CHAPTER 46: CHAPTER 46:THE RETURN OF THE BROKEN

The forest burned in two colors now.

Gold from Buzz’s blood and blue from the machines that had taken root. Every tree seemed caught between those lights, trembling like it didn’t know which side to live for.

Buzz stood in the clearing, chest heaving. His claws still glowed faintly from the tower’s explosion. Zza crouched beside him, tying silk over a cut that wouldn’t stop bleeding. Her silk had started to shimmer silver—half forest, half machine—just like everything else around them.

"Hold still," she muttered.

He flinched. "You say that every time right before it hurts."

"Then you should know what’s coming."

The silk tightened. He winced but didn’t pull away. The pain at least reminded him he was still in his body. The hum of the hive had been trying to pull him out of it all night.

Zza’s eyes flicked up. "They’ll send more. You know that, right?"

He nodded, glancing toward the treeline where drones’ blue lights blinked like distant stars. "Good. Let them come. I’m tired of running."

"Buzz..." she said softly.

He met her gaze. The anger in him quieted, even if just for a moment.

Then the ground shook.

Zza sprang up, silk unraveling into a web around them. "They’re close."

Buzz crouched, claws digging into the dirt. "How many?"

Before she could answer, the forest floor split. Metal roots burst through the soil, twisting and snapping upward. Buzz slashed through one, but three more replaced it. The hum from beneath grew louder, almost a chant.

Zza shouted over it. "They’re not fighting us—they’re growing through us!"

Buzz swung again, cutting the nearest root in half. The impact threw sparks up his arm. The gold in his veins reacted, flaring bright. For a second, the forest flickered in two images: the world that was and the one that was coming. Trees replaced by towers. Insects replaced by machines.

Then he heard something—faint but steady—beneath the metallic roar.

A rhythm.

Buzz froze. He knew that sound.

The drum.

He turned toward the west. The trees there glowed orange. Through the smoke came a line of shapes, marching in sync. Scarabs. Armor cracked, eyes dull, but claws still pounding the rhythm of war. Behind them, the Centipedes slithered in jagged formation, their segmented bodies gleaming with fresh scars. Glowbeetles hovered above, lights pulsing in sync with the drums.

Zza’s voice broke. "They came back."

Buzz didn’t breathe. The Elder descended last, threads glimmering faintly from the canopy. "You made enough noise to wake the dead," it said.

Buzz smiled. "I’ll take the living."

The Elder spread its silk wide, connecting the coalition through faint vibrations. "Then let’s remind this metal hive how the forest breathes."

The coalition surged forward.

Scarabs slammed their claws into the roots, cracking metal like bone. Centipedes coiled around the towers, tightening until they collapsed. Glowbeetles swooped low, raining bursts of light that blinded the drones.

Buzz launched himself into the air, diving through the chaos. He slammed into a drone mid-flight and tore it apart. The energy inside burst into gold sparks that trailed behind him like a comet tail.

Zza followed close, her silk forming barriers and bridges for the others. "Buzz! Left flank!"

He turned just in time to see three drones diving toward the Centipedes. He threw himself between them, claws flaring, and slashed through all three in one motion. The impact sent him spinning, but he landed on one knee and grinned.

Zza dropped beside him. "You’re smiling again."

"Feels good," he said.

"For how long?"

"As long as I need to."

The ground rumbled again. The largest tower pulsed, light surging through every cable. The hive was adapting. Drones reassembled from scraps, crawling toward the light.

The Elder’s voice rang through the web. "Buzz, it’s linking them. You have to sever the core."

He looked toward the tallest spire—the one burning blue and gold at its center. He could feel it pulling at him, whispering. *Come home.*

Zza saw his expression and shook her head. "No. You can’t go near that thing."

"I have to."

"It’ll take you."

He met her eyes. "Then don’t let it."

Before she could stop him, he sprinted toward the core. The hum deepened with every step. He could feel the Queen’s voice now, louder than ever. *You keep fighting what you are. I made you to survive this world, not save it.*

He shouted back, "You made me wrong!"

He leapt onto the tower, claws driving into the metal. Blue arcs raced up his arms. Every nerve burned, every thought blurred. He climbed anyway, wings thrashing, body shaking.

Below, Zza yelled something, but her voice drowned in the roar. The coalition held the drones back, a wall of movement and fury. The Elder’s silk web pulsed brighter, channeling energy toward him.

He reached the core. Gold light bled through cracks in the metal, humming like a heartbeat.

Zza’s voice broke through at last, faint but desperate. "Buzz! Please!"

He placed his claws over the core. The Queen’s whisper softened. *Let me end this. Just stop fighting me.*

He whispered, "No."

He tore it open.

Light swallowed him whole.

