The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Discipline and Reward

A Love Story

Disclaimer: Standard “free porn” disclaimers apply. If you are too young, or don’t like pr0n, or just aren’t into my kinks ... go away.

Trigger Warning: This chapter depicts scenes of drug addiction and violence. Although descriptions are spare and situations are brief, they are nonetheless intense and much more grim than one would typically encounter in a superhero fantasy story.

Let me be clear. There are people who mistakenly believe that trigger warnings are about not offending the sensibilities of overly-sensitive people who are too eager to take offense. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t give a flying fuck if anyone is offended. If I were worried about giving offense, I wouldn’t be writing BDSM erotica in the first place. HOWEVER. There are very real people who are recovering from the aftermath of very real rape, of very real drug addiction, of very real human trafficking, of very real gang violence. If you are one of those people, I don’t want you to read this chapter if reading it will cause you harm.

For those who feel they may be triggered by such content but still wish to read as much as they can, I have placed markers: Trigger Start and Trigger End around the most sensitive text. In fairness, I must admit that I have not made any attempt to ensure the chapter reads coherently if you skip the marked portion.

On Race and Ethnicity: This chapter depicts an urban street gang that deals in drugs, extortion, and prostitution. I have taken great pains to avoid describing any of them in any detail that would reveal any details of racial or ethnic identity. I even went as far as to imagine an unusual ethnicity while I was writing this chapter (No, I won’t tell you which one. MYOB.). Any racial or ethnic traits you wish to ascribe to these gang-bangers are in your head, not mine.

Chapter 15. In which one is found, and one is lost

The time seemed to fly by. Both of us were now looking for the opening that would allow Majestic Woman to leave the LoH and allow Cindi and me to move on to the next phase of the Plan. She was still spending most of her “Majestic Woman” time with Power Man and the Wraith, searching for clues that might lead to Sadie.

Time with me was spent exploring. Each other, my life, her life, there was a lot to cover, for both of us. And there was time for fun too, in bed, in the kitchen (together), around town (clothed this time), sailing my yacht along the beautiful Western Australia Indian Ocean coastline and among the islands (barely clothed in swimwear this time, both of us).

Along the way we had plenty of time to work out the details of our Plan. That’s right, I said our Plan! Yes, Cindi had embraced the Plan fully, regardless of the consequences to her. For example, Cindi convinced me to do something that had never occurred to me before. I asked my herd for volunteers. I only needed one or two, but I had to ask them blind. I could only say that it would be life-threatening duty and that Cindi and I would be carrying the greatest risk. I even warned them that they might die and still never know what was going on. Adults only, no one under eighteen.

I was expecting maybe a hundred responses at best. I thought Cindi had unrealistic expectations of the whole army taking one step forward. I was braced for no responses at all. In the end, there were over sixteen thousand volunteers in just two days. It took us almost a month just to read through all the responses.

How was that possible? There were only about eighty-four hundred adults in the “Ten Thousand” after all. Well not only did every single adult volunteer, but they all told their parents and grandparents about it. Almost half of the volunteers were “retirees”.

Every note, every single one of them began with “My Lord”. Clearly Cindi had as big an effect on my herd as she had had on me. I was overwhelmed. I was ... well, I was touched. And I was ready to get things moving.

With such a wealth of willing support, I began to think bigger. I set up a truly daunting blind transaction network for conducting the business end of the Plan. It was easy when you could deliver the encryption keys to both endpoints telepathically. And after careful consideration, I chose a Pakistani commodities trader as the “public face” of the Plan, along with Cindi herself. Now we just needed an opportunity. So we waited.

Throughout this time a mild and warm spring was giving way to an early summer. We spent the time we had happily. I was beginning to understand that the biggest missing piece from my shadow kingdom for all these endless years had been my queen.

* * *

Meanwhile back in “Majestic Woman” world, the search work with Claud and Blake started out strained. She had abandoned Claud for two days when he was still very emotionally fragile. It was not just a touchy-feely thing; Claud himself knew he was a danger to those around him right now. He and Blake both were hoping for her to help keep him on an even keel. But ultimately they were just men, and how long can any man really stay mad at a woman as beautiful as Cynthia? They even learned to respect her mysterious weekly Tuesday evening appointment that she absolutely would not break.

Those Tuesday evening dance classes were helping keep Cindi sane. It was good not to have to be “on stage” literally all the time that she was in her “Majestic Woman” body. It was good to be able to do something that made her feel close to me, that made her feel like she was serving me, even though that life was on the opposite side of the globe.

