Kelly smoothed down her hair with an unattractive sort of groggy glare as she opened the door for Snively.  He slipped in, ignoring that look.  He was used to everyone else but him being tired at this hour of the night.  He shut the door behind him as the fox crossed her arms, blinking slowly and trying to awaken.  "What's up?" she said softly.
       "Wake up, fox girl."  The nickname seemed to have lost its original derogatory quality.  "This is serious."
       "Okay..um..." She forced her eyes wide open a moment.  "What is it? I'm awake enough."
       He had crossed the room and flopped on her couch, heaving a sigh.  She assumed her spot across from him, tail curling around her, and he rubbed the back of his head.  "Why do you want to...fix this..?" He waved his hand at himself, indicating the appearance he had grown to hate so much.  "How would it work?  Why...why would you do it in the first place?"
       Kelly knew it must have sounded rude, her suggesting it.  She had been in a daze when she said it; so many things flashing in her mind, most of which involved Snively looking so different.  By now she had almost forgotten what she'd seen.  Somehow her visions always fled as quickly as they appeared, tucked far away in her mind where she could hardly reach them.  She sighed presently, ears drooping as she tried to think of a way to get her foot out of her mouth.  "It's hard to explain, Snively. And I didn't mean anything funny by it, I just..."
       "Well you certainly didn't look all there," he snorted.
       She gave a sheepish smile.  "No.  I wasn't."
       "You see things, eh?  But you can't even tell what they are."  He looked down.  Why was he doing this?  More to himself, he muttered, "You're mad."
       "I get the point." She glared.  "And I'm not crazy."
       "N-no, I..."  He faltered.  "Would you be able to...test it?  That...transformation?"  Before she could answer, he added quickly, "A-and you...you won't mess me up, will you?"
       The corners of Kelly's lips trembled as she tried to hold back a laugh.  "Um...yes I can test it, and no I won't mess it up.  In cases like this, it doesn't take practice."
       Snively tried to keep from trembling.  Besides chiding himself inwardly for doing this to begin with, he had questions swirling in his mind.  "What exactly are you seeing?  You keep saying you know these things, you know it'll work--what the hell are you talking about?"
       "It's...a voice."  Kelly cringed as she said it.  I must sound like a complete lunatic.  "I've heard it since I was a kid.  My ancestors called it 'Destiny', so that's what I've known it as.  I don't know what it is.  But I've never known it to be wrong.  I'll get...visions..inclinations, stuff like that.  Just occasionally, sometimes big, sometimes little."
       Snively was staring now.  He didn't know what to expect, but certainly not something like that.  "Destiny?  What the..."
       "It taught me this, for one."  She held out her hand. Almost appearing to seep from her veins, a soft blue glow enveloped her hand, like thick syrup creeping to her fingertips. It drew together in her palm as if into a droplet, then solidified and rose, hovering just above her palm in a softly glowing orb that issued light like a prism.  Snively stared at the orb with wide eyes.  It was like looking into her eyes, only closer--close enough to kiss.  The tenderness hidden behind her eyes seemed concentrated all into this single soft blue sphere, the sparkle of the white prism-like light making him blink.  He felt like a moth being pulled in to a bug zapper.  It was hypnotizing.  He couldn't even hear her talking.
       It sank back into her hand without warning, disappearing like water soaking into soil.  His eyes fixed on hers.  "Wh-what was th-that?"
       "It heals and makes a person feel euphoric.  Not as much as what I used on you before, though."
       "You did it right f-first try?"
       The vixen nodded.
       Snively, you idiot!  Can't you just see it? His mind assumed a falsetto voice. "Oops, now you're a midget version of the elephant man!  So sorry!"
       "Change me, then."  His voice cracked when he said it, almost startling himself.
       Kelly gave him a blank look.  "You're sure?"
       “Of course I’m sure,” Snively snapped, “why would I say it if I wasn't?"  He then added quickly, "You said it was p-painless, right?
       Kelly shrugged.  "Yeah.  You'll feel pretty weird, but..."
       Snively's expression became grim.  "Then do it."
       The vixen didn't say anything.  She reached her hand toward him, fingers relaxed.  There was a split second when Snively's eyes widened, fear paralyzing him.  What am I doing?! his mind screamed--just as blinding light suddenly shot from her fingertips, enveloping his body.  He covered his eyes with a high-pitched shriek.  But the light seeped through his fingers, through his eyelids, inescapable, deafening white noise in his head.
       He couldn't tell how long it all lasted.  Time and space seemed to warp somehow, and he felt lost to a spinning vortex of everything and nothing at the same time.  She's killing me.  He couldn't even hear his own thoughts.  She's killing me, oh god, she's killing me!  I'm dying!
