At first, all Sam could see was a gray haze. Then other colors appeared as the world slowly came back into focus. Sam was suddenly aware of a splitting pain that started at the base of his skull, then travelled up the back of his head and to his forehead, like a Mohawk made out of pure agony.

As his vision continued to clear, Sam found the strength to slowly pull himself into a seated position. He covered his eyes with his hand and tried to take stock of his situation.

Other than his pounding headache, he didn’t appear to be injured in any other way. There were no broken bones, bruises or soreness of any kind anywhere on his body. He began taking stock of what he could sense outside his body. The room he was in seemed unnaturally cool, like air conditioning; which meant he was probably indoors. Beneath him he felt a smooth wooden surface, further solidifying the “indoors” theory.

Finally, his vision had cleared enough for him to begin to look around. He was indoors. The floor was made of wood, but something seemed off about it. The room felt massive, like a gymnasium or something.

He slowly looked up.

“Holy shit!” Sam jumped to his feet, and then groaned as another wave of dizziness overwhelmed him for a second.

A woman’s face, a giant woman’s face, was looming over him. A confident smirk on her features as if she didn’t have a care in the world and his actions interested her immensely.

“Careful there, Isamu.” The giant’s voice, immense yet still somehow soft and feminine, purred in an amused tone. “We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself, now would we?”

“Who… what… are you?” Sam groaned, holding his head in his hands. “Where am I?”

The giantess chuckled. “My name is Syon Fand, I am a Titan, and you are on Grelau, a world of the Archavian Empire.”

This, unfortunately, left Sam even more confused than he had been before. He took a deep breath and waited for the pain to subside.

“I… I don’t… How do you know my name?” Sam stared up at the giant woman. She was a fairly attractive woman, although a bit older than his usual tastes. She had a very poised and refined look to her. Posh, as one of his former co-stars would have put it.

At the same time she seemed to have a very iron hard sense of control. Sam could tell that, even if the two of them were the same size, she would still not be someone he wanted to mess with.

Despite the playful little smile on those massive lips, those gray eyes that seemed to scrutinize his every muscle twitch were completely without pity.

At this point, Sam realized he was still completely naked. He quickly moved to cover himself. The giantess above him chuckled and shook her head; she pushed her ebony bangs out of her eyes with one long finger.

“No sense in being modest now. I’ve already seen everything anyway.” She chuckled. “And as for how I know your name, well, what can I say? I’m a big fan of yours. I daresay the biggest you’ve got.”

Sam shook his head in disbelief. “Listen lady, if you just wanted an autograph all you had to do was get in touch with my publicist and…”

He suddenly found himself cut off as she pinned him to the ground with one finger, one perfectly manicured fingernail the size of a medieval shield just barely grazing his throat.

“Oh no, Isamu.” She spoke in that pleasant voice again. “You don’t understand. I didn’t want an autograph, I wanted you. And I always get what I want.”

She smiled again and gently stroked that finger down the length of his naked body. “I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation you’ve found yourself in, Mister Rodriguez, so allow me to enlighten you.”

Sam watched the finger that was almost as big as he was very, very carefully.

“As you’ve hopefully realized, you’re no longer on Earth.” Her long and delicate looking fingers slid under his body and he found himself tumbling into her soft palm as she raised him to her face.

“In fact, the very solar system that spawned your kind is quite a few light-years away.” Slowly, she wrapped her long delicate fingers around his body, one by one. Each one felt as strong as a steel beam. Sam struggled uselessly in her grip, which seemed to be getting progressively tighter as she spoke.

“You are on a world called Grelau a colony world for an empire dominated by a race known as Titans, of which I am one. Out here, your kind are animals. Whatever freedoms you might have enjoyed on that little blue ball of dust, you can forget about them. Any dreams or aspirations you might have had are mere wisps of memory.

Her grip tightened ever so slightly with every word she spoke, like a python coiling around its prey. Sam felt the air being pushed out of his lungs.

“From this moment forward, you are mine to do with as I please.”

Sam struggled desperately within her grip. He hadn’t felt any bones begin to snap, but his inability to draw breath was making his vision go blurry around the edges.

“Your very existence is at my whim, and I can and will end it the moment I have a mind to. Do we understand each other?”

Her fingers sprang apart and Sam sat bolt upright, drawing in a ragged breath. He couldn’t answer her if he’d wanted to because his body became wracked with a heavy coughing fit.

Syon Fand smiled. “I shall take that as a yes.”

She pressed a button on the intercom set into the desktop. “Yvenna?” She spoke into the microphone, her lips twisted into a satisfied smirk. “I’m through with him for the moment; you may come and collect him.”

