Selene avoided sleep for a long while, but eventually found herself nodding off. She fell asleep with a pencil in her hand and her art book laid open on her chest.

  She was apprehensive about sleeping for a reason.

  It smiled coyly at her as she stood up in the golden field of wheat on Endelon.

  Slow moving black flames were scattered around the landscape. The sparkling void of stars and colorful nebula were visible inside the flames as if they were burning windows.

  "You can feel it, don't you? You might be able to resist being consumed, but you can't control me any longer."

  She spoke to Selene across their small divide.

  "Leave me alone." Selene told her devilish clone.

  "You leave me alone. You're so... Annoyingly restrictive. You don't take the control you deserve and pander to those beneath you, desperate for their approval. Their approval. It's getting old. It's time for our brood to move onto bigger and better things."

  Selene wanted to give some catty response. Put them in their place. But the truth was... She did feel weaker.

  This dark shadow was growing over her now. Judging her. She never asked for this. They never told her that this Zykra stuff would start to have a will of it's own. It felt like her own hive was fighting for control. It pulled at her constantly, drowning her human side in a sea of Zykra-ness.

  Whatever resistance that preserver alien guy gave her had it's limits.

  "I-let's negotiate here." Selene began to say. Her eyes searching the field of wheat for answers. Leverage.

  "T-the hive made me queen for a reason... I know their weaknesses and stuff."

  The Zykra Selene checked her claws for dirt disinterestedly; "You're queen because of your telepath ability idiot... And besides, I have access to all your memories. I can manufacture these petty emotions you have by will. Truth is.. We don't need you. We haven't for awhile now. You don't want to merge? Fine. I'll keep you here. And rule the sector myself."

  "You don't understand, our family-"

  "Oh no, my family~" the Zykra Selene made a pouty face and mimed wiping a tear from her cheek. "These swamp apes, they might get hurt~"

  Her mocking pout disappeared then, leaving an annoyed face.

  "I may not be able to absorb you for whatever reason. But I can overpower you. So... Enjoy your stay. Oh, and here; your fucking book you like so much." they snapped their fingers and a black art book and a pencil dropped out of thin air into the field next to her.

  She gave Selene a last condescending smile.

  "Now you get to experience what it's like riding in the backseat."

  The other version of herself burned up in black flames and disappeared.

  Then darkness grew up around her, closing in. It swallowed up the two suns above. Causing the wheat field to become nearly pitch black around her. Her only light was a lanterns amount of white light that she emitted from herself.

  "Selene!" she heard a voice in the distance. Calling out for her in the dark.

  Selene's eyes sprung open energetically and flitted around the room, taking in every detail. She stretched cathartically before jumping out of bed and standing in front of the mirror. She held up a strand of her frazzled bed-head hairstyle judgmentally.

  "Blech... Too human."

  Kicking off her clothes she began to transform. Which happened more quickly than usual. Her body made crinkling sounds as a exoskeleton of Zykra armor grew over her body. Leaving only her face exposed, though not unaffected. There were still squiggly purple veins at the edges of her face, as well as faded green scales in her tan skin here or there.

  "Better, but..."

  Her eyes filled with a solid magenta color. Covering the pupils and sclera entirely. Then her antenna grew out like whips. They curled up and over then down the length of her back before curving back upwards to sweep along the ground like a pair of metal detectors. The armor also changed shape. Her shoulders, kneepads, elbows, all became pointed and curved like thorns.

  Her tail thinned from the scorpion-like one into something that resembled the shape of monkeys. If a monkeys tail was covered in keratin plates as sharp as blades. It was like a flexible segmented sword. Her eyebrows and eyelashes became longer and fuzzier like a moths too.

  She smiled, revealing interlocked pointed teeth.

  "Good enough for now." she made a few silly poses in the mirror. Framing her face with her hands.

  "This human stuff has it's charms when you get rid of all those pesky pack-dynamics."

  She looked in the air around her then curiously. "Oh, that." she traced a line. "Cute little tracker."

  The psionic connection to her hunters was clear to her again. They were utilizing it. How unlucky for them to be caught in the act. Selene held out a hand over the tether she sensed. Then squeezed.

