Tatyana stood with her arms crossed behind her back. Despite days of socialization with her new friend, she was still struggling with how to stand, how to act, how to be around someone that she was trying to learn –

Incorrect.

Someone she was trying to understand –

Incorrect.

Someone she was trying to be friends with.

Correct.

Even giving it a label like that felt foreign. Friends and friendships were hard for her, to say the least; the white and black tigress was used to running a lab, accustomed to organizing and overseeing experiments on individuals and groups, not running a back-and-forth dialogue with someone or taking it further. Sexual encounters had more familiarity for her than being friendly with someone else.

And yet…

She watched as Ulti leaned forward and back from the elevator’s glass wall. The blue-scaled lizard kept getting drawn in by the enormity of what lay on the other side and then repelled by the impossibly long drop beneath them. It was a good thing that the lift was secured between multiple pylons or the motion might have set them to rocking. She stepped forward, standing behind the other woman.

“Are you afraid of heights?”

“Very.”

“Would the drop statistics help or hinder?”

“Uhhhhhh, I don’t think I need to know more than ‘we fall, we die.’”

“If the safety measures do not deploy, yes.”

“…That’s a really big if, right?”

“Quite. They are tested regularly.”

“By you?!”

“Robots.”

“Oh. Oh, that – that makes a lot more sense.”

“And me, occasionally.”

Ulti’s eyes bugged out so far that Tatyana imagined them leaping through the lenses of her glasses. It was quite amusing. The lizard shook her head.

“I’m not sure if you’re brave or crazy.”

“Both. Tending more toward the second.”

Ulti shook her head, shakily looking out of the elevator again. Tatyana joined her.

No matter how many times she took the descent from the helipad from near the summit, the view always consumed her. After a short drop through a tight tunnel, the elevator continued its slow fall through a massive open space carved through the inside of the mountain. Near the top, the craggy rock remained, but along the sides, huge brutalist structures of concrete, steel, and reinforced glass jutted out. Individual cell-blocks, ranging from fifteen feet to fifty, were grabbed by massive mechanical arms and adjusted, pulled from storage or the current location along the wall to somewhere else.

One could just barely see the subjects kept inside. Tatyana cleared her throat and a hologram appeared to the side. Ulti jumped.

“What –”

“A hard-light projection. Touch-sensitive. Each block labeled in the database, if you’re curious what is going on and who they are.”

“…Did they ask to be here?”

“Some of them.”

“And the others?”

“Suffice to say that some people like to disappear, and some were sent here to disappear.” She shook her head. “Those I try and sort out as best I can, but there’s always a risk.”

“Are there bad people here?”

She nodded.

“And you –”

“Depending on what they’ve done, I have different…experiments in mind for them. If they will not pay for what they did elsewhere, they will pay here.”

Tatyana gripped the elevator support rail. It was not something that she was proud of, but the facility had been meant for darker things than this. When one takes over a black-site, there are only so many things that one can adjust before admitting that anything further would require starting from scratch.

And she didn’t have that kind of support or money.

“But I am not like the old regime. I am not…like them.”

“I didn’t say –”

“I know. Pang of conscience. Helps.”

Ulti reached out to take her hand. Unfortunately, the lizard looked just far enough past the guard rail to see the abyss below them and immediately shivered back, closing her eyes and hugging herself. Tatyana shook her head, awkwardly resting one hand on top of the lizard’s head.

“We are almost there.”

Click.

“Correction. We are there.”

“There’s no more drops like that, right?”

“Would it help if I walked ahead, and you stared at me like you always do?”

“…I – okay, a distraction would help, yes, but it doesn’t have to be your –”

“Would it help?”

“…Yes?”

Tatyana pulled her arms out of the lab-coat’s sleeves, throwing it over her shoulder as it came loose. A few tugs at a zipper later, she was out of the bodysuit under it, leaving her in nothing but her underwear. She passed the garments through elevator door to several floating drones that had come to take her things. After they grabbed her luggage, as well, they took off, leaving her nearly-naked and Ulti staring at her rump from behind.

Tatyana paused.

“…It belatedly occurs to me that I have just stripped when we still have to walk past several cells. Hmm.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t think you –”

“It is fine. I – a moment. Let me summon a console.”

She shook her head as she stepped out of the elevator, a faint red under her cheek stripes as she forced herself to walk to a call station. The tigress reminded herself that they were on a walkway – a heavily reinforced walkway, with an opaque floor – that was far enough away from the modular cells that none of the subjects should be able to see her. The facts, unfortunately, did not help when she could feel the heft of her breasts and her rump swaying with every step, nor did it make it easier for her to focus when she could feel Ulti staring at her from the elevator as she walked away.

