Chapter 37: Hive Mind

They were everywhere. They looked different from the Myrmas, but only by a little.

What were they doing here?

I wasn't sure how I felt about this yet.

Kahn walked up to one of the female Lumina.

"Greetings, I can see that you are Lumina. What brings you to a place like this?"

She laughed, it was light and airy.

"Why not this place? None of our hunters are able to reside here, so it's our safe haven now."

Kahn nodded. "I see."

She beamed. "Wow, you're so friendly, you and your friends can stay here if you like!"

We CAN stay here? What is all of this? This is my home, of course I can stay here!

"What, do I need your permission to stay in my own home?"

She seemed taken aback by that.

"Well, we have claimed this territory... so sorry for the inconvenience."

I busted out laughing, though most of it was bitterly based.

"No, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, because your all going to leave now!"

She rolled her eyes. "She cannot stay because I don't like her."

Linn walked up to her, grabbing her by the throat of her tunic.

"Look, I don't give a damn about what you've claimed. This is her home, and I don't care who the hell you are! I'll palm blast you into the depths of unknown oblivion!"

I felt my form change. I didn't know how this was possible, unless the seal had broken.

"No Linn, I'll handle this..." the little Lumina woman looked up at me, and she looked scared.

"I-I didn't know who you were ma'am, I'm sorry!"

"You have displeased me! What will you do to fix this?" I felt almost out of myself, but I felt powerful.

"R-Right this way your Majesty! I-"

I felt another form surface, no, the two forms. Two forms at the same time.

I grabbed her by the throat.

"Amuse me, but make it quick. I haven't eaten in a while..."

She blasted a light ball at me.

"The queen! She's a Demi-Blood, and the Blood's have begun to mix! Come, you know what to do!"

I felt the world around me turn black, and slipped into darkness.

I felt a spark of consciousness fill me, but everything was still dark.

"Where am I...?"

I heard a dark laughter, something mischievous in the darkness.

I couldn't see anything in front of me. I went to lift my hand in front of my face, but it was so dark, my hands and everything seemed nonexistent.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Chihiro...? No, that's your name."

She laughed, and this time it was more friendly. Something gave me a very unstable vibe about her.

"Well, then you can call me Sen. SEN!" She broke into a fit of maniacal laughter.

"How about it Chihiro? You wanna team up!?"

"Are you okay? Because you sound like you're completely insane." That might get me killed, but at least I was honest.

She laughed louder. "I am! How could you tell?"

Her voice became darker. "I can see you're the honest sort, I like that. Speak your mind, I won't betray honesty."

"How many of you are there?" I asked.

Her voice became light and mischievous. "Oh, it's just me! Hey, I can turn the lights on if you want!"

I nodded. "I'd like that very much."

I found myself in a lavish looking room. It looked like it could fit any of the three personas that this woman took.

It was dim enough to suit her darkness, fancy enough to suit her nice side, and outlandish enough to satisfy her insanity.

I looked at the girl standing before me, and it... it was me.

She looked like me, but she was a dark red shadow.

She gestured toward a red table, nicely carved with purple stripes. She pulled out a dark wood chair.

"Sit, and I'll make some cookies."

I sat, the chairs were really comfortable. She sat in front of me, and a pie materialized in front of us.

"This is a pie." I said.

She held a fork and stabbed it into the pie thirty six times. I know because she counted for each time she stabbed.

She laughed. "Sorry about that!" She scooped up some of the mutilated pie and shoved a bite in my mouth. It tasted just like a cookie.

"That is pretty good..." I said. She was definitely strange, but that was some good pie.

Her laugh became slightly dark and very mischievous.

"Hey, you could stay here forever... but I like you, so I'm going to give a choice."

"What's the choice?" I asked.

"Well, you could stay here, and I would keep your body. You'd be free from pain and suffering, and I'd always be around to keep you company."

I nodded. "Got it, and the second choice?"

She grinned. "Or, we could work together."

I felt suspicious of this, but I had a feeling I didn't want to be on her bad side.

"Could you elaborate?" I asked.

She nodded slowly, her expression was fully darkened now.

"I would serve you when you were in peril, crushing all of your foes. In exchange for some air time, and I would get to play for a while..."

The tone was mischievous again.

That sounded fair, but there needed to be ground rules.

"Alright, I chose the second choice. On one condition."

She laughed softly. "Oh, I love things like this! Well go on, say it!"

"Do not harm my friends while you're out playing, or at any other time." As long as my friends weren't in danger, I could use the extra power...

"STOP! Don't listen to her Chihiro!"

What was that? A voice? It sounded so familiar...

"That's right, just close your eyes, and follow the sound of my voice..."

What...? Is that...?

I was aware of myself again. I was tied down to the large tree in my own yard, and there were people talking around me.

"Well we can't just leave her like this!?" Said Kuhn.

"She's obviously no longer a threat. If she wakes up like this, she'll feel like some kind of monster!"

The Lumina woman spoke. "Well, what did she look like to you?"

She scoffed. "The only reason we've kept her alive is because she's our queen. She's lucky we haven't thrown her in the ocean, for all the damage she's caused."

He balled his fists. "I'd just love to see you try!"

"Forget her Kuhn." I said. "Just, please untie me..."

He walked over to me and began cutting the ropes. "I'm really sorry Chihiro, are you okay?"

I thought about today's events, and his voice in my mind. Was I really okay?

