Revelation

Originally posted 24-28 January, 1999 on alt.devilbunnies.
©1999 by Scott Bernier
First HTML-ized 31 January, 1999.

For background info brush over The County and The Aftermath.

Berryblossom groaned in her sleep as her terminal chirped cheerfully at her. She had just started drifting off to sleep after getting the first chance in a long time to go to bed early. Warren leadership of Turbique Warren had really been wearing her down lately. Especially, since she and Sugartail had been pulling extra duty to fill-in for their other sister, Plumflower, who was out on maternity leave.

The terminal chirped again and Berryblossom rolled out of her sleeping hollow. She turned on the lamp next to the terminal lighting up a small portion of her burrow revealing a little of the mauve and chateaus walls. She turned to the Macintosh and answered the call.

(wearyfluff) "This had best be important..." she stared at the muzzle of a peppery buck, one she had never seen before. (puzzledfluff...yawn)

"Ms. Berryblossom, commander of Torbique Warren?"

"Just Berryblossom, a member of the ruling council..."

"Of three, the other two members being your sisters. You were given command by the Fudd traitorbun, Steve Blake in October, 1996..."

(GLARE) "I don't have time for games..." (yawnbearfangs) "you interrupted my sleep. State your business, and just who in the" (fluff) "are you?" (STOMP!)

(apologyfluff) "I didn't realize, I could just call back tomorrow..." (hesitantfluff) "I am Jerry CrimsonPaw, the new commander of DEWComm..."

"CrimsonPaw?" (pausefluff) "Yes, I think I read something about you."

"I've got a proposition for you and your sisters. Most of it can wait until tomorrow, though...."

"I'm up now, you might as well get on with it." (impatientfluff)

"It concerns Cathy Duquette, a former symp-in-training who your sister was in charge of."

(perkears) "She's dead..." (pausefluff) "No..."

(gigglefluff) "You'd actually take the word of a Fudd at face value?"

"If she's alive then..."

"Yes, she's a bunny and the Major and his wife adopted her. Julie is also alive as far as I know. I figured you and your sisters would love to hear this news and know exactly how to put it to use..."

"And if we do put it to use?" (whatsthecatchfluff)

"It would be nice if you share any information on the Maine Fudd base you learn from them."

(fangygrin) "I think I like you, Commander CrimsonPaw..."

"Jerry, please."

(verywellfluff) "Tell me, Jerry, how did you obtain this information?"

(droopears) Jerry looked down a moment. "I use to be a Fudd before the buns here in Bangor helped me see the light of Frith. That was two years ago. At that time, both Julie and Cathy were healthy bunnies." (alasfluff) "A lot can change at a Fudd facility in a couple years. I'll forward what I know about them to you shortly and you can look at it in the morning. You can then contact me at your leisure and tell me if we have a deal. Jerry out."

The screen went blank. Berryblossom stared at it for a while with several thoughts racing through her mind. Would it be possible, still to try and win Steve over to the fluffyside? She had no doubt that with a little work they could win Cathy back, since she was almost ready for conversion at the time of that incident over two years previous...But that all would depend on how much Fudd propaganda she had embraced in the time inbetween...Sugartail would be excited to learn that Cathy was still alive...how in Frith's name did a convert gain command of the Maine warrens? Were the buns on that side of the border that desperate for a change in leadership? Curse it, (thump) she'd never get any rest now.

Berryblossom (sighfluffed) knowing it was going to be a rather long night. She quickly used the doe's room and headed towards the burrow of her sister, Sugartail, to tell her the news.

"This is incredible if true," Sugartail looked up from the data received on the Maine Fudds from DEWComm.

"What if it's a forgery, sis? Commander CrimsonPaw admitted to being a converted Fudd. What if he isn't fully converted and a fuddbun is now in command of our neighboring warrens? He could be trying to lure us out?"

Sugartail stared at her sister, Berryblossom. "If this is a trap, they couldn't come up with better bait. This description of Cathy's antics fits the Cathy I knew almost to the letter--her favorite foods, colors, games..." (sighfluff) "We have to confirm this information and there's only one way to do that."

"NO!" (STOMP!) "I won't allow you to throw your life away!"

Sugartail remained calm and let Berryblossom's rantings roll off her back. She ruffled her ears a moment as Berryblossom paused. "Are you through, sis?" (pausefluff) "Hear me out.

