…
‘What am I? Am I just a person, or a tool? And where am I? it’s very uncomfortable,’ I spoke within my own mind.
Theres just something strange going on. It’s like I’m not myself; but at the same time, I am. It’s… very odd to say the least. All I remember is that I was fighting in a war that I didn’t want, then darkness. Maybe I died and this is hell?
No, that can’t be. My actions in that war were given to me, my will wasn’t my own. My actions weren’t my own. Someone stole me, and made me different. They made me a tool. That pain… that… strife I had given to others, it wasn’t me!
All that blood! That wasn’t mine to take! It was that false god! It was that man, Jupiter! That person had stolen me from my mother’s arms, used me as a weapon! He changed me! I wasn’t myself!
‘I… died… didn’t I? I remember that the armies of NATO were pushing into our territory… and… and… what else happened?’ I thought.
It’s so fuzzy yet clear in my head what happened, yet I can’t look at it. It’s like I’m nearsighted or something. On to that nearsighted thing, I think I used to wear glasses?
But the space around me was growing uncomfortable and wet. Well, it was wet from the start. But that doesn’t matter anymore. I need to get out of this space, it’s so cramped too. It is squeezing me tighter as well. Jeebers creepers, it hurts to stay like this.
I start to push as the space around me begins to contract. It hurts so much; an ache is resounding all around me. My skin is all tingly. I can’t think straight. I must get out of this prison.
I push and tear my way out of my confines. But all is for nought, the mucus that binds me is so grimy, so cold and painful that I can barely get my limbs to move at all. It hurts like the burning of white phosphorus and the numbness of frostbite. It’s like someone poured napalm all over me. It hurts.
Something changed in my mind. All the thoughts of my past, all the strife was slipping. All the pain was starting to be overcome by a feeling of entrapment. Just… what was this feeling?
I feel a bit freer now, but not by much. What is this dull pain? I was comparing it to something, but I can’t for the life of me remember.
‘What am I? Well, I’m in pain right now. Let’s get out of this prison first and then we can get going on what we were thinking about. What were we thinking about again?’ I thought to myself.
Water was getting into my prison now. That was for sure water and not blood or something, right? No, blood is sticky and cold and all of those things. Where did I get that info though?
Finally, I could feel that the shell, the walls of my prison were being broken. My hand, my will was absolute and I wanted out of these confines. Just, get me out of here.
…
Imperius standard date: Year CCCLVII, Month III, Day the first VIII.
Location: Imperial birthing nursery.
Kevin gave his little sister’s egg space. It was squirming and cracking. The dark, blacker than pitch mucus, was leaking all over and around the egg. His little sister was to be born fully formed.
He had heard that natural imperial units were born that way instead of halfway between infancy and adulthood like most other units. But he hadn’t expected it to be so brutal looking.
He hadn’t been told to help, on the contrary, he was supposed to leave her be. That was something he didn’t like. He didn’t want to leave her to get out of her egg like this. There was even a few quite sobs coming from the egg. It left his very soul crying that this little girl, his sister, was in pain.
Then, like a drowned god coming from the sea, a six fingered hand broke out of the shell. It lay covered in a thin film of mucus like the rest of her. Next, it grabbed the shell around the rest of her and pulled. It stretched with her till a separate hand stabbed out of the stretched film.
The two limbs pulled and pushed. Out came a head. Said head held the new face of his little sister. Finally, like a butterfly after shedding its caterpillar form, she emerged. Her body was completely naked, her face held the look of someone finished with a long day of work.
All Kevin could think was that she was gorgeous.
Her face was that of the most beautiful statues. Her six fingered hands were that of the most well-tailored bloodline. Unlike most other imperial princesses, she had three pairs of wings. It was also strange, yet all the more enthralling, that she had six fingers on each hand.
Her shins were coated in an exoskeleton like him, her forearms were also the same. Yet her torso simply had a soft outer skin, like that of all other females. Her shoulders were reinforced with a darker than jet black shell, similar to her blacker than black shins. Along her spine was also lined with segmented plates.
Her wings were a translucent gold color, as were her eyes. Her skin was that of milk white, while her hair was the same black as the rest of her. spouting out of her head was that of the imperial crown antenna.
