//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Exposing the Truth // Story: The Queen's New World // by Moon_Skritch //------------------------------// Chapter 8 Exposing the Truth Where am I? It’s so cold…Did Doppel escape in time? Xena opens her eyes and immediately winces at the blinding light glowing across her face. As her vision adjusts to the light, she can make out her captors. The humans start to speak to one another as she flicks her ears to hear more clearly. “It looks very weak, and it’s getting weaker by the minute,” one of them say as he puts a few patches with wires coming from it on to Xena. Another come with a needle and she tries to squirm away. “Shh, shh, don’t worry, it’ll only hurt for a sec. We just need a blood sample.” The needle touches her chitin and stops, he puts more pressure on it, but no progress. “I can’t pierce the skin. Is that even skin?” He taps on it. “Hmm, some kind of shell. I don’t want to damage it.         One of the agents walks up to the table and jerks the needle out of the scientist’s hand. He raises it above his head and jams into Xena’s chitin as a small yelp slips out from her. “There, that wasn’t so hard.” “Where’s Doppel…?” she asks quietly then passes out. “Who’s Doppel?” One of them ask. “What?” The scientist glanced up from the monitor. “Doppel. It just said something about someone named Doppel,” the agent points at the changeling. “Don’t worry about it right now, it’s asleep. We need to let it rest. The boss told us to take care of it, not kill it or drive it to exhaustion.” “We need to go. Now!” Claude says as he rushes off to flag down the waitress. He grabs a twenty out of his wallet and places it in her hand. “I’m sorry, but something came up. Here is some money for the drinks and the trouble. Keep whatever change there is.” “Oh… well, okay then. Hope everything is okay,” she says as she takes the bill. He nods his head and runs to Chrysalis and Tim again. I hope so too. “Okay guys, let’s go.” “Do you have any idea where they might be? Can’t you like sense them or something?” Tim asks her on their way to the car. “If I could sense them, we would have found them already. I can try to sense them, but it will take a lot out of me if I do,” Chrysalis looks at him, rolling her eyes. “My magic is quite limited.” “I guess we just need to keep a lookout for the changelings, watch the skies and whatnot.” Claude says as he opens the back passenger door and lets Chrysalis in first. “I just hope they are okay,” she sighs. Claude climbs in after her and wraps an arm around her. “I promise you, we will find them, and we will fix this. No matter what it takes, I will be there with you every step of the way.” “Thanks, Claude. For everything.” She nuzzles into him. I hope I haven’t gone too far with this. I couldn’t stand for him to get hurt because of my stupidity. It takes everything Doppel has to fly back to the others. He fights the urge to go back and kill those humans for taking Xena. He looks for another building and lands. Anger rises in him. Damn humans! Why did you take my Xena! He stomps the ground as tears form in his eyes. “Doppel!” Arcelia yells as he zooms down to his leader. “Finally we found you. We’ve been searching for a while now. Where’s Xena?” Doppel doesn’t look at them, he just stares at the ground. “They took her…” he whispers. Before anyone can say anything he screams out “THEY TOOK HER!” The echo of his shout can be heard around them then fade to silence. “We...should find the Queen,” he says. “But I thought we didn’t want anything to do with her since she betrayed the plan.” Asura speaks up. “Well, maybe it’s time we finally said something to her about it. I think it’s also time that Claude knew the truth about what’s going on. Come on. I have a good idea of where they are at.” Doppel gets up and buzzes his wings and takes off in the direction of Claude’s house. The hum of the wheels on the road is heard as Claude and Chrysalis look up toward the red sky in search of a group of black specks. A few times they thought they found them but it was only birds in the high sky. T “Suns about to set.. We should head back home before it gets too dark, we can’t see them when it’s night. I’m sure they’re fine. They’re tough creatures,” Claude says reassuringly. “Yeah, you’re right, but I don’t know how tough those guys in the suits are,” Chrys says.  Tim takes a glance through the rearview mirror and notices a black van behind them. “I think we’re being followed.” “What do you mean?” Chrysalis asks as she starts turning her head to the back window. “Don’t look back at them. They’re probably just going the same way we are. We don’t need them to stop us.” Chrysalis turns to Claude and leans into him, a bit scared. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” Claude looks to Chrysalis reassuringly. Tim looks at the dashboard and notices the fuel light is on, then looks at the tank to see it sitting close to empty. “We need to stop at a gas station. I’m almost out of gas.” He pulls into the nearest station, and the van behind them drives on. “See, they weren’t following us.” Chrysalis turns around and looks at the vehicle driving away. “Somehow, I believe they were.” “Oh, you’re worrying too much Chrys.” Tim says. “Why would they be following us anyway? We haven’t done anything wrong.” “Well, I’m kind of on edge you know?!” she yells and slumps in her seat. “Stupid changelings don’t understand anything.” Claude and Tim stare at her. “What was that?” they say in unison.  “What?” she looks up at them, not realizing she spoke in the changeling language. She never spoke it aloud very much; only in super stressful situations. The thought of strange government agents nabbing her and her minions up for whatever they wished is enough to put her on edge. She just wants to find them and get back to Claude’s, to talk to them without interruptions from anyone, human or otherwise. “You were making odd hissing and clicking noises.” “It’s just the changeling language. I barely use it at all anyway since it’s just easier to speak Equestrian, or English, to them.” “So why use it in the first place?” “I only really use it when either the changelings don’t understand English, or when I’m really frustrated at something.” “I would think, that a world where most creatures there spoke Equestrian, all of the changelings would speak it as well.” Chrysalis’ face scrunches up. “Back in Equestria, there isn’t just one hive, though most like to think that, we have different hives in different regions. and not everywhere speaks Equestrian. Hence the name Equestrian… Doesn’t this world have other languages?” “Oh, well yeah…” Tim says, feeling really stupid. Claude just stares at him, trying to not laugh at his stupidity. Tim silently leaves the car quietly and goes to pump the gas. Claude turns and looks out the window for a moment and sees a familiar car pull into the station. The car parks and sits there and no one gets out. He turns back to Chrys and wraps an arm around her. “I’m sorry that I am acting like this, Claude. I’m just so worried about what they might do to them, if they find them.” She snuggles into him. Claude stays silent and strokes her hair, letting her know it will be alright. Silence follows for a moment, then a loud thunk is heard, making them both jump, then they hear laughing from Tim. “You guys are so jumpy.” Chrysalis laughs also and shakes her head. Claude chuckles a bit with them. Tim finishes up at the pump and hops back in the car. “Alright I think it’s time we got you two home, and me as well.” “Agreed.” Claude says, he looks to Chrysalis who nods. As they leave the station, Claude looks back at the car, which was still sitting there as it was a minute ago. He shrugs it off and nuzzles closer to Chrysalis, squeezing her hand. The trip back was a quiet one, Chrysalis just leaned against her window, holding on to Claude’s hand, watching the scenery pass by as they went. Claude had his head leaned back and his eyes closed. Tim takes a glance in the mirror and looks closely at the van behind them. The driver notices him looking and they slow down to take the next turn. Tim looks back at the road and shrugs. “We’re here,” Tim says as he stops the car. Chrysalis jerks Claude awake and they exit the vehicle. “Thanks for all that you’ve done, Tim.” Chrysalis says giving him a hug through the car window. Claude fist bumps him after Chrysalis comes away. “Yeah, thanks man.” “Well, we aren’t done yet. I am still here to help when needed.” He smiles at them both. “See you tomorrow. Oh, just wanna say, make sure to keep your doors locked, I’ve been noticing a lot of weird people around since the news broadcast.” “We will, Tim. Thanks again,” Claude says as they start to the front door. They wave as Tim exits the driveway and go on down the road to his place. Claude fiddles with his keys and opens the door to what he expected an empty living room. But nothing is ever what he expects. Standing there in the middle of the room, the changelings they spent all day looking for, and they don’t look very happy. Chrysalis closes the door behind them and wisps back to her normal self. Her eyes tear up as she runs to the group reaching out to give them a hug, but they don’t fly up and back away from her. “Xena’s missing,” Doppel says. “She was captured by those men in black suits. We need your help to find them, Queen.” “Claude and I will he-” “I said your