Shackles Ch. 20

Trinity said one last quiet prayer for Quinn to give them just a few more minutes, and then touched her fingertips to Radiance's temples and started to bathe Radiance in her power.

As soon as her fingertips lit up in bright, familiar purple, Trinity became aware that she didn't have a lot of strength left to give. She just had to hope it would be enough. She'd managed to overpower Radiance before. It might be easier now. It might not. But Trinity had already decided she wasn't going to try and overpower Radiance. She was going to try something else. Against all her instincts and temptations, Trinity held back. She let her shimmer flow into Radiance, but she kept herself from simply quashing every independent thought in her path. Instead, she tried to make her shimmer something gentle and warm. Something that Radiance might choose to let into the inner sanctum of her mind.

And she did.

Trinity took a deep, slow breath once Radiance's eyes turned purple, and she watched Radiance breathe in rhythm with her. Even though time was of the essence, Trinity couldn't help but take it slow. It felt right. This was a new feeling for her. It was something like the feeling of completing a circuit and watching a light come on. It was intimate, every bit as intimate as her mind control usually was. But it was peaceful, not forceful.

It felt good.

As encouraging a revelation as that was, Trinity knew there was still much, much more to do. This wasn't victory yet. She focused, trying to bring every bit of her concentration to bear on Radiance's thoughts. Not to dominate them, but to understand them. To know how they felt and how they moved. Trinity felt like faint wisps of innumerable thoughts and feelings were whispering to her from all sides. Immersing herself in someone's mind like that was indescribably strange, and the strangest part of all was how distinctly wrong everything was. Trinity couldn't put into words how she knew it, exactly, but she knew that Radiance's thoughts were unnaturally silent and still.

The only thing Trinity could do was follow her instincts. She tried to make her shimmer focused and small, small enough that she could direct it with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel. Then she started working her way through Radiance's thoughts one by one, doing nothing more than touching them with all the lightness she could muster so that they could take in some of her warmth.

It worked.

One by one, those still and silent thoughts started to light up. They started to move and connect, and as they did, they shared the warmth Trinity had given them. And, after nothing more than a few seconds, Radiance blinked rapidly a few times and looked up at Trinity with clear eyes.

"W-wha..." she said blearily and quietly. Radiance sounded like she was just waking up after a long, long sleep.

"Shush!" Trinity whispered. "Sorry, I know this is confusing, but there's no time. Just, um, breathe. Or something."

Radiance nodded. Her beautiful eyes were flecked with Trinity's purple.

"Do you know what's happening?" Trinity asked. Radiance nodded. Trinity immediately realized that a nod wasn't very conclusive, but there was no time to quiz her. It was just another thing she'd have to take on faith. "OK, good. I have an idea, OK? And I have no idea if it's a good one, but it's better than nothing. Do you trust me?"

There was a pause. Then, Radiance nodded.

"OK." Trinity took a deep breath. "I... I think I can beat Quinn. I just need to make sure she can't stop me. Can you use your power?"

"I think so," Radiance replied. She lifted a hand and after a moment, a golden chain appeared in her grip like she had plucked it out of thin air.

"Good." The sight of the golden chain made Trinity shiver. "Now just make sure I can't back down."

Trinity gave that thought a small push into Radiance's head. She knew Radiance might need the extra resolve, and there was too much on the line to leave it all up to chance. Then, she lifted one end of Radiance's chain and wrapped it carefully around her own neck.

When the collar pulled tight and the ends merged, forging itself into a golden collar, Trinity let out a small gasp. The feeling was as electric as ever; the certain knowledge that she no longer held any power. It was all out of her hands now, for good or bad. If Radiance was harboring doubts, or if Quinn's control ran deeper than she'd judged, it was all over.

But Radiance didn't disappoint her.

The superhero rose to her feet. "Trinity, I'm giving you an order," she said, in a voice that was quiet but firm, and infinitely reassuring. "Obey me: subdue Eleanor Quinn using your power. No matter what. No matter what she tells you to do, or how much it hurts."

Trinity smiled. "You got it."

She was more than happy to let Radiance's mind control pull her upwards as she stood. The compulsion slipped over her mind like a familiar glove. It was with her every step of the way as she walked over to where Quinn was standing.

"Huh?" Quinn turned as she sensed Trinity approaching. "What is this? Stop. Go sit back down."

Trinity kept coming. A thrill raced down her spine as she realized she could disobey the billionaire. It was her command against Radiance's, and Radiance's was winning.

Quinn frowned, and her eyes flitted down to the golden, supernatural collar around Trinity's neck. "What are you-"

Trinity grabbed her face and put her power on full blast.

It was just like before: the flood of power that, with Radiance's urging, was strong enough to completely sweep aside Quinn's mental resistance. A second or two later, the electric hum of Quinn's suit started to ramp up in volume. Trinity could do nothing but brace herself for the pain to come.

"Won't you just learn your lesson already?" Quinn growled. Her face was contorted into a labored snarl as she fought to keep hold of her anger in the face of Trinity's mind control. "This shit stopped being hot like three ruses ago. Stop."

Trinity ignored her. It was wonderful to be able to ignore her. Radiance's order was pure, and it guided her hand.

"Why... why won't you do what I tell you?" The strength was slipping out of Quinn's voice as she succumbed to Trinity's shimmer. But before she went under completely, the electric shock hit.

