[Wh40k x Starcraft] Thanatomania - One weird Swarm's adventure through the imperium (Book 2 Started!)
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TW: Violence, Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Kink, Gore
In Book 02, A Swarm Leader has found her place with her new burgeoning family, Saint Celestine and The Inquisitor Katarinya Grayfax. Now she adventures before a crusade, having her final moments before War hits her tired team.
The last wonderful, terrifying, overwhelming moment of Lilith's Terran life, was the tug and pull of something far greater, more massive, and far deeper than herself. Her skin, had started to swell and burn, as her mind festered with the creeps presence. Her red hair, filled with short curly locks blew in her face as she turned back before entering the cluster of sunken colonies. The blood-splattered Shikoto Coupe behind her was already being ripped to shreds by Zerg. It was confusing, everything was confusing. Somehow, she knew she had to go deeper inside. There would be a family inside. There would be millions of minds waiting for her to embrace.
As her mind fell to the infestation, the dream became more… Erratic. Vivid. Wild. The sunken colony was open like a great flower, with a stamen repeatedly penetrating the creep, fighting… Something. Something that didn't matter to her anymore. There were a dozen of them, and she could feel their… Senses on her. The colonies on TV moved so much faster, these ones… They just slowly pushed out of the ground around her legs, wrapping, not slicing or cutting. They were smooth, thick and warm. Her eyes lit up with delight, as imagined blades, tentacles, and acids descended upon her.
The last intelligible thing she had said before her fantasy had come to pass was, "Good girl, bad end."
In a void, formless, eyes snap open. Breath doesn't come, nor does it need to. A trillion windows of feeling and awareness are present, but only one attracts attention. Reaching out, a human hand touches a field.
Consumption, growth, hatching cocoons. The basic instincts of expansion carry the Swarm further until, with a long awaited release, the human thinks. Creep covers miles of ground, trees and rivers and creeks consumed in the inexplorable advance of Zerg.
Still, wordless, the mind that, so long ago, was called Zhakarov intakes everything. Every source of information available to the hundreds, near-thousands of Drones that formed the breadth of the Hive.
A repetitive drum of noise finally converts to language as, like the Zerg, its leader evolves. Words spilling out in the endless emptiness of Swarm-space. His presence in the swarm is intertwined like essence, but instead of forms it is simply layer after layer of information about the morphs down to the smallest larva.
"The damage done to our genetic code is in line with the damage done by intense radiation, especially astronomic radiation, over a tremendous period of time." He repeats, voice settling on masculine. "But that begs the question, what did we pass through to arrive here? And how long did we spend in that perceived instant?"
The question receives no answer, and it needs none. Zhakarov continues on, fading to the background of the Swarm, merely directing in a silent unyielding leadership.
Creep swallows more and more and more. Ecosystems brought to heel as ancient essence is brought back to the swarm, a dozen shapes of war forming.
Terran rotorcraft swirl in the skies. Hunting parties looking for out of control wild-life. Vehicles rumble through the forest, sending fire into the maws of anything they find distasteful. Zhakarov's mind flares to them, evolving rapidly, manipulating local life to assault the invaders, push them.
He does not know why they are attacking, but it does not matter. The Swarm drives against the exterminators, flying insects bursting into acid, colossal reptilians swiping with tree-snapping tails and ever more dangerous creatures counter-attacking until the enemy backs away, encircling the forest, but no longer attempting to penetrate it.
The swarm expands, a plan forms in Zhakarov's mind, a parasite, infested from wildlife. It grows through animals, hunters slay them as they range out, the meat is packed into the cities, starving citizens eat it. The sewers are infested in days, water supplies are penetrated in a week.
Infested do not transform, yet, parasites awaiting the order to multiply, sickening their hosts, straining the Terran medical infrastructure to the brink.
Zhakarov reacts again, diving into the Swarm's essence, searching for truth, searching for assistance.
Searching for the Queen.
Pulling free of a hatchery, a carapace covered woman snarls, lightning arcs digging furrows into the earth. Her will spikes into the Swarm, reaching to grab it all, place it under her boot, but strikes resistance. Other minds in charge, resistance points.
"Who are you?" Kerrigan growls out at the air, forcing the presence of the Swarm-minds to come before her. A silhouette, humanoid, flickers in the air, cybernetic and zerg infestation illusorily mixed as the tall, thin shape of Zhakarov appears.
"A humble servant, my Queen." He responds, absolutely no hint of any feeling in his voice. Face near-expressionless and staring into Kerrigan.
With a frown, the Queen of Blades glares at the man, "Where am I?" The question is rough and aggressive, but still prompting no reaction from Zhakarov, who answers flatly, "I do not know. A populated world, Terrans reside on it."
As she prepares to ask another question, an interruption, another presence, another member of the Unity.
"Go away Zhak." Lilith groaned, she had a voice like a babbling brook, high, sweet, and constant. There was something... Odd, about this one. An intensity that would be disquieting to any other than the Zerg. Yet, behind it all was smiles. "Well, I'm Lilith! One of the many Zerg under your command. I woke up here a bit ago. How are you doing today?"
Before Kerrigan could even answer, Lilith had already started to continue. It was unclear if she had even expected a response. "If that's too personal, I have a number of status reports and situational observations whenever you're ready." The psychic shape pushes closer towards Kerrigan, and tries to assert itself as larger, more vibrant, trying to get in the way Zhakarov to be more seen than him. In her essence, she had modeled herself after Kerrigan, no affectations of humanity, only tendrils that were thick and wild, carapace, and a bright vivid pink hue, with black ichor for blood.
"Would you look at that." She stares at the first codified presence, "A Terran, strong enough to buck me." Inspecting Lilith with a keen eye.
Only if you want me too. Lilith winced, and tried to shake the thought free.
Her lip quirks at Lilith, an almost wistful look on her face as she says, "Pig." Starting to tap her foot impatiently.
The Queen of blades was now focused entirely Lilith, and she demanded her report. "Enlighten me of what my Swarm has been up to, would you."
Lilith's essence felt feverish under her gaze, under her Queen's gaze. "Right, yes of course. So, We got in a bad tiff, and had to make an emergency jump, what you feel now is... It. We've got something like 2,000 hatcheries total, good news though! There's only a few remaining Terran cities on the planet, which—" Some long lost memories and fantasies returning to her mind. Pretty. Nope, shut that down. Pretty. Mommy? No. Shut that down. More thoughts bubble interrupting her own speech. You know, I wonder if we'd ever consider actually making restaurants? Is that still a thing? How do I eat even?
"Ah, sorry, we infested the Terran populace, so we have a bit more then 3 billion biomass to work with, but not any minerals. They keep gassing us in the mines we've built, but we've started digging reservoirs to help with that where the gas flows. The only thing we can actually make right now are our corruptors and roaches because of the mineral and vespene shortages. Soon though, just with what we have, we'll be able to outnumber the terrans here by orders of 2 magnitudes."
"From what I can tell," You know, I wonder if I should take up painting? Paintings' cool. Where would I get paint though? "The terrans here are terrible. Like on just a basic level. They constantly execute each other with more ruthlessness then I've ever seen. They seem to be holding back their own help just to study us, and from what gleaning we can do on a psychic level, they're just constantly forcing each other to starve." Honestly, really sad, I thought the EDF was terrible...
"We suspect they have a way to detect parasites, and are just executing the infested on site." Actually, I don't think I've ever seen any Zerg eat a snack. Does that mean the tongue is vestigial? Tongue... Ok, that one goes back in the deck thank you Lilith mind, you once again are of zero help. Wait, hive mind. Outside thoughts need to be inside thoughts.
Lilith tried to focus on herself, quieting her mind as her essence swelled and inflated with energy.
Kerrigan listens to the absolute barrage of thoughts, arms crossed and wings folded behind her. She studied Lilith intently trying to see something... More. After the wall of noise is lowered to a dull set of rambling, she sighs, "Never is simple whenever I'm gone is it." The hive-space transforms into the vision of the Hoverwings, displaying the city in great detail, including the "atomics" being constructed deep within it. "We'll have to bring down their walls. Rip apart their weapons and tear that ship out of orbit."
She sweeps her vision back across the gathered Unity, "I've decided not to kill you, don't make me regret it." Blazing orange eyes simmer down to merely glowing as she then says, with a curious look on her face. "Are you all just... stuck in the hive?"
Zhakarov answered, "Yes my Queen."
For answering, Zhakarov got a scathing jab of attention from Lilith's essence. Immediately, she tried to shout over him. "Well, I don't know! My first priority was bringing you back, everything else took a back seat to that. The Overlords were a bit cranky about the idea, but you know, they're kind of older fuddy-duddys." Lilith's energy, even in the psychic maelstorm could best be described as "chaotic and exhuberant." It demanded attention. "We were choosing Unity, and I kind of insisted or else when you came back I'd tell you how everyone betrayed you!"
Kerrigan gave Lilith another look, more appreciative "I'll remember that loyalty, hard to find any day." In taking what she had been shown, the entire swarm felt the psychic power within her rumble, shifting arcs of Essence tracking before suddenly halting. "I want the Swarm gathered before the fortress, I'll be at their head and shatter the tall walls. With them destroyed, the city falls."
She speaks this as if its sure to happen, no authority under this burning star above except her own.
"Thy will be manifest." Zhakarov maintained dutiful and acquiescent. "How much of the swarm do you want devoted to this assault?"
"Bring half the infested. And the Mutalisks...and Roaches. You can keep the rest." Zhakarov interested her, a dispersed essence even beyond many of the minds here, but that interest didn't extend past somatic as she appraised the members of her swarm.
He nodded, and immediately began to spread orders through the swarm, relaying numbers and analytics to the Queen. "Assault Group: 1,250 Hiveguard Mutalisks, 1,250 Hiveguard Roaches, 43,000 Regular Mutalisks, 9 million regular Roaches, 10,000 Overlords, 387,160,222 Infested Terrans. Additionally 1,000 Corruptors to assist the missile assault. If this is insufficient we can produce more regular roaches, but our Liquid Vespene and Mineral production is insufficient to produce more Mutalisks or Hiveguard strains." With a mumble of discontent he added,"To clarify this planet is devoid of Vespene gas or Minerals. We are making due with biomass and local substitutes. This is straining our ability to produce strains that match the abilities of the Swarm before our arrival here."
"We'll make due." The Queen of Blades responds to Zhakarov's numbers, twisting on a heel in both reality and hive-space. "The Swarm has to expand, being bound to one world is risking the extinction of Zerg."
Lilith's distant chattering that had been almost entirely contained as an internal dialogue with herself, popped. Her mind is once again loud and effervescent. Oh, that's a good point, bring that up "Also you should know, we try to do things together now!" Don't wait for a reaction, just power through "So it might end up being that if we disagree, the Unity will be lessened. The swarm will be weaker! Still, you're way stronger than both of us, so I wouldn't worry." Lilith made sure to give her best winning smile, or the psychic equivalent. Two thumbs up for good measure!
Lilith and Zhakarov's psychic weights increase, bound to Kerrigan by shimmering tendrils and being held down. The hivemind can still be felt shivering at unity's presence, unable to cope forever, but what time it had may be far, far longer. The aggravation that came off Kerrigan is palpable, shaking swarm-space and making every zerg creature suddenly thrice as aggressive. "This selection is durable. I can't tell why it was evolved, but its as core to the Zerg now as Essence itself. If I tore it out, I'd destroy the Swarm."
Kerrigan does not seem overly happy at this, but glares at the city in the distance. Somewhere to release her fury.
"Yep! Big fight coming up, so it seemed prudent, while I'd never tell you what to do, if you're willing to let me advise I personally would experiment a bit in case your limits may have changed. You could even be stronger then you expect!"
"I don't have limits, Lilith." Kerrigan confidently stated as the assaulting swarm gathers for her.
She's so strong and pretty. Lilith couldn't help but feel bubbly at her sight. Do zerg kiss? Is that why we have to— goddamnit brain "Anywho! I think my purpose was Diplomacy and getting us Big and Swarm-y again. I don't think I can fight really well as essence, but I'll be rooting for you!"
"That's a good point, you do need bodies so I'm not talking to..." She stares at the vague psychic images, "Theoretically living things." Then she added, "After I shatter the city, bring me to Abathur. I'll put him to work."
"I don't know who that is!" Lilith said with oblivious mirth. "We haven't found a genome with... That!"
Kerrigan closes her eyes, sighing, "Of course you don't," but despite herself, she allows a wry smile. It falls away as she re-focused herself, "I'll get on it myself then, find Abathur, if anyone survived with you all, it's him. Scour the tunnels you've dug, he is hiding far beneath."
"You got it ma'am, er miss?" Mommy? Shut up brain. Please!
"Go with Queen. My Queen if you want to be formal." Kerrigan replied, shaking her head at Lilith's behaviour. "You must have had a strong will before the infestation if this much of you survived."
"Of course, my Queen!" Despite the smile, there was a panic desperation in Lilith's voice trying to think of a reason for her Queen to say, "Have you thought about colors for the chitin? Presentation matters!"
Kerrigan stops, almost frozen in place as she is questioned on colour theory, her mind almost short-circuiting at the question. Then, as if it's almost pulled out of her despite herself, "Green and purple... Always works? Suppose I could personalize it. I remember a brood that was this violent pink, it must be in our Essence to do that."
"Oh like this?" Then Lilith embodied a violent shade of magenta. That's like a flash-grenade in the dark swarm-space.
She winces, "God-" Blinking her eyes after observing the mental image in the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum, she said, "Yeah, like that. I'm leaving." The Queen almost ran off, speeding away from the odd essence, immediately trying to shove it away from her thoughts. Kerrigan was at the front of her swarm only moments later.
The conflict with the Terrans expands in scale. They realise, as the Swarm punches through the encircling terran hunters in great numbers, that the enemy is not a mere disease. Guardsmen in long coats prepare to engage the swarm but are outmanuevered by sheer numbers as Zhakarov leads the swarm in broad, encompassing manuevers.
In a matter of weeks, they are pushed to the cities, and then, with an effort of will, the infected Terrans ripped apart, parasites forcing them to embrace the Swarm and attack their fellows from within. Cities fall like dominoes, unstoppable advance of the Zerg continuing until the final remaining city is impacted.
The long-coated soldiers don their gasmasks, man the walls and prepare to hold, within the great urban edifice, engineers construct rocket engines, fuel tanks and prepare warheads all before the eyes of local insects, infested thoroughly by the Swarm, readying to cleanse the world with their atomics.
On the battle lines the swarm gathers hundreds of millions of infested Terrans backed with a core of specialist warforms at the behest of the Queen of Blades. Separating the specialist forces into broods, she moves to the head of the Swarm, striding out in the line of fire as the Terrans begin to pour fire into the Swarm in a wall of laser streaks, screaming bolts and roaring bullets that fill the air with enough ordinance that it begins to wobble with heat haze.
"Throw everything you have at me! You'll die screaming anyways!" Her psychic roar rattles the battlefield and the entirety of the city, making Terrans cry out in pain and lose focus, shots becoming notably wilder and less accurate.
Straining her whole body, a purple glow forms, actinic bolts of lightning stretching from Kerrigan whilst she lifts off the earth to float above the rushing swarm. With a final cry and wildly glowing purple eyes, apocalypse comes. A psychic storm of matter unfolds amid the Terran defences. The entire eastern face of the wall is rendered into undifferentiated matter as flensing blades of force rip the blood from bodies, yank stone into glass and carbon and annihilate all sensical matter. Half a kilometre of the city is caught in the unfolding chaos before Kerrigan lands, ceasing the storm's progress and letting it fade.
"Go! Rip them to pieces!" Her command carries through the entirety of the horde as infested mutates rush into the city like a horde, forcing the battle to turn to brutal hand-to-hand. Claws rip into long coats as the enemy Terrans die silently and with no visible fear, but the citizens are another matter entirely.
Dragged out at the command of the Queen, they are forced into Creep to be infested. She strides through the city like a raging Goddess, ripping entire skyscrapers down and even catching a shuttle that attempts to escape with telekinetic force, dragging it down to the surface after she detects an impressively powerful psychic inside it.
Ripping the rear door open, she slaughters the security inside and dominates the other psychic in a battle of wills, ordering it to be unharmed and recovered. It is brought to a hive cluster and then left there as infestation begins with slow tendrils of creep swallowing her. It appears in hive-space barely conscious, rapidly awakening and resisting infestation.
A whisper in the backs of the Unity slithers from Kerrigan, the angry hiss of a woman in battle. "Make her accede, she is their communications."
The woman had platinum blonde hair, and a sharp chin, in her projection of herself, she wore light make-up, making her lips seem nude, and her eyes slightly smokey. Wing tipped eye-liner peak from just the corner of her eyes, which looked like they were originally hazel. As the Infestation wormed it's way deep into her mind, she yelped, then screamed in pain.
However, Zerg corruption could not be denied. Her essence, her vision of herself writhed in an unbearable agony, and then she demanded obedience, out of panic, and pain. "Where Am I!" She screams to the void, "Answer Me Xenos!"
It is by the Psyker's will that the environment is made manifest. Opulent tabards fell from stone-cut walls. There was a thick plush sofa covered in blankets, next to a bright warm fire. She almost absent mindedly fell into it, feeling it embrace her. Filling her with calm and ease.
Lilith looked down, and realised she had been jerked into her normal alluring form. Her appearance had been delicately crafted for comforting allure. Her essence now resembles herself at a much different time. She was wearing fingerless gloves, and a crop-top jacket. Underneath a loose grey T-shirt tied at the side that read Tarsonis U. She was shorter then the woman on the couch, though to be fair, at five foot four, she was shorter than most people. She scratched at her hair and felt the familiar curls trail over her fingers.
Again, the psyker yelled, "Answer me! Where AM I?!" Her rage battered swarm space with a trained aggression. Coiling tendrils of force spiking into it, well used to assaulting minds from how they look for any cracks.
"Hi, whoa, hey. Very intense! Welcome Anastasia, we're the Zerg and we are just going to be poking around a bit, and maybe having a snack." Her eyes lit up, as Anastasia stiffened at the mention of food, a desperation only long-term hunger can give beginning to creep into the woman.
Then Lilith turned around with her back to her, touching her chin as if deep in thought, "Actually, that's probably not super reassuring. Any-doodle! You're in a calm, safe place, no-one wants to hurt you yet!" Lilith's mind was unable to stop from dragging her attention over to Kerrigan rampaging through the city, her eyes wandering just a bit. "Ok, maybe that's not entirely accurate, but still. How are you doing today!?"
She feels like she's punched in the chest as Ana answers. "Who-What are you!? What have you done with me?" Though the attack relents. Something about the… Unassuming clumsiness is calming. She struggled to maintain the idea that something so… Disjointed and small, could be dangerous.
"I said what we are!" Lilith's smile now seems almost cartoonishly large, "We're the Zerg. Like a… Umm… A big'ole family! I like to greet people, and be super-duper welcoming!" She wrinkles her nose a bit leaning towards the couch, "Think of this as… Onboarding! Let's start! I'm Lilith, I went to Tarso— something university, and I like the color pink. Ok, now your turn."
"I… You went to what?" In reality, the creep had finally lodged into her adrenal system. Hormones started to regulate and levels moved to create a calm, more peaceful dream like state. The stress almost instantly left her, pouring out. "You…"
Lilith smiled as the liminal-state started to creak and crack, "Me? I have a ton of hobbies, especially with all the leisure time we have. I'm thinking of taking up painting, or basket weaving! What about you? Who are you Anastasia?" The voice carried just the tiniest spice of a command.
"I'm… A Noble woman." Her eyes started to swim as she failed to focus on any one thing in the room. She winced when Lilith let out a small yell.
"Hey! We're an aristocracy too! Look at that, we've got common ground!"
"I've… I must get back to the shuttle, the sub-sector must be warned." Then she felt a gentle hand on her chest, right under her neck. Her short nails gently tickling, while the light ones gave a slight pinch on the woman's thick blue overcoat. Lilith willed the infestation to intensify the emotions. Expand on them.
"Wait where you going?" She asked, "You don't want to stay, and chat? Just for a little bit?"
Her eyes focused, and she noticed Lilith's eyes. They were… Beautiful but inhuman. A rosie pink blush of color, they were captivating. Though she had… She had too. There was something she had to do, "The sector needs to know."
Lilith sat down next to Anastasia, gently, and her face looked almost mournful. "Honey…" She said quietly, pointing to the stars. As she did so, they watched through the eyes of Overlords and Mutalisks. "They already know. They're studying us, they're using you to study us."
The minute she heard the words, Anastasia knew it was true. It was the way of the Imperium. To psykers, to witches, to abhumans and anything too far from acceptable humanity.
She felt Lilith's hand reach to her knee, hearing the temptress say, "Yeah… I know. Gruesome. I'm a little jealous, you have psychic powers, I've never been able to do anything like that. Is it normal here?"
Anastasia tried to answer, when she heard a mouthwatering, sickeningly delectable crunch. The crisp bite of an apple. Wet lips and teeth tearing something and consuming it. She turns her head, and right next to her, Lilith is eating a golden apple. Her stomach growls, and she wants to cry at the sight of it. The smell is intoxicating, and it makes her so… Ravenous.
There's another bite, in the silence, then a third, before Lilith looked over in shock, "Oh my god, how rude." She said, dismayed. "Do you… Want one? I have two." From seemingly nowhere a second apple was proffered. It looked even sweeter, even juicier, somehow better than the one that already seemed perfect.
She stares at the offered food, and an immediate spike of suspicious paranoia overrode her hungry thoughts, begging her to eat, tendrils had already infested so much of her neurons. Still, she tried to resist, A trick, a daemon?
My god lady, Lilith said, Can you please give up already?!
Before Lilith could switch tactics Ana said, "I—" Her eyes longingly stare at the food, emaciation evident in her features, a body that was, several hundred thousand calories ago, an hourglass being now at odds with many other bodies of better fed "nobles" acquired, suggesting her social position is lesser in some way. "I am cursed with the sin of being a witch." The topic shift is to maintain her focus, refusing to fall into the pit of hunger in a display of self-discipline.
That strikes Lilith, more then any psychic blow or violence. "Cursed?" Lilith's face falls, and then suddenly, they're sitting very close next to each other, by a fire. "That's awful."
Anastasia's heartbeat races as she stares at Lilith chew, mouth flooding with desire for anything.
The other woman pretended to not notice, "You know, it's odd to me that you'd be called cursed, while being the only one here that seems to have a gift. Sometimes the easiest way to keep someone powerful in line is to make them think something is wrong with them. Now, the Zerg we don't really have cursed people. Everyone, from the smallest little larvae, to the biggest flying overlord pulls their weight. We each are gifted in our own ways. When a Hydralisk is better, comes out stronger, well we're proud of them! Because we all know each other, they know it too." As Lilith monologued, she moved the apple in her hand. Rolling it like a ball up her arm, down her arm to her hand, around her hand. The moves were hypnotic as they slid over her frame. It kept Ana transfixed.
She gives another warm smile, "It's our gifts that make us special. I'm not going to force you to do anything, I couldn't even if I wanted too." Not quite true, but it'd be best to give this a shot anyways... "I was being honest, I just want to make a friend. You don't have to take the apple if you're not hungry." Lilith puts a warm offering hand. "It's a grim, dark universe, I just want to give you a bit of light."
The fire crackled, and the liminal space Anastasia had made felt so warm and comforting. Her brain was a cavalcade of emotions as the infestation had finally quelled most of the anxiety. Taking away her stress. She reaches a hand out nervously, looking almost scared. "This-this isn't a trick, right?" Anastasia's voice is trembling, Lilith get shots of memory, feeding on something called corpse starch when the Kriegsmen commander would show her the kindness of leaving a box of them before her isolated chambers. Of hateful abuse, of months of pain, of a moment of purest agony.
Her hand is on the apple, but her binding, her programming is forcing her to distrust.
Lilith couldn't hide the pain this time, as she felt Ana's… Everything. Oh my god, why would they do that to someone. Lilith's eyes water a bit, and she took Anastasia's hand, "No, honey, of course not, you'll be one of us. Equal." A tear runs down her face, shocking Lilith. The woman seemed... To need something "The Zerg keep our promises. I can't think of many times the Queen of Blades lied to anyone. We're happy here, well fed, strong."
She clasps the apple in Anastasia's hand, letting her fingers brush her palm. With the touch Ana notices that Lilith's hands are soft, and tender. That they send tiny sparks of excitement. "You're ok. We're ok." She closes her eyes and smiles. Pushing the neuropeptides deep, just to give the woman some peace.
Anastasia takes the bite, utterly terrified in a way even infestation can't control, but acquiescing. All sensation of hunger is halted, the oxytocin dump makes her lean into Lilith like a dear friend or lover as in the real world her flesh is torn and remade for the Swarm. She looks up with eyes whose orange glow is only intensifying as her skin turns to carapace. "I'm scared"
Lilith's voice is low, almost sultry. It slides over Anastasia's senses, dulling everything it can. "I know baby, it'll be ok." Then, Lilith gives her a warm, tender kiss. "You'll be ok, you're strong. We're going to make you better."
It's not slow, the process is well honed and Lilith was made for it. In minutes Ana is no longer human. Essence interlocked with Zerg sequence until she was a perfect, immortal being. Her psychic strength retained and enhanced by careful manipulations. Purple carapace splits over her skin, her hair maintains its long flowing nature, tendrils so fine as to be fibre but her body fills out, assembling to the image of herself she so desperately wanted returned.
A slow smile stretches over her face, accompanied by a laugh as she looks up. It carries on for longer than a sane woman would laugh before settling into a giggle. Looking up at Lilith with adoration, she said gleefully, "It's amazing. I can't hear them anymore."
"My word woman" Lilith said taking her in, "Well look at you. Hear who? I wasn't lying, we only just got here from another uh..." She thinks for a moment, "Galaxy? Galaxy I think, tell me everything. I don't even know where we are right now."
"Them!" She excitedly says, almost bouncing, "The monsters across the veil!" Memories of a thousand screaming whispers at night, of no peaceful moments to be found. Of casting her mind into what may as well be hell to bind to others like her, to speak to them.
"They're afraid, they don't come near!" Anastasia's practically shouting, happier than Lilith had ever seen someone ever be. So excited that she needs time to calm before realising Liilith had another question.
After a moment's calming, still smiling she answers, "You are on Illar, in Segmentum Ultima at the far end of the Ultima Sector." The psyker chatters, still ecstatic.
"In the space of the Imperium of Man, which stretches from one end of the galaxy to another!" A chilling confirmation of a truly galactic power overtop this world is the last words in this Swarm-Space illusion.
A citizen lies upon the examination table, restrained. Tech-serfs dote upon cogitator banks, observing data-flows from the sacred medical auspex sending its waves across the citizens body. "Tech-serfs, report findings." A droning voice, electronic in nature comes from a humanoid shape hanging off wires from the tall ceiling of this edifice to machinery, metallic skulls floating with glowing red eyes.
More vox-voices echo as on, Tech-serfs unified in thought, "Parasitic infestation, unknown source, xenological in origin." The Priest above stares down at the subject with glowing red and green eyes. "Xeno-infestation. Tyrannoforming?" It rumbles, examining closely with extending telescopic eyes.
