When my eyes open up again, Dust is back over in the chair where she was when I first woke up in this… place. It's not a hospital… My bet, it's another place just like Yanta's out in the middle of some wasteland…

I look down over myself, and apparently I'm all cleaned up. So is Dust… Who knows how or why, I'm just thankful. "Morning, sunshine…" Only Dust could make that sound dripping with absolute darkness, but she manages it. She might not wear fishnets or much makeup besides that lipstick, but she's so much more dark than any other Goth I ever met.

“Uhhn… Yo Dusty…” Sighing I look about the room, over Dust, and over myself again before closing my eyes and just resting my head back against the pillow. “I’m sorry about earlier I just… I had to try.”

“I know… Don’t worry about it. I was only sore for about an hour…” Dust smirks, just faintly. “You have a meeting with the shrink in about half an hour.”

Great. She’ll probably lock me up the rest of the way and shove me into a closet to rot. Sounds… Fun. “Can you just stab me first? I’d really appreciate it. There’s even a broken pen around here somewhere for you to use, just try to make it extremely, extremely quick… I’d appreciate that.” My hand gestures around the room before falling limp off of the bed.

“I was given a new one for you…” She holds it up, and the end is glistening… It makes my mouth water, even if I want to break that pen too. Stupid pens… I’m writing with a pencil again if I ever get to make the choice. No if, ands, or buts. I’ll use mechanical pencils, maybe, but even that is pushing it.

Sighing I shake my head and wave my hand away from me. “You can keep that gift.”

“All right. Want to go see Jade quick before the meeting?” She shrugs and pockets the pen… key… whatever the hell it is. I just wish it wasn’t. Pens will never ever look the same again, and I don’t like that.

“I’d…” I can go see Jade one last time before my mind no longer works, or I can just resign myself to sharing her fate… “You know what… I might just feel bad about it later, but… seeing her like that, so blank… I think I’ll just take a rain check on that one, and seeing as how I’m not likely to ever make another decision on my own in my life… Well, I guess that I’ll be able to live with that.

“I know… Well, not really. I always kind of liked that look…” Her lips curl into that familiar dark smile. For the first time I wonder if she wears lipstick that smears easily on purpose, so that when her mouth goes somewhere, people know…

Slowly I force myself to sit up and sigh. If I’m going to be stuck with her, I need to do something besides just stare at her and resist the urge to find some way to escape. “I… Dust… Tell me more about you? I don’t really know all that much, and I mean, you don’t know a lot about me either, but…”

“Okay, sure.” Dust shrugs and stands up. “My name is Dust, and I’m… How tall am I?” she twirls, just a little, as if trying to look at some tag on her back.

The urge to frown is something I just don’t have the energy to fight right now. “You know what I meant! More! Back story! More things that make you tick! Totally no uses that the last one could possibly have or anything… Sorry, I just… I don’t know if I want to see Jade but I do want to waste some time…”

“Oh… well then, stand up…” Dust stops her turning and looks to me with a sleepy smile. Dust must be getting even less rest from all of this than I am… I can’t imagine how horrid being in containment while The Lady was being jailed must have been…

I push the covers away that last little bit and stand up, sighing as my teeth close around my bottom lip. “I guess I deserve this, huh?”

“Deserve what…?” Dust blinks, confused. I guess that makes sense, I wasn’t very clear, but I’m not feeling very clear. “Do you think I’m going to cut out your throat for witchcraft? You’re not a witch, and neither am I. I’m what’s on the wall of a crypt.”

