Chapter 25: Rachel’s Mother

MUSST ... FEED! MUSST ... DEVOUR! MUSST ... GROW!

“After all these years,” Ryan said quietly to himself. “I found my best friend ... only to lose him again.”

Éclair took Ryan’s hand and held it tenderly. He hardly seemed to notice her touch. “I wish there was something ... anything that I could do to make this easier for you, Ryan,” she said sadly.

It seems that no matter where we go or what we do, grief is never too far behind the both of us, Éclair thought to herself bitterly, cursing the fate that brought Ryan to such sorrow.

Behind them, the hum of the Gateway echoed as the last of the pirates went through. Now the only pirates left were Sharon, James, and Gumar. Leon stepped forward and glanced down at his wrist communicator attached to his gauntlet.

“Alright, they say they can bring us all up at once, but it’ll drain the power and collapse the portal, so we only have one shot! ETA twenty minutes!”

Twenty minutes! Once we’re in orbit, I’ll have to find a way to send a signal to North Star so she can escape as well!

“Only twenty more minutes and we’ll get out of here,” whispered Éclair to the still-dazed Ryan as she squeezed his hand and cupped his cheek.

“But Henry won’t,” said Ryan stoically.

A familiar screech pierced the air as the Parasite Queen herself fell from above, landing right in front of the portal. One of her spider legs impaled an Elemental Guard through his heart when she fell. Leon jumped away as she swiped at him with her claws, the corpse on her leg slowing her somewhat. The members of Squad 99 quickly surrounded her as she lashed out all around with her tentacles. Ryan immediately came alive, stepping protectively beside Éclair and igniting his sword to dice away incoming tentacles. He growled savagely as he fought off the Horde Mother, his grief turning to anger as he summoned flames so big that they pushed the Parasite Queen back a step. The Horde Mother, after stumbling back from a powerful flame attack, snarled at Ryan, and her tentacle-hairs began twitching wildly. Éclair traced the movement upwards, realizing that the Horde Mother was not attacking from the front, but from above.

“Ryan! Above us!” Éclair warned, pointing up towards the wall of tentacles that sealed off the pit.

When the wall of gray tentacles from above rained down on them, Ryan gave a loud, angry roar, swinging his sword around and reducing thousands of tentacles to ash with a wall of red flames. Éclair flinched back, shielding her face from the heat of the bright flame attack. The flaming inferno continued traveling upwards, destroying most of the tentacles that covered the ceiling of the pit with only a third remaining. With a good portion of her tentacles now destroyed, Ryan took a threatening step forward towards the Horde Mother, his psions so intense that steam rose from the ground where he stepped. The Horde Mother actually moved back slightly. It was the first time that the creature showed any sign of fear.

Éclair wanted to join Ryan and attack the Queen, but something stirred beneath the ground. She moved just in time as a Parasite appeared underneath her feet, snapping and swinging its tentacles madly. Éclair froze it with a single shot from her bow, and then shattered it to pieces with a powerful roundhouse kick. She barely felt the force of the impact as her leg smashed through the frozen Parasite with ease. If she hadn’t been wearing armor, she doubted she could’ve done such a maneuver without injury. The new Psionic Armor Zand had made for her really was incredible.

More Parasites screeched loudly behind the defensive wall of flames the Elementals used, their attacks growing more frenzied as they sought to help their Queen and destroy Éclair. Seeing that the Parasites were still intent on killing Éclair, Ryan gave a frustrated growl and retreated back to her side. Grafael also took up position between Éclair and the Parasite Queen. Éclair almost rolled her eyes as she raised her bow and notched another arrow from the quiver at her belt.

It’s not like I’m a helpless damsel, boys! she thought to herself as she fired an arrow of ice.

The Horde Mother blocked Éclair’s attack with her tentacles, but lost a good portion of them to temperatures close to absolute zero. She snarled and flailed her arms, breaking off the tentacles that had frozen. The tentacles she lost regenerated, though a little more gradually than before, prompting Éclair to wonder if there was a limit to her regeneration. Elementals who used regenerative techniques could only do so as long as they had enough psions, so perhaps the Parasite Queen’s abilities worked along the same principle.

