Battle For Earth

by Daniela A. Wolfe

  “Jellfree?” Kaya’s voice called through the door. “Is everything alright?”

  I blinked away my tears and shuddered. “No, not even remotely, but I’ll live.”

  “Jellfree…” Kaya’s voice called again.

  “Just… let me finish,” I snapped. “The sooner I get out of here the better.”

  Kaya didn’t say another word and I sighed looked down at the pair of boobs on my chest and moved to soap off the rest of my body. When I reached the end of my toes I grimaced and reached for my hair. It was way too long and I held the soap in my hand in front of my face realizing just how inadequate the little bar of soap was to the task, but did the best I could with it. I ran the soap through the hair, particularly at the bottom where it gotten saturated with that goop.

  “Hey, Jellfree,” Kaya said suddenly. “You need something for your hair?”

  “Now, you ask,” I grumbled under my breath. Why did she have to ask after I was done washing my hair?

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “No, don’t worry about it. I got it covered,” I replied back pursing my lips and staring at the soap before dropping it and shaking my head. Well, at least I was done. I flipped the stall door open and I stumbled out. My sense of balance was still a little off and I was pretty wobbly on my feet.

  Kaya held a towel out for me and I let her wrap it around my shoulders as I approached. “Where’s Mara?” I asked looking around the room and shivered as Kaya started to rub me dry.

  “She left… she said there were some things she had to take care of,” she shrugged with a slight frown.

  Kaya’s hands reach down to my crotch and my eyes grew wide as I let out a high-pitched squeal, “Kaya! Good God woman! Could you be just a little more rough with that towel, please?”

  Kaya’s cheeks turned red and she looked down to the floor. “Sorry.”

  “Damn.” I muttered grabbing a fistful of my hair and holding it in front of my face. “Do you think you could lob some of this off? It’s driving me nuts!”

  Kaya threw her head back and laughed, “Yeah, let’s get you dry then we can see what we can do with that hair of yours.”

  

  “Would you stop moving!?” Kaya yelled grabbing hold of my chin.

  “Well if you hadn’t clipped my skin I wouldn’t have jerked!” I yelled back touching the side of my neck gingerly. It wasn’t a serious injury, in fact I doubted that it would even scar, but god it hurt.

  “Alright, let’s see,” she mumbled reaching up to pull my hand away. Then I heard her gasp and proclaim “Holy fucking shit!” as the pain in my neck suddenly faded away.

  “What!? What is it?” I asked grabbing her shoulder.

  She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Your neck just healed itself!”

  “Oh, yeah that,” I muttered. “I guess the symbiote can heal injuries. I had a broken arm from killing the Overseer and after I woke up here for the first time it was fine.”

  ‘You’re welcome,’ a voice whispered inside of my mind.

  ‘Go to hell,” I shot back. ‘I’d rather live a few months with a broken arm than be infested with you!’

  “Damn,” Kaya cursed. “I could see that coming useful.”

  I shuddered briefly cupping my breasts before looking up to Kaya. “Yeah, but I think the price is a little too steep.”

  Kaya nodded then resumed cutting my hair. She was silent for several minutes then startled me by suddenly speaking, “It’s my fault.”

  “W-what?!”

  “If you hadn’t stepped in to save me, you never would have had that parasite jump inside of you,” she said wiping tears away from her eyes.

  I bowed my head and let out a weary sigh. “Kai, don’t… It’s not your fault. It might have happened even if I hadn’t knocked you out of the way. It’s not good to second guess ourselves we could have all been killed. Besides, the K’teth is a thinking reasoning being, she’s responsible for her own actions just like you and me.”

  “I-I’m sorry not just for that, but because of everything else. I feel horrible for the shit I’ve put you through. You probably won’t believe this, but I still love you. When I kissed you, after you started to change, it just felt so wrong. I… can’t be with someone I’m not attracted to. No matter how much I wish it could be different!’

  I bowed my head and shed a few tears of my own before speaking. “Kai, I can’t forgive you… not yet. I can understand why you chose to keep the truth from me, but it doesn’t make it right.”

