ATM Rewrite: B2 — 12. A Mother's Courage And Regrets

PoV:

1. Sora Moore (Our Fox Girl Gets Ten Hugs T_T)

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Sora floated through a sea of stars, orbiting a bright sun that filled her with warm reassurance.  The soothing shade of bright multi-colored moons rotated around her from time to time, cooling her when she grew too hot.  It was as if she were in a celestial spaceship, kept in sync with this rapidly moving miniature solar system that carried her through the cosmos.

A gentle tug pulled at her body, and the brilliant view of space melted away for her familiar bedroom ceiling to emerge from the dazzling starscape.  Sora choked back a gurgle as she smacked her lips and realized her mouth was open, drool leaking down her left cheek.

Beautiful way to wake up, she internally grumbled, swallowing the liquid in her mouth.

Wendy’s entertained giggle came from beside her as the brunette showed a shining grin.  She twirled a star-themed wand that soon came to a stop.

“Welcome home to the land of the living!”

“How long…  And what were you doing?”  Sora mumbled, feeling something fall off from her side as she reached up to accept the tissue her sister offered her to wipe away the drool.  “You got magic?”

“I’m working on it.  Never mind that, though.  Look!  Look!”

Her ears pulled back in a yawn, Sora’s mind still felt a little cloudy, and her tail stretched out with her limbs to enjoy the light morning burn.  Yet, her tail recoiled upon realizing something was latched onto it.

Sora’s eyes widened, thoughts clearing as a beautiful, freckled woman’s face came into focus beside her, resting   “Mom?  Mom!”

Diving on top of her mother, her mom let out a cute, choked scream, tensing as she brought her into a tight hug.

“Ahh!”

“Mom!  How did—”

“Sora!”  Wendy cried, jumping on top of her and trying to wrestle her away.  “You’re going to kill her!”

“H-Huh?!”

She let go, ears pulling back as her mother gasped for air, face a bright red and choking.  Sora’s gut swirled with confusion as her mom rolled off the bed in an unceremonious grunt, mummified in sheets and nine tails failing.

“Ack!  S-Sora—I…  I’m okay!”

Wendy let her go, allowing her to crawl to the edge of the bed and look down at her struggling mother, glowing red eyes wide and chest heaving as she gasped for air.

A stream of frigid mist brought Eyia into the room, wielding a golden dagger and cutting her free of the sheets.  “Can you breathe, Lady Mia?”

“Well, that was unnecessary,” Wendy sighed, sweeping back her hair.  “You okay, Ms. Moore?”

Sora gave Wendy a slight frown at calling their mom by her last name.  Then again, she probably did have a lot of lingering feelings and was squeamish about coming out and calling someone ‘Mom’ so soon after her mother’s betrayal.

Their mother went limp.  Nine tails fanned out between her spread legs, and a short laugh shook her mother’s chest, allowing Sora to get a full view of her silky, strawberry-pink pajama shorts and top.  Her wavy red locks were in a tangled mess, but she still showed the same strained, awkward smile Sora remembered from their first visit together.

“What a way to wake up.  Hello, my beautiful daughters.  Can you give me a, umm—a moment to catch my breath?  I’m still getting my tails under me,” she said with a short titter.

Sora eyed Wendy while crawling down, noticing a downcast smile; her mother seemed to have addressed the topic before, and Wendy was fine with being called a daughter but was still nervous about saying the word itself.

She heard several people rushing to her bedroom across the super suite when someone realized she was up.  Eyia gave her a cheery wave and dispersed into fog again to stop the gang from disturbing them.  She couldn’t hear Jin’s voice in the bunch, and her sharpening magical senses told her she was still asleep, but there were quite a few new guests in her home.

Sora dismissed all of it to cuddle next to her mom, being careful this time.  “I can’t believe you’re actually here.  How are you here?  No…  Why do you feel… so weak?”

Wendy settled on her belly to watch them from the bed, wearing a soft smile.  “I’ve already had my time with her, so don’t rush things.  Just enjoy it.  You’ve been down for almost four days since jumping into the middle of that war with the fae and Unseelie.”

All she got from that was that she’d missed her mother’s arrival, but she was here!

