And I'll tell you, baby, it was easy comin' back here to you once I figured it out

“Ugh… my head…” Morgana rubbed her forehead, and the ache in her skull. Everything was in a haze- it was like she’d just woken up from a very strange dream.

It wasn’t a happy dream, either. She’d dreamt that she had turned into some sexy, badass dominatrix witch. Which would have been fine in a vacuum, but then she turned against her friends. She assaulted Gina and **** her to do things against her will, then she tried to target the other girls, got in major fight with Dawn, and even abused poor Mary.

Just remembering it felt like she was living that nightmare all over again- it was so vivid! She could see it playing out in front of her, and she just wanted to curl up and die with shame.

But at least it wasn’t real, just a very vivid memory… at least, that’s what she thought for the first few seconds, as she got acclimated to her current situation and looked around the room. As things were settling in, she realized that there were a few problems with her “dream” theory.

For one, it was night out- why had she been sleeping? Had she slept the whole day away? The last thing she remembered clearly before her dream had been checking out the Hall of Mirrors with Dawn and Gina.

And then there was the fact that her room was a mess. It was like a hurricane had torn through here, destroying everything in sight.

“What… what’s going on?” Morgana asked worriedly, looking around as more images began to creep their way into her brain. She was remembering even more now, but… she couldn’t be. There’s no way she would have chased Carly and her sister through the streets of the Shopping District or tried to control Sylvia… no way!

“That was a really weird dream…”

Morgana gasped and whirled around to see Dawn. The small cat girl was in the process of picking herself up from the floor, and she looked rather sick and tired herself. Her vision glazed over as she made eye contact with Morgana, and then she sighed in relief.

“Oh, good… so it was a dream. You’re not really some psycho dominatrix… good… that’s good…” The brunette mumbled, wiping the crust from her eyes.

Morgana swallowed and turned pale. What she’d just said…

“Um… Dawn?” Morgana asked weakly. “What you were talking about just now… me being a dominatrix, what…?”

“Huh? Oh…” Dawn yawned and stood up, stretching. “Just this really weird dream I had. I was super hot, but I was also really horny….” She turned red as she recalled the memory. “It’s pretty messed up, to be honest. I can’t believe I was dreaming about that!”

Morgana swallowed. “And… and in your dream… in your dream, I was… what? Some kind of dominatrix, is that right?”

This wasn’t good. Everything was sounding way too familiar. But if this wasn’t a dream, then that meant the two of them were…

“Yeah,” Dawn nodded, shaking her head. “Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking… I’m usually not like this, I swear! But I was dreaming that you and I and Gina, we’d all changed into other people… then I left Gina for you to play with her, and went to go seduce Kim, but when that didn’t work, I went after Dani. Then Carly and Marley came in, with Sylvia, then you and Gina came back, then Mary and Holly, and soon we were all together, and then…”

Her voice trailed off as something occurred to her. She looked around the room for a moment, confusion blossoming across her face, and then she turned pale in realization.

“…Wait, no,” she said, shaking her head. “No, that’s not right at all, no way.”

“What?” Morgana asked worriedly. “What is it?!”

She already had a good idea what Dawn was getting so worked up over.

After all, it didn’t make sense that they would have shared the same dream. Which could only mean one thing…

“The last thing I remember about that dream was that we were in the Hall of Mirrors,” Dawn said quietly. She could still feel the tingle on her hand from when she’d touched that reflection. “Then we woke up here. But that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

Morgana shook her head. “I… I had the same dream. The one you did, anyway. I remember it all so vividly… it’s like it wasn’t a dream at all.”

Dawn frowned. She usually recalled all her dreams vividly, so there was nothing unusual about this instance. But the fact that Morgana remembered it so vividly as well…

She turned pale as she considered what that meant.

“Morgana… do you think…” She didn’t want to ask the question. And she didn’t want to hear the answer. But she was too smart to not bring it up.

“I-I… no!” Morgana shook her head, lying to herself just as much as she knew she was lying to Dawn. “It was a dream! It has to be! Look, see? Our clothes are back to normal!”

She gestured at her own outfit but Dawn just shook her head. Her ears drooped and her tail lay flat against her leg.

“The mirrors changed our clothes too, though,” Dawn said somberly. “So when the transformation wore off, our outfits…”

“NO!” Morgana shook her head frantically and began pacing back and forth. “I’m not hearing this, I refuse to hear this! It was a dream, it had to be!”

But she knew it wasn’t. They both knew it wasn’t.

“It wasn’t a dream!” Dawn snapped. She gasped at her outburst- she wasn’t the type of person to get irrationally angry at others, that wasn’t what she was like!

But it had happened. And Morgana needed to accept that reality so they could move forward.

Unfortunately, Morgana and reality had a rather tenuous relationship.

“This is all a mistake, it’s just some weird, freaky dream!” Morgana exclaimed, turning for the door. She tried to open it, but it was sealed shut. It wasn’t even locked- the knob didn’t even budge. It was like it had been fused into the wall.

Not exactly a great situation to find herself in.

