Molly awoke with a start as she heard a soft tapping noise. Rolling over underneath her blanket, she peered blearily out through the glass of her enclosure at the enormous smiling face framed by strands of blue hair.

“Hey there.” Caetyr cooed softly. The cage shook slightly as the titan woman reached up to remove the mesh lid of the cage. “Don’t be scared, I’m just going to pick you up.”

Surprisingly, Molly was not reassured by Caetyr’s words, and shrank away from her intruding hand with their dark purple tipped nails.

Off in the distance, Ourellia watched as her girlfriend worked to extract the human girl from the small cage. “I’m still not sure Cae. Maybe we should hold off on this for a little while. Something about this still seems weird to me.”

Caetyr rolled her eyes. “Are you still worried about that?” She gathered Molly into her hand and gently wrapped the human in her fingers. “Look, we’ll know more once we get to the clinic.”

Once Caetyr’s hand opened again, Molly tried in vain to cover herself with her arms. “Wh-where are you taking me?” She cried. “Please… I just want to go home.”

Caetyr smiled gently and covered Molly with her fingers. “It’s okay sweetie, we’re just going to take you to the doctor to make sure you’re healthy. And to see if you have an owner.”

“Oh but… I do!” Molly sat up suddenly. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about this before. “Her name is Lenya Dag…. Dagaramonto!”

“See, Cae?” Ourellia said, stepping forward. “She belongs to someone else! I knew this didn’t feel right.”

“Assuming of course that she’s telling the truth and this isn’t another silly story of hers.” Caetyr’s eyes narrowed and she smiled thinly. “But, if she does have an owner I suppose we’ll know soon enough won’t we?”

Ourellia sighed and dug out her pad. “Looks like the closest clinic is twelve kilounits away. It shouldn’t take us too long to get there by shuttle.” She set her pad down on the table.

“Well, no time like the present is there?” Caetyr smiled airily and walked towards the door. She grabbed her coat off a hook and swung it around her shoulders, carefully transferring Molly between her hands as she slipped her arms into the sleeves.

Ourellia sighed and shook her head. None of this felt right. Nevertheless, she threw her coat on and followed her girlfriend out the door.

*.*.*.*.*

The waiting room in the vet’s office was one of the most terrifying places Molly had ever visited. Not because of the way it looked, frankly in that regard it looked like any other waiting room, only giant. What was so terrifying was the knowledge of what was about to happen to her. Molly knew that, unless a miracle happened, once she passed through the doors to the ‘doctor’s’ office, she’d legally belong to Caetyr, forever.

The aforementioned Titan was currently standing at the reception desk, explaining to the young man why they needed to see the veterinarian. Ourellia was seated in one of the waiting chairs, and Molly was curled into a ball of misery in the palm of her hand.

“It won’t be so bad.” Ourellia whispered sympathetically. “It doesn’t hurt much, and it’s over really quick. Just a little pinch, and then you’re done.”

Molly decided to try one last time. “Please… I don’t belong here. I have… I have friends who are looking for me.”

Ourellia sighed. “Yeah, the other girl in the bar. I’m sorry we didn’t try harder to get her too. Maybe after we’re done here we can go back and look for her.”

Molly shook her head sadly. “Not just her. Titan friends. I keep telling you-”

“Good news!” Caetyr said cheerfully as she crossed the room to where they sat. “The doctor has a free slot open right now. No waiting!”

Molly’s heart sank as Ourellia’s fingers gently closed around her. The world shifted as the Titan woman rose to her feet and they entered the doctor’s examination room.

“Hello!” Molly heard a cheerful voice from beyond the confines of Ourellia’s fingers. “You can just set her down on the examination table.”

The cocoon of Ourellia’s hand opened and Molly was dropped gently onto a cold metallic surface. Once she regained her bearings she found herself in the shadow of a Titan woman she had never seen before.

The vet appeared to be just on the cusp of middle age. She had bushy black hair that was shot through with the occasional grey streak. Her skin was tan, and only beginning to show signs of age. She wore a white lab coat over a simple green shirt, and her pale orange eyes peered down at Molly’s small form from behind wireframe glasses.

“So what seems to be the problem?” The veterinarian asked, reaching out a finger to gently stroke Molly’s back. She frowned when Molly flinched away from the encroaching digit.

“Well, Dr. Salas, we found this little girl wandering around inside of a bar, and we were wondering if she had a chip, and if we could use it to figure out if she has an owner or not.”

“She says she does.” Ourellia interjected. “But Caetyr isn’t sure she believes Molly.”

“Molly?” Dr. Salas’ eyebrow arched. “What an unusual name…”

“She also claims she’s from Earth.” Caetyr countered, rolling her eyes. “So I’m not sure we can really take her word for anything.”

“Hmm…” The veterinarian murmured. “It’s possible her time out in the wild has addled her a bit, left her confused. Still, let’s see if she has a chip, and then we can go from there.” The doctor stepped away from the examination table and began rooting around in one of the cabinets that lined the walls of the examination room.