"I worked with Cathy for a long time. We were best of friends. I very much doubt any amount of Fudd propaganda will change that, especially when Major Blake knows it was a symp and not buns who killed Cathy's parents. You spent the most time with Blake, Blossom. Would he lie like that?"

"He lied about Cathy and his daughter's death to us..."

"Yes, Blake lied to us about the girls, most likely to 'protect them from us'...to prevent us from raising them in a proper bunny environment as they should have been raised." (furripple) "But that doesn't answer my question. In your opinion would he lie to his adopted daughter about what happened to her real parents?"

Berryblossom closed her eyes for a moment before replying, "No." (sighfluff) "But I still don't like letting you do this."

(gigglefluff) "You just don't want to have to help kitsit Plumflower's litter alone." (wink) "Relax, I'll survive. Blake didn't appear to me to be like other Fudds. He is" (afterallfluff) "a devilbunny."

"It's not Blake that worries me, sis. It's the other Fudds. They tend to *POP* and ask questions later."

"Then if I am spotted I'll have to make sure it's Blake or Cathy who 'capture' me. If nothing else, I NEED to see Cathy. I need to talk to her. I must try and get her to understand that if I had had my way her parents wouldn't be dead." Sugartail fought back a few tears. "I put too much of my life into training them, Blossom, to throw that work away as Lapine had done. I'm going down there with or without your blessing and I will be back, after I've had my word with Cathy."

Berryblossom simply bowed her head as Sugartail turned and hopped out of the room. Berryblossom called out to her as she exited the doorway. Sugartail turned back a moment and looked at her sister.

"Please hurry back, Sugartail," (pleadfluff) "I was never meant to command a warren alone...and I don't want to loose you. May Frith protect you."

The trip down hadn't been too pleasant for Sugartail. The last bunmover terminal had been in a tiny outpost warren near Unity, 20 miles from the Fudd base and the tunnels for the last 40 miles of the trip were in an extremely rough and unused state. She spent the night there and ventured out the following day. She had spent the next 14 miles in the back of a small van on rough country roads and the last three miles hopping through the woods getting as close as she dared to the Fudd base. She was thankful for the slight crust on top of the deep snow pack which enabled her to leave no pawprints. Once she had to take cover to hide from a squirrel patrol. The journey was wearing her down. She definatly had spent too much time in the warren and not enough time in the field lately.

The slow journey was paying off as she crested a tall hill that overlooked the region the Maine Fudd Base was in. Sugartail knew she wouldn't be able to get much closer without alerting the Fudd's cuteness detectors to her whereabouts, or so Jerry CrimsonPaw's information had warned. In the distance below her she could make out the main building easily thanks to the smoke curling out of a chimney. Sugartail's breath steamed before her as she dug out a pair of bunnoculars and tried to focus in better. She was still too far away to make out individuals, but she could count some of the buildings through the trees...there were more then in the report, but Jerry had warned that the Fudds were in the process of expanding when he 'saw the Light of Frith'.

Sugartail would have to use all her training to suppress her cuteness if she wanted to get any closer. She had a quick trail snack as she packed away her stuff, slung the pack back on her shoulders and prepared to head out.

(CRACK!)

Sugartail instantly froze and concentrated on listening around her. All she needed to do now was to hop into the middle of some long range Fudd patrol. She heard voices in the distance which were steadily growing louder.

"You've never taken me out this way before," a distinctly female voice spoke. "I don't think we've ever travelled this far on your break from the office. You think Sgt Pomerleau will get worried?"

Sugartail quickly scrambled into a thicket and hid, all the while looking in the direction of the voices.

"Let him." (STOMP!) "He deserves to worry for a while. Why didn't he tell me before this former friend of his was a Fourier wacko? You have any idea how long that psychotic group has tried to recruit me? Almost as long as the buns have tried to get me to 'see the error in my ways'." (sighfluff) "I'm getting too old for this. Maybe it's time to ship Pomerleau off to officer training, except I can't afford to lose him for any period of time..."

The talkers crested a small rise and Sugartail saw two buns, one larger and older then the other, otherwise from this distance they appeared to be identical. The smaller of the two was female. The doe had a small pack on her back and followed closely behind the larger buck. It appeared to Sugartail that she had the confirmation she was looking for.

(gigglefluff) "Unca Ugie as an officer? You might as well make Private McGregor commander of the whole army. I don't mean any disrespect for Pomerleau, but..."

