>And now, he remembered it all.

Aaron dozed on an off, for a long time... and as time passed, the feeling of corruption,
of imminent disintegration, passed. The open lesions that had spotted his body healed,
healed unnaturally fast, although perhaps 'healed' wasn't the word. The skin that grew
back(?) was covered in fur like the rest of his body, now, mostly reddish gray, although 
the gold still held out in a few patches, making a revolting polka dot effect.

And his teeth... well, his teeth were new, so they probably didn't count. His old ones
had fallen out around the time they'd had to change the duct tape.

They'd had to change it twice. He was smaller, now, a lot smaller. He didnt' want to
think about how much smaller. He preferred to think of how much larger Sylvie seemed,
it was less personal. And he *wished* they'd take off the tape altogether, he was past
the irrational denial phase... he knew that he had no choice but to do what they wanted.
And he'd told Sylvie as much, but she'd been unconvinced.

Still, all in all, his spirits were high, because it was *working*. He was transforming,
and he wasn't dead, at least not yet.

And then one day(?) Sylvie hopped up on the table next to him, and inserted a tube in
his mouth.

"Whath thith for?" he asked. There was something wrong with his tongue, it seemed to
have gotten smaller a bit faster than the rest of his skull... which was lagging in
general, presumably to give the brain time to adapt.

"We need to give you another dose," Sylvie said, "The first version wasn't enough. We
tipped the balance, but it... wasn't enough."

Aaron spat out the tube. "WHA!"

Sylvie scurried back a step. "This whole process is based on the squirrelvirus infecting
bunnyvirus-infected cells. The hybrid virus turns you into a squirrel. But you've still
got the original bunnyvirus trying to turn you into a bunny...

"So I gave you something that *should* have killed off the bunnyvirus and any fully
converted bunny cells, but it didn't do it's job. I mean, golden fur? [nosewrinkle]
That's a dead giveaway. And your left buck-tooth is almost vorpal. [chitter]"

"Tho wha make you thik i'll work thith thime?"

"The SPAM was the mistake. [flick] The bunnyvirus fed off it. I'll give it to you pure,
this time..."

Aaron closed his eyes. "I cath go thwoo tha agai."

"You have to. [chitter] You'll probably *live* if you don't... we managed that much...
but you'll be a freak, Aaron, a real freak. And likely a twisted, crippled freak. [wince]
We have to finish what we started. It's the only way. [flick!]"

"Fi," he sighed, "fi. Wa'ever." And she put it the tube in his mouth, and ran to turn on
the IV machine she was using as a pump...

And the vile smell was there, even worse than before, but now it was a thin brown liquid
that burned like fire in *part* of his mouth... and it was painful, and it was horrible,
and the sensation of fire in his veins was back, but he didn't pass out, this time, and
when it was over...

Sylvie reached into his mouth, and with a sickening pop yanked out his left front tooth.
Aaron yelped, and she apologized. "I'm sorry," she said, "These'll all fall out by tonight
anyway, but it was *really* bugging me. [flick]"

"Fo wi I be okay?"

"Yep," she said, "I'm sure this did it. [flick] You're pure, now. You'll be fine."

And he believed her.

And Chit *sort* of remembered the rest, but it was monotonous and increasingly fuzzy as
it got closer to the end of the conversion. He slept a lot... hell, he probably slept for
an entire week around the conversion, it was a 'fast' virus but not one of the superfast
ones. And he *still* didn't remember anything after that until he came to his senses in...
god, where had it been? Central Nebraska? [giggle]

"Vanilla extract", he said aloud, to himself, "That's the secret. That's so stupid." Moxie
would probably work, though, and it would make a far more credible reagent, at least to
the people who believed it had mystical powers and not, as Chit suspected, a rather
large vanilla component.

But it had been a truly horrible experience, and he was glad that people couldn't really
remember pain. And that Robin's conversion wouldn't be like it at all. Just your standard,
everyday bunnyvirus conversion, with a dozen squirrels ready to go to work with all sorts
of frightening looking equipment in case of an emergency.

So what couldgo wrong?