Yasmin’s class was as good as Cindi had hoped. More and more she found herself, like Yasmin, moving sensuously, swaying her hips, flowing and wiggling as she walked, framing herself with her arms when she stood, all as if she were dancing, even when dancing was the furthest thing from her mind. I could tell the difference; interestingly so could Blake and, if I could judge from body language, so could Claud. None of us wanted to bring it to her attention. It was amusing in a way. I think we were all afraid that if we told her, she’d get self-conscious about it and stop.

* * *

About six weeks into the search for Powerhouse they made a breakthrough of sorts. Power Man and Majestic Woman were doing slow spirals over Carthage City. Cindi from the outskirts working inward, Claud from the center of downtown working outward. Both moving slowly, much more slowly than in their earlier passes over the whole route.

Near the airport, Cindi saw a warehouse with an odd feature, four rows of windows across the roof, clearly designed to let in sunlight for natural lighting. The warehouse seemed to be abandoned so broken windows should be expected, but why one, and exactly one, broken window near the center of the roof?

Her super-vision could not detect any of the tell-tale marks of someone walking around up there. There was no broken glass lying on the roof either, so the pane was probably broken from above, not below. The pane was completely broken out, so it was probably deliberate, not due to weather, or animals, or other incidental causes.

She called Claud and Blake; they were there in seconds. Examining the floor of the warehouse with super-senses and with Blake’s keen detective mind, they soon put together an interesting story about what had happened the last time humans had set foot in the warehouse.

Two groups of people had entered the warehouse, one group from the east, the other from the west. They had formed two loose and ragged lines in middle of the empty floor, one north-south line to the east of center, the other to the west of center, about 25 yards apart from each other, all, to a man, wearing sneakers. In the center, two individuals had come together, only about 4 feet between them, an easy conversational distance. Then something had caused both groups to scatter frantically.

The broken glass on the floor, not far from where the two conversing men had been standing, made it easy for the superheroes to make the hopeful intuitive leap. It could have been a gang-banger “peace conference”. It could have been Powerhouse coming down through the skylight that caused them to scatter.

But then what had happened to her after that? Surely no gang of punks would have been a challenge for an invulnerable, super-strong Rheonian like Powerhouse. Should they be looking for street gangs packing rheanite instead of guns and knives? That seemed hard to believe. Even so it was a thin thread of hope. The search now centered exclusively on Carthage City.

* * *

After another two long months there was still nothing else to show. Throughout this time in Carthage City, a bleak and rainy fall was giving way to an early winter.

Blake began to believe that the warehouse had been a false lead, that it was wishful thinking. Claud was having a hard time keeping his cool.

Now was a particularly unfortunate time for the Betelgeuse situation to break wide open. The Magic Lamp Corps had detected the Betelgeuseans mobilizing to attack Earth. The Corps were actually ready and willing to handle this themselves, but they wanted an Earth liaison to be present during the operation as well.

Everyone was shocked when Claud volunteered. Whenever anyone asked why, he just reminded them that he had performed the original recon, which made him a logical choice. When asked, even as delicately as possible, why he was ready to give up the search for his cousin, he just stared down the questioner. Even the Wraith dropped his gaze in a staring contest with Power Man.

But Majestic Woman thought she understood. She believed that Claud knew that he was much closer to the edge of his sanity than anyone (else) suspected. She thought he wanted to get away before he started ripping apart Carthage City brick-by-brick. She talked to Blake about it. Blake eventually agreed with her. He sent Claud as the Betelgeuse operation liaison.

The actual fight against Betelgeuse was rather anticlimactic. The combined might of the assembled Magic Lamp Corps, plus Power Man (temporarily outfitted with Uenan anti-rheanite shielding), was much more than the Betelgeusean Navy could handle. With their fleet badly damaged, Betelgeusean dreams of conquest were set back decades.

When the mop up was complete and it was time to return home, Claud opted not to. Hamish returned to Earth through the Uenan wormhole alone. Claud flew off the opposite direction, determined to put even more light-years between himself and Earth. He was still carrying his communicator though, Uenan technology that could locate him anywhere in the universe and communicate with him instantly, regardless of distance. He was not beyond reach.

* * *

Eventually I was the one that found Powerhouse. Only ten days after Power Man had departed for interstellar parts unknown, I noticed something strange through the eyes of a Carthage City cop. I had been monitoring most of “Carthage City’s Finest” for almost two months, hoping that I might find something.

The strange thing that I had found today was a short punk, wearing his pants below his ass, and rope after rope of gold-plated chains around his neck. Well, that was not so particularly unusual for this part of town. What was unusual was that from one of the chains dangled a huge smoky gray gemstone.

