The official sequel to Methods of Interrogation
Enjoy
Silence echoed throughout the Black Forest as morning came to the wintry land. Snow laid upon the ground and littered the branches of the trees that grew here as thick as a field of grass. Clouds covered the sun in the sky above, and the air was cold. Through this cold environment that had yet to be touched by the hands of others, trotted a lone red deer buck with a long set of antlers that sat atop his head like an illustrious crown.
The stag walked throughout the woodland slowly; his coarse and shaggy hair rustling in the biting wind. There was no sense of urgency in his stride, for he did not detect the scent of a predator. He eventually grew hungry for something to graze upon, and he halted to dig up something to eat with his cloven hooves. As he finally uncovered a small bed of the green plants he craved, he began to eat them, blissfully unaware of the weapon pointed at him from the brush several dozen feet away. Its metal barrel reflected what little sunlight showed through the clouds, and the sights behind it zeroed in on the deer's large shape.
A long, green streak suddenly ripped through the air from the beam rifle, hitting the deer in its midsection and burning lethally through its hide. The creature had not even a second to let out a cry before slumping to the floor of the forest, dead. A parliament of rooks, previously hidden in the trees above, unleashed throaty, screaming calls as they heard the sound of death taking the creature. They took off into the air from their roosts, cawing and screaming some more, before flying off to the horizon as the hunters exited their cover.
The hunters were two reptilian vipers; just one of many different alien species that the alien regime who once fully ruled this world had pressed in service to their will. Aphis, the old and larger-than-usual female, was the one bearing yellow scales over her body, now more dull with age, and had a wicked scar from a scuffle long since past resting on the front of her jaw. The common black armor of a soldier covered much of her midsection, but even through it she, like other female vipers, had a very much feminine visage highly comparable to the humans who lived on this planet. The other, uncovered, and greatly younger one, Seraph, was male. This could be seen by his body's white coloration and the blue that lined his back. Black and bone-hard spikes of varying length also protruded from the edges of his hood, jaw, chin tip, and from either side of his more masculine hip.
"Your shot has improved greatly, my king," Aphis complimented as they reached the deer, the last line she delivered with a dose of playful, dry sarcasm. Seraph smirked at her words, gave a light but sincere "Thank you," and slithered forth through the snow, closer to where the creature lay. Before setting to lessen the weight of the animal by ridding it of its more unwanted internal organs, he gave Aphis his weapon, and she in turn handed him a knife she had. He examined the animal for a minute longer before setting to gut it, and Aphis watched him as he did so.
It might have been a while now, but Aphis still didn't feel too used to seeing the sight of a male viper. As the regime had taken the male gender out of the viper gene pool for various reasons and resorted to through-the-motions cloning to continue their race up to this point, all were born female. All except for him.
Seraph was a being with very complex origins, and as far as she knew, was the only living male viper in existence for it. His mind had once been a human's. Once an imprisoned enemy soldier being interrogated for now-trivialized matters by her also-viper friend, and now Seraph's lover, Seraffo, he was the needed missing piece of a plan concocted by the few living Ethereals whom ruled the regime and their prime organization enforcing their now-shattered control over humanity, ADVENT. His brain had the necessary genetic material that was needed to give a cloned, but incomplete 'viper king', as the male was called, life. As a human he had formed a quite close connection with Seraffo, and it may very well have been intimate enough to be a secret form of love, but Aphis never delved that far in. When the operation used his brain matter to give him new life as a viper king it was amidst an unfortunate attack from the regime's hated foes, XCOM. And so Seraph - the name he was later given - opened a psionic rift that allowed him, Seraffo, Aphis, and a guard of Seraffo's, to escape capture or death almost as soon as he had been released.
And that was how they ended up here, in this dense forest, in the middle of who-knows-where, not a month-and-a-quarter ago.