Her mother drew her on top of her to hold her close, making Sora’s ears drift back as she heard three heartbeats, quite a bit stronger than a normal human’s.  Emotion flooded her veins with her trembling bottom lip, tears coming on as all stress melted in her mother’s embrace.  She wanted to scream until her heart beat out of her chest, but all she could muster was a joyful whimper.

Sora could feel the slightly elevated warmth of her mom’s skin and hear the slight pain in her voice as she played with her copper locks.  It prompted a blue glow to swiftly illuminate Sora’s tail as her mother’s wrapped around hers again, and her heartbeat skyrocketed with Sora’s healing energy weaving into her soul.

“Mom?”

“I’m here, Sora.  It’s okay…  I’ll never let you go.”

Eyes closing, she refused to let go or think about anything else; over a decade’s worth of confusion, guilt, anger, longing, and misery at thinking she’d killed her mother in childbirth washed away in the fire of her mother’s loving aura.  Knowing she was alive was one thing, but it was something different holding her in her arms and being told it wasn’t going away.

“I love you, Mom,” she cried through sniffles.

Her mother’s chest and heartbeats fluttered with emotion as her fur bristled.  Arms wrapping around her back, her mother tightened her grip.

“In so many countless ages… few have ever given me this kind of pain and joy.  I’ve made… so many mistakes.  I allowed my fear to pull me away, but you gave me the courage to do this—to have this perfect life with my daughter.”

“What fears—what did you do, Mom?”  Sora swallowed, looking up as her mother scooted them back against the dresser to allow their eyes to collide.  “How can you be with me without triggering my next tail?”

Pulling her in, she reached up to take Wendy’s hand.  “If any part of my soul touched yours, then it would likely kill you, so I converted myself into pure energy and sealed all of my being into a tight seed pod.”

Wendy piped up, concentrating while twisting her wand to release weak, sparkling light that settled into a crude illusion.  “I’ve been practicing this part!”

Sora smiled as their mother’s chest shook against her back, and one of her tails rose to point at the illustrations her adopted sister crafted.  A star figure of her mother spread her tails and arms wide, folding in to split into three words that linked into one, making Sora settle against her mother’s torso for storytime.

“A soul is comprised of three parts—an Intelligence, a spirit, and a physical body—and as a creature rises through dimensional levels, each part becomes more refined and elastic… growing and expanding to connect with the higher planes.”

A few big fireballs appeared as Wendy struggled a little to increase the illusion’s size, making them flicker; Sora was proud to see her achievement when they solidified.

“Not to get too complicated, I contacted one of the more advanced alien species within this universal fragment.  Using their technology, I had them create this perfectly non-magical body and fashioned a new spiritual shell to link an Intelligence to…  This shell is now… me, well, until it is destroyed.”

Sora drew the awkward fox’s arm tighter against her belly, enjoying the heat of her mother’s breath against her ears and her elevated body heat.  The seed buried inside the new frame, the Intelligence sending tiny pulses that were hardly visible compared to the powerful beats of her original figure.

Head tilting as she reached up to pull one of her mom’s tails into a hug to pet, Sora studied the sparkly designs.  “You said you had to build up the courage to do this…  Why couldn’t you do this before?”

Wendy’s head hit the bed with a groan as her mana ran low, her illusion vanishing.  “Ugh.  I’m so weak!  Umm, because she sealed away all her power.  She put herself in a 3rd-dimensional body and limited her Intelligence.  Basically, she gave up all her power and foresight to be with us.  She can’t protect us anymore.”

Sora carefully repositioned against her bed, draping her legs over her mom’s and holding her hand against her thigh.  “Wait, really?!  Are you okay—isn’t that really scary for you?  I know I’d be terrified if I suddenly lost all my powers and was a normal teenage girl again.”

Wendy nodded emphatically, crawling down to join them.  “Right?!  She is scared, but she did it for us—for your dad, you, and… even me.  She’s perfect.”

Her mother’s fingers slackened against hers, a melancholy note entering her voice as her tails' grip weakened.  “I’m… far from it, I’m afraid.  The pain your father and my mistakes caused you, Sora, is… challenging for me to contend with.”

“You’re here, though!”  Sora shot back, grabbing her wrist.  “You did watch over me!”

