#jika

Monster March 2026

Day 20- Alien

Klip and Hazi 

Re-incubation 

Klip felt like he was going to go insane. He paced the royal comb, looking over at Hazi in an incubation cell every few seconds. 

As a Super Consort, he only needed a single night to get enhancement protocols implemented. 

Hazi’s sisters had needed three days. Because while they weren’t ‘Super’ they were still royal by design and took to the enhancements well. Super Queen Kat? She had only needed hours. 

This- was day 6. 

Officially twice as long as everyone else, and counting, and the control panel was only showed a maddening 3% of progress on the procedures and protocols processed since this morning. All while his own sanity felt like it was dangling by 3 strands of wet tissue paper. 

Everyone had already done everything they could. Even the Reverend Dowager Mother was out of ideas. The entire jika hive collective was now being used, on the universal scale, reaching every single hive of jika. The ones closest to them could only answer with things they had already done. Even Super Queen Kat had mixed super queen royal jelly in with the royal jelly to be fed through a feeding tube into Hazi, hoping that she would process faster if her mind and body had better fuel to work with. 

It felt like all they could do now was wait. 

And this wait was an agonizing torture unto itself. 

Klip had become more anxious, possessive, and paranoid with every passing day past that three day mark, her sisters had processed at. He was adamant that he was not walking out of this royal nursery comb without Hazi, no matter how long it would take. And anyone who would try to take him from here without her, would die trying. 

Super Queen Kat had to use the Hive Mind to give a direct order and make him take a break and rest and eat and relieve himself and let Hazi’s other sisters take a shift of watching over Hazi in incubation so that she was always watched and looked over and kept safe. But he still slept, ate and used the small lavitory in here, having the others bring him food that he barely tasted, only to be eaten mechanically, the flavors barely being registered stimuli because his focus on Hazi and this re-incubation process was so singular, that it was like even his own body's needs were ignorable because the only thing that mattered, that needed attention was watching and guarding Hazi and nothing else. 

It was suggested that he take up a creative hobby to help him pass the time. He already had. In the first three days of Hazi’s incubation- he remodelled their private quarters, he made it their own private sanctum. Large enough and luxurious enough befitting a Dowager Hive Mistress, second only to the Queen herself. It was only 10% smaller than Super Queen Kai’s royal sanctum. And he hadn’t done so by himself. Every royal jika helped. The unmated consorts of Queen Kai, who were like little brothers of Hazi and her true sisters, all did the most to make sure the sanctum would be in Hazi’s tastes. Because if they made it too grand, too luxurious, too much…whatever, Hazi would not feel comfortable, or accept it and would instead move to the previous quarters she had always shared with her sisters. They had done all that work and when it was that 3 day mark, they all convened in the Royal Nursery Comb to be there to welcome Hazi back. 

That’s where the reality shock hit them. 

The data pad that controlled the cell, had only shown the message- Processing. None of them thought to look at the status bar. None of them thought to look at the individual protocols and processes to see how far along she was. In three days, she had only done just under half of the protocols and processes. 

That couldn’t be right. 

It was practically inconceivable. 

They instantly ran diagnostics on the cell itself, to make sure it was working at a full 100% power and 100% efficiency, 100% capacity, thinking that the cell they put her into had been faulty in some way, to explain why she had only progressed half as much in the same amount of time. There had to be something, anything getting in the way.

They even looked into removing her from the cell she was in and put her into another one. But, unfortunately, if they had tried that, mid process, it would corrupt the current cycle, making her restart the process from the beginning.

So she stayed where she was and now, it was an exercise in patience to everyone, because the cell was running perfectly, the procedures and protocols and enhancements were still being done as quickly, efficiently and thoroughly as they needed to go. The problem wasn’t the cell, and it wasn’t quite Hazi’s fault either.

It was the volume of proceedures and protocols. Otherwise- it was running at capacity. It was already going as fast as it could go, it was just being buried in pages and pages of procedure and protocols. Because Hazi was the Dowager Hive Mistress, and that station and responsibility meant that even if the queen passed, she could take over the hive until a new queen could be established, or, replace her as queen if the circumstances were that dire. She was getting so much more than any other queen, super or otherwise could ever get because she was the first and only Dowager Hive Mistress to a Superqueen, and especially since Super Queen Kat had been a speed run queen, she needed all the help she could get, because if she failed, speedrunning queens through incubation for hives needed immediate changes to current or failed or dead and dying queen's rulership. Kat was bound and determined to not let the best recourse the Jika had to saving hives when the worst happened in time frames that were shorter than could be fixed, problems that needed to be solved in as fast as possible. She did not wish for all of it to die with her. She did not want to be the reason what had saved nearly countless colonies, would no longer be used while they would have to test and try any other options with what would surely be staggard success but also, failures that would mean entire hives, numbering in the hundres, thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, would die. All knowledge specific to that hive, in that location, lost forever, hundreds and thousands of years of knowledge, gone, and needed to be relearned, their place in those plances re-earned.

But Hazi, her support was the only shield Kat had against such things, she had begged and pleaded and had to be honest about her own shortcomines, her own failures so far, be honest about her hold, that from most other metrics seemed assured, but in reality, was very fragile. She was the palm of a hand, Hazi was the fingers. True, if given enough time, she would grow fingers of her own, but now, she was barely a stub of a palm herself. And Hazi had been overcompensating since the beginning. And if anything happened to Hazi, without those fingers of the hand holding onto her reign for her while she finished growing just the palm, before she could start to grow real fingers who could do anything on their own, she absolutely depended on Hazi, the future and potentially millions, even billions of lives depended on Hazi, continuing to be the fingers.

So, Kat's requests had been answered, with support from the entire Jika race. Since Hazi was the first, but also the most important, and because of the fragile situation and especially because so much was riding on her success, Hazi was getting every enhancement, every upgrade possible. Because this was a Super Hive now. It needed a Super Dowager Mistress, and only Hazi could step up and do and be that.

It was absolutely needed, because when she was ‘saved’ when Queen Kai took over the hive from Hazi’s true mother, Hazi had been at the very last stage of development, only needing the codes so her body could make eggs and had already gotten half of the codes to take on any hive mind as a queen, before the process was stopped by her predecessor and she had been ripped out of that cell and put into a ‘nursery drone’ cell. She was a true princess, only two processes away from being a fully realized queen herself. 

That’s why this wait didn’t make sense. She was the most advanced out of everyone in her own ‘batch’ of princesses that ‘had a career change’. This should have been easy, it should have been quick because she already had the best foundation and had built herself up from there to be truly great. This was like adding just one more level to a skyscraper that was already built and engineered to be magnificently tall. 

So when they looked at how and in what order the various protocols, procedures and enhancement were placed, they were already organized perfectly and would be done in the best sequence possible, because Hazi had ordered them that way, they practically perfect in design and implementation to that point. 

However, there were only so many protocols, procedures and enhancements one could do simultaneously, but those were set to be done at the end of the sequence. Because most of them needed to be the one and only protocol being processed at a time because they were very complex and needed to be done in the very strict order of processess in each protocol. The first were the most important, and would be pivitol for all others, and that was to expand, and rebuild and reinforce the basis, the foundation for everything else to be built on top of that.

The first three days had been basically been digging down, creating many layers of understructure, substructure, and basically build the greatest ‘vault’ mentally into the fortress that would be her mind. All of it was laying ground work. It wasn’t until halfway through the fourth day when all of that finished and then proceeded to build the framework in the strongest possible way and sense because it took that long just to build the foundations strong enough to support the structure on top, that's what had taken so long, but with so much to do and so much to build on top of that, it was absolutely necessary. But at the same time, it was those very same enhancements, protocols and processes in the substructure - that were the most important ones for Hazi to receive and have. The ones that she needed the most. 

