Even if I told myself I came back to Midas to make the world a better place a part of me was only willing to consider it if part of making the world a better place consisted of stopping the Slut Squad and the damned auction. Not too surprisingly the Slut Squad is only one group that brings women to the auction. Villainous types, or even just those with enough money, come from all around to get their hands on beautiful women, and the occasional heroine.

The Slut Squad rarely takes requests, and really prefers the auctions. At least, that's how Savor feels. Asking them each individually wasn't important. Only Savor ever went to the auctions anyway, so I mostly talked about them with her.

She was helpful, though there wasn't a lot to tell. You go and you bid, or you go and present something to be sold off. The auction house has no problem with you modifying them from their natural state if it leaves them more palatable than beforehand. Behavior modification, stylization, and things like exotic eye or hair coloring is common. Slut cows aren't very common, but they do rake in the cash.

If you can find your way there, they'll let you in. If you cause any trouble, they have adequate security, or at least they do as long as the security isn't compromised.

They've never met a woman like me.

My supplies are running a little thin, but I'd like to think that I'm doing better than I used to. Aura has given me plenty of her sweet fluids, and Caress has shared with me a few techniques that anyone can pull off . . . Whisper can't teach my voice how to be any more hypnotic, and Glimmer can't teach me how to show people anything that isn't there, but they taught me lessons without even trying to.

Whisper taught me to be more aggressive, and Glimmer reminded me that not everyone is vicious about what they do. Sometimes, it's just business.

Sylvia purrs under me and the familiar hum as I approach the auction is as comforting as the silence on the police radio. No robberies. No murders. It's not like something goes wrong every minute, but it feels like a sign that nothing is begging for my attention when I'm so close to this.

If someone needed me, right now, I would take the risk of missing the auction . . . at least I tell myself that.

A parking garage labeled "out of service for repairs" is my destination, and the red and yellow sign is a pleasant sight. As much as I love driving, I much prefer being at my destination than dreading the arrival. I drive right through the sign, very grateful that Savor couldn't have lied with Whisper's words so tightly wrapped around the inside of her head.

The first level of the lot is empty, but driving down two levels, it's well packed for being out of service. A woman and a man guard the door into the neighboring complex. They're dressed in suits with tails and hold guns that shine in the low lighting coming out of the building. All they are is the welcome mat. Sure, if someone that was known to be disruptive walked up to them they'd do something, but they're not the big guns. I could take them with just one pouch of my belt, but that would be stupid.

I park Sylvia in an unpopulated corner of the garage. It means I have to walk a little further, but that makes it the opportune spot. Most people are parked close. I was delivered in a truck, but maybe some prefer to take theirs home with them, or . . . they just want to leave before things get personal.

The kind of person who would buy another human being is not above trancing some of the competition. That's why Savor goes alone so that none of the Squad gets separated and subverted.

Looks like that was all for nothing, huh?

My heels click on the hard pavement under them. As I pass between the entrance guards they give me a nod, and the man smiles. I smile at the woman, and continue on through. Politeness is one thing, but if I'm going to be elbow to elbow with women and men who made bids on my body and mind then I cannot act like a heroine. Right now, I have to be just another woman with offshore accounts ready to be emptied.

Savor was generous enough to allow me to use hers, of course. I didn't even have to ask twice. I don't plan on bankrupting her, but I at least needed a way to not be suspicious.

Inside is a long corridor. I'd love to very suspiciously look at every door on my way to where I'm supposed to be going. Most of the doors aren't labeled anything besides "keep out" in big red letters. They're not even the doors with fogged or textured glass, just plain doors. The door at the far end of the hall is wide open and there looks to be a good enough congregation of people.

Once I get to the doorway, I get to see that I'm not the only one in a mask, or in a leotard. The room isn't exceptionally large, or exceptionally full, but you don't need a lot of people like these to feel like you're in over your head.

A lot of them I don't recognize even by reputation or photograph, but I can just sense something bad about them. The ones I do recognize aren't any better. There's Slugg whose goons once almost broke my arm, and Static who I'd seen on television after her last arrest. There's Runway, the ex model whose world famous exploits all revolve around her stealing gorgeous models.