“As with everything, it’s far more complicated than that,” she said, pulling away from Wendy’s hand to press against her breast, focus drifting to the dimming ocean view.  “I let my fears overpower my hope and love…  I never knew the terror of being a parent until my pregnancy, and every day that inched closer, the stress only grew…”

She swallowed, trembling bottom lip sucking in as she turned back to her, regret and guilt in her red eyes.  “My greatest mistake was not doing this sooner.  I knew it would likely work, but I shoved it away with excuse after excuse for… longer than you can imagine on a higher plane.  I failed you as a mother.  I didn’t have enough faith in myself.  I’m so sorry, Sora.”

Sora scooted closer, and Wendy took her other side.  Pulling their mother in, she rubbed her arm, feeling the torturous turmoil eviscerating her mother’s heart.  “You have made mistakes, Mom… but wait, I know you said you can’t look into the future like normal, or whatever—can’t you go back in time, though?”

A watery smile lifted her mother’s face as she shook her head, voice thick with emotion.  “Any thread a Singular Entity, like us, walks are set in stone, and it is a burden for all creatures like us to bare…  All we can do is burn the threads away so others cannot see our mistakes; they can never be changed, though.”

“Oh…”  Sora’s stomach twisted, realizing there was a weight to that she didn’t quite fully understand yet.  “So, all we can do is let them go…  All I can tell you is, I love you, Mom.  So please, love yourself for me.”

“I don’t deserve you, girls,” her mother wept, the goddess of vulpes curling into a ball and letting her flaws show.

Sora listened to every heartache and regret, crying and laughing with her at times.  Because of her mortal and finite shell, her mother was terrified of all the opposition they faced, scared that she’d made another horrible mistake.  Her knowledge was extremely limited in this form, and she couldn’t leave clues since the slightest new interaction of her essence could trigger Sora’s transformation.

There was a limited amount of things she could set in motion at her awakening, and all traces had to be burned before she interacted with them, further drawing attention from higher beings with the incineration of Existence’s threads.  Not even as a pup had she felt so vulnerable, blind, and powerless as she did now, yet there was a freedom and new weight that made her quiver with trepidation.

She was the mortal, flawed mother that she’d been petrified of at Sora’s birth, unable to protect her from the terrors of Existence.  And Sora’s tail reached up to clear away her mother’s puffy, wet cheeks, her magic soothing her flushed skin and uplifting her mother’s spirit with her loving emotions, the sun having long fallen below the horizon.

“I can’t protect you anymore… and I don’t know if this is me being selfish or stupid, Sora.  I felt helpless away from you, and I feel helpless now.  What am I supposed to do?  All I ever wanted was to be a mother—what was denied me—yet the second I became one… everything changed.  I’ve never felt so… useless and lost after becoming a parent.  This is the first time I don’t know what I should do.”

Kissing her mother’s hot forehead, she sighed and giggled.  “Welcome to Dad’s life, I guess.  You’ll do fine, Mom.  Give yourself a break.  We’ll get through this together… as a family.”

“A family…”  Wendy whispered with a conflicted look in her eyes.

Puffing out a hot stream of air, she nestled in, reassuring their mother in her moment of weakness; hopefully, the brunette would be able to work through her hesitation in time.  Despite all the emotional tides that carried them up and down, she knew this was exactly what all of them needed.  It wasn’t over, either; she’d have to do it again with her dad when he woke up.

Sora had no clue how much time passed, but eventually, they managed to get their mother through her panic attack.  It made her wonder if her father had days like this when she was a baby, being forced to go through it alone with the heartbreak of his wife freaking out and running away.

Comforting her surprisingly fragile goddess of a mother, Sora hadn’t realized how broken and divided her heart was about her family until now.  Wendy and Noelia, the Cuban caretaker that took care of her most of her life, had been there to fill in a void she’d missed; her father was happy when she was with Wendy, having fun together, and Noelia would always go to bat for her.

Just thinking about the Cuban immigrant made her heart burn again; all the trouble came when she’d refused to give her any of the medication the woman insisted she knew Sora didn’t need.  She’d basically become a surrogate mother for Sora, and that first year, after her father fired her, had been among the roughest, but she refused to back down.  It had been three years since she’d last seen the woman.

She had Noelia’s number from Ron, but throughout all the craziness that had been her life over the past half-month, she’d kept forgetting to contact her.  She had to make it right.

