I own no one but my own people
Robin laughed along with the other three men in the study. A thick cloud of cigar smoke was circling overhead and the almost overbearing smell of top shelf brandy and expensive cologne was clogging his senses.
The impromptu leader of the group, a red headed man named Diabolus Hades leaned back in his calf-leather chair, taking a long drag from his cigar and smirking over at Robin.
"You know I wasn't sure about you when you first came to Stepford, Locksley."
Robin quarked his brow at the man, taking a small sip of his brandy. "Oh?"
"Mmm. I mean I've seen quite a number of beta males but none quite like you."
"Beta male?" Robin laughed, looking around the room. "How on earth did you reach that conclusion about me?"
"Well you work construction and you're a hunter but you just sort of let your wife run roughshod over you, you walk beside her rather than in front of her, you let her go out in jeans and T-shirt's, you allow her to work outside the home, you believe her to be an equal… I even saw you doing the grocery shopping the other day."
"He used to," a black haired one armed man named Killian Jones corrected, raising his glass towards Robin with a friendly smile. "But since he's been here in Stepford I truly believe he's changed."
"Agreed," the oldest man in the group, Robert Gold, spoke up with a nod. "He isn't at all like he used to be when he arrived here a few weeks ago."
"Nor my wife either." Robin's words were full to bursting with gratitude. "It may have taken a while but I think your wives may have rubbed off on Regina, my daughter as well. They're both starting to learn who wears the pants in the relationship and who needs to wears the dresses."
Robin reached into his pocket and grabbed a lighter, relighting his cigar. "Honestly I just wish that she was more like your wives, I mean you really hit the jackpots with Emma, Zelena and Belle. Were they always like that?" Robin sighed wistfully. "Beautiful and perfect and obedient?"
A silence overtook the group with a shadow of tenseness as the three other men all looked at one another before turning back to Robin.
"What?" the blue eyed man asked with a grin that faded the longer the other men stared at him. "What's with the looks?"
Killian glanced over at Hades who gave him a slight nod of his head as if granting permission for him to speak.
"Robin, you've become a very close friend of ours," he began. "You've challenged your way of thinking, you've come to the realization that you are the master of your household and of the women in your life."
"Thanks to you all," Robin said with a friendly smile. "I can't tell you how grateful I am that my family and I moved from Seattle to Stepford and met all of you."
"We're also grateful you, Regina and Margot came here as well," Gold said with a rather slick smile. "Just as we're grateful we came here with our wives because Stepford, Mr. Locksley, isn't just a town. It's a mindset."
Robin narrowed his brow, looking around at the room full of men who seemed like they were schoolboys with a secret. "What do you mean a mindset?"
Hades nodded towards Hook once more, signaling him to get up and head over to a solid oak door that turned out to be a closet. Robin watched as he unlocked the wooden door with a key and pulled out a rather large bundle containing a mess of photos, a sleek sexy black hat, a red leather jacket and a stack of papers that appeared to be a Harvard acceptance package.
"What is all this?" Robin asked, reaching up and adjusting his glasses as Hook placed the contents I. front of the newest Stepford resident.
"See for yourself," Hades offered with a wave of his hand.
Curious, Robin picked up one of the photos on top of the pile and stared at it wide eyed and slack jaw.
"Is that… is that Emma?" he asked flabbergasted, adjusting his glasses again.
On the picture he was looking at wasn't the high collared blouse, heels and skirt wearing exceptionally friendly woman who gladly told him and his family he would have let her own parents die if it meant her husband being happy he had gotten to know since they moved to Stepford but instead here was a woman wearing a wife beater, loose fitting jeans and non-heeled boots. Another photo saw her wearing jeans with a loose fitting T-shirt and a red leather jacket rather than dresses that might have been fashionable circa 1950.
Photo after photo of more of the same, photos showing not only a Tomboy Emma but several women Robin had gotten to know in Stepford. Zelena, a perfect little happy homemaker who taught Sunday school, was always seen with a cross around her neck and wore flowing colorful floral dresses was dressed in tight black outfits and snazzy black hats with wild red curls rather than the tamed soft waves she had now and smirking at the camera with a smile full of sin and sex.
Belle, a woman Robin thought was the textbook efinition of a bimbo, meanwhile, was never seen without a book and most of her photos were taken in a library or university.
But what was odd about all of the photos was the wives all looked happy. The all were truly honestly happy with friendly smiles and sincere laughs as opposed to the obnoxious overblown picture perfect grins their bright red cherry lips were constantly turned up in that Robin always thought a sliver of pain was hidden within.
