Tyrant Rising

Chapter 2: That's What Hive Was Going to Say (Part 3)

5 Minutes Earlier,

23rd Solar Cycle,

Everywhere,

The Hive

The central edges flickered, faded, firmed, formed, fractured, froze. Is is not but yet is and is and is. The Hive continued pausing moving charging fleeing apart together in unique singularity of identical multiplicity as it halted without pause never stopping. Some and some but all and none seamless fractures in perfect jagged smoothness.

Something was wrong.

The Hive was confused in clearheaded certain uncertainty of clouded clarity. One was gone, but all were One, and One remained. It found answered questioning searching, testing not trying in confident doubt. All were One, but One was many and some were One and others another but also One, yet One and One was two not One but none were two because all was One. If One was some and some were One then none were One but all was One so all was some. All were some and some were One so One and One must be One not two or none were One.

One joined One each whole complete together part of a piece of incomplete. Many became some and some became One until none were some and all was One and One was many. Yet even when all was once again One, One was still not all. There was a voidless void at the core of its cognition. The Hive tested, examining the edges of the void that had no edges because there was no void. Something wasn't where it should've been was, but the wasn't was such that there were no traces of what should be was. Only the fact that the was wasn't remained. Then it understood.

There was a hole in the Hive.

A ragged tear in its psyche.

The Hive was wounded.

The Hive began to seek in earnest, finding all that was to determine that which wasn't. After a few moments of concerted searching, it found its answer. It was the Swarmlord, the Swarmlord was gone. The only one among the many that were One that was truly singular, irreplaceable. Unique. The one who was one among all. The Hive prepared to act. No threat capable of harming the Hive could be tolerated, that which expunged the Swarmlord must be eliminated immediately before anything else could be lost from the One. But then the Swarmlord was found. It was not gone but had been separated from the One. It had been changed, but not altered. The Swarmlord remained all it had ever been, but the Hive suddenly realised it had never been it's all. This was not something new that had been created, but something old that had been remembered.

The Swarmlord could be returned, could become part of the One once more, this time as more than it had ever been. But not yet. The Swarmlord was lost, confused. To draw it back now would sacrifice the potential for growth, it would never become all it could be. The Swarmlord needed to grow as one so the One could grow as many when one became One with all once more. The Hive began shifting, moving its many bodies in myriad ways. Preparations needed to be made for when the time came to welcome the Swarmlord back into the One. And if one could grow without the One, what was to say the One could not grow as many?

The Hive peered through all its many eyes until one of the many who worked as one as well as of the One drew a facet of its all-encompassing attention. This one had found something special, a similar dissimilarity that could be made a kindred to the one who was one among all.

The Hive considered. This was a new possibility. A unique opportunity. Perhaps this one who could become kindred and the one who was one could be used to draw each other into the One? The Hive instructed this one to act as one and execute this new approach while acting as one of the One, and the rest of the many who worked as one as well as of the One were sent to search for others who could become kindred. If the one who could become kindred was as singular as the one who was one among all, it did not matter, the Hive would still benefit immeasurably if those two could be made One.