"Great! It'll be just like old times…except different."

-Ezri Dax

"Shadows and Symbols"

Zetil Dax stared in disbelief. "Please tell me you're joking."

Jazrina Gornar raised an eyebrow at her before glancing at the robe she was holding up for Zetil's inspection. "What's there to joke about? You don't think that the Symbiosis Commission would approve?"

Zetil gave her an incredulous look. She couldn't believe Jaz could be as dense as...well, this. "It's not that." She walked over and pointed at the robe's right sleeve. "I thought we agreed to use the blue and silver design for the borders."

"We did."

Zetil waited for further explanation, but it did not come. "And?" she prompted.

"And I decided to make some changes." Jazrina said this in a tone that suggested that Dax was very stupid.

Zetil just stared at her. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. As what often happened when she did anything with Jazrina, she was at a complete loss for words. Finally, she just threw her arms up in frustration, trying desperately to resist the urge to strangle her partner. It was a strong urge, but that was all it ever would be. Zetil just wasn't like that. She couldn't kill in cold blood like Joran had and she couldn't kill in self-defense like Jadzia, Curzon, Ezri, and Tobin had all done. And although she had wonderful fantasies where Jazrina would suddenly get a clue and actually be a help, not a hindrance, to their company, she doubted that they would ever come close to being true.

She threw her hands up in the air and let out a frustrated growl before turning and stalking out of the room. She marched into her office and sat down behind her desk. "Computer, lights," she called. The lights turned on as she dug through her desk, pulling out a deck of Terran playing cards. Her fingers fumbled to open the cardboard box, but once she had, she pulled the cards out and then expertly began to shuffle them.

Like Tobin Dax, Zetil had found, after being Joined to Dax, that shuffling a card deck helped to soothe her nerves whenever she felt anxious, nervous, scared, or, in most cases, greatly frustrated. As the cards worked their magic, Zetil muttered reassuring phrases to herself. "It's all right, Zetil. Jazrina's just being her normal, inconsiderate, bubble head self. She always does this. You know that. If you want to have a say in a design, you have to be there every step of the way or Jazrina's going to make changes and not tell you about them, and then get on your nerves for that very reason. She does this every time you're not careful. You know she doesn’t do so on purpose. Although it would be nice if she actually thought before acting once in a while."

Part of her wondered if Garak had ever felt this frustrated during his days as a tailor. Probably not; Garak had worked alone. He didn't have a partner who could be as frustrating as Jazrina Gornar, an unjoined Trill whom Zetil had been working with for two years.

Quite a bit of her, parts that came from her former hosts, was wondering why she liked designing clothes. Many of them had been scientists, diplomats and politicians. Zetil had been joined with Dax for three years now. She'd gotten used to the contradictory feelings that the joining between host and symbiont often brought, but sometimes, she had to wonder. She and Jazrina were successful in their line of work, but sometimes Zetil became extremely frustrated with it all. Part of her missed being at the helm or commanding her own starship.

"I don't need anything else," she told herself. "I've always wanted to make clothes as a living."

Correction: Zetil Morages had wanted it. What Zetil Dax wanted, however, was unclear.

Zetil cast aside her doubts. After shuffling the deck half a dozen times, she decided that she had relaxed enough to face Jazrina without giving into the desire to shake her. "Okay," Zetil told herself, putting the cards away and standing up, "I'm going to go have a talk with Jazrina about our robe design. I won't get angry. I will stay perfectly and completely reasonable."

Zetil walked back around her desk and across the floor to the door, speaking variations of this chant under her breath. Two paces from the door, the chime sounded. Startled, Zetil called, "Come in."

The door slid open. Horun Vardin, one of their tailors, stuck his head in. "Ms. Dax? There's someone here to see you."

Zetil was intrigued at once. Their public office hours wouldn't start for another fifteen minutes; representatives from the organizations that Jazrina and Zetil Designs had contract agreements with never came this early, and Zetil rarely had visitors.

"Who is it?"

Horun looked both spooked and excited at once. "He said he's an old friend. And you know what I think? I think that he looks like a changeling!"

