In a jolt , the world comes slowly, fuzzily back into focus. Dust's fingers are working into my shoulders again, so hard, firm, it feels so nice that I almost don't immediately panic that Dust is going to tear my spine right out of my back. I look up to her, dazed, and the pen is still in her mouth… "You dozed off…"

Dust's voice sounds very lackluster, and definitely not as angry as it did before. Her elbow jabs into my shoulder, hard, almost hard enough to make me scream, but then it feels reeeally good… "I… I did…?"

"Yes… You did…" Her voice sounds like she's speaking through clenched teeth. Her elbow, her hands, they're all so focused, way more focused than Dust ever seems to be in anything besides dusting some cutie's head. It's definitely not a good sign, and I don't know if I can believe her. If something is controlling her and using her to control me, would Dust be able to warn me? No. I know that I couldn't warn Jade… "And it's getting late anyways… You should probably go get some sleep…"

Sleep sounds like a very bad idea, but I'll need to sleep eventually or… Even if I ended up saved, today, or however many days it's been since I've been saved, all of it… Is just not turning out very well. "Sleep…? Sure that's a good idea…?"

"Uh… You don't have to… What would you rather do?" Her voice sounds curious and not suspicious or upset, so that's definitely a plus. Her hands even stop in that way that makes me think she's wondering what else I would prefer.

"Well… Sleep could be nice, but…" She's right, what else would I do…? Still, I'm beyond suspicious. "How long was I out…? Are you upset with me, or did I imagine that…?"

"Just nodded off a moment ago… Why would I be mad at you? I've missed you, you're finally going to be okay…" Her arms wrap around me, hugging me tight and… how white they are makes me think of a straightjacket. Did Dust… Did Dust really miss me? All of those times rolling around in her dust only to wake up alone, all of those times she would just smirk and kiss me with her black lips to make my knees go weak…

Could Dust actually have feelings for me, or is this just something she's being controlled to do? Was that really a dream…? "You… Are you sure…?" Whether she cares or not, I melt back against the chair and into her embrace, reaching up to clutch her arms against me. "Then… Maybe I should sleep, I keep nodding off…"

Her arms don't let go and just keep holding me against the chair. The chair is between us and… somehow that just feels like our whole relationship. Something has always been between us. When we met, she was doing her duty. Trying to turn me into just another Dust bunny was for her reputation, and to get her hands on Pink. After Yanta there was the constant worry of being inferior to the newest recruiter…

Even just thinking about this has me feeling dizzy. Really, Dust being emotional? Nonsense. "Okay… Whatever you want… Don't worry, you're safe now. You really are."

I nod and squeeze her arms against me tighter for just a moment and wish it was her whole body I was holding against me. "Okay then… Show me back to my room… and tell me who was with you when you saved me from Mind Bore…?"

"You were really out of it… I was alone…" Dust nods and I can feel it against the back of my hair. "Hearing things maybe? What were they like…?" Her fingers knit together over my stomach and I can't help but feel constantly more confused. I wish I could see Pink, she was always after me just as much but at least it would be someone I knew that also knew Dust to talk about this with. Pink would remind me just how stupid it is to think Dust cares about anyone but herself.

Especially when Dust is lying.

"You… You weren't alone." I squirm and squeeze her arms again. "She had a voice, a voice that felt nice, like fluid, and she kept telling you to stay on task, even though you were so angry…"

"… No… I don't think so… I think you must have been dreaming… When I said I was alone I meant… I wasn't… Well I didn't even find you, some of the other people did, I was there though, held your hand…" She's lying… Goddess Dust is lying through her teeth and I can only think that for once it's because something is wrong with her, not because she has an agenda. Besides, she only ever lied through omission before.

"I…" Do I tell her I know she's lying? Or do I play along with how sentimental both of us seem to feel? It's a silly question to ask myself, I already know what I'm going to do. "You… But… I heard… Well I was pretty doped up I guess… maybe I just wanted to see you again…"

"Really? Did you? Want to see me more than anything?" Her voice sounds strained, but she's probably just choked up… Did she want to see me more than anything? Maybe I never should have gone out on Patrol again, like I told Jade, The Lady was right… I should have just stayed in my room, gone out on missions when she told me to… "Come on, let me help you to your room… When did you want to see the shrink again?"

Every moment in this room, with Jade sitting there just staring at m, make me feel more and more guilty. Jade and I only had friendship, why do I feel guilty? She saved me, but… "Maybe not more than anything, but… Dust, what is it? What's bothering you…? I guess when i wake up I'll see her again, or… Oh, she doesn't like being called a shrink."

