The bag was yanked from Lara's head. Her hands were held behind her back, and Trina was standing in front of her, wearing some kind of pseudo-Renaissance bustier thing and a crown with hearts on it. She was also holding a scepter with a heart on the end, and she stood with her arms folded in front of her.

"You stand accused of displeasing your Queen. How do you plead?" she said.

"Not guilty," said a voice next to Lara that sounded just like Trina. She turned and saw a cybernetic duplicate of Trina that she hadn't seen before. She wasn't glistening and metallic pink like the other one.  This one had faintly blue skin that was almost impossibly smooth and fluid. It looked like some kind of rubber. She also had little lines across her skin, like seams, and she was wearing something that clung tightly to the few pieces of skin it didn't reveal.

"How dare you defy your Queen!" said Trina. "You stand in the Queen's court and deny a royal accusation! An offense punishable by death! Off with her head!"

The blue duplicate was marched over to a guillotine at one end of the room by Trina's metallic pink duplicate, now dressed like some kind of sexy palace guard. Seeing both of them together, Lara could see that there were plenty of subtle differences between them, and also between them and Trina. She had already noticed that the pink one looked kind of how Trina would have liked to look, but the blue one was not nearly so exaggerated. It was Trina's height, but its curves were . . . not bigger or smaller, just different somehow. Lara couldn't quite put a finger on it.

Trina's pink dupe laid her blue one down on the bed of the guillotine, which Lara could now see was just their coffee table with the uprights virtually projected above it. Her head hung over the end of the table, with a basket below it full of blankets. Trina pressed a button on her scepter, and the stocks closed around the blue dupe's head. A blade at the top of the guillotine began to glow red-hot with laser light.

"Do you have any last words for your Queen?" said Trina.

"No, I do not," said Trina.

"Very well." Trina pressed the button. The simulated blade dropped, and the blue head fell into the basket.

That was a surprise. Lara hadn't known that Trina had gotten remote modularity on either of her duplicates. It didn't surprise her in the least, though. Both of them had gotten plenty of fun out of it when Lara did it.

The palace guard took the basket away and replaced it with a fresh one, and she took the headless body of the blue dupe and laid it at the Queen's feet.

"Next prisoner!" said Trina. The palace guard took hold of Lara and moved her in front of the Queen. Trina was squeezing hard enough to give the bit some realism, but Lara could tell that this wasn't like their last bit of roleplay. Trina's metallic touch was rigid enough for the roleplay, but smooth enough for fun.

"You stand accused of displeasing your Queen," said Trina. "How do you plead?"

Lara didn't want to say the same thing that Trina had said before. That would just be boring. And a guilty plea would just be asking for it. This was a neat little puzzle.

"I do not plead guilty or not guilty," said Lara. "I only beg for the mercy of my Queen."

"You refuse to enter a plea?" said the Queen. "Then you accept the judgment of your Queen?"

"Yes, I do."

"The Queen's judgment is death! Off with her head!"

The guard laid Lara down on the guillotine. She stared down into the padded basket.

"Do you have any last words?"

"Long live the Queen!" said Lara.

"Indeed," said Trina, as she pressed the button. Lara watched out of the corner of her eye to get the timing right. As she saw the light from the blade, she loosened the joint in her neck and felt her head detach. Her view tumbled as her head fell into the basket, ending up with her head lying on its side. If she looked as far to the side as she could, she could just about see out of the basket, but mostly, all she saw was blankets. She might have been able to feel her way around the room if she got up from the table, but she didn't want to risk knocking anything over, and besides, guillotined people weren't supposed to get up and walk around.

She felt a lurch as the basket was lifted. Her head rolled around as Trina tilted the basket toward her, giving her a close-up look of Trina's queen costume.

"The Queen's judgment is rendered," said Trina. "Both of you have indeed displeased me, but it may be that together, you both may please me greatly."

She set the basket down at her feet, and Lara saw that Trina's blue headless dupe was standing at her side. Apparently the rules about what guillotined people were supposed to do were out the window today.

Trina reached down and took Lara's head in both hands, lifting it up and placing it on the shoulders of her blue dupe. Lara expected to hear the safeword again when Trina realized that swapping parts like this wouldn't work, but as hear head touched down on Trina's shoulders, she felt something connect. She could still feel her own body on the table, but it was at a distance. She didn't feel like she was lying down. She felt like she was standing.

She raised her arms and moved her hands in front of her face. The joints moved very smoothly, like she was flowing. She rubbed her hand along her body, and the skin glided against itself. It felt good.

All of a sudden, she realized what Trina had wanted with the proportions of her new dupe. It was the same size as Trina, but it had Lara's curves. Had she wanted to feel what it was like to feel like Lara, or had she wanted to make Lara feel like her?

"Now," said Trina, "pay tribute to your Queen."

Trina grabbed Lara's waist and pulled her close. Their bodies fit together perfectly.

After at least two minutes, Lara started to feel light-headed. Her chest felt tight.

"Railroad, railroad, railroad."

Trina pulled away. "What is it?" she said. "Is it not working?"

Lara struggled to breathe. "I need to switch back."

"Sure." Trina helped Lara over to the couch, where Trina's pink dupe was sitting with Lara's headless body. Trina sat Lara down and swapped her head back to her own body, and Lara started to feel better.

"I got the dupes from the same people as you got your upgrades," said Trina. "I thought the joints would be compatible."

"They are, at least for sensory and mobility," said Lara. "But your dupes don't have lungs. I have a voice synthesizer in my head has for when it's detached, but I'm supposed to use my lungs otherwise. Being attached to a body without lungs feels too weird. Like a non-painful kind of drowning."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry!" said Trina. "I had no idea it would be that bad!"

"It's not that bad," said Lara, "it just takes some getting used to. Maybe not until later, though."

"But other parts should be swappable just fine, right?" said Trina.

"I think so," said Lara. "In fact, this gives me an idea for a little art project . . ."