The chiming of a bell roused Suzi with heart-stopping suddenness from a shallow doze. She remembered praying for a long time, pleading with God to help them get through this in one piece and get home, that even if her friends weren't generally religious they were good people and neither they nor their loved ones deserved this. Those prayers alternated with others, that Jazz and Bijou were already safely home with Levi and not hurt or traumatized. She didn't remember deciding to sleep. Fatigue must have caught up with her.

The bleakness of the situation had never been far from her, even in what passed for sleep, but as soon as she moved, it was driven home all over again. Still the same basic anatomy, for which she was grateful—the argumentative platinum blonde had to be Zach, she knew that was Theo in the bright blue, and she'd finally figured out that the dark one in red was JC and the even darker one in yellow was Des, and she shuddered to think how much more freaked out they much be. But these altered proportions were hard enough to get her head around, all slim and streamlined instead of the wider hips and increasingly rounded belly she was used to, breasts that probably wouldn't fill a B-cup instead of the generous C she'd looked down onto for as long as she could remember... to say nothing of the flawless pale olive skin, the long wispy-light ash-brown hair, and the rose-petal-pink clothes she would never have willingly been caught dead in before. Not so much because they fit so closely, or even the rather low squared neckline, as because it exposed her midriff where there should have been a long ugly scar from her emergency appendectomy in her early twenties.

There was, however, no trace of the scar, only smooth skin.

She distinctly remembered the instant of realization that she'd gone to the little park on a back street, farther from home than she'd intended; she remembered hearing Jazz start to bark, and suddenly being somewhere else, and then being unable to hear Jazz anymore. Every second thought remained a fervent prayer that her beloved dogs had made their way home to Levi, though he must be in an absolute panic by now over her disappearance; they were both smart, and they'd stay together, and Jazz had lived in that house for years. If they hadn't gone home, they'd get there anyway, with contact info on their tags and both were microchipped as well.

She remembered seeing Theo, gold shining around his throat and shimmery bands around wrists and ankles, change in front of her, a sight so distracting that she hadn't noticed the two men closing in on her until they seized her upper arms; she remembered the man in grey saying, “Sleep,” and Theo, except that he no longer looked like Theo at all, slumping to the floor in a heap of bright blue clothing and thick wavy dark-red hair and ivory skin.

And then they'd turned to her.

And now she was different, too, and apparently not human, and they weren't going to be allowed to go home to their loved ones, they'd been kidnapped and were trapped here.

Despite the poor sleep on a less-than-comfortable bed, she could feel no muscle aches, no fatigue. If anything, she felt more alert and energetic than she could recall at any point in the recent past.

She made use of the toilet, careful of her longer nails, and wondered as she did how the guys were dealing with that particular necessity.

The door was locked still; she paced restlessly around the room. Not that there was much room to pace in, it was more like a cell than anything else, not much more floor space than needed to sleep. Despite restless attempts, she couldn't get a finger under the glassy cuffs on her wrists, couldn't find so much as a seam let alone a weak spot, couldn't get them off over her newly-slender hand. She was sickeningly sure that she was stuck with them.

Every sense felt heightened; she was acutely aware every instant of the soft slither of the slick heavy fabric against her skin, of the weight of her own hair and the sweep of the ends against her bare lower back, of the smooth firm surface under her bare feet. There was little colour here in this small room, but even the rose-pink of her nails and clothes had a richness she hadn't noticed last night.

The door unlocked with an audible metallic snap, very much the same as the sound the previous night when it had locked behind her; it popped slightly ajar, then swung gradually inwards.

Warily, heart pounding, Suzi got up and went to investigate.

The room beyond made her innards clench tight. Yes, same room they'd been in last night, cement-like grey everywhere except the bland dark grey somewhat-padded floor, though the light was even more dim than it had been when they'd first arrived. The wall the cell doors were in was a long curve; two straight walls at right angles failed to meet at their far ends, and appeared to grant access to whatever was beyond this room.

The others were emerging, too, moving just as cautiously, and despite eyes meeting and hands touching and clasping, not one dared a single sound.

Lesson's been driven home already, Suzi thought sadly. Like dogs with shock-collars, an abuse she and Levi loathed, they were already being trained to stay silent.

From the centre, the layout of the building was more obvious: it was a circle, divided into lopsided quarters. There was a second larger room, much brighter, this one with a stone floor, a low round table that had seven flat square cushions around it, and a single closed door in the curved outer wall; the two smaller quarters held, respectively, three toilets along the outer curve and two sinks on each straight wall, and three shower heads along the outer curve, neither with any kind of barriers for privacy.

