“Wakey, wakey!”

A cheerful voice interrupted my slumber. I groggily opened my eyes and looked through the green liquid I was suspended in. After my escape attempt, I had been placed back in the tank. And while I open my eyes and look around, I was incapable of moving any other parts of my body. I also found that my newly acquired magic wasn’t responding to me either. However, I could still communicate. It seemed that whenever changelings were in the room, with the exception of Chrysalis, they could hear my thoughts. Chrysalis could communicate with me whether she was in the room or not. The pink eye and winged changeling speaking to me was Flit. She was currently working on my body, making me into ‘the last hope of the changelings’.

“Are you ready for another day of tests?” Flit asked me.

I rolled my eyes. ‘How long are we going to keep this up? Shouldn’t you be making me do stuff for you?’

“Your body isn’t ready yet,” Flit chuckled. “You still can’t handle the atmosphere yet.”

‘I swear I’m going to get muscular dystrophy in here,’ I thought.

“Don’t worry about that,” Flit said as she adjusted some dials. “The fluid you’re floating in is designed to prevent loss of muscle mass. When you come out, you’ll actually be better than when you went in.”

‘Fantastic. Can you at least tell me how long I’ve been in here?’

Flit hesitated. “I would love to but the queens don't want me to. Telling you could send you into a rage or depressive spiral.”

I blinked. ‘I’ve been here for a really long time, haven’t I?’

Flit turned away. “Yes.”

I mentally sighed. I had pretty much guessed that. Although there was no way to tell, I was pretty sure I’d been in this world for at least several months. Oh well. Worrying about it now wouldn’t do any good.

‘What’s on the schedule for today, Flit’ I asked.

She perked back up. “Today is a special day. I’m going to take your usual readings and measurements and then I’m going to administer a serum that is designed to help you adjust to the atmosphere.”

‘What’s so special about that?’

“Nothing. The special part comes after that. Today we’re going to go over, in detail all of the modifications that were made to your body! Whoa there, calm down!”

My mind was racing. What did they do to me? Memories of fighting with the changelings flashed through my mind. I managed to focus my thoughts onto a single question. ‘Am I still human?’

“Human?” Flit asked as she fiddled with the pod. “Right, your species. Well….” Flit paused momentarily and then resumed her adjustments. “Yes and no. Your body is still mostly human. You just had some changeling parts added.”

‘But it’s not like there’s extra space in my body.’ My heart was trying to race but the liquid was keeping it steady. ‘What did you take out?’

Flit looked at me with a kind smile, “You’re right, there was no extra space.” She flew to the top of the tank and tubes extended into the tank and pierced my neck. “So we had to integrate the changeling parts with your existing biology.” She chuckled, “Now that was a real challenge. Before they blended together, they took up too much space and we couldn’t close the surgical openings. You looked like some sort of body horror victim.”

My eyes opened as wide as they could. ‘What!?’

“Don’t worry,” Flit said as she landed. “Just summoning you here took basically all the resources we had so having you die or be impaired in any way would have been completely unacceptable.” She levitated a quill pen and scribbled on a clipboard. “That should do it. Now we’ll give your body a few days to adjust to the serum and make the changes.”

‘Whatever,’ I thought glumly. ‘I’m stuck in here with no clocks or windows. What should I care; time has no meaning to me.’

“Now, now, you’ve got to keep those spirits high,” Chrysalis said as she walked into the room. “Mental health is just as important as physical health.” Chrysalis tried smiling at me but I couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. Plus her fangs were pretty unnerving. “How is our little science project,” she asked Flit.

“He’s doing very well your highness,” Flit replied as she dropped into a bow. “I think that he should be ready in less than a week.”

Chrysalis clapped her hooves together. “That is good news! Then it is past time we give you an explanation, isn’t it?”

A flash of pink and gray light filled the room, forcing me to close my eyes. When I opened them, I saw two more of the giant changelings standing next to Chrysalis. One with a pink color scheme and one with gray. The pink one stepped forward.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” she said, her voice like wind chimes. “I am Queen Diptera and this is Queen Seta. It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”

‘I would bow or something but I can’t seem to move my body at the moment,’ I replied.

“That is quite alright,” Diptera said in her musical voice.

‘So what brings all of you down here to what I can only assume is a secret subterranean lab?’ I asked.

“We’ve decided it’s time that you learned everything,” Chrysalis said. “After all, although you are here against your will, we want you to trust us. We did not do this lightly. Our entire species is on the brink of extinction.”

‘Whoa,’ I thought. ‘Really?’

“Chrysalis speaks the truth,” Diptera confirmed. “What you see before you? We are the last queens, the last mothers of our entire race. When we pass there will be no more changelings.”

‘How did you even get to this point,’ I asked.