The genetic code of the parasite is broken down by a jabbed needle that shake the paralyzed subject with shocking pain. "Unfamiliar gene-scribing. Not Tyranid in origin. Something new." The Tech-serfs respond in unison, "Something new."
The parasite is drawn out by the needle as mecha-scalpels from a mechadendrite reaches down and cuts it free. "Morphic genes, changing actively." As they observe the parasite evolving to survive the open air, a long, tremendously thin worm with oversized jaws. "What is your origin, xenos."
"It is present throughout the population. The governorate are requesting aid." The Priests eyes shift mechanically over, "Offer false solutions. This infestations progress must be recorded. For the completion of my data-vaults. Prepare a vessel for my eventual orbital observation."
"For the completion of thine data-vaults." The serfs repeat, droning as they do what they were ordered to. The parasite is reinserted into the subject as observation continues, "Show me your secrets, strange creature." The Priest utters, closely observing the abdominal region where it resides.
"Alright Ana, its—" But before Lilith could finish her sentence, the newly infested Anastasia had been littered with Bolter fire in the streets. Giant bullets tearing through hardened carapace with such a destructive efficiency that she barely had time to process the pain. Her essence fled across the swarm to the nearest hatchery, where she was being rebuilt. Now, the hatchery had a blueprint of Anastasia, now the blueprint would be followed.
The switch from Swarm-space to Real-space can be violent for an infested's first time. As a human, one has all of the stresses, fatigue, and pain of life. Then, that's ripped away, and replaced with a light warm comfort, a feeling of bliss. Before you can truly bask in the moment, you're coughing and retching amniotic fluid as an egg, your egg, bursts around you. Ana had particular troubles with the experience, as she tried to void her stomach a fifth time. Around her was a tingling piece of fluff that occasionally takes shape as a short woman in real-space. Ana could feel its presence comforting her, and her nerves soon settled.
"You must have serious anxiety issues." Lilith said with a laugh, "Are you ok?"
Ana rubbed her mouth with the back of her chitinous hand. Then looked at the flesh of it. It was taught, and smooth, with raised veins. She ran a talon tipped finger over it, and her skin almost felt woven,like silk. She examined her own torso, and legs. Her carapace was far more modest than Kerrigans, instead of sharp heels, flat footed cleats. Instead of a cut-out body-suit, she looked more rigid and plated, as if rendered in gothic lines. Her cleats grabbed the ground as she flexed, her chest had a thick bony exoskeleton. Ana's new body felt like so much more, a frame beyond human. She could breathe easier, her aches and pains vanished; And her beauty was restored and enhanced with a primal aspect. She engendered a mote of confidence as she revelled in her new found vigour.
The pink fluff, a little more concerned, asked her again, "Ana? You Okay?"
"Hmm?" Anastasia finally responded, "O-Oh… N-n-no I'm fine." She said quietly, before following up faster, with a low mumble, "Its a lot."
"Yeah, don't worry, just nerves trying to figure out how to work. It levels out pretty fast once it gets you to stop panicking." The fluff twirled around her. "Everyone's a little bit different. It'd be easier with the Ur-Sequencer I think. That's what Zhak says."
The more Lilith talked, the easier it was for Ana to focus on her pleasant voice, the lilting tones tickling her mind. Which almost compelled Lilith to appear near her in a form that was observable. Ana's psychic abilities seemed to gravitate towards her, filling out the blanks in the essence. "Who?" She was transfixed as she watched Lilith move through the colony.
"Abathur is like, a giant worm. Or centipede? He has legs I think, I'm mostly going off Swarm-memories. Since Zhakarov is doing… Whatever he does in fights, and Kerrigan is out obliterating tanks. It leaves us to go build his Evolution Pits." Lilith wrapped ghostly arms around Ana's shoulders, whispering into her ear, "Just you and me, rummaging in the dark."
"Wha-wha-wh…" Ana turned a bright, fluorescent red as somehow the essence's words tickled her ear. "You… Um…"
Lilith snorted before shooting forward, "I'm teasing, but you're going to have to learn to use your words though."
"O-oh." The Astropath has a reset take place at the word-choice, whole body stuttering before she finally realizes she does have to walk to keep up. Keeping up with stuttering conversationalism, she's mostly verbally dominated by Lilith.
There's the slightest giggle as Anastasia jogged over to her. There were dozens and dozens of Zerglings gathered nearby digging into the ground creating huge walls of compacted dirt around it. Drones and other creatures of infrastructure dive in behind them reinforcing the mines. Anastasia watched it with fascination, few got to see the Zerg working instead of killing. She gingerly walks forward, and with a beckon from Lilith one of the Zerglings runs over and then chitters as it's asked to sit still. Ana kneels down and with a tentative hand reaches out to touch the Zergling, making the chitter a bit more calm and relaxed.
"We haven't been able to ramp up infrastructure until the cities started to fall, now drones and overlords everywhere are ferrying supplies." Lilith swooped down watching the interaction. The other woman seemed to instinctively know to pet the creature. Zharkov had mentioned the swarm had been very different and it was hard for Lilith to argue when looking through the masses of memories that she could comprehend and process. Though much of their ancestral memories were lost, and would remain that way until the proper sequences were found.
As the tunnel grew and continued Lilith looked to Anastasia, "You wanna come with? I'd like the conversation, and it'd be hard to split my attention and look. I don't know how the Queen does it." Her essence already drifting to watch Kerrigan storm through the battlefield before having once again rip her focus back to her current goal.
"S-splitting your mind is always hard." Ana answers with a familiar tone, "You can't really do it, just… change focus quickly." The zergling she petted has elected to follow along, keeping up at a slow, for it, trot.
The words resonated in Lilith, and she whipped her attention back to Anastasia, once again allowing the illusionary form to twist and swirl around her, "I didn't peer too closely, but do you have psychic training?" Lilith asks before slipping even closer, once again wrapping around Ana's shoulders, there's not the same flirtatious energy. In fact she seems more conversational, "I am honestly struggling with… All of it. Everything I say or want to do is on full display in swarm space." Does she smell nice or is that just a— Fuck. Stop. Lilith winces annoyed.
"D-don't worry, I'm used to hearing i-inner thoughts." Anastasia shyly admits," Uhm, yes, I am…trained, only for ten years."
Ana's eyes went wide as the admission seems to unlock an inner latch on Lilith, allowing her psyche to spill out again.
"Oh! Awesome!" This is like, hard, it's so hard "I think that um, well it's like hard because I think one thing" I'm saying something else in my head though, "It's all overlapping and hard to actually piece out. I caught this like… Twinge of annoyance" Not my fault, she forms a bonekini— Stop it. "From the Queen." Under-stating it a bit yeah? wait, pull that yep, and it's out there now. "I just… I never had psy… Whatever. I kind of just lucked into all this." That's how you're goin— Yes, that is tru— So what is up with the weather lately
The tunnels darken, going deeper as the Zerglings carve out a cavern, sunlight streaming through drone-created membranes fading to just biochemical light sources. Infrastructure, the beginnings of something being made. "I s-see." Anastasia barely follows, "Well, uhm, your inner thoughts are… at least compliments." Her assurance is inexpert, but earnest.
"I think that's the only reason I get aw-" God, pretty. Nice. Back in the box. Focus. She pushed something down, and the burbling became just random background chatter once again. What Ana had thought was the swarm, was actually just the background noise of being around Lilith's essence. "Yeah, that's going to stay in there I think. Sorry." She's adora— the thought doesn't finish, instead a new tactic develops as Lilith tries to focus on dead static as hard as possible.
Ana was at a loss, overwhelmed by the solar flare of positivity. The surroundings change, flattening and expanding. Pits of Essence glowing a corrosive green, replacing intentional light with their presence. "I-It's fine, you ca-can think what you want-uhm." Anastasia stutters, occupied mostly by looking at the vastness of the new space. A presence in the air as they near something old, hoary and powerful.
The wisps attention was broken over to the green pools, a focus that made her appear wholly herself as she peered into it. "We talk about this stuff constantly. Its just… Goop." She almost wants to see what'd be like to touch it. Which of course, rips her into the pool without any effect. "Right, so, probably a, uhhh Homophone I think its called?"
"I- uh… Well, there… There's differences in languages I suppose." Anastasia suggested, "Not, quite what we ca-call it, we use… Homonym?"
Oh no, Who hurt you. There's such a deep fear when she spe— "Motherfucker. Sorry, sorry." If her essence had teeth, she'd be gritting them. "You're right though."
A wall of feeling emanates at the sudden burst of care, unfamiliar, foreign. Memories of other things, of worse things flitting through her mind in response. So congealed and massed that details can't be made out, save for the sustained nature of the pain. "A-ah, did-did you feel that? I-I-I'm so-sorry." Anastasia's immediately worried, terrified of having inconvenienced another.
Ye— "Not… Not inconvenienced. I know this is your home, or was your home, or home galaxy it's just that…" The thoughts are now speaking so fast that they're unintelligible, "You all… Everyone we've infested, which is reaching the… Millions or billions at this point. So many of you are just hurting, I couldn't feel other people's emotions before this. Now, I can see the absolute peaks, and depths of our range. It guts me knowing that I can't fix them. Fix it all. Makes my skin…"
There's a quick laugh at herself, "Fuck, essence? It makes everything itch." That definitely sounds like inconveniencing communicate Better. "Fuck I mean." Lilith tries to just radiate her empathy, but it's so weirdly… Empty, and cold. "Sorry, I can't force it, I guess."
Around them, the drones had already made the walls smooth, and both hatcheries, and evolution chambers were built inside the creep and stone edifices. Before Ana can further continue, a tunnel rumbles with passage, a distant scream echoing through them as a slick-black creature pushes out of a chunk of floor nearby, clasping its thin, sharp talons together and looking at the newcomers.
"Organism, Abathur, here." His voice rumbles like a small avalanche, utterly unignorable.
Lilith flits around Abathur as she takes in his… Everything, Holy shit you're HUGE! The worm had another ten metres in the ground, hidden. There were giantmenacing scythe like appendages, and what seemed like dozen of claws. Wow he looks rad. She keeps trying to push the thoughts down, but she can't help as she flits up closer to the Ur-Sequencer's giant gaping maw. Is it weird I fin— Then she stops. "Ur-Sequencer can you hear my thoughts?"
With a discontented mumbling, the gravel-tone escapes the creature, "Yes. Terran infection, severe."
"Fuck. Sorry." She says, "Wait, infection?"
"Without body, ancient zerg qualities, lesser. Terran traits, overpresented. Can fix, make Zerg." Abathur offers, thoughts passing between him and the Swarm of less than desirable results for anyone sane.
Lilith's essence flits between Ana and Abathur with excitement, "COOL, Cool" There's a barrage of questions. "Zhakarov said you could do anything with essence. I want to be attractive. Like, hot." Not like, hmmm… He's smart he probably knows wha— "Not only that, could I have like Ok, so the sunken colonies, they have those things I want those for quick infection and and
"Impaler Tendrils."
"Yeah! Tendrils! Ok, so that and Oh the hydralisks have the shooters. Those are SO cool ok those… Those in my shoulders, and then um. "
"Venom Spines."
Yes! and then she's stop speaking able to think faster, The carapace has to be perfect —you were on— you've seen Terrans ok, look up ummm… She suddenly becomes a embarassed.
"Carapace based off Queen of Blades. Aesthetics… considered by Overmind." There's a grumble from the Ur-Sequencer. As if he dislikes that idea.
YES Ur-Sequencer! Yes, ok wait, no. You know better um… Infestation has to be easier? And… Uh… Oh! My hair used to be red. Is that an option, do I get to color coordinate?! Red and green, but deep red, and pale green. Black veins ummm… ummm.. OH Can it hurt wh— "Nope, sorry, last thought is going back in the deck."
"Pain, irrelevant. Will pass. Will work." The Sequencer leans over to a pool, beginning to weave raw essence into a framework.
Hell. Yes. Lilith screams to the pool. You're my favourite so far. Second favourite, platonic favourite, unle—
Thankfully, Abathur snatches the essence, and starts to immediately force Lilith into the frame work, peeling every layer back with ruthless efficiency. It is a unique sensation to have the entirety of you turned into thread, and then stitched into the real. The agony… Tingles. Parts of you burn, but those just centimetres away from the needle feel alive. Like adrenaline flooding the system stronger than any drug. With the weaving the little ball of fluff begins to have a form, thread and framework become helixes, and strands of genes. Something permanent that can be stored and re-born.
Anastasia stares in something, not quite identifiable emotions slipping through an otherwise tightly controlled mind.
The Ur-Sequencer grumbles, not at the distraction, "Discovery. Sequencing faster, no resistance. Essence Lost?" Abathur had gotten to a point where he was now mumbling to himself out loud, "Negative, essence malleable." The work was finished in a couple of weeks. Ana, without much else to do tried to hover around the evolution pools, but was immediately rejected by Abathur, and a small swarm he kept for sequencing. She could still hear his grumbling however.
"Resistance back to expected parameters." He had said after the first day and a half, "Essence agreeable. Noted." The frame of Lilith could be seen, barely whole, still morphing like clay under the dozen limbs and covered in expelled biomass that shapes into organs, flesh and bone. As Anastasia peered into the woman, literally, she wondered a few things. Is this real? Is this what it looks to fall to… Than a final one that overlaps as Abathur places bonework for feet, spine, and head. Why is she so short?!
When the agonising work had finally finished, and Lilith had healed enough to regain consciousness. Her eyes fluttered, open in the pool of essence. She looked up at the giant worm, and tried to give him a shaky thumbs up.
The Ur-Sequencer inspected the project for a moment, then said "Completed."
It took another few hours for the wounds of weaving to regenerate, just as long as a particularly grievous mortal wound. When she finally had her strength she rolled out of the pool onto the floor with a wet splat. "Oh… Man… Thanks Abathur, but also it was terrible. Do you have a mirror? Do you kn– you know what that is I'm sure. I'm gonna stop asking." The words were shaky, but the constant barrage of thoughts now only had one place to come out. Leaving both Abathur, and Anastasia thankful for the real-space body.
Abathur was loud, clear, and his voice seemed to roll through the chamber, not angry but firm. "No. Never required."
"Uh…" She looks up at him, "Is that something sequencing can do?"
The worm rumbled and groaned before impaling one of the hive guard roaches with the tip of one the spider like appendages, and dunked it into the essence pool. Taking the minerals and essence to produce a thin pale green mirror, not glass but something similar. Nearly identical to a Terran body mirror.
"Thank you!" She said, then stared at herself, turning back and forth examining every inch.
She had a design that was clearly inspired by the queen, but not similar. The tendrils were far thicker and denser, some curving this way and that to give off the illusion of curls. Similarly instead of her armoured carapace simply being an ensemble similar to a bathing suit It was both more, and less layered. With tiny skulls and teeth seeming to bite into her in overlapping diagonal strips. There was far more of the skin like tissue rather than carapace, but the crapace had clearly been made to be efficient in coverage, even if it was incomplete. With all major organs protected, and the strips angling specifically to deflect attacks away instead of towards the heart, (a flaw she mentally noted in the Queen's design but managed not to say,) she felt much more comfortable then she had thought she would.
"Project complete. No other business." Abathur states, moving to another pool, focusing on an imperative from the Unity instead of a personal project.
Then looking at Ana behind her, she gently asked, "Did you wait here the whole time?" It was kind, and her voice was so sweet. "Thank you!"
"O-oh, uhm." She stutters, "You were h-hurting, s-someone had to stay."
Lilith approached Ana, reaching out with a hand, "Sorry, I'm a bit weak," She said, as she confidently strode to Ana's side, "Hold my hand? Just in case?"
Anastasia's eyes widened, a real spark of bravery required for her to slowly reach over and gingerly take the other woman's hand.
As they left, Lilith's lip twitched, the touch had sent fireworks through her. Essence couldn't sense like a body could. It was aware, but it didn't feel. She felt alive, and pulled the nerve-wracked woman into a big hug.
"A-a-a, uhm." Anastasia stutters into the other woman, memories leaking through, a severe isolation just now broken, touch starvation that's far beyond a reasonable duration. She needs seconds to think clearly, and seconds after that to slowly return the hug, "W-what's this for?"
There's a slight tear in her eye as the emotions bleed through, desperately trying to stop herself from being over-intimate so fast. "I've been wanting to do this since we met. You needed it." Lilith is quiet, calm. "It's a hug, don't overthink it." It wasn't quite clear to which one of them she was talking too.
Ana gulped, and hugged her back. When Lilith parted there was a bereftness that was so overwhelming it bordered on physical.
"Uh. Sorry, I'll… You.. I'm a hugger. I probably should have twigged onto how bad that would have been for you." Lilith said, "I'll try to do it more… Or less often. Your choice."
"I, uhm, I didn't m-mind. Mo-More is good." The astropath assures Lilith as Abathur begins to pay attention to the continued invasion of his workspace.
"Project complete. No other business." This time Abathur was louder, more forceful.
"Should I come back for check-ups?" She yelled back to Abathur
"Can improve work, always." The Sequencer answers, voice carrying through the halls and tunnels perfectly.
Big smiles with a nod, "Ok!" Then as they left the tunnel, "He is such a softy"
"Tha-Tha-Thats not… Sure." Ana decided not to push it.
Lilith Is… something isn't she. Also pretty sure she's getting off on the idea of infesting everyone and if her armor doesn't look like a dominatrix outfit I'll be surprised. She also definitely enjoyed the… whole process. Fun but god she's a bit much. Which is what I think you were going for.
Crackling electrical wires hang from the ceiling, connected to the mechanism-frame of a Magos of the Machine God. A colossal space, packed densely with machinery and cogitator stacks that thrum with centuries of collected knowledge, millenia truly, generations of Genetors having added to them until this day. A vox-caster array sits woefully useless, no object in the system to call for help, the only hope for a victory being heroism from the Kriegsmen below.
They had arrived at his word of "civil disobedience" utterly unequipped, and yet had fought hard against a morphic swarm of hyper-adaptive xenos. A dozen battle reports consumed in a subject hour, but in reality, barely three ticks of an atom-clock. Red optics scan across paper-printing machinery, intaking more current reports of fronts collapsing as ammunition runs out. A xenos-witch has been spotted and promptly tore down kilometres of wall down in a Warp-manifestation. The city falls.
"Difficult." The mechanical man admits, a soulless voice of electricity coming free. "Situation has developed, poorly." Tech-Serfs look up in surprise at the exclamation, flickering with worry, their emotional cortexes still online despite orders to the contrary. A prayer in binaric sparks up, calling to data-spirits for their programmed wisdom. As the last of the Kriegsmen die, overwhelmed in hours, the Magos thinks, whirring cogitators slowing the universe to a crawl as his thoughts approach light speed.
A crackling energy is observed by low flying observation balloons, and a battalion of Guardsmen vanishes in flickering lighting as long-distance auspex readings record a growl and scream of fury from the xenos-witch, followed by verbal commands to the creatures alongside her, a leadership caste. Central target. A plan begins to form.
There will be support, the tithe fleet will arrive, and with them, Astartes of the Shield Chapters. But not before sustainment supplies run out. A choice is made in subjective weeks. Death, or heresy. Sensorium reports make the choice simple, red pixelation on a specific point of the planetary surface. Something fresh in a sea of purples, greens and browns. Engines flare at several G's, circling the world and settling into a new geostationary position.
Something was there, his cortex implants screamed it when his flesh could not sense it. Two shapes, human-yet not. Infected with morphic biomatter but ever so communicative in local Gothic. Their existence provoked an uncontrolled spike of hope. Death need not be on the cards. "Prepare luminous communication." The machine-intoned order carries through the ship, ordering it into motion. It waits for days, watching for any sign, for any movement.
Auspex catches motion, then, enhancing the image with magnification ritae, shapes, bodies. Sapients. Their conversation is understandable, as if a strolling mated pair rather than a xenos hunting pack. Reason, diplomatic engrams communicate, possibility of agreement.
His flesh agrees. My knowledge must be preserved. Omnissiah forgive me.
Lilith and Anastasia had spent some time chatting, doing odds and ends for the swarm while Zhakarov and Kerrigan conquered the last vestiges of the planet. The smooth tunnel to Abathur's evolution pits had become a natural spot to hang around, as occasionally, Abathur made a request of the swarm that they could assist. Since there was only one other person at the colony to even talk too, hanging around outside had become second nature. Anastasia noticed it first, next to the hole was a bright green dot, flashing on the creep. In a pattern some dots fast, some dots slow.
Then she tapped Lilith who had been talking about… Something? It was nice to just listen to the noise, even if she didn't quite follow all the time.
"Well, that's when I realised that Chloroform doesn't really work like it does in the movies. Which, you know, sad, but predictable." Lilith said.
"Wha-What?" Ana turned her attention back to Lilith, "What's chlorofo-form?" She still stuttered, but it was slowly starting to cease with rebuilt confidence. The constant praise had helped quite a bit too, Lilith's thoughts would constantly, almost by instinct, highlight things about her she rarely spoke of. Some even things that were small prides.
There was a pause, as Lilith caught one of the rare instances of Ana speaking, it short circuited her for a second, Wait, which story did I just tell? "I lost my train of thought, but in pict-reels you use it as, like, a thing to make people go to sleep instantly."
The dot kept flashing, but there was finally a moment in the constant wall of chatter. Anastasia pointed, "That's… That's a message." Her fingers were idly tapping away, following the repetition onto her thigh, feeling the pattern physically.
Lilith turned her head over her shoulder, looking at the flashing dot. Then there was panic, "How do you know? That looks like a laser targeting system. I think we should bail, quick." She immediately hopped off the ground to get ready to sprint.
"I don't think so." Ana said after taking a deep breath, repeating the drum on herself, "It's a message. It says 'I WILL NEGOTIATE.' over and over."
The beam of light had made the spot where it touched the creep warmer than the rest, leaving a circle of cooler creep around it to keep the temperature regulated. Lilith noted it, and then touched her chin, "I shouldn't make decisions like this on my own. Could we even respond?"
Anastasia nodded, "I should be able to-to respond. They'd use the beam to return our communications."
Lilith let her essence spread across the swarm. Reaching out, touching different minds of Zerg as it went hunting for her Queen, and Zhakarov. She had found them in seconds, "Unity, hey what's up?"
"Not. Now. Lilith." Kerrigan snapped at her, as psychic lightning fired forward in a ball, eliminating a platoon of soldiers taking covered in a building. The force was so massive that it caused the building to structurally fail. Huge plumes of dust filling the city. "I do not need your distractions." The damned thing seemed to want something every five seconds without fail. She couldn't move more then two steps without Lilith bugging her with a question, or comment, or worse. The Queen of Blades did notneed a cheer-leader.
Knowing all too well that Lilith only had a few seconds to speak, she said, "The Leader of this planet wants to negotiate. Might be sur—" Kerrigan had shut the psychic link closed as she leapt forward into a somersault over a tank. Picking it up as she rolled and throwing it into a rotary craft. "What?" She said, as she started to process Lilith's words. "The Zerg do not surrender. We have conquered this planet."
The Queen of Blades snapped her attention to Zhakarov, "I assume you have been… Collecting chatter from her?"
"Yes. My Queen," The calm, formal bass of Zhakarov reaches out to the core of all who listen, "She and the new infested have been contacted. They presume their leader is negotiating for their own surrender." As his essence pushes another fleet of Zerglings through another block, "It may have to be her. She requests permission."
The Queen growled with discontent, "She can not be the face of our Swarm." And then stomped her foot, splattering her carapace with blood from a fallen Terran's jugular.
"I do not have a body, and you are on the front lines, my queen." The ever-practical Zhakarov easily counters knee-jerk growls, poking holes in the Queen of Blades's argument.
The words brought a brief moment of annoyance to the Queen of Blades. He never told her what to do, but seemed to imply it. "It'd take hours to return, then hours back." She hissed to herself.
"She is part of our Unity my Queen. Chosen like you and I, by the swarm to lead." Another prod, another declaration and an utter lack of fear, as if he couldn't really feel it.
The Queen finally acquiesced. "Lilith, see what he wants, but make no decisions without discussing it with Zhakarov."
Lilith was shrill with delight, "Ma'am yes, ma'am!"
She couldn't put her finger on why it bothered her so much to have Lilith speak for the swarm. Still, it needed to be Kerrigan's order. While she spoke to Lilith she pushed harder to keep the essence quiet at least to her. Though felt upset when she realized she didn't have to. Her focus had entirely shifted until a bullet half the length of her skull exploded in her ear. She roared and with psionic rage single-handedly imploding half a city block.
When Lilith returned her attention to her own skin she said to Anastasia, "Can you tell them we'll talk, Ana?"
Immediately Anastasia's training as an Astropath kicked in, and she reached out for the Magos Genetor's mind, finding it between a morass of noisy Adepts as a single source of utterly disciplined silence, quickly starting to communicate. Then she stared at the light on the ground "They want to send a Voxcaster."
"What's that?" Lilith cocked her head.
"A communication's device. They can have one land nearby, uhm, very durable, I've seen them take artillery." Anastasia clarifies the words, looking around as to where such a thing would land.
With a nod, Lilith gave a thumbs up, "Ok, here is as good a place as any I suppose. The Queen wanted me to talk to him." And with that message passed on the light stopped, and moments later a small package was sent planetside, a tiny sphere of metal to survive the atmosphere, and landed with a wide thud and a small shockwave that rippled through them.
Anastasia walked over and helped pry the metal off, showing an amazingly intact block of metal, helping extend its antenna and unfold its green, almost CRT screen. With a knob turn and a button press, the thing comes alive with a crackle of static.
When the Voxcaster was assembled, Anastasia dialed in the channel of the Mechanicum, hoping the Genetor was on it. "Uhm, would you like pict-oh-you called it… video?" She asks, finger hovering over a button marked with a face.
Oh no, I didn't think I'd have to make decisions. "Anyone can see this?" Lilith thought as she turned her head to Anastasia, "Like, am I talking to him directly, or will I show up all over the ship or… How private is this?"
"Um… Well, The Machine spirit should connect you to the Magos Genetor." Anastasia continued.
There was a moment's pause, she could bother them again, but she was the one taking lead on this. "Lets connect first, then turn the camera on when the Magnum Genetor answers."
"Magos Genetor." Anastasia said in a hushed, reverent tone, "He is of the Mechanicum, the backbone of Mankind's tech-sorcery. They are a political class of their own. A centuries old politician that could order a cleansing of this world."
That got Lilith's attention, "Cleansing?"
The other points into the sky, "The Exterminatus, ships large enough to hold cities come and crack the planet apart. Leaving nothing alive." Anastasia felt rather like a lecturer, and as if she were… Useful. She revelled in being able to educate Lilith, the way Lilith educated her on the Zerg, "If he does though, it would mean he failed to keep the planet alive. The techno-theurgists of the Mechanicum live and die on their discoveries and inventions. Nothing else."
Shit, "That all makes sense, yeah he's negotiating, and he doesn't have to crack the planet.Then yeah, I think, camera on body language is useful. If we're seen it's more trouble for him, not us. We're already going to get nuked if this goes sideways." Lilith looked at Ana, and then pointed around herself gesturing at the ground.
It took Anastasia a moment, before she realised Lilith didn't know the visual range of the camera, "Ummm…" She pressed a button, turning on the video without broadcasting, adjusting it. "Right there's good." Lilith adjusted, straightening herself out. "I'll… Turn it on? Now?"