       It stopped.  Just like that.  Snively could feel the world around him again, feel his very existence.  He blinked away the cloud from his eyes, slowly lowering his arm from in front of his face.  His voice was quiet, but strangely calm.  "Is that it?"
       Kelly was staring with wide eyes.  "This is part of what I saw."
       "Am I...am I okay?" He patted his body, and he could sense something different.  A glance at his left hand revealed a scar no longer there.  A scar that had lingered since he was a boy, from a struggle to get away from his father.  A soft rush of air escaped his lips.
       "Mirror's over there," Kelly said softly.  Snively stared into her eyes.  He noticed he was looking down just slightly to see those eyes.  And he half-lept off the couch, following where the fox had nodded her head.  She watched him, her slowly curling tail the only thing moving.
       The mirror was full-length, cracked at the top.  Snively gasped loudly as he approached.  "I'm...I'm beautiful!"  Kelly chuckled lowly from the couch.  She was almost glad he couldn't see the look of awe in her eyes.
       Snively now stood at least a good two inches over six feet.  His head was covered with feathery, sandy-blonde hair, small locks falling over his eyes just so.  His once unbelievably long nose was now only slightly pointed, and certainly smaller.  Somehow it served as a neat compliment to his angular, thin face.  His eyes had lost some of their grey tone, now a sky blue color.  His limbs were long, his fingers somewhat bony and weathered in appearance.  His complexion had less pallor to it, his skin still soft, but not quite as delicate as before.  He was unrecognizeable.
       “Good God…”  His voice was deeper than before, barely retaining its previous nasal quality.  He whirled around to fix his large eyes on Kelly in shock.  “You didn’t tell me I was this different!” he said.  Kelly’s ears flattened a moment as she promptly replied, “Sorry, sir.”  That rush of air escaped his lips again.  "Sorry?!  Fox-girl, you...you don't know what this means..."  He turned his back to her again, trying to look like he was looking in the mirror.  Tears stung behind his eyes, and he swallowed hard, fighting to force them back.  "You don't know what this means."
       "Then tell me."
       He couldn't turn around.  Couldn't look into those eyes again.  Why was she doing this?  Did she really...his mind could hardly frame that word...care?  It all seemed to come so naturally to her.  The tenderness, the peaceful aire about her.  She didn't even know what she was doing to him.  "Don't ask," he said distantly.
       He didn't know what he did to her, either.  Didn't know that as he gazed into the mirror, she gazed at the reflection of his face.  He thinks I don't know what he's been through... She looked down, curling her tail around her, a nervous habit.  She had seen what his uncle did to him.  She knew the scars that covered him came mostly from that fat bastard.  She had seen the terror within Snively.  She pictured his life as a cloud.  Such a silly representation; but it stuck with her.  A cloud, white whisp of cotton candy born into a clear sky.  The years had darkened it, and now his very aura was a wild, raging storm, a churning mix of the darkest of elements.  But storms do their thing, then go away.  This has to pass someday.
       "Tell me, fox."  Kelly's ears snapped up.  Snively was combing his fingers through his newfound hair in amazement.  "Does this drain you?  Would you be able to do it repeatedly?"  Kelly could see his mind working.  "I could do it a lot," she said.  "It doesn't drain me much.  Just don't expect me to do it repeatedly for days or anything."
       Snively smiled at that, and for once the curl of his lips was not a sneer.  "Plan on doing it more than once, Kelly."  He heaved a sigh.  He didn't want to do this.  But he had to.  "Change me back.  I don't want to be seen this way."
       Kelly did so without question.  The sensation was different this time--like being pulled backwards, losing his breath against the force of it.  When he awoke, he had collapsed onto the floor.  Kelly stepped close, looking down with a hand on her mouth.  "I didn't expect that.  Sorry, Sniv."
       "You didn't mess me up, did you?"
       She shook her head.
       "Good."  He stood to his feet and smoothed his uniform, averting his gaze from the mirror.  He didn't care to see his normal self after what he'd seen just now.  "Expect to do this again.  And don't you utter a sound about this!"  He glared up at her.  "If Robotnik gets wind of this, you'll be in deep shit."
       "I know.  He won't."  She smiled.  Snively rubbed the back of his head, and he nearly wanted to cry when he felt mere skin.  He heaved a sigh.  "Good night, fox."
       "What?"
       "That's all I needed."  He strolled to the door, darkness sweeping over his expression.  "Don't forget.  Tomorrow, we're at the factory again."
       Kelly didn't move as she watched the lackey slip out of the door and half-slam it behind him.  "Tomorrow," she whispered to herself.  "That's too long, isn't it Kel?"  She grinned, then rose to get ready for bed.  The sooner she could get to sleep, the sooner she could stand near him again.
       There was just something about that man.