Chrysalis

When Sarah woke, she felt a deep sense of peace. She remembered this feeling, from before, when the rage had burned itself out and she had collapsed, exhausted, in a tunnel. When she woke, the fear and anger were blessedly muted, consumed. It wouldn’t last long. She would slowly rouse herself to find the signs of battle all around her, claw marks dug into the walls, remnants of Biomass hanging from the ceiling and no idea what had happened.

From there it was only a matter of time until she succumbed again.

This time, it was different. She woke surrounded by ants, the warm light of their healing magic covering her and offerings of food placed in front of her. She ate gratefully. Replenishing her energy would be just as important as the healing.

With food in her stomach and the worst of her wounds on the mend, she felt comfortable enough to stand up and make her way back toward the ant fortifications. No doubt the fighting continued somewhere, but she was not ready to contribute, emotionally or physically.

She looked forward to a break. Some time to relax and relish this sense of peace would be wonderful.

It lasted a full ten minutes until she remembered something she really shouldn’t have forgotten.

Jim!

He’d reached out to her just before she’d fallen asleep. Surrounded by the Colony, there was no chance he would be able to get away!

sick, gnawing fear. Jim was her friend. Had been her friend. She’d spent years with him. Held captive by the golgari, they had relied on each other for support. He’d been the

other, laughed

the terrible consequences, the eggs and larvae who had been killed without ever really having a chance to live, it was difficult to think of her friend as a villain. She couldn’t flip a switch and delete the memories she had of

thought his actions were right, she had no idea. What he’d done was so alien, so removed from the

would the Colony do? What would

of her reservations when it came to Jim. He wasn’t their friend, he had been their ally only for a short time. To them, he was nothing less

a monster! He was a person from Earth. Would Anthony really be

it was. Just a monster? What did that even mean? How were any of the thousands and thousands

Jim? No. The two were fundamentally different. Anthony had dived into his new life as a monster, creating a new existence

ways, she felt that Anthony was happier to be an ant than he’d been as a person.

similar memories? And what if he did? Would she have the right to ask for leniency? Would it even be

she thought about it, she couldn’t find any good answers. What

was easy when sentient beings got