A Fevered Brain

A Fevered Brain
By SSJ04 Mewtwo

Legalities & Warnings

The following contains characters that aren't mine. They belong to Viacom and MTV. Daric and Angel, who have appeared in prior stories, are mine and forever will make either slight to moderate appearances in my Daria stories. Angel is the permanent keyboard player in my stories. I thank Lady Delilah for the beginning inspiration for this and all her kind reviews. I also thank everyone else who review my Daria fics. I've finally found all the taped episodes I've got so maybe my Daria muse will take over from my Dragon Ball Z and Card Captors muses. Two more things, first, this may contain material unsuited for the underage. Second, I'm about to do something a little strange. I'm introducing something that goes completely against the grain. Although if anyone has read enough Daria fanfics one would see a few that have concepts that would never be seen in a Daria episode. Man, I'm getting like whiteshirt with having long author's notes. Read, enjoy, review and or e-mail me at ssj04mewtwo@yahoo.com. This takes place just before Ep. 406.

***

An auburn haired girl steps out of the Dega Street book store. The Saturday sun blinds her for only a moment until her vision, helped by the glasses she wears, returns to normal. Her body was sending the brain controlling it mixed signals. She couldn't tell if she were hot or cold. One moment her green jacket would be unbearable to wear, and the next she would feel as if her blood was turning into ice. The likely hood of her having a fever was high. She would need to find the most vile, green liquid in the house along with a couple of aspirin and hopefully sleep away the sickness. It would not do her any favors to have a fever even though she could probably catch up no matter how much school she'd miss. A smirk crosses her face for only a moment at the thought of giving whatever she had to Quinn. Her stride slows as she continues down the street. Her brain was trying to force the ailing body it was housed in to keep going. Unfortunately both mind and body are unable to fight the fever and the girl passes out on the sidewalk.

***

Trent Lane, lead guitarist and singer of the local band known as Mystik Spiral, pops the tape out of the player in his old car just before turning said car off to park it. He flexes the fingers in his right hand to make sure that the three guitar strings that broke all at once on him didn't leave any permanent damage.
"Two weeks," he says smiling, "Daric is coming back in two weeks and then we'll go to the top." He continues on foot down Dega street. With the newly broken strings, he would need to get more if he wanted to continue playing.
"Mrow,"
Trent looks to see that a black cat was sitting in his path. "I've heard that it's bad luck for a black cat to cross your path, but I don't know what it means when one sits in it." he muses out loud.
"Mrow." the cat says getting louder. It stands and rubs up against Trent's leg and walks a few feet ahead. It then stops and turns to meow again.
"You want me to follow?" he asks. The day was certainly becoming stranger the longer he stayed awake. Not needing the strings right away, Trent follows the cat. The feline would turn its head every now and again to make sure the human that it found would follow. Two stores down from the book store, Trent saw what the cat had been trying to tell him. Seeing a familiar head of hair he quickens his pace and kneels down to make sure it was who he thought it was.
"Daria?" he asks, but he doesn't get a response. He touches her forehead to feel that she was burning up. "Damn." he quietly swears, "Let's get you home." He knew that there probably wasn't any aspirin at his place, but he could bet even money that there would be some at hers.

***

"There," Trent says looking down at the sleeping girl as he feels her forehead, "the fever broke." He shakes his head remembering similar times with Jane when she was younger. He sighs. "I'm sorry you're having a tough time dealing with Janie dating someone. I'm also sorry that I was stupid enough to say 'yes' to that damned school assignment. I should have told you I was having problems writing something. I bet it was a stupid assignment from that crybaby O'neil. Don't worry about Janie, she's never been able to hold a long term relationship down. You rest now." Trent says, kisses her cool cheek, and walks out closing the door quietly behind him. Had he stayed a moment or two longer he would've seen a genuine smile come across her lips for a mere second.

