For A Brighter Future
Chapter 9: Necessity
“And no sand to clean up! Only phantom sand getting in annoying places.” Rebeca’s voice brings reality back with it. She tugs away the glasses. For some reason I’m tempted to collapse onto the table and just moan. “It can be pretty jarring if you aren’t ready for it. Sorry. Probably a little intense for your first try. You might not remember everything. That’s pretty normal, too. I need to fix it so you don’t need to acclimate . . .”
“Accli . . . acclimate . . .” I blink, and stare ahead without seeing anything. “All I can remember is sand . . . a beach . . . there was a you, but she wasn’t you, she was . . . I don’t remember.”
Just a moment ago my reality was made out of ones and zeroes. I was just ones and zeroes. My senses were just made up of electrical . . . in an odd way it’s hard to feel like much has changed, except for this feeling that I’ve forgotten something very important. I feel lighter for having forgotten it, but you don’t carry a lodestone of a memory around unless it has value.
At the same time, not remembering it feels nice. Maybe I should just let it go. It’s probably just an afterimage of something she forgot to code out.
She sits across from me. Her eyebrows are lifted, her lips pursed in an expression of concern. Usually, with how empathic my powers are, I get a strong sense of how someone is feeling from a past association. I feel so removed from that right now. I feel . . . ungainly tall and awkward. I feel confused and dizzy.
Her hand reaches out for my face, and I almost smack it away before I catch myself. Why did I do that? I blink, trying to brush it off by instead giving hers a squeeze. The look in her eyes tells me that she knows. “Uhm . . . this is going to sound crazy, but do you know what the weather is outside?”
“Lemme check.” She looks down to her watch, then back up to me. “Sun shining, not a cloud in the sky. A nice just barely too warm eighty-five. Why?”
A smile quirks itself at the edges of my lips, and I shrug. “No reason. But before you pulled out your pretty toy, I wanted to fuck. That didn’t change.” My tone is off. Nothing feels quite right. I feel too tall, my voice sounds all wrong . . . and why did I ask about the weather? Why does it even matter?
I feel a lot like I felt when Nina Corvi switched me to automatic. It’s not the same. If it were my song, I’d be feeling more like Singularity. My creative mind still feels like a part of me, so we’re-I’m still one.
Rebeca’s eyes narrow. She’s trying to size me up. There’s something cold in her eyes, distant, very distant. She knows something I don’t know and . . . then she’s leaning over the table and kissing me. Her lips melt into mine, hot, wet lips, and my emotional walls shatter.
Want you . . . need you . . . stop looking at me like I’m not real . . . it didn’t have that effect on anyone else . . .
“Sorry to be unique.” I break the kiss, and pull her closer. She squeaks as she slides across the table, and lands on my lap. “And sorry for reading your mind. I don’t really know how to control it. But I want to fuck you. I mean, right then I . . . felt like someone else, but . . . I still want you.”
“It okay if we strip and move to the bed? You just poured our drinks all over me.” She sounds more breathless and aroused than upset. Her cheeks are flushed. Her eyes are almost all pupil. I reach down and give her nipple a nice hard twist. “Mmmm or we can stay here. Already ruined the table. I guess we can just . . . Fuck right here. Goddess you can be ravenous, Sylvia! You just had both of the plant ladies . . .”
I laugh, then nibble her ear with just enough power to make her shudder and gasp. Empathy makes a power that’s all about pleasure so much more fun. I can feel her getting wet in the same way I can feel it happening to me. “Were either of them you, ‘beca? I didn’t think so.”
Why do I hope she turns this around on me? I know she can’t, but it’s a hot notion. If she had her gloves on, the ones she told me about, the ones that work a lot like sparks . . . I wouldn’t be ready for it, I couldn’t fight her off, not fast enough.
Damn my mind is all over the place right now. I’ll need to get more used to her tech so this doesn’t happen again.
She starts to pull away. I let her. Her breathing is so ragged, and she can barely keep her eyes open. Her knees are shaking. If her hands weren’t grasping the table behind her, I think she’d fall. Something in her eyes flashes, and she straightens out just a little. “Nope. They’re just pretty flowers to take. I’m the brilliant scientist with a specialization in blending technology with the human mind. And I can do it all without a data port.”
“Ooo. Sounds hot.” Her grin looks familiar. I don’t know why, but it reminds me of a way my lips have felt. Her eyes look like that too. “Tell me more.”
