Beta started to wake up from his nap when he heard a music which was coming from the room above his. He knew what was going on up there. He and the people he's been traveling with for the past few years were planning to do party for a while now. His nap must've lasted longer than he thought it'll last.
Not wanting to miss the party, he rised up from his bed and walked over to the mirror in his room. He made himself look presentable by fixing his chair which was a bit messed up because of his nap, as he started to make his way up there.
When he reached the second floor, he heard a familiar voice shout over to him, "Beta! C'mere!" He looked towards the source of the voice and saw Ivan, the leader of this group, who was waving for him to come over along with Ray who was standing next to him.
Smiling to himself, Beta began passing people who he grew to love as his family in the recent years.
Osgar, Diavul, Mike and Nathan were sitting next to each other on the floor, as they were watching playing cards. Diavul gave him a small wave as Beta waved back at him. As much as he found Diavul to be scary sometimes with his unhealthy obsession with fire and burning things down, he really enjoyed his company.
The twins, Lucas and Juliet Smith were talking with each other, as they stood in the middle of the room.
Joseph, the group's medic was sitting in the corner, as he was reading his book, not really minding the noise that the rest of the group was doing.
Peter "PC" Carlson and James Spectra were standing in the corner, occasionally trading a laugh when one said a comment about each other or someone else from the group.
And finally, when he walked past them he reached his destination. He greeted Ivan and Ray as they began talking with each other. Ivan was the one who found him all those years ago and brought him to his group. The group, especially Peter wasn't much fond of the idea of a teenager staying with them, but as the time passed they all accepted him as part of their family. Beta talked with Ivan and Ray for a few minutes, as they were enjoying each other company but suddenly everything has changed.
Ivan and Ray were laying on the floor, not a breath living their lungs. He gasped in shock as he began to look around the place in panic. Everyone in the room were laying on the floor, lifeless.
Everyone except for James who was standing in front of him. Beta took a step backwards as James did nothing. He just stared at him for a few moments with a stoic expression on his face before he disappeared from Beta's view.
And then, he heard a cry, which was coming from behind him. He saw a young griffon, which was no older than ten, sobbing loudly as she was looking at him. He took a few steps forward to her, but he stopped when a woman with a berret on her head appeared behind her.
"No!" He shouted as the woman reached for the small griffon.
Beta woke up with a gasp as he sat straight up on his sleeping spot. He has been having this kind of dreams for over a month now. It was over a month since that day happened and he was still having nightmares about it. He put his hands on the mask which was covering face before letting out a series of deep breaths.
He removed his hands from his mask, as he looked around the camp, to see if someone was awoken by his actions, but it seemed like his companions didn't heard him. Peter, Mike, and Osgar, the only survivors of that event were still sleeping on their sleeping spots.
He was about to return to sleep, but was interrupted when a young female voice called over to him.
"Dad?" He turned to the source of the voice and saw Zelda, a young griffon and his adopted daughter was most likely awoken by him.
"Yes?" He asked her, as Zelda rubbed her eyes.
"You had another nightmare?" She asked, curiously, coming over to Beta from her sleeping spot.
"Yeah." Beta replied, not seeing a point in lying as Zelda sat down in front of him.
"I'm sorry about it." She told him.
Beta smiled at her, and he rubbed her head, "It's not your fault, kiddo."
"I want you to stop having them." Zelda said, in a worried tone, "Do you think that they'll stop once we'll reach your brothers kingdom?"
"I hope so." Beta said, as he rubbed his eyes. He really wanted to stop having those nightmares.
"Are you nervous? You're going to see your brothers after so many years." Zelda asked him, wanting to change the subject of the conversation.
"Of course I am. It's been over six years since I saw them." Beta answered.
"Do you think they'll remember you?" Zelda asked her dad.
"I think they will. It is hard to forget your family, even an adopted one. It may take a minute or two to recognize me, but I think they will remember who I am to them." Beta replied.
"I hope it'll be just as you say, dad." Zelda stated.
"It will, believe me, it will. What about you, little one? Are you nervous? Soon enough, you're going to meet your uncles." He asked her.
"I think I'm nervous too, dad. What if they're not going to like me?" Zelda replied, feeling nervous because of the thought of her dad's brother not liking her.
