Challenge Queen

Your crew rose through the ranks, conquering every challenger. It was an ironic fate for the hive to be able to be conquered by its own passive hypnosis. It simply almost never came up, because the Bees monopolised dancers and dances. Only your otherworldly dancing could have the effect of conquering the competition easily. When the time came, Dierdre earned the right to challenge the Queen. Since you were going in as a group you were curious if the Bee would have backup, but Dierdre suggested the answer was no. The Queen would challenge your group on her own, just as she had challenged and defeated the original Queen.

“Have you ever seen the Queen dance, Dierdre?” You asked.

“Am I a drooling moron? No. I’ve never seen the Queen dance. If I did before understanding this dance you showed me I would undoubtedly become a ****.” She eyed you.

“What does your notebook say?”

“Guide is empty. That means it’s either the first time… Or we’re good.”

“Hope it’s the latter. If not, see you in the next life.” Dierdre huffed.

“We’re gonna get this.” Milk cheered.

“This is gonna be good!”

“Yeah!” Synra piled on in an unusual showing of positivity.

“I don’t wanna get turned into a Bee, either!”

Nina nodded and made a cheering gesture with both hands, but otherwise remained quiet.

“We got this team.” All you could do was agree.

“Right, Dierdre?”

Dierdre smiled weakly. “That’s right.” There was something she was not saying.

“What’s wrong?” You pulled her aside.

“Nothing. I actually feel really confident, so don’t worry too much. Just remember till the end. You helped me, I’ll help you. I’m on your side no matter what ends up happening.”

“No matter what ends up-” You looked at her quizzically.

“What’s gonna happen? If we win, we’ll be fine, right? You said we’ll win.”

“We will win. Sorry, I was just thinking about my mother and sister.” She offered more affirmatively.

“Got it. Sorry for grilling you. Let’s practise.”

The day finally came.You found it off that even if your intention was to openly challenge the Queen of the hive they would just bring you to her, and even have an audience to view the spectacle of the attempted coup. It was an extremely ‘unique’ system. In a sense, it was a firm warrior society where the strong ruled, only instead of strength it was dancing. The Queen, according to Dierdre, would never think she could lose, but Dierdre was still confident they could win. According to her, the Queen would have some dance that seemed different than all the others, but that your dancing that you introduced would beat it handily.

The Queen met you all on the stage she prepared, but something felt off. She smirked at you, then eyed Dierdre closely.

“My goodness. My attempts to subvert your efforts before the inevitable challenge failed, it seems. That precious book could only offer so much. It was a good hook to catch one of you with, but otherwise useless to me, it seems.” The woman laughed regally, covering her mouth with a black-gloved hand. The Queen was a tall, soft woman with jet black hair that fell around her shoulders in curls. Her chitin leggings barely contained her shapely thighs and her rear and breasts spilled out around her armoured bikini.

“Let’s get this over with.” Dierdre sighed.

“Get what over with?” The Queen responded coyly.

“Stop playing dumb.”

“What’re you talking about? Dierdre?” You stepped forward.

The Queen turned to you. “Haven’t you wondered how such an incredible dancer could keep such a low profile in this hive where dancing is as good as a weapon? If she had the capability to do something like this with you, she could have done it all along.”

“But the new dance-”

“It would have been difficult, of course, but her movements are spectacular. She would rise quickly in the ranks.We have been waiting patiently for you to finally embrace your talents. With trickery I could rise to the position of Queen. With her ability… She could become an Empress.”

“That’s bullshit. We’re doing this so that none of us have to become Bees. Dierdre’s coming with us!” You exclaimed.

“No, Eve. I’m not. I can’t.” She sighed.

“W-wait… What? Did you trick us?”

“No. I was serious when I said I was on your side. I was also telling the truth. I don’t want to be a Bee. Not at all. Where I lied was in telling you that there was a way out that involves all of us leaving together. Even if we beat her… A new Queen needs to take her place. It’s not going to be one of you.” She clicked her tongue.

“I wasn’t expecting you to just give up, Fay.”

“Please. In our troupe, the best dancer was always you, Dierdre. I simply utilised the moves you taught me to become a Queen slayer.”

“Please.” Dierdre looked upon Queen Fay with mock sweetness.

“If you didn’t sell us out for power I would almost feel flattered.”

“Nowhere else in the world would a simple, wandering dance troupe have the ability to rise to such heights. Becoming this was simply a price we had to pay.”

Dierdre closed her eyes. “Are we going to do this or not?”

“I would rather just skip to the part where you become our Empress, since that is what we wanted all along. Would that be fine, Dierdre? Do we need to have all this pageantry?”

“I guess not.”

You were stunned. “Dierdre, you don’t have to do this!”

“I do. To be honest, even if I never wanted to become a Bee, I never had any intentions of leaving. I hate what my family and all my friends became, but ultimately they’re still family. Fay is… Was still my best friend and so on.” She faced you and held your hands in hers bashfully.

“When I met you and you told me your story and started laying out your plans it invigorated me. I thought we would beat them. Then I started thinking and wondering if I wanted to beat them, really. The conclusion I came to was, yes. I wanted to. But it was only for you. That’s why I’m going to stay and join my troupe finally. I’ll focus all my energy into resisting the mental changes so that you and your friends can leave, and I will do my best to help you as this Hive’s leader.”

“Not just this Hive.” Fay chuckled.

“All Hives. None will stand against this new dance you’ve come up with.”

“That… Is not going to happen. Maybe I will unite the Hives but just to make sure the things that happened to my family and friends don’t happen to anyone else.”

“Spoil sport…” Fay pouted.

“We’ll see.”

“Dierdre…” You looked at her.

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