He was wearing rheanite as a bauble. I was in his head picking his brain instantly. What I was seeing sickened me. I didn’t know if I wanted Cindi to find Powerhouse like this, but I knew it would damage her trust in me, to say the least, if I handed this off to someone else.

It was a Tuesday afternoon. Cindi had had Majestic Woman call it an early day in the frustrating, fruitless Carthage City hunt. It was so discouraging, especially now that she was essentially going it alone. At the start Claud had needed her to keep him from going mad or giving up. Now it was her having trouble sticking with it without Claud by her side. So she was at home, practicing her smoking hot “final exam” dance for her last dance class tonight. She had politely asked me to stay out of her head when she was working on it. She wanted to surprise me with it.

To hell with that! I interrupted her practice with a seed thought: «“I’ve found her. I’ve found Sadie.“»

First she stumbled, losing her concentration. Then she had a flash of annoyance that I had not honored her request for privacy. But, as she processed what I had said, it only took her an instant to switch gears. In mere moments she had forgotten about the dance and had wrapped her Majestic Woman persona and uniform around herself.

“Great Hera! Is she okay?”

«“I haven’t rescued her. I’ve only found her ... in the mind of, um, Bugspray.“»

“Bugspray?”

«“Her, ah, captor. That’s what he calls himself. Cindi, prepare yourself, she’s a mess.“»

“Show me, My—Show me.”

Trigger Start

I planted the image in her head of Powerhouse as I had found her in the banger’s head, a gaunt naked heroin addict with stringy blond hair, steel collar around her neck, heavy chains binding her to the pipes in a building basement. There were two thick gold-plated rings, attached to each of her nipples, and another thick golden ring attached to her clitoral hood. Threaded through the three rings was a loose triangle of thin jewelry chain. The banger called it her “happy chain” because of the way she squirmed and squealed whenever he pulled on it. «“The rings are hollow, filled with crushed rheanite. That is how he keeps her powers sapped.“»

“Where is she? How did this happen?”

«“She’s in Carthage City, babe. I think the warehouse was not a false clue after all. The gang banger who has her is wearing a huge piece of rheanite as, um, ‘bling’. With what I’ve pieced together so far, he just thought it looked cool. He didn’t know what it could do until Powerhouse tried to take him down at the warehouse. She tackled him on the run, but then the radiation hit her. He ended up taking her down instead.“»

«“Even then he didn’t know what was sapping her powers. She almost got away a couple of times in the first few minutes. But this kid who has her is pretty savvy. He figured it out quickly.“»

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit! Do you have coordinates? An address?“

«“It’s somewhere in the Piedmont Park slums. Nowhere near that warehouse. I haven’t been able to trick him into thinking of the address, so we’ll just have to wait until he gets there. He’s a pimp, still making his rounds. I have no idea when he’s going to return to the apartment building where he’s keeping her. I do know it’s his gang’s nest. They have a protection arrangement with the landlord for some number of buildings. He basically forced the landlord to just give them that building.“»

“Can you waterboard this degenerate? Make him give her location up?” She had come a long way from being upset with me for waterboarding Portal City mobsters. Maybe I should have seen that as a warning sign.

«“Cindi, that could backfire. It’s a sure thing that he’s going to go there. It’s just a matter of time. We just have to be patient. Look, you don’t have to sit on your hands at home. Why don’t you teleport to Carthage City? Right now he’s near the corner of Johnson and Monticello. Just come in at two or three thousand feet and stay there until I know more. Tell the duty officer that you think you may have a lead, but don’t want to cause another false alarm.“» Everyone pretty much thought that the warehouse had been a red herring. They’d understand.

«Teleporting now.» Giving location and reasoning to the duty officer, Elasto, she was off again.

«Over Piedmont Park now. Do you have anything more?»

«“Just grizzly details, babe. Sure you want them?“»

Grimly she responded, «Yes.»

«“Okay, this banger, as I said, he calls himself ‘Bugspray’, he’s a real piece of work. He’s only twenty-three, but he’s broken over two dozen whores. He’s a complete manipulative sadist, hooks them on heroin, dicks with their heads, lets the rest of the gang scare the shit out of them, and comes in as the savior and ‘stops’ them. The women all love him and cling to him like he were some hero in a cheap romance novel. They’ll do anything he says. Then he passes them around to the gang as rewards. The women still love him. Eventually he puts them out on the streets to turn tricks. It’s pretty creative brainwashing for a sleazoid gang banger.“»

«Um, really?» Cindi was revolted, of course, but some other disturbance was brewing in her head as well. I should have paid more attention, but I was lost in the moment, in the drama, just like I assumed she was.