"Sorry… She was helpful though?" She was helpful, but not as helpful as Dust as being, helping me up, and leading me out. We wave to Jade, but she just blinks… I swear I can feel a part of my heart break watching her just blink…

I follow Dust on the way back to my room and hope that there'll be some way to help Jade. There has to be. "I guess she was, helpful enough anyway… and at least I'm not still jonesing so bad, I don't think…"

"It's been awhile… You've got all the drug out of your system, now it's mostly a mental thing." We reach my room, and she opens up the door. "Need help getting to sleep?"

"Just a little…?" I step in and start to step towards the bed. All I can see are those white vacant eyes, blinking at me, unknowing, no wit in them at all… How could anyone do that, to Jade, to anyone? Mind Bore is a monster… "I just don't want to stay awake any longer than I have to and… Jade's face looking like that is going to haunt all of my dreams, I know it."

"Mmm… Want to see a trick I never showed you…?" Dust looks way too much like the Dust I remember, the old Dust, the Dust who would leave me covered in dust with a chalky taste in my mouth and only would seem to revel in the delight of it.

"Sure…" I'm near the bed, and she pushes a single finger to my chest before pushing me back. I stumble and fall back, the bed squeaking under me as I shift faintly.

Dust smirks, or grins, I can't tell, but it's classic Dust. "All the dust I put in your head the other day… Well…" She snaps her fingers and suddenly it, my head, it's swimming, I can feel it, all of that dust, swirling, silky, chalky, coating and moving, it'd been everywhere and now it's, taking me under, taking me deep into her dusty sleep… "Want me to tuck you in…?"

Her voice was almost sarcastic, but I don't care. Everything feels so nice, is so nice… She looks like a shadow, so strange, just like the first time when I met her, in the black body suit, just her pale face showing… but everything is tunneling away, tunnel vision closing to a point… "Sure… I'd love that…"

Her hands reach out, to tuck me in, or… my eyes start to slowly blink awake, even though they're covered with dust in that heavy way. For once after being dusted to sleep, I'm still dressed, and actually tucked in. Everything is so dusty… My skin is even covered with it. Did she actually sleep with me…? Not fuck, but… No, that's a ridiculous, stupid thought. Thinking like that is what's going to drive me insane - or more so than I already am.

This is just like every other time. There's no new feeling in this, even if it feels like it's been years since this happened… I sit up and push the covers back, brushing myself off. It's hard to fight the urge to suck on a dust covered finger. "Dust…?"

I shouldn't be surprised. She's not in the room. Wow, there's a shocker. It's not like this ever happened before… There's a trail of her sprinkles though, and well, my curiosity won't be denied. I hop up to my feet and follow it along… It leads to a note. It's an apology, apparently she has things to do.

She says that the shrink (sorry is written in parenthesis after that) would be ready whenever I want to go and see her… and it's written with the pen Milly gave me yesterday, which sits on the chair by the note… The light hits it and makes it look… Seductive and sinister, for just a moment, somehow like a coiled snake.

What is it about that pen? In the dreams, I'd shoved it inside and… but Dust said it was just a dream. It wasn't, or was it… I twirl the pen before going off to find Milly. I remember where her room is, and for once my sense of direction isn't broken.

The pen itches in my hand, and my lips twitch. It's impossible to resist the urge to nibble on the end of the pen. I'd probably look good doing it too, though I'd look better if I was all professional looking like Milly… I give it a shot anyway and try to stand up straight as I can. There's no mirror around so I just have to picture how I look in my mind's eye. Not bad.

When I open up the door Milly is waiting, and she waves from behind her desk, though she quickly gets up and moves the chair around to in front of her desk. Odd, but I don't mind. She glances to the chair and the couch again, and I know what it means, she doesn't need to spell it out.

Flushing I pull the pen out of my mouth and smile weakly as I step over to the chair and flop back. Right now i want to go home more than anything. The room that most means home to me… isn't my cramped little studio…

Milly is humming, well, she was before, but she still is and I only just noticed. It's a pretty little song, and it seems… different than her talking voice in a much sweeter sort of way, for better or worse. "Good morning again silver." Her voice makes me shudder and bite down on the pen, sharply. It feels so nice, too… "How are you doing today? Did the meeting with Jade go well?"

The humming really is nice, like candy… Wow, how long has it been since I've had candy? If only I had a candy in my head, wow, I'd be set. Oh Pink, you'd be proud of your influence… "Hello again Milly! I'm okay… The meeting went… I don't know. Things felt really odd, Dust kept telling me I'd dozed off, but… and Jade looked so sad, but not…"

"Well… Why don't you tell me about Dust today. I'm familiar with her some… but not very much. She doesn't seem to like me, or my profession at all, though she puts on a good front." Her own pen is in her mouth, rolling around… and for some crazy reason, I wish that my lips were closing around that one, teeth biting down on it…

What is it with my growing obsession with pens? But who the hell am I to talk, with all of the fetishes I must still have burned into my brain. Just thinking of knee high socks makes me quiver, though I can fight it down. It's not as if they really control me, that wasn't what Mind Bore meant… No, she'd been smart, but she hadn't made them do that. "Dust is… Well, she's Dust. She pretends to be tough and be a badass, but it seems so hollow now. She's really fragile underneath, and I think she's controlling because she feels powerless."

