42%, that’s what Carol's corruption should be at if it’s continued rising at the same pace, she’s still unconscious and the pain seems to be increasing, by this point her eyes have turned red completely, her hair white, her body is paler than before, and the black veins are spreading throughout her body.

I had a thought, is her transformation even a bad thing, as it stands it seems to be that she is turning into a Tyranid Princess like I am, it’s what I wanted to do anyway, but why does doing it like this hurt so much? I’ve been sitting here watching her slow degradation in a sort of paralysis, I know how to fix her, but I can’t, I’m not allowed to.

“Carol, Tyra, everything alright?” Then I hear a voice, Sarah’s voice, coming from the front door, and I’m struck with a realization, I may not be able to hurt her to heal her, but somebody else can.

Running over to the door I throw it open, “Sarah, I need you to help me, now.”

“Wait, what, what’s going on?”

“Carol is dying, and I can save her, but only if you help me.” Grabbing her hand I drag her over to Carol’s bed.

“I’m sorry what? What do you-” Then she catches sight of Carol, writhing in pain on the bed, “Oh my god, Carol…”

She stays silent for a moment, then turns to me with a determined look, “You said you can fix her right, and that you need my help, what do I need to do?”

Handing her a knife I explain what I will do, “I have the ability to have complete control over the cells in my body, this includes my blood, by putting my blood in her body, I should be able to manipulate it in such a way that I can dissolve the crystal in her head, which is causing the rapid corruption, that should stop it.”

With the knife in her shaking hands, she asks a very simple question, “Why didn’t you do it sooner then, why did you wait for me.”

“Because I can’t, I just can’t hurt her.” bringing my arm back I thrust it forwards towards Carol's arm, only to stop a few centimeters short, my hands shaking as I’m held back from harming her, “See, I can’t hurt her, even, even if I have to.” Turning back to look at Sarah I notice the warmth running down my face, she simply looks at me and nods, then she takes the knife and places it delicately on her wrist, and pushes down.

Her blood has a slight purplish tint to it, making Sarah increasingly concerned, as for me, I slit my wrist and let my blood pour into her wound, then quickly heal her wound, from there I feel my blood flow through her body, back to her heart, and pump up into her brain.

Looking around for a little bit I eventually find it, a small black and red crystal sphere, slowly corrupting her body, attacking the crystal with my blood, I find that like last time, it’s easy to destroy it and dissolve the crystal, then spread it throughout the body from there.

“Okay, she shouldn’t transform completely now, but she won’t be the same anymore, it’s too late for that.” sighing as I lean back, healing my own injury, I look over at Carol, she seems to be in less pain now, which is a good thing.

“Thank the lord, now then, how the hell did this happen, tell me every single detail.” Looking at me with a stern glare, I know that I shouldn’t hide anything, and I won’t, well, not everything anyway.

“It started when I first met her, my initial reaction was an intense hatred and disgust, but that soon turned into infatuation, and then into love, not a romantic kind mind you, but more like something one would have with a family member, then we have her skill, the stronger the monster she tames the closer she becomes to turning into one, the problem came from when she tamed me, I was relatively weak, but then over the course of a single day, I turned from what you may call a Class 4 or 5 into a 2.”

“As a Tyranid, my main directive is to devour and evolve, and I have been doing just that, eating monsters, machines, and even people to evolve, the skill had been set up for handling a class 5 monster, but I evolved faster than the skill could account for, so as a consequence it started to evolve Carol to match my pace, her corruption was at 2% this morning, and it was 27% less than an hour ago, but I watched it tick up even more, at if it continued at it’s accelerated pace, her corruption should be at around 42%, and she was 0% just yesterday, when she had tamed me.”

Sarah takes a second to digest the information, “That means that she, she would have transformed tomorrow, and she only tamed you yesterday, if I didn’t already know how much you care for her I would try to kill you right here.”

“I know, I just can’t help it, you already saw what happens if I find something that can evolve me, I don’t even have a choice, I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Just leave, leave her alone.” I can see the look in her eyes, she looks betrayed, it’s not my fault.

“Okay, maybe this is for the best, take care of her.” Actually, maybe, just maybe it is.

