Catalyst

Chapter 55: Cataclysm

"Abathur," Luna said in a quiet, direct tone. "What are you doing?"

One of Abathur's eyes glanced in her direction, the rest of his body not moving at all. "Luna. Unanticipated. Purpose of visit?"

"I asked you a question, Abathur. What in Merlin's name are you doing here?" Luna pressed on, projecting confidence as best she could. She just barely managed to look at Abathur. Just him.

"Harvesting biomass. Require substantial material, most efficient source," Abathur responded calmly, without emotion. "Presence still unexplained. Similar answer required"

"I was looking for the humans I recruited! Where are they? Where the hell are they Abathur?" Luna was yelling now.

"Hmm. Various locations. Providing paths for drones. Allowing additional harvesting. Useful strain, versatile," Abathur said in a neutral tone.

"I want to talk to them!"

"Not recommended. More use elsewhere. No important conversation."

"Why aren't you letting me talk to them?"

Abathur finally looked at her, projecting what Luna could only describe as disdain through the hivemind. He examined her for a few seconds, before turning away dismissively. Luna could sense him pulling on a few strands of distant thought. Then, quite suddenly, a cracking sound rang out from behind her. Luna whirled around to see someone standing there, covered in carapace, standing on two legs with two arms.

Weeks of tension slid out of Luna. Finally, she could talk to someone, she could figure out everything that was going on, she could prove that all her worries are all unfounded. She had to make an effort to avoid looking at the piles.

"Hello!" she said with forced cheeriness. There was no response. The man? women? person's eyes stared dead ahead, not reacting at all to her. She waved her hand in front of their face. They didn't even blink.

"Abathur, what's wrong with them?" The bodies were looming larger in the edges of her vision.

"No flaws. Personality unnecessary. Removed. More efficient," Abathur said in matter-of-fact tone, as though utterly wiping away someone's personality was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

"Did you...did you do that to all the people I recruited?"

Abathur considered the question for a moment. "Likely. Some conversions, ongoing. Not examined recently."

"Can't you fix them?"

"Unnecessary. Current state, fully functional. No significant problems," Abathur said. Luna turned to look at him, only to see that his attention was elsewhere, his eyes focused on the slowly dissolving bodies. She couldn't avoid looking at them now, they dominated her view. It was impossible for her to tear her eyes away.

"Abathur, please tell me what's going on right now," Luna pleaded. "The people I recruited are acting like zombies, you're standing in front of a bunch of dead bodies, and you don't see anything wrong with that?! What's wrong with you?"

"Subject of emotional fluctuations, result of your incomplete conversion. Centaur attack interrupted. Stability, connection to hivemind stunted. Can correct later. Terran eradication of greater importance," Abathur said.

Luna's next words stuck in her throat. What had happened to Abathur? She tried to reconcile the apathetic figure before her with her memories of the friend that had promised her the stars. But then...Abathur had always been a bit stiff, hadn't he? As Luna examined her memories of past conversations with him, many of which were still crystal clear as a result of her conversion, she realized with growing horror that the only human life he'd ever shown concern for...was hers. Memories flashed through her mind's eye, Abathur actively staying away from other students, moving himself away from the humans as soon as he could, wiping out the Death Eaters as soon as he could get away with it, and now the bodies, so many of them piled up. He didn't care about humans. Or maybe he did, but only as raw essence and biomass, things to use and discard. But Luna hadn't noticed, hadn't realized that he fought humanity for any reason other than self defense.