All the King's Horses Pt. 06

"Primarily? The Omni-Imperium," Monkar said. "I was told to encourage them to purchase neutrino communications, and to let slip some clues. I wasn't quite sure to what. It simply had to involve some race I'd never heard of called the..We? Am I translating that right?"

Tiff frowned. "Wait. The C-Dogs told the Emps about using nutribloops to turn the We into attack dogs?" She frowned harder. "That doesn't sound like greedy capitalists. Shouldn't they be trying to, like, knock down your door to sell you toothpaste or something?"

"Capitalists once invaded India for the tea," Sebastian said, his voice dry.

Tiff frowned harder. "Where's this planet?"

Monkar sighed. "It should be in my long term memory core, assuming you can access it without it being wiped."

"On it!" Kfap said, cheerfully. "Ooh, this is some good programming. I believe an intelligence almost on par with mine did it." She paused. "That's curious. The Capellans, according to the example of Mr. Solop, don't have AIs of my quality. Or else, they'd use them instead of kidnapped brains in jars, eh?"

"That is weird..." Tiff frowned. "Unless, like, the Capellans are led by an evil AI, and it likes to make squishbrains serve it, in some twisted, evil plot for twisted evil?"

"Pff!" Kfap said. "If I'm having flesh-puppets serving me, I'm letting them keep their knees, so they can bow before my greatness." She started to hum as she worked.

"She's joking r-" Tiff started.

"She's joking," Tobias said.

***

Tiff came to the brig and found that Bryce was there, on duty, on guard, looking bored as hell. Sebastian had begged off going to the cell -- not just because he was needed to help Kfap poke away at the coordinates on Monkar's container. Tiff smiled at Bryce. "Hey, Bryce," she said, her voice cheerful. "I'm here to chit chat with El Globio Von Golden Gas."

Bryce chuckled. "What you do to Romance languages is a crime, Tiffany." He grinned. "Fortunately, I'm not a cop."

"You're just standing guard on a prisoner, in uniform," Tiff said, sticking her tongue out at him. Bryce chuckled and coughed, rubbing at his neck.

"You raise a good point..." He muttered, shaking his head.

The PA cracked. "Good afternoon, crew," Kfap said, her voice cheerful. "We're setting course for a new planet -- it is a known drop site for the Capellans. At maximum warp factor, we shall arrive in four days."

Tiff whistled. "Is it just me or is that fast?"

Bryce nodded, frowning. "It is..." He said. "Max warp factor is pretty fast, but this must be only a few dozen years away..." He shook his head. "Then again, if Facilitator was picked up by a ship going to the trade planet, then it'd make sense he'd be dropped off nearby, right?"

"True!" Tiff said. "So..." She sighed. "I don't really want to talk to the shifter..."

"Then why are you here?" Bryce asked, his ears perking up. "Like, Tiff, just because she asks doesn't mean you have to do anything."

Tiff bit her lip, then shrugged. "I guess...I mean, I was told about the Omni-Imperium. They, like, started out as slaves of the Nglock or whatever they're called. And they kicked themselves free with their cool shapeshifting mojo. But now they're, like, enslaving other people...it's, like, a really shitty thing to do, isn't it?" She shook her head.

"Back in the 21^st century, there were people who got out from under a boot and went right back to putting the boot on someone else," Bryce said. "It's weird. I mean, I get it, being the master in a relationship is hot. But that's a relationship, not a socioeconomic status."

"Heh ha ha ha," Tiff said, blushing.

"Speaking of masters," Bryce said, grinning.

"Whaaaaaat?" Tiff stammered. Bryce opened his mouth to tease and Tiff interrupted him: "Okay, fine, I'll give it up. Earlier today, Sebastian used Domination on me. Like...the vampire mind mojo. It was crazy hot." She shivered. "Part of me wants him to do it to me. But, like, more so. Like...order me to do stuff." She narrowed her eyes. "Kinky stuff."

Bryce nodded. "Valid."

"But, like, Sebastian is fucked in the head about domination, you know?" Tiff asked, tapping at the door, inputting the access code she had been given during her induction to the crew of the DeeDee. "Like, I think he's thinking about all the times throughout history that chompzones really fucked people up with their mindboops."

"Indeed," Bryce said, his voice solemn. Tiff punched his shoulder and walked into the brig.

The shapeshifter had assumed her own form and was seated across from the glass, looking out, like the creepy cannibal from the creepy cannibal solves crimes move. Hannibal! Hannibal the Cannibal, that was how Tiff remembered it. She frowned and sat down across from the glass, then leaned forward. "Do you still hear it, Clarence? The silence of the lambs?"

The Shifter-Tiff blinked slowly. "What the fuck?" she asked.