"Really? Tell me about her. Try… Just spurting. Brain gushing out…" The pen rolls out of her mouth and starts to sway, the spit glistening at the blue end of the cheap pen, catching the light with every swing. It would probably be a bit blinding to anyone else.

Did Mind Bore give me a pen fetish that I can't remember? So many of those new fetish days are a blur… It's only now that I look down at my top and realize the piercings are gone. Of course, if the doctors fixed whatever she'd done to my breasts they'd get rid of those for me too, wouldn't they?

Oh well, time to focus on Dust. "Okay, uhm… Dark, moody, rude, a little bit abusive, not so sweet, worried which makes me feel kind of odd, uhm, likes dark clothing, likes being in control, likes dust, uhm… I think she might have feelings for me… I don't know what else to say…"

"Brain gush. Just let it all come out." One of her legs is over the other, on the knee, and it's swinging… Very familiar, but… the pen is shiny, and that makes it more interesting. Biting down on the pen in my own mouth feels so oddly comforting, and I feel an ache… but it's not the kind I'd ask a doctor to fix. I know it's rude, but still, watching the pen seems to be way easier than watching the lady behind it.

The Lady! Her leg is swinging just like The Lady's legs used to. I can't help but become infinitely worried about her, in that "dream" Dust had said she was… The ache between my thighs only grows thinking about The Lady, so I just take a very deep breath and try to brain gush. "Dirty, a little crude predatory, sexual, likes to make people forget, likes to have all of the fun she can, fragile from time to time, powerful, devious, emotional…"

"Is she hot… sexy? Anything like that?" The question feel so… loaded. The pen just keeps moving back and forth, wet, dripping, and it almost makes me think of… windshield wipers pushing away worry, glistening it away, no need to worry just… gush.

This is all so strange, but since when hasn't my life been strange…? "Sexy, nymphish I guess, she has really nice skin even though it makes you feel really, really itchy…" I feel uncomfortable, but she's the therapist and I'm the patient… right?"

"Take notes… Like Dust showed you…" Yeah, biting down on the pen, wishing it was the other pen… The only pad I have though is between my legs, and I need to use the pen to… "Continue to brain gush."

"Okay…" Squirming, shifting, I start to slide the pen down to between my thighs even if it makes me blush. "So full of mystery, seems to know so much more than me, makes me feel silly and stupid and small, young, even though she looks younger than me…"

"Back to the sexy, the dark, the wet. Like your dreams…" Those dreams, the nice ones, the ones that feel like it felt to be sucking on that tube… oh and it feels so good to feel that pen sliding against, sliding in, rubbing, stroking, moving the pen in time with the one that keeps moving back and forth in front of me, swaying, lightly glistening in the absolutely most perfect way that I've ever seen…

"Sexy… Dark… Wet… Dusty…?" My whole body squirms as the pen moves vaguely quicker, and I try to move the pen quicker with it… "What's this going to do…"

"Brain gush… Everything about it. About the dark wet thoughts and Dust…" The pen keeps moving, back and forth, in and out, up an down, around and around…

My hand quivers between my legs as it moves with that other hand so far away, in and out, around, oh goddess it feels so sweet to be doing this, taking notes definitely helps the itch! "Dark… Wet… Warm, fuzzy, fluffy, edges tatted and wavy and dust so pretty and concerned but then angry and… so upset…"

"Deeper. Look deeper. Feel deeper. That's good, gush… Brain Gush… Thought gush." She waves the pen, almost like a conductor, and I can feel tunnel vision again, honing on the tip of that glistening pen…

"Uhn… what's… Upset, confusion, wish I knew who else was with dust, I can't figure out who it was, can't put it all together, missing pieces…"

Her voice sounds like tisking, disappointed. "No, deep, slutty. Think slutty." The motions of the pen are sharp, crisp, like sword strikes, clinging, chinking as the pen dives into me and… “And here, use this one…” She leans forward, I can just barely see, and yanks the pen I’m taking notes with out from between my fingers and shoves the other wet pen deep inside of me, words, babbling, I can feel it all just churning, bubbling up, dark wet hot words flowing out of me beyond my control…

My voice groans but I can hardly focus on that, I can hardly focus on anything. “Pale, hot, so smooth and warm and yummy and mouth watering and mmmm scratch and itch and rub and forget always feels so good, just lick and nibble and taste all over that clean skin and…”

