The four Queens were all different colors, from my left to right they were brown, yellow, gray and blue. I had seen a few troops of other colors mixed into the mostly yellow guards, I supposed that the other Queens wanted to keep a majority of their troops at their own hives. That or they didn't have more troops to spare, what with the Bee hive being the farthest from the other group of hives which they were at war with and thus spared from most of the bloodshed.

The Queens looked to be in good health, the holes spread across their bodies being rather small and their shells quite smooth, almost polished looking. That basically confirmed my suspicion of what had happened to the other changelings in the hive, the Queens had all but drained them dry of love... This could get interesting...

"So you weren't overreacting after all. For it to have gotten this deep into your hive it must be very strong... or your just very weak." the brown Queen said to the yellow Queen, with an extra helping of 'I'm better than you' in her voice.

"Ahem! We are-" The gray Queen began before I cut her off.

"I don't care. You are nothing to me, because in a few minutes either you'll be dead, or I will and I'm betting on myself being the last one standing." I said as I stepped forward, menacingly. As opposed to just standing there, menacingly.

Ten guards per Queen sprang into formation in front of them, only the yellow ones seeming to have any idea of how bad their position was. The other royal guards either had no expression, or were smiling like the idiots they were. But the yellow guards had only a frown, and not the 'I'm upset at this circumstance' frown, it was the 'I'm about to die and I know it' frown. Yet they stood in defiance anyway, it was almost enough for me to simply incapacitate them... but they were standing against me... you know what? I'll just incapacitate them, it would be a waste to lose the experience they had.

"You can't really expect to win against forty royal guards, can you?" asked the blue one, looking both worried and thoughtful.

In response I waved my hand at the guards, sending the message that the yellow one's weren't to be killed. The minions used the tried and true method on the guards, but shortly were either knocked down or killed as they realized they needed to focus on the Greens on their backs which freed them up to attack the Browns without distraction. In all the first wave had killed five and wounded three. Of the yellows, half were unconscious and were sleeping at my feet. I had called them back as they had begun to die, and the changelings seemed to be reluctant to go on the offensive.

After my minions had a moment to catch their breaths, I sent them in again to try something different. Namely, they all focused on one changeling at a time, completely ignoring the others even as they fought to stop them. It was a fight of numbers and equipment, and while the changelings were on the winning side of one of those things, there was one thing they didn't have. Me.

I charged in and began to drain the guards that were going to die, smashing them as I went. I felt some irritation around my shoulders and joints as I did this, but it wasn't enough to slow me down. One changeling was smiling as he tried to circle around the main force, trying to get to me in order to wound me when I wasn't looking. He was smiling right up until he realized that he couldn't feel his legs, and found them several feet from him after I had severed his upper and lower half's by striking him in the back so hard.

With my aid the minions were able to make a severe dent in their numbers, though we had also taken heavy losses. These changelings were the real deal, and I would make sure to reward any minions who survived this strike against the hives. I was very pleased at how they were learning so fast, going from mass attacks meant to overwhelm to using focused attacks to take out heavily fortified solders such as the royal guards.

After the second attack was done we had lost one third of what was left, though they were doing worse as there were only five guards left. I stomped forward to finish this fight, under the watchful eyes of the Queens. I would make it look like I was tired, make them think I was on my last legs, and then I would take them by surprise and drain their evil energy... And I knew just the way to take them out before they could fight back.

I had killed the guards fairly quickly, taking out their heads with firm swings, stumbling slightly on the second and last swings in order to make it seem like I was trying to look like I wasn't tired when I actually wasn't. Didn't want to overplay it after all, and going from standing tall and showing no weakness to falling down every few steps would raise some flags. I was basically trying to force a shiver, clenching and unclenching my muscles rapidly whenever I did something that would appear strenuous.

One of the changelings seemed to decide that even if he was weak from his Queen draining him, he had magic and needed to use it, so he cast a stun spell at me. It hit me in the leg, and while it was weak it still worked, however, unfortunately for him, I didn't need to feel my limbs in order to move them. My body had fallen asleep while I was doing something so often that I knew how to work a jelly body, it was just like riding a bike... well, I mean, I never learned how to ride a bike because of the accident, but you understand.