Even Super Queen Kat, even as a Super Queen, would never get even half of this, because of the speed run, it meant that she had gotten the bare necessities as the call to take over a failing queen in one of the largest hives the jika had. She did have enough to take over the hive, it was the operating it, especially when the hive was so entreanched with the prettiest deathworld known in the universe- that she was struggling with and would have already failed if she had not had Hazi, even after she re-emerged from her own 'supplemental' re-incubation, so that she would quickly catch up to 'proper Super Queen status', she still lacked what every other Super Queen had, experience. Hazi had that experience, and with her help and guidance, Queen Kat could and would be ok.

So Kat had, before Hazi even entered the incubation cell, added Super Queen jelly in a ratio that Hazi's non super body could handle. And while the change in diet had helped move Hazi along to a degree, it helped her process faster, but only at a rate of about 10%-15%, not nearly the 50%-75% as was hoped for and projected to be by Kat, before she had reworked the math, and realized she had made a mathmatical error in putting in what she thought was the right numbers into the hive mind to run the calculations in the first place. Rookie, stupid, should have seen it and caught it mistake that Hazi would have caught if she had double checked Kat's work.

She always had before, but for this, Hazi had 'trusted' Kat to do it herself, on her own, she would need to be the Super Queen, handling everything on her own, even if that would only be while Hazi was in incubation. Hazi had even ran a 'test run' to see if Kat could get through hours, then a shift, then a day, of Hazi doing absolutley nothing, Kat doing everything, giving advice and counsel only at first, the whole day test run, she wouldn't even give Kat that. All of it was so that Kat could prove to herself that she could do it, to build up Kat's confidence in herself, which she didn't realize was lacking so severely until she realized just how low it was, because once she accepted Hazi's help and kept things in Hazi's hands, while 'Kat grew up' a bit more on her own. Everything worked perfectly and it was like the Hive ran itself. But in truth, it was Hazi running the hive for Kat that was the reason for it running as perfectly as it did.

So far Kat had tried to put off making serious final decisions off for as long as she could, trying to wait for Hazi to come back. After the first three days, and only getting a 45% completion rate for the protocols and processes, Kat had to come to the terrifying realization that she would need to actually be the Super Queen she was supposed to be already, until further notice. She was doing her best, but, cracks were forming, processes were slower, and didn't get implimented or used in the most efficient or even 'correct' of ways. Kat now knew and felt true 'growing pains'.

But, the super queen jelly had meant that the groundwork that was already laid was done and done well and to the best, most perfect degree possible, and ensured that all future enhancements, procedures and protocols were given the same standard of perfection or as close to it as possible. It was just taking longer than anyone expected or had hoped for.

For Kilp, however, his job title was literally to be Hazi's Isthantari, to care for the Dowager Hive Mistress solely and compltely. But with Hazi still incubation, and technically not needing him, to try to keep some sense of sanity, sagacity even- Klip needed something, anything that would be something he could do, while not leaving the Royal Nursery Comb. 

So he spun and experimented with his own silk. He ate all kinds of things to turn his own silk into just about every shade and hue of every color in every spectrum they could see in, including ultraviolet and infrared. He made Hazi a huge wardrobe that needed an entire wall’s length of a closet to put it all in, often having Hazi’s sisters come and get the garments and take them to Hazi’s sanctum and put them away in an order that was pleasing, so that the colors would go from one end of the spectrums that they could see to the other end of the spectrum. It had only taken him two days to spin all of that, and thanks to Super Queen Kat giving Klip super queen jelly, such a feat that would take anyone else weeks and months, he had done in hours and days. He even spun his own silk extra thick so he could make a proper yarn, again in every shade and hue of every color across the spectrum, all so he could knit his own silk and make warm fuzzy socks, mittens, sweaters, hats, blankets, pillows. And that was in addition to spinning a brand new nest, for when she would emerge.

But he could only do so much with his own silk. And now, he had made a whole set of things in every hue and shade of each color. He had to remodel then rebuild a second space that was essentially storage for everything in the sanctum itself. He was now out of colors, out of spectrums, out of patterns, out of options to try to distract himself while he waited for Hazi to be done. that had only taken hours. It had only been enough of a distraction to last him half a day, not even a full 8 hour shift. It had only taken 6 hours. That left him to pace and obsess over Hazi again.

Every minute of every hour feeling more and more like torture as he got more and more restless. Which was why the other consorts and super consorts and Hazi’s sisters had now resorting to stuffing him into the cell next to Hazi and forcibly put him to sleep so he could sleep at night and actually get restorative sleep. It was practically the same thing as a kid getting shoved into their locker. But instead of it being a bully tactic, it was done to save Klip from over-expanding himself and push himself to a degree that even he couldn’t recover from and would shorten his own lifespan too. They had to resort to pushing him into a cell to sleep starting from night three, because the previous nights, he had been able to sleep on a simple cot, right in front of Hazi’s cell and sleep long enough and well enough to function.

But now? He fought rest and the inability to keep his eyes on Hazi and her progress with a ferocity to a higher, more intensive degree than any other jika in any form of military who were always the most intense of the jika as a species. Even Jago, the Grand General and Admiral of the entire jika military wasn’t this intense, and he had been the most intense jika Klip had known previously. Until this happened and he found he only needed the right motivation to find all the power and engergy he needed to maintain this intensity. Even Jago had a really hard time to get Klip to stand down. Klip had practically turned feral towards anyone who wasn’t Super Queen Kat herself, because she was still his reigning queen and the only one who had absolute power and control over the hive itself, and over every jika in said hive, including him, and even then, he would hesitate and try to make excuses and try every trick he knew to get himself out of obedience, but to no avail. It had been her order to make him rest in an incubation cell, to force him to sleep. But even she had to physically guide him and had to keep a hand on his chest so he wouldn't try to bolt out of that cell before they could shut the cell door.

Because the progress of Hazi’s enhancement felt like it was going at a glacial pace, Klip and everyone else feared the process would get stuck on something and therefore would leave Hazi stuck in that incubation cell for even longer, even permanently, like a coma. Or he feared that this process would have something, anything that would corrupt the data, corrupt the processes and Hazi would either die, slip into a coma she would never wake up from and practically have to be entombed in that damn incubation cell. Or, it would and could destroy her as the person she was, or she would come out, and have no memories of him, of anyone. Because amnesia was still a thing. Granted it really only happened to the very elderly, when their minds would fragment, their bodies soon followed. He worried that this process would take away all of her individuality and her personality, and as much as the past hurt, it had also made her into the woman she was now, or at least, the woman she was before stepping into that cell. He legitimately feared that something bad would happen and she would go into the incubation cell as Hazi and leave it as someone or something else. And that everyone, especially him, would lose the Hazi they knew and loved. That the Hazi they knew and loved, wouldn’t survive this kind of overhauled, restorative, and enhancing processes and protocols. 

Klip just wanted his Hazi back. 

He would give anything, do anything, just to have her come out of that cell as the same Hazi she went into it as, but fully healed, fully whole, fully restored- the way she should have always been.  

That’s all. 

That’s all he wanted.

His Hazi, alive and well and safe and cared for and happy. Because she made him happy. He wanted to make her happy in return. She loved him, just as much as he loved her and now that he knew the greatest joy and delight in the universe that was to have full and complete love reciprocated, and mirrored back, something that across the entire race, so very few got to enjoy. But for all that she had survived and endured, it was owed to her, by the forces of the cosmos, by Fate, by Karma, by any sense of right, and justice, by any and every deity there was. If there was something, anything, she deserved most beyond the respect her position was owed, it was to be happy, perfectly whole and complete. She deserved to be safe, loved and cared for. It was perfectly reasonable and logical.

Or so, he felt. 

Plus, to have the other unmated consorts also getting ‘private Isthantaries' themselves, which when he first heard of the concept- made no sense to him or anyone else in the super batch that came with him.

Oh, but seeing it and experiencing it first hand? Oh, they were onto something great. The greatest gift, the greatest pleasure and delight, the greatest experience in the cosmos. Something to be treasured and protected and practiced and revered and enjoyed to the full. 

