"Herr Kleiser," Bernice said.
"That's … he's … it's … me?" Natasha's mouth opened, not certain what was going on.
Bernice fought the overwhelming urge to rush forward and kill the bastard. Only a lifetime of being a quiet, somewhat timid young woman held her back. When she had stabbed the Chitauri Queen in the nerve center, she had meant it, but she had lacked the required conviction to kill another living creature, no matter how abominable it may be or dire the need. Ordering the Guardians to tear it apart had hurt her almost as much as it must have hurt the Queen to be dismembered, its screams and pain shrieking throughout the entire ship. But now?
"Hello, Bernice," Herr Kleiser said through the mangled features of Natasha's face. Half of Natasha's face. The other half was just a shapeless black glob. "We meet in person at last."
The face was female, but the voice was most definitely male, the voice she had heard within her own mind. He shuddered, something swimming beneath the surface of the dismembered pieces of his flesh as he fought for every breath. He was dying.
"You almost killed my husband," Bernice said flatly. "Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you now."
"Because the fate of your world depends upon helping me." Herr Kleiser gave her a crooked smile, the expression foreign on the countenance he had assumed of Natasha. He gasped for breath, his skin bubbling as though it was a membrane covering a pot which was coming to a boil, and gave a whimper of pain. "Besides, in case you have not noticed, I am already dead."
"You sure look alive to me," Natasha hissed, the situation beginning to dawn on her as she searched flashes of memory and pieced things together. "An error which can be quickly rectified."
Two small, curved knives erupted from her utility belt, weapons the Chitauri had given back to her after they had turned her into a Guardian. She crouched, a spider sensing a vibration caught within her web, scanning which direction to move across the slender threads and sting her supper. She circled the room, studying each disparate chunk of the Friend that twitched in the dim light, deciding which dismembered pieces were a threat. The subtle click of her boots upon the deck sounded like armored legs.
"Please, Mrs. Rogers," the second Chitauri who had led them in here said in his most obsequious voice. "My brother is dying. Killing him before he helps you save your world would serve no purpose." The form 'Fred' had taken was of the frail old man trapped down in the living neural network of the mothership, but Bernice was not fooled. There was nothing frail about a shapeshifter!
"Steve killed you," Bernice hissed.
"Actually, it was her mate who did me in," Herr Kleiser laughed as he pointed at the real Natasha, and then writhed as something tried to erupt from within. He panted several times before regaining his composure. "But as you may have noticed, it is not my injuries which will cause me to cease to exist, but the honor my Queen bestowed upon me to nurture my own failed experiments."
"Why should I believe you?"
"If I were in your place," Herr Kleiser said, "I would not." He writhed in pain. "But I am not you, am I?"
"No, you are not!"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Natasha nod. The Black Widow was ready to bite. Bernice sent an image into her mind through the uplink to wait. Much as she would wanted to watch Natasha dismember the bastard who had gutted Steve like a fish, the network had signaled her that 19 other Chitauri motherships were circling for a landing. Herr Kleiser had summonsed them, but instead of remaining behind the wall where she had been unaware he was trapped and awaiting rescue, he had asked his brother to bring her here. Why?
"The others are here, brother," Shapeshifter Fred said. "We must hurry. There is not a lot of time."
"Time for what?" Natasha hissed. Her eyes were cold and blue, the color of the knives she wielded in the dim light of the prison chamber.
Herr Kleiser spoke to his brother in that strange sub-audible language the Chitauri spoke. The neural network which had been drilled into her skull was still broadcasting into her brain, so Bernice could capture the mental images which passed between them even though she did not speak the actual language. Whatever they spoke of, it did not seem as though they were trying to double-cross her. It felt … urgent.
"What are they saying?" Natasha's fists tightened around her knives.
"A second set of ships is descending upon this planet from someplace else," Bernice said. "They are rivals, not allies with these two shapeshifters."