***

She awakes to feel that she was laying on her own bed. She reaches over to her nightstand and retrieves her glasses. The world comes into focus and now she sees that indeed she was in her room.
"How could I have gotten back here? The last thing I remember was falling...," she starts to say trying to figure out how she could have gotten back home. "Wait, there was a voice," she continues to think out loud, "Trent. He's the only member of the male gender that knows where I live and could be found on Dega Street." She would have to talk to him later, but her stomach was protesting. "I must be falling apart. First, my craving for seafood and chicken makes no sense. Next, I have to stay away from milk or I end up wanting to drink the entire carton. And now I come down with a fever? I've either got a parasite, or I'm pregnant...,although, the two are the same. I won't find true sustenance here. Hmmm, wonder if the Pizza King serves shrimp on their pizza(1)?" She shakes her head. She would have to make a call to her favorite aunt and discuss this with her. This was just too weird to bring up with her mother. Helen would probably jump to the wrong conclusion as usual.

***

Two high performance cars pull up to a traffic light. The first, a black Jaguar, had a boy around his mid-twenties. His amber eyes watch for the light to turn green. Sitting beside him was a girl with black hair and pale skin. Her eyes were a pale blue and both her finger nails and eyelids were black. The car to the left wasn't even half the machine that the Jag was, however, its driver thought his car was the best and no other car could beat it. The driver looked as if he should and did work at a garage.
"Hey jackass in the Jag!" the man in the other car shouts. "You think that bucket of spare parts can beat my mean machine?"
"Are you challenging me to a race?" Daric asks slightly intrigued, but more annoyed than anything else.
"Yeah, if that thing can even break sixty." the man taunts.
"Dispose of this cretin." Angel says calmly.
"You're on!" Daric says to the other driver, and with Korn's 'Hold On' playing through his car's system, he guns it. Daric smirks seeing the other car couldn't touch him.
"How did you put up living in this town with so many foolish people?" Angel asks.
"It wasn't always like this my goth goddess." Daric says slowing to normal speeds as he makes a turn. "Ah, there it is." Daric says seeing a familiar house coming into view.

***

"You sure you wanna practice, man?" Max asks. "I mean Nick isn't coming and you had three strings break on you at once."
"I'm all right. We can practice without...," Trent starts but hears a sharp whistle.
"Hey! I heard my old band still hung around here!" Daric shouts out of his window.
"Daric!?" Trent shouts back and three come running over to the car. "I thought you said two weeks."
"I lied." Daric says smirking.
"You haven't changed." Trent says smiling.
"You guys hungry, or do I even have to ask?" Daric asks.
"Now you ought to know the answer to that question." Jessie retorts.
"Hop in." Daric says and the three get into the back seat and the car takes off again.

