If you're under 18 or dislike Transgender stories, don't read this.

I would like to thank Anyport for his permission to write this sequel to his story, The Transformation, and use the characters he created.

I would like to thank Tigger for allowing me to include a guest appearance by his character, "Aunt" Jane Thompson. I would especially like to thank

Steve Zink for editing such a very long story for me.

(This story is set in the Vaingirls universe.)

Ross Thorn, aka Nick Mitchell, paced back and forth in his office high up in the Hancock Building. He glanced out the corner windows. North you could see out over Chicago's North Side to almost as far as Wilmette, and east out over the lake almost to Michigan. It was a perfect spring day in May, and he took brief pleasure in the obvious rebirth going on all around below him. Then he stopped in front of the full length mirror on the back of his closed office door. 'Damndamndamndamndamn!' he thought. "DAMN!" That one was out loud. Staring back at him, framed in gold, was a 5' 9" woman. Sure, she was a flat chested woman with short hair in what should have been a masculine style, wearing men's clothing from the skin out, but she looked like a woman, a very cute young woman, trying to look like a boy in her daddy's ill fitting clothes.

It had been almost a year and a half since Ross had last taken the hormones, but he now had to admit that the changes that had occurred to his body were not reversing. He had had the breast implants removed, but despite no additional hormones his ownbreasts had continued growing, stopping at a B cup that was, had he cared to admit it, perfect for "Rose's" slender frame. Several plastic surgeons had advised him that the changes made to his face and vocal cords would be extremely difficult to reverse, and might leave part of his face paralyzed or his voice gone. No matter how hard he exercised he could not build muscle bulk, but simply looked like a well toned and quite shapely young woman. Steroids would definitely make him look like a body builder, he'd been told, but a definitely female one.

Rose was in great shape; Ross was a mess, and standing in front of his office mirror, he finally had to admit that. After more than a year of trying to be Ross again, Ross, looking in the mirror, finally surrendered. He was Rose, and she was always going to be Rose. And at that point Ross experienced, finally, his epiphany: He LIKED being Rose. He abdicated.

It was spring, a time of rebirth, it was the new millennium, and SHE WAS FREE! "Look out everybody, Momma's back in town!" And the first thing Rose, aka Nikki Mitchell, thought was, 'I've got to get the hell out of these frumpy uncomfortable MEN'S clothes!' She quickly stripped naked, noting while looking in the mirror that Ross was not entirely gone; although the equipment hadn't worked for quite awhile, it was still there. She would have to decide rather quickly what she wanted to do about that. The little bit of Ross that was still in her mind cringed.

As part of Ross's unsuccessful struggle to get back to being Ross, there were no female clothes in the office, but there was a somewhat unisex sweatsuit. Rose left her breasts bound for the time being, till she could get a decent bra and put it on. She would have to go shopping, but she needed to sit down with a cup of coffee and regroup first; her long delayed recognition of her female self did not in the least, she reflected, affect her plans for Louise and Edwina. She refused to think of them as Lou and Ed, that was too painful. She poured herself a cup of coffee from the coffee maker in the corner, and settled into her chair behind her desk. 'Amazing,' she thought, looking at her chintz curtained office through newly disillusioned eyes, 'how feminine this is. Poor Ross, after being me, he couldn't create a macho office even when he tried.' She settled back, and let her mind roll back four years.

Ross had been so happy to get the job at Transformation Systems, doing the kind of computer work he really liked and getting paid much more for it than he had at his old job. More than the job, though, he was happy to have found such good friends - and lovers - as Louise Edwards, the company M.D., and her secretary, Edwina Porter. Ross had had lovers before, forceful women who had taken the shy, somewhat effeminate young man under their wings, but Lou and Ed were different, real friends, or so he'd thought.

In retrospect, Rose could see how, starting with the "your-jockey- shorts-were destroyed-by-the-washing-machine-why-don't-yo-wear-a- pair-of-my-panties" bit and the "I-want-you-to-take-these- 'vitamins!-to-increase-your-love-making-stamina" bit, the two had gradually led a naive Ross to greater and greater degrees of feminization. But the panties HAD felt good, and the "vitamins" HAD made him feel good, and it HAD all been such good fun and good sex, that he had gone meekly to the slaughter and become a she, one of them: The three girlfriends!

Ha!