Aphis flicked her forked tongue out and tasted the musky air now thick with the scent of blood, thinking deeply about the events that had already transpired, like she had spent most of the time doing while they had been stuck in this forest. The four of them were originally planning on leaving to search for civilization once Seraffo had healed from the grievous wounds she sustained in the skirmish. But after the revelation that Seraph had gotten her pregnant during that time, upon which she almost immediately proceeded to lay her eggs in the cavern where they set up their base, the plan had to be changed. Considering this harsh time of the year, it was fortunate that viper eggs had evolved to endure fairly frigid temperatures.
Yes, their careless actions may have postponed their departure from these dense woods, but Aphis could not truly fault Seraffo for that. From what she witnessed, her dear friend and Seraph were smitten wholly, and truthfully. She knew this well, for the viper king had not released any pheromones the males of their kind possessed and willfully used to attract and enthrall females.
The deer had soon been gutted and all unneeded organs were discarded in the blood-stained snow. Cleaning off and then handing back the knife to Aphis, Seraph nodded to her, telling her that the work had been done and he was ready to return. After Aphis nodded back, Seraph hoisted the large stag over his shoulder and began to slither off in the direction of their base. The aged viper followed behind him at an even pace, watching his back as he hauled the deer back to the cave.
Seraffo could scarcely breathe with what was happening at this very moment, and her red eyes remained anxiously drawn to her unborn children; each of the five eggs perfectly safe where they lay. Four of the clutch sat together over the uneven rock surface of the floor in a neat fashion, while one was purposefully left by itself several feet away, closer to the back of the cave, where it was far more temperate and somewhat warm when compared to where the others rested. It was by Seraffo's own insistence that it should be separated from the others, for reasons she said would potentially lead to the hopeful birth of a male.
As the month wore on, Seraffo spent most of those days vigilantly watching the eggs and protecting them as only she thought was proper. Her instincts had set into her mind with full force, and they wouldn't allow anyone or anything to get close to her offspring. She could only bear to let Seraph himself get within a few feet of them each without a queer, paranoid sense scream to her that it was a bad thing to allow.
It at first seemed like this day would be like any other, which to say was just her sitting there and watching her eggs incubate. But ever since witnessing one, then two of her eggs exhibit sudden bouts of motion from the living and growing forces held within them, she had been eyeing the precious ovular objects for the next thirty minutes intensely. Unkempt excitement began to boil within her when she saw the rest of them follow and become active, and soon small cracks began to form on the shells' surfaces. The eggs were hatching!
As she prayed for Seraph to return to her and witness this fantastic spectacle, far behind her stood the tall, mighty, armored form of the andromedon, Miskaton. He was a longtime associate of Seraffo before this incident occurred, and he was clad and concealed within an environment-sealed battlesuit filled with the green, acidic chemicals his species needed to survive. It was a thankful fact that the acidic coolant he needed in order to live was long-acting in his suit, and all he ever needed to do to eat was plop an edible item into one of the metal cartridges that connected to his outfit, and reinsert it into his main tank.
"When will he come back to me..." Seraffo growled impatiently.
"I believe Seraph and Aphis will return shortly," Miskaton's deep, monotonous voice spoke as reassuringly as his dense, emotionless tone could muster. "I beg of you not to worry."
"How can I not?" The viper turned to the hulking andromedon fearfully, if only briefly, before returning her red eyes to the eggs. "Every piece of me yearns for him to be here, right this second."
"Just remain patient. He will come," he responded. It wasn't two minutes that passed next before Miskaton then spoke the words the viper could only have dreamed to hear at this point. "Seraffo, they have arrived."
She instantly spun her head around to the entrance. Several seconds later, the shapes of Seraph and Aphis slithered past and into the cavern; the sight of a deer hanging over the former's shoulder as he carried it in. Seraffo rose up to her full height and addressed her dear mate with unkempt happiness.
"Seraph! Thank the Elders you have returned!" she exclaimed. Dropping the deer to the ground of the cave, the viper king looked to his inamorata with an odd expression.
