Olivia has what every supervillain wants: the world’s greatest superhero is kneeling at her feet.

She’s captured the person responsible for some of the biggest events of the last few years: supervillains turning themselves in, far-right politicians resigning, billionaires suddenly donating all their wealth. The general public can only speculate that someone has all these people scared, a superhuman secretly coercing the world’s worst people into surrendering. Everyone agrees that whoever is behind it – if it really is one superhuman and not some larger conspiracy – must be the world’s most powerful and most successful superhero, but the only people who know that hero’s identity are in this room.

Despite all that, Alison doesn’t look so powerful on her knees, on the floor of their basement “dungeon”, wearing only her panties, collar, and a pair of fuzzy handcuffs.

“Remember this is your fault, pet” Olivia says, playing up her domme-voice and brushing Alison’s cheek. “You could have owned me and made me into anything you wanted, but you changed me into a sadist because you need this. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, mistress.” Alison shivers in anticipation and strains a bit against the cuffs.

“What a needy slut.” Olivia manages to stay in-character despite how silly she feels. Degradation isn’t her usual style of domming, but it’s something Alison wanted to try. Olivia grabs Alison by the hair and forces her to make eye contact – another thing that doesn’t come naturally to Olivia but feels right for the role she’s playing. “You need me to hurt you.”

“Please, Mistress.”

With her free hand, Olivia grabs Alison’s nipple and twists. Alison yelps and Olivia replies “pathetic.”

‘She’s not pathetic,’ the voice in Olivia’s head reminds her, as if she doesn’t know that, as if this isn’t a role-play scenario that Alison specifically asked for.

“Thank you, Mistress.”

That reassurance helps Olivia ignore the anxious thoughts in her brain. She focuses on Alison and the way she gasps when Olivia’s hands scratch down her sides.

She keeps the insults going as she teases and tortures her pet. “Worthless”, “bitch,” “you’re only good for being hurt, aren’t you?”

All the while that voice in her head is objecting: ‘No, we love her’, ‘She’s so good though’, ‘Don’t hurt her.’

Eventually Olivia takes things too far. She slaps Alison while calling her an idiot, and Alison starts to cry.

‘You’re genuinely hurting her, this is not okay,’ the voice in Olivia’s head tells her.

‘It’s fine. She was literally asking for it,’ Olivia thinks back.

‘No, this needs to stop,’ she thinks, and she says the safe-word: “Red!”

It takes Alison a few seconds to refocus. “Sorry, was it too much? Do you feel alright?” she asks, caring as always despite the tears running down her own face.

“I… let me let you out of those, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, sure. And aftercare?” Once she’s out of the cuffs, Alison puts on a soft loose flannel and pulls her into a hug. “Okay, let’s talk about it.”

“We were hurting you and I had to stop it.”

Alison lets go of her and tilts her head curiously. “Unpack that pronoun for me?”

Oh. ‘we’. Because she’s the part of her brain that stopped the scene and not the part that started it. “Oh. Yeah. Um, I’m the voice in Olivia’s head, I guess? Hi.” She feels awkward and nervous, even more than she always does from literally being the voice of nervousness.

Alison’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t seem to be freaking out. “Hi… have we met before?”

She shakes her head. “I think this is the first time I’ve taken control like this. It feels weird.”

“Is Olivia okay?”

“That’s a great question.” She turns her attention inwards towards the main thread of Olivia’s self.

‘Hey what the fuck, brain? I didn’t know you could do that.’

‘Neither did I. I should probably try to hand control back to you because I don’t know what I’m doing.’

Olivia sends the mental concept of a sigh. ‘Soon, but I think maybe you have some stuff to sort out first. Tell Aly I love her.’

“She’s okay. Says I should figure out what’s going on with me before I try to bring her back, and that she loves you.”

“I… I love her too. So, you’re not Olivia, okay. Who are you?”

“I’m an Olivia, maybe? And I care about you a lot. I…” she pauses, trying to make sure she’s not about to ruin this situation even further. “I love you, but I also know you don’t know me. I don’t really know myself yet either. I’m just a voice in her head, I’ve never talked to anyone else before.”

“So you’re her headmate.”

“Huh?”

“Like a roommate who lives in the same head.”

“That’s a good word for it… wow, you’re taking this a lot more easily than I thought you would. We’ve thought about trying to explain me before but I didn’t want to make things complicated.”