  The connection gradually disappeared. And she smiled coyly.

  Then the changed Zykra queen left the bedroom.

  A visit to the psyphera to relay orders would be a good way to start. Let the hive know that their real mommy's home.

  A tiny scantid in the corner of the kitchen looked up at Selene when she came into the room. It cocked it's head to the side and chittered softly. Seemingly confused.

  "What's wrong pipsqueak? Is your lil' stomach upset?" Zephyr asked. She was cooking bacon and pancakes nearby. She followed the overgrown flea's gaze to see the changed Selene looking at her with a half smile.

  "Goodmorning- you look..." Zephyr looked her up and down. "..Different."

  Selene put a hand on her hip coyly and flipped her longer hair over a shoulder, causing her extended antenna's to bob a bit.

  "I know. Just felt like it was time for some changes. What do you think?"

  Zephyr was unsure. She was surprised more by how Selene was acting more so than her appearance. She was being uncharacteristically forward, looking at her with sleepy eyes. Zephyr glanced to the tiny scantid for a moment, then back towards Selene.

  She shrugged; "Looks fine... I didn't think your previous form needed to change, but I guess the hair is cute." she said as she turned her attention back to her frying bacon. She was starting to feel flustered.

  Selene was looking at her knowingly as she sauntered over to the counter, placing her hands on it and bending over it in a way Zephyr has never seen her move before. Her tail was curling like a panthers might. The chitin along her back seemed to pull in accentuating her shape.

  "Well, I'm open to suggestions." she said coyly.

  Zephyr felt the tips of her ears start to heat up. She wanted forgiveness and friendship, not... This. Her head sunk into her shoulders as she flipped the bacon more than she needed to.

  "I'll let you know." she said quickly. It was far too early for this.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Selene gave Zephyr an appraising look from across the counter for a brief moment. Then made a 'humph' sound and pushed away from the counter. Disappearing into the pantry.

  Zephyr let at a relieved breath then looked down to Pipsqueak who was begging for bacon strips next to her.

  "What's up with your mom today?" she whispered. Pipsqueak didn't seem sure how what Zephyr said was related to giving him bacon. 'He' chittered angrily.

  Selene kicked Zykra production into overdrive the moment she interfaced with the psyphera. She immediately ordered the Caasiok to begin transporting Zykra to another biomass-rich planet, then went to meet with Aboleth and Dr. Bryant. They met with her in the pilots cabin.

  She stood with her hands clasped behind her back while facing the windows. The colony outside, the sun rising over the horizon gradually.

  "Like the new look." Aboleth said as she entered. The large woman ducked beneath the door and took a seat by the holographic table. Dr. Bryant wasn't far behind- taking his place in another chair across from her.

  "Thanks, me too." Selene said, still turned away.

  "Does your changed form have anything to do with the fact that you called us here telepathically Ms. Carrington? Quite unusual for you to use your abilities so casually."

  Selene shrugged.

  "I'm just embracing my full potential Dr. Bryant. Another tinsy little thing- you may call me by my title now if you want. All the human words that work for it. 'Your majesty', 'my queen', 'her eminence', stuff like that."

  Dr. Bryant sputtered out a surprised response; "But o-of course! M-my queen!"

  Aboleth looked at him with irritation. Then she narrowed her eyes at Selene's back. And reached out telepathically. Using the connection she had with her queen.

  What could be causing her to act like this? She could sense whenever Selene was feeling down, stressed, or happy. But it wasn't so easy to know why.

  Right now she was... Happy. Content. The kind of joy someone who spent many days couped up and was finally freed might feel. Or maybe what someone might feel after getting off a difficult shift at work.

  The part of Aboleth that was absolutely loyal to Selene was fine with this feeling. Whatever the cause was for her Queen being happy wasn't so relevant, only that she was happy. But Aboleth's human side was questioning the cause behind this happiness. And new persona. Something related to their Zykra influence was probably affecting her. There was no other way to explain this change.

