Arc 13 Battle for Bronson City

Chapter 10: Interlude: Patience

The stars gleamed through the translucent flesh of the Spore. It rippled and waved through the cold vacuum of space, tendrils glowing in the scalding solar winds. Within its fleshy, pulsating walls, a figure watched the Earth below. It was so distant yet so close from here that it looked like it would fit in the palm of her hand. The creature's hardened, cracked carapace reflected in the Spore's membrane.

The head was split into two sections. In the center, a distinct female face was carved and molded from the carapace. It had four sharp eyes and a flattened nose. Above this mask-like visage, the head was broad and angular, cresting into two long spikes that curved back in ever so slightly near the ends. This head crest was filled with black, unmoving orb-like eyes that protruded like small domes. Some were larger than others.

On her back was a spiked elongated structure that sprouted thin multi-jointed limbs that folded neatly when not used. Her body was formed of a carapace shaped like a normal humanoid. Thin, and delicate, the white shell aged and cracking, marred with pitting and burn marks. Untold battles displayed through the scars and old wounds that covered nearly every inch of the carapace.

A hologram appeared, flickering beside her. It was Omega's twisting and undulating true form, "Arachnaon, the Sanguine Puppeteer, might be awake and active."

The unblinking, void-like eyes shifted ever so slightly; Arachnaon's voice resounded, quiet, tired, "Are you certain?"

"It is unconfirmed. However Hubris seems to think that the Puppeteer might be in Bronson City due to the activity of the Villains."

"I will, consider it. Don't waste my time. Is there anything else?" she asked dismissively.

"Vesper has been confirmed to have reached her mature form. Mantia and Centi will proceed with collecting Dr. Arbor and Vesper with any brood she might have made."

"Excellent. That is faster than I had been told it would happen. Her Majesty will be pleased with this news. I will inform her personally. Keep me informed."

"Hubris has tasked the Hero League with Vesper's capture, in return for your personal involvement with the confrontation in the city."

Arachnaon's cold, unmoving eyes reflected the planet below, "How unlike that boastful fool. Perhaps he is maturing. I will consider it."

Omega bowed, "I will keep you updated."

"Good." She replied as the hologram flickered and faded away.

Arachnaon turned, sauntering on the squishy membrane of the Spore. It undulated, seething around her. The air within this fleshy ship was stale; every ripple of the vast living vessel sent a faint breeze through the ever-changing corridors of its interior. Her many eyes took in the mass that slept before her. A hardened carapace face filled the entire wall before her. The four eyes of the face closed, and a distinctive scar marred the left eyes. The head created a crowning crest, massive jewel-like eyes gleaming as tentacles drooped away into the flesh of the Spore surrounding the being. The mouth set in a relaxed, neutral expression.

Slowly, Arachnaon placed her hand on the smooth bone, "Your Majesty, it is different than you said it would be."

The eyes spread slightly, gazing down, the deep burning red iris expanding. The mouth did not move, yet a sensual, commanding voice filled Arachnaon's head, "Do not let your hatred cloud your purpose."

"If the Puppeteer is there, I will go."

"Foolish. You will lose as you always have and always will. Mind powers have always been your weakness. Though if you accept my gift you might stand a chance."

Arachnaon stood her ground, clenching her splintered, broken fist, "Be that as it may, I cannot let go of my revenge. It is all that kept me going for countless years. Each cycle, my hatred burns brighter. Without it, I will crumble into dust. Not even the Puppeteer can take this deep-seated hatred away from me. It has tried before, but every cycle I remember what it did."

"Patience. Patience. Just a little longer and that abomination will remove itself from our concerns. As it was so shall it be once more. We will be freed of… interference."

"It is unsatisfying. What was my purpose all these years if not to have my revenge and make it pay for all that it has done?"

"It cannot truly die. You and I both know this. It will infest another body should you kill its host. You should know this clearly as it has used you before. You are old, you are getting weak."

"I am stronger now. With you, I can fight it."

"So you say, yet you have rejected my… loving gift, unlike the others. Mantia and Centi are much stronger than before I gifted them some of my essence."

"Essence you say, you ate their brains." Firmly replied Arachnaon.