“NO ONE ELSSE LEAVESS!” hissed the Parasite Queen as Squad 99 surrounded her. She crouched low and raised her tail like a scorpion while balancing on her long spider-like legs.

“Gumar grag ug Queen nug Nazz!” screamed Gumar in his rough language. Given his ferocity, Eclair guessed he wanted to avenge his fallen comrade.

Gumar roared, charging the Parasite Queen with his buzz saws blazing. She slashed him across the shoulder with a quick swipe of her stinger, leaving a long gash. Gumar ignored the wound and bore into her with his chainsaws. The blades dug deeply into her back, sending pale flesh and orange blood spraying through the air. The blades suddenly stopped, getting stuck in her spine. Gumar tried to pry the blades free, but the Parasite Queen grabbed him by the chest, burying her claws deep into his rock-like skin as she drove him to the floor. Gumar’s massive body shook the cavern as he fell.

The Parasite Queen opened her four jaws and made for Gumar’s throat, but a jolt of lightning from Rachel drove her back. Éclair notched another arrow and fired again. All the members of Squad 99 joined in as well with Elemental attacks as Sharon and James bombarded the Parasite Queen with laser shots. The Parasite shielded her body with her tentacles and with the spider legs growing out of her back. A dead Elemental still hung limply from her limb, taking a few blasts from their attacks.

Shrieking angrily while still under the barrage, the Parasite Queen sent dozens of her hair tentacles into the ground. A few moments later, the tentacles sprouted out of the rocks like vines under the feet of every member of Squad 99. Soon everyone found themselves fighting their own personal battles with the tentacles sprouting up all around them. Éclair found herself nearly overwhelmed as tentacles went up her legs and her back. As Ryan cut away the entangling tentacles with his sword, she sensed a disturbance below him. Éclair shot the ground, freezing the earth just as more sprouted up at his feet, creating white frozen tentacles sticking out of the ground. They had to keep moving as more tentacles came for them from the sides.

Only Rachel escaped the Queen’s attack as she confronted the monster directly. Rachel struck the Horde Mother with a myriad of strikes from her nunchakus, which sizzled with yellow electrical currents. The Horde Mother snapped at Rachel’s head, but Rachel jumped away and vanished. The Parasite Queen paused as if confused, and then more electrical discharges struck her head. Rachel’s invisibility powers were effective even against creatures that used smell instead of sight. She could conceal her scent as well as her presence.

Screeching wildly, the Parasite Queen opened her mouth, sending out even more vaporous poison around her, though not quite as powerful as she did last time. While still struggling against the tentacles coming out of the ground, Ryan and Éclair immediately reactivated their headsets, covering their heads with protective helmets in case the gas reached them. As the gas seeped out of the Parasite Queen’s mouth, Éclair caught the outline of Rachel’s invisible form moving through the gas. Luckily, Rachel still had her Psionic Armor on, protecting her from the effects of the gas. Not so lucky, the Parasite Queen was somehow able to sense Rachel’s presence in the gas and caught hold of her with the hair tentacles. The young Elemental became visible and struggled uselessly as the Parasite Queen lifted Rachel off the ground towards her open jaws.

“Let me go, you slimy bitch, before a make fried calamari out of your tentacly ass!” demanded Rachel Kaves.

Leave it to the Minister’s granddaughter to die screaming vulgarities, thought Éclair. But not if I have anything to say about it.

With just a single look to Ryan, he understood what Éclair meant to do next. He took up position defending her backside from tentacles as she prepared to free Rachel. Éclair willed ice to take a large, discus form around her arrow’s tip, turning it into a launchable buzz saw. Many things happened all at once as Éclair prepared.

“Sheila!” screamed James, peppering the Parasite Queen with dozens of shots that didn’t seem to faze her in the slightest.