"Did… I mean what made them change?" he asked, looking at photo after photo of women he thought he knew. "I mean they look VERY different, it's almost like they're different people."
"Well they're not so much different people as they are… improved upon," Hades clarified, folding his hands in his lap. "They realized the natural order of things and changed certain aspects of their personalities to become more womanly, more proper, more… obedient. Take Emma for example. She moved here with Killian and I mean the woman wore jeans and wife eaters for god sakes, and worst of all he used to think that was okay. He actually LIKED her looking like that. They became deputies in the next town over which was fine, she still made time for him, still realized he was the man of the house… and then she was elected sheriff. Emma was above him, I mean she didn't even care about the embarrassment that caused him."
As Hades spoke, Robin noticed Killian scratch the back of his neck, like some nuisance was gnawing at him and when he looked at the old photos of the blonde.
"Then Belle, she was going to go to Harvard… She wanted to get educated, spend four years away from her husband for what? To make Gold feel inferior? Can you imagine someone you love doing that to you?"
"It's terrible." Another adjustment to his glasses. "Just terrible. And your own wife? I mean she's… changed quite a bit."
"Well as you can see she used to be quite the little snappy sex-pot. Wore black all the time, scoffed at church, had this terrible attitude, had a MASSIVE jealousy streak and a temper to match… Now though-."
"Now she teaches Sunday School and is the perfect little wife," Robin finished for him. "But… how I mean what made them change so drastically? Was it something in the water? If it is then I'll take a whole case for Regina."
A rather devilish smile took over Hades face. "Not quite. What it was, is a secret that we're going to share with you, one we're going to trust you with, Robin. But we need your word; that it can never leave this room or discussed with the other husbands, even if they've also had… work done on their wives. You never know who else might be listening. An outsider, someone who doesn't agree with us." Hades took another sip of his brandy. "A cop."
"I completely understand. I won't speak about this again," Robin promised, glancing over at Killian who hadn't taken his eyes off the old photos of Emma. There was a longing in Killian ocean blue eyes when he looked at the old Emma that was deeper and more truthful than anything else Robin had seen in the navy veteran.
There was one photo in particular he was looking at. Emma was getting her sheriffs badge and rather than appear embarrassed or humiliated, he actually looked indescribably proud of the blonde woman.
Hades gifted Robin with another chilling smile. "Good. Then we can tell you what we did."
Robin watched as Hades walked over to the still open closet to where the old photos were kept and disappeared inside. He reappeared moments later with a long thin needle filled with some kind of clear liquid.
Fiddling with his glasses again, Robin stared at the needle that Hades handed to him, turning it over in his hands.
"What is this?" asked Robin, reaching up and adjusting his glasses several more times as be brought the needle closer to his eyes.
"That, Mr. Locksley, is a needle containing a sterile solution and twenty nanobots that are invisible to the eye," Hades explained. "My father was a brain surgeon and designed them and they are single handedly responsible for the mindset here in Stepford. My team programs them and individualizes them for each husband depending on what he wants to see changed and improved, takes about five weeks from start to finish, one little prick to the back of the neck, they find they're way to the brain and there ya go; one custom made Stepford Wife."
"And… and they just let you do this to them?"
"They did vow to obey us," said Gold. "I mean really the ones that refuse are just breaking their vows, I mean we're truly the victims in that case."
"The first time they go through an hour or so of pain but it's a burden I'm willing to bear," Hades added. "Now-."
"Emma."
The three other men turned towards Killian who was still staring at the photos. The longing in his eyes was gone, replaced by growing realization.
"Emma..." Killian muttered again, his eyes searching over the pictures. "Emma…"
Hades let out a rather bored sigh, taking another sip of brandy. "Every damn time. Gold?"
"On it."
Robin watched as Gold jogged over to the closet, rummaged around for a bit and returned with another needle only this one had a blue plunger rather than pink. He walked up behind Killian and without so much as a moment's hesitation pushed the needle into the back of Killians neck. The black haired man cried out in pain but before he could even blink Gold pulled the needle out, it's contents now empty.
"He found out by accident," Hades calmly explained to the aghast Robin who watched Gold grab hold of a screaming Killians arm and pull him up out of his chair, half walk/half drag him out of the room while Killian clawed and dug at the back of his neck to the point a tiny trail of blood followed the two men. "He didn't exactly agree to what we were doing here so unfortunately he has to be kept programmed too." He sighed, looking st the door be just left out of rather disappointed. "It's surprisingly sad how many subpar beta males don't agree with us, I mean Killian actually killed a man after he found out we improved Emma he was so angry."
"Is… is he gonna be alright?".
