ORIGIN

The link to the Hive trickled back in, and then became a familiar flood. What had for a moment been blocked away, an eerie, chilling silence, was now the comfortable cacophony of dozens of other minds going about their lives. Not intruding, but accessible, a creek that flowed alongside the rush of his own mind.

A few of those were silencing. Turning, abruptly, to the deep distress they could sense in their brother. Mother herself seemed to sweep in, a sense of confusion and alarm threading through, yet tamped heavily down by reassurance and an overwhelming sense of calm.

The problem was... she didn't know what had happened. She had been cut off, for those moments, though even now she tried to pick through Juggernaut's thoughts to find the memory of what had occurred. He could, of course, simply not think of it. It might take a great willpower to do so, given his distress on the subject, but it was by no means impossible.

And in the meantime--as she picked and prodded and tried to unravel these confused and tangled threads--she reacted to the here-and-now.

He was on some verge. His emotions had risen, were controlling him, and a glance through his eyes told her that the Chaos monster before him had not changed, had not posed some threat. A verbal threat? Perhaps.

Mother sensed... anger? Panic, from her normally so-stoic child. Grief and pain... despair? This situation--whatever it was--had to be controlled at once, lest she lose a warrior.

"DRONE ZERO-ZERO-SIX JUGGERNAUT." It was not soft and calm, not like the reassurance that had blanketed him and still did so, even now. It seemed to emanate from some power he'd never felt, or rather a level of power he had not, one that temporarily ran ice through his limbs and mind as if to freeze him solidly in place and shock his mind awake. That was the power of the Hive, though one she rarely used. The power to control its many limbs. "This..."(and ahh, this was Mother's voice, distraught and commanding both) "is Chaos. We are Order. What is this?"

Order. Cold and clear. Precise in its march.

And yet here was Juggernaut, lost in some mire of rampant emotions and compulsive intent. He ought to be ashamed of himself.

Yet Mother was floundering, flailing in the dark to grasp for some hint, some clue, some rope by which to stop this son from drowning. "Show me what happened," she demanded, requested, caressed and pleaded, reassured and embraced and fretted. A mother couldn't help if she didn't know what was wrong.

The Hive was pitched into chaos. Not Chaos, not with a capital C and dripping Oil and horror; not scattered items with no Order. But confusion rippled through a hundred minds in shockwaves.

Juggernaut had been gone only for seconds--blocked away by unknown interference--and in those few seconds he had gone from controlled and Orderly to lost in a way that many could not comprehend. Emotional turmoil had been the norm for many Gembounds before they joined the Hive. But Drones, born of Order, shaped of its perfection?

Unheard of.

And Mother's stern voice, her Order imposed, had done little or nothing to calm this. Its memories gave her nothing, not yet. Not now.

Damage control, then.

"If this creature has done something to harm you, kill it." The command was imperious, laced with fear for her child, of course. "If it has not, isolate yourself. We must commune."

Leave, was that command. Leave, or walk away, huddle and think and share what had happened. Mother left the link open. All the Hive would hear, would see, and know, but she was watching--full attention rapt on Juggernaut's mind, ready to slam that link shut from the rest or else, to carefully moderate it. Either way, she needed control of this situation immediately.

Before things got any worse.