“THISS ONE ISS TOO LOUD FOR OUR TASSTE!” hissed the Parasite Queen as she brought Rachel in close for the kill.

Rachel got a hand loose as she zapped the Horde Mother with lightning to her face, burning away part of it. The monster snarled angrily, backhanding Rachel in the head, destroying part of her helmet and leaving most of her face exposed. It looked like the helmet saved Rachel’s life while absorbing much of the impact, but she still seemed dazed as she grunted in the Parasite Queen’s grip. Tentacles wrapped around the young Elemental’s face. As the tendrils wormed themselves around Rachel’s head, muffling her cursing, the Parasite Queen suddenly paused as something close to a gasp emanated from her.

Then Éclair released the special ice arrow she’d been preparing. The ice discus she formed at the tip of the arrow was wide enough to sever all the tentacles holding Rachel at once. With a whistling, buzzing noise, followed by the squelch! of wounded flesh, Rachel was freed from the Parasite Queen’s gasp as the tentacles gave way around her. Rachel bounded away immediately after landing on the ground, but surprisingly, the Parasite Queen didn’t give chase. Instead, the demented creature slowly reached out a shaking hand towards Rachel, like a child might reach for her mother.

“IT’SSS YOU,” said the Horde Mother in awe, her partially burned head already healing. “YOU ARE THE ONE!”

Rachel took up position beside Éclair, who gave her a pendant that created a low-energy field to keep the gases away until the helmet slowly repaired itself. At the same time, all the tentacles stopped attacking the members of Squad 99 and vanished into the earth. Everyone stuttered in confusion at the Parasite Queen’s loss of aggression. Only Éclair and Ryan realized what was happening, and it didn’t bode well for Rachel.

“‘The one’,” repeated Rachel in bewilderment. “What the heck does that mean?”

“Rachel, whatever you do, don’t let her touch you again,” warned Éclair. “It’s your blood that she wants.”

“My blood? What do you mean? You know what this ... this thing is talking about?”

“Well, by all means, let’s all pause and allow this abomination to explain herself,” said Leon rather sarcastically.

Slashing the air with his swords, Leon created air pressure waves that sliced through all four of the Parasite Queen’s spider legs growing out of her back. The Parasite Queen hardly seemed to notice as she hovered motionlessly over the ground suspended by her endless hair tentacles. She continued to face Rachel silently as an eerie tension welled up in Éclair’s chest from the exchange.

“You are the daughter of Sasha Kaves, are you not?” asked the Parasite Queen softly, her voice sounding more human.

Rachel jerked back as if struck by a physical blow. “How ... how do you know that?”

“Because she was descended from our daughter,” said the Parasite Queen, her voice changing, becoming quieter and less grating. “And she is with us even now.”

The Parasite Queen closed her jaws to take on the featureless face yet again. Then the skin on her head began to bubble and froth like boiling water. When the bubbling ceased, a face appeared on the recently blank flab of skin. The face was almost identical to Rachel’s own face, but perhaps a bit more mature and weathered, like an older version of Rachel. In horror, Éclair realized that the Parasite Queen had just taken on the likeness of Rachel’s mother, Sasha Kaves.

“What the hell ... what the hell is going on here?” quivered Rachel. “Who are you? Why do you have my mom’s face?”

“Don’t ask it any more questions, Rachel,” said Éclair sympathetically. “That thing is not your mother, so just kill it before it eats you. Trust me, that’s all you need to know.”

“I’ll decide what I can’t know, so the rest of you just back off!” screamed Rachel towards the rest of the group.

Éclair didn’t know if it was due to obedience, curiosity, or downright terror, but everyone seemed to comply with Rachel’s demands and stood their ground against the Parasite Queen.

Rachel quickly turned back to the Parasite Queen while pointing at her. “And you ... whatever the hell you are ... tell me what happened to my mom?”

“Can’t you tell, sweetie?” the transformed Parasite Queen said in a sickly-sweet voice. “I’m right here, one with the Horde. The Mother absorbed me, and now we’re one and the same being.”