"Yeah, let's do it!" And then Lilith gave her two thumbs up.
The device crackles, connecting to the orbiting ship with lines of barely visible radio-waves, zerg senses hearing the crackles but not able to discern language. The screen unfolds into a hologram, a green-hued representation of a horribly augmented human-maybe man. It writhes with many, many colossal, torso thick mechadendrites on its back holding onto the ceiling above.
"Xenos, I have come to bargain." Already crackling vox-static gets briefly worse as his mechanical voice is accounted for by Ana moving a dial.
With a big smile, Lilith claps together once, "I would love to bargain! We want to not be torn to shreds when your buddies get here! Also! We want the system, in its entirety. I'd like any documents you have, oooh, blueprints? From there, just basic instruction manuals on how to operate some of the stuff down here." She touches her chin, pacing in place making sure to always stay perfectly in view of the camera. "Oh! And everything you've learned about us so far!"
"No." The drone coldly responds, "You will be satisfied with less." A crackling sound emanates for a full second before the Magos continues, "The system is beyond my reach, but safety is within negotiation range. The Tithe Fleet comes, if you are not known and recorded, thy world will be shattered." Its tone is sure, unflinching. No doubt that this will be the outcome.
"Instead, idea formed. Your body-framework is similar to mankind-standard." He almost considers, but the consideration fades as the machine man arrives at the conclusion. "Can declare you… human. Abhuman. Agreeable?"
With a smile, Lilith looks to Anastasia and scratches her head, trying to use her eyes to mostly communicate, If you're listening girl, tell me what that means. "It's definitely a start! How are you going to un-fuck this pig though?" She asks out loud, "Or… Do you know what that is? The statement's probably self explanatory."
Anastasia's flickering voice gently intrudes into Lilith's mind. Mutant…but accepted. Like me.
"The planet's condition can be blamed on economic collapse and disease spread. Afterwards, will concoct tale to suffice usage of bioservitors." The Magos answers with no feeling whatsoever.
Her smile grows even wider, but now she looks a bit more feral like a cat, Ok… "So it sounds like then, it would be prudent for us to be able to fit in with your society better, and it would be prudent for you to have access to as much research resources as possible." Lilith snaps her fingers, the gesture unnecessary, and a Zergling races over, "Like being able to study these guys in social conditions not captivity. Or…" She snaps her fingers again, summoning a Hydralisk, "Seeing close up mechanisms for how these guys do…" She points, and the Hydralisk fires spines. "That."
"Temptation efforts inducing paranoia. Suggest discontinuing. Societal interaction will clarify cultural differences. I will focus on practical matters." Crackling vox-static seems to try and project emotion, but can't manage anything other than mild distaste for having to do this. Anastasia frowns, Lilith, he's-It's a man I think-He's nervous, this is sin. Maybe try something easy at first? Her voice is oddly confident in mental space.
Then Lilith looked at the screen, "I'm entirely unaware of how bad this is, sorry. The paranoia thing makes it sound way worse." She claps her hands and the Zergling and Hydralisk leave immediately. "I'm… I negotiate, my job is to be friendly, I'd offer to send you bodies, but I don't know how to prove their… Safe to you? We don't know what you've collected. I'm scared you know everything about us, and we're just going to perish or… Worse when we get off planet."
"Acknowledge ability to fear. Stored in data vaults. Assurances impractical, no possible method to make no doubts. Must rely on…trust." The Magos answers, simultaneously considering his own position, "Suggest information transfer. Does your species have orbital capacity?" He asks.
"There's a tricky answer here, and the real answer. If we're trust building, No, is the trick. Right now we have nothing. In an hour or two we could do it very quickly, it's kind of random but it's possible." Lilith sighed, "Can you answer one for us?"
"Unknown, ask." A grumble, almost Abathur-esque but mechanical, escapes him.
A small smile, "There was… A thing. It tried to… Infest? One of our swarm, it was big, scary, but when we all focused on it, it almost immediately popped. What was that. We don't like it."
There's the crackle of consideration, before he answers, "Hypothesis, psychically active, Daemonic influence attempted." The Magos's words bring more confusion than answers to Lilith, but seem tremendously enlightening to Ana.
"Your turn, then I'll ask again. I have questions about that though." She says with a bright smile.
"Intentions of conquest of world. Direct order from leader-form?" Another question, trying to divine reasoning. Perhaps the logic of the Swarm.
"A bunch of guys with flamethrowers started torching us, and no-one tried talking, I'll answer both questions, for two of my own. Leader-forms discuss, plan, communicate." She says, then asks, "Can the Daemonic influence feel fear? I ask because the… Things, their essence, it runs from us, and I'm worried it's a trick. And," She already knows the answer to the next, remembering the… Vileness Anastasia had to face, "As Abhumans, would we be treated as equals?"
"No, but you would not be exterminated." The clinical honesty, at least, is refreshing, "Daemons are possessed of much emotion, I have not studied Warp Phenomena closely."
Lilith nods, then sadly, "Is it too late? To save the humans on this planet?" A deep sadness in her, "So many are likely infested, and the rest are fighting to the death… I don't want… Its not right to wipe out an entire species." Her face falls, "Or… You get two questions now by the way, if this entire planet dies did we… Just commit genocide?"
"Likely best. Local life would contradict story. Complex issue." The Magos cogitates the facts, "Recommend removal of witnesses." A coldly machine-like statement, writing off so many like numbers on a sheet. "Life is the currency of Mankind. They will be well-spent."
"Holy shit," She says, "It makes it easier knowing that there are more humans out there, and like… We didn't just doom an entire species. Your turn, two questions."
"Have one remaining. Origin, human or xenos?" The mechanical man asks, curiosity finally slithering into his vox-voice.
She looks even sadder, "Oh man, you know how bad I want to say human right? Uh… Not even this galaxy I think. Might not even be from this era, humanity was… Tiny. Something we-" A lie that was true, "I walked into the swarm when I was human, not away. Humanity could have always been a part of us, they chose to attack us. A lot. That doesn't always have to be the case."
"Have calibrated truth-cogitators, will know falsehood." He answers, the vox snapping shut with a hiss. Anastasia looks a little worried at the suddenness. "I believe he's… now concocting his end of the plan? I'm sorry its just so fa-fast in his m-mind."
"Oh shit!" Lilith said, flabbergasted. She was running over to pick Anastasia up in a big hug, and spin her around, "No way, you read his mind during all that?! You RULE!"
"I-i" She stutters and freezes in the hug, "Uhm-oh-wa-Yes?" Anastasia tries to respond, almost failing to get anything out, "Its h-hard, like watching a pict at… ten times speed-more."
She places her down, "Sorry, ok, did he believe me? The last bit? It's true, but did he believe it?"
"He-he's prioritizing hi-himself. I think he t-thinks you think y-you aren't lying." She tries to recover from the shock of contact, "The M-magos i-is cooperative for his, uhm, reputation?" She answers, very unsure if that's exactly what she heard.
"What's a daemon by the way?" Lilith asks, "Did that part of the talk matter at all?"
"A m-monster, in the v-veil." Anastasia confirms, "They h-hunt for people like me, and seek entry into realspace to pervert and c-corrupt."
Fuck. "Ana, do we look perverted and corrupted to humans?"
"Uhm." The psyker looks down, "A l-little?"
"What happens to the humans, that are corrupted?" Lilith is starting to panic, "Are they like Abhumans, or worse?" Her jaw is setting, Kerrigan's going to fucking kill her. Shit, bad end Route A.
A flash of memory, of a burst of fire that burns away a world, chunks of earth rising into orbit. Anastasia's breathing harshly.'
"Can you please call him back?" The panic in her throat is catching, but it'll cause a feedback loop. She needs to exude positive emotion. It's still so empty. Fuck.
"U-uhm." She stutters, dialing the buttons and waiting for a response. The vox crackles, static feeling deathly at this moment. It opens, giving both women immediate relief. "Receiving." The Magos answers.
She tried not to be annoyed, "It would have been nice, because I've been so honest! To have known how bad touching daemons at all was. Is there a way for us to prove that's not what this is. I'd like to know the dangers here, later."
"Discard memory. I will not be incriminated by proxy." He commands in response. A cold, angry tone to him
"Incriminated by what? I don't know anything."
"Any who speak with the possibly corrupted are possibly corrupted. Cease, conversation. Purging cogitators." There's a whirr like reversing magnetic tapes.
"And so I said, yeah what a great day it was, and she was like— Oh sorry, I'm rambling. I'll let you go now." Fuck, fuck.
The vox crackles and ends, video stream fading. Anastasia is having a very silent panic attack, breathing heavily and right hand clenching and unclenching repetitively.
"Ana, on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad are things for us right now, if you can't talk just hold up fingers." Lilith said, looking into her eyes smiling.
She stutters, failing words, and raises both hands.
A little white lie, it can't hurt right? It can't… Her essence flings, Kerrigan. Kerrigan. He plans to warp out and get a planet cracker. That ship needs to be disabled, we need him for paperwork.
Growled through the link is a psychic anger, the Queen of Blades not deigning a greater response than that. Minutes later, bright flaring fills the sky as something detonates, blowing apart into scrap and burning up in the atmosphere.
Dictating, Anastasia starts speaking on instinct, "Engines-down-decks 5-6-7-hull-repair-Agh!" Her throat strains to keep up, but can't possibly manage the speed needed. A cry of pain and a hand to her head is the last noise she makes before silencing and calming with repetitive breaths.
Lilith Is… something isn't she. Also pretty sure she's getting off on the idea of infesting everyone and if her armor doesn't look like a dominatrix outfit I'll be surprised. She also definitely enjoyed the… whole process. Fun but god she's a bit much. Which is what I think you were going for.
Unity will definitely get larger, and I'll definitely take requests. I probably should have asked or changed the name of Zharkov. I may draw everyone at some point, I've drawn lilith, but then didn't think about her hand enough for it to face the right way 😭😭😭😭😭😭
I might draw Human Lilith at some point IDK. Here's Zerg Lilith.
Huh. I got the masochist part but not the sadist part. Though given that she's basically defaulted to aftercare techniques with Ana initially I suppose I should have.
Also the first day and a half albathur noted was her getting off on the canonically excruciating process of getting a body, right?
Also, Magos thought they were demonic and decided to blow the planet? What?
Huh. I got the masochist part but not the sadist part. Though given that she's basically defaulted to aftercare techniques with Ana initially I suppose I should have.
Also the first day and a half albathur noted was her getting off on the canonically excruciating process of getting a body, right?
Also, Magos thought they were demonic and decided to blow the planet? What?
After the destruction of the engines on the Mechanicum ship, negotiations had largely broken down for the remaining future. New strains and mutations were found that allowed the Zerg to watch the Magos Genetor, who was now trapped in the sector. Kerrigan once again found herself being bothered and watched by Lilith, while Anastasia got to walk with her and hear her chatter. She spent time in the evolution chamber constantly now, as Abathur's personal project. Due to unique… peculiarities as Abathur described it, she was far more malleable and agreeable to being woven. Which allowed him to constantly make little tweaks and changes as he saw fit.
The Evolution Chamber is massive from the inside, a chamber easily the equal of any city block full of Queens managing every inch of it. A central, private chamber is all there is that isn't infested with Zerg life. Bioluminescent light mixes thin streams of natural sunlight to create an odd half-illumination.
Lilith was floating in a sac of fluid, body slightly altered, minorly perfected by the influence of Abathur, now recovering physically. Tendrils floating up in the fluid. Dreams of vines, veins, milk and honey lulling her to rest as long as is needed.
A snapping presence barrels through the Chamber, crackling with power and forcing the Swarm away from her. Lilith's sac is torn open, fluid spilling out in a torrent as the woman is forcefully awoken from a pleasant dream, confronted with a crackling Queen of Blades, wings extended with static electricity.
She slides across the floor, and looks up at Kerrigan saying, "Oh, look my dream came true! Hi!"
The Chamber darkens, bioluminescent lighting flickering in response as she silences everything here, killing the influence of any other mind or lifeform except her. "So what's the plan, hmm?" Kerrigan hisses.
"The ship is disabled, diplomacy is fucked. I guess we make something that flies up there and convinces them we're not demons?" Lilith asks. She stands up, flicking fluids off herself, not looking directly at Kerrigan yet.
A look passes over the other woman. "Don't play games." One of her bladed wings sink into the wall next to Lilith, locking one avenue of escape off. "You want to get one over me, you and him." A growled, paranoia ladened retort, eyes flickering purple-through-blue.
"Him?" With a look of confusion, she stares into Kerrigan's eyes, "I don't… That's not really my… thing? I am loyal to you, my Queen. In part because you are a Queen and not a King." Then looks a bit closer, "Have you not… I've bee—"
She emits force, pustules and sacs popping as Lilith is forced flat against the wall, "You and Zhakarov want to get me out of the picture." She growls, another bladed wing locking off the last avenue of escape. "Make your own Brood?!" Kerrigan shouts into the other woman, a blue invading her eyes.
The air flies out of Lilith's chest, and the violence makes her hyper aware that this is not your normal Queen of Blades temper tantrum. "I would murder anyone here at your order My Queen. I have no interest in a Brood. it seems honestly awful to deal with."
There's a moment of raw instinct, as the air ripples, "DON'T you LIE to me." A taloned fist punches through the wall next to Lilith's head, barely holding back from the woman herself, like an enraged animal trying not to hurt another of its kin. "Admit it."
Wind blasts from the punch, blowing air across Lilith's face, and she gulps."You're psychic just pull the truth out, I don't lie. Unless it's super necessary, but the Brood doesn't matter to me outside of its Queen." Then even louder, "Why are you cutting yourself off?"
An invasive presence, rough and violent, penetrates Lilith's mind. Searching for something-anything to justify her rage. Just behind her is another thing, barely felt, like a series of strings, tugging at the Queen, pulling her along on triggers and joints of feeling.
That's not good,is there anything in there that'd piss her off? Lilith wonders, then she tries to open it fully. Showing the full breadth of her time with the swarm. Kerrigan, you can look for any reason to be mad in me. Does anythingyou see look like something a traitor would do?
I-Stop lying-Gah! The mental voice shakes the smaller woman to her core, like a roaring lion in every word. The puppetmaster works harder, a string here, a motion there, falling fully into Lilith's sight.
No, fuck that Lilith says, and tries to use her essence to rip the strings forward, into Kerrigan's sight. There's something here.
The force is insufficient, but it does stumble Queen enough to focus, "What? No-This is your p-power grab!" An odd double-tone invading her voice.
You're in my head. What do I see, when I see you. Then she yanks HARDER on the strings, Fucking why couldn't I have psychic powers she moans. STOP fuckingwith her.
The yank forces Kerrigan to stumble forwards, impacting Lilith, heads smacking and bodies pressing in an uncomfortable tangle, at least for the Queen.
Wait, maybe give me a second before look— It's too late, as thousands of obsessive fantasies are ripped from her. Some are long walks on quiet beaches, some are moonlit dinners, others are ravenous nights of passion, there is love, and fear. The danger of the situation is there too, some have Lilith collared, strung up, begging, pleading, wanting more. There's biting, scraping, tearing, carnal passion as two regenerative creatures tear into each other. Lilith KNOWSwhat the demon will pull next. She triesto force it out. No, No, not those, give them BACK.She screams trying to snap the strings before… Before she sees any more…
Oh, how sweet~ A second presence slips past, something soft and silky and full of honey, dyed in a mental pink. It rests just behind Lilith's will, letting it be buoyed, being strengthened enough to push the strings back, that million tangle wall of searching, thieving force.
The second presence is overwhelming, and Lilith gasps like her wrists were just slapped with hard plastic, isn't it just? She yelps, Fuck it, help please.
Kerrigan's eyes glow with dark, arcane blue, a point of energy forming in the hand not embedded in the wall. It starts to darken and glow into the power that she commands. At the last second, Lilith throws herself forwards, operating on a bleeding impulse from nowhere as the Queen misses-no, pulls her shot as she stumbles two steps from the superhuman, infested muscle of the other woman.
Its hold is loose, The voice informs, giddy.
Fuck it, this works when I hug Ana, She steels herself, and pulls forward pressing her lips against Kerrigan's face. To call it a kiss would be overly generous. And yet, something very much like it takes place.
The Queen freezes, shocked by the act, shocked enough that the strings feel like they start to separate, snap piece by piece. A hum in the back of Lilith's mind encourages her further. Before she can, the Queen pushes her tongue into Lilith's mouth, the sensation causing Lilith to nearly melt in her hands. She felt herself being lifted as The Queen gripped Lilith thighs and pushes in close, pinning Lilith to the wall. Instinctively Lilith's fingers explore the carapace of her partner, looking for buckles and clasps that simply didn't exist. She wrapped her hands tight around her Queen, and gave everything to her. Trying to prove her only intention.
Panicking, Lilith pulls back for a moment "I'm… Sorry, it was my first thought…" She can't get all the words out.
"Shut up Lilith." Kerrigan growled, "Now."
Yes, my queen, she thinks with a smile. Lilith grabs the queen by the back of the head so she can match Kerrigan's intensity. As it continues, Lilith becomes more bold. Now teasing, matching intensity with a gentle acquiescence, more strings snap, vibrated away by a strengthening pink haze. Thirty, twenty, ten, they hold taught, and without warning Lilith pinches Kerrigan's bottom lip with razor sharp teeth five, four, three, two, one.
Not completely aware of the situation anymore, Lilith says "Please tell me the carapace comes off."
Kerrigan rolls her eyes and drops her, taking a step back. A dizzy look passing over her face, something snapping, a thin trickle of black falling from her tear ducts. "Get-get-get out." She says to everything around her, a psychic force generating.
A wave gut punches Lilith, trying to drag her back as she trudges forward,"We killed two already, if there's more we can—"
"Get out, out-" She gets louder, shaking the room, eyes wide and frenzied, power flaring through the room like lighting.
Confusion, jilted rage, and concern swirled through Lilith's mind and she kept marching forward. "Hey! Look at me." Lilith says, "We can beat this, whatever it is."
A wave of power comes out of the Queen as she screams, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Lilith feels something push out of her, reaching out towards Kerrigan and as her force strains it to breaking, it snips the last string with scalpel precision. Kerrigan slumps, hitting the ground as the trickle of black blood turns to a flow, one of her eyes flooding as burst capillaries drain.
"Did… Did…" Lilith gets on her hands and knees, crawling forward, "Are you… Okay?" She reaches out and taps Kerrigan's leg.
"Lilith." Her voice is quiet, though still with that grain that's so uniquely Kerrigan's. "Never kiss me without asking again." She breathes slowly, recovering.
Lilith's sniffling, she was so scared, and the emotions are now overwhelming her that she can't stop. "Ok, that's understandable. How do you feel about biting?"
"W-what?" She asks, hissing, "What are you whining about-" A psychic search returns to Lilith's mind, trying to get a hold of context for the Queen's frazzled mind. She pulls a swirl of emotion, and a very intense image of Lilith biting Kerrigan's neck.
"You pig." Kerrigan hisses, with a bare hint of amusement deep beneath. "Get me to a vat-What am I talking about." She closes her eyes, beginning to focus.
"Too late," Lilith says, as she tries to scoop Kerrigan up, almost unable to manage, "You get what you ask for." Huh, she's way soft— Back in the DECK brain.
Kerrigan's focus is broken long enough that Lilith slips her into a pool of Essence, falling into the fluid with a flare of her wings and trailing hair-tendrils. A psychic projection hits Lilith, "You'll regret that." Kerrigan's mirth however, was however, uncontainable.
As she drift, Lilith says in her mind and outloud, "You can test that assumption when you like my Queen."
Though before the response finished, Kerrigan had already started to fall asleep. Lilith studied her, carefully. Trying to remember how she smelled, how her breath sounded, exactly how each scale, tendril, and bone looked. Watched her chest raise up and down in the pool. Just watched, and watched and watched. Alone. The woman floated, and the tendrils behind her started to pull away from her neck gently spreading out into the pool. There's a sense of mischief, but far darker as Lilith becomes fixated with one of them.
So… I'm just… Going to see if any of the tendrils are loose… Like hairs. Lilith thinks, very quietly reaching. She won't notice… Her hand gently tugs on what seems to be a loose strand. It doesn't come free, and Kerrigan's eyes blearily open. Or not. Maybe not. She says out loud, "Uh… Sorry. I'll just keep standing guard."
I-oh that's unfamiliar- There's a yawn in Lilith's mind, I've never gotten tired before. Am I getting old?! An indignant energy slips into Manth, I can't get old! I'm not even physical! The conversation seems to be mostly with itself, perhaps not realizing it can be heard.
Kerrigan growls, as she pulls her head away. "You're not guarding if you're watching me, Lilith. Eyes out." Then rolling so her tendrils are behind her, "And Don't pull those. Unless you want to get fried."
"Uh. Oh! I… You had… Essence. In… your… Whatever those are." She sighed, "Nevermind, yes, my Queen. I'll leave."
Another growl, "I didn't say that. Sit."
"Yes ma'am." Again Lilith's glee radiated white hot.
Kerrigan fell to sleep, and Lilith had one of the best days of her life just sitting there at her side.
You are just a treat.
She backs away quickly from the pool, He-Hello? Is… Whose there?
A friend! Who are you?The voice has no clear, identifiable origin nor gender, perfectly inbetween all possible assumptions, unnaturally perfect in that sense.
I'm Lilith, she thinks quietly, trying to stop the thoughts from moving too far, I… You helped me beat those other guys. You were the one that snapped the cords.
Don't let me take credit! You got most of them.
They would have gotten into me though, wouldn't they?
Of course not! I was here, my name is Manth. A forceful pulse of energy turns to silk barely after leaving its…voice? Ooh, that still happens! Anyways, I was… around! And you were…looking for help? Even it seems confused at how it got here.
She looks into the pool where Kerrigan floats, touching at the membrane, Yeah. I have… A problem. I… I… She needs a champion. I need it to be me.
The voice clarifies, as if finally finding the purpose behind itself, I understand! Please, tell me, you fine young woman, about this other, fine slightly less young but still young woman!
Actually, I think we're both in our fifties at this point. Zerg aging is like… Nevermind. Lilith smiles, Can you feel it when I think about her? I look at her, and she's brave, strong, and a little mean. She's not just a person, but a project something I could fix and put on a mantle and just watch it do whatever it desired.
A perfect woman, then, the object of your obsession! The voice almost cackles, greatly interested. This is why I helped you, I can feel it now. Its rare to find such rare, utter desire in this galaxy!
I want her Manth, She says, and then follows with, And she wants the galaxy. We're going to take it together, her the Queen of Blades, and me at her feet.
I could listen all day and night, your love is so pure! It almost dances mentally, an ecstatic energy afflicting the creature.
Do you want too? She smiles, No-one wants too, and it makes… Ana sad. Do you?
I'd listen to this forever! I'm just getting the memories, you kissed! She kissed back!? Like a schoolgirl gossip circlemate, Manth demands details.
There's a thunk on the stiff membrane as Lilith put her back against the essence pool wtih the biggest goofiest grin on her face. I knooooooow. Honestly, I thought it was the wrong play, but when she looked at me. When she looked at me, I knew. Her eyes close as she tries to lock the memory make it permanent. She… She reminds me of Ozone, like she's sharp, tingly, but makes everything around her fresh. Like… She pulls her knees up to her chest. I kept bothering her, trying to get her attention during her war. I don't think she was ever really mad though. "I hope she feels that way about me someday…" She whispered.
You said that out loud-Also! Have I been screaming into your ears this whole time?
Yes, but I don't know psychic etiquette, and I didn't want to be rude. She tried not to laugh, Seemed like something you shouldn't point out if it can't be helped.
I'm a-Shit- There's a noise like clearing a throat, then vocal exercises before, I can perfectly regulate my voice! I've just been screaming too long!" Manth's tone becomes much less overpowering, resting to a calm, cool and soft brush of words.
Can you teach me? My brain has like 5 tracks, and they're all screaming in different directions. She looks towards the pool, losing focus for a second.
Probably not, your head is fleshy, my head is metaphorical. It answers, chuckling at the joke. Kerrigan floats in the pool, looking like an angel of harsh angles and bladed edges. Softly glowing with the green-orange of Essence. Eyes blink open, flickering orange orbs fading back to pupils as the Queen of Blades awakens.
Kerrigan climbed to the lip of the essence vat, to see Lilith looming with her head on the corner of it. As she looked back, she felt herself smile. The smile quickly turned into a snarl. "Back off." She snapped at Lilith, with a burning intensity. Her wings flexed angrily, and she climbed out of the pool, making the other infested stumble back before digging her heel into Lilith's chest. The smaller women hissed unpleasantly.
"What the fuck?" Lilith said by accident, "I saved you, all I'm do—"
She was cut short by wing like blades firing inches away from her throat. "You're Abathur's pet project. Not mine. I will throw you back into the essence and never let this body return." To make her point she lashed out, deftly removing Lilith's arm, spraying dark blood across the floor.
Lilith let out a scream as the stump gushed with a horrific display of gore, the inner frame work cut cleanly as if for display. Clotting agents were trying their best as the limb collapsed onto the floor and black strands of thick ichor slipped between them. "Leave." The Queen snaps, voice like a thundercrack.
Even with the help of the incredibly sparse amount of pain receptors Zerg had, the regeneration and pain was still monumental. The arm hurt, even though it was disconnected, as phantom pains ran up the stub to her fingers radiating with heat. There were cracks and wet snaps as the arm grew further, and further back into place. Lilith angry and unthinking tries to fire her spines at her, but before it got close to connecting, lightning struck her, actinic rays flaring through her body in boiling arcs, eyes rolling back and body merely failing as it sizzled.
Hours later, something grabs Lilith's body, a shape colossal, pulling it through tunnels silently and beyond the notice of the Queen. It is sunk into pools of Essence, chunks swallowed and regurgitated as her tattered frame is rebuilt with what bits of scaffolding are left.
It took weeks for Lilith to finally reform. Her essence had become more malleable than before, not flinching at all as the thread and frame was re-woven as it should. Already familiar with the constant check-ups, tweaks, and upgrades that Abathur had offered as time went on, there was nothing fun about the pain anymore. Not when her heart had been ripped out, devoured in front of her. Her essence, normally silent, or unintelligible during the process only had a single question. "Why?"
Abathur ignored it, "Pain, irrelevant." It was unclear, to Lilith at least, if this was a misunderstanding, or incredibly poignant. She let out a few quiet sobs, at the shock, and suddenness, "Its not you." Her essence said while it sobbed. Abathur was one of two people that seemed to accept her presence, she didn't want him to think he was hurting her, no matter how irrelevant it might be to him. Fuck… She allowed herself to be stitched back together once more, doing her best to be cooperative.
Terribly, Anastasia had to find out what happened days later, when she couldn't find Lilith, couldn't talk to the Queen, and couldn't reach Zhakarov. Never accompanied to Abathur's pits alone, it had taken her multiple days to find the courage to check. Her eyes went wide as she moved down the smooth tunnel to the pits, seeing Abathur weaving and making.
"Is—Is-is" She gulped, "Is she ok?"