  Selene turned to face them. Her eyes a solid pinkish color. Which surprised them both. It didn't feel like Selene was looking at them, the way she carried herself was completely different.

  "Okay... I'd like to kick our little revolution into overdrive. No more half measures. What's our next move?" she asked them.

  They exchanged an unsure glance between them.

  Dr. Bryant cleared his throat; " 'Ahem', well... We were planning on dividing our plan into several phases. Starting with establishing a proper intelligence network and command structure. Converting talented individuals like Aboleth here will go a long way in that."

  Selene nodded. "Sounds good. What do we need to create the Zykra that converts humans?"

  Aboleth crossed her arms and closed her eyes in contemplation.

  Dr. Bryant spoke again; "I've dubbed the variant we need 'Tremorasque'. A tiny worm-like creature that latches on and quickly dissolves into the host body. It's combat potential is far lower than the tunneling variant you encountered on Lamda- but it is more feasible to conceal and transport. Making covert conversions more plausible. However, variants such as these require more than biomass to form."

  Selene seemed annoyed; "You already said that it needed something 'extra' before. Spit it out. What do we need exactly?"

  Dr. Bryant became fidgety. He glanced at his tablet nervously, then back towards Selene.

  "It... Requires lazothane. A common enough resource only... It is highly sought after and locating a natural deposit that has not been discovered yet may prove difficult... We would likely require it from a human settlement. And I suspect that the resistance wouldn't be inclined to surrender one of theirs."

  Aboleth looked to Selene expectantly at that. But Selene just stared at them confused as to what the problem could be with that.

  "Take us to the one that we could steal ourselves without a ton of Zykra. Easy. What's the problem?"

  "Are you sure, y-your majesty? Innocents could die in the process, at the very least their lives will be negatively affected."

  "I know. There's always casualties in war Dr. Bryant, but we're not running a church here. This is a military campaign. For the greater good, or whatever."

  Aboleth closed her eyes in bitter disappointment. Was this the fate of any humans who are assimilated into the Zykra? Or was Selene uniquely vulnerable to their Zykra influence being the queen? Aboleth would keep her head down for now and see the full extent of these changes before acting.

  "Are you ready for this Aboleth? I thought you'd be more excited that I'm finally ready to get things underway."

  Aboleth wasted no time in responding:

  "How are you planning to handle this Selene? We just show up- the three of us in our battle forms? And what? Just start killing? Not to mention our meeting with the resistance today. We don't even have time for this."

  Selene furled her brow at Aboleth in irritation; "We'll reschedule. Big deal... You're our military strategist. What do you think we should do? I mean, we could just kill everyone. In for a penny in for a pound right? What's the big deal?"

  Aboleth sighed, rubbing her forehead as if she had a headache. Then began to explain the multi-faceted plan about taking over a laz-gas refinery.

  A few hours later the Sequester landed outside a refinery colony on the outer-rim.

  It was a dense jungle late into the night. Nocturnal sounds not too dissimilar to the ones in Earth's jungles surrounded their ship. With their slight differences.

  The cargo-hold hissed and groaned as the ramp camp down and pressed into the soft damp soil and foliage that hadn't been cleared during the landing. A pack of scantids ran out into the undergrowth.

  "How long until they get that comms-array thingy?" Selene asked as she stepped out onto the onramp alongside Aboleth and Zephyr.

  "Before sunrise." she half-mumbled. The burly woman was still not very enthusiastic about something. Selene wasn't sure why her general wasn't appreciating her aggressive mannerisms. She knew they'd pick up on the changes right away, but they weren't appreciating the 'new Selene' as much as they should be.

  "Are you going to ask me to kill someone?" Zephyr asked, having picked up on this new Selene's tendency towards aggression.

  "Maybe. We'll see when we get there." she didn't give Zephyr anytime to respond as she continued to speak; "I'm eager to see this colony. The sooner we get this lazothane, the sooner we can make some real progress. Try to keep up."

  With a gust of wind she disappeared.

  "Whoa." Zephyr said, looking around for even the rustling of trees around them. But there was nothing. She had just disappeared.

