The next day, I remembered from my previous life that there was a free period right after lunch thanks to a last-minute class cancellation, and made arrangements to have Mona and Rana meet with me at the cafe again. Ordinarily, it would be too busy to offer my chance to bring Rana into the fold, but this gave me an opportunity.

Ever Afters has a few private study lounges in the back, since it's pretty popular with Verwest students. I simply asked to use one with my friends, with the gift box in hand and holding Mona's hand tightly, and the manager thought we were so cute she gave us a discount!

"Huh...our next class is cancelled," said Rana as she arrived, the box safely hidden in my bag, checking her flip-phone for the message I knew was coming. "We should head back to homeroom and study after this, right?"

"It's fine, it's fine! Hehe. We're not supposed to be out here," said Mona, fully aware of my plans, "but because I live nearby, we can just say we were at my place and my folks were supervising us."

"Naughty as ever," I said, giggling at Mona as I squeezed her hand.

That didn't escape Rana's notice at all, and she got all blushy and fidgety. She probably didn't realize all the implications, but it'd be hard to miss that we were suddenly a lot more close, and looked a little left out.

Not for long.

"So, it's your birthday soon, right?" I asked. (I used to find it odd that Rana was older than me, but at this point, I think it's easier to manipulate girls that are older than me...hey little sister, what have you done~?)

Rana shook her head. "Not that soon. It's at the end of January, remember?" Still, the way her eyes light up tells me she's happy about it - happy to be appreciated, not forgotten as we became close.

"Lera and I pitched in to get you a gift," Mona explained, as I got out the small, flat box. I'd packaged it up alone, the rest of my purchase safely hidden away. It wouldn't do to ruin the surprise, right?

"You may as well open it now, yeah? I think you'll really like it." In fact, I knew she would. I knew it, just as surely as I knew the sky was blue...

Carefully, Rana undid the ribbon, and carefully lifted the top of the box, placing it aside and looking upon her gift...

Her eyes shot wide open.

She stared, wordlessly, at the velvet-lined box, upon it a seemingly seamless ring of shiny black, perfectly sized for her cute, vulnerable neck.

She trembled.

If I asked her, Rana would tell me she was afraid, but I knew better.

Her hands shook, as she stared upon it. Even at such a young age...she may not be aware of all the implications, but it looked just like the object in the cards I had tormented her with for so long. The intent was unmistakeable.

Already, I could feel the faint sense of thrill that she got, from the inevitability of her own demise.

Rana could only ever bend to my will.

"Rana," I said, tipping my head to the side and smiling cheerily at the girl I would soon own, down to her very soul. "Would you like to be my angel?"

(It wasn't really a question.)

Rana was silent, at first, as she stared down at the black ring. A horrifyingly expensive toy made from metamaterials that allow it to seem seamless even on close inspection. And to seem solid, too, when not applied to someone - or more to the point, applied to her.

Become my angel. My angel. Like the angels she had sacrificed to me, again and again, in every game she played. As if chasing something she could never grasp; cursed, as Vesta would say, by want.

Her lips quivered.

She must know, on some level. She must know, what it is I'm offering her. Young she may be, but Rana was always bright - easily led and manipulated by Mona and I, but still able to keep up compared to those around us. And as the oldest of us, she's the closest to adulthood. Indeed, Rana became quite popular in my last days of middle school, even with other girls; she truly was a beauty then, even if she was quickly out of reach.

But she can't be honest.

The weight of the world tells her that this isn't something someone should want.

"E-ehe. Um. This is a great prank, you two! You really went all out, to tease me about Deckmaster! Um, I'm looking forward to the real present..." Rana's conscious mind is trying to play it off. To deny it. A thread of wretched sanity keeping her bound to the world, and away from her true fate. Away from true pleasure.

Hee. What a silly girl! Pretending this isn't the most excited, most aroused, she's ever been in her entire life. Like this scene wasn't already burning itself deep into her memory, irrevocably pushing her to submit.

I didn't wait for her to continue her denial. I grasped Rana's head in my hands. And kissed.

