A familiar-looking demon

You and Luna both quickly turn to face the source of the voice. She looks shockingly familiar in her nudity.

"Naamah?" all three bodies say in unison.

"Don't mention that failure's name to me," the woman, clearly another demon, snaps. "She's as weak and pathetic as I always knew she was. No, I'm here to do what she couldn't. Now get out of those bodies and give me the ring."

"And if I say no?" you challenge.

"Well then, I'll just take it from you." A fireball begins to form in her right hand while electricity arcs between the fingers of her left. "From your dead body, if necessary. Which would, of course, also mean killing whoever you're possessing right now."

"Fuck you, bitch!" Luna shouts, starting to move between your sisters' bodies and the demon. The demon lowers her left forearm.

"Lu--" you start to shout, and then everything goes white.

--

When you come to, you're back in your own body, dressed as you had been before you possessed your sisters. You quickly take stock of your surroundings.

It looks like a comfortable, well-appointed sitting room. Two comfortable armchairs, one on either side of a merry fire in the hearth, with a table between them. A pot of tea sits there, and an empty teacup rests on a saucer in front of one chair. The other chair, however...

"Naamah?" you say in disbelief, for the second time in the last few minutes.

But this isn't the Naamah you remember defeating and trapping in your ring--which, you only just notice, is back on your hand. She's still as jaw-droppingly gorgeous and sexy as ever, but instead of being naked as she had been, she's dressed in a red turtleneck sweater, accentuating her curves, along with a pair of slightly ripped jeans. Her feet are bare, and her spade-ended tail holds up her saucer, onto which she puts her own teacup, having just taken a sip.

"Hello, Nick," she says calmly, though her voice, like her body, is trying to make you hard, and only your shock is keeping it from succeeding. "Long time no see. Please, do sit down. There are a few things we must discuss."

"What the hell do I need to discuss with you? You tried to take over my body and steal my life!"

Naamah sighs, impatience in it. "The chair is safe, the tea is not poisoned, and my sweater is yellow." At that last you feel a twinge in your mind. "Your girlfriend's name is Jane"--another twinge--"and you're the CEO of your own multi-billion-dollar firm." Another twinge. "I can't knowingly tell you an untruth, Nick. And anyway, we're inside your mind, basically. I can do a little, but this is your place to reshape as you will."

Still wary, you turn the armchair into a sofa and lie down on your back, swinging your legs up on an armrest. "What do you want, Naamah?"

"To save your life, of course," she says.

"And why would you want to do that? I'd think you'd welcome any opportunity to get your **** on me for what I did to you."

"I would," she admits. No twinge. "But futility can dull even the sharpest hatred. I am bound to you, Nick. My existence is forever linked with yours. If you die, so do I. Whatever hatred of you I might bear, it is not as strong as my desire to continue living, even if it must be in such a limited state as this." Still no twinge. "So if you think my motives must be purely selfish, just consider that I want to do everything I can to keep you safe and secure."

"All right, so what's going on, then?" you ask.

"You put the ring on again," Naamah says, stating the obvious. "And so the demons will start hunting you again, as I did. Only now more will come, since the ring has grown more powerful."

"So I'll just take it off," you say. "Put Luna back to normal, wipe my sisters' memories again, take it off and put it away. I got by without it."

"Won't work," Naamah says. "You and it are linked. When you put it on you awakened to full **** the latent powers that had been growing within you."

"Latent powers? Do you mean..." You trail off, not quite sure where the captive demon is going with this.

"I mean that ever since you put on the ring in the first place, there's been a bond between you and it that's been getting stronger, even once you took it off. About a year ago it became strong enough that you could, if only you knew and if you applied sufficient focus to the matter, use its powers in at least a minor form, whether or not you wore it. Now the bonding is complete."

"What are you saying, that I wouldn't need the ring to do all this stuff now? Well then, why don't I just give it to whatever-her-name-is and be done with it?"

"She is Maanah. My twin sister." Naamah grimaces. "Our parents were not especially creative when it came to naming their children. And there are no rivalries stronger among demons than those between siblings, especially twins. And giving her the ring is the one thing you cannot, must not, do."

"Why not?" you ask.

"Because while the ring cannot be taken from you--indeed, fool that she is, Maanah does not know that if you die, the ring perishes with you now--it can be freely given. Then you would lose your powers and Maanah would begin to bond with it." Naamah scowls. "And I would be her captive, not yours." She tosses her head, a touch of pride in the gesture. "And if I must be a captive, I would much rather be that of the one who defeated me."

"This is fascinating and all," you say impatiently, "but Maanah was about to kill Luna. So can you get to the point?"

Naamah waves a hand lazily. "We're communicating at the speed of thought. Magical thought, not bound to the electrical impulses in ordinary brains," she clarifies. "You'll become aware of your dorm room again at the moment you left it."

"Just tell me how to deal with your sister like I dealt with you."