“Yes, gush it all silver… and take notes… record your own words deep into yourself.” Oh, she means the pen, the pen with herspit on it, her saliva, burning like a holy scepter so deep between my legs, feeling stronger, brighter, more perfect than anything should ever, ever be allowed to feel…

Moans pour out but none of them matter, none of them can stop the gushing, the gushing is so much more important, it just feels so good… “Just wanna lick all over and… Tastes so good and so white and perfect, always just a step away from slutty and wonderful and just so delicious and sexy and want… nnnnn…”

“Say it, the word that means sex, what word means sex to you? What single word means sex? Means lust? Means heat and fuck and slut and slit. Say the word… Push it in deep and say the word…”

“Fuck…?” My fingers press the pen in, deep as I can, feeling like they’re hitting some sacred place that makes me scream. “Fuuuuck!”

“Does it? Is that the word? Fuck? Twist it, lock that word into you. Oiled locks close the tightest…”

Whimpering I twist it, twisting it hard as I can, deep as I can, it feels hotter and better than anything in the world ever has and ever could, but oiled locks…? Like… Like with Dust, with… The other voice… “Lock…?”

“Focus on the word, fuck. And yes, lock. On the body, in your body… That’s a lock, you are a lock, your little kitty hole is a lock. The best lock, the easiest way to slip into someone’s brain and lock it tight… Lock it now, twist it. Lock it up…”

“Fuck…” My voice whispers out with a shudder, twisting, twisting, mewling as my eyes shut tighter than they’ve ever shut before. “Lock it up…”

“Mind Bore gave you fetishes… I give you the gift… and curse… of fuck.” She laughs, and it’s that voice, it’s… from my dream, or my fuzzy half awareness, or… but it’s not, it’s not, but it is… “Something you deserve more than you know…”

I whine out and… That voice! It’s her! Who is her though, what is she, what is this…?! I can’t focus on it, it isn’t clear enough, the feeling, fuck, fuck… “Whyyyy?!”

“When you fry a witch’s brain, her coven does not simply ignore this. Now lock it. Lock it tight…” Pen twisting still, and I can feel it, my whole body is locking, tightening up, like every single part of my body is tensing and tightening and being twisted like a wet rag all at the same time, and oh goddess am I so oily! A well oiled lock, clicking closed…

“But she… she…!” There are so many things I want to say, Yanta, Yanta, she, it wasn’t my fault! I was protecting Dust, Pink, The Lady… myself… but it doesn’t matter, not more than the tightening… “uuuuh… tight…!”

Her voice sounds so pleased, so very, very delightfully pleased. “The body has many locks… This is the most sexual, and the combination to yours is fuck. So lock it now that we all know, lock it tight, and only I have the key…”

“Fuck . . “ Whimpering, locked, I’ve locked myself up tight, it’s awful, locked, so tight, even if it feels so perfect, so wonderful so… “Fuck…”

“Good, and now…” She pulls the key out, and slides it over my lips. It tastes… it doesn’t taste like it should, it doesn’t taste like I usually do, it tastes like hot sexy oil, like, like something I’ve never tasted before, and with a blink…

“So, you understand what I mean?” She asks, and I do… but I can’t remember what we’ve been talking about. It’s a perfect blank!

I blink very nice and slow, fluttering my eyes to try and clear things up, to try and make my head work just a little better. Still, I can’t figure out what it is she’s asking for. It doesn’t make sense. “Yeah, sure, I definitely understand…” I feel so silly! I keep forgetting things and… I want to ask, but that’ll just make me look more screwed up and I’ll have to stay here longer.

“Now, do you want to start on lock number two…?” The question feels so very important. She leans in, and her fingers tent. I don’t even remember what a lock is! Is that what we were talking about?

My brain might really be fried out, maybe I’m better off trying to get myself a trade in or something… “Sure! No reason to wait, right?”

“Which do you like better… Taste… Smell… Mind… or Body?”

“Hmm…” This is an important question too. I need to figure out which one we should do next, if we’ve apparently done one already… I tap a silver finger to my silver lips and lightly hum. “Taste?” Even if taste is what had me turned into some sort of cow girl…

“We’ve been working on that one some… Run your tongue around your mouth, say the first word that comes to mind…” Slowly I run my tongue around in my mouth with a little bit of a sigh. It tastes… chalky, odd, some sort of aftertaste but good, heavy… almost like honey dew, or…

Hmm, what word should I say first…? Chalky? No, because chalk is not the right word for this, or… “Dust? Dust and melon…”

“Keep swirling your tongue…” She grins, wider, wider in such a strange way that almost makes her look devilish. The more that taste swishes around in my mouth the more there is to taste, and it has such a strange feeling to it… “You know anything about the idea some religions have, about energy nodes?”