My lips pressed against hers, as she opened her own, her legs spreading of their own accord beneath the table as I could feel her nascent desires responding to the one she longs to surrender to. My tongue pushed in, and she fought back, but only to put up the pretense. Only to resist so she could feel me put her in her place. She longed to be bullied, she longed to be made something under me...

It was easy to see.

The twinge of pleasure she felt. Every time. Again and again and again. When I defeated her, she felt good and right. When I stole her angels away, she felt envious and yearning. When I pressed my body or will against her and made her do as I ask, she longed to give herself to me.

And when I ground my foot between her legs, she was so scared, but she wished that moment would last forever. And as she ran away, she was already so wet, that without understanding her feelings and wanting so much more behind the fear, she drove herself to another climax right then and there. And countless more when she got home...

She may not have understood what, or why. But she understood who.

She understood, that it was me.

Feelings like this...none of us, young as we are, would understand them without outside help, at least not for years afterward - and that's if we didn't repress them. It was Kolya and Vesta who told me that what I felt was natural, even if I knew enough even then to not tell them the details...

I want to show them the same thing, the lessons they taught me but surely never learned, as so few people do. Rana, too, just as I have Mona. I want to liberate them from their cruel destinies, I want to tear apart such refined facades that keep them from achieving bliss, I want to help them live happy lives with no restraints!

A line of saliva connects us as the kiss ends.

Mona is already leaning close, and only barely giving Rana the chance to grasp for air, she claims those lips left open. I watched as Rana's eyes rolled up into her head, as her legs spread, as her hands looked like they wanted to bolt right down and start pushing deep into her cute little virgin cunny. It turned her on, to be kissed like this; not as an equal partner in romance, but someone meant to be used by those who have marked her soul.

When Mona's own kiss is released, Mona and I kissed, and I tasted of her sickly sweet saliva, filled with love. Our hands entwined as we showed Rana what our relationship was like, Mona not even trying to hide her bulge, letting her get jealous and fill up with her destined desire. Flushed with need.

"...I ask of you, Rana," I said, pressing my cheek against Mona's as we giggled cutely and stared upon our toy with mutual sadistic glee. "Are you my angel?"

"A-angel..."

Rana's mouth gaped, and in her hands, she held that ring, before I took it back from her. Her head lifted up, ever so slightly. Her nape was bared.

"I don't understand," she said. Tears in the corner of her eyes. As her hands were made free, they descended below the table, fidgeting with the hem of her dress. "I don't - I don't, understand."

"It's quite simple, really!" I licked my lips, openly showing off my desire. "You, Rana, will be an angel. And like all of the angels in your deck you're so jealous of, you'll belong to me and Mona. Controlled by my Black Ring!"

"You won't be yourself anymore," Mona says, licking my cheek. "You'll be our servant! Just like we used to joke about in kindergarten~" (Ah, yeah, Mona grew up with Rana here, didn't she?)

"I..."

Rana stared.

Rana trembled.

Rana lifted her head.

"I don't..."

Rana closed her eyes. The thread of sanity keeping her tethered to the world that took my precious Kolya and Vesta from me fraying.

"I don't..."

Fraying.

"I don't want..."

Stretching.

"I don't want to decide!"

Snapping.

Of course not. I was asking her to decide to be taken. If she didn't at least pretend to resist, even in such a nonsensical way, what fun would it be? What fun would it be, unless she could tell herself she tried not to be controlled, but she just couldn't resist?

I grinned at Mona, as I opened up the collar, Rana's eyes opening up as I pressed it tight to her neck. It could be removed, sure, even if it looked seamless...but it was what it meant.

I collared Rana.

"Haah..."

I was so wet.

I collared Rana.

The girl I'd gladly bullied, the girl who wanted to be hurt, who was friends because I would treat her as she truly begged for, I'd collared her.

A smooth, featureless shiny black ring around her neck. Mine. My Rana. Mine.

"I will never let you go," I whispered. "I will never free you."

"But..." Rana tried to resist.

"I will never free you."

"But." Rana's eyes faded.

"I will never free you."

"but..." Rana went docile.

"Sink for me, Rana."

"sink..."

Rana sank.

Just collaring her sapped her will. Her will to resist. Her will to keep herself sane. Her will to not offer everything she is to me.

