ORIGIN - Enemy Territory

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The Zoisite's magic would catch the moment before Mother arrived to comfort the drone. The buzzing fear, the echoes of its fury drifting further, the nausea taking its place. It felt the attention of the hive, stabbing at the few places it couldn't see. Here it stood under the spotlight, a picture perfect image of guilt.

And then! A shift in the air as the wires parted, disentangling from his mind to reveal the truth, a vision, a reality. A chorus bloomed from within him, an angelic choir - Mother! Mother! She had found him, as she always did. Wings curled around the vessel as she approached, a protective and attentive gesture both.

Her voice was mighty, even when filtered through such a tiny curiosity. But still, it recoiled at the label of innocent. How could any of them be? This one had cleaved through his leg like butter. This one had almost torn his brother in two. But the feeling was flushed away, whether by his own attachment or Mother's influence. She knew what was best, right? For all of them. His body stiffened with compliance.

Mother was much smarter than him. He would've never thought to turn this valkhound against the enemy. He never even thought an infiltrator possible, with his sibling's pale coats and glittering clearstone. This gembound could bring them great fortune - his vengeance was petty in comparison. And yet it lingered in the background. The Zoisite was not forgiven, not yet. But they would be spared.

But mercy was the easier part of the task. Even through her warmth did Juggernaut's stomach drop: Talk to them? He could barely talk to regular gembound, it was so much more easier to languish in the network. His vocal organs, whatever they were, were already strained from before. This... This would be frustrating. But he'd try for Mother. He would not fail. He was going to make a FRIEND.

A friend from an enemy combatant, an accomplice of chaos, and a poor civilian he had just stabbed repeatedly and painfully in the underside.

His mind flashed to Siren's "operation". He had screwed up worse before.

"Hello?" A low rumble. "Are you... Listening? We must speak."

OOC: do not know where zoey is at rn so im keeping it vague . juggernaut does not know either and is a little concerned

@V-Zoisite-One

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

graphic descriptions of pain and disassociation

Terror and anger took root in Zoey's focus for but a moment, before the nerve-wracking spotlight fell upon the two enemies. It was the feeling of one's mother staring down on them; and the desperate want to do right by her. The comfort of her presence, drawing so close that unbidden tears swelled at her unfocused eyes. They spilled and stained her carapace.

Clinging so tightly to Juggernaut's emotional framework to escape her own pain, she did not notice the rat that had appeared, speaking soft and sweet words of mercy and sympathy. She heard the words, only processing them as much as she could through the second removed layer of her enemy's mental state. Only snippets pulled her back to the pain of her own body: Light.... family, love. Chaos, family, kill, kill, fight... It all blurred together, the soft, sweet words of Mother rasped through a small rat.

... harm caused to our family...

Nausea washed through Juggernaut, and equally through Zoey as an echo. A frustrated, desperate determination, and a focus turned back on to the worm who had stopped functioning as a sentient thing and instead only as a panting, convulsing insect.

Louder words forced Zoisite to attention, a split mind that recoiled at the sharp, hot, burning that rushed over their body in waves. Speak. Speak. Speak. It took several moments for the Zoisite to respond, jaw struggling to part. Every move was as though through tar.

"... yes," croaked the creature weakly, struggling to differentiate between the swell of two different emotional states and a world of blinding pain.

@Juggernaut

The valkhound answered, but it was not a convincing one. The Juggernaut moved sideways, taking care to not punch another hole in their carapace. He could see them better now. He did not know how he felt about that. Her body held so many familiarities. Nausea overtook him again.

Friends. Friends. She was nothing but an ally in this moment. He had to keep that in his mind before - well, before he could screw up again.

Maybe he could help. His unoccupied side stretched out a tendril, skewering a clump of fungus [Mother's love!] with its end. He delicately extracted it from his rooting place, and deposited the separated colony near the Zoisite's head [it was a brief struggle to figure out which end this was. Perhaps this was a part of why Mother was so eager to take this creature in?] The saccharine scent of it wafted from where it sat now, an offering.

"She can help with... The pain. If you let her." It braced itself for a stern refusal - it was quite the leap into the unknown for anyone unfamiliar with her kindness. But if the answer was yes, it would ease the coming conversation certainly. "If you are willing."

"I am Juggernaut, Zero Zero Six." He had some practice with introductions this time, at the very least.
"You?"

@V-Zoisite-One

Something had changed, Zoisite acknowledged belatedly, feeling particular beside themself. The drone plucked a white flower and offered it to them. No-- fungus. The Hive's fungus.

The mind strained against the overwhelming sensations that flooded them. It was a peace offering, and one that would mean they would not be able to go home. "I'm sorry," they winced, "I-- I can't." Not willingly. If the Hive forced them, if they had no choice, then it would be blameless. But to accept would be to be a traitor to everything they had ever known.

They stared at the fungi, and tried desperately to make a good show of faith. The fungi began to pulse with a white light, gentle and soft. Whether or not it would be understood, they had no idea. The seed of hope had been planted, and that was all they could do.

Blessedly, an easier question came after that, and Zoisite breathed deep, sides heaving as they struggled to roll off of their back. They managed to inch on to their side, but even if they could move they did not dare get to their feet. Their golden eyes peered up from the underside of their head, not leaving Juggernaut's haunting, angelic shape.

"My designation is.... V-Zoisite-One..." They declared in slow, stiff words, words that they had pantomimed since they were only a grub. A question pounded in the back of their mind, a desperate need to know who 'she' was, who they had hurt. Who they had killed.

@Juggernaut