***

'This isn't half bad, and that's saying something.' Daria thinks continuing to eat her large shrimp pizza. She had found herself a quiet corner booth in the hopes to keep away from the LHS riffraff that came to the pizza joint on Saturdays. Then, she sees three familiar members of the Spiral along with two people that she didn't recognize. 'Hm, never seen those two before.' she thinks.
"C'mon, let's go get us a booth." Trent says.
"You think we can find one, or do we have to rough up a couple of high schoolers?" Jessie asks.
"Nah, I think we've got one." Trent says.
'Should have figured that they'd spot me. Well, at least I'll be able to find out if it had been Trent.'
"Hey Daria," Trent greets, 'mind if we sit here?"
"Go ahead. Who are the tag-alongs?" She asks after swallowing another bite of her pizza.
"That's Daric. He graduated from Lawndale two years ahead of us. Parents wanted him to go to Harvard so he was forced to leave the band. Got a call from him a couple of days ago saying he'd be coming back in two weeks, but he decided to give us a cool surprise by showing up early. Good thing he did. I've gotten tired of baby sitting Max and Nick. With Daric returning Nick will be gone." Trent says to the nods of Jessie and Max.
"I can safely assume he's a base player?" Daria asks.
"Yeah. Hey, I didn't know they served shrimp on their pizza." Trent says looking at the three quarters eaten pie.
"Didn't know it myself until I ordered it. Been having odd cravings ever since my eighteenth birthday. I'm probably going to have to check the warrantee for this body."
Trent laughs, goes into a fit of coughing ,and then manages to say, "Good one Daria."
"Were you the one to get my fevered body back home?" she asks starting to work on the remaining pizza.
"Yeah. The funny thing was that a black cat led me to you." Trent replies.
"I guess everyone is wrong about how unlucky they are."
"Who's the girl?"
"Oh yeah, she's Daric's girl. Don't know where he met her though." Trent replies.
"At a club three years into my torture." Daric answers coming with the large amounts of pizza and soda. "Please tell me the bread sticks don't break your teeth." he adds to the laughter of the other three.
"Get out of those chairs before I send your souls to suffer in eternal damnation." Angel growls to two Lawndale High freshmen who quickly vacate the seats which are moved by the goth to the table that the Spiral were at. Daria gives a look to Daric who chuckles.
"I'm the only one she won't or can't threaten." Daric responds.
"There is no need for me to hurt or threaten to hurt my other half." Angel adds.
"All right, where's the baby Lane?" Daric asks.
"Out with Slone." Jessie remarks as he violently takes a slice which doesn't go unnoticed by Daria.
"Slone...,Slone...,oh, sounds like a Fielding Academy family." Daric says grabbing a slice for himself. "I was expelled from that lovely institution just because I played my base in front of a small crowd of students. Must've been a classical music nut that got me thrown out. Then I met these three freshmen with a lead singer who sounded like a squeaky wheel my first day at LHS." Daric explains. Jessie and Max chuckle while Daria smirks.
"Hey, not my fault my voice was so fucked up in the beginning." Trent defends.
"Well, he could probably do a Rob Zombie cover now." Daric says and Jessie and Max laugh again.
'So that's how he can tell when I'm joking. Daric's humor is almost an exact copy of mine, or I copy him.' "As much fun as this is, I better get home before I decide to order another pie. I've already been sick once today." Daria says. Trent slides out of the booth to let Daria get out.
"Mind if I tag along?" Trent asks. Daria shrugs her shoulders.
"You're going to miss the pizza, man." Jessie says.
"No I'm not." Trent says and quickly grabs three slices and walks off to the protests of Jessie and the laughter of the other three.

***

"Something's been bothering me." Trent starts. Daria arches an eyebrow signaling for him to continue. "What if I had gotten that thirty seconds of music but it didn't fit whatever you and Janie were doing?"
Daria stops and bites her lip hard. That thought hadn't occurred to her during the whole assignment. She couldn't even remember if she even had shown Trent the final script. Had he gotten some music, but it didn't really set the mood or was just too strange, O'Neil would probably have at least one stupid question for Jane and her to answer. "Ok, from now on, let's just say that we all messed up a little on that stupid assignment from O'Neil."
"Which one of you thought to bring me into it in the first place?" Trent asks.
"It was Jane, as usual.."
"Damn Janie and her meddling." Trent quietly says.
"Hmmmm? What was that?" she asks.
"Nothin'. Full moon tonight." he says after looking up to the sky quickly in an attempt to not repeat himself. "It's strange that a full moon brings out the strange in us. I mean the moon is only shining because of the sun, right?" he turns to Daria and sees that she was lost in a trance. "Uh, Daria?" he says trying to get her attention.She seems to come back to her self, but Trent notices that her eyes were now slits. He takes a step back and notices that her clothes were different as well. Her jacket was gone, but there was a leopard pattern shirt. Her skirt was tiger orange with stripes but her boots were still black. He notices that her hair was now more of a lion's mane than before and her ears had completely disappeared under all the auburn tresses. And were those claws and whiskers or was he seeing things?
"Mrow, finally. Thought I'd never have a chance to get out." she says and flexes her claws.
"Uhhh?"
"Don't worry. The Daria you know is asleep in here." the cat says tapping the side of her head with her finger.
"What are...?"
"Werecat. She didn't know and she wasn't told by the other one in her family. She'll probably find out tomorrow when she calls the other." she explains licking her fingers and claws. "You ought to feel fortunate tonight, Trent."
"Why?" he asks. Part of him wanted to be afraid of what stood in front of him, but another part was telling him not to show her fear.
"You don't smell like another female." she answers demurely.
"What does...?"
"Had you smelled like another female I would have to hunt her down and kill her and see if it is possible to kill a male through tickling." she says and gently rakes her claws over his sides.
'She knows how to use those things.'
"But tonight is a hunting night. I need something fresher than frozen shrimp on a pizza. It shouldn't be too difficult to find better fish in this rotten hunting ground." she finishes and seems to vanish into the night.
'Man, I must be dreaming. Nothing this weird could happen, even in Lawndale. Although, this hole in the wall isn't your normal hole in the wall. well, I guess if the whole town can sing during a hurricane then Daria could be a werecat.' he thinks and heads back to the Pizza King.

