"Hubris!"
Myrrah crawled out from under the corpse of the giant beetle-like Tempest and staggered to her feet, her armor burnt and damaged. She limped towards the small group of humans that had tried to kill her. She could see it in their faces, they thought she had died… but she would not die so easily. Not so long as her children were in danger; not that that mattered anymore. She failed to protect them this time, failed to keep them alive. That's all she ever wanted… for her species, her subjects, her children… to remain alive. For so long she had made all of her decisions to insure that they survived, that the Locust Horde survived.
When the Locust first appeared, they needed someone to lead them, someone to guide and protect them. As such the decision was made that the most 'human' out of them would be their leader. She was much younger then, barely an adult by Sera standards, but she kept her 'human' appearance and so she was made the queen. As the 'Locust', as they would come to be known, species evolved, so too, did she grow into her role as Queen. She started to see them not as her subjects but as her children. As she grew to love the Locust as her children, she desired to protect them as a mother would. For a time they had prospered, living beneath the surface of Sera, until tragedy struck and they were thrust into a civil war.
Imulsion… the cause for the birth of her species and the cause for the destruction of her children. The Locust were not always as they are, they were once humans just like the rest of the inhabitants of Sera. When humans started to mutate, the scientists tried to figure out why… but they couldn't and they didn't even know where to start. Yet as the months dragged on, she had started to believe that the scientists were forcing these mutations upon them. She may have been young then but she was no child, she could hear the screams of the humans as they were experimented on. Eventually the scientists stopped and cryo-genetically froze the mutated humans, the rest they abandoned on Mt Kadar. What little faith she had in the humans – she couldn't even call herself one anymore – died that day when she was made queen and her loathing for the Serans was ignited.
It wasn't until much later in her rule that she started to suspect the cause of the mutations, when a stray sect of Locust had wandered into a massive pool of imulsion. They began to rapidly mutate and turned into nothing more than mindless beasts bent on the destruction of everything. That was the first encounter with the Lambent as they attacked her domain, the Hollow. For a time she thought that she could control the Lambent, but as they continued to attack and grow in number she saw them for what they truly were… an infection… a disease. And like an infection, the only way to deal with the Lambent was to destroy it. Yet the more they fought the more the Lambent continued to grow. Times grew desperate and she started to believe the Lambent would destroy them. It was the first time since she was a little girl that she was afraid, and she feared for the survival of the Locust.
"Ah! So pious and moral… even now!"
It was roughly five years before she would start her campaign against the humans that she first met him. She had just recently gotten back from a battle with the Lambent and had not changed out of her battle armor when she went for a walk. Whenever she needed time to think by herself, or simply wanted to relax and be alone, she would return to the surface and gaze out at the forest which spread beneath Mt Kadar. It was oddly peaceful; here she could forget about her duties as queen… she could forget about the war with the Lambent and merely enjoy the silence and solitude. Though it would also remind her of the past, of what the Serans did under the guise of 'finding a cure', and her loathing of them would grow. She began to wonder what gave them the right to inhabit the surface while the Locust were doomed to remain underground. Didn't they, the Locust, have just as much a right to live upon the surface? Of course, she wouldn't expect the humans to take kindly to the Locust; humans feared what they did not understand and what they feared, they inevitably came to hate. No, if the Locust ever wanted to live upon the surface, they would have to conquer it.
As plans sprouted within her mind, her solitude was broken when a human stumbled upon her. Adam Fenix… the man she would come to consider as the possible savior of her species. He had come to Mt Kadar for some kind of research; he never mentioned what exactly and she didn't care enough to ask. Normally she would have avoided human contact, but Adam's educated personality was refreshing and she found herself longing for company. Adam had been the first to talk, taking it upon himself to 'break the ice' between them, not really talking about any one subject. When Adam asked about her and why she was there, she was ready to lie to him in order to protect the Locust. However, her loyal bodyguard and commander of her soldiers, RAAM, appeared to escort her back to her palace within the Hollow. Thinking of her safety first, RAAM had been ready to attack Adam, but she held him back waiting for Adam's reaction.
She wasn't sure why she decided to show Adam the Hollow and reveal everything about the Locust… and the Lambent. Perhaps it had been his educated personality, or simply because he hadn't fled in terror when RAAM first appeared. Perhaps even, she was so desperate to deal with the Lambent that she needed someone to turn to. Maybe she had been naïve, maybe she was hopeful or maybe she was just that desperate to save her children. Regardless, when Adam said he might be able to develop a solution to the Lambent, she put her faith in him. For the first time in years she had dared to hope for a future for her children. She dared to hope that the Lambent would no longer be a problem. But most importantly, she had put her faith in a human… she had decided to trust him… she didn't think she could ever trust a human, not after what they had done.
