I know I was meant for glory, but that's never what my story brings

“What the hell!?” Serenity screeched, hopping up from her soaking wet chair and looking in shock at her pale skin.

“Oh, would you look at that, she can talk,” Echo said sarcastically, lowering her cane.

“What did you do to me?!” Serenity sputtered in disbelief. “I-I’m not glowing anymore, how the fuck did you-?!”

She clasped her hand over her mouth once she realized that she was talking so much, and dropped back down into her seat. She settled for aiming a scathing glare at Echo instead, showing the redhead just how much she despised her with her eyes since her mouth didn’t work.

Echo huffed and rolled her eyes. “So ungrateful,” she muttered. “Don’t you see what I’ve given you, my dear girl?”

Serenity narrowed her eyes coldly at the other woman in response. Apparently, she was not as receptive to what Echo was selling as the host would like her to be.

Echo sighed and rolled her eyes. Well, fine. She could work with that.

“You’re not a siren anymore.”

Serenity’s mouth fell open as shock overtook her default hostility. “Wh-what?”

“You were turned into a siren because of your transformation. One of several transformations, isn’t that right?” Echo pointed out. “It made it difficult for you to interact with other people, given the natural alluring qualities of a siren. Now- Dakota, my predecessor, offered you a way around that, did she not? Extending you the offer of making that boon of yours- what was it, again? …Oh well, it doesn’t really matter to me. She was going to let you be around others without causing problems on a temporary basis, but now… …Well, now she’s not here.”

“…Because of you,” Serenity muttered. She felt a pricking in her chest that reminded her that what Echo was selling her on… it might not actually be as crazy as she feared it was.

“Me?” Echo raised her hand and placed it over her chest in shock. “Why, I’m offended! I didn’t do anything!” She pointed out. “In fact, Nola is more to blame for Dakota’s disappearance than I am, if you want to be technical about it.”

“What!?” Nola squeaked. “Leave me out of this! I was just following orders!”

“Do you know how many horrible acts have been committed using that excuse?” Echo clicked her tongue derisively and shook her head. “Saying ‘I was just following orders’ you know who uses that defense, Nola?”

Nola squirmed in her chair. “Um… really bad people?”

“Exactly. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t give you an extra packet of Sweet and Sour Sauce to dip your fries in without charging an extra 50 cents! Sorry, that’s our policy, I’m just following orders!’ As if I wanted to eat at your shitty fast-food restaurant anyway! This is why cooking is essential!” Echo rambled furiously, grinding the palm of her hand into her forehead.

“…Not where I thought you were going with that,” Nola said bluntly.

“I don’t care about this!” Serenity was on her feet again, and glared furiously at Echo. “Just tell me why you did this? Why- no, HOW did you take away my transformation?! No, how, AND why? Tell me already, damn it!”

Echo turned her tired eyes to the irate swimmer beside her, and shook her head in exasperation. “Because I’m trying to be a good boss,” she said calmly, tapping her cane on the floor. “That’s what you don’t seem to understand, Serenity. Now- I know tensions are getting heated, and people are… not as receptive to my new position as I expected.”

“Shishishishi, because they know you’re awful,” Lynette cackled.

Echo glared at her for a moment, then turned back to Serenity. She clasped her hands over the head of her cane.

“But my goal here is to turn Nick into the sort of master he should be. To drive him deeper into the arms of corruption and bring him happiness… my way.” Echo clutched the side of her face and her mouth morphed into a twisted grin. “It’s just perfect like this! Don’t you all see!? With this, Nick… Nick will finally embrace the monster inside of him… and when that happens… I can’t wait to see it! Ahahahahahaha!”

She threw back her head and laughed maniacally while the other three women in the room just stared at her.

“…Am I the only one bothered by the evil laugh?” Nola asked timidly.

“Shishishishi… what’s there to be bothered by?” Lynette asked her sincerely, tilting her head at an awkward angle that made her stringy blonde hair flop all over her face.