"No." The Sequencer is astonishingly honest in most things, including this. Rumbling voice serving to rip Ana's heart out, "Will be w-"
"What happened?!" When the second word came out it slammed everything in the room. Not enough to cause damage, but the shockwave rippled vats, made thuds in hollow objects, and sloshed the vat that Lilith was in. "Sorry. Sorry. So-so."
"Queen of Blades emotional outburst. Common for Terrans." Abathur rumbles, a tinge of annoyance in his words. "Repair underway, Organism Lilith, resequenced. Improved." He states logically.
"You keep improv—" She has to stop she realises, they need everything in here to fix her. "You keep improving her Abathur, what are you improving? How did anything you've done even help?"
"Organism Lilith proof of concept." The Ur-Sequencer growls, a sign of anger at his work being questioned for validity.
Anastasia hadn't yet entered the room, somehow feeling like it was best practice if she respected that boundary. Still, she was angry. What's worse, with Lilith… Unmade, she once again oozed her emotions. Instead of her usual feelings, it was hurt, betrayal, and impossibly, affection for the Monster who did this to her. She was bereft, Lilith loved a monster, it would never be her. Always the same, a few images, memories on brazen display slip through her mind, it never is her.
In the essence, a rapid bubbling starts up, immediately quelled by the attentions of Abathur. Mixture of curiosity, and wariness rattled out of the creature. Who now pulled even more of his limbs into the work, removing some strands. The body being woven once more, many eyes stared intently as he moved, studying every inch of Lilith's essence on display as he examined closer the memories, thoughts, and feelings. Her whole life archived on tiny pieces of false-thread. Once again, the familiar scene played out. Lilith being woven, and Anastasia waiting patiently for her attention.
"I'm sorry." Is the first thing out of Lilith's mouth when she wakes up. Looking at Abathur, "I didn't know she'd do that," and her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes welled up. "I… We kissed."
"Queen of Blades. Unpredictable." The wyrm admits, moving to another project to occupy his limbs as Lilith fully awakens.
"I need a minute, to… Collect myself." It was a request, but it was hard to ask anything of anyone right now. She was so… Confused, it seemed so unfair and she couldn't figure out what she did wrong. In the distance she heard footsteps running off, and possibly a single sob.
"Acceptable." Was the only reply.
Lilith was never one to turn down kindness, and she just sat in the vat of essence, pleasantly warm, and cried. After a few more minutes, she reached out to Ana, urging her attention and essence to… Nowhere. Her essence went nowhere. Her… Her essence went nowhere. "Oh." Lilith said quietly, "I got kicked out of… I didn't know you could get kicked out of the swarm." Her throat was so dry, and she crumpled into a small pile. "Why…" Then she shook her head. She knew why. She never shut-up, she was… aggressive in her affections, she made the Queen of Blades kill her, she nearly got Abathur's project destroyed, and she failed the diplomacy mission. Of course she would have been kicked out.
"Emotional spiral." The Sequencer drags Lilith back to reality with a booming phrase, "New adaptation. Isolated for safety." His explanations cuts through the paranoia of being kicked out.
"I… Oh. That's… You think that's best?" She asked, sniffling. She hadn't realized she'd been sobbing the entire time, until she realized that an echoing wail had stopped.
"Yes." It was final, no room for discussion nor explanation left anywhere.
"Okay. Do you want to… Hear about the new adaptation?" Lilith asked, but she was hopeful. Her voice almost pleading to know that somewhere she could do something right.
There was a low growl, but Abathur eventually rattled, "Yes."
She nods, "Kerrigan… The Que— No fuck that Kerrigan." She barked, "She had a demon in her head making her paranoid. I fought it. I killed it by evolving, or attracting something better, something nice. I showed her love, and for a moment she showed it back and the thing that haunted her died. It was because of ME." The anger is rising at being rejected, at being hurt, at being punished for being good and right. "I stood over her while she healed, she woke up, cut off my arm then I…"
Oh right, "I fired spines at her… So she obliterated me." Lilith looks down. "I was just angry, and I thought. It didn't seem like a demon. She's just… Like that. I think she's scared."
"Hypothesis, inconclusive." His voice was low when he rumbled. Not unkind, merely unsure. Hands move through Essence pools, the rote action clarifying impossibly powerful thought processes. "Queen of Blades, unpredictable. Must act carefully."
Lilith shakes her head a bit, "I… I think I get it. There's something… There's gotta be baggage for doing this for so long." She looks at Abathur, "Uh… Trauma? Bad shit. Bad thoughts."
"Much." Abathur confirms, moving to new projects, these ones in vats he has to extend up to get too, showing a long, worm-like frame. "Queen of Blades, memory, heavily emotionally tainted Hypothesis: Psionic source."
She sat on it for a bit, pondering the thought, "Well then why isn't Anastasia like that?"
The Sequencer grumbles, "Differing reaction. Terrans, non-standard. Similar emotional taint in long-term memory. Theoretically, more severe."
"I uh… I have a demon now. Named Manth. Well not have, we're working together. I don't think we own each other." She looks around as if it were in the room with her.
"Aware, could not touch Essence. Aggravation." The Sequencer admits again.
She looks up, "Do you want to try and talk to it? In my brain?"
"Disconnected."
Her eyes water up again, "Oh… Right… Alone-ish."
I appreciate the vote of confidence. A droll, slightly amused tone emanates from him.
Only because it's Abathur, if it's Kerrigan, Zhakarov, or possibly even Ana I think they'd just think I'm a stupid fuck-up. She admits in her head, you haven't asked me for anything. You helped.
This relationship isn't actively transactional. Enjoyment, companionship, love? That's worth a thousand favours on this side.
Her eyes water, I'm alone Manth, I can't even hear… Anything.
I assure you, you aren't alone. I'm right here. The voice turns to a feminine softness, morphing actively as it speaks, And I will make sure you get what you want. Just need… short steps for now-is it short steps? That feels like the wrong word.
Small steps? Baby steps I think, she laughs a bit wiping her eyes.
Perfect-wait, baby steps? How are babies involve-Anyways, we just need to keep trying. I can feel her feelings, like a warm little mist. The Queen will be ours.
Do we even have time for this? The Magos Genetor must be so pissed. And everyone here is too stupid to think of calling him. She groaned, Not stupid just…
You may have forgotten about that one, the… strange one, with no desire as I can understand it. Zimirov? Zubarov?
Azimov, I mean Zhakarov.
That! Yes, he's been keeping everything chugging ever since you took a violent nap. Including operating the Vox, surprisingly good at talking-that is as far as I saw, your Abathur disconnected us soon after. A fun, lilting tones is in its voice, as if describing a night on the town.
Lilith looked up at Abathur then back down, Well, not every Daemon we've met has been good. The people who can break this world are scared of them as well. She scratches the side of her leg, I have to assume you have… Politics or motivations or something going on. Everyone's people.
Then she stands up, and says both out loud and in her head, "The Queen can spend some time alone for now since she so desperately," the word drips with venom, "needs it. Do you know where Ana is Abathur? I didn't see her and she's normally close."
"Pass message through Zerg." Abathur said, "Still allied, only disconnected."
Lilith looked confused up at Abathur, but walked over to a Zergling, "Can…" She looks at Abathur again, "This feels stupid."
"Required." The worm rumbled finally sidling away to a further project in further pit.
She looked at the Zergling, "Can you tell Ana I'm disconnected from the Swarm? That… I'm alone, and need someone." The tone was begging, pleading even. The psychic reverberations rippled outward from the little creature, through a mechanism she didn't understand, and now, may never be allowed too. She pet the creature, and was happy know that with one so close, she could still command it, even if extremely isolated. Which meant she could also feel it, and through it feel those who wanted to connect with her. Which she realized… Was no-one.
Abathur growled again, but said nothing this time.
Okkaaa… so…. Not sure what's up with that. I can believe that Zerg Psychic shenanigans either created or twisted a daemon (probably a slanesh demon given Lilith's personality). I really worry that it's just a normal demon trying to possess her though. Kerrigan needs to calm down, really.
I hope it's not standard demon shenanigans and the Zerg did in fact do psychic shenanigans to prevent demonic attack or just made their own demons.
Also Albathur reminds me of a tech priest. One of the nice ones.
This is also co-written by @Dapperlad1 who has written just as much as I have. He's been helping a lot, especially with Warhammer lore, keeping a good deal of the cast on character, editing, and the premise was entirely his idea.
The entire thread is NSFW by default, but maybe your work is more progressive!
The following content may be more explicit than your average update!
The next slide has trigger warnings for those who need them.
Domination, Aggressive Descriptions of Sex
In her head she felt a sweet calm comfort, as the Astropath made contact, I'm sorry she said, I'll be right there. Lilith felt through the bond, and knew what had hurt Ana so terribly. It made her gut squirm. Of course Ana was interested, she could feel it every time they touched, a near-constant event these days. The idea of hurting her hadn't really occurred to Lilith at all, just a Thing that happened. She'd need Ana, or they'd need more infested that can have a basic conversation, either being preferable than a world alone. Ana hadn't gone far, or moved very quickly, as she had arrived in a few seconds when Lilith called.
"Are you alright?" The question from Ana bounced around in Lilith's mind, she didn't know really. She didn't feel anything at the moment, just like something valuable and precious had been torn away. Something that she wanted. That cold, radiating fury started bubbling up again, and she pushed it back down. Had Kerrigan seen it? Was that why she rejected her so thoroughly?
Finally, after a minute in thought with Ana standing there awkwardly waiting, Lilith replied, "No, I'm very… Upset." It was true, technically. Her fingers flexed and she felt something in her arm, something new. When she flexed the muscle a blade long and sharp jutted out. Like a Hydralisk or a Zergling claw, it articulated and moved, her hand sometimes grasping, or merely bending back much too far as the blade rose.
Ana's eyes went wide when the blade came out, "Lilith you can't do that, she'll kill you!" A pleading tone slips into Ana, almost practised though unconsciously used.
Confused, she looked at Ana, trying to figure out what she was talking about, before she realised, "Oh, no. That's not," The blade retracts with the skin instantly healing like a zipper. "That's not quite what that was, I… Abathur doesn't mention everything. I had a new muscle, and didn't know what it did. Now… I know. I guess."
There's another pregnant pause, the two women standing there.
Mustering nerves, Ana breaks the silence, "L-Lilith, c-can we go somewhere? O-outside?" Her shaky voice does much to get Lilith's attention.
"Yeah, sorry, sure." She said, "I just feel safe here. I know Abathur can't protect me, but he can… Make me stronger, and we talk sometimes."
"You haven't… seen the sun in…how-how long?" Anastasia asks, terrified of the answer.
Lilith touched her chin, "Probably a month? Maybe a month and a half." It was an afterthought, it hadn't even occurred to her it would be a problem. "I don't photosynthesize, I'll be fine."
The Psyker gathers herself before grabbing Lilith's wrist, "F-follow me, ok-okay?" She starts to walk out of the chamber, holding the other woman.
When she feels the touch on her wrist, a tear builds up, and she pulls it away, then hooks her arm around Anastasia's waist. As they walked, she leaned into her feeling small and… inadequate. "I'm sorry…" She wasn't even sure what she was sorry for, but she knew she felt so guilty for something.
Natural sunlight begins to slip through membranes as Anastasia tries to get Lilith away from the flesh and carapace, to anything else. The touch, the arm around her waist, the words, they all compound to force words from her, "N-no!" At the mouth of the Chamber, doorway flexing open into the creepfields that are slowly consuming everything. "D-d-don't apologise t-to me, p-please." The Astropath shivers, breath shaky at the rush of feeling put upon her.
"Yo-you c-can't hurt me, al-alright?" Her assurance is inexpert and crude, confidence utterly lacking in any form. "I-I lo-care a-about you."
Then at that, Lilith sighs, and tries not to say anything, but the words can never be stopped it seems, "Ana, I knew the moment you popped out here that you lo-cared about me," she said, copying the stutter with a small titter, then more seriously, "I don't want to hurt you. If we get involved, and I go chasing someone else, it'll destroy you."
Ana tries to protest, but if there's one thing that Lilith is good at, it's talking over people, "If we get involved, and it cuts off what I want, then I'm going to be destroyed. There's the cruel thing to do, and the smart thing to do. I don't have it in me to do the cruel thing, not yet at least." Lilith admitted, "I think if… If you watched me get rejected and sliced up a thousand times, you'd feel like second place. I don't… Want that either."
Manth, do you think… This'd work? Lilith said, her thoughts rummaging for something. Maybe a bit of Jealousy?
"Oh, lovey, I like the way you think~" Manth replied, her voice feeling like honey. "I do believe so, yes."
At that Lilith starts to tear up, "But you're so nice, and you're here and you're real." She doesn't know what to say or do. She just… Needs something. "I just can't do it without… I shouldn't lie to people, it's what fucks everything up every time." Lilith isn't letting go either, she's wrapped both arms around Anastasia, but professing a love for another woman.
"I-it's n-normal." Ana stutters, "I-I d-don't have to be y-your only one." There's a desperate flicker to her, arms wrapping around Lilith in turn, trembling tears holding barely steady at the edge of her eyes. "I n-never am."
Lilith snaps to Ana at that, "What do you mean?" her attention is rapt, but it cuts through the tears. Why can't I do this as well anymore. Her voice gets lower, and a bit softer, "I'm sorry, some things… What did you mean by you never are?"
Flinching at the snap, the other woman still answers, "I-I'm a w-witch." Her stutter worsens at that, "I-I d-don't d-deserve a-anyone's h-heart." Anastasia shamefully admits, truly believing her own words, "I-i c-can m-make do….w-with less." Her eyes are boring a hole in the ground, unable to rise up.
"That's not what I'm saying, Anastasia," Lilith said, a bit rougher, more demanding. "This wouldn't hurt if I didn't love you. This would be easy. I wouldn't say anything if I didn't love you. Or worse, I'd just toy with your feelings." She gently puts a finger under Ana's chin, trying to get her look into Lilith's eyes. The Astropath doesn't resist her touch. "Love isn't like a heart, it's like a kiss, you share them with everyone you love. It can be short, and sweet, and meaningful. It can be long, and passionate, and breaking when it's done. The sign of something more, or something ending."
"T-then why c-can't we l-let it last a-as long at it w-will?" She almost-begs, chin still on the tip of Lilith's finger.
There's a quiet to Lilith, "I'm surrounded by Psychics, and I'm terrified you'll hear it, if I get close."
Anastasia roughly shakes her head, "Th-there's nothing that'll c-change w-what I f-feel." Tears flicking from her eyes and hair brushing against Lilith's hand as she does.
With a deep breath, Lilith tries to tamp down her wall of noise. Her learned behaviour to cover something… Different. Maybe wrong. In the echoing silence that she is able to create once again, she leans forward placing her head on Anastasia's chest. Like a song, like a psalm or hymn, there's just a repeating mantra that echoes back and forth, dozens of voices overlapping.
Lilith loves Kerrigan and Kerrigan loves Lilith but Lilith only loves Lilith and Lilith loves Ana and Ana loves Lilith but Lilith only loves Lilith and Lilith loves Kerrigan and Kerrigan loves Lilith but Lilith only loves Lilith but Lilith only loves Lilith and Lilith Loves Ana and Lilith loves Kerrigan.
Anastasia cradles the other woman, listening to the praying hymn with rapt attention, glowing essence eyes showing her being aware of it. "I-I said the truth." She quietly whispers, voice steadier at this volume, "I j-just wa-" Anastasia freezes, realising what she was about to say and immediately halting.
Quieter, softer, as she tries to force the wall of noise back up, thinking of music and songs, and stories, and random memories she says. "I'm really… I'm not super great Ana, I'm…" She wants to cry, but instead she just hugs Ana harder.
"Y-you're p-p-perfect to me." Ana answers, uncaring of the next few seconds, merely craving more touch, melting into the hug.
The word cuts through Lilith's senses, hitting something core, and vulnerable, waves of admiration comes out, not only for Ana, but for herself. New words are dragged out of Lilith as she tries her best to force them back, but she can't stop them, "I know I am. No-one else sees it." Those aren't the right words Lilith. She thinks to herself, You need to say the right words.
"I-I do! I c-can see it!" Anastasia keeps almost-begging, "Sinc-since I met you, I co-could see it in e-every word. I-in the w-way you didn't e-ever hate anyone." The Essence in her eyes dies as she focuses on reality, "I can f-feel it, y-you w-want to t-trick me, b-but you are s-still honest."
Ana's smile draws a flinch out of Lilith, "L-let me, p-please-" She tries to formulate her words, "L-let me k-keep seeing it, a-as long as I c-can." Her arms move from around Lilith to sliding up her shoulders and settling on the sides of her face, "L-let me tell you ho-how b-b-beautiful you are, e-every day, p-please."
The words crash through her, the noise getting loud in her head drowning everything out. Lilith only loves Lilith and Lilith Loves Ana and Ana loves, She smiles, "Ok…" She says quietly, "Ok I can do that." Then she says, "You're mine now ok? You're one of mine." She touches her head to Ana's "If you mean it, you're mine. I'll keep you as another idol. You can be mine if you want."
"Y-yes, I-I've never wanted a-anything m-more." Ana doesn't blink or think, falling into Lilith's words, consumed in their waves. "P-please, m-make me y-yours."
The words make Lilith feel stronger, like someone who can uplift and create. Someone who empowers on a whim. Like a goddess. Then her voice gets a little low, "Then you need to stop calling yourself a Witch, cursed, or any other self deprecating bullshit." The words are pointed, with a hint of steel. "My things are chosen because they are good. I don't like being contradicted."
Ana looks down again, "Y-yes, I u-understand." Her voice is shaky, excited and, somehow, ashamed at the same time.
The power surges through Lilith, and she can't stop herself from pushing it just a little bit further. "Say something nice about yourself. Now."
The Astropath freezes, struck stiff by the demand, mind racing to obey but finding it impossible.
The lack of answer, makes her surge with something, devotion? Does a God love as much as it is loved? "You may want to think of an answer before I'm done counting." She waits a second to Ana's stunned silence, "Five…"
Ana still rushes through thoughts, trying to find anything satisfactory, the countdown shaking her mind further.
"Use the tools around you, four." Lilith says, relishing in the panic. Letting all the reasons she loves Ana burble to the surface, she's beautiful, and sweet, and kind. She's tender, caring, and devoted."
"I-I-I." The other woman's stutter is stopping any words from escaping, formless and nonsensical as they would be anyways. Eye's trapped staring at Lilith's, trying to find a way out.
"The punishment is that you won't get the kiss you want today… Three." Lilith counts again, trying to make the reasons louder as she touches Ana's bottom lip.
Her eyes glint in Essence as even her psychic senses heighten in the panic, sending orange streams of light through the room. "I-You-I." A thought is forming, but its slow, unused to this mental pathway.
The smile goes wider, more feral, she grabs Ana from behind pushing her in closer, "Two… Oh you poor pretty little thing." Claws digging in just a little, the hint given with a bit of hope. "Surely you can think of something?"
"Y-you l-love me?" Ana's answer is more a question than anything else. Finally coming out as she's pulled against the other woman.
"Ooh, yes, but that's my choice, beautiful. I'll give you a few more seconds." Another desperate hint, come on.
Her eyes look around everywhere but the smiling, so close, figure of Lilith, trying to keep her mind straight, to think.
"You're cute when you're flustered, I'll give you one for today, but next time you'll need two." Lilith snickered, "Say you're beautiful."
"I-I-I'm b-beautiful?" Once again slipping out as a question moreso than an answer.
The smile lowers just a bit, "That doesn't sound like an answer. It sounds like a question." She slips a foot behind Ana, slipping her off her already unbalanced self. She holds her the whole way down to the floor, so slowly. "Try again, I promise I'm worth it."
Throat dry, and raspy, Ana manages to just barely squeak out the words through a rapidly developing searing blush, "I-I-I—I'm… beau-b—beautiful"
It burns Lilith to hear her say it, to know that she made it happen. Mounting Anastasia, sidling on each side Lilith crawls until she's face to face with her, inches away from her mouth, staring deep into her eyes, "Do you want me to kiss you?"
Ana can't speak, she just nods, hands moving to the sides of the other woman's body on instinct, resting on her hips.
The smaller smiles, using long tendrils to pin her arms above her head, "That, will happen in a minute dear, or a week. Depends…" Before Ana can answer, Lilith bites Ana's lip making her gasp. When Ana's mouth opens she gently pushes her tongue inside, letting it flick at Ana's already frazzled senses. Knowing in her panic, she might be barely aware of her. She sucks on Ana's lip, as they pull apart, and then, she leans in again, and Ana closes her eyes. This time Lilith is far rougher, jamming herself forward with a rapid intensity trying to tear Ana's soul. Trying to make something new out of her constituent parts. The kisses become rapid and more intense. Ana's unconsciously moaning, while Lilith is very consciously making noises of lust, letting the energy in Ana rise further, and further, and further. Before stopping.
Parting.
Letting the moment sit.
Letting it build.
"You're pretty, and?" She says mischievously.
Eyes flickering back to a measure of sanity, "I-I'm yours." Ana is desperate for more, for this to never stop. Her body moves as much as it can under the pinning tendrils.
"That's my choice, not yours." Lilith says again, "You're smart. Say it like you mean it."
"I'm smart, I'm pretty and smart. Please." Ana begs. Desperation making Lilith scream with enjoyment
There's a lighter peck on Ana's jaw line, a slight suckle at her neck, another just below the clavicle. A pause.
Ana tries to breathe, but it's become so burdensome trying while Lilith rewards her.
Another, just off the nipple, another on the stomach, the iliac crest, and then, finally, one right above her sex. Genty, ever so gently, like a flower being tickled by another's petal, she gently parts Ana's lips with her tongue. Ana exhales a breath she hadn't realised she was holding, and made out a stuttering pitched noise.
Again, slowly, dragging the intensity, letting it stretch across the entirety of Ana's nervous system like an electric pulse. Again… Another slow drag drawing desperation. Then again, continuing over and over methodically. Without warning, she suddenly switches to a faster attack. Her tongue moved north and pointedly explored, repeatedly lapping at her, having a drip of wet slather Lilith's chin. Ana squeaks with an arched back at one point, drawing a smile from Lilith.
Her tongue moved right to the origin of the squeak, just off her clit, and her intensity slowly increased. Causing Ana to feel consumed as Lilith continued. She started to buck wildly as Lilith found more tendrils to pin her down, pressure from the limbs mixing with pleasure. Lilith would not be bucked from her work. She continued before picking up from too slow to an intensity that could not be resisted. So Lilith retracted her talons, and two fingers slipped inside.
Ana happily, desperately yelped as the digits gently prodded around, searching until Lilith found something that made her groan. The spot was attacked by Lilith's fingers swiftly, they curled running over it again and again. Pushing into it, until finally Ana's twisting had become violent and the Psykers body started to scream for release. Ana spitting out a choked groan as her mind caught up with her need.
Lightning, pure and crisp, exploded from a centre deep inside her core. The power sending every neuron into overdrive, waves, after wave of intense overwhelming pleasure crashing against the edges of her ability to perceive sense. It didn't stop, she had thought it would stop, but there was more. And more. and more. Each one causing her to writhe, and moan on every wave length.
When she stopped, Lilith started again, trying to coax as much as she could from the other woman. It was dozens of minutes later she was incapable of continuing even this, as Anastasia's bottom half quivered from cramps and adrenaline. At some point, Lilith crawled forward and sat on her stomach staring down at her thing, wiping her mouth with the back of the wrist.
Then with a wicked gleam she said, "Yeah, no, I think I love you."
"Magos." A rumbling voice activates through the Vox linkage, demanding attention by its own power alone. "Negotiations must reconvene." Zhakarov's demand is met with an electronic hiss-screech as the Tech Priest reforms in the screen, green hologram assembling.
"Explain." The Magos demands, throwing his own mechanism against the eerie, almost machine Infested. "Your ship is damaged, but your survival is important to us. We may negotiate on how to assure it." Simple facts are placed in order, one after another driving the point home.
"Acknowledged, of importance to goals, thus, life assured." The other, less human, man vocally runs through the thought process of the Swarm. "Will need supplies, must move. Planetside shuttle-craft sufficient."
"Of course, we will find these devices, where will you move?" Zhakarov demand, communicating smoother with the Magos than truly any other creature before. "Aerostat within Gas Giant, it contains food production supplies. Will also produce oxygen." He explains, voice speeding up as the creeping binaric in its rear starts to show its head.
"Acceptable, expect shuttle to be found within the hour." The linkage disconnects with a button depression as the Swarm's backbone begins to refocus on everything now on his plate rather than a quick conversation.
Dark hallways filled with long desiccated corpses that have the microscopic evidence of starvation even as servitor drones move them to reprocessing areas. Humming rotors keep us above the gaseous hell beneath, assisted by lighter-than-air pods off the sides of the habitat. A smell much like mildew infuses every inch of the construction, once harvesting promethium in small quantities for private voidcraft.
"Report status." Rippling through the congregational-lines, whirring lightning and radio binding Tech Serfs to the Magos. "Praise be, the machine is intact. Prayers of activation bring its reactor to life and instructionals of repair are accurate to this blessed construct." The drone of dozens of united voices, bound by their own willfully implanted cybernetics, brings a sense of calm to the Magos.
"Repair hydroponics. And point defence." Mechanical vitriol escapes in the second half, the machine-man evidently emotionally afflicted by the series of events that led to his presence in a dead and empty station. "By your will." Tech Serfs answer, moving to complete ordered priority tasks without a doubt.
Mechanical red lenses stare out towards the distant blue dot of a world, "Your secrets will not escape me. They are mankind's." With those words, a small gleaming display in the Magos's vision ticks down as stress hormones reduce, tracked like every other facet of his existence.
From her throne room, the Queen of Blades saw storm-dark blisters bloated with rain, the thick smears clotting the sky sparkled with distant lightning and thunder. The shadow of rain is distant but pulling away from her. She hated it. She stared at it with malice, as her pisonic will focused. It would be pulled back, the rain would not be allowed to leave. Whether by wind or will, the clouds reversed direction. Then she dislodged a piece of blood soaked carapace.
The small sliver carved a vicious sneer on her lips. She was turning the piece darkened with black blood over, and over in her talons. Frustration building as she tried to inure herself to it. Still it crept in, and her eyes blazed with fury. A psychic ripple sends a shockwave through the swarm, not heavy, but enough to draw her attention. It's cause making the frenzy in her chest nearly break the surface, reaching out to the world in blistering bolts, sending spiderweb burns into the walls.
Constant pulses of power attract attention, all around the Hatchery, Zerg swarm, watching it with bated breath and worry, worry for their Queen's will. Queens and Overlords alike fill the sky above, buffeted by the winds.
The carapace sliver rises in a flickering electric grip, an insult on Kerrigan's lips left to a hiss as electric force vapourizes it into falling motes of dust that bounce off her leg, coating the ground beneath in its remnants. "Bring me Lilith." She growls at a nearby Overlord, demanding its obedience.
Its psychic net stretches far, ordering many organisms of the swarm and informing its brethren alike of the order. Distantly, in an Evolution Chamber, Anastasia stiffens into Lilith's side, "Ah!" A spike of pain evident in her wince and grit of teeth.
