Princess

"Good," Miss Aurelia whispered. "Now, wake up."

She snapped her fingers in front of Beck's face again, and Beck awoke. After a single moment of disorientation, memories of what had happened flooded back to her and filled her with horror. How could she have done that? How could she have been so stupid? It suddenly seemed so clear that she could hardly remember what it had felt like to be hypnotized, even though it was only seconds before. It felt like a dream. Beck cursed herself. Why hadn't she fought harder? Why hadn't she been able to remember what was going on? Then, she realized she didn't have time for those questions. She was defenseless! The hacker did her best to reactivate her security protocols as quickly as she could, but the moment she tried, she felt the icy tendrils of Miss Aurelia's attack programs extended deep into her mind, rendering her powerless. Anxiety formed a black pit in Beck's stomach. She'd lost. She was completely in Miss Aurelia's power. With her cyberbrain so completely exposed, there was almost nothing the corporate executive couldn't do to her.

"Don't feel too bad," Miss Aurelia said sadistically, as she circled back around to look Beck in the face. "You're not the first to fall victim to my hypnosis, and you won't be the last. These days everyone's so worried about getting hacked, they forget their more human vulnerabilities."

The idea of begging for mercy crossed Beck's mind, but she discarded it instantly. It just wasn't in her nature, no matter how scared it was. "Fuck you!" she yelled, eyes smoldering with anger.

"Defiant to the last? That's cute." Miss Aurelia laughed indulgently. "But it won't matter. You're mine now. The only question left is: what should I do with you? After some thought, I don't think I'll use you as a double agent. It's a little too obvious a ploy. No, I have another use for you in mind."

"Oh yeah?" Beck asked, through gritted teeth. She could feel the older woman picking through her thoughts, getting a feel for how her mind worked, and it made her nauseous. "What's that?"

"To satisfy some of my own... predilections." The way she spoke the last word filled Beck with an even deeper sense of fear, which was only multiplied when Miss Aurelia reached out and started toying with a dirty strand of Beck's red, unkempt hair.

"Go fuck yourself," Beck growled.

Miss Aurelia ignored her. "You know, you look like quite the pretty young thing, underneath all that grime and all those rough edges. It's a shame, really. So much missed potential. This hair, for instance. You really ought to take better care of it. In fact, why don't I help you with that?"

For a moment Beck just blinked, confused. What was Aurelia talking about? But then, Miss Aurelia picked something up off the table and held it in front of her face. It was a mirror. Beck found herself staring at her own face. She looked as she always did, except a little angry and stressed. Her hair was as it always was: red, about shoulder length, and completely untidy, full of knots and grime. As the seconds passed, Beck found herself more and more fixated on her own hair. She couldn't figure out why, but for some reason it was bothering her. Beck never cared much about her own appearance but she could be a little compulsive about other things, and her hair was starting to irritate her. It was just so untidy and disorderly. The more she noticed it the more it bothered her, and the more it bothered her the more she noticed it. It was like an itch, and the urge to scratch it was growing and growing.

"You can move," Miss Aurelia said, as if she knew what Beck was thinking. "Just as long as you don't do anything unwise. In fact, we don't need this anymore. You're integrated into my wireless network." She removed her jack cable from Beck's implant.

Movement returned to Beck's limbs, but she didn't try to run or lash out. Instead her hands shot to her head, and she started re-arranging her hair. She couldn't help it. The compulsion had become as irresistible as gravity. Beck started raking her fingers back across her head, trying to pull out all the little knots and force all her annoying tufts into a more orderly arrangement. The feeling of being able to finally scratch her itch was as gratifying as she'd thought, but it wasn't enough.

"Here." Beck looked, and saw that Miss Aurelia was offering her a comb. She snatched it greedily, and started combing her hair. She almost moaned with pleasure and relief as she felt the comb's teeth across her scalp, doing a better job of fixing her hair than her fingers ever could. Beck kept combing her hair for minutes, longer than she ever had before in her life. She felt a sudden perfectionist urge about it. Her hair needed to be neat. Every red strand needed to be in its place. She had to look good. It was only once she was finished and the compulsion subsided that she realized what had happened. Aurelia had done something to her. It was only explanation. Beck felt confused and violated in equal measure. She shot Miss Aurelia a filthy look, and caught sight of herself in the mirror as she did. She barely looked like the same girl. Even though only her hair had changed, she looked so neat and proper. Part of her wanted to mess up her own hair again, just out of spite, but she couldn't bring herself to.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she hissed. "You're one sick piece of shit!"