“I also don’t know why, but I have the craziest idea that I think you’ll just love. Close your eyes. Don’t peek.” She winks. I can hear her walking away. I close my eyes. At first her steps sound erratic, but then they start to sound more uniform. They start to sound like she actually knows how to walk. “Remember, no peeking!”
I laugh and nod. I feel so much better. Just touching her made me feel better. I should remember that, but I never do. If I ever lost my sense of touch I think I’d go insane.
Rebeca’s hands grab my breasts from behind and I scream. It’s so hard to keep my eyes closed. Even when she starts to twist I keep my eyes shut tight. I reach up to grasp her hands and mewl in surprise. They’re gloved. Did I . . . Did she . . .
“Aww, that’s almost as bad as peeking!” Current surges through her gloves. It feels like all the nerves in my breasts waking up at once, like a massive surge of pleasure, like silver, like electricity, like heat, and it burns and tingles just like it should. There’s something familiar about it, but I’ve never been touched like this before. She twists my nipples and it makes my thighs clench hard.
If I was wearing pants they’d be ruined. As it is, the chair is well on its way. My panties are more than soaked through. Her gloves feel so fucking good!
Hope I didn’t overestimate the simulation . . . or their closeness . . . should check up on her in a little bit . . .
Sometimes I hate reading thoughts. I always catch the second half of an idea like listening to someone talk on the phone. It’s even harder to focus with her fingers pulling up my top, twisting bare flesh . . . my eyes roll back into my head. Everything inside feels silver. Between my legs feels silver. Her other hand is under my skirt, inside my panties. I scream so sharply I can’t hear it, but I can feel it.
“Rebeca is going to take control for a little bit. All you’ll need to do is just moan and ruin the chair like a hot little slut. Sound good?” I nod frantically, and she grasps my clit just-so. The next hard arc of energy sends me over the edge, and I whimper as I gasp for breath. “Good.”
Reality melts to hot searing silver, her touches, and her voice. I wonder who ‘she’ is. More than that, I wonder how long Rebeca will keep touching me.
Proximiti is standing in front of me. “Finally. Consciousness. Hope miscalculated how much of your power we could drain out, and the effect your mother would have on the healing process.” I want to break her jaw to get rid of that smug smile that so perfectly matches her tone. My arms don’t feel like they could do it, but I still want to try. “Hope fucked up, but that’s okay. Lys never cares when she makes mistakes.”
“You sound bitter. Let me out and I’ll even the score for you.” I say the words just to have something to say. I feel like I haven’t slept in years. My eyes are burning. My body feels like I ran a marathon a week ago, and if I try to do anything now everything will ache.
It’s a weird feeling. There’s not even a dull throb of pain, but I know if I moved in just the wrong way that would change. The chair and its bonds don’t feel any better than the pool. Poor Valerie. She didn’t mean to do that to me.
“So how long has it been since the last time someone used their Aurora Battery? Copper top? Auburn top? I don’t even care anymore. Just drain it all out and leave me alone. Not that I get to think while I’m alone.” If someone asked me how I would be feeling saying something like that, I’d say desolate. Instead I just feel tired.
“Two days. Your sister and Hope are knocking boots. Oh and it’s just wonderful what she’s done about the you situation! It almost makes me want to bring your sister in here just to see her have a seizure.” Sylvia and Rebeca? It’s a sexier mental image than I want to admit. It’s also terrifying. Rebeca is dangerous. I think she’s more dangerous to herself than anyone else, but that still leaves plenty of room.
I lost two days. I don’t think I would have used them very constructively anyway, but . . . wait. New clothing. I’m wearing new clothing and I didn’t even notice. A white strapless corset cut high to show off my tummy is holding up my breasts like an offering. These white shorts only barely reach my mid thigh. The knee-high boots look like Sarah’s with block heels.
She used to use block heels too, but when she learned she could fly she started to show off. I can fly too, but stilettos still sound a bit dangerous for me.
I look like a younger version of her. If I ever get out of here this would make a great Silver Girl uniform. I could really follow in her footsteps. I could protect Midas while trying to track her down. Maybe she’ll find me. She could just be on a very, very long stakeout that started in the middle of a day she was going to spend being lazy at home.
Proximiti snaps her fingers right in front of my face. “Pay attention. We’re going to try something special. Hope and I made it together, combining some of my wireless security ideas with some information about how your mom’s sparks work. I need you awake.”
