Art by  beowulf!

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"I vill give you your egg, sir," Ivan said slowly, making sure every syllable was clear and succinct. There was no room for error. The first mistake would quite possibly be his last. "But first, could you restore Iggy to her original state before she became your pet?"

Koschei looked down at the Once Iggy, who seemed...puzzled. As if it could not understand why Ivan still held the egg. Koschei himself seemed to look at it as if seeing its transformed state for the first time. "Of course," he said amicably. "How rude of me to keep it in such a state. I vill not be able to take it with me. My apologies."

With a single gesture of his hand and words that Ivan felt more than heard--words which Ivan hoped he would never, ever hear again--the Once Iggy stiffened, then slowly curled up into a fetal position. The disturbing sounds of bones cracking, reknitting, reshaping themselves filled Ivan's ears as it slowly shrank down, the protrusions that riddled its body slowly withdrawing into itself. Before long, there was a small, dead iguana. As if she had never become a terror over the evening.

Ivan swallowed hard, his mind trying desperately to cling to his former viewpoint of reality, and failing. He saw the transformation before his very eyes. It really happened. Even after all the events of the night, seeing something that he thought was impossible a week--even a day--ago left him in a frightened awe. "S-spasiba, sir."

"Puzhalsta, kitten. I do not mean to repeat myself, but can I please. Have. My. Egg?"

Ivan fought down the panic in his stomach. Koschei would soon realize the subtle control, so he had to act fast. "Da, of course. If you vould just hold out your hands..." he said as he approached Koschei, the egg held out in front of him.

Koschei held his hands out, cupped together.

"And if you vould kindly not move while I give you the egg, it vould be greatly appreciated."

A dark look crossed Koschei's face. "Vhat is happening?"

Ivan would later think of at least a half dozen phrases he could have uttered, most of them taken from the dozens of action films his roomies made him watch. But instead Ivan slapped the egg against Koschei's forehead, the white shell fragmenting into dozens of pieces before vanishing into tiny puffs of vapor. A tiny pin was stuck on Koschei's brow, and before Ivan could do anything it broke in two. Then it drifted away in twin puffs of black smoke.

Koschei's eyes grew wide, then he sank to his knees, then collapsed on his side against the floor. Ivan was afraid to see if he was still alive. Worse, Ivan was afraid he might still be Koschei and not Hopper.

Then the rabbit's eyes suddenly flew open.

"H-Hopper?" Ivan said, unable to keep the hope from his voice.

"Ivan?" Hopper said in his usual American accent. "What'm I doing on the floor?"

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