"No... I'm not okay." I answered.

He sighed. "Yeah... I can see that."

He pulled something from his pocket, and handed it to me.

"Here, he would have wanted you to have it."

I held the little pink shoe in my hand... He had kept it all this time?

Kuhn smiled sadly. "He would always talk about you, even before you came back. He said he kept this with him because it was a reminder of what you had given him. He always talked about this vow he'd made to protect you..."

His eyes were filling with tears.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be-"

I hugged him. "No... I know that he was your friend too."

He cried softly. "I'm sorry... I should be comforting you..."

I felt my own tears rise.

"We'll comfort each other."

"How shameful, for a queen to carry herself in such a manner."

She was starting to get on my nerves.

I stood. "What part of someone died don't you understand!?"

"Well, then it must have been his chosen time. Yes?" She was glaring at me.

I was completely disgusted with these people. The tainted took lives without feeling or care, the Lumina were no better, because they cared little for the lives they saved. There was a general apathy, and as far as I was concerned, they were the same.

The only difference was that the Lumina were civilized enough not to kill us. This is why we hadn't killed them.

I glared at her and walked away. At least I could get some peace in my own...

In my house too!? They didn't even seem to notice me. They were throwing around Haku's cast iron pan in a game of catch.

I was about to explode, when a young boy Lumina spoke, grabbing the pan out of their reach.

"This is completely wrong! Why can none of you ever see that these things you do are horribly disrespectful!?"

Another man spoke, he was older than the boy.

"What's your problem Karo? Mad because you aren't in the hive?"

He fumed. "You know, I've had it with the hive! I hate this stupid hive, and I'm glad I'm not connected with you ingrates!"

The man grabbed him by his shirt, grabbing back the pan.

"You might not want to talk like that, the high queen's here now have you heard? Now let us get back to our game of catch, which you rudely inter-"

I walked up to him and punched him in the face.

"I'm sorry, was your high queen interrupting your innocent game?"

He stuttered on the ground like a fool.

"H-H-High queen!? Y-Your Majesty, we were just-!"

"I saw what you were doing!" I barked, picking up the pan.

"Now get out of here, before I decide I'm angry enough to beat you with this pan!"

They all scattered out of the house.

"Um, miss? I'm really sorry..." Said the boy. "Do you want me to leave too?"

I sighed. "Your name is Karo right?"

He nodded.

"No, you can stay... I don't mind."

I sat on the bed holding the pan, and smelled a familiar scent.

We had been gone for so long, and the bed still smelled just like him...

I looked at the pan, and saw little red spots. Rust?

I found myself laughing. "Well, you were right Haku. If you wash these they can rust..."

I curled up on the bed. I held the blankets we had wrapped ourselves in, and cried into them.

Karo sat on the edge of the bed.

"Did Haku... Did he used to live here with you?"

"Yes..." I said.

"We were lovers. He died protecting me from the tainted."

He put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him.

"I don't know how it feels like to lose a lover. I do know what it feels like to lose a father, a sister, and a mother."

"You're not like the other Lumina, are you Karo?" I was curious. Was this loss what made him so different?

He shook his head. "No, I'm not. I used to be, but not anymore."

"What happened?" I asked.

His expression looked bleak as he spoke.

"When I was very young, my family and I were all a part of the upper Lumina circle. We were all so happy, but now I see we were simply lulled into a false sense of bliss. The Lumina you saw in here do not know the ways of the world, or rather, they do not understand them. My family and I were kidnapped by these men. Horrible men with mazes... mazes full of children. Children who were forced to kill eachother. My family had resisted such an awful act, and refused to send me in there. This was the beginnings of our severing to the hive."

"Severing to the hive?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes, an act of love is what severed us from our hive, and bound our minds together. We had hived within our own family, bound by the suffering that brought us together. However, because they had resisted, my mother was brutally butchered... they did it as an example!"

He was trembling, and I put my arm around him.

"You don't have to tell me this if it hurts you this badly..."

He shook his head. "No, I'll finish." He continued with his story.

"I was sent into the maze for the first time, and all I could do was hide. I was so scared... I didn't want to kill anyone! ...I met this girl there... she was really beautiful. She had the nicest light brown hair, green eyes, she was even dressed in the nicest little dress. It was a dark green. It was darker than the maze walls, and reminded me of moss. Don't ask me why I thought of that, but-"

"Wait." I stopped him for a moment. "This girl didn't happen to be a woman named Nina, did she?"

His eyes went wide. "How do know Nina?"

"We were friends, and she helped me quite a bit. What about you?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, I met her in the maze... She comforted me, and told me she could help me and my little sister escape this place. My sister was much to young to be in the maze, but they still subjected her to horrible amounts of torture! Her wings... Just sawed off her wings... that screaming! That horrible SCREAMING-!"

I stopped him. "It's alright now! Just, calm down... You don't have to talk about it anymore... I think I understand why you're not connected with the others now."

He sighed. "Yeah... I get a lot of trouble for it too. The only reason they let me stick around is because of pity and this obligation they have to their own. I shouldn't complain, because if it weren't for that, I'd be completely alone..."

"You don't have to be alone." I said. "Who needs them anyway? Come on, I'll introduce you to my friends. They aren't complete jerks like these guys."

He stood and followed me out of the cottage.

Karo, who is a Lumina, but also not a Lumina. I don't think I mind him at all.