help, not this human’s help, the mind boggled servant you have.” “Wait, what?” Claude questions. “Mind boggled? What do you mean?” “Doppel, don’t you dare say another word!” Chrysalis glares at the changeling. “Oh, you mean he doesn’t know. Surely he should know what spell was cast on him.” “Spell? Chrysalis, what’s he talking about?” Her eyes start to tear up. “Please, Doppel… don’t.” “So you mean this is all a lie?” he looks to the Queen. “Yes and no. The spell was correct. But it was because I was scared! Scared that you would hate me when you saw me!” “That’s a lie and you know it, Queen.” “Wh- But it’s true!” “You used it so he wouldn’t run away at first sight, so then you could use him for food.” “You told me that I was not just food to you. You said I was more than that!” Claude yells in disbelief. “Well, apparently, she lied. See, the plan was the whole time, she would feed off your love, and then when she was powerful enough again, we would take over this world and not fail like last time.” “ENOUGH!” Chrysalis yells, she snarls at Doppel, wisps of green flow from her eyes and horn. “That might have been true when we came here! But not anymore! I have changed. I am tired of our kind seen as an evil race!” Claude looks away and stays silent and moves over to one of the chairs and sits down. “You… wanted to use me?” “At first, but not anymore! I don’t want to lose you.” “Get out…” He gets up and starts to walk to his room. As Chrysalis watches him walk away, her lips quiver and her voice starts to tremble. “Please Claude, do-” the sound of the bedroom door slamming cuts her off. She looks to Doppel who stands there emotionless. “We have a changeling to save, Queen.” he says. “Forget about him, he’s nothing.” She raises her hoof at him, ready to just pummel him to dust. Just as she readies herself to strike the changeling, a loud, rhythmic banging comes from the door. The room fell silent. No one moves from their position. The place was so quiet, Claude could hear Chrysalis’ heart beating rapidly. The bedroom door swings open as the knocking resumes. Claude walks to the door, getting progressively agitated at the disturbance. His face was red and his eyes were puffy. He ignores the changelings as he passes. Chrysalis and the changelings scoot out of the living room into the kitchen where they can’t be seen. Claude reaches the door as he’s shouting, “Will you wait, you impatient, son of bit-” He opens the door, frowning at the guest. His mood immediately changes when he saw who the guests were. Two men in black suits. “Are you Claude Holt?” one of the agents asked. Claude starts shaking a little as he answers, “Y-yeah. Why? What do you want?” “We need you to come with us. We’ve had reports of strange creatures roaming about and would like to ask you a few questions.” The second agent said with intimidation from his voice. “W-what do you mean?! I wouldn’t be able to help you because I have no idea what you’re talking about!” He tries slamming the door in front of them, but one of the agents slides his foot between the entryway and Claude, pushing it back with one hand and forcing his way in. Claude backs away, looking for something to defend himself with.  “No, you can’t just come into my home without a warrant! I know my rights!” He looks to his left and grabs a lamp from the end table and raises it to attempt to strike the agent. Before he could swing, the agent pulls out a tranquilizer gun and shoots him in the neck. His knees buckle as he drops the lamp and falls over. As Claude fell to the ground, the other agent picks up his unconscious body and carries him to the car. “You go inside and see if you can find anything.” The agent says as he struggles to get Claude in the car. The changelings scatter and turn invisible as Chrysalis changes into her human form, but only to have one of the agents noticing her. “You, don’t move! Put your hands where I can see them!” Chrysalis turns around and tries to make a run for the the door, but the agent pulls out his gun and shoots a dart in her neck, incapacitating her. “Claude!” she cries out as she gets closer to passing out. “H-help…” I love you… Darkness covers her vision as she passes out. The agent picks up Chrysalis’ unconscious body and takes her to the car. As he puts her in there with Claude, he turns to his partner. “I noticed something off about the girl in there.” “What do you mean?” he asked as they both got in the car. “I could have sworn I saw a green glow from her or something. It’s like she was changing her form or something.” “That’s crazy, you’ve been working too much.” he laughs. The agent growls. “Even if that’s the case, I know what I saw, but we’ll find out soon enough.” [End of Chapter 8]