The pain bleeds-through causing Lilith to panic, "Hey, what's going on." She looks at her, "Ana?" Then, through her she hears Kerrigan's words. What the ACTUAL fuck. She grits her teeth, then gently pecks Ana on the head. "Ana I gotta go."
The psychic woman is still dazed by the forceful command as Lilith rushes away, seeing dozens, hundreds, thousands of Swarm creatures observing her as the Queen's hatchery nears. At the front doorway, a veritable tide of Zerg lays behind her as the bruised skies spill rain and bolts of atmospheric anguish into the Creep below.
With a tense of flesh, doorways open, and the biochemically lit interior of the Hatchery is poignantly filled only by two things. The Queen and, lazily lounged upon, her throne. "Lilith." A faux-happiness, sarcastic and acidic in origin escapes her.
Lilith runs in looking at her, observing the swarm and her surroundings with a mix of… fear, and excitement, "Christ… Are… Are we going to… I don't think I can win a fight here Kerrigan."
"I've been thinking about you." She continues the faux-happiness, "It's been…constant." And with that, her voice drops to an angry growl. One leg crossed over the other, merged heel dangling in the air as she leans further back into her throne to buy more calm time.
Lilith, that's not what she means Lilith? Li— The thought processes terminate as she runs forward and slides on her knees unthinking. "I've been thinking about you too. They cut me out of the swarm, I thought it was because you hated me. I can't stop thinking about you." There's pure glee in her voice despite the danger. Totally unaware of her surroundings
"Mhmm~." The Queen makes a noise that, to Lilith, sounds much like enjoyment. Her legs move to steady on both sides of Lilith, on her knees before Kerrigan as she is, and then a hand wraps around Lilith's jaw, pulling her to the Queen's sitting height. "I am insensate, Lilith." The anger in her is evident in how smooth and communicative her words are.
"Wait, before I make you sensate, I'm in an open relationship if that's a deal breaker." Lilith says quickly, "I can though!"
Kerrigan's eyes sink to aggravation, the game obviously failing to impress upon Lilith the danger, "Let me put this in words you understand." A spark of lightning shocks the other woman stiff, coiling through nerves in a rare and unique agony, "I want to kill you."
She short-circuits as finally the northern part of her body takes over control once more. There's a moment of fear for the briefest second, but it sparks out, fading just like the lightning that brought it, "Sorry I got scared for a minute. I forgot my body is regenerative. I can do that! Slow or Fast! We can fight!"
"You are maddening." Kerrigan squeezes tightly on Lilith's jaw, just on the edge of a crush. "What is wrong with you?!"
"Um… Well. I want to be your tool!" Her voice is choked and raspy as she tries to keep talking, thinking, or something similar to thinking, that Kerrigan wants to hear her voice being cut out. "Like if you were a carpenter, I'd be your hammer o—" Kerrigan crushes her throat with more force, causing the last words to be almost inaudibe, "If— you— were— a knight— I'd be y—" She couldn't get the last words out.
"You are pathetic." The Queen insults in a growl, letting Lilith go to catch her breath, to prolong the game, "Like a worm, begging for my attention."
Lilith takes a moment to observe the high-heels and bodice carapace of The Queen, making a snap decision. "Absolutely," Lilith agrees, falling out of her element for a moment, "I'm… Dirty?" That's not a good, maybe a brat? Lilith do not.
Lovey, that may not be the best option.
"I'm begging because I wanted to show you something new," Lilith eyes light up with a large smile, and a slight flinch.
"New?" THe Queen asks, her anger leaving her for a second as bafflement replaces it, letting Lilith dig a deeper hole before continuing.
Both her brain, and Manth are screaming in unison to stop talking, but the reflexive need to tease requires lightning fast response. "Uh… How many people do you see begging to step into this particular shit show lately?"
Rage pulses free, at the gall, the audacity of the smaller woman. She stands, pushing Lilith to fall backwards, and in a curious repetition of weeks ago, a heeled boot lands hard on her, pressing into Lilith's sternum. "You are an idiot." Kerrigan realises with anger shooting through her.
"Yeah, but I'm an idiot in love, do I get points for that?" She weakly chuckles, the rage finally cracking through to something that makes sense.
The Queen presses her weight onto the heel at that, "Shut, your, mouth." She demands with a husky growl, either utter rage or, if it could even be considered, a sad tinge colouring her voice. Kerrigan stares at Lilith with a barely notable shiver to her features, letting enough time for the other woman to react pass.
"I'm… so sorry, I didn't mean to hit a nerve." Lilith looks sad, and tries to move out from under Kerrigan's heel, "I thought we were just fooling around. Of course, I shouldn— There's only like three infested here I should have thought about that more."
"You should have." Kerrigan forces her heel into Lilith's chest, ripping it out suddenly before throwing her telekinetically to the front door. "Get out." The words carry with it psychic rage, tense and furious.
The pain barely registers, and Lilith looks down at the ground, "I'll be outside so you can find me if you need something, but yeah… Sorry." Lilith starts walking out the door. "I don't need you!" The Queen barks, a wave of force stumbling Lilith out of the door and forcing her against creep.
The bleedthrough causes her to feel an immense sadness, and she feels trapped. Kerrigan needs someone. She can't be alone like this, it's not right, but it can't be me, because I'm the one who did it. So how can I even help her, all I want to do is help. I don't want her to hurt. Her mind is reeling as she's overwhelmed with sadness and empathy, even as the psychic force crushes her ribs. I need her to not be hurting like this, I can't stand seeing something I love so sad. I don't know what to— The force crushes harder, Ok, she could be a little LESS of a bitch about this, it was one fucking comme— The force seems to clamp Lilith feels ribs starting to crack, I will NOTbe bullied out of loving someone. I refuse to lose such a stupid fucking fight.Finally, a serious amount of pain registers, Oh you want to be like that bitch, ALright I'll… FUCK. The minute I'm strong enough to FIGHT her I'm going to RIP her arms off and BEAT her with them.
"You will what." Kerrigan's voice invades her mind.
Anger has consumed her, YOU HEARD ME, TELL ME YOU HATE ME OR I'M GOING TO SCRAPE YOU OFF THE GROUND LIKE A GODDAMN BUG-
Force, Lilith's body flares into light and gore, splattering viscera over two-dozen feet. A silence pervades the clearing as the hatchery doors slowly close, blocking the view of the ruined corpse from the Queen's sight.
Fluid, pain, life. Flensing talons repair ruined flesh as barely-living Essence is coaxed to completion. A sac is Lilith's world, the glow of pink Essence her lifeline, the invading hands of the Ur-Sequencer, her only chance.
Abathur, make me STRONGER than her so I can GO KICK HER ASS! Lilith was furious, HOW DARE SHE?! She's so closed off like a child. WHY?! Her essence was livid as the sequencing went on, at this point the pain barely registering as anything other than tickles, the banality of it combing with her furious emotions. Abathur how do I use this thing in my HEAD to kick her ass.
"Essence repair, crucial." The Sequencer rumbles, "Emotional instability, making it complex."
She knew he was right, he had said the same thing about the giddiness as well. She tried calming, focusing on the hands, letting the rage be plucked and strung from her body, imagining the weaving cleansing it. It subsided, at least a little. She read my mind, I said I'd rip her arms off if she didn't tell someone her feelings. I didn't realise she was listening, but I doubled down when she made herself known. Knowing what she did wrong, did push the rage down.
"Queen of Blades, unpredictable." He repeats for the fifth time, "Demands submission. Must provide." As finally the last of Lilith's flesh sloughs together, eyes fully blinking open.
She coughs, "Actually, I think threatening her leading to squishing is one of her more predictable reactions. She was crying, well her equivalent, which is her equivalent to every emotion," Her eyes rolled. "Fucking… She said Oh, aren't you pathetic, beg worm. Why are you like this? Normally that's when you're supposed to be a little bratty." She looks at the giant worm for a second, Jesus christ, what has happened to my life, "So I said, 'I wanted to show you something new,' I didn't think it'd make her flip out. How was I supposed to know."
"I told you multiple times darling," Manth intonates with its radiant beauty, "You were even screaming it at yourself."
"I let the south half talk over the north." She muttered angrily, then looked back to the ten metre worm. "How much of this are you actually even understanding?" She looks Abathur up and down, "Does your species even have a sex or… We use he, but that's a gender presentation or what's the actual… Like Organ thing."
"Organism Abathur, brood of one. No others." He answers, inspecting Lilith for any faults.
Her eyes furrow, "Oh you poor thing," and she reaches out to touch him, feeling slick, wet flesh that has a light vibration through it. "You're alone, like me."
"Loneliness, symptom of social instincts. Can remove." Abathur offers, moving to a second project slightly nearby. "Useful to not perceive."
The woman climbs out of the vat and looks him up and down, "We've been sequencing stuff for a while now Abathur, if that were true you would have done it to me by now without asking. If you didn't do it without asking, then that was out of a sign of respect, or possibly even a bond." Then she reached into something deep, "Hypothesis, Two seperate broods united?"
"Organism Lilith goal." He responds, "Unity with Queen of Blades brood. Contrast with any other goal." A gesture of twisting limbs seems to be a way of communicating deep thought, from what slight bleedthrough can communicate.
She studies him suddenly, like a hawk. The Queen of Blades would never let Abathur do anything to her, and Abathur wasn't here when she was chosen for unity was she? So… Oh, no, he meant your goal. Oh, wow he meant your goal. He's putting your goal first. "Thank you." She says, quietly. "Organism Lilith, Need information about emotional Hazards."
"Emotional hazards? Of Queen of Blades." Abathur answers his own question, "Memory, accessible." A coiling tri-helix of Essence slips out of a pool, gently glinting in the air between Abathur's fingertips, representative of a billion unfolding sequences hand-crafted by the organism. "Warning, Queen of Blades, unpredictable."
Lilith took a deep breath, "Terran flaw, repetition insufficient, new explanations required, concept broken down into components. De-sequenced." What the hell do you mean when you say that, you're trying to say so much when you say so little.
"Queen of Blades, dangerous." Abathur clarifies upon request. "Can infest with information."
He's telling you to be carefu— No, that second part, no it's both? "Organism Lilith, take caution, Query, use information sparely?"
"Choice, Organism Lilith's." He answers.
She narrows her eyes a bit, thinking, "Query, Acquire information, Ur-sequencer required? Explanation, Queen of Blades, violent."
"Queen of Blades, my design." Abathur retorts, "Cannot kill." The sequences swirl in his hands.
"Worst experiences possible." There's a sadness in Lilith, "Query, Ur-sequencer, Risk?" He's so sweet, I'm worried he'll get hurt.
"None." A rumble of confident separation assures Lilith further. "Queen of Blades, decades of exposure." He answers.
Another nod, more thought, scratching her chin, "Query, Speech pattern, Accurate? Studied." Her smile is wide, she had asked for this a year or two ago, and was ecstatic that she was getting a handle of the organs, if not the pattern.
Now there's a huge smile on Liliths' face brimming from ear to ear. "Queen, violence only answer towards swarm. Goal Communication, Match offence with defence. Possibility?"
"Complex. Solution, within." The Ur-Sequencer answers, "Observation requested." Abathur sinks into the tunnel, leaving one limb sticking out, awaiting Lilith's grip.
Losing the voice for a second, Lilith says, "Oh Are we—" but when she grabs the hand she is hurtled through the tunnel as Abathur moves at speeds Lilith had thought were impossible. The tunnel was so long and deep, and she moved so fast bumping along the sides of it scraping. Before the worm had finally stopped. "Holy shit." She says dizzy, "You dick. Warn me please."
The chamber Lilith blearily blinks in is colossal, the size of a hive nexus yet embedded in the earth. A cavernous, chthonic place that stretches far. All throughout it, lightning-rends dot the walls. The odd mixing of stones from where psychic storms forced them to merge and shift unpredictably, and the gouged rents where raw telekinetic force moved geologic quantities of stone.
"Violence, improbable answer." Abathur calmly states, "Durable hive nexus, ninety terran seconds of life in conflict. Queen of Blades, near-perfect fighting organism." There's long-dried Zerg viscera in the stones, of strains no one but Abathur has ever seen.
"Oh…" She says looking at the destroyed projects, "I'm sorry, I only need ninety seconds though. She'll cool off by then."
"Organism Lilith, not hive nexus." A dry response, close to humour for the Sequencer.
She never asked before, but suddenly, she wondered. The queen had mentioned it before, and Abathur had said it a few times, "Organism Lilith, project, Ur-sequencer project, Queen confirms. Goal of project?"
The Sequencer tilts his colossal head from the tunnel opening, "Observation. Purity of Essence in Zerg. Variety of Purity of Form in Neverborn. Merging, ultimate goal of life."
"Queen, similar project, protoss?" She asks. Is she like me? Are we similar?
"Protoss Essence….impossible to work with. Queen of Blades based on assumptive recreation." Abathur answers, "Attempting to exceed previous work."
Her eyes went wide, as she followed towards the tunnel opening, suddenly shocked. She couldn't believe it, "Tentative results?" She asks hopefully.
"Active Observation." He retracts further into the tunnel, barely being pinprick green eyes in the dark.
I think he means we should talk, dearest! The velvet shadow of Manth falls over Lilith, ensconcing her body with its warmth and touch.
OH! Manth! She smiles wide, She loves me! Did you notice? She's obsessed with me. I'm in her head constantly! She said it herself. We're so close.
E-xactly! The enunciation of the word feels exotic, or perhaps just intentionally altered, And I think we both know what needs to happen, what she can't do. The giddy voice of Manth is obviously getting more excited, We can't let her just push you away!
Hmmm… Lilith thinks, Sometimes… It's better to be there for someone, even if they don't want you to but it's rare. Do you think this is one of those? I can't get a read on her. Then she thinks of the moment when she sat there, listening to her thoughts as she was being crushed. She could hear them, the whole time. She knows I care, I think you're right.
Relationships are my thing Lilith! Of course I am! It answers excitedly, Now, its not as easy as submitting to… modification with me. We need to make… a Deal-Oh wow you can hear the capitalization!
I want the Queen of Blades to rule the Galaxy with me by her si— Lilith, that's not what you want. I actually don't know what the Queen wants… I want her. I want her to be one of the things I build up and fix and be part of me. I want her to love me more than anyone else, and when she walks into battle I want to be strong enough to walk her out. I don't want her to leave me, or push me away. I want it to be her choosing me. She stops thinking, Is that too much?
No such thing. Manth's voice dives deeply into a masculine growl, I can make you able to do all of that, I can make every and any goal within your reach. All you need to do is let me in. The voice is prodding at the edges of her.
Then with wide eyes and guilt deriving off of her, I didn't know I was keeping you out! Sorry, how do I… You're my friend.
A snap of feeling hits Lilith at that, a sensation of flowing fluid entering her body and disappearing into her heart. It follows with pink flame, sizzling across her skin with cold heat even as stone runs like wax in its burning passage. The process halts just as the flame spreads all over her, a stoppage of everything as Manth speaks.
This next part is… going to be a lot. It warns, waiting for response.
Her eyes are manic and feverish as she burns so ecstatic at the sensation already staring at her pink burning arms with wonder, marveling at at the beautiful nerve death, Don't worry, people say the same thing about me. Go. Gogogo. There's excitement, at finding something new, something different.
The flame starts up brighter as Lilith is struck with a paroxysm of raw sensation. Lightning spiderwebs shooting through her body, reaching to its lowest and highest points alike. Her core tightens to an extreme as she falls backwards but does not strike the ground. Her mouth slips open as somehow, the fire brightens, the utter feeling exceeding possible and falling into the realms of fantasy brought to reality. Thought slows to a crawl, sanity drips away with the liquid-pink-fire that is slowly pooling beneath her.
Symbols flicker across her skin and even across her eyes, burning pink-purple schismatic arcane symbols, spreading with the pool all across the chamber. A brightness fills the room with no clear source and then-as suddenly as it started, Lilith falls to the ground, back impacting the stone with now-dull pain.
Lightning rips into Lilith, crawling down her spine at the speed of light as it catches every nerve on the way down before spilling completely through her. Her back arches and a strangled gasp leaves her powerful lungs as carapace flexes. When it hits her core, it explodes like a depth charge, sending powerful cascading ripples that make her toes clench and her jaw lock.
Memories of an infinite lifetime, a billion experiences. Lovers she's never met touching her tenderly, flings she never cared for in a million different settings spent below or atop her—no, atop Manth. Lilith's experience, her exposure to the Swarm is the only reason she can differentiate between the flows of memory, keep herself Lilith.
Shivering, purple wisps raise her into the air as it keeps going, far beyond stamina, far beyond resistance, beyond any mortal extent. Pink flame spills from her in curtains, filling the room with a powerful, fae glow. Runes carved in the walls pulsing with her desperate gasps, coating every inch before in an instant, it all stops.
Still with me? The stultifying voice asks, caring and warm.
She gasps, trying to catch her breath, I uh… Forgot to ask what you want. She says as she tries to catch herself. And can we do that again? The air seems boring, and dull compared to the feelings beyond feeling.
Your wish is my command With that, Lilith's back arches as every molecule of her being aches with a divine dosage of pain and pleasure, overwhelming senses and reducing everything to a momentary spat of light, touch and existence, shuttering like a camera from frame to frame. The pink haze grows overtop her again and sends stuttering paroxysms of pleasure and pain in shocking waves through Lilith, shaking her almost to pieces in the long, terrifying instants where sanity is on its edge, threatening to slip down the edge and fall away into nothing.
It seems it won't ever stop; it seems this is it. And that's when it does, in a sharp instant of mixed relief. We have a Queen to woo, lovely, Manth's voice leaks into her ears. The aftershocks take minutes to finally subside, radiating from deep within. She continued to lay there, unable to do anything but quiver.
She spends a moment crumpled on the floor, gasping, dripping, and tingling, before she finally start to calm. Her mind slowly piecing itself back together. Ragged breaths became smoother, calmer, until finally, a quiet relaxed calm came over her. Almost in a dream she says, "Thank you…" Her footing was uneven when she stood, and Lilith didn't want to risk taking a step lest she collapse.
I'll always be here for that, just…ask. The chuckle that follows is one that very much enjoys itself as of this moment.
I was a little worried that was a bad idea before it started, She says quietly slamming into the wall, I'm going to cry. Good cry. I think. It was… What's "Manth" aftercare like? The woman is so dizzy, and she falls back down.
A fresh, warm blanket of pink suffuses Lilith as the presence mumbles something musical and nice into her ear. The best. The whisper almost forcefully relaxes her muscles, letting even the hard stone feel like a soft bed and vague pink force translate into scalp-massaging fingers. Time could disappear here, forever lost to the turn of ages and the constant tread of light, yet steady touch.
"Has anyone ever told you you're like a speedball dipped in battery acid? It's a compliment." She says quietly, "I think I might love you almost as much as Kerrigan and Ana. I think… Yeah." She says quietly, "You're one of mine now too? Or each others?"
We can be each others The voice softly answers, keeping its own volume low.
"The others don't get that, I think. You do. I like you." She is whispy and dreamy. Trying not to fall asleep. "Ok…" Another deep breath, "Ok."
You can sleep. I'll wake you if anything nears.
There's a moment where she considers it, hidden here away from the swarm, disconnected, making everyone worry for a bit. Remind the Queen that she in fact does need her. She tries to yell, but it only comes out as a low speech, "Abathur, it worked, but I need a nap." And she lays down in the rocks, feeling both peaceful, and mischievous.
This thread is considered entirely NSFW, but some posts are a little extra. This is a graphic content warning, click next for trigger warnings if those are necessary for you
Suicide as an insult / joke
The lunar light slips onto the world below, shining through ruined cities and rolling creep-hills. Bioluminescent gleam of Zerg life keeping everything lit with a very soft purple-green. A hatchery is centrally present, having grown over the weeks, months and years of Zerg existence.
It's there that a short, very angry woman with eyes that glow pink so forcefully as to ignite her area in the glow stomps towards the front entrance of it.
Maybe we shouldn't just stomp up to her? Manth's cool tones recommend.
She bursts through the hatchery wall kicking it inwards, "I was gone for A YEAR and you didn't LOOK FOR ME!?" Then looking at Kerrigan, "No fucking way."
"What the hell are you blabbering about?" The Queen blinks, trying to figure out who has dared invade her presence.
"AYEAR. Kerrigan. I've been gone for A YEAR," She was emanating white hot fury, "WHY WOULDN'T YOU EVEN LOOK!?"
"I was sure I killed you." She growls to herself, staring at the revived woman with distaste.
"You're going to fucking WISH you did. I SAVED you, and you DIDN'T look for me." The rage was unlike anyone around her had ever seen, Lilith had not only been rejected but rejected in a way that implied that she was unimportant. That could not stand. "Didn't even BOTHER double checking I was DEAD? That's not even Fucking Disrespectful! Just ARROGANCE."
"Lower your voice." Kerrigan commands, a spark of anger quickly rising to a bonfire as Lilith continues pressing her.
She tries to reach some semi-balance of calm, but she just can't, her mind is empty except for that damn hymn, and she is SO mad. "You… you said you couldn't stop thinking about me…" Then she started to crumple, "You stopped so fast." She tried to stand firm but the rage and the sadness keep fighting with each other as her hands flex in and out of violence and care all the while in the background, her own voice singing, Lilith loves Sarah, and Sarah loves Lilith but Lilith only loves Lilith, and Lilith loves Ana and Ana loves Lilith but Lilith only loves Lilith, Lilith loves Lilith and. "I'm so mad at you for toying with my feelings."
"What?" Kerrigan fully opens her eyes, utterly confused as to what just happened.
"You're nice to me, I'm nice to you, you're mean to me, I'm nice to you, I save you, you blow me up, I'm nice to you, you smoosh me." She is babbling now, "I do… Magic Psychic shit to get stronger, it takes a while. I take a magic nap, and I wake up and you didn't look for me. At all. Whatever thing you're doing here. The game you're playing with me, it's important to me. When I'm not there you should LOOK." The winds getting taken out of her sails, whether by herself, Manth, Kerrigan, or just talking is unclear, but what is clear is she starting to crash.
Kerrigan stands, a look to her. "I killed you, I reached out and snuffed out this existence of yours." One, two, three steps as she arrives ahead of the other infested woman.
"You tried to actually kill me?!" Lilith said hurt, "Just say you're not interested so I know there's not something else going on."
"I tore you to pieces and that-that worm-." Kerrigan has a fit, her face twisting into a rictus of rage as she extends to grab at Lilith, reaching to clench around her throat.
A few constants in Lilith's life are exceedingly poor decisions, a long fuse with a destructive temper, and an overwhelming rage at being jilted. While anyone who would have known her would have long foreseen the next action, the Queen, did not. When Lilith punched her in the throat, it came as a shock to both of them.
She takes a step back, a very mild crackle of carapace taking place where the fist struck, a look of surprised annoyance passing over Kerrigan.
"You tried to KILL me?!" She yelled, "What did I do that was so fucking BAD. Just say you don't WANT me AROUND and I'll GO!"
"Shut up, Lilith." She growls, force building in her hands.
"OR WHAT You'll KILL ME A THIRD TIME!? Sounds like it's NOT something you're good at." She screams in anger.
A wall of forceful lightning strikes Lilith, but instead of turning her into a spray of superheated meat and blood, she just feels it horribly arc through her, pink blood spilling where its superheated through carapace and skin.
"Maybe you don't realise Kerrigan, if you want to fight me, you're going to have to do it the Terran way." And Lilith walks up to punch her again.
With a growl, Kerrigan snaps forwards, moving underneath Lilith's clumsy fist and locking her heel with the other woman's. Rising up, she rams her shoulder into the other, pulling the hooked heel towards her, forcing the other woman to the ground in a practised takedown.
Lilith! You didn't tell me she knew how to fight!
"I didn't" She get's slammed in the face with a punch, her head cracking off the ground,"Fucking," another, "know" two more, "She knew MARTIAL ARTS—" Another punch. Lilith kicks and bucks, using the entirety of her combat training (sorority fights, and bar brawls,) "How are you good at EVERYTHING!?" She roars.
"Shut up!" The Queen shouts, having locked Lilith's hips to the floor with her own, raining blows down from an utterly dominant position, creep and stone beneath them cracking with the exchanged force. Lilith tries, but her crude defence is no match for the honed martial arts of a Ghost programme graduate. As another fist lands, a voice is heard.
That's enough Flickers of pink spill through the wounds on Lilith, reaching to infect Kerrigan like a living smoke, pushing through her nose, eyes, mouth and ears as her eyes roll back into her head. She falls back and off Lilith, dazed and confused with no idea where she is.
Lilith rushes forward and goes for an inexpert spear, and tries to tackle Kerrigan to the ground, yelling at her. "Can you PLEASE have a normal conversation?! One NORMAL conversation?! JUST." She doesn't even know if her strikes are doing anything but hurting her hand. She's trying so HARD, "Why won't you just tell me you don't want me around!? Just fucking say it so I know you don't need help!" There's no strength behind them anymore. She's just sad. "I thought you started to see me as a person. Like you."
The impacts move, but don't do much more than that, the words hitting Kerrigan without reaction until, finally, she responds bleary eyed. "S-shut up." Her voice is breathy and disoriented.
Lilith gets off and crawls away curling up in one of the only corners of the circular hatchery, a crook between the throne and the wall. The Queen is whispering something, just past the edge of hearing, past the edge of audible sound, but Lilith doesn't bother, she just cries. She was gone no-one cared. There were a lot of things that Lilith could put up with, but being forgotten was not one of them.
Kerrigan rises to her feet shakily, looking around with still-present dazing. "W-why are you still here." She barks, trying to get the grain back in her voice.
"I Don't KNOW!" Lilith screams at her, "The last time you KILLED me, you were so sad. I spent the entire time worried about YOU. And you didn't even care. I can't stop hearing your name in my HEAD. I can't HURT you. I can't LOVE you. I can't do ANYTHING right."
"IF ALL YOU'RE GOING TO DO IS SCREAM ABOUT HOW MISERABLE YOU ARE!-" The Queen snaps at Lilith, finally hitting her limit.
"It seems to work for you! Makes you the strongest bitch in the universe. None of the rest of us get to be invincible. Or people. Or idols" She sobs a bit more, "Just… things. Not even tools."
"You've finally wrapped your head around it." Kerrigan growls, finally getting her bearings and still accelerating in fury at being interrupted. "I'll handle Abathur later."
"You leave him alone." Lilith said finally, "You… Fuck it, whatever just kill me first, I can't stand this anymore. I can't do this. I can't."
The Queen snorts, finding the situation suddenly funny, "Kill yourself on your time, stop wasting mine."
"I can't. Abathur disabled the… Thanatomanic drive." she sniffles, "None of us can, and I… Can't imagine staying with OTHER people constantly thinking about YOU."
"Maybe the worm's not the answer here." Kerrigan mumbles to herself, reappraising the situation, "That… psychic of yours." She concocts a plan, or at least an idea, "Maybe that'll get you to finally shut the hell up."
"Kerrigan, if you care about me enough to not rip out my essence, but kill everyone around me, then why can't you just talk to me." Lilith sniffles, "I don't get it. What do you think is happening here?"
"I am your Queen." She snarls, "I am not your friend, one more sentence out of you that doesn't begin with Queen and I'll torture the psychic to death in front of you." A chilling threat, putting a sliver of ice in anyone listening.