Beta chuckled at how nervous she looked because of this question, "Oh, Zelda. You don't need to be worried. Thorax is going to love you from the moment he will set his eyes on you, while it may take some time for Pharynx to get used to you calling him an uncle, but he'll take a liking in you too." He assured her, as Zelda calmed down. She knew that Thorax and Pharynx were important to her dad and she didn't want them to hate her, "Besides. Who could hate you?"
"Well..." It took a moment for Zelda to reply, "Peter didn't like me very much when you and Ivan introduced me to your group."
"Peter didn't like me neither when I joined them." Beta reminded her, as he glanced over at Peter who was sleeping soundly, "It just takes him time to trust new people, even if they are a child or a teenager."
Zelda nodded her head to that, before she said, "Dad, I'm sorry that you had to leave your brothers. I knew it was tough for you."
"Well, I'm not, because if I was with them, I never would have met you." Beta smiled down at the young griffon. Zelda's immediately eyes lit up at his words before she lauched herself forward, into Beta's chest.
"I'm glad you and Ivan found me. You're the best dad I could have ever ask for." She said, hugging him as tightly as she could.
"I'm happy to have you too." He said, as he hugged her back. He could feel her claws scratching his back but he didn't care about it. When they separated from the hug, he set her down on the ground, before he told her, "Let's go to sleep, shall we. We still have at least a half a day or two of walking ahead of us."
Zelda nodded her head in understanding, as she laid down on the ground next to him, "Can I sleep next to you?"
"Of course you can." He smiled down at his adopted daughter, as he layed down next to her. He wrapped his hand around her and closed his eyes as they both slowly drifted to sleep.
They still had a long road ahead of them.
2 days later
Beta sighed deeply as he and his group walked along the road. He knew that they were very close to the Hive, and he couldn't remember the last time when he was that nervous and many negative thoughts were going through his head.
What if his brothers hated him for leaving them without a word?
What if they were not going to let him and his friends stay with them? He and his friends had no other place to stay.
Not wanting to deal with those negative thoughts, he looked around the surroundings. He could easily say that the rumors that the Hive has changed a lot were true. The road to his old home was covered by flowers and plants which must've been Thorax's idea.
He looked down on the ground, as he chuckled at the thought of how Pharynx must've reacted when he saw that. It actually made him wonder how Thorax conviced Pharynx to change his ways. It must've been a long process.
He was quickly taken away from his when he heard Osgar say, "Beta. We have a problem."
Wondering what Osgar meant by that, Beta looked up and saw that a group of dozen changelings guards, surrounded them by forming a circle around them. Beta understood why they did this. While the changelings have changed their ways, they still had to watch out for strangers.
Everyone in Beta's group immediately reacted to that. Osgar quickly took his granade launcher off his back, Mike's pistols were already aimed at the guards, Peter's baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped around it was already in the air, ready for strike and Zelda hid behind Beta's leg.
"Guys. Stay calm." Beta told his companions as he turned to them, "You trust me, right?"
Even though, they were not trusting them, Osgar and Mike lowered their guns, deciding to trust Beta on this while Peter still had his baseball bat in the air, ready to strike in case if someone would attack them.
"I will lower my gun when I'll be sure that we're safe." Peter told Beta.
Beta couldn't blame him for doing it, while he, Mike and Osgar became very distrustful towards the strangers in the recent month. Peter was always distrustful towards the strangers. It took Beta over two weeks to have a decent conversation with him after he joined Ivan's group.
"What is going on here? I came here as fast as I could." Beta felt his heart stop when he heard that voice. He saw a dark-green changeling land on the ground, in the middle of the guards that gathered around them. Even though his look has changed a lot Beta already knew who it was.
"Pharynx, you've changed." He stated, chuckling to himself, as Pharynx seemed to be suprised that this human knew his name.
"How do you know my name?" Pharynx demanded to know, as he glared at Beta, confused by the fact that this human knew his name.
Beta smirked behind his mask as he put his hand on it and slowly removed it from his face, revealing his face to him, "Well, what kind of a brother would I be if I didn't know your name, right?"
