Lightning woke up with Fang still hugging her tightly in her sleep. She looked over to see Serrah already awake and having Vanille massage her feet. She seemed to be enjoying it and made Lightning a little happy. She shook Fang gently to wake her up. As her eyes opened, they began to reflect the spirals again. She sat up and bowed before her asking, "How may I serve you, Mistress?"
Lightning thought about it for a second and decided, "I want you to rub my shoulders."
"Yes, Mistress." As Fang got to work on her shoulders, Lightning found it amusing that the party member she'd always thought to be the most competent was now her slave. Lightning enjoyed the massage, though from the look on Serrah's face, not as much as she was. Did it really feel that good? Well, she had been walking a lot lately.
"Now, massage my feet," she commanded.
"Yes, Mistress." Fang crawled to her mistress' feet and slid her left boot off. Lightning wiggled her toes as a cool breeze found her foot. This felt nice. Fang slid her right boot off and the breeze reached that foot too. She'd have to do this more often. Fang seemed to notice Lightning's expression and, not wanting to interrupt her mistress' relaxation asked, "Are you ready, Mistress?"
Lightning held off on responding for a few seconds to let her feet get a little more air. "Yes," she finally responded. As Fang began to massage her feet, Lightning understood what Serrah had been smiling about.
"Looks like you're having some fun too, sis." She looked over and saw Serrah smiling at her.
"You could say that," she replied. Lightning wasn't the type of person to pursue 'fun' usually but, if it coincided with her payback, she had no problem with it. She enjoyed the massage for a few more minutes then said, "Stop." Fang froze for a second then placed Lightning's feet down on the grass. Lightning curled her toes in the grass as she considered what to have Fang do next. She heard Serrah giggling and looked over to see her with her feet in the air and Vanille licking them like a dog.
As she watched, almost as mesmerised as the other two, Lightning considered having Fang do the same thing to her feet but decided against having it since she didn't want to get her feet wet like that. She thought about what to have her do next then realised: she didn't know where these hypnotizing flashlights came from. "Fang, I want youy to answer truthfully. Where did you get this flashlight?"
"Vanille gave it to me, Mistress," she replied.
Not wanting to disrupt her sister's fun Lightning commanded, "Fang, take Vanille's place with Serrah. Vanille, come over here."
"Yes, Mistress," the pair replied as they complied. Both crawled from their respective current mistress to their next mistress. Fang began licking Serrah's feet as Vanille had been while Vanille awaited her next command.
"Vanille, where did you get these flashlights?"
"I had them made for me, Mistress."
"How?"
"I found a special necklace in the ruins, Mistress. After discovering its powers, I had scientists and magic users help me to understand it better and they imbued the flashlights with the necklace's powers."
"How did you discover its power?" Lightning asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.
"I hypnotized you and Fang, Mistress. Then I hypnotized Mistress Serrah when she arrived."
"I want you to hypnotize me and restore my memory of it then wake me up. Nothing else."
"Me too," Serrah cut in. "I want to remember too."
Lightning handed her flashlight to Vanille and she got started. "As you wish, Mistresses. Just stare into the spiral. Let yourselves sink into it. See nothing but the spiral and hear nothing but voice." She eyes began to reflect the spirals as they had the previous night. "Can you hear me, Mistresses?"
"Yes, Mistress," the hypnotized sisters replied in unison.
"I'm going to count down from three and when I reach zero, you will awaken with full memory of what happened while you were hypnotized. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Mistress," the three replied.
"Three...Two...One...Zero." Lightning awoke and looked at Serrah, who was coming around too. She looked at her slaves...or rather slave. Fang was awake too. She must have accepted Vanille's commands too. But why? She hadn't been told to. She remembered calling Vanille 'Mistress' while hypnotized so maybe Fang had accepted the commands of her mistresses' mistress. Lightning immediately snatched the flashlight from Vanille's hand and shone it directly into Fang's face, returning her to her compliant state.
Lightning let out a sigh as Serrah noted, "That was close."
"Yeah," Her sister replied. "We need to head back soon anyway. We should finish this soon and get back to investigating."
"Can I do just one more thing?" Serrah asked.
"Aright, but make it quick." Serrah took out her flashlight and shone it right into her sister's eyes. "Ser...rah...w...what...are...?" She struggled to finish her words as her sister hypnotized her with the spiral.
"I'm sorry, sis, this is for your own good." She honestly believe it was; she remembered what had happened when she'd been hypnotized by Vanille the first time and imagined that Claire had been through more than just kissing Vanille. She didn't want Claire to have to live with those memories and this was the only way she could think of to help her. As her sister's eyes reflected the spiral, Serrah asked, "Claire, can you her me?"
"Yes, Mistress," she replied in a lifeless voice that gave Serrah the creeps.
"Alright, all three of you, listen up," she commanded in an assertive voice. "When, I clap my hands, you will all wake up but remember nothing about the necklace, the flashlights or being hypnotized. You will also believe we were attacked by a monster that you scared off before succumbing to its sleep spell. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Mistress," the hypnotized trio replied. Serrah clapped her hands and their eyes returned to normal. "W...what happened?" Vanille asked.
"A monster attacked. I guess it hit you with a sleep spell before running away."
"How long were we out?" Lightning asked.
"I'm not sure. That was yesterday, though."
"Then, we'd better hurry up and investigate this place so we can go home before Snow organizes a rescue party." Lightning groaned at the last part. They finished their search, not encountering the 'monster' again. Serrah kept the flashlights in her pockets the entire time, in case she needed them again in the future.