“Mom, I know there are probably a million things I need to address right now…”

Wendy forced a laugh that confirmed the insanity awaiting her; to keep herself from being distracted, she’d placed an isolation field around her room to address everything marring her mother’s conflicted heart and her own.

“I heard the fae people down there, the triplets, Devlin, Vondoom, Kari—who is pissed, for some reason—and a dozen other things…  But before any of that, would it be okay to call Noelia and ask her to stop by?  I want you to meet her.”

Sora’s eyebrows came together as her mother’s lips drew in, and her hands knotted atop her silky pink shorts.  “What…  Don’t tell me she was sent by you or a monster or something?”

Wendy scooted away to study her.  “No way she was a monster!  Why didn’t she stop everything that happened to Sora then?  She was awesome, and her cooking was magical, for sure, but no way!”

A lump dropped down her mother’s throat as she forced herself up and adjusted her pajamas.  Sora followed her to the first family photo Sora had set up on one of their trips to Japan, where Noelia stood beside Wendy, her, and her father.

There was hesitation in her mother’s voice as she picked it up to study the woman.  “I… was the one who chased Noelia off because she disguised herself in the same manner I am doing now and got close to you…  She is a very young and very terrified Founder from a family that… you could say is our family’s mortal enemy.  Their natural affinity made it hard even for me to notice her, despite how weak she is, and it is one reason why their family is so dangerous to us.”

Sora shook her head, having a hard time believing the strict but caring woman was some kind of nefarious spy.  “I don’t get it.  Everything about me was a really big secret.  How did she know I was here then?  Wouldn’t she need to figure it out and insert herself into your territory without you noticing her within like sixteen years?  Even if time is different, or whatever, isn’t it too open, or did Alva’s plan give her a way in?”

Wendy nodded.  “Yeah, I don’t get it either.  Why would she be so great for Sora if she had bad intentions?  Was it to kidnap Sora?”

“I doubt it,” her mother sighed, running her fingers through her hair before returning the picture.  “Noelia had long been inside this universe, which made it easy enough to slip into this fragment of it, likely pulled in by Aiden.  She… probably is hiding behind enemy lines and in my territory to escape my sister.  She’s too weak to do anything, and almost her entire family has already been eradicated.  We have absorbed their territory.”

“Aunt Inari?”  Sora whispered, now seeing the Cuban immigrant as more of an immigrant of war now, which was somehow even sadder now that she learned her family had been taken away by hers.  “Did Neolia do anything to hurt our family?”

Her mother rubbed her arm and went to the window to look out at the dark ocean view.  “No.  She is hardly two hundred years old.  Think about that.  I have lived millions and could wipe away dozens of omniverses with a casual swipe of a tail.  Yet, a two-hundred-year-old tanuki Founder was able to hide from my sight and get close to my daughter.  I… did overreact, letting my prejudices get the better of me when I could have used her to help you.  Another regret and imperfection.”

Sora’s face turned ashen.  “Did you… kill her?”

Wendy’s face blanked.  “Noelia is dead?”

“No.  Haaa.  I couldn’t bring myself to do that after the joy she gave you, Sora.  She was in a shell, wrapped in the Tanuki’s unique energy to deceive… one of the only Founders that surpasses our own natural affinity for trickery.  Noelia is even weaker than I am, as she is perfectly hiding within a human shell.  She is, in essence, an ordinary woman, and for her loyalty to you, in my fear, I locked her away.”

Her ears pulled back, her sad gaze on the smiling woman.  “She would not budge, and after that heated argument she had with your doctor, your father fired her, and I snatched her away…  She’s probably so terrified.  From what I could tell, she was hoping for some mercy by being in your life and supporting you.  How terrible am I?”

Breathing out her relief at knowing she was still alive, Sora found her mom’s hand.  She was learning just how frightened her mother was about her existence becoming known.  “She’s okay, though.  Do you hate her because of her family?  Did you kill them?”

“It… isn’t something I’d like to get into right now,” her mother whispered.  “I do not hate Noelia, though.  In fact, it is yet another regret I have in my long list of failings and reactions.  So much uncertainty surrounded you that I didn’t know what to do about all these potential threats rising in my little garden.”