To have your one and only Isthantari and have the other see and treat you the same way so that you were theirs as well?  For them to have you as their one and only Isthantari in return? It was practically divine. She was his Isthantari, and he wished he knew of another name, another term, another word- that had more gravitas and more…intense feeling than that. Isthantari still only meant- One I am devoted to for life. And while he was absolutely devoted to her, there was so much more than just that one thing. 

He was in love with her. He loved her wholly and completely, before all else. He was loyal to her, respected her, revered her, treasured her as the priceless treasure she was. She was absolutely precious, she needed to be treated with the utmost care and given every respect for surviving, for persevering, for still giving her all to a hive, who used to be ruled by a queen who murdered her own sisters. He didn’t know what to do or how to help heal or restore that kind of deep psychological and biological wound. She wore the scars to that, with a dignity that no other jika, male or female, royal or otherwise could ever dream or hope to have. 

And experiencing this, now he felt so much sympathy and empathy for when other people waited while a loved one was in surgery and they were helpless to do anything but wait. Because, this was the jika equivalent of that. And it was torturous. How had the natives to Earth, dealt with this? To the point that it was seen as something that would eventually happen to them, that either they or a loved one was either going to have an accident or an injury or even develop growths or experienced organ failure or literally any other thing you would need surgery for. And treat it with a 'yeah it's stressful when you're in it but you get through it'. He didn't think he was going to get through this. Not when his Hazi was the one on the line.

He was truly humbled, having such a divine being as her, like him, care for him, value him, adore him, admire him, dignify him, respect him, love him, to a degree he would have never known could exist, or even think of or even imagine. He had never been treated with grace and patience before, but yet, when she did all of that, showed all that to him? Was so much more than he could have imagined or fathomed. He felt he was inept trying to reciprocate all of it- to the degree he felt she deserved, a degree already much higher than any other in existence, to the point even Hazi had to urge him to tone it down because it was too much for her to handle and was overwhelmed trying to accept it all. But still, he felt more was owed to her because she made him feel all the ways and senses possible, like he was especially special. She had always treated him as the individual he was. Something that no other queen, super or otherwise could ever or would ever do for their consorts, mated or otherwise. Even as “replaceable” as he felt, how every royal consort felt. She was irreplaceable, she was the only one in the universe like herself. Truly, one of a kind. But yet, she treated him as if he was just as singularly precious as she was. 

He didn’t feel worthy of the wonder that she was, let alone, the wonderful love she gave either, but he worked, every day to try, try to be worthy by being what she needed, what she wanted, which was for him to be himself, as she loved him. 

So here he was, pacing the royal comb, flicking his gaze over to the cell she was in every few seconds, just to make sure everything was ok. Because the seconds he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at the control panel, willing it to move faster. Willing it to finish up already. He just need to make absolutely sure that she was ok, she was safe, she was resting and being restored and then enhanced to a degree no other jika was, on an entire species scale. He also, just needed to make sure that all of this was working and that there was no interruptions to the process that would jeopardize the sequence or anything. 

He had watched, truly captivated on the first day as he saw the scars she received from the forced removal of her internal reproductive organs- the previous, now long since dead- Queen Kai had ordered and inflicted, that was a blanket punishment on her and her other true sisters, even when most were absolutely innocent of the reasons and charges she leveled at them. He got to watch as the scars truly heal and vanish, and the partial cave in on her abdomen had expanded and extended her abdomen again so that it looked like there had never been a trauma wound in the first place. The abdomen smoothed out as her body was able to rebuild itself to what it originally was. 

Maybe…

Hopefully… 

But that didn’t mean the scars it left on her heart and psyche would ever be healed, even though Klip would give or do anything for that to happen. He would have loved to get his hands on a time machine and go back in time to save her and her other sisters from the tyranny of Queen Kai before she unleashed her violent paranoia onto them. But alas, such things still remained a dream for many. Especially him. But while he couldn’t go back in time to spare her all that trauma, pain, heart ache and torture, he knew he could only ensure that in the present and into the future, such things would never be repeated, as long as the jika as a species, lived. He would treat her with all the love, loyalty and devotion she deserved, for the rest of his life. 

He did feel, however, that if anything ever happened to her, not only would he be devastated beyond repair, but the entire hive, the entire royal family would be too. It would feel like a bomb was detonated over the hive mind itself. They would be lost without her, and honestly, he did not want to live in a world, in any sense or reality without her presence in it.

But she did look peaceful in her rest in the incubation cell.

The last time she had gotten this much consecutive rest, she had overworked her body to the point of complete and utter exhaustion when Super Queen Kat first conquered this hive. Super Queen Kat, upon exiting her own re-incubation to fully develop, because the process had been rushed the first time, including everything that the super speed incubation had missed. 

Super Queen Kat, however, realized just how much harm Hazi, her Dowager Hive Mistress and her true sisters had endured, and Kat had apologized to Hazi and her true sisters several times over since. And this was the only way Kat and the rest of the royal batches, super or otherwise- had to try to make up for it. To help Hazi to become more whole herself, to try to reverse the previous injuries. 

“How is she doing?” Kat asked as she slipped into the Royal Nursery Comb, alone. Wanting and needing a break from her harem of consorts to focus solely and singularly on Hazi. 

“Still in stasis, only 3.1467% more processed than she was this morning. But, just looking at how she’s healed on the outside is manifest, whether or not she’ll heal internally or especially mentally and emotionally? Psychologically? No clue.” Klip answered, saying ‘no clue’ with a snarling venomous hiss as he stopped pacing and checked over the control panel again, trying to use the adage ‘a watched pot never boils’ to see if it worked. But to see where Hazi was in the overall process, only three quarters of way through. He had thought the first three days had been moving slow, this rate of progress was practically mocking him and everyone else.

“Well, Reverend Mother, did point out to me that because Hazi was and is older, and older bodies heal slower than younger ones. It’s practically a universal law of nature.” She supplied as she looked it over herself before she added a few more processed and procedures and protocols she had been given from the farther hives that were in the surrounding solar systems and galaxies, that hadn’t been tried because they hadn’t been known in this part of the universe, let alone, this galaxy and this solar system. And upon the entrance of the code, the protocol processor, that Hazi had specifically put in a set of perameters to read, examine and extrapolate all of the processes, especially the ones that may be added while she would be in the incubation cell and wouldn't be able to do herself. The system paused, for just a few seconds that felt like it's own small eternity as both Klip and Kat held their breath and prayed that it woudn't get stuck, and just put this protocol where it would need to go. Thankfully, the system came back and actually put this protocol in as the very next one it would implement.

“What did you just do?” Klip asked. 

“I gave her some rejuvenating protocols I got from quadrant 87 in the Bessemer Quadrant in the Qusark Galaxy. So that she will hopefully process faster if she gets to de-age and regain all or at least most of her youthful vigor. Plus, it should help and serve her that when she exits, physically, she’ll be as young as us, at least in body and form. But her mind will still retain all of her memories and her wisdom and personality thanks to the protocols and procedures that needed to be paired with the rejuvenating procedure and protocol, otherwise, she will literally regress to what she originally was at conception and birth, had she finished the programming stage as a princess before she would be a queen in stasis.” Kat explained. 

“You don’t think that’s too risky to even try? What if the other protocols and procedures don’t work and aren’t effective enough with the rejuvenation? What if she really does regress back? What will we do? How are we supposed to…?!” Klip started to spiral before Kat put her hands on his face, holding him still and make sure he was looking into her own eyes. 

“This exact protocol and procedure was repeated with those results 247 times in that area of space with the 123 hives who implemented it. It’s been tried, tested and already proved true and perfectly effective. I would never try anything less than what is absolutely certain and at the very least, tried and true with repeatable and fully replicated results. The procedures and protocols will work, they will help. I promise, or at least, I am hopeful, and you should be too, it's been my most Hazi thing I've done so far.” Kat reassured him, using her best ‘Hazi tone’. The tone that Hazi always used when she was reassuring while explaining things to others as that helped Klip calm back down. 