“Whatcha mean? I’m not too sacred savvy…” I keep obediently moving my tongue around in my mouth, feeling the richness of the taste and try to figure out just what it tastes like. It’s very interesting, and oddly fulfilling…

Oh well, it must be something that’s somehow therapeutic. “Well… Some people have ideas of chakras and… it boils down to spots on the body or around them, where all the energy flows and is kept. Flows out of… The idea is that they are all half aligned, and well, normally if you were to unlock them all you could gain incredible power, secrets of the universe, that sort of thing… Inversely, to lock them all would be to become a shell, zombie of a person, soulless husk sort of a thing. Why don’t you use the pen to feel around in your mouth. It’s still oily.”

For some reason the word oily sounds good.

“Oily, huh…?” I wait a second before taking the pen, dripping in my hand, and start to slowly slide it into my mouth, sliding it around, and slowly tasting over it. Somehow I manage to mutter around it, but I’m really more concerned with the taste. “Chakras, huh? Mighta seen that somewhere… Locking ‘em up doesn’t sound good though…”

“Why not? Locking is about control, restraint, chains. Some things need to be chained, don’t they?” Cracks, homes, streaming… She leans back to fix her glasses, and for some reason all I can think of are giant flaming wings…

What the hell is going on here…? Why don’t I just throw the pen down to the ground, even if it does taste so good. “Some, but… zombie, a shell? I’d uhm… rather not…” I’ll do it! I grab the pen tighter and stat to pull it out…

“Fuck.” The word slips from her lips and twines inside of me, yanking, tightening, oozing out from between my legs way too tightly, and oh… It… Arguing feels, sounds, so hard, so difficult, so impossible.

Gasping for breath I shudder, twitching, twisting as my legs cross and tighten, this lock, it’s so, so… “Nnn…”

The tastes shift again, feeling so amazing… thick… dark in my mouth, dark and thick, like chocolate honey, only more wet. It’s thick, sticky, oh so sticky… Sticker than anything else, almost like peanut butter, or gum or… no, it’s mostly like sap…

Good as it is, I just… Sticky, sap, this doesn’t sound or feel good, or right. I should stop, I know I should stop. “Sorta… Strange…”

“Run it over your lips…” Slowly I pull the pen out to do it, and it’s so thick, but it feels nice, dripping, darker than it should be, spit isn’t black but it tastes like it should be it’s… It’s something that I can’t possibly imagine, but if I could then I know that I would love it. It’s nothing like that tube, but it’s better, infinitely better in such a deep and perfect way…

It feels so nice, the kind of nice that sends shudders up and down along my body, deep, rhich, perfect… “Mmm, feels really nice…”

“The locks oil themselves, makes it so much easier for the key…” She whispers it in such a haunting way as she slowly draws a little circle in the air. “Tongue and pen… Work it…”

“How is this… Gonna help…?” Why am I doing this? I don’t know, but… I keep running around my tongue and the pen, circling, feeling it oh so sweetly and melting into the delicious feeling of it, as bad as it is, as bad as I just know that it is…

She nods, and grins in such a dark way… “Well… Now, start sucking on the pen… Suck hard, suck until it hurts…”

Until it hurts…? I should argue, I know I should, but the pen still moves into my mouth and I start sucking, harder, harder, and as hard as possibly can. It does start to suck around that pen in such a sharp way, but it doesn’t seem to matter and I can’t think about why…

“Good… Suck and suck…” Sucking makes something feel tighter and tighter, and I can feel it, like hot metal cooling and tightening up around me, tight hot silver solidifying into place… “The first is always the hardest… but after that, it gets easier… We could probably finish them all today. Suck your brains out silver.”

“Uuuuuhn!!!” My eyes go wide as they possibly can as I can feel that metal tightening harder, sucking, squirming, I want to pull it out but it’s impossible, it’s more than impossible to fight past, it’s too strong and already too deep inside of me, already locked far too tight. Like a rusty gate slowly being closed the more that I suck, and then it… oh! With the loudest, most unbearable sound I’ve ever heard, the pen falls out of my mouth, and dark goo drips down out of my mouth and over my chin…

I try to groan, but I can’t, my mouth it… Everything is so tight… Shirt off, prostrate yourself on the chair, bare back facing me. Do it now.” She’s standing closer now, so close, and her voice is so commanding. The pen was back in her mouth but she pulls it out, not twirling it though, no, she has way too much purpose in what she’s doing and even I can feel it.

My hands drop to my sides and then pull the shirt off, throwing it across the room as I arch out, turning around to grind into the chair. My voice whimpers out but it’s so faint, it’s hard to be loud past the goo.