And everything was reversible, right?

Ha!

And then there was Dr. Adkins. He should have been suspicious of her right from the start. When he had gone to her, on Lou's recommendation, wondering what was happening with his suddenly sensitive chest and nipples, Lou had told him the results, saying the doctor had called her. No reputable doctor would discuss an adult's case with another person without the patient's permission. But Lou had been his friend; he had trusted Lou. Lou wouldn't steer him wrong, would she?

Ha!

He recalled the night they had playfully cajoled him into having his nails done, and had then wanted to make him up and he had finally rebelled. They had played the "We're-so-sorry-we-didn't- mean-to-hurt-you-we-were-just-having-bit-of-fun" card so well that he had felt like the lowest of the low, spoiling a fun night for his friends. So of course he had gone along with it, like he had gone along with everything else, because they were his very best friends and it was all for a bit of fun and sex.

Ha!

And before he knew it, he was a she in all but the strict biological sense. And "she", Rose, was loving it, being the girlfriend to and of such wonderful, kind, loving, beautiful ladies as Lou and Ed.

Ha!

Real time Rose realized she was sitting bolt upright in her chair with a white-knuckle grip on its arms. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths - but not too many; she wanted to keep the burn, hold on to the anger. Her "friends". Lou and Ed. Her fun, best friends, Lou and Ed, became Louise and Edwina, the betrayers, the destroyers of Ross's soul on a Friday evening in December, the evening of THE DINNER PARTY - she thought of it in capitals - when she'd finally been told the truth. The tears ran down her cheeks; damn, she'd loved those girls!

She had been eagerly anticipating the dinner. Lou and Ed had been telling her for the past week that they had a special surprise for her, and she couldn't for the life of her decide what it could be. Maybe a promotion at work to a job where she'd finally be allowed access to the company's main data base. (She could have hacked in anytime, but had respected her "friends" wishes and not done so.) Maybe a beach vacation, just the three of them; she'd seen Ed looking at scenes of sand on her computer screen at work. Maybe even the company springing for breast implants for her! It felt so good when her nipples were nibbled upon and her small breasts caressed, what would it feel like to have full womanly breasts caressed, full womanly nipples nibbled upon? *Ummmmmmm, yummy!* She'd have to make a token protest, of course, but if her two very best friends in the world insisted, then, damn, she'd be the best woman a man could be! It had certainly been fun so far. And, of course, she'd been constantly assured that if she didn't like it, everything was reversible; breast implants would just be a little more difficult.

(Back in the office, Real time Rose's knuckles got whiter. Ha!)

THE FRIDAY had been a day of happy firsts. She had gone shopping and found the perfect to-die-for LBD at her favorite designer, Jacques Pennae, (Lou and Ed kidded her about her attempt to upgrade J.C. Penney) along with undies, hose, and accessories to match. Then, without prompting from Lou or Ed, she ventured for the first time into a beauty spa and asked for "the works". Four hours later, massaged, waxed, nailed, flawlessly made up, new permed honey blonde hair in an updo with tendrils down around her neck and ears, fully accessorized in rhinestones and black, a glittering, happy Rose floated out of the salon on cloud nine just in time to catch a cab and make it to Trader Vic's in the Hilton on time.

Lou and Ed had gushed over her, couldn't praise her enough, and she basked in it. She returned the compliments as the two ladies were no slouches themselves. (Real time Rose knew that they had immediately upped the price they were going to ask for her by several hundred thousand.) They told Rose they would reveal the surprise after dinner, and they went in to eat.

The first surprise was when they saw Dr. Adkins seated at the bar, as dressed to the nines as they were. She had her cell phone to her ear. When she saw the three, she waved, snapped the phone shut and, replacing it in her purse, came over to join them. She made a fuss over how beautiful Rose looked and asked who she was. Rose giggled, but Ross wanted to run and hide when Ed let the cat out of the bag, stage whispering to her, "Why, Joan, don't you recognize our friend Ross, the one you treated for breast growth - only she's Rose tonight?"

As Ross gasped and turned to run, Joan put her hand on her arm and immediately put her at ease, putting Rose back in charge. "Ross? No, no. I don't see Ross at all; you could never be a Ross. Who are you, really? You're lovely! Your friends are just putting me on, right?"

