Stephanie was lying on her bed, a white towel draped around her shoulders and covering her naked breasts. Her brunette hair was still damp after her shower, but she preferred it that way. After a scream from Naomi had woken her up earlier, she had decided to put in some time on the exercise bike. Just because she was stuck in this thing for a year didn't mean she had to let her muscles deteriorate, after all, and she wasn't going to let something as unimportant as a Beta cost her the soccer scholarship she had earned. Having a year off wasn't ideal, but she would make it work. She had too much talent to let it go to waste, and she had lost count of the offers she had gotten before deciding on the only school that was ever really an option for her: The same one Marion and Naomi were going to.

Sighing, Stephanie couldn't help but wonder how Naomi was doing. The scream had awoken her, and the Omega had mentioned something about a "first disciplinary session" before leaving for a while. Claire had take her friend out of her own enclosure while she had been exercising, and shortly afterward the glass of her cell had turned a milky white and she could no longer hear anything from beyond the glass walls. She hoped Naomi was okay, the girl was...fragile, both mentally and physically.

Of course, the sooner Naomi realized the truth of this situation, the better. Stephanie had no qualms with what she had done to that Beta. It wasn't that she had anything against the little thing like Marion did, it had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Stephanie and her friends had simply done what their status allowed them to do to such an inconsequential creature. Conversely, the Omega was now doing what her status allowed. Stephanie wasn't a hypocrite, she could understand that. It sucked, but there was nothing to be done or complain about now. It was nature, and she felt that Naomi would be better off if she could realize that and go with it.

Stephanie couldn't help but frown in disgust as she thought of what that Omega had said the night before, though. Calling that...thing "big brother" was....was unacceptable. How could that massive woman even recognize such a little...nothing as her brother, much less a person? It couldn't be one, and she refused to recognize it as one.

Stephanie had begun biting her bottom lip nervously, and her hands clutched tightly at the ends of the towel that rested just below her breasts.

If she recognized it as a person, then that meant she had...had killed...

"Put a shirt on," a calm voice commanded from above her. Snapping out of her thoughts, Stephanie looked up to see that the forcefield was gone and that the Omega was now looking down at her, brows furrowed at lips pursed.

Stephanie grunted and rose from her bed, tossing her towel into the corner of the cell while walking over to the dresser Lindon had brought with the meals last night. Slipping on a clean bra and a white tank-top, she gave the gray gym shorts she had slipped on after the shower a couple of pats before turning to face her warden as the woman's large hand suddenly closed around her. An involuntary shudder coursed through her body as the fingers pressed her on all sides before she found herself being lifted up and out of her cell.

She couldn't help but notice that the woman seemed to be prepared for a workout as she was brought toward the woman. Not that she was particularly surprised by this; Claire was definitely in great shape, and that didn't come without putting in the work. Despite her...disagreements with the woman's views, Stephanie had to respect the apparent dedication of her hostess toward keeping her body conditioned.

Jarred by a sudden movement, Stephanie noticed that the Omega was on the move and walking out of her room. Her surroundings were a blur as Claire moved quickly through the house until finally halting and taking a seat on a black leather couch. Stephanie found herself being lightly dropped onto the surface of a glass coffee table that sat before the titaness. As she knelt to brace herself from the fall, she couldn't help but look through the glass she stood on and notice the white running shoes that rested on the beige carpet below with white socks stuffed into them.

As Stephanie regained her equilibrium and began to stand, her eyes wandered up the tanned shins that rested a few feet from the edge of the table and to the valley formed by the woman's knees. They eventually fixed upon Claire's face, staring down at her as if trying to decide what to do with her new toy. Stephanie kept her eyes locked with the woman, but her mouth shut. She knew her place in the hierarchy at work here, and judged that waiting for Claire to speak was the best course of action at the moment.

"So," she eventually started, "we've got a session to get to. Before we do, I have a little question I want to ask. Is that fine with you?

Stephanie grunted. She didn't want to talk, and she didn't want to answer questions. She wanted to just get this stupid thing over and done with for the week.

Still, it couldn't entirely hurt to be a little accommodating. It might even prove beneficial.

"What is it?" Stephanie replied with a sigh. Claire arched an eyebrow in response.

"Well, you're a blunt little thing," she noted, a hint of amusement in her voice. Stephanie simply shrugged, earning a light snicker from the giantess before she continued.

"Anyway, there was something in your file that caught my attention, to say the least. About eight years ago, you were involved in a little...incident. Care to tell me a bit more about that?"

"No," was Stephanie's curt reply. A sigh escaped Claire's lips.

"I think there's been a little bit of a misunderstanding between us," she said, voice monotone. "That wasn't so much a question as a suggestion, and I really do apologize for my part in this little...communication error."

"So I suggest you rethink your answer with this clarification in mind," Claire finished, eyes narrowed.