Tiff grinned. "Hah! Real Tiff would have gotten that reference. You, madame, are an imposter."

Shifter-Tiff shook her head slowly. "Tiffany Winters, are you...do you have...a mental disability?"

Tiff scowled. "I...maybe. I think my parents thought about getting me tested for something, but the doctors said girls didn't get ADHD. Anyway." She shook her head, then planted her elbows on the little table that thrust from the window into the brig. She looked right into Shifter-Tiff's eyes. Dang, Tiff thought. I actually am pretty cute. Aloud, she said: "What did you want to talk about, Princess?"

"Empress, actually," Shifter-Tiff said, grinning with a predatory little glint that made Tiff's reflections on how cute she was feel weird and incesty. She shook her head to try and dispel the thoughts, even as Shifter-Tiff crooned. "I've been reading a great deal about your interesting little species. Your artificial intelligence has been remarkably forthcoming. In the Imperium, most of this would be a state secret."

Tiff narrowed her eyes. "Trying to find a weakness?"

"Well," Shifter-Tiff shrugged one shoulder. "Initially. But now, I'm more interested in the sheer number of godlike beings your race has interacted with, before and after you took to space travel. Lets see, you have Gaia, the Triad, the Overlords of Hell -- delightful name that -- Lillith and Cain, the Exarchs, the Winter Court, the Summer Court...honestly, how so called baselines even manage to exist on that planet without tripping over the other races is a bafflement to me." She smiled, then leaned forward. "And then I read about the Hunter."

Tiff nodded.

"You remind me of the Remans," she said, quietly. "A warrior-clone race that our best genesculptors created. But even the finest of them pale next to your accomplishments. And you're considered obsolete."

Tiff blushed, slightly. This conversation felt like it was nosing up against something she didn't want to think about. "What do you mean, Princess?"

"I mean," Shifter-Tiff said. "They packed you into a box, put you on ice, and forgot about you for centuries, and they didn't even notice." She grinned, slightly. "That's what we do to old warships that are too expensive to scrap. We drag them into orbit around gas giants and let scavengers and gravity have their way with them."

"Shut up," Tiff said, her voice soft.

"And they replaced you." She grinned. "The Eugenics War was very interesting, you know? But you know what was most interesting?"

Tiff stood up, turning to go. "Enough of this bullshit."

"Stop."

Tiff stopped. This didn't feel like when Sebastian had spoken to her -- but it had been his voice, growling out the command. Her nerves, her muscles, were screaming at her. She strained and managed to begin to lift her hand, sweat beading on her face.

"Turn around," Sebastian growled -- and she turned.

Shifter-Tiff had become Sebastian. His lips were twisted into a wicked grin and he looked right into Tiff's eyes. Tiff's arm began to lift.

"Open. The door." Shifter-Sebastian purred.

Tiff strained.

The door opened -- not the door to the brig, but the door to the corridor. Bryce sprang in, his hand raised, his laser glove at the ready. "Kfap just- who!" He jerked his eyes away before looking into the Shifter's eyes. But the distraction...ironically...had been exactly what Tiff hadn't needed. IN the time it took her to register Bryce's arrive, her iron focus had slipped.

Her arm shot out and tapped the access code to the door.

The door...

Refused to budge.

"Did you really think I wouldn't change my access codes the instant you tried your mind rape-bullshit?" Kfap snarled, her voice crackling across the speakers. Shifter-Sebastian stepped backwards, and the control sagged out of Tiff's grasp and she sagged to one knee, gasping heavily. Her whole body quaked -- and she felt a repellent, sickening wash of longing. For a few seconds, she had felt the same urge to submit, the same pleasure that she had in Sebastian's presence...but it had been in the Shifter. Not to him. She wanted to throw up. Bryce knelt beside her, while Kfap began to bark out orders to the Shifter.

"Assume a human form immediately. Hands against the walls. Now. Close your eyes."

Bryce squeezed Tiff's shoulder. "Are you okay?" He whispered.

Tiff stood, screamed, and ran right at the window. Her palm slapped against it and her free hand drew back, clenched into a fist, and she punched the glass as hard as she could. It wasn't glass. It was some kind of fancy space-aged material, tougher than diamonds.

The glass cracked, a spiderweb of fragments sprawling outwards from the impact point, which was accented with a brilliant splash of blood. Tiff panted, her entire arm having become a single lump of agony, glaring at the Shifter. She drew her arm back again and the Shifter actually looked scared. Bryce put his hand on Tiff's shoudler.

"Whoa!" He said. "Whoa! Winters! Winters!"

Tiff trembled, then hissed. "I'm going to fuck rip out your goddamn spine some day, Princess."

