It was not enough. At this point, nothing ever was. In service to the red-haired girl, whose hands had currently been occupying the depths of her temples in a smothering grip, lied two options: surrender to the corrupting force that had been malevolently snaggling at her mental scape since the dawn of her first release of magic, or, seek help beyond her wildest of fancies.

The previous battles with the unknown were pitiable for certain, but all but bowed before the malady that now constantly assailed the feline with unspeakable vexation. True to her wanton for a cure, the young woman limped to her dearest friend and begged for release.

Lance, surprised at the sudden change in her ally's demeanor which just days prior consisted of a rotten series of barbs aimed at her handling of Jupiter's release, sighed nervously.

"I... don't know... You seem..." She stopped, quaveringly.

Ande clutched with ravenous abandon into her friend's skirts. "Lance, please! Tell me!" she wailed, shaking the clothing nearly off.

Battling back wild eyes that had she thought would have been permanently sheathed just days prior, Lance matched her partner's motion in a bid to settle the wild beast. Once the convolutions subsided, she nodded to herself.

"Right, I think I know of an acquaintance who can... be of assistance." She gulped.

Ande squeezed out what was perhaps the last of her trust in an assenting gesture, allowing her fellow undergraduate to prop up her fragile body with an offered shoulder as she resignedly worked out what sinister catch would lie in wait on this occasion...

---

Fortune smiled upon Lance in a most unfortunate of happenstance: Ande was already spellbound in a listless twilight of consciousness by the time the murine had finally arrived at the shabby temple area. Greeting the familiar-looking fellow rodent at the door without much thought, she passed through the entrance into the sanctum that held her objective. She greeted the rabbit with unusual respect and proceeded to explain her dilemma over tea.

Miantiao nodded in her usual fashion throughout the discussion, flickering her eyes between the speaker and her charge. "So as to not break the bonds you two have formed as entirely different individuals, you wish to seal out the impulse of the clinging remains of her... former self. Does that analysis suffice?"

"I know- I know it is against all social convention of ethics to do such a thing, but aside from these, tremors, she's better in this state!" The mouse grasped. "She is nothing like that sorry excuse for a marauding bandit, she's productive, and, and sweet."

The temple leader gave the pair a shrug with her hands raised in semicircles as if to pose meditatively. "Your solution, although questionable in construct, and near flagrant considering the business I have with the other form in which your acquaintance occupies, is obtainable." The mouse almost gave a relived chuckle. "However," The rabbit continued, weaving ivy into every last syllable, "the cost will be steep." The mouse nodded inattentively, seconds of her friend's life ebbing with each wasted second of exposition.

"On your way back to your place of study, you will find, in a ruined trashcan swarming with unpalatable graffiti, a record with a green label on it. You will affirm this by looking for a characteristic crescent pattern stamped into the bend of the vinyl. The bunny extended her neck at the duo as a shadow passed over her features. "Find a speaker that accepts such mediums of sound, and broadcast it to yourselves. You will be okay in the same vicinity as her, just make sure you are both close to it and alone together."

As the pair passed uncertainly away after Lance whispered goodbyes, Miantiao sat back into her arms and waited as a small, demure smile hinted from underneath her petite nose. Oh, those young ones would learn a few things, that was for certain.

---

To her credit, Lance made good on her word to fulfill each step as instructed, dragging Ande along the process as if she were some kind of helpless doll. After finalizing the last of the ritual which consisted of a steep bargain with the now-former owner of a record player (a deal that hinged on the more exploratory practices of photography that somehow she was even rendered uncomfortable by) the mouse furnished the completed puzzle together.

Taking hold of her friend in a hollow embrace, Lance silently thought what she was quite certain were final and somber reflections: "You will be well now. I will free you the way you should be." She flipped on the turntable, set the needle to the edge of the disk, and waited.

The record twitched in its holster and steadily winded up to alarming speeds. With a jarring blaze of sound and motion, the room spanned the horizonal expanse of Lance's vision as Ande sat bolt upright. Both creatures stared at each other in panic as Lance ran for the configuration. The window of opportunity slammed shut abruptly as she hobbled to the ground. She noticed for the first time black flecks of darkness as they emitted from the player and snaked along the carpet. Lance attempted to peel them from her foot like leeches, but they already had managed to wiggle free of their own volition, satisfied in their mutilative efforts.

The mouse girl gasped in horror at the limp stump which now occupied the space that had previously belonged to her right leg, squirming in frustration as the curious invaders attached further in their efforts to deconstruct her appearance.