Miss Aurelia giggled. "Now, now! That's no way for a princess to talk."

Beck looked at her in disgust. The way she said 'princess' made her stomach do butterflies. "I'm no fucking princess."

"I suppose I'll have to help you with that too."

This time, Beck was able to pick up on it - the slightly fuzziness she felt as a new piece of code was downloaded into her brain, against her will. It made her so angry that she couldn't stop it. "What the f-"

Just as Beck opened her mouth to swear, she froze. It was like the word was caught in her throat, or like her tongue was refusing to make the right shape. She tried again, but this time it was even worse. She couldn't remember the word. She knew it had been there, she was conscious of its absence, but she couldn't quite grasp it no matter how hard she tried. It had been deleted from her memory. Beck searched for another piece of profanity she could use to express her anger, but every word that occurred to her slipped elusively out of her mental grasp before she could even begin to voice it. For as long as she could remember Beck had been able to swear as colorfully as a sailor, but now all that was gone.

"That's better, isn't it, princess?" Miss Aurelia asked her, eyes shining with mirth.

"W-what's all this 'princess'... stuff?' Beck asked, momentarily tripping up on her own inability to use profanity.

"Oh, you'll see," Miss Aurelia replied, a shark-like grin on her face. "Suffice it to say, I'll be keeping you from now on. Like a pet. And since you are such a pretty little thing, I think it'll be fun to see what you're like when I've got you all cleaned up and dressed nicely and behaving like a good girl. When you're just like a pretty princess."

"Y-you can't." That prospect was somehow more terrifying than almost any other fate Beck had imagined.

"Don't worry, princess." Miss Aurelia reached out to stroke Beck's chin. The hacker girl found she couldn't pull away. "I've seen you looking at all the nice things I have around my house. Soon, you'll be just like that: a nice, pretty, expensive-looking ornament. I promise you, you'll enjoy it. I'll make you."

Beck's mouth was dry. She swallowed with an awkward gulp.

"Your hair is looking so pretty already," Miss Aurelia continued. "It needs a real wash, of course, but that can come later. What's next? Clothes, I think. A princess needs some finery to look the part, don't you agree?"

Beck just glared viciously at her. Without the ability to swear, she couldn't think of a retort venomous enough to capture what she was feeling.

"Let's start by getting all this off." Ignoring her reaction, Miss Aurelia held up her right hand and snapped her fingers. The instant she did, Beck's body came to life. Entirely against her volition, she reached up and shrugged her prize battle jacket off over her shoulders, and then reached down to pull her tank top off over her hand. All she had on underneath was an unpretentious black bralette, and soon she'd removed that too, leaving her naked above the waist. Next, Beck unzipped her pants and let them fall to the floor, and kicked them aside. The feeling of her own body being puppeted by someone else was beyond unnerving. Beck had seen it done before, and had sworn to take whatever precautions she needed to take to stop it happening to her. Her security, though, had proved worthless, and so she was completely unable to stop herself slipping out of her underwear, leaving herself standing naked before Miss Aurelia. The corporate executive let her stand like that, silent and motionless, inspecting her body with naked enjoyment on her face. Beck wished she could cover herself, even just with her hands, but Aurelia had locked her limbs to her sides. Discomfort at her own nudity was another unfamiliar and unpleasant feeling. Beck never usually cared who saw her body. In front of Miss Aurelia, though, she didn't feel like herself. Maybe it was the fact that her hair was different. Suddenly, she felt like she had something to be self-conscious about.

"Oh, you're going to make such a perfect princess," Miss Aurelia purred. "So many possibilities... let's see. I think green would be just your colour. A nice emerald would set off your hair perfectly. I have just the thing! I think it'll be just your size."