Her fingers run down along the bumps of my spine, twisting, moving, almost feeling like they’re twining. It feels nice, so much more tender than she’s been so far in a way that feels so strange. She starts to push, and something feels so tight, so right… but then my back starts to feel sticky, strange…

“Fuck…” Oh! Oil drips from between my legs, feeling so hot, so good… “Suck…” Dripping out of my mouth, that oil, my tongue moves to try and taste it as I melt into the sticky oily feeling at my back, something pressing along my skin… Oh, the pen presses against my back, and it almost feels like it’s sliding inside, inside of me, but it’s not stabbing, and then it starts to turn… and my spine starts to go numb, a good, tingly, perfect numb…

Fuck, suck, dripping in oil… This is locking me too, isn’t it…? I wish I could struggle, but my body is way too tight, there’s no way I can pull away from it, get away, or anything… She’s going to turn me into a husk…

It just keeps twisting, tightening, body can’t stop shaking or tightening and it feels so good, very good as it locks up, locks up my back so tight, so slick, there’s nothing I can do besides feel it tighten… “Good girl. Oh and this one, this one will be Slick…” Click… slide… Close… Oh, my whole world feels like it’s being twisted and tightened in the worst way, the most painful way that still feels like infinite pleasure…

“Fuck. Suck. Slick.” Three points of tightening oily dripping, too tight to think, everything just… A single point…

“Good…” Her hand strokes along me as she pulls the key out, and pushes it in my mouth. “Keep this on you, and go to your room.” She pulls me up to my feet and pats my ass, pushing me off…

The stroking feels nice, and I try to push into it, but it’s impossible. I hold the pen in my mouth and faintly suckle as I stumble along, and find my way to my room in a daze.

Dust is there, laying on the bed. Her eyes are looking up at the ceiling and… Oh. I can start to feel things loosen, just enough for me to think, though some oil slides down my back, between my legs, and a little dribbles down my mouth… Almost enough loosening to feel real, almost enough… From the bed, Dust mutters. “Sorry.”

“What’s… What’s going on, Dust…?” My voice feels so weak, so fragile, so soft… I move over to sit next to her on the bed and very weakly sigh. “What’s happened…?”

“How many did she do?” She sighs in the most defeated way as she twists over onto ehr side, and shifts into a fetal position. “She’s way meaner than the witch ever was… She’s vicious…”

“I… I think three…” I squirm and shift, looking down at dust. Just looking at her makes me want to cry. Poor Dust… “The witch was pretty vicious too, Yanta… At least it felt like it at the time, or… I’m sorry, tell me all that’s happened, please…? I want to understand how, or… Something…”

“I guess… I don’t really remember much from that… I remember all of this… Psychologist for the trauma center, you know. To ‘help me’ after the whole Chronos thing.” She spits, and it sounds so very vicious. “Of course she helped me, helped me lock up two… whatevers.”

So… I was right. “The whole Chronos thing… So I… I didn’t really ‘fall asleep’ did I…?” My whole body quivers as I sigh and move faintly more against Dust, not sure if I’ll piss her off or… I want her to feel me close to her, I want her to know that I’m here for her if she needs me, no matter what… Saying that would break whatever code of conduct she goes by, but just hinting at it, I don’t think that’d hurt anyone at all…

“I don’t know how… She… She just has us… has us tight… And it’s all your fault! Chronos fell… And there was nothing I or Pink or Windy or even She could do…” She curls up tighter, a little ball of fury… all I want to do is break down and cry, but that would be childish.

The last thing we need right now is to be acting young, we need to act old, we need to act… We need to find our way out of here… “I… I just tried to help Jade! I didn’t bring her here… You didn’t seem to mind me helping people when I saved you!” I’m a little angry to, but it’s mostly at me and… My body pulls away from her, and I don’t fight it. “Who the hell knows how I managed to save us from Yanta… I just try to do the right thing and it always blows up in my face, but I will find a way to get us out of here… There’s gotta be a way… Locks can be unlocked right…?”

I sigh, but I can’t resist asking this question, it’s too important, it… It’s my fault. I have to know. “And… Where is She? Really…?”

“Jail? Super Jail? Normal one? Maximum security? Dead? I don’t know… I have no idea. I’ve been in a containment room since Chronos got taken down… Well, before I got locked tight and good…” Oh goddess, if The Lady is dead, if Pink is dead… I don’t know how I’ll live with myself, if Jade and Nightshade and all of their friends that tried to help, if they, if they killed any of my friends, I’ll…

“Dust, I…” The pen is in my hand, and I stare at it, holding it out… “I never meant for this to happen, but we have to work together to get us out of here… Please…”

Dust sighs and just curls up tighter. “I know… I know you didn’t… I’m still angry I… I’m angry at everything, not just you. Don’t take it the wrong way.” Her body isn’t shaking with rage anymore, but it looks or feels just a step or two off in the worst of ways that cuts right down to my heart.

