But what about poor Suki?

Suki ran into the elevator and collapsed into the corner in a sobbing, shaking lump, arms hugging herself tightly, face a sobbing mess. Shit. Things weren't supposed to be like this anymore. Suki was an adult now, even if Nymeera put her in a decade younger body she was a 31 year old woman who could handle a hardship or two...but when she thought back to that pitying look on Syn's face the tears just wouldn't stop. Hardship was something everyone had to deal with, it wasn't fair that others gave her an easier time because her brain

'Wow! Great job Suki! It's so impressive that you were able to beat a grandmaster on your first try!'

...damn it, now she was remembering THAT of all things.

'Damn, look at her. She's the Down's one? She's so hot!'
'Shut up! She'll hear you!'

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck...

'I heard she got taken advantage of in school...'
'Damn, I kinda don't blame them.'
'Hey, don't be a dick. Just be really nice to her, she's kinda slow....'

Breathe Suki...breathe...

'Hey is that the special ed. girl?'
'Whoa! Asshole! You can't say that!'
'What? It's a medical thing right?'
'Well yeah but you can't say it. Just let her win okay? Everyone else is...'

Ding

Suki stood up and rushed out of the elevator, pushing her way to the hotel room and... She blinked, this wasn't her room... Wait...which room was hers again? Shit, her parents were probably waiting for her to get back, she hoped she wasn't worrying them...err no, her parents weren't here. She was...what was the name of this hotel again? Where...where was she? Suki's breathing started to get faster, deeper...she was starting to panic. Calm down...it's okay. She can just call her folks, they'd come get her, they wouldn't be far. Suki took out her phone...but she didn't recognize it. Was this really her phone? The names in it were so old, just her old cheer squad. Where were her parents? She couldn't breathe properly, she was panicking...she didn't know where she was!

"Suki?!" Suki gasped as her ethics teacher suddenly opened the door to the hotel room she'd been standing in front of, looking at her with a concerned expression on his face. "Are you alright?" he asked gently, looking her up and down, though not like people normally looked her up and down. This seemed to be done with a concern for her health rather than appearance, and his gaze seemed to fixate mostly on her eyes rather than her chest.

"Mr. Carter?" Suki gasped as a feeling of pleasure swelled up inside of her. Suddenly her panic seemed a lot less important, but it was still there, clawing at her from inside her own brain. "What are you doing here? Where are my parents?" she asked, looking around the hallway, phone still in her head.

"Parents? Suki do you know where you are?" he asked, his level of concern rising.

"I...I..." Suki's eyes, already red and puffy from earlier tears started to sting as new tears threatened to spill from the corners of her vison. "I don't know I...I'm having an attack...I...where are my parents?" she pleaded with her teacher, hoping that he could somehow help her.

"Oh... Okay, take a deep breath," he said, his voice sounding so strong and reassuring suddenly. He approached her, but didn't get too close, just kept himself nearby, his voice calm and reassuring, as though he knew exactly what to do to fix everything. Suki couldn't help but trust him, taking a deep breath and then another as she focused on Mr. Carter...ohh and that nice feeling that came from thinking about him. "What do your parents normally do when you have an attack?"

"I...I play chess...and then..."

"Okay uh...we can do that. e4."

"d5," Suki immediately replied, envisioning the board in her head, seeing the pieces move into their comfortable, familiar positions. The world of the 64 squares governed by secure, predictable rules.

"Oh. Okay, uh d4..." Mr. Carter said, giving Suki a clear advantage.

"d takes e4," Suki responded, taking Mr. Carter's...mmm piece. Was...was she getting turned on playing chess against her former teacher? Mr. Carter frowned a bit, as though struggling to see the board, crystal clear in front of them.

"Huh...okay...let me think...how about...knight c3?" Was he asking permission? You didn't need to ask permission to make your moves, that was the beauty of chess. No awkward social niceties, or complex hidden rules like a requirement to remember your opponent's birthday, and most important of all, you couldn't lie in chess...everything was right there in front of them, open and bare and all players just accepted it without judgement, or mirth...or pity.

"Knight g6," Suki replied, defending her pawn that Mr. Carter had foolishly allowed to place a painful foothold in his territory.

"Bishop...c...5?" Suki looked at Mr. Carter with a raised eyebrow.

"That isn't a legal move...you mean bishop g5?"

"Oh uh yeah that one." Suki shrugged, causing her heavy chest to bounce slightly, but she didn't pay much attention to that, just the move that was made...the somewhat questionable move that didn't really do anything...

