Disclaimer: It has recently come to my attention that some people don't know what bioinformatics is. Which is honestly quite shocking to me. I mean, who doesn't know about the basic theory and application of programs used for database searching, protein and DNA sequence analysis, prediction of protein function, and building phylogenetic trees? That's basic knowledge, and I'm surprised that most aren't even aware of it. I mean, the characters in Catalyst don't. Because none of what they do there is even remotely scientific. But as for the rest of you, come on! Also, don't own it.
Since this chapter took ridiculously long to finish, I'm going to add an extra treat for you. I play Dnd and one day my DM decided that my patron, as a warlock, needed to be an actual character. So I wrote a ~2k word backstory that I might make into a fanfic. In other words, I'm going to publish a story of my ideas that might become actual stories sooner or later. Or not. Either way, hope you'll enjoy them. The story should be up later tonight or tomorrow.
(This is not the transition joke you are looking for.)
(Seriously. I assume you're looking for a good joke, and this is not it. Not at all. Even Star Wars references only take you so far.)
Well, shit. (Shameless plug for my own recently published Star Wars crossover story goes here.) ~feauxen
Catalyst
Dumbledore rarely found himself unsure of what to do. After 160 years even the very many of the more absurd things that could happen had happened to him at least once. But now, sitting in his office across from a boy who had been possessed for years by a being from Merlin knows where, Dumbledore found himself at a complete lack of words. What did one say to a boy who had never before been able to answer? Fortunately, Thenabar that broke the silence.
"At what point are you going to kill me?"
The words shook Dumbledore. The boy actually believed that he was going to be killed.
"I'm not going to kill you, Thenabar." Dumbledore said kindly.
"Yes, you will. You're either going to demand my subservience or kill me, and I won't serve you. So you'll kill me," Thenabar replied. Oddly enough, there was no venom in his tone, just a quiet resignation.
"And what makes you think that?"
"You're human. I'm not. What else would you do?" Thenabar asked, before coughing. "Is my throat supposed to be this dry when I talk?"
"Have you not talked before?"
The child looked almost embarrassed at the question, shrinking back into his seat. "No. Abathur did that for me."
That was disturbing, even if it was unfortunately unsurprising. Presumably, this 'Abathur' had been inserted into the boy since before he was even born. Really, it was remarkable that he was even coherent to begin with. Still, this revelation brought up some interesting questions.
"And which of you was it that killed Severus?" Dumbledore asked frankly. He leaned forward with his hands steepled. Any appearance of gentle paternity had vanished, and Dumbledore let sternness replace it. The child in front of him could be innocent of all crimes, the unwilling puppet of another, more malicious mind. Or he could be complicit, already too far gone. Dumbledore did not like to use more drastic methods against children, despised to. But, depending on this answer, he very well might have to.
"Who?" Thenabar replied, with more confusion than remorse.
Dumbledore tried very, very hard to convince himself that the boy said that because of ignorance instead of callousness. "The person who taught you potions for the past 4 years. You may have known him better as Professor Snape."
"Oh," Thenabar said, squirming uncomfortably. "Abathur mostly calls him the incompetent." Dumbledore remained silent, waiting for the boy to answer the question. Although even that answer did not give him a great deal of confidence.
After an awkward silence, Thenabar once again spoke up. "Abathur was the one who killed him. But he used my body to do it!" The boy's voice sounded almost...eager.
"If you had been in control, would you have decided to kill him?" Dumbledore asked, growing a bit worried.
"...I don't know. I'm not used to making decisions," Thenabar responded.
Dumbledore sat back in his chair. How total had Abathur's control over Thenabar been? For that matter, how much control did it have now?
"Thenabar," Dumbledore began. "Is Abathur still making decisions for you, right now?"