The woman who had spoken to them, Isabel, was already there, in the room with the door, arranging on the table a basket of what looked like small loaves of bread, a basket of red-and-green apples, seven drab mugs, and a large kettle that might be bronze.

“Come eat,” she said. “It's been specifically planned to meet your needs, so I expect there to be nothing left over. For the most part, it's better for everyone if you stay quiet, but I'm going to allow you to talk while you eat, and I'm going to give you longer for breakfast than you will normally have. When I come back, I'm going to be putting two of you to work in the kitchen, two on general housework, one on laundry, and two of you in the gardens, and I'm going to let you decide who would be best at what. I also don't care if you keep the same jobs day to day, although I may not have time to re-explain your duties each day and I can almost guarantee that Felix in the kitchen and Barry who manages the grounds will both be at best grouchy about needing to do so, so if you trade off, you'll be responsible for each other.” The heavy door unlocked under her hand and let her out.

Zach, though Suzi's mind still didn't want to accept that platinum blonde in lilac as very masculine Zach, went to check the door.

Of course, it wasn't noticeably easier accepting any of these drop-dead beautiful women as the friends she'd grown up with, despite the same traces of earlier selves that she'd noticed in her own features. Each with hair and skin of unique colours; builds ranging from Zach's narrow hips and small breasts—the only one respectively narrower and smaller than Suzi, though overall build was stronger than hers—to Erica's voluptuous curves with Alison not far behind; each dressed in a different intense colour, though details varied, and with nails and lips and eyes of the same—JC's grey eyes being the only exception she could see.

Each with restraints circling throat and wrists and ankles, and all with expressions reflecting fear and uncertainty.

“Locked,” Zach said, a tentative edge to it, then relaxed visibly when there was no pain.

“We can talk?” Theo said hesitantly. “Oh good. First things first. I'm pretty sure I figured out who everyone is, tell me if I'm right.” Nails of bright blue flashed as he gestured to each. “Zach, JC, Des, Alison, Suzi, Erica. Yes?”

“And if I hadn't already figured out you're Theo, you would have just confirmed it,” bronze-haired green-clad Erica said, with a shaky laugh.

“What are we going to do?” Suzi asked softly. She realized that she was bracing herself for pain, relaxed somewhat when it didn't come but still found herself wary.

For lack of other options, they drifted towards the table and settled around it.

“We're going to look after ourselves and each other,” Theo said firmly. “And we will find a way out of this.”

“If she was telling the truth,” Erica said, “we aren't even in the real world anymore and there's only one way back.”

“Where would we go anyway if we could get out?” Des asked despondently, golden-yellow eyes closing briefly. “No one would recognize us. I barely recognize myself.” He wrapped the thick rope of midnight-black loose curls around one slender dark arm a couple of times, illustrating the point, and punctuating it with an eloquent gesture down his distinctly feminized torso.

“Well, we have to do something,” Zach said, voice climbing in volume, “unless you like the idea of spending your life as someone's slave and guinea pig and god knows what else!”

“Calm down,” Theo said. “No one likes the idea. None of us want to be here and we'd all like to be ourselves again and go home. We're all scared and frustrated, let's try to minimize taking it out on each other.”

“Look,” JC said. “Break it down. What do we know for sure? I'm pretty sure I remember four people right after I got here, plus the woman who was just here. Is there any reason not to accept her explanation as a working hypothesis? Is there anything else this could be that's remotely more rational?”

“Hypnosis?” Suzi suggested. “Is hypnotizing seven people to believe they're in the same place possible? Don't stage hypnotists make people believe they've changed into things?”

JC glanced at Theo. “You interviewed that stage hypnotist last year, it sounded like you did a lot of research beforehand.”

“I always do,” Theo said. “There's serious question whether hypnosis even exists as a state other than intense concentration, it isn't anything that can be done without your cooperation, and the stage shows are partly trickery and partly careful choice of subject and partly social pressure, expectation, and being the centre of attention with no responsibility for what you do. The US military did a crapload of research on it and concluded that there was simply no viable way to be certain of hypnotizing someone under hostile conditions, or being able to verify a hypnotized state, or counting on any results. Brainwashing is another matter, but that takes some major time and effort and all.”

“There is a psychosis called folie á deux,” Erica said, “or á trois, et cetera, but that needs a group to be in close contact and otherwise pretty much isolated. Anyone can turn delusional under the right conditions, and humans are social animals and we almost universally respond to what's called emotional contagion, which is basically being influenced by the mood of people around you or by the mood you're forced to display outwardly. But it's not like we see each other all that often. Des keeps everyone online and there's Theo's radio show and JC and Des and I trade books every couple of months and there's a few other more or less regular kinds of contact, but that's about it. Even with the barbecue, that just isn't going to create folie á sept.” She shrugged. “Hey, I still have no life outside reading and my plants.”