"c6," she said, opening up her lines of attack and preparing to take full advantage of her deep infiltrator pawn clamping down on Mr. Carter's center. Fuck she was starting to get a little wet down there... Mr. Carter shook his head, as though knowing that his position was a very precarious one and with a shrug of his broad shoulders said:

"e5."

"Illegal move."

"I mean d5!" he corrected, which was a legal move but...

"Knight takes d5."

"Hold on..." Mr. Carter said, frowning deeply. "Wasn't my bishop on...uh the square next to that knight?" Suki nodded patiently, could he really not see the board they were playing on? It was so clear in her head... "Then my bishop takes your queen?" Suki chuckled brightly.

"Mr. Carter, bishops can't jump over pawns silly."

"What? There's a pawn in the way? But I thought you moved it..." Suki laughed again, taking her former teacher, now would-be Master by the hand, leading him into the room she and Dana shared, along with Coach Victoria for the moment.

"Come inside, let me show you."

"Hold on... According to this...you're kicking my ass!" Damien said, staring at the board that Suki set up to show their game thus far.

"Well I wouldn't say it like that but...I give myself quite high odds of winning this," Suki said with a smirk, crossing her legs and settling into the couch. Damien rubbed his forehead and looked at the board oddly, as though staring at it could unearth some hidden secret to help him win, but chess held no secrets. The board revealed all, plain to see for anyone who wished to look.

"Okay I...give up. At least you're feeling better, right?"

"Oh yes...thank you," Suki said, remembering suddenly that she'd been panicking pretty badly just a few minutes ago and blushing. "That um, doesn't normally happen, I promise..." The last thing Suki needed was Damien assuming she was some child who couldn't be left alone.

"What did happen, by the way?" Damien asked, sitting down next to her. "You didn't seem to know where you were. Is that the cognitive impairment?"

"No! No that's not... I was just panicking. Yeah, sometimes I forget where I am or what time it is, but it isn't so uh...****. It's minor cognitive impairment for a reason. Usually it's just losing track of time for a bit, forgetting which room I'm in till I look around, same as with anyone else, I'm just a bit more susceptible to it. The reason it was so bad right then was..." Suki squirmed a little in her seat. This was a little embarrassing to explain, and she wasn't the best at explaining things in the first place. "Well something happened earlier...and I had a panic attack. That was really all that was, just a big...scary...panic attack..." Suki said, letting her voice go soft as her eyes found their way down to the floor. She'd look at her feet, but she hadn't managed to do that since puberty.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Damien asked gently, in that way people did whenever they weren't sure how to help but still wanted to. Suki sighed, and started to reset the chess board before them. No matter where she was, or who she was with...some things never changed. "We don't have to," Damien quickly amended, "Just tell me if it was something Victoria did..." Suki blinked at that, surprised.

"Victoria? No, not at all!" Suki said, looking at Damien with big, dark brown eyes.

"Oh! Good! I'm glad to hear that," Damien said with an abashed smile, looking away from her...nervously? Ashamedly? Surprised? Maybe he just didn't want to ogle her body? Ugh, it was so hard to tell...

"Wait," Suki frowned a bit, thinking through things now that her mind had settled down. "Was that what you were doing in my room? Looking for Victoria?" Damien looked...guilty? Dejected? Sad? Pensive? and then he smiled which just threw Suki through a whole new loop of possible emotions.

"You caught me. You know, I never realized how sharply intelligent you were back when you were my student. Sorry about that... It's shockingly difficult to get things past you."

Suki's eyes narrowed and she leaned in close, ignoring the way Damien's eyes flitted down to her sweater for some- oh right duh. Ignore that. "Are you trying to trick me?"

"No no!" Damien said quickly, putting his hands up. "I'm complimenting you on how hard it is to hide things from you. It's a turn of phrase..."

"...so you WERE trying to hide something from me, but not anymore?"

"I...not exactly." Well now Suki was just very confused. Was he lying to her? Damn it! And here she thought she'd be able to go at least a few days without being lied to or tricked! "It's a compliment. Sorry, it's a sort of roundabout way of me telling you that you're very smart. I didn't mean to imply anything other than that." Suki couldn't keep up with everything, he seemed to be completely contradicting himself, but she knew that that wasn't necessarily his fault. People were weird, and social interactions usually defied any sort of common sense logic. Suki decided she'd just have to trust him, because she liked it better when she trusted people, and he did help her. That was worth some trust in her book.