«“Really. Cindi ... he brainwashed Sadie too. She’s completely devoted to the sick fuck.“»

«Damn. My Lord, we’ve been combing this city for months. How did we miss this?»

«“Remember when you said that my superpower is ‘keeping a low profile’? Bugspray is like that. He’s very good at not being noticed. I only noticed him because a cop did. The cop only noticed him because he slipped on a patch of ice and flailed his arms.“»

«Shit. People’s lives hang on these coincidences.»

«“I know, baby. We lucked out. Oh, Cindi, he just walked into the building. He’s ‘home’. It’s a brick three-story, 13435 Johnson Avenue. This is what it looks like.“»

I flashed her the image of the front of the building, as seen by some guy on the other side of the street.

She was there in no time flat. Ever the do-gooder, she knocked on the door. Even though her mind was churning with rage, she was not going to break in without verifiable probable cause. How different from a few minutes ago, when she happily would have had me torture someone. “A rationalizing animal”, indeed. A tall, gangly grinning man met her at the door. He turned and shouted back into the building, ”Bugspray, come quick!“

Soon the shorter, stockier man was there. His grin if anything was even bigger, He held out his rheanite bauble, saying “DAY-um, looks like I’m gonna bag me another super-bitch!“

His arrogance turned to blind fear when she pushed him back against the wall. He was afraid for his life, but he was even more shocked that Majestic Woman was completely unfazed by the super-slut-taming rock.

“I think that’s all the probable cause I need.”

She was talking to me or maybe just to herself, but she didn’t care if these assholes heard. Punching through the floor she flew down to the basement. Sadie was there, much like the image I had shown her, completely naked, length of heavy, coarse steel chain padlocked to the steel collar around her neck, securing her to the pipes on the wall, fine jeweller’s chain strung in a loose loop through her three gold rings. The man Sadie had been sucking off backed away in horror, but Sadie was oblivious.

“No, noooo, Jay, come baaack. Gotta fin’sh ya awf. C’mon. Play wif my rings. Pull my happy chain. Feelsh good.”

But “Jay” was already gone, fled up the stairs. Then Sadie’s rheumy gaze fell on Majestic Woman.

“Oh GAWD! Nawt you again! I don’ need youuu, Miz Perfeck, starin’ down yer nozzze at meeee. Go ‘way.”

“No, Sadie. I’m here to help. I gotta get you out of here.”

“DON’ TOUSH ME! ... Bugshpray givez me alla help ... I neeeeed. G’wan. Ged outta here. Yer nawt rilly heeere anyways. It’z jussa dream. Why can’ I have niiice dreams anymore when I’m hiiiiigh? Al’ays these nazzzzty Debbie Downer Do-gooder dreams. GO ‘WAY!”

I had to interrupt. «“Cindi, they’re coming down the stairs now. Armed to the teeth.“»

“I’m gonna kill them. I’m gonna kill every fucking one of them.”

«“No! Cindi! Don’t to that!“»

«Don’t tell me “No”. “What Would Majestic Woman Do?” She’d fucking slaughter these animals!»

It was too late. Faster than the eye could follow, she cut a swath through Bugspray and his gang. She held nothing back. In five seconds, maybe less ... they were all dead.

Blood was everywhere, most especially all over Majestic Woman. Lost in the confusion, to everyone but me, was the quavering voice of Sadie begging, “No. No. Please don’t kill him. I love him. Please, no.”

Majestic Woman was back, drenched in blood. It was worse than Sadie’s worst bad trip ever. The drug was muting Sadie’s outward reactions, but I could see her Rheonian rage like a beacon.

Cindy was trying to hug her. She couldn’t understand why Sadie was pushing her away. Eventually Sadie collected enough lucidity to give all that anger to Cindi with both barrels.

Trigger End

“Why di’jou do it?” Sadie screamed.

“Why did I kill those bastards? Look at you! They did this to you!

“But I loved him,” she wailed.

“Sadie, baby, you think you loved him. He was manipulating you.“

Now Sadie exploded again, “You don’ unnerstand. You’re Miss Perfeck Hero! How could you unnerstand? Yeah, he owned me. He toyed wif me. He ‘bused me. He passed me ‘round like a fuckin’ bag of chips. But ... but ... I loved him. I was his fuckin’ slave and I loved him! I never wan’ed to be found. I never wan’ed to be freed. I wan’ed to be his ... his slave ... his bitch ... his fucktoy ... forever. Why am I even tellin’ you this stuff? You could never unnerstand!

«Oh my Gods, I do understand.»

It was like a dam broke in Cindi’s mind. Images of waterboarding, of humiliation after humiliation, even of being forced to fuck Ares, all flashed through her head in an instant.