The larger bun stopped and looked back at the younger doe. "Eugene has a lot of potential. He simply needs the discipline of officer training to unlock it, Cathy." (besidesfluff) "I won't be around fore.."

Both buns froze and looked about sniffing the air.

*Pellets! I'm losing my touch,* Sugartail thought to herself in panic as she realized she was upwind from the trail. Add to that something in the thicket was bothering her nose as her eyes started to water. She couldn't hold it back as she went into a sneezing fit that caused the thicket to shake.

Cathy and Steve stared at the thicket. Cathy quickly threw off her pack while pulling out a bun-size supersoaker. She deliberately placed her father behind her while covering the thicket with the soaker.

"Come out, whoever's in there!" (STOMP!) she ordered.

Sugartail cursed her own clumsiness and hopped out. She held up her paws to show that the only weapons she carried were those that Frith had graced her with. Cathy stared in shock and dropped the soaker.

"Sugartail?" Cathy finally managed. (disbelievefluff)

Sugartail nodded briefly keeping one eye on Blake and one on Cathy. "I had heard rumors you were alive, Cathy." she said in a steady, level voice hiding her true fear. "I had to see for myself." She made no move towards Blake and Cathy. She could see in Blake's body language and in the glare in his eyes that he'd attack if she did move. She had to think fast for this was not how she had intended for her reunion with Cathy to happen.

Sugartail suddenly turned tail and ran as fast as she could, throwing her useless knapsack off as she lept away. The trick worked for Blake wound-up with a muzzle full of knapsack instead of landing on her.

Cathy took off in pursuit. Blake called out to his daughter. She hesitanted looking towards Sugartail's fleeing form, but obeyed her father. She knew she could have caught the fleeing doe.

"She's getting away!" (STOMP!) she implored.

"I know, but what have I taught you when we're near the base?" he asked while he caught up with her.

"Call for back-up, if you spot one fluffer, you never know how many more could be waiting in ambush," She recited from memory as she pulled a small walkie talkie out of her pack and radioing back to base. Blake rummaged through Sugartail's pack.

Blake tossed aside some carrot chip rations and a small canteen of water before pulling out and examining a pair of bright pink bunnoculars. "Nothing of real use here. She could be alone, but this material indicates she had to get help getting part way here, for there aren't enough supplies here for her to get back behind bun lines, never mind all the way back to New Brunswick. Tell Eugene we're going to perform a standard sweep but everyone must be on their toes."

Fifteen minutes later Sugartail caught her breath briefly in another thicket. She knew she wouldn't be able to rest long. She was just thankful they hadn't given immediate pursuit. But now she had a new problem. She had to get back to the rendezvous point before the Fudds caught up with her or spotted the van. Her contacts wouldn't hang around if they spot Fudds. Determined to get back to Torbique in one piece, she headed off again at a quick, but not tiring pace.

"AlL rIghT, yoU heArd ZEe MaJor, non? SprEAD-OUt!" The platoon of Lumberjacks did as they were ordered with Blake and Cathy behind them. It had only taken 10 minutes to assemble the search parties. Other groups of Maine Fudds were assembling along the edges of the 'hot zone'. Members of the squirrel scouting unit broke-up and moved quickly and quietly through the tree tops to provide sets of eyes above the Fudds. A devilbunny within the search area would not have an easy time escaping.

Sugartail was tiring fast. She had already dodged two patrols, somehow suppressing her natural cuteness enough not to be detected by the portable imagers the Fudds were carrying. *Could it be the instruments are not as sensitive because of Blake and Cathy?* she thought to herself at one point.

Finally, she reached the edge of the clearing where she had been dropped off earlier that day. She had been praying to Frith her contacts would still be here even though she wasn't due back until the following day. There was the van and it was just pulling out.

*PELLETS!* Sugartail pulled together her quickly depleting reserves of strength and hopped as fast as she could after the van calling-out in vain to try and get them to stop.

"CHIT-CHITTER-SSCCRREEEEEEE!!!!" Three tiny crossbow bolts flew past her into the snow. She could hear Fudd voices all around her calling out to one another. "Over there!" Shotgun blasts echoed through the trees.

The van wasn't waiting for her and was gaining speed down the dirt road. The shotguns went silent as quickly as they had fired. Sugartail risked one last glance behind her to see Cathy gaining on her.

Sugartail pushed beyond her limits and put the very last of her energy into a desperate leap and landed hard against one of the back doors of the van, clawing in with her foreclaws and scraping with her hind paws. She felt a body thump and grab onto her. Sugartail began to loose her grip on the door. The other door quickly opened long enough for a couple of pairs of paws to grab and pull her and her companion in.

