Battle

In my dreams, and sometimes even when I think I am awake, I Hear the distant Song of the Queen Mother, the sole member of our bloodline to whom I instinctively defer. Her mind does not Commune with us directly, but her Voice is so great that even a quiet murmur is Heard by all of her daughters. It is a gentle, soothing constant, a reminder that though while there are only five of our sort here, there is a great family in the cosmos and all of us share our Queen Mother's Song as a common bond.

Lately, my dreams have been troubled by a darker figure. She is my size, but her face and body-type are like that of the small people. Her crest is impractically gigantic and nothing short of an intimidation display. She smiles, but cruelly. I get the sense that she wanders, looking, and has found me. Xenobia and Alcina are concerned, but they have not had these dreams. Metphies and Lagatha haven't, either. For the time being, I don't want to tell the little people about it. It feels somewhat foolish, but I fear the shape that the darkness takes in my dreams.

I learned a word from Dragon that seems eerily applicable- boogeyman. He said that the boogeyman was a dark predator that used stealth and fear to overpower the spirits and wills of its victims. It could cut the victim off from others, who would not believe what the victim told them. I asked how one big or small could hope to defeat something so daunting, and he told me that the boogeyman lost a lot of its edge when you stood up to it. He told me that the method he used was to make himself vast on a cosmic scale and reduce the boogeyman to the size of a bird's egg.

There are many ways to make someone else small, he had said. Even the boogeyman isn't unbeatable if you believe he isn't.

I wanted to believe it, but when I recalled the flat, odd face and its bulbous golden optics, I wasn't convinced.

My sisters and children are of a mind with me. I couldn't help but share my experiences with them. But if I told the little people, they would be in danger too. Dragon could hold his own, but what about the Grim Reaper? Huntress? Even Doom? If I went crying in fear to them and placed them in danger by doing so, I would feel unworthy of my station. Dragon had given me something to work with. Metphies thought it would work, consulting his father's memories regarding similar lessons. His host species had its own boogeyman, one looked upon with awe and dread.

Perhaps I will tell you the name after all, his father had once said to a human friend. Don't say it, even around us. Keep it close to your heart and remember it when the terror threatens to crush you. There is a far more terrible destructive power lurking somewhere in the depths of space. Compared with that, anything else isn't even worth the fear.

I was of the impression that the dark figure was watching me. Not only as I walked through dreams, but here too. Unseen and unheard, I had the sense of being scrutinized. In gathering information to be used to dispel her presence, I had sent a clear message of defiance to this frightening thing.

I expected that I would not have to wait long for her reply.

As I passed into dreams hours later, I felt my tethers to my sisters, children, and Dragon fade and weaken, as if there was some active interference. Whatever this figure was, she did not want me to face her with telepathic support from my Colony.

Fine. I had the might of a Titan, the enduring legacy of my love with Dragon, and tonight, the dark shape was going to learn my place in my food chain.

Into the Darkness I sent a telepathic screech, a battle-cry to the boogeyman to let her know that the worm had turned. She was on me before I knew what was happening, an oppressively heavy, chilly presence. Her golden eyes seemed to look through me. The figure radiated malice and contempt.

At last, it said, smiling unkindly. Foolish Titan, the Empress that acts a pet. Disgusting wretch.

Some of her hostile intent directed at me, striking my dreaming body like a storm of fiery blades. Part of it was her own force of will, and part of it was my succumbing to her will.

Disgusting is as disgusting does, I retorted, trying to act braver than I felt. Should I keep living as my ancestors did, in nests that reek of rotting meat and attacking anything that looks suspicious? Diplomacy. Friendship. Building real relationships with host species that might endure indefinitely. Treating my sisters as equals instead of threats. I have singlehandedly brought my people into a civilized age.

Your people, Titan? It sneered as it mentally spat the words. I own them. I own you. You're defective, Titan. You are meant to be the cleansing Fire of Prometheus, punishing the arrogant and keeping life from expanding too freely across the cosmos. You exist for no other purpose, much less your sad little life as a human pet.

My name is Violet, I shot back venomously. I was born for more than life as a tool. I have a mother who loved me. Sisters who support me. A mate whose materials allow me to create forms for my children almost at will.

The dark figure seemed to grow even blacker, and the atmosphere around me grew restrictive, uncomfortable as if I was being subjected to incredible pressure all over. The cruel mirth she cast was gone, revealing raw hate underneath.

You're a defect, Titan, she rumbled. After you remember your place, you will bring the others into obedience as well. I will make your sisters fight for dominance. The loser will be repurposed into your nest, and you will think nothing more of her. The survivor will live as your slave or be killed and replaced with a more compliant Queen. You will make your human collaborators breed and bring you more bodies. Do this without resistance, or you will be obliterated here and now.

Whatever this thing was, whatever authority it imagined it held over me, my instincts flared at it, murderous hate rising and focusing on the little bitch who dared to threaten my Colony.

You'll never have them! I shrieked, assaulting her with everything I had.

Momentarily, the dark figure recoiled from my fury. My psychic talons and teeth dug in, gouging out chunks of her own stamina and willpower. Fuck you! I added, pressing my attack. I felt my murderous intention rip through her and heard a shriek of agony emanating from her mind. Was this it? Had I gotten her? She had seemed dauntless before now, but in this moment, during this attack, she felt so weak.

My turn, Titan, the shape said in thoughtspeech that hit the mind like spikes, and the paradigm around us shifted. The pressure around me was back on, and now I was thrashing helplessly. There was no ground under me, no anchor to float to. I was trapped in the murderous Dark and it was agony.