If I could fall asleep I would.
“Very cute. Fine. Let’s see how this works.” She holds a remote control out in front of me and grins as she presses down one of only two buttons. “If only you knew what you were a battery for.”
Everything sparks. Hard. My fingers, my scalp, my legs, my ass, my tits, my hips. Everything sparks that can. It’s so intense. It also feels fucking incredible. It doesn’t feel like I normally feel when my current starts to flow. It feels like it’s stimulating me on the way out. It’s like wherever they start inside of me is aiming for my skin, and then that gets carried away into the machine.
My hips start to buck, and she presses the other button.
If I could rub my thighs together it would be enough to let me cum. I need just a little more touch. I need just a little more sensation, silver or otherwise. I whimper, and try arching toward her.
So cruel. Always so cruel.
“Oh don’t give me that look.” She holds her hand up in front of my eyes and smirks. The metal fused with her hand has a strange sort of beauty. It healed, or was augmented, in the perfect way to look almost intentional. It doesn’t make her look less at all. Given the chance to do it again I wouldn’t, but it doesn’t look as bad as she acts like it does. “This was a lot worse.”
“Yes, yes it was . . .” I try to spark, but whimper. It won’t come. It doesn’t feel like it did back before I believed I couldn’t without being metal. It doesn’t feel like it did after I first escaped. It just feels like my sparks are on lock down. “Fuck. That’s an on and an off switch, isn’t it?” She nods, smirking past her hand. “Use that thing or get it out of my face already!”
She laughs and shrugs. “I need to test this too, so why not?” Her hand starts to dimly glow. It’s not just the metal parts, but those glow a little brighter. They’re glowing silver. My eyes start to widen when they should be closing.
By the time they should be closed it’s already far too late. Flashing colors fill my eyes. Flashing patterns, reds, greens, blues, purples, flashing and dazzling my eyes with patterns that feel more familiar than they really are. “Nooo . . . Stop . . . Don’t . . . Don’t want to . . .”
Proximiti doesn’t say a word. She’s harder and harder to see past all of those pretty colors. Flashing, swirling, twisting . . . my thighs clench, and my new shorts don’t feel new anymore. The colors feel so good. They feel so all-consuming. She’s so powerful. She’s so hot. All she needs to do is hold up her hand and I’m putty for her. I’m moaning, arching, trembling putty. My nipples ache, my clit sings.
I hear a click, and scream. Silver burns across my vision as my eyes and everything else starts to spark again. Combined with the colors, I’m caught in what feels like an endless maelstrom of pleasure and loss. Helpless to my own power, to the way my power affected Proximiti, and to my own body’s pleasure.
“This the last time we’ll need to do this if our calculations are right. We’ll have all we need from you for this . . . batch. We’ll need more – eventually . . . But I think Lys will agree it’s safer to time lock you and throw you in a closet until then. Ana would just love that. So would I.” It’s so crazy, but I swear I can taste her words through the colors more than hear them through my ears. Everything is wrong.
What she’s saying shouldn’t arouse me. I shouldn’t want to be shoved in a closet. It’s so hard to make the screams sound like they’re in terror instead of pleasure. It would be perfect. I’d be trapped out of time, feeling nothing but pleasure, or just nothing. Nothing would happen, nothing would move, nothing would change, it would be so calm, peaceful . . .
I cum again, and struggle hard to try to close my eyes, to stop sparking, to do anything. My eyes are traitors. Flashing lights are all it takes to shut down my thoughts, to make me writhe and tremble while that pretty remote makes my silver flow and flow and flow. I don’t care if it puts me into another coma. It feels so much better than it felt the first time. The machine is still sucking it all out of me, but it feels like sucking at my body, not at my soul.
“Dumb metal slut. You made me stronger. You’re making the project so much stronger than you made me. The harder you struggle the more you make your struggles futile. You’ll never escape. You’ll never be free. I’m taking from you what you took from me, my freedom, my—”
“—Proximiti! Stop that!” Rebeca’s voice interrupts Proximiti’s monologue, and the colors stop flashing so precisely. My eyes flutter, and I grasp just enough control to shut them tight. There’s the sound of a gloved hand on flesh, and when I open my eyes Proximiti is a heap at my feet. “I told you to test the protocols, not to kill her! The doctor said if we kept it going as long as we did last time again . . . If you hurt her . . .”