***

Once again, Daric is stopped by a traffic light. He then hears the sound of a familiar engine.
"I can't believe he would be such a glutton for punishment." Daric says disbelievingly while rolling down the window. Max rolls his eyes realizing what was going on.
"My car was stuck in cruise control last time jackass! You got the engine for a re-match!?" the guy asks.
"Hold on to your asses back there." Daric says after rolling up the window. The light turns green a second later and the Jag and Daric's opponent take off.

***

'Damn, I overworked it.' Daric says looking under the hood. 'Note to self, never get into two street races one hour apart.'
"Everything all right?" Max asks.
"Yeah, but I hope we're going to practice or I'm going to be board for the next three hours." Daric says. "I'm not going to drive it again until it has had time to cool down."
"Yeah, c'mon." Trent says.
"Who's that?" Daric says seeing another car pull into the driveway.
"Tom." Trent simply answers.
"That poor car. He ought to put that rust bucket out of its misery." Daric comments.
"You! I should have known that was your car." Jane says to Daric after getting out of Tom's car.
Now you sound like a female version of Scott Stapp, at least when he sings." Daric jokes.
"You are such a pain in the ass. So, how long will you be staying this time?" Jane asks.
"I'm back for good. Keep that stench of old money away from me. I have a tendency to break out if I'm around it too much." Daric quips and the other members of the Spiral chuckle.
"C'mon, let's go practice." Trent says.
'Daric Lynn? I guess now I know what happened to him. It's still talked about to this day. He's the only student that didn't buy his way back into Fielding.' Tom thinks.