Rose could not stay mad at Ed, nor stay panicky, and she began to feel good about the compliment. Shyly, she said, "They're right, Dr. Adkins ..."

"Call me Joan."

"They're right, Joan, underneath all this I AM Ross, but I certainly don't feel like Ross tonight. Tonight, please call me Rose."

Joan smiled and shook her head. "My, my, my. Well, Rose it is, then, and a very lovely Rose, at that." She linked her arm with Rose's and began heading to the dining room. She spoke over her shoulder to Lou and Ed, "Shame on you two. Not telling me about this lovely creature, and then trying to embarrass her." Ed got an appropriate hangdog look on her face. "Well, that was my colleague that I was supposed to have dinner with on the phone. Her little girl is sick, and she can't make it. So, I am officially joining you three for dinner. Right, Rose?"

Rose had laughed, breaking the tension, "Come, Doctor; you can protect me from these two wanton divas!" Everyone was giggling as the waiter led them to their table. (Real time Rose shook her head. Any one of the three could have won an Oscar for their performance that evening.)

Rose just couldn't believe it the way the staff fussed over them. They had been led to what Lou informed them was THE table, the table usually reserved for those-who-want-to-be-seen. Multiple men in tuxedos appeared to pull out the chairs and seat all the women at once. 'Cloth napkins!' thought Rose who, as Ross, would never have eaten in a place as fancy as this. They ate and chatted and giggled like long time girlfriends throughout the meal. It seemed to Rose like there was a new drink at her elbow every few minutes, and she began to feel her inhibitions leaving her; it was a very pleasant glow.

As they were finishing their desert, Rose noticed Joan looking over toward the bar; suddenly, she smiled and waved, and a handsome Arabic version of Tom Cruise, dressed in a flawlessly fitted tuxedo, smiled back. He got up, and gave his hand to the tall, exotic, raven haired Arabic beauty dressed in a floor length purple sequin gown seated next to him, and both made their way over to Rose's table. "Joan!" he exclaimed, giving her a 1000 watt smile. "Louise and Edwina!" in flawless boarding school English. He turned the smile on them. Then he looked at Rose. "And who is this lovely lady?" Before anyone could say anything, he reached over, picked up Rose's hand from where it had been resting on the table, and half lifting it, half bending himself from the waist up, kissed it. "Adain Ben Hariesh, most blessed of mortals to be in your presence," he introduced himself.

While Rose blushed fifty different shades of red, Joan laughed. "Adain, you old scoundrel, you never change! How do you put up with him, Salielah?"

Salielah shrugged her bare shoulders. "There are compensations ... But enough! Adain, you are embarrassing the poor girl. Do not mind him, my dear," she said to Rose. "He is really just a big teddy bear who thinks he is God's gift to women."

As Rose showed no inclination to open the conversation, Lou stepped in. "This is our friend, Rose. She works with us at Transformation Systems. This is really her first night out in the big city." She winked at Rose, who still seemed to be having difficulty dealing with the physical presence of the handsome older man standing behind her.

"Will you two join us? asked Ed, and, when Adain and Salielah nodded their assent, added, "But you sit between Rose and Adain, Salielah. I do believe he's got the poor girl quite flustered."

Before Salielah could move, though, Adain moved between her and Rose. "What! Do you think I am an ogre who goes around scaring little girls? What kind of a man would I be if I did not try to put sweet Rose here at ease?" He picked up Rose's left hand from the table and cupped it between his larger ones. "I do not scare you, Rose, do I? Please do not say I scare you. Please, may I sit by you.?"

Rose was finding that her feelings of fear were being replaced by nice, warm feelings. Ross, for, of course, it was still Ross under it all, thought, 'I suppose this is how any beautiful woman feels when she's been complimented. I suppose this guy must be a gentleman; he seems to be on the best of terms with Lou and Ed. Let's try all this girl equipment.' So it was Rose who spoke. "Why, Mr. Ben Hariesh," she cooed in her best little girl voice, "I suppose you are a bit intimidating to me, you are ... sooo big!" She batted her eyelashes at him, lowered her eyes to his mid-regions, and raised them again to see his eyes widen in surprise. Then she grinned.

Lou and Ed's mouths dropped open, and then they burst into laughter. Salielah clapped. "Bravo, bravo! Adain, my dear, you may just have met your match!"