"Okay," Suki said, giving Damien a smile and relaxing herself. "Then thank you, and thank you for helping me calm down earlier too. I'm lucky you were here."

"Damn..."

"Huh?" Why was he cursing? Was Suki doing something wrong?

"Nothing! It's just...that transformation feels like it's working overtime right now..."

"I don't get it, but thanks?" Suki said, hoping that that was another one of those roundabout compliments people did sometimes.

At that moment the door opened to signal Dana and Victoria walking in. Dana's ears perked up immediately upon seeing Damien, and Victoria shrank back looking uncomfortable. Suki didn't know why, she seemed fine with Damien seeing her in her underwear earlier this morning...

"Mr. Carter!" Dana exclaimed, her cheeks getting a little colored afterwards. "What a pleasant surprise. Suki you should've told us you had our teacher over...unless you were wanting him all for yourself? Was there a sock on the door that I missed?" Dana giggled, looking back at the door before hopping over to Damien, who had grown very quiet. Suki cocked her head to the side and blinked in confusion. What would possess anyone to put their laundry on the door?

"No my socks are put away...or on my feet I guess." For some reason that just made Dana laugh, but it sounded like a friendly laugh, something done out of joy rather than at Suki's expense, so Suki smiled along with her, still confused as to why they were happy.

"Right right...so if not for the...obvious," Dana grinned lasciviously, "Why's he here?"

"Oh, um I was just asking him about that actually..."

"Victoria." Damien stated the former coach's name quietly and fixed her with a firm gaze. Suki's eyes widened, was Victoria about to get in trouble?

"Damien," Victoria said coolly, schooling her face towards a calm mask. "Shouldn't you be on a date right now?"

"I managed a small delay. As the Master. I apparently have some control over what goes on around here." Victoria's face twitched into a shrewd smile and Damien continued to stare back. Dana was getting very quiet and Suki suddenly felt lost. She knew that there was some kind of subtext happening now, but she didn't know what it meant. She really just wished everyone would just speak plainly! "I was hoping to talk to you in private, but seeing as this effects everyone here... I was asked to speak with you about your Transformation. Are you still Victoria? Or has your dark side taken over?" Suki let out an audible gasp. Dana quickly found a spot of carpet to become fixated on, and Victoria let out a heavy sigh.

"Who found me out?" Victoria said, moving patiently over to a nearby couch and having a seat, as though none of this concerned her at all. "Oh shut up, you're still not getting out!" Victoria said to the air. "Logic would say Crystal, the girl was always sharp and you did just have a date with her. Makes sense that she'd be concerned about her sister," Victoria licked her lips predatorily, "Crystal isn't really someone I'm interested in but Summer...she's just my type."

"I'm not going to discuss this," Damien said, stepping in front of Victoria and looming over her like a mountain. "Turn control back over to Victoria, the real Victoria. Now." Victoria's eyebrow twitched and she looked up at Damien with a smug grin.

"Make me."

"Excuse me? I think you're forgetting something very vital. This is a game show, and the audience won't look kindly on-" Victoria burst out in laughter, cutting off Damien's serious sounding threat.

"Oh hohoho, I'm sorry... I'm sorry, but you were so threatening, and then you just threw it all away with that empty fucking threat!" Victoria said mirthfully. "The audience won't like it? They'll give me a bad review? The audience was NEVER going to be on my side. They didn't want this transformation to begin with. Nymeera **** it on us expressly AGAINST the audience's wishes. Syn can tell you all about that... You think the audience is a threat to loom over my head? They're all just salivating at the prospect of voting for the harshest, worst punishment Nymeera will give them. Well, here's the twist. I'm gonna do what I want, for as long as I can, and if the fucking audience thinks they can get me to stop by voting me Bottom Bitch every round, or giving me nasty transformations, all they're doing is making life harder for Victoria, because once I have my fun, I'm content to go back and let her take all the punishment."

"Okay..." Dana broke in holding her hands up and stepping in front of Victoria to get between her and Mr. Carter... The pleasure Suki felt at thinking of his name like that was washed away by the horror of the situation she was in... "Let's not say things we're going to regret tomorrow huh?" Dana looked sternly at Victoria, who just huffed and looked away. "I think you're missing the bigger picture here boss. Oh...even that? Anyway this is a GOOD thing!" Dana said to Damien, nodding happily.