"Your father always thought he had all the answers."
For five years she allowed him to work on a solution to the Lambent. For five years she and her children continued to fight and for five years she continued to grow her forces to invade the surface. Of course, she had visited Adam all through those five years; a special tunnel had been dug between her palace and Adam's mansion. It was odd though, she found herself visiting him not for updates on his research but for his company and to get away from her queenly duties. It was at those times that she could pretend she was just another human… if only for a little while.
It was those moments that she cherished the most and was always looked forward to. It had started out with Adam talking about surface events or her talking about the latest battles against the Lambent. Sometimes even they talked about the government that he worked for, which of course only continued to feed her loathing of them, or she explained more about the Locust society. Yet the more that they talked and the more she visited him, the more their talks took on a more… personal… note. Adam would more often than not talk about his son, who joined the army; she would talk about herself and of the time before she was the Queen of the Locust.
Ah, the wonders of childhood innocence… it had been so long that she had forgotten. Besides, because of everything that had happened, she was forced to grow up so quickly that by the time she was a young teenager, she was far more mature than any girl her age should be. Regardless, there were some things that she could remember. The smiling face of her mother telling her everything would be alright as the government 'relocated' them to the research facility. It was those few precious memories that she told Adam about… and it never failed to bring tears to her eyes. Adam would remain silent, allowing her to compose herself whenever a certain memory caused long forgotten tears to fall. Although Adam rarely said anything, she could feel his sympathy and she found that far more comforting than any words.
Soon enough she found herself enjoying her visits to Adam, and never wanted to leave his company. It was only at the insistence of RAAM that she ever tore herself away from Adam. On more than one occasion, she wondered if she was developing any form of feelings for Adam. She started to wonder if anything could ever happen between them. She tried not to think much about that, though when she was alone within her chambers those very same thoughts came to the forefront of her mind. They came to her at night, combining with everything else she had to deal with – the Lambent, protecting her children, preparing her forces to invade the surface – when everything weighed down upon her shoulders and it all seemed hopeless… when all she could do was lie in her bed and shed silent tears. Only the thought of Adam seemed to melt all of her worries away and make them appear insignificant.
Then, and only then, did she ever entertain the thought of what might and could happen between them. She would dream of a future where she wasn't the Queen of the Locust, sitting with Adam in his study and talking the day away or helping him with his research. She dreamed of realities where she was completely human, working with Adam in a Seran laboratory. On rare occasions, she would dream of a reality where she and Adam raised a family together. Whether or not these dreams reflected how she truly felt, she neither knew nor cared. All that mattered was that it helped to keep her mind off of matters that would otherwise occupy her thoughts.
"But he had none – nothing but clever ways to kill."
Rarely would she bring up her plans to conquer the surface. She always told herself that she brought it up as a way to remind Adam of what would happen should he fail. But now… now she wondered if she brought it up hoping that Adam would convince her not to invade. On more than one occasion, she would return to her palace intending to discard her plans of invasion. She would take a trip to the frontlines and fight against the Lambent, and every time she was reminded of why she conceived those plans. As the years dragged on and on and on, – and Adam was no closer to finding his solution – she grew more and more desperate. Until finally, out of fear for her children and the extinction of the Locust Horde, she launched her campaign against the humans.
For years they dug tunnels beneath the surface in preparation for the invasion, now they burst out of those very same tunnels. They attacked all major Seran cities simultaneously, catching the humans by surprise. RAAM wanted to join the attack, but she had a much more important mission for him and the High Priest Skorge. Clad once more in her battle armor, the three of them made their way down the familiar tunnel to Adam's mansion. The plan was simple, take Adam back to her palace so he could continue his research while her children occupied the Seran military. It was supposed to be a simple mission, yet as with everything, something went horribly wrong.
At the time she did not recognize the human who intervened to save Adam, only much later in her campaign did she discover that it was Marcus Fenix, Adam's son. But the both of them failed to 'save' Adam, for part of his own mansion collapsed on top of him when one of the human helicopters crashed. She was looking out one of the second story windows when it happened. As she watched the rubble fall and seemingly bury Adam, her spirits sank and her heart was broken. Adam had been her last hope of stopping the Lambent and saving the Locust. With him gone, she wasn't sure of what to do, so with no other options she concentrated on trying to take over the surface.
"The Hammer of Dawn… Jacinto… and now… this."
