Metamorphosis 2: Like a Falling House of Cards

A/N: This chapter picks up where the last one left off...in a way. I would call it a timeskip if time had actually passed...

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This would be the first time I actually would be spending time with my subordinates, and I was actually looking forward to it as such. I had not had the best encounters with them in the past, but the fact that one had reached out to me made me confident that things would be fine. I mean, we all were on the same team after all, serving for the betterment of the Confederacy.

My optimistic viewpoint was not to be substantiated though, as the first words uttered upon my entrance were, "What's she doing here?"

Peering past Gerolf, who had entered before me and blocked me from view with his taller body, I could see five men all sitting around a table set aside for recreational use. All of whom had their gazes cast towards the two new arrivals in the room, or more specifically me.

"She is our superior, Hunter. Remember that," Gerolf reminded that marine that had spoke. Hunter, the squad's heavy weapons expert. Another one of the ones who willingly joined the armed services, doing so alongside the man standing next to me right now. They came as a package it seemed, their records displaying that they grew up together.

Another marine speaks up now, a lean rifleman amongst the squad known as James, "All the more reason to not let her in, bud."

I cast my gaze downward, embarrassed and sad both, "I wouldn't want to upset anyone. I can go if you-"

I begin to take a step back, but the voice of the lance corporal stops me, "No, no, it's fine Lieutenant," giving what I could only assume to be a glare (given my position behind him) to his squad-mates, "There are a half dozen of us. She won't bite."

"Fine, but you owe us all one," Hector grumbles, beckoning us towards the table with a hand. The others all grunt, not speaking but still emanating an aura of annoyance and a more subtle one of fear.

Gerolf moves towards the table, satisfied that the others were at least willing to be civil. I, however, don't move and instead keep my downward gaze, "I'm sorry if me being here is troubling you all. I can go-"

One of the other marines, one I believed to be named Paul, raises a hand now to try and stop me, "Wait Lieutenant, you can stay. It's alright," his voice was more on a neutral level than the others before it, but even that was a comfort of sorts. I nod and take a seat next to Gerolf and next to the marine who just spoke.

Once I sit, Hunter speaks to me as he breaks out a deck of cards, "So, we're playing simple and basic poker. I take it you know how to play, Lieutenant?"

I usually was so chipper, but being in such an awkward situation put me off a little. I look down at the cards and not at his eyes, eyes full of contempt, "Yes, I have been shown how before."

"Good, then let's get this started..."

My mind fills with massive pain for a brief second and my eyes shoot open, my response being a slight gasp.

I blink for a moment, my eyes fluttering between open and shut multiple times. My eyes once again are met with the ridged and oddly colored floor. Not the floors of the Norad II. Not any floor I was familiar with. I try thinking about whatever it was just on my mind, but it is to no avail as my mind is murky. Almost instinctively, having just woke up, I try to lift my arms.

Nothing happens.

I blink again wearily, confused by how I cannot feel my arm lift up, but my eyes droop shut before I can look as to why that is. As my eyes do this I let out a sigh, feeling very tired for some reason I could not discern. Not with a cloudy mind and closed eyes at least.

Someone, however, heard my groan and decided to speak to me in her warped voice, "You have been dreaming quite vividly these past hours. Quite interesting to observe and look into, actually."

I open my eyes and see this insect woman again, my mind screaming at me that I should know who she is but nothing comes to mind. I weakly sputter in a confused voice, "W-what...where...?"

"We've been through this, Emily. You are in an evolution chamber of the Zerg, the race I lead and which you now belong to," her tone was like what one would use to speak to a child. Demeaning and simple both, mocking me while there was nothing I could do about it.

"Be-belong to?" I ask, completely confused by what this creature was saying to me, looking over her disturbed features with fear.

The woman...thing shakes her head and closes her disturbingly glowing eyes, now speaking in a different kind of mocking tone. This one was more...it was more sinister and subtle, "Take a look at yourself. Think, did you look like that in the past?"

I use what little power I have to tilt my head down and to the right, so as to see my arm and lower abdomen, "My body..." my vision was partially obscured by my chest, but I could see my arm completely fine. My once pale skin was...it wasn't even skin. It had exactly the same insect appearance that this woman did, and upon further inspection I could see that it was not only my arm that had become brown chitin. My chest was also covered completely in the insect skin-whatever, no clothes apparent but no skin truly visible, "Oh my god, what is this? What's wrong with my body?!"