Hades dismissed the concern with a wave of his hand. "Oh yes of course. It happens every time he sees photos of the old Emma."
"The photos; that's the only thing that can affect the nanobots?"
"So far it's the only thing that seems to trigger a relapse. That and leaving Stepford."
"What does leaving Stepford do?"
"It puts the nanobots out of range of the satellite that controls them," Hades explained.
"So what if they have to leave Stepford?"
"Why on earth would they ever need to leave Stepford?" Hades countered with a laugh. "They have everything they need right here! They have a grocery store, they have an aerobics studio to keep them fit, they have a store to buy cleaning supplies, a church to go on Sunday... Stepford is every woman's paradise, including your wife and daughter paradise now."
Robin has just gone to lift his glass up to take a sip of his brandy when he froze, glancing over at a smug self-satisfied Hades. "...I'm sorry?"
"That's why we invited you out for drinks tonight, Robin, we wanted to surprise you," he told him, a malevolent glint shining in his eyes as he did. "The moment we finished Regina and Margot's nanobots they went inside them. A sort of welcome gift from the men of Stepford,"
Rubin kept his face as stoic as he could. "Did you?"
"We did," Hades said, watching Robin carefully. They put up even more of a fight than Zelena did and I still have her scars from when I improved my little wife. Oh and don't worry, we not only improved upon them but we fixed Margot's little problem too."
"A-...a problem, wha-?"
"We can't have a beauty like Margot running around wanting to be with a woman when there's perfectly good men out there that may want her now can we? So we made her desire men rather than women. Speaking of…"Hades picked up his drink again, looking over the glass at Robin, not even daring to blink much less take his eye away from him. "Before I forget, I was actually rather interested in taking Margot out now that she's a better specimen. As her father I only felt it right to ask your permission."
Robin bit back the desire to purse his lips, to curl his hand into fist, to raise from his seat too quickly…
"What about Zelena?"
"She understands and recognizes a man has needs that can't be met by one woman, even if they are Stepford perfect."
"I'll definitely think about it," Robin said with the friendliest smile he could manage in this situation.
Hades gave a soft nod of his head and stood up from his chair with Robin mirroring every movement. Not too fast, not too slow, nothing suspicious at all…
"I'm sure you're eager to get home now, give that new car a test drive and whatnot," he said with a wink and a playful grin.
Robin forced a laugh and a nod. "As a matter of fact I would."
He stuck out his calloused hand and Hades grabbed it, both of their grips unnecessarily strong.
"Thank for everything, Hades. I appreciate it more than you know."
The red headed man nodded. "Be careful on the ride home, Robin. I hear there's some cops out tonight."
After promising to be careful Robin walked out of the lavish mansion, begging his feet to move at a normal unsuspicious rate; not too slow, not to fast, just right…
He got into his car, smiling and waving at the man looking out the window at him as he did, and calmly and safely pulled out of the long driveway and cruised in down the road…
"FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK, GODDAMIT!"
Robin put the pedal to the floor as low as it would go, the tires spinning so fast he knew there would be tracks the next day but he didn't care, he had to get home, he had to be with his family, he had to be with his wife and daughter.
Maybe there was a chance he could still save them...
He knew taking his family on an undercover assignment was a bad idea, but David, his captain, insisted on it. It would make his undercover character more believable if he went under with his real wife, and to be fair she was a fellow FBI agent, only Regina was a tech analyst rather than a cult specialist like Robin.
But they were a real married couple, they really did have three children together, one of them even had the appearance of a teenager to help sell the story even though Margot was in her mid twenties and engaged to be married to a beautiful woman named Alice.
It was only a few months, Robin promised them. There had been disappearances in Stepford. Women never calling their friends or family or if they did they sounded off, strange, not themselves, devoted to husbands who previously abused and manipulated and cheated and Robin had been sent to infiltrate, thinking it was just a run of the mill more traditional cult. He would play the part of the misogynistic asshole, the words he spewed making him physically ill to the point he almost wanted to call his captain and quit, Regina and Margot would play a version of themselves, his wife as an IT Tech and Margot a bartender but nothing was supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to be hurt, they weren't supposed to get injected with fucking nanobots!
Robin would rather die than change the strong amazing women they were, especially it was against their will.
"Come on!" he screamed at his car, urging and praying it go faster. He threw the glasses off his face so he might see better, not caring rather than $6,000 camera broke or not, he had to get his family out of Stepford and he had to get them out NOW!
He nearly killed himself as he ran red light after red light, making the car go up on two wheels as he sped around a corner but he didn't care about anything but getting home and getting Regina and Margot out of this fucked up town.