Naamah smiles slightly. "If I were inclined to attempt to be false with you, Nick, I would say that that was an unfortunate wording on your part. As it happens, however, Maanah can be dealt with just as I was."

"How?" you press, finally sitting up and leaning forward.

"When you defeated me, possessing your entire town and leaving me no place to hide, I attempted, in desperation, to possess you." She shrugs. "That was my undoing. Fool that I was, I did not realize what your ring actually is. In attempting to take your body from you, I was trapped here instead."

"And so, what, I need to get Maanah to try to possess me?"

"My sister is arrogant and easily goaded. You need tell her nothing but the truth--that you will not give her the ring, and that killing you will destroy it also. She will conclude that the only way to gain its power is to steal your existence from you, claim it for her own. That will be her undoing, as it was mine."

"And then will she be here, like you?"

"She may be here," Naamah says. "Likely trapped in a cage until she accepts her fate, as I was."

You reach for your teacup, feel the side. It's pleasantly warm and you take an unmannered gulp of what you have to admit is excellent tea. "One last question, then," you say, hopefully knowing what you need to do to deal with the immediate threat. "What is this ring?" You hold up your hand while you swallow the rest of the tea.

Naamah smiles. "The Master Ring."

You've already started to focus on returning to reality, and the words hit your ears, your eyes going wide, just as the room whites out.

--

Just as Naamah had said, the situation in your dorm is unchanged. Luna is moving in front of your bodies; Maanah is lowering her arm to pump probably millions of volts through your girlfriend.

Quickly you recorporealize, rendering Juniper and Ashley ****. Back in your own body, you push Luna aside--she gives a slightly indignant squeak as she lands on her well-cushioned ass--and face the demon squarely.

"No," you say. "I will not give you the ring." You hold it up, fire in the gem.

"Then I'll take it from you," Maanah says confidently.

"You cannot take it from me so long as I do not will it."

Maanah just shrugs. "Then I'll kill you and take it!"

"Kill me, and it is destroyed." You decide to bluff a bit. "Do you think I would be so foolish as to reawaken it before I had bonded fully with it?"

Maanah grimaces. "Then there's only one way for that ring to be with its rightful owner." Her tone makes it clear just who that 'rightful owner' is, in her mind, anyway. Just as yours does when you start to possess someone, her body fades slightly, blurring around its edges. She starts to float as her feet lose definition, then her legs, and she lowers her head, starting to fly toward you. "Tell you what," she says from her semi-ghostly mouth, "I'll let you choose how your existence ends. Do you want me to go into your mouth or into your butt?"

You just stand your ground as Maanah flies at you, bringing up your hands--probably unnecessarily, if what Naamah had told you was indeed correct. She might not be able to lie to you, but she could certainly be honestly mistaken about any number of things.

But she isn't, in this case, and you smile in grim satisfaction as Maanah's confident visage distorts into confusion and terror as her very being is sucked straight into your ring.

With the immediate threat handled, you kneel down next to Luna.

"Nick, what happened?" she asks.

"I'll explain everything soon," you say, helping her stand up, then checking on your sisters to make sure they're still ****. Quickly you possess them again, this time keeping your own body as well. Another few moments, and you tell Luna, "There, I've made sure you can skip classes today. I think we're going to have a lot to discuss, once you meet an old... well, acquaintance, shall we say."

"What do you mean, Nick?" Luna says, her voice shaky as she presses into your side, her lingering fright coming to the fore with the immediate adrenaline rush fading.

"It'd be easier to show you. I think I can." You know that Luna is normally very excited for you to use your powers, especially on her, but you feel you need to ask. "May I try?"

Luna looks up at you, tears in her eyes. "Yes," she says. "I trust you."

You move your mind partly into Luna's, not enough to suppress her consciousness but enough to make you some sort of shared entity. It should be enough to bring her along when you go back to visit Naamah.

"Here goes," you say quietly. Everything goes white again.

--

"Welcome back, Nick," Naamah says. The sofa has been replaced with a loveseat, and there's some sort of cage inside which a figure can be seen writhing in silent agony. The fire still blazes merrily, but the tea has been replaced with an assortment of small cookies.

Naamah's clothes have changed, too. She's wearing a buttoned shirt--tight enough to show off her erect nipples, however--and a mid-thigh-length skirt, her tail snaking up from within it to hold up her little plate.

Looking over, you see that, as with you, Luna is back in her original body and dressed in her typical goth attire. You guide her over to the loveseat; even sitting down she still snuggles up hard against you.

"All right, Naamah. Run through that whole explanation again for my girlfriend." And for you, you don't add. You could use a refresher yourself after the minor chaos of capturing Maanah. That was all that you had really cared about.

Naamah nods and reiterates what she'd said before. You confirm that Luna doesn't feel anything when Naamah lies, but she believes you when you say you do, and that Naamah is being honest.

"So what's this about my ring being this 'Master Ring'?" you ask.

"It's what it sounds like," Naamah says simply. "You, Nick, are destined for mastery." She smiles. "For Godhood."