Joan watched the exchange silently, and a slight smile played across her lips. "Yes, Adain, I do believe you have." And turning to Rose, she added, "Yes, indeed. Bravo, Rose. Yes, indeed."

Turning to Salielah, Rose commented, "Your husband IS very handsome, Mrs. Ben Hariesh. I imagine you must go everywhere with him to beat ladies like me off with a stick."

Salielah laughed. "Call me Salielah, dear, and this 'God's Gift' here is NOT my husband. While I admit he IS handsome and can be quite charming, I don't think I could take the constant struggle of worrying about young ladies such as yourself. No, I am his sister, and what you might call, at least for tonight, his social secretary. He has been conducting business here, and it is my job to make sure that all work and no play don't make him a dull boy."

"No chance of that, Mrs ... Salielah," said Rose, smiling. "I doubt that he is EVER dull!"

'Wow!' thought Rose. 'This is fun, fooling everyone!' She removed her left hand from his and placed it on his right sleeve, giving a light pressure to let him know it was okay to sit. She marveled at how her bright red nails shimmered against the black of his tuxedo jacket. A little electric thrill ran through her. 'WOW!'

"If you two will quit discussing me as if I were a slab of meat," said Adain, accepting Rose's hint and sliding into the seat next to her, "I would like to inform you, young lady, that Mr. Ben Hariesh is my father. You must call me Adain." He turned to Salielah. "Salielah, my dear, make a note for me to suitably reward my dear friends Louise and Edwina for bringing this lovely Rose to my attention."

(Real time Rose remembered how big the grins on Lou's and Ed's faces had been during that exchange - as if a student had suddenly and unexpectedly performed far beyond expectations. "Suitably rewarded" for sure! They must have upped her price another $500,000 at that point.)

Suddenly, there was a ringing from Louise's purse. She pulled out her cell phone: "Hello" She signaled all to be quiet, and listened for about a minute. "Does it have to be now? We're engaged in the middle of something of a celebration right now ... Yes, I suppose we could come ... All right ... Yes, we'll be right over." She snapped the phone closed. "That was one of our clients. His system has just had a major meltdown, and he wants us to fix it ... yesterday. I'm afraid we have to leave." She and Ed got up to leave. When Rose started to rise also, she gently pushed her back into her chair. "You're enjoying yourself, honey. You stay here and have your fun evening. Joan will bring you home. Won't you, love?"

Joan laughed. "Of course." And to Rose, she said, "Salielah and I will make sure that this big lug remains a perfect gentleman!"

Pretending to be offended, Adain drew himself up straight in his chair. "Of course! As I always am with a charming and beautiful woman. I will treat Rose as if she was a part of my ... family." The pause, and the frown Joan gave Adain because of it, passed completely over Rose's head.

"But, what about my surprise?" she replied to Ed and Lou.

"Don't worry, honey," said Lou, placing her hand on Rose's shoulder. "You'll find out before the evening is over. You'll enjoy it; just trust us, honey."

"Okay," said Rose, "I'll see you two later."

"Yes ... later," said Ed, grinning.

Rose watched her two best friends in the world leave the restaurant. The thought never entered her head that she would never see the two again. "Aren't they great!" she exclaimed to the three others left at the table.

"Oh, yes," replied Adain, "great." There was a big smile on his face.

Several more drinks and much flirting later, a thoroughly buzzed and very happy Rose announced that she thought she'd better go home now. The next half hour was a blur in her memory, as Joan and Salielah took her to the ladies' room, then helped her on with her wrap and guided her out of the restaurant. There was a big Mercedes limousine at the curb, so she imagined Adain must have called for it while she was in the ladies' room. The driver helped Joan in first, then Rose, who remembered she should adjust her skirt so as not to show too much thigh, but then deliberately didn't do it to give Adain a good show. Salielah and, finally, Adain followed. The door was closed and Rose found herself between Joan and Adain. Her mind was floating, and Ross was totally lost at sea; SHE felt safe and secure, sandwiched between them. She snuggled in close to Adain, and was drifting off to sleep as the driver's door slammed. But just before the limo started forward, she felt a prick in her left shoulder.