It had been going so well, for fifteen years she drove humanity to the brink of extinction. Yet humanity was desperate to save itself, just as she was desperate to save her children, and it showed in their fighting tactics and weapons. Early on, just weeks after she started her campaign, the humans unleashed the Hammer of Dawn – orbiting satellites that channeled the energy of the sun into one massive beam. Yet the humans didn't just use it against her soldiers… they unleashed it within their own cities, killing millions of their own citizens. The deaths of those humans didn't bother her; all it meant to her was that humanity was destroying itself, which was fine with her. What bothered her was that it was on noncombatants, and it disgusted her. Funny, she was disgusted with the fact that humans were driven so much by fear and desperation that they would do anything to win… but wasn't she doing the same thing? Perhaps, and maybe she was more like the humans then she would ever admit.
The Hammer of Dawn wasn't their only offensive move, of course. The Lightmass Bomb was the human's second desperate ploy to end the war. While the bomb struck a great blow against her forces, it failed to end the war; in fact, all it accomplished was to encourage her children to fight that much harder. However, whatever fueled the Lightmass Bomb strengthened the Lambent and infected others. She had been forced to pull her forces back to defend the Hollow from the Lambent's newfound offensive. The humans were quick to take advantage of this and launched their own offensive against the Hollow. Though whether or not the humans were planning on sinking the city Jacinto before or after their attack was unclear. She had been planning on doing the exact same thing, hoping to drown the Lambent and bury their infection once and for all… the humans beat her to it.
It was during the attack that she finally met Marcus Fenix face to face, when he and his little squad of humans stormed her palace. She knew that Marcus came to kill her that day, but she wouldn't die just yet. Skorge dealt with the humans while she left the palace. As she rode her Reaver out of the Hollow, she thought back to her encounter with Marcus. Seeing Marcus brought back memories of Adam, memories that she thought had been buried within the darkest part of her mind. There was a swelling within her chest as nearly forgotten emotions returned to her, not that she allowed anything to show on her face. Under different circumstances she would have liked to talk to Marcus, get to know him as she got to know his father but she had many other matters to attend to.
The flooding of the Hollow nearly destroyed the Locust, and the humans nearly succeeded in winning the war. But she survived and so long as she survived so too would the Locust Horde. She gathered what forces she could and led them to the surface. For two years they rebuilt and for two years they grew stronger, but as they had grown stronger so had the Lambent. At this point in time she would have joined with the humans to fight the Lambent. Apparently though, the humans found it impossible to put the past behind them. Not that she blamed them, fighting for seventeen years was not an easy thing to forgive, and it was within human nature to hold grudges… even if there was a far greater enemy. The Serans did not understand how great a threat the Lambent really were. They did not understand the danger the Lambent posed to both of their species. She did, she knew that the Lambent would not stop until it destroyed all life on Sera… yet she didn't know what to do.
"And his arrogance finally killed him."
It was by complete chance that she discovered the island stronghold, Azura. Perhaps it was because of that she was able to overcome the human's defenses and take the island. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting to find there, but it certainly wasn't finding all of the Seran scientists… and she certainly wasn't expecting to find him there.
She paced in front of the human scientists, watching them cower and try to avoid making eye contact with her. She wasn't quite sure what to do with them. If it had been anyone other than scientists she would have killed them without a second thought. As it was, she was debating whether or not to have them continue Adam's work and see if they could figure out a way to deal with the Lambent. "What are you going to do with us, you monsters?" One of the humans shouted, breaking her out of her reverie.
She turned, walking over to stare into the human's eyes, the scientist's own glaring back. The other Serans backed away from the one who dared to yell at her… HER! THE QUEEN! Perhaps it was time to remind these pathetic humans who they were dealing with. She acted before her thoughts caught up, backhanding the pathetic Seran and knocking him to the ground. "Monsters?" she said, placing her foot on the side of the human's head and pressed down gently, his cries for mercy bringing a faint smile to her lips. "Perhaps you are right… perhaps we are monsters, but I wonder who the real monsters are," she continued, all of her loathing and hate for the Serans boiling to the surface. All of her childhood memories returned to her, the pained face of her mother as the Serans experimented on her, the cries of all of the others as they too were experimented on… it all came together and added fuel to her hate. "Us… or YOU!" She applied pressure, intending to crush the Seran's head beneath her boot.
"MYRRAH!" A voice suddenly shouted causing her to freeze. She recognized that voice, but it wasn't possible; she saw him die. She watched as he was buried beneath a mound of rubble. "Myrrah stop this, this isn't like you." She turned, not sure if she should believe her eyes… but there he stood, Adam Fenix.