Diptera sighed. “As you know, we changelings feed on the emotions of other sentient life. And in order to do this we change our form and hide ourselves. We have done this for as far back as our history goes. At the height of our power we had hundreds of queens and hives all over the world.”

“But all that changed the day our enemy discovered us,” Chrysalis said. “It was my fault. I was trying to get food for my children. I invaded a city in an attempt to gain enough food so that my children would never have to face danger again but I failed. Once our presence was known, they began hunting us down.”

“Entire hives were set alight,” Diptera continued. “They cared not that they killed our innocent children, our innocent hives. They see our race as an affront against nature. They look at us and our way of live and see only evil and corruption. They wish to purge us from existence. We did what we could: we hid and for a time we were safe again.”

“But our enemy was not satisfied,” Chrysalis explained. “They are skilled with magic in a way we will never be and they used this to their advantage. They set up spells that scoured the landscape and lit up like a beacon any time a changeling was found. Then, when even that began losing effectiveness, they started their final campaign to truly kill us all.”

“The towers,” Diptera muttered. “They set up towers that blanketed the land with a certain spell. A spell that would ensure that our species could not continue. The towers have a spell that prevents changeling eggs from developing. They have made us infertile. A final slap in the face as we cease to exist.”

‘Holy shit,’ I was stunned. That was a lot to just drop on somebody. ‘Not to uh.. be insensitive or anything t-to the uh…. genocide of your entire species but um… what does that have to do with me?’

“Yes, this is actually where you come in,” Chrysalis explained. “We have tried striking back against them but they can always see us coming thanks to their detectors. We cannot go to other countries as they have been convinced of our ‘inherent evil’. So our first idea was to seek refuge on another world. But the amount of magic power needed to do so was massive. Even with the three of us combined it wasn’t enough.”

“We needed another plan,” Diptera said. “We needed help. Instead of going to another world, we would summon a creature to ours. We set up a magical array to look across the multiverse for the most successful species of hunters and killers and bring one of them here. It took the magic of four queens but we managed to bring you here.”

‘I just have a few questions,’ my thoughts raced.

“Of course,” Diptera assured me. “We will answer all of them.”

‘Great. First, why me? I’m not a hunter or killer or anything like that,’ I thought. ‘In fact I personally know several more qualified people who both have experience killing and doing covert operations.’

“We are not sure why the spell chose you,” Chrysalis said. “But we are sure that you match all of the search parameters in some way.”

‘What were the parameters,’ I asked.

“Natural killing instinct, compassion for the oppressed, ability to learn and create, speaking a common language, general fitness, adaptability, and strength of will,” Chrysalis responded.

‘Aside from the killing thing, you described, pretty much, most of the people on my planet. Plus, humans are only a real threat with our tools and in groups,’ I thought.

“Maybe so,” Diptera smiled, “but you’re here and they’re not.”

‘Fair point,’ I admitted. ‘Next question: you said it took the magic of four queens to bring me here but earlier you said that you three were all that was left. What happened?’

The queens frowned and shared a look. “The spell was too much,” Chrysalis choked back a sob. “She gave every ounce of magic in her body to ensure that the spell would work and…. magic is a part of every living thing in this world. It is no exaggeration to say that it is our life itself. I lost my mother bringing you here. And even her last wish was for this hive; she gave her body to create the ultimate weapon.”

‘What kind of ultimate weapon,’ I asked. Chrysalis looked at me with a kind smile. ‘Me? That’s where my changeling parts come from?’ She nodded. No pressure, right? ‘For some unimaginable reason, that fact does not fill me with comfort. Next question: what….. new features should I be looking out for?’

Flit clapped her hooves together with glee. “Your highnesses, may I please take this one?”

“You may,” Diptera replied and turned to me. “I don’t think you two were ever formally introduced. This is one of my brightest children, Drone ID K11XVS2DA. K11XVS2DA, this is Sam of Mary’s Land.”

‘K1 what?’ I turned my eyes as far as I could to look at the little changeling. ‘How the hell did you get Flit out of that?’

“It’s my nickname,” she said bashfully. “Anyway! We need to go over your body!”

‘Ready whenever you are,’ I thought.

“So first is your ability to sense emotions, a basic necessity for all changelings. I believe that was the first ability you discovered?” I nodded. “Anything with emotion can be detected. But remember to balance it with your normal senses,” she said with a chuckle, “or you’ll end up walking into walls like the nymphs. Next is your ability to actively use magic. We implanted a queen’s magic core into your chest and two XV drone cores into your arms. It wasn’t enough but we don’t have any more donors.”

‘Hold on, what do mean it wasn’t enough,’ I asked, slightly worried.

“Your body,” Flit picked up a clipboard. “You were brought from a world without magic. You are a magical vacuum that the world is constantly trying to fill. But you have a seemingly bottomless capacity to hold magic and you unconsciously pull from every available source. The cores can’t fill you up and when you tried using spells, you used over 10 times the normal amount of magic. All that to say advanced and maybe even some intermediate spells are beyond you. Sorry. The next-”

‘What do you mean, every available source,’ I asked.