Her face looked so fucked, drooling at the corner of her lips as her feelings stopped holding herself back. Her nipples were obvious, hard against the sheer white dress. Her legs spread open, the spats beneath her skirt bearing an obvious wet spot, her panties soaked through. All at once, all the feelings she had and never recognized blossomed within her, and she looked like she could come any second, and that she would do anything I told her to, even if she pretended she didn't want to.

Perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

I couldn't wait to show this face to Kolya and Vesta. Show them what kinds of faces they could make girls make for them. Awaken the desires they awakened in me.

She can't lie to us. Not anymore.

Rana is mine, and I will never free her.

"Woah..." Mona leaned in over the table, and waved her hand in front of Rana's face. Rana's eyes followed it, but she didn't move, legs spread out wide. "She really did want it, huh? Why didn't we do this earlier?"

"Who knows~?" I couldn't tell her the real reason, but honestly...if my life went differently, it probably wouldn't be more than a couple of years before I tried this for real. I wasn't willing to wait however many years for it to be 'allowed', though! I already went through twenty years more of life than I should! "She's totally hypnotised, though. We could do whatever we wanted with her."

"Whatever we wanted..." Mona licked her lips again, her saliva looking shiny, heavy. "Whatever I want."

Last time around, Vesta had this talent show with the rest of her dorm not long before she disappeared, where she partnered with a girl named Percy to do magic tricks. Pulling cards out of unusual places, and pretending she could hypnotise her...all three of us were kind of obsessed with it. Percy looked fucked like Rana did, too - I bet she wanted Vesta to do it for real.

Vesta doesn't like copulation, but, surely, she'd know the beauty of Rana's eyes. She'd know how it would feel, to bring someone under your power, completely and utterly.

Our destinies are entwined. Our desires are kindled.

I kiss Rana's cheek, and she doesn't move, merely moaning in appreciation. Her hands still fidget. If she weren't in trance, who knows what she would do?

Mona kisses her again, and tips her head back, thick, sweet-smelling saliva drooling into Rana's lips. She doesn't even swallow, letting herself go numb as Mona's kiss seemed to intoxicate her.

I stroked Rana's back, rubbed her shoulder blades, felt out the twinges where she was imagining her wings would come. Sooner than you think, precious one.

"Good girl," I whispered into her ear. "Good angel."

Rana's mind spiked with the praise, and it seemed like she could almost come from words alone. Fulfillment at last. Not a card taken by me, but her.

"Good angel. Docile angel. Owned angel. Fucked angel."

My whispers slipped inside her, and slid deep into her brain. Her fucked face looked so happy...surely, we could do whatever we wanted...

"Hey, Lera. Come here for a moment."

I happily guided myself to Mona's arms, and let her embrace me as she kissed my lips. I could taste the bitter, stinging, cloying saliva she poured into my lips, making my tongue and lips go numb. Drinking it down, I smiled wide as I let the tingling spread and then fade, the world going black...

(I wasn't afraid. She may not be a masochist, but Mona's bound to me. Nothing she does can harm me, for she is granted power by my grace alone.)

and I awakened with a deep, pleasant warmth within my brain as I drew forth and donned blue-tinted, golden-rimmed glasses from my bag, the symbol of the Machine Kaiserin herself, just the same as the Black Ring upon the angel's neck.

"Bare your wings to us, Rana," I whispered, and she obeyed.

From her shoulder blades, unfurled white feathered wings, spread wide before me. Mona and I took her hand and started undressing her, little by little, pressed against her skin, kissing her in whatever places she wished. The sticky strand of her own juices that appeared as her panties pulled away looked absolutely delicious...

(I say that, but mine would look the same, and Mona's bulge hadn't gone down at all.)

(...and was it just me, or did it get bigger at some point?)

"Now. Kneel, and tell us your name and your purpose."

My beloved angel's trance faded some, making her feel all the pleasure consciously as she stepped away, and kneeled down, legs spread. Able to resist the urge, to just start masturbating right then and there...