Zetil stared at him. There was only one changeling Dax knew, but it couldn't be him. Could it? "Let him in," she urged.

Horun disappeared. A second later, her door opened again, admitting a man dressed in civilian clothes. Zetil couldn't believe what she was seeing. A very big smile began on her face. "Odo!"

Before Odo knew what hit him, the Trill woman had collided with him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. "Umph," he said, startled. Uncomfortable, Odo was relieved when she stepped out of the hug, looking embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I mean, I know it's been awhile, I was a different person then, literally, but I never thought I'd see you again!" Zetil couldn't believe how she was acting. She was excited to see him, but Zetil never babbled. Ezri was just a little closer to the surface than usual that day.

"I would be correct in assuming that you are Zetil Dax?" Odo asked, the corners of his mouth quirking up into a smile.

Zetil nodded, somewhat more calm. "What are you doing here?"

"I wish I could say I wanted to meet the new Dax, but, I need your help."

Dax stared at him. "My help?" she repeated, dumbfounded. She could feel a sense of dread creep up into her stomach.

Odo nodded. "You're the only one I know I can trust."

Zetil wished she'd brought her cards with her. As it was, she'd already straightened out every crease in her shirt half a dozen times already. She was nervous and excited at the same time. What Odo was suggesting reminded her wistfully of old times, while at the same time it terrified her. "I’m not the same person I used to be, Odo," she told the changeling sitting across from her. "What good would a seamstress be for whatever it is you've got planned? What is it you've got planned, anyway?"

Odo sat forward. Before he could begin speaking, their waiter arrived, bringing some juice for Zetil. They had left the office earlier and walked over to a crowded café half a block away. Zetil had never been to the place before, which, she suspected, was why Odo picked it; none of the waiters or patrons would recognize either of them.

Once the waiter had taken Zetil's order and left, Odo leaned in and began his explanation in a low tone. "I have reason to believe that some of my kind are planning to take down the Symbiosis Commission."

Zetil stared at him. "Take down the Commission? How?"

"They plan to reveal all of the Commission's secrets to the public of Trill."

Zetil leaned back in her chair, trying to picture how many secrets the Commission might have. Dax knew some of their biggest ones already. One was that the majority of Trill could carry symbionts instead of the small portion of the population that the Commission wanted everyone to believe. Another was that they had brainwashed Dax to keep her from remembering Dax's sixth host. Both of those secrets had been a huge shock to Dax when she first found out as Jadzia. If the public found out, they might go into a panic.

And what would be so wrong with that? As Zetil Morages, she had admired the Commission and had done everything she could to be the best initiate possible. As Zetil Dax, she knew that the Commission wasn't as great as they wanted people to believe. It was corrupt. Why not let the organization fall?

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," she said aloud. "The Commission has too many secrets. If those secrets were out in the open, then the Commission could be reformed."

Odo shook his head. "Those kinds of reforms would take years, and if the rogue members of my people succeed, that's exactly what they're hoping for."

The waiter arrived with Zetil's food. "Why?" she asked Odo. "If the reforms are successful, the Symbiosis Commission would emerge a stronger, uncorrupted governmental system. It would benefit my people."

"It would, eventually," Odo argued. "In the meantime, there would be mild chaos, and we can't let that happen. Trill is one of the Federation's strongholds. The recent wars with the Romulans and the Breen, not to mention the possibility of another war with the Dominion - all of these have crippled the Federation considerably." Odo regarded her with sad eyes. "The Federation isn't as strong as it used to be, Dax. Surely you've heard the rumors about the planets that are threatening to leave the Federation?"

Zetil felt dread building in the pit of her stomach. Yes, she'd heard the rumors - everyone had. Many planets spread out all over Federation space were considering leaving the Federation and taking their chances by themselves - or so she'd heard. Zetil had hoped, had mostly convinced herself, that those were only rumors.

"But why would they?" she asked him. "Many of the planets in the Federation have less chances of surviving by themselves."