«“No, baby. Don’t do this to yourself. It’s not the same. You know it’s not the same.“»

«Isn’t it?» Cindi was crying now, crying for Sadie, crying for herself. Damn.

«“It’s not the same. It’s not! Look at her! Look at her! I could never have done that to you. I could never have done that to anyone. I know I’m not a hero. I never claimed to be one of the good guys. But God DAMN it, Cindi, I’m not Bugspray!“»

«No, no, My Lord. You’re not. But I am your fucking slave, and I do love you. I understand her that much at least.»

«“Cindi ... I’m still insulted. I’m angry that you could compare me to that, that waste of human skin.“»

«It’s not that. It’s not about you. It’s about me. It’s ... it’s ... it’s how I felt before I knew that you loved me. I loved you hopelessly. I knew that you could snuff me out like a candle without a second thought. Sometimes I thought that you might. But I still loved you.»

«“I see. I think I do.“»

I couldn’t leave things like this, but Cindi was about ready to dig in her heels, and we still had to take care of Sadie. I had to handle this carefully, otherwise this whole house of cards could collapse on me. It wasn’t about “the Plan”. Fuck the Plan! I loved her, and it felt like I was on the verge of losing her!

«“So you want to take her to Themiscyra?“» It had been in the back of her thoughts since even before she murdered those punks, but now I used it to get her back on track ... as much as I could.

«Maybe they can help her.»

Okay. Time to switch gears. Give her something else to think about. I don’t feel bad about the diversion; she needs to know this anyway. «“Let me warn you first. DON’T remove the jewelry. I’m reading a murderous rage inside her right now.“»

«But—»

«“She wants to murder YOU.“»

«Oh. If I give her her powers back—»

«“She’ll do it. She’ll kill you.“»

Sadie had passed out now. All this had been too much for her in her drug-addled and weakened state. Cindi hunted through the building. She found some clothing for Sadie. She broke and removed the chain and collar anchoring Sadie to the pipes. She dressed Sadie, over her half-conscious objections. In her blood-slicked, trembling arms, Cindi gently cradled the fallen heroine. She called Spyglass for pickup.

Elasto was astonished. “Is that ... is that Powerhouse?”

“Yes. Put me five hundred feet over downtown Athens please.” Carrying Sadie, she knew that she needed to come in literally under the radar. Maybe the rheanite changed that, but why should she take the risk?

Elasto didn’t move. He was horrified by the scene in front of him. The blood-covered heroine. The pale, skeletal woman in her arms ...

“But—”

“Elasto! Now!” Then she softened her tone. “Look, I’ll be back soon. Call the Wraith. Have him meet me here.”

He snapped out of it. “Right. Downtown Athens. Five hundred feet. Blake will be here when you get back. I’ll handle it.”

On the way from Athens to Themiscyra, Cindi’s mind was a whirl.

Cindi was still trying to solve the puzzle in her head. What was the difference between Sadie and her? What was the difference between Bugspray and me? She knew that originally I had only intended for her to be a pawn in my grand scheme. At first I wanted to try to derail this whole train of thought again. But then her thoughts turned to the way our relationship had changed. She remembered, thank goodness, that I had fallen in love with my pawn and made her my partner.

I decided this was actually a train of thought I wanted her to follow. She was determined to be a contributing partner. And yet, she couldn’t deny the part of her, a major part of her sometimes, that wished she were still just my helpless pawn.

Amazingly, in the midst of this emotional maelstrom, her long-practiced strategic planning skills kicked in. This whole mess was a fiasco, a tragedy to be sure, and she was still not sure how to handle her emotions about it all, but she saw how we could use it to advance the Plan.

Incredible! Even I couldn’t think about the Plan at a time like this. How did she do it?

* * *

Kynthia brought Sadie to the emergency room in Themiscyra. Everything started happening at once, and didn’t slow down until hours later when Sadie was in a bed, in a private room, doctors and nurses hovering over her. In her mind Kynthia’s tension finally broke. In her mind she turned Sadie over to her caregivers.

«“Only one more thing to take care of here.“»

Soon she was on the phone. “Mamá. I’m at the hospital. Sadie’s here. Come quick.”

Minutes later Hippolyta burst through the door. The first thing she noticed was her daughter, covered in blood.

“What happened to you, Kynthia?”

“Nothing happened to me, Mamá. I happened to the lowlifes who did this to Sadie.“

Now Hippolyta saw Sadie, gaunt, pale, a shadow of her former self. Her eyes widened further.

“They’re dead? The ones who did this? They’re dead, right?”

“Yes, Mamá.”

“That’s too bad. Death’s too good for them. They should have suffered more. They should still be suffering now.”

