“Is it strange?”
The youth turned around and asked.
Behind him, a silver-gray tail-whip and wings swayed gently with his movements, as lively as a puppy’s tail. He couldn't help but reach out and pinch the artificial scaled tail himself.
“It feels quite... peculiar.”
It was warm, as if an organ he never knew he had had suddenly sprouted.
“It’s fine. You look like a standard member of the Grey-wing tribe now,” Sactie said dryly, while mentally calculating the probability of a certain high-ranking Zerg blowing his head off upon seeing this.
Arthur was clearly not yet used to controlling the thing through his built-in neural link; he frequently tripped over his own legs while walking.
The Core Species watched as the youth wandered around the warship’s lounge for several laps, his face bright with a novel smile. Only in this moment did the fellow before him truly look like a proper eighteen-year-old youth.
“Clark will definitely be startled,” Arthur said with a laugh, a mischievous glint in his blue eyes. “Every time he’s startled, he just stands there with a blank expression.”
“Let’s make a deal,” the black-clad female Zerg tapped the tabletop. “If he tries to rip my head off, you have to stop him. You were the one who requested to go to the Core Star Sector; if he wants to settle scores, he can’t pin it all on me.”
“I won’t let him get angry.”
The youth’s voice was gentle, his tail thumping out a rhythm. “You don’t need to worry.”
“Actually, I’m very worried.”
***
Returning to the nest, the Core Species leaned against the edge of the berth as usual to speak to the pupa sleeping within the cocoon. He gave a brief summary of the day’s events.
“I feel like Clark is going to want to twist my head off.”
With a soft, huffing laugh, his finger poked the outer wall of the small nest. “The moment he sees Arthur, he’ll probably make a move on me.”
The pupa, obviously, did not answer him.
“I’m also very worried about you.”
As the cheerful atmosphere dissipated, Sactie lowered his eyes.
Generally, a male Zerg required five days to complete their second eclosion, but this was already the sixth night, and the target of his constant attention remained motionless.
Before this, the Core Species had refused to consider what would happen if Gra failed to achieve a genetic breakthrough.
In certain moments of late-night silence, he even wondered if everything he had done was right—such as feeding the male too diligently, or being so generous in cultivating the male’s mental strength. If his methods were the reason the other had been forced into pupation, he didn't know how he would face the aftermath.
The ridiculous truth was that Gra had allowed him, as a Zerg, to regain a portion of the soul that belonged to Sactie Salileban the human.
If he hadn't picked up the injured male on the raider ship immediately upon waking, he would likely have walked a completely different path.
But Gra needed him. He needed his protection and his love, which allowed Sactie’s fragmented and shattered consciousness to rapidly coalesce into a new form and embark on a new journey.
“Wake up soon.”
With a soft sigh, the Core Species gazed at his sleeping companion through the cracks in the cocoon. “You’ve slept a bit too long—long enough that I’m starting to feel uneasy.”
The next second, he saw the originally silent white pupa twitch.
Sactie: “???”
This wonderful discovery acted like a shot of adrenaline for the black female Zerg, instantly jolting his weary spirit awake.
For the first time in six days, the other had made a distinct movement.
He sat bolt upright. “Roxanne?”
The pupa squirmed again.
To a normal person, this scene would likely cause their sanity to plummet, but surprisingly, the Core Species accepted it quite well. After all, he had gone through it once himself and knew exactly what it was like to crawl out of a pupa dripping with fluid.
“Gra,” he called out again uncertainly. “Roxanne, can you hear me?”
His hesitation didn't slow his movements. He swiftly cleared everything away from the cocoon and brought over a pile of blankets and Monet silk. He remembered that when he had first broken out of his pupa, he had been soaking wet and couldn't find anything to dry himself with.
For a short while afterward, the white pupa continued to twitch slightly.
The Core Species dropped everything else, prepared a small bucket of hot water in the nest, and sat by the cocoon to wait. He was more focused now than when he looked at his favorite mecha or guns.
The pupa went from moving once every half-day to a gradual tremor.
As the frequency of movement increased, a thin crack split the smooth surface of the shell.
Unlike the female Zerg who were covered in sharp scales, the time consumed by a male during eclosion was much longer. Like a fledgling pecking through an eggshell, the crack remained still for a long time before something from the inside tore it a bit wider.
Sactie almost instantly crushed the side of the cocoon he had worked so hard to build.
A few weak fingers reached out as if seeking help, catching on the edge of the broken shell. The black female Zerg grasped those fingers. He felt the cold fingertips curl slightly within his palm.
The moment they were held, it was as if they gained some new strength. The stalled crack widened again. Like a drowning person reaching for the sky with all their might, the pale, slender fingers gripped Sactie tightly.
The other would move for a moment and then rest for a long time. Sactie suddenly understood what Gra meant when he was first asked his name and said, *“I couldn't bite through the eggshell; I was stuck in the egg for a long time and couldn't crawl out.”*
He could hardly resist reaching in to help, but he wasn't sure if such an action would harm the male.