"Queen, What are you doing?" Lilith says with exasperation, finally calming down. "Are you really going to torture an innocent woman to death for the crime of… Her fling sitting in your hatchery."
"See? Respect." The Queen sits down on her throne, crossing her legs as the last of the pink leaves her eyes, "You hold her life in your hands. Don't push me."
Lilith just sits there, quietly or her attempt at it, "Queen, I'm sorry for punching you in the throat, I thought the fight was going to be far more fair than it was." Putting her head back against the throne as the hostilities, to Lilith's mind, ends.
"You're still here." The Queen's snappish voice brings her out of that headspace, "I'm going to throw you out." The growl is growing familiar at this point.
"Queen, you have not, this entire time, asked me once to leave." Lilith says quietly, "You say a lot, but there are a few things you don't say. You never say leave, or I don't care about you, or anything even close. You just say Shut UP, how DARE you, I mean recently, Kill yourself is new, probably don't make a habit of that one. You said back-off once, blew me up, and then nothing else." Then even quieter, "Queen, sorry I don't know if this is a new sentence or not, you don't need me, you don't need anyone, but that doesn't mean it's not nice to have them around. The one time you did say leave, I did. Immediately."
"You caught me, I didn't tell you." The Queen growls, "Let me fix that. Get out, Lilith."
"As you wish, my queen." Lilith stands up and walks out of the room, "I'll be… You don't fucking care where I'll be. Enjoy… This." She gestures to the empty throne room.
Lilith had tried to find acceptance with her new situation, she continued to spend time with Anastasia and Abathur, though she didn't explain why she had finally given up on the Queen. It had taken days, maybe weeks before she finally spoke on it. One day after many quiet nights. Lilith regaled the whole story, when she woke up, noticed the hatchery had been larger, that she had been gone for a year, possibly more, and heard that Kerrigan had never deigned to ask where she was. Ana, but an afterthought in the story at all.
"I think…" She says to Abathur and Anastasia, "My mistake was punching her in the throat. It's probably a good thing, I didn't have anything to use for… Emotional ammunition"
"O-oh, uhm, I-I see." Anastasia's hand is on Lilith's leg from where they sit next to each other, A-are you okay? Her eyes rove up and down her love, trying to find injuries even after days.
"Not really no, I know she cares about me," Lilith says, misinterpreting the question, "I just… Need to get through to her but she didn't even notice I was gone you thought I was dead I assume."
Ana flinches, "I-I-I, I should have k-kept looking, I-I'm so-sorry."
"Did Abathur not say?" Lilith asked, looking to the worm.
"Organism, Anastasia within Swarm. Would have secreted information to Queen of Blades." The worm answers coldly.
She nods, "Yeah, that makes sense. The Queen was just happy I was dead. Happy that she hurt me."
"C-can you m-maybe give her a break?" Ana only barely manages to avoid begging, "S-some t-time mi-might make her more… a-agreeable?"
"How long has it been? A year? Year and a half?" She says quietly.
Ana thinks, trying to arrive at a time before Abathur interrupts, "One full solar cycle, and one-quarter."
"Fuck. The hardest thing is, She won't say she doesn't care about me, she won't say she doesn't love me. All she says is… Get out, Shut up, You can't control me, show respect!" Lilith rolls her eyes, "It's so stupid. It'd be so easy to give up if she just made it clear she wasn't interested, instead of making it crystal clear she's got some other shit going on."
"May-maybe she's…in a r-r-relationship?" Ana questions.
Lilith's laughter is tinged with sadness, she felt pathetic, "What with Zhakarov?"
"M-maybe?" Anastasia considers, "H-he runs the Swarm, do-doesn't he?"
"N-No…" Lilith says with another, less believable laugh, "They're part of unity; Unity runs the swarm, so it's uh… Kerrigan, Zhakarov, and if the Swarm picked you. You, I suppose. She wants to be Queen, she was Queen, but she can't tear out the new adaptation without killing the Swarm and starting over."
"Terran memory. Failure of Organism Abathur." The rumbling of the Sequencer cuts through the conversation. "Removal…disallowed." A hint of distaste is clear in the voice, as if aggravated still.
Lilith's face fell, "She's pining over a memory. Of someone. She can't accept affection because of a memory?! Of someone?! WHO?!" She couldn't believe it, it seemed impossible.
"Old Swarm Enemy." Abathur grumbles.
Lilith groaned, remembering some trivia from the Swarm consciousness, when she was connected. "Do you mean the depressing dork with the buzzcut!?"
"Terran James Raynor." Even the Ur-Sequencer seems aggravated, "Hand in death of the Overmind, yet influence over Queen of Blades still."
"Abathur," Lilith grits her teeth, very hard. "Terrans bond by gender; they have preferences. Those don't really change. That information. Means this was most likely impossible from the start."
Abathur gives Lilith a short glare at the doubt, many eyes drilling through her, "Queen of Blades emotional preference known. Does not conflict."
"I can stand my own at least… well sort of my own." She hates herself, she can't do it anymore, it's too hard. "Abathur, she's like a cat… Am I supposed to put out a bowl of Kerrigan food until she shows up on my doorstep?"
"Recommendation. Phrase used never reaches Queen of Blades." The Sequencer calmly suggests
She looks to Ana, "I'm pretty sure that means he found it funny." She just shakes her head, "I'm just going to give her one last chance to say she doesn't care so I can put this whole mess behind me. After that I can say I've tried everything. Later though, I think."
Ana smiles, "C-can I help? T-to, uhm, calm you d-down?" A shy proposition, but still excited.
"Abathur, do you know of a place we can hangout that we can make a bit of a home with shit from the city? That's cut off? The last time we were intimate, the Queen had a fit. That's the only reason I know it matters."
"Organism Zhakarov, requested re-evolution of Behemoth morphs. First series fully birthed in six terran hours. Suggestion, space." Sequencer Abathur answers, giving the maximum distance from the hive possible.
She tries to memorise the number as best she can, "Didn't we use to control zerg much further than that? We almost took the Galaxy last time didn't we?"
"Issues in swarm connection. No Overmind, no central nexus of power." Abathur answers, "Queen of Blades, not equivalent."
Lilith snorts, "Yeah, sounds like it, his plans usually worked didn't they?" She says sadly, "She doesn't even seem capable of making one. He sounds nice, or at least like you like him."
"Still work." The Ur-Sequencer vaguely answers. Vanishing into a tunnel afterwards.
"I s-see. Even the Zerg are… cryptic?" Anastasia looks at the escape tunnel.
She shakes her head, looking down the tunnel, "They mourn, he talks about the Overmind like… Either a mentor, a dad, a brother, or all three. Like a guy raised by his brother I guess. I think I should have chosen my words more carefully." Then pointing her head down the tunnel, she shouted "We're going to leave, yell something if you want us to stay!" She waited a few seconds, to see if there was a response.
"Let's go see the Behemoth's, they should be up and about by the time we get up there." Lilith smiles, as they walk out into the creep. She finds one of the nearby Overlords and asks it to come down. Despite no longer being a part of the Swarm, the Overlords and Queens still treated her as a part of Unity. Though, she wondered sometimes if that was by their choice, or Abathurs.
The Overlord comes over, lowering to allow both women to settle in the odd hollow cavities of its body. The creature lifts up, moving at a sluggish pace for dozens of minutes until it finally breaches the atmosphere, a sound like air sucked through a tube as the creature flexes and tightens itself to keep oxygen inside. Its membranous interior tightens until it can be seen through clearly, letting starlight stream in whilst the colossal visage of a Behemoth floats in the distance, Large, bulbous organism drinking in atmosphere for sustenance through a miles long tendril, titanic oxygen stores and reprocessing chambers visible as bulbs on its surface.
"Amazing." She whispers to herself, in wonderment at the living, breathing psychic amplifier before her. "It's so large. Its mind is titanic."
"Is it?" She asks, "How do you know?" She looks out into space at the behemoth, "I've never been very good with Psi stuff."
"Even from here it's reaching out, it wants a destination. It wants to feel its lungs empty from exertion, its skin burn from solar winds, it wants to drink of new worlds and see new, strange places." Ana idly mumbles, "Its guiding me, how to open a gate, how to let it do so. I-I think I could?"
"Holy shit Ana, you're brilliant, fuck. I love you." Lilith leaps forward, to kiss Ana deeply "We have to tell the others!" Then she stops and looks around. Peeking over the sides of the Overlord. Staring at the Behemoth. "Maybe we tell them in... Thirty to Forty five minutes?" She says with a sharp smirk.
"I-uhm-I mean-" She stutters, "Maybe an hour?"
The Behemoth's interior is surprisingly smooth. Its purple-pink flesh hard and ridged like the roof of a mouth, with tough inner plates to protect it from internal conflicts as well as forming almost-walls for comfort and security.
Anastasia has managed to slip various artefacts of art from the now dead hands of former planetary nobles and, with Lilith's growing expertise in coaxing evolution out of things, has managed to recover and hang paintings from what remained of her chambers on planet, tapestries piled in a dry corner out of lack of flat space for them and even what Anastasia calls a "Pict-player", but Lilith recognizes as a television powered directly from the colossal nervous system of the beast they are in, and playing holographic reels of film recovered planetside.
The bed was the hardest thing to move, few Zerg having the appendages necessary, and the thing being overly bulky and needing to be transported in an Overlord without getting soiled. Though eventually they found plastic covers for that. The Queens of the Zerg had started to weave dyes for some tithe that Zhakarov had set up, and Lilith started to collect beverages from around the city in giant weapons containers. They even had a set up a small fridge, a couch, and silverware, though they rarely found fresh food while out collecting essence for Abathur. Oddly, they noticed, Abathur had been sending them for Essence that just so happened to be located near stores, or malls. Guiding them a bit, in his own way.
The central chamber opens up into the void, a thin yet durable membrane letting starlight stream into what had become their bedroom. More than enough for Zerg eyes to see comfortably. Ana's sitting cross legged, a small flow of power on her skin as she bonds with the space-borne creature.
Still, the anxiety-inducing task of actually… jumping into the Warp lingers on both, maybe even all three participants in this journey. Ana's the first to break the silence on it. "I think I should try to... o-open a rift soon." There's notes of fear in her voice
"We've been practising this, flitting around the ships, you're going to do great! Better than great!"
Ana smiles at Lilith, "I'm beginning to adore you for being supportive, it's-uhm-nice." A pang of nerves that are much less prominent than ever before. "M-maybe I should do this alone? It could be dangerous."
"Under no circumstances Ana, absolutely not. No." Lilith was firm, and intense. "This place is scary, it's dark, everywhere seems awful. The one thing we have is each other. If something bad happens, it happens together, so we can face it."
"I know, love." Ana's tone is one of significant familiarity, "I've lived with its depredations all my life." She puts her hand on Lilith's cheek, "I just don't want you h-hurt." Anastasia chokes up at the last word, a spike of utter dread at the idea.
"Ana, I already punched Kerrigan in the throat and ripped a demon out of her head, what makes you think I won't rip one out of you? We're invincible." She laughs, wrapping an arm around Ana, nuzzling her. Lilith would be strong for both of them.
She laughs warmly at Lilith, "Alright-alright. Let me focus, I shouldn't be thinking of just you." The warmth in her eyes is intoxicating even after seeing it over and over. She starts to sit down, bringing Lilith with her as she closes both orange eyes and focuses.
"Wait for just a second, is this like you need to focus. Like when I tease you when you pray sometimes or is this life or death?" Lilith asked with a grin, giving her a little hug.
"A-ah, I could mess up and open the rift in the wrong spot." She confesses, "M-maybe you should just stay still, until I'm used to it?"
Lilith's eye's gleam menacingly, little flecks of gold coming off, mixed with pink.
"I'm serious Lilith." Ana said, more sternly. "Scoot."
Laughing, Lilith slid herself back, just enough to not tease, while still being a comforting presence. She puts a gentle hand on Ana's leg.
Again, she closes both orange eyes and focuses.
There's a ripple in the air. A feeling of passing through a membrane, a sheet of water, a film of something sticky rattles the two women as everything fades into an orange gleam before suddenly a blast of light comes through the central view-membrane.
Purple-octarine-green is choked out by a pink haze that covers it in a second, acting as an opaque barrier to the infinity outside, blocking conscious perceptions of it whilst that familiar lurid voice shakes the whole Behemoth now instead of merely tickling at Lilith's mind.
"Careful, lovelies. The Warp will break you given half a chance." Manth's almost divine tones are so much more here, where they are the native, where their power is in bloom.
Oh, that's in the plural, can Ana hear you now too?
Ana's pale face and mild trembling answers that. Manth's voice once again sounds, "Come on Anastasia, you knewI was there, why wouldn't I be here!" It sounds amused.
"Wait, is this a bad thing?" Lilith says out loud so both can hear, "I thought the bad neverborn come into your mind and haunt you? Manth has never done anything wrong as far as I know he… She? I think they use all pronouns. Anyways, they, They helped me fight off the puppet master Neverborn stuck in Kerrigan, and protects me. Now they're helping us here! Why would they be bad? I thought that's what the whole… God Emperor thing was about, teaming up to fight evil?"
"B-but-" She freezes, "They're dangerous! Tricksters!" Decades of cultural programming are clearly on display as she stares at the pink.
"Don't you worry, I wouldn't ever hurt either of you! Unless~" Manth seems pleased with her reaction, rippling pink in the surrounding Warp.
"Manth has never hurt me, or done anything that wasn't helpful." Lilith believed in the daemon, the same way she believed in Ana or anyone really.
Ana crumbles to Lilith's assurances, still scared but acquiescencant. "A-alright. Its just… scary." She eyes the pink, as rumble passes through the Behemoth before focusing, "I'm going to get us out." Ana says to herself firmly, focusing on whatever arcane technique allows this. Another ripple is felt, another transfer of existence and suddenly pink turns to black spackled with stars.
Anastasia smiles proudly, "Yes! You have no idea how hard that was!"
"I don't! But I knew you could do it, you're one of the strongest bravest people I've ever met." She tackles Anastasia where she's sitting, "You rock."
Ana laughs, "I think that's a compliment~." She wraps her arms around the other woman, "But now…where do we go?" She pulls Lilith to her chest, the accomplishment giving her stocks of confidence as she nestles her face into her tendrils.
"Anywhere." Lilith replies. Then quieter, "With you we can go anywhere."
The entire thread is NSFW by default, but maybe your work is more progressive!
The following content may be more explicit than your average update!
The next slide has trigger warnings for those who need them.
Domination, Aggressive Descriptions of Sex
Anastasia is praying to the Behemoth in soft tones, like a mother singing to a child. Lilith as always was nearby, hanging off her singing voice as curiosity builds about the faith her love holds, always mentioned but never truly explained.
Without conscious thought, Lilith played with a coin (which she now knew was a "throne") from one of the cities in her hand. The heavy piece of gold-plated adamantine weaved a coquettish dance over her fingers. Falling like water over her knuckles, and back before rolling from the tip of her index to her palm, only to be quickly flipped in increasingly complicated patterns. Sitting still was one of the most taxing things Lilith was forced to accomplish, but she'd do it. Though she was really hoping she wouldn't have to for much longer.
Normally Lilith did her best to not interrupt the prayer, the singing. She tried her best to pick up on the nuances of Ana's religion. There was a "God Emperor," similar to the Zerg Overmind at least in legend, that sat on a throne, fought demons, and recruited valiant soldiers when they died to fight in the warp. Even that seemed vaguely confusing, who would want to spend an eternity fighting wars? Her eyes watched Ana's delicate lips move as she prayed… When there were so many better things to do…
The singing stopped, eventually, and Lilith breathed a sigh of relief at finally getting a chance to speak, Start with a compliment, always, "That was so beautiful, what was it?"
Turning her face to her lover, "Just the Emperor's Prayer, this…Behemoth." Ana looks around at the ensconcing creature, "It's much like a child, it wishes to hear and see new things." Her hand gently pats the floor at that.
"Thank you for sitting." Her voice is soft and appreciative, so many months of knowing one another giving her some insight into the other woman's constant energy.
Lilith smiled and looked down, it used to scare her when people noticed she was bothered, but she had finally started to feel safe with Ana, "I know this stuff is important to you, I don't have to understand it to treat it with deference and respect. I do want to know…" Religion didn't really come up in the hedonistic university girl life unless you were slandering someone who wasn't there. "I'd like to know more, everything but I don't even know where to start. I don't know who you're even… Praying to really, God Emperor seems important, but you also talk about him like he's in a central location, like someone could, with sufficient status I mean just go walk up and visit him."
"I have." Ana says, smiling.
"You have what?"
"Stood before Him on Terra, it is the final step of training for my kind." Her explanation raises more questions than it answers. "We bear his radiance, and if we… survive it, we are better protected from the suffering of our duties."
Ana's almost giddy at this last bit, "Some say a part of His soul remains with us, protecting us."
Thoughts of what she had learned about Ana's society were immediately stuffed down deep, deep as she could push it. Especially what she thought about how "protected" Ana had been by the monstrosities of th— She shook her head. "Like, Sorry, you stood before a god? An actual god? Like the Overmind, or… I don't mean literally, I just mean like physically. Like a big powerful guy in physical meat space, not a concept. I just want to be clear, sometimes I ge—" Lilith was cut off.
"I-I can show you?" She asks nervously, "It's.. intense."
She stops talking for a second… "Honestly? I'm always down for intense new experiences. Regardless of the kind. Hit me with it."
Ana's hand reaches out and rests on Lilith's leg, a minor rumbling coming from inside Lilith at the action as… Manth begins to react before the impact of the memory strikes.
Air ripples, something like a heat haze overwhelming even the basest of matter. Golden light shines off every surface of a throne room that seems to never end. Guards in gleaming armour tower easily over ten feet, stiff like statues with no sign of life except the twist of their heads as you-no, Anastasia-is brought before something so distant, yet so powerful.
A skeleton shot through with machinery and tubing that brings to mind a grizzly life support machine sits on a throne, pulsing with the power, practically hammering at your mind with just its presence. One ancient red cybernetic eye seems to latch onto everyone in the room and a need to fall and prostrate cracks through every sense.
Prayer starts, the world shakes, pain strikes through the memory, muted enough that Lilith can realize it was truly awful but still think. Minutes pass as all she can see is the skeleton looking down at her before everything goes black.
The memory ends as Ana gasps, off-balance from the active recollection.
Instinctively Lilith catches her leaning her in close. She's shorter than Ana, shorter than almost everyone in the swarm, but still surprisingly strong. "Whoa, hey, I didn't know it would hurt you. I'm sorry."
"N-no, not pain." She laughs, recovering, "Well, not much of it. It's just… so much when you can feel Him beyond just sight."
"Is the life support system symbolic of something? All the piping I mean?" Lilith… There was definitely something there, the power was overwhelming, stronger than Kerrigan, stronger than her memories of the Overmind possibly, but the man on the throne seemed just that a man, but if people were created in his image, he would be an average man. It also makes sense that he would be old, maybe it was because their society was so broken? Maybe it was indicative of something, that's why the man was but bone, and tubing?
"That's a tale." She laughs, "The Emperor was terribly wounded long ago. The Golden Throne keeps him living despite the injury faced from his son." Ana explains, luxuriating in her love's touch.
Lilith picks up off the floor, a datapad and starts typing in notes as Ana talks. Writing down questions without interrupting. Her mind laser-focused on a new… Puzzle, a second way of immortality if her essence was ever destroyed would be important. If it was true, but she saw it, it was strong. She was immortal from the Zerg, what if Ana was immortal from the Zerg, and if her essence was destroyed and returned to this Emperor? They'd be separated at death.
"He lives in the pain of his moment of injury for mankind, powering the psychic beacon that allows our navigation of the void. So long as the Astronomicon shines, we know he yet lives." Ana's falling into that fanatic tone again, not quite as deep as others Lilith's been privy to, but still inset to the cult.
She believes, so you have to believe. Make it make sense. Lilith nods along, "So is the… Is everything like that with Imperium because he was injured and has to power the Psychic Beacon?"
Ana looks down at that, "I have read some things which suggested we were treated… better before his ascent to the Throne. Before he could not lead us directly." But shakes her head afterwards, "It's alright, the finest of the Mechanicum work on him every day, they'll surely find a solution to his injuries eventually." She caught that glint in Lilith's eye, the worrisome glint when Lilith was desperate to save something.
"Ok, the same Mechanicum that's profiting off of the system? That'll condemn an entire world to death for status? He might…" She stops, "Honestly it all makes sense to me, the specifics aren't necessary. So, the half-metal people are Mechanicum, and the God Emperor is the Astartum, and the—"
"The Astartes? Oh, no, he is their grandfather. All Space Marines are made with a piece of his… Essence I suppose. That's why they are angels!" She clarifies.
"Are the lady ones hot?" Lilith asks, "Wait no, never mind. Ok, so the Mechanicum works for the emperor, but they make all the guns, and his life support system. The Astartes are the shock troopers, who carry a piece of his essence, but they're armed by the Mechanicum, and in constant war, so they can't focus or investigate on what's happening with the Emperor? Then… There's abhumans? Who are bad because they're… Why are they bad?"
"Blessed humanity, is why." Ana answers, "Our genetic code is too distant from the baseline, and the Emperor decreed humans are to inherit the galaxy."
"So they should never ever meet Abathur is what I'm hearing." Lilith laughed.
Ana giggled back, finally in her wheel-house, "Certainly not!"
"We're xenos though, right?" Lilith asked quietly, "Is paperwork really all that seperates xeno from abhuman?"
"I've seen abhumans with scaled bodies that could only breathe water and were three metres tall." Anastasia admits, "The paperwork is the truth, what your eyes see, merely perception."
That makes sense, she supposes, "How much of it do you believe then, all of it? Some of it? I know it's… Heresy? Sin? But I want to learn, and there's no way you think a piece of paper is what stops or allows an alien to get into… The Great War. Is it the afterlife, the demons, there's a lot of proof but there's so much awful shit that seems to come from it."
"It's…difficult, I know." Anastasia answers, "Personally, I believe that the Emperor knows humanity perfectly well himself, and all we are doing is catching up."
"Humanity, the concept? Like Love, Friendship, Compassion,"
"Duty, Honour, Faith." Ana completes the list, the Imperial virtues showing true.
"Those last three don't seem terribly… Human specific." Lilith said quietly, "A soldier ant has Duty, Honor, and Faith, The Zerglings have Duty, Honor, and Faith."
"Can a-" Anastasi stops herself, "The faith dictates that to have duty, one must be able to refuse it and follow through still. To have honour, you must be able to be dishonourable, to have faith, you must be able to reject it." Her explanation is practised, "Only man can choose to be less than perfect. An ant is bound to its own life, a Zergling is grown to its purpose in the Swarm. Neither can r-refuse." At the end she starts stuttering, realising she is moralising.
With a hand on Ana's, holding it very calmly, "It's fine, you're passionate, I'm trying to understand. I'm not going to snap at you for giving a sermon when I asked for the pamphlet." Then she looked at Ana, "You're mono religious as a society, you have no idea what I'm talking about do you?"
"T-there is heresy." She flinches at the idea, a flicker-flash of memory at the thought, something bound tight under layers of mental scarring and blockage. "B-but the Emperor is understood as the one true God by most."
"So… Love, Friendship, Compassion, Duty, Honour, Faith?" Lilith asks, "Or just the last three, I'm assuming the first three are a part of it."
Ana answers solidly, "It d-depends on cult, but, uhm, the one I follow determines love and kindness as our virtues. Yes."
Lilith has so many questions, "I didn't realise cult was… Not a bad term. Where we're from that's got some baggage attached. Is that like a sect?"
"Uhm, a sect is larger." She explains, "A c-cult is what, say, a world believes. Or a system, maybe even a sub-sector. A sect is what many sub sectors vaguely fall under. Then the Imperial Cult is what w-we all fall under."
"So… How do you see this all shaking out? We get declared abhumans then..? We're nobles, in your house.. or someone's house here, but we want… a lot." She looks at Ana, "Do you know what we're trying to do?"
"T-the paperwork is signed, a f-fleet arrives to take it. And t-then we pay our tithe…lest we face censure." Anastasia answers, "And y-yes. I'll s-support you through a-anything. B-but I h-have my d-doubts of… s-success."
Lilith is quiet, "Can I be honest?" She gets up for a second walking over and getting one of the drinks colonised from the city,
"P-please!" Ana excitedly responds.
"I think that… We're going to die horribly, or reveal something about the Imperium equally as bad. When it realises that we're not a joke they'll stop tolerating us and everything burns." She sighs, looking down at the floor.
Ana frowns, thinking. "I served i-in the Navy, once, d-during the, uhm, Balur Crusade." Memories start flooding back to her, "We-we were fighting Xenos, I was just part o-of a choir. V-very young then."
Lilith walks back over, and sits on the couch next to her, clasping her hand "Aren't you very young now? You're like what, twenty… six? twenty seven?" She laughs.
"I-uhm-Ch-chronological age or..uhm..biological?" Ana asks, nervous.
Lilith is struck with fear, "Tell me the first one is higher than the second one." She looks very nervous. "I'm… Fifty six?"
"OH, uhm, yes, s-significantly." Anastasia comforts her, "I'm, uhm…ninety now? I d-don't have most of it, us Astropaths sometimes get…wiped."
Lilith cocks her head, that didn't sound right for humans, but it's been thirty years, her thoughts are broken like glass. "The fuck you mean 'Wiped'?" That familiar cold rage comes back. "Like, memory wiped?"
She nods, "S-sometimes we hear or le-learn something we s-shouldn't. B-but are too valuable to k-kill."
The cold fire is bright now, and angry. This was beyond the pale, "Those memories are who they are, that's a part of you that was ripped away. That's no—" She can't do anything about it. She knows that, she knows it. "Are you…" She shakes her head, "Ok, yeah, I think I should be used to this by now. Can you give me a good part of, like, anything of the imperium? Like a single one that I can hold onto."
Ana thinks, looking down, "I've thought of that as well." She admits, "When on the i-inside, it seems crushing, unbearable. B-but, it can get m-much worse. It's… the only remaining safety." She meets Lilith's eyes, "The galaxy beyond the Imperium is dark, Lilith, darker than you can imagine."
Deep breaths, she tries to collect herself, they live like this because everything else is worse? How could anything be worse. "There's two safe places now, I'm not going to let the imperium take this one. If we can't beat them, we'll join them. Make it better by connecting people."
Anastasia melts into Lilith's energy, "I c-can't tell you how much I be-believe you." She smiles, pressing into the other woman.
"Because of how sad I'd get right," Lilith scoffs before squeezing her tight.
Anastasia kissed Lilith on the lips gently, "No, because of how strong you are." She kisses her again, her hands moving into Lilith's
Lilith kissed Ana back, Can you set the mood please Manth? She had been getting deft at working with Manth in unison, they worked together wonderfully.
Of course The voice answers, a small note of something in it, but beyond notice in the instant. The air of the chamber takes on an almost pillow-like quality, warming to temperatures that Zerg find relaxing, drifting steam adding an almost ethereal haze to the contact, the feelings.