Nola grimaced at the sight of Lynette’s twisted smile, and sank lower into her seat. Everyone here… they were all crazy!

It was a sad time when Serenity was the most normal one of the bunch. And she was looking especially normal now. The shock of what had happened to her had worn off by this point, and she looked at her new body with hesitant curiosity. Like she couldn’t even believe that it was real.

Echo stopped laughing and turned back to the former siren.

“In other words, I may be more adversarial towards Nick and his harem than previous hosts have been… but that doesn’t mean I have any problem with any of you,” she said, slinking over to Serenity and cradling her face with her lace-covered hand. “Think of this as a token of my… esteem.”

Serenity opened her mouth, still shocked. But before she could say anything, the color returned to her cheeks and quickly spread across the rest of her body. In a flash she was her old glowing self again, and she jerked away from Echo with another snarl on her lips.

“So that’s your game?” She hissed at the sneering redhead. “Give me a little taste of what I used to be… and dangle it over me for the rest of your tenure here?”

Now that she was a siren again, her voice had regained some of its more entrancing qualities. But that had never been why she stopped talking. It was a force of habit, more than anything, and her brief taste of humanity had caused some old habits to resurface.

Echo just smiled, unbothered by Serenity’s hostility.

“What was your boon again?” She tapped her chin, then lifted her cane. The text of Serenity’s boon from the previous round floated in the air over the siren’s head like a curse.

She Was Afraid to Come Out of the Water: While on land, the allure of Serenity’s transformations is dulled, allowing her to interact with those around her for a longer period of time without her powers taking affect over them.

“It’s not a bad gift at all, I must say. Dakota really knew what she was doing, offering that to you. As loathe as I am to give that woman credit for anything,” Echo added at the end with a mutter of disgust. She shook her head.

“…But alas, it wouldn’t last forever. At least- not under normal circumstances, anyway. But a promise is a promise, I suppose…”

She waved her cane, and a glowing orb emerged from the crystal embedded in the head. It floated towards Serenity like a bubble and popped, dropping a small bracelet into her hands. The bracelet was made out of a rubbery-like series of interwoven strings of different colors. One a deep teal, another a light sea blue, and the third a blue as dark as Serenity’s hair.

“Macrame?” Serenity looked at Echo dubiously.

“I told you, it’s a gift,” Echo said. “Wear that, and it will provide the same effect as the boon you had previously. Think of it as a friendship bracelet,” she sniggered.

Serenity narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Trick,” she said. “Why?”

“Because you earned it,” Echo said bluntly. “With all your hard work in the previous challenge. Helping out Dakota the way you did? It’s your reward.”

She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Now- I know you’re suspicious of me, and frankly- I’m not surprised, either.”

Serenity raised her eyebrow and gave the host a frosty look.

“…But I see no reason why you shouldn’t be recompensated for the work you’ve done,” Echo said. She gave the siren an encouraging nod. “At least try it on,” she coaxed her. “There’s nothing bad that will happen to you. Come on now. I told you- I’m on your side here!”

Serenity didn’t believe that for a second. But still- she slid the bracelet on.

She paused, and inspected her wrist. Like she was waiting for some spring-loaded trap to slice her hand off or something. But nothing like that happened. So when everything finally settled she raised her head and looked at Echo.

“…Okay,” she said finally. “Works.” She could already feel her powers being subtly suppressed. At least a little bit.

“Good!” Echo pressed her hands together and smiled. “Now- it does limit your powers, but it isn’t perfect, I’m sorry to say.”

Serenity raised her eyebrow and glared at the other woman.

“It nullifies your energy by absorbing the effect of your siren abilities into itself,” the host explained. “But it can only absorb so much at one time. If you wear it too often, it will overload and break, and then it won’t work anymore, unfortunately. So you’ll have to use it in moderation, you see?” She chirped, flashing Serenity a smile.