Trinity grit her teeth so hard she thought her teeth were going to shatter. Her muscles started to spasm and go limp, and keeping them firm took a superhuman amount of willpower. It hurt, too. It hurt an unbelievable amount. The electricity hurt but trying to keep still hurt even more, and Trinity was seized with the manic conviction that it would have been better and easier if she could have flopped to the ground, thrashed about, and screamed until her lungs ached. She wished that her pride, or her love, or even her spite were strong enough to keep her standing, but they weren't. The only thing keeping her standing was Radiance. Through all the pain, she could feel that chain binding tight around her neck. All Trinity had to do was trust in that, and trusting Radiance was the easiest thing in the world.

It even gave her the strength to smile and spit one last uneven retort as Quinn's eyes turned purple. "We win."

And just like that, it was over. At long last, Trinity could collapse to the ground.

The next thing she knew, she was being swept up in big, strong arms. Trinity made herself open her eyes. It was Radiance. The look of concern on the superhero's face melted away once she saw that Trinity was conscious. Trinity was suddenly and forcefully reminded that she'd said she was in love with Radiance. She started praying Radiance didn't remember.

"What do we do now?" Radiance asked mercifully.

Trinity blinked. "You're asking me?" Radiance shrugged. Trinity squealed and clung to her a little tighter. "Uh... what do you normally do when you catch the bad guy?"

"Take them to the cops," Radiance replied. "That's not gonna work. She's got the justice system in her pockets."

"Figures." Trinity sighed.

"Let's just get out of here?" Radiance suggested.

A thought came to Trinity. "Wait," she said, as Radiance was just turning towards the door that led out to the helipad. "Let's go separately. We'll meet back at your place. You leave first - out the front door, like a normal person. You're famous. It'll attract attention and make it easier for me to slip out. I'll stick around for just a few minutes. To... to cover our tracks a little.

"Sounds good." Radiance nodded and set Trinity down on her feet. She started to walk towards what Trinity presumed to be the exit, but then paused and glanced back. "Shimmer, if I thought you were planning some kind of impulsive, petty revenge against Quinn right now..."

Trinity grinned sheepishly.

"I wouldn't want to know about it," Radiance finished, and stepped out the door.

A delicious shiver raced down Trinity's spine. It was a sensation she knew well, even if she hadn't felt it for some time. It was the tell-tale sign that she was about to get away with something horrendous.

She walked back over to the still, hypnotized Eleanor Quinn, and placed a hand on her cheek. Purple shimmer pulsed from her fingertips.

"Hey, Ellie. Listen to me..."

***

"Ma'am, I... uh... I mean, Ms. Quinn, I need you to open this door for me. We received a call."

Officer Adella Lawson found her heart beating fast as she knocked on the door to Eleanor Quinn's penthouse suite. She was still a relatively new recruit, but in her short time as an FCPD beat cop, she'd already answered more than enough domestics to make them routine. She'd joined up to try and do some good, but she was starting to feel like her job was more about babysitting drunk, belligerent office managers while the superheroes did all the real work.

This time was different, though. She'd never expected that she'd find herself knocking on the door of the richest woman in the city. Officer Lawson wasn't quite sure how she should act. In theory, Eleanor Quinn was just another civilian, but in practice, she knew that all her superiors on the force were cloyingly eager to keep her happy. Frankly, it was strange that she'd been called up here at all. She'd have expected Eleanor Quinn to private security, or a direct hotline to the Peregrine, or something.

"Ms. Quinn?" Officer Lawson said loudly, knocking again. "Could you please-"

Abruptly, the door opened. Officer Lawson's jaw dropped. Whatever she'd been expecting, it wasn't this.

Eleanor Quinn was standing before her, completely naked. A big smile was on her face and she was wearing the most whorish makeup imaginable, and her eyes were a strange shade of purple. Were those color contacts?

"Hey, officer!" Quinn said, in a ditzy, bubbly voice that didn't suit her one bit. Officer Lawson had to fight to look her in the eyes instead of staring at her amazing, remarkably athletic body. "Come on in!"

With a giggle, she grabbed onto Officer Lawson's shirt and pulled her inside. Officer Lawson didn't resist. She had no idea what to do. She'd been prepared for drunk, but she'd seen drunk. This wasn't it.

"Ma'am," she began, fighting to remain professional, "we got a call about some kind of disturbance. Could you tell me what's been happening?"

The billionaire giggled again. "Oh, forget about that! I just wanted them to send over someone young and cute. You're, like, totally perfect."

Officer Lawson felt herself blush. She was glad her partner wasn't here to see it. Cute? Eleanor Quinn thought she was cute. "Uh... that's... um... c-can I help you with something?"

"I bet you can," Quinn purred. Without warning, she sank to her knees and started pawing at the front of Officer Lawson's slacks. When the beat cop moved to fend her off, she pouted. "C'mon, officer! I just wanna, like, show some appreciation." She giggled yet again, then put her hand to her mouth, stuck her tongue out, and stuck up her index and middle figures on either side of her tongue in a lewd, suggestive V. "I'm, like, sooooo thirsty."

Officer Lawson felt like she was about to pass out. She wasn't sure if she was about to make the worst mistake of her career, or the best. But if this was how an eccentric billionaire wanted to blow off steam, who was she to argue?

"Well..." Officer Lawson said, a roguish smile dawning on her face. "The dispatcher did tell me to do whatever you wanted..."

Quinn let out a little cheer as the beat cop unbuckled her belt and unzipped her pants, and moments later, her ditzy giggles were muffled as she eagerly buried her face in Officer Lawson's cunt.