I'm sure she'd be disappointed to know about Caress's failure to snatch up a no doubt gorgeous one.

Some of them are just dressed up in fancy suits, but over all they resonate with power and desire. The desires are not ones that most people have, nor desires that are easily fulfilled. I want to be done and gone from here as quick as I can, but I have to be careful.

Around the room are only a few guards, but from what I've been told, they're more than adequate to make short work of me. They're the products of genetic engineering, conditioning, and extreme psychological programming. The only good thing about that is mental prying often leaves frayed strings behind that are easily enough unwound for new things to be wound in.

I can't be sure that the few six guards in the room (unless a guard or two is hiding themselves as a member of the auction, and that wouldn't surprise me) are the only guards of the facility. All of the women in the back, working on cows and prepping the women to be showed in the glass booth up in front of the room must have some sort of security. I'm not sure how I should interact, so I just take a seat and watch the women and men around me.

My hands fall to my belt, and all I can think of is how I should take a pill to inoculate myself and fill the whole place up with some blue dreams. Maybe I could blow some Icarus Powder around and flash them with my palm light.

All that would do is make a lot of horny slave owners and maybe some dazed guards. That might work for awhile, but I'm not sure just how long that would be a good thing. If anything that Savor said was true, if just one of those guards keeps a cool head I could be pinned to the wall, drugged, and sold in a moment's notice.

A familiar looking red haired woman with pig tails and overalls walks into view behind the glass, and grins a big stupid grin towards us. "Hello everyone! Tonight's auction is about to start! If everyone would kiiiindly take their seats, we'll move in the first of the merchandise and let me tell you, I wish I was a billionaire, because I would just love to take them all home with me! I'd need to be a trillionaire to afford a big enough house. Then again . . . they wouldn't mind sleeping in closets!"

Some of the crowd around me laughs, and just to fit in I struggle out a half amused sound of not quite disgust. It's a sound mimicked by some of the other buyers so at least I'm in . . . bad company.

Everyone else starts to sit, and I just frown. I'd hoped something would occur to me by now, but at the moment that thought of protecting myself and throwing out some blue dreams. The risk remains the same now as it did when it first came to mind. I don't really have enough Icarus Powder, or Blue Dreams.

The only things I have enough of are my boots and my fists. My pendant won't be enough in a situation like this - at least I don't think so.

Even if I used the powder sparingly it wouldn't be enough to take out everyone. There'll be an opening, or maybe there's something in the room that can spread some blue dreams through the vents. If so, I don't think that anything would be able to stop me. The concentration would be strong enough. I have enough to fill up the room, even diluted. With their senses dulled enough at least the guards wouldn't have an easy time stopping me.

The red haired woman speaks up again, and her voice echoes the word "Bessie" through my head. It makes every part of me twitch and tense in the most frustrating of ways. I want to slam her into the wall, or kiss her senseless. Maybe I should just mind fuck her and sell her off. They might not appreciate that.

"Our first, and most lovely of contributions, is a golden girl unlike any other! In a city across the country, she went by the name Aureus, but here, she's just a little statue slut! Bring her in, ladies!" Two women dressed only in black thongs and a top consisting of a single piece of string just barely covering their nipples carry in, quite literally, a woman made of gold.

Her skin doesn't look like mine used to. It has the metallic shine, and what looks like sweat slides down her body like wet golden flecks.

The woman, Aureus, is beautiful. Not too surprisingly she's nude, and not a single bit of her is unappealing. She's short, from a distance I can't tell how tall, but remembering how tall that red haired girl was I'd assume she's about five feet all. It's hard for her breasts not to stand out in that lighting, especially with the delicious darker color of gold that shines over her nipples.

She's not too thin, that perfect curvy level of slender that I can't possibly imagine being any better. Her eyes are so perfectly varying shades of gold. The whites of her eyes, the irises, the pupils, are all such sweet shades of gold. Even her hair looks like delicate weaves of golden perfection.