“So much for the idea that I'm having a nightmare,” Zach sighed. “None of that came out of my mind.”

Well, whatever their altered appearances, Suzi would have recognized her ex-classmates by now just from behaviour and their varied approaches to the situation.

“What's left that's not literal reality?” JC said. “Virtual reality?”

“The tech it would take,” Des said, “for us to be in a shared VR world and completely unaware of that fact and unable to tell the difference would be past what exists at this point—unless you want to go all Matrix or Outer Limits and start doubting your entire life. I suspect it would take a direct neural connection, but if not, it would take one hell of a VR suit and probably drugs of some kind to go with it even to completely deceive one person. Frankly, her explanation is at least as likely.”

“So, not hypnosis, not shared delusion, not VR,” JC said. “Government plot to test weirdness of some kind on a bunch of mid-forties ex-classmates in a small city? I guess you can't rule out the US doing anything these days, and they're really bad at respecting national borders, but that seems kind of unlikely. Aliens? Never heard of an abduction remotely like this, although I suppose if no one came back or they did and couldn't or wouldn't tell, we wouldn't know. Cement or stone or whatever that is wouldn't be a typical or sensible construction material for spacecraft, and the gravity and air are normal. The alien conspiracy guy with the crazy hair could probably come up with a way to explain that we're in a holographic environment on a UFO or something, but for lack of any way of proving or disproving it, I think we can rule that out.”

“Anyone have a better plan to offer than acting as if she's telling the truth, regardless of whether we believe her or not?” Theo asked.

Silence.

“What does that mean in practical terms?” Alison asked. She'd combed her bright golden-blonde hair with her fingers and separated it into three to braid it, presumably in an attempt to get it out of her way, though with nothing to tie off the end Suzi wasn't sure how well it was going to work. The dark ultramarine blue of her full lips was drastic contrast against that porcelain skin, and that and her clothes only made her look all the more pale. Given that she'd never seen Alison wear make-up ever, or have her hair even reach her shoulders since about ninth grade, and she'd heard Ali moan a time or two in high school that she was built like a boy, her current wide hips and substantial breasts and dramatic colouring couldn't be much easier to accept than a forced sex change must be for the guys.

Though at least, thanks to JC, instead of sitting and whimpering over it, they were focusing on the more overall issue at hand.

Theo shrugged, and spread his hands. “Look out for each other as much as we can, no matter what. Get home to our families at any cost except throwing each other to the wolves.”

“Survive together and get home together,” JC agreed. “I don't see what we can do except provisionally accept that she's telling the truth and act accordingly. I don't think antagonizing her is going to get us anywhere good.” He tapped the gold collar with one narrow red-nailed hand. “We don't know what she's capable of, both in what she can do and what she would do. Let alone her partners, who I assume are the two who put these on us. Since there's really no chance of direct resistance gaining us anything useful, there's no point. Force isn't going to do it, we're going to have to use our brains and watch for a weak spot. My suggestion? Do as she says, and try to get as much information as possible.”

“This isn't a game,” Zach said. “This is, barring any better explanations, real life.”

“It's a sensible approach, though,” Theo said. “Bondage has its place but this ain't it.”

“And the more we know the better,” Erica said.

Lengthy discussion brought them to a consensus that, for the moment, they'd cooperate with their captors on purely practical grounds and allow them to believe they'd accepted this and try to learn whatever they could.

“Which means we'd better obey the command we already got,” Erica said, picking up one of the small loaves of bread and breaking off a piece. She inspected the interior thoughtfully. “Home-baked. Wheat-based, y'think, Jace?”

“Looks like it,” JC agreed. “But it's not going to be commercial white bread, I know that.”

Erica took a cautious bite. “Not bad. May as well eat, low blood sugar isn't going to do us any good and I can't think why she'd bother trying to poison us.”

There were seven of the small loaves; each took one, and started on it rather warily. It didn't taste all that bad, although the density of it more closely resembled a bagel than bread, and it would have been more enjoyable toasted and buttered.

The kettle held some kind of tea; Erica tasted it, gingerly, and as she held it in her mouth her expression flickered through half a dozen changes in quick succession. She spat it back into her cup before she set it down.

“There's something weird about that,” she said softly. “I can taste actual green tea and honey, but there's something else in with it that I can't identify. I really don't think I want to drink this. Maybe if I could see what it is, but...” She trailed off.

“I vote Erica gets the kitchen,” JC said. “She's the most likely to be able to identify anything being added to the food. I've had the odd food services job but unless it's coming in labelled packaging I won't have any better chance than anyone else. I'm more useful on general housekeeping, really.”