The insect woman chuckles in a sadistic manner, apparently pleased by my panic, "Regaining some of your strength I see," she calms her laughter and looks me dead in the eye, completely serious now, "Now, to answer your question, I have taken the liberty of modifying it to my specifications. You see, I have been wanting to make the Zerg more in my own image, for why not have them resemble perfection?"

Now she looks down at her own hand before looking at my body, my shock still causing my mind to reel in complete panic and disabling me from doing anything, "Mutating and creating new strands is very time consuming however, with much trial and error," she smirks at me, "Which is where you come in. A humanoid who has been granted a Zerg body, a body based on the old and increasingly obsolete strain called the 'Queen'. What you lost, your lower half, is based upon their old structure while what remained of you has been remolded in a way similar to my own transformation."

I try my best to gather my strength and move, but find that the arms that I could now weakly feel were unable to move. Something slimy was wrapped around them and binding them to something behind me I could not see, but it did nothing to stop me from using my new-found lung strength, "No! LET ME OUT! I don't want to be your monster, I-!"

She holds up a hand and for some reason my mouth stops instantly, unable to speak all of a sudden. With me now silent, this woman I somewhat recall as being named Kerrigan speaks in a serious manner, "What you want matters very little, Emily. You are to become the first of my new strain," her smirk returns, and her voice becomes filled with false sympathy, "Don't worry though, you are merely a test model for observation. I won't be putting you in danger...most of the time. I also haven't worked out how to spawn more larvae within a Zerg on demand, so you are spared of that mutation as well. Your more evolved successors won't be as lucky though."

She lowers her hand and I instantly find myself able to speak again, but my mind is beyond rational thought and all I can manage is a terrified, "Get me out, get me out, get me out-!" as I weakly thrash in my restraints.

Kerrigan shrugs and begins to walk away, speaking as she does so, "Oh well, I guess some horror is to be expected. Please do try to get over it soon. I need your focus if we are to make a new strain together."

"-get me out, get me out, get me OUT!"

The next words I hear from Kerrigan are not aloud though...no, they are directly in my mind in a way I never thought possible, "You'll learn to accept your fate soon enough. I could overpower your will, but I am hoping to not have to go there. It is my intent for your strand to be independent thinkers," her voice stops, but I can actually hear a mental laugh from her, "I have other matters to attend to, so please try to remain sane for now."

My head sinks into my chest and I stop struggling. 'This...this can't be happening to me', I think to myself in disbelief. I...I was a Confederate soldier. A respectable member of the Military Police and member of Alpha Squadron. This...this was too surreal for me. A quick observation of the purple and organic, moving floor reaffirmed my fear and made me sick to my stomach.

I...remembered those things. The things that attacked Liberty and I...the details were lost to me, but I knew that when I was surrounded by those smaller ones I completely lost it. Memories...the memories of what made other Alpha soldiers distrust me...they came back to me, forcing past my neural resocialization and bringing back horrific images that the Confederate scientists tried to hide and replace.

I'm not very...proud of what I remember. Whereas once it was a game for me, now it was actually revolting. Neural resocialization didn't do that to me for sure...all it did was prevent people from remembering violent memories and also brainwash them into not being psychopaths, or into being less violent towards allies, or whatever the specific case may be. Now that I can think back though, my actions...I am ashamed of them, but I don't know why. My resocialization was not in effect right now, or else I couldn't even recall the memories, but...

A sob emanates from me as I realize something worse than my chitinous arms, my chitinous chest or the horror that my lower body likely was. No...I had been changed physically, but mentally as well. While terrifying as that is...it was what most would call an improvement. I am not a psychopath anymore. I don't wish to kill other people now, even without my neural resocialization. In fact, the idea of killing others needlessly revolted me...

I want to cry, I really do. This all...it all is too much for me to handle. What made it worse was my complete lack of understanding about what was going on, so there was nothing that could comfort me, not even knowing something like how Alpha Squad was doing...

I feel a tear streak down my cheek. Alpha Squadron...they were all on that planet too, and the infestation hadn't been stopped if I was really with the 'Zerg' right now. But what does that mean for my General and my squad? Are they okay? Gerolf? Hunter? Is even Liberty okay? He was right there with me when I...I died. I never thought I would live to old age, but I had never thought I would be eaten by an alien swarm either. Or that I would be brought back to life as some hideous aberration...

All these thoughts nip at me, and one by one they cause my tears to stream down my face faster and faster while weak sobs leave my lips. One harsh, cruel and disparaging idea lingers above all other in my mind...

My squad all used to think I was a monster, and now I was.