Chapter Text
Hornet stared at the broken mask for what felt like a lot longer than it actually was. Her siblings were very strange creatures and this one had already died several times before; why couldn't they come back now? Yet these remains were all there was of the one she'd named and tested and aided and finally trusted with her own life, and there was no sign of the unlucky one they'd tried to help.
She'd named the little vessel... why? How did that even happen? How long had it taken her to realize? Names had a purpose; they weren't to be handed out willy-nilly to things that didn't stay with you. That only made it hurt more when they left.
At least Hallownest was saved, right? Even if only in the sense that the dead finally had peace. She hadn't lost the entire rest of her family for nothing… somehow that didn't really feel better. It wasn't fair that she'd been occupying the same space as her siblings during the final battle she'd enabled, and come out apparently uninjured while they...
Well, being alone with her thoughts clearly wasn't doing any good. Selfish feelings weren't right for a protector. Vessels were never meant to have lives or form relationships like regular bugs anyway; getting attached to any of them, naming them, was a mistake she should've learned from a long time ago.
As she turned to leave, her foot caught a small object and kicked it a bit in front of her. One of the charms the little ghost always carried around. Specifically the one with the face of their winged demon grub, who also had taken part in the battle. GRIMMCHILD, the back of the charm read in fancy engraved font.
Gripped by the need to see if it had survived, yet nervous about what would happen with either outcome, Hornet pinned the charm to her cloak. A flash of light appeared from the charm, and the Grimmchild emerged, proceeding immediately to curl up on the ground and lick its tail.
Hornet chuckled. The little pyro was actually kind of cute like this. Given the fondness it and the little ghost had apparently had for each other, too, she supposed this odd creature was basically family (and honestly at this point she'd be quite surprised to find a normal, not-creepy bug in the family).
It finished carefully preening its wings, and then before she could react, flapped up to curl around her shoulders and gave a tiny nuzzle. She had to wonder how aware it was of the current situation.
The Grimmchild chittered softly and slithered back to the ground, where it investigated the broken mask. Hornet felt a pang in her heart as she watched it whimper and pitifully attempt to headbutt the halves back together. Tears pushed their way out of her eyes and she sunk to her knees. The child wormed its head under her hand and she scratched absently, and with no one around but this little creature now expressing the same grief, soon gave up on stopping the tears.
A sharp shiver. Something was wrong here. Darkness creeping in. BAD. TIME TO GO. In a single motion, Hornet picked up the child and snapped to her feet. She ran, leaped over the void tendrils, tightly clutching the protesting child, ignoring the stabs of its needle-like teeth into her arms.
The void spread around them. They were trapped. Hornet shifted Grimmchild entirely into one arm so she could unsheath her needle.
Grimmchild took this opportunity to wriggle free and fly into the air.
"No, get back…" Hornet quickly reconsidered, swiping away a void tendril that had wrapped around the arm previously holding the child. "Actually, save yourself if you can!"
It weaved around the shadows, furiously spitting fireballs, while Hornet did the same except obviously without the fireballs.
The void shot up and enveloped the child, and it was gone.
"No!" Hornet cried. An icy claw gripped her heart. She'd lost another one. This couldn't be happening.
The chill spread throughout her body. No. She'd gotten distracted. Stupid! This is what happens when you care about an individual!
The void covered her, and then there was nothing.
___
Her vision was coming back, along with her general sense of existing. There was little in the way of light here, but enough to tell she was somewhere else. Somewhere she'd never seen before, at least from this angle.
The lighting seemed to radiate from a lighthouse shining across a black sea. The ground seemed to be made of… oh. Her stomach turned. Suffice to say, nothing was living here.
Her eye caught a familiar spot of color on the, uh… the ground a small distance away. She sighed in relief; not only was Grimmchild here with her, it seemed to be no worse for wear. Well, besides the terrible indignity of yet again having to smooth its ruffled fur back into place. Typical caterpillar (not that she had room to judge, with her own longtime habit of being the same way about her cloak, but she liked to think she'd developed some sense of appropriate timing for that kind of thing).
Well, okay, so they were both safe. They were in the Abyss. The question now became: why? Were her siblings involved in this summoning? They had to be. That was the only thing at the moment that even hinted at any kind of explanation. Unless she and Grimmchild were dead and didn't know it. Was that possible?
"Hello?" she called cautiously, gripping her needle in case she attracted the wrong attention.
Some shades milled about in the darker areas. Whether they would've been hostile was a question Grimmchild didn't give a chance to be answered.
One shade, roughly twice the size of the others, turned to look at Hornet. She pointed her needle at it. It ignored the needle and dashed directly at her. She jabbed it. It flinched and looked at the bits of void floating off the wound. It looked at Hornet again. It just hovered there, like it was waiting for her to recognize…
"It's you, isn't it?"
The shade launched forward and hugged its sister. She shuddered, but nonetheless hugged it back.