"Your talents are commendable, Mrs. Rogers," Shapeshifter Fred said. Although the countenance he wore was human, the manner in which he moved his body was not the practiced ease with which Herr Kleiser moved when he had walked amongst the Avengers as one of them. "My brother said you had a strong mind, but I was skeptical it would be adequate to harness this ship's network."
"My mind works just fine!" Bernice said. She turned to Herr Kleiser. "Either you fill me in on what is really going on here, or I let Natasha kill you for kidnapping and impersonating her!"
"I was not the one who stung her," Herr Kleiser said. "The Other did. He foolishly repopulated the abandoned base on Ambryn when he returned to this world, thinking he could just take over after -I- had done all the work."
"Why are the other ships here?" Bernice asked.
Herr Kleiser gave her a crooked grin. "Our world died eons ago. We took over the planet that had been colonized by the grey-skinned aliens. They are an offshoot of a species called the Kree. Rejects. The Kree call them terrorists. They did not care when we enslaved the rebels and rid the galaxy of a problem. But then our god got greedy. He went after the other Kree worlds, claiming an even older god, Death, demanded it of him. The Kree just handed Thanos back his testicles on a platter and kicked him out of their part of the galaxy, so now he comes here to enslave your world, instead."
Bernice glanced up just in time to see Natasha, who had moved behind Herr Kleiser to strike if necessary, swirl her index finger around her ear in a universal signal of 'this guy is nuts.'
"Gods?" Bernice scoffed. "What do we care of your idol worship?"
"Thanos himself helped birth our litter," Herr Kleiser gave her a proud grin. "Myself, Fred, and the Other. We were raised at our god's feet the way that you might raise a litter of puppies. It was he who sent us to ready this world for his eventual arrival."
"Yeah, right…" Natasha muttered.
Shapeshifter Fred cocked his head to one side, the gesture awkward, as though Fred did not get out of the mothership much in human form. "You have befriended the one called Thor," he said, "and yet you have trouble believing Thanos would walk amongst us?"
Thanos. Demi-god. Like Thor. Got it. Through her uplink to the ship, she could hear the hails of the other motherships, demanding an explanation for why they had been summoned. If they didn't respond, they would have 19 ships full of aliens storming this ship.
"Cut to the chase!" Bernice snapped. "Why did you bring us here?"
"Her mate rendered me into the pieces you find me now," Herr Kleiser said, his head turning to where Natasha was awaiting the order to kill. "Not Steve Rogers. My brother, Fred, came back to retrieve me so I could heal. But our Queen had other plans. The Other's mate was killed by the Kree. My queen wished to leave this backwater. The Other promised her he would lay this world at her feet if she double crossed us."
An elongated shape stretched out of Herr Kleiser's gut. He whimpered in pain. Whatever was wrong with him, he appeared as though he were about to erupt.
"Mrs. Rogers," Fred said. "We are out of time. If we do not invite the others to witness the bonding, the opportunity will be lost forever."
"What bonding?" Bernice asked.
"That small act of mercy you promised in return for my helping you contact your husband and fend off the Other's armada," Herr Kleiser said.
"You did not show my people any mercy during the Halocaust!" Bernice snapped. "Why should I help you now?"
"Because they are innocent!" Herr Kleiser's expression was tender as he caressed one of the protrusions which threatened to erupt from his body. "When Death ejected me from her realm, she promised entrance on only one condition. That I deliver a message to your husband."
"Steve?" Bernice asked. "What does Steve care of your primitive gods?"
"Death. Time. They are one and the same," Herr Kleiser said. "She asked me to tell your husband that she is not his enemy. She denies him entry for the same reason she spares Odin and the other Eternals, because Thanos is out of control. She and her brother have joined forces to defeat him."