She looked over at Joan, who was putting away a hypodermic needle. Joan then changed places with Salielah so that she was in the jump seat facing Rose. Rose felt the effects of the alcohol leaving her mind. Within a few moments, she - no, he, because Ross had come back - knew he was stone cold sober, a boy in a dress snuggled against another man. He tried to move away, but found that he could only barely blink or move his fingertips. "Whatthehell!" Slurred, but in Ross's voice.

"Ah, ROSS." Joan emphasized his male name. Her whole demeanor had changed. No longer the friendly doctor, she now seemed to be sneering at him. "I see you are fully with us. Having some difficulty moving? We thought it best that you be chemically restrained while I informed you of the surprise that Lou and Ed and I have for you. Physical restraints are so nasty, and might leave marks. Your surprise wouldn't like that. Confused, dear?" At a gesture from her, Salielah reached out and slightly moved his head so he was looking at Adain, who was smiling a very predatory smile; the gentleman, apparently, was gone. "Haven't figured it out yet, sweets? Adain is your surprise. You, or rather Rose, belong to him now. Yes. Belong. I'm going to explain the reality facing you, Ross - and this is the last time you will hear anyone use that name in regard to you - and then you will have a nice rest. When Rose regains her senses, she will have to decide whether to do what must be done the easy or the hard way. But first, let me tell you a bit about me."

After "whatthehell!" had run through his mind about a thousand times, and the fact that things were drastically wrong had run through another thousand, Ross's logical computer geek persona had decided to listen; after all, that was all there was that he could do. Rose was gone now, and, oddly, although he felt scared and angry, the predominant emotion was acute embarrassment that he, a man, was sitting here, in this predicament, looking for all the world like a pretty young lovestruck girl.

Joan continued. "I was the brightest student in my class all through high school. I knew it, and I didn't try to hide it, like the Barbie wannabe cheerleaders did, to impress the boys. The boys didn't like that. The fact that I was pretty, I quickly found, hindered rather than helped my academic career, because it was hard for men to take me seriously. My male teachers patronized me, and the boys all seemed to take my intellect as a challenge: 'Let's see if we can shag the uppity bitch; take her down a peg! Har har.'

"In my senior year, they succeeded. Six of the football 'heroes' caught me alone one night and gang raped me. They took some pictures that made it seem as if I was going along voluntarily, threatening to beat me bloody if I didn't pose 'nice'. They pushed me out of the car onto my front lawn when they were finished, and left me. I managed to get in the house without waking my parents, took an hour and a half shower, and went to bed. My parents were good people, and didn't deserve the hoopla that would ensue if I tried to assert the truth, so I never told them. The next week I graduated. The week after, I left for college. My parents died in a car accident two months later, and it was ten years before I returned to that town. When I did, it was for revenge.

"By that time, I was both a plastic surgeon and a psychiatrist - told you, I was bright - and had, by chance, come upon a way to take revenge on those boys, now men, who had raped me.

"I grew up in a white bread world, and was pretty naive when I went away to school. The Internet changed that. When I first discovered the world wide web, I was in heaven; I took to all that available information like a duck to water. I spent hours upon hours surfing the net, discovering that there were things stranger than I had ever dreamed possible out there. The semester I discovered the net was the only semester my GPA was less than 4.0! One site I discovered gave me my idea for revenge. There were sites advertising for 'special' brides to be married to men with 'special tastes' - shemale brides for gay men who found it necessary to appear fully heterosexual. In many cases, the shemale brides were voluntary shemales who willingly agreed to the union, but as I visited the chat rooms for these sites and became somewhat known, hints were dropped that some 'special men' either wanted their shemale brides unwilling, or were looking for special talents in their brides, and didn't care whether the brides were willing or unwilling, as long as they were or could be made to be pretty and cooperative. These 'special men' were willing to pay large sums to procure their desired brides.

"On another site, I met Louise and Edwina. You don't know what Transformation Systems really does, do you, dear? They never let you into the mainframe, did they? No need to answer." She chuckled, knowing he couldn't speak or move to give any kind of an answer. "They feminize men, dear, men just like you. At the time I met them, they were only doing it for willing men, crossdressers and transsexuals who wanted to be feminized, and were willing to pay for it. They were making fairly decent money, but definitely wanted more, lots more. A plan began to form in my mind. I wanted revenge, and what more fitting revenge for those super macho assholes than to be feminized and sold to some 'special men' to be their sex slaves!