Rachel seemed to pale as her eyes popped with realization. “You mean to tell me that ... you ate my mom!”

“It couldn’t be helped, sweetie,” said the Parasite Queen with a girlish laugh. “The Mother needed my blood to grow. But you shouldn’t worry. I’m much happier this way. Really, you should join us and see for yourself.”

The Parasite Queen raised a deformed hand towards Rachel, beckoning her with her overly large, gnarled fingers.

“Rachel, get away from her!” screamed Éclair.

Rachel lowered her head shaking slightly. Then lightning crackled out of her nunchucks which hung loosely at her side. As Rachel slowly raised her head, a look of such fury and anger came over her once graceful features.

“YOU ... FUCKING ... BITCH!”

Then Rachel threw her nunchakus, which spun through the air in a blur of yellow lightning. The nunchucks went straight through the Parasite Queen’s neck, separating her head from her body. The Parasite Queen’s body slumped to the ground, but the head remained erect, still suspended by the hair tentacles which hung from above.

“Rachel, honey,” said the hanging head with a smile. “I’m trying to tell you that I can bring your mother back just as you remembered her.”

“What?” said Rachel hoarsely in a voice barely above a whisper.

“That’s right, dear,” said the head in that sickly sweet voice. “We can be together again just like the good old days. Back when it was just you me, and our cougar pups. And your father, of course, always busy tinkering with his research, and you always pestering him to play. I still remember how you use to laugh when he tickled you with his robots.”

Rachel stood stark still, as if hypnotized.

Ryan sighed beside Éclair and stepped forward in front of her. “Okay, that’s it. I’m killing the head.”

When Ryan took a step towards the Parasite Queen, Rachel raised her hand and shot a bolt of lightning at his foot. The bolt came so close that it nearly took his toe off as the ground sizzled just a hair’s breadth away from his boot. Ryan stopped, looking down in shock at Rachel’s attack. Éclair could hardly believe it herself.

“Rachel?” screeched Éclair in a harsh whisper. “What on Ancient Earth do you think you’re doing?”

“Just shut up and stay back until I figure this out,” retorted Rachel, an almost mad edge seeping into her voice.

Turning back to the Parasite Queen with a haggard look of desperation, Rachel said, “Tell me how you’ll bring my mom back if you want to keep what’s left of you!”

“Her memories are stored inside the Horde, and the original host was a prominent scientist. All I need is the proper equipment, and I can reconstitute your mother down to the smallest detail. I just need you to do one thing for me before we can bring her back. Kill the Daughter of Light for me.”

“The ... the Daughter of Light?”

“Yes,” said the Parasite Queen’s head, still smiling sweetly with Sasha’s face. “That girl standing right over there. Kill her and we can be a family again. Just kill her and we can go home together.”

To Éclair’s horror, Rachel did not object immediately. She just stood there frozen, breathing heavily as if she didn’t know what to do ... as if she were considering the idea. Ryan tensed beside Éclair. His helmet was transparent for the moment, showing his nostrils flaring. Ryan watched both the Parasite Queen and Rachel like a lion intent on his prey. Éclair shuddered slightly. She suddenly became very afraid for Rachel’s life as Ryan glared at her sister with a thirst she’d never seen in him before.

Ryan is determined to protect me no matter what. If it seems that Rachel will make a move against me under the Horde Mother’s influence, would he kill her? Would she really do that on the word of this ... this Succubus? Better question, what the hell am I supposed to do? How do I react to any of this?

No one moved for the longest time. Then Leon, his black helmet adorned, seemed to materialize out of thin air right behind the Parasite Queen’s head. With one fluid motion, he severed all the tentacles from her cranium, sending the head into freefall. He then proceeded to chop what remained of the head into tiny bits with thousands of lightning-fast slices too quick for the human eye to see. In less than a second, the head was reduced to mincemeat.

“NO!” screamed Rachel, raising her hands towards Leon as lightning crackled at her fingertips.