I was still draining the changelings that I was fighting, not all the way as that would probably kill them in a noticeable and I didn't want the Queens to realize what I was doing. But I felt it was getting easier as I went, at this point it was getting harder not to drain them completely than to drain them at all, the way it had been at the start of this little scuffle. It seemed that this draining technique had a snowball effect, I couldn't wait to see what would happen after I drained a Queen... I also was worried about the fact that I wanted to see what would happen... It was mostly ambition, but I never really had any of that before...

I had my minions wait behind me, and by that I mean I sent a few Greens to sneak behind the Queens to attack them if I couldn't overpower them by myself. The Queens looked like they were going to attack one at a time, though the yellow Queen looked more than a little apprehensive about the whole thing. I walked toward them slowly, getting closer to the blue and gray Queens who both tensed and began to charge up spells. Most likely they were energy beams meant to kill me quickly, if they could charge them fast enough then it was game over.

They weren't fast enough.

I suddenly put on a burst of speed and was in between the two of them before they could blink, it looked like the corruption increased my speed as well as my strength. I dropped my mace for a moment, leaving it handle up next to me and shoved my arms into the chest's of the two Queens who were next to me. As I was gripping their heart's, I connected my magic to theirs and began to pull on both of them at once. There was almost no resistance, as though the magic knew their vessels were broken and was trying to move to an unbroken one. I felt a lancing pain as the horns across my body grew around a few centimeters, new spines forming and old ones growing larger.

The Queens I had drained just... crumpled. They... I don't really know how to describe it... it was as though the holes in their bodies grew until, poof, there were only scraps of what once was a changeling Queen... there wasn't even any blood or residue on my arms. It was somewhat disturbing, how easy it was to just... erase them. Though shriveled, there were obvious plates that once were their heads, what with the protruding crooked horn and muzzle. It actually looked somewhat... cool... hmm...

The brown Queen looked horrified for a moment, before coming back to her senses and trying to flee. She was too slow, and she joined the other two Queens in death shortly there after. She had put up a good fight at the end, kicking and biting, even her magic was putting up a fight, but it was no use. I had lifted her into the air by her heart, my arm firmly lodged in her chest, and was squeezing the life out of her even as she fought to get away. She had died before I had drained her completely, and while I was able to get a majority of the evil energy there was still a portion that escaped me, dissipating before I could draw it into myself.

The yellow Queen was cowering in the corner behind her throne, sobbing quietly while trying to hide or something. Maybe hoping I would just forget about her and go away.

"I should be angry at you. I let you go and made you one of my people, that isn't something that happens to just anybody, and how do you repay me? You betray me to your friends and try to kill me." I said at her, I wasn't sure if she was even listening at this point but it seemed likely as she started to sob even louder when I stopped talking for a moment to let what I said sink in.

"P-Plea-ase, don't k-kill my ch-change-lings..." She managed to choke out in between her sobs and hiccups. My respect for her had just skyrocketed with only one sentence.

"I'm not going to. That was never my intention, it would just be wasteful. But as I was saying, you betrayed me... and I need to thank you for it." I said, making her look up at me in shock and confusion, pausing her tears for a moment at how unexpected this was.

"Wh-what? Wha..." she said, trailing off in her uncertainty.

"You did just as I expected you to, as I wanted you to. You gathered the other Queens in one place and made a very good test run for my minions in a combat situation. Well that is, what minions I have, as their are other types which I have yet to collect. Now that this business is done I can stop with the 'I'm oh so evil, look at me!' stick. That, and I can give you a choice. You see, I've decided that the changelings will live in the open, with my blessing, and not fear anything from it. However, I can only trust one Queen to rule them, to many and I would have the problem you're having right now with infighting. I have chosen you to lead your people, but if you cannot find a way to do so beneath me, then I will find another. Can you? I really don't want to chose second best." I said, she had stopped crying around half way through my little speech. Good, I hated to see girls cry.

She looked at me for a moment, as though looking for any sign of deception, and then she gave me her answer.

Author's Note

Cliffhanger!