“Fair enough,” Theo said. “For the moment, we can't just leave this untouched, so... let's get rid of it.” He dragged the other cups into reach, splashed tea into each and swirled it around before dumping it back into the kettle. They spread the seven cups, all showing signs of use, around the table so each had one. Theo rose, picked up the kettle by its wire-and-wooden handle, and took it to the bathroom. He returned with it empty, and set it on the table.

The bread and the apples they devoured, though, and found themselves comfortably full when they finished. The apples gave them pause, in fact: the flavour was strong and sweet with just enough tang to keep them from being cloying, and in comparison any apple Suzi could ever remember eating had been bland and flat. Was that the apples? Or was it something to do with what they were?

“Des?” Theo said. “You're looking more miserable than the rest of us. Oh. The cats?”

Des nodded unhappily. “Emily will go over eventually looking for me. She'll feed them, but I doubt she'll do anything more than that, and not for long. At least Bijou and Jazz have Levi still looking after them.”

Suzi winced. She hated thinking of Jazz and Bijou being out there by themselves, confused and scared. “Well, once they get home. They were out with me for a walk. Between tags and chips, I'm sure they will. But I do know what you mean. That's pretty scary.” She added extra prayers, not only further ones for Jazz and Bijou to get safely home, but that Des' beloved cats would not be left alone and frightened and neglected.

“She knows I come over when you're not away long and I'm not working much, right?” JC said, and waited for Des to nod. “And she knows that if you're away for longer or I'm going to be busy a lot, you take them to Theo's house?” Another nod. “Wouldn't the easiest solution for her be to take them there, or at least call them to come get them? Especially if I don't answer?”

“Kay and Max will make sure they're safe and all,” Theo added quickly. “They both get spoiled rotten when they're at our place. Even Ryu comes out to sit on Max's lap all the time, and Ramses just piles all the living room throws and blankets into the usual work of art and then plonks himself down on the couch to be adored by all.”

“Yeah,” Des said softly. “She's mad at me right now but she won't take it out on them. She might not be there when we get home, but yeah, that would be the simplest way to deal with it for her.”

“Mad at you? For what?”

Des shrugged. “Secret I told her.”

“Oh.” Suzi got the feeling Theo knew more about that than either was actually saying, but didn't ask. Confiding in Theo was both easy, because he was very good at sympathizing without judging, and safe, because he never betrayed anything. “That sucks. Anyway, you left keys for your apartment at our place, and when Max and Kay can't find me they'll probably call you first, and when they can't get a reply from you anywhere, they're going to worry about you too and I bet they'll go looking. They know how much Ramses and Ryu matter to you, they'll probably just leave you a note about where they are and take them home without waiting for Emily. They'll be okay.”

“And Levi will go looking for you, Suze,” Alison said. “He'll probably find the dogs pretty fast. They'll be all right. Try not to worry about them too much, okay?”

“Adam'll probably show up looking for me before my plants all die,” Erica sighed. “That would be my big brother, for anyone who's forgotten. Living out of town after a nasty divorce a few years back, but we're still in contact a couple of times a week.”

“At least there's no worries about Heather or Levi or Wade or Max and Kayla being unable to stay fed and safe with us gone,” Zach said quietly. “Or your friend Niko, Jace, sorry. But oh god, they're going to start freaking out soon, if they haven't already, and they're never even going to know what happened to us. Their lives are as messed up as ours now.”

“Yes they will know,” JC said flatly. “There are seven really good minds sitting around this table, and they cover a lot of different skills and different kinds of experience and knowledge. We can and will find a way.”

“We don't even have to wonder about trusting each other, like we would with strangers,” Theo said. “Jace is right. We are going to get home. All of us, together. Keep believing that.”

“Right. Home. Looking like this.” Zach braced both elbows on the table, and buried his face in his hands. He didn't entirely complete the motion, jerking both hands back down and muttering something under his breath as he glared at his long violet nails. “Okay, these have got to go, somehow.” Experimentally, he tried biting one thumbnail.

No matter what, he couldn't sever it. It flexed, to a limited degree, but it resisted all attempts at shortening it.

Frustrated, he balled both hands tightly into fists, and brought them down on the table with a startlingly loud boom; Suzi flinched, expecting the table to collapse, but the sturdy wood withstood it somehow.

“Stop it,” Alison told him. “That isn't helping. Just chill out. Suppose you and I volunteer for outside, okay? Maybe you can work off a bit of frustration that way.”

Oh god, I hope so. I really don't want to see Zach lose it and get in bad trouble... I don't like what she said about experiments.