All around her, the lights came on in the chamber, illuminating what they had only vaguely been seeing in the darkened room. Even Natasha pulled back in revulsion. They were in an enormous, circular chamber. Three dozen empty egg shells the size of footballs were scattered on the floor. Herr Kleiser had not simply been imprisoned in this chamber, he had been strapped down as though he were a sacrificial victim. Every square inch of his body except for his face seethed with dozens of tiny little claws straining to get free. Dozens of larvae, like…
Wasps…
"Bow to me now, humble creature," Bernice whispered, remembering the words Herr Kleiser had told her to say to gain control of the ship. "It is time to swarm." Wasps laid their eggs upon a living host so that when the eggs hatched, the larvae would burrow inside to feed until it was time to emerge.
"We must kill them!" Natasha hissed. Without waiting for a response, she launched herself at Herr Kleiser.
"Wait!" Bernice shouted. Natasha lunged at Herr Kleiser's head. She buried one of her knives into his neck. Herr Kleiser moved to avoid the second blade, but did not fight back even though he still had one armored claw attached to his body to snap off her neck.
"You must stop her," Shapeshifter Fred said. "If she kills the larvae before they swarm, the Chitauri in the ships surrounding us will kill you and join the Other!"
"Stop!" Bernice commanded. She reached down through that network she could sense, the one that connected all of the Chitauri and the minions who served them as a hive mind, and found the place she had unblocked Natasha's mind. She put the blockage back into place and seized control as she did the other Guardians.
"I told you to stay the fuck out of my mind!" Natasha hissed. She trembled, fighting Bernice's control.
"Please," Bernice said. "You just woke up. I have been monitoring the bastards from inside their own network. Something bad is coming our way."
"Bullshit!" Natasha snapped. "I don't know you from a hole in the head. How do I even know you really are Steve Roger's wife and not another one of them?" She moved her finger, still straining to reach her knife. Bernice was having a hard time holding her. "Steve is still a … a … oh never mind! It's none of your business!"
Bernice couldn't help but smile. Why was it that everybody except for her had been aware of Steve's inexperience when he had married her? She did not say it aloud, but whispered the word directly into Natasha's brain.
'Virgin. He's not anymore. But before we took that step, he made damned sure we got married.'
Bernice fingered the simple golden band which still adorned her finger. Natasha hesitated. The fist she had been fighting to free from Bernice's mind control relaxed. Her eyes met Bernice's with a look of acknowledgment. The ring could have easily been faked, but the other two pieces of information were something only Steve Rogers wife and a few very close friends would have known. That he had never been with a women until her. And that he was not the type of man to do so without first getting married.
"Perhaps I may be of assistance," Shapeshifter Fred said. He hit a button. The floor shuddered like the floor of an elevator descending down an elevator shaft. Bernice realized the walls were growing taller.
"What is he doing?" Natasha focused on the walls opening up all around them as the platform reached the ground, revealing they were on the underside of the great ship, landing gear propping it thirty feet into the air.
They both looked around at the other ships parked near them in an enormous field. A field full of…
"Cows?" Natasha asked.
"Don't ask me," Bernice said. "This was his suggestion. I just flew the ship."
All around them, black armored shapeshifters stalked towards them. Hundreds of them! Even as the creatures whose shape could best be described as part insect, part panther, and part crab edged closer, four more motherships circled the field for a landing, streaming smoke from damaged engines. Four which had purportedly been destroyed.
"This doesn't look good." Natasha lurked menacingly over Herr Kleiser with her knives to signal the other shapeshifters to come no closer. She gestured as though about to stab him with her second knife and stopped inches from what they now knew was the real nerve center of these creatures. The shapeshifters stopped and came no closer, claws clacking as they chittered amongst themselves in that sub-audible language.
The swarming larvae pressed outward on Herr Kleiser, seeking to erupt. He spoke within Bernice's mind as he spoke aloud in his native language, pairing images with clarification so she could follow the conversation.
"Father," the encroaching hoard spoke. "We shall kill them for what they have done to you!"
"It was not these two," Herr Kleiser spoke. "Your mother betrayed us to the Other. Our god has ordered him to lay waste to this world."