"What is it, Seraffo?" he asked, fearing something terrible was occurring from the pitch in her voice. "Has something bad happened?"
"No, something wonderful. The eggs are hatching," was all she said as she slithered right up to him, placing her hands to his face and bringing his lipless mouth to hers, before butting her head against his; looking deeply into his handsome blue eyes. "Seraph, the eggs are hatching!"
"H-hatching?" he inquired, shock evident his tone and the deer completely forgotten. She nodded her hooded head excitedly, taking it away from his and looking back to the eggs.
"Yes!" she cried out with joy. "I was almost in tears hoping for your quick and safe return. They'll be out any moment. I didn't want you to miss this." She took his hand into hers and led him closer to the objects that were shaking and trembling with life. "Let us watch them emerge and take their first breaths, together."
They did just that. While Aphis and Miskaton stood back several feet to give them space, the two parents watched their eggs closely with expectance and unparalleled excitement. Fifteen minutes passed when their shells fully cracked, splintered, and otherwise broke open. The five young vipers, covered in sticky yolk and reddish egg membrane, began to emerge from them in near-unison, getting a good look at the world around them as their eyes adjusted to their first experience with light.
What was instantly noticed by their observers was that their five, small, serpentine bodies were all colored white and had streaks of crimson lining their foot-and-a-half-long forms, from tail tip to face, signifying their immaturity. They had arms extending out from just below their hood-drawn heads that were thin like twigs, and just as frail. The four in the one corner had beady red eyes on their snake faces, as their mother had, and small bumps, containing underdeveloped venom glands as all viper females possessed, sat on their chests.
"Four, beautiful daughters," Seraph spoke with glee. After staring at them for a short time, they turned to the last remaining neonate a small distance away. While being of the same color as its sisters, what Seraph and Seraffo realized right off was that it didn't have any venom gland-containing bumps on its chest, and it was instead smooth. The creature's eyes, also unlike its siblings', were vividly blue. With a growing grin that glowed like a sun, Seraffo studied it for a second longer, before looking to Seraph's equally-euphoric face and wrapping her hands around his arm.
"This one doesn't have venom glands. It's a male!" she chirped excitedly into his ear. "We have a son, Seraph!"
"A handsome son," he said back to her, wrapping his own limbs around her waist, holding her close. "We have children, Seraffo."
"And we should give them names," she whispered back, both soon turning to the other four. The females were all similar in appearance and confused emotion from what they could see, but the one who really stood out among them was the first one to hatch; their oldest child. She in turn looked to them with what seemed like a small glare of sorts, as though she felt threatened and was ready to defend herself from harm, and her sisters as well, if necessary. Making a sideways glance to Seraph, Seraffo set to naming her first.
"Let's call her Ophan," she named her. She turned to her love, and seeing him smile in agreement at it, they went about naming the rest of their daughters.
"Serasa."
"Cheru."
"Valis."
Then, lastly, they turned to their son. "What shall we call him?" Seraph asked, as the little creature stared at them in wonder and silence. Seraffo pondered upon this for a few moments longer than what had happened with the others' names, having spent much of her free time devising one for a potential male; one of her choices in particular having become her absolute favorite.
"Sinh," she eventually, and quietly responded, lowering herself to the young hatchling's face and placing a claw out, which the newborn creature slowly began to interact with using its own tiny, thin, stubby-fingered appendages out of curiosity for a short time before retracting them. "We shall name him Sinh."
Seraph looked intrigued by the answer, and he placed a finger and thumb to his chin as his tongue flared out. "Doesn't that mean...?"
"'First'," Aphis answered from behind him before he, still wet behind the ears at their native language, could come up with the word. "Seems fitting as well, seeing how he's the first natural-born male of our kind in a great many hundreds of years."