Proximiti smirks, and stumbles up to her feet before handing Rebeca the remote. I still can’t stop shuddering. I scream louder, and close my eyes again. There’s a loud click, and my sparks stop.
The purple-haired villain laughs. “You can pretend whatever you want, little girl, but what you’re doing to her, and to her sister, is hurting them just the way you want to. Take what you want, burn out the rest. And besides, Doctor Lys is so much calmer now that Aurora has been neutralized. Press the right button, and she can’t spark. Then there’s the override switch we built into both her, and her sister. You think it’s not hurting a woman to give her an off switch?”
“Get to Miss Cotton’s office. Now.” Rebeca’s words cut through Proximiti’s laugh like a laser. “That’s a good girl. I don’t know why Doctor Lys let you keep your personality. I’ll have to ask to be the one tasked with removing it with a scalpel.”
A door opens, and a door closes. I’m alone with Rebeca. I don’t want to be alone with Rebeca. I didn’t want to be alone with Proximiti either, but at least with her I knew where I stood. I don’t want to put up with gloating. I don’t want to think of her fucking my sister. They probably make a better couple than we ever did. That shouldn’t bother me so much. I’m just feeling vulnerable . . . that’s it.
Her gloved hand cups my face. Her forehead rubs against mine. Her nose brushes mine. It would be romantic if I didn’t loathe her. It’s still romantic, but to romance what rape is to sex.
Stalkers would know the word for it.
“Relax. It’s okay now. I won’t let her hurt you. I heard what she said. I won’t let them throw you in a closet . . . I couldn’t live with myself if I did that. You’re going to power such an important part of our revolution. Lys is just convinced we can’t use you for anything more than a battery until after she’s done. She can see the future, you know. That’s her power. A little bit of telepathy, but mostly she can see the future.” Rebeca’s voice sounds so fascinated, admiring, almost loving. It’s haunting. “Isn’t that amazing?”
“That means when she was there, when that man shot me, she knew what it would do to my life. She knew he was going to shoot me. She did nothing.” It’s hard not to try nuzzling Hope’s hand. I want her to be the woman I remember. Even without the mind control she’s not. The woman I loved didn’t exist.
The closest woman to her is probably still in their mutual bed.
Hope sighs, and kisses beside my lips. I don’t fight her, but I don’t reciprocate. It’s not much, but it’s something. “Actually she wasn’t able to read you back then. At least, nor precisely? The same thing that fried Ana made it hard to follow you, until she used what you did to Ana . . . but she’s still amazing with patterns. Besides, she knew you would survive it . . . And you’re unharmed. And now we can be together. Once everything is done, you, me, Sylvia . . . We can all be together. Sylvia is really something, you know. Making her forget you took a lot of work, maybe less work than I would have imagined for how much effort it took to make you stop loving her, but still. She doesn’t remember you at all, and she’s so loving, so . . . she reminds me so much of you, the way she kisses, the way she tastes.”
I want to bite her, but I can barely move. My pussy is still quivering in afterglow. Cold sweat is still sliding along my spine. “If I have to choose between that lie, and the closet . . . give me the closet. She doesn’t even remember . . . me . . . You waited too long to come in here and try to start converting me. You made her forget me . . .”
“It was Doctor Lys’s idea, she said if Sylvia knew about you she’d be dangerous, that she’d rescue you, that—”
“Go to hell! Drain me dry and then throw me in a closet. At least then I wouldn’t need to see what you’ve done to her . . . Doesn’t . . . doesn’t remember me . . . We were inseparable . . . No one has ever been closer to me than . . . You go to hell!” I spit at her, and narrow my eyes.
Hers glisten wetly, and quiver with tears. “I just came here to see you in the uniform I ordered for you. It looks really good on you. I need to go and see your sister. I think I’ll fuck her extra hard, just for you. The doctor said she’d be in soon. She sent Prox to set you up in here. Was just dumb luck I was in the control room watching.”
Something in her eyes says ‘you’ll come around – please come around’ but not very believably. She’s a monster who still thinks she’s doing the right thing. I don’t know how much of that Lys had to give her.
Alone again, but at least able to spark a test quickly shows me, I just get to wait. I still can’t move my sparks past my body, and if I spark too much I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop. The doctor wants to talk to me again. Maybe she’ll finally tell me what’s in those cylinders along the walls.
I close my eyes, and try to nap with my arms over my head. Maybe I’ll dream of a nice cozy closet to call my own.