"Only a piece that I replaced," Eva said offhandedly. "I gifted unto them far more than I took. They are my children now."

"You made them your slaves."

"Yes. What of it? I added them to something much more than they were. We are all slaves to something. Vices, virtues, emotions, logic. There is little difference between them."

"You are no better than the Puppeteer."

"Am I? I wouldn't know." The voice grew cold as it dominated her thoughts, "Overconfidence leads to ruin. I have never fought the Puppeteer as such, I do not know which of us is stronger. It had already left when I rose to my current self. Why risk our future when I know what will shortly occur? If you will not accept my gift, then you simply need to await what is to come shortly."

"This Breach, the invasion you speak of, will it really entice the Puppeteer?"

"Yes. After all, it is greedy. This greed will trap it and imprison it."

"Are you not worried about Vesper?"

"She will be fine. My precautions have kept her from being more than a mild interest to the Puppeteer. Besides, Mantia is carrying an insurance policy so to speak should things get out of hand. I can't risk losing you to the Puppeteer, you know of my existence. If you do go I will need to alter your mind as I did with Mantia and Centi before they deployed."

"You don't need me, we both know it. I am getting old and not nearly as spry as I used to be."

The face smiled in amusement, "True. If need be you will be sacrificed. But I would rather it not come to that. I have experienced enough meaningless sacrifice. Speaking of, Timeskip might be popping up to assassinate Vesper soon. There is no telling what he is up to. I am very sure that he didn't die when I last confronted him."

"Timeskip?"

"A time traveler… or more likely an alternate reality breacher. In either case, he appeared in my world and tried to stop me, failed and fled here, attempting to kill Vesper when she was first mutated. I assume he thought killing me in the past would stop the future me. But that isn't how it works, things are already very different than my past and yet I exist just as before."

Arachnaon asked, "Why is Vesper so important to you?"

"Simple, she is my other half. She is what I was before, I suppose I am simply nostalgic over her existence. A piece of myself that I lost long ago. Even now my connection with her is dormant, but I see and hear all that she does. It is amusing to see what she did to Nightmare."

Arachnaon squinted at Empress Eva, "Nightmare, while flawed was a valuable asset. Vesper better be worth trading her for."

"Of course Vesper will be. She is my old self after all. Given time she will grow as I did or I might become one with her again and re-absorb her."

"So she is your past self?"

"Yes and no. Due to my interference the future is already changing for instance Nightmare wasn't able to ship Vesper off and kill her mind like before."

"I see. So Nightmare made you out of Vesper in your timeline."

Eva thought for a moment, "She didn't make me, I was always inside of Vesper, dormant. Vesper could be considered my human half. This time I didn't wait for her to awaken me."

"I see. Understandable, I am glad that your revenge is proceeding well."

"Yes, she will be used and thrown away. How fitting for that wretch. I did worse in my world, tortured her until her mind shattered and I devoured her brain, consuming her and awakening my mind diving powers. She will be useful here. As all humans will be eventually. Humanity was my cradle, but I know what awaits attempts at coexistence. I still hear my childrens' cries and screams even now. The humans are… liabilities as such those that resist will be exterminated."

"How much longer must I wait?"

The massive head tilted. "For what?"

"My revenge."

"Ah, so obsessed my dear little one. Hmm. I suppose I should reward you." Eva shifted, and the wall of flesh around her receded as her massive form emerged.

The shining black and blue carapace softly illuminated as the Spore molded around them, reconfiguring into a gargantuan room, and yet even then, Eva's head scraped the ceiling membrane. A living throne of blue, glowing flesh squirmed and shifted as she sat upon it, sending a quake through the masses of flesh. Beyond the transparent membrane, the tentacles of the Spore writhed. Her control over the being around them is so absolute its very anatomy was at her beck and call. One armored leg slid over the other. Eva's massive abdomen fell onto the room floor, causing more seismic shifts. The Spore shuddered. Eva's cold eyes glinted down from her shadowed face.