"...Beta?" Pharynx said, as his glare was replaced with shock. He immediately recognized his brother, even though Beta's face was more mature than it was the last time when he saw him, and there was a scar which was going across his face. The guards lowered their guard, knowing that this human who happened to be the adopted brother of their king meant no harm to them.
"Can you stop staring at me like that? It's making me more nervous than I'm already am." Beta told his brother, who was still staring at him like he was a treasure, not believing in what was just happening.
"You're back..." Pharynx said after a moment of awkward silence, as Beta slowly walked over to him. Pharynx was still staring at him in complete shock, his mind still trying to process that his adopted older brother was standing in front of him.
He suddenly felt Beta wrap his hands around him, embracing him a tight hug, Pharynx still wasn't used to things like this, and he always felt very uncomfortable everytime when Thorax hugged him, which happened a lot, but after a moment, he slowly hugged Beta back.
Then he heard him whisper, "Yes. I'm back."
After a moment, which felt like eternity for them, Pharynx and Beta released each other from the hug. The two brothers stared at each other for a minute or two, both of them eyeing each other carefully, before Beta spoke up.
"You got tall." He pointed out. His brother was much taller than he was the last time when he saw him.
"You have a scar on your face." Pharynx said, gesturing towards Beta's scar.
Beta touched his scar, as some bad memories flew through his head. He didn't want to think about how he got his scar at this moment, so he decided to point out another change into Pharynx's look, "You're green."
"You have a strange weapon your back." Pharynx remarked, as Beta took his weapon off his back and held it in front of him.
As Beta's weapon engulfed itself In Pharynx's green magic, the changeling stared at it in wonder in his eyes because he has never seen a weapon like this before, Beta began explaining to him what his weapon was, "I like to call it Scattergun. At first it was just an ordinary sawn-off double-barrel shotgun, but a friend of mine modified it to hold 6 ammo instead of 2."
"Looks useful." Pharynx stated, even though he barely understood what he was saying, handing the gun back to his brother, "I would like to try it out."
"Oh it is useful, believe me, it is. As for letting you try it out, we'll see." Beta confirmed with a nod, as Pharynx took a quick glance at the people who were behind his brother.
"What about them?" He asked them.
"Them?" Beta said, as he looked at Mike, Peter, Osgar and Zelda.
"Are they dangerous?" Pharynx asked him. He knew that his brother meant no harm to them, because he knew that Chrysalis and her ways were the reasons why he left the Hive all those years ago, but he didn't know if he could trust the people he brought to his home.
"I wouldn't bring them here if they were." Beta answered, as they both now focused on his companions.
"Their names?" Pharynx asked his brother.
"The guy with a beanie on his head is Mike Farfield." Beta started introducing his friends to Pharynx.
"Hi there." Mike said, giving them a small wave.
"The large guy with a helmet that covers most of his face is Osgar." Beta then pointed at Osgar.
Osgar just nodded his head at them.
"The guy with a baseball bat and a hockey mask on his shoulder is Peter Carlson, but some of us call him PC."
Peter did nothing, just stared at them, as he held his baseball bat against his shoulder. The changelings that gathered around them, didn't know why, but felt that there was something unsettling about him.
"And this..." Beta's smile suddenly grew wider, as he glanced over at Zelda who hid herself behind Mike's and Osgar's legs. He titled his head at them. Mike and Osgar knew what he meant by that. They stepped aside, revealing a young griffon behind them. She looked up at them and saw Mike who giving her an encouraging smile and Osgar who giving her an encouraging nod. Zelda sighed deeply as she slowly began walking towards her dad and his brother. When she made her way to them, Beta kneeled down, and wrapped his hand around her, "...is Zelda."
"It's g-good t-t-to me-meet you, sir..." Zelda stuttured out. Pharynx was about to ask why she was so nervous, but he got an answer to his question when Zelda looked to her right, at his brother, and asked him, more calmly this time, "Dad, I assume that this is one of my... u-uncles?"
Pharynx, who was not excepting that this was the answer he was going to get, remained silent for a moment, before asking Beta, "...What? She's your..." Pharynx's words died in his throat, his mind still trying to process what was happening. His brother returned to the Hive and had a daughter?!
Beta looked around him, and saw that the other changelings, were as much suprised as his brother was by the answer. He chuckled at their reaction, "Adopted but yes, she is."