“We can’t leave,” Dawn reminded her gently. “Dakota instituted a curfew, remember?”

Morgana adamantly shook her head. The curfew had just been in their dream! …Which was reality. There was nothing they could do to change that fact.

“I… I just…” Tears began to well up in Morgana’s eyes. She slumped against the wall and sank down to the floor. “I just wanted everything to be okay…” She sobbed, hugging her legs to her chest. “I didn’t want to do those bad things again…”

It was like her mistake with the diary all over again. She hadn’t meant to do it. But she’d been influenced by some horrible witch, and that had caused her to make a lot of mistakes.

Mistakes she wished she had never made, but it was too late to take back now.

Morgana felt sick to her stomach. She was going to throw up.

“Um… Morgana…”

Morgana raised her head, and then gasped. She started to shake.

“No…” She whispered as she saw Dawn pick her diary up off of the floor and dust it off.

There could only be one reason that book was out. And she didn’t want to confront that reality.

She shook her head frantically. “No!”

“Morgana, you…” Dawn’s voice cracked. It looked like she was about to cry, which was stunning for Morgana. After all, Dawn never cried. She was cool and smart and rational, and someone Morgana was growing a deep sense of admiration for.

And she looked like she was about to cry.

“You wrote something down…”

“Oh, what the fuck?”

Mary stared in shock at Gina as the light blonde of her hair slowly crept back to becoming black. Her nice clothes turned black as well, shifting and changing until she’d regained her original garments again. It was like a repeat of what had happened the last time Gina had rejected her transformation- she was becoming a punk again.

That caused a strange sense of duality for Mary. She got off the bed and took a few steps back as she let the transformation finish doing its work, watching the other girl cautiously as she changed. Finally, the metaphorical dust cleared, and there she was- Gina, again.

She looked a little worse for wear, so again, normal Gina. She had a dazed expression on her face (again, normal) and the beginnings of a headache. She looked up from the bed, and saw Mary standing over her, wearing an anxious expression.

“Mary? Oh, hey… what’s up?” Gina asked, yawning. She felt really tired for some reason, even though she was pretty sure she just woke up from a long nap. It seemed that way, anyway. And a really weird one, too.

“Um… you… you don’t remember anything?” Mary asked, confused by Gina’s response.

The punk blinked at her.

“Remember anything… about…” Her voice trailed off as she tried to focus on the strange thoughts swirling around in her mind, like a foggy cloud of memories. It was a little hard to get a solid grip, though- her mind was too distracted.

But there was a distinct taste of milk on her lips that caused everything confusing her to suddenly sharpen into crystal clarity.

Gina’s eyes widened. Mary’s face was as red as a rose, which could only mean…

“Wait, so… that wasn’t a dream?” Gina narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, propping up her chin with her hands.

Mary bit her lip and shook her head. “N-no,” she said quietly. “It wasn’t. That… all that stuff… it really happened… yeah, really…”

It was a rather terrifying thought, frankly. But Gina just laughed it off.

“Oh, man, I guess Morgana and Dawn went pretty wild, huh?” She said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I actually touched that mirror, though! Of all the choices, becoming a sweet little good girl? I can’t imagine what I must have taken to think THAT was a good idea!”

Mary thought she heard a note of defensiveness in Gina’s voice, like she was trying to downplay something. But she didn’t address it. She just stood back and let the other girl talk.

“…But hey, I guess I can’t blame those two,” Gina shrugged. “They were just doing what they were doing, after all.”

Mary was surprised to hear that, and also a little miffed. Shouldn’t Gina be upset, that she’d gotten abused like that by Morgana? Mary knew that SHE was upset. Even though a part of her was well aware that those girls weren’t in their right minds, that didn’t negate the terror she’d felt when Dawn climbed atop her, or when Morgana held her down.

“What… um, what was it like?” She asked quietly, moving closer to Gina. “You know, being… being transformed into someone else?”

Gina looked up at her and blinked. “What, you mean, what was it like to be that goodie two-shoes? Well…”

Gina had never been the best with words. She wasn’t some poet, or a novelist, like Nick. She was just a girl who listened to grunge rock music and partied. Maybe once upon a time, she’d dreamt of being a singer herself, of writing music and playing for huge crowds of people, but that dream had died a long time ago, and…

Wait, why am I thinking about this? She asked herself, frowning. Those dreams were long-buried. Could turning into that good version of herself, personality and all, made certain thoughts unseat themselves in her mind?

She didn’t like the thought of that, frankly.

Gina shook her head quickly. “It’s hard to describe,” she said vaguely, hoping Mary would just drop the issue.

But Mary wasn’t one for dropping things, especially not important things like this.

“What do you mean?” She pressed, frowning. “What about it is hard to describe? Did you not have any memories or anything? Because it seems you do… were you conscious, then?”

She was really grilling Gina, and Gina hated to be asked questions like this. It made her feel like she was back in school!

But as much as she hated being confronted directly, she could see the fear and worry in Mary’s eyes, and knew that she had to be pretty concerned about what was going on.

Gina sighed.

