Dance with the Devil

"You should let them do their own thing. I know I wouldn't want to only exsit when I serve." "I understand. Thank you." "What's wrong"

Legion sighed. "Fine..." He flicked his wrist all the other mirror images appeared. All fourteen of them.

"I was warned against this, you know? Don't use this type of magic too often or they'll become sentient," Legion lamented. "Why didn't I listen..."

The Wisp led her to a lake. "This is as far as I can go," it said and the closer it went, the more transparent it was. "I'll be on the lookout for others."

"It's just that I know this won't last, nothing will," she stood up and went to one of the windows. "What's all this power good for if I can barely protect these people?"

"wow there's ...Uh...One...8.. 14!!! " Willow nodes and continue to walk. "You need help...From others..."

While the mirror images looked a lot like him, all of them looked slightly different from each other. Charred robed, different eye colour, some even without hoods over their heads.

"Eight hours of sleep, eight hours of helping you and eight hours to ourselves," one of them said. "We thank you for listening to your new mistress!" Legion just had his face buried in his hands; he could not believe it.

There was a small camp near the lake. Tents, fireplaces, that sort of thing. A small, three-tailed kitsune was sitting near the fire, trying to warm itself up.

"I know; I already have all the help I could ever ask for, but my rival is of enough power," she said. "I don't believe in fate, but it looks like ours is to forever be locked in battle, order versus chaos, with innocents in between."

"mistress? What do you mean?" Wendigo asked the clone. Willow walked over the the three tailed kitsune. "Hello there.." " you need to find something that your enemy doesn't have"

"They already know that the two of us..." Legion mumbled.

The tox gasped when it saw her. "Another?" the fox made circles around her. "Nine tails!" Several kitsune walked out of their tents – a fox very much like Willow and a fox with unkempt, discoloured fur

"But in all my years, I never found such a thing," Lee said and turned around. "Sorry. You really shouldn't see me like this."

"but what's a mistress?" "So there is more than just one. Good. I thought the hunters made all of you go extinct for a moment." Willow said a little relieved. "No it's fine. We all aren't perfect. Just keep trying. "

"A very weird way to call someone's girlfriend," he said as he glared at mirror image that said it, only to then lose it when he looked back at Wendigo. "I mean, uh, that's what you are, right?"

"They've stopped once they deemed our numbers were too few to have any effect," the old fox told her. "I've yet to determine why they have done this."

"Is she staying with us, gramps?" the small fox asked.

Her saying that brought Lee's smile back. "Thanks. I only want the best for the people that depend on me," she said. "I wonder if my rival is telling himself the same thing."

"yeah." Wendigo then kissed legion and all of the other clones. "Since you are all the same person I guess I'll have to give kisses to all of you " "maybe we were considered a threat to them. If they hunted for money or fur they would of killed all of us. But they stopped...So we must not have been enough to be threatning." Willow looked at the lil kit. "You want me to stay?" "Maybe he is... Maybe you two are the same and just have had a major misunderstanding that caused this war."

Why did I make so many of them?!

"Can you guys give us a little privacy?" Legion sneered at them. All of them at once. Somehow.

"Does this mean we're free?" Legion just hushed them away, saying "yeah, yeah." As door closed with them out of the room, he leaned against it and let out a sigh of relief.

"They believed that the likes of us to no longer be relevant in a world of science and machinery," the old fox stated. "Those that fled escaped to another realm and the few of us that stayed behind have been trying to find a way to unite with them ever since."

"That's gramps talk for 'you're really awesome and the more the merrier!" The small fox neatly summed it all up.

Oddly enough, the other adult fox didn't yet speak and just scanned Willow.

"I can safely assure you that we're not the same," Lee explained. "His idea of how this place should be is lawless anarchy, whilst mine is fair order. If I came here sooner, maybe the two of us could have split it equally, but I was late..."

"what's wrong?" Willow smiled a little at the lil one. "You seem so happy to have me but.. Really..I don't know what help I could be here...I haven't been here for so long. The last time I was here...There were no hunters..I had to ask a wisp for help explain what happened. " Willow looked down. "You guys really can't get a compromise. There has to be a way to make his chaos fit in your order. "

"Nothing. I'm just glad they're free and not in this room anymore," Legion replied. "So, uh, found out everything you wanted from those books?"

