The New Chimera

Raphael was woken by someone vigorously shaking him, and, after a moment, he realized he was in the infirmary.

“Get up, master.” Emily said, her shaking growing in intensity as he looked at her.

“Enough, Emily.” He growled. “Remember who’s employing you.”

“Not you.” She said smugly. “I got a transfer, and none too soon, let me tell you. My grades were really starting to dip thanks to your little schemes.”

“Those aren’t important, you have a practically guaranteed job working for me. Trust me, you’ll come crawling back to me once things start going wrong.”

Emily snorted. “As if.” She straightened up, then walked towards the door. “She’s awake, Kali!” She called.

She? Raphael looked down and…yes, she was a girl now. That wasn’t really a big deal to her, angels weren’t fussy about sex and gender, but what was a problem was her clothing. Her sharply tailored shirt and pants had been traded out for a rather loose, ill-fitting pink dress. She looked ridiculous, and that simply wouldn’t do. She’d have to have her grandmother get her a new wardrobe.

“So, sleeping beauty finally woke up.” Kali said, entering the room, Emily close behind. “Let’s talk, there are going to be some…changes for you.”

Raphael opened her mouth to speak, but Kali held up a hand. “And before you say anything, your grandmother is aware of what I’m doing here. In fact, she’s given me express permission to discipline you as I see fit. She said you need to have your ego taken down a few notches.” Kali smirked. “Can’t imagine where you learned it from.”

Raphael grit her teeth but said nothing. She wasn’t about to just believe that, but she was wise enough to realize that now wasn’t the time to start talking back. She had enough experience to know that being disrespectful to people above her station would only end in pain. But she would talk to her grandmother later and get this sorted out, she wouldn’t let herself be pushed around like this.

Kali gave her a sad look. “She’s messed you up more than I thought.” She said softly, then shook her head. “But now’s not the time for that. We need to talk about consequences. The first is that Emily is being transferred, and you will be left without a servant until I deem that you’ve learned your lesson about misuse of your power over people. Should we find that you attempt to coerce or bribe people into doing the work of a servant for you, you will receive additional punishment, understood?”

Raphael nodded slowly, and Kali continued. “And, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the second is that we’ve turned you into a girl for the time being. Carmen has decided that it would be fitting if you had to experience what she’s going through.”

Raphael raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly is that?”

“Carmen’s given me permission to tell you and Emily, but you two aren’t to tell anyone else, understood? She and Lilith used to be male before Lilith became a Perfect Chimera. And, although Carmen is great at transforming others, their body is…abnormal, so she can’t work with it the same way she can with normal people. Anyway, Carmen wanted me to let you know that, if you have any trouble adjusting, you can go to Lilith, she’ll probably help you out.”

 Kali smiled slightly. “I took the liberty of changing your wardrobe for you, too. It should fit you much better than your old clothes would have. And no, you’re not getting new stuff. You’re going to be like everyone else and live with what you have. Your clothes aren’t all dresses, don’t worry, I still left you stuff you can move around in. Oh, and if you find that you outgrow any or even if they’re too big, I can do size adjustments, that’s not a big deal. Just no replacements.

“Oh, and, before I forget, how old are you?”

“Eight. Why?”

“Just wanting to make sure you wouldn’t get caught up in puberty during this. If you’re good, you should be done with this by then, but if you’re not, and you still want to change back, come talk to me, I’ll make sure you’re whatever sex you would prefer for that. It’s hard enough without an added complication like this, you know?”

Kali gave her an infuriating smile and a wave before turning to the door. “Anyway, I gotta go check on Lilith, I’ll leave you to think about things.” With those words, Kali made her way out of the room and Emily followed, shutting the door and leaving Raphael alone with her thoughts.

Lilith woke in a bed, a series of messages blocking her vision. No one seemed to be in the immediate area, so she took the time to read through them and make sure they matched up with the memories Carmen gave her.

Lilith waved the windows away, still mentally taking stock of everything. She had apparently learned a great deal of eldritch “spells” and other abilities, of which those were the most important. She also remembered everything Carmen had experienced, from her kiss with Kali to her plan to deal with Raphael.

And…she wasn’t pleased. She should have been kept in the loop on Raphael, and she should have had some input on the decision. The emotion surprised her, to an extent; she didn’t recall ever feeling this strongly when it came to people doing things without her permission before, not even when Carmen had changed Alex, but for some inexplicable reason she didn’t like it now.

The door opened and Kali stepped in. “How are you feeling? Sorry we were so…forceful like that.”

Lilith sighed. “I’m fine. I just…”

“Just?” Kali prompted.

“I really just wish you two had talked to me about this first. I should have had agency in this, because at the end of the day it’s my life and my problems, you know?”

