Normally, during such an obvious break-in, the Golden Guard security service would have already mowed down the intruder, but all 30 guards stationed at this particular warehouse, an experimental lab for the Aurai Protectorum, a powerful paramilitary and para-governmental corporation, were all frozen in their tracks, unable to move. Worse, their communications had been cut off as well. Not because of the intruders, but because of what they were supposed to be protecting.
Her entire life, Siona Kaldieridos had known nothing but the walls of this building. She was an experiment, made using stolen Rethan genetics, grown in an artificial egg sac, spending most of her meagre existence being prodded and poked. However Siona was the only one of fifty experimental hatchlings to make it to the age of two, and the only one who showed any signs of doing anything interesting.
Somewhere along the line, the building, its contents and Siona herself were sold to the Aurai Protectorum, and once they realized what she could do, that Siona was capable of using telepathy similar to the Vohra Swarms, the experiments went in a new direction. While the genetic matter used to originally create Siona had been lost, the Aurai Protectorum had decided to just start cloning her, making new copies to experiment on. In the process, different experiments started, designed to force Siona to produce more and more genetic material, to produce more and more clones. This had caused Siona to grow in size, to become large, bloated and unable to move.
But Siona grew in other ways too. She grew attached to her clones. Over time, she developed a telepathic network with them. They were all linked up. She felt their pain. They felt her pain. But they gave each other comfort. They also asked the same question burning questions: Who were they? Where did they come from? Who had created them? Not the Torr slave owners, but their original Rethan origins.
Today, an answer to that question had suddenly made its way in.
“Hello, Kutiir Kaldieridos. Hello, mother.”
Kuta found themselves surrounded by purple-plated Rethan clones. All of them were pointing weapons at them. But they had no intention of firing. Kuta could sense their psionic network and was stopping them from getting too aggressive. That being said, the colossal Rethan sitting before Kuta had just said something utterly terrifying.
“I… uh… you cannot be my child.”
Siona shrugged, smiling at the little, black-painted Rethan before them.
“You are.”
“I think I would have noticed had I at some point laid.”
The clones all glanced at each other, their thoughts echoing around the room.
“Mother, I am Siona Kaldieridos. I was made from you. From your genetic material. That is how I have telepathy. And you are here to finally free me and my own children.”
“… Free you?” Kuta was confused more than anything else. How had someone managed to find Kuta’s DNA and, worse, use it to create another living, breathing Rethan? From what Kuta could tell, Siona was about 44 years old, but that didn’t really give Kuta any usable data. Kuta couldn’t remember if they were still in or if they had just left the 606th Legion. On top of that, Siona and her clones didn’t look like Kuta at all. They were a queen-caste Rethan, with extra stripes, armoured spikes on their knees and plating running down their tails, something soldier-caste and higher-caste Rethans all lacked. They were also the wrong colours, Rethans inherited their plating colours from their parents, and the purple and pink on Siona’s plating and her gold strips didn’t match Kuta’s bright white plating and silver strips.
However, there was one tiny detail that genuinely worried Kuta, that made them think there was some truth to this experimental being’s claim. As Siona spoke, Kuta spotted fangs. Very short fangs, but fangs nonetheless.
“Yes. Free us. Well, the fact that you in particular came here… that is coincidence I guess. Maybe fate. I just hoped to body-hop into whatever Rethan turned up here, destroying their mind and claiming their body as my own. But you… you are the perfect gift.”
Glass shattered as Siona’s clones broke out of containment, and they all swarmed towards Kuta. Kuta retaliated by using a telekinetic shield to push themselves into the air and out of reach of the horde. In the corner of their eye, Kuta could see Elkay firing their dart gun, trying to knock out some of the Siona clones, but it clearly wasn’t enough, made worse by the fact that the brightness of the room meant Elkay couldn’t use his Phantasma abilities.
“Please, mother. Save us. I want to be able to move again. Give me your body.”
“You are not my child!” Kuta shouted. “You are an experiment, you were stolen! I want to help you but not like this!”
