally, to heed the signs from NT, so instead of simply telling her there was a place where slavery needed to be stopped, Cherie told her an appalling story about her abuse and how she witnessed someone else being abused and enchanted by Horace Tompkins. She went into great detail, describing everything she had been forced to take part in and witness. She completely ignored NT's demands to be left alone, thinking NT would be a shoulder to cry on and would be there to help her out in the future.
NT kept telling her that it was over, she didn't want to hear any more, and kept up the demands to be let go.
It was several more sickening minutes of this as Cherie continued to talk, trying to make NT listen, and NT thrashing about wildly, shouting back to drown Cherie's sad stories out and trying to get herself free.
When Cherie finally got to the part "You know what he did to women." NT finally managed to yank herself free.
"Shut up! Let me - go!" NT screamed over and over. Mad with anguish, utterly desperate to get away, Nt resorted to violence in order to free herself. She kicked Cherie in the shin and pulled herself back with all the strength she could muster.
This time, NT managed to break away, but she fell down from the effort.
She kicked and flailed like a wild animal when Cherie tried to approach to help her up. Then, she rolled herself into a position to stand up and run like heck.
And again, Cherie called and ran after NT until the girl turned a corner and hid in a space between two houses.
When Cherie followed her into that space, NT really got wild.
"Get out!" She yelled, warning Cherie away with both fists up in a fighting position. "Get out!" When she flailed on the ground after the fall, it might not have appeared she would actually intend to attack Cherie, but this time, the intent should have been clear.
"NT, please!"
"Get...out!" NT lunged toward Cherie. She just couldn't take any more bad news and feeling so totally useless to change it. Neither could she take being pulled back into this Horace Tompkins time-warp. Cherie didn't really turn back time, but she might as well have for what this was doing to NT.
Finally, Cherie got the hint that she had no choice but to leave her there.
Some time later, NT was aware of someone else who seemed to be coming for her.
Warm arms embraced her in a hug.
At first, NT began to struggle.
"Shhhh, it's just me." said her mother.
NT looked at her and started crying silently. "Sorry."
Ariel comforted her and brought her back home.
But back at home was not just Pippi and Capri, but Ameh, and the last person NT wanted to see at this time, Cherie.
"I'm sorry," Cherie whispered, her voice still shaky, "maybe I shouldn't've said anything..." she looked away, torn between not wanting to upset NT further and feeling like she needed to get this out.
NT only looked down. "I wish you hadn't."
"Me too, I'm the one who had to watch - "
"I know!" NT's voice was rising, a good indication she was about to become upset again. She was trying to convey to Cherie that she couldn't take any more of her stories, and instead, Cherie only used the opportunity to talk even more about it.
"Cherie, stop it!" Capri admonished. "You don't need to remind her of your living hell all over again. You've made your apology, NT's back home safe and sound, so now - ""
Cherie sighed. "But please--I need to tell you what happened next. "He said...that was my first lesson."
"Lesson!" NT chimed in mockingly, cutting Cherie off. "I know, he was into - "educating" everyone!"
"Yes, we've heard more than enough of his prattle." said Pippi, trying to get it across to the girl to sto it already, without being rude about it.
Cherie didn't even have appeared to register the others growing impatience and NT's threatening to break. She continued. "Then they took me somewhere, It's where they need our help." Without warning or asking permission or even telling the others the location in mind, Cherie took NT's hand and shifted them out of the house and into some other world.
"This is a mistake, that girl is going to louse things up, badly at this rate." Pippi frowned.
"Argh!" Capri huffed. "I shoulda *made* that girl leave before you brought NT back here, even if it meant me dealin with more cryin and carryin on."
"She'd probably just bounce right back and keep trying until she finally got hold of NT." Ameh speculated. "So much for telling NT about Nick today."
"You can always tell her when she comes back." said Capri.
"It's warded," said Ariel, "I can't locate the girls by magic search."
"Oh, crap," Capri muttered, rolling her eyes in exasperation, "no wonder Cherie wanted NT's help in particular, but it would've been better if I went along."
"To keep them out of trouble." Ameh speculated.
"And because I'm worried about those two associating. I just have a very bad feeling about this and would much rather NT went on a mission with me or you, heck, even Melanie." Capri added. "I'll keep trying to find them."
The mission took only a night in our world, but several weeks in that other world, and it was a success.
But no one who saw NT after that time would've known.
During her time there, NT had managed to get separated from Cherie, and she did not want to be found by her again. She was exhausted and demoralized. She'd had more than she could take of what she'd seen of the cursed place, and heard all she cared to hear and a great deal more than she ever wanted to hear of Cherie's horrible experiences. Experiences NT was utterly powerless to do anything to fix or undo.
She wished Cherie had never told her about the woman she saw abused in a twisted loyalty test and how Cherie had been separated from her guardian to be put here in a slave mart to teach her a lesson. She wished Cherie hadn't brought her to this horrible place, then threatened to surrendor herself to their abuse to get inside without NT's help. She wished she could erase the images of the slave auction Cherie had tried making her sit quietly through, and the terrible conditions and evidence of abuse at the childmart that went on besides the human trafficking. She wished Cherie hadn't told her and all the other girls there that the lucky slaves got to be house-maids, which meant others were doomed to much worse. She wished she had never met Cherie at all, and never learned anything about her hellish life, which seemed to get worse with each subsequent story Cherie told. NT just wanted to block everything all out somehow.