“Plus, she shortened her own lifespan to make my reign a complete success. Not to mention the injuries and trauma Queen Kai inflicted on her. The least I can do is try to heal the hurt and injuries, while also extending her life for as long as possible, so that not only will that deficit be corrected, but reversed so that she’ll actually live much longer.” Kat murmured. 

“Hopefully.” Klip allowed. 

“Hopefully.” Kat nodded in agreement, knowing that was as far as she would get with him right now. 

“I’m not doing all of this just because she’s the Dowager Hive Mistress, which will also help her with her duties as such. But because she’s been my first real friend, and I love her like a sister, because for all intents and purposes, she practically is my big sister, always looking out for me, and I want the best for her, the same way she wants the best for me and everyone else, especially for you. She’s sacrificed so much for this hive, for it to remain at peace, both for my predecessor and for me, for us. It’s time those sacrifices pay off and what she’s given, is returned to her, at least a hundred fold. I’m supposed to be a full fledged adult queen, but I still need her and I especially want her guidance, friendship and support and comfort. All of my own intelligence has been programmed into me. But she’s had experience- who was a much better teacher than any other, even when it came at great personal cost to her.” Kat murmured quietly as she withdrew her hands from his face before she sat down on the seat in front of the cell itself as she continued to comb over the various processes and protocols that were sent and communicated to her from all over the universe. Just to make sure nothing was missed. 

“She’s lucky to have you as a friend.” Klip offered before he sat down in a chair next to her as he fidgeted with his hands, staring at Hazi in that cell, resting, while also going through her own metamorphosis. 

“No, I’m the lucky one to have her as a friend. There is no one like her in all of the Jika. I know because I’ve looked. There’s only a handful of Dowager Hive Mistresses. And they’re nothing like her. Because they lack genuine care, kindness, gentleness, insight, discernment and most of all- that self sacrificing spirit. That’s what makes her the one of a kind she is. And I can’t imagine ever doing this without her. Because if an accident were to occur and we lose her?  We’ll all be lost. We would try to stay the course she has laid down but without her guidance, reading the path through the present to the future, and seeing all the curves and bends and obstacles in the way and steer us around them so that we pass without incident. Only she could ever do such a thing, and I feel like we would crash and break apart when and if we ever were to meet those obstacles. I feel like I need to have Kit’s face pattern put on her face, so that everyone would listen and obey any order she would give, or at the very least, make the queenly pattern that’s already there, even as faded as it’s been, fully restored.” She mused. 

“She specifically asked you not to do that, because she never wants anyone to be confused about who the real queen of the hive is, much less put the hive as a whole into chaos, just in case anyone would think she should be the rightful queen right now and in the future.” Klip reminded her. 

“I know. That’s why I’ll respect her wishes, because I respect her and her opinion and her own autonomy. And her wisdom, because she’s right, if I did restore the pattern, it would throw the hive into chaos. Which can’t and shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Even if I feel the hive would do so much better if it was under her rulership. She would have made the best queen the Jika could have ever seen.” Kat sighed.

“And yet being queen is the one thing she’s never wanted to be, either now or in the future.” Klip offered as the corner of his mouth quirked up in a lopsided grin. 

“Oh I know, it’s completely ironic. And here I am as a Super Queen and yet, there are days I don’t want to be. Where I don’t even want to leave my nest, because outside of it, comes all the decisions and the mental workload of maintaining the hive and the hive mind. And it’s a burden I still don’t feel strong enough to carry on my own.” Kat confessed, knowing Klilp would keep such truths in complete confidence. 

“That’s understandable.” Klip sympathized. 

“Thank you. I feel like if I say those words out loud to anyone but you or Hazi, I’ll be overthrown- myself.” Kat murmured quietly. 

“They would be welcome to try. But you do technically have a harem three times bigger than any other queen, super or otherwise. And the Hive Mind is locked into you and you alone for now, until your own princess would rightfully take over the hive from you. Plus, our military force is also at least three times bigger than any other hive as well, and each soldier is stronger, tougher, more educated, better trained than any other. I mean, just look at Jago, he has more spikes than me or any other super consort. And he has more types of venom than any other jika in the species do too. He’s practically a military specialist.” Klip offered. 

“And we’re all still practically scared shitless of him.” Kat muttered under her breath before Klip erupted in a small laugh as she snickered and then started to giggle. 

“You’re preachin’ to the choir on that one. But yet, even as terrifying he is, Hazi can still cut him down to size if he ever gets an ego bigger than it should be. She doesn’t even have to say anything, just a look can express volumes instantly. And at the same time I understand why Jago and the others are so protective of her. Because not only does she do so much, but she means and matters so much too.” Klip returned, in a soft murmur. 

“She does. Her value as not just a Dowager Hive Mistress, but her as a person especially.” Kat agreed before they simply sat in silence for a moment once Kat had gone through every protocol and procedure and upgrade there was and could now simply wait for the processes to finish on Hazi, because Hazi already had the best versions of these either done or in the cue.

“Thank you.” Kat murmured softly. 

“For what?” Klip asked. 

“For loving her, for taking care of her, for protecting her, for all the things you do for her, whether or not anyone else would ever learn or see or notice, but her. I’m so relieved that you and her are your own Isthantaries. And that she is so happy and content with just you, as you are happy and content with just her, as she is. You both protect each other, in so many ways, in every way. You treat each other as equals. Something that for us, is unheard of overall, but I see every day in all the consorts from Kai’s batch, how happy they are with their private Isthantaries too. And it makes me happy that they’re happy, fulfilled and content.” Kat answered. 

“Are you jealous or envious of that?” Klip asked thoughtfully. 

“Yes and no. I’m relieved that I don’t have to go through the process of finding my Isthantaries, they come to me. And Kit Prime might as well be my own mostly private Isthantari. But I’m sometimes envious of the simplicity of the others. But then I remind myself of what Hazi has told me and reminded me many times. That ‘no one can be me, but me. Because if I try to be someone else, who would be me? What hole in the natural order of things would my absence be?’ But at the same time, if we lose her, it wouldn’t be just a hole in the natural order, it would be a black hole none of us would ever escape from.” She answered softly, so that only Klip would hear her. 

“I couldn’t agree more.” He offered before there was a jump in the processing which made them both jump, their bodies moving reflexively and gasp and focus on the control panel, thanks to that rejuvenation procedure and protocol, 3% quickly became 30% of the total that was left on the sequence, because it made the process more like handing stacks of paper instead of a single page at a time as suddenly, not only did she reach the rate of the others in her sister group, it outpaced them, it was now moving at the rate that Klip had moved at before it jumped again, now it was moving at a rate that was halfway between the rate Kat moved at and what Klip had moved at, which considering she wasn't a Super, was practically miraculous, as it was now practically moving volumes at a time over the neural bridge because now it had the foundation to build a bridge large enough and wide enough to do so, because apparently, those rejuvination protocols had affected the cell and the system itself too as it was already uploading them to every cell's system within the Royal Comb.  

“Oh thank the primordial pool.” Klip sighed in relief. Now, instead of the process just taking it’s dear sweet time, now they had a timer, for when she would be done, the very next morning, only an hour past the usual time most woke up and ate breakfast and went about their duties for the day. 

“Finally!” Kat nearly sobbed, if she could cry with these compound eyes as she slipped from the seat to the floor to kneel on the floor and clutch at her own chest, feeling like she could finally fully breathe again. Like the weight of a planet was just lifted off her chest and shoulders. 

“She’s going to be ok! She’s going to be back with us in just a matter of hours!” She beamed in relief before she used the Hive Mind to inform the entire Royal Family who practically swarmed the Royal Nursery Comb to see for themselves as they all cheered and were overjoyed to see it themselves. Finally, the most important piece of this puzzle was about to be put back in and make the entire Royal Family complete once more.

Day 5

Sex Pollen 

Yarthi + Amaryllis = One hell of a Love Potion in a Sex Pollen. 

