​"Laura, get out! Your neural maps are bleeding into the server!" Austin’s voice screamed through her domino mask’s comms, but it sounded distorted, like a jagged piece of glass cutting through a silk curtain.

​He’s so loud, a voice whispered in the back of Laura’s mind. It sounded like her own voice, but smoother, devoid of the jagged edges of her usual anxiety. Austin is hurting you with all that noise. The Master is trying to help. Listen to the Master.

​The Reframing

​Mr. Puppet stepped down from the mezzanine, his footsteps synchronized perfectly with the rhythmic stroking of the nude girl on the floor. He walked toward Laura, who was trembling on her knees, her hands gripped tightly into fists.

​"You’re fighting so hard, Laura," Puppet said, his voice a velvet caress. "But look at what you’re fighting for. Stress. Pain. A 'Legacy' that isn't yours. You aren't being controlled, little bird. You’re being corrected."

​Laura’s head throbbed. She tried to remember the mission, but the thoughts felt delayed, like she was reaching for them through deep water. I have to... save... the girls...

​No, her "inner" voice corrected. The girls are happy. Look at their smiles. They aren't afraid anymore. If you join them, you won't be afraid either. Resisting is the only thing causing you pain. To resist is to stay broken.

​"I... I have to..." Laura gasped, but her fingers were already beginning to relax.

​"The noise is the enemy, Laura," Puppet whispered, standing directly over her. "The Cybergirl is the mask. The Doll is the truth. Correct the system. Strip. Join the silence."

​The Surrender of the Legacy

​In her mind, the command didn't feel like an order. It felt like a logical conclusion to a math problem. If I take off the suit, the noise stops. If I strip, I am safe.

​"Obeying... is helping..." Laura droned, her voice losing its human cadence, becoming a flat, melodic chime.

​Austin watched in horror on his monitors as Laura’s biometric data shifted from "Combat Mode" to "Deep Sleep," even though she was wide awake. Her blue eyes rolled upward, the vibrant irises vanishing into a milky, porcelain white. Her face, once twisted in a warrior’s grimace, smoothed out into a radiant, wide, and vacant smile.

​With shivering, mechanical precision, Laura reached for the seals of her Starlight armor.

​The Gauntlets: They hissed as they detached, falling to the concrete with a heavy clatter.

​The Chestplate: She unlatched the housing of the Cybergem, the violet light of the stone now reflecting in her unseeing, white eyes.

​The Domino Mask: She peeled it away, revealing her full, blissful expression to the Master.

​The Synchronized Doll

​Within moments, Laura stood completely nude in the center of the Gallery. Her athletic, porcelain skin shimmered under the violet floodlights, and her breathing hitched as it synced up with the other twelve women in the room.

​"There," Puppet whispered, touching her cheek. "Isn't the silence beautiful?"

​"It is... beautiful..." Laura echoed, her voice a hollow, shivering drone. "The Master is the only voice. I am his masterpiece."

​"L! LAURA! NO!" Austin’s voice was a tiny, pathetic scratch in her ear, discarded on the floor with her mask. He scrambled for his secondary terminal. "Nightshadow! Elizabeth! Code White! We’ve lost her! The Starlight has gone dark!"

​Inside the warehouse, the nude, white-eyed Laura Dawson didn't hear him. She was already stepping into line, her body moving with a fluid, robotic grace as she joined the other dolls in their shivering, rhythmic wait for the Master's next "correction."