"Many of those planets don't see it that way. Rumor has it that the Federation has been crippled considerably in the last century, and that they may not recover. And if enough planets leave, they definitely won't recover. That's why we have to stop the changelings that plan to throw the Commission into chaos. Trill, along with Bajor, Betazed, and a handful of other planets, are still strong supporters of the Federation. If Trill became absorbed in forming a new Commission now and paid attention even less to the state of the Federation, even more planets might want to leave. The Federation needs to stay as strong as possible in order to discourage the Dominion from invading the Alpha Quadrant."

Zetil took his hand in hers and squeezed it. "I guess your attempt to convince your people to trust the Alpha Quadrant didn’t go so well."

Odo gazed down at the table. "No, it didn't."

Zetil sat back, thinking over everything that he'd told her. She still wondered what good she could do. She was just a tailor, after all.

But she was also an engineer, a pilot, a counselor, the former head of the Symbiosis Commission, a former member of the Trill Council, a diplomat, and a former Starfleet officer.

The Symbiosis Commission was very corrupt, Dax knew. One day, the Commission would go through those reforms, but not now.

"All right." She set her fork down on her plate and scooted the plate away before leaning forward. "What do you plan to do?"

According to Odo, there was only one changeling involved. Odo needed Zetil's help in figuring out who the changeling was impersonating. "Once we've identified who the changeling is, you can inform the Symbiosis Commission."

"How do we find out who the changeling is?"

Zetil turned and saw Odo take two objects out of a pants pocket. One was a remote of some kind, while the other was a small, round sphere.

Zetil took them and studied them. She held up the sphere. "Isn't this a ____?" she asked, intrigued. She remembered the last time she'd seen one of them. Jadzia was her host at the time. Admiral Ross had sent Benjamin Sisko, Worf, Odo, and Chief O'Brien on a mission to expose Chancellor Gowron, Head of the Klingon Empire, as a changeling. They'd taken a prototype that, if Gowron was a changeling, would force him to revert to his gelatinous state.

"Something like that," Odo replied. "I've had quite some time to modify the design. All you have to do is throw this single sphere in the center of a crowd, then activate it using the remote. Any changeling within a twelve meter radius would be revealed."

"So all we have to do is get everyone at the Commission together, like during the noonday meal." She handed the device back to Odo. "Got it."

Zetil straightened out her clothes before turning away from the mirror. "How do I look?" He hesitated, not sure how to answer. "Never mind." She took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this."

"Hold on." Odo reached into his other pocket and pulled out a second sphere and remote. "These are for you, in case we get separated."

"Good idea."

The two of them stepped out of her office. Jazrina stood in the foyer. The robe they'd discussed earlier was slung over her arm. "I'm going out, Jaz," Zetil called. "I'll be back tomorrow."

Jazrina waved. "See you later, Dax. Oh, before you go, you should take a look at this." She held the robe up for Zetil to see. To Zetil's complete horror, there were holes evenly spaced across the breast. It was completely inappropriate for an Initiate uniform.

"What do you think?" Jazrina asked.

Zetil just stared at her, once again in a state of dumbfounded disbelief. How many times had she told Jazrina about the Commission's regulations? No matter how many times she discussed them with her absent-minded partner, Jazrina never seemed to remember them.

Look at it this way, she told herself, If the Symbiosis Commission is overthrown, worrying about appropriate Initiate attire isn't going to be a problem.

"We'll talk later," Zetil said. Then she and Odo turned and walked out the door.

They walked the five blocks to the Symbiosis Commission. Many people stared at them as they passed, apparently as fascinated as Horun was with Zetil's changeling companion. "If I remember correctly," Zetil said, ignoring them, "Odo means 'unidentified specimen.'"

Odo smiled a little. "That's right."

"It doesn't seem very flattering. Ever think of changing it?"

He shrugged. "I suppose that I've just gotten used to it."