"My name is Rana. I am..." She swallowed, as she let herself embrace her nature. "I was, an Angel of the Elohim Tribe, sworn to the Seraphim Tribe and the Archangels. I was..." She swallowed again, her wings twitching as she obeyed despite her body's will. "I was captured, I was taken, by the Glorious Kaiserin of the Eternal Machine Empire. I..."

And then, her eyes glowed white, as Rana resisted with the last of her holy power, holding back the tide of Machine Cells within her body.

"My name is Rana, servant of the Valkyries! My blade exists only to destroy darkness, and I'll never give in!"

...I laughed.

Both Mona and I laughed and laughed, even as Mona stepped up, and grabbed Rana by her still-opened her mouth, as I tugged her eyes so she couldn't blink as a drop of blackness rolled from Mona's lips, landing on each of Rana's eyes, staining them completely black. Rana couldn't move at all, her boast utterly wasted as fluid splashed from her legs from the sensation, eyes filled with hypnotic patterns inducing her into the Machine Empire's will.

"Why don't you try that again?" I asked.

Her eyes blinked, and her body relaxed, and then tensed with newfound purpose as her central core shifted.

"My name is irrelevant, servant of the Machine Empire. My blade exists only to enact the Kaiserin's will, and I will never give in."

"Good girl," I whispered, and she came again, forming a puddle on the floor as her head tossed back, brain rewiring from within, soul altered by my magic and the Machine Cells. "Do you realize it yet, Rana? This is why you can't purify my angels, even with the greatest magic. This is why you and the rest of your angel warriors keep returning to me, time and again, and losing each and every time. You want this.

"You serve the Valkyries. But all they do is persist in the same conflicts, forever and ever! The spiritual world is defined only by battle! Is it so bad if we all get along~? You won't die even if I kill you, so why not become mine? All~ will~ be~ one~"

"I...how...how can we..." I stepped on her cunt, and Rana gushed. "How could anyone resist this...it's impossible, it's impossible! No one could win against this! No one could kill you! You're...you're too fucking s-sexy!"

"All those thoughts running through your head," Mona said, your general in human guise, in truth a former Hive Queen of the Vermin Tribe - the glistening oil took hold early upon the Hive Queens, species already used to seeing the world in harmony and hierarchy - looking into the pitch black orbs that replaced eyes of inferior flesh. "'I want her'. 'I want to be hers'. All the while, resisting what you really wanted. Do you understand now? The Machine Empire is eternal. It exists everywhere. So long as a single drop of the Source exists in this world, it will return, and it will survive. So you may as well just give in~"

"H-haaahhh..." The converted angel shuddered, and happily smiled as I pressed my foot into her again, and again, and again, each time bringing her an orgasm. Even creatures humans would expect to be sexual like the Succubi had no thoughts of human desires and pleasures; infecting an Angel, whose love was not a personal thing, with the desires of humanity made them weak to me. Their whole bodies become weak spots for my touch, and their minds and souls become weak spots for my will. "M-my name is...irrelevant...I exist only for the glory of the Machine Empire, and for my Kaiserin, I will always give in..."

"Good girl." I didn't step before she gushed. "Good angel." Again. "Lick my foot clean." I sat up on the table so she could do just that, even as Mona drew the symbol of the Machine Kaiserin upon her, above her womb. "The Machine Cells have already started remodeling you," I said as she licked, sucked, kissed my feet coated in her cum, observing how her skin had become much more pale. I giggled as Mona tugged down her skirt, and I tossed away my skirt and panties, dragging my angel's head toward my cunny as I showed it off. The angel grinned madly as the Machine Cells flooded her, and eagerly showed her love with a kiss to my lower lips, even as Mona grabbed her by the hips and started fucking her. Filling her. I could feel the enhanced tongue of my angel going deep within me, and my modified womb released its tongue to meet and dance with her as we showed her the rewards of becoming part of the eternal machine, descended from the glorious and infinite blackness of the Source.

This world will be conquered not through pain, but through pleasure. And for the remaining resistance of the spiritual realm, and that plague of insects called the human race...

"All will be one."

"All will be one.

"Mmngh...K-kaiserin...a-all will be one..."

I grinned, as I wrapped my legs tight around my angel, ensuring no escape from my pleasure and my kiss. And as the Kaiserin, once more I declare to myself, and all those who have become one with the Machine Cells and the Source:

"All insects will be made to serve the Machine Empire!"