Miss Aurelia turned away from Beck and walked into a different room, leaving Beck alone for a moment. When she returned, she was carrying a hanger, from which was hanging the most extravagant piece of clothing Beck had ever seen. It was a floor-length emerald green dress that looked to be made of the softest, finest silk imaginable. Beck's eyes widened slightly at the sight of it. She couldn't even begin to guess at the price tag. It looked like it could be an antique, something worn by the queens and courtly ladies of centuries past. It had an intricate lace trim at the collar and at the ends of the flared sleeves, and a golden ribbon that was woven between two sides of the dress all the way down the front, fastening it together like a corset. The skirt portion of the dress flared enormously, and seemed to be composed of many layers, each carefully set atop the one below. Beck couldn't ever imagine wearing something like that.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Miss Aurelia took the dress off the hanger, and started walking around behind Beck. "I can't wait to see how it looks on you."

"Get away from me," Beck growled. She didn't want to find out what Miss Aurelia was going to do to her after she made her wear the dress.

Once again, Miss Aurelia ignored her protests. Beck heard her unzip the dress, and then felt her own body lurch into motion. Her arms lifted themselves straight up, allowing Miss Aurelia to slip the dress on over her head. Beck's first impression of it was of the smothering weight of all that fabric. As the layers settled across her body, smoothed into place by Miss Aurelia's hands, she started to realize how constraining it was. There was no way she'd be able to run in the dress. She wasn't even sure she'd be able to breathe properly. Beck had never worn something so intricate and heavy; she liked to be able to move. It was practically a necessity, in her line of work. In Miss Aurelia's dress, as beautiful as she had to admit it was, she felt suffocated. The feeling improved, though, when Miss Aurelia knelt behind her and started arranging the folds of her skirt, and then stood and zipped up the dress at the back. With that, the weight of the garment rested less heavily on Beck's shoulders, and it almost felt like she was being given a tight hug, especially when her captor started lacing together the corset portion of the dress at the front. Miss Aurelia tied it so tight it pinched her waist and pushed all the air out of her lungs, until she could only take small breaths that made her light-headed. Not only that, the many layers of fabric made the dress incredibly warm, and it wasn't long before Beck was feeling dizzy and faint.

"There!" Miss Aurelia announced, a touch of pride in her voice. "Here, take a look, and tell me what you think."

She held up the mirror again, and Beck's eyes went wide at the sigh of her own reflection. At first, she quite literally didn't recognize herself. She'd never worn a dress before, and she'd never seen what one could do to her body. The way it pinched at the waist but flared out into a huge skirt accentuated her feminine features to an incredible degree. It even managed to make her small chest look impressive. Her tattoos were completely covered. With her hair all neat and without her usual punk garb, it was like all her rough edges had been sanded off. She didn't look like a girl who'd grown up rough, fighting for survival. She looked like a girl who'd been pampered every day of her life.

"It's... it's..." Beck's face contorted awkwardly as she struggled to put into words what the sight of herself in the emerald dress was making her feel.

"You love it," Miss Aurelia whispered.

Beck blinked rapidly for a few seconds as her head filled with static. She was about to say something indignant in response, but the protest died in her throat. Suddenly, she was transfixed by the sight of her own reflection. She started turning and tilting her head slightly, to view herself at slightly different angles. She looked beautiful. She hadn't realized it at first due to the stress of the situation, but now that she had, there was no other word for it. Beck looked beautiful. Her eyes darted across different parts of her own body as she admired herself: the gentle swell of her breasts, the exaggerated curve of her waist, the incredible flare of her hips. Beck's cheeks started to burn as she blushed faintly at how feminine, how pretty, and how enticing she looked. She'd become like the models she saw on billboards: artificial and ornamental. Beck struggled to articulate why that idea made her tingle. At the same time, she looked like an elegant debutante from a previous century, and the idea of being wrapped up in such elegance and extravagance was breathtaking. She felt treasured. It wasn't just the way she looked. Beck couldn't stop noticing how soft the silk was against her skin. She'd never felt anything so gentle, so wonderful. She wanted to lose herself in the sensation forever.

"Why do I feel this way?" Beck breathed. She knew Miss Aurelia must have done something to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. It was so hard to think.

"Because," Miss Aurelia whispered again, "deep down, you've always wanted this."