“Good morning Tanja. I’m here to pick up the flower arrangements for the Royal Nursery Executives and the Dowager Hive Mistress Hazi on Jazine Prime?” Klip offered to Tanja at the flower shop, the minute it openned, complete with all the flower vases for all of the arrangements as he unloaded them from his special carrying case and then put them all over the counter. 

“Yes, they just came in.” Tanja answered cheerfully as she took the flowers from the cooler and began putting the special arrangements into the vases that she knew by now- belonged to each of the Royal Nursery Executives by name and who’s vase was who’s- while she also knew that he got two arrangements of flowers for one in particular- one named Hazi, who was the Dowager Hive Mistress. Jago explained it to Tanja, who and what she was. 

Then she got to meet them in person and instantly began to hope that Hazi and Klip would get together, because it was clear to Tanja and just about everyone else that Klip loved and adored her. He had even gone to the glass bead shop and had commissioned a special vase just for Hazi’s flowers in her favorite colors and styles and almost everyone thought it was a “venetian vase”, but no, he had commissioned it locally, but had used several of those as inspiration for the vase itself. 

The flower arrangements themselves, for all of the Royal Nursery Executives, including Hazi, were usually ordered and prepared by Jago who intended for them to eat the arrangement and gain the components, namely, extra venoms for their own ability to protect themselves. 

And then there were the ones, added to the “base arrangement” that the other Super Consorts would order for each Nursery Executive who were their own personal sweetheart and personal Isthantaris, to be added to the flower arrangement, from the Super Consorts, with each flower having a meaning more than a purpose. 

But non moreso than Klip, who insisted on putting it together himself, every day she was open. He would make an extra large arrangement just for Hazi himself that would mean something extra special, more special than all the others, but also to be aesthetically- very pleasing, smell amazing, and would hopefully be more delicious or nutritious for Hazi than what Jago ordered. Just anything that wasn’t poppy flowers. The ancestors knew that Hazi had more than enough concentrated morphine from the poppies to put the entire hive to sleep with just a single injection of her venom into the drone jelly supply, not to mention the other jelly supplies too.  

“So, I’ve gotten some new flowers in from Atlas.” Tanja noted to Klip since he always picked up the already prepared arrangements for all the Royal Nursery Executives as he was already heading straight for the amaryllises she pointed to the special “tower” of buckets for them near the front where she kept all the other off world fowers. 

“I see.” Klip grinned as he immediately came over to look them over as she took a special watering can to fill the vases with enough water to last them throughout the day. 

Klip looked over the flowers and was delighted when she had some from all over the universe and even some universes beyond. 

“Has Jago warned you about this one?” He asked as he held up one of them in particular from the bucket as he inspected the pretty bloom.

“No, the yarthi flowers just got delivered this morning, right before you came and after he left for work, I just put them into that bucket less than a minute before you came in through the door.” She shook her head no. 

“Will it cause an allergic reaction in people here?” She asked worriedly as she checked her arms to make sure she wasn’t breaking out from handling them. There wasn’t any warnings on them when she did order them. They were just known in the universe as “the love flower” so she knew she had to have it in her shop. 

“Not an allergic reaction, but it will have something of a love potion effect." Klip delicately informed her. 

“Really?” Tanja asked, intrigued and elated by that news as she finished with the others and came over to stand next to him and looked at it with much more eager eyes now. 

“Yes, this flower is called the yarthi flower, it contains a compound in the pollen, that mimics sex hormones. For humans and others who dedicate an entire nerve to their olfactory sense, it’ll have an aphrodisiac effect.” He noted. 

“So, they have sex pollen, basically. In that case, you need several of them for Hazi.” She grinned mischievously. 

“No, they do not work that way on Jika, they’re no different to Jika than orchids are to people here.” He shook his head no. 

“Hey, vanilla comes from orchids and vanilla does all kinds of things to people.” She reminded him. 

“Does the yarthi flower have a meaning to the jika? Because in the catalog it said it was ‘the love flower’.” She asked hopefully. 

“To Jika? Not really, no.” He shook his head no which made her pout in disappointment. 

“Well they’re still pretty, and you should at least put one in the arrangement for Hazi, purely for aesthetic purposes.” She shrugged but her grin stayed scheming as she picked out other blooms from the different towers before she paired it with other flowers in the shop to make the flowers both smell and look great. The arrangement was, as always, twice as big and beautiful as all the others, and, thanks to “aesthetic” she was able to put four more of the “sex pollen” flowers in the arrangement in a star formation, while showcasing the biggest and most beautiful flower in the shop that day in the middle the best amaryllis’, the center being a deep red color. That set off the other colors in the bouquet and all together, they looked amazing and smelled spectacular.  

Klip paid for the custom arrangement since Jago had already paid for all the other base flowers while the other Super Consorts already prepaid for their arrangements too that were done online. 

But Klip liked to be hands on. Which Tanja loved. But, what Klip paid for this special arrangement was nearly equal to all the others combined because of what she had put with it, remembering everything Jago had told her about the other interstellar flowers when combined with the native earth ones so far, and hopefully, with these new bonafide “sex pollen” flowers, it was going to ensure that Klip and Hazi would hopefully get together and fuck each other’s brains out by the end of the day at the latest. They were still the best blooms in the shop that she had put out that morning, which is what Klip liked to have for Hazi. And Klip paid for them without a moment of hesitation. To him, they were an investment. Because, every flower arrangement he did get for Hazi, did help grow her affections, at least a little lit bit, that he had noticed. Because it was something she could look at and enjoy, all day, every day while she worked on Kat and Kit. 

“So? How is everything coming along with Kit?” Tanja asked as she helped him load up the flower arrangements into the special carrying case. 

“Everything is coming along very well, according to Hazi. Both he and Kat will be waking up from incubation today.” He answered, his nervousness began to sneak into his tone. 

“Oh good, are you nervous?” She asked as she put the last of them in and then zipped the carrying case closed. 

“Yup.” He nodded. 

“Worried that Kat will wake up and want you over Kit?” Tanja asked in a low murmur. 

“Yup. Or that Kit will wake up and want Hazi instead of Kat.” He added as he smoothed out his own fur and wings and double checked his wings and especially his stinger, just in case he needed to use it to protect Hazi from Kit as he noticed he had a ton of pollen on him as he tried to brush it off but all it did was sink deeper into his own soft, fine fur that was over his chest that his exterior exo skeleton had retreated to show.  

“Well, in that case, we should definitely put together a second arrangement for Super Queen Kat and Super Consort Kit then to really make them fall in love with each other once they both wake up. So that they’re too busy with each other so you and Hazi are left to enjoy each other’s company.” Tanja offered as Klip kicked himself for not thinking of that himself. 

“Yes! That’s exactly what I need! Thank you!” He thanked her eagerly as he immediately took the rest of the sex pollen flowers out of the tub.  

“Plus, I would hate for Super Queen Kat to see Hazi’s bouquet and commandeer it. So we should make it twice as big. Do you have enough to make a second? Or any more of these in the back?” Klip desperately asked since he had put Hazi’s in the middle of the carrying case, so that, should all the others get destroyed or bumped or bruised, hers would remain perfect and undamaged, so that would men, he would have to carry this one by hand. But that didn’t matter to him, he’d spin a jika silk carrying case just for it, just to keep it safe, just for Kat and Kit to keep Hazi safe. 

They quickly left the others in the carrying case on the counter- to quickly make a second one as he and Tanja went to the cooler and grabbed everything they could, even from the buckets as she took all the damaged and imperfect ones and still put them in the bucket out in front and discounted them since they were a little damaged but still effective. 

But this new arrangement for Kat and Kit was bigger and grander than Hazi’s. just in case as he took all that he found pleasing and all the flowers that Tanja put in his hands as she paired the flowers ‘with their mates’ so to speak before the bouquet was so large, he needed all four arms to carry it. 

“There, we should arrange it now.” Tanja insisted as she took her largest vase, just for this kind of arrangement and in record time, arranged it to both be pleasing, but also, be ‘a knock out’ in an it’s intent.

No-one with a nose should be able to resist this bouquet. 