They crossed the last street and approached the front entrance to the administration building. The Symbiosis Commission was a collection of six buildings grouped around a central garden. Each building's design indicated its purpose. The two large buildings with the wrap-around porch on all three levels, with thick support columns and a triangle above each window, were the dorm buildings for Initiates, Guardians, and visitors. They were located in the back of the complex and were out of sight from the street. Two equally large buildings, one to either side of the dormitories, had half-circles over their windows and thinner columns, supporting nothing, placed at equal distances around the walls. These two buildings were where the Initiates were trained. Some of their rooms were also used to transfer the symbionts from one host to another. The last two, the administration building and the office building, were placed in the front, facing the street. Both of them had covered porches that ran along the entire length of their back walls. The two floors above the ground floor had smaller, personal balconies, one per office. The entrance to the administration building was the largest and grandest. Huge support columns ran up two stories to the roof of the front porch, which had a curved roof. At the roof's gable was a complicated design of leaves and galvis fruit, a plant that only grew near the entrances to the southern most symbiont caves in the Mak'ala cave system. At the center of the design was a circle outlining the Commission's seal.

Many of Dax's hosts, Zetil included, had been intimidated by the sheer beauty both inside and out the Commission. Part of her still wondered if she could do this. She was about to accuse a member of the Commission of being a changeling. She hoped she had enough courage to do that.

You do, she told herself. Dax always had the courage. Even Tobin was brave enough to do what was right.

They walked up the porch steps and entered the main foyer. Acelon, a mineral that, when processed, reflected the sky through the opaque dome above, formed a border around the marble floor. In the center of the floor was the Commission's seal in different colors of marble and acelon.

A Guardian, dressed in red robes with red sleeves that faded into white, sat behind the information desk. The white on his sleeves indicated that he was one of the apprenticed Guardians; he would receive a red robe with red-and-black sleeves when he completed his training.

"Can I help you?" he asked them.

Zetil put on her best businesswoman smile. "Hi, I'm Zetil Dax from Jazrina and Zetil Designs."

The guardian's eyes widened. "Yes, I've studied your records at the symbiont pool grounds. Zetil is Dax's tenth host, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct. Could you ask Dr. Zonar to come down here?"

"That won't be necessary, Jonan," another male voice said.

Zetil and Odo turned to see Dr. Hoxan Zonar exit the corridor containing the staircase. Zetil noticed that the doctor was dressed in his usual green robe, only without his white lab coat thrown over it.

Zonar smiled. "Zetil, it is good to see you again."

Zetil smiled back, nervously. Dr. Zonar was not her favorite person. He intimidated her when she was an Initiate and had even threatened to throw her out of the program on one occasion. She knew that was his job; he threatened to throw out nearly all of the Initiates out of the program to motivate them to work harder. Still, that didn't change how she felt about him. Accompanying those thoughts was the disturbing one that wondered if Zonar was the changeling.

"Good morning, Dr. Zonar," Zetil said as they shook hands. "It's a pleasure to see you again. This is Odo. Odo, this is Dr. Hoxan Zonar, one of the Initiate trainers."

He and Odo shook hands. Zonar stared curiously at the changeling. "Forgive me, but you are the first alien I have seen in some times. Usually, the only visitors we get here at the Commission are other Trill." He turned back to Zetil. "What is your business here today, Ms. Dax? Have you come to discuss the new robe designs with the administrator?"

"Actually, I was hoping that I could give Odo a look around. I've told him so much about this place, and he expressed interest in seeing it for himself."

"If it's not too much trouble," Odo added.

"Not at all. I'd be happy to give you a tour of the place myself, if you wish."

"Thank you," Zetil told him. "We'd appreciate that."

Dr. Zonar gave them the grand tour of every building on the complex. Zetil wondered how much of it Odo was enjoying; Odo had never been impossible to read, but he had this far away look, as if he wasn't paying much attention to what was going on. He was probably just as anxious for the noonday hour to arrive as Zetil was.

Finally, lunchtime was announced over the comm system. They followed the Initiates, dressed in blue robes with sleeves that faded into white, yellow, orange, and red, each color indicating a stage in the Initiates' training, the Initiate trainers in their green robes, and the Guardians in their red robes with white or black sleeves.

The eating hall was almost full by the time they arrived. Zonar excused himself and Zetil got in line for food. She couldn't help but feel like she and Odo were at the center of attention; they were the only ones not wearing robes, and she'd seen quite a few heads turned their way.