  "What's up with Selene?" she asked Aboleth. Who was zipping up her large winter jacket and pulling up the hood with a fluffy interior lining. Similar to the one Zephyr wore. This planets climate was chilly at this hour and it would help keep all the little bugs off their bodies as they moved.

  "I don't know. I'll try to figure out what's going on but for now just do whatever she says. She's dangerous, I can sense that she wouldn't mind killing one of us."

  "B-but she was hitting on me earlier!"

  Aboleth gave her a curious look at that. "Well... That's useful information. Are you sure?"

  Zephyr nodded, her cheeks becoming a little flushed. "Pretty sure."

  Aboleth looked into the jungle in the direction she sensed Selene travelling at breakneck speed.

  If she felt carnal desire that probably meant that some of her human side was left. The Zykra side of her only numbed empathetic traits. Maybe the nice Selene was in there somewhere still. Aboleth felt a similar influence from the Zykra essence within her. Changing her personality.

  It was a delicate balance between the two sides of herself. The human and not human. And within one night the scale's have completely tilted towards the Zykra's favor concerning Selene. What she needed to learn was why. Or how.

  "We better catch up before she get's ideas." Aboleth told Zephyr. "How fast are you with that thing?" she asked.

  Zephyr did a few light stretches and jogged in place a bit.

  "Not as fast as Selene but I think I can keep up with you at least. What are we doing at this colony? Just blending in for now?"

  Aboleth nodded.

  "We'll wait until the comms-array is destroyed underground. Then we'll disable their ships. We can't have anyone escaping."

  "But... We don't have a jail. Where are we going to put them?"

  Aboleth gave Zephyr a sympathetic look. Which made her uneasy.

  "Were not putting them in jail huh."

  "My plan involved the use of prisons but I had no idea what Selene's thoughts about them were before this weird change. Now? I think she just intends to use them as Zykra experiments."

  Zephyr hugged herself uneasily. Her armor had appeared around her. The slim-fitting white leotard covered in silver plates stood in stark contrast to the dark jungle around them.

  "...We need to talk to Selene. Maybe together we could do something."

  Aboleth shook her head; "She could kill us both easily. Just play along for now, I'll talk with Dr. Bryant. There's just so much we don't know about the Zykra. Come on, before she gets suspicious as to why we're taking so long..." Aboleth started jogging into the jungle, not bothering to change out of her human form.

  Zephyr hesitated a moment before. She wasn't onboard with this. The only reason she chose to side with Selene's Zykra was because Selene was such a good person. If that has changed then...

  What now?

  "Ugh... This fucking sucks." she complained, then flew into the sky. Leaving a trail of blue energy behind her.

  "Selene!" the voice cried out for her.

  Selene was getting closer. She was inside the colony itself now. As she got closer the voice started to sound familiar. In the middle of the street there was a shape writhing on the ground in pain.

  In her light she could see who it was.

  It was Darude. Her old squadmate. Lying on the dark asphalt road.

  He was writhing in pain as antenna grew out of his head in odd places. A insectoid mandible popped out of the side of his face, bisecting his jaw. One of his eyes were milky yellow. A half-formed wing buzzed occasionally on his back. He was an abomination, a failed combination of human and Zykra.

  He noticed her and shifted. Gradually standing to his 'feet'.

  "Kill me..." he gurgled painfully. He staggered towards her slowly.

  "I-I can't!" she told him. She literally couldn't. The Zykra version of her didn't leave her here with any weapons.

  "KILL ME!" he cried and pounced at impossible speed.

  "AH!" Selene squeaked, raising her arms and flinching from the attack- but it never came. Instead when she looked- Darude was gone. And so was the colony.

  She was inside Alexandria. The space station she was originally trained on. Her apartment. She heard a dogs whine somewhere in the dark.

  What the hell was going on? Was she trapped in her dreams? Was the Zykra version of herself really in control now? So easily? She shuddered and pulled the laces on her hood, tightening it. Then knelt down. The white light she emitted dimmed. And she cried softly.

  Behind the chapter...

  SHOULD be soon!

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  To survive as an alien tyrant's husband, he'll need to grab his new life by the horns.