Lilith eyes were softly light pink, and she placed her finger on Ana's chin, "Say something nice about yourself for a reward," She waits, her feelings coiled like a spring. The feral aggression intense, as if she was going to pounce at any moment. Eyes dilated, like a cat staring at prey. The other woman's look gives her something to base bravery off, as Ana says, "I'm amazing, and strong." Then without warning she nips at Lilith's lip.
There is no pretence of gentleness, instead Lilith bursts with savage instantaneous aggression, thick flesh-like vines sprout and slam Ana to the floor off the couch, one jutting out to cradle her head. The sudden movements bring shock, fear, and delight to Ana as every sense comes alive at once. Another vine shoots out, wrapping around Ana's neck like a noose as Lilith leans in close.
She grabs Ana by the chin, "Open. Your. Mouth."
Ana's eyes are still wild, but the fear is only amplifying everything else. She had never felt her heart race like this, her skin burning as if she had just touched a live wire. New surety, confidence unlike ever before entered her. Looking at Lilith she said, "M-m-Ma– Make me."
The growl that sounded was low and bestial as Lilith tore in, pinching the sides of Ana's jaw, making it painful to keep shut. The other gasped, and when she did she felt Lilith intrude on her senses, the long tongue firing in sliding over every inch of her mouth, greedily dripping saliva across her. Ana choked making a gagging noise, Lilith giving her a moment's respite at the noise.
The astropath panted, desperate for air, and then after catching her breath just stared at Lilith. Lilith in turn waited, just watching, letting the anticipation build up slowly. The fear of what might happen next mixed with the joy of what awaited them both at the end surged.
Ana spitting in her face was all the permission Lilith needed.
She used every inch of her form to ravage Ana, intense rhythmic smacks sounded, as thick coils pierced every veil it could find. Lilith herself had moved down low and locked her arms around Ana's hips. Her head between Ana's experimenting with rough and gentle rhythmic laps. Monitoring the almost-pained precious noises that Ana was making as she varied, until she, on her own, found the perfect rhythm.
Their beautiful symphony kept teasing at a crescendo that Lilith was desperate to find the very edge of before pulling back again. Dancing with the line over and over, running just against it based on sound and tension. When Ana finally said, "Ple-e-ease." Lilith dove in with every inch of her soul.
The explosion happened in moments, lights in the ship flickered, steam seemed to ripple with shockwaves, Ana made choked gasping noises and arched as if hot plasma was flowing across her. Every muscle seized as radiating bombastic ecstasy radiated from her core. Wave after wave after wave after wave crashing outward. Her fingers tingled, her toes curled, and her voice couldn't be mustered, because her throat was so tight and constricted with overwhelming pleasure, and utter Sensation. A feeling that was so overloading as to be inexpressible, only defined by the exhaustion when it finally ceased.
She crashed nearly a minute later, and even then small aftershocks would occasionally pulse again; the last dregs of her release overtaking her. She gasped, trying to catch her breath.
"Are you ok?" Lilith asked, a little concerned.
Ana nodded, still breathless, a lifetime of endurance giving her strength to remain conscious after that, some words trying to escape but failing.
Lilith almost immediately chirped at Ana, "My turn?"
This was not the end, only the beginning of hours and hours of tug and pull and play, before finally they were both spent in the humid warmth, and soft pillowy of the ship, both drenched in sweat. Neither could catch their breath.
Ana started to giggle, seemingly out of nowhere, and the sound was so amazingly infectious that Lilith couldn't help but jump in until both were laughing uncontrollably. They just grabbed each other, and a few minutes later the peals of raucous laughter gave way to happy tears. It seemed all of the emotions, without rhyme or reason passed until finally there was peaceful calm, and both fell asleep.
They were bathed in golden light. They were committed.
"Lilith!" The cry of an excited Ana brings the aforementioned woman out of the daze of rest, stolen bed, now very much theirs presenting too comfortable an embrace to easily draw out of. Sheets shift as Anastasia climbs atop it, "I c-can tell them what to do!" Her face is above Lilith's own, hanging over her.
"Hnnnngh…" Lilith replies blearily, and her eyes blink almost unevenly as the hangover from last night still fights with the sudden rush of adrenaline. Instinct takes over as she notices a shape over her. She reaches out and grabs Ana by the back of the neck, and kisses her deeply. Then lets her go before saying, "That's nice dear." Her head falling to the pillow, her eye-lids heavy, "Tell… meeee." she lets out a big yawn stretching, "About it."
"The…Swarm!" She laughs, "Z-zhakarov and the rest a-argued to b-bring me on. I can hear all of it." Her voice is ecstatically high despite her attempts to bring her voice down to assuage Lilith's sleepy state. "I d-don't know for h-how long b-b-b-but it's so much."
That got through, Lilith took in the entirety of Ana in that moment as her eyes shot open. She quickly backed up to look into her face, "Holy shit! That's awesome! See!? I told you, just go out and weave clothes with the Queens." As she looked over to the pile of clothing that the swarm had been making to seem more… Terran on their trips. "And you talked shop to the Overlords! Everyone here just wants people who care! You fucking rock." She leans in to give her another kiss. "We need to celebrate," and she reaches into the gun crate next to the bed, pulling out two bottles of hard liquor, "Here!"
Ana takes the one offered to her with a gusto, popping the cap and drinking two large gulps, revealing much about her previous pastimes in that moment. As she pulls away from the bottle, she's grinning, "It's so much, and all of it is… mine."
"Huh, well unless you lose the confidence of the swarm." Lilith says, "Though Kerrigan kills Zerg constantly and still has a strong power base with the Queens, so who knows what they actually give a fuck about." Her smile reaches from ear to ear though, "I'm proud of you, that's awesome. Everyone sees you, we know you're useful, you're capable. This time you were chosen because of who you are, not in spite of it."
She jumps on Lilith, holding her tightly, "I-I love you!" Anastasia nearly shouts, "T-this is amazing, e-everything since I-I've met you has b-been amazing."
"Of course it has!" Ana's confidence brings so much joy to her, she had wo rked so hard to build her up, and now Lilith was overbrimming with pride, "I only choose the best people, that's why I picked you. I've known since the moment we met that you'd do great things. You just needed a little confidence."
"I-want to stay h-here." Ana mumbles, "B-but Zhakarov n-needs my input."
Lilith raises an eyebrow, "When Zhakarov needed me, he waited or came to me. Tell him to fuck-off you're both in Unity, you're equals. He can sense the entire Swarm like you, it's power-play bullshit."
"O-oh, uhm, okay." She closes her eyes, focusing on the Swarm for a moment, "H-he says he was ch-checking if you w-were next to me." Ana's got a confused look on her face, "Oh! H-he can't see you!"
Lilith nods, finally starting to get it, "It's the whole reason we're up here. We're out of range of the Swarm's vision." Then Lilith waited, "Except you're in Unity now. So now…" Her throat gets a little dry, and choked, "Oh. Oh. The entire swarm can see through you Ana, the entire swarm."
Anastasia's eyes snap wide, something that could eventually evolve into words escaping her.
"Unity must have a stronger connection with each other to coordinate, but uh…" Her lip twitched into an uneasy smile, "That means you and them have full access to each other, Kerrigan as well."
The Behemoth shudders, micro adjustments shifting its internal gravity as it adjusts for a new weight. The entry orifice making a suckling noise as someone steps into the main entryway. Her steps are light, but each one carries so much weight. Psychic energy, angry and oppressive started to weight down on Lilith, what's worse, she couldn't tell who, between Ana and the other, was more angry. For a split second, the cold fury, the same that Lilith would feel, was leaking out of Ana, like a broken gas line firing a pressurised jet of flame.
With a weak laugh Lilith says, "Well, we know she cares at least, let's go say hi."
"No need." The voice slams through the halls, lit with a psychic fuze of frenzy. "I'll come to you." Ana's fury is shot through with a burst of fear, the oppressive presence of the Queen settling far worse on her sensitive mind than Lilith's inured one.
With a groan, Lilith rolls out of bed, "Are you seriously going to walk into my bedroom? Boundaries!" She gives Ana a wink, and picks up a liquor bottle. "I don't burst into your bedroom every five minutes."
A doorway flexes open, revealing the tall Queen glaring through at the two women. "So, it is a power grab." She growls, interior lights of the Behemoth flickering, pulsing sacs being forced to roil by her passive psychic fury.
"Have you considered not everyone is obsessed with power?" Lilith groans, "No-one is stronger than you Ke-Queen." At the near mistake, a flicker of force pushes Ana off Lilith and to the right side of the bed.
"Careful." Kerrigan warns, striding in. "I don't know, she seemed very happy to have the power, didn't you." It's not a question, more a piercing declaration of something she assumes to be true.
Unaware that the statement wasn't quite pointed at her, Lilith bemoaned, "I was happy to be part of a hive mind, which you'd know if you read my mind, which I repeatedly and explicitly give you both permission to do." She was exhausted with Kerrigan's behaviours, and the constant temper tantrums, "You keep thinking you know people's motivations, but you don't actually seem to be very good at it."
"I'd say you have a deathwish." The Queen threatens, arriving at the beds edge.
"Fourth time's the charge I guess, I think the reason I'm alive; Correct me if I'm wrong, is because you know you need at least one person to give you an honest opinion. Even if you fucking hate it." Then she picks up a bottle of liquor, giving it a slow underhand lob, "Grab a drink, and chill." Lilith had escaped death, and wished for death so many times at this point, either out-come would be better than spending any more time living in fear. She had been desensitised, and Kerrigan was going to have to find a new trick.
The Queen of Blades stares at the woman who just denied her with a look that sits perfectly on the border between solar rage and complete confusion. As if she can't wrap her head around what she's looking at, or doesn't want too.
"How did you even make it past infestation?" She questions, "Someone like you should have come undone."
Lilith raises an eyebrow at Kerrigan, "I don't know? I just… Walked in? I stole a Coupe from the city, splattered a couple of Marines and one of the sunken colonies got me. Before I even realised what happened I was in Hive space. Zero resistance, it's why everyone I infest, comes out somewhat fucking… Normal." She gestures at Ana.
"Bullshit." Kerrigan drags the sheets off the bed in a spiteful rage,making both women nearly follow along with them. "No one chooses this. You just can't remember what happened."
She stands up, with a wince, refusing to engage, "What's the latest memory I have of my Terran life. It should be in the swarm like everything else. What was I drawing." There's a slight up-tick to Lilith's mouth, she tried to stow away the fact that Kerrigan didn't seem to know something for once.
Kerrigan's face turns to a frown as she looked at the memory, watching Lilith spending hours a day drawing… Stylized imaginations of the infestation process. Pictures of herself with the Terran's imagination of her. Thoughts, thousands of lonely thoughts, one night stands, desperate attempts to get someone, anyone to stay longer than a week. As the infestation hit Tarsonis, she watched Lilith's face turn into glee, as she ran outside. Felt the giddy mania as the rehabilitation failed and her mind once again started to unravel.
Taking a step back, the Queen hisses something barely audible, a flood of her own memories clearly overwhelming her, Essence glowing in her eyes with internal psychic effort.
"Literally, the idea of being in a hive mind? Connected with millions of… Things? Unity and all that?" Lilith says walking up to her, "That's… What I wanted. I don't… Terrans fucking sucked. The society sucked. The people sucked." She put a hand out on the Queen's shoulder. "We have something better now."
"Shut up!" Kerrigan smacks Lilith's hand away, numbing the fingertips with how forceful she is, "You don-No one gets-Graah!" Words boil down to a primal noise as flickering bolts of lightning begin to spread across her skin, sizzling at the Behemoth and burning holes in the bundled sheets on the ground.
"Shut-up, stop talking, don't do that, get out," Lilith says backing away, "You don't need anyone My Queen, but maybe it'd be nice to be able to do something besides sitting in a throne room all day?" She gestures to the planet, "Have you talked with the Overlords? Or the Queens? They have names, they're nice. The Zerglings and Hydralisks I've learned like to be pet. Hell, through sequencing, I learned that they have favourite colours even."
"Names?!" The Queen barks, "You're all tools, nothing else. Extensions of me!"
"Is thinking that making you happy?" Lilith asks, and when the words come out, she's not even entirely sure the answer was, "Like… You could just be… Out and about. Talking. Reclaiming parts of the city to make cool spaces. Weaving, painting, tailoring, whatever." The queen seemed to be trying to say something, but Ana just continued to talk over her, "You could be doing shit, instead of spending almost a decade sitting in a fucking throne room feeling sorry for yourself. Neither Zhakarov or I before you had to sit and stare at a wall all day to control the swarm. Neither it seems does Ana, that's a choice you're making."
"Don't think to know why I do anything, you don't know a damned thing about me!" She shoves Lilith back onto the bed.
Lilith falls backwards, landing on the bed, trying to keep her temper, "Does that look like it comes from a lack of effort? What do you think would have happened, if two or three years ago, instead of screaming 'Back-off' we went on a walk."
Something snaps in the Queen of Blades, a dam cracks, a string breaks, "Youdon't get to be him!" She roars, pouncing on Lilith, about to really, truly, with every ounce of her might strike the other woman. A cry of effort sees the limb get caught in a light flash of telekinetic force, Ana groaning with the strain of stopping even that.
"Get to be who?" She doesn't move, staring directly into Kerrigan's eye., "Get to be WHO? I don't want to be anyone but me. I'm not replacing anyone. You can mourn something and have a relationship. You can pine and have a relationship. I don't even know who you're talking about, no-one does, because you don't use your words." Lilith was trying to keep it together, "I can only think of one thing it could possibly be, and even that seems spurious. You're so closed off no-one can even tell why you're upset half the time."
Kerrigan strains against the force with her might, forcing against it until Ana's will breaks and the hand can punch through the bed to Lilith's right, a flicker of pink gently altering its course. "You're just some Tarsonis IDIOT who-who-!" Another primal noise escapes her, a scream that shakes the Behemoth as she misses by bare inches, "Who I should have KILLED years ago!"
"Well, either you tried three times and failed, or you don't want to do that. I know it's the second, you're the Queen of Blades, you can do anything no-one can stop you." Lilith knew she needed to keep her temper, but she was scared, and angry, "I'm not telling you what to do, I want to help you, but for some reason you think it's impossible you could be helped, or even worse, not worth it. I'm not asking or telling you what to do, just behave like yourself and not a fucking super villain. I want to see the person, not the persona, especially if I'm going to die soon."
"Person?" Kerrigan tilts her head in a maddened look, "Ask Abathur how much of that is left." She grits her teeth, growling each word out, step by step, syllable by syllable.
Then, Lilith relaxes, trying to be unassuming, unthreatening, and smaller, "I do… I ask about you a lot, to everyone." She says quietly, "I spend all my free time sequencing. Under Abathur's knife, under my own knife, looking at strains. You can't take the person out of Terran essence. Ruins, the only good reasons to make a Terran infected. Just their parts." Then even quieter, "I know there's something bad that happened to you, but I didn't want to pry and I won't rip your memories out somewhere else, I want you to just share them with me when you trust me."
"You're a manipulator." The Queen growls, "I've been in your head, I know you."
"It's all a mask." Kerrigan's talon reaches for Lilith's face, cutting a miniscule line at the edge of it.
Lilith's lip curls in a snarl, before she puts it back, "It's… Not. People just get… Weird around… I like helping people." Not a lie, not the truth either. "I enjoy making people happy." She likes fixing people, making them little idols, and putting them in her shrine. Worshipping them, letting them be their best self. Hers. Hers because she knows they're better because of her. That she can pick and choose who gets to be perfect. Perfect like herself. "I'm good at it."
Finding a point, a weakness, the Queen goes for it, "Are you? Look at what you've managed. A psychic that can barely keep talking."
Cold fury, icey fire, a small chip, "I have made everyone who gave me a chance better. Everyone. I am per-Good at it." Fuck. She thinks, angrily. "I'm good at it."
"Bullshit." Kerrigan roars back at Lilith, "You're just another leech, trying to justify being a hanger on." Her tact switches.
The words are being drawn out of her, despite herself, she tries to hold them back, "I am a caretaker." She says angrily, "I am the best. At what I do. I help. I fix. I mend. Every person that I choose to help is better, because I saw them as worth helping."
"Stop lying to yourself." There's a cruel and vicious smile on Kerrigan's face, "All you are, is a failure with a pretty face."
Lilith is now matching the energy, not realising that the bottom of her ribcage and back were unfurling, "I knew you thought I was pretty." There wasn't any mirth, no flirting, "You will NOT break me." The tools, the appendages she had given herself with Abathur to improve infesting, and sequencing now matching the Queen of Blades spines, but unequally, far less.
Every inch of free space inside of Lilith's body was filled with complex limbs overlapping to perfectly mimic the Terran form. When fully unfurled, only a small strip of spine was left, from which dozens of articulated appendages descended from. She looked, perfect, serene, and beautiful just above the shaped ribs. Below, the rest was spiny and sharp. The lower part is the body of a sequencer, one who breaks down and builds up the Zerg to make them the best.
"You want a fight, Lilith?" Kerrigan asks, an excited, vicious aspect to her at the idea of ripping the other woman to pieces again.
Then Lilith smirked, "Oh you can't wait to get your hands all over me. Is that what this is? You just looove hurting me." The spines puncture around herself, "I can't win a fight, but I could break you given the chance. Easy."
"Shut UP." Kerrigan's focus breaks, a fist moving for the space where Lilith was.
Her limbs fire her to the side, latching onto the ceiling of the Behemoth. "You wanted me mask off? Fine. Mask off. I still care about you." She says, leaping behind her, before she can react giving her a kiss on the cheek, then bouncing away. "You're perfect. I want to be with you. I just… Show it poorly."
"Stop talking!" Kerrigan growls, sending waves of shock and light after Lilith, burning holes in the Behemoth's flesh and making it grumble in pain.
Lilith skitters across the ceiling into the living room, dancing towards a small hatchery and evolution pit had been placed. "Absolutely not. Talking is how I win." She yells. "You can't handle someone being nice to you. I can't stop being nice! Because I'm" And then she snarls, from another place in the ship, "Perfect. I am EVERYTHING. People are LUCKY to win my affection. They have been CHOSEN to be special. You LOVE me the same reason I LOVE YOU. Because we both know how GREAT we are."
"YOU AREN'T HIM!" Kerrigan cries out as an omnidirectional wave of crackling force throws Ana off the bed and rams Lilith against a wall, hard enough to crack its flesh and bone backing. "You'll never be him."
"Why do I have to be?" She mutters, "Why?! Why can't I be me? Why can't it just be ME? What is so special that means I won't fit. What is so broken that nothing new can be built on or around it?!" Still the ship can't be broken or they all will actually die. "You don't have to forget, or replace whoever this person is. New relationships are built around or on-top of the old ones, they'll never be able to replace them." She returns to where Kerrigan is, trying to push all the parts back inside unevenly, "You're a different person then you were, relationships change you."
"YOU DON'T GET TO CHANGE ME!" The Queen is insensate, enraged and precisely the wrong words were just said to her. Crackling power builds in her hands, glowing into an orb, dangerously bright, making even the Behemoths internals prickle with fear. Ana recovers, trying to speak, "D-don't, w-w-were t-too far a-a-way!" But can barely be heard above the energy-roil.
Instinctively, without proper thought, Lilith reaches in, trying to snatch at Kerrigan's essence, tug at it and break her concentration on whatever this is. It's the only tool she knows, it's what Abathur has been teaching her, it's all she's been doing since she got here. She was going to slice at Kerrigan past the shell.
The stab of Essence weaving drags Kerrigan out of any sort of focus. Her carapace rises in bumps as fear passes through her at the almost-familiar stab. Through the touch, memories of a choking, tight sac, of a billion eyes on her, of the attentions of Abathur bringing utmost, absolute agony as it rewove her from the ground up for months. Of being infested in a desert, of loving a man that seemed to always chase, no matter what… Of never knowing if anyone would love her like that again. Of someone who left her when she asked, and what came because of it.
Shit… Bad move. Lilith lets go immediately.
The Queen falls to the ground, pulling into a shaky ball, crackling with excess power."g-go a-away." Words burn into her skin all over her skin is littered with "Lilith loves Kerrigan and Kerrigan loves Lilith" overlapping in psychic waves, carved like ragged scratches from a knife.
She looks at Kerrigan and hisses, seeing small cuts on her from the hymn. Written everywhereHad I done more damage than I thought? Fuck. "I can't do that hon," She says quietly, "I just can't, you… Bleed your feelings into me. I can't imagine abandoning you right now."
She shivers at hon, a pulse of feeling that she can't hide in her state, words failing, not able to get anything out.
Manth, tell me the feeling, Please. There's more here. Lilith pleaded, I can't get a read, I need your help.
Touch her. Manth advises, preferring action to description.
Then, kneeling next to Kerrigan, she places her arm around her, "I didn't know, I'm sorry. You matter to me."
Kerrigan flinches, from the touch, but doesn't pull away, "I give up." She says quietly, "I yield. This has to end." Her lip quivers and she pulls in far closer to herself, resembling the Lilith when she had broken into the hatchery. Her head falls, and she doesn't say anything, but an inch of give is shown in her trembling lean into Lilith's touch.
"Kerrigan… This… There's nothing to end." Lilith says, confused, trying to hug her, "There is no yielding. Are you ok? Where do you think you are right now?" She puts a gentle hand on top of Kerrigan's head trying to pull her closer into a hug.
"J-just stop this." She begs, shaking with the effort of getting words out.
Then looking around herself, at the Behemoth, the odd bedroom, the weird mixes of zerg and terran culture. The lack of people, the isolation. The constant time on a planet alone. The overwhelming rage. The aggression, the constant fighting. Never agreeing, alwaysordering, neveracquiescing. Needing total submission and control. "Kerrigan, do you think… You're being infested by another Swarm? Is that what you're scared of?"
"J-just stop it." Kerrigan begs again.
The words make it clear, the bleed through of feelings. It must have taken years even decades to break her in swarm-space the first time she was infested. An extremely powerful psychic, being re-made for almost an eternity. Until she finally acquiesced into a role that she Never wanted, but gave her the power to never be controlled again. A man, her only link to her humanity left, giving up on him, meaning giving up on life. Possibly, even being infested entirely. Never quite sure of reality. She wasn't just competing with Jim Raynor's memory the entire time. She was competing with Kerrigan's sense of reality. Her sense of humanity. None of this seemed real anymore.
Lilith holds her tight into a hug, finally able to catch onto the warmth and empathy she was trying to create. Getting a grasp on it and pushing it outwards. "Sarah…" The word burned into her mind now, she can't unthink it, "You're not being infested. You're not being subsumed. You are still Queen. You're still my Queen." She says quietly, "You're ok, let's just sit quietly for a bit, in each other's company." And she hums, quietly, rocking Kerrigan a bit holding the large woman with all the comfort she could provide. One of her many limbs grabbing the burned, scorched, and tattered blanket, throwing it over them.
There's a few more seconds, then minutes, then an hour, and the trembling starts to stop. The breathing becomes more rhythmic and smooth. It… goes neutral.
The injuries across Sarah's body heal, most of them vanishing into carapace over the hour, slowly healing for one reason or another. All except a carving, one notable for being at least hideable, right on the inside of her left wrist.
I can smell the sarcasm. Mostly because Lilith is apparently a serial yandere(?) and Sarah is… traumatized out of her mind thanks to literally lifetimes of torture.
As a Behemoth has a small war take place aboard it, the galaxy continues spinning. At systems edge, blooming tears rip open, spilling purple fog and crackling energies across the hulls of a dozen ships, colossal twelve kilometre behemoths with storage blocks larger than asteroids forming the core of the fleet as they translate to reality, whilst smaller, more audacious vessels in gleaming white and gold, studded with gems rumble free of the Warp, guns proudly displayed on its sides, vast laser-lances dorsally mounted, thrumming with casual energy.
Each vessel emits enough heat that Corruptors confuse them for stars as they adapt to their presence. A transmission passes through, rippling into Zerg space and activating their own Vox array. "The Tithe Fleet has arrived, prepare to host Lord Admiral Varynna."
Already prepared containers of the special dye that this world produced tumble in space around the distant gas giant, guiding the titanic Mass Conveyors to them and beginning to be loaded. Zhakarov's preparation off near-silent conversations with the Magos.
Lilith still sits with the Queen, feeling the stiff, unyielding pain in her by touch, by soul. Ana sits nearby on the floor, not knowing where to put herself as a trickle of black-red blood has finally stopped flowing from her right eye.
"Ana, you're a part of this too, come sit on the other side of me, please." Lilith says, looking at her, "I didn't realize I had to tell you still that you're with me too."
"O-I-oh" She tries to answer, but can't find words, preferring to obey. Sitting on the other side of Lilith, she gently places herself warmly against the other woman, "A-are you hurt?" She asks, looking at the blood from Kerrigan over her front and lap.
"No, of course not," Lilith says with a smile, crying, "I'm just so happy that my family is happy." Then she looks at Kerrigan, "Ok… Healing. Happy is… Maybe a bit generous right now." Then looking to Anastasia, "When our Queen," Putting emphasis on the word, to make sure that Ana felt the importance of respecting that boundary, "Is feeling up to it, the three of us will discuss… What happens next. Right now, I'm just enjoying that everyone is safe." She squeezes Kerrigan just a bit to let her know she's still thinking about her.
The Behemoth rumbles, making Ana's head snap up and even Kerrigan stiffen, eyes slipping into something more focused.
"Oh COME ON!" Lilith moans growling. "What is it now?!"
"S-ships, t-twelve, a fleet." Ana says, her eyes flooding with orange Essence.
Gently petting one of the tendrils on her own head, which she had learned were psi focii, she muttered, "Weren't we expecting a fleet? The tithing right?"
"Ye-Yes," Ana admitted, "Bu-but," She takes a deep breath, calming and pulling herself together when Lilith touches her shoulder, "But well, there's more ships than there should be, and the Lord Admiral wishes to speak to us." The words flowing with more confidence. Starting to find it easy to talk as the topic turns to familiar politics.
"And we're in the Behemoth." Lilith face falls, "Which means we won't be there for the shuttle or prepared. How much time do we have."
Kerrigan growled, "She summons us?!" Speaking to, most likely, Zhakarov. "I am not a servant."
"Ana, can you let them know now's not a great time. Imply that we're… Otherwise… Indisposed?" She makes a head jerk towards the bed.
"T-the Lord Admiral… is not asking, L-lilith." Anastasia regretfully answers.
Lilith winces, "Can we ask? Just for like, an hour to pull ourselves together?!"
"W-we have fourty minutes u-until their shuttle arrives i-in orbit."
"Tell them to come to the Behemoth, we've got some clothes here, we can't make it planetside in time." Lilith winces, knowing that she's not allowed to give orders, "I'm not in Unity or the swarm, but I can't think of any other option. Maybe the Lord Admiral won't think too much about all three of us leaving the same abode."
Ana winces at the hope, "M-maybe." Minutes pass quickly, the anxious energy of the situation developing this way making them tick by. A rumble of fusion jets can be heard vibrating through the Behemoth as something nears. "T-they're here." Anastasia says, communing with the Behemoth. "J-just outside."
Kerrigan finally snarls, shooting to her feet, angry.
Lilith leaps after her, touching her wrist gently, "My Queen, don't we aren't strong enough. We're not I can't lose everything right now. If you can't just let me and Ana go alone, but don't get us all killed." She puts Kerrigan's hand in her own, "Please. Please. I'm so happy please."
