FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Taking on a New Life

Part Fifteen

---

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Kittenrose232

_ _

_ _

Adagio, Sonata, Aria, and, surprisingly, Olivia too, stood before the door with trepidation. That was fair. It was the office, supposedly, of the mob boss that they stood before, even though it had all been orchestrated by Adagio.

Their leader held her head high, the outside door set into the side of an industrial-like building, or something that may have once been used as a warehouse, though she could hardly have expected them to be based in an office block or even at the mall. That wasn't where their sort of dealings went down, though it made sense, in hindsight, that they had been able to cause her so much trouble at her bar, considering that they were more established than Adagio had initially realised.

That made sense. But that made them more dangerous too.

Adagio wasn't one to back down from a challenge.

Paint peeled off the side of the building, the wind lifting her hair from the back of her neck as the door opened. A surly man with his collar pulled high, scuffs on his leather jacket, stepped back to allow them entry, though it felt more as if a prison cell was being closed on their heels than anything else. Olivia bit her lip, glancing back, perhaps the most anxious of them all. Adagio made a mental note to coach her on that later, on not allowing her feelings and emotions to be plastered so plainly across her face.

But it would have to do for the time being as they stalked through narrow corridors, as if it had once been the site of offices above, maybe, a manufacturing plant. That could easily give them an exit if needed, but Adagio wasn't concerned with that. She was there to send a message, for simply sending their goons packing from her bar, every time they showed up, clearly was not doing the trick.

The mob boss smirked at her, though his lips only twitched minutely, the kind of light in his eyes that reminded her of a predator, perhaps even one of her own kind. He would have been an evil doer in Equestria, she was sure of it, but, in the human world, he was so much more than that, feeding off the seedy underworld of humanity. It was different to what she was used to, with the siren's thoughts and memories too slowly becoming her own, but not in a way that Adagio thought she could not work with it.

Trimmed hair that looked so perfect that it had to be dyed. A neat beard. Thick shoulders. A broad chest. That there was muscle under his shirt and leather jacket, of finer quality than the guard who had brought them inside, was a given.

Sonata and Aria flanked her, her sister sirens. Adagio would have smirked back, though all she did was regard him coolly. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing any reaction from her, even if she knew already how things were going to go down. There was only one way.

“I'm here to talk."

“Evidently, girl," the mob boss, who did not supply his name, said, rolling a cigarette with fresh tobacco as he spoke. “But not many little mice scurry into a nest of vipers…"

Adagio's shoulder blades pushed back.

“I think you'll find that I am more familiar with nests of vipers than you are."

Her tone dripped with derision, the siren egging her on inside.

Let him have it. He doesn't know who he's messing with, the siren goaded her on, though it was hard for Adagio to resist too when the mob boss was one who surely deserved every iota of her ire. He would crush us and not even think about this. They're not just some ruffians that messed up the bar, they're so much worse than that. Think about how much better off the world would be without them.

_ _

It's not that easy. We can't do something that angers them, we have no idea how this is going to go down yet.

_ _

Adagio tried to placate her, though the siren twisted and seethed, the red of her eyes showing, tempting Adagio to call on their shared power.

“Look, little girl," the mob boss said, lips quirked up in a smile that did not reach his eyes. “I'll make you a deal. We'll do whatever we like around your bar, drink for free, do what we like, all for free… We won't cause any more trouble, my boys won't. We all want a quiet life here, don't we?"

Adagio stiffened, eyes narrowing.

“Excuse me, but you don't get to go around setting the terms," she all but snapped, tone short and clipped, as if there was a particular kind of bite behind every word. “You will not visit our bar again. I don't care what you do elsewhere, but you don't get to come and disrupt our patrons, it's quite simple."

The mob boss shook his head sadly, lighting the cigarette, a curl of smoke rising from the tip before it merely settled on the fuel that was the tobacco within. The rich aroma of smoke, clawing and biting at exposed lungs, filled the room, making Adagio's eyes water. She resisted the urge to cough, even as Sonata trembled behind her, fighting a stronger need to expel the smoke from her lungs, eyes already streaming. She'd never had much tolerance for strong smells, which was surprising for her and her weird concoctions.

“That's going to be a problem then," the mob boss said silkily, not meeting her eyes. “Because we intend to be there every night. It's our territory, after all. Maybe a nice, fat offer in the owner's pocket would sweeten the deal."

“What deal?" She shot back. “You have not offered anything of interest to us."

He smirked, the cigarette tucked between his lips.

“Oh… I meant to buy the bar. Or, at the minimum, I suppose I could let the owner keep it open, it is in a nice location, after all, and running a bar is beneath the work that I do… Only you won't be around there anymore. So, there won't be any more trouble there then, will there?"