  “I know.”

  “It will be a while before I’ll be able to trust you again, but I don’t think we can go on avoiding each other. That’s probably why Mara left when she did because she knew it would force us to talk. I want this to end, if we can’t be lovers, maybe we can at least be friends.”

  Kaya smiled wiping away the tears. “I’d like that, and… I’ll find some way to make up for what I’ve done, I swear it.”

  I closed my eyes and nodded, “Now, do you think you can finish this haircut?”

  “Yeah,” Kaya replied reaching up to grab a fistful of hair. “I still don’t get it… Why blue?”

  ‘It’s the mark of a host that has been joined with a K’teth,’ the symbiote said.

  I ignored the K’teth and glanced at Kaya, but didn’t say a word as my ex-lover continued. “Still… It is sort of a pretty color and it doesn’t really subtract from your beauty… If anything it makes you look exotic especially with those eyes.”

  “Oh, boy, I’m exotic, just what I wanted to hear.”

  Kaya chuckled and clipped a few more hairs before stopping and proclaiming, “There I think that just about does it!”

  I wiped all the excess hair away then climbed back onto my feet and carefully walked across to the north wall where a large mirror took up nearly the entire wall. I stopped, carefully studying the face I saw reflected back at me. The woman in the mirror was beautiful, a real knock out, and I could hardly believe that what I saw was actually my reflection. I ran my hand through my hair which now stopped just past my shoulders and watched in morbid fascination as the woman mirrored my movements.

  “That… that isn’t me!” I screamed at the woman in the mirror and turned my back on her unable to stomach the very visual reminder of what had been done to me. Of course, it didn’t change anything I was still trapped in the wrong body and though I’d only had it for a very short time, I was becoming increasingly aware of just how strange it felt. Every time I so much as crooked a finger I could feel the difference.

  “I’ll catch you later Kai,” I muttered under my breathe seething with rage. “I think, I’d like to be alone for a while.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Dammit!” I cursed throwing the blankets off of me and springing out of bed. I couldn’t get comfortable no matter what position I got in, my breasts and hips kept getting in the way. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair–briefly entertaining the idea of putting it into a ponytail– before moving across the room and swinging the door open.

  A shadow appeared in the doorway and it took me a moment for my eyes to adjust enough for me to be able to tell what it was. “Felix?” I asked squinting into the light.

  The figure nodded and stepped out of the way. “Yeah.”

  “Look, I can’t sleep… I thought I might take a little walk. Is that alright?”

  “Fine.”

  I stared up at Felix thoughtfully realizing for the first time that he had to be a good twenty centimeters taller than me where before he’d only had about seven or eight centimeters on me. In my new form I was tall for a woman–about a meter and a three-quarters–and I was even taller than Kaya and Mara, but many men, except Jaysen of course, towered over me and it was something I guess I was going to have to get used too.

  I took one last look at Felix then turned away and started walking down the hallway with no real destination in mind and Felix trailing a little way behind me. I don’t know how long
I walked, but the whole time I just kept thinking about what had been done to me. I briefly considered that I might attempt to summon the K’teth and try to grill it for more information, but I wasn’t in the mood to confront her at the moment. So, I just wandered and pretended that Felix wasn’t following me. Eventually, I found my way to the kitchen and I took a good hard look at the doors before pushing my way through them.

  There came a loud clatter and a figure with a shock of red hair swirled around to face me. “Oh, thought you were Pyr and Ferris the two of them have been looking to filch my stash for a while now, but as yet haven’t managed to find it,” Straffen grinned then he furrowed his brows and stared at me for a moment. “Jellfree?” he asked his eyes growing wide in disbelief.

  “In the flesh,” I said pursing my lips and did my best not to wither under his gaze.

  “Well… I think you need this more than me, but–” he said digging through the cupboard and setting a large bottle of amber liquid on the counter in front of me. “–the good news is there’s enough for us both to get good and drunk.”

  “Drunk?” I blinked.