“Sorry, Mamá. I guess I’m still not bloodthirsty enough for you.“

Hippolyta softened. She smiled at her daughter. “You did fine. You got her here. You truly are an amazing heroic woman.” She reached out. She touched her daughter’s bloody cheek. “I’m so, so proud of you, Kynthia. Now ... go. I’ll stay here with Sadie. You need to clean yourself up.”

“There hasn’t been time, Mamá.” Cindi didn’t feel heroic, but she did feel filthy.

“There’s time now, dear. She’s safe. She’s in good hands. You did well. You should take care of yourself now.“

“I will, Mamá. But first I have to tell you some things. Sadie ... she was in love with one of them.”

“Stockholm Syndrome?”

“Worse, he brainwashed her. Look. For a while she’s ... she’s going to want to kill me. Revenge for me killing her ‘lover’. I think she’ll get over it. But until then you can’t remove the rheanite.”

“What rheanite?”

“There is some permanent ... jewelry. Two nipple rings and a clit ring. They’re welded on. They’ll have to be cut off, but not yet. They are filled with rheanite. You’ll have to fix her before you can remove them. Otherwise, she might rip up half the planet trying to find me. Trying to kill me, Mamá.”

“So you’re not staying with her?”

“No, I’m going to tell them, the Legion, that I am, but I’m not. I’m going to go away for a while. I ... I have a lot to think about, Mamá.”

“Going you be with your ‘God’?” Hippolyta couldn’t hide the quaver of concern in her voice.

“Yes, Mamá. Look, all those months ago ... In your office ... It’s not as one-sided as I made it sound. He trusts me. He loves me.”

“But Kynthia, can you really trust Him? I’m not just saying that because He’s male. I’m not. He’s a God, dear. What will you do if He decides He’s done with you? What will you do if He decides He’s used you up?“

«“Let her have her fear, Cindi. It’ll be useful to the Plan.“»

«Right.»

Cindi lowered her eyes. “I ... I’ll be okay Mamá. He won’t ... He won’t hurt me.”

“Kynthia. Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

“Mamá, seriously, I’ll be fine,” said Cindi, with another nervous glance downward for good measure.

“Kynthia, I’ll miss you. Please be careful.” The Queen of the Amazons looked over at her new charge. “Don’t worry about Sadie. We’ll take good care of her. We fixed her once; we’ll do it again.”

“I know you will, Mamá. No one else anywhere else could help her right now. You’re the best.”

* * *

Later, back on Spyglass, Blake was wearing a grim expression.

“I’ve been to the coordinates in Carthage City that you teleported up from, Cynthia,” says Blake.

“I see.”

“We’re not going to be able to use you as the poster girl for our ‘no kill’ policy anymore, are we?”

“No. No, you’re not. Blake, I’m ... I’m gonna need—”

“You’re gonna need some time off. Indefinite leave of absence. Not a problem. Elasto saw the state that Sadie was in. He also saw that you were covered in gore. Look, I can convince Commissioner Gerten not to go after you. But it would be best if you ... disappeared for a while anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Blake. They had guns in a closed-in basement. I want to say that I was afraid of stray bullets, of ricochets. I want to say that I was protecting Sadie. But that would be a lie. Oh, Blake! If you had seen her!”

“It’s okay, Cynthia. I did see the Spyglass security video from when you brought her through. I talked to Elasto. I ... I don’t know if I would have done anything differently if it were me ... So ... you’re going back to her now?”

“Yeah ... Has anyone called Claud?” She wanted to know the answer, but mostly she didn’t want Blake to notice the lie in her response to him. She hated to lie to Blake, but she had to. I had refused to let him in on the Plan, so she had no choice.

“He’s on his way back now. At his top speed, without the Uenan wormhole to help him, he’s estimating 35 days to get back. He said to tell you ‘Thanks’, Cynthia.”

Cindi just nodded her head. We would have a month before anyone would know that Majestic Woman was gone. Cindi was right. This would be the perfect time for her to drop out of sight. This horrible tragedy for Majestic Woman was now an incredible stroke of luck for the Plan.

* * *

Teleporting back to Greece, Cindi was soon in Themiscyra again. She tried to look in on Sadie once more, but the throng of friends who had come to visit her already was just too daunting. They were all willing to make way for the Chosen One, but Cindi was not sure she should try to see Sadie anyway. If Sadie was awake, Cindi was not sure what she would say. She was not sure how Sadie would receive her. Better to just leave.

Cindi walked to her mother’s mansion not far from the hospital, lost in her thoughts. She went up to her room. She left her LoH communicator in her sock drawer. The irony was not lost on her. In her heart she said goodbye to her life as a superhero and as an Amazon, possibly forever. Tears in her eyes, she flew off to meet me.