When he finally reached his home Robin didn't even bother pulling to a stop before he opened the door and kept out of the car, stumbling as he struggled to catch his footing and grabbing the gun in his concealed holster, forgetting all training, forgetting the whole town was in on this madness and was probably watching him right this moment as he sprinted to the door.
"Regina?!" he cried as he raced into the house, gun held out in front of him. He looked around the house, his eyes wide and desperate, his heart racing as he didn't see sign of either of them. "Margot?! Where the hell are you?!"
"Relax, Darking, I'm right here."
Robin whipped around, tears filing his eyes as he took in his wife. Her eyes once so full of warmth and strength and beauty and softness were now dead. Dead and cold despite the beaming perfect smile on her lips, the same dead eyes as every other woman in town.
Rather than the jeans and band shirts she preferred when she wasn't working she was wearing something out of a porn taking place in an office with an unusually tight and short red dress that somehow still gave an illusion of 'Susy Homemaker' class and black heels that added an extra six inches.
"What's wrong, darling?" she asked in a sickeningly sweet tone as she walked towards him, that unnerving smile never leaving her face . "You seem upset."
He couldn't take his eyes off of the white bandage that came around the back of her neck.
"I kept dinner hot for you in the oven, I wasn't sure when you were coming home from your outting with the boys. I made lasagna, your favorite!"
She was now right in front of him and Robin felt tears flood his eyes as he looked over his 'improved' wide.
This wasn't her, this wasn't his Regina, this wasn't his soulmate…
Taking a deep breath, Robin out his hands in her shoulders. "Regina, we have to leave. Go grab Margot and get in the car."
She laughed as if it was the funniest thing she ever heard. "Leave? Darling, why would we leave? Stepford has everything we could ever want!"
Robin shook his head, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Regina, this isn't you. Okay we have to get in the car and we have to leave now."
"It is me though, Dear." She reached out and stroked his cheek. "It's exactly who you want me to be."
"No it's not! Okay I- I want my Queen back! I want the old Regina back!" He took her by the shoulders and stared into her eyes, desperate to bring her beautiful light back. "You are a tech analyst with the FBI, you graduated from Yale and we need to leave so you can remember."
"Remember what, Daddy?"
Robin whipped around and it took everything in him not to scream as his eyes fell on his daughter. Margot's slightly baggy jeans and her checkered flannels was nowhere to be found. Instead she wore a light pink blouse and a white skirt that was FAR too short and rather than her dark blonde hair pulled out of the way in a side plait she had down with a perfect little pink bow on top. Her emerald green eyes were just as dead and cold as Regina's was.
That wasn't her daughter. That wasn't Margot, that wasn't the woman Alice loved, this wasn't the person he raised.
After swallowing his tears, Robin pointed his shaking finger towards the still open front door. "Margot, go get in the car."
"But, Daddy, I have a date tonight." Her grin grew wider but her eyes stayed lifeless. "He goes by Hades, and he's just the swellest, Daddy."
"Now, Margot, listen to your father. He is the boss after all," Regina chided the girl gently.
"No I'm not!" He couldn't keep the tears from over spilling his eyes. "I'm not the boss, okay we- we are equal, Regina! And- and Margot, you are not straight! You knew you were a lesbian since you were twelve years old and I accept you, your mother accepts you, there is NOTHING wrong with it! You're engaged to a woman, her name is Alice Jones and you love her!"
Margot clicked her tongue, rolling her eyes in a rather playful manner. "It's Adam and Eve, Daddy, not Adam and Steve."
"No!"
Regina pouted, placing a hand on his heart. "Darling, your hearts racing. Why don't you come lie down and I'll call Doctor Whale in the morning."
"I don't need a doctor, I need you two to get in the fucking car!"
When neither one took a single step and just looked at him like he was speaking a different language Robin remembered what made Killian revert back to remembering who he really was and what happened to his the woman he loved.
Photos of who they really were.
He reached for his phone, his heart pounding and a cold sweat breaking out on his brow when he didn't find his phone containing hundreds and hundreds of photos of the real Regina and him, of Margot and her fiancée in any of his pockets.
"Come on!" he growled at himself as he searched his pockets finding no trace of his phone. "Come ON!"
"Looking for this?"
Robin twisted around, finding a smug snake oil Hades Holding up his phone. He immediately lifted his gun and pointed it at the redheaded man.
"You stay away from my family," Robin snarled dangerously, his blue eyes narrowed in slits.
If Hades was intimidated by the gun he didn't show it. Instead he walked right up to the barrel, that icy smile sending shivers throughout him.
"You're so ungrateful, Robin. I gave you the perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect daughter… you should be on your knees thanking me."
