Great, I'm the New Bad Guy...

I turned my attention back to the changeling who was struggling on the ground, I could worry about the corruption later. For now I would need to find out which hive this changeling was from, so that he could lead me to it and his Queen. The names of the hives were Beetle, Tick, Arachnid, Moth, Chryssalid, Scarab, Bee, and Pond Strider. I'll give you two guesses as to which one was Chrysalis's hive, and the first one doesn't count.

It was also fairly unsurprising as to who belonged to which alliance. The hives Beetle, Moth, Bee and Pond Strider were all in one group and preferred to be more gentle with those they fed upon, even trying to go out of their way to help others. They were in no way weak or helpless, as they were almost constantly fighting with the other group, made of Tick, Arachnid and Scarab, who regularly hurt and/or killed those whom they prayed on, some even enjoying the act of destroying the mind's of others. Chrysalis's hive was the one who kept to the shadows the most, never even letting those they kidnapped wake up to see them.

"I'm from B-Bee! Bee! Please d-don't hurt me!" The changeling yelled, visibly panicking at the thought of losing his limbs.

"Now was that so hard? Right, now you're going to take me to your hive without complaint. Do you understand?" I ordered him as the minions let him go while staying close to him, letting him know that the only reason he was still alive was me and my good will.

"Y-yes, I understand!" he all but sobbed at me.

I waved my hand to get the minions attention, they all gathered behind me as we waited for the changeling to get up and lead us to his hive, whether he wanted to or not. He shakily got to his feet... hooves... whatever, and began to walk down one of the paths that we hadn't explored yet. The path was barely visible, which was honestly more conspicuous than if there had been a path, as most of the bottom of the ravine was criss crossing paths.

We were going down a slope into a deeper area, getting so deep into the ravine that I could only tell it was day because of the blue sky above us. There were less and less plants, dead or alive, as we went, leaving the place looking decidedly dead and unlivable. All in all it was an excellent way to hide the entrance to your hidden underground city, make it so no one would think you could live there. Though, the glowing resin cladding on the wall around the opening of the cave was kind of a dead giveaway.

As we went down into the hive there were several changelings who looked like they wanted to fight me at first, but became confused when they saw the changeling leading us down into the hive. The inside of the hive reminded me of the hive's of the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, all slightly luminescent resin and small amounts of slime on the walls and floor. There was only one tunnel for the longest time but it quickly became a, pardon the pun, honeycomb of tunnels and rooms, some even doubling back on themselves.

The changeling who was leading us took us straight down to the Queen's chamber, located at the bottom and center of the hive for protection. The Queen was already in her throne waiting for me when we arrived, and she did not look all to happy.

"And who are you, to harm my people, threaten them, and then force them to betray me?" She asked in a haughty and buzzing voice, looking down her nose at me. Boy was she about to be surprised at the trick up my sleeve!

I immediately sent my magic at her, seeking out her own power. I found it, and as I had hoped it was weaker than my own, if only by a little. Her eyes widened at my actions, and she began to put up a defence against me, but it was too late to stop me from beginning the battle. It was essentially a tug of war, with the winner getting a majority if not all of the opponent's magic. I was basically pulling a Tirek, before he had even gotten out... unless I had been dropped in after that... It could be that way as we never knew where Chrissalis ended up...

She put up a very good fight, almost got me a few times and I have a feeling that without that corruption I would have lost, but I won.

While our magical battle was on the minions had formed a defencive circle around me, the changelings who were guarding the Queen all died honorably in service of their Queen, is what I would say if I believed in honour. They killed four Browns and six Greens leaving me with half my starting force, and also royally pissing me off in the process.

The Queen shakily slumped to the floor mumbling "Why? What do you even want?" in a small, weak voice.

Then I did something that I would normally never do... I opened up my heart and just let my emotions flow. I concentrated on memories of my family, the few friends I had, even all the family pets. (Excluding the one who tried to maul me and gave me permanent scars.)

At first the Queen looked somewhat confused, then her eyes became as wide as dinner plates and her horn lit up. I could feel a slight pull on my chest, but there was no pain or even discomfort, it literally just felt like there was something inside my chest that was gently pushing on my ribcage. A few moments after her horn had lit up, several other drones also lit their horns and began to make some kind of bright yellow jelly which they began to store in large pots made of, you guessed it, resin.

"I just don't understand. What would you gain from all of this! You come into my hive, kill my guards, drain me of my magic and then feed me love? One of these events just doesn't belong here, and I'm sure it's obvious which one it is!"She said, looking just as flabbergasted as she did when she began feeding.

"Easy," I said, hearing my voice for the first time causing the Queen to flinch "You, and your entire hive, belong to me now, and I don't like it when my belongings break."

The Queen and the surrounding changelings just stared at me with open mouths and wide eyes. If anything, the Queens eyes became smaller so that they could get bigger again as they were about as big as they could get. It was like the hive had stopped at my declaration, they were all just waiting for the Queen's next move and she looked like she was waiting for me to say 'Sike! It was just a prank bro! You just got pranked, bro!' which I would never, ever do. Even if I was held at gunpoint. Just no.

Finally she seemed to realize that this was no prank and exclaimed "I am nobody's belonging!"

"Well, I do need a good name other than my title, and it would be nice to have it be situationally funny, so I guess my name will henceforth be Nobody. As such, yes, you are Nobody's belonging." I said as I chuckled at my joke. The minions chuckled as well, except for one who just looked confused until another minion hit it in the head. Then it chuckled and fell over almost biting it's own tongue off, making the minions laugh at it's misfortune.

"Wha? No! That's not what I meant at all!" She yelled at me, the minions growled at her in response making her back up because of caution/fear.

"Listen, I don't really care what you meant or want. You can either accept your new position or I can kill you and try the next one, either way there will only be one Queen of the changelings when I'm done, and she will serve under me whether she wants to or not." I told her, raising my ax threateningly to drive home the point that I was being completely serious about my intentions.

"... Fine... as long as you spare my people. If you harm any more of them however, then even if it kills me, I will kill you." She said in a 'I'm trying to be scary, but I'm practically crapping my pants' kind of tone.

"Good, because if you betray me I'll kill your whole species, and I would rather not commit genocide if I don't have to. This way I know we won't do anything to harm the other as we both don't want to die." I said getting ready to leave when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.

"Oh, so that's where that went. Minions! Go grab the Denurium Smelter and haul it back to the portal!" I ordered them.

"Hey, you can't just take that! It's ours!" The Queen yelled at me as I walked away.

I stopped and turned part way around to tell her "One. It was ours first, we're just taking it back. Two. I own you, and all of your belongings. So even if it wasn't ours in the first place, it would be now."

With that I followed the minions who were carrying the smelter which was about five times their height and four times their width out of the hive and back to the portal. Now that the only Queen I needed was pacified the conquest of the changeling lands could begin... after an upgrade or two.