  “Yeah, drunk… You know as in intoxicated, inebriated, under the influence, looped, smashed, tanked, loaded, bombed…” he trailed off grinning like the rouge that he was.

  I put my hands on my hips and sighed. “I know what drunk is… I just… I’ve never…”

  “Been drunk? Well, Jellfree, my good…” he trailed off looking at me thoughtfully, “…woman tonight that’s gonna change.”

  “Uh… thanks but I—” I started to say, but stopped abruptly when Strave suddenly called out.

  “Felix, my good man! Care for a drink?!”

  Felix… Shit I’d completely forgotten about him. I looked over my shoulder and watched as Felix silently folded his arms across his chest and frowned at Strave disapprovingly.

  “Ah Felix, my friend, chatty as ever I see!” Strave grinned before turning away and began to dig through the cupboard again. Finally, he poked his head out and slammed three glasses down on the cupboard just to his side. “Felix man, you sure you don’t want a drink?” Strave said pouring some of the amber liquid into the first glass.

  Felix shook his head with a disapproving frown as he replied with a very firm, “No.”

  “Your loss.” He shrugged and turned to look at me with a glass full of booze.

  “Thanks, but I…”

  “Trust me, you’ll thank me later. There ain’t no better way to drown yourself in your sorrows and believe me I think if I’d just been transformed into a woman, and a devastatingly beautiful one at that, if you don’t mind me saying, I’d drink myself stupid.”

  I stared at the glass and hesitantly took it from his hands before bring it to my lips.

  “God that tastes awful!”

  I proclaimed after taking a very small sip. It tasted like… crap I didn’t know what it tasted like, but I do know that it burned going down.

  “You drink this stuff… willingly?” I coughed holding the glass in front of my face and scowled at it.

  Strave laughed. “Its damned god awful I’ll give you that, but it’s not really about taste now is it? The goal here is to get blind stinkin’ drunk.”

  I jiggled the cup in my hand for a second, sighed, shrugged and then downed the rest of the glass. It didn’t taste any better going down the second time, but it didn’t seem to burn quite as badly. I shuddered, then held out the glass to Strave and coughed. “More, please.”

  “That’s more like it!”

  I don’t really remember much after the first couple drinks. I remember talking to Strave a little bit about the K’teth and my life before meeting up with the rebels, but the rest is all murky. After the final glass, I do remember having enough presence of mind to stagger back to my room and collapse into bed

  Chapter Nine

  “Jellfree!” a familiar voice called urgently drawing me out of the darkness.

  “Kaya?”

  I groaned and fought to open my eyes. My lids felt far too heavy and it took all my willpower to just to get them to open a tiny little sliver. A bright light filled my vision and I moaned before bringing up a hand to block it out.

  “Jellfree,” Kaya’s voice repeated. “God, I’ve been trying to wake you for almost five minutes.”

  I sat up slowly. “What time is it?”

  “Almost ten thirty… Are you alright? You really don’t look so good.”

  I palmed my face with both hands blocking out the light. “I feel like I got ran over by pack of dre’ks.”

  “Are you gonna be alright?”

  “God… if I’d known when Strave offered me that drink that I’d wind up feeling like this I never would have accepted,” I grumbled brushing my hair out of my face.

  Kaya snorted. “Well that certainly explains it, you’re hungover. Although, I think you really could have displayed a little better judgment. Strave is only out to cause trouble. Spend any time around him and you’re bound to get burnt.”

  I collapsed back onto the bed. “Come back later… Jellfree’s not home right now.”

  Kaya let out a long sigh and I could practically hear her roll her eyes as I felt her arms on my shoulders. “Come on get up. You need to get hydrated and then you need to get into the shower. Trust me, it helps.”

  I gritted my teeth then let Kaya help me up off the bed. “I think I’m going to puke,” I said and promptly did just that spewing bile all over the floor in front of me.

  “Well fuck, there’s no way in hell I’m cleaning that up,” Kaya muttered just before guiding me out the room.

  

  “Feeling better?” Kaya muttered taking a seat next to me.

