Chapter 2: Integration
Patch Island, Xiao Long Residence
The small house stood at the edge of the forest, a light evening snowfall silently drifting around it. At first glance, it appeared empty: nobody had entered or left it for days now. But at the back of the house, one window was illuminated; the window to the bedroom of the only living being in the building.
Yang Xiao Long stared at the ceiling of her bedroom, depressed. Of course, that wasn't exactly news any longer. After her run-in with Adam Taurus at Beacon Academy and the subsequent loss of her right arm, Yang had totally shut down. She rarely ate or talked, just spending her days lying in bed. The reasons for why she was depressed were many, with one reason taking precedence over the others for a few hours before passing the torch to another, but the current cause for her misery had been leaving the blonde brawler in the dumps for a long, long time.
Five days. Five days had passed since Ruby had left Patch Island with the three surviving members of Team JNPR on the trail of Cinder Falls, leaving nothing behind but a note on her bed and an empty cookie jar. Both her uncle Qrow and her dad had immediately headed out when the latter man had found the note, scouring the entire island for the girl, but they found nothing, no matter how many rocks they upturned or people they questioned; at the moment, they were searching along the coast, checking the ledgers of any transportation off the island for her name. Of course, Yang had been the first one they questioned, but Ruby hadn't told her big sister what she was doing, either. Which was the current reason why Yang was feeling like crap.
Ruby had run off with Team JNPR without even mentioning her plan to Yang, let alone asking if she wanted to come. Growing up, they had told each other everything; their imaginary friends, their crushes, their deepest fears, secrets, and insecurities. Now, Ruby had gone and headed out on an incredibly dangerous journey that sounded like something out of her beloved stories… and didn't say a word to her sister. And the worst part was, Yang couldn't blame her.
The blonde looked down sadly at the bandaged stump that used to be her right arm. Her Ember Celica had been lost in the carnage when Blake had brought her to the helipad at Beacon; the news had felt like she had lost her limb all over again. Yang had made those gauntlets herself back when she was still in Signal; she rarely ever took them off, even wearing them to bed. Now, she felt almost naked without her beloved weapons, even though it wasn't like she could use them, anyway.
Yang had always been proud of her strength. While almost everyone else in her school used a sword or a gun or something like that to fight, her entire fighting style relied on close-quarters physical combat, punching the crap out of anything in her way. The looks on people's faces when they realized that the blonde beauty was also the muscle of Team RWBY had always put a smile on Yang's face; but now without her arm and, by extension, her dominant hand, she had only a fraction of the combat prowess she once had. The stump on her right side still throbbed sometimes, as if it, too, were mocking her for her reckless decision to leap into combat against Adam without stopping to think.
At that memory, Yang smacked herself with her remaining hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid! No wonder Ruby hadn't told her older sister about her plan. She was crippled, weaponless, and totally reckless, with no head for subtlety-she'd be a liability even if she still had both arms. Even though she was strong, Yang had heard Ruby's descriptions of Cinder fighting-with those boosted powers, she would kill Yang just as easily as she had killed Pyrrha.
And now Ruby's going to die, too. She thought ruefully before immediately mentally chastising herself for even thinking that, but the damage had already been done. First her mother, than Ruby's mom, than Pyrrha and Penny, now Ruby herself and the rest of Team JNPR: almost everyone she cared about was fading into oblivion. Yang liked to think of herself as an optimist, always trying to look at the bright side of things; but now, life looked very, very Grimm.
Yang rolled onto her side, facing away from her opened window. Not even her mental pun could make her feel any better. She was without her weapons, her combat prowess was gone, her teammates had split up across Remnant, several of her friends were dead, and her own sister was running to her death, and there was not a damn thing she could do about it.
"But what if there was?"
A breathy voice, sounding neither masculine nor feminine, echoed in her head, as if the words had been sent directly into her mind rather than verbally spoken. Yang bolted upright, looking around wildly. "Who said that?! Who are you?!"
"Down here; on the floor by your window. Do not panic; I am not here to harm you."
Yang crawled to the edge of her bed, looked down, and immediately drew back with a shout.
Lying on the floor of her room was a wormlike creature, about two feet long, with a segmented body supported by several dozen caterpillar-like legs. One end, currently facing her, ended in a small, round head, with a pair of sharp mandibles like a beetle's and six small glowing yellow eyes looking directly up at her.