“I was doing that just fine before.”

Wordlessly I leave the apartment, climbing to the rooftop, I stand looking towards the sky, the dark clouds starting to snow heavily, it feels cold, I can’t even get cold, but somehow, I feel it anyway.

 

-Carol POV-

 

Ugh, I feel like I got hit by a truck, what happened, the last thing I remember was being in the kitchen, then all of a sudden I started to feel dizzy.

Sitting up I grab my head and wince, I have a massive headache, looking out the window I can see that it's light outside, which means it’s been a little while.

Getting out of bed the headache dulls slightly, walking over to the bedroom door, I push it open, only to fling it off the hinges and skid across the floor, staring at my hands, I don’t feel any different, but still, something clearly happened.

“Carol, are you awake?” Walking out of the kitchen Auntie stops to look at the door now on the ground, “Woah what happened here, are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine I think, I’m not quite sure, everything is a little muddled right now.” Walking over to the couch I sit down and sigh, I’m gonna have to fix that door later.

“Did anything maybe change with your status?” Walking up behind me she leans on the couch, “That could explain the sudden increase in strength.”

“Oh right, that’s probably a good idea, Status!”

 

[Carol Helios]

{Bio}
Height- 163 cm/64 inches
Weight- 43 kg/95 lbs.
Race- Human(53%), Tyranid(47%)
Corruption- N/A

{Stats}
STR- 31
DEX- 27
CON- 24
INT- 13
WIS- 16
CHA- 19

{Skills}

[Monster Tamer]
[Type] Passive
[Description] Grants the ability to tame monsters, but the stronger the monster you tame, the closer you get to becoming one.
[Effects] Amplifies the emotional state of nearby monsters, dislike turns to hatred, and fondness turns to love, also makes your body more desirable to monsters.

[Partial Monster]
[Type] Passive
[Description] A boost to the skill [Monster Tamer] which makes you stronger in proportion to your monsters, but fear not, for you will never lose sight of yourself.
[Effects] Adds a portion of your tamed monster's stats and abilities to your own, no matter what you become, you will retain your sanity and memories.

 

“Well that’s good, I think, I mean, I won’t become a full monster I guess.” Looking back at Auntie I notice the various micro expressions she has, she looks pensive, and a little concerned, was my vision always this good?

Putting her hand on my shoulder, she makes a suggestion, “Let’s go to the bathroom, you need to see something.”

“Um, ok?” Standing up I walk into the bathroom with her and I see what she means, looking into the mirror I notice a few things, one, my skin is a lot paler than it was before, two, my eyes are now a deep red instead of the brilliant blue they were before, three, my hair is now a pearly white, but most importantly, “I look like…”

“Like Tyra.” Looking at my face using my enhanced vision, I notice the similarities that are now present, my eyes used to be a lot rounder and calm, but now they look sharp, and stern, exactly like Tyras, my jawline has gotten sharper as well, just like hers, and I seemed to have gained an aura of elegance of sorts, we actually look almost identical, the resemblance is uncanny, as if we were related.

Auntie doesn’t look too happy with the change, but I don’t mind it, actually, it makes me feel kind of happy, I was always a burden to her and yet she still tried so hard to help me, now I can finally help her. Bringing my hands up to the mirror I notice how wrong they feel, stiff and constrained like I was wearing gloves that were a size too small, I notice how my fingertips are longer than before, but not in a right way, it feels like something is trying to break through, but falling just a bit short.

With a grunt, I feel my fingers explode, but it doesn’t hurt, Auntie lets out a scream but I ignore it, looking at my hands my fingers are now long and slender, and are capped with short yet deadly sharp claws instead of soft tips, yet I don’t seem to have lost any dexterity using them, in fact, they seem even better than ever.

“Jesus Christ, Carol are you okay?" Looking at my hands she’s left speechless as they bleed with purplish red blood, the skin having sheared off, but it doesn’t really hurt, not all that much anyway, then we watch as they heal over in seconds, like nothing ever happened.

“Yeah, I’m fine, better than ever actually.” As I say that I wince, my headache suddenly redoubles its efforts, it feels like something scratching away at my mind, trying to break through.