As all other imperial princesses had, she as well, had her antenna fused into a solid crown coming from her forehead. Each crown was unique, and Her’s was styled like the goths of the old northwest he had heard of.
It took all his willpower to not kneel before the work of art that was her. Even after trying to resist though, he felt himself kneeling. It was like a primal urge to do so. Like his body was acting on its own whims.
Yet as he kneeled, he could feel utter confusion from the just born princess. As he looked at the ground where he kneeled, a million thoughts were probably running through her mind.
…
“Hrah, hrah, hrah,” I panted.
It was as if the very air that I breathed now wasn’t enough to fill my lungs. Like the water that I lay in now wasn’t cool enough to cool off my exhausted body. The ground I lay on was soft enough though. All in all, I thought that I was fine now.
There wasn’t that ache, that pain anymore. That prison wasn’t holding me any longer. I turned my head to look upon the thing that had held me, and what I saw was an egg.
To be more precise, it looked like a cross between a frog egg, and a turtle egg. The Vanta black exterior actually looked kind of cool. As I sprawled myself out on the ground, I heard something.
The shuffling of bone on bone. It wasn’t loud, yet it seemed all the same. It was as if the body I had was just born. Then again, looking back, I’m pretty sure I was just reborn. That was probably why all those memories that seemed new, and such had just started to fade just far enough away that I couldn’t grasp them If I wanted to.
“Who are you, and who am I?” I decided to ask first.
The man took a second to speak, and while he did so, I looked and studied him. He didn’t look like any being I had seen before, yet his form didn’t seem unknown to me.
His body was covered in dark purple segmented plates. His face looked inhumanly still, except for the mandibles that were his lower jaw. He looked rather roman. I liked the look of him. His body shape gave me an unknown feeling of safety I hadn’t vaguely remembered feeling since something in my past happened.
I checked my jaw to see if mine was like his, it wasn’t. It was that of a girl, a smooth and flawless surface greeted my touch. When I looked at my hand, I noticed that I had six segmented fingers. I could also feel thin, and fragile limbs coming from my back. These seemed to be wings.
“My name is Kevin, my lady,” he told me, “And you have to wait until you get a name from our mother. Until then, can I ask that you put on some clothes for you?”
I nodded my head; I didn’t like being naked. He seemed fine with it, but he didn’t have boobs coming from his chest. Wait, I have boobs and he called me my lady. I was born a woman, wasn’t I?
That… changes how these old memories will affect me, isn’t it? But… it doesn’t bother me as it should. But it’s just… weird how much my world is titling on its head in a very short amount of time.
Kevin handed me my new clothes and I stood up with ingrained grace and fluid movements. It was as if my body was supposed to move like this. Like I had been alive and had been taught how to move and act.
It was all… well… inhuman. But then again, I don’t think I was human anymore. My legs felt like they had a shell instead of bones, at least my shins did. while my arms and wings felt new yet familiar at the same time.
As I put on the toga that was to be the norm, I decided to ask what I was.
“Just what am I? I feel, just plain weird. It’s like I’ve been alive for years, yet I was just born,” I told him with sincerity.
He nodded his head in understanding, yet I could tell he was lost with my statement. It seemed to me that Kevin wasn’t very smart. Yet here I was, with a mind capable of such philosophical thoughts right after I had hatched.
“Well, you are an Imperial princess. The youngest imperial daughter of Empress Tyranna. Also, just so you know, when your egg began to hatch, I ran the calling bell. Some slaves will be here with some food for you,” he told me.
I don’t like that word, slave. But if my new life will be filled with them, then so be it. I was fine with the slaves as long as they were treated well. But why was that? I was just born; I probably should look at this world I find myself in with a new pair of eyes and a clean mind.
In the meantime, I could tell that my stomach was empty. I was hungry and I wanted something to eat. I turned to my egg. I wondered if I would be able to eat the goop coming from it.
“Can I eat the goop from my egg? I am actually starving,” I told the man.
He looked at me with a still yet confused gaze. It was as if he was asking why I would ask such a thing when he said that food would be here right away. To him, I must look composed. I know that if I looked at myself, I would think that that woman over there was awfully composed for someone just born.
“But food is just around the corner?” he asked me with an incredulous gaze.
It was then that both of us heard a knock at the door. It seemed to me that food had just arrived. As I said before I was starving.
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