Alright, that's it. I've definitely gone crazy. Hallucinating giant worm monsters that can communicate by telepathy? If that isn't crazy, I don't know what is. Yang thought to herself, hand over her heart in a futile attempt to calm her racing pulse.
"I can assure you, Yang Xiao Long, that I am not a figment of your imagination. I am as real as the bed you are sitting on." The voice replied, as if it had read her mind, its mention of her full name causing Yang to do a double take.
"How did you-"
"I am capable of reading minds to some degree. Your name was easy to find. Anyways, I am most assuredly real, Yang Xiao Long."
Yang glared at the beast. "Oh, please. Of course you're telling me that you're real-crazy people's hallucinations always say that. Prove that you're real, then!"
"Very well."
As the bug-thing said this, it crawled over to the foot of Yang's bed and clambered up the side almost like a gecko, not stopping until it was perched atop her right knee. "See? Were I a hallucination, you would not feel my weight upon your leg."
Sure enough, Yang felt the creature's weight and body heat on her leg through the sheets. Well, so much for being crazy, then-she had never heard of a hallucination that actually had weight.
"Alright, so you are real." She replied, scowling at the intruder. "Now, mind telling me who or what you are and why you broke into my room?!" She asked, her voice rising as she talked and eyes starting to shift in color from lilac to bright red.
"You wish for answers, I will provide you with them, Yang Xiao Long. I have no name; I am the only one of my kind, which was also never given a name, although I suppose that the term "Successor" would be most appropriate; and I entered your room to ask something of you-an… exchange of services, if you will."
Yang's glare intensified. Granted, it had answered her questions, but she still knew nothing about what this mystery being was. But what did she have that would interest a worm; and for that matter, what did it have to offer?
"What do you mean, 'ask something'?" She asked.
"That… is a long story." The 'Successor' replied, its eyes glowing brighter and brighter. A flash of yellow light emanated from the six orbs, and Yang's room disappeared.
Yang awoke to blackness. She was standing on seemingly thin air in the middle a massive, inky black void. In the distance, a seemingly random array of objects flowed through the air as if they were moving along an invisible current of wind; the rubble of buildings, chunks of earth, even what looked like pieces of enormous Grimm.
"Wha… what is this? Where am I?!" She shouted to the blackness, hoping that someone or something would hear her.
"We are in your mind, Yang Xiao Long, as projections of our respective consciousnesses." The Successor's voice replied, now seemingly coming from every direction. "It is the only way I know of to show you the answers to the questions you have asked me, as well as the best way to inform you of my request." As the creature spoke, the voidscape began to shift, taking form and color until it became an enormous cityscape, with Yang floating several dozen feet above the scene.
On one side, an army of heavily armored soldiers wielding enormous guns that wouldn't look out of place on military aircraft grouped around a colossal statue in an open plaza. Dozens of small aircraft swooped towards the ground, their shapes twisting and rearranging themselves into humanoid robots, enormous tanks sprouted legs and dug themselves into the ground, and enormous mechs that looked like bigger, bulkier versions of the Paladin units the blonde brawler had faced in the past stood at attention, the cannons mounted on their arms whirring as they prepared to fire. They seemed battle-hardened, as if they had taken the worst the universe could throw at them and came out on top.
Then the other side appeared.
Thousands of insect-like monsters poured into the space, charging down streets, bursting up from the earth, and swooping down from the sky. Clearing the distance between them and the human forces within seconds, they slammed into the opposing forces-less an army and more of a tide of claws and fangs. The monsters washed over the soldiers, tearing them to shreds almost instantly. The opposing army was firing everything they had at the bug creatures-each and every bullet found its mark, every massive blast of energy obliterated hundreds of the monsters, but their weapons were but a candle against a flood. Every insect-creature that was slain was immediately replaced by five more-it was apparent that these futuristic humans were doomed. The colossal mechs fired shot after shot into the horde as their comrades fell, but they, too, soon succumbed under the weight of thousands of monsters as the tide consumed them as well, uncountable numbers of claws and teeth tearing through their armor like it was wet paper.
"I… I don't understand. What are you showing to me?" Yang asked the voice, slightly disturbed by the monstrous creatures. They fought almost like Grimm, but at the same time, the creatures of Grimm could not hold a candle to the ferocity at which these creatures battled, throwing themselves into certain death just to get close enough to deal a death blow to an enemy.
"Those, Yang Xiao Long, are the creatures I call kin; the zerg Swarm."