Again, Beck blinked, thrown off balance by the burst of static. What was she talking about. Of course she hadn't always wanted it! Hadn't she? Suddenly, Beck wasn't so sure. It would seem to explain why she was finding wearing the dress so inexplicably pleasurable. Still, though, Miss Aurelia suggestion bothered her. It didn't seem right. But it was like a thick fog had descended on her memories, making it hard for her to feel any amount of confidence in her convictions. When the fog cleared, she found herself reminiscing about things that she hadn't thought about in a long time. She remembered long childhood hours spent staring up at a screen, watching old movies set in even older times, being amazed by all the fancy, expensive outfits the women were wearing. She remembered longing for clothing like that of her own. She remembered how crushed she'd been when she'd been told how far out of reach that was. Finding those memories was like dusting off an old book, then turning the pages to find that the words were all strangely familiar. Were they real? Beck tried to tell herself that they were fake. Intellectually, she knew that it was trivial for Miss Aurelia to fill her memory banks with whatever she liked, real or fake. But in her gut, she couldn't make herself believe it. The memories felt just too real. Her head warred with her heart, until she felt like she was splitting in two. Beck didn't know what to believe.

"You... you're doing this to me!" Beck said, as much to herself as to Miss Aurelia.

"Is that so?" The executive laughed.

"You're messing with my head?" Beck tried to sound firm, but it came out more like a question than a statement.

"My princess." Miss Aurelia shook her head sympathetically. "So silly. If I'm in your head, who knows what's real and what's not? How do you know your name is really your name? How do you know you are who you think you are? How do you know how you really got here? It could all be real, it could all be fake."

I... that's..." The enormity of what Aurelia was suggesting was too much for Beck to wrap her addled mind around. It couldn't all be fake. Could it?

"So," her captor continued, grinning from ear to ear. "What choice do you have but to trust your instinct. Ask yourself: what seems real? What feels real? What does your heart tell you?"

Beck nodded slowly. If there was one thing Beck had learned in her years as a hacker, it was the importance of trusting her gut. She was loathe to accept a corper's advice about anything, but it made sense. It was about the only thing that made sense. Besides, no matter what she told herself, she couldn't get Miss Aurelia's words out of her head. She'd always wanted this. Always. The desire had been buried so deep she hadn't even been aware of it, but that didn't make it any less real. What she was feeling was proof of that. When Beck looked at her reflection again, the swell of emotion she felt was almost overwhelming. Seeing herself in a dress like that was like a dream come true. All thoughts of escape or resistance fled her mind. All she could think about was how pretty she looked.

"Do you like it, princess?" Miss Aurelia asked.

Beck nodded absently, too dumbstruck to speak.

"Well then, what do you say?" Miss Aurelia wheedled.

That brought Beck back to Earth a little. As off-balance as she was, she wasn't about to thank a corper for anything. "Get lost," she replied lamely, unable to say anything more vicious.

"Now now, princess," Miss Aurelia warned, although she sounded more sadistic than irritated. "You need to learn some manners."

Beck was about to issue another retort, but she paused when another burst of static hit her, and when she opened her mouth all that came out was: "Thank you." Beck frowned. That didn't seem right, but she couldn't think of anything else that she might have been about to say.

"Thank you what?" Miss Aurelia prompted.

"Thank you, Miss Aurelia," Beck replied. It seemed only natural to address the corporate executive properly.

"That's better. Now, what do you say for being so rude earlier?"

Again, Beck felt the urge to say something cutting, but that urge was immediately overwhelmed by a pang of contrition. Miss Aurelia had just given her a gift. Not just any gift; the best gift she'd ever received. How could she have been so ungrateful? Despite the circumstances, Beck knew she needed to keep to a certain level of basic decency. "I'm sorry, Miss Aurelia."

"Good girl." Beck shivered involuntarily at the praise, as an unfamiliar pleasure rippled across her skin and gave her goosebumps. She was so confused she couldn't remember if feeling like that was right or wrong. She remembered being bitterly angry at Miss Aurelia, but she couldn't reconcile that feeling with the sense of overwhelming gratitude she now felt. The only thing she could remember clearly was that she needed to escape, but she was starting to lose sight of why.