Shackles Ch. 08

It was breathtaking, and immediately, Trinity was hooked on the sensation. It made her obey, and she loved to obey.

She could see that Radiance loved her obeying too. There was a fire in the superhero's eyes as she claimed the control over Trinity she'd spent so many hours chasing. "You need rules," Radiance told her. "You love rules. Laws. You love those things because they tell you how to behave and how not to behave. They're important. You'd never break them."

Trinity nodded rapturously, absorbing this revelation with newfound eagerness. "I love rules," she repeated. She could feel herself being changed, and it made her throb with pleasure. "I need rules. Laws. I'll never break them."

She felt the words inscribe themselves on her heart, becoming a part of her. She knew - absolutely knew - that she loved following rules. Nothing else felt better - except obeying, perhaps. Her shimmer worked deep, smothering and warping any facets of Trinity's personality that didn't match what she was being told. Her natural, rebellious urges were taken away from her. Trinity didn't mind that either. It made her better at obeying.

"Never," Radiance repeated. Her smile was growing, becoming slightly crooked as the joyful thrill of dominance took hold. "You love rules because you love being good. You want to be good. Rules and laws tell you how. Following them is good, and breaking them is bad. You want to be good, so you'll follow the rules. You love knowing that you've been good."

"I want to be good." The words felt like honey as they dripped from Trinity's lips. She hadn't been questioning Radiance before, of course, but it all made so much sense now. She wanted to be good. It was good to be good. It was so obvious. A tautology.

"You need to be good," Radiance insisted, and the feeling gripped the brainwashed villain even tighter. "And you'd hate to be bad. You hate breaking rules. You hate disobeying. It feels awful. It makes you feel so guilty. That's why you need to be good instead."

Trinity's mood flipped on its head in a single instant. Instead of merely feeling joyous at her new set of values, she felt a horrible, all-consuming sense of guilt at how she'd lived her life. She'd broken so many rules. It was awful. Perhaps she'd never be good. At least she was changing. That was some comfort. She needed Radiance to keep changing her.

"P-please," she begged. In the mind-warping fugue her shimmer had placed her in, it felt all the more pressing.

"You've been bad." Radiance picked up on her mood at once. "But that's why you need to redeem yourself. You need to be good from now on. You need to follow rules, and you need to help make sure other people follow rules too. You need to... to make people feel good. To keep them safe. That's the most important thing of all. If you make people feel good, that makes you a good person." Radiance paused for a moment, before her temptation got the better of her. "A good girl."

That last phrase caught alight in Trinity's mind like dry kindling. "Yes," she echoed. "Please. I want to be a good girl. I want to make you feel good. I want to make everyone feel good." The approval she saw in Radiance's eyes only spurred her on. "I'll be such a good girl from now on! Please, just give me a chance."

Radiance licked her lips once more. Her eyes were shining every bit as bright as Trinity's were. It was obvious to anyone that she was being driven by far, far more than just a noble desire to reform the supervillain - not that Trinity minded, of course. She could see that Radiance was feeling good, and she wanted to make Radiance feel good. She wanted to make everyone feel good.

"Yes," Radiance breathed. "I think the new Shimmer is going to be much better for this city. The new, helpful, law-abiding Shimmer. Don't you agree?"

To Trinity's surprise, Radiance reached out and removed her chain from around Trinity's neck. She felt it slip free for a moment, before feeling it vanish into nothing. She gasped in surprise - and in disappointment. She loved the feeling of Radiance changing her. Without the hero binding her thoughts and actions, Trinity's shimmer quickly faded from her mind. It left her feeling dazed as she slowly recovered from the trance, and awed as she felt the many, many changes Radiance had made cementing themselves into her personality.

"You're right," Trinity agreed unsteadily. "Much better."

Her head was churning with unfamiliar thoughts. There was so much to do. So many rules to be followed. There was so much she needed to atone for. And there were so many people she needed to make feel good.

Starting with Radiance.