A brief look of shock crossed Kali’s face, transitioned into what looked like barely contained glee, and then vanished as she schooled her expression. “Sorry about that. As you know, Carmen assured me that you would be fine with it, and I deferred to her judgement of your character. Do you have any disagreements with our punishment?”

Lilith frowned. “I dunno. It seems kinda…irrelevant to what it’s supposed to be a punishment for, you know?”

Kali shrugged. “Kinda right, kinda wrong.” She replied, taking a seat on a nearby chair. “I’m going to level with you here, this isn’t as much about punishing Raphael as you might think. It’s more…removing her from the circumstances she found herself in. I’m sure that, through Carmen’s memories, you’ve picked up that I have no love lost for Elenoa.”

Lilith nodded, and Kali continued. “And to be frank, I think most of Raphael’s behavioral problems stem from her. She’s…well, she’s not exactly the best guardian, I’ll give you that much. Raphael’s parents died a few years ago in a Society raid, Elenoa’s been ‘raising’ her even since.

“And by that, I mean she’s mostly given Raphael anything she wanted in order to get her to leave her alone and left the actual work to other people. I mean, she even told me to help, and she doesn’t even like me. And between that and the fact that she was, for political reasons, the most important student in her class, she’s grown up…well, unhealthily, as you can see.

“So, I’m hoping some distance from all of that will help correct her behavior. I’m hoping to illustrate to her classmates that she can’t just get anything she wants from her grandmother, and this is a very visible reminder of that. And then we can slowly start to work on fixing all the damage Elenoa did on the poor thing.”

Lilith sighed. “I don’t know, I –”

She was interrupted as the door flew open, revealing a heavily panting Tunem. “Kali, get Lilith and her friends out of here, now. The Society’s going to be raiding this place in a few minutes.”

Lilith leapt out of the bed, giving Tunem a surprised look. “What?! I thought we were safe!”

“They had a tracking spell on Alex. We dispelled it when we first took you in, but they must have gotten enough information to brute-force their way past the seals. They’ve been using extremely advanced counter-divination magic, too, and I’d been picking at it for a while but only just broke through. We’re already getting all the other students safe, and we’ve had someone draw you up a portal in the office here–”

“What’s going on?!” Raphael demanded, stepping inside. She was wearing a loose t-shirt and a pair of shorts and was looking like she was edging on panic. “I went back to my room and when I came back everyone was gone! You’re the only ones I could find in here, even the other kids were moved!”

Tunem froze, staring at Raphael, then snapped out of it, shaking his head. “No time. Raphael, stick with Kali and Lilith, the Society’s raiding and we don’t have time to get you with the other kids.”

Raphael stopped in her tracks, terror filling her face. “What?! But –”

“I got this.” Carmen stepped into the room, picking Raphael up under one arm. “Come on, we have to move. I got everyone else, they’re just outside.”

“Put me down!” Raphael yelled, ineffectually kicking and punching against Carmen.

“No can do.” Carmen said stoically. “We’re in an emergency situation. Settle down or I’ll knock you out again.”

Kali grabbed Lilith’s hand and towed her out of the room. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to her.” She assured Tunem. “You focus on making sure nobody here gets hurt.”

Lilith didn’t get to see Tunem’s response, as Kali broke out into a run and pulled Lilith with her. “Where are the others?” She asked, looking behind to make sure Carmen was following.

“Down the hall to the left.” Carmen responded. “In the main office with the portal.”

Kali nodded. “Got it.”

“Wait, what are you guys doing?!” Raphael yelled. She had stopped struggling, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of being quiet about it either. “Where are we going?!”

“There’s a portal in the main office that’s taking us…somewhere, probably one of the other demi-planes. I don’t know, Tunem just said he had someone draw it up, so I don’t know any more details than that.”

The ground shook, causing Lilith to stumble as the floor in front of her suddenly broke and rose upward slightly. Kali didn’t miss a beat, yanking Lilith up off the ground and into her arms as they burst into the office, where a shimmering portal and a few people were waiting.

“In, now.” Kali commanded, not even sparing a glance to see who exactly was in the room as she leapt through the portal, carrying Lilith with her as she did.

Fighterman481

So, let's talk the Raphael situation. The biggest change I made was the removal of any mental conditioning since it, frankly, distracted more from the story than it enhanced it. Instead the arc is more about...for lack of a better word, power. Power that was held over Raphael, and power Raphael held over people.

Also those with sharper memories among you may recall that in the original many races ages way slower than humans, and that Raphael was in her 80s (or something) in that one. I decided that was way too much of a headache and frankly lowkey bugged me when it came to things like learning in 'childhood' years and what that meant in regards to intelligence, so most humanoid species now age at roughly the same pace.

Also, I decided to separate Lilith's group from most of Lilith's classmates in the upcoming situation. Those classmates, again, weren't really adding anything to the story, so that point got cut. The next few chapters are going to diverge a little from the original so things get to the point faster.

But that's about all so, as always, thanks for reading!