The glistening between her thighs, and the tender smooth curves, the perfect look of her golden lower lips makes my mouth water. This poor woman is just going to be sold away. I won't let that happen.

"She'll be as stiff as you want her to be, or . . . flexible as you need her to be." The women around the golden girl move slowly, one moving in front with her breasts to her back, and the other in front, back to breasts. The two women slowly arch their backs and bend their knees, lowering down . . . and Aureus mimics their movements perfectly. Even when they raise up one of their legs, she does it so perfectly as to look almost magic.

I can see how owning women like that could very quickly become a part of someone's life. It shouldn't be such an easy thought to consider and yet I'm doing it right now. Do I bid on her with the intentions of saving her mind or do I just try and break her out of here?

"And if you ever want something a little more . . . normal . . . girls, let's show them how they get two in one!" The girls pull away from Aureus and slowly turn her to face us with their arms around her.

The dark haired women in the black swimwear are gorgeous, but something about them says plain, mundane, and not worth looking at. They're the perfect women to have as show girls because while they drip with sexual appeal I can't really force myself to pay attention to them for more than a couple of moments.

There might be a hypnotic effect to them. Lulling us buyers into a melted state would make our pocket books open a lot wider. I know I want to buy Aureus, and not all for the right reasons.

Aureus shudders as both of the girls whisper into her ears and then stand back. In a melting wake, no doubt looking so much like the one that turned me from silver to flesh, the golden coloration melts off of her. Her skin is almost as tan as the golden layer, but it's human. She looks like she works out. It was hard to tell when her skin was golden and so sweetly reflecting the light, but she looks in perfect shape.

Not too built to look it, but if you know what to look for, then she definitely is attractive and dangerous when not mentally tamed. Her hair isn't golden when she's like this. It's a shade of auburn. It's just brown enough to be brown, and just red enough to have a ruby hue.

They left just enough of that hair above her crotch, just a landing strip, so that we can see it's entirely her natural color or that they went through a lot of effort to make it her natural color.

Aureus' expression is one of both beauty and ecstasy. She looks like being shown off like this is the most erotic moment of her life. She's not shaking, but she's close to it. Her sex looks so delicate pink, when it looked so firm golden. Firm, and warm.

"You get the golden gal, and the petite redhead, for the price of one! She loves to be seen, loves to be exposed, to show off just how flexible and mobile she is. Her mind is pliable, as is her body. She is in perfect health, and needing a nice, strong owner to make use of her virility or . . ." The red head grins and snaps her fingers at Aureus, who straightens up, arms behind her back, arched, and turns completely golden. "To use her as a decoration. She'll be satisfied with either."

Not every buyer is interested of course. Some of the women just look bored, and some of the men do too. The majority however seem to feel just the same way I do. Well, they're probably more in the mood for buying and keeping her as opposed to my desire to set her free.

Savor said that she could afford one purchase as long as she could recoup. The authorities would understand this use of her funds. It's not long I'm going to let her stay out of jail or . . . This shouldn't make me feel guilty.

Then again, if I buy Aureus it would give me access to more information that could lead me to figuring out a way to bring all of this down. I can't pass it up.

The red haired girl looks over to Aureus and hoods her eyes. "Our little statue will just stand here, exposed to all of you lovely people. It won't take long for her to start cuming, and she won't even shake. Good statues don't move. Oh, she'll drip, but I think you'll all agree that will be a lovely sight! Bidding will go on for another half hour. Our statue will be cuming just standing here in front of all of you lovely people."

Built out of the back of every chair, and a row of faux chairs for the front row, is a simplified laptop. The way everything pulls out reminds me of airplane trays. You input your billing information, and the bidding goes on electronically. There's no need to yell, no yammering of numbers.

All you need to do to see whose winning and what to bid is watch the numbers on the screen go higher, and higher, and higher.

Maybe there's a politician coming up. Maybe there's a pair of twins just barely under age that I should try and save even more. All that matters is that I came here to stop the whole damned thing, and this is the best lead I have short of gunning everyone down commando style with drugs until I end up bound, gagged, and tagged for the next round.