“You still have pollen all over you.” Tanja noted to Klip once she was done and Klip had tried to brush it all off but hadn’t quite gotten it all or managed to just break the pollen up so that it fell deep into his fur and couldn’t be removed through a regular brush. 

“I will need to bathe.” He noted. 

“If you have time.” She noted before he had to look at the time.

“Shit, I don’t have time. They’re waking up in just a few minutes!” Klip realized in a bit of horror as he quickly tried to get himself together but took a moment once he was done to look at the arrangement. 

“Do you think they’ll like it?” Tanja asked hopefully. 

“They should love it, it’s obnoxious, just like Kit.” He declared when he looked at it’s overwhelming colors and fragrances as Tanja bust up laughing as she rang it all in before he bought that one too.

Then Jago came back to the shop, who stopped in his tracks to stare at the arrangement and looked worriedly from the arrangement to Klip to Tanja, who was blushing and giggling salaciously. 

“Hey, what do you think of the arrangement that Klip made for Super Queen Kat and Super Consort Kit? They’re supposed to get out of the incubation cells today right?” Tanja asked him with a bright, giddy smile as she came between Jago and Klip who was trying to balance this enormous bouquet with the handle for all the others dangling below it. before Jago’s fears were then allayed as quickly as they had formed, since he worried that Klip had made that for Hazi. 

“It’s perfect for Super Queen Kat and Super Consort Kit, and no others.” Jago nodded with a pointed look to Klip whose wings lowered just a hair.  

“Make sure no one else but Kat and Kit will smell those. The way they have been arranged, they have aphrodisiac effects. Only Super Queen Kat and Super Consort Kit should smell those, anyone else will be in danger, including yourself, you’d try to fuck anything even remotely like Hazi to death if you inhale too much from that.” He told Klip in their native dialect as he helped make a special cover over the blooms themselves so that their pollen would not affect anyone else and even unzipped the cover for the carrying case and sprayed a cover over all of those as well, without looking too closely at them, before Jago sent Klip to deliver them. 

“Yes Sir.” Klip had to answer, grateful that Jago had not seen the arrangement for Hazi in the case. But Jago was smart enough to know that if Klip knew about the yarthri blooms, enough to put over a dozen of them into the arrangement, he could have put at least one or a few into Hazi’s too, before he left. 

“Why did you order those particular yarthi blooms?” He asked Tanja in German once Klip left. 

“I didn’t know the yarthi flowers had sex pollen when I did! But I’m glad I did.” She giggled as she pulled him down to kiss her, since being that close certainly had that effect on her. 

“I’m gonna order at least twice as many from now on and sell them from here.” She cooed as she flipped the sign to closed for a minute as she put the left over, damaged yarthi flowers in her refrigerator case, getting a good lung full herself and letting the pollen affect her even more and pulled him to the back of the shop to fuck her right on her work bench in the back. 

“But you will not get any work done with that many flowers having this effect on you.” He managed to say as he still happily stripped her clothes off of her all the same before he buried himself to the knot in her, really easily for how much she was aroused. 

“It’s not effecting me that badly, I just put them in the case to protect myself and everyone else. I just like the excuse to have sex with you. And I think it will be the perfect excuse if Kat and Kit get together and start mating immediately. With the best bonus of Hazi and Klip get to finally get together too. I’ve been shipping them so hard ever since you told me about them and ever since we went out with them and especially ever since he’s been coming to get those flowers for her himself.” She admitted before she wrapped her lips about his royal jelly duct and began sucking vigorously. 

“But when you paired them with the flowers you did from earth, especially the amaryllis’ they enhanced their effects.” Jago managed to inform her as he pistoned several strokes into her. 

“Good.” She managed to smile around her mouthful of jelly before she swallowed and went back to sucking more from the duct as she was happy to succumb to such “pollen”. 

Once he knew she was close, he lifted her off the bench and with one last thrust up while letting her own body weight pull her down, he seated the knot in and smiled when they both orgasmed in sync as her legs clamped around his own pinched waist while his cock spurted all the seed it had into her while he felt like, the blooms had even perhaps affected him too as he had already mentally warned Hazi about the blooms that Klip was bringing in- because Jago could sense Klip’s intentions with those, without the Hive Mind telling him a thing. 

Meanwhile back on the ship, once Klip had dropped off all the other flowers to all the other Royal Nursery Executives, he tried to slip the flowers to Hazi’s desk in the Royal Comb while she continued to sit at the cell where Kat and Kit were still in incubation and checked on all the processes as they began to finish, making sure they would all cycle down together and in sync but while she allowed him to put the flowers on her desk, she used the hive mind to tell him ‘to keep the cover on them, and if he couldn’t do that, to throw them away’. 

Great, Jago the isth-blocker strikes again. Because Jago was by now, larger and more impressive and had more spikes, more stingers, more venom, than any other General in Jika history. More than even the Super Consorts. The man was a damn walking legend and how little Tanja managed to win him over was a wonder of the universe to Klip and the others.

Jago was better than Klip and the other Super Consorts, like the General of the entire Military needed to be to any more intimidating even more than he and his army already were. If anyone thought that the Super Consorts were scary, Jago was terrifying. To everyone except his Isthantari. 

But there was only one person in whole hive who wasn’t intimidated by him, Hazi, she respected him and his opinion, especially his formal, professional one. But when it came to her personal life and her relationship with Klip, only she could tell him to back off and back down and he obeyed. 

But Klip swallowed it down and instead tried to focus on Hazi in the moment. 

“So is Kit still on schedule?” He asked after he simply let the flowers be, wrapped in a semi translucent cover of special jika silk, and folded the carrying case and put it away, in it’s spot under her desk before taking the arrangement for Kit and Kat and wondered where to put them as he looked around the hive. 

“He is, as is Kat.” Hazi answered as she pulled up all the dials onto one screen, to make sure both of them were moving on schedule, she wanted Kat to wake up first to make her decisions about Kit before she would wake up Kit. 

“For the love of the Hive, don’t take the cover off of any of those flowers though. Kat needs to make sure that Kit is really Kit first and choose him on her own without the sex pollen in those flowers affecting her ability to make that decision. I would hate for those flowers to induce her to make a mistake she’d live with for the rest of her life. I appreciate the thought and effort though for Kat and Kit.” Hazi urged him without even looking at them. 

“If he’s even a fraction of annoying and obnoxious- then you will have succeeded.” Klip muttered before he set it on the bar where the royal jelly was. 

“However, if it’s successful, I’ve tried earth's candybar, Kitkat. It does sound better in English than Kat and Kit, so we could always call them that, don’t the people here have ways of joining names, like Brangelina or something?” He offered which got her to snort a giggle.

“We could, if it ends up working out, I think Kat will love Kitkat to refer to them, but that’s best case scenario. Worst case scenario is she wakes up and hates his guts because of what’s written on his face.” Hazi admitted. 

“Yup.” He had to agree because to voice his other concerns would only put her into more worry and he needed her more calm, at least, more calm than he felt right now. 

The countdown to Super Queen Kat about to wake up had Klip about ready to throw up from anxiety or fly himself and Hazi to a ship and take them far, far away, anywhere but here. But just one of Hazi’s hands, urging his hands to unclench as he sat beside her to hold his hand, had him reconsidering it. 

“It will be ok. Quit fearing the worst, that’s my job.” Hazi soothed in a low, calm murmur with a hint of teasing. 

“I love you too much to lose you to Kat, or Kit or anyone else.” Klip confessed and if the man could cry he would have been bawling before she stopped what she was doing and paused the processes to embrace him. 

“Stay here with me. Not just here in the hive but here in this moment with me. Because right now is all we have, and it’s all we need.” She urged him as he hugged her as tight as he dared as all of his spikes softened to mush because she was the queen of his mind and heart before she kissed him. No sex pollen or love potions needed but stopped him before he could isth with her. 

“You’re not gonna lose me. You know why?” She asked. 

