A few months after Vanille and Fang had been saved from their crystal prisons by Lightning, the three were investigating some old ruins in Gran Pulse. Vanille walked ahead of the others and entered one of the temples. She discovered a pedestal with some sort of necklace on it, and a rather mundane one at that. She would have expected a necklace left is some ruins to at least have a jewel on it. But this was just a ball on a string. Then she saw the paintings on the wall.

One depicted a person holding up the necklace and a large group of people bowing before him. Another showed the same person with the necklace but the people were all walking away from him with their arms out in front of themselves towards what looked like a battle. Was this some indication of its power? Did it mean that this man had brainwashed these people and was making them fight a war for him? Vanille decided to try it out. It couldn't hurt, right? She left the temple and quickly spotted Lightning and Fang taking a rest on a raised part of the temple's exterior. She snuck up behind them and held out the necklace in front of their faces. "Hey, guys, look what I found!"

Both of them found their eyes drawn to the necklace and unable to look away. "W-what is this?" Fang asked.

"I found it in the temple. What do you think?"

"G-get it...away," Lightning demanded weakly. Was it actually working? Since Vanille was behind them, she couldn't really see their faces as their jaws slackened and their eyes closed halfway. "V-Vanille...please...stop..." Vanille never thought she'd hear Lightning say 'please'. She must have been really desperate. Vanille smiled. It really was working!

"Keep watching the necklace, girls. Let yourselves fall under its power; under my power. She leaned forward enough to see their eyes roll back in their heads. "Light, Fang, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Mistress," they both replied with no emotion in their voices at all. Vanille was surprised by this and was sure that, while Fang might play along, Lightning would definitely never say that. Vanille had to test this out to make sure they hadn't seen the paintings and were just trying to trick her.

She hopped down from the platform and walked a few feet away before turning to them. "Come to me," she commanded, beckoning them with her finger.

"Yes, Mistress," they replied, standing robotically and walking over with their arms stretched out before them, just like in the paintings.

Once they reached her, Vanille gave her next command: "Get on your knees and become my pets."

"Yes, Mistress." They both did as commanded and Vanille petted them both on the head. She walked back to the platform and they followed on hands and knees like the good little pets they were.

"Now, stand up and become dolls for your mistress to pose."

"Yes, Mistress." They stood and ceased all movement. Vanille was sure they couldn't be this still if they were only pretending. She sat Lightning down on the platform and had her hold out her right arm and have her left arm pointed up wards in an odd combat stance-like pose. She left Fang standing with her upper arms sticking out and her forearms going back in to form chocobo wings. Once she was tired of looking at them in their poses, she decided to do one last test before going any further. Again, she walked away from them and beckoned them with her hand. Of course, they obeyed, Fang walking with her arms out and Lightning on all fours. It seemed to be based on whether they were stood or not when commanded.

"Now, I want Fang to kneel down and Light to lie on the ground in her trance."

"Yes, Mistress." They did as they were told and Vanille sat on Fang's back like she was a chair. She waited a couple of minutes to see how Fang would respond. She didn't. If she was just faking, she would definitely have been in pain by now and would have forced Vanille off. But she hadn't.

Confident that her command was absolute, she stood and gave their next command: "Light, sit up and kiss Fang. Passionately right on the lips."

"Yes, Mistress." Whoa! There was no doubt any more. Vanille watched, dumbfounded, as Lightning crawled over to Fang and kissed her just as she had been told. Vanille's bewilderment turned into satisfaction and a smile spread across her face. She didn't want anyone to worry about them because they were taking too long so she decided to quickly bring them out of this state since she'd had her fun and she could do it again at any time.

She brought them back to where they'd been sat when she'd put them under and was just about to wake them up when she heard a voice. "Sis!" Vanille spun around to see Lightning's sister Serrah running towards them. "What's wrong, sis?" She started shaking her sister in a vain attempt at waking her up. "Vanille, what happened?"

This was bad. She had to come up with an excuse...or she could just make Serrah forget. She put her acting skills to the test and responded, "I'm not sure. I just showed them this," she held out the necklace, "and they just ended up like this." Just like her sister, Serrah's eyes were drawn to the swinging necklace. Vanille smirked and made sure her voice had a soothing tone to it, "What's wrong, Serrah? Is the necklace making you sleepy too? Is it making you want to give in and obey?" Serrah sleepily nodded. "Then you should just let yourself go. You'll feel much better when you let me do the thinking for you. Don't you agree?" Again, Serrah nodded. "Then let yourself sleeeeeep." Serrah's eyes closed and her head dropped. "Serrah, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Mistress," she replied with a voice as lifeless as her sister's.

"Good. All of you, listen up. When I snap my fingers Fang will become my pet, Light will become a statue and Serrah will become my love. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Mistress," the trio replied. Vanille snapped her fingers and saw her commands at work: Lightning froze in place, Fang was on her hands and knees, and Serrah was staring at Vanille with a look of longing. She pulled Vanille's arm and made her sit down. To her utter amazement, Serrah sat on her knee, put an arm around her and kissed her openly on the lips. Vanille was even more amazed that she had no problem with this. She was pretty sure she didn't like other women but this seemed okay somehow. She enjoyed it, in fact.

As enjoyable as it was, she had to end this quickly before anyone else showed up. As little as she wanted to, she pulled away from Serrah and made her sit where she was. Vanille petted Fang on the head and received a purr in return. She waved a hand in front of Lightning's face to no response. She tried to move Lightning's had but it was stuck firmly in place. Just as a good statue should be. "Okay, girls, listen up. When I snap my fingers again, you will all wake up with no recollection of the necklace or being hypnotized. You will all believe that Serrah had just found Fang and Light and that I haven't come out of the temple yet. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Mistress." Vanille hid around the corner and snapped her fingers. She saw life return to their faces and walked back over to them as if nothing had happened. "Oh, Vanille," Fang said when she saw her friend returning.

"Hi, guys. What's Serrah doing here?" She was genuinely curious since she hadn't asked before.

"Well," Serrah replied, looking a little embarrassed, "I got worried about you guys so we came here to make sure you were okay."

"'We'?" Lightning asked.

"I told Snow and he got the others together. Look! There they are now." The others looked where she was pointing and saw the approaching Snow waving at them with the rest of the party.

"So, Vanille, find anything?" Fang asked.

"No, nothing at all."