"Turn them back! I don't want this, I want my wife and daughter back!"
"Why on earth would you want downgrade from perfection?"
"They WERE perfect! Change them back or you aren't walking out of here, Hades, I promise you!"
Hades quirked his head to the side as if studying him. "You really want them back?"
"Yes! Make them remember who they are, turn Margot back into a lesbian and let us leave!"
The ringleader sighed softly, shaking his head in disappointment and disapproval. "Your family was such a good candidate, Robin. Truly it was, but if that's what the man of the house wants…"
"It is. Change them back NOW!"
"I understand." Hades clapped him on the shoulder, gazing at him almost apologetically. "Too bad you aren't strong enough to be the man of the house. It don't worry." Hades pulled out the needle from his flesh, showing him the empty strange with a blue plunger. "You will be soon."
Before Robin knew what was happening there was a sharp prick in the back of his neck and a flood of the worst pain he ever felt taking over his whole body.
His body felt like it was on fire, his head felt as if it were being electrocuted. A thousand knives were stabbing him all over his body and there was nothing he could do but lay on the ground and scream, thrashing and kicking and cursing while he waited for either this unbearable pain to end or for death, not quite sure which would be sweeter.
After what felt like a hundred lifetimes, the pain finally stopped and for a moment, or longer he wasn't sure, he blacked out, his last thoughts were how he failed his family.
But when he awoke, he opened his eyes, and smiled up at his beautiful perfect doll of a wife and his sweet daughter.
Gosh darn it ya know who would be just perfect for his little angel? Diabolus Hades. Now THERE was a man who could take Margot under his wing. Maybe he should call him and set up a date between them. He was sure she would just love him.
"Are you hungry, Darling?" Regina asked him with that perfectly made up smile as he climbed to his feet. "I have lasagna in the oven."
"Gee, Regina, lasagna sounds perfect! Did you happen to make garlic bread too?"
"Oh no, I only had time for the lasagna and salad and homemade cheesecake for dessert."
Robin shook his head in slight disapproval. "Darn, I was really looking forward to garlic bread. Guess this means I have to put you over my knee tonight and let you have the belt."
"I understand, Darling, I deserve to be punished, I'm so sorry. Tomorrow I'll make you some chicken Alfredo and I'll be sure to include some garlic bread okay?"
The blue eyed man grinned at his wife, giving her a chaste kiss on the lips. "That sounds fantastic, Dear, and I accept your apology. Now come on." He wrapped his arm around his perfect little wife and brought her close to his side. "Let's go sit down and eat."
…
Robin gasped as he sat up in the bed, sweat soaking him to the core as his whole body trembling so bad to the point the headboard was shaking.
"Robin?" Regina grumbled beside him, her eyes still firmly shut. "You alright?"
He glanced down at his wife, his sleeping wife with mussed up hair, no makeup, wearing his FBI academy T-shirt and a pair of boy shorts to sleep.
Regina never looked more gorgeous to him as she did this moment.
"I'm fine," he said with a slight pant. He glanced at his bedside table and he felt his breathing even out some when he saw a framed photo of Margot wearing her favorite flannel grinning wildly as she wrapped her arms around Alice from behind, her green eyes alive with light and love and warmth.
"I'm fine, it-... it was just a nightmare."
"You sure you're okay?" she asked again, still not opening her she's.
Biting his lip for a moment he answered with a question. "If you spent all day making homemade lasagna and cheesecake and salad and I was disappointed there's no garlic bread and I told you I would beat you for it… would you be mad at me?"
"You raise a hand to me over anything much less over garlic bread and I'll shoot your penis off."
"Oh thank God."
Ignoring the rather strange response to the threat of getting his own so shot off, Regina rolled over in the bed and wrapped her arms around him while nuzzling his chest.
Robin leaned down and kissed the top of her head, settling back into his pillow and stroking her wild untamed hair. He was almost asleep when his cell rang, not unheard of in their line of work but not all that common either.
"Locksley," he answered the cell, pulling the blankets up over him and Regina.
"Robin, it's Captain Nolan. I need you to come directly to my office tomorrow, I got a new undercover assignment for you."
"Sure thing," Robin said with a yawn. "What's the case?"
"We've gotten some complaints about a town linked with a lot of disappearances, a lot of strange things going on, people aren't getting phone calls or letter, the phone calls and letters they are receiving sounds fake… I want you and possibly Regina and your daughter to go check it out."
"I mean I'll have to ask them, I'm not sure if Regina or Margot would be up for it. Where would be all be going by the way?"
"This small little suburban town in Connecticut called Stepford."
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