“Because you’re the smartest being in the universe and you’ve figured out a way to make sure that Kat falls in love with Kit and no one else?” He hoped. 

“No. Because I know you and I know myself, but most of all, I know Kat. You have already worked out thousands of ways for us to work. When all we’ve ever needed was one. The only right one there is. And that is Kat. And Kat is most likely going to put us on it anyway because she loves us. She loves me as a sister and the best friend she has. She loves you as a big brother and a friend, not as a consort to herself. And Kat is the kind of person who wants her friends to be happy. So we’ve already waited, now it’s our chance to see. But just to be safe, I need you out of the comb.” She urged as she gently guided him towards the door. 

“Hell no, I’m not going anywhere, not now, not ever, I’m never going to leave you for any reason.” He insisted. 

“Fine, then get under the desk. You have enough sex pollen on you from the flower shop to be a threat to Kat.” She insisted. 

“But not you right?” He asked worriedly. 

“No, it’s in small enough to not negatively affect me. But she’s still young and it could affect her.” She answered. 

“Oh shit, I didn’t realize. I should groom…” He remembered. 

“Don’t you dare, I’ll still need it if the next few minutes goes well. Just, either hide under my desk or stand outside the door.” She urged him. 

“Under your desk it is.” He decided before he went and folded himself neatly to fit under her desk and stay hidden before she resumed it as the whole hive seemed to hold their collective breath as the last few seconds counted down until Kat finished. 

“Well hello there, how did you sleep?” Hazi asked sweetly. 

“Oh thank the ancestors- it’s just you. I was afraid I was going to wake up to a whole hive.” Kat said in relief as she came out and hugged Hazi and just hugged and her and held onto her for much longer than normal as Hazi almost wondered if she was going to fall asleep on her. 

“You smell really nice.” Kat was able to say as she buried her face into Hazi’s now, much softer fur, thanks to all the conditioning treatments Klip had gotten for her and groomed into her during Kat’s incubation when Hazi had basically sequestered herself to the Royal Comb, and only left for very important matters. Like finding a proper dentist. Which she was ever so grateful for. Because her teeth were getting difficult to chew all those damn flowers Jago kept ordering for her. She felt like she needed a cud, like a livestock animal. 

“It’s from the flowers Klip got for you and Kit, should you still want him to be your consort. Some of the pollen got on him and he gave me a hug and so it got on me too.” Hazi revealed with a chuckle as she was happy to still hold her friend and pet her head and back and fur which soothed Kat considerably. 

“He loves you, so much. I can feel it in every fiber of the Hive Mind. If you don’t make him your Isthantari, I’m gonna put you in incubation to get your head out of wherever it is that you can’t see it, or feel it or whatever.” Kat playfully threatened with a giggle as she inhaled the myriad of scents in Hazi’s fur and loved her as her big sister and best friend even more. 

“Haha. Very funny, but then you'd have to run the hive by yourself.” Hazi mock laughed before they finally pulled apart.

"Yeah, ok. You called my bluff." Kat admitted.  

“Anyway, the flowers are over there, they’re still covered up because I didn’t want the pollen to affect you to the point of influencing any of your decisions, because Klip, unknowingly, at first, put them together just based on looks and scents without knowing about the combination of pollens, because he knew that yarthi flowers, that’s known throughout the universe as the ‘Love Flower’, we’re immune to it, but he didn’t know that if you pair with amaryllis, that it suddenly becomes effective.” Hazi informed her as Kat went over to the bouquet to appreciate it, even through the cover. 

“That was very sweet of him. But what I want to know about Kit. Is he ok?” Kat asked worriedly before she came back and sat in the same seat that Klip had occupied. 

“Yup, he’s made a full recovery. However, do you notice anything different about him?” Hazi asked before she raised the chairs so that they would be eye level with him. 

“Oh my ancestors! The pattern on his face! I never noticed…that it means ‘listen to me’? What a funny thing for the pattern to say. He was smart but not that smart, Klip was the smartest of the bunch.” Kat revealed. 

“Well, I obviously enhanced the pattern so you can see it and enhanced your brain to see it without it ever being enhanced to begin with, you’re smarter than me now.” Hazi informed Kat. 

“No. Not even close, you still have a lot more experience than I do.” Kat shook her head no with a smile as she looked at him affectionately and touched the cell over his face. 

“Kit is still as handsome as he ever was though.” Kat praised with a wistful sigh. 

“I’m happy you think so.” Hazi smiled happily before the smallest of dings indicated he was done as it was Kat’s turn to suddenly turn nervous. 

“Is he still gonna like me?” Kat suddenly asked as she reached out to grab all four of Hazi’s hands with all four of hers to keep Hazi from waking him up and opening up the cell. 

“He should.” Hazi offered before she handed Kat a mirror. 

“Oh my goodness! I didn’t realize that I had a pattern that meant something on my face too!” Kat giggled. 

“What does it say?” Hazi asked. 

“It says to love me…above all others, to obey me, that I’m the queen of…your heart. He…did he see this and just obey the pattern or…?” She asked self consciously as she put her hand to her cheek and part of her mandible. 

“From everything I’ve found? No. Because when you first came out of incubation, your own pattern wasn’t fully expressed yet. Do you want makeup to cover it back up? Just to see if it would have anything to do with him loving you now?” Hazi asked. 

“Please?” Kat asked. 

“Ok.” Hazi offered as she pulled out a makeup kit and pulled out a special powder and ever so gently puffed the powder onto Kat’s face, making her look like she had just come out of incubation again, only this time, practically a totally different person as Kat just did a few things to make sure she looked perfect. 

“Maybe I should go hug that bouquet.” She offered as Hazi took the time that she was preening in the mirror to get a wet brush and get all the sex pollen that Klip had unwittingly gotten on her, off of her so that Kit wouldn’t sense any on her, cause that would be disastrous. 

“Nope. You want Kit to love you for you? Now’s your chance. No patterns, no sex pollen to act like a love potion. Just the two of you. I’m gonna set a clock and then close off my office so it’s just the two of you in here ok? Or do you want me with you?” Hazi offered. 

“I need you with me. Just… just in case, just until…” Kat stuttered nervously. 

“It’s going to be ok. You’re Kat, he’s Kit, you two go together like Kitkat.” Hazi decided to borrow that line from Klip. 

“That’s been my favorite since all this started! Just because of the name!” Kat revealed. 

“Well, let’s make it more than a wish, or a fantasy, it was real once, it’ll be real again.” Hazi reassured her. 

“Ok, if not, can we put him back into incubation until it is?” Kat requested.  

“Sure. But, wouldn’t him loving you by his own free choice and his own free will mean more than if he was programed to?” Hazi asked. 

“It would.” Kat had to admit. 

“It’s gonna be ok. You’re both back to where you were when you were first out of incubation. Now it’s your turn to meet him right out of incubation.” Hazi gently turned Kat towards the cell but still held her hand for as long as she could before she needed them to shut off the program that kept him in stasis to open the door.

“Ok, ready? In five…four…three…two…one…” Hazi counted down and opened up the cell door which prompted Kit to wake up. 

“Hi Kit, do you remember me?” Kat asked as her hands wrung together anxiously. 

“My head would have to be removed and cut into a thousand pieces before it would ever forget you my Isthantari.” He reassured her as he stepped out of the cell, completely ignoring Hazi and stepped closer to Kat before he held her face in his hands. 

“Are you wearing exo powder? Why? You’re gorgeous just the way you are.” Kit noted as he went to wipe it off. 

“Wait, before you do, my pattern fully expressed and it…it’ll tell you to do something, promise me, you won’t do it because you have to.” Kat stopped him as her breathing rate started to increase as her anxiety rose.  

“I sincerely doubt it, come on, let’s get that off.” He offered as he used the super fine fur of his palms to wipe it off. 

“There you are, my fully realized Kat, in all your glory. You ready to be a Super Queen?” He asked, not changing a single thing about his tone, or his body language or his loving, adoring facial expression, which if Queen Kat could cry in happiness, she would have been bawling. 