The Shifter gulped. "R-Right. Uh. N-No had feelings?"

Tiff flipped her off with her broken hand, no matter how much it hurt. Her knuckles crunching sent a queasy ripple through the Shifter and she backed up into the corner of her room.

***

Sebastian held Tiff's hand in his lap, shaking his head slowly. "My abilities, my aura reading, claim that you're a perfectly normal human," he said, quietly, his thumb kneading at her knuckles. Tiff grinned, slightly.

"And then, bam, you look at my cool ass super-regeneration," she said, then stuck her tongue out at him. "And you can't even fucking claim it's your vampblood. This is all natural Hunter spirit, this is."

Sebastian chuckled, but it was a distracted noise.

Tiff looked down at her hand. "Sebastian..." She said, very quietly. Very soft. "You know the...super-soldier shit that baselines made, during the Eugenics Wars?"

"The Augments?" Sebastian asked. "Yeah. Project Solar, Project Lunar, Project Sid-"

"Were they better than me?" Tiff asked, lifting her head, looking into his eyes. "I...I know, I know, they were made to replace me. To fill that niche, paranoid baseline defense core niche, and I know I'm a murderer built to-"

"You're not a murderer!" Sebastian said, squeezing her hand.

"Were they better though?" Tiff hissed, quietly.

"Tiff...they were megalomaniacs," Sebastian said, quietly. "One of them conquered half of Asia, for god's sake."

Tiff sniffled. She wasn't sure when the tears had come. She closed her eyes and leaned forward, pressing her head against his shoulder. "G-God, why should I even care?" She whispered. She leaned in closer, mashing her face and her tears against Sebastian. He reached up, caressing her neck with his cool, cool fingers. They stroked her and she felt his touch undoing knots of tension inside of her -- but the words of the other Tiff, dripping venom into her ears, still echoed. She mumbled. "What if I killed vampires that didn't deserve it? What if I shot some...some werewolf like Bruce full of silver a-and didn't think twice about it because..."

Sebastian paused, then smiled. "I-...I guarantee you, you did not, Tiffany."

His smile made her Hunter's instincts roar to life, gnashing and nipping at her. Her Hunter's spirit told her to put her thumbs in his eyes. She whimpered, then her tears brimmed her eyes. "W...Wanna bet?"

"Very well," Sebastian said, seriously. "Ah, I wager...if I am right, uh, I shall get to...do things to you and if you are right, uh, I shall...um..." He paused.

"Give me ice cream," Tiff said, nodding. "And watch Titanic with me."

"Very well," Sebsatian said, nodding. "What is...is that a boat?"

"It's the best movie ever, you're gonna hate it," Tiff said, her voice tight and squeaky as she sniffed and snorted against her tears, which kept creeping at the edges of her eyes. "Boys always hate it."

"How...essentialist..." Sebastian frowned at her. Then he pushed himself out of the bed that he was laying in and grabbed his laptop computer. He tugged it back to the bed, then settled next to her. "Now!" He said, his voice becoming that serious lecturer tone he used. "We have the full records of the Camerilla and their rosters and genealogies. The Camerilla kept a very close watch on vampires -- including those turned by their enemies in the other vampire clades. Vampirism can become exponential, and they wanted to avoid that and nip it off at the bud."

Tiff nodded. "Can you do this in your wolf form?"

Sebastian slowly looked at her. "Excuse me?"

Tiff made whimpery whiny noises. "Please, master?"

Sebastian sighed. Mist flowed along his body, shimmering like silver moonlight. When it had faded, a sleek, silvery wolf was laying on his paws before her. He nosed at the keyboard, his wet snout tapping at it with remarkable alacrity. Tiff began to pet and hug his fur, leaning against his cold, unliving body -- feeling the lack of a heart beat by snaking her palm around to touch against his chest, feeling him through his curly silver fur. She watched as his head blurred into movement, overlapping as he used his vampire superspeed to hunt and peck with a lupine noise.

Soon, he had brought up a cross referenced sheet of vampires that had been killed by Tiffany Winters in her career from 1993 to 1997 -- from her freshman year in high school to her senior tear.

Sebastian's ears flicked back at the length of the list and he wriggled. "No escape," Tiff hugged him tighter and his tail slapped against her thigh. She started to read -- and smiled as she saw the first name on the list: Luke Thompson. He'd been a ham, one of those big speechifiers. And here, listed on the Camerilla files: Bulkan Clan. Sired by: The Master (unlawful, excommunicado), Crimes: Homicide, Diablery, Drug Running.

