Trinity woke up in the bed in Radiance's safehouse. The worst part was that it wasn't even the first time she'd woken up that way, after Radiance's plans for her had taken a seriously wrong turn. The first time, after the dyke bar, she'd been sore as hell from the way Radiance and her friends had been tossing her around and bending her over. This time, it felt like all her joints had been filled with cement. She couldn't believe how stiff she was. It felt like she'd been unconscious for years.
But at least her mind was her own again. Oh, she had a splitting headache, certainly. But when she looked back on her time running around the city in the obscenely embarrassing outfit she'd taken from Radiance's closet, she felt what any right-thinking person would have: crippling, mortifying levels of shame. There were still a few dizzying, maddening traces of pride and hope mixed in there, but she could clamp down on them good and hard before there was any risk of her starting to spew more garbage about being a superhero.
Thank god.
Trinity was also naked. She wasn't sure whether or not to be grateful for that.
When she tried to sit up, her stiff, weak muscles rebelled so hard and so painfully that she let out a harsh, ragged groan that hurt her dry throat.
Right afterwards, the pile of clothes and blankets next to her moved.
It took a moment of her rubbing her bleary eyes for Trinity to figure out that the pile was, in fact, Radiance. Radiance, who was now looking up at her with the biggest, most worried eyes Trinity had ever seen on the hero. She was perched anxiously on a chair at Trinity's bedside, and until just that moment, she'd obviously been sleeping there. She looked enough like a loved one watching over her sickly beloved that it made Trinity blush.
"You're awake?" Radiance whispered, urgently and hopefully. "Oh, I was so... how are you feeling?"
"Uh..." Trinity rubbed her head, and managed to haul herself up into a sitting position - almost. "I'm fine. I think?"
Her voice sounded rough as hell, and it hurt to speak. Radiance picked up on as much right away, and rushed to offer her a glass of water she'd placed nearby. Trinity took it and sipped from it gratefully, even though she was more than a little perturbed by Radiance's anxious nursemaid act.
"When you say fine," Radiance asked carefully, "what do you mean, exactly?"
"It means I'm a scumbag again," Trinity replied cattily, once she could. "Not something half way between a sex doll and a shitty superhero action figure."
She was hoping to see pangs of guilt on Radiance's face, but she looked too relieved to register any other feelings. She shuddered for a moment, and let out a long, weary sigh.
What followed was an awkward silence. Trinity didn't want to be the one who broke it, but after a few, long moments, her own feelings of remorse compelled her to speak.
"That girl. Candace?" she said. "What happened to her?"
"She's OK," Radiance replied. "I took her to a hospital and put her in the hands of a doctor I trust. They've been looking after her and helping her get her head sorted. I've been getting updates. She's doing just fine."
Now it was Trinity's turn to breathe a sigh of relief. She wasn't exactly sure how much of that night's misadventures she deserved to blame herself for, but she felt guilty for all of it. She wasn't a monster, after all, whatever Radiance thought of her.
"Officially, you're still at large," Radiance continued calmly. "I told them she'd run across you. They didn't ask any more questions than that, and Candace's memories are pretty scrambled. Fortunately, some doctors have a pretty good amount of experience dealing with mind control victims."
"Right," Trinity said slowly. That all made sense. Something about Radiance's story, along with how exhausted the hero seemed, was making her apprehensive. "So... she and I are both back to normal in just one day? Guess those doctors of yours really do work fast."
Radiance shook her head. "You've been out for three days now, Trinity."
Trinity blinked. That took a couple of seconds for her to process. "Shit," she said miserably. "Then..."
"I've been using a combination of medication and my power to keep you asleep." Radiance's expression was unreadable. "Except for a couple of times a day, so I could make you eat and use your power on yourself again."
Trinity stared at her.
"It seemed like the quickest way to... to fix what I did," Radiance added quickly.
"I see."
Trinity made herself take some very, very deep breaths.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" she demanded.
Finally, a twinge of deep regret and guilt made it to Radiance's stony face.
"I've been asking myself that a lot," she confessed. "It was stupid. Unbelievably reckless and stupid."
Trinity just kept staring at her. She wasn't going to let Radiance off that easily. She wanted the why.
"I thought it would just... make everything easier," Radiance struggled. "It didn't seem that complicated. Good is good. Right is right. I've always lived my life that way. As a hero, I've tried to serve as an example to others, too." She shook her head. "I told you before, I'm from Castron. Same as you. I grew up poor, same as you. I saw what people can do to one another when they're cruel or desperate. In the face of that, all anyone can do is choose - choose to do the right thing instead."
She looked up at Trinity, eyes wide and earnest.
"I don't understand you, Trinity. I don't understand people like you at all. But I thought if I could make you see it my way, even for one day, you'd understand me. You'd choose to do the right thing too."
Trinity's jaw almost hit the floor.
Then, after a few seconds of careful thought, she started laughing.
"Holy shit, Radiance!" Trinity cackled. "You're kidding me, right? You can't actually be that naïve."
The wounded look on Radiance's face took the mirth out of her laughter.
"Believing in doing the right thing isn't 'naïve'," Radiance replied frostily.
Trinity rolled her eyes. "No, look, I mean- look, OK, first of all, you know you can't just brainwash morality into people, right?"
Now, a faint blush touched Radiance's cheeks. She looked aside. "Apparently not."
"It's..." Trinity sighed. "Let me explain. Shimmer brainwashing 101: it's like... like trying to hotwire a microwave." Radiance flashed her a strange look. Trinity was already doubting her own choice in metaphor, but she ploughed ahead. "Let's say the 'start' button doesn't work. That's pretty easy to shortcut. All you need to do is open up the front panel and move a couple of wires around. It's a little rough and ready, and you might wanna buy a new microwave before too long, but it'll do. Right?"
"Right."