Yang whirled around in shock to search for the wormlike creature, but saw nothing. "Wait, are you saying that you're one of those things?! Are there more of you out there? Oh Oum, are you here to invade Remnant?!"
The Successor let out a raspy whispering noise that Yang guessed was a sigh before continuing. "While the creatures you see before you are indeed of the same species as I, this memory is an old one from years past-until recently, the Swarm had a new purpose." As it spoke, the bloody scene faded until Yang was now 'standing' in the void she had started out in, a simple stone tabletop floating in front of her with the 'zerg' she had been speaking with sitting atop it. Above and below her, the floating debris that she had seen in the distance earlier was now flowing like waterless rivers.
"My kind were created millennia ago by a godlike being called Amon, who sought to use us as the tools to extinguish all life in the universe and remake it in his own image. We rebelled against our creator, led by an entity called the Overmind until its death. A human that the Overmind had transformed and altered into a zerg weapon then proceeded to take control of the Swarm, taking the name of the Queen of Blades."
As the Successor spoke, shadowy silhouettes appeared on the table in front of it, acting out the events that it described. A vaguely defined humanoid raised its arm, and thousands of tiny insect-like creatures emerged from the surface of the table before turning on their summoner, causing the creature to vanish into mist. Next, a giant eyeball shape stood before what looked like a human woman, tentacles grabbing hold and wrapping around her. As the woman writhed in pain, chitin wrapped around her body like living skintight armor, and enormous fleshless wings burst from her shoulders.
"After being freed from the Overmind's control, My Queen used the Swarm's power to take vengeance for the many pains she had wrought, to free the human she loved, to topple the tyrant who had betrayed her. She then gathered the zerg to hunt down Amon and ensure that his plans would never come to fruition, but not before creating me to ensure that the Swarm would still live should she fail. Judging from the fact that I could not sense any zerg at all when I arrived on this planet, I believe that she-and the rest of the Swarm-died in battle against Amon; most likely taking him down with them, judging from the fact that the universe still harbors life." The eyeball-monster soon dissipated into smoke, and the winged woman was soon surrounded by zerg. She pointed towards what looked like an enormous castle, the creatures immediately slamming their bodies into the walls, tearing it down. The woman then raised her arms, disappearing into mist before being replaced by a giant floating creature that looked like an insect bloated with air like a blimp. The floating beast then started to fly towards a glowing orb that appeared at the center of the table, as more and more of its kind appeared alongside it.
Yang's gaze hardened as she mulled this over before asking her next question. "You said that you were created to ensure the Swarm's survival. How are you supposed to do that, and what does that have to do with me?"
"That is what I wished to ask of you, Yang Xiao Long. You see, my purpose was to land on a planet far away from any forces that know of my species' existence and to bring a native of said planet into the fold, in the same fashion that My Queen was brought into the Swarm. That native… would be you."
Yang's jaw hung open. "Wait, are you serious? You want to… I don't know, inject eggs into me or something and convert me to your Swarm?! No way, buddy!" As she shouted, hundreds of floating balls of flame as large as her head blinked into existence around the pair, slowly circling the table but quickly picking up speed.
"The process would not be fatal to you and would leave you with your personality and free will intact-that is more than what My Queen was left with when she was… converted."
"No, no, and no. There is no way I'm letting you turn me into one of your kind! I don't even know what's in it for me in this 'deal' of yours!"
"How about the means to get revenge on the ones who wronged you?"
That quickly got Yang's attention. "What do you mean by that?" She slowly asked, narrowing her eyes at the zerg.
"It means exactly what you think it means: join the Swarm, and you will achieve power beyond your wildest dreams.
We know of your pain, Yang Xiao Long; we know of the injustices wrought onto you. You were broken, betrayed. You wish to right the injustices wrought upon your family, your nation, and your friends, but you are unable to take a stand, crippled by your enemy and left behind in the dust by your own teammates; by those you called your friends; by your own sister. Humanity has failed you, Yang Xiao Long. We will not. Accept our offer, and we will grant you the power to fight back against those who wronged you, the power to attain the revenge you so crave, the power to become the strongest in the world-but at the cost of who you are. What is your choice? Accept and lead the Swarm, or decline and forever lie in bed, left behind and forgotten by those who were once your friends while the world crumbles around you?"