***

'I've got to quit doing that.' Daria thinks waking in her bed. 'I was talking to Trent and then I black out and now I'm in my bed. That's it, I've got to call aunt Amy.' She reaches over for the phone and checks her clock to make sure that Amy would be awake.
"Hello,"
"Aunt Amy?"
"Ah, so why has my favorite niece called?"
"Why would I have cravings for anything that swims in the ocean, or has feathers and lives in a coop, or a white liquid that comes from cows? And, why would I blackout after looking up at a full moon?"
Amy bites her lip. Helen hadn't told her eldest of the curse that she now bore? "Helen doesn't like divulging family history does she?"
"What does that...,"
"Just keep up with me. First, have you ever found yourself comfortably saying something that your sister would?"
"I wouldn't say that I felt comfortable saying those things." Daria replies remembering that assignment where she had followed Quinn around for a day.
"So it would be fare to say that you could slip easily into some sort of shallow persona, but you detest it?"
"Yes."
"Then Helen was wrong. The curse lies dormant in those who aren't afflicted with it."
"Curse?"
"Several generations back there was a Barksdale born that was so conceited and so vain that most of the family wished her disowned. Unfortunately there were more male members of the family back then." Amy begins.
"They made sure she wasn't disowned because of how she looked."
"Right. One of those men's wives, however, was a witch. And when I say 'witch' I mean the kind that preforms sorcery."
"That's hard to swallow."
"Yeah well, tell that to the one who got cursed in the first place. Not only was she given the curse of the werecat, but her whole outlook on life had changed to the realistic view that the two of us share. So, from then on, only one child could be born shallow and superficial. The second would get the curse, or the reverse would happen in your case."
"I don't completely understand. How could such a curse be such a punishment for our ancestor's crimes?"
"Because of the personality change the curse brings, the feuding of siblings became likely."
"How could I have it when I'm not your daughter?"
"It doesn't work that way all the time. All Barksdale women carry the 'curse', but only one female child each generation actually gets the curse."
"Does that explain why I hate to be judged by looks alone?"
"Yes."
"All right, then explain why I can use my wit and intellect against most members of the male gender, but there's one that had made my brain function improperly."
"Oh boy, let me guess, he's not the one you would in vision you could be with in a long term relationship?"
"Well, no, but I might be judging him a little harshly since I'm only judging him by a blown school assignment."
"School assignment?"
"A multi-media project for English."
"No reading of the classics I see."
"O'Neil sometimes comes up with these ridiculous assignments. One time he had us pick something that we knew we'd fail at."
"And this guy is a teacher?"
"Tell me about it. Am I jumping to the worst case scenario as usual with Trent?"
"Trent huh? Well, you better talk to your other half about that. She'll want her say in the matter."
"Wait a second, are you telling me...,"
"Yep. The werecat is a different persona. Once you know she's there you'll be hearing her voice from time to time."
"Ah hell."
"Do you think you might have jumped the gun a bit?"
"It's possible."
"Was it your idea to bring him in?"
"No, it was Jane's."
"Did she know about your feelings?"
"Yeah, Trent's her older brother."
"Does Jane have the yenta gene?"
"Yes...,damn it. She was hoping that I'd spend most of my time working with Trent instead of her. That little yenta. If she wasn't my best friend I'd kill her."
"Yenta fools like to use any situation to meddle. It's in their nature. They are good at trying to get other people together, but they don't have the best track record when it comes to their own love life."
"Well, thanks. I better get to know my other self or she'll probably try to take over the world with an army of cats. Later." Daria says.
"Later." Amy says back and the two hang up.
'All right you, you better not be taking a cat nap.' Daria thinks.
'Now that you know of me I'll be closer to the surface.'
'What did you say...,' Daria begins, but the memories flood into her head.
'That answer your question?"
"You would've tickled him?'
'I like to show my dominance somehow.'
'At least he won't tell Jane.'
'You gonna let thirty seconds of music be a sticking point?'
'We're just too different.'
'So? Besides it'll piss our mother off and it'll give us something to do while Jane hangs around Slone.'
'This isn't as easy as you think it is. He might not see me that way anyway.'
'Maybe, but I think he sort of knew that Jane was up to know good.'
"What do you mean?'
'Listen...,'"Damn Janie and her meddling."', I picked up his mumbling of that.'
'You want him don't you?"
'Of course. He makes you stupid and he's perrrrrfect for me to use in some bondage play.'
'You share that Barksdale libido don't you?"
"Yep. Dirty little kitten aren't I?'
All right. Just warn me if you're going to take over next time. And why are you able to do that? Werewolves can only come out on full moons.'
'Don't ever compare me to those mangy animals!' she hisses out. 'I only need the light from the first full moon after the eighteenth solar cycle.'
'Calm down. I don't need you transforming and running a rampage through town.'
'Sorry, we werecats are sensitive about that.'
'All right. I guess I better make sure Jane never rents a werewolf movie for bad movie night.'

***

He paces back and forth in his room. He had tried several times to go to sleep, but he couldn't. 'Power tools. She had to go through a power tool phase.' Trent thinks. His lack of sleep was making him cranky. It was nice to have Daria staying here though. Unfortunately, he was starting to notice that Tom was hanging around her while Janie played with her power tools. Tom and Jane's relationship was starting to slowly crumble. Tom was starting to get interested in Daria. The thought didn't sit well with him. It wasn't that Tom might be considering cheating on Jane, Jessie was the one to avenge Janie if that were to happen. It was the fact that it was Daria that Tom was scouting out. Trent knew she was too good for him, but that didn't mean that Tom was good for her either especially if he did something stupid like kiss Daria while still with Janie. Figuring that sleep wasn't coming now, he decided to head for Wind's room to talk to its current occupant.

