The hivemind is conquering for me?

After the stick left the room, I turned around to a room full of silent cultists staring at me. There were decorations everywhere as well, causing me to turn to Sophia, who I think was doing damage control through her under-link.

”Are you guys throwing a party? What’s the occasion?” I asked, causing Sophia and her cultists to turn at me simultaneously, as I was the glue that fixed all issues and yelled. ”Surprise!”

A banner suddenly unfurled from the ceiling that said. ’Welcome Home Apollo’ I jumped in surprise, my hand on my heart. ”Oh you guys! This is so thoughtful, how did you prepare so much in less than a day? Oh I love you all so much!”

A wave of pure please erupted through the collective present at those words, they had already forgotten what the mother had done and forgiven as they knew she was corrupted at the time, and that they had to anyway.

Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me and while smiling ecstatically, I turned around and opened my arms for a hug. I was picked up off the ground as the five meter tall stalker enveloped me.

” I assume you are to blame for the party being at this scale?” I said with a smile on my face as I attempted to fuse my body into Onyx’s. Onyx had switched to her stalker form the moment she saw Apollo as she almost committed a Jewel and jumped him in her other form.

”Yes, my universe, I had a vision not long ago. When you would return and how you would get shot down. I did not see the stick causing problems though, I can’t see it in my visions after all... Accursed thing.”

The hug went on for another minute before I showed a teasing smile. ”You know, I found out something while on a hunt with the hive. Would you like to know what I learned about Zircon during that time?”

Onyx took a deep breath and put me down. ” I have already witnessed my punishment and can deduce what you have learnt, my universe, I am ready when you are.”

’Aww, darn foresight, ruining surprises.’ I thought to myself before looking up at Onyx with love. ”I suppose your punishment can be put off until a more reasonable time, for now would you like to go back home and- Oh, welcome back love.”

She couldn’t even wait till I was at the end of my sentence to return to the Mindspace. Immediately, I could feel a wave of comfort and love coming from within my Mindspace, as well as annoyance from Sapphire, who was already moping about it getting cramped with the fiery addition.

With Onyx gone, I spotted another individual, and while we had spoken about it in great lengths and how she actually adored the current situation, seeing her in the flesh made a pang go through my heart. I still walked over to her, as she was gazing at me eagerly and I said softly. ”Hey Kat.”

...

In my Mindspace, Onyx was reacclimating herself to the new environment. She was basking in the new strength her universe had achieved in yet another small amount of time, pride swelling up in her form as her Apollo continued to grow. As she neared the Origin, to go and say hello to her roommate, she suddenly realised something. ”What happened to his Origin?” It felt different. She could still feel the presence of the big baby that it was, but it felt both on edge and incredibly relaxed at the same time.

”That would be my doing Onyx.” A voice spoke from behind her. Onyx morphed into her humanoid appearance and turned around with a smile on her face. ”Ah, you must be this Sol that Kathrine has spoken of. A pleasure. Just a curiosity, why have you never appeared in any of my future visions with Apollo? It was a surprise when you suddenly just existed after all.”

Sol crackled at the question. It was so predictable. ”Oh you Foreseers, always thinking you can look to the future for answers. By the way, your queen is right, you use that gift way too often. I digress. I am a timeless being, given form by my Kindled and his sacrifice of a powerful soul fragment. You can’t see me, because I have no age, I am a part of the universe as a whole, not a piece inside of it. Do you understand?”

An intense standoff happened between the two entities. Onyx’s eyes began flaring out green energy for a moment, before stopping completely as she smiled cheerfully. ”No. But that is ok, Apollo trusts you to alter his Origin and that is enough for me as his power would have stopped you from doing so if you had bad intentions. Now, where are you residing? We could potentially bunk as I can already tell that Sapphire is fed up and I am not talking to Zircon right now as she betrayed our pact.”

Sol had predicted that the Stalker would have been territorial about another resident, she knew how passionate the hive were about Apollo after all. The welcome of the stalker after its suspicions were appeased was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

...

”Apollo! Mmmmwaahh~” Kathrine wasted no time as she got on her tiptoes to kiss me. After pulling away from the kiss, she engaged a hug and said. ”When I found out you were shot from your shuttle, my heart nearly stopped. I am so glad you are ok, a little less glad you went out to party afterwards instead of coming back here, but oh well. I am just glad you are back!”

The pain in my heart disappeared as Kathrine looked up into my eyes. Those raw emotions, they couldn’t be faked. I smiled and rubbed her back as I said. ”Well, If I knew a party was happening here, I would have come back right away. This is why you tell people about parties! Keyla!”

”Sorry Apollo, I am too far away to hear you!” She said, running away, knowing full well she took advantage of the situation for more Apollo time. I couldn’t really be mad at her though as she had been servicing me for the duration of the flight home. ’Probably knowing she would get caught and wanted a leaner punishment... Clever girl.’

I chuckled at Keyla’s antics before turning back to Kathrine who asked. ”So, do you like the decorating? These aliens don’t have a clue, but they are clearly very good at following orders, so after my hands got onto the project, look at what was achieved in half a day! I am telling you, the place looked like a shit-sty before I came along.” She said proudly, forgetting that everyone around her was always hungry and that Apollo could repair any damage to her if he wanted. A limb wouldn’t be missed for too long after all...

*Smack* ”AH!~” Kathrine exclaimed, shocked and aroused as I hit her rear hard. ”Don’t diminish the cult’s efforts. Even if the decoration wasn’t up to your standards, they would have been putting their everything into it to show their devotion to me and that means a lot more than the place looking nice... Though it does look really nice.”

The whole place was decorated with purple and white, with traces of tan decorations mixed here and there. I could appreciate that the cult was going for a hive theme and I absolutely loved it.

Just as I was about to ask Kathrine if she knew the party starts, Sophia had transformed into her combat form, causing me to begin drooling as I was drawn to her legs, and the terrain traversers she had on the bottom of them.

”Silence all!” The very air stopped making noise as Sophia raised her hands up above her. ”Before we begin, I shall take this moment to apologise to you all for what transpired moments ago. I used an item created by our mate and the power overwhelmed me and took over my body. Your urges to sleep with him, your desire to smell him as he passes, fantasise about him as you lay awake at night, please yourself to his voice and steal his clothes when he isn’t looking should not be punished, but embraced!”

”Um, what was that last one?” I mumbled to myself as Sophia continued.

”We are Apollo’s mates! Never forget that that is what it means to belong to this family. We work so that our outer family and Apollo when the time’s right, can devour this world and bring us all together!”

There was a wave of applause, the cult had practically forgotten they were being punished earlier and were now elated. I got some shudders from some of the male gazes in the crowd as they usually don’t look at me like that, it’s usually more devotion, but I think Sophia’s speech got them riled up.

Deciding to ignore that, I turned back into Sophia’s speech as it moved onto a less lewd topic.