Serenity leered warily at her. So it wasn’t exactly what Dakota had promised her. Then again, Dakota had been cagey on her actual reward to begin with, so maybe Serentiy had just been getting her hopes up over nothing.

That wasn’t good.

“…So what now?” She asked.

Echo shrugged. “Nothing. I told you- that right there is a gift for you, Serenity. But- it isn’t a perfect fix, I’m afraid.”

The gleeful smile on her face spoken volumes. Serenity was no fool, either. The “perfect fix” Echo was offering?

She’d already given her a taste of it.

“Are you saying you’re really willing to nullify Serenity’s transformation?” Nola asked, amazed. “Can you even do that?”

“No,” Serenity said sharply. “She can’t.”

Echo sighed. “…You aren’t wrong,” she admitted. “Serenity, those transformations you were inflicted with, they’re the result of audience votes. Your season ended, and you were released without being bound to the master. That’s how you ended up in the state you’re in right now, forced into a siren colony, isn’t that right?”

Serenity leered at Echo. She didn’t appreciate her life being pried into like that. Especially not by someone like the witch in front of her.

But she kept her disdain to herself this time, not even hissing at her.

“Not even the power of a host can undo that, I’m afraid,” Echo said. “At least, not in a permanent sense, anyway.”

Her green eyes twinkled with gleeful excitement. “But what if it didn’t have to be that way?” She leaned forward, pressing her freckle-covered face right up close to Serenity’s and looked her right in the siren’s eyes. “What if… there WAS a way?”

Serenity felt a chill down her spine, and it wasn’t because she was soaking wet. She was tempted to push Echo away from her, but she had no idea how the other woman would actually respond to that, so she refrained.

“What I showed you before, that was the limit of my powers as the host,” Echo explained calmly. “I can temporarily suppress a transformation- for an entire day, even! But- I can’t erase one forever, I’m afraid…”

Serenity made a huffing sound with her lips. Echo didn’t have to tell her that. She was already well aware of those restrictions.

“Dakota said,” she informed the redhead that her predecessor had already covered all this with her quite some time ago.

Also, using Dakota’s name really seemed to frustrate Echo, and Serenity was all for that.

But the irritated expression on Echo’s face didn’t last for long. She twisted her expression into a gleeful sneer and shook her head. “Don’t worry,” she crooned, stepping away from Serenity and walking back around her desk. She sat down in that nice armchair of hers and just let herself relax, embracing the comfort.

“I have plans for that.”

Serenity raised her eyebrow. “Plans?”

“Certainly,” Echo chirped. “Just because I can’t eliminate your transformations directly, that doesn’t mean there aren’t more ways to skin a cat, don’t you think?”

Serenity gave her another dubious look. This went beyond trusting Echo’s motives at this point- she was honestly not sure the other woman even knew what the limit of her powers was.

And that was a dangerous position to be in.

She’s crazy, Serenity thought. She could be as verbose as she wanted within the confines of her own head. Absolutely, certifiably crazy. That look in her eye, it’s twisted, like her heart isn’t working properly. I have no idea if she’s even capable of making a distinction between helping me or not. Even if she says she has my best interests in mind, somehow I doubt she’s even capable of understanding what those might be.

It definitely made her uneasy. Right now, she wanted desperately to return to the water, where she could have some semblance of stability.

But she couldn’t just leave.

Not only would Echo not let her, but…

If she left…

If I left, then… what would happen to me? Serenity wondered. Would that just… be it? Would I lose this chance? This opportunity?

Serenity had lived a large chunk of her life as a siren. While she’d always enjoyed the water even when she had been human, she had never thought that one day she would be transformed in a creature of the water, just to satisfy the demented fetish of a man who she never cared for in the first place, and who never saw her as a person in need of respect.

She had adapted. She had accepted what she was.

But now, this random stranger, this wicked, twisted woman… she was telling Serenity that she could give her back her old self.

Make her human again.