"What? Dana are you saying you knew about this and...let it happen?" Suki's eyes widened and she looked directly at Dana. Everyone was lying to her...and she was just too stupid to see.

"Not just that, I actively encouraged Vicky here, she likes being called Vicky by the way, to do what she wanted!" Dana said almost proudly. Damien looked flabbergasted, even Victoria looked surprised by Dana's admission. "Look look look. I know it sounds bad, but I mean come on...you saw Victoria before this right? Totally down in the dumps, thinking this place was literally Hell and wanting to be punished, blah blah blah. This is actually really good for her. She needs to see that her dark urges, Vicky, can come out and have fun and not be the end of the world. Then she can finally let her hair down and actually enjoy herself here! Also I think you all, and the audience too..."

"Need to realize that as well." Victoria...Vicky? Looked up at Dana with a curious expression on her face as Damien and Suki tried to process the information they'd just been given. Damien came to his conclusions first, obviously, Suki was still trying to understand how coach Victoria could be a different person right now...

"Look, I'm all for giving people second chances, but I need to know the other girls are safe. If this is...Vicky, then what does Victoria think about all this?"

"Oh she thinks it's all a great idea!" Vicky said mockingly, making her voice girlishly high before standing and pushing Dana aside to walk towards the hotel room door. "Thanks for the lovely speech Dana, but I'm afraid I've been tricking you the whole time. I never planned on being good despite what I may have told you. I'm not here to redeem myself, I'm here to take what I want from you, from this harem...and from you most especially," Vicky said, looking specifically at Suki. Suki felt a chill go through her entire body, and her heart started to race again, until Damien stepped in front of her protectively.

"This is an order," he said, his voice strong, calm... "Give control back to Victoria and do not do anything to anyone in this hotel."

"No."

"Good- What?"

"No, Damien," Vicky said coldly. "Your transformation can't make me do as you say, it just rewards us for obedience. Have Crystal read you the fine print if you want, but you can't stop me..."

"No one can."

"I don't think so..." Damien said stubbornly, gritting his teeth. "Nymeera!" Vicky's eyes widened slightly, and even Dana gasped, quickly moving away to make herself a bit less noticeable. Suki wanted to shrink back too, but she felt frozen by everything happening around her as the lights in her room suddenly dimmed and a low purple hue flowed into the room only to flicker back to normal color as Nymeera suddenly appeared standing before them as though she'd always been there.

"You called Master?" Nymeera asked, dressed to the nines in a formal gown that showed off her impressive curves and made her more sinister features, her red eyes and pale skin, seem much more prevalent. She wore a smile that seemed utterly amused with everything happening.

"Turn Victoria back," Damien demanded. "This is getting out of hand. The girls are in danger, the audience will hate anything happening to their favorites... Your precious ratings won't survive if Vicky causes too much damage right?"

"An appeal to consequences? Mr. Ethics Teacher, are you trying to sweet talk me?" Nymeera asked with a giggle, giving Damien a wink. Suki didn't think he was trying to do that at all...but then again Nymeera was very pretty. This was certainly not the time though! "I'm not convinced though...drama like this tends to be VERY good for ratings after all. People love watching train wrecks..." Nymeera licked her blood-red lips slowly.

"Nymeera... I am the Master, right? This is, ultimately, MY harem, correct?" Nymeera cocked her head, like a snake deciding whether it was hungry enough to strike... "I won't have my...my property treated like that by anyone but myself. As such I'm ordering that you turn Victoria back to normal!"

"Ordering?" Nymeera asked with mock shock. "One day in and he thinks he's a real Master? I hope your cock is as big as your ego Mr. Carter...there's a girl tonight who would love to partake in that!" Damien actually seemed to growl in frustration... "Oh don't make that face. You've got a date to go on soon! What will poor Gabriella think if you go into your date all hot and heavy like this?"

"Then help me solve this..." Damien grinded out through clenched teeth.

"Have you tried...talking it out? Hmm?"

"Um!" Suki spoke up and every eye in the room turned to her at once. She gulped at the sudden shift of attention. "N-no we haven't tried that..."