"But this world is ours, Father," the shapeshifters spoke as though they were one voice. "It was promised to us!"
"Thanos is insane," Herr Kleiser said. He groaned as the larvae threatened to escape. "His god spared me just long enough to bring my children a message. Thanos displeases the keeper of time. He disrupts the orderly passage of subjects into her realm. We are forbidden to worship him anymore. We are to destroy my brother and prevent him from taking this world."
"But the humans are barbarians," the shapeshifters hissed. "Primitive! They cannot even understand one another in their minds!"
"This one can," Herr Kleiser said. "The swarm is upon us. The queen put all hives at risk. Under the ancient decree, this human challenged your mother for dominion of the best hive and has defeated her. This mothership, and the children I am about to birth, belongs to her."
"She cannot control the swarm," the shapeshifters spoke. "They shall devour her!"
Bernice shivered. This did not sound good, nor did the larvae swimming within Herr Kleiser's body, fighting to get out. The only reason he had delayed the swarm them this long was because his mind was strong enough to hold them there, but he was weakening. Stories about aliens and bizarre cattle mutilations in proximity to the places they had flushed out the three motherships danced into her mind. Cattle that had been eaten from the inside out. She had a sneaking suspicion just what had caused it.
"She could have killed them while they were still vulnerable," Herr Kleiser said. "She killed the attendants and seized control of the Guardians. But she has not. I asked her for one small act of mercy, to raise this litter as their queen, in exchange for our allegiance. You must rid this world of the Other before Thanos destroys it."
Bernice's mouth opened and shut in shock. Raise the … she would do … what?
"We shall retreat and consider this request," the shapeshifters said. "If her mind is not strong enough to control the swarm, the point shall be moot. We shall wait and see."
The other shapeshifters, except for the one disguised as Fred, began to back away. Bernice noticed they had neither come close to Herr Kleiser, nor did they turn their backs to him now. It did not appear to be Natasha they feared, but the swarm threatening to erupt from their father's flesh. Whatever was about to happen, it was bad.
"So they're going away, right?" Natasha asked, who had been unable to follow the conversation.
"No," Bernice said. "They're going back to their ships to think things over."
"Think what over?"
"Whether or not they want to stay here," Bernice said with a sinking feeling. "Or hook up with this Other guy who turned you into a meat puppet."
"How many ships are in that second group?" Natasha asked.
"Thirty six," Bernice said.
Natasha surveyed the other ships that surrounded them. Nineteen were intact, another four had just barely made it here due to extensive damage. All of them carried enslaved human cargo who acted as an integral part of their biological machines, part of the hive mind, something neither she nor any earth government could ever condone if they allied with these creatures. But some other part of her, the part that had been altered by the nanovirus, saw things differently. She could see the beauty, the horror, in the way these aliens thought, and there was a kind of horrific logic to it all.
"What happens next?" Bernice asked.
"When I let go of control of them," Herr Kleiser said, "they will devour the first sustenance they find. Me."
"The other shapeshifters called you father," Bernice said. "How can you father children who devour you?"
"It was done thus when our species were not yet sentient creatures," Herr Kleiser said. "The queen would mate, and then lay her offspring directly into her chosen to nurture her young. It has not been many of our generations since Thanos first elevated us. Sometimes it still happens."
"But you were already wounded," Bernice said.
"These hatchlings were spawned before your husband killed the one you call Red Skull," Herr Kleiser said. "Red Skull was an experiment into grafting our DNA onto humans. These Chitauri … they are the opposite experiment. I grafted human DNA into their genome so that they could assume human form without the need to devour them or hook them into the interface like the other Chitauri do, but our queen balked and put them in stasis. She only thawed them to unleash them upon your world as mindless killing machines. But if you give them form, they will be able to walk amongst your people as one of you."
"Why the hell would we want to let you do that?" Natasha spat out.