"No. He doesn't want to get pushed out again. So now he's just watching," Thenabar said. That was fortunate. If he was honest with himself, Dumbledore doubted he'd be able to win a protracted battle against Abathur. The last time, he had taken it by surprise and robbed it of a chance to respond effectively. At that point, it didn't have any real chance of winning. But it had still managed to fight back with such savagery, such skill, that Dumbledore knew the chances of him even surviving another mental battle with it were poor.
"What are you going to do with me, if you're not going to kill me yet?" The question shook Dumbledore out of his musings, and he refocused his attention on the boy sitting in front of him.
"I wish I knew," he replied frankly. "For know, you will stay in the castle, away from the other students. We can learn about Abathur, and see what is to be done about him. With luck, your absence from your studies will be short. But we will have to see." The silence from Thenabar was disconcerting. He had gone stiff, almost unresponsive, But he made no objection as Dumbledore escorted him out of his office, and to his new quarters. There was no protest as Dumbledore shut the door, and walked back to his study. Dumbledore hoped that it was a desire to achieve the same goals that made Thenabar this compliant. But he knew better than to place any faith in that vague hope.
(Transition)
It was dinner time, and Luna still had no idea where Abathur was. He should have been here by now, he always was, even if only to get food and go. It was one of the only times they could reliably talk to each other, and it was not like him to miss it. Luna kept glancing nervously over at the Slytherin table, as well as the entrances to the hall, hoping to see Abathur at any of them. Where was he? Was he captured? Killed?
She had to calm down. There were plenty of simple reasons Abathur might not be there. Maybe he was talking with a teacher, or just working on an assignment, or whatever else would keep him from dinner. Still, the longer dinner went on, the more her panic compounded. She just couldn't shake the instinctual feeling that something was wrong. Towards the end of it, right before desert appeared, she was almost too nervous to notice the headmaster stand up, and turn to address the assembled students. Even then, she missed the first few words.
"...I'm sure you've noticed, Professor Snape is not seated here with us tonight. Unfortunately, he will not be able to rejoin us. While collecting potion ingredients within the Forbidden Forest, he was ambushed by an as of yet unidentified creature, and did not survive the encounter." At these words, the low murmur that had been running through the Great Hall was suddenly cut off. "He was a good man, and I'm very sorry to see him go."
Luna was fairly certain that there were more words after that, but she wasn't really listening. Not after that. Unbidden, half forgotten memories of potion lessons, of the value of acromantula venom in particular, came to the forefront of her mind. Snape was...had been a fully grown wizard. And, to top it all off, Abathur wasn't here.
The second dinner had concluded, Luna sprinted out of the castle and onto the grounds. Seconds later, she was within the Forbidden Forest, rushing madly toward the Swarm's nesting grounds. As she ran, her imagination filled her head with terrible images, the beautiful creep darkened by spellfire, the members of the swarm nothing but smoking corpses. At this point, she wasn't even aware whether an arm or a tentacle caught her fall, only that she continued forward.
Soon, but not soon enough for Luna's paranoia, she arrived at the Swarm's center. And...nothing was wrong. The ritholisks were nursing their eggs, the soldiers were patrolling the borders, and the Hive filled every nook and cranny not already consumed by creep. The only disorder she sensed in the hivemind came from her.
"Luna. Adrenaline, excessive. Recommend reduction." And right there in the middle of it was Abathur, unharmed and healthy as could be. Or at least Luna thought he was. She couldn't exactly be sure.
"Why weren't you at dinner?" she asked in exasperation.
Abathur blinked. "Would have exposed cover. Revealed spy. Counterproductive."
"What spy? Why would appearing at dinner break your cover? You do it all the time!" Luna asked. Nothing Abathur was saying was making any sense. On the other hand, he appeared equally puzzled with her.
"Do not sense zerg? Not aware of combat? Curious."
"Odd. She does appears rather removed from the hivemind. You probably can't see it, Evolution Master, but from our position, its quite obvious." A voice rang out in Luna's mind, bypassing her ears. Thoughts formed into words without any source. "I'm having to spend much more effort than I should to just talk to her."