I might not get a second chance at this.

From one of my pouches I pull out Savor's information and start to enter it all in. The bidding is already skyrocketing. Actually forming the numbers in my head would hurt me, and would also make me feel a lot more . . . curious about how much I, or The Domina was worth.

So many thoughts go through my head, but the only important one is focusing on the fact that time is ticking away. On the top of the screen are green numbers that slowly click down and away, much like older alarm clocks. It's already down to twenty five minutes. I can't believe I could let myself get distracted that easily.

I watch the numbers tick away on the screen, and her price raise. Houses cost less than she does. Political campaigns cost less than she does. I have to wait till the time is low. I have to treat buying a woman at this auction like buying a woman on eBay.

No part of me finds that appealing.

Even the feral part of me that loves hunting women down does not enjoy the thought of capturing previously neutralized prey. That is just not a good feeling at all. If I wanted Aureus, I would want to know that I'd put all of that programming inside of her head myself. You can never know the things that someone will stick into someone's head as a fallback. What if they're only good until a certain amount of time or only good as long as the buyer keeps going to the auctions?

If they wanted to kill off a particularly dangerous buyer there is no better way to do it than with a slave that will be treated as a living sex toy. I don't know or even really think that's up their alley, but only because I didn't have any of that inside of me.

How can any of these men or women be so sure? A man in an Armani suit grins every time one of the names flashes up as winning the bidding. How can he know she won't be dragging him back here?

Green letters roll over, and I only have twenty minutes left.

This side of the auction process feels a little nerve-wracking. It's nothing like guiding Sylvia through Midas or running across rooftops. It's like doing either of them with an elephant on my back and a timer in the upper left corner of my vision. When I'd been in there, just masturbating in a stupor, the half hour had felt like it went by in just a moment.

Aureus really does look like she's struggling not to scream. There is way too much glistening fluid sliding down her thigh for it not to be at least a couple of orgasms in the mix. She looks so innocent like this and so perfect too. How can a mindless statue be anything but innocent?

Statues don't do anything wrong. This one isn't even a real statue and she's doing more right than any statue I've ever seen before. She's so gorgeous. Even the anatomically correct statues of gorgeous women I've seen - and I saw a good amount on my road trip - never had this level of quality and perfection. Of course not though, none of them were alive. None of them had a self determined woman just underneath the golden surface waiting to be ordered to erupt and sink down to her knees in worship and thanks for the powerful orgasms.

The green letters roll over again and I only have fifteen minutes.

Just to let people know I'm in the running, I bid higher by only ten cents. There's no minimum bid, and on purpose. Everyone here is cutthroat. It's assumed you know what's happening if you find your way here, but no one wants to deal with calming down someone who was wronged by a penny.

If you don't have the money though, one billion dollars and one cent is just going to wind you up on the bloc. All purchases are final, and if they can't collect, you can't leave. At least they enforce order.

Aureus is only the first of who knows how many women and maybe even a few men being put up for bidding. No one is going to dump everything on her. Well, no one besides me at any rate. I could be out bid but I doubt it. I keep showing myself in the running, a hundred here and there. It makes a few names stop popping up. There are only ten of us even still bothering and I think that one of them is just doing it to drive the price up.

It's too early for people to really stop. Once I buy her, I could try and find a way back there to take her home personally on back of Sylvia. If I'm going to be spending this much on a woman then she better come gift wrapped.

There are only ten minutes left as the green numbers click again.

Right when it hits down to ten only seven people even bother to raise their bids. I look up from the screen to gain some mental clarity, and most of my "fellow" buyers just look bored. Good. The ones that look the most dangerous and the most rich have their arms folded across their chests.

If they wanted her to go for more then they would probably have done more work on her. Whatever she can do by turning herself to gold seems like something that's unique to her and not something they did to her. They didn't stylize her. They didn't make her scream out how well she obeyed. All they did was make her stretch for the buyers and then stand there trying not to shudder as her pussy clenches and bursts out trailing orgasm after trailing orgasm.