She returned home, sickly and despondent.
Further threats caused her to take drastic measures and try to send the people she cared about to a safe place where no one else could find and get to them.
It worked with her mother, but Pippi refused to go, and just kept using her transport device to return. Both Capri and Ameh were away indefinitely, and Pippi was determined to make sure nothing happened to NT as well, until such time as the others returned.
NT still didn't respond to anyone who tried to councel her, and no matter how Cherie or Miranda wrote to her in letters and emails, they could not get her to bring Ariel back home.
One letter from Cherie contained something that NT finally did respond to, a threat of taking matters into her own hands, which NT took for meaning that Cherie was going to magically snoop around until she found Ariel and was going to bring her back anyway. That and a reference to the mission she had wooshed NT away on, the day she nearly broke her spirit beyond repair. It didn't help matters that Cherie had run away from her foster home again and was staying with Miranda and Tonya.
When NT responded, it was not what Cherie had expected, and it resulted in an email crapstorm of guilt-tripping, self-pity and self-absorption on the parts of Miranda and Cherie, and bitterness anger and resentment on the part of NT.
NT let it fly, telling Cherie to mind her own business and to stop bringing up bad memories and talking about her sad life story all the time. NT ranted, detailing when and how Cherie persisted in making her upset, with the loyalty test world mission thing being the culmination of it all.
Cherie didn't listen, of course, and only wrote NT back, bringing everything up again that NT couldn't have made it more clear she did not want to talk about.
Feeling disrespected and wanting to explode, NT screamed back at her in another note.
In desperation, Cherie wrote to Pippi, bemoaning the fact that she couldn't seem to help NT. She included copies of hers and NT's notes back and forth, and told Pippi she wanted to help NT the way she had been helped by her. She begged for a way to make NT understand. Along with that was her usual ritual of self-denigration, going on about how she really must be evil since all she ever seemed to do was mess things up.
Only having skimmed the notes, getting the general idea, Pippi now read through Cherie's and NT's emails beginning to end.
"Oh, good heavens!" Pippi gasped under her breath. "What in the world was that girl thinking!?"Referring to Cherie.
NT had not spoken a word about it when she had returned from that rescue mission, and she refused to discuss it when her guardians had questioned her. All she had said to them was that she never would've run away to try and clear her head, she would've opted for staying at home and grieving Nick's abandoning her instead. So, they had assumed the mission had simply been a miserable failure, or hadn't gone quite as NT would've wanted.
Pippi hoped Cherie would give up writing, because she really didn't want to have to tell her that she was not only helpless to do anything to improve things with NT, but had and might continue to seriously hinder the process.
She thought Cherie needed to help herself to heal, but not at another person's expense.
Pippi wrote Cherie back, telling her there was nothing she could do for NT and it was best she just let go and let time help heal what needed healing.
In addition, Pippi wrote Cherie another note that was considerably sterner since being nice just wasn't working with this stubborn, gloom-addicted girl.
* * *
One more thing.
From the time we met you at the reckoning, you ignored all of our cautions at every turn, and every time, it's ended badly.
Now, you have been asked, then begged, and shouted at by NT not to talk to her about your abuse or the other world you took her to. By continuing to bring it up, you are disrespecting her wishes not to talk about it, and you are disrespecting her as a person. That was a definite undertone of her letters you showed me.
NT was so miserable when she came back that she told Ariel she'd be happy just thinking about Nick, and she wished you had just left her alone.
If you had left her alone, we would've found her and brought her back home, and she would've been sad about Nick abandoning her, yes. But she wouldn't have been driven right to the breaking point and nearly over the edge.
That is not a nice place to be, and by bringing it up with her, you are making her relive that experience of nearly going over the edge all over again. She wasn't ready then and she'll never get strong enough and be ready to deal with this either if you keep after her about it.
Obviously it's too painful for NT to deal with right now, and you are forcing her back there again. So if you won't listen to her when she asks you to cut it out, you are going to have to listen to me.
I am telling you in so many words, do not bring up these things with NT again until she's ready, and when she's ready to talk about it with you, she will initiate the dialog.
I don't want to be forced into blocking your emails from NT's computer, but if you continue as you have, I will have no choice. I'm sorry.
Let me worry about NT. You have friends where you are, who will no doubt, give you whatever it is you seem to need, or else you wouldn't be there now.
Pippi
* * *
Eventually, Ariel, Capri and Ameh returned, and if Cherie kept writing to NT, at least the email was landing somewhere other than the inbox.
New friends were made, there were a couple new missions involving new friends and some old enemies too. Once Miranda and Lady Une were thrown in prison, followed by Tonya and Nick, everyone had forgotten about Cherie.
But Cherie had not forgotten them, and she was not ready to let go.
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