"My answer stands," Stephanie immediately replied, not a second spared to reconsider. "There's nothing to talk about. Nothing of note happened."

"Someone died, Stephanie," Claire stated, her voice becoming heated.

"A Beta died. That is nothing, and I'm not going to talk about it...I can't talk about it."

Claire just stared at her for a moment after that, her lips curling into a snarl with each passing second. Stephanie, for her part, was bracing herself. She didn't expect the woman to take kindly to that answer, and she remembered what had been done to Marion. She expected a swift punishment for giving Claire lip, and was prepared to face it.

Surprisingly, though, the snarl suddenly melted away and was replaced with a small smile.

"I think I see the problem we're having," Claire said, voice upbeat, "That was a rather personal thing to ask about on our first real day together. I shouldn't expect two of you to open up to me in one day, after all."

The hell did she mean by that?

"So I think we should spend our time together today getting to know each other a little better, and I think I have the perfect thing in mind for that. I saw a little something else in your file that caught my eye: You got a soccer scholarship, didn't you?"

Stephanie slowly nodded.

"I love Soccer, Stephanie. I played Forward with the regional Institute's team for eight years while I went through school. We won our little Cup in each of my last six years, and in each of those years I scored twenty-six goals in as many games."

Stephanie shuddered a little at that. Her own high school team enjoyed similar success, but her personal stats...they had been good, but not like that.

"Of course," Claire continued, "I didn't limit myself to just soccer. It's not year round, y'know? I did track in-between, felt it was a good way to keep in shape, and it was. Did you ever do track, Stephanie?"

Stephanie shook her head. She wasn't sure where this was going, but she didn't care for it. The Omega's voice was thick with a false sweetness, and it seemed to amplify with each word she spoke.

"Aw, that's too bad," Claire responded. "I think you would have enjoyed it if you had given it a shot."

Claire suddenly brought her right hand before her chest, and it was quickly joined by the left which began to steadily massage at her wrist as she steadily curled and uncurled her fingers. Stephanie found herself oddly entranced by the motions.

"Do you like to run, Stephanie?" the Omega asked. Stephanie nodded, eyes still focused on the larger woman's hands. There was something...off with them, or at least with the right hand. It was as if it was emanating a heatwave that was distorting the area around it.

"I do, too," Claire said, her smile growing wider. "In fact, I think we should go for a run together. I think it would be a great little bonding experience for us...but there's a problem, you see."

"A problem?" Stephanie asked, her voice no longer seeming to be her own.

"Mmmhmm. You see, I'm not totally comfortable with going on a run with you as you are now. I need to make a temporary little...correction, as it were. So..."

Claire halted her little massage, and begin to lift her right hand into the air, fingers outstretched as if she were about to deliver an open-palm slap. Stephanie had watched the entire motion, utterly entranced and unable to pull her eyes away. She could barely even register Claire's next words.

"...let me fix you right up."

Stephanie hadn't been prepared for what happened next. Claire's massive hand had immediately begun to descend. By the time the movement had even registered, the hand was already upon her.

"I'm going to die," was the last thought that passed through Stephanie's head before her world was consumed in a deafening roar as the hand came to a sudden stop mere inches above her. An intense, otherworldly pressure was exerting itself on her, and as much as Stephanie wanted to fall to her knees, there seemed to be some invisible force holding her up. The hand above her seemed to be trembling as it pushed against this same force, but....was it getting farther away?

If Stephanie could have spoken, the words "Oh my God" would have been the first words from her lips. The next few dozen would have been alternating variations of "Oh, shit."

The hand above her wasn't getting farther away, not truly. As that deafening roar continued, and her stomach seemed to be consumed by a black hole, Stephanie realized what was happening and her eyes widened in terror.

She was getting smaller. Whatever this woman was doing, it was shaving inches off her height by the second. She could only watch as the palm above continued it's work, growing both larger and farther away as Stephanie dwindled.

And then it stopped. The roar, the pressure, even the force that had been holding her up. Stephanie promptly crumpled to her knees, her body suddenly exhausted. She watched with an empty stare as the hand began to move away, allowing Stephanie to look at Claire once again. A larger Claire. As Stephanie took everything in, she realized that the Omega had at least doubled in size...and God, the smile on her face now.

Stephanie barely noticed as the hand that had done this to her disappeared below the table. It's reappearance was another story, as it was no longer alone. A large white mass was accompanying it now, pinched between Claire's thumb and forefinger, and Stephanie instantly knew both what it was and Claire's intentions for it...and her. She barely noticed as Claire suddenly plucked her up with her free hand, eventually holding Stephanie above the opening of the bus-sized sock as the other hand held it open for her.

"Let's have a nice run together, Stephanie," the titanic woman said, teeth bared, as Stephanie felt the fingers let go and allow her to freefall into the massive garment.