Chris frowned at his crystalline copy. “What the hell are you?”
“I'm you.” The copy sighed, before pausing. “Kinda. I don't know, I'm still processing everything.”
Chris blinked. “You're me?”
The copy shrugged. “I have all your memories and whatnot, so I'm at least partially you. I also have a few new instincts I'm trying to parse through… I think we were supposed to merge? Infusing your body with whatever this crap is and enhancing your physique… and I think it'd feed on your energy in exchange? In a symbiotic way, not like a parasite. Just siphoning off a portion whenever you use your ability, decreasing the power slightly. But since it's strengthening your physique in the process, I think it evens out?”
Chris cocked his head. That actually sounded pretty useful. “So why did it turn into you instead?”
“How should I know?” The copy shook his head helplessly. “I mean, it's clearly a space thing, but beyond that, I got nothing. And since it isn't my space anymore, that's a you problem. I'm just a minion.”
“Fair.” Chris agreed. “Any idea what you want to do with yourself?”
“Kinda want to see what happens if I use Alex's ability.” The copy replied. “Do I gain the ability and form? Or does this stuff just eat it? Kinda hoping for the form, honestly. I don't particularly enjoy the idea of being a crystal man for the rest of my life. There are certain organic experiences I think I'd miss.”
Chris nodded in understanding. “I get it. We'll definitely give it a try at some point.”
“Appreciate it.” The copy gave him a thumbs up. “Also, I think I'll start going by our middle name. You cool with that?”
“Why not just switch them? You'll be Joseph Christopher, I'll be Christopher Joseph.” Chris offered.
The copy shrugged. “Works for me. I guess I'll have to get used to being a Joe-” He cut off glancing at Jo. “-seph. Definitely Joseph.”
“Hm, good idea.” Chris muttered, eyeing Jo weirdly. Did she name him Joseph after herself? He shook his head, turning back to the newly minted Joseph. “Well, welcome aboard, I guess. Want to help us hunt?”
“Can't see what else I'd do.” Joseph sighed. “It'll at least keep me busy while I figure out how to deal with being a whole new person. Plus, you know, helping out the City.”
“Of course.” Chris agreed.
“How the fuck are the two of you not freaking out about this?!?” Alex interjected incredulously. “Some weird egg just cloned you! Out of nowhere! That can't be something you're just okay with!”
“Why not?” Chris and Joseph asked at the same time, cocking their heads in unison. They shared a look and Joseph gestured for Chris to continue. “It's weird, sure, but it isn't like there's anything we can do about it. I'm not going to kill him or anything, and he couldn't kill me even if he wanted to. So we pretty much just have to accept that the other exists and move on.”
“You have a fiancé!” Alex retorted, gesturing to Beth. “How are you going to deal with that?!?”
“Obviously it's Beth's choice, but seeing as I'm clearly a copy and made out of some kind of crystalline metallic substance, not to mention the fact I'm half a meter tall, I'm fairly certain we split when I did.” Joseph replied. “I mean, it sucks, but I'm not going to be an asshole about it.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “So you can just stop loving someone, just like that?”
Joseph gave him a weird look. “No? But just because I love her, doesn't mean I have to be with her. In fact, insisting on being with her wouldn't be loving her, because part of loving someone is respecting their wants and needs, which I am incredibly ill suited to fulfill. Just because you want to be with someone doesn't mean you should be with them.”
“Oh, fuck, he is just a little crystal you.” Beth groaned, burying her face in her hands.
“That is how clones work.” Zack commented. “Hey, if we find another one of these things, could we make him a little crystal Beth?”
“I'm pretty sure it'd just merge with Beth, since she doesn't have a space to complicate the process.” Chris replied.
“Also, we have no idea how being crystal will change me.” Joseph added. “A crystal me and a crystal Beth may not even be compatible.”
“Can we please stop making this about our relationship?” Beth asked in exasperation.
Chris paused. “We kinda have to though? You can share friends, you can share family, you can even share jobs and possessions, but you can't really share a wife. Well, you can, but it sort of defeats the point? The point of a spouse is to be each other's most important person. If you're sharing, then you have two people focusing on one person while the one person has to split their focus between the two. It just doesn't balance out.”