Tatyana turned when she reached the mini-console a few feet down the walkway. Call stations were limited-use consoles, meant to summon automated help from the facility itself. Normally, she used them to summon one of the AI department heads, but there were other options if one had the proper access codes. Which, as the owner of the facility, she did.

She entered her request through the touchscreen. A few seconds later, a soft ‘k-thump’ echoed from high above. Tatyana took two side-steps to the right and –

Fwoosh.

A drone hovered to a stop where she’d been standing; it was vaguely spider-like, with a copper-gold chassis and eight legs clasped around a cylinder. Tatyana held out her hand and the drone dropped it into her palm. Its jets cut out, letting it fall the remaining four feet to the walkway, and it skittered off into the distance.

“…What was that?”

“One of the service drones,” Tatyana said, cracking the cylinder open and removing the wrist-console from inside. “There are thousands of them in the facility.”

“Do they all look like…”

“Spiders? Most.” She shrugged. “Easiest shape to get around in a place like this.”

Once the console was properly fitted, her fingers danced over the smooth band’s touchscreen. The various cells along the wall dimmed, their walls going from transparent to opaque. Some were grabbed and moved further away, and empty cells were spread out on either side of the walkway, blocking the view downward.

“Does that help?”

“…Not as much as your butt does, but – yeah, heh.”

“Good.”

Tatyana curled her finger for Ulti to follow and set off down the walkway. The thump-thump-thump of their steps on the hard metal echoed around them, and the machinery running the various cells from place to place meant that it was impossible to talk. She was…honestly grateful for that, because she still felt nervous about what she was going to do today.

Until now, she had been visiting Ulti, learning the lizard, giving her treats and experimenting on her. Some people might have called that one-sided, that she had been the one doing everything, but it was both wrong and not as problematic as some might have thought. Even disregarding the support Ulti had shown her during their time together, Tatyana…

She stood up a little straighter. Every other relationship – and that was using the term loosely – that she had with someone else involved being in charge. She was always in charge of her subjects, always in charge of the visitors that came by, and always, always, always in charge in front of those that funded the facility and paid for the various concepts that she turned into experiments. She knew how to be in charge, even if it was exhausting, but she did not know how to do anything else.

This visit was meant to be an experiment in breaking that ice, but it was still difficult to think of how this would feel, how this would go, and…and what it would mean for her. It was the first time that she was willingly about to do this.

“Tatyana? Are you okay?”

“…Nervous.”

“Why? I mean – is there anything dangerous down here?”

“Nothing that is not contained.”

“It’s just you’ve never been like this before. It’s not like you.”

“You will see. Almost there.”

The corridor was massive. Taller than it had any right to be, with cells that were accessed at floor level or by a mini-lift that worked on a grid system. She ignored the blacked-out walls that ran on either side of them, rubbing her forehead and calming herself down. Once she was breathing normally again, she tapped a few more buttons on the wrist-console, telling her department heads to remain elsewhere for the next two hours. This was going to be difficult enough with an audience of one; she didn’t need more.

They stopped at the one cell that wasn’t blacked-out. She opened the door and stepped inside and Ulti followed.

“Tatyana, what’s going on? Seriously? You’re being really weird.”

“I want to show you something.”

“But there’s nothing here.”

“Incorrect. I am here.”

“Well, heh. I’ve seen you –”

“Not like this.”

She rubbed the back of her head. The empty room seemed bigger and emptier as the door closed behind them. Each wall, as well as the floor and ceiling, were divided into panels exactly one foot by one foot, and they were as smooth as could be. She shifted from one bare foot to the other, trying to collect her words.

“You are submissive. Eagerly so. It is easy – and enjoyable – to enjoy you when you are in that state. It is like watching a puppy play with its toys; it feels right to indulge with you, and see how far you can go with it. It is easy to be in charge with you and push you and…all the other things that we’ve done.

“However. I have…other things that I like. Other things that I like having done to me. And I…would like you to see it. Indulge in it, if you wish, but at least see it and understand the…other parts of me.”

The words were difficult to say. They shouldn’t have been – it was data, not difficult emotion – but they still caught in her throat on the way up. She pinched the bridge of her muzzle, shaking her head.

“I am sorry. This is…more difficult than anticipated.”