A sound emanated from her abdomen. It slowly grew louder, a scraping, clawing, gnashing noise. The carapace bulged out as the plates lifted rhythmically, impacts growing louder and more demanding until cracks formed in several of her exoskeleton plates. They shifted, venting as plumes of mist filled the room. The wet noise of skin tearing and ripping as forms burst forth from her soft under flesh. Her blood flowed as they emerged, gasping and screeching their first breaths. As soon as they flopped free of her body, the blood surged back up like some living creature as it crawled back into her rapidly closing wounds.

Arachnaon knew the pain alone of having something eat its way out would kill a lesser creature. Yet Eva's face was unmoved, the pain of birthing her brood not even registering. She is so desensitized, so dead inside, she might not even have pain receptors anymore. Arachnaon mused that Eva must be so used to it that she no longer feels it.

Eva shifted her head into her palm, gazing down apathetically, "Your reward, feast upon my children. Consume them."

The fully formed wasp women stood in a line, perfectly in step with one another as though they were of a single mind. Each was over seven feet tall. Their cold black eyes held no emotion. They lowered their heads, awaiting what was to come next.

Arachnaon paused for a long moment, "Why are you feeding me your children? I thought you cared for them?"

"I do care for them, but until the world is in my grasp and the wars are done I, as the Mother Empress cannot allow the weakness of love or affection to cloud my judgment. Life is a resource and I learned long ago to not get attached as it will only harm me. I have lost millions of my children. With each death I grew colder. I still remember my first child. Xara. That lovely face. The happy squeals as she grew from a grub. How happy I was, no longer alone. Back when I was foolish, stupid and naive. When I thought we could coexist with the humans." Eva reminisced with a deep smile that cracked her statuesque face, then she chuckled, and all the affection and happiness faded into the deep void of her eyes, "They took them from me. They murdered my children, slowly, painfully. Murdered their minds and used them as fodder for their squabbles with Kraken. Even now, I still hear their screaming, pleading for Mommy to save them."

"Who took them from you?"

"Nightmare and her Hero League goons. Things are much different now. She couldn't weasel her way in this time." Eva thought on it momentarily, a cold and vile smile spread across her etched face, "Vesper is doing so well. Things are different now. If they diverge too much, then I won't know what will happen. But so long as the Puppeteer is dealt with there will be no one capable of standing against me. Humanity will be brought to heel as the cattle they are."

Arachnaon looked out the window-like membrane at the Earth below, "I have fought many monsters with such aspirations. What makes you think you are any different?"

An amused smile spread across Eva's face, splitting her jaw in half revealing the deadly mandibles below, "Oh? Monster, from the likes of you? Threatening me? Little one have you already forgotten your defeat? You must be going senile in your old age. Or perhaps I hit your head too hard when I beat you into submission."

"You got lucky." Arachnaon scoffed.

Eva pat her chest, "Luck? Care to try again? For an old granny you are a stubborn bitch I will give you that. Perhaps I was too kind in not simply taking you by force back then. Keep in mind if I truly desired it, I would hold you down and crack open that pretty head to devour your brain."

Arachnaon didn't humor Eva, staring out at the world below rather than facing her while she spoke, "It is a waste of my energy to fight you, you simply grow anything I cut off back."

"At least you realize the insanity that it is to attempt beating me, unlike the humans from my world. Being nuked was dreadful, gave me a sunburn. At any rate stop playing hard to get and accept my gift, I will give you a new lease on life. As things are you will fall apart in a few years if not sooner. I can fix that."

"What makes you think that I will defile his legacy and destroy all that I, we have sacrificed for?"

Eva tilted her head quizzically before an understanding glint filled those void-like eyes, "Ah, still clinging to the ancient past? The world below you is a mockery of what you and the original Hero League fought to the last to defend. Captain Liberty, was it? I recall somethings from the minds that I have consumed. Cycles that repeat. Ah yes, the Golden Age. That was long ago. Do you even remember how many cycles you have endured? How many times humanity has been wiped and forced to start over? Captain Liberty and the world that you failed to defend have been dead for hundreds of years. That below us is a twisted abomination of what it once was, warped by the whims of the Puppeteer."

"How do you know this?" She turned in surprise.

"In my time I learned much from the Citadel and the Earth Guardian System. For instance, Captain Liberty's final message in case he failed."

"Final message?" Arachnaon held her head, "I don't remember."