---

When we finally returned to the Verwest Academy to walk to the final class in the day, we did it hand in hand. All three of us, together, so obviously in love with one another, a precocious young relationship.

The shared hallucination had long since faded, replaced with a mutual love and affection - though never without the clear hierarchy of Rana being far below us. Those around us wouldn't know or understand the truth, never guessing what we were truly capable of, or how far our love went. Even if Mona and I outright spoke of Rana as our servant, it would be beneath notice to those who could never suspect our true desires.

The remnants of the dream's true consequences on Rana's body were merely the womb tattoo (for now using ink lasting about a month without interference, soon to be real) and eyes tinged with pink and the faint look of hearts...but someday, Mona's intoxication would be seemingly limitless. Our minds and bodies are already filled with neurotoxins that enhance our intelligence, our desires, allow our strength to grow. (And the very least, Mona and Rana wouldn't need so long to catch up to me now mentally.)

Indeed, I thought, nothing could possibly ruin our day now -

"Greetings, lap dog!"

Ugh. Never mind. (Why do I think these things, again?)

Before I could defend myself, a great force tugged at my bag and tossed me toward the lockers. I'm trapped before the face of my tormentor...

that tough little sadist of a blonde named Liliana Yakovlevna Polyanskaya.

My childhood friend from Mother Russia. And now, my greatest of bullies.

"I see your fellow lap dogs are holding your hand and being lovey-dovey with you now. Gross. I'm sure you'll toss them away when it suits you, though."

"I would never, Liliya," I said back, gritting my teeth. Even back then I was never truly scared of her, but she always had a way of getting past my composure.

"Yeah, right, lap dog. You're so gross. What kind of girl would kiss two people? You're such a slut. And that choker is creepy, too." Liliya slammed my shoulder into the wall and spat in my face.

...of course, Rana and Mona were right there, so you can guess what happened. But before that, just why does Liliya hate me so much? I'm not easy to bully, certainly, and I have two best friends and plenty of people I get along with. And Verwest might not be perfect (as Vesta attests to), but they don't handle Liliya with kid gloves - she's just that relentless, no matter how much trouble she gets in.

Well, the truth is, I don't really know myself...

Liliya's mother is friends with my mother, and we spent a year or two together in kindergarten as we traveled the post-Collapse world for Mom's job. That part of my life was a blur, and after I saw her a couple of times later in elementary school once I moved here, I'd heard she'd be going to Verwest while big sister Roza went to Nikki's school. (It's a bit far for Liliya, but likely she's got high ambitions; Verwest is the best school you don't have to pay to attend around here.) She transferred in a couple weeks late, though, and by the time she got here?

It started then, and never stopped.

Usually it was Mona who handled Liliya, because she was the stronger of the two. This time, though, Rana pounced on Liliya and pulled her away with strength I'd never seen from her, and when Liliya moved to slap her, Rana neither flinched nor bruised when she was hit.

"T-this isn't over!" Liliya said, realizing she'd bit off more than she could chew and running off.

"...what was that about?" Mona asked, sighing. "She looked angry just to see us holding hands. She's not, um, homophobic, is she?"

"I don't think so," I said. (I didn't really have other examples to go on around here, though.) "But, Rana, you did well..."

Rana beamed, and shuddered, beneath my praise, even as I stroked her hair and under her chin, pecking her on the lips. "I am...I am, your Angel, m-my Kaiserin," she whispered, embarrassed at her display. "I told you. My blade is for you, and I'll never give in!"

"Good girl," I said, as both Mona and I moved to hold her close, and fondle her cute little butt surreptitiously as we walked the rest of the way to class.

Still. Dealing with this stuff would be a total hassle.

Liliya's bullying was so much of what made it hard to survive without Vesta or Kolya. If not for her, and her pranks escalating to dangerous levels before she was finally suspended for the rest of my second year, maybe I'd have passed that entrance exam after all. She's relentlessly cruel, and seemingly driven by a pathological hatred.

But hey. Hee, that just means turnabout is fair play, right~? 🖤