Scaly arms wrapped around her. She stiffened for a moment, then patted one.

“Thank you.”

“It’s okay. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s okay. Just – try to relax.”

“I am trying. It is not easy. I – I struggle with letting other people see this.”

“You don’t have to –”

“I do. This is important. You trust me. I need to trust you.”

She squeezed Ulti’s arms for a moment, then forced herself to turn and face the lizard properly.

“I am going to show you what I do to myself. When there is nobody around. Or, failing that, what I make others forget I do when they are around. I want you to see it, and…”

Tell me it is acceptable. Tell me it isn’t too much. Tell me that you understand. Tell me you can work with this. Tell me –

“See it and be honest.”

“You sound like you’re going to tell me you’re some kind of crazy murderer or something.”

“…Oh. No. Nothing like that. Was it –”

“Just a little. Just a little ominous.”

“…I apologize.”

“Don’t. Just…show me, okay?” Ulti smiled. “It’s you. I want to know you.”

“Thank you. Just – over there?”

She pointed to a corner of the room. As soon as the lizard was in the 4x4 tiles of the room corner, the tigress tapped a few buttons on her console. Two hard-light walls leaped up, dividing her from the rest of the room. A few more button presses opened up small holes in the wall, big enough for hands, or even a head, but not enough for anything else.

“H-hey! What –”

“I want you to watch,” Tatyana said, undoing the console from her wrist and passing it through one of the holes. “And that means making sure that you do not interfere in what I do to myself.”

“Okay, seriously, what are you going to do? I’m starting to get worried here.”

“When I am alone, I…indulge myself. With my machines, and with hypnosis. It is…intense. For reasons.”

Used hard.

Trained hard.

Breaking me.

Molding me.

Tatyana closed her eyes, pressing one finger to the side of her head. She imagined drilling those thoughts away until they were gone.

“At any rate, it can look…violent. I do enjoy it, but it is very intense, and I have had others rush in to stop it when I enjoy it.”

“If you like it, I’m not going to stop you.”

“Even so, I want you to watch first. I will be…enjoying myself for a time, and then the machines will stop. The hypnosis will continue. And then you can decide what you want to do with me.” She nodded at the console. “It will unlock at the end of the session, and you may use it to manipulate the room and me.”

Ulti blinked, slowly leaning down to pick up the console. Tatyana turned around, slowly pulling off her bra and her panties. She let them fall to the floor, stepping out of them and sure that the lizard was watching her from behind. The thought was enough to make her walk with a little more of a sway than usual, something that she did not usually do.

It was…nice, in a way, to have a reason to show off.

The tigress stopped in the middle of the room, tail high and twitching with more nerves than usual. She cleared her throat.

“Submissive routine R4A3. Hypnosis routine DeepObey. Begin.”

“Acknowledged.”

Mechanical tendrils leaped from the ceiling and the floor, wrapping around her ankles and her wrists like striking snakes. Instinct made her pull against them, only for them to pull back, yanking her out and spreading her arms and legs wide. Another grabbed her tail and yanked it, pulling on it hard enough to make her yowl. She hissed through clenched teeth as the room altered itself as the bindings held her tight.

“Tatyana!”

She closed her ears, folding them back. Ulti needed to see this. Needed to see what she did to herself, what she still needed from time to time, what –

The girl will not break.

What is wrong with her? All the others shattered by this point.

Hmmph. There is something wrong with her. She enjoys this too much.

They had been wrong back then. She had taught herself to enjoy it. And the lesson had never been forgotten.

A steel table rose from the floor, one with separate leg binders that ran up from the middle of it. The tendrils carried her over and shoved her down, pinning her arms at her sides. Steel bands clicked into place at her forearms, elbows, and wrists, locking her to the table, while other tendrils lifted her legs up and into place, keeping them spread wide. She huffed, her breath coming faster as she was ‘forced’ into place, exposed, shown off. Her heartbeat hammered in her chest as she was in the present and in the past at the same time. Ghostly figures around her, machines ready to test her, push her, break her for whatever they wanted – Won’t break.

Won’t break.

Won’t break.

Hadn’t broken.

Wouldn’t be broken.

Can’t break if you like it.

Can’t break if they wanted her to cry instead of moan.

They wanted pain.

She made it pleasure.

