Welcome to Gaia! ::

Thankfully or not, the changes always came to her in sleep. It made it easier for the body to deal with the pain, since she wasn't conscious to fight the spasming muscles or cracking bones. But the mind... the mind came up with strange things with all those chemicals rushing around it due to the change. It whispered things to her, and played gruesome picture shows in the dark...


Greer frowned, shielding her eyes from the blinding light as best she could. She'd been sleeping, in her own bed in the duplex, and it had been far too dark for this piercing glare to be there. Was it morning already? It had come awfully fast-

"Greer! Sleeping on the job again?"

"What? I never sleep on the-" the entomologist froze, staring startled into the face of her coworker Jim. He was the main person she'd interacted with at the lab. What was he doing here?

"Not usually, but you were conked out just now. Having trouble sleeping?"

"A bit..." Why was he here? Why was he acting like nothing was wrong? Didn't he realize where they were? Didn't he see the feathers?

"Hey... are you okay? You seem out of it."

"Uh, sorry, bad night." She smiled sheepishly, pushing a hand through her hair. "I must coming down with something."

"Ick! Try not to spread it around the lab, okay? You're fun to talk to but there are somethings you should keep to yourself."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll try."

He waved and walked off, leaving her to look at her surroundings. She was in the lab- the forensics lab she'd been stuck working in when Dr. Moreau had sent her a letter to change her life. It was all like it was when she'd last been here... even she was! Her feet were normal, there were no feathers, and when she looked at her reflection in one of the steel tables, her mouth was back as it should be. Was her whole island experience a dream?

"No Greer, this is not a dream. Well, this is. This lab. This place. Not the island."

She spun at the sound of that voice, staring wide-eyed at the figure before her. It was the doctor, calm and collected in his labcoat and loafers. But that hadn't been his voice.

"Doctor...?"

"It's me, Greer."

She shook her head. "No."

"I wanted to talk to you."

"No, you're not real."

"Honey, I know it's hard for you to see me, the real me but-"

"You're not my father! Go away!"

Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her to a man's chest. "Shhh, it's okay."

She sobbed, crying like the child that had watched her father's final moments, like the woman who had been kidnapped into a strange new life, like she'd wanted to the first time she'd heard Sean might be dead. She was so lost, so alone at that moment... and that b*****d Moreau was toying with her.

"Get away from me." she growled in a low tone, grief swapped for anger in an avian heartbeat.

"Now Greer-"

"You're not my father!" She shouted, shoving him away. The voice was right but the face was wrong. "You're the monster who did this to me!"

"Did what?"

"This!" She streaked forward, going for his throat. She heard a scream, a loud, piercing cry of a bird of prey, and knew it was coming from her mouth. She tore at him, kicking, slashing, screaming, and tasted blood.

"You don't look different to me..." the voice said, coming from somewhere other than the man beneath her. She beat the body harder, wanting to silence the noise.

"I'm a monster! A beast! I eat meat, I kill, and there are new thoughts in my head-"

"You're still my Greer."

She froze, tears streaming down her face. "Sean?"

He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her back against his stomach. His whiskers tickled her cheek as he kissed the blood away. "You're still my Sea Goddess."

"I... I think I killed..."

"Naw, it's only a dream."

She hung her head, trying not to cry. "This means you're dead, doesn't it?"

"Why d'you think that?"

"My dad..."

"The Doc isn't dead. Sadly."

"He was just here to torment me."

She felt him shrug. "I dunno, scientist lady. You tell me."

Greer laughed mirthlessly and tried to pull away. "Don't do this to me."

The Dude held on. "Just remember to live, okay? Whether I'm dead or not. For me. For your father."

"I can't-"

"You can. Be good, Ladyhawke."


She ached everywhere, suddenly able to feel her pores and none too happy that she could. Her skull hurt worse than it had last time with both face and scalp on fire. She didn't even want to think about her feet. She felt a draft where they shouldn't be and guessed she'd shredded her sheets again. Again. She'd transformed again. She didn't care. It hurt to move, but she still managed to bury her face in her pillow to muffle her tears. Her heart hurt more than anything else. She wished her emotions were still dead.

She hadn't even discovered the new issue with clothes.