Éclair acted instinctively. She rushed Rachel in a single burst, grabbing hold of one of her hands. Ryan reacted at the same instant that Éclair did, grabbing hold of Rachel’s other hand and wrenching her back. With Ryan aiding her, they both forced Rachel to the ground fairly easily. Grunting against Ryan’s superior size and strength, Rachel discharged an electrical pulse throughout her body that sent reverberations of pain into Éclair. Ryan convulsed slightly beside Éclair, perhaps only slightly less pained from the electrical discharge. The shocks became so excruciating that Éclair’s jaw clenched shut and her limbs spasmed and cramped up.

Éclair took a cue from her physics class, grabbing her silver bow and stabbing the ground. Seeing Éclair’s plan in motion, Ryan did the same with his sword, grounding the electrical discharge which dispersed into the well-conducting earth. The pain lessened and Rachel soon lost the stamina to keep up her attack. She slumped to the ground panting hard while Éclair and Ryan continued to hold her down. Rachel got her second wind and struggled feebly in their grip.

“Let me go! I’ve got to at least find out where that thing is keeping mom’s body!” screamed Rachel.

“Don’t you get it, you moron!” shouted Éclair, equally pissed off that her own stepsister would capitulate to the enemy so easily. “There is no body! She ate your mother, and now there’s nothing left! As if a monster like that has any interest in bringing Sasha back! She’s been playing you for a fool!”

Rachel persisted, writhing in vain to break loose.

Ryan leaned down with a cold expression. “Rachel, I’m only going to say this once. Lay one finger on Éclair, and I’ll consider you a traitor. If that happens, your ass is mine.”

Ryan spoke so quietly and so seriously that it almost frightened Éclair to hear him. Given the way Rachel had been acting, could she blame him? Could she blame Rachel for just being confused when the issue of her mother came up?

Ryan’s words seemed to calm Rachel as if she finally considered her actions from an outsider’s perspective. Rachel relaxed a bit and took a deep breath.

“Relax, Dragon Boy,” said Rachel dryly. “I’m not about to hurt my stepsister. Your crush is safe from me.”

Ryan didn’t seem convinced as he continued to restrain Rachel with obvious mistrust.

Rachel sighed. “I’m sorry, alright. My mind went blank when I saw my mom’s face and heard her voice again. You lost your mom, too. What would you do if that ever happened to you?”

“Well, I definitely wouldn’t have listened to the psychotic head telling me to kill everyone,” said Ryan angrily.

Rachel then turned to Éclair. The sorrowful look in her eyes almost broke Éclair’s heart. “Sis, I’m sorry for how it looked. I want you to know that I’d never do something like that to you.”

Éclair’s heart went out for her stepsister, and she knew that she had already forgiven Rachel for any perceived betrayals. Éclair felt that Ryan awaited her decision on the matter as he raised his head towards her.

Éclair nodded to Ryan, and said, “It’s alright, Ryan. Let her up.”

I don’t even have the time to mourn for you, Henry, not when I have all this shit to deal with, thought Ryan darkly, his mood melancholy. You should’ve let me die.

As Ryan pulled Rachel to her feet with Éclair at his side, the ground began to rumble, and he immediately set his helmet to battle-ready status, the digital display going red as it sent him data. Outside of the circle of fire with the green clouds that surrounded them, the earth rose up to reveal the monstrous form of a Colossal Parasite. The Elemental Guards reformed their lines to block the Colossal, raising the firewall even higher. The behemoth let loose a roar that shook the cavern and made debris fall from the ceiling. As the creature lurched forward towards the encirclement, it left the safety of the toxic cloud behind. The Colossal hesitated, sniffing warily. Dozens of tiny, squealing noises pierced the air. The squeals came from the hundreds of Hatchling Parasites that clung to the Colossal’s belly. Without the nurturing atmosphere of the toxic gases, the Hatchlings dropped from the Colossal in droves and died. The Colossal leaned down and nudged a single Hatchling with its snout, its touch surprisingly tender for such a large and fearsome beast. Then the giant turned towards the Elementals as a rumbling growl erupted from it.