There was a thunderous noise as the door on the opposite side of the room opened. Sam watched, wide eyed, as a second giant woman strolled casually through the door. She was dressed in what looked to be a full-body uniform of some kind, completely done in black and gray. The woman herself was pale with short cropped dark hair and dark blue eyes. She didn’t seem to wear any makeup, and her face looked serious to the point of being expressionless. She carried a clear box that looked to be made of plastic in her hand.

Wordlessly the newcomer approached the desk and raised the box up until it was level with Sam. With a flick of her fingers she snapped open a panel on the box and Sam found himself callously dumped inside. Another click and the panel swung shut, sealing him in.

“Please take him below for processing.” Syon Fand ordered. Her voice sounded bored now that her new toy had been taken away.

“Will that be all, Ma’am?” Yvenna asked, her tone completely professional.

“Yes, for now. I will let you know if I have any further need of you.”

“Very good.” With a polite nod, Yvenna turned and exited the room.

The outside world seemed to zip by at Mach speeds as Sam was carried to parts unknown by the silent giantess. He tried several times to ask her questions or get some response from her, but was ignored every time. As if she couldn’t hear him, or refused to acknowledge him.

As if he were an animal.

Eventually, after travelling down several flights of stairs, Sam saw they were approaching a large set of black double doors. Yvenna stopped in front of them, and Sam heard a series of beeps as she keyed in an access code. Another electronic sound and the doors swung open to admit them.

There was less light in the hallway they entered. Enough to see by, but it was obvious that wherever they were going, it was off the beaten path.

“Where are you taking me?” Sam tried again, but got the same response as every other time he’d tried to gain any information. Dead silence. The giant woman didn’t even bother to look down at him, or acknowledge that she’d heard him in any way.

Then again, maybe she couldn’t hear him. It was entirely possible that the box he was being carried in was soundproof. Sam didn’t think this was the case. He surmised the woman merely thought him so far beneath her as to not warrant any kind of response.

They travelled down the darkened corridor for several minutes before Yvenna pushed open another set of doors. Sam’s eyes were dazzled by the unexpectedly bright light in the room they just walked into.

“Is that the new… acquisition?” When his vision finally adjusted to the lighting change, Sam saw yet another giant woman in the room. This one was a bit taller than Yvenna, her long light brown hair done up in a simple ponytail.

She wore a white lab coat over plain blue scrubs. Sam watched as she donned a pair of purple latex gloves and crossed over to them. Wordlessly, she knelt down to observe Sam more closely, her sharp brown eyes watched him like an insect on display from behind the clear plastic safety glasses she wore on her face.

“Very well.” The new Titaness said as she rose back to her feet. “Any special instructions, or is he to receive the standard fair?”

“The usual, Dr. Rylne.” Yvenna spoke simply as she transferred Sam’s prison to the doctor’s hands.

“Very well. Tell Miss Fand that I’ll have him ready in an hour or so.”

Yvenna nodded. “Of course, Doctor. But I’m supposed to wait here until you’re finished.”

The doctor’s grip tightened on the handle of Sam’s prison. “I see. Well, then have a seat over there and try to stay out of the way while I’m working.”

Yvenna smiled politely. “Of course.”

Dr. Rylne carried Sam’s prison over to a stainless steel examination table. The bright light from above reflected off its surface, blinding Sam once again. The doctor reached in and roughly pulled Sam from the box, setting him down on the cold metal surface.

She stepped away from the table, momentarily giving Sam a chance to look around. Unfortunately, the bright light above him cloaked the rest of the room in shadow, so he wasn’t able to see much beyond the examination table. He did see Yvenna standing over him, gazing down at him emotionlessly with her cold blue eyes.

After a moment Dr. Rylne reappeared. She carried a plastic tub in her hands which she set down on the work surface next to Sam. It was oval shaped and roughly the size of a small wading pool.

“What are you…?” Sam started to ask, but was cut off when fingers wrapped in latex gripped him around his waist and dunked him into the lime green liquid.

The liquid felt like some kind of strange slime. It was thick and viscous, like jello that hadn’t quite set yet. It clung to his skin before sliding off his body, leaving a trail of ooze in its wake.

After a brief moment he was allowed to resurface, taking in a gasping breath.

“God damn it!” He shouted at the giant woman who still held him in her grip. “What the fuck are you doing, you crazy bitch?” He thrashed his arms, splashing the pool of slime and sending it flying in all directions.

The doctor watched his temper tantrum impassively, before casually dunking his head below the surface again.

After another moment, this one slightly longer than the first, Sam was allowed to surface again. He reached up and wiped the gelatinous substance off his face with the back of one hand. “Fucking Christ! I’m done with this shit! You’d better-!” Again Sam was cut off as he was thrust below the surface of the pool.

He was held down again, for almost a half a minute, before the doctor raised his head above the pool.

This time, Sam remained silent. Nodding in satisfaction, Dr. Rylne proceeded to use the tips of her finger to roughly press the liquid into every inch of Sam’s body. The tiny human made no protests against this treatment, however.