He will not force us away!

_ _

The siren roared, the tremor and the fear of losing every home that she had had blasting through, seething and snarling, fuelling Adagio with rage. It might have been ill-placed, considering the circumstances, and one might have said that they were not as dire, considering that everything there was orchestrated by them. They could have kept quiet and supposedly allowed the authorities, in time, to deal with the gang, or allow them to grow bored and go somewhere else over time. They didn't have to escalate things. Adagio most certainly had not had to march up to the mob boss and demand things that seemed outlandish for someone like her.

But all that roiled inside her was pain, hurt, shame, fear. Her hand clenched into a fist, eyes darkening to a shimmering, blitzing shade of red. The mob boss took note, shifting back in his seat. Surely, he just thought it was contact lenses or something like that, nothing serious.

“If you do not leave our bar and those we care about alone," she growled, fury snapping behind her words. “There will be hell to pay. Do not test me."

She should have known how it was going to end, however, from the very beginning. The siren's anger knew no bounds when applied in the name of justice, her howl ripping through Adagio, eyes blazing with the heat of a thousand homes lost. The siren would not lose a single one more as the mob boss laughed and said, as if they were hearing his words through a wall, from a great distance away, that that would not happen, that he would not change anything his gang were doing.

“You see why that is, don't you?" He said, gesturing to someone behind them with a nod, a flick of his fingers. “This isn't your battle, little girl. Give in, go somewhere else. We run this city, where it counts."

“Damn this – boss!"

Aria snarled, moving in perfect time with Adagio, Sonata and Olivia pairing up, back to back, surrounded by goons in the blink of an eye. Yet it was Adagio who had moved before any of the others, prompting Aria to leap into action too, lunging for the mob boss while his eyes widened in something that could have been pity. Yet it was not her that he should have been pitying as she flipped the desk, sending papers flying like confetti, filling the air.

“Stay out of our home!"

It might not have made sense to the others, though perhaps the sirens understood the significance of it, having found or made their own homes too in the human world. The chaos roiled around Adagio, seething and further fuelling her rage, feeding the fire that was her need to have a place to call her own, to protect everything that she deemed to be her own, to forever and always ensure that no harm came to it.

Everything came together in chaos, shouts filling the air, the sickening smack of bodies into something far more solid than should ever have been present. Aria growled, slamming her heel into a goon's gut, face twisted in disgust, Olivia darting to the side, using her rougher skill in fighting to dodge, acting as a more agile distraction for Sonata. But it was Sonata who surprised them all as she swiped the pistols from a scrawnier guard, one who looked like he had simply fallen in with the wrong crowd. She spun them in her hands with a grin, appearing as light and as playful as ever, though Adagio was still sure that she understood the severity of the situation.

She always had before, even when they had been fighting for their lives not to be chased out of Equestria. They were only sirens and it was not their fault that they needed to sow dissent and chaos to survive. It was merely who they were. Yet they were shunned for it.

Adagio followed her lead, wrapped around behind the mob boss, snatching up what seemed to be a flintlock from his holster, though he might have done well to have something more manageable in a smaller space. It seemed that surprise was on their side – who could have expected a “group of girls", anyway, to cause such trouble? – as she wrenched her arm across the mob boss' throat in a chokehold, as clumsy as it was. It could have been more practised, as she wedged her knee into the small of his back, grinding him into the side of the desk. The flat top of the desk faced him, the furniture on its side, the chair rammed into the corner at an angle, though it had still, somehow, managed to stay somewhat upright.

“You're going to regret ever coming to my bar," Adagio growled into his ear, the flintlock pointed at another guard's head, fingers curling around the handle, seeking the trigger. “You could have stayed away… But you're never going to take my home."

No one could have said how long it took for the scuffle to play itself out, her gun pointed at the head of another who held his hands up, Sonata and Olivia both with pistols aimed at others, but that they were surrounded and outnumbered. Their hearts pounded, everyone still, at a stalemate of sorts, though the thugs breathed more heavily than them. Being sirens, or one with borrowed power in the case of Olivia, they had more cards in their hands than the gang.

They had to trust that. Despite everything else.

Adagio's hands shifted, tossing the gun to Aria, who could make better use of it in a moment like that than her, closing around the mob boss' throat as if she was about to rip his throat out. Her heart hammered, the metallic taste of blood lingering in her mouth, though it was most likely only from her teeth catching her cheek or something similar, nothing to worry about. Adagio's hand stilled, firmly levelling the pistol, though evening the score a little there had not changed the fact that they were outnumbered.

