Purring, Stephanie sidled up to Zoe and began to rub against her, nearly knocking the Dark Goddess over. Zoe was a little put out, but still felt the need to care for her servants, so she began to scratch behind Stephanie's ears, using the tiniest fraction of her power to keep Sabrina where she was in the meantime. Stephanie began to get more and more excited at the attention she was receiving from Zoe, who kept scratching. Never having owned a cat, Zoe was unaware of a certain thing some cats did. As Stephanie's excitement grew, she began to be a little agitated, and then suddenly...she whirled and clamped her jaws around Zoe's neck.
With a normal housecat, this behavior would have been a minor annoyance. Stephanie, on the other hand, was, comparatively speaking, only somewhat smaller than a panther, and nearly as powerful. It was all over in an instant; although Zoe had made herself all-powerful and warded herself against magic, she hadn't made herself immortal or invincible to physical attacks. It made sense; any normal person trying to get to her would become her devoted servant before they could do any harm, and it was too early in the game for her to worry about enemies using guns. She hadn't expected to be done in by a servant, she'd just never known how unpredictable cats can be. Neck broken and jugular pierced, she dropped to the floor, dead.
The second Zoe died, her spell over her servants was broken, and though they remained transformed, their minds were returned to them, and they were once again the same people they'd always been. Stephanie gaped at the body on the floor in front of her. "Oh my God..." she moaned. "Oh God, oh God, I killed her!" She burst into tears and crumpled to the floor.
Elsewhere, Karyn, Athena, and Zelda were battling Zoe's soldiers with the help of the creature Karyn had summoned, a large Sasquatch-like beast, when Zoe's forces suddenly stopped fighting. The sasquatch suddenly stopped as well, and Karyn and Athena stared in confusion. Madison's tail went limp, and Zelda, freed from her grasp, tumbled to the ground. "My God," Allison muttered, "what have we done?"
Karyn couldn't understand why they suddenly stopped fighting, but Athena began to understand. "Karyn," she said, "wish for Zoe to be here."
Karyn stared at her. "Are you crazy?" she yelped.
"Just do it."
Shrugging and really hoping Athena knew what she was doing, Karyn did. Suddenly Zoe appeared on the ground in front of her - dead. Athena nodded sagely. "Something killed her, and her spell over them was broken. Not that surprising, really; I just expected she'd be invulnerable to physical harm. Wish the rest of her former servants here, along with any prisoners. This is going to take some explaining."
Karyn did, and the entirety of Zoe's army appeared, along with Sabrina. All of them were confused and upset, but Stephanie in particular was bawling her eyes out, wailing about how she was a murderer. "Looks like one of her servants did it," Athena mused. "Well, what's done is done; I just hope we can take her power away and resurrect her. And I especially hope the magic protecting these kids' forms is gone with the mind alteration."
