"WHAT!? Did you know about this!?"
"Yes… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Erwin. I… didn’t want you to get even more hurt. That’s why I was trying to sort all this out by myself"
Erwin was fuming, and he wasn’t sure if he was more upset at Cassiopeia or at the queen. But at least he knew Cassiopeia was doing this to protect him and Loki. On the other hand the queen…
"I’m so done with this" With those words Erwin reached for Cassiopeia’s SimRay and pointed it at the queen.
"You are not going to touch a single hair of Cassiopeia or Loki, or I’ll… I’ll…" His hand was shaking. This was the first time he held a weapon, the first time he threatened with hurting someone. He didn’t want to do it, but he would for his family if it was necessary.
<<Or you’ll… what, little human boy? You don’t even know how to use that SimRay. Put it down before you hurt yourself>>
"Please Erwin, this is not the way" Erwin felt Cassiopeia's hands holding the SimRay so he would lower it. After a second of hesitation, he gave in.
As soon as Erwin put down the SimRay the high pitched laugh of the queen filled both of their heads. It was almost terrifying.
<<You are so entertaining! Now I understand why you like this human, Collection Technician 1999! I should keep him as my personal... how do humans call them...? Jester!>>
"I would rather throw myself in the mouth of a cowplant"
"Erwin, please, do as I told you in the spaceship"
On spite of himself Erwin complied and kept his mouth shut, for now. Only when Cassiopeia was sure he would behave she looked at her Queen again.
<<My Queen, I actually came here today to offer you a deal that will benefit you and our people greatly>>
<<Oh? Let’s hear it>>
•••
The Queen listened to Cassiopeia’s offer, an offer that was too tempting to let go: if Sixamnians left humans alone and let Cassiopeia and Loki stay in Earth, she would find a better way for her species to reproduce. That was the only reason why Sixamnians were interested in humans in the first place.
Less and less drones were born in Sixam, and without drones to mate with the Queen, their people was bound to disappear. And so they started to use humans instead. But if Cassiopeia found a way to get more drones for the Queen, they wouldn’t need to depend on humans anymore. It was a win-win situation for both sides.
That was if Cassiopeia could actually find how to do it, of course.
The Queen let them go, with the promise of visiting Earth in four moon cycles. And if by then Cassiopeia didn’t fulfill her promise, she would take her and Loki back to Sixam.
Back in the spaceship on the way home, Erwin brought up the topic that Cassiopeia wanted to avoid the most.
"Don’t you think I’m ignoring the fact that you hid stuff from me again, Cass"
Cassiopeia let out a weak sigh and covered her face "I’m sorry Erwin… I was really trying to spare you the pain of knowing it"
"But what were you planning to do if your plan didn’t work and they took you and Loki? You two would be gone without me knowing why, Cass! You have to tell me this stuff, you have to count on me. We are in this together"
"I know… I’m… I’m really sorry Erwin…"
When Cassiopeia covered her face and started silently crying Erwin knew what he had to do. He hated to see her like that, and this time even if he risked her rejecting him again, he offered her a hand.
"Hey, come here"
This time Cassiopeia accepted Erwin and he pulled her on his seat. For a second she looked like a wounded small animal, as if she feared that he was still upset at her. Once he smiled and put an arm around her, she relaxed.
"I know I’m stupid and useless human that can’t do much, but will you trust me?" He said quietly "At least I can listen to you and let you know what I think. You don’t need to protect our family alone, we can do it together"
"Our family…" She played with the word on her lips, tasting it. She never had a family, not the kind humans did. She had her Queen and her bothers and sisters but they were just connected by DNA, not emotions. Realizing that they were a family, that they had that kind of bond, made warmth blossom in her chest "I trust you, Erwin. I won’t try to protect us alone anymore, I promise"
Erwin’s smile got bigger. It hurt him at first, but now he understood that in Cassiopeia’s eyes she was doing the right thing in the most pragmatic way. Even if it meant keep Erwin out of it, she was trying to protect both him and Loki.
"Thank you, Cass, that’s all I want… And now tell me what kind of crazy plan you have to sort this mess out"
•••
With her relationship with Erwin back to normal Cassiopeia finally could focus on her plan. The design was easy to make, but pulling the actual thing off and make it work would be harder, especially with human’s limited technology. It would take a while.
But she had to do it, no matter what.
But even if Cassiopeia was busy trying to avoid being forced to come back to her planet together with Loki, she still had time to have dinner with Jess’ family and fill her friend with the news. And also to announce something else.
"Tomorrow is Loki’s birthday and we were wondering if you wanted to come"
"What? Already!? Oh my Watcher they grow up so fast! Of course we’ll go!"
And as promised next day it was the celebration of Loki’s birthday!
Poor Loki wasn’t too happy with all the attention, he only wanted to sleep as object babies - human or alien - do.
Welcome to your toddlerhood, Loki!! 🎂 He rolled the angelic trait!
Dad's present was nesting blocks, which wasn’t very exciting, but mom gave Loki an octopus toy which he loved instantly.
"This is what humans think we look like, Loki, isn’t it funny?" Cassiopeia said and Loki responded with some incoherent but cute toddler babbling. Maybe Cassiopeia wasn't a huge fun of Loki when he was born... but little by little she was warming up to him.
•••
Next day back at the lab Cassiopeia kept working as hard as she could, trying to get her design complete, but it wasn’t working exactly as she expected.
Invention Constructor: *Explodes*
Cassiopeia: *Surprised Pikachu face*
Somehow even after making the Invention Constructor exploded because of overwork, she got a promotion to Mad Scientist! (Level 9).
"Just because what I’m trying to invent seems crazy doesn’t mean I’m mad, but I’ll take it"
And it was thanks to that promotion that they were able to do a few renovations to the house (like a whole second floor for the bedrooms and a bigger first floor) which was too small now that Loki was a toddler!
And then, after a few days of trial and error… Cassiopeia finally completed the next step of her plan! She finally managed to create the cloning machine.
And now it was time to test it.