However, in the next instant, before he could make a decision, the solidified white pupa finally gave way under the pressure and tore open completely, the rift becoming massive.
A wet Zerg squeezed out, tumbled, and fell straight into the Core Species’ arms.
The drooping, scattered wings shimmered with a pearl-white luster. A long, complete scaled tail trailed behind him like a small snake just waking from hibernation.
Male Zerg did not have wing sheaths to store their wings, nor did they need to spend two or three days repeatedly engorging them with blood to make them hard and pressure-resistant like females. They achieved it in one step; like butterflies or silkmoths, they only needed a few hours to air them out before they could spread their wings.
Fluid dripped continuously from that body, soaking Sactie.
He didn't care about that. He used a soft cloth dipped in the warm water to carefully wipe the other clean, checking Gra for any abnormalities along the way.
The newly emerged male was still in a state of complete daze, unconsciously opening his body to the other and allowing himself to be handled.
The wings, unable to be lifted because they were soaked, looked like drooping, closed flower petals, resting tiredly and mournfully against the Core Species’ legs. The long white tail lay in a limp, soft posture, its tip ending in a small, cute hook.
His limbs were undamaged. Even the old scars left from the raider ship—scars that his self-healing ability had been unable to smooth over—had vanished with the birth of this new body.
“Roxanne.”
Sactie lifted the other’s face with one hand, his golden-brown eyes gently watching his dazed companion. “Roxanne, look at me.”
The male had grown a bit larger than before. His wings and slender tail were now whole. In his humanoid mimicry, the second pair of pale red secondary eyes could be well-hidden, no longer lingering there like faint tear tracks.
Sweet pheromones spilled everywhere, lingering in the narrow nest, almost constructing a magnificent and grotesque dream.
It was a highly successful eclosion, nearly perfect.
Fingers brushed aside wet hair to stroke a half-closed eye; white eyelashes swept across the Core Species’ fingertip.
Gra blinked, as if responding to the overly tender call. This was his second reaction to the outside world, besides grasping the other’s palm.
“You did well. I’ve got you.”
His deep voice was full of comfort, coaxing slowly. Sactie had quickly finished the cleaning and wrapped his shivering companion in the silk and fleece blankets.
With a smile, his fingertip teased the other’s eyelashes once more.
“Don’t be afraid, Roxanne.”
His sigh grew low as he shielded the other in the crook of his arm.
“Don’t be afraid...”
He stroked the other’s back stroke by stroke, using the cloth with the gentlest pressure to blot the moisture from the wings, then gathered the soft wings into his embrace along with the male.
Having exhausted too much energy, the male slept for a short while in that position. The Core Species was in no hurry; he held the other, rocking him gently, and fed him a sip of nectar when Gra let out a low hum.
This state lasted for a long time.
Both genetic breakthroughs and eclosion were accompanied by pain and suffering. Even Sactie himself, while inside the pupa, had nearly lost his continuity of consciousness due to that terrifying sensation of melting and collapsing.
If possible, he didn't want Gra to experience it even once. But sometimes, there were paths the other had to walk himself; he could not take his place.
Finally, the muddled male seemed to wake from a long dream. His now-dry limbs moved.
With his movement, the pearl-colored wings unfurled like the petals of a white epiphyllum, tangling with his still-damp hair.
The weak, slender white scaled tail also curled back, instinctively winding around the slowly swaying pitch-black tail-whip.
This was a very beautiful adult.
Even from a human perspective, one had to admit his beauty.
It had nothing to do with gender, species, or any other metaphysical, narrow definition. The genetic defect of albinism had, at this moment, become a form of adornment, making this non-human beauty appear even more tragic.
Like a flower falling onto the water’s surface, or a Morpho polyphemus butterfly caught in a web.
Pale arms emerged from the fabrics wrapping his body, slowly looping around the black Core Species’ neck.
The fabric slid from the male’s body, parting the layers of softness to expose him entirely.
He straightened his body and very, very lightly cupped Sactie’s cheeks.
The Core Species gently lowered his head to accommodate him.
The reborn male was simply too weak, too fragile; a tiny bit of movement consumed almost all his accumulated strength.
Then, in that posture, Gra leaned close.
Upon the corner of his golden-brown-eyed partner’s lips, he pressed a feather-light, weightless kiss.
---
Glossary Table:
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
--- | --- | ---
灰翅族群 | Grey-wing tribe | A specific Zerg ethnic group/tribe.
人工鳞尾 | Artificial scaled tail | A prosthetic or disguise part used by Arthur.
羽化 | Eclosion | The biological process of an insect emerging from a pupa.
莫奈特丝绸 | Monet silk | A high-quality fabric mentioned in the text.
副眼 | Secondary eyes | Extra eyes characteristic of certain Zerg forms.
多音白闪蝶 | Morpho polyphemus | Also known as the White Morpho butterfly.
尾勾 | Tail hook | A small hook at the end of the male Zerg's tail.
