Collaborator Arc 4: Fade To End

Episode 1: Fervent Promise

(Flashback to inside of Raine two months after Trey left.)

Araru: (Her body feels different this time...Or has drifting in her blood made me delirious? I see now what my children have done inside these humans. The so-called collaboration they said occurs. So much leeway to make changes, yet my children did not take advantage. When I entered my last body, I went straight for the brain...This has been a pleasant bliss until now. I feel a change in her body,  but I cannot not discern what it is.)

(As he drifts, he begins to hear a familiar voice; a whisper. He cannot make it out in his dormancy, but he feels pleasure in hearing it. As he continues to drift in her body, he can then better sense the change.)

Araru: (Ahhh, you're having a child. Won't you two be such a happy couple? Tremaine and Raine, forming this...baby. Oh? What's this? She won't be receiving any powers? Celsius is trapped and Bolas seems to be gone. I can no longer sense him. Not for two months...Now that's hilarious. Powerful beings with a helpless child...Maybe I should inhabit this child for myself. Then I can carry out my plan and wipe out the rest of my kids!...Or is that too far at this point? I've lost twice now. Should I give up? Or should I have been more forgiving at the start? Technas, I wish you were here with me. Although your body is melded to mine, it feels like you aren't here...I miss you so much. You could always keep me calm. When it was just me and you, we ruled all and even though no one was there to get hurt at first, you never let me rampage. Maybe you sensed the darkness that inhabits my being. You were a complete opposite. So caring, so kind, compassionate. If only...if only you were here! But I suppose I don't deserve that much do I? After all, I've killed so many of which we created. And I suppose I'm the cause of your downfall as well. You will never live again because I became selfish and lost within myself...but that wasn't entirely my fault, was it? Our kids...those humans...They turned you against me!! They needed to be punished!! I don't know if I want to keep going, but I do feel I must. If you were here, I think you could talk me out of it...But, you aren't here. And I need to finish what I've started. I could have already finished this if I had your power. Why can't I use them? Did you really give me your essence? No, I think I've just been incompetent in my ability to access your power. Speaking of power, our children have somehow grown so much. I hate that they've sided with humans, but I'm also proud of the strength they seemed to possess. You know I never paid them any mind long ago when we were free. Bolas even more so. And Celsius...I've never felt so much joy from her as she does now inside this woman. She even managed to subdue me, of all beings, for her human. Leaving me here to drift and think. It's maddening. But I also feel a little jealousy towards her. I've even imagined how it would've been had I followed you all instead of rebelled with what loyal children we had left. Each of our children seemed so happy to have a human partner. Hephaestus, as smart as he was, found a like minded human. Bolas, with his destructive tendencies, was quelled by that Tremaine boy. He took after me the most, yet strayed a much different path. I don't get it...I don't get it!! What is it about that boy that makes such a difference!? Care?? Love?? Bah!! Useless platitudes! Humans will always betray us! And at some point, had I not intervened, they would've turned on my children as well!!!...Our children. Not that it mattered, because my own children must be served my justice for siding with such filth. As good as the life they live seems...it is too good to be true, and I cannot trust it. I'm sorry, Technas, but the rest of our children must pay. I will not do this to my children out of hate or anger. Just the disappointment and sorrow that a betrayed parent feels. The humans deserve the punishment more and that means my children must suffer the same fate. This is what you get for betraying your own family. But I do forgive you. Think of this punishment as a way I can finally set you free. I will do it in a way that will allow you all to meld into the world, past or present. And the catalyst will be the collaboration those humans boasted so much about. I will take this girl, and when the proper time comes, I will gain control like I have in the past through fusion, and finally end it all!!)