“You’re definitely not okay, I’m getting a Doctor.” As she goes to leave I take a step over, arriving next to her and very lightly grabbing her arm.

“Wait, Just get Tyra, she’ll know what’s going on.” Then I notice the sudden guilt that spreads over her face. “Auntie, what happened to Tyra?”

“I, um, she left, I told her to leave for a little bit.”

“Why, she’s the one most experienced with this, she’d know exactly what’s going on and how to fix it, she saved me didn’t she, she tried so hard just for you to get rid of her!” Starting with a low tone, I soon end up shouting, which surprises us both, normally I almost never shout, no matter how upset or angry I might be.

“Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” After apologizing, I wait for her to respond but right before she does I crash down to the floor, the headache is getting worse, much worse.

“Carol, I, I’m sorry, I was just so distressed, I didn’t, I didn’t know what to do.” Pulling me into her embrace the headache gets worse and worse, before it feels like my mind shatters, and instinctively, I call out with tears in my eyes.

“Tyra, help me…”

 

-Tyra POV-

Sitting atop a tree in the forest I wonder where I went wrong, I tried my best but apparently, it wasn’t enough, maybe I was always doomed to fail, from the very start, but I’m interrupted by a sudden drain on my biomass, then soon after the feeling of a connection being formed, one of a gestalt, albeit an incomplete one.

“Tyra, help me…” I hear Carol in my mind, calling out in pain, reaching for help, reaching for me.

Turning, I stare off towards the city, towards Winterhome, towards Carol. Responding to her in my mind, I send her a telepathic message, “It’s okay, I’ll be there soon, hang on just a little longer.” Then I jump down from the tree and start to run, faster than ever before.

Over the night the only thing I really did was slowly walk away from the city, so it takes almost 20 minutes of straight sprinting to reach the outskirts, jumping off the ground and reducing my weight to the absolute minimum, I propel myself nearly a hundred meters into the air, and start to fly towards Carol's apartment.

Landing on the roof I quickly open the door, and jump down the staircase, stopping at the third floor, I then run towards Carol’s apartment, opening the door and shouting, “CAROL”, I see Sarah on the couch, startled by my shout, and Carol in her grasp, struggling to breathe from being in pain.

“Tyra!? What are you doing here?” She seems surprised, but less angry than I thought she would be for me coming back so soon.

“Carol called me, she asked for help, she was begging for me to stop the pain, what happened.” walking up to Carol I pick her up from Sarah and bring her close to me.

“I, I don’t know, she said something about you knowing what was wrong and then she collapsed, she said something about a headache and scratching.” She looks guilty, and she didn’t even try to stop me from taking Carol from her.

Bringing my head down I touch her forehead to mine, and her breathing returns to normal, I feel the shaky connection start to stabilize, it’s not a gestalt like I had first thought, but more of a mental link.

Sitting on the couch I hold Carol tightly, until the link stabilizes it’s best for the two of us to stay close, that way I can try to forcefully stabilize it, it should speed up the process and reduce her pain even more.

“Is she, will she be okay?” Sarah fumbles her words, worried over the state of Carol.

“She’ll live, but that’s about all I can say for now, because she became part Tyranid her mind attempted to form a hivemind with the closest synapse node, which is me, but it failed since I was too far away and she’s still human, fortunately, that means she’ll stay herself and not combine with me, unfortunately, that also means her mind will be put through hell until I can calm her down.”

“So, this happened because I sent you off?”

“It would have happened anyway, but she wouldn’t have been in pain if I was close to her.”

“Then it’s my fault isn’t it, she was in pain because of me.” She’s not technically wrong, but she’s not right either.

“Sort of, but you didn’t know, It’s not your fault, and I don’t blame you.” I notice that with those two phrases, not your fault, and I don’t blame you, she freezes up, there’s something more to those words there.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t, I’m sorry.” Sarah starts crying, breaking down on the couch.

“Just watch over us while I fix her.” With that, I delve into my mind, from the outside it appears as if I fell asleep, and the two of us are simply peacefully sleeping together, but inside our minds, is a war.