“Uhm… Well… I thought you were going to pass the time by making me lose the time like I sort of did to you earlier…” The blush pushes over my cheeks, and I don’t fight that either. “Sorry…”

“Hey hey hey… I wouldn’t do that…” She almost smiles in a hurt way as she sighs, stepping around to put a hand on my shoulder with a deflated sigh. Damn it, Dust doesn’t have to be a bitch even if she probably doesn’t care about me at all… Though… she did get very emotional about me wanting to see her again…

Dust sighs again, and slowly shakes hr head. “I’m not allowed to… I have to do this instead.” Quicker than I can move she pulls out the pen, twirls it and jams it deep into my back right where it did before, twisting, twisting, body locking up…

“Uhn…!!!” Everything tightens and all I can do is whimper. It’s the worst sensation ever, and I can’t fight it at al…

“Sorry… It was because you refused the pen…” I can see Dust’s nipples harden, dripping just a little… Oh… She’d resisted, for me… “Sorry…” She twists it harder, and it feels so good as my eyes roll back, and everything turns black…

When things come back into focus, Dust is pulling the pen out of my back, and lowering me back into the chair across from… her. The psychologist. The shrink. The witch. Dust mutters a “sorry” before running off fast as she can. I can’t say I blame her. Milly is smiling… But I’m betting her name is just Yanuka. Yanuka, another god damned witch… “How are you feeling?”

“Like I just want to die.” I sigh and slump over, reaching back to rub over the spot on my back, thankful there’s no hole. “Just… I don’t know what to say but… i didn’t do anything more than protect myself, I’m sorry, I just try and things screw up and…”

“You burned out her brain. She doesn’t think anymore. She can’t. You fried it. To dust. Poof!” She makes a poof motion with her hand, dramatically. “All of her little toys got to think again, but she didn’t…”

If I yell at her, this will end horribly. This is the end game, I need to do this very, very carefully… “I was just defending myself…! And I’d never fried someone’s brain before, I mean… I didn’t know I could do that, she should be able to be fixed… And not all of her toys could be fixed, the older ones were ruined inside and out, and I know from living it that even having survived doesn’t mean that I feel at all better about it…”

“Did you even give her a second thought afterwards?” Her voice is smooth as she crosses her legs, and that image of fiery wings comes back to mind. This woman is frightening . . From the angry look to her eyes, to the knowledge that with just three words…

She’s just so… I try to stand, to gain someleverage, some feeling of humanity back, but I end up just falling embarrassingly right onto my ass. Now she gets to look down on me… “She… She broke my mind, and my friends… I never wanted to see her again… Just the thought of seeing her again, sorta scares me… Almost as much as you do…”

“Your friend there… What’s her name? Dust. She’s interesting. Unlike my dear Yanta, I don’t just collect whatever trash is lying about. I collect the interesting, the exotic…” She sighs and stands up, taking a few steps away to glance out of the window dismissively.

It takes effort, but I manage to rise up to my feet. I want to run out the door, but I just stare at the wall. “Let Dust go…! Why do you do this?! What’s the point?! You’re hurting people! And sure, I’ll admit, of all of the people you could hurt, we’re definitely not the absolutely most innocent, but… We’re still human…”

“She’s kinda twiggy though… What is up with gothic sluts and the twiggy bodies? What I wouldn’t do for one busty girl obsessed with the dark spectrum… but c’est la vie…” She completely ignores all that I have to say and reaches up towards her hair. She grabs one of the sticks and pulls it out, and the long black hair falls in bright orange waves, until by the time it’s unfurled it looks almost just like Yanta’s…

“Yanta… Yanta was your sister, wasn’t she…?” Shit… The same coven, I can figure out that much, but… Sister. That’s even worse. No fast talk is going to get me out of this, and this woman won’t be taken down by a mad flurry of sparked punches. I’m sorry… I really am… but taking revenge on me won’t help. Maybe I can help you fix Yanta, and you can take her far, far, far away so that we can all live in peace?” Thinking of Yanta so much brings the Domina to mind in the most absolutely unpleasant ways possible.

None of this would have happened if she hadn’t come back! Well, okay, supposedly something worse would have happened, to make me change, and corrupt, to turn into that seductress, but…

Yanuka turns faintly and grins. It’s the sort of grin that echoes out all over her entire body, making her resonate with a grin. “You know the best part about being a witch?”

