Grey Eagle being able to carry Valteesha (alias Brenda) with him in flight was entirely a matter of his telekinesis, not requiring any bodily contact at all. But she seemed SO frightened of flying with no visible support that, with a compassion which he tried not to allow to become any other feeling, he finally allowed her to lie against his back with her arms encircling his shoulders from behind. Meanwhile, he was using his temperature control to insulate them both against the winter air. At one point, the seductive Shapechanger began kissing his neck--to which he responded, "Please don't do that! We both know you don't mean it!"
Eventually they descended at a highway rest area, to use the facilities. When they emerged (Copperfox normally took a long time in the bathroom, but this time he used his super-speed so as not to keep his passenger waiting), Valteesha asked, "Can we at least talk before we fly again?"
Grey Eagle turned the cold weather to advantage. No one was using the picnic tables in December, so he created a comfortable warm-air zone around one of them and sat down across from the Shapechanger--not allowing her to touch him during this conversation. "I gather you want to talk about something besides blending magic into science. I'm probably not interested, but I want to be fair. Ball in your court."
She began by resuming the appearance of "Brenda," in which form she had nearly succeeded in making the widowed superhero fall for her completely. "No, not in _that_ form, or the discussion's off," Grey Eagle snapped. So she assumed another guise: that of the Japanese-American girl from long ago, who had scarcely acknowledged his risky climb up a tree to save her stupid cat. Resigning himself with a sigh to her probably instinctive approach, he did not object again.
"I just don't think you realize how much you're missing by not letting me love you," Valteesha said softly; "how _much_ I can give you. I admit the tactic of mere movie-star looks by itself was an insult to your intelligence; but I can offer you something more meaningful to you, to you specifically."
A distasteful hunch occurring to him, Grey Eagle hastened to interject: "NO!! Don't you even _think_ of soiling the memory of my departed wives by offering to look like _them! _You try that, even once, and I'll leave you here to try your luck hitchhiking!"
"No, of course not, that isn't what I meant at all!" she insisted anxiously, and on this point he found that he believed her. "But look at me now--in the likeness of Katrina. Yes, I know about her. Can't you guess what I am offering you?"
"Something like memory-revision in pop psychology, right?" said the superhero.
"You could say that. For decades, out of each period of life when you were single, you've carried--maybe not a grudge, but an emotional sore place, about girls and women like Katrina, who never wanted you. Some resorted to the evasion of saying they 'liked you as a person,' which of course meant less than nothing as YOU meant less than nothing to them. Some--like that girl Naomi at college--turned you down in favor of absolute bums who ruined them; yes, I know about Naomi's suicide attempt, which would never have happened if she had chosen you instead of her bum. Some have pretended to love you because they thought they could get something out of you; some really did feel something for you, but then changed their minds; and some, though _knowing_ that you were capable of giving them a faithful devotion in reality, preferred empty fantasies which could never happen, _over_ what you had to offer."
"What happened, happened," sighed Grey Eagle. "You can change your face and figure, but you can't change the past. So what's the point of you dredging it up? To make yourself look better than all my rejecters?"
"No...it's to allow you, after all these years, to get _closure_ on all those rejections." Valteesha now briefly assumed the blond likeness of the aforementioned Naomi, then began looking like a succession of other females whom Grey Eagle remembered well. "With me, you can--well, I don't want you physically taking _revenge _on me!--but you can tell them all just what you think of them. I said you didn't know what you were missing by not letting me love you; well, you can say the same to Carmen, Lynn, Becky--all of them! You can see and hear every one of them begging your forgiveness! Isn't that worth something?"
Grey Eagle drew a deep breath. "Would you also take on the look of the women to whom * I * did wrong at one time or another, and let ME ask for THEIR forgiveness?"
"I could do that too, if you want. But you obviously are already sorry for your own wrong deeds--and I happen to know that you were not _nearly_ so often the offender as the injured party. So why _not_ heal your self-esteem, and let all those unappreciative women, through me, kneel to you in contrition and humility?" At this point, Valteesha overplayed her hand--by taking on one particular likeness:
The woman who had been the chief inspiration for his writing the poem "The Tale of Sophia Renee."
Grey Eagle shot to his feet. "That's going too far! SHE is totally NONE of your blasted business! Now you hold still, if you don't want to get hurt. I've been scanning you with telekinetic energy probes, and guess what? I've located the lobe in your brain that controls your changes! Choose right now what you want to look like for the rest of your life--but not either of my wives, and not Sophia Renee either!"
With a trapped expression, Valteesha obeyed: taking on a very attractive look, but not one with any meaning to Grey Eagle personally. "This is my actual form," she sighed.
"Not bad; you should be satisfied with it. Now hold still." Valteesha felt a shock of heat, and cold, and heat, and cold again--confined to one tiny spot inside her skull. Now she knew that her power was gone, gone forever as far as she herself could do anything about it. "From now on," said Grey Eagle, "your knowledge is the main thing you have to offer. If you are helpful, I'll do right by you--which doesn't include a domestic partnership."
OOC: The wedding rehearsal can be the next thing written after this.