The forest went silent for one impossible second. Then everything exploded outward—metal, light, sound, all torn apart in a single flash. The towers buckled. The drones froze midair, their lights fading. The hum died.

Zza stumbled to her knees, the shockwave nearly throwing her backward. The Scarabs shielded her with their claws. When the smoke cleared, the tallest spire was gone.

Buzz was gone too.

Zza stared at the crater where he’d stood, her silk trembling. "Buzz..."

The Elder’s voice came low and hollow. "He severed the link."

She turned, tears streaking down her face. "Then where is he?"

Before anyone could answer, the ground glowed faintly gold.

At the center of the crater, a faint shape began to move.

A single heartbeat echoed through the forest—louder, slower, heavier.

And then the voice that answered wasn’t human, wasn’t Queen, and wasn’t Buzz.

It was all three.

*The hive breathes through me now.*

Zza took one step back, silk unraveling from her hands. "Buzz... what did you do?"

The gold light flared again, brighter than before, and the forest whispered his name like it finally remembered who he was.

For the first time since the towers rose, there was silence. No hum, no gunfire, no burning roots crawling through the ground. Only smoke drifting through the trees and the soft, uneven breaths of what was left of the coalition.

Zza stood in the center of the clearing, her silk stained with ash and blood. Around her, the Scarabs rebuilt their drums with broken shells. The Centipedes gathered fallen segments and coiled them into walls. Glowbeetles floated low, their lights faint but steady, guiding hands through the wreckage.

The Elder hung above them all, threads stretched thin. "We count thirty-seven living," it said quietly. "From three hundred."

Zza swallowed hard. "And Buzz?"

The Elder’s threads trembled. "Gone."

She turned away, eyes on the crater where the tallest tower had been. It was still smoldering, gold and blue light curling faintly through the smoke. The earth there looked wrong—wet and glassy, like it had been melted by something that wasn’t fire.

"He did it," one Scarab said behind her. "He broke the core."

Another answered, "And burned with it."

Zza closed her eyes. The silence pressed against her chest until it hurt. "He promised he’d come back."

The Elder drifted lower, silk brushing her shoulder. "Promises mean little in a war that rewrites its dead."

Zza turned to face it. "You don’t get to talk about him like that. He fought for all of us."

The Elder’s antennae twitched. "He fought for her too."

That hit deep. She looked away. "Maybe. But he didn’t die her slave."

The Elder didn’t argue. None of them did. The coalition moved slowly, fixing, mending, whispering names. Even the Glowbeetles dimmed their light, as if the forest itself was in mourning.

By dusk, the camp began to take shape again. Webs of silk held shelters together. Scarabs pounded out a low rhythm, not for battle this time, but remembrance. Centipedes coiled into a ring around the crater, guarding it without orders.

Zza sat by the fire, head bowed, silk unraveling between her claws. Every movement felt mechanical. The burn in her chest hadn’t stopped since the explosion.

The Elder approached quietly. "You should rest."

She didn’t look up. "If I stop moving, I’ll think."

"Thinking isn’t the enemy."

"It is when it hurts this much."

The Elder watched her for a moment before speaking again. "He may have done more than destroy the hive."

Zza’s head lifted. "What do you mean?"

"The pulse we felt when it fell—it wasn’t all destruction. Some of it was creation. Something new took shape in the fire. I can still feel the vibration through the roots."

Zza stood quickly. "Where?"

The Elder gestured toward the crater. "Deep beneath."

She didn’t wait. Her silk flared as she ran. The Centipedes shifted to let her through. The ground near the center was still hot, but she didn’t care. She pressed her claws into the dirt, listening.

At first—nothing. Just the slow pop of cooling stone and the distant creak of falling metal.

Then she felt it.

A pulse.

Faint, deep, slow. Not mechanical. Not hive-born. It felt alive.

Her breath caught. "Buzz?"

The ground answered with another pulse, stronger this time. The soil around her claws warmed, and faint light began to leak through the cracks. Gold.

The Elder moved closer, threads shivering. "Impossible."

Zza whispered, "No. He’s still in there."

The Scarabs stopped their drums. The Glowbeetles turned their light toward the crater. The entire clearing fell silent as the ground glowed brighter.

And then, beneath it all, a voice—broken, low, but real.

"Zza..."

Her eyes widened. "Buzz?"

The light flickered once more, spreading across the crater like veins through stone. The earth shifted. The pulse grew louder.

The Elder’s threads trembled. "If that’s him... he isn’t the same anymore."

Zza stared at the light, tears cutting through the ash on her cheeks. "I don’t care."

The pulse thundered one last time before going still. The light sank back into the ground, leaving only warmth behind.

The forest waited, holding its breath.

Zza whispered to the silence, "You come back, Buzz. I’ll be here."

The air didn’t answer, but the faint smell of gold lingered.

Something under the earth was listening.