"Because they are but children," Herr Kleiser said. "My children. They are to us what we are to the primitive insects Thanos lifted from the mud." His expression was one of pleading now. "Please, Mrs. Rogers. I asked you for one small act of mercy. These offspring are innocent. They will assume whatever shape you assign to them after they feed. If you raise them as humans, they will act as humans do."
"They are monsters," Natasha hissed. The knife wavered in her hand as her eyes scanned the field for the Chitauri who had disappeared, the hatches of their ships slammed shut. Whatever was coming was bad. Off in the distance, cattle lowed.
"The others said I could not control them," Bernice said. "They said they would devour me."
"That is why I brought you here," Herr Kleiser said. "After they have consumed my flesh, they will search for the next available source of meat. You must reach into their minds as their Queen and command them to eat the cattle in the hills instead. They will swarm like locusts and feed until they are satiated. You must then call them back to you and welcome each one into your hive."
"How will I do this?" Bernice asked.
"The same way you prevented the Black Widow from burying her second knife into my neck," Herr Kleiser said. "You must give each one a name and shape. That will become their default shape for the rest of their lives just as the black form you see for us was given to us by our queen-mother."
"And what of the other Chitauri?" Bernice gestured to the other motherships which surrounded them.
"Those children are grown and belong to their own hives," Herr Kleiser said. "I cannot say what they will do. But if you show you are a capable queen, perhaps they will grant my last wish? Our species instinctively follows the strongest, and you have defeated the strongest queen."
"You deserve to die!" Natasha hissed.
"My former queen was displeased I did not die when the Other leaked the location of the Vanuatu hive to your Avengers," Herr Kleiser said. "So she thought of a more … creative … solution to be rid of me."
The bubbling beneath Herr Kleiser's flesh grew stronger.
"Come, Miss Romanov," Shapeshifter Fred said. "We must retreat a safe distance. I believe it will break Mrs. Rogers concentration if she is forced to watch us be devoured by the swarm."
"I should stay to protect her," Natasha said.
"If I don't make it," Bernice said. "It will be up to you to find a way to fly this mothership. Or at least make contact with Steve and tell him he has 23 potential allies … or enemies … sitting in the middle of a cow pasture in Argentina."
Natasha nodded. She climbed up a ladder into the ship with Fred, watching through the hatch.
"So now what do I do?" Bernice asked.
"Once I am consumed," Herr Kleiser said. "I will no longer be here to help you. I am not a queen. I have never impressed our young or given shape to their forms. All I know is that you must embrace them as your own so that they recognize you as their queen."
"And if I fail?" Bernice said.
"Then they shall remain a mindless, shapeless hoard who will keep eating until they have devoured every source of protein on this continent as our queen intended when she thawed them out of stasis," Herr Kleiser said. "Or are killed. Starting with you."
Bernice gulped.
"I have one small gift before it happens," Herr Kleiser said.
"What?"
"I back-traced the IP address the Other used to hack into your SHIELD office the day the Other sent one of his men to retrieve his chief scientist," Herr Kleiser said. "The computer you call JARVIS still monitors this address, and all communications which go through the Pentagon. If you die, at least you can give your people control of the four ships they captured."
"How?"
"The Other rejected your friend Jacquie as one of his minions because he detected too much Deviant DNA when he seized control," Herr Kleiser said. "She may be able to fly that ship."
"How do I reach her?"
"The same way you reach any other drone," Herr Kleiser said. "Through the uplink. The drone you call Count Rugen belongs to the Other, not me. You cannot reach him through this ship's uplink. But you have formed a friendship with him. If you focus hard enough, the way you did when you contacted your husband, you will not need the uplink."
"What about JARVIS?" Bernice said.
"I have just sent the IP address to my brother, Fred," Herr Kleiser said. "He will hack in through the firewalls of the Pentagon to get a message through this JARVIS. But it will take a little while."