"Yo-your b-brother f-f-found me t-two years ago a-along with s-sir Ivan." Zelda began stuttering again as she shyly nuzzled Beta, "H-he w-was l-like a d-dad to me ev-ever since."
Pharynx, even though that the mention of this "Ivan" made him wonder why he wasn't with them at this moment, decided to do what Thorax told him to do everytime when someone introduced himself, before he went to Equestria with him for the first time. He slowly extended his hoof, and said, "It's... nice to meet you too, Zelda."
Zelda looked at Beta, who nodded his head at her. She extended her claw towards Pharynx and slowly shook his hoof, "I'm happy that you think like that... u-uncle."
Pharynx blinked a few times, still not believing that his brother had a daughter, and that she just called him an uncle, "So... How about I show you how the rest of The Hive has changed since Thorax took over?"
Beta nodded his head, as he waved for his friends to come over, "Yeah. I was about to ask you that."
As Peter, Mike and Osgar joined them, Pharynx began to walk forward, "Let's go."
Beta, Zelda, Peter, Mike and Osgar began following him, leaving the crowd of muttering changelings alone. Most of them were muttering about their kings brother being back in the Hive, some of them were focusing on Zelda and the fact that she was his daughter, or some of them had their attention on Mike, Osgar and Peter.
1 hour later
"Well, I can tell that the Hive has certainly changed since the last time I was here." Beta said to Pharynx as they walked by each other side, as Pharynx finished their trip. He showed his adopted brother everything the Hive had to offer, even though he wouldn't call himself a fan of some of the exercises.
"Yeah. We heard that a lot." Pharynx told him with a nod of his head.
"Let me guess, most of those ideas were Thorax's? Because I can't imagine you coming up with swing dancing, or feelings forum." Beta asked his brother.
"Yup." Pharynx confirmed with a nod of his head, "I'm responsible for convicing him to keep hunt and patrol in our exercises."
"Hunt? You like hunting?" Peter asked Pharynx, as he walked behind them.
"I'm. I'm heading out at last once a week along with the volunteers, which are only a few changelings, but it's better than nothing." Pharynx answered. Peter nodded his head to that. He may actually find an exercise here that interested him. Then, Pharynx looked down at his niece, who was looking around in wonder, "So, kid. What do you think?"
"I like it here. It's pretty." Zelda replied, as she continued to look around.
"Well, Thorax made sure it looked like that, even though I wasn't a big fan of it." Pharynx explained.
"Speaking of Thorax, where is he?" Beta wanted to know where his other brother was at this moment.
"He's not here at this moment. He and one changeling, Ocellus was her name, I think, went to Equestria because one of their princesses opened a school that teaches friendship, or something like that." Pharynx answered.
"What?" Pharynx turned to the voice and saw Peter, his expression was stoic, but his voice sounded confused by what he had just heard, "We've heard that ponies may be taking friendship too seriously but they seriously opened a school to teach people about it?"
"Yeah, I was suprised myself when one of them came here and informed Thorax about it. Luckilly, picking up the student for it didn't last as long as I thought it'll last after Thorax immediately agreed to her proposition." Pharynx agreed with Peter.
Beta opened his mouth to say something, but he along with the rest of their trip were taken aback when they hard a very loud female voice shout, "BETAAAA!"
Beta turned in the direction from which the voice came from and saw a light-purple changeling flying into his direction, "Wha..."
He didn't even had a chance to finish what he saying as the changeling embraced him a tight hug, which made him collaps on the ground.
"I'm so happy to see you again! It's been so long!" She shouted as she embraced him even tighter.
Beta who could barely breath because of her, looked up at Pharynx, silently asking him who it was. All he got from his brother was, "Take your guess, and you let him go. It may easier for him to realize who you are."
The changeling nodded her head, as released Beta from the hug. Beta took a few deep breaths, as he stood up from the ground. He eyed the changeling for a minute, before a realization who she was hit him. A smile appeared on his face, as he said her name, "Stringy?"
"The one and only!" Stringy nodded her head so fast that Beta, Pharynx, Peter, Mike and Osgar were suprised that it didn't broke her neck.
"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you." Beta apologized to her as Stringy waved her hoof, saying it's okay.