Zetil glanced at Odo with an eyebrow raised. She glanced from him to the center of the room. He got the message. "I'll go find a spot to sit," he said, loud enough that the people around them could hear.

"Thanks," Zetil said, smiling.

A few minutes later, she joined Odo at the end of a crowded table near the entrance. "I see you managed to find a spot."

He nodded. "I did."

If Zetil could still read Odo like Jadzia and Ezri could, he'd just told her that he'd successfully placed the sphere somewhere in the center of the room without being seen. Or your imagination is getting away with you, she thought.

She ate while they waited for the latecomers to filter into the hall. After ten minutes, when no one else entered the hall, she took out her remote. Getting a nod from Odo, she took a deep breath and pressed the activation button.

A green field sprouted out of a spot under the central table and spread out to encompass the entire room. The casual conversation that had filled the hall turned to shouts as everyone stood up in a flurry of blue, red, and green robes, glancing around wildly for the source of the light.

Zetil stared as Odo began to convulse before slowly reverting to liquid. At the same instant, a scream pierced the air in the area of the trainer's table. Whirling in the direction of the sound, Zetil saw one of the trainers transform into a gelatinous state.

Odo began to shift back into humanoid form at the same time as the other changeling. Only, by then, the first scream had become many, and panicked initiates, guardians, and trainers alike were all running for the doors, trying to get as far away from the changeling as possible. The enemy changeling took one look at Zetil and Odo. Then, glancing up, he reverted back to his gelatinous state and swirled up into an air vent.

"Get after him!" Zetil shouted over the den. Odo did so, disappearing up into the vent after the other changeling.

Zetil's blood was pounding in her ears as she watched the two of them disappear from view. Dax had forgotten how thrilling this sort of thing could be. She missed it a little, but mostly, she just wanted to return to designing clothes.

"Zetil, what is going on here?" She turned to see Dr. Zonar and Administrator Lod approaching.

"Administrator, Dr. Zonar," she greeted them. "We haven't been truthful about our reason for visiting today. We believed that there was a changeling here, and we couldn't tell you about it because we didn’t know who the changeling was impersonating."

"Where are they going? And what did they do to Trainer Vadin?"

"They didn't do anything. Odo came to stop the changeling. The changeling impersonating the trainer. Where he put Trainer Vardin, I don't know."

A changeling fell from the ceiling vent to the floor and coalesced into Odo. "Where is he?" Zetil asked.

He gazed back at her with regret. "He's dead."

Zetil winced, sympathetic. Odo was the only changeling to over kill another of his kind, and now he'd killed two of them.

"And how do we know you're Odo?" Administrator Lod queried.

Odo turned to Dax. "Before Captain Sisko brought Ezri back to the station, you threw up all over the runabout's control panel."

Zetil felt her face heat. "Who told you?"

The corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk. "Jake Sisko."

Zetil turned to the other Trill. "Well, I'm convinced," she said.

Administrator Lod turned to Dr. Zonar. "Hoxan, what do you think?"

"If Zetil Dax is convinced, I am, sir," Dr. Zonar replied, surprising Zetil.

Lod nodded and turned back to Odo and Zetil. "Then we owe the two of you our thanks."

Odo escorted Zetil back to her office building. "It was good to see you again, Odo," Zetil told him. "Drop in any time you want. You know who I'll be for the next century at least."

"I think I will," he said. "But I can't stay any longer at the moment. I need to contact my sources and make sure that the threat to the Symbiosis Commission is completely gone."

"If it isn't, let me know," Zetil said. "I kind of miss that kind of life, and wouldn't mind a little more action."

"If you'd like to come with me-"

Zetil raised up her hands. "I said a little more action. I still prefer living the life I have now most of the time."

Odo smiled. "Until next time."

Zetil watched him go. She realized that he had become one of the few friends Dax had had for three lifetimes. She wondered how many more hosts, besides Rizon of course, that would get to know the changeling.

Meanwhile, she had an erratic partner to deal with. Taking a deep breath, Zetil turned and marched into the offices for Jazrina and Zetil Designs, wondering what horrors Jazrina had managed to accomplish while she was gone.