Shuddering, I consider sparking her up before remembering how well that worked with Yanta. “Halloween?”

“Nice.” She laughs, and shakes her head, twirling around. “No, no…” She reaches behind her back and grins even more. “The hats are bitchin’…” In her hands are one of those large pointed witch hats, purple and pretty. She plops it on her head with a laugh, looking almost exactly like Yanta had, only… Yanta never wore anything like that. The purple against the fiery orange of her hair looks good though, and with a wave of her hand her clothing turns into dark purple traditional witch garb. “Honestly, the modern thoughts are way cooler than the traditional clothing…”

“I was close…” I laugh, weakly, nervously. How can I help it?! This is… One moment she’s frowning and locking me up, the next… “Maybe… Maybe you can just get a kitty and a broom and enjoy yourself… Hey, no one would mind, right? You look good like that, uhm…” I’m so scared I can’t quite think straight, but if I screw up, or try anything…

“You had a kitty for awhile… Dust likes black, she could make a very, very nice one… How would she look, purring on my knee?” She flares her arms out, and the sleeves fill out to a billowing size.

Damn it, I’m not doing this right… not at all… “Yeah… Silhouette… Shadow… Dust might, but… She’s too pale! I’m not sure her skin tone would go well with your hair!” I try to sound serious, convincing, but there’s no way that I managed to pull it off… “Kinda like how silver totally clashes with orange… and purple… Horridly!”

“Jade… I could probably fix her, you know…” Her voice sounds musing, curious, tempting, but I don’t care! It’s a chance! She taps a finger to her chin, and I hope it’s not some motion she needs to make for any nasty spells.

“You could…?!” The fear dies back, truly, as the hopefulness grows. “Oh please, please, I’ll do anything, I’ll… Take her, just leave me here, just don’t do this to me, and… And it’ll all be okay! Really! Everything’ll all be okay, just… please, please don’t leave Jade like that, so empty, so… It would be fitting punishment, but…”

“Really…? You’d do anything? Pretty sure I already have that at my disposal… There are quite a few other locks left, you know…” She twirls and her skirt turns a little longer before her shoes shine and turn into cute purple witchy shoes.

I sigh and slump, trying to figure out something to do, say, something to salvage this but all I can do is whimper. “You do… You do… So what’s the point?! You’re just going to lock me up and keep me somewhere just like Yanta did… Just… Why toy with me like this…?!”

“Toy… Toy… Toooy… Hrm. Would you like to be a pretty little wind up doll? Spark spark! Put a button on your belly that made you do that…” She giggles, and then starts to laugh.

Apparently it’s a witch thing, because it flawlessly reminds me of a certain wicked witch.

Familiar as the laughter is it still makes me shudder and twist in ways that don’t mean my locks are being tightened, but I don’t like them anyway… “But… Wouldn’t that get boring? Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to let yourself get bored with another eventually useless toy…”

“Who says I’d get bored? Or that I couldn’t change you if I ever did…? Ever get tired of your first stuffed animal? It’s just as fun on the shelf as it ever was in your arms…” And again, she cackles, laughs, and I just want to curl up and…

“I was never mean to my stuffed kitty…” I keep my voice down low, feeling at such a loss. “Wicked witch of the north, I take it?”

“Kinky witch of the northwest side?” She grins and wiggles her flaming eyebrows. “Ever watch a cat play with a mouse?”

Squirming I whimper and take a step or three back. “Well the kinky seemed obvious enough… Uhm… And yeah they… They’re not so nice with mice… You could always set a good example for them, though… That would be very sweet of you…”

“Oh? What do you mean?” She seems curious, actually willing to talk, or… enjoying playing with me. She shakes her hand, and a broom appears in it for only a moment as she looks over it and then sighs, making it poof back away. Apparently she didn’t like my suggestion that a broom might be good for her look… Oh well, I guess…

The longer we talk, the more that the hopeful feeling grows. Maybe, if we talk long enough, my stupid brain will come up with something smart! “Well… You don’t have to disembowel your food, beat it around, toy with it cruelly and all of those sorts of things… You could show me mercy, and just let me go! Might rub off on some of those kitties, huh…?”