Yang said nothing, floating in the swirling tumult of her mind as the fires spinning around her fizzled out. She opened her mouth to refuse again, but stopped herself. She remembered being duped into getting disqualified from the Tournament, Pyrrha being manipulated into killing Penny, the havoc that had been wrought in Vale by Cinder's forces. She looked down, flinching a bit at the memory of Adam standing over Blake's nearly unconscious body and her subsequent loss of her right arm. Her gaze hardened as her mind went over the most recent memories-Ruby's account of Pyrrha's death and promptly leaving Yang behind on a mission to avenge their fallen friends; a mission that she would most likely not return from.
She grinned humorlessly to herself. Stuck between making a deal with a psychic caterpillar demon or lying down and waiting to die alone-life had a funny way of screwing her over at every turn. Still, though, the creature's words rang painfully true. Once again, Yang was powerless; powerless to fight back against her enemies, powerless to save her friends, and powerless to do anything as yet another loved one left her forever.
No. Not anymore. Yang Xiao Long was many things, but a quitter was not one of them. While she had been lying in bed feeling sorry for herself, the scumbags who had done this to her and her friends were running amok. Now, though, she had the means to make them pay. Taurus had taken her arm, but that was only going to make the look on his face that much more satisfying when she gave him the ass-kicking he so richly deserved. The White Fang dared to let monsters loose in her city? She would show them what real monsters looked like.
She 'turned' to look the creature in its many eyes. The Successor had patiently waited for her as she had mulled everything over, and was now looking at her expectantly as she uttered the only two words she needed to say.
"I'm in."
"Then let us return to the real world and fulfill my purpose."
With that, the creature's eyes flashed yellow again, and Yang suddenly found herself sitting in bed in the exact same position she had been in before her telepathic exchange with the Successor, which was still sitting on her leg.
"How… how long did that take?!" Yang asked incredulously. A glance at her window confirmed that the sun was still high in the sky-in the same place as it was when the zerg had first reached out to her.
"Only a few seconds have passed since we conversed within your subconsciousness. Now, I must explain to you what happens next. After your… conversion, I will transform into a Drone, the most basic strain of zerg, losing my sapience and psionic abilities in the process and serving you to the best of my ability. As the Swarm grows, more advisors will be born to assist you. Did you get all that?" It asked, receiving a confirming nod from Yang.
"Got it. Let's do this already."
"Then it is time to welcome you into the fold, Yang Xiao Long."
As the creature 'spoke,' it opened its mandibles wide. A long, thin tongue tipped with a sharp needle-like spine darted out, jabbing Yang in her forearm and pumping some kind of chemical into her before darting back into its mouth.
It felt like she had been injected with liquid fire, quickly spreading from the injection site to all around her body, leaving her entire body in agony. Yang bit her tongue, but she still let out a yell of pain despite herself when the burning sensation reached her head and face, seeping behind her eyeballs, into her ears, under her tongue. Then, as quickly as it had begun, it stopped. The scalding pain was extinguished, only to be immediately replaced with frigid numbness.
Yang swayed a little, reeling from the sudden pain, before falling backwards onto her pillow, unconsciousness taking her. As she fell, the last of the zerg uttered its last message to her before crawling back out the window and into the forest.
"Welcome to the Swarm… My Queen."
Second chapter is up! Alright, this is quite a bit longer than the first one, and it heads right into the main plot point of the story; Yang gets infected by the Zerg and becomes its new queen.
To me, Yang and Kerrigan had always seemed to be really similar to one another in personality; they're both absolute powerhouses, Yang with sheer physical might and Kerrigan with her psionics, both are straightforwards and more than a little headstrong, and they both got royally screwed over-Kerrigan was betrayed by Mengsk and left to die, while Yang was cheated out of the tournament, got her arm chopped off, and was promptly left in the dust by her own younger sister, totally broken.
Honestly, that last one is one of the big things that made me want to write this story in the first place; it was originally going to take place sometime between the earlier seasons, with all of Team RWBY getting zergified-hell, I might write a spinoff where I do just that-but after Season 3, I scrapped the entire plot and started fresh. I wanted to help my favorite character in the series; to give her a chance to get back up on her feet; to grant her revenge.
The next chapter will take longer to upload, but it will see the first zerg hive in Remnant's history up and running.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed this story already; you've warmed my rotten ooze-dripping heart! 5 Coloured Walker in particular had a pretty solid question, which I will gladly answer-while Kerrigan is definitely capable of commanding zerg telepathically, in the campaign for Heart of the Swarm, she always talks with her advisors face to face, without any kind of psionic communication, so I figured that the same would apply here.
Leave a review; you know you want to! I really appreciate it! This is GlarnBoudin, signing out!