I start to bid more aggressively. Avoiding a bidding war with women and men like these would be impossible. As it is, at least I'll get to have some fun and that is good enough for me. If I don't win Aureus then I'll just have to take her by force.

Way back in high school, when I was having the most difficulty with being silver, I did a lot of random linguistic research. Most of that just lead to me learning a bunch of different ways to say silver. Argent, Argento, Zilver, Silber, Prata, and Argentum are just a few. Gold came up a lot too. Aureus means Golden. That doesn't seem like a name that someone would actually be given.

Imagining this lovely little statue in a cape is far too easy of a thing to do. High boots, a short cape, and maybe a miniskirt would make the perfect costume. Oh, a tight top too. She wouldn't even need a mask, she just has to not go back to red haired and pink skinned in uniform.

There's a faint beeping sound as the green numbers click noticeably and the time is down to five minutes.

It's down to just me, one other woman, and a man who slams down each bid very purposefully. There's a chance I could lose this auction. It's a low chance, since they're both responding very slowly to my bids, but it is still there.

If I'm going to be more effective I need allies. After I'm done here I can call up Delores for a little boost, but that's only one. A side kick isn't enough. Three is more of a group and less of a superior-subordinate situation. I'm not experienced enough to lead a single woman around, I need differing view points . . .

Three minutes left.

The man who moments ago was furiously outbidding me by a thousand slams his hands down and then just sits back in his seat with a frown. Good. It's down to just me and a woman dressed like a fetish nurse with a veil over her eyes.

She's fighting with me in mere dollars compared to the totals we're already up to, but that's okay. That just means I'm going to win. To be honest, the price isn't that ridiculously high, but I know that I've never spent that much money in my life much less in one sitting. I can't imagine doing so ever again either.

There are only seconds compared to the time I spent just waiting. Aureus will wind up on the back of Sylvia one way or another, if that means I have to hunt her down or not

One minute left.

Remembering how much Savor said she could survive with as long as more money flowed in, or in this case if she was jailed and didn't need to worry anymore, I bet everything but that. It's amazing how much a very focused scientist can save up when she seems to have an impulse control problem.

No response from the other woman. When I look over to her she's just staring at her screen.

Thirty seconds left.

The golden goddess of a statue is slick from her cleft to her ankles. It's an attractive glistening slickness, but it must be uncomfortable if she can still remember how that feels. Right now though, if she's anything like I was, she can't.

No bidding responses.

Just to make sure I don't lose, right as that last number ticks away, I click up by another ten. It's nothing I can't reimburse from my own funds if something requires it.

The nurse just whimpers pitifully as it finishes up, flashing four zeroes just long enough for it to feel like it has meaning.

Then the whole screen goes black and I sigh in relief. Good. Even if the rest of the night goes wrong I've saved a golden gal from losing her mind and maybe I can help save it. It is silly to really want to form a little team, but it would be a good idea for a decent way to combat my weakness. As long as someone can smack the back of my head hard enough . . .

One of the buyers mutters out a loud "hurry up!" but no one pays him any mind. It's the anticipation for seeing what's next that helps everyone who really wishes they'd won her feel better. A moment later the red head steps back into view, but something about her just seems wrong. Her eyes look hooded instead of alert. She looks dopey and silly, not mischievous. She almost looks asleep.

"All payments . . . are void. I'm afraid that justice won the auction . . ." She giggles, and then slowly slumps down to her knees with her legs splaying apart as she falls. Her giggles get louder and louder until a silver skinned and silver haired woman runs into my vision, and shatters the glass with one perfectly placed kick. As soon as she throws out the kick, several silver sparks fly out from the shattered glass towards the auction guards. Those sparks are the ones that don't go away, that last . . . and after a few moments the guards sink down but don't stop shuddering.

The glass all falls down and shatters more. Most of my fellow buyers jump to their feet and scream to run for the exit. I'm not nearly that stupid, and I recognize the woman standing behind the broken window.