She was panting for breath as mechanical hands grabbed her ass cheeks, forcing her further open, leaving her holes exposed. Knowing that Ulti could see her like this, see her pinned, spread, shaking, trembling –

And wet. So wet. Her pussy dripped as the process continued, a learned-reaction to being forcibly exposed, an embedded pleasure to make others think this wasn’t working. Her clit twitched, throbbing, already demanding attention.

She’s a slut, why won’t she just – why won’t she break?!

She is showing all the signs that the conditioning is working. She obeys in trance, but she doesn’t –

She is defective!

Tatyana gritted her teeth as the familiar hums of two more mechanical arms filled her ears. She tilted her head back, staring at the hypno-visor being lowered from the ceiling. The shimmering spirals that she was so familiar with pulled her attention to them. Her mind remembered what it was supposed to do, already letting go even at a distance, her toes curling in anticipation for what was going to come next.

Click.

Clack.

Ankle binders snapped around her legs, fixing them in place wide apart. She clenched her hands into fists as the visor lowered closer and closer to her face, and between her legs –

Whirrrrrrrr.

The piston arm was already rising into place, a long shaft – humanoid, this time; the roulette was merciful – rising up and lining up with her ass. Always her ass. That was the one thing that she never altered.

She did not breed.

She was not a breeder.

Ass.

Ass was safe.

Ass was controllable.

Ass was –

Press.

Stretch.

The dildo pressed into her, slowly forcing its way inside. There was enough experience back there that her rim started opening and letting it in already, her breath coming out in a slow wheeze. She closed her eyes as the visor pressed against her face, counting down with the machine.

“3.”

3.

“2.”

2.

“1.”

1.

The shimmering purple and blue filled her eyes as she opened them, and her mind went with it. She went limp against the table as the machine fucked her, filled her. Each thrust against her drifting body went deep, the dildo – thicker, longer than most – ramming into her and making her jerk against the bands holding her down. Her breasts bounced, slapping up against her chin before rocking down against her chest once more.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

She took it, easily. Her ass cheeks bounced against the table, jiggling around the thick intrusion. Each heated thrust drove a moan from her lips, her pussy drooling down over the dildo and lubing it with her own hypnotized excitement.

Spiral.

Swirl.

Drift.

Slide.

Fall.

Open.

Tatyana panted, her mind already following the commands as it had been trained to do for years.

Drift on the pleasure down there.

Slide on the toy.

Fall into the flames the toy stoked.

Open her mind and her body with every thrust.

The tigress moaned, her breasts bouncing as the toy sped up, rutting her, fucking her with a speed that no biological hips would have been capable of. She would have arched her back if it wasn’t for the metal bindings clicked in place around her chest and stomach. She couldn’t move; all she could do was take it, forced to take mecha-cock and –

Thump-thump-thump-thump, the machine speeding up, fucking her harder. The visor forced the words deeper.

Drift.

Slide.

Fall.

Open.

Obey.

Obey. Like a good girl.

Obey. Like a hot slut.

Obey.

Tatyana’s mouth opened, going slack with a tiny hint of drool running down one side. She whimpered, a little whisper of pleasure and resistance still echoing past her lips as the machine kept speeding up.

Two thrusts a second.

Three.

Four.

Her ass took it like it always did, her hole swelling from the friction and the intense heat of being fucked harder, harder, harder. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets but the spirals kept pulling them back. She couldn’t look away, couldn’t forget the command to –

Drift.

Slide.

Fall.

Open.

Obey.

ZAP!

She jerked in the restraints as a sharp shock caught her in the nipple. One of the next bits. E-stim, hitting her nipples, shocking herself, a ‘torture’ that added to the –

ZAP!

She wheezed, unable to scream or shout. All she could do was jerk and twitch, her boobs jumping up and falling back down. The wires were spreading out, finding her sensitive spots and zapping her again, again, again.

One caught her along the arch, leaving a tiny red spot along her foot. Another managed to sneak in a cheeky zap along her pucker, adding to the puffiness down there. Another shocked her along the side of her neck, making her seize up and stiffen –

ZAP!

“NNNGH!”

And a fourth hit her right on the clit. Pain, pleasure, and something else that overwhelmed everything else slammed into her, and she arched her back and…and came. Her empty pussy clenched down, visibly spasming as she came, and a clear shot of fluid went flying over the machine. She stiffened against the restraints, trying to hump her hips against nothing, slamming her stomach against the restraints, her toes spasming and curling and her soles wrinkling from the constant tension.

