Sunlight poured in through the miniscule cracks in the shades. But Lily was already awake. They'd been awake for a while, in fact; despite the protocol training being paused long ago, Lily couldn't get back into sleeping in. Magnolia was no longer facilitating any rituals of theirs. There was nothing really to train for, anyways. And yet, Lily oddly enjoyed waking up early.

The wee hours of the morning came with some unexpected benefits, after all. Lily got in their exercise early. They got to make fancier breakfasts. Hell, if they had nothing else to do, they got to do some light reading or play some video games.

It was also usually too early for any of their alters to pipe up. So it made for a unique moment of silence for Lily, who never thought they'd get to have those sacred seconds of peace.

Not that any of them had been particularly vocal as of late. Even Hyacinthe didn't butt in with her annoyingly nihilistic quips and attempts to dull Lily's ability to care. Kassandra, if anything, appreciated the silence just as much as Lily. If not more.

And Chain...

Lily shook their head. Once they got breakfast started, they wouldn’t have to linger on those thoughts. It had been a few weeks before the revelation that Chain wasn’t dead or gone or locked away or whatever, but the possibility of his abrasive return hung over them like a heavy cloud.

Except when Lily tried to get out of bed to clear their brain, Magnolia wrapped her arms around them tighter and pulled them in. Lily hummed in confusion, before relinquishing to whatever their Mistress wanted. If she wanted their body as an easy way to retain heat? That's what Lily would be.

They'd be anything she wanted them to be. Anything within a human being's power.

Lily didn't even know if their Mistress was secretly awake or fast asleep. They didn't need to know, but they couldn't help but be curious. With nothing else left to do, Lily relaxed back into the plush bed.

They didn't have anything to worry about. Neither of them did.

Of course, there was still Lily's disorder haunting them, but it lingered in the shadows of their minds rather than cancer being present as a terrifying, immediate possibility. After the incident at the cystoscopy weeks ago, they came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the mental strain. Both Lily and their Owner came to the same realization.

If they had symptoms, they'd change that decision.

But they were in no rush. Just like the cozy morning they were having.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Eventually, Magnolia let go of Lily's warm, strong body, allowing them to go about their business. Well... she didn't 'allow' them so much as give them the chance to wriggle free. Given she didn't immediately grab them once more, Lily assumed it was okay.

Exercise and breakfast were obviously the most important things on their early morning menu. Well, that, and…

With a heavy exhale, Lily sat down in the dimly lit meditation room. It had been cleaned out and renovated into a space for them to retreat. Or, in this case, meditate. They got into a comfortable position. Noise cancelling headphones playing white noise over their ears. Blank pages of a journal in front of them. An inhale of clean air. An exhale of the stress and tension they held in their body.

And a turn inwards.

Lily had no idea how to talk with Kassandra willingly, let alone Chain or Hyacinthe. A simple internet search didn’t turn up much. Lily wanted to roll their eyes every time they saw meditation as a suggestion, except when they tried it, they didn’t go empty-headed. (They had Mistress for that.) Instead, it was the first time they heard Kassandra when they were both… calm. Grounded. Whatever therapists wanted to call it.

So they tried it. And recorded a recap of their conversation in their journal. Kassandra bristled knowing there was a chance Magnolia could learn about what they talked about, but it wasn’t like they were talking about anything Magnolia didn’t know about. Still, their talks were brisk, awkward, and short-sentenced.

Lily tried to talk to Hyacinthe, too. It went about as well as they expected.

“So, uh, how are you doing?” Lily asked hesitantly.

“Does it matter?”

“Well… yeah, it matters to me.”

“In the grand scheme of things, though, does ‘how I am’ really matter?”

Lily sighed, noted it for the journal that Mistress may or may not be reading, and gave up. They tried again the following day, taking a bit more of an aggressive approach, but Hyacinthe only responded by building those walls up higher.

As for Chain…

Lily hadn’t tried.

Truthfully, they were too petrified. If either Kassandra or Hyacinthe believed Chain was still there, Lily had no reason to deny that possibility. What Lily was afraid of was losing control. Sabotaging their entire life for… what? The chance to talk to him? What exactly was there to even talk about? Chain had tried to ruin their life years ago on nothing more than impulse. He hurt Magnolia. And he did it with Lily’s own two hands.

Not that Lily was particularly salty or bothered about it nowadays. They had bigger fish to fry, bigger problems to deal with. But it was a mistake. Something they vowed to never let happen again.

Maybe that’s what really convinced them that Chain was gone.

Lily sighed, eventually breaking their meditative pose. They weren’t getting anywhere. The minutes ticked by to a half hour, and they had truly done nothing. Perhaps that was the point of meditation, but it didn’t make Lily feel great.