Her uniform is mine. It's not the one I'm wearing now, but it's still one of mine. White elbow length gloves, her boots going up to her knees and ending in a point, the silvery gray skirt with the white trim . . . and the white sleeveless top with the dipping neckline, and the ending that comes down past the skirt in front with another point.

It's the uniform I wore when I was Silver Girl.

All around me the people who only minutes ago were cursing my name for interfering are quite busy running towards the exit, but that's to no avail. Blocking the exit is a woman dressed in a flowing violet lab coat that almost looks flowing enough to be a cape. Underneath she's wearing what look to be very dark purple scrubs. Her shoes are just dark black boots, but that doesn't need to be fancy.

She's not wearing a mask, but with long purple hair like that I think that wearing a mask would be a joke anyway. I could tell from a mile away that the woman who is flooding the entrance with mist so that everyone trying to escape just takes a deep breath and collapses is Doctor Valerie Raine . . . the woman I called my Amethyst Angel.

Behind me, the woman who has to be The Domina jumps out from the window after kicking away a few shards of glass and smiles at me. "Don't worry, Patina. I'm just here to help out."

Something about her pose seems insulting. It's like she's trying to parody the woman we both used to be, right down to the wiggling finger wave. Her voice doesn't sound like I remember it, it sounds like the way I remember my own voice sounding just a little bit different.

I turn away to watch Valerie. She grasps a woman trying to run past her, the veiled nurse, and pulls the veil back. As soon as it's back she closes her hand over her mouth and nose. The woman starts to quiver, whimpering and shuddering, before she starts to clutch to her. It looks so deliciously wrong, but at the same time so right. A moment later, Valerie pushes her away and lets her drop.

"So this is the heroine you said was scoping out the auction house so we could take it down? For some reason she doesn't look at all like I thought she would." Valerie approaches us after brushing off her hands and holds out her right. "My name's Amethyst."

This is just great. A woman I pined over and wished I'd stayed with is with me. She's just not with the right me. My head is starting to hurt.

All of the buyers are on the ground, and I'm thankful that the mist doesn't turn towards me. The Domina, er, Silver Girl isn't starting to spark me up. "I wasn't exactly expecting company."

"Oh, I know . . . but I thought it would be a nice surprise. We've both had problems with them, and when you told me about this place after taking down the Slut Squad, well . . . I just thought you could maybe use a hand. We're going to call the cops in just a few moments. While the bidding was going on, I managed to spark up all of the women and men in the back. Amethyst here, on her first day out in uniform no less, kept guard and made sure we didn't get any extra company."

It takes every bit of my restraint to stop myself from giving myself a black eye. The nerve she has to act like we've been in contact. The nerve she has to act like we're friends when . . . She may have liberated me, but she could have done it in so many better ways.

"Of course, Silver . . . and, Amethyst was it? Nice to meet you." The auction house no longer feels threatening at all. Around us all of the dangerous women are prone. The only dangerous woman that isn't is pretending we're best friends. I don't know if that's worse or better than what I would expect from her. I don't think she's nearly as happy with me as she's pretending to be.

Valerie blushes and it rises to her cheeks with an almost purple coloration. She walks up to me, and for a moment I almost think she's holding her arms out for me, but then a moment later I realize that her arms are out for the silver me.

"Silver Girl" wraps her arms around Amethyst, and the two press so close it almost looks like their curves are perfectly made to melt together. I hate knowing that means Amethyst's curves and mine could do the same thing.

"Nice to meet you too, Patina. Silver Girl didn't tell me a lot about you but all of it has been good. I'm not really experienced but I'd like to be. Most of the time I'm a doctor, but when Silver explained to me why she does it . . . It sounded a lot more noble than the media made it look." Amethyst smiles and kisses my cheek only it's hers and it's the color mine should be, and I stiffen.

"Well, I'd love to chat with the two of you, really, I would, but I didn't come for that. If you two can hold down the fort and call the authorities . . . I'd love to get Aureus dressed and then see if I can't get a hold of Mystic." I smile and let my eyes linger over the two of them. The Domina is in better shape than I am.