“It’s okay… I would be too…” My eyes stay staring at the pen. Clockwise? Counter clockwise? It probably takes some sort of magic to twist the locks back the way that they should be… “You have any tricks up your sleeve I don’t know about yet? Why not just turn into Dust like I know you can do and just get as far away as you possibly can…?”

“Same reason you can’t leave this room…” Even Dust just saying it makes my body tighten, and my eyes almost roll up… “Just doesn’t work…”

The tightening makes me squirm… I don’t like it. “Then… Maybe…” I squint and stare at Dust, and then the door. “Well… We have to think of this like MacGyver. Which I know, is really stupid, but I saw that show once when I was home sick from school and… So anyway, we have some dust, some silver sparks, a pen, and a lot of uhm… Oil…” I squirm a little before sighing, feeling like a complete idiot. “And a bed.”

“Apparently you can think about escaping… Even thinking about it makes me tighten in ways that…” I can hear her shudder and hold back some sort of sound, but… I need to focus on getting out, especially if she can’t…

“Well, thinking of leaving, it… but just making a stupid plan, well, people don’t plan for stupid things, which is why us stupid people, me for example, supposedly have good luck. No one is prepared for stupid, they’re prepared for the best of the best, and uhm… Don’t take this the wrong way, but what if I tried to silver you up, and maybe use you to help us get out like that? It’s just an idea, I mean…”

“So you… You’re going to try to escape…?” Her voice sounds like one long gasp as she asks, and I can feel her curling tighter behind me. Poor dear, she must be scared shitless, I know I would be…

There’s no time for fear though. That feeling I had, when the rod broke, when I came back to myself… That courage that The Lady gave me - I need to make it in myself. “We have to try! I don’t know how, but… Dust, we have to try.” Very, very softly I place a hand on her shoulder. “And I won’t even try that if you don’t want it, but… It might be our only shot…”

She rolls over, and it’s impossible not to see her nipples straining through her tight black top. She groans and they tighten and press more against the fabric. “S… s… orry… Can’t…” One pale hand reaches up, and black nails come together… She groans, and darkness dampens around her nipples, slick black oil that must be dripping from her nipples, and then she snaps her fingers… and everything turns heavy, tired… my body collapses, as does Dust’s.

“Dust…!” I whimper and try to whine, or struggle, I have to try, I have to struggle, but my mind can’t fight it and moment by moment I just find myself getting sleepier and sleepier… “I’m sorry…”

“Nnn… I… s… s…” The darkness around Dust’s breasts spreads, and her words are lost, lost as the darkness in my mind starts to grow… and then it turns to darkness over reality.

When I wake up, my body feels so tight, especially between my legs. Oh… It’s because Dust has the pen down there, twisting it, slowly… “S… sorr… N…” She collapses back again, panting, her nipples still screaming out from around her wet shirt that clings against her. It looks painful…

The tightness seems like it loosens for her though, and I can feel it in me too as I whimper and shudder, pulling away, shivering… “Nnn… Not your fault…”

She doesn’t answer, she just lets the pen drop from her hand and bounce against the carpeted floor. Her whole body seems to whine before she curls up into a little ball at the foot of the bed. “I’m sorry Dust…” I shiver, and very lightly pat her shoulder before pulling back. “I’m sorry for everything…”

“At least I’m getting off easy… I think she plans to eventually lock you up completely…” Her voice degenerates into laughter and her nipples finally start to soften. She sighs in relief, apparently it really was just that bad.

If that doesn’t make a girl feel better… I just want to sob and fall apart, collapse into nothing… “Oh yeah… Thanks… Aren’t you sweet…” I pull my knees up to my chest with a loud sniffle and cling to my own legs, collapsing onto my side and just trying to think of nothing else…

“No… I’m not… but I had to be for awhile… I think she thought it was funny…” She sighs, and the rustling of the covers makes me think she’s shaking her head. “Sorry all this happened… You didn’t ask for any of this you know… Stupid witch started this, and her sister or her friend or her… mom? dad? Wouldn’t be surprised… Is just continuing it…”

“Yeah… It was kinda scary, seeing you sweet and… the apology, thanks… I don’t know… Stupid Yanta… I wish I knew how I crawled away. She did so much to shatter my brain, and I ended up crawling back to Her…” And now there’s no Her to crawl back to…

Dust shifts again and I just sigh. “You’re just stronger than you know?” She just keeps getting more and more helpful…

“Yeah, but I can’t make it work on command, or…” I sigh and close my eyes tight as I can, shaking my head as I just try not to think about anything… “So…”

Dust sighs and shifts again, stretching out beside me. I open my eyes and look to her, her face, and her shirt still clinging to her because of that dripping… oil. Whatever it was… “So…”

It’s impossible not to smirk. I still have to find some way to escape, but… “A wee bit drippy, eh…?”