As she watched her mother coo these soft words that made no sense to her brother, Ophan quickly felt a yearning pang take hold of her new mind. She slowly, but surely started to leave from the safety of her egg to the floor of the cavern, then sprinted as fast as her legless form could manage to her mother's side. As soon as she had reached it, she began to poke and prod at her parent's scaly underside, pining for her gaze. Leaving Sinh be for the moment, Seraffo looked down to her eldest child with a loving face, and began to turn her attention to the firstborn neonate next. She earned a small, delighted hiss in return from Ophan when she gently rubbed a finger over her small head, wiping some remaining egg membrane off of it. The rest of the hatchlings, mustering some confidence after watching their sibling's example, all began to leave their eggshells as well; fleeing to the warm side of their mother, pleading for affection.
All that is, except for Sinh.
Sinh merely sat where he was, observing what was happening as his tiny hands gripped the thick edges of his eggshell anxiously. He looked very unsure on what to do. Seraph could see his hesitance in his little blue eyes, and put on an easy smile.
"It is alright, little one," he spoke quietly, motioning with a hand for him to come closer, hoping it would help. "Come over here. Come see your mother."
It took a minute, but Sinh eventually fell for the honeyed words. Slowly and cautiously he started to move away from his egg, and to the floor of the cavern. His small, but long shape slithered about at a light pace before he finally came to a stop at Seraffo's side, joining up with his sisters. Seraffo and Seraph grinned with pride and adoration as he huddled up among them. From a short distance away, Aphis watched on with exuberance for the two parents she couldn't help but show on her smirking face, while Miskaton stood directly in front of the cavern's entrance.
As Miskaton was happening to take a quick outside the cave, he spotted something that made him blink in surprise and alarm from within the murky insides of his suit. With one hand readily holding onto the trigger of his powerful plasma cannon - a powerful weapon made for devastating use - the andromedon touched Aphis' nearby shoulder, telling her instantly that something was awry. Raising their weapons, the two quietly stared out of the cave's entrance, spying the sight of several shapes.
"Someone swiftly approaches us," Miskaton grunted.
"What? Who?" sharply asked Seraffo, lowering herself to her neonates protectively the moment she registered the words. Aphis and Miskaton were still focused on the several shapes they spotted rapidly grow closer to their position outside, before their weapons lowered simultaneously and Aphis let down her guard with a deep breath.
"Allies," the aged viper sighed in relief. "They are allies. We have been found, at last."
"Allies?" questioned Seraph, his brow raising. Looking to Seraffo as she still stayed with their children, he left her side to look outside the cavern himself. Before he could get too close, a set of figures began to enter, causing him to halt.
The shapes before him he recognized, with a twinge of worry, were two human-based ADVENT soldiers, both clad in dark-colored gear. Standing alongside them, looking directly at Seraph before them, were several vipers.
The unfamiliar fellow aliens stared at him with their eyes as wide as they could go. "It is the male. The Elder was correct," came a breathless whisper from one of them; her four-fingered hands gripped tightly on her beam rifle with what Seraph sensed was from nervousness and disbelief. "He lives! Soldier... do what you were told to do. Now!" she hissed next to one of the troopers in front of her.
After reaching for a spherical object hooked to his side as ordered, the ADVENT trooper clicked something on its surface and released the orb before it took to the air on its own. A holographic image soon formed above it as it came fully online, showing an odd figure of a head. The visage may have been concealed behind hood and helmet, and looked as though it was connected to a respiratory device of some kind in what little there was to be seen in the background, but all standing there to witness the being seemed to know it was an Ethereal; the undisputed masters of the alien regime and ADVENT. Aphis, Miskaton and Seraffo certainly knew this, and each took a knee or bowed their heads down in alongside the the vipers who allowed the holographic device's activation.
"A most sincere greetings be to you, male viper. It is to my greatest relief that we located you before any harm could fall upon you," spoke the hologram in an impossibly old and weakly voice that sounded as frail as the wheezing breaths backed behind it. "We have been hunting for you for quite a while, 'king'. We have invested a great deal of resources into your creation, and as you escaped certain death, your tracks and our estimations have led us here. You look like quite the impressive specimen, if I may say that."