Wendy hummed, moving closer to hug her.  “Who is the biggest threat—the devils?”

A shuddering breath brought Sora’s gaze to her mother’s fright-filled eyes.  “Fen.  You need to stay away from Fen.  I cannot harm, move, or interact with her in any way in my original form without everything being put in jeopardy…

“Your aunt can never learn about you.  You must send Fen away, but not back to my sister.  I would have killed her if I could without Inari knowing, but my sister is very attentive to those she makes potential Kitsune.  Fen is your greatest threat because of that white tail.”

Sora’s stomach squirmed at the intensity in her mother’s face.  “Why would she want to kill me?”

“Not kill you…  Study and understand you.  It will be the ultimate betrayal if she learns I have discovered a way to have a child when we have both sought a means to accomplish it since we were teenagers.  Inari is vengeful, hard to trust, and single-minded when it comes to her goals.  If she learns that I betrayed her… she would change into something I cannot contemplate.”

“Why didn’t you tell her?”  Wendy asked, crossing her arms and shivering.  “Is it some big secret that could get you in trouble?”

The only answer came to Sora in an instant.  “Because… it would put Dad and me in danger.  Wouldn’t it?  Dad isn’t totally human—just like Eyia and Stephanie aren’t supposed to be here…  My birth would cause all sorts of problems since it also brings scrutiny to everywhere else in Grandma’s territory.”

“Yes,” her mother whispered, showing a surprisingly proud smile.  “My reason is for you and your father, but your heart is much bigger than mine.  There are many plots working around you, but the true danger is for the 1st Generation to learn about you.  Nilly is likely one of the reasons they haven’t discovered you, with the added redundancy of another person I contracted.  I can’t tell what her goal is since she is vastly different after her nine deaths and return as a Nekomata.  She hasn’t exposed you, though.”

Knowing there was a lot that she could go on about but also feeling the emotional drain and turmoil in her mom’s aura, Sora left it there for tonight.  Moving in to hug her, she made up her mind.

“Is it possible to free Noelia?”

“Yes.  I seem to have thought it might be an option you would have made before putting myself in this restricted form,” her mother said with a strained chuckle.  “One… good decision, I suppose.  It is a bit complicated, though, and I suspect there are other pressing matters to attend to before opening that can of worms.”

Not liking the idea of her caretaker sitting in a prison, she turned to Wendy to get the details so she could make a priority list.  “Give me the cliff notes.  What’s going on?”

Wendy hissed, rubbing the back of her neck and flicking her wand to show more images.

“The biggest…  You know how the devils made this big manipulation play?”

“Uh-huh?  Oh, c’mon!  Don’t tell me,” she snarled as a flaming bird burst into starry light in a cage.

“Aiden was kidnapped while Kari was in therapy.  Yeah.  Yikes.  Kari is being, like… super confusing and pissy about it.

“The triplets are on house arrest downstairs, eating on your dime and causing drama… even when powerless.  Seems no one knows what to do with them, and tensions are high between the OWO and Foundation.

“Oh,” she made the stars disperse to reform into a fairy, struggling to keep going as her mana lowered, and Sora shot her up with a weak burst in secret to let her keep practicing.  “The fae are… woah, I’m getting better at this!”

Her mother gave her a small smile as Wendy redoubled her efforts.

“The fae are going through a genocide as the Unseelie learned about all their realms through the Foundation; their fae branch was compromised.  The Foundation is working on it, but the fae are on the run, and the leaders are downstairs, wanting to thank you for saving them, but I think they’re really just hiding here as a safe house.  The fairy you saved is cute and wants to pledge her loyalty to you as a guardian,” she chimed.  “I like her.”

“Sweet,” Sora snickered.  “Having a fairy at breakfast as she munches on toast should be adorable.”

“My thoughts exactly!  Eh… Sela is going through a crisis after being purified, or whatever you did to her, and Vondoom thinks the 72 Pillars are waiting for you to use that calling card to hear their demands.”  Wendy straightened awkwardly to look at their mom.  “Anything to, umm, add, Ms. Moore?”

Her mother’s eyes fell.  “So much more… but you have enough to concern yourself with at the moment.  There is something critical for Kari to know, but it isn’t necessary at this time.  I’d suggest you lighten your load above anything else.  I’m here for whatever you need.”