"When I told Lou and Ed of my plan, and the amount the 'special men' were willing to pay, they agreed to help. I would act as the agent, finding the 'special men' clients, and then do any surgical or psychiatric work necessary on the potential bride. Lou and Ed would find the young man and do the feminizing short of surgery. You do realize I'm condensing this, don't you, ROSE, sweetie? This was all infinitely more complicated than it seems in the telling. Anyway, I did some research and found that of the six men who raped me, one was dead; he was the lucky one. Of the other five, two were currently living outside the US and out of my grasp, at least for the moment. However, the remaining three were all still living in my home town. Let me tell you what happened to them:

"Bill had taken over the dry cleaning business his father had started, and apparently was doing quite well financially. He was still his high school height of 6'2", but had gained quite bit of weight and was balding. He was cheating on his wife with a mistress he kept in the apartment above the dry cleaning shop. I found a client who wanted a large shemale who knew how to dry clean things. You don't want to know why. You don't believe me? Believe me. The clients are out there, and the net makes finding them possible. This man lived in an Islamic country in the Middle East - the same one Adain comes from, actually - and thus began my Middle East connection.

"Lou and Ed approached the mistress. Upon the payment of a rather large sum, she agreed to help them. You may have met her. Nancy? Transformation Systems' receptionist? Anyway, Bill was cajoled into dressing as a girl 'Just for Nancy, honey, pretty please?'"

'Nancy? Cute, funny, nice Nancy?!'

"Yadda yadda yadda, incriminating photos taken, yadda yadda, yadda, 'vitamins' given, yadda yadda yadda - the upshot was, within a few months, Bill was a quite unwilling 'Little Sissy Billie'. He wasn't pretty - we don't get many like you, Rose - but, then, the client didn't care. We let his wife discover 'her' with a gay male friend of Nancy's before we made her disappear into my clinic. Since Billie decided to be difficult, I froze her vocal cords. Her new master liked that. As far as I know, she's still in the client's harem. We made $3,000,000, a million apiece.

"George actually made quite a cute woman, and liked it. Couldn't have that. When I got her from Lou and Ed, I made some adjustments to his metabolism that insured that she would always have problems with her weight and body hair. Gave her a harelip and huge GGG breasts with ultra sensitive shot glass sized nipples. The client liked those breasts and nipples, but it ensured that poor Titerecta - cute name, huh? - would always have back problems. She was so pretty and happy when she came to me, but she just broke down and cried when she looked in the mirror for the first time after the surgery. Then I told her who I was. It was sweet! Couldn't charge as much for her, though. Oh, well.

"We were actually reluctant to tackle Stan. Stan was 6'5", weighed close to four hundred pounds, all muscle, and was mean as a polecat in heat. Lou got Ed to seduce him, though, and she found out in the intimacy of the bedroom that Stan had a glass jaw, so to speak; he couldn't stand to be tickled. I know it sounds funny, hon, but tickling can rapidly turn to intense pain if a person is sensitive to it. Ed gave him a Mickey Finn one night, and I came in and implanted a little gizmo in his back that, upon activation, would simulate the feeling of being tickled. Oh, my, he did not like that! But, of course, he eventually succumbed. We kept control of dear Stella, and she's still making us money. She works as a hooker at the Whip and Cuff 'Gentleman's Club' up on Fargo in Rogers Park. She'd probably eventually have enjoyed it if we had let her play the domme, but she's always the submissive. We give the man who buys her services the tickle control. We only lease her to the smallest, wimpiest men, men she knows she could pound into the ground under normal circumstances. Drives her crazy, and the men pay us VERY well.

"What are you thinking, dear Rose? That I'm a total bitch?"

'YES!'

"Well, honey, you really don't have to worry, as long as you're a good girl. I finished with revenge several years ago. When I got enough money, I went after the two slimers overseas; got them, too. You don't want to know. Yes, revenge is a thing of the past, and I'm in it strictly for the money now. Lou and Ed were never in it for revenge, only for the money. And for a bit of fun. And, my did they have fun with you, Rose, sweetie. You should have been a fly on the wall when they told me about your 'progress' and their love making sessions with you. They really quite enjoyed you, you know; you were so innocent and so willing, and so pretty, and just so GOOD in bed.

"Oh, don't look so pissed and glum; I know you'd look pissed and glum if you could look any way at all!