***

'I know that you're trying not to give Slone the cold shoulder for Jane's sake, but he's getting too close for my comfort.'
'He won't do anything while still Jane.' Daria responds.
'Well, if he tries to kiss us I'll pull his lower lip so far out that it'll cover his head twice.'
"Daria?" Trent asks from behind the door.
'Calm down. I won't do something that foolish.' "Come in Trent." she says and he walks in. "What are you doing still up?"
"Can't sleep."
"I thought that was impossible."
"Jane's new phase is keeping me up." Trent replies after going into his coughing fit.
"It'll pass."
"Yeah. I hope it's soon. With Daric back we can actually start going somewhere. Look, I might just be ,e seeing things that aren't there or I just need sleep, but I think Tom wants you."
"Part of me doesn't want to believe that, but after spending time with him this past week I am inclined to believe that."
"What are going to do?"
"Hopefully nothing stupid. Now, about what you saw that night,"
"Yeah,"
"It's a family curse on my mother's side. I hope you haven't been traumatized...,"
"It's all right. As long as I've lived in Lawndale I've come to expect the unexpected."
"Like holiday spirits." Daria says and the two quietly laugh.
"Look, I should have just said 'no' and told you I was having trouble writing. It was a bad call on my part. What I really want to know is why Janie would risk her English grade on me?"
"Well...,errr...,"
"She liked leaving us alone with each other didn't she?"
"Yes." she answers quietly.
"Janie believes that Monique was no good for me and she's right. Trying to set me up with someone under age...,"
"Under aged?"
"Uh, you are seventeen right?" he asks hesitantly. Daria rolls her eyes while her werecat self laughs.
'Poor boy, he must enjoy being in the dark.'
"Guess Jane never told you when my birthday was. I guess my talk to her about not making a big deal of it actually sunk in. I'm eighteen."
"Whoa, sorry, I thought you were skipped a grade seeing how smart you are."
"My mother nor the school system in Highland would allow me to do that. Wish I could go ahead and graduate though."
"Yeah," he says after recovering from another one of his fits. "I know it's a long shot, and I'm not the most reliable person in the world, but I'm willing to give it a try if you are."
'Mrow," the werecat purrs out.
"Can I trust you?" she asks looking into his eyes willing him to understand what she was asking.
'Not easy letting someone through that wall of intellect is it?' the werecat comments.
"To be on time, no, but everything else, yeah.
'All right, don't be too rough with him.' Daria says to her other self.
'Don't worry, all I'll do is show him who the dominate one is in our relationshit.'

***

'Better go check if she's awake.' Jane thinks getting out of bed. She shakes her head. Most men would like a girl who likes her power tools. 'What a wimp of a boyfriend he is.' She walks down the hall to Wind's room and opens the door. The smell that invades her nostrils wasn't something she was expecting. 'Smells like...,no, that couldn't be it.' Jane continues her trek into the room. She looks down to see a lump under the covers and her other brother's head on the pillow? 'What? Trent?' She starts to pull the covers back slowly to reveal Daria beside her brother. She hears the sound of a purr coming from her best friend. Jane shakes her head. Daria had told her about that other half. When she had asked for permission to paint the werecat the cat girl had threaten to use Jane as a scratching post. 'I try to force them together and it doesn't work. I leave them alone and they have sex. Since I was the one to leave them alone I guess I could still take credit for this.' she muses and covers the pair back up and leaves quickly before Daria's beast form decides to threaten her again. 'Have fun with her Trent. Maybe she'll teach you to be on time.'

***

Author's Ramblings

I know, I screwed up. If this isn't good then you may flame me. I'll borrow Captain America's shield. You may fire when ready, Lady Delilah. Once again I let Jane see the aftermath of Trent and Daria's romp. I guess I like torturing Jane. I must have burned all my Daria lemon juice on 'Weekend of Lust'. This for now is a one-shot. Now, let me have it. Did I or did I not commit a sin against this beloved genre by introducing the werecat or not? Read, review, flame me, or e-mail me at ssj04mewtwo@yahoo.com. If you wish to receive e-mail notifications on when I post a new Daria story, then leave your e-mail in your review.

1. Don't cringe, my sister eats this on homemade pizza.