We can't do this!

_ _

Adagio lunged at the siren mentally, beating her back, not because she wanted to exert additional force over her, but because fighting like that... Well, it wasn't going to get them into any good position, put it like that. Yet it was impossible to convey that to the seething, hissing mass of the siren, feeling so much larger and more dominant than she had before, fighting against a foe that was not actually there before her.

Sometimes minds didn't quite work the way either sirens or humans wanted them to. That was not the siren's fault, not really, and it never would be.

You've got to get it together, Adagio said, a snap in her tone, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face. This isn't you. Or it might have been you. But shedding blood here… That's not right. You must stop this. This isn't how we are.

_ _

That was enough to draw the siren up short, however briefly, grunting as if she had been struck. Even through their mental connection, Adagio caught her shudder.

“Boss!" Aria shouted, eyes a little more desperate, the mob boss shifting under Adagio's grip, wheezing faintly. “What do you want us to do?"

All eyes were on Adagio, locked onto her, seething, the embodiment of raw fury.

No… No, they have to go, they cannot be allowed to take our home from us.

_ _

They're never going to take our home, never, siren, never, Adagio said, though it would have been correct to use the same name for the siren as she did for herself, not the time for nuances like that. That's not what this fight is about. We didn't have to escalate it… But it is now. Now, we have to deescalate it. Do you want bodies here?

The thought of dead bodies twisted her stomach, reminding her of a worse time, a time as Knight. Maybe she had been running from that time of her life for so long, guts churning, aching, but she did not send those images to the siren. It had not been that bad, but it was her decision to consider what was bad enough to change her mind, her course of life.

Bad enough to give her nightmares that flickered from one image to the next, reminding her of what she never wanted to be, the attitude that she never wanted to feel closing around her heart.

“Boss?"

That was Sonata, though Olivia shifted her weight, the guns shaking in her hands. Even though she was good enough in a rough scrap, especially when she had more in her environment to help her out, she was not poised with a firearm. Hell, Adagio didn't want to remember how she could use some of what she had, but that was all part of training from another time. She was sure that Aria was bluffing. Sonata probably played with guns for fun, when she wasn't cooking and flirting.

I want to break them…

_ _

The siren's voice was small, but there were other voices in there too. Not openly, as they wanted to keep the unrest between them, the sirens using their link to float their voices into Adagio's mind.

Come on! Aria growled through their link, their pendants glowing as they communicated. We can take them! Leave them here, we won't get trouble from them again, boss.

_ _

We don't have to do that, Sonata commented, a smirk on her lips as if, in a way, she was in her element right then and there. They're terrified already, I think one peed himself. Oh, my goodness… You really think they're going to cause any trouble after this shake-up, boss?

_ _

Adagio shook her head minutely, Olivia's eyes boring into her, the only one who could not communicate like that.

We won't kill them.

_ _

She said it firmly, projecting it to everyone, though the siren acquiesced stubbornly. Yet it was not as if the siren was fighting for

Use your voice. Control them. We've got this.

_ _

Aria grinned.

“Now, that's what I'm talking about!"

“Ahhhh-ahhh-ahhhhhh!"

They only needed a note to sing, if they didn't want to launch into a whole song, Olivia following Aria's lead, Sonata's voice joining the throng and, finally, Adagio too. The siren sang whole-heartedly with them, pouring her sorrow and loss into their song, the hands of the goons falling, the mob boss going slack in Adagio's grip. It was as if they had become nothing more than rag dolls in their hands, putty there, something that they could shape and change to their will.

Everyone under their control, the melody of their voices weaving and winding together into something wonderful. It was no wonder that they had performed on stage, in that world, without any technical experience prior, but things had gone awry back then. Adagio dimly remembered that, as a siren, her memories mixing, the siren's song pouring through her. Her eyes glowed and the pendants flared with life, linking them all together as their feet lifted from the ground.

She groaned, head tipping back gently. Oh, she could feel it…every drop of power they had, everything that could be theirs, how they had joined, how it infused every corner of her being. She and siren were one, working together, their thoughts that of one being, everything that Adagio had hoped they could come into and more.

Alas, it could not last, not as their feet set down and they took back control of the situation. Her hand rested on the mob boss' shoulder, more in control of him than before, even though her hand was no longer on his throat. Sometimes, it was not about the positioning, not like that.

She took a deep breath, steadying herself, her sisters with her.

“Now, boys, we've got that out of the way…" Adagio smirked, shoving the boss to the ground. “I'll take what I need here and you will never set foot in my bar again. In fact, I don't want to see either hide nor hair of you, deal? Oh, wait you're not the ones that make the deals anymore!"