* * *

She alit on the upper balcony of a huge two-story penthouse apartment, her new home. Waiting for her there was a tall, dark-skinned man, one of the Ten Thousand. It was not someone she had seen before. After all, she was nowhere near Falkirk, Western Australia.

I was the tall dark stranger, of course. I ran up to Cindi. I wanted to welcome her. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to gaze into her eyes and hold her hand and show her around our new place. But she motioned me back. She was trembling. She was sobbing silently. There was a lot of crazy emotion going through her head, but through it all I could see she loved me. The problem was that her self-control was so fragile right now she was afraid she might hurt me.

I could respect that, but I might have a solution. I had thought we wouldn’t need it until later, but now would work too. In the center of the apartment was a spiral staircase. Draped over the guardrail was a bike lock attached to fifty meters of plastic-coated steel cable, which was attached solidly to the two-story metal post in the middle of that stairwell. It would be long enough that she could get anywhere in the apartment while locked down. I picked up the lock and showed it to her.

“Would you like to be just human for a while?”

Still sobbing, she nodded her head. I clipped the lock to her D-ring, and smothered her in a hug. At first it was disconcerting to her that I was not “Greg Wolfe”, the body she was used to calling “Lord”, but that only lasted a second or two. She buried her head in my chest and sobbed. She clutched me as hard as she could, a hug that would have crushed my ribs moments ago. I stroked her hair and comforted her. I couldn’t help that this is a bit arousing to me though. I was touching Cindi in her own body for the very first time. I wouldn’t have minded a little more of this, but Cindi was trying to get herself under control. She had some things that she wanted to say to me.

“Haven’t snif haven’t you ever wondered why I’ve never asked you for another name to call you ... other than ‘My Lord’?“

“I’m not sure I would have had one to give you.”

“That doesn’t matter. You are My Lord. You will always be My Lord ... Do you remember when I offered to be a crack whore for you?”

“I try not to. It wasn’t exactly my finest moment with you.”

She looked up at me with love in her eyes and laughed, but stayed on course. “I offered because I was afraid, but when I said it, it excited me too. Offering to do animal porn for you. Offering to be a drug addict for you. Offering to fuck STD carriers bareback in public for you. Offering to be a torture slut for you. It excited me. And it scared me that it excited me. You could have done any of those things to me, or worse, and I would have let you.“

“Cindi, I didn’t want—”

“But you didn’t. You loved me instead. You saved me from myself. And I’ll love you and worship you forever because of it. I’m so frightened of what could have happened to me. I’m terrified of what I could have allowed myself—what I could have helped myself—to become.“

“But Cindi, I did this to you,” I protested. The traitor in my shorts was not paying any attention to my self-flagellation. Neither was Cindi.

“My Lord. This is who I really am. This is who I was meant to be. Some day someone else might have found the slave inside me, the way that Bugspray found the slave inside Sadie. If that slavemaster were a true sadist ... if that slavemaster were cruel to me ... I could have ended up just like Sadie, maybe even worse. But instead the man who made me a slave loves me. You ... love me. You make me happy. You protect me, even from myself—”

“And I only did it because I planned to use you as bait—”

“But you loved me enough abandon your Plan, at least the part of the Plan that called for me being a helpless, clueless pawn. You loved me enough to tell me. And I loved you enough to volunteer.”

“And this thing that you volunteered for, is it any better than any of those other fates I ‘saved’ you from?”

“It has to be done. There’s no other way. The dominoes have to fall, and I’m the first domino. But I know that you’ll protect me. I know that while I’m walking that wire you’ll save me from them. And you’ll save me from myself. My Lord, in Carthage City ... in that basement ... I looked into Sadie’s eyes and I saw myself. But you have to believe me, I never saw you when I looked at her master. Oh, far, far from it.“

She pushed away from me. She reached under her hip and handed me the key to her collar. She removed her uniform, vambraces, boots. She fell to the floor. She found a familiar posture, one she hadn’t adopted for months. Head down. Ass up. Arms stretched toward me.

“My Lord and Master, you made me the woman I was meant to be. Then you cherished and protected me. What can I do to convince you that I am living my dream when I ask you how I can serve you? How could I not serve you? I owe you everything.“

How could I even respond to something like that. I had lived twelve thousand years, loving thousands of women. But none of that had prepared me for this one. I’d had slave women for over nine thousand years. But none of them taught me what to say to the free woman who wanted to be my slave.

Well, the big head was coming up blank. But the little head still had something to say. “I am so fucking hot for you right now, Cindi. Come with me.”