"Gramps told me the only way we can make it is if we stick together," the little fox explained, still as happy as ever. "And my gramps never lies!"

"Maybe having someone with as many tails as you can make this trip easier," the other adult fox finally spoke and it was a he. "What do you say?"

"He opposes any sorts of rules, as he believes they restrict freedom," Lee thought aloud. "But freedom to do whatver you please always results in people getting hurt. But at the same time, he thinks what he's doing is good for their own good."

"Yeah I get it...Sort of" "I don't think so...I was trapped in another body for a very long time...When I was able to get out of that body I seemed to have grown the rest of the tails. I must of have enough wisdom. " "Hmm... ..Still...There should be a way"

"So... what do you want to do?" Legion asked.

"Well, you've heard her," the fox said to the small one. "She's not going with us."

"Aww..."

Lee sighed. "Well, we did manage a truce, but that's it."

"we get the snacks" "...No... I'll go with you..." ,"That's something."

Legion took a look at what his minions brought him and sure enough, it was the same food from yesterday. "You know, this is just the tip of the iceberg," he says. "If I were a cook, I'd show you what mobians are really capable of."

The fox gives her a smug smile. "I can already tell that this'll be the beginning of a beautiful adventure."

In the meantime, the old and the young fox help pack up.

"I'll try talking to him again, if he gives me a chance," Lee proclaimed. "But for the time being, all I can do is wait."

Wendigo waited. "Heh....i guess it will be a good. I was already trying to find a group of kitsune anyway." "At least there is some hope"

He offered her a snack.

"Do you think we'll get there gramps?" The small fox asks as all three of them are packing. "Where mom and dad went?"

The old fox nodded and smiled. "One day we will, one day..."

"You should head back," Lee told Lillith and made her turn back into her regular, ink-demon self, now with a necklace with a dragon fang around her neck. "He's waiting for you."

Wendigo took one. "Thanks" willow looked at the Gramps. "Where did they go?" "Awww..Well see you later!" Lillith headed to the door.

It was one of those chocolate stick things again. Legion went ahead and showed her how to get rid of the wrapping.

Gramps didn't answer, but the other male fox spoke up, but not before making sure the others couldn't hear them.

 "Those with eight or more tails opened a portal and fled through there; her parents did not make it," the fox said and after he did, his smug smile was back. "Which makes me believe you're an impostor, otherwise you wouldn't be here, Nine Tails."

Azzar was patiently waiting for her, meditating.

"ohh...So that's why it tasted a little weird. "What part of,"trapped in another body" did you not get. I was taken way before any of this happened by a magician hundreds of years ago! He trapped me in a whole other body. I finally ecsaped and tried to go back to my home to find all this happened!" Willow said almost mad. "Hey azzar...Are you feeling better?"

"You're not supposed to eat that," Legion explained. "It's there to make it easier to transport and protect it from outside sources."

"You have all that magic and yet you're not doing anything with it," the fox continued, raising his voice. "Why do you want to travel with us?!" Gramps overheard this and placed his paws on the fox's shoulder.

"Let her be, Autumn," he told him. "Tails mean nothing now, no matter how many. We must stand together."

Autumn growled and left, choosing to cool off in the forest. "More adamant than some of his elders, that boy."

Azzar nodded and opened a portal. "We should go."

"that makes sense. " Wendigo said eating the bar. "I don't know why he's so mad. Does he not want me here?" "Yep. " Lillith walked through the portal"

Legion didn't eat anything. "About earlier with the two of us together, don't you think we should wait?"

"He's angry that despite their many tails, our kin didn't resort to violence and tried diplomacy until the very end," Gramps explained, looking at Autumn as he sat under a tree. "Don't dwell on it; neither you or them are to blame."

When Azzar and Lillith came back, a few mages had already arrived. Namely, the age-old rivals controlling fire and ice.

"wait for what?" "Oh..It's a shame diplomacy didn't work..." "Hi guys!"