Breakfast would, though.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Lily had been sitting in front of their omelette rice for... a while now. It was well past the time where Magnolia would have woken up. Confusedly, Lily had glanced towards their bedroom door a couple times. What exactly was holding up Mistress for so long...? It wasn't necessarily Lily's business, sure, but it was highly unusual. It wasn't as if Magnolia had a long day at work the day prior. Or that they'd done an intense scene. Or that she had woken up in the middle of the night. With a languished sigh, Lily just turned back to their breakfast and began to nibble at it.

Until something poked their shoulder.

“Ah—!” Lily gasped, whipping around to see their Mistress standing there with a smug grin. What in the...? “Mistres... I didn't see you awake. How, um, how did you sleep?”

“Super well, plaything,” she purred, continuing to poke their arm incessantly. Lily raised an eyebrow, needing to bite their tongue to hold back the obvious question. Was this some new scene idea she had? Or did Mistress just feel like acting like a third grader out of nowhere? “What, what's with that look? Am I annoying you?”

All the while, she didn't stop. Lily had to hold themself back from flinching. What a silly question for their Mistress to ask. Who wouldn't be annoyed by her erratic new hobby?

“Um... n-not at all, Mistress,” Lily murmured, aware of how obvious of a lie that was. “You can, um, really do whatever you want to me.”

Magnolia grinned widely. “I sure can. I just feel like playing with you a little.”

“O-oh. Well, um, I can't really stop you...” Or question why. But the inquiry was written all over Lily's face in neon green paint.

Magnolia reached her arms down to begin to lightly tickle Lily's sides. Ah, fuck, that was even more annoying. Given how many times Asher tickled them to mask his abuse of them, it was a pet peeve of Lily's to say the bare minimum. But they prevented themself from glaring at Mistress, covering their mouth to stop themself from giggling involuntarily. Mistress wanted to play games? Sure, Lily could play. Lily was good at games, even if they had no fucking idea why they were playing them.

“D-don't you want breakfast, Mistress? I can, um, get something for you...”

“Of course I want breakfast,” Magnolia scoffed, “why haven't you gotten up to get it for me?”

“H-huh?” Lily blinked, dumbfounded. What the hell was... “But, Mistress, didn't you—”

“Oh? Are you questioning me, Lily? I knew this was going to test your obedience, but I guess I underestimated how quickly you'd snap?”

Test their obedience...? Why would Mistress need to do something like that? Wasn't it obvious Lily would follow her until the ends of the earth? Holding back a sigh, Lily supposed they'd indulge her. “S-sure, you're right. S-” They had to hold back a laugh, but mercifully, Mistress had given them a break. Enough to allow them to stand up. “I apologize I didn't. Allow me.”

Lily was about to walk over to grab yet another plate for Mistress, only for—

“Augh!” Lily suddenly fell to the floor, hands grazing the hardwood. That would definitely leave a bruish. It only took a few more seconds to realize that Magnolia had tripped Lily.

They had to keep their face soft, unaccusing, avoiding any annoyance or malice from showing. Looking up at their Mistress, they asked in the nicest way they could. “Ah... did you want me to, um, stay here?”

“No? Didn't I say, plaything? I asked you to make me breakfast. What, did you get brain damage on the fall there? You don't have that many brain cells to spare, remember?”

Lily nodded, about to scramble to their feet as they tried to solve whatever puzzle Mistress was putting them through. But then they got pinned to the floor by a sharp heel, digging into their sides. Lily winced in pain, their annoyance only growing, but at least this was more in line for their Mistress's usual teasing.

Magnolia dug her heels in further, surely leaving more marks for Lily to wake up to the next day, and she continued laughing at them. “Aw, what's that scowl for? Don't tell me you draw the line at your Mistress having a little bit of fun? In all my years I didn't know I'd owned such a sourpuss!”

“I-I'm sorry,” Lily murmured, “I'm just confused. Do you want me to stay on the floor? Or to make you breakfast? Or to sit back down and endure this? I'll do whatever you want, Mistress, I just... don't get what you want.”

Magnolia grinned. Lily could barely see it out of the corner of their eyes. “What I want is a secret third option. I want to see how long it takes for my precious, sweet plaything to flip its shit.”

Lily furrowed their eyebrows. “Um... you're getting pretty close, Mistress.”

“Oh?” Magnolia lifted her foot and stomped on Lily again. “Was that some backtalk I heard? I didn't know you had such a low tolerance.”

Lily flushed, their face contorting in anxiety. “I-I'm sorry, Mistress! I... I shouldn't have sassed you! I'm so sorry!”

Magnolia cooed. But instead of forgiving them — or not doing so — she pulled Lily up by the hair. Lily shrieked in pain, egged on by their already present anger.

With a couple heaves, she dragged them back to the bedroom. For a second, Lily was grateful that their Mistress had gone back to her predictable antics they knew and loved so much. But that feeling of gratitude was overtaken by the strong confusion and the stronger indignation.