Ande, meanwhile, could only stare as she silently gave in to the infestation. She cocked her head curiously as her glasses were bumped off by the assailing forces, noticing that the sight of her rapidly shifting hand was just as clear without them as with. In a final pleading bid to end her modicum of reason in an unreasonable world, she embraced what change lied for her, the escapism lighting a long-extinguished fire of excitement in her downtrodden soul.

The world weaved and tore from around the pair as the record entered velocities that long exceeded the pesky boundaries of logic and physics. Without much else to tarry for, the sensations around them vanished into a void of pure oblivion.

---

Lancey blinked herself awake. At least, she tried to as she noticed her eyelids were already fully extended and staring off into a distant, blue, dome-shaped ceiling. She now tried to close them. No dice. She brought up her hands to inspect her face.

A shriek emanated from somewhere deep inside her as mere sown stubs were brought within her sight. She tried to get up, but found the simple act of standing to be tedium incarnate. When finally she had pushed herself up from her arms into a proper posture, she was greeted by a form she soon regarded as Ande. Somewhat.

Smiling crookedly to the best of her ability, she attempted to ease the tension: "Where are your glassies, little dolly?"

Horror arched across her face as she realized the absurdity of her wording. "No no, silly-willy me." Not a good recovery. "Little Lancey wants to speaky with bigger wordies." The cat doll giggled at the fumbling toy, her voice also seemingly disjointed from her mouth as if being narrated from an amateur ventriloquist.

"Little Lancey should have some playtime with Adorable Ande." The small sentient feline-themed plush suggested. Again, failing to blink in surprise, Lancey could only stare as her fellow regarded the soft fibers that passed for a surface level as her own personal world to roll around on amiably between fits of laughter.

"Ande, this is seri-werious!" She huffed from what she now properly understood to be a voice box. "Ak." She fumbled just underneath her cotton-padded chest to find a small protrusion lying just on the inside layer of her polymer construction. She pawed at it in futility, noticing just off to the side of her dress a tag that had designated her as machine-washable.

She perished the thought as she hobbled over to her friend, giving a fairly intoxicated pelican good competition in her amblings. Her marbly eyes settled on the cat toy in frustration. "What are we dewwey-do here? We need to get backie-wackie!" She ran what passed for hands along her mouth after struggling through her phrasing, pleading in her eyes as she tried to reason with the contented kitten.

"Lancey play with Ande, then Lancey and Ande disqwuss." The feline mewed.

Admittedly through much of their romping, Lancey did feel much elation at what she considered a well-deserved break from her college studies, even if she no longer resembled anything like her former, well, somewhat-former self. This was going into too many layers for a creature that possessed only stuffing to fill her head with.

With an almost regretful air about her, she looked to her pal as they stood under the artificial light of the playground and attempted to ease out of the moment. "Okayiie, Lancey is all sleepy now. Lancey and Ande should be back to uni- uni- collewge now."

Now it was Ande's turn to give a pleading glance. This put Lancey off, but not for long as Ande did her best, with the limitations that her wiring and sound chip would allow for, to delve into her real feelings on the matter. It was simple, she did not want to leave.

"Ande and Lancey have... Ande and Lancey stay here. Forewver."

Lancey stood up, determined to save her friend from yet again one of her miserably-conceived plots. "Ande, pwease. Lancey can helpie you. Lancey has to tell you hawd truf."

Ande cocked her head cutely, sticking her tongue out in curiosity. Lancey fumbled around in futility at her total inability to put to words the complex series of emotions she so desperately wanted to express to her dear buddy. If only she could get her back, then... but how?

Just when she was toying with the grim reality that she may be stuck forever this way, she found a pull string that had taken the place of her... her... tail? She shuddered as she gave it a delicate yank, perhaps despite herself, but the result shocked her.

Without any verbal input of her own, her voice box spewed out a simple, generic, prerecorded line: "Little Lancey loves you! Can we hug?" But that was all it took.

Ande burst into tears. She wrapped her arms so firmly around her cohort that she threatened to tear her stitching in two. Lancey patterned her own actions around the small plushie, this time with the fullest of sincerity in her cotton heart.

The two of them stood together and sobbed away every last frustration that had ailed them from minute one. This was different than that time in the warehouse, this was the raw emotion of truly kindred spirits.

After the interwoven pair had emptied every moment of anguish that they had experienced together, they decided that right now, this moment would not be added to that list. They would be defined by their victory.

Setting their sights on a fairly distant crack in the wall that could very well mark their path to freedom, they clutched hands and gave each other varying looks of confidence...