Awakening of the Shadows [COMPLETE]

Hive

Eternity

I was staring vacantly out the window of my bedroom, the artificial molten gold light of late afternoon filtering in through the atmospheric lights above, when the communicator buzzed in my ear.

My mind hadn't been in a healthy state since the discussion Elder and I had in the private lounge. I wished that I could go talk to him, wished that I could heal the rapidly-widening rift between us. Despite the fact that I'd only known him for slightly under a week, I knew that I wanted him by my side - no matter where I was. From how he acted around me, I suspected he felt the same - or at least, he felt something of the same sort.

But I couldn't. It wasn't out of bitterness that I didn't visit him, rather out of fear. I didn't want to break what was left of whatever we had - I wanted to give him the time to heal before I tried to mend anything. Especially now, when we were about to assault the TES Hive, one of the greatest strongholds in the Multiverse.

These were the thoughts that went through my mind, like a current of neural energy, as I awaited the green light for the thirty-minute gap between the end of the Khione strike and the beginning of the Hive strike to echo in my ears. I had not felt so despondent, so hollow, since my sister had died a century and a half before that moment. It was a feeling I had gone for so long without that I'd essentially forgotten how much it hurt.

That wasn't my first mistake, only one of many made that day.

I was so lost in thought - like I said, staring vacantly - that when Antares' voice cut through the silence, I just about vaporized from sheer fright. When he began to speak - starting with simply 'Captain' - I prayed to all the gods I cared to (Which is about six hundred thousand (When you've lived a few hundred years, all spent exploring the Material Plane, you learn about quite a lot of them)) that the message was not him giving the green light. I prayed it wasn't the signal to begin the final preparations for the attack on the Hive.

Seemingly in the mood to drastically disappoint me, Antares continued onward into a short, concise, yet all the same terrifying, message: "Khione has been neutralized. Phase two, ready to begin."

"Oh, by all the gods-!"

.      .      .

Eldernova

 I spent much of the following three hours in somewhat of a depressed torpor. Once Nebula had given her announcement, Eternity had bolted to her feet as if she'd been shot, her eyes wild. She'd briefly announced that she needed to return to the bridge to facilitate the beginning of the assault on Fleetbase Khione, given me an apologetic look from beneath her eyelashes, and departed.

For a good fifteen minutes after, I sat there, seemingly unable to move and completely unreceptive to environmental stimuli. Losing whatever bond Eternity and I had had before the events between us aboard the bridge had made me feel like a hermit crab - only fitting in when I was on my own, encased in a protective shell that kept anything that could hurt me out. And yet, at the same time, I didn't want to let Eternity go; didn't want to shut her out.

After the first of my numerous stupors had passed, I departed the room and returned to my own, where I promptly collapsed, face-first, into the mattress of my bed, dimming the lights to the lowest levels the systems allowed for. I proceeded to spend the remainder of the two hours and forty-five minutes staring blankly into my bed, lightless shadows devouring the air around me and eating away at what little hope and courage I had left. Thankfully, Alaspakta had been silent throughout the whole ordeal, her mental voice compassionately absent from my head.