She had a wordless, near-silent scream of pleasure as she went over the edge, the machine still fucking her, still pushing her. She couldn’t stop. She didn’t want to stop. She had to go deeper…deeper…deeper…

The toy popped out. All ten inches slid free of her hole, leaving her stretched, puffy. In the tiny part of her mind that was conscious of the world outside, she felt like she had a horse hole, puffy and rounded and sticking out just a bit past her cheeks, begging for attention, begging to be filled again. She moaned, her hole clenching, her pussy drooling juices down over her other hole and leaving it shiny, slick, needy.

She was messy.

She was a wreck.

She was –

Deep.

Down.

Obedient.

Deep.

Down.

Obedient.

“Tatyana? T-Tatyana?”

“…”

“Tatyana, can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

Her voice was quiet, monotone. Even the faint awkwardness of her past expression was gone. Yet –

Is this the best we can do?

She’s obedient, isn’t she?

But she – she’s fucking smiling!

We can’t fix that. No matter what we do, she doesn’t stop smiling.

Goddamn fucking cat.

They wanted her broken. Empty. Mindless. She had never been able to completely fight that. They wanted her to spread her legs and let them do what they wanted. That was too much to fight, too.

But she never cried. She never wept. She never showed them the pain that they wanted to see. All she did…was smile. And when they took her mind, when they took her away and sealed her in a prison of her own skull and mind, she made sure that they saw a smile that they could never take away.

And she still smiled.

She still won.

“Tatyana? Uh…are you – are you done?”

“No.”

“What happens next?”

“It is up to you, Owner.”

“O-Owner?!”

She was silent. That was not a question that she was able to answer.

“Oh god. Okay, wow, um, okay, the – the wrist console. Oh, come on, how do you work? How do you –”

BEEP!

The console released the restraints. Tatyana remained where she was even as the table lowered back into the ground, the table disappearing beneath the floor once more. Her pussy continued to drool between her legs, slowly forming a puddle on the floor tiles.

Ulti must have found the button for removing the visor, because it slowly pulled off her face and retreated to the ceiling.

“Tatyana? Are you still hypnotized?”

“Yes.”

“How long does that last? If you know?”

“Approximately 45-60 minutes.”

“Oh god. And I’m your…Owner…until then?”

“Yes.”

“…Stand up.”

Her body moved mechanically, automatically. It was not so different from a robot moving, the motions slow and measured and without the slightest wasted movement. She got her feet under her, lifted herself by the hips, and slowly stood up. Everything wobbled for a moment before she could catch her balance.

She finally had a chance to see Ulti, too. The lizard was masturbating, rubbing herself, fingering herself to the sight. She clearly enjoyed the show.

Tatyana’s smile did not shift, but there was something under the tranced glow in her mind. Something proud. Something happy. Something…something she did not quite understand, but was glad to have regardless. Something had gone right.

“Come here.”

The tigress stepped forward, one sleepwalking step after another. Her hips swayed and her thighs stroked against each other, smearing her juices through the fur. Through it all, Ulti never stopped touching herself, one hand between her legs and the other at her chest. The lizard’s curves, soft and gentle as they were, would have been very appealing to see if she had been the one in charge.

But she was not.

That was the point.

And she –

She didn’t –

Slip.

Slide.

Deep.

Down.

Obedient.

She stopped in front of the light barrier. Ulti huffed, pulling her hands away from herself as she stood up and leaned against the barrier. She hesitated, then put her hand through one of the holes, resting her hand on the tigress’s left breast.

“You’ll…do anything I say?”

“I am obedient, Owner.”

“You’ll do anything?”

“I am obedient, Owner. I will do anything.”

“Then…”

The lizard paused, shifting around to some of the other holes. She poked them, then the console, and managed to shift them around until they were at a different level. Ulti leaned against the wall, pushing her arms through.

“Then hug me.”

“Yes, Owner.”

Putting her arms through the holes, Tatyana pulled the lizard to her. They couldn’t touch completely – the holes weren’t big enough for that – but they could embrace, touch each other’s backs, rumps, and more. They held each other as Ulti giggled.

“Oh god…I can…I can do anything…Tatyana, you’re so – god, you’re hot…And you…you calling me this…”

“…”

“I don’t know what happened, or what’s going on…but I know this was hard. I’ll make it worth it. Promise.”

“Thank you, Owner.”

“I could get used to that.”

“…”

“Tell your owner what you want to do.”

“In ranked order, my current desires are to kiss your rump, to follow orders, and to kiss your feet.”

“…Well, I can let you do that. Let’s just…get the holes moved again…wow, this is so cool…”