Bernice focused as hard as she could, trying not to be distracted by the three dozen nasty little pairs of claws that kept erupting out of Herr Kleiser's flesh. She sensed another mind, different from when she had touched Steve's, but the sensation felt different from when she contacted the grey-skinned drones through the ships uplink. Whoever's mind she touched, they appeared to be excited to hear from her. Maybe she had reached Count Rugen, maybe not? She sent him an image of making Jacquie sit in the chair.
"It is time," Herr Kleiser said. The face that was half like Natasha's gave her a wistful smile. "Human compassion. Who would have thought with my dying breath I would be praying for you to possess the very trait Thanos sent me here to destroy?"
Claws erupted through Herr Kleiser's sternum like the creature in the movie Alien. Only instead of a head, this thing tore its way out of Herr Kleisers belly. He screamed. Dozens more claws erupted, tearing him apart. If she had spent a thousand years trying to think of the most painful way possible to make the bastard die for what he had done to Steve, she could not have dreamed up a more horrific solution. They tore out of his body and then began to devour his flesh, mindless white slugs with teeth and claws eating everything in their path. They erupted and burrowed back into his flesh again and again, like sharks in a death roll.
Herr Kleiser screeched in pain, his shape shifting out of the form he had been trying to hold into his natural form, and then into an even less refined form that she suspected was what his species had been like before this Thanos had begun to tinker with them. He did not fight the things which devoured him, but embraced them as they ate him alive, the images Bernice read from his mind one of welcome and triumph. At some point, Bernice could no longer sense his mind. Soon, not even crumbs of flesh remained of the man who had been her husband's enemy.
Thirty-six unseeing pairs of eyes turned in her direction, sniffing for the next closest source of meat. Even as she watched, the larvae grew larger from their feeding and became more defined. Claws clicked like castanets across the floor of the birthing chamber as the larvae crept towards her like an undulating hoard.
"C-c-come h-h-humble creatures," Bernice stammered as she tried not to show her revulsion and embrace them as Herr Kleiser had said she must do if she was to survive. "It is t-t-time to s-s-swarm."
The largest, strongest larvae reached her foot, its teeth snapping as it smelled meat and went to take a bite. Its flesh was white and wet like a maggot's, the meat it had just consumed visible in the dark intestines she could see through the still-translucent form. It sniffed her foot, its well defined nostrils wrinkling in confusion as its nose gave a different message than the one she was transmitting into its brain. The image she got back was primitive, but clear. Mother? Bernice bent to pick it up, suppressing her revulsion at the slime which covered it from its recent feeding, Herr Kleiser's remains. The larvae snapped at her hand, not sure whether to recognize her or eat her as she projected an image into its mind.
"And I shall call you Squishy, and you shall be my friend," Bernice said.
She cuddled the enormous slug to her chest as though it were an infant and caressed the head. To be raised innocent, these creatures must start innocent. Herr Kleiser had given her the power to give his children form. What shape, if she were this creature, would she most desire? She formed the image in her mind, a lifetime of training of an artist enabling her to picture how it should look, and sent the image into the creature's mind. The larvae stopped snapping at her hand and began to purr.
"That way, little one," Bernice caressed the strongest of the litter as though it were a precious child and aimed it towards the cows lowing in the field beyond. "You must eat those. Not people. You must never eat people. It was your father's dying wish that you protect us, not eat us."
Holding Squishy out in her hands as though she was setting free a bird, she held it until small gossamer wings sprang from its side. With a hum, it launched itself into the air and flew straight towards the nearest food source, a hapless cow. The creature lowed in terror as the larvae burrowed into it, feeding from the inside out, just as it had done with its own father. Bernice tried not to feel remorse for what she had just done. That part of her mind that was now Chitauri pushed aside her unease. She had done what was necessary for her hive.
She glanced up at the other motherships that surrounded her. Would they help? Or would they destroy her and join forces with the Other? One small act of mercy... The Friend had summonsed them here because he had wanted them to witness this. Plastering a smile upon her face to hide her terror, she bent down to pick up the next little baby Chitauri and wracked her brains for a different face and name than the one she had defined before…