  I gripped the side of my head and nodded. “Just a little.”

  “Isn’t that thing inside of you supposed to help along the healing process?”

  I nodded taking another long sip from my glass.

  “Then why did this hangover hit you so hard?”

  “Well, I’d say it’s because alcohol effects me as much as it does you,” a voice pronounced suddenly from my side.

  “Holy hell!” I proclaimed and swirled around to find the image of the K’teth staring at me with a sardonic smile on her illusory face.

  “Oh, great you again,” I groaned clutching at my head and willed the pain to go away.

  “What is it? It’s that thing again, isn’t it?” Kaya asked, clamping down on my arm with claws made of iron or at least that’s it felt like.

  “Yes, it’s her. Now, would you let go of my shoulder, freaking crap Kaya!”

  “Sorry,” Kaya muttered with an apologetic smile as she released her talons.

  “Do me a favor… don’t ever drink again. The headache is just a killer!” the K’teth sighed reaching around my shoulder to trace her arm across my back.

  “You have a head?” I blinked.

  “No, my physical form is…” she trailed off looking thoughtful. “Well I’m pretty much shapeless. Before my kind first join with a host our bodies, for lack of a better word, are a milky-white formless goo that’s just thin enough to be malleable. Now as far as the headache goes, I feel whatever you feel.”

  “Oh, well that’s just fascinating, really.” I replied dryly. “But can you shut up now and leave me alone!?”

  “Jellfree, what is it say–” Kaya started but I cut her short.

  “This is difficult enough without having to recap everything, Kai. Just be quiet and I’ll fill you in later,” I growled irritably.

  “Okay,” Kaya muttered looking hurt.

  “Jellfree…” the K’teth said thoughtfully. “You know that’s such a masculine name you should really think about changing it.”

  “Is there a reason you’re here or have you just come to pester me?”

  “Jellfree, Jellfree, Jellfree,” she muttered, absently stroking my face.

  “Would you cut that out!” I yelled grabbing at her arm, and grumbled as my hand passed right through
hers. “How the hell are you doing that anyway?! Why can you touch me, but I can’t touch you?!”

  “I’m not touching you in the truest sense… I’m merely manipulating your senses to make it seem as if I am.” She smiled running a hand down my neck.

  I scrambled off my seat and moved halfway across the room. “Stop it!”

  The K’teth rolled her eyes held up her arms then tucked them under her pits. “Oh, very well. I’ll keep my hands to myself, I swear.”

  “That’s better,” I said retaking my seat between the K’teth and Kaya. “Now, you’re going to answer some questions.”

  “Oh, very well. I suppose I owe you that much, at least,” she replied back letting out a long sigh.

  “For someone who claims to want freedom for her people, you sure have an odd way of showing it. If it were me I’d be as forthcoming as possible.”

  She smiled, and her lips cracked into a smile before she replied. “Why is it so hard for you to understand? You’re human and until recently we were enemies. Would you be so quick to give me information if you were a voice in the back of my mind? Be that as it may I’m willing to give you some answers. Perhaps you should take advantage of the situation.”

  I stared at her for a moment, and then slowly started to shake my head. “Do you have a name? We could be stuck together for a long time. I just can’t keep calling you ‘the K’teth’ can I?

  She smiled and stroked her chin thoughtfully. “A name? I’ve never had one… My previous host, the Overseer, called me, g’tel the Qharr word for pet. I’ve been called many different things by my hosts, although most just called me K’teth. No member of my species has a name; at least none that I know of; the masters do not see a reason for us to have one.”

  “Well, you better come up with one because I’m not going to call you g’tel and I’m certainly not going to keep calling you K’teth!”

  She grinned then let her hand fall away from her chin and land in her lap. “Name myself? What a novel idea! The more time I spend with you Jellfree the more I like you. I think I’m really going to enjoy being joined with you. Now let’s see a name… Oh! I’ve got it. ‘Khala’ it’s an old word in one of the many ancient Qharr languages. It means freedom.”