30 Owned.

Sighing happily, I stretched. For once my body seemed to be content.

Then I realised I had no idea where I was. Opening my eyes, I discovered I was in Echo's bed, never the worst place to be in my opinion, but there was a lack of memory as to how I arrived here.

Then I recalled being fucked hard by Zilver's four cocks, or two of them anyway, and Echo helping me cum with a bloody great big dildo after he'd done. I smiled at the though of her. In my mind there was no longer any of Gurgo there, but a simple and innocent lass who had captured my heart, or at least the hard, dark bit that was left of it after thousands of years brutally ruling my empire with an iron fist.

"You're awake." The object of my lustful desire walked into the room. She was holding a cup of some steaming drink. "How do you feel?"

"Rested," I replied.

She smiled and sat down on the bed. Reaching out I looped my arm around her cute body and pulled her in for a kiss.

"Here," she said, after we broke for air. "Drink. You need to get up. We have somewhere to go."

"Where?" I asked. I pulled myself up to a sitting position and, taking the cup, took a sip of it. Oh my Universe! It was coffee! I took another slurp and revelled in the taste.

"Just come on," she replied.

Still holding the cup, I slid out of bed. Someone had washed me down when I was asleep I noticed. All the cum had been cleaned off and out of me. Echo no doubt. That's my girl.

She handed me another couple of bands of white, for want of a better word, clothing, and I slipped into them, never letting go of the coffee as I did so.

"Ready?" she asked, once I was done.

"You are fucking gorgeous, you know that?" I smiled and finally put the cup down. Encircling her cute body with my arms I pulled her close. "Is anyone listening to us now?" I asked.

She shrugged. "How would I know?"

"True. Well, listen." I leaned in and whispered in her ear. "I am going to get out of here, okay? And when I do, you are coming with me."

I hushed her as she gasped at this blasphemy, and carried on.

"Listen to me," I said. "I promise you, no matter what, we will escape from here, and when we do, I will look after you. Do you believe me?"

She looked at me, a doubtful expression on her face, but then nodded.

"Good," I carried on. "Let me tell you now, if, for whatever reason, we are separated, I will come back for you. I promise. I swear. Do you hear me? I promise I will come back for you. You must wait for me, no matter what. Do you understand?"

Slowly, she nodded.

"Say it," I whispered.

"I understand. I promise I'll wait for you."

"Good girl," I said, stroking her cheek and gave her a gentle kiss, desperately pushing down my lustful feelings before my aura reacted. "Now, where are we visiting this morning?"

~

Torture chambers always mean pain. Well, duh.

The thing is, I'd been in my fair share of them over the millennia. You have to remember, I'm a twisted, fucked up bastard, albeit one who can have a soft, gooey centre, although it wasn't revealed that often. Look, when you've lived as long as I have I'll listen to you opinion all right? In the meantime you should shut the fuck up and listen to your elders.

So, we were in, essentially, a torture chamber, standing by a large, upright X with straps attached, which I didn't look at because it brought about an itching in my pussy. Echo had, somewhat nervously, led me here.

"Well, this is fun," I said, as we stood there, just a couple of girls holding hands. It was an odd juxtaposition.

"The master said we had to come here when you woke up," Echo said.

I sighed, but understood. She'd been broken, beaten down until the thought of not obeying 'her master' was almost unthinkable. It was just another reminder to me that I needed to get out before I became Echo II.

"I don't like this place," she said, sniffling.

"Hey, hey, none of that now," I replied, pulling her close. "We'll be okay."

She nodded, and hugged me, just as a large sologram walked up. It was a standard model, but totally black in colour, without even the insignia I'd seen on the others. Two beady red glowing 'eyes' stared at us.

"Echo, Bob?" it asked.

I nodded for us both as Echo buried her head in my shoulder. She was shaking.

"This way." It turned and walked towards the middle of the room

I pulled Echo after me, towards where the solo was standing. It was paying attention to a large, old fashioned metal brazier, which was busy burning with actual, real, flames! Sticking out of the fire was a long metal stick. I began to understand what was happening here, and didn't like it.

"Come," the solo said, pointing to Echo.

"I don't want to!" she wailed.

"I'll go first," I interjected, before things became violent. I gently disentangled myself from Echo and stepped forward.

"Hold you left arm out, palm down," the solo instructed, pulling out what, as I had suspected, turned out to be a glowing, white hot branding iron out of the fire.

I snarled, and complied, wondering if Zilver was looking at this event remotely. If he was expecting me to wail, then he was going to be disappointed.

The solo, dispassionate as always, grabbed my arm with one hand and jabbed the iron down onto the top of my wrist with the other.

It hurt like fucking hell, let me tell you. My legs went weak and tears came to my eyes as a smell of cooking meat wafted up through the sizzling sounds.

Somehow I kept my mouth closed, refusing to scream, but it was a close thing. After what was probably only a second or two, but felt much much longer, the solo pulled the branding iron away and stuck it back into the fire, releasing me at the same time.

I staggered back, agony sweeping up my arm from the burned area on the topside of my wrist. Glancing down at it, I saw, through my teary eyes and the horrible red mess of melted skin, the same insignia as I'd seen on the solo's shoulder before. This was obviously Zilver's mark.

"Next," the solo said, indicating Echo.

"I don't want to!" she cried.

Desperately wishing this body had the ability to cut off feeling, I pulled myself together and put my (good) arm around her. "Come on babe," I said. "It only hurts for a bit, you don't want to get in trouble do you?" I felt like a total shit and traitor, encouraging my girlfriend to get branded, to get hurt, but I felt that doing otherwise at this time would be a worse option.

Sniffling, she allowed me to edge her forward.

"Stand clear," the solo said to me.

"Listen, I won't get in the way, it will be easier if I'm here," I reasoned with it. Solos are nothing if not logical.

The thing considered this for a second, and then turned away to pick up the newly reheated iron.

Echo whimpered as it grabbed her left arm.

"Don't look," I said, holding her tight as the solo brought down the metal.

Echo screamed and wailed, and would have collapsed as the white hot brand sizzled against her tender flesh. I held her tight, trying to make calming noises at her as tears flowed down her cheeks.

The solo pulled the thing back, and released her, and she did collapse then. My stupid little body wasn't strong enough to hold her up, so I arranged her into a kind of sitting position and held her until she calmed down enough to listen to me again.

"Return to your quarters," the solo instructed us. "Take this." It threw us a small jar of something. I caught it with my left hand, which send waves of sharp pain up my newly mangled arm.

"R... rub it on," Echo gasped. "It helps."

I twisted the top off as the solo repeated the instruction to return to our quarters.

"One minute," I snarled at it. The tin contained some kind of white ointment. I scooped two fingers of it out and, as gently as possible, smeared it on Echo's new brand. Almost immediately she calmed down.

"Come on," I said to her. "We need to go." The solo was looking at us with those beady red eyes.

Thus encouraged, and with me helping her along, we left, Echo still gently sobbing.

I think it was at that moment I decided that I needed to kill Zilver.