“As am I for whatever you need, Mom,” Sora returned, sandwiching her with Wendy, feeling how much it meant for Wendy to be here and to have a mother that cared for her.  Yet, there was something she needed to discuss in private before meeting all the other challenges awaiting her.

“Wendy, can you go down and get everyone ready to brief me… and tell them this time, we aren’t going to split up and leave everything to me!  Hmm, Ms. Googly Moon Eyes?”  she huffed, poking Wendy’s cheek with a smiling glare that made the brunette shift her gaze.

“What’s with the shade?!  I thought you approved of my moon princess fantasy…”

“Haha.  Sure, but I also need a sister to back me up!”

“Wha!  I totally backed you up the second I learned you were kidnapped!”

Giggling and bringing her into a hug that forced the air out of her lungs, Sora sent her desire magic into her sister’s body, feeling a surprising amount of her energy leave her as she refined and strengthened her sister’s natural magic affinity.

“You did, and I love you for that awesome swoop in with the bunny gang!”

“And Zen!”

“And your boy toy,” she mused, wincing as Wendy pinched her ear.

“Sora!”

“I’m not wrong!  You’re totally crushing hard!”

“Ms. Moore, help—please!”

“Mom, she’s out of control!”

Her mother doubled over at their laughing accusations, making them both join her.

Kissing Wendy’s cheek, she lightly shoved her off, a little sad at how conflicted her new sister was and not knowing how to help her.  “Go flirt already and get them ready for me.”

Wendy stuck out her tongue while backing away.  “I’ll channel my inner Sora then!”

“Shut up!”

The door slammed behind her, and Sora sighed, scratching her head and turning to her mother.  “Haaa.  What are we going to do with her?”

Her mother guided her to the dual seat by the window and sat her down to lean against her side, and a thoughtful hum rumbled in her throat.  “Why not… make her an official member of the family and turn her into a vulpes Founder?  I think that would solve many of her insecurities.  What do you think?”

Sora leaned back and gave her insane mother an open-mouthed stare.  “Say that again—you can do that?!”

“Not me,” her mother whispered, showing a mysterious twinkle in her reinvigorated aura.  “Due to the, umm, circumstances of your birth, it is… possible to kickstart a transformation in ordinary spirits.  I can’t say how effective it will be or how many times your lingering spark can be used, but I will certainly not be the one to shoot down more potential children, and you’ve already started a change in her if my motherly intuition is on point.”

Totally taken by the idea, and that her mother knew about her trying to help Wendy’s mana troubles, Sora held up a hand.  “Okay, we are totally going to dive into this topic, like now, but there is one thing I need to ask you first,” she said, clearing her throat and looking at the drawer where the seven-pointed star was situated.

“So…  what would you say if something had the ability to say… erase your memory and not mine while a purple-eyed blonde woman in a fancy gothic dress and umbrella that cracked space kept interrupting the entity reaching out to me?”

Her mother’s face grew serious.  “If you are mentioning the Herald of Sakura, and that she is stopping something from contacting you, then we have a bigger problem than I ever thought possible.  She is a creation of the Primordial Greeks that went rogue and now follows Sakura—the Aberrant Horror.

“She is among the most dangerous information brokers that deal on all sides, and it is she I contracted to keep you away from prying eyes.  If she is directly involved, then something has gone terribly wrong.  Why she didn’t tell me means it is something I cannot do anything about, and if she is having trouble with something, then it is quite alarming.”

A long stream of air blew through Sora’s lips as she fell back against her mother’s side.  “Great.  Well, let’s shelve that since it is way out of my mental power right now.  Let’s go back to how I can get Wendy to grow an adorably puffy brown tail and not let her in on the surprise.”

A devilish grin lit her face.  “I want her to be as shocked as I was when I got my fox ears!”

“How devious,” her mother giggled.  “I love it!  Let’s have our first mother-daughter plotting session to welcome the newest member of the family.  I’m getting goosebumps already!  How much will she resemble me, I wonder…  Brown would be a good addition to the family’s tail color pallet.  Hmm.  Yes, it has to be brown!”

“Let ‘Project Make Wendy Grow A Cute Brunette Tail’ begin!  Ho-ho-ho.  This is going to be good!”

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