“… Just a bit…” Dust actually almost smiles before tugging at the shirt. It doesn’t get any less sticky, but at least she tries. Taking it off wouldn’t be any better, and it’s not as if we have spare clothes in here just waiting for us to grab them up…

“Well, at least neither of us really has to worry about lube… Not that I think we ever did anyway, but hey, more bad jokes from the shiny one…” Sighing I wiggle and stretch out a little bit too. “So what should we do…?”

“Lay here and wait to be used…?” Dust’s voice is bitter, and I can’t say that I blame her. She just stares at the ceiling, tugging at her shirt…

There’s no way I can not give this a shot. No matter what, I have to… “You know, I might really regret even trying…” I reach out with a hand, and slide it along her side before sending spark after spark after spark right into her. They feel so nice as they sizzle out of me, a feeling that’s almost become unfamiliar. Feeling them spark me feels nice, but it’s a whole other kind of ncie to feel them slide out.

“The hell are you…” Dust groans and arches, squirming, and her black lips form a perfect oval as she squirms, thrashing out and moaning loudly before she finally goes limp.

I spark her just a faint little bit more before whimpering, and grabbing up the pen to hold out to Dust. “Dusty… Can you unlock me?”

She groans and starts to speak, trying, before her nipples turn into diamonds again and her eyes shoot open wider than anything I’ve ever seen be open wide before. She rolls off of the bed and almost pulls me off with her, thrashing on the floor, grasping each of her nipples pitifully as she yanks and twists.

My eyes go just as wide as Dust’s did and I squirm, falling to kneel beside her. Goddess I didn’t mean for this to happen, it’s never happened before! “Dust, I’m so sorry I… Stop that… Stop! Let yourself loosen up!” I spark her again, and I know it won’t work, but I have to try!

She just arches and it looks like she could rip herself apart between my sparks and the oil, before she just falls limp, like a puppet with the strings cut, limp and huddled…

“I’m sorry…” I shiver and squirm, whimpering. I shouldn’t be stupid and just try to grab at the door… Staring down at Dust though, I know that I have to do something. She’s panting helplessly, and her shirt is dripping in that blackness… “DEUS EX MACHINA… GO!” I point at the door… but nothing happens.

What the hell do I have to do?! “Diva ex machina…? Plot Point…? Character Development…?” Whining I stare at the door, and I just want to cry and break down… But I close my eyes and stand, running at the door firing off sparks like mad as I dash.

Somewhere before the door though, a sharp tightness hits me and the darkness consumes me again.

When I wake up, I’m in the middle of the room. Around me and under me is a puddle of that thick black oily… stuff. My back aches and is dripping with it, my mouth, and the throbbing between my thighs…

I just shudder and try to spit all of it out of my mouth that I can, arching my back faintly before sliding a hand down to cup over the dripping between my legs. “God… Damn it!”

The room doesn’t answer, but the oil just… It feels nice, despite what it means, and despite what it is. Nothing answers, nothing happens… My body crawls it’s way over to the bed on energy that I don’t know where it came from, and all I can feel is aching… Slick, dripping, horror… I’m this close to just wanting to be locked up and thrown in a room somewhere alone… “Ugh! Give me a sign, world! What the hell am I supposed to do?!”

There’s no one left to rescue me, and no way to get out. There’s just tightness at the small of my back, the sides of my mouth, and between my legs… Dripping, and feeling good even if I don’t want it to… “Dust, I’m so sorry, there’s just… Nothing to do!”

Of course Dust can’t answer. She’s lucky, just unconscious on the ground. The black keeps seeping out of her breasts, even more than it has out of me, but otherwise, she’s okay. it was worth a shot, wasn’t it…? I reach out to softly stroke Dust’s hair and sigh, crawling up onto the bed and sniffling.

The pen catches my eye on the floor and I pick it up, whimpering. “How the hell do you work?!” The pen doesn’t answer, it just glistens, and my locks drip… Shuddering I grab the pen with both hands and start to twist it, bend it… and it bends! It’s just a normal pen! Hah! I keep twisting it, pulling it… and then it breaks! Dark blue ink splatters everywhere, like a wound straight to the heart of some demonic beast of ink, and even if it’s just a pen…

I scream and cheer at the top of my lungs, squealing and shaking the pen in the air, laughing like mad in that way that always means “if I don’t laugh I’ll cry.”

The ink though, it… it starts to sink into me, so heavy, drowsy and… I whine, trying to fight against it, but I can give in for now, I won a victory, I tried, I didn’t give up… It’s something, it’s… I close my eyes and let out a mewl as I fade into a deep dark sleep.