Alison just shrugs. “It’s not a completely foreign concept to me. If you say you’re a different person or different facet or whatever from the Olivia I know, that’s valid. Even if you’re not my wife, you’re part of the same system as her and I’d like to get to know you. The dungeon might not be the best place to talk, though.”

“I agree.”

As Alison leads the way up the stairs and into the living room, she asks “Do you have a name? For yourself, or what you call your system as a whole?”

She shakes her head. “You’re right that that’s what we are but we haven’t thought about it in those terms before. She just calls me ‘brain voice’ or ‘Other Olivia’ or ‘O-2’. Not really names because I’m not really a person. Or at least I didn’t think I was.”

“‘O2’. You could be Oxygen.”

“Oh! That’s a fun name. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Alison smiles at her and it’s the best thing she has ever experienced. “No pressure to use it, though. Far be it from me to tell you what to name yourself. Do you remember when I came out to you – or, to Liv – and I tried on four different names in like two weeks? I know it’s a personal choice.”

“I like it though. And I like the idea of having a name that you gave me.”

“Cool. So, Oxygen, can we talk about why you took over in the dungeon?”

She sits down and pauses while she tries to find the words. “So, I’m the part of us that makes sure we don’t hurt you. I think I’ve existed in some form since Olivia broke up with you, and then I was more… active, is that the right word? More present in her thoughts when you awakened your power, when we had to navigate so many new feelings without crossing your boundaries. You mean the world to us, and we couldn’t afford to risk screwing up and hurting you.”

“So that’s why you reacted against what Liv was doing to me?”

Oxygen sighs. “I don’t like when she hurts you. I’ve gotten used to the idea of physical kinks because I know it makes you happy, plus the mind-control you used to make her a sadist affected me too. But verbal degradation is different. I couldn’t stand hearing our voice saying such awful things about you. And then you started crying, and I knew I had to protect you. It’s who I am.”

“Okay, I get why you feel that way, but you didn’t have to worry in that situation. I would have safeworded if I needed to. I didn’t say ‘red’ because I was where I wanted to be, even with the crying.”

“I was scared that you might not be in a good headspace to ask to stop even if you needed to. I’m sorry, I know I need to trust you to decide that for yourself.”

“If you – if either of you – are worried about that, you can always ask what my color is. But if I say green, take my word for it. Can you do that?”

“Yes, that’s reasonable. If you say green next time, I’ll butt out and give control back to Olivia. And if it keeps being a problem, you have my permission to use your power on me, to make sure I can’t cross any boundaries.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Besides, I need to rethink when it’s ethical to use my voice now. I don’t think it would be okay for me to command you without consent from both of you.”

“No, please don’t change your dynamic for my sake. I’m really not trying to mess things up between you two. Speaking of, I should probably give control back to her, shouldn’t I? I’m sorry for interrupting.”

“Hey, no, it’s okay. I’m glad I got to meet you. You can stay for a bit, if you want to.” The way Alison is looking at her makes Oxygen’s heart flutter. It’s a familiar feeling, but one she’s only ever felt secondhand before.

‘Are you okay with that?’ she asks Olivia. ‘I want to spend more time with her if you don’t mind.’

‘Trying to steal my woman?’ Olivia jokes inside her head. ‘But yeah. It’s weird being a voice in your head instead of the other way around, but I’m okay.’

‘I’m relieved you’re not freaking out either.’

‘It’s fine. You’re not some foreign invader taking over my body. You’re part of me, right, so it doesn’t have to be all that concerning.’

‘Am I part of you or are we both two parts of Olivia?’

‘I guess that’s more accurate. We still need to figure out the name situation.’

‘How about I’m Oxygen, you’re Liv, and we’re both Olivia?’

‘Deal.’

“Hey, Oxygen? Olivia?” Alison asks. “Either of you there?”

“Sorry, we spaced out talking to each other. I’m still Oxygen.”

“Okay. So, since Liv and I’s original plan for this afternoon is postponed, do you wanna grab a bite to eat or something?”

“Uh, yeah, I’d like that. Do you have something in mind?” Oxygen realizes she doesn’t know what she likes because she’s never eaten before.

‘You already know what she’s going to say,’ Liv tells her.

“I have a suggestion,” Alison says. “Do you wanna go out for milkshakes?”