After a few minutes of being bathed this way, Sam was lifted from the pool and set down on a rough black towel.

Before Sam could recover, he felt a weight fall onto his back. Turning his head as much as he could, he saw that Herr Doktor had lowered a large black monstrosity on top of him. Before he could question or protest this new treatment, he heard the sound of compressed air releasing and a sharp pain burned into the center of his back.

Sam cringed, biting his lip to keep from crying out. Whatever else happened, he would not give these giant monstrosities the satisfaction of seeing him in pain.

After a moment, the black apparatus was lifted away and he was lifted roughly by the Doctor’s gloved hand.

“All right, Yvenna.” She called out in a bored tone of voice. “I am all finished with him… for now.”

The taller woman nodded, her face still expressionless. “Thank you Doctor. I will let you return to… whatever it was you were doing beforehand.”

Dr. Rylne made a noncommittal grunt in reply and lowered Sam back into his plastic prison, sealing the hatch behind him.

Sam had only a moment to recover from this rough treatment before his cage was once again lifted by Yvenna’s hand.

Sam didn’t bother talking. He knew now that it was pointless and anyway the searing pain in his back dampened any particular need for conversation on his part. He simply sat and watched through the panes of his cage as the world outside zoomed by.

Sam tried to keep track of the turns the titanic woman took, figuring that it might be helpful if he ever managed to free himself, but after a few minutes he was forced to give up. It appeared the giantess was walking in circles, or perhaps deliberately trying to confuse him.

That didn’t seem very likely. She’d made it perfectly clear that she didn’t think much of his intelligence in the first place.

Finally, she stopped outside of another large metal door. Sam watched, his mind still in something of a pain induced haze, as she reached into her coat pocket and withdrew a plastic card. Yvenna inserted this card into a slot on the side of the door which, after beeping three times in quick succession, slid open to admit her entrance.

Yvenna strode fearlessly into the shadowed room. Inside, in the dim light, Sam could make out massive building-sized shelves stacked with crates and boxes of wood, metal and occasionally plastic.

Without warning, Yvenna lifted his cage and set it on one of the shelves at just below her eye level.

For a moment, the titaness scrutinized the tiny human, her ice blue eyes focusing in on his small form as if she could somehow peer into his very soul.

Sam slumped against the cage wall, feeling violated on multiple levels. He stared back out at the giantess, his seething hate for her and her kind meeting Yvenna’s blank emotionless gaze. After a moment the giant, pitiless blue orbs blinked and she stepped back. If the eye contact with the miniscule human had unnerved or affected her in anyway, or if it had even been noticed, Yvenna’s face showed no sign.

Without saying a single word, the giant woman turned on her heel and left the room, leaving Sam alone in the shadows.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Syon drummed her exquisitely manicured nails on the top of her desk idly. Trell had left for her return trip to Avalon, leaving Fand alone to deal with the everyday issues of running a legitimate business.

She smiled indulgently at the thought of her latest acquisition. The young human was as strong and fit as she’d suspected him to be, and the icing on the cake was the fact that she’d been able to snatch him from right under the military’s nose.

Twice, in fact.

Her idle musings were interrupted rather harshly by the chirping sound that indicated an incoming call. Scowling at the interruption, she flipped the view screen up and pressed the key to answer the call.

The young man’s face that appeared on her screen made her stomach drop.

It wasn’t so much the man himself, he was rather non-descript Titan who appeared to be just out of college, with sandy blonde hair and black eyes.

No, the fear came from what this man represented.

“Ms. Fand.” The young man spoke coolly. “I assume you know why I’ve contacted you?”

Syon Fand’s face fell into a blank emotionless mask. “Of course I do.”

“Excellent. Then you won’t mind me asking if there’s been any progress on the matter?”

“There has.”

“Good.” The face projected on the screen smirked. “I don’t believe I need to tell you that The Hive bosses are becoming impatient. They did, after all, fulfill their end of the bargain that you struck when they made your husband and your lover… disappear.”

“I’m well aware of the deal that was made, thank you.” Syon responded hotly, already tired of being addressed in such a manner by a mere child, regardless of whom he represented.

“You may tell your… employers-” She spat the word with as much venom as she could muster, knowing full well that even if the insectoids were overhearing the implied insult would be completely lost on them. “That what they’re asking will take time, but that I will deliver on what I have promised.”

The Titan on the other end smirked, knowingly. “I certainly hope you do, for your sake.”

The communication line cut with an audible click.

Syon Fand took a moment to regain her composure, before turning her screen on again. After a moment’s wait, the face of the young Dr. Rylne appeared on her screen.

“Doctor.” Fand spoke imperiously. “What’s the status of your little project?”

Dr. Rylne smiled triumphantly. “Both infections are ready for the… trial run.”