Serenity… did Serenity want that?

She honestly didn’t know how to answer that question, even as she posed it to herself.

“Personally, Serenity, I don’t see what the issue is,” Echo admitted. “I mean, with that bracelet, you can do all sorts of things that you couldn’t before, can’t you? It’s almost as good as being human again in my book.”

Serenity glanced at her bracelet again and then gave Echo a dirty look.

The host shrugged. “We each have our own opinions,” she replied. “But as a fan of transformations myself, I would choose to stick with it. Being able to seduce anyone you wanted with your mere presence? Mmm…”

She licked her lips excitedly. “…Sounds yummy.”

Nola forced a smile. “Well, o-of course you think that,” she stammered out. “It’s that transformation of yours, r-right, Echo?”

“Exactly!” Echo chirped, swinging her head around and flashing Nola a broad grin. “I so enjoy corrupting powers like yours, my dear siren lass.”

She tapped her finger slowly on the table and hummed. “…But it’s ultimately your choice. With what I’m trying to achieve here, who knows? Maybe, just maybe, mind you, there could be a place for you, Serenity. The human you. If you do your job well, and follow orders like a good girl, then anything is possible.”

Serenity narrowed her eyes. “Orders?” She questioned. “Job?”

That was the part she was hesitant about.

What did Echo even WANT from her?

“Oh, it won’t be anything too serious,” Echo assured her. “Trust me- I won’t need you for any heavy lifting or anything. That’s what I have these two here for.”

She waved dismissively at Nola and Lynette. Nola forced herself to maintain the awkward smile that she’d been wearing, and Lynette…

Lynette’s smile was as twisted and distorted as always. Completely impossible to read, for better or worse, and that didn’t go unnoticed by Echo, who leered warily at her.

Nola and Serenity are both outwardly reluctant about me, at least for now, but they’re both rather straightforward once you look beneath the surface, she reasoned. In contrast, though… Lynette… I just can’t get a read on her.

That was why Echo was most concerned about Lynette and her allegiance.

If anyone is going to betray me, it would definitely be her.

Well… Echo certainly couldn’t have that!

She pursed her lips together for a moment and analyzed the three women in front of her. It was just like going over the list of suspects in a mystery novel.

Serenity is cold and aloof, but her goals are quite simple. She’s just trying to scrape by as best she can. She’ll do my bidding if she thinks it suits her, and will help make her more human.

Echo turned her attention to Nola next. Then there’s Nola. She’ll be loyal to the producers above anyone, because her goal is to become a host again. Beyond that, though, she’s cheerful and friendly and gets along with the women in Nick’s harem. If anyone will have reservations about how I treat Nick and his girls, it’ll be her. But she should fall in line eventually, if it means a chance of getting what she wants from the producers.

And that led her to the third person.

Lynette.

Lynette is the wild card. She’s obeying me the most fervently out of any of them… but her relationship with Dakota means she’s mercurial. Her devotion and anger are constantly at war with one another. If I’m not careful about securing her loyalty, then there’s every chance Dakota could manipulate her into undermining me.

…

I can’t allow that under any circumstances.

The more Echo thought about it, the more she recognized that her earlier solution was the correct one. If Lynette was plotting to undermine her, then Echo needed to undermine her first. Sabotage her and render her unnecessary, then dispose of her once she was no longer useful.

And yet… Echo wouldn’t do that.

She wasn’t going to win this by being like the producers. If she played their game, then she was going to lose, because ultimately, she was little more than a piece on their chessboard.

“You three are dismissed. I’ll call on you again if I need something,” she said.

Nola and Serenity couldn’t leave fast enough. Both had a lot to think about.

Lynette lingered at the door.

“Shishishishi!” She lifted the hem of her skirt in a curtsy. “As you wish, Miss Echo.”

Echo smiled politely back to her. “Yes, of course,” she said.

Lynette slammed the door shut behind her.

Echo chewed her lip. Wicked girl.