Seraph could only look at the Elder with a glare of hate; still unfondly remembering how were the force behind the subjugation of humanity. "Do not think to presume that you own me, simply because those who serve you created me," he spoke in a low tone close to sounding like an unwelcome growl.
"You... may possibly possess the intellect given from a human, and perhaps some of his memories as well, but from what I see now, your loyalty no longer extends to that foolhardy species," the ethereal said back, apparently having caught sight of Seraffo and the neonates standing a fair ways behind Seraph. "Let your mind drop all detrimental thoughts and listen to my words, I implore you. The regime is not your enemy. The regime can provide protection for you, and your precious spawn. We can make this secluded place a safe haven for them to be raised and educated within, and taught whatever values seen as necessary," the ancient creature stated next. "We can ensure that they have all their needs taken care of, and all the training they will ever require to enforce our will. All we ask of you in turn is that you profess your loyalty only to us, and serve us well. Serve us, and breed with the females we have generously provided, so your kind may flourish freely upon this world and aid ADVENT in disposing of our enemies, so we may reclaim it in our name."
The Ethereal faintly motioned his decrepit and covered head, and in came a small, near-featureless robotic emissary of sorts from outside, hovering above the floor with the use of an anti-gravitational device built into it; something peculiar resting on its velvet-lined surface. It was a crown of sorts, bearing a mixture of shining steel and dark blue colors. It also had a pair of long, arched protrusions on its tip, similar to that of fanciful, upwards-curling horns. The Ethereal continued on as the item floated up to Seraph. "This is a gift; a crown dictating status we had given to the previous 'viper king' an excruciatingly short time before he met his untimely demise at the hands of our... mutual foes. Accept it, and you will be a slave to none. Accept it, and take your rightful place as a true king of your kind, and as our loyal, prized servant. This is the bargain the remnant Ethereals offer to you. Now, choose."
Seraph felt his heart pumping vigorously in his chest, and anger build up rapidly in his mind. "I..." He clenched his fists until he felt his black claws start to dig into the softer flesh of his palms. He wanted nothing more than to bare his fangs and say no to this bargain. He would rather die than say the words agreeing to this matter. And while he would have indeed muttered instead the words that would seal his fate, he remembered Seraffo. He partially turned his head to her, as if seeking her guidance on the matter. Her face, while still bowed sightly in the presence of one of her race's practically deified masters, was looking to him and smiling reassuringly and hopefully, giving him the answer he required. What Seraph wanted more than to simply say no to this wretched offer was to make sure she, and his newborn children for that matter, came to no harm.
His muscles relaxed, his tense visage faltered, and he let out a begrudging silent sigh. "I... accept your offer." The words at first sounded like bitter venom as they started to leave his mouth. But looking back into Seraffo's shining red eyes as he finished, then to his children; each one still casting frightened or curious glances from behind their mother's protective form, his tone mollified into one of full and willing acceptance. With slow movement in his white hands, Seraph lifted the crown from its resting place, upon which the conveyor proceeded to float away when its treasure was taken. Seraph placed the crown carefully onto his head and the moment it touched his cranium, a bright blue holographic projection lit up between the fore and horns of it, showing an alien symbol that undoubtedly represented the regime in one way or another.
"Then it is done. You are one of us, as all should be," the Elder spoke in a strained manner as his visage in the hologram began to fade; their conversation concluding. His tone, while weak and lacking emotion, was clearly very pleased with this outcome. "I leave these soldiers and vipers in your employ and company, and others will be sent here to establish this place into a more... proper installation. For the regime."
"For..." Seraph took a last at Seraffo's beaming face before looking to the Elder's vanishing hologram and the ecstatic-looking vipers standing just behind it; each of whom appeared more antsy than before and were indubitably thrilled to approach their new leader. "For... the regime."