“I already am, have been, for a while now. But I had to put you back into incubation because once we isthed the first time, your head caved in? And you turned really dumb? And I couldn’t…I couldn’t have you live like that. I loved you too much..I…” Kat tried to explain before he simply shook his head at her little spiral of words before he silenced her with a kiss as Hazi was nearly exploding in happiness that it was working as she backed away, closer and closer to her desk as she kept this moment private, just for Kat and Kit. They did not need the whole Hive or the Hive Mind’s input right now. 

Klip was breathing out a huge breath of relief, oh thank the ancestors, he was still a sappy romantic for Kat. That’s all that Klip had been hoping and praying for. 

“Thank you for bringing me back then.” Kit thanked her once they broke apart. 

“You’re welcome, also, thank you for coming back, just the way you are. I’ve been waiting so damn fucking long.” Kat confessed which got Klip, Hazi, Kit and Kat to all erupt into snickering laughter which finally made Kit realize that the two of them weren’t alone. 

“Who are you?” He asked Hazi. 

“Hi, I’m Hazi, I’m the Dowager Hive Mistress, which is just a fancy way of saying I’m the overseer for the Royal Comb specifically. That’s all. I can attest that Super Queen Kat has indeed been waiting a very long time just for this moment and we’re both relieved to have you back, just the way you were, or are rather.” Hazi finally came forward with an electronic clipboard to show she was just a drone to him and nothing more. 

“Oh, well then we have a lot of work to do to fill these cells huh?” He turned back to Kat who beamed and giggled and readily nodded in agreement. 

“Without your head caving in this time.” Kat insisted. 

“Perfect. Gotta have my all for my favorite girl in the universe.” Kit offered to Kat with a tantalizing kiss before pulling away again and turning his head slightly as his attentae twitched towards Klip’s direction.

“By the way, you can come out from under the desk now, Klip. I know that’s you under there. I’d recognize your heavy breathing from a thousand colonies away. I remember plenty about my time before re-incubation, but even if I didn't remember much, I would remember you had a thing for that one, so you get to have her, congrats on your little wallflower, but Kat’s all mine.” Kit insisted as Klip got out from under the desk. 

“Damn it Kit, I was trying to stay hidden to make this moment more romantic for you and Kat.” Klip clipped as he readily went over and got the damn huge, obnoxious bouquet and took the cover off and took it over to them. 

“Now will you please take this and her to the royal love nest and isth already?” Klip urged them, growing a little impatient. There was a declaration of love, of isthing, what more could there be?  

“You can carry the bouquet, my hands are full with this little firecracker.” Kit shrugged as he lifted Kat up and held all of her to himself before the two made out the whole way and even began to isth, right in the halls as Kat was overly eager to seat her new, larger, ready to handle his manhood into her as his cock slipped out of his abdomen for only a fraction of a second before Kat was fully and happily seated all the way onto it, even had the knot locked into place, as they made love, all the way to the Royal Love Nest before Klip put the bouquet down and fled the sanctum and shut and locked all the doors so that the two would not be interrupted as he raced towards Hazi and didn’t warn her just picked her up the same way and started kissing her. 

“Easy, easy, I don’t want to have our first time making love, be in a Royal Comb, on the hard floors, or the hard seats or that stupidly hard counter. I’d prefer a soft, warm nest, thank you very much.” Hazi smiled happily as she grabbed the bouquet of flowers, still with their cover on and finally let the whole Hive and the Hive Mind catch up the moment he got her to her own private, luxurious sanctum before she pulled the cover off of her flowers once they were set on her kitchen table. 

“Aww, I love this one. It’s my favorite flower in this world.” She cooed as she touched the amaryllis’ in the middle before he walked them over to her nest like bed that he had tried to secretly, covertly make bigger, fluffier, and more nest like, every time she was out of it, as he had slipped her official “Dowager Regalia” off the moment her door was shut and locked, so her body was bared to him as she was one of the few jika to wear clothes, usually only the females did, the males never needed to.  

“Really?” Klip asked as he reverently laid her down. 

“Only because you were the first and only one to get it for me, especially since I know you gave it to me because of what it means here, fyi, I love you too.” She cooed to him as she held his handsome face in her hands. 

“I love you more.” He professed as his cock finally got to spring free, it had been aching the whole time, being practically locked away in his abdomen in the Royal Comb. 

“You’ve already proved it.” She reassured him. 

“That’s the thing about the word ‘loving’ is it’s an active, continual action word.” He pointed out as he was practically spinning a cocoon around the two of them already as even his silk took on the aphrodisiac properties that the flowers had because walking that ridiculous bouquet for Kit and Kat, had him inhaling so much of it, his body was already using it. 

“Work is done, time to rest.” He insisted. 

“Love, then rest.” Hazi murmured and flipped them over and sank down over his extra large cock as it torturously slid into her since the flowers had their pollen had been working on her too and it had been nearly all her strength to keep her sex closed so that Kit wouldn’t smell it.

“I’m so relieved you didn’t make me too big.” He gasped once she was fully seated down and then locked in on the knot which caused them both to moan and keen in pleasure. 

“I took very precise measurements on myself to make sure it wouldn’t be too big.” She confessed. 

“You sly fox!” He laughed before he flipped them over, spinning more and more silk as he did so, pinning her down to rut into her to hit every pleasure spot that remained in her. 

“Hey, I am a very precise person. I had to make sure that if this possibility became our reality that it would work and be just as viable as any other.” She defended. 

“You know what you didn’t calculate?” Klip asked her. 

“What could it possibly be? Because your love for me, is barely contained within this universe. Just like mine is for you, it’s there, you just have to be you and only you to see it.” She said as she finally, fully opened up everything about her to him and he could have wept to see that all of his efforts, all his affections and acts had been met with equal amounts of…everything. And then some. Because he loved her for her first and foremost. And she- she loved him for him. She loved him so much for saving her life, for saving her sisters, for saving the last princesses, for so much more than just some flowers nearly every day. Everything he did that he had always thought went unnoticed, like the very nest they were lying on, she had noticed it, all of it, seen all of it, and it meant so much to her and she had matched it in ways he never saw, never noticed, until now. It was like seeing one piece of the puzzle, finally fitting into its place into the whole, complete thing. It was so big and expansive and it was in everything she did, to the point that he couldn’t tell where his love started or hers ended because with them joining, she finally mentally attached all of his to hers and it made up two halves of a whole. 

“There you are.” He whispered in awe. 

“The real, whole you. Why would ever hide such a wonder?” He asked in the softest murmur as he paused to sit up and just hold her beautiful face in his hands, he could see where the ‘love me above all others in her pattern on her face had faded, but it was there, he could still see it and he loved her even more without it being there at all. 

“Only you have earned the right to see it all. No one else ever has or ever will.” She whispered back before he kissed her with everything he had. 

“Then you leave me no choice, please, Hazi Jazine, will you be my one and only Isthantari?” He asked.

“Yes.” She smiled and kissed him even deeper before finally attaching her mouth to his royal jelly duct that was making a mess all over her chest as even his royal jelly had that aphrodisiac effects from the sex pollen from the amaryllis flower combined with the yarthi flower to make his royal jelly nearly lethally addictive. Nearly. Almost. But thankfully not. 

They took their time to love all of each other, as he built them a nest, the largest he could manage in this space and still be able to breathe. Where it was just the two of them, locked, grinding, writhing, rocking and rolling with each wave of each thrust, every explosion of pleasure. And while she had no eggs for him to fertilize, his cum still filled her with his love regardless until she was stuffed full, she tried to excrete the excess just to get more. They had each worked tirelessly towards this, just for this moment to show and make all the love they had for each other- for far too long. And she was taking her time enjoying it until neither of them had much left to give, he was out of cum and royal jelly and dangerously dehydrated before she cut them out to have him feed from the concentrate and then all the water he needed to rehydrate before finally resting to recover. 

“Worth the wait?” Hazi asked as he practically chugged that water as he nodded while he continued to chug while he gave her a searing look.