Beth glared at him. “Then how about we just stop talking about it?!? We all know nothing is going to happen between me and Joseph, so why harp on it!?!”
“Honestly, it does kinda feel like people are just rubbing salt in the wound.” Joseph sighed.
Chris winced slightly, realizing how painful it'd feel to not only be losing Beth, but to have everyone reminding him he was losing Beth. “Sorry…”
Joseph shook his head. “It's fine. Let's just get back to hunting, okay? And from now on, try to avoid strange glowing eggs.”
“I did tell you not to trust it.” Jo muttered.
“To be fair, it wasn't dangerous, it was just… inconvenient.” Salvador commented.
*
After the egg had ‘mysteriously disappeared’, the fox-kin and the snake-kin had called a truce to perform an extensive search of the cavern, which turned up nothing since Chris had closed the portal almost immediately after Joseph had appeared. Since there was nothing left to fight over, the two groups returned to their respective tribes, frustrated and suspicious, but not willing to spill more blood without tangible proof that the other side had taken the egg. After all, with all the abilities out there, it wasn't that rare for a third party to snatch a prize while two others fought over it.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
After a moment of consideration, the group decided to follow the fox-kin back to their tribe. First, because the efforts to pull in tribes on the lower levels were not going well, primarily due to the fact that the surface races kept eradicating them. Chris wasn't sure if they were focusing on the area they'd spotted him in, but the creatures on the fifth level were disappearing fast. Tibolt and Jinolt had managed to convince a single tribe of imps to join, and Ka'lyctso had somehow managed to stumble over another tribe of kobolds which she ‘convinced’ by challenging their chief, kicking her ass, and ordering them all to submit, proving the Ri'ka's original strategy would have worked. They'd also managed to capture some fishmen and ratlings, but they hadn't managed to convince them to approach their tribes before the surface races had gotten to them.
Second, they needed minions that could operate on this level, as the single group of them wasn't going to cut it long-term. They could, and would, continue to strengthen the minions Chris already had, but that was a slow process compared to pulling in a tribe all at once. So they followed the fox-kin back to their tribe, using Chris's portals to move to avoid being seen, and began searching for a small group to capture, eventually discovering a group of four, two women and two men, walking through the tunnels as if they were walking through a garden, rather than a deadly labyrinth. The two women were even wearing dresses! Clearly not suitable for combat, though that didn't mean their abilities weren't dangerous. The two men were both armed and armored, though, scanning their surroundings as they walked behind the women.
“Do the Kin have nobles? Because those look like nobles.” Chris commented as he studied the women through a portal.
“We don't know what the Kin have.” Beth muttered, shaking her head. “It isn't like we've been able to study them. All we do is fight them.”
Chris hummed thoughtfully as he continued to study the women. The entire reason they were going to capture people was so they could approach the leadership without going through the entire tribe. If this was the leadership… “I'm going to try talking to them.” He announced. “Be prepared to portal in if necessary, but if we can settle this with talking, why fight?”
Beth hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Okay, but be careful.”
“I will, don't worry.” Chris agreed, transforming into his elfish form and covering himself in a rocky carapace before opening a portal and stepping out in front of the group, just close enough that the women were in range of his telepathy. *Hello.* He greeted them as they stiffened and their guards snarled, whipping out their weapons. *I come in peace. Mostly.*
The guards were about to attack when one of the women raised a hand, stopping them as she narrowed her eyes at Chris. He was obviously using an ability to defend himself, which meant the portal didn't come from him, and if he was approaching them this openly, whoever his allies were would be prepared for an attack. In that case, it would be wiser to gather information before provoking hostilities, particularly when they had already delved so deeply into their territory. *Mostly?*
*Well, I'm here to convince your entire tribe to become my minions, with the intention to use them to help my people escape an enemy that is overwhelmingly more powerful than any of us, which could very well get them killed, though not necessarily dead, depending on your perspective on things. Plus, I'm not going to let you just kill me, now am I? But I don't see any reason why we have to fight each other, as long as you don't give me one.* Chris explained, cocking his head as he realized he wasn't getting any thoughts from either of these women, their minds weirdly muted.