"I really took what they were telling me with a grain of salt until I saw you tonight. You are absolutely beautiful. You've outdone all our expectations, you know. They told me you'd gone to the salon all on your own, dear; now admit it: Would Ross have done that? Admit it, sweetheart, you LOVE being Rose!"

(Real time Rose again clutched the arms of her chair. She HAD loved being Rose, but she'd loved being Rose FOR her two best friends Ed and Lou! And she hadn't disliked being Ross.)

"And if you'll just give it a chance, your life can be beautiful, just like you. We've sold you to Adain. That's a fact. We were in despair of finding someone to meet his requirements, a man who could be an absolutely gorgeous and absolutely convincing woman, a woman with a bubbly, fun personality, but who also possessed a keen intellect and advanced computer skills. And a woman who enjoyed the hell out of sex! Then you walked in to apply for the job at Transformations Systems. When Lou saw thin, 5'9", delicately featured Ross, he was a goner. She saw major dollar signs. Four and one half million for you, Rose. Small potatoes for Adain's daddy, but quite satisfactory for us."

'$4,5000,000!'

"Now, in about an hour, you'll drift off to sleep. When you wake up, you'll be on my operating table, and I'll ask for your decision - whether you'll be a voluntarily submissive and cooperative companion for Adain, or whether we will have to persuade you to become cooperative. Either way, Adain will own you. He can be exactly the charming gentleman he was tonight, but you should know that in his country he is the head of the secret police, 'unt he haz veys auf making tzou talk' if you get all uncooperative on him, if you get my drift. Salielah will be your trainer. Lou and Ed have done the rough work, but she will fine tune you so that you are exactly the woman Adain wants. She can do this as your teacher, girlfriend, and confidant, or she can be a dominatrix that makes Ilse Koch look like Mother Theresa. And me? I, my dear, can be the best friend your girlie self ever had with the knife, or I can ... well, you've heard about Bill, George, and Stan. Adain might like you with GGG cup breasts, but oh, Rose, the brassieres they make in that size are not the pretty lacy things you wear now!

"So, think about it. Think hard. Ross is dead. Rose's life can either be pleasant or it can be hell. You will be in my hands to do whatever I want with, and then in Salielah and Adain's hands to do whatever they want with you. What we will all do with or to you depends on the decision you make when you awake on my operating table. And don't think about lying; I'll know. And don't think about escape. I will implant a device somewhat like the one I implanted in Stan in your back; Adain and Salielah will have the controls. Think hard, Rose."

Adain stared into Rose's eyes. "Yes, think hard, my sweet Rose. I can think of many ways to have pleasure from you, lovely one, not all of them pleasurable to you in return. But I would rather you came to me willingly; I think you and I would both like that best. The way things went tonight was not our first plan scenario. I was simply to observe you from the bar. If you had appeared satisfactory, Salielah would have signaled Lou and Ed, you would eventually have passed out, and you would have awakened changed by Dr. Adkins' knife to my physical specifications and with the device implanted, on my private plane. Salielah would begin training you, and none of these explanations would ever have taken place. But you were so beautiful I could not believe you were not a real woman. I had to meet you. And then you charmed me, Rose. I would be honored if you would accept your fate gracefully, and come to me of your own free will."

Salielah turned Rose's head so she, in her turn, could look into Rose's eyes. "I can treat you like ROSS, like a sissy boy in dresses. I can be ROSS'S worst nightmare in black leather. Have no doubt, I can MAKE Ross submit, and I'd enjoy it. He wouldn't. But ROSE, ah, that's a different matter. ROSE I quite like, so pretty and bubbly and full of fun. Should you elect to become ROSE, and you want to, I know it, I just know we could become best girlfriends." She smiled. "Poor Adain won't have a chance when we gang up on him; we'll have him wrapped around our little fingers in no time. Please, please, accept and be Rose!"

Adain laughed and took Rose's hand. "Yes! I think I could enjoy that, being wrapped around your little finger. It would have to be your right hand, Rose, as I am already wrapped around Salielah's left little finger. Come, Rose; be Rose!"

Joan broke in. "We will leave you to your thoughts now. We all like Rose. Ross?" She shrugged. "Think well, dear." With that, the three moved to the front of the limo's passenger compartment, leaving Rose/Ross alone in the back seat with her thoughts.

TO BE CONTINUED