Pulling them back to their feet, Magnolia shoved them into the chair. Not giving them a moment to breathe or readjust to sitting, she took out two sets of cuffs she apparently had latched onto her robe belt.

With a couple swift motions, and with Lily stock still, they were eventually tied up and immobilized.

“There we go,” Magnolia purred, cupping their chin condescendingly. “Now I can do whatever I want with you, for real this time!”

Lily hummed in annoyance. Or anger. Or resignation? One of those. Or something in between. Magnolia, unfortunately, had taken a sharp turn once again from her usual antics to her new fascination with teasing Lily with these childish pranks and jokes. Lily kept their mouth shut, trying to focus on appeasing their Mistress. As long as Mistress was happy, as long as Mistress was happy, as long as—

When she started tickling Lily again, they growled for a split second, before knowing better and shutting up. They were horrified that they almost slipped, but it made sense. Didn't it? It wasn't even that it was triggering. It was just fucking annoying and bizarre.

And that momentary flash of anger seemed to be just what Mistress was looking for.

“Yes! Give me more of that, plaything! I want to see you furious!” Magnolia’s speech and the laughter intertwined with it became more and more deranged. She didn’t even sound like Magnolia anymore. Lily’s brain hurt with confusion.

That slip was terrifying for Lily, too. They had to be in control. For Mistress! Obviously! It would be bad if someone else came out and fucked everything up! So they’d stay in control. Even if they were confused. Even if they had to shove their irritation down into their stomach.

“Why are you --” Lily stopped to suppress an involuntary grunt as Magnolia flicked them upside the nose. “Doing this, Mistress? Why?”

“Oh?” Magnolia smirked. “Don’t tell me that in between holding you down and fucking you, defiling you in every known way to mankind, and treating you as my property and little more, this is where you draw the line? How amusing. But I suppose I should take this opportunity to break you in this way, too. After all, you still have to do as I say. Don’t you, plaything?”

“N...n-no,” Lily hissed. It wasn’t that Magnolia’s clownish antics were annoying – it was the confusion that was.

“Yes,” Magnolia corrected. “You don’t get to say no, even if this is – somehow – the one kind of torment you hate. You still have to do as I say. And I just want you to sit here and take it.”

Lily liked to believe they were someone who was in control of themself. Despite their chaotic mind, chaotic heart, chaotic genetics, and chaotic lifestyle, they wanted to think they at least had control over enough to not hurt anyone. But Mistress was testing their patience. For reasons they didn’t know. And with every time Lily let a growl slip, had to swallow an explicative, or otherwise lapsed for a single moment, they got closer to losing control. And their subtle reactions seemed, if nothing else, to egg on their Mistress.

About an hour or so later, Lily snapped. “Would you just fucking stop already?!” they shrieked in rage, growling like a tiger ready to bite its prey’s face off. Lily barely even noticed, even with the octave of their voice dropping. “Enough of this bullshit! Just fucking punch me instead, lady!”

They almost stood up, ready to fight. But then they realized they were tied up. Huh. They didn’t exactly remember being tied up.

With some hard blinks, Lily – no – someone else – realized what the point of this was. And suddenly, amusement took them over, too.

“Well done, Mags,” an uncharacteristically smug voice came from her dear Lily’s vocal chords. “Have to admit, hell of a plan. Dick move to bring a guy out only to tie him up, though.”

With her plan having worked, Magnolia’s face darkened. Turned serious. None of the feigned, uncarictaristic goofiness showed on her face. It was almost as if they swapped roles. Because... they had. Magnolia was the one being annoyed now, and Lily was the one doing the annoying.

Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. It wasn’t Lily in front of Magnolia. She knew that well. It was, after all, her plan. A plan she’d been cooking for the past few months since Hyacinthe had dropped her vague threat.

“I’m glad you came out so easily, Chain,” Magnolia scoffed. She needed to look tough for this, and she... mostly succeeded. Underneath her suit, she was shivering, and clutching to one sleeve. She steeled herself and came equipped with bluffs and power moves.

But just like Lily – all of Lily’s system, really – Chain caved to control. It was only a matter of how long it’d take.

“Genuinely appreciated on my end. I was getting a little tired of the circus act I was putting on for Lily.”

“Aw, why? You’d do so well as a clown. You do have a talent for humiliating yourself,” Chain said as his smile grew wider. “After all, you thought ‘locking me up’ --” he spoke in a mocking tone before returning to his normal deep speech, “was a permanent fix. After a while, well, it was just funny as shit to watch. I had to see just how long it lasted, y’know? If only the new bitch didn’t spoil things. What a killjoy.”

“How long, then, have you been conscious?” Ignoring the taunts, Magnolia tried to keep Chain on the topic at hand.