The van quickly sped off down the road. Sugartail was exhausted, but fought off falling unconscious as her companions pinned down Cathy who struggled and tried to slash-out under them.

Blake stared in shock at the receding van.

"I want them followed! We have to..."

"I knOw, MaJOr. I eESe alreADy workINg on eeT."

Sugartail caught her breath as Cathy continued to struggle under her captors, one of which was bleeding thanks to a well placed slash.

"Councilor, what are we going to do with her?"

Sugartail panted a little more and sighed deeply. (droopears) "It wasn't suppose to be like this." (pleadingeyes) "Work with me, Cathy. Behave yourself and I'll order them off you. Listen to what I have to say and we'll pull over and let you out."

Cathy continued to struggle and glared at Sugartail with pure hatred. "Just like you 'promised' two years ago when my parents were murdered?"

The van swerved suddenly throwing Cathy's captors and Sugartail to one side. Cathy got into a defensive crouch and watched her captors carefully. (SNICK!) Her muscles tensed as she prepared to defend herself.

"Pull over!" (STOMP!) Sugartail ordered. Cathy stared at her in disbelief, so didn't Sugartail's companions.

(protestfluff) "Are you crazy? She's our insur..." the buck cut off his protest as Sugartail gave him an icy glare.

"I have no intention of bunknapping Cathy." She turned to Cathy. "I wish I could explain all in a few minutes, dear, but I can't..." She grabbed a notebook and started scribbling while providing Cathy plenty of space as the van slowed down and pulled to the side of the road.

"You're not ready to listen to me and this is not how I had wanted to meet with you. If and when you are ready to speak to me muzzle-to-muzzle, as equals. I'll guarantee you safe passage to and from our warren and I'll explain the best I can." Sugartail tore-off the paper she had been writing on and held it out to Cathy. "Just follow these directions when you're ready to listen to me." (pleadfluff) "Take it."

Cathy snatched the paper and tucked in a pocket of her mini-AoF uniform shirt. Keeping her eyes on Sugartail's companions, she reached behind her, opened the door and leapt out. As she landed in the snowbank, the van pulled back out onto the road and sped-off. She flagged down a Fudd pick-up truck less then a minute later who transported her back home.

The van didn't go back to Unity, for Sugartail didn't want to lead the Fudds to any warren and she knew they were being followed. Convincing the Maine buns (bucks both of them) in the van and the symp driver as only a doe could do, the drove her to Calais. They lost their followers by passing a slow moving fuel truck on the Airline (Route 9 between Bangor and Calais, a truely uncute Maine road) and the Fudd tailers were left far behind. They dropped her off in Baileyville just west of Calais and from there she took a bunmover back to Torbique Warren. She collapsed in physical and mental exhaustion in her burrow at about 3am two days after she had headed for Maine.

(STOMP!) "What do you mean you lost them?"

"Have you ever been on the Airline, sir?" Eugene stepped into the defense of the Fudds who had lost pursuit of the bun van. Blake shook his head negatively. "How about the Hainesville Woods Road?"

This Blake had been on a few times as it was the back road between Bangor and Houlton up in the County. He shuddered for a moment recalling all the white crosses marking deaths on that road and the line from the old country song about it: 'A cross every mile.' There were several ghost stories about that road of those killed along it haunting it to this day. Blake briefly recalled his first trip on it and the late Colonel Oullette telling him that buns had caused several of those fatal accidents looking for 'easy' toes.

"Picture a narrower version of the Hainesville Woods Road with less shoulder width when there are shoulders, sharper curves, the steepest hills in the state and a 55mph speed limit, which no one obeys of course, and you have the Airline. You get behind a slow moving pulp or fuel truck and suddenly the two hour trip between Bangor and Calais doubles to four hours, if you're lucky. The state is slowly trying to tame it and the last 20 miles are now a 'safe', smooth highway. They've hauled so much fill between some of the hills the road is now level with the tree tops. I don't see how that could be deemed safer then before, especially if you sail through one of those guard rails. You'd need a crane to get your vehicle out of the trees. As for the rest..."

(waveoffluff) "Enough, Sergeant. You've made your point. Private, Corporal, dismissed."

The two Fudds saluted their CO and left. Eugene stayed behind.

"They had captured her today and I was helpless to stop it..."