Molly breathed a little easier, when the imposing woman was no longer looming over her. She knew that the relief would be short lived, however.

“Lay down on your front, sweetie.” Caetyr said to her in a soft voice. “The doctor’s just going to run a scanner over you.”

“It won’t hurt, you won’t even feel it.” Ourellia added.

Molly sighed, but lay down on her stomach anyway. She knew they weren’t going to find anything; after all she’d never had a chip implanted, so she might as well get it over with.

“Good girl.” Caetyr cooed, setting Molly’s teeth on edge.

“Okay, here we are.” Dr. Salas returned to the table, holding a small metal device with a screen across the top of it. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”

Molly screwed her eyes shut as the machine was turned on. She heard a soft humming noise.

“Okay, looks like there’s no chip in there. If she had an owner, they weren’t terribly responsible.”

Molly blinked. She hadn’t even realized she’d been ‘scanned.’

“That’s what I thought.” Caetyr said, smugly. She turned towards Ourellia. “So what do you want to do?”

The blonde haired Titan bit her lip pensively. “Well, I mean, we can’t just abandon her now…”

Caetyr gasped and a wide smile spread across her face. “Oh I’m so glad you feel that way!”

“Okay, well in that case.” Dr. Salas packed up her scanner and put it back in the cabinet. “ I would suggest that today you have the chip implanted, and then we can schedule an appointment to have the health screenings taken care of.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to do it all at once?” Caetyr asked curiously.

Dr. Salas shook her head. “Some veterinarians do it that way, but I feel that being chipped is enough for one day. It doesn’t really hurt, but it can sometimes stress the human out, so it’s better to let them rest afterwards.”

“Well… if that’s what you feel is best…” Ourellia muttered.

Molly felt her heart thump in her chest and she breathed heavily. They were talking above her, as if she weren’t really there… or as if she were a dumb animal that didn’t really understand what they were saying.

Chipped. She knew what that meant, in a few moments the two giant women above her would own Molly… and there was nothing she could do to stop it from happening.

“Good.” Salas smiled and returned to her cabinets.

“Okay little girl, lay down one more time.” Caetyr said cheerfully. “This won’t take long at all.”

Molly shook her head, breathing heavily. She took a step back, but found herself bumping into a giant hand which had suddenly appeared behind her.

“Don’t be like this, sweetie.” Caetyr sighed. “This isn’t going to hurt.”

“Please… don’t…” Molly whimpered.

Caetyr shook her head sadly. Before Molly could react, the hand had swept her off her feet and deftly lowered her back onto the table, face down. Molly was able to squirm for only a moment before she felt a weight gently settle onto her back, pinning her to the cold metal table.

Straining to look over her shoulder, Molly could see she was being pinned by two of Caetyr’s fingers. The blue haired woman’s eyes met her impassively. Behind her, Ourellia looked agitated.

“Okay we’re all set!” Dr. Salas said as she cheerfully lowered a massive piece of equipment over Molly, casting the small woman in its shadow. “Just hold her still.”

“No…” Molly cried. “Don’t do this…” She tried to move, tried to get away, but the giant fingers held her still. Hot tears of humiliation and anger streamed down her face and pooled on the metal tabletop beneath her head.

“Keep her still…” Dr. Salas murmured.

Molly felt the weight on her back increase, causing her to gasp in pain.

“Okay, just hold her steady…”

Molly felt sweat dripping into her eyes, causing them to sting. There was a loud metallic click, and Molly felt a sharp blast of compressed air followed by a sharp stinging pain in her back between her shoulder blades. She cried out in pain before she could stop herself.

“There we go.” Dr. Salas said, calmly as she lifted the injector away. “All done.”

Molly felt despair wash over her. That was it. She was officially the property of these two giant aliens. She curled into a ball and cried silently, and didn’t even resist when one of the giants gathered her into their hand.

“Okay, just mark this form right here.” Dr. Salas told Caetyr, handing her a data pad. “And she’ll be all set.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Caetyr chirped happily, looking at Molly curled up in Ourellia’s hand. “We’ll be sure to make an appointment to bring her back in for a checkup.”

“Sounds good.”

*.*.*.*.*

Nonik Kafallas watched the young Imperator out of the corner of her eye, even as she absent-mindedly wiped out an adlela glass with her bar rag. She’d been lying when she’d told the officer that she hadn’t known the women he’d been looking for. Based on his description, Nonik knew exactly who the man had been talking about.

She watched impassively as he slowly meandered around the tavern, occasionally pausing to examine something. Nonik wasn’t sure what the Imperator was looking for, it wasn’t like the two women were hiding under a barstool or anything. Perhaps he’d known she was lying, and was merely waiting for her to crack.

Thankfully, he left after only a short time. Nonik smiled and waved as he left, feeling very relieved to see him go.