"I'll just talk." She, bitingly, assures Lilith.
Lilith rests her head against Kerrigan's arm, "Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it." Then looking at the pile of clothes, "What do you want to wear? We're not going to look very human if we show up in just our carapace."
The clothing selection was highly tailored to Lilith's personal tastes, few of the clothes actually being acceptable in any sort of formal gathering. Anastasia, who had found, cleaned, and re-furbished old Astropath uniforms looked like a prim, and proper imperial. While Lilith and Kerrigan were having far bigger worries. Most of the clothing planet side wasn't tailored for them, or so soiled, or rotten to be unusable. Kerrigan being far larger than Lilith was being forced into tight, revealing clothing. Much of which seemed to be more revealing than wearing nothing at all.
Kerrigan found herself in a slinky side slit dress that was held together by a ribbon just above the hip, that crossed over itself as a helix, just up the side to lash it together, while a single sleeve and strap adorned the opposite, the sleeve running down to her thumb, covering half of her, but so tightly that it seemed to be near the verge of ripping. Though Zerg physiology made this seem more like a purposeful choice of power fashion, rather than a hasty forced mistake.
Lilith, struck with indecision, decided to match the energy, and threw on a crop jacket that revealed her midriff, and a pair of long slacks. Then looking around the room for something, anything to show a defined sense of unity she scooped up a random yellow blouse, and used her weaving appendages to quickly make three ribbon chokers, "It's the best I could think of, shut-up. It's the Zerglings favorite color." She said, before anyone could complain, placing the necklaces around the three of their necks matching. "We look fucking stupid, but humans look stupid so it should work."
They walked over to the center of the Behemoth with the hatchery and evolution pool, watching the "Docking bay" door slip open, a brief vacuum pull as the shuttle fearlessly enters the Behemoth. A black helmeted pilot gestures to an opened doorway, revealing a fur lined interior, ringed with gold and wealth.
Under her breath Lilith whispers at Ana, "Let Kerrigan get in first, then me." She quickly fell in place behind Kerrigan. "Keeping you two separated for now."
Kerrigan snarled as she climbed in, but maintained her composure. She found it hard to manoeuvre in the stiff clothing. Meanwhile, Lilith tried to figure out the persona that she would need. She had been perfect for the Zerg, and for Ana, but the Imperium seemed… She quickly took a bit of essence from the bottom of the behemoth and made a bit of "chewing gum."
Chewing it loudly Lilith yelped, "OH HI!" To the pilot, "I'm Lilith, nice to meet you, this is My Queen, isn't she Darling, and this is Ana." Then she plopped into her seat, "You doing alright today?" She says to the pilot, quickly trying to piece together an identity, and their social status.
The vox on the Pilot's helmet cuts on with a crackle, "A pleasure Ma'am, doing fine." Smooth, despite the static, words and a slick delivery is accompanied by the tapping of buttons and switches, the shuttle rumbling to life as its thrusters burn lightly to escape the maw of the Behemoth.
Okay, he's talking to us like we're not worthless. "That's amazing to hear, amazing." She smiles. She stares out the window as well, "You got a name, I'm sure. Gosh space is just lovely, I never get tired of it."
"Zares." The pilot answers, flicking to full thrust with a light pressure on the passengers, "The void's always a treat, unless it's being unfriendly." Black space interposed with stars fills the transparent aluminium windows, whilst ahead, through the pilot's cockpit glass, the astronomic size of the gas giant seems to swallow the horizon, rings circling it whilst even the titanic vessels are less than dots.
"If you learn anything about us Zares, it's that we're great at making friends." She watches the planet with glee and wonder, she didn't get to travel much. Though she tried not to mention it, seeing space was one of her favourite parts about being a zerg. "So you enjoying your time on the uhhmmm…" She points at the fleet, "The whatevers? Oof, listen to me, such a bumpkin."
"I'm not a part of the Tithe Fleet, no." The pilot chuckles through the crackle, "I'm the Lord Admiral's personal pilot, whenever she needs something moved, I move it."
She nods, "Oh we're getting a personal lift look at that," Lilith considers for a second of going further and poking Kerrigan, but the death glare she received immediately disabused her of that notion. "Right, sorry my queen."
Finally, a light pull no one quite noticed vanishes as truly interplanetary space is reached, no tug but what the gravity of the shuttle can provide. "You're world's a little distant, ladies." Zares admits, still indistinct on what exactly lies behind the helmet. "So we'll be floating here for the next twenty-odd minutes."
With a wink Lilith said, "What your Lord Admiral scared of getting closer?"
"The opposite, I think." Another crackled chuckle, "Most planets don't appreciate a plasma carronade hanging above them."
With a smile, "I'll make sure to let him know he can get in as snug as he likes."
"Her." Zares corrects.
"Does that make her a Lady Admiral then?" Lilith asks quickly. collating facts, plasma carronade sounds bad. Though lady admiral sounds like there will at least be someone coolheaded in charge.
"The title doesn't change, no." The pilot chuckles as they slightly course-correct for the autopilot, seeing a more efficient burn route.
Ok, don't call her Lady Admiral, got it. She gave Kerrigan a look but her gaze was disregarded. Please don't piss this lady off Lilith thought to herself. "Well, then I'll make sure she gets in even closer."
The shuttle nears, finally seeing the vast ship with the naked eye. A bone-white, flecked with gold statues reaching up what must be hundreds of metres, proudly portraying images of a woman in uniform, sword extended forwards to the prow of the cruiser. On its side, stamped in peerless metal is "Rage of Mercury", just below its cannon line. Capacitors hum alongside the barrel sides, electric charge buzzing on the hull of the shuttle even at this distance whilst dorsal lances threaten with burning red heat and a prow mounted cannon is very carefully actively corrected to avoid anything being in front of it
Docking bays groan open, letting the tiny shuttle fall into it and be grabbed by the impelling gravity of the warship. Landing on metal tiling, outside the windows can be seen a military parade, marching soldiers in lockstep alongside strange, mechanical walkers, rumbling tanks and everything in between, filling the massive docking bay from edge to edge with thousands in a royal welcome.
The door swings open, landing and serving as a stairway for anyone exiting into the austere-yet-ostentatious space.
Anastasia climbs out first, then when Lilith pokes her head, she quickly turns back to Kerrigan and whispers, "It's a royal welcome, you're being treated like a Queen, respected like a monarch. It's not a threat" Then winks at Zares and climbs out at the side waiting for her to step in front of both of them. The Queen walks forward, and then stops when a diminutive woman stands in front of a hulking army. Lilith looks to Ana, Do we announce ourselves first or does she?
She begins, not us. Anastasia projects, focusing on politics and intrigue, a honed home of hers as it turns out.
Lilith nods, and waits. Then gently touches Kerrigan's finger with hers to pass on she should do the same. This doesn't have the intended effect, as Kerrigan seems to shirk away almost immediately from Lilith, as if burned by the touch. Shit.
"Governess! Attendants!" The loud voice of the diminutive woman carries far and wide. Her uniform flexing and shifting with the medals galore on her chest. Light-blue and cinched at the waist to show both wealth and figure. "I am delighted to make your acquaintance! Please, follow my armsmen, they'll take you right over to where I am!"
The perfect holographic display of a woman flickers to nothing, leaving just the army and a hiss from Kerrigan, nearly breaking her focus.
In her mind Ana remind her that we don't know what respect looks like here. That could have been a respectful greeting, and if it wasn't don't mention that. Lilith was panicking, she wasn't expecting to get hungover, drunk, horny, beaten to shit, cry for an hour, and then perform in front of an admiral. She knew Kerrigan was fragile right now, and they just needed to say hello, not blow up, and leave.
Ana can't find the time to respond to Lilith as Kerrigan begins stomping her way along the pathway between formations, leading to the location of this woman. A grand door, carved with mythologic images of great and terrible battle, of ships splitting and worlds crumbling, pulls open with mechanical actuation. Moving inside without anyone else, all three women are left in the edifice.
More statues of the woman, these in far more lurid detail and states of dress and undress, personal pieces still twenty feet tall and brightly golden, silvered at the detail-points. Cold metal floor sits at odd with old-world opulence, a throne at the far end of the chamber.
Without proper thought, Lilith looks at the statues, and whispers to Kerrigan, "You think she's compensating for something?" Continuing to chew her "gum" wad of meat.
Kerrigan smirked, just a little, enough to break the tension. Which made Lilith breathe a sigh of relief. As they walked further, a shifting pool just to the side of the throne started to swarm and swirl. The inky black undulating with an unhealthy rhythm. The entire pool seeming to be the single membrane of a creature as it rises, no, something from inside of it rises out. A nude woman, five foot two, steps out of the pool, and every drop of it starts to be drunk in by her pores. Each drop disappears, revealing her naked form fully.
Dozens of floating skulls tend to her needs, flying in from the sides and top of the room. Descending like a swarm of Zergling on a bunker. In moments she's covered in a beautiful white dress, and steps into matching pumps. Small servitors apply make-up in layers, as if perfectly printing a more beautiful her on top. Piercings and jewellery are planted upon her neck, ears, and wrists, gems that seem to sparkle brighter than any diamond, greener than any emerald. Finally as she steps up to the throne, a glass is placed into her hand, and wine is poured in.
She looks amused as she walks forward, "I've no need to excuse the delay, Rejuvenant isn't optional for my stunning looks." A refined and exquisite voice, practically sculpted into shape.
"I'm not complaining," Lilith says with her hands up, trying to lay into her excited rural ruse, "Not something I get to see very often. Oh, my apologies," Leaning on the last syllable just a bit, "This is The Queen of Blades, our darling governess. I'm Lilith, and that's our uh…" Lilith tries to stretch the syllable out, "You know the uh Astro-whosie-whatsit." Then gives a large smile.
"Astropath, yes." The Lord Admiral answers with a chuckling grin, settling on her throne with a practised comfort, eyes locking onto Kerrigan. One gleams in the light oddly, the other seems to be more natural in its reaction to everything. "Greetings, queen, and welcome to my vessel. I trust you've been treated well so far?" She seems to know exactly when to modulate her voice to make Kerrigan narrow her eyes.
"Fine, so far." The Queen's reply is short and curt, trying to avoid long, rage inducing sentences. This only excites the Lord Admiral, starting to tap her foot with a grin, preparing another innocuous sentence.
"We've been having just a hoot planetside, you should come visit! You might like it, noticed you parked so far away, made it seem like you were scared! We're nice. I don't bite." Lilith had a dozen images of her biting people flit through her mind, that she tried to push down, "Ok, well I bite but only when people ask." Then she snorts for good measure.
Her gaze shifts off Kerrigan and focuses on Lilith, much to Ana's massive relaxation. "Typically, I'm the one biting." She grins, showing pearly teeth, perfectly complimenting her porcelain skin, another sign of almost-intelligent design.
"I guess we'll wrestle for it later then." She says, showing a larger set of… Unnaturally sharp teeth, each pointed like an obligate carnivore's would be.
Kerrigan hisses out, "Is there any business you wanted attended too." Trying to kill the budding conversation with an angry tone.
Poor word choice. "This is business I think, we're all seeing how we get along," She smiles, "I love tests."
Ignoring Lilith's explanation, the Admiral leans forwards on her throne, a social predator finding a bared neck, "Ooh, is she off-limits?" The words make the Queen growl loudly, a scent of ozone filling the air rapidly.
Lilith's face fell, and with it the accent, "Wait.. Am… I? That's… Awesome!" She's completely forgotten where she is, until the smell of ozone hits, and then deep breaths. "Oh my god that's so great. That means we should be very careful what we do right now. Please."
Then Lilith's accent comes back, nasally and high, "You're such a tease Lord Admiral, but we don't wanna waste your time with games!" Then she realizes, "I lost the accent a minute ago. I got… If you could have given us just an hour. We were begging for it! You even needed it for your… Bath?" Social defaults of blathering for disarmament kicks in as she tries to regain the control of the situation by throwing out too much bait to latch onto.
The Admiral smiles, rising off her throne and taking short, delicate steps down the stairs, swarms of servitor skulls moving tables through the air.
She stops a good distance from the trio, settling on a chair just put into place by three of the floating servants. The table set with lemons and meats galore. "Please, join me in this feast. It is, after all, a gift from your world!" Purple flesh shifts, sizzling under exposure to the citrus solution obviously used all over it.
Ana frowns and then widens her eyes, a desperate mental message striking Lilith, THAT IS ZERG ME-
Crackle, energy builds, a glow invades the room from Kerrigan's hands.
Manth? Good idea to stop her? She asks in her head.
T-this i-isn't m-my e-element, lovely. Manth seems strained, as if something pressing down on him
There are a few constants of Lilith's life, anger at being jilted, a destructive temper with a short-fuse, and poor decision making skills, only Ana truly understood what Lilith was doing, when she picked up a chair and threw it at the Admiral. Lilith definitely at that moment, was finished with the game. "There, one of us made an ass out of ourselves. Are you happy? Listen five foot nothing, you got a reason for being a dick?"
The short woman smiles warmly, and then chairs impact shoves her five feet back, zerg muscle giving it much more force than normally expected of such a thing. Skin rips, revealing clicking, whirring metal beneath it, the wood cracks over her frame.
"Oh shit, I thought you were way stronger than that, I am so sorry. I am so sorry." Lilith bites her fingernails in fear.
Pulling herself up from the pile of broken wood and nails, she laughs, servitor skulls jabbing her with chemicals, suturing flesh in seconds as they pump. "I expect to get even for that." The way the Admiral says it makes it confusing whether or not she means the chair or the interruption. Kerrigan snarls, once again being aggravated.
"They are not yours to play games with, Admiral. What was the meaning of this summons." She demands, ozone crackle still in the air, though the light has faded. As her facial cuts seal, perfect porcelain left behind, the shortest woman in the room answers with confidence. "Of course, of course, after all, my game is with you."
Lighting arcs, once again the Admiral is sent tumbling, this time across the breadth of the room in a spray of mechanical oil and burnt blood. Split open chest revealing the almost chronometric ticking of her internals, a delirious grin rips across the woman's face as she dents in the far wall, stopping harshly with a repetitive series of crunches.
"FUCK!" Lilith yells, "Fuck! FUCK! Oh Kerrigan, why. Would you DO that?! The fucking ship is accompanied with a planet cracking Armada! I can lose my cool, because I'm not the Queen." She sits down angrily, "If I had at least done it, they could have just taken me and not the Planet. There is no higher authority than you to demand recompense from."
"E-x-a-c-t-l-y." A revenant groan comes from the briefly dead woman as a buzz of defibrillation sounds out. Chemical-hauling servo-skulls jabbing her again, forces even the burnt, twisted and ruined chest wound to slowly close with internal medichines forcing the brute fleshy changes required to seal the injury.
"A-a-and now, I do nothing about it." The Admirals voice settles into something more sane and human as internal repairs catch up with external, the front of her white dress blasted and melted to her skin by the impact.
Lilith looks at her, "Oh well if she's immortal do it again." Throwing her hands up in the air.
"D-do that again and I'll have the room flooded with plasma." She chuckles, "Regenerator chemicals are expensive, darlings." Clothes being returned to her by skulls.
"Well, it sounds like there's a limit then." Her eyes were brimming, pissed off that her special achievement was so throughly fucking ruined. "I was having a moment when you arrived." Her hands flexing in and out, with rage.
One eye overrun with the red of recently burst capillaries, another with the case of synthetic that prevents it from being seen as purely mechanical lock onto Lilith, piercing her with almost psionic intensity. "Adorable." There's no feeling to the compliment, like a walking corpse giving it, "I could just rip you to pieces." There's far more emotion to the second statement, a gleeful happiness to it.
"It was Adorable. It was perfect." Gritting her teeth, "It can't happen again. I'm pissed. I don't want to be dressed like a fucking night-clubber being talked down to by a… Fucking kid!"
That insult does seem to strike home, getting the Lord Admiral to frown, lips curling, "I will have you know I'm of average height from my home." The statement is repeated, as if often said.
Lilith catches on, and walks around it with feigned ignorance. "Yeah but that doesn't make you older then what? Twenty three? You learn these mind games get old." Lilith says, "I don't know what the average height from any world is. I'm from this one."
"First, Lilith, they never get old." The Admiral is smiling broadly through the point by point explanation, "Secondly, I can't help your lack of education." Her finger points to Lilith, "And thirdly, Add another five-hundred and ninety." A smugness enters her at the last phrase, as if very proud of the age.
"Oh! Well, you look great for it, do you start big then work your way downwards as you age?" Lilith bouncing between getting angry, and just loving the game even though she knows she shouldn't. Engaging, wanting to see how far the little psychopath will go. Stuck between rage at being robbed, and glee at something that will engage on her level.
"Of course you came up with that, Lilith. What can I expect from a needy limpet." She grins, stepping off from the wall to get infront of Lilith, though can't quite manage in her face.
The word hits her, and she's confused, so Lilith looks to Anastasia, "The fuck is a limpet?"
"L-like a leech." Anastasia answers, nervously giving the truth despite knowing its a terrible idea.
Fury almost instantly, trying to calm down, "You can't get to me, I'm not like them. I'm perfect. So…" She tried to think of something, "Nyeh."
"Perfect?" The Admiral coyly asks, "Is that what you want to be called?" She presses a metal nail into Lilith's chest, slicing a small hole in the top she's wearing by doing so. "A perfect woman, hmm? I can do that."
"Well, you can do it in part, most of you looks like it's made of steel isn't it?" Lilith snaps back, leaning into the metal nail, letting it sink into her chest. "When's the last time you felt every nerve ending tingle Admiral?"
"When's the last time you felt wanted, Lilith." The Admiral chuckles, dragging her nail down and out of the other woman, scraping.
"Five minutes ago, thanks to you." Lilith smiles, then looks at the scrape, "Oh look, no mark. Guess you're getting weak in your old age."
Like a flipped switch, the Admiral asks in an entirely different tone of voice, "Just to clarify, are we fighting or fucking? I can't tell, and it's never good to be confused." Throwing the entire conversation off balance.
"I don't know anymore." Lilith admitted, "I just really like back and forth wordplay, so I felt like either you killed us, or I seemed really cool and strong. It was a game of chicken, mostly. I think I won?" She flumps, down on a chair.
"I think you did, yes, very good!" She gently pats Lilith's cheek, cold metal draining some heat even through synthetic skin. "We will do this again, alright?" It's phrased like a question and command alike, leaving room to consider whether it was meant to be one or the other.
"Can I steal your liquor?" She asks as the Admiral walks off to her throne, "I get really thirsty when I'm scared."
"I don't know." The Admiral answers smiling, "Can I steal you?"
"I need to have a conversation way before that ever happens, probably multiple." Lilith replies finally feeling like she regained some balance of control of the situation. "So, you've been eating Zerg, or… What's up with that?"
The Lord Admiral waves her hand, "Go home, little citizens. I'll call on you when i've the time to play more games." The words make Kerrigan grit her teeth again, but otherwise begin to storm off. "I'll be in touch."
The word gives Lilith shivers, and she doesn't quite know if she hates it, "You're a lot… Anyone tell you that," And she snatches multiple decanters off of the table before she leaves, lingering to make it clear she was leaving when she was ready. "Anyways, call me when you don't want to feel metal anymore." Then she sprints out to Kerrigan's side.
After landing, Kerrigan storms out of the shuttle, growling and cursing, electric bolts ripping boulders free once she finally has enough. The trail of destruction ends in a half-circle crater of annihilation with a Queen of Blades at the centre, sitting atop rocks as Creep slowly moves back in. Lilith nods in appreciation.
"I'm going to start with how…" Lilith bits her tongue, then decides to push forward, "It's not patronizing, for people to be proud of other people. You have done so much better than I thought possible. You might hate that I'm saying that, and praise probably feels like venom, but you need to be told when you're doing well, so you can know you're on the right path. You did great. It's not perfect, but it's great."
"You're treating me like a toddler." Sarah growls, turning her head to face Lilith, a look of deep-seated turmoil in her.
Unflinching, Lilith walked forward. "No, I'm treating you like someone who has felt unloved for thirty years. If I wanted to make you feel like a toddler, I would do that. I want to make you stronger, stronger in a way that everyone else has used against you." She had brought Broken Horn with her, once again healed by the knowledge Abathur had given her. "He was worried about you."
"He's a zergling, they're all worried about things." She deflects, looking back down at the floor. "Damnit." Kerrigan breathes out, shaky, "She knew how to say it, every part. All I could see was red." A crackle of lightning passes between her and the ground, ranting, "I want her dead, I tried, I hate this place."
There was a silent sadness, that Lilith tried not to fill with words. The planet they landed on honestly had few moments of real beauty, in fact the creep which they had made some fun colors, seemed to be the only real decoration. The dust from the city had largely settled, so the sunsets were the same boring colors. The waters dull, and dreary luster stolen by the new sea-bed creep. Kerrigan wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, me too, for different reasons of course. Everyone here hurts. Sometimes I feel like we could snuff this entire galaxy out and be doing half of them a favor by just ending it." Lilith said. "She's just been doing this a lot longer, the problem is, you haven't gotten the experience yet. Everything has been the maximum difficulty. Learning by failing can work sometimes, but it's hard and it sucks." There's another pause, "First, you just have to learn to focus, that's the first step."
"Focus." She spits, "It's always about focus." Sarah's voice is acidic. "When I became zerg, I could finally stop focusing. Stop needing to think so much about everything." But it softens into almost whispers, "It was so simple."
There's a nod, just a slow soft rocking of Lilith's head, as she listened. "Yeah." She says quietly, "When you're the strongest thing in the galaxy, you don't have to navigate. I think people have… Told you focus is something different then what it is. You don't need discipline, you are quite disciplined, and willful! You just need a goal. Is there something you care about? Not abstract, like the swarm, but—" She stops, shakes her head, "Something you can imagine, that's here." She says, putting a bit of emphasis on the final word.
"I don't know." Sarah answers in an eerie facsimile of another event, somehow just as vulnerable. "I-" She looks up at Lilith, "I'm trying?" Its a question, directed to who, Lilith can't tell.
The other nods, "You are. You're doing great. You're amazing. I'm not just saying that because I'm a creep." Lilith says, "I mean it helps, but I'm saying it because you have gone through hell and you're still strong. In a very real way." Then a shuddering breath, "It doesn't have to be me, by the way. It can be Broken Horn, it can be your throne, just something you can encompass and think about when someone's needling you."
"A center?" She asks, trying to synthesize everything being said, "I used to have one." Sarah whispers, "It's gone, dead or too far away for me to touch." A crackle of lightning splits a rock in an idle violence
Kerrigan turns to the other woman, trying to give herself a break, "Tell me, how much did it irk to say it doesn't have to be you?"
"It didn't. It hurt, desperately, but in the same way that Ana would care and watch me be happy, I care." There's a quiet bereft scar, from a conversation that Kerrigan probably didn't even remember: "If… Any person… Were here, and you told me, I'd watch from the sidelines, dying the entire time. I'd savor every scrap of attention. It kills me. Like my soul is being torn out in front of me." She dips her finger in the crumbled ash from the lightning struck rock, writing out the wrong words that seem emblazoned inside of her. "She probably hears the stupid hymn constantly." Lilith loves Sarah, and Sarah loves Lilith and "Everyone does… Who knows me."
The Queen is quiet, not using her words. An idle scratching on her wrist stops as she acts. The carapace heals and she grabs Lilith by her chin, facing her towards it. Lilith loves Sarah. There's a shaky energy to her, as if she's never done this before.
She wants to break, to melt in her arms, "I know," even quieter, "You don't have to say it, I know. I love you too." There's a harder wheeze as tears flood her. "That can be a focus, a center, it's physical, you can… Feel the bumps, know it's real."
"Okay." Sarah says to herself. "I." She stops, breathing again, "How do you just talk about this?" Finally, something escapes her, a question, desperate. "Its-Ugh!" The words turns to a scream.
There's a quick shake of her head, "Honestly?" There's a deep indecision, mental calculations as she tries to imagine different ways the conversation could go. She doesn't stop writing, "I'm a manipulative sado-masochist who worships people. The pain means nothing to the reward of lifting up my special chosen. I studied relationships constantly, tried to have as many as possible. My entire life was studying, psycho-analyzing, and of course, obsessing." Another pause for breath, trying to rush through it,
"You still talk too much." Sarah smiles through the words.
"I read books, and books, and books on what the language is, how to navigate, what to do. Then what I feel gets in the way. Just not the way it does with you." Lilith can't stop, she's speaking over Kerrigan. "It makes me jump into a spawning pool and try to steal tendrils when you're not looking, while my brain screams to stop."
"I, damnit." The smile turns to a frown, breath escaping her in a hiss, "I'm dancing to everyone else's tune, just another puppet."
"You're not." Lilith wants to cry, "You're not." She has to push forward, This is of course, never what she should have said, but she needed someone to be honest around. She said the hardest part, why couldn't she say this? She crumples, pulling her legs to her chest, depressive compaction causing her to internally structurally fail as she falls deep into herself. "Never. I just know what I need to say. I know what I need to feel." Even quieter, "I don't know how I know. I just do, and it scares everyone."
"I'm not scared of you." Sarah growls, "I-."
The words won't come out. "I—"
She breathes out a curse, closing her eyes and then responding, "I like you."
If she wanted people to be strong she'd have to say it, "I need someone I can be myself around. I need you to know who and what I am. I know, if it comes out later, it'll be so much worse. I'm never using you."
Another minor violence sees a rock shatter in the crater, "I like listening to your twenty minute rants on the stupidest things."
The lightning almost strikes Lilith, making the violence thunder in her ears. "I… love how scary you can be. I love your capacity to care."
Crackling electric arcs burn thin lines into the ground, she's silent, face turned into a harsh frown despite her words, "I like when you think you know what to say. Its… you don't act like you know me, every part of me. I'm not…a file."
She doesn't flinch from the lightning, "I love your sarcastic comments, and your mean jokes, and I love how funny, and smart, and brave you are." Then she just hugs her, hard, tries to crush Kerrigan with her love.
Trying her best to break the tension, Kerrigan says, "It's why I put up with you."
Another, quieter nod, "If you can't say it, but you want too… Touch your wrist, and I'll know." Then a smile blossoms, raising towards Kerrigans face reaching like a rose for the sun. "You should know though, you can't ever stop me saying it back. I love you."
She rolls her eyes, a smirk on her face, "The inside of your head is still filthy." Kerrigan deflects from the words with venom, but, after a second, she puts a hand on her wrist, moving her fingers overtop the scar.
Her eyes glow bright, not from magic or essence, but from pure radiated joy, "You could help me get the thoughts out, if you want."
"No." The Queen answers, "I need you to get mine out first." Imperiously commanding Lilith with a sharp, yet, for once, not hostile look. She tries to quickly think of what to do, but settles on grabbing Lilith and pulling her up to kiss.
This story is confusing interesting but confusing I really don't get why the hell the admiral would invite what looks like a discount hive lord on to there ship.
![[Wh40k x Starcraft] Thanatomania - One weird Swarm's adventure through the imperium (Book 2 Started!)](/data/threadmark-index-icons/l/74/74726.jpg?1708748459){kind=icon}