The fox-kin woman blinked. *You believe you can dominate our entire clan?*
Chris chuckled. *I believe I can dominate every creature in the Maze, given enough time. Maybe even the whole world, though I don't see why I would.* If his space could keep growing, then the only limit he had was how much energy he could get, and as long as people kept being born, there'd always be more energy. The real issue would be fitting them all in his space if too many of them died, but that was a concern for later.
*If that is the case, then it seems to me that the wisest course of action would be to do everything in my power to remove this threat to my people before it can consume them, not simply surrender to it.* She retorted.
*Oh, yeah, absolutely.* Chris agreed. *But unfortunately, you can't. I literally can't die. Not permanently, at least.*
*Death is not the only way to remove a threat.* The fox-kin growled, signaling her companion as a force slammed into Chris's mind, stunning him! Then her own attack landed, slipping through Chris's weakened defenses and invading his mind, imposing her will upon it. *Act like nothing is wrong and follow me.* She ordered, turning to lead him back to her clan. The clan psychics would go through his mind, discover all his secrets, and deal with him appropriately. It wouldn't be the first time they'd dealt with a threat like this.
Chris numbly followed the woman as the guards fell into step behind them, his body under her complete control. And then suddenly, a portal opened in front of her, Chris scowling out of it. “That- was rude.” And then Beth punched her in the face. Chris's mind immediately popped back into his body as the fox-kin lost control, transforming into his combat form, tail glowing with Dyrdek's ability as he pierced it into the other woman and whirled on the guards, carapace blocking the dagger the guard tried to stab into him, empowered by some ability. The other guard leapt at Beth only to go flying as Joseph slammed into him, his tiny form belaying a fearsome strength. They'd done some testing while they were following the fox-kin, and they'd found his little half a meter tall form weighed almost forty kilograms and he was strong enough to lift twenty times that. The guard trying to fight Chris froze as his partner flew past and his dagger was stopped cold, gulping slightly as he stared into Chris's lipless maw. Then green tinged claws wrapped around his neck, one slipping through a gap in his armor, and his vision began to blur, before going dark.
They quickly gathered up their new prisoners, Joseph looking almost comical as he dragged the guard he'd subdued in, getting them restrained. “So, the good news is that even if my body's mind gets dominated, my space's mind is fine.” Chris began with a sigh. “The bad news is if this tribe has two psychics, there's a very good chance they have more. Which means diplomacy is going to be… risky. The better news is that this means we have access to psychic abilities, and given what just happened, I believe it's going to make taking this tribe by force much easier.”
“I thought you preferred willing minions.” Zack commented.
“If I can get them.” Chris replied. “But we're already being hunted, and I'm willing to bet little miss dominator here is fairly important, so I'd rather not have a bunch of pissed off psychics coming after us too.”
Zack paused. “Yeah, that's fair.”
Chris looked around. “Any other comments before I begin? Because I'm fairly certain I'm going to be utterly brain dead after I'm done with these four.”
“No more approaching groups blindly.” Beth growled, glaring at the dominator as she had been since the moment the portal had opened. “It worked out this time, but we can't afford to be surprised like this. What if it had been something you are vulnerable to? It's just- it's too risky.”
Chris grimaced. “Agreed. Particularly since important people are usually important for a reason. Like, you know, being psychics.”
Beth shuddered. “This was too close, Chris.” She turned to him, eyes slightly wet. “Too. Close.”
Chris wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I know.” They'd- he'd been getting complacent, getting used to always having the advantage, to being untouchable. Even with the apes, he'd never felt like he was in danger. At worst he would have gotten a minor wound. But this- when he'd felt himself losing control of his own mind… his jaw clenched as a cold fury welled up inside him at the very idea of it. Chris had never appreciated someone taking what was his, and what could be more his than his own mind? What he'd told Zack was true, he was dealing with these psychics now so he could handle it before they became a bigger problem. But there was another, not insignificant part of him that was doing it for another reason. That was doing it because someone had touched what was his. And they would be punished… if he could find a reasonable excuse to do so. He was pissed, but he wasn't a monster.