Chain made an exaggerated humming noise, eventually clicking his tongue and answering. The answer made Magnolia’s blood chill.

“Better question to ask how long I was actually gone for,” he said, before grinning wolfishly. “I was probably out of it for like... Iunno. A day, tops.”

“Lies,” Magnolia hissed. “Give me an honest answer.”

“Hey, now, don’t accuse a guy of lying just because you don’t like the answer. Was surprised to see you still living together, though. I figure Lily’d be too dysfunctional to maintain any relationship, and you’d be too incompetent to handle it. From what I hear, though, that almost is what happened.” Chain shrugged nonchalantly as Magnolia’s face twisted in fear. “I guess I can prove it, though? Didn’t Lily sass you the day after you all but threw them out? And then you whined and moped about your sad backstory and your property had to comfort you. Does that convince you?”

... He wasn’t lying. Magnolia was imcompetent.

“Then why did you just sit there in silence all these years?” Magnolia sneered, trying to regain any ground she might have lost. “Surely you must have wanted to cause some problems.”

“Nah, not really.” Chain averted his eyes, trying to find something more interesting than this fuckass conversation. “I’ll admit, I did feel... I guess more calm after or some shit. I s’pose you can owe that to the slave you trained and their meek, pacifist bullshit. But then that whole genetics thing happened and ohh. The drama was amazing to watch,” he grinned wildly, suddenly exponentially more invigorated by this conversation.

Whether he was trying to provoke Magnolia or not, he was. And god damn it it was hard to keep her visceral anger in check. Lily’s Lynch syndrome diagnosis had caused – and will cause – such anguish and torment for them, and Chain saw it as some sort of juicy drama? It was so comically villainous, that if Magnolia didn’t know any better, she’d have assumed he was exaggerating.

“I never thought I’d see them so riled up! Like, the smallest inconvenience set them off like a bundle of illegal fireworks! Hell, the fact they directed any of it at you is a shocker in and of itself. All I wish I had was some popcorn to go along with it.”

“...You know that Lily’s diagnosis impacts you, too, don’t you?” Magnolia narrowed her eyes. “It’s not as if your fucked up genetics goes away when you’re out. It’s your body. And it’s in as much danger right now as it is when Lily comes out. More, actually, considering your track record.”

“Riiight, right. That’d be some sci-fi shit if it did. Or something some shitty Hollywood writer would assume happens while making ‘baby’s first DID representation’. But you’re assuming something that couldn’t be more incorrect: that I care.”

Magnolia groaned. Not this nihilistic ideology again. It was exhausting enough with Hyacinthe, but to think that Chain had adopted it – or did he just come like that? He didn’t seem to care when he was throwing Lily’s body on the street for a cheap thrill. But perhaps Magnolia was misremembering...?

It didn’t matter. She had to kill it before it could spread, with the strongest pesticide she could use. But what could she do? Chain said it herself – Magnolia was incompetent. Whatever she did back then didn’t work, so it would be foolish to assume it would work this time.

“Well, now what, bitch in command?” Chain yawned. “You brought me all the way out here just so you can figure out how long ago and why you fucked up? Can’t just lock me back up in peace, can you.”

He was... right. As much as Magnolia despised to admit it. Now that she knew Chain had been out this whole time, she wasn’t going to rest easy knowing he could come out whenever he wanted.

“Or are you going to try anyways?” Chain grinned. “What makes you think I’ll sit down and quiet like a good dog again?”

Somewhere near the end of Chain’s tirade of insults, threats, and taunts, he gave Magnolia a shred of useful wisdom. Finally, it clicked.

Chain was stupid to assume he was ever a good dog. That wasn’t, after all, what Magnolia intended with him. But this time, that would be her intention.

To make him a good, loyal, obedient dog.

Her good dog, specifically.

Thoughts and musings began to compound in Magnolia’s mind, like a series of epiphanies. But she compartmentalized it; she could answer her new entorouge of questions when Chain was dealt with. But luckily, she knew how to deal with him now. Or at least, she could guess. There was a chance it wouldn’t work, but Magnolia didn’t have any other ideas. She steeled her poker face. If Chain knew what she was planning, it would be for naught.

“Yes. You’re going to be locked back in Lily’s subconscious until I decide you get to come back out. And this time, I am going to ensure those locks never come undone.”

Chain shrugged and leaned back with a satisfied, cocky grin on his face. “Have at you, then. See you in another five years, try to make good decisions till then.”

Magnolia smirked as she pulled out her pocket watch, holding it just high enough for Chain’s eyes to strain. That satisfied look in his eyes would be snuffed out when he woke up next. And little did he know, they would meet far sooner than he’d expect.

“Don’t worry about what decisions I make. All you need to worry about is staring, keeping your eyes fixed right here...”