Sonata and Aria laughed, even Olivia chancing a smirk. She might not have been entirely clear on what had happened there, her singing doing more than it had in the past, but part of being around Adagio and the others meant going along with what was happening. That was Adagio's influence working on her, letting her be more malleable and susceptible to things not matching up quite to how she was used to them, even if the use of magic itself was drastically different.

It would come. All in time.

They agreed to everything Adagio set out. Really, they should have used their voices from the start, yet the brashness of the siren had been what had tipped her over the edge into trying to negotiate. She did not have as much power in the world there as she'd thought she did, though the power she kept under wraps, hidden from most human eyes, could be better utilised.

As the tattoo is finalised, the last inks settling, the siren told her, though even she sounded exhausted, it will all come together. You were right… There are other ways. My way would still have worked, however.

_ _

Adagio laughed softly. She could not deny that, but the goons would never bother them again. On the contrary, she might have pulled a valuable ally under her wing, though she didn't know what she would use them for yet. Bodyguards was a bit of a stretch when they were more than capable of guarding themselves, to say the least of it…

But maybe putting them in their place was enough.

Aria took copies of the profits, the finances, everything from the cabinets and the computer that they unlocked and got the boss to put in the passwords for, taking their time. With the influence of their voices, controlling everyone, there was nothing there that they needed to worry about, though tension still crackled, adrenaline pumping. It was as if their bodies had not yet caught onto the fact that the fight, which could not have been, was over. But no one was flawless there and no one, most certainly, was infallible.

“Let's get out of here."

Adagio didn't want to admit to the tremble in her legs as they made their way back outside, though they had walked a short distance there. Donnie, of course, was picking them up, though Adagio had not known what state they would be in on exiting, even if she was sure that they all could have easily taken care of every last one of the gang. That wasn't her concern: it was getting out of there without leaving a mess behind that concerned her. It wasn't in her nature, not even her shared one with the siren, to cause too much trouble in that regard.

Chaos, yes. Unrest, yes. To come out on top, yes. Violence? Not like that. Not without due reason, defending oneself. It didn't feel right.

Maybe that's why the forces, the siren suggested, referring to her time as Knight in the army, didn't suit you, long-term. There are few where an environment as callous as that would suit.

_ _

Adagio could not help but chuckle, stepping out into the open air, the cool, fresh touch of January brushing her skin. It was moist, unpleasantly so, though still refreshing in a way she was glad to still be able to feel.

Yeah, you're right, though I'm not so sure I like all this softness to you, she teased right back at the siren, their mental bond stronger than ever. You're going easy on me. You would have crushed them and not cared for any consequences before.

_ _

The siren scoffed, sending Adagio the mental image of the hippocampus shaking her head, eyes intent.

No… But I care about what happens to me and my sisters. That's enough for me to want a quieter life, when it comes to how I'm living. I don't much care for how those around me are living, which is where you are wrong.

_ _

Adagio would muse over that a little later, though she still thought, privately, that the siren was going soft, becoming increasingly like her, while they took on aspects of one another's personalities, shaped by shared, blended histories. It was hard to keep their memories separate, but all that was chased from Adagio's mind as her heart leapt, her steps quickening at the bottom of the metal stairs as Donnie pulled up.

She hadn't realised quite how much she had worried, lunging into a run and rushing to him as he leaned out the car window. He blinked, surprised to see her so hasty, halfway to unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out to join her – and that was when she kissed him.

Adagio didn't think about it, didn't have to think about it, even though she'd been so adamant before that she didn't like surprises. Maybe it didn't matter so much when it was her delivering the surprise, her lips touching his, moving with his, all as naturally as if they were meant to be together.

It's not really a concept I've thought about, not in my life… The siren mused, stepping back from the kiss, though she left Adagio with the sensation that a phantom tail was fluttering back and forth, heartbeats racing as one. But this is nice… He is nice. His is ours.

_ _

That was so, though Adagio had always wanted everything with Donnie to come through in the right way, breaking the all too passionate kiss as Donnie gasped for breath. Flustered and red in the face, he ran his hand back over his freshly trimmed hair – evidently he had been to the barber while they had been in there, kicking ass – and hid behind his hand. Though what he could not hide from Adagio was the wide smile stretching across his face.

“Oh, wow…"

Aria smirked, rocking back on her heels, though Sonata and Olivia could only giggle, giving her a thumbs-up. Rolling her eyes, Adagio straightened from where she had been half leaning through the car window, about to topple into Donnie's lap, and waved her hand, her cheeks a little warmer than she would have liked.

“Come on, guys, we've got to get going. Forget what you saw…or else."