“Okay, look, I don’t remember much, alright?” Gina groaned. “It’s like… waking up from a dream, a really vivid dream. I have flashes of the whole thing, and if I focus, I could probably pull out the really important parts. But honestly, Mary, it’s not something I can really get a good grasp of, you know? It was real, and it wasn’t.”

That was about as much as Gina could properly explain. This whole thing was an annoying mystery that she wasn’t in the mood to solve.

Gina had never been a big fan of the mystery genre. Just another detail she differed from the redhead on, of course.

But Mary still looked troubled. Not upset, just… troubled.

“What about after?” Mary asked. “You remember all those perverse things, of course… but what about after that?”

Gina blinked.

“What do you mean after?” She asked. The most vivid thing she could focus on at the moment was the feel of Morgana’s hand flat against her ass, for smack after smack. That made her giddy, but it would be in poor taste to smile over something like that.

She did it anyway.

“I mean…” Mary blushed, and averted her eyes. “After. Like… when we came back to our rooms for curfew, and then when we… talked.”

“Oh!” Gina’s eyes widened, and so did her grin. “You mean when you fed me your milk? Yeah, I do have a few memories of that! Who’d have thought, Mary? You, of all people, surrendering to your desires and nearly forcing a transformation on someone else? I know you’ve really gone all in on having sex after getting married to Nick, but… my, my…”

“NO!” Mary exclaimed, her blush deepening in shade. She swiftly shook her head back and forth. “I didn’t **** you to do anything! That’s not what happened, stop lying!”

“I know, I know,” Gina chuckled. “But… I wasn’t exactly in my right mind… I was sweet and naïve, and very impressionable… I think a decent lawyer could make the case that you assaulted me when I wasn’t capable of fighting back…”

Mary turned as pale as a sheet. Gina was going to keep the teasing going, before a foul thought crossed her mind. When she’d said “lawyer” that conjured an image of her mother. Mrs. District Attorney. And given the current context she was under…

Ugh. That bitch would have loved that doormat me. It was exactly what she’s always wanted from me, to be her good little girl who would do as she’s told.

The thought of that killed all the glee that had been building up inside the punk girl at Mary’s expense. Unfortunately, this had the added negative of Mary noticing her change in demeanor, and internalizing that as being because of her.

“Gina… I swear I didn’t mean to!” She begged. “I’m serious! I didn’t think of it like taking advantage of you, I know that doesn’t make it right, but-”

“Save it,” Gina muttered, holding up her hand to stop Mary’s grumbling. She wasn’t in the mood anymore. Her expression softened. “I was just teasing you. I don’t feel bad about what you did. In fact… I’m glad. That old me wasn’t me. Giving me some milk, well… I don’t know how it worked, but at least I had a bit of a backbone.”

She sighed and slumped back onto the bed, and stared up at the ceiling.

“You know, contrary to what people think of me, I’m not some doormat,” she said. “I’ve always stood up for myself when it counted, just… not when I didn’t want to.”

Just because Gina was submissive when it came to sex, that didn’t mean she was submissive in every avenue of her life. She’d punched a few girls who’d come after her for stealing their boyfriends for a night of partying.

The “good” version of her was just… ugh.

“Still…” Mary looked down, frowning. “I should have known better. I-”

“You don’t need to apologize to me,” Gina assured her, springing back up into a seated position. She waved her hand dismissively. “We’re good. Besides… your milk doesn’t taste all that bad, if we’re being honest.”

She smacked her lips together loudly for effect. Mary’s expression turned from sad and conciliatory to embarrassed once again, causing Gina to laugh with glee. That was exactly what she was looking for, to see Mary all fretting and frantic like that.

“Don’t worry, Mary. We’re cool,” Gina assured her, flashing a grin. This was a lot better. Just sitting in the moment like this, without worrying about what was to come. And without thinking about the past, and the people that Gina had disappointed.

“Well, um… I’m just glad you’re back to normal,” Mary said.

Gina nodded. “Yeah, I am. I still remember all the stuff that happened to me, but none of that matters.” She smacked her chest. “I’m me again!”

Mary sighed in relief.

An awkward silence hung in the air, and then Gina smiled.

“Oh, that’s right,” she added. “I also remember all the stuff you said before. About how much you like me!”

Mary’s blush returned with a vengeance.

“Like you?! I just meant… no, that’s not-!” Mary stammered, shaking her head frantically. “Gina, no, it’s just that I…”

“You what? You like me!” Gina grinned. “You said so! You said you LIKED the fact that I was such an honest person, and that’s the reason why you’re trying so hard to help me! Because of my candor!”

She puckered her lips in a mockery of a kiss. “Love you too, red.”

“Gina!” Mary exclaimed.

Gina just laughed. She hopped to her feet and skipped around Mary, teasing her in a sing-song voice.

“Mary likes Gina, Mary likes Gina!”

“Uwweeeh! Stop it!” Mary wailed, stomping her foot in frustration.

Deep down, she was glad to have Gina back to normal. But she couldn’t deny that a part of her would have liked for the punk girl to remain that sweet, nice girl that she’d gotten to know for the last hour and a half just a little bit longer.