Looking around in our shared mental space I notice the looming shadow over the whole thing, which is likely what's making Carol suffer, no mortal mind is meant to bear witness to the shadow and live to tell the tale, which is why I need to cut her off, and quickly.

Running around I look for Carol, and find, what must be her, a small child that looks like Carol, just a lot younger, curled up into a ball and silently crying, emanating a light golden glow. Walking up to her I gingerly touch her shoulder and are ripped from my mental space and are brought presumably into her memories.

I watch Carol, who in this memory is young, likely not even 10 yet, playing with two older people, probably her parents, in a decently sized apartment, the three of them have fun playing board games, cards, etc.

Eventually, the parents have to leave for work, and time speeds up, now it’s evening, and instead of the parents, it’s Sarah, also looking significantly younger, in her early to mid twenties instead of mid thirties.

I can’t hear any sounds, but after Sarah says some words, Carol starts to cry. “That was when Sarah told me my parents had died.”

Turning I see Carol, looking like she does now, staring at the memory in nostalgia, “They spent the entire morning with me, which they usually didn’t do, it had made my day, but as I got older I realized it was because they knew that they might not make it back, and they were right.”

“What happened to them?”

“I don’t know, I can’t remember, maybe I never got told, maybe I shut it out of my mind, but I know that they never came back, they were Divers, and they were strong ones, they were both skill holders so they dealt with danger every day, but they always came back, for a long time, I had secretly hoped that they would still come back, and surprise me, but somewhere deep down I knew that wasn’t true.”

Walking up next to me Carol continues, “That skill, it was weight manipulation right?”

“Hm, yeah it was, what about it?”

“That was moms, I still remember how she would slide across the floor like there wasn’t any friction by just reducing her weight, just like that monster did.”

“So that was…”

“Yeah, it was, and thank you Tyra, for finally giving her peace.”

“And your dad, what about him?”

“He had a skill called Enhance Power, It made him super strong and really fast.” Enhance power? That seems familiar, wait a second wasn’t that the skill of the first monster I met?

“Wait, then that means that I have both of your parents' skills?”

“Yeah, and with the new change from my skill, I now resemble you a bunch, so much so that people could think we’re related.”

“So your skill made you look nearly identical to me, and I have the abilities of both your parents, wouldn’t that basically make me your mother?”

“I guess so, I don’t think I would mind that, mom.” Carol turns to me, a smile on her face, and I feel a familiar tang in my heart as she says that, walking over to her I pull her into a hug as the world shatters around us, the shadow closing in on us.

“Leave us, I will not have you destroy her light, and if you try, you’ll have to toss me away first.” To my surprise, the shadow stops, and a few seconds later, a voice I haven’t heard in a long time, shows itself once more.

 

~That was never my intention~

 

In an instant the Shadow closes in on us, but instead of hurting her, it swarms around us, forming a sort of shell, Carol is silent in my grasp, her eyes closed and fully trusting me.

I feel the shadow trail up my body and cover me completely, yet Carol is left alone, her golden glow just as strong in my shadowed grasp, two sides, light and dark, intertwined forever.

Closing my eyes I wake up in the real world on the couch, I look at Carol as she wakes, “Good morning, mom.”

“Mhm, good morning.” Feeling a foreign yet oddly familiar name on my tongue, I feel the need to speak it and pull Carol into a hug. “I love you, Carebear.“ Carol freezes at that name, it seems to have some sort of meaning.

“That name, how do you know it?” Sarah speaks up, she looks shocked, well she was shocked when Carol called me mom, but after I said Carebear she looked like she saw a ghost.

“I don’t know, I just do, does it mean something?”

“That’s what mom used to call me, the only people that knew were her, dad, and Auntie.” This time it’s Carol, absolutely emanating joy.

“Could it be, are you Circe?”

“No, I don’t think so, I killed her monster form and took her skill, and when I do that, I gain a few memories, just general knowledge for the most part, but sometimes, if a memory has a lot of importance to the person, I can take those too, but as she was already turned, that means that even as a monster, she was always thinking about you.”

In my grasp, I feel Carol start to shake and soon begin crying, “Mom…”

“It’s okay, I’m not going to leave you again, not now, not ever.”