It was not as much of a threat as it could have been, not with her sisters around her, Aria scoffing.

“Whatever you say, boss."

Yet Adagio couldn't stop her heart from leaping as Donnie grabbed her as soon as she was in the car beside him, sweeping her into a deep kiss that had both her and the siren stuttering in happy warmth. Who could have known that a kiss like that, as simple as that, could be so deep? It stretched through her to the very core of her being, as if he was reaching into her to pluck out the essence of her soul, warming her through.

Adrenaline, she thought, unsure whether the thought was hers or the siren's notion. It must be the adrenaline…that makes this feel so good.

_ _

Yet it was the change that she needed, heart soaring, everything coming through as she wanted it to. She smiled as they parted, brushing her fingers across her lips in lingering memory of the kiss.

At long last, everything was paying off.

*

A normal day. Several normal days, in fact, at her new apartment, the condo that she now owned and shared with Donnie, though they had only grown a little closer after her kiss. Adagio still was unsure how fast she wanted to push things, but it was getting to the point where it was almost silly to hold back, considering all that they had been through together.

But Donnie didn't know the real her, that there was a siren sharing space with her, though that was not to be helped either. That was just the way things were and there was also no way to prove it.

Adagio shook her head, sitting at the kitchen counter on a tall bar stool, chewing on a piece of toast that could have used more butter. The siren so very often had her adding more to foods, all to make it more flavourful, though she didn't always agree with the flavours that the siren wanted her to add. She supposed it was all a matter of personal taste, however, and the siren's tastes helped a little when she had to eat strange things with Sonata, like the fishy tacos. Far too fishy for her tastes as Adagio, but the siren gobbled them up like they were going out of fashion.

There's a letter for us.

_ _

The siren directed her attention to an envelope that was not a bill (she could always tell) and Adagio rolled her eyes, still not awake yet in the morning, her coffee brewing. Yet the contents of the letter had her forgetting all about her morning coffee entirely, setting her half-eaten toast back on her plate, crumbs dropping from her lips.

“Ah, hell…"

What is it? The siren fluttered, flustered, though could see as well as Adagio did, through their shared eyes. It's…a visit? Who are these people?

_ _

Before she could fish through Adagio's memories, the line between them softer and softer as the days passed in their shared experience, Adagio cleared things up for her.

“My parents, our parents…" She groaned, her stomach twisting, grinding and contorting itself into uncomfortable knots. “They want to come to visit us…here. I haven't seen them since before…"

Well, that much was obvious. They didn't know that she was a woman, Adagio, sharing a body with a siren, though that was not something that she had to explain to them. Everyone around that had known her, back in the office job that she had been kicked out from with her changing, boldening attitude, had assumed that she was transgender, though Adagio didn't honestly see herself like that. She was just Adagio and it felt as if her body was the one that she should have, regardless of being Knight, a guy, before.

Her parents, on the other hand… She'd talked to them by text message, not much more than that. They must have resorted to the letter when she had not responded for… Well, it had been a while, to say the least.

She swallowed hard, though it did nothing to dislodge the lump in her throat, pressing a shaky hand to her sweaty forehead.

No… No, she couldn't do it. They'd know, Donnie would know – and she wasn't ready, if she ever was going to be ready, to deal with that one. As far as she was concerned, there was no need for anyone in her new life to know about her old one, even though she had known Donnie, way back, as Knight too. He only knew her as Adagio – what if her parents told him? There would be evidence too, photos and school reports and things from her history that she had not considered important at all and now could not get out of her head.

Dread curled in the pit of her stomach, elbows on the counter, her head buried between them. Her breath came in short, sharp pants, the tightness in her chest still there, the siren quiet, for once, though it was a fight that both would have to meet together, regardless of how it all played out.

What's wrong? The siren did not understand her reaction, fretting, concern brimming over. It's only your parents… Why would that be a problem? It does not appear to be a strained relationship.

_ _

“No…" Adagio whispered, fingers shaking, dropping the paper that had been tucked between them, even as she pressed her hands to either side of her head. “It wasn't. But they…"

Ah. Realisation pulsed through the siren. They do not know that you, that we…that we have changed. That's a problem.

_ _

The siren's concern twisted with Adagio's worry, a bundle of twisting nerves that could not be contained. She took a deep breath, yet it did not do anything to steady her.

“Hell…"

Everything that she had worked for could be gone in nothing more than a moment. Traitorous tears prickled in the corners of her eyes, though she refused to allow the hot moisture to make itself known in tracks down her face. She was better than that. But she couldn't lose all that she had worked for, as much as she could not break her parents' world.

But she didn't know what to do.