Amethyst blows the both of us away. She's only a little shorter, and is so smooth, so gorgeous. I've never seen a woman look so good in a flowing jacket and scrubs. It's a nice uniform. "We can definitely take care of that for you. Why do you want to take her yourself?"

Something about The Domina being here isn't altruistic. I don't know if Amethyst is being controlled by her or not. If she is then I have absolutely no chance of getting out of here if I try and take her down. This whole situation makes me feel very tense and cornered into a wall. Only I know that if I lash out at her, I'll be the one on the ground. "It's not that I 'bought' her if that's what you mean. It's just that after what happened to me when I was supposedly being fixed the last time . . . I'd rather take her to Mystic myself."

The Domina's silver eyes and my artificial blues meet. It feels like for just a moment we share some kind of understanding. Right now, we're being friendly because Valerie is here. If we meet without her here, she's more than willing to avenge herself.

I can respect that.

"Yeah, I don't think either of us enjoyed how that ended up. Take the golden gal. Borrow some clothes from one of the buyers. Don't worry about whoever's account you were using, it's been refunded. By the end of the night, this should all just turn into an unpleasant memory." She kisses Valerie's forehead, and her lips shine for just a moment.

Amethyst mewls very softly and then looks up at her embarrassedly before turning to me. "Thanks for doing this. Silver is just feeling solemn because of how much pain she went through here, but she knows you would have fixed all of this even without any back up and the way she talked about how much she appreciated your efforts almost made me cry. We'll make sure everyone here is taken care of, but I hope you don't have too much of a hard time getting Aureus fixed up."

Valerie is a sweetheart, even if she's sided with my enemy. Sarah, Silver Girl, The Domina, whatever I should call her . . . she's impersonating me. Sure, she's me too, but she is not me anymore. She lost that right when she came back to do whatever she came back to do. Some day I hope to get a straight answer out of her.

Taking Valerie's advice, I undress one of the buyers that seems about Aureus's size. The fit might be a little tight but it's more important that she's covered than her comfort until I can get her to remember what comfort means. "She should be able to just cling to me for the ride, and I know that Mystic will be happy to help."

Carefully I break away the last of the glass over the edge with my own boot and look to Aureus. She doesn't look back, but that's all right. "Aureus! I bought you, so why don't you come over here, get dressed in this woman's clothes, and then we can leave."

Amethyst and The Domina both watch her hesitantly. I didn't like saying that, but I have no way of finding out the programming they put in her head without adding some of my own and I don't want to do that to her.

Luckily for me, as I'm feeling a little bit too uncomfortable in present company, she obeys. At first her whole body just slackens, and then she ever so gracefully climbs out from the display booth and begins to dress. The business suit is far too tight on her and makes it look like she's just wearing something for a film shoot that will chronicle those clothes being removed, but that's okay. Mystic will understand and at least I can appreciate the view.

After she's dressed, Aureus presses up against me and just smiles up into my eyes with her own beautiful golden pair. She's so gorgeous. I have to protect her, and set her free.

"The two of you take care, Patina. I'll call you if I ever need any help. I have the feeling we'll be running into each other again very soon." The Domina wiggles her fingers in the way I always used to wave, and I have to try way too hard not to growl at her. She must be loving this.

"Of course, you two do the same. Give me a call if you ever need any help. Come on, goldy." I wrap an arm around Aureus and lead her out to Sylvia. Stepping over incapacitated buyers is a little tricky, but it is satisfying to know that a version of me could orchestrate this. Stepping over the entrance guards is even more satisfying. They'd looked so smug and now they can't stop shuddering.

I climb onto Sylvia, and Aureus presses herself up against me tight before wrapping her arms around my waist. After I get her fixed up, I'm going to need to make a run for some new supplies, and call up Alyssa for some new information.

The Domina being there changed everything. For a moment, I'd actually been worried that I wouldn't have any clue where to go next after the auction was delft with. I guess I really should be careful what I wish for.