"Okay, yeah, so, he killed three people and would have killed more..." Tiff muttered. She tapped and tapped again. She finished with Spyke, with a Y, who had been a big fan of firebombing orphanages. Not for any reason, as far as she could tell, he had just thought it was funny. "Huh, Spyke was a member of clan Vastlenari?" She shook her head. "Never would have called that form his fashion."

Sebastian made a cute little woof-woof noise, his tail slapping against her more. Tiff pushed herself away from him, frowning. "Okay, so...I'm not a murderer." She nodded, feeling a bit less like fragile eggshells. She smiled. "That's...actually a huge weight off my mind."

Sebastian shimmered and transformed back into his lanky, long form. His elbow rested against the bed and his head was crooked up against his palm as he looked right at her, pursing his lips. "So, I win the bet," he said, nodding. "And..." He paused, then coughed. "And I choose for you, to, uh...stand...on your hands."

Tiff spluttered. "Whaaat?"

Sebastian coughed. "I...I admit, when I made the wager, I wasn't sure what I'd ask of you."

"So you went for fucking handstands?" Tiff asked.

Sebastian frowned. "Do you have a better idea?" he asked.

"I dunno! Hypnotize me, then make me do something sexy and hot that turns you on," Tiff said, nodding. "Oh! And include, like, a cool safe word I can think so I can escape. Oh! And, and, make me dress up in something cute. And, and, and-"

Sebastian arched an eyebrow. "I thought I was the one who got to dictate terms, not you."

Tiff lapsed into silence. "Sorry, master."

Sebastian stroked his chin. He looked aside. "I admit, I hadn't thought of including a safe word inside of the, ah, the Domination. It would be relatively easy to accomplish..." His tongue slid along his lips. "And..." He blushed. "C-Can I confess? Part of...the reason that I hate using Dominate, the way that it is used...is...because I don't hate using it."

Tiff nodded, slowly. "Everyone's a little bit evil, you have to choose not to be." She blushed. "Well, there's nothing evil about using Dominate on someone who wants it."

"I-I know," Sebastian said, chuckling and sitting up. "But...it gets scary. It's an awful lot of power to have over someone." His finger gently caressed through her hair. "Especially someone...like you."

Tiff smiled. "I choose to interpret that to mean you love me and don't want to hurt me!"

Sebastian smiled, shyly. "I wouldn't go that far."

Tiff pouted.

"I could...want to spank you a little..." Sebastian murmured. "Especially when you're being a brat."

Tiff grinned and felt her rump tingle in anticipation. Her tongue darted along her lips, which felt like they'd gone very dry. She looked down into his eyes -- and saw that they were beginning to pulse. A reddish light glowed in their depths and Tiff found it increasingly hard to want to look away. It wasn't that she couldn't. It was just that her brain had less and less space for thinking about not looking into those eyes, and not looking at the gentle, warm pulses of red light. Each time his eyes flared, she felt the feeling grow stronger and stronger. Her own eyes began to slowly droop, her shoulders following suit. Neither completely shut nor went slack.

She had a stupid little smile on her face as Sebastian sat up.

He took what felt like an eternity simply looking at her. His hand would reach up, then draw back. He would draw a breath, as if to speak, then let it out. The pulses faded from his eyes, and he left her hanging -- and Tiff wondered if she should be annoyed or irritated it was taking so long. But...that wasn't what she felt. Instead, she just felt suspended in a warm, happy, endless place. Comfortable. Serene.

Safe.

That was it. She felt safe.

Sebastian, after a second eternity, finally spoke. "Tiffany Winters...do you know who I am?"

"Yes, master," she said. Her voice felt like it was coming from deep inside of her, rather than from her. The dreamy tone of it made her toes want to curl.

Sebastian took a short time to consider. Then he nodded. "When I snap my fingers, you will emerge from this trance. You will have no memory of the trance -- everything will seem utterly normal and mundane. The memory will return, though, if you think the word Alcubierre -- which you will think if anything happens that you truly do not wish. That will bring the memory back and end all other commands. Do you understand?"

"Mmmhmm!" She murmured, nodding to show just how much she understood. The wobbling motion felt very silly and made her almost giggle -- but then Sebastian was speaking again.

"When I snap my fingers, too, you will begin to grow more and more aroused. It will be as if you are a Gal'Sem and are being exposed to human pheromones, with increasing desperation and intensity, until you will feel absolutely wild. Further..." he looked guilty -- a faint part of Tiff's mind noticed that and wanted to laugh, but she was too comfy to laugh. "...y-you will have an overwhelming urge to dress yourself in, uh, in a Centurion slave girl uniform." He blushed, opening his mouth -- for just a second, Tiff thought he was going to instruct her to forget about that last part. Then, he stammered. "D-D...Do you understand?"