“Sure. Fine. Sounds like a plan.” Her voice sounds airy as she waves with one hand before turning back to the window. Her hat flops over just a bit, bending in the middle droopily, almost sadly.

Blinking, I stare and watch for any signs that she’s lying, or… “Uhm… You’re…” This is too good to be true! I can’t believe this, I can’t, I just… “You’re kidding, aren’t you…?”

“Strings. There would always be strings. Agreements and twists, entangled in a snare, wiggling and wiggling but never quite there…” Her hands reach up, in front of the window. The lighting makes them silhouette, and look like black spiders thrashing as she keeps them in that position.

“I… That doesn’t sound especially lovely, really…” I just watch, squirming an trying to calm down, trying to… There isn’t time to try and spark her, to try and push her out the window, or… “Strings are nicer when they’re cut…”

“Strings are nicer when they’re tight. Strings are nicest when they choke. Collars are thick and sticky and heavy and it’s either that, or the rope.” She grins, and slowly shakes her head, her whole form silhouetted likely by some dramatic use of magic or lighting, or… This woman… Is insane. I’ll take evil any day, I’m used to that, it enjoys me too, but insane… This woman just confuses me!

“What’s the difference between the rope and the strings anyway…?” My hands instinctually reach up and slowly rub over my neck. I don’t like the thought of a tight choking collar around my neck, and the way she’s standing, acting…

“Strings choke… Ropes choke and don’t let up. To hang and swing and dangle and- Sorry, talking in rhyme is very in vogue among the circles I travel in. Though normally not in English…” She turns again, facing me, smirking. “Are you saying that you don’t want to go?”

With a faint whimper I gulp, blink, and look around slowly wishing I could see the best way to respond. “I rhyme sometimes, but it always sounds silly and… No, I’m not saying that, I just… I don’t even understand what you’re saying… You’re speaking in a very, very much more… Sophisticated dialect than I’m used to dealing with all that often…”

She rolls her eyes and sighs, plopping down in the chair in front of her desk with a huff. “I was speaking like a children’s novel. So… What I meant, was you can go, but there are stipulations… Things you have to agree to.”

“You were…” Realizing that she was makes me blush as I watch her and sigh. “I… What are the stipulations…? I’m not going to be stupid and say anything, please, just let me go… Becuase I’ve learned a little over the years…” I haven’t learned how to understand a children’s book, but I have learned not to just outright agree with anything… I have definitely learned that!

“Stipulations? You know… Strings! Things you have to do. Like say… Eat a rose every day or else there will be hell to pay? Things like that! Come on, magical agreement stuff… Don’t you ever read…?” I haven’t in some time, but her glare makes me feel like I’ve never read a book in my life!

“I knew what stipulations are! And strings… But what would they be…? And I’ve read I just… I just want to know what I’ll be agreeing to first… That’s all…”

She smirks and then grins very darkly, raising up one hand before snapping her fingers. “Domina! First… Let me show you why I am actually willing to even consider letting you go…” Domina? Domina?! What the hell could she…

The Domina, dressed up in my old Silver Girl uniform, with her hair down, steps out from around the back of her desk. Her eyes look a single solid shade of dark silver, but without wit, without guile… From all over her, black ink slowly drips when she sees me. She seems to struggle with something, for just a moment, but then kneels beside Yanuka and nuzzles her head onto her lap with a cute little sigh. She’s so lost, so far gone, but…

She’s me. At most, she’s a year, three years, five older than me… Events went different, and I turned into that, I turned into her… But now I won’t. She came back, and she saved Jade, she saved so many supers from being zapped but… Somehow… That no longer feels like the reason.