"Adam, is that… is that really you?" she asked, not even trying to keep all of the emotions out of her voice. The relief which washed over her was so great she stumbled forward unable to keep her balance. She nearly discarded all pretenses and hugged Adam. Then she remembered where she was, remembered the Locust soldiers and Seran scientists watching, and she quickly composed herself. Instead, she grabbed Adam by his arm, dragging him behind her as she left the room. Only when she was sure they were out of sight and out of hearing range did she let go of him and drop into one of the many couches which lined the hallway.
"Myrrah, what has happened?" Adam said, sitting down next to her. It could have been her mind playing tricks on her, but she could have sworn she heard a bit of concern for her within his voice.
"Over fifteen years of fighting… fifteen years of fearing the Lambent will destroy the Locust, my children…" she stopped, trying to keep the flood of emotions in check. She failed, years worth of unshed tears stung her eyes. "I thought you had died, Adam, and with your death, all of my hopes of dealing with the Lambent died as well." She tried to rein in her emotions, but at this point she just didn't care and the tears spilled forth. She buried her face in her hand as she leaned against the arm of the couch and just let it all out.
They sat like that for what seemed like hours until Adam spoke up, "Myrrah, I didn't forget that promise I made twenty years ago." Was it possible? Was there actually some hope for the Locust's survival? "I think I've found a way to deal with the Lambent. I just… I just need more time."
"Time, Adam?" she said, lifting her gaze to stare at Adam, "Is one thing I fear we do not have enough of."
Adam kept his word, of course. He did find a way to deal with the Lambent… but at the expense of the Locust. She tried to stop him, tried to get him to find a way to save the Locust as well. But he was stubborn, saying that if the Lambent wasn't dealt with soon than they may never have the chance again. Adam had tried to explain everything to her, tried to make her understand his reasons… but all she heard was that it would destroy the Locust as well. Perhaps Adam should have tried harder to make her understand, but the truth of the matter was that she just wouldn't listen to him. Because if she acknowledged what he said, then it would mean that everything she ever fought for would be for nothing.
She fought with him, not caring about anything else and only wanted him to see that, as much as she wanted to destroy the Lambent… she wasn't going to destroy her children to do it. It was all for naught, as Marcus Fenix set out to save his father. With father and son reunited, they implemented Adam's plan of destroying the Lambent and in doing so doomed her children to extinction. While Adam may have felt a small amount of remorse for what he set into motion… she knew that Marcus and the rest of the Serans did not. She wondered, briefly, if Marcus knew that going through with his father's plan meant that Adam would die, would he have still gone through with it. Would Marcus discard the last chance for survival simply to make sure that his father lived? But, she supposed, self-preservation always won over any other emotion.
Would she have let Adam go through with his solution had she known that he would die because of it? Did Adam inject imulsion into his own body because she kept pushing and pushing him? Even if Adam had found a way to save to Locust while destroying the Lambent, would she have gone through with it if it meant that Adam would die? Could she risk the survival of all life on Sera just to keep one man… one human… alive? Not that it mattered anymore, not that anything mattered anymore, it was all over and she failed. Twenty years of plans and fighting all destroyed because of one son's commitment to rescue his father. All that the Locust were… all that they had built and achieved… and all of the years they had survived… wiped out within an instance. All she ever wanted was for the Locust to survive, she never cared where, the only thing she ever wanted for her children was the simple right to live.
A grunt of pain escaped her lips as Marcus drove a knife into her abdomen. She couldn't bring herself to hate him for it, not after everything that she had done. Yet she was disappointed in him, disappointed in the fact that he couldn't see that they were fighting for the same thing – the survival of their own species. And really, what made the Serans think they had the right to survive any more than the Locust? She wondered briefly as she stared into Marcus' eyes, but she supposed they were human, and they always thought they were better than everything else.
She paid no attention to whatever Marcus said, using what little strength remained she pushed past him. Wrenching the knife out of her body and tossed it aside as she staggered forward, dropping to her knees next to the remains of Adam Fenix. Marcus knelt next to her, but she barely noticed him as tears stung her eyes once more. "Too bad, Adam," she whispered, her breath labored as her wounds caught up to her, "Perhaps under different circumstances you and I could have been so much more." She didn't care if Marcus heard her or not. In fact she just didn't care anymore, not with everything she ever cared about either dead or dying.
With the last of her strength fading away, she dropped to the side, her hand involuntarily reaching out for Adam. As the darkness slowly closed around her vision, she closed her eyes and drifted into an endless dream… a dream which left a small smile on her lips… a dream about her and Adam.
I've been working on this story for so long now, but I'm happy with how it came out. When I first started writing, I never planned on implying on a romance between Myrrah and Adam... it just kinda developed as I was writing. Yet it works, not only to show that there's more to Myrrah but to show that she can be just as 'human' as the rest of us.
Well, I hope that you enjoyed thanks for reading and please review.