“Lita!” She called out to one of the waitresses coming in from the seating area, carrying a heavy tray. “Lita, do you have Ourellia Ley’s pad number?”

“Who?” The short blonde waitress huffed as she rested her tray of dirty glasses on the bar top.

“Ourellia.” Nonik repeated exasperatedly, while rolling her eyes. “You know, that blonde Hoplite woman who plays live music here about once every couple of days. Her girlfriend is the artist with the blue hair?”

Lita’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh! Her. No, I don’t unfortunately. I think Uyli might. She’s supposed to start her shift in a few minutes. Maybe you could ask her then?”

Nonik sighed nodded. “Yeah, okay. Hopefully she does. Ourellia does enough shows here, I’m sure someone knows how to contact her.”

“Why do you need to talk to her so badly?” Lita asked, hefting her tray into her arms again.

Nonik bit her lip. “Because an Imperator was in here looking to find her, and I’d like to know why since I just lied to him about knowing her.”

“I guess you’re going to jail, then.” Lita joked. Behind them, the door to the outside street opened and a third woman hurried inside, heading towards the bar.

“Shut up Lita.” Nonik grumbled, before turning to the silver-haired woman who had just walked in. “Hey Uyli, do you have-”

“Just a moment Nonik.” The dark skinned woman muttered, stepping into the kitchen. “Let me get clocked in first.”

“Right.”

After a few minutes, Uyli returned tying an apron around her waist that matched the one Lita was wearing.

“All right, now that I don’t have to worry about being late, what did you want?”

Nonik rolled her eyes. “I just wanted to ask if you had the pad code for Ourellia Ley or her girlfriend. Something came up and I need to talk to one or both of them.”

“Oh, uh, yeah I think I do.” The silver haired woman muttered distractedly as she fished her own data pad from the small pocket on her apron. Her eyes narrowed as her fingers tapped across the screen. “Yeah. I have Ourellia’s code right here.” She announced and slid her pad across the top of the bar towards Nonik.

“Thanks!” Nonik said as she copied the code into her own pad. “I’ll just give her a quick call, and then it won’t be my problem anymore.”

Uyli blinked. “What won’t be your problem anymore?”

“Something that happened earlier.” Nonik muttered. “Hang on, I’ll tell you all about it.” The brunette Titan’s brow furrowed as the pad clicked over to the prerecorded answering message.

“Shaka. She’s not picking up.” Nonik sighed, slipping her pad into her pocket and handing Uyli’s own back to her. “I’ll have to try again in a little while.”

*.*.*.*.*

“This is frustrating.” Charlotte muttered from her perch inside Vanser’s front pocket. The thick leather “wall” that surrounded her was ample protection from the slight chill in the air. Which was good, because her ill-fitting clothes weren’t much help in that regard. Of course, the large being behind her also gave off considerable amounts of body heat, something which-along with the bass drumbeat of his heart- Charlotte was hard pressed to ignore.

“I know.” Vanser sighed, shaking his head. “At this point I feel like we’re just wandering around aimlessly.”

“Okay. Okay, wait.” Charlotte sat up. “Let’s just take a second to think this through. Why don’t you go park yourself on that bench and we’ll try and figure something out.”

Vanser nodded and sat on the aforementioned bench. He offered a hand out to Charlotte, who emphatically refused on the grounds that it was, to quote, ‘cold as shit out here.’

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier? I would have gotten you warmer clothes!”

Charlotte shrugged. “It’s not important. I’m perfectly fine right here.”

Vanser sighed. “Okay. Let’s think. You’re a titan, and you just found a stray human, what’s the first thing you do?”

Charlotte tried to put herself into the mindset of a typical titan who had just found a ‘stray’ human. It helped to mentally replace ‘human’ with puppy.

“I guess the first thing I’d do would be to try and find out if there was an owner involved.” Charlotte admitted, wincing at the idea of being ‘owned.’

“Exactly.” Vanser agreed. “And the best way to do that is to get the human’s tracking chip read.”

“But Molly doesn’t have a chip implanted in her.” Charlotte reminded him.

“Right. At which point the vet would… um…” Vanser’s sentence trailed off as he connected the dots. He suddenly felt very sick.

“They’re going to put a chip in her, aren’t they?” Charlotte mumbled, leaning back against the leather wall behind her.

“Very likely, yes.” Vanser admitted quietly. “It, um, it doesn’t hurt… very much… just a little pinch. Or… or so I’ve been told.”

Charlotte bit her lip and balled her fists. She felt another wave of anger, and hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She fought to control the outburst she could feel building in her chest. She didn’t want to lash out at Vanser. It wasn’t his fault, and he was almost as horrified as she was.

Instead she took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Okay. There’s probably nothing we can do to stop that from happening. So, what can we do?”

Vanser chewed his lip in thought. “Actually… while Molly getting chipped is horrible… there might be a way we can turn it to our advantage.”