"You can't protect her forever, Steve. She was able to get out of the situation..."

(STOMP!) "She didn't escape! They let her go. As you know my daughter and I had a long debriefing over this. It seems that Sugartail wants her to go up to Torbique Warren for a 'visit'. She even 'guaranteed' safe passage for her."

"What did Cathy have to say about this?"

(STOMP!) "She's not interested, yet she put the paper with the 'instructions' back in her pocket." (sighfluff) "Elmer, damn them! They already killed the rest of her family, why can't they leave her be?" Steve placed his head between his forepaws and quietly wept.

Eugene allowed his commander a few moments before interrupting the near silence. "I've never been a father, but I am something very similar, some say it's a much worse position. I'm a Scoutmaster, Steve. That's like being the father of half the kids in town except you have less then half the control, if any control for that matter, of a parent in disciplining them.

"Cathy is an adult. She must be allowed to attempt to take care of herself. You've done all you can. You can't shelter her forever. Sooner or later they'll find a way get at her when you aren't around. She'll have to make her own decisions as you have through the years..."

Steve glared up at Gene as the tears dried quickly. "That's easy to say, Gene, but she knows too much about our operations here and that's what frightens me the most..."

"Sir, was it any different when you worked for Intelligence out of LuFI?"

Steve sighed a moment and nodded his head. "Cathy and I are easy targets for information for we are already fluffy. We resist their beliefs through mental discipline. You don't know how close I came to breaking at Torbique Warren. The only thing that kept me from going over the edge was knowing my wife still cared for me. Trust me, they could turn her easily given the chance. Look what happened to Julie/Callie, Gene. We can only thank Elmer that she slipped over the edge in a neutral warren where she could do little harm to us.

"For Cathy's safety and ours I'm going to talk to her about a temporary transfer to another Fudd base. Maybe she can go on tour and help train at various bases on a rotating schedule. They don't have to be big bases, it's the little ignored bases that can use the help most..." (ponderfluff) "The important thing is to keep her too busy to be tempted by Sugartail. Also by transfering her, it will be more difficult for them to get to her. As to which Fudd facility, I'll discuss that with her."

Cathy had a hard time going to sleep the next few days. Her mind kept her awake pondering about Sugartail and her offer. Her dreams were haunted by the 'good' times she and Sugartail had had before Major Blake had come home to visit his family for the first time in years. The last 'visit' by her parents' ghosts also kept resurfacing: 'You can only stay behind, dear, if you become a bunny and accept Steve and Carrol as your new parents'.

Cathy dug-out Sugartail's piece of scrap paper and read over the instructions and pondered. There wasn't much to it, simple really. If she decided to take-up the offer, she had to go to a bunmover station, climb on the first mover to arrive and enter the code from that paper. She had already commited the code to memory in bordom while laying in bed. She was curious. She had questions in need of answers. Why did Sugartail risk her life by coming down here to see her? Why didn't Sugartail try and save her parents? What happened to their murderer? (SNICK!) Was he still alive?

That last one she had a hard time with. She kept dreaming of how she would punish Don Charette if he was still alive. There were so many scenarios, but most of them would mean having to embrace her bunny side. This troubled her somewhat, but for the purpose of revenge, Cathy believed it would be worth it. Her favorite idea was to pump him full of caffiene and other sleep depressors and nip him. Then, watch as he experienced the full pain of a rapid conversion while remaining fully awake. She would then skin him alive and use his pelt as a throw rug.

At the same time Cathy knew Sugartail's invitation had to be a trap after all the training her adopted father had provided her. She knew what Sugartail was after, but why? Torbique Warren was too far from Maine Fudd HQ to be of any threat to the base. But who was it that had found out she and Julie existed? She also knew her vulnerability and had intentionaly made sure she knew little beyond the basics of base operation just in case. But even that may be of value in an attack on the base/farm. Was it worth the risk to see Sugartail?

*****BUNIX™ TIGHTBEAM TO JERRY CRIMSONPAW*****

Jerry,

We accept your offer and will provide information as we gather it.

BerryBlossom, Councilor, Torbique Warren

*****END ENCRYPTED TIGHTBEAM*****

BerryBlossom turned to Sugartail, her sister, as she sent the message off. "Are you sure she'll come on her own?"

"Patience, sis, give her time. If she doesn't take-up my initial offer in the coming few weeks, I have sweeter honey available to attract the fly." (fangygrin)