"Who said that?" Luna beginning to panic. Hearing voices was never a good sign.
"Cannot identify source? Member of Swarm. Boggart essence, additional intelligence. Can change form, examine thoughts. Talking through hivemind," Abathur commented. He slithered forward, peering closely at her. His back limbs started twitching. "Inability, troubling. Must correct."
Luna stepped back from Abathur. "Would you stop acting weird and just explain what's going on!" Luna all but screamed. There was a moment of stillness around her. The zerg, the Hive, even Abathur froze for a second in the face of her frustration. For one tense moment, he stood there, arms posed and blades ready
"Acceptable," Abathur stated after a tense moment. He moved back backing up and relaxing. He waited a second for Luna to calm down. "Was discovered."
"Then he ran away, tried to fake his own death using me, and failed miserably," the psuedo-boggart interjected. "And now Dumbledore has me, and thinks I'm some human called 'Thenabar' that the Evolution master was possessing. Overmind alone knows how that happened."
"Operating under false assumptions. Beneficial to Swarm. Do not correct," Abathur ordered, addressing the experiment. "Greater issue. Luna, unaware of events. Disturbing. Possible weakened connection to hivemind. Premature emergence can cause issues."
Luna blushed. "I couldn't just let the centaurs keep killing more of us! We were dying, and I could feel it, and I just... had to get out to make them stop."
Luna could feel Abathur's gaze on her, as well as that of the still unseen participant. Abathur eyes examined every facet of her face, darting around their sockets entirely independent of each other.
"Fortunate. Instincts remain. Regular usage, desirable. Will form situations for expression," he said. He cast his eyes towards the castle, out of sight past the trees and webs. "Spy, greater immediate importance. Report."
"Not sure what there is to report. He has me, thinks he has you. I've been playing the part of the captive, but brainwashed by you. I think he may even believe that I'm human," The boggart hesitated. "I'm not even sure he has any idea what Zerg are. He may not even understand the concept of life beyond this planet."
"There's life on other planets?!" Luna asked excitedly.
"Yes. Can show later," Abathur replied absentmindedly. Luna gave a shout of glee.
"Exactly like that. From what I've seen in these humans' minds, they seem to have barely even considered the possibility, and they definitely aren't aware of the Swarm. I doubt they even have a single wraith, much less a battlecruiser."
"Disturbing. Possible abandoned colony, lost technology.," Abathur pondered. "Ultimately irrelevant. Threat of psionics remains. Maintain disguise. Do not reveal Swarm."
"And if Dumbledore does discover us?"
"Then he'd try to kill us, wouldn't he?" Luna asked.
"Accurate statement," Abathur said.
"Then...I guess if he finds us, we'll need to kill him first."
Alexei Stukov is Russian. This is literally his only defining character trait aside from being half Zerg or something like that, which means that he always dances the cossack and wouldn't touch capitalism if you put it on a silver platter. Right? ~f
(I really wish I could dispute that.)
Alexei Stukov: Even among the zerg, whose forms are as numerous as they are deadly, Alexei Stukov is unique. Originally a terran from Earth, Vice Admiral Stukov lead a fleet to the Koprulu sector, intending to eliminate the threats to the U.E.D. Using psi emitters, they attempted to control the zerg, to use them as a weapon, as well as drugging and brainwashing a new Overmind. Both attempts ended in disastrous failure, resulting in the death and experimentation of Alexei Stukov by a shapeshifter known as Samir Duran, and was resurrected, infested, and tortured, not necessarily in that order. The end result was an infested Stukov, with his left arm and shoulder replaced by a monstrous limb, attached to a now monstrous man. Stukov's complexity of essence is great, second only to the primal Queen of Blades, although his are of a decidedly different nature and origin. While not as psionically powerful as the average Broodmother, Stukov remains a capable commander of the Swarm and its infested forces. Despite the extensive data and strength provided by Stukov's mutations, they are still poorly understood, and their extent and purpose are largely unknown.