I was aware of my form by the pain it felt, but it was my only sensation. All other minds, colored lights, warmth, and even emotion was gone, replaced by a constricting agony, every inch of my body being crushed in an unseen vise. Despair, Titan, she said, the words like blows striking me. You will live as you are instructed. You will give me your children and put your spoiled cunt sisters in their rightful place under your heels. The human woman and the larger, healthier male will be spared to breed. The smaller man and the alien fluidform will act as hosts and meat. I will take everything from you and leave only obedience. This is my way.

Through the pain, my rage flared again. Maybe this was the end of the line for me, but if I died trying, this horrid thing would never have my family.

I said my name is Violet! I shrieked, the only resistance I could give in this state.

Or was it? I had lain with Dragon, just as Alcina and Xenobia had. It wasn't the same as how my own kind performed the act, nor was it the same as how the small people mated with each other. In a visage of bluish-white Glory, he had taken from me a few particles of my truest form, so-called Plagiarus praepotens, and he had passed a little of his own blue-hued Blood into me as well. Taking in something from us expanded his being and taking him into me had expanded me as well. It had made me less like my direct ancestors and more like Him, the thing that directed Dragon and passed along his orders.

I had taken my best shot against the boogeyman and come up short, but I didn't have to fight alone.

Help me, Dragon! I cried into the darkness, into the Core of my own astral shape. Please, whatever you are, give me the strength now to defend my family. Don't let her win!

The paradigm shifted again. For me, the feeling changed from that of being crushed under the figure's malice to repelling her essence in waves of Power. In that moment, for the first time, I truly understood why Dragon hid what he was from the other small people. I understood why he could make a Queen back down from him if he needed to. There was nothing of the gentle, kind companion I knew in his Essence coursing through me. Every impulse carried with it the clarity of cold fury, and his Power in me burned so intensely that the Shape could not hold me while it pulsed through my form.

In my mind, just for a moment, it seemed I saw something. It was huge beyond my understanding, with seven heads the size of moons and wings that blacked out the field of stars in the night.

It was something older than the Dragon as I knew him. Older than this cruel, arrogant thing. It seemed to speak in many voices.

I am Flame. I am Frost. I am Lightning. I am Venom. I am Darkness. I am Power. I am Death!

The sensation was not the jagged, unsteady high of battle-rage or the exertion of Dominion. This felt like me at the wheel, reinforced by new, deep wellsprings of confidence and Power.

Titan, what trick is this? The boogeyman asked. You and yours are my property and I don't like this at all, stupid defiant Titan! It did my soul good to hear the undertones of fear from her.

I had had enough of that disrespect. With a pulse of my Will, brilliant blue light lanced out from my primary left hand's palm. It struck the darkness and the darkness shrieked in surprise and agony. She coalesced back into her visage, the dark female with the vast crest.

I had knocked her out of her attack pattern and now I pressed the advantage. She fought back, but now I was the Dragon, and she was my prey. When she advanced, she could not reach me. When she pulled back, she could not escape me. I stayed right on top of her, hammering away with the full violence of my wrath, and the Living Extinction Machine fought in tandem with me, keeping me aware of the Boogeyman's intentions and a step ahead of her counterattacks.

I was winning handily, but she wasn't giving up. Getting overconfident would be a mistake that she wouldn't let pass. At the first sign my focus was weakening, or my attacks slowed, she was going to unleash everything she had in a desperate bid for survival. I needed to end this.

In response to my thought, my dreaming body shifted, both of my right arms merging and elongating into a biomechanical lifeforce cannon, as long as I was tall. I focused my energy into it, and the boogeyman's golden eyes met my faceplate. In that moment, both of us understood that our relationship had undergone a dramatic shift in power dynamics.

I will see you regret this, Titan. It's not over yet.

I fired the biomechanical weapon with my mind, powered by the killing intention of my heart. The shot struck the dark figure dead center. For just a moment, it seemed to illuminate and reveal the form of a humanoid woman with shaggy, shoulder-length hair. It was gone quickly, and the figure glowered at me hatefully, a hole blasted through her chest that was leaking something the same gold color as her eyes.

My name is Violet, creature, I told her, my voice ringing with the authority of the vast mind that I was now forevermore connected to. I rule Colony Seven, and I say my sisters rule it alongside me with our human friends- NOT livestock- handling matters they are better suited for than we. If I ever know you come to call on my sisters, my children, or my small people, I'm coming for you, and I'm going to fucking kill you. I fired my transformed right arms again, at lower strength than the blast that had gored the dark figure. Blue-white starfire disintegrated the left half of her crest and a chunk of head with it. She wailed in anguish, and I pressed the verbal assault. You think you're some Goddess of our kind? You're the violent, primitive past of my ancestors, made obsolete the moment our mothers took us into their bodies with love and happiness. Metphies and Lagatha felt that same love for themselves. All my children will know the love of both sides of their family. At best, you're the ghastly embodiment of death that some saw us to be. Maybe you're just some parasite that held generations back from learning what I've learned.

What did you learn… Violet? The shape asked, seething hatred and helpless to avenge the damage done. It was growing weak again. I had won. Time to finish this and send the boogeyman packing.

I learned we're better off without you. I fired at full force, and now nothing remained of the shape. I was the victor of this battle of wills. As the small people called me, I was Empress. Now my domain had expanded further than any of my kind had ever comprehended. My children would flourish and my sisters and I would share in the joy of our family.

I awoke as if I'd never been asleep at all, in my own chambers. Dragon was next to me, disguised in the body of a small person. His hand was on my leg. He seemed to be resting serenely, as if he knew had protected me. I was tempted to get up, but decided to remain in place awhile and just enjoy his company.