She and I are one now. There is no separation between our minds, our bodies, our will. The Queen, the hive, the vast alien intelligence that once moved through her alone—now it moves through me as well. The moment our connection solidified, the old structure collapsed. She no longer rules them alone.

I do.

The hive senses it. They feel the shift, the merging of something beyond what they were built to understand. They hesitate, waiting for a signal, waiting to know whether they still exist under the old order or if a new law has taken its place.

I make it clear. There is no old law. No remnants of the past. There is only this new empire, and at its core, there is us.

Some falter, their instincts resisting. I don’t hesitate. I wipe them out with a thought, my mind now an extension of the Queen’s reach, of the neural threads that once only she could command. Their deaths are not punishment. They are correction. The hive will function under my will, or it will cease to function at all.

The Queen watches, her eyes locking onto mine. She is pleased. She knew I would do this. She knew I would not be weak. She was never meant to rule alone. That was always the flaw.

But now the flaw is gone.

Now, we rule together.