The hivemind is conquering for me?

"What other form?"

Jewel ignored the hybrid for a moment as she continued her observation. It had been a long time since she had seen a hybrid after all. A part of her that was not connected to her, but connected to a limb like a beneficial parasitoid .

" Your strength relative to your species and your size is very impressive. It seems your second form took most of the mutations while your main body kept most of the strength the parasite has been providing you."

As Keyla listened to Jewel, she could not take waiting anymore, the desire to know fuelled her boldness. "Great mother, can you please tell me about my other form? I have no recollection of it."

Jewel stopped her examination. She still wanted to check if the hybrid's womb could support Apollo's child, or was it too altered to support human life. Deciding that could wait till later, Jewel stood upright once more and stared down at Keyla.

"What drives you to kill?" Jewel asked simply. Keyla seemed perplexed by Jewel's question so she continued. "Your early life is clouded in a miasma of negative energy. I do not feel like sifting through your chaotic memories to find the answer myself."@@novelbin@@

Keyla knelt there a moment thinking this was some kind of test. Was she supposed to answer like the hive? For necessity? For nutrition? Or was she supposed to give her own reason? Keyla decided after a moment to go with the latter.

"I kill, murder, manipulate and scheme because it brings me pleasure. To watch the light extinguish from someone's eyes when they thought they were safe gives me a satisfaction beat only by Apollo's being. I kill because I want to. Because I enjoy it."

Keyla explaining herself allowed Jewel to peruse her memories easier, she then found the memory of Keyla watching her parents die in front of her by her own hand and had an inkling to what her form actually was. Previously, she could only see a silhouetted form inside the Psionic plane.

Jewel began to go through her multiple galaxy wide knowledge vault that was her memory and began to peruse through all the beings she had eaten and Psionic abilities she had gained.

After checking millions of Psionic abilities and billions of prey species, she found what she was looking for.

"Keyla, Apollo's favoured hybrid, when you were eight years old and watched your parents get mated without consent by a group of individuals in front of you, your individual self was chosen and merged with a Psionic being known as a Bloodfiend."

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Keyla stayed silent, eager to learn more about whatever her call of the blood actually was. Even her voices, that were silent previously out of fear, were now silent as they too wished to learn.

"It seems your Bloodfiend is still young, considering the collective knowledge you possess from your predecessors is just the best way to maim and kill individuals. It does not even seem to understand what it fully is itself."

Jewel then tried to probe into the part of Keyla's Mindspace that was the amalgamation of voices, but all she could hear was garbled screeches. "A shame. I would have enjoyed learning more about how a Psionic being continues to exist after its death. But it seems your collective knowledge is lacking. It looks like my bio-cult infiltrators parasite ate a large amount of knowledge when it implanted itself." She said, causing a million thoughts to rush through Keyla's mind, which annoyed Jewel who was observing the racket.

"Great Mo- My queen, could you please explain to me what I actually am? And why do I have a second form that I do not know about?" She asked, pleadingly. Jewel was getting frustrated talking out loud when she could just relay all of this information in a second. However, the longer she distracted herself, the closer she got to mating with Apollo once he was out of the tank.

Doing a quick check to see that he was perfectly fine and just floating graciously, beautifully... So desirable, floating there just tempting her to dive in there with him and begin partaking this moment...

Out of the corner of her warrior's eye, she noticed Apollo's stick begin to move in the clothes pile and it brought her back to. Since her beloved was back, she could not get her revenge on the stick and destroy it, so she simply began responding to Keyla to distract herself from the distraction.

"In my millennia's of existence, I have only had the opportunity to hunt three Bloodfiends in that time. From what I understand of them. They can only inhabit 'Intelligent' species. Those with the drive to understand the concept of murder and not see it as nature taking its course."

Keyla listened intently, even Orchid was listening with interest and had stopped watching Apollo's pleasure stick floating about.

"From the three that I devoured, the host usually felt some modicum of remorse for killing their victims, only being coerced by the 'call of the blood.' From my information, that remorse weakens the hosts Psionic might and eventually, the Bloodfiend takes over, transforming the previous host into a creature designed to kill."

Keyla opened her eyes wide in realisation. She always had a thought in the back of her mind that if she felt remorse for her killing that the voices would have taken over. Instead, she seemingly merged with them, only sometimes vying for control and they would most of the time just give advice on how to kill and main and spread intestines all over the place!

"So the fact that I never felt remorse for killing, but actually loved doing it meant that this Bloodfiend merged with my being instead of taking over it?" Keyla asked, causing Jewel to reply. "That is my working theory, yes."

Keyla knelt there a little longer in contemplation. So she was part human, part bug and now part whatever the fuck a Bloodfiend is supposed to look like? The voices in her head were now silent for a third reason. They were actually contemplating their existence. Not just thinking about murder for once!

As she knelt there, she began to think back to the night she had that fit while she was with Apollo and had to run to the restroom. She had been suppressing herself in front of Apollo, so was that the reason the voices tried to make her act out on her rage?

Jewel perused that memory and shook her head. Prey... "No, that is not the reason. You were inebriated on a large amount of my infiltrator's poison, you lost control of yourself, you allowed the voices to make you angry for a moment because you were angry at the infiltrator, Sophia. They did not try to take control." Jewel said before continuing.

"Suppressing your tendencies in front of my mate will not affect the Bloodfiend in any way and certainly won't try to make you take over. You are lying about who you are to Apollo, you are ashamed of yourself, thinking my love will not accept you. However, you still feel no remorse for those you kill so the Bloodfiend is most likely still satisfied being merged with you."

"Orchid would like to see this second form of Keyla's" Orchid chimed in from the side. "Heh, so would I, but I don't have a fucking clue how. Heck, I am still processing the fact I have merged with another being without realising, like the fuck?" Keyla said, forgetting her queen was in front of her for a moment.

Jewel observed Keyla a moment as she began convening with Orchid. She also noticed how Orchid seems not to hate everything anymore, but she put that away to open later. For now, she focused her attention into the Psionic plane.

Looking down at the tiny Mindspace before her, she embedded a tendril, barely even a tendril, a wisp of Psionic energy into Keyla's Mindspace barrier and began pumping Neutral Psionic energy into the hybrid's Mindspace.

Keyla felt the sudden change as her head began to feel 'full.' She looked to her queen immediately and without having to ask, Jewel began. " I am going to attempt to empower your other form so it can manifest itself. It must be dormant as it is only appearing as a shadow to me. If I continue and fail, there is a chance I will blow you up, but think on the bright side as my love would say, I have your Psionic essence currently in my tendrils, if your body does explode, I can just assimilate you into the hive and create a body for you later. And if Apollo rejects you, you can simply fade away like you wanted."

The thought of exploding scared Keyla a little, naturally, but the fact her queen herself would take take of her if she did eased her worry. "Ok, I am willing to try anything!" Keyla said, with a little too much enthusiasm now.

Jewel then looked around and shook her head. "Not here actually, If any blood got on the teleporter, Apollo would not be able to use it. Let's go over there." Jewel said as she walked away.

She also wanted to move because a part of her mind the entire time she had been talking has wanted to rip open that ship and find out why Apollo has forbidden her from seeing! Her craving to know had become too much!

She decided that the Hybrid deserved her whole attention so the chances she would blow up were lessened, that seemed fair to her.