"It okay. The last time you saw me, I was all black." She said, "When I heard that you're back I searched for you as fast as I could."
"Well, you weren't that fast. I was here for..." Beta looked at Mike who looked at his watch.
"An hour." He replied.
"An hour." Beta repeated what he said.
"Hey, the Hive is not that small! And I didn't found out immediately!" Stringy defended herself.
"Alright, alright." Beta laughed, rising his hands defensively.
Stringy rolled her eyes as she looked at Zelda, "So, this is your daughter I've heard of." She eyed her for a moment, before saying, "I like her! She's adorable!"
"... Thank you..." Zelda shyly said, blushing slightly at her complement.
Suddenly, a guard flew over to Pharynx's side and whispered, "Pharynx, we've spotted your brother is coming back from Equestria."
Pharynx's eyes shot open at this, "Now? He was there shorter than I thought. He often stays a day or two." He stated as he looked at his brother, "Let's go see him."
"No." Beta shook his head, "Let's suprise him."
"Believe, he is already going to be suprised by the fact that you're here." Pharynx assured him.
"No, no, no. I have an idea. Tell him that someone is waiting for him next to his throne." Beta wanted to know.
"If you say so." Pharynx said, as he spread his wings and flew up, "I'll see you in a few minutes."
As Pharynx flew off along with guard who informed them about Thorax's return, Stringy looked at Beta with a questioning look on her face, "What are you planning?"
"I'll just wait for him on his throne. He'll be excepting someone from another country, or a simple not important visitor, and then he'll see me." Beta explained his plans to her.
"Oh, Thorax's reaction is going to be priceless! Let's go!" Stringy said as she turned her gaze towards the road which was leading to Thorax's throne.
"She seems to like you." Mike stated, as Stringy rushed as fast as she could towards Thorax's throne, eager to see how Thorax is going to react upon seeing Beta on his throne.
"Yeah. We were hanging out from time to time before I ran away. She unlike many other changelings back when Chrysalis wanted actually to make friends with other changelings, but she, unlike Thorax who was trying his best to have made friends wit them, was hiding it from everyone." Beta explained, as the group began following her towards Thorax's throne.
"I can tell she was happy when your brother changed the ways of this race." Mike stated.
"Yeah, me too." Beta nodded his head in agreement.
"See, little one." Osgar said, looking down at Zelda, as he was walking next to her, "Meeting your uncle wouldn't be as hard you thought it would be two nights ago."
"How do you know about that?" Zelda asked, feeling embarassed by it.
"You forgot that I am a light sleeper, kiddo? I heard your entire conversation." Osgar chuckled as he rubbed her head. Zelda smiled, enjoying it.
"I wouldn't call you a light sleeper, Osgar. Especially after you got yourself drunk with Nathan and Diavul." Mike pointed out.
It took a moment for Osgar to reply, because his best friends were mentioned by Mike, "...You're right about the last part."
"Do you miss them? Nathan and Diavul?" Beta asked Osgar, even though he already knew the answer.
"Every bloody day of my life, lad." Osgar said, looking down at the ground, as he felt someone hands to his shoulder. He looked at the person and saw Mike, giving him a comforting smile.
"If you will ever need to talk with us about it. We will be there for you. We all lost someone close to us that day." He told him as Beta nodded in agreement.
"I know that." Osgar said with a nod of understanding, a small smile growing on his face which was covered by the lower part of his helmet.
"Hey, Beta." Mike called over to his friend. He knew that it was not the time for this question, especially after they mentioned Nathan and Diavul to Osgar, but it was too important to let it wait.
"Yes, Mike?" Beta asked him, completely oblivious of what Mike is going to ask him.
"Are you planning to tell your brother about Moma and her people? You know that they are still looking for us. She wanted all of us dead. She knows that the five of us we survived her attack." Mike asked him. After he asked this question, he could feel the tension rise beetwen his group at the mention of "Moma". Beta bit the bottom of his lips, Zelda came up closer to her dad, Osgar clenched his fists, Peter gripped his baseball bat tightly, as a hint of regret and guilt appeared on his normally stoic face.
Beta sighed deeply, knowing that the conversation with his brothers about Moma and her people is going to happen, sooner or later, if they will let them stay, "I'll tell them when the time is right, Mikey. When the time is right."