One of Eva's tentacles brushed against Arachnaon's face, "Don't remember? You were there, killing him, stopping him from dealing with the Puppeteer."

"I- I didn't."

"You did. Or rather the Puppeteer used your body to kill him. You know it deep down. That is why your hatred will never be extinguished, your hatred for yourself and the Puppeteer."

"I- You know nothing-"

"I know much." Eva smiled viciously, "I must thank you for killing him. If you had not he would have enacted the failsafe."

"Failsafe?"

"You don't remember that either? Your mind must be like swiss cheese with all the holes the Puppeteer has put in it. I suppose it is not surprising considering how many times you have been mind wiped."

"Why are you tormenting me?"

"Tormenting you? Oh please. You can't change the past, but we can change the future." Eva motioned to her children, "Feast. You need to be strong if you are to have any chance of getting revenge. These will rejuvenate your body. After all if you must fight the Puppeteer one last time, don't you want to be in the prime of your life?"

Arachnaon gave the more diminutive, compared to Eva, wasp women a long glance—their exoskeletons velvety blue in the light. The thin yet thick and muscular necks were bare and vulnerable, awaiting her fangs to sink into them. She squinted between them and Eva, attempting to discern anything from their hard bone, molded faces, yet they held no real emotion or intention.

"Do they not feel? My venom is excruciating as it melts the insides."

"They do, however my command and control is absolute over my children. I feel what they feel."

"You are more twisted than I thought."

Eva thought on that, tapping her chin, "Twisted… perhaps. Is it twisted to desire a world at peace? A world where my children can do as they please without suffering at the hands of others? Is that so wrong? If nothing else to be left alone, not to be hunted or persecuted? I will make a world where my children can be happy and flourish. If I must then it will be built upon the corpse of humanity. If the humans were reasonable then they would not need to be dealt with."

"Your desire is not twisted, it is what you plan on doing to achieve it and all that you will sacrifice for it."

Eva gazed down; her cold eyes had a weight to them that would crush a lesser being under their pressure, "Not will, what I have already sacrificed. I have the resolve to see my plans through. In my original world I had already won, crushed the last resistance under my feet. I know what is required. I know already all that I will sacrifice to obtain it. It is a price I am more than willing to make."

Arachnaon broke eye contact and looked at the planet below, "Why must you go so far?"

"The alternative is, unacceptable."

"Which is?"

Eva leaned back dismissively, looking out into the blackness of space at the stars beyond the membrane of the Spore, "Extinction. Coexistence is unobtainable. Only through the subjugation of humanity can there be peace. Subjugation or annihilation are the only options I have."

"You could leave. We both know that the Spore has recovered and with your control over it, you could leave to find a new world."

"That would be a last resort. However, I fear not the humans as things stand I fear nothing on that planet below us."

Arachnaon chuckled lowly, "Yet you hide up here."

"I am not hiding, I am simply awaiting the opportune moment. After all why would I waste my energy fighting battles that will resolve themselves without my interference? You need more patience, Arachnaon."

"You are being a coward, avoiding confrontation."

"Projecting your own insecurities I see."

"My insecurities?"

"You doubt yourself. Trying so desperately to right the wrongs of the past, yet you are so blind. Your revenge will cost you everything as it did before time and time again. You are trapped in a game of cat and mouse with the Puppeteer. Every time you find it and kill it, it uses you once more to destroy the world and reset its twisted game. Break the cycle once and for all. Now I will offer you once more. Consume my children and let my essence nourish your body and mind if you truly must be too impatient to allow your nemesis to get rid of itself. Or you can keep your self as you are, free of my influence, but you will miss your final chance to exact revenge and await the world that I will usher in soon. Don't try to hide behind morality at this point, we both know you don't care about the humans and haven't for many years now. Not since Captain Liberty died. You are an empty hollow shell of what you once were. But know this, if you fall to the Puppeteer I will kill you myself."

Arachnaon looked between the world below and Eva, "Give me time to think."

Eva smiled, sinking back into the Spore's flesh so that only her face protruded from the wall, "Of course. You have all the time in the world. Though if you wait too long the Puppeteer will be beyond your reach forever."

Her eyes closed once more. In their absence, the many eyes of Eva's children glinted from every shadow and corner of the room.