“There is no other way!” Siona hissed back. “GIVE YOURSELF TO ME!”
The clones began to organize and formed a circle around Kuta. They raised their hands in the air and started muttering, almost chanting, in complete and perfect unison.
“You will be my salvation, mother!”
Kuta snarled, then closed their eyes and focused their power, protecting their mind from this barrage. They could feel the clones exerting their pressure, trying to break in. The pain was unbearable, but Kuta couldn’t allow their body to be taken. With Kuta’s stranger and more refined telepathy, Siona would be unstoppable.
“LET ME IN!”
“NO!”
Kuta concentrated harder, forcing the clones out. The clones though forced back, creating some sort of feedback loop. Siona could now see Kuta’s memories, and Kuta could see Siona’s memories. But something… snapped. As Siona rummaged through Kuta’s more recent past, Kuta found themselves experiencing all the suffering Siona had gone through. But amplified. Made a thousand times worse.
It was too familiar.
It was too much.
“I want my freedom, Kutiir Kaldieridos… Wait… your mother was called Siona?”
“Please do not make me do this again… Please…” Kuta whispered.
“I have to. This is my only chance. And this is what mothers do for their kids. They sacrifice themselves for them.”
Siona joined in on the chanting, pushing Kuta to the brink. However, Kuta refused to relent. Gathering the last of their strength, Kuta pushed back, unleashing a torrent of uncontrolled psionic energy. Energy that killed not just Siona and her clones, but almost every sapient being within a 100m radius.
Kuta collapsed, falling onto a pile of clone corpses. But their body shook and seized, trembling from the sheer power output.
“Blessed Darkness…” Elkay gasped as he slowly tried to approach Kuta.
However, something else flashed into existence ahead of Elkay, and approached the battered Rethan first. Someone familiar to the Shadow of the Skyavok. And not much larger than Elkay too. As the being stepped forward, the lights in the building all flickered, before shutting off.
The creature waved a hand, moving all the dead bodies to one side with a shadowy aura, before kneeling down next to Kuta. They placed their free hand on Kuta’s head, hesitated briefly as if flinching in pain, then started muttering a familiar poem. One Elkay had heard and sang himself many times in the past.
“Mikre, mikre paidi, pote tha se poneso. Apage, mou mila. Pos tha sou viotho?”
Kuta’s eyes briefly flicked open. They looked up at their rescuer, still shaking and stuttering.
“I am sorry, Arkay.”
“It’s not your fault. They did this to themselves. They are all at peace now.”
“I killed them.”
“No, I killed them. You were just trying to save yourself. You can rest now.”
The Thantophor pressed his hand against Kuta’s cheek, which caused Kuta to stop shaking and fall asleep. Elkay took this as an opportunity to approach.
“Master, oh Silent Blade, why are you here?” Elkay asked.
“A hundred beings suddenly dying in a blast of psionic energy tends to catch my attention…” Arkay sighed. “I’m sorry for being late. Can’t be in two places at once, and Epani wouldn’t let me step in. Either way, I have to get you both to safety.”
Arkay shifted his appearance, turning into a yellow-plated Rethavok, then scooped Kuta up in his arms. A shadowy portal opened up ahead of them, and led Elkay through it, before stepping through himself. They reappeared in a hospital room on Threa Three, scaring the Rethan medics who just happened to be present. Arkay placed Kuta on a nearby bed, then patted Elkay on the head.
“Good job not dying.”
“Uh, thank you, Silent Blade…” Elkay noticed that the Thantophor was already leaving, and that the medics hadn’t really noticed him. “Where are you going?”
“I have a mess to clean up. Do me a favour and make sure Kuta gets their rank and their life back, because if they had not done all that, we’d have an even bigger mess on our hands.”
With that, Arkay stepped back through the shadow portal and disappeared.
Elkay muttered a small prayer as a thank you, then pulled out his communicator. He had some phone calls to make and some explaining to do.