“All living things in this world produce and contain magic,” Flit explained. “When you get near them, their magic gets caught in your vacuum. Observe.” Flit’s horn glowed and a bird appeared in the room. It flew around the room and landed on top of my tank. Then it dropped to the ground, motionless.

‘What the hell just happened?’

“You drained it of magic,” Flit said as she teleported it away.

‘Is it dead?’

“For most living things magic is interwoven with life force,” Flit explained.

‘Did you just kill a bird to prove a point? And why aren’t you all affected?’

“You need to understand how dangerous you can be. The effect is based on proximity to you and amount of magic in a creature,” she said. “Most adult creatures will just feel tired but you could kill nymphs by being around them for too long. The next thing is your skin. We put several implants in you that form strong chitin on your skin. It's only temporary, however, and dissolves when the implants stop producing.”

‘That explains the pitch black skin,’ I thought. ‘How strong is it?’

“Very,” Flit smiled. “They could hack at you with swords for an hour and barely even crack it. Of course you probably could move very far….. But at least you wouldn’t get hurt!”

‘Fantastic,’ I rolled my eyes. ‘That it?’

“You also have changeling venom! One more thing, and I can’t believe you haven’t asked about it yet, your mental link to the hive is a queen link.”

‘Another piece of this mystic queen,’ I mentally sighed. ‘What do I have to look forward to, now?’

“The link is the most sacred part of entire culture and biology,” Diptera stated. “I would appreciate if you would show some respect or at least basic courtesy.”

“She’s right,” Flit said. “The link is with us from birth to death. All of our brothers and sisters are connected to us and our mother. We can share memories, sensory information, and just know that we’re near. It is the essence of being a changeling.. Well that and transforming and eating emotions.”

‘So if all changelings can do this thing, why haven’t I heard anyone other than Chrysalis.’

“You need to accept the link to make it work for you,” Chrysalis said. “You’ve been brushing against it but to truly make use of it’s full potential, you have to accept it in its entirety.”

‘Forgive me but I’m not thrilled with the idea of having a million voices in head all the time,’ I tried to turn my body to look away but nothing happened. ‘If that’s all, we’re done here.’

“Empty the tank,” Chrysalis’ voice was calm but filled with venom.

“Your highness, I don’t think-”

“Empty. The. Tank.”

Flit looked at me apologetically before she moved up to my tank and turned a knob. The liquid slowly drained out and I was lowered to the bottom. I coughed up some of the liquid but was able to stand up. I pushed the tank open and stepped out.

“We have bared everything to you,” Chrysalis spat. “We are dying. Our race is dying. My children are dying.” She walked closer to me. “We sacrificed everything, just to bring you here. We are begging you to save us from extinction. But,’’ she teleported a knife to my feet, “if you won’t help us, then you’ve condemned us to a slow painful death. You might as well pick up that knife and slit our throats. Save us some suffering.”

I reached down and picked up the knife. I looked into her eyes, her tired, sad eyes. She was serious; there was only death in her future and she was giving up.

I spat some of the gel out. “How do I accept the link?”

Chrysalis smiled. “Seta.”

The gray changeling queen walked forward and her jagged horn started glowing. She pressed it against my forehead and I panicked ever so slightly.

‘Relax your mind,’ a new voice spoke in my mind. ‘You have everything you need. Accept the flow; don’t fight it.’

I closed my eyes. I could feel it, like a river in my mind, urging me, pulling me. I wanted to reach out to it. To feel this incorporeal stream with my hand. I pushed my mental fingers into it. It wrapped around me and pulled me in. For a moment, I lost myself in a torrent of thoughts and voices that weren’t mine. I was a drop of water in an ocean, splitting apart and merging into it.

‘Remember yourself,’ Seta’s voiced called out to me. ‘Do not lose your existence. We are individuals that form a whole, not the whole itself.’

I felt myself coming back together, getting stronger. The voices that were once an incoherent mess were a symphony of help and reassurance. My mind was my own and I was me. I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the ground. I stood up and saw that the queens and Flit were waiting patiently for me. The voices were a single quiet whisper at the back of my mind and when I focused on them I could hear the individual conversations. But I became aware of a closer, louder voice.

‘Are you okay,’ Flit asked me over the link.

“I’m just fine,” I smiled. I stretched my limbs and popped my joints. “So what is it exactly you want me to do.”

“It’s quite simple actually,” Diptera grinned, baring her fangs. “Kill the Princess of Friendship.”

Author's Note

Yeah, yeah I know. It's super expositiony. Show don't tell and all that. But I couldn't think of a better way to do it and now the fun stuff can start