She stood with a grin and followed me. There was still a bit of sadness in her eyes, but she wanted me, even without slavebody desires driving her. I could show her around the apartment later. Right now it was time to take her on a guided tour of the bed.

* * *

Hours later we had showered. We were having a late dinner by Arizona time although it was nowhere near dinner time here. I had removed the lock and cable, so she was her full-powered self. She was trying to be as relaxed and natural as she was used to being after sex, but there was still some tension in there. Part of it was Sadie; she couldn’t stop thinking about the poor girl. But part of it was about herself, or rather about her body. “It’s not the same, My Lord.”

I had been afraid this might happen. “I know. ‘Wet firecracker’, right?”

“Right.”

“I’m sorry about that. There’s nothing I can do to give you Annette’s genome.”

“It’s okay. I feel so different having sex in this body. I feel so much ... less, so inadequate. I just hope ... I hope I didn’t disappoint you.”

I smiled at her. I gave her a deep, passionate kiss. “You were fine. Even without your powers, you are a world-class athlete with a body Helen of Troy would envy. Your vagina is so tight that if it were not also so wet I never would have made it in at all. Your muscular control is so good that I was fighting not to cum almost constantly. I was in your head, Cindi. I know that it wasn’t as good for you as it was for me. I hope I didn’t let you down.“

“Are you kidding? Can normal humans go for that long? Seriously, I’ve seen the commercials warning about erections longer than four hours. What’s it called? Priapism? I wasn’t watching the clock but you had to be at least close to that. I mean, yeah, the orgasms weren’t that great, but they just ... kept ... coming. I honestly lost control at some point. Thank the Gods ... No, scratch that. Thank goodness for the ‘Shield’, or I wouldn’t be able to walk right now. ”

“Men in my herd can maintain erections almost indefinitely.” I had once had some studies done, very discreetly. My men were actually still circulating blood adequately to maintain tissue oxygenation while fully erect. Again, I had bred them for it, but until recently I never knew how it worked.

“Well, I ... I loved it. Every endless minute of it. But it’s not the same ... My Lord, I can’t live in Annette’s body forever. She deserves to live her life too. Will it always be like this? Will I always be like this?“

“Let’s ... let’s just get through the Plan. There’s no definite future for you or me or anyone as long as those Olympian bastards are around.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her. I still hadn’t figured out a sure way for her to survive the end game.

That thought was a complete mood killer for me. She sensed it too, that something was bothering me. It didn’t take a psychic, heh.

“Okay, so what’s next then?” She was uncomfortable, I was uncomfortable, so she wanted to talk business. It was something to fill the silence.

“Well, the next part of the Plan calls for us to bait the hook and wait for a bite.”

“And while we’re waiting?”

“Well, we can’t go out together yet. Things developed a bit ... suddenly. There’s no wardrobe for you here. Your Majestic Woman uniform is the only thing you have to wear. Annette is sending some things from Falkirk, but it may take a day or two. We can go out shopping for more after that. And then we just do whatever we want until things start happening.”

“So I’m trapped in this apartment with you—”

“Only for twelve hours a day. The other twelve will be in Falkirk.”

“Ssh. Don’t interrupt.” She grinned at me with an evil glint in her eye. “I’m trapped here with you for days. Just you ... and me ... no one else ... nothing but the two of us and all ... that ... time. How will we ever survive?“

I was still mulling that over when she fell to her knees and posed in prostration again. Humbly, meekly, but with a full voice, she looked up at me and pleaded, “Oh, My Lord! It is my greatest joy to be your slave. Thank you for finding me. Thank you for bringing me to you. Thank you for taming me and training me in your service. How can I serve you now?”

My mouth was dry, but my pants very nearly weren’t. If you think it would be a rush to hear that kind of talk from a woman who was completely under your thumb, that was nothing compared to hearing it from a woman who could snap your neck like a dry twig.

Yes, I was sure we’d be able to find something to do to pass the time.

* * *

A month later, Power Man finally arrived back on Earth. The Wraith, through one of his new “undercover Amazon” Interpol contacts, arranged for Power Man to visit his ailing cousin in Themiscyra. When he arrived there, hugs were given and received like precious currency. Tears flowed like water. The things they had been waiting to say to each other, she for one month, he for five, were said and heard and cherished.

Eventually, Claud’s only living relative, the last hope for saving their race from extinction, tired and drifted off to sleep.

Claud went out into Themiscyra in search of his great friend, Cynthia, to thank her for ... well, for everything. But she was nowhere to be found.

To Be Continued in Chapter 16. In which the hook is baited and the line is cast