"Save your breath sweetie," Vicky said to her, "No one is going to trust a word I'd say, and honestly they'd be right not to. Soomin..." Vicky closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You make my body quiver...you make my heart race. Those big, innocent eyes, so full of trust... It does things to me, makes me feel things no one should have to feel alone." Vicky's tongue slid out to lick her lips. "When you told me that you enjoyed having sex with me...I was overjoyed, and heartbroken... When you told me that you didn't want to have sex with me here, I was heartbroken...and overjoyed." Vicky's eyes went wild with lust, focused directly on Suki. "I don't want to resist these feelings welling up inside me anymore. I want to take all that beauty and innocence and twist it for my own pleasure. I want to see the look in your eyes when you realize you have **** but to service me sexually, I want to feel the power knowing you wouldn't have chosen to do so on your own... Fuck! I'm getting turned on just thinking about it. I want to seduce you Suki, and I want to make you feel so good you can't resist thanking me for it. When you say the words: 'Thank you Coach,' as you cum...mmm just that would be enough to push me over the edge too..."

"Jesus..." Damien said, looking at Vicky with wide eyes. Dana looked disturbed, Nymeera looked amused, and Suki...well she couldn't really see the expression she was making, but whatever it was Vicky seemed to be breathing heavier just looking at it. All Suki felt was confused... Vicky had concocted this whole sex scenario in her head for her and Suki...but Damien was the one she was supposed to be having sex with, right? That was the game. Didn't she want to win?

"See? Talking things out is always the superior option," Nymeera said with a chuckle. "Oh don't look like that Mr. Teacher! You have a date in...well I'm bending time quite a bit to make sure you're on time for it, but still. It's rude to make a lady wait. So what will it take to get you to put this out of your head for a few hours and give Gabriella a good time? I don't want any allegations of special treatment, but I don't think it's fair to give you to her when you're so...distraught. Not much room for romance hmm?"

"I already told yo-"

"Yes yes make Victoria back to 'normal.' Only the problem with that is...this IS Victoria's 'normal.' Her hiding behind her Christian guilt trip was the real mask. All you're asking me to do is **** that mask back on her, like a muzzle. Victoria already knows how to switch back and forth between personalities...and yet here we still are."

"Wait...what? She...how do they switch?"

"Uh uh...I'm not going to spoil a girl's secrets," Nymeera said, wagging a finger. "Still, you are the Master, and this is going to put some stress on you when you SHOULD be enjoying yourself. So let's talk this through a little more. What's Vicky here REALLY going to do? Her power was in her secrecy, and that's all gone now. Manipulating from the shadows is much harder when you've shone a spotlight on yourself."

"Fuck you."

"You can try..." Nymeera said with a smile that made even Vicky hesitate. "But you don't really have that power here. You can try to **** yourself on them...physically I suppose, but the AV field I have up will make that very awkward, and if they already know to avoid you well...what's a snake to do when all the bunnies know where she is?" Nymeera glanced toward Dana with a smirk.

"Rabbits aren't really my type..." Vicky said sullenly, not looking at Dana at all, not looking anywhere but at Nymeera, seething so heavily even Suki could recognize it.

"No no, you've made it VERY clear that Suki here is your type...though honestly with her transformations whose type ISN'T she? But what are you going to do hmm? Pretty Suki just says no and...what? You're really going to just **** yourself on her like some **** thug? I thought you had some tact. Some pride. You didn't **** yourself on any of your students in the past, you seduced them, naive and gullible as they were they basically asked for it anyway. That's essentially consent right? You're not a brute, you're a pickup artist with a kink...or so you tell yourself."

"Why don't you shut the hell up!"

"What you fail to realize, Vicky, is that you're just as hapless and **** here as anyone else. All someone has to do is say no...and you're powerless, and now that they all know who you are, or soon will. Who the fuck among anyone, literally ANYONE, is going to say yes to you?"

Vicky was visibly shaking with rage and...sadness? Suki blinked several times. It almost looked like Vicky was about to cry...

"Victoria..." Suki said, taking a step towards her.

"Stay back!" Vicky warned, throwing a hand up and causing Suki to stop before turning towards Nymeera. "You're gonna regret pissing me off..."

"Oh I seriously doubt that..." Nymeera said with a laugh. Vicky looked like she wanted to say something back but her voice caught in her throat and instead she turned and ran out the door. "There we go, problem solved. See professor? **** doesn't solve anything, you have to use your words if you want to fix problems!"

"I...damn it..." Damien said, looking just like how Suki felt. Or thought she felt. Honestly she didn't know what to feel. Today had just been a rollercoaster of emotion...

"Well, let's get you to your date hmm? You've kept the poor girl waiting...well I guess she's not really WAITING if she's in time dilation, but I'm sure even then there's some ethical reason why not showing up is rude."

"I...fine just...give me a minute..."

"Rude."