“I happened to stumble upon them before I found you… And they mentioned a second silver skinned girl. Her cruelties to Yanta were much more cruel than yours, and she is you… You’re sweet, and I don’t like duplicates in my collection… So the first string, is that you know I am keeping your future self as my cute little slave.” She grins, and her hand reaches up to pet my - her hair… “I’ll enjoy you just as much this way…”

I don’t believe it! The Domina she… She came back, to save me, to fulfill our fantasy, and now she… She’s just a pet for this witch. A part of me wants to feel bad for her, but… She’s the one who had the slut squad come after me. It’s her fault I ever knew slavery by Mind Bore’s hands…

If her enslavement can save Dust, Jade, and I… let her be a slave. I’m sure eventually she’ll stop struggling in her bonds even if Yanuka likely enjoys watching it. This is just the way it has to be…

“Second…” She smiles in a much more calm, sweet way. “You will forfeit your powers. I will cast a nice beautiful little spell over you, and you will lose everything that makes you Silver Girl, or Silver, or silver, or whatever you are. Your skin will turn to it’s old complexion, your hair will turn back to black, and your fingers will never ignite with another spark again…and I will unlock every lock on your body, Dust’s body, let all three of you go… and maybe… Just maybe… I’ll wake Jade up.”

“I…” I’d be right back to Sarah LaSilvas. There would be no debating over what to do with the rest of my life… I’d never spark again, I’d never stand out in a crowd for being ridiculously strange looking, I… I’d never be me again, I…

No! This is simple. Two lives are on the line, and all I need to give up is the ability to see in bright lights, sparks, and my unnatural coloration… “… Doesn’t sound too bad. The alternative seems to be to end up a soulless husk so… Can’t get worse than that, huh…? Where do I sign…?”

“You agree. You simply agree…” She grins, and holds out her hand, with an almost calming sigh.

Nodding, I reach out and grab her hand, shaking it slowly but firmly. The last act as a silver skinned woman… “I… I agree. Please, please let Jade wake up, none of this is her fault…”

“How about we make this even sweeter than that…” She pulls her hand away and reaches into her hair, and pulls out a flower, a Daffodil… she looks at it, and smell sit with a sweet little sigh. “Take a sniff… You’ll be unlocked, and turn into a nice, cute, normal woman…”

Her smile is almost tender, but… I… I grasp the flower, and hold it tight, just under my nose. I don’t want to inhale it, I don’t want to smell it… To… “But you… You were so angry…”

“I think all debts are paid… After you inhale. And your friend, Jade? Let her breathe the flower, and she’ll come out of it too… Let Dust take a sniff or two if you want to, but I wouldn’t presume…” She reaches out, with one pale skinned hand, and presses the hair that’s fallen in front of my face back to behind my ear, and looks into my eyes with an almost sweet gaze. “Now inhale… Take your friends… and go…”

Slowly, I raise it up to my nose the rest of the way and… inhale.

At first, suddenly I just feel loose, and with a whimper a rush of oil melts out of me, drips away, but leaves me completely dry in the nicest of ways… It’s gone! I’m unlocked, I’m…

But then more begins to drip off of me, leak down… When I look to see, it’s silver, it’s… Silver drips down, sliding off of me like slick mercury, and slowly coats over the floor, My whole body feels lighter, stranger, not quite right, and my chest… It seizes up, and hurts like nothing I’ve ever felt before, but in an instant… I can’t feel it, that spark inside of me that always felt like the other ones came from it… It’s gone…

I’ve never felt so hollow, so cold, so… empty. It’s all just leaked away, pulled away… I had to do this. This wasn’t a choice, this is who I am, this is what I am… Chronos is gone, Silver Girl is gone… All that’s left is Sarah LaSilvas, Dust, Jade… Who knows who else, or what else…

I raise a hand up in front of my face and just stare at the pale hand… “I…”

“Bye bye… Hope not to see me around…”