That Time I reincarnated as an insect-Chapter 79 - 78: FRIENDS OR FOES

Zza hit the lower deck so hard her ribs sang with pain. Dust exploded around her, drifting in slow circles as if the air forgot how gravity worked. She rolled once, twice, claws scraping metal, breath breaking somewhere in the middle. Her legs shook under her when she tried to stand. Her vision didn’t help either; it slid sideways, dipped, then slammed sharp again like a bad signal.

The city layer she’d fallen into wasn’t even a street. It looked like a half-digested corridor—walls sagging, metal bending inward, pipes pulsing like veins under a sick glow. Far above, the chamber she’d been thrown from sealed shut with a grinding echo that dripped down the vertical shafts. She felt it more than heard it. Her shell vibrated with each shudder.

And somewhere in that echo floated his voice.

**Buzz.**

One version soft. One version cold. Both of them crawling under her skin. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Zza pushed herself upright, leaning on the wall, grit rubbing under her claws. "Buzz... I’m coming. I swear I’m coming for you."

A pulse answered.

Not a sound.

A vibration.

It traveled down the walls, through her limbs, through the floor. A warning. A presence. A heartbeat that didn’t belong to any single creature anymore.

Zza swallowed, her throat tight.

He was awake now.

He was moving.

She didn’t know which him.

She dragged herself forward, breath scraping through her chest. Each step jarred her shoulder. Each breath pushed heat through her wounds. The city twisted ahead, corridors bending in curves that a sane city shouldn’t make. Metal rippled like it had skin. Vents opened and closed like eyelids. Shadows thickened where there should’ve been light.

The city was shifting for him.

Or because of him.

Zza didn’t slow.

She clutched the wall and limped through a narrow corridor that spat her out onto a tilted platform. The floor groaned under her feet, sliding downward inch by inch, dragging her toward a darker sector filled with broken machinery.

Then—

A flicker brushed her mind.

Soft. Fragile. Terrified.

**Buzz’s real voice:**

*"Zza, please... please stop. It’s using every step you take... it sees through everything I see..."*

Zza froze mid-step.

Her breath hitched painfully. "Buzz, stay with me. Talk to me. Tell me where you are."

His voice cracked like splintered bone.

*"I’m inside it. I’m inside myself. I’m inside something I don’t understand. I don’t know which parts are mine anymore."*

Something shook inside the chamber above her.

Her claws tightened.

"Keep talking. Focus on me. On us. On anything real."

He tried.

She heard him try.

*"I’m trying... I’m trying to hold myself... trying to... trying to—"*

Another voice slammed into her mind like a fist.

Cold. Regal. Certain.

**"He is failing. He is dissolving. He offered no resistance worth keeping."**

Zza stumbled backward, biting down on a cry.

"Get out of his mouth," she snapped, though her voice barely held steady.

**"This mouth is ours."**

The fused tone had weight. It vibrated through the corridor, making dust fall in thin streams from flickering lights.

Zza ran.

Her legs screamed in protest, but she pushed harder. Her silk trailed behind her in ragged threads, snagging on corners until they snapped and floated like torn flags.

The air changed.

Thinned.

Sharpened.

Something dropped from above.

Zza slid to a halt so fast her claws scraped sparks.

A tall shape stood at the far end of the platform.

No... it wasn’t standing.

It was shifting.

Its limbs elongated, then snapped short. Its wings stretched smooth and elegant, then flickered broken. Its shell shimmered between cracked and polished. Gold veins crawled across it, bright and dim, bright and dim, chasing each other under the surface.

Buzz.

But not.

And still him.

And also something worse.

He looked at her.

All four eyes.

Two filled with a heavy ache, like he wanted to fall into her arms and collapse into nothing.

Two gleaming with a cold calm that could slice through anything soft without hesitation.

Zza’s throat closed.

"Buzz..."

His body glitched again, flickering between forms like he didn’t know which one to settle into.

Then the regal posture took over.

His steps echoed hollow across the metal as he walked toward her, steady and slow, each footfall making the floor tense around his claws. The gold pulsed in rhythm with the movement.

Zza backed away.

He kept coming.

Inside him, another Buzz—the real one—shouted so loud she felt the vibration in her bones.

*"ZZA RUN!"*

Her breath caught. She sprinted sideways, slipping into a lower corridor just as he lunged forward.

The fused Buzz hit the platform behind her hard enough to dent it. The metal shuddered like it hated being touched by him.

Zza ran down the narrow slope, breath ragged, claws scraping. She didn’t dare look back, but she heard him, the scrape of claws, the glitching thud of shifting legs, the flutter of wings that kept changing length midbeat.

He was faster.

He was getting closer.

And she felt both voices storming her mind.

Buzz’s real one, frantic:

*"Zza, don’t look back, don’t stop, don’t—"*

Hive-Buzz slicing clean through the panic:

**"She will stop."**

Zza slipped around a corner and ducked into a maintenance hatch half-open in the wall. She shoved herself inside the dark shaft and pressed a hand over her mouth, trying to silence her own breathing.

The shaft vibrated.

He was right outside.

One of his claws tapped the wall.

Slow. Deliberate.

Zza held perfectly still.

Inside the fused mind, Buzz’s consciousness slammed against the hive’s lattice like an animal trapped in a cage. He saw through the eyes of his own body; he saw Zza hiding; he felt the hive moving his claws; he tried to pull back, but the hive pressed him down with a soft cold calm that made his thoughts scatter.

He screamed inside his own head.

The hive-Buzz didn’t flinch.

He leaned closer to the wall.

Zza’s heart pounded so loudly she felt certain he’d hear it.

The fused Buzz whispered against the metal.

**"You always hide in small places."**

Zza closed her eyes, a tight tear slipping down her cheek.

A faint sob escaped.

Buzz’s real voice broke inside himself.

*"Zza—please—I’m trying—don’t be scared of me—don’t be scared—"*

Hive-Buzz spoke over it.

**"Fear makes her predictable."**

He pressed a palm to the hatch.

Gold spread across the surface like a slow flame.

Zza snapped her eyes open.

He was melting the entrance.

Her breath hitched.

She scrambled up the shaft, dragging herself through twisting pipes as heat chased her legs. The metal glowed behind her as he forced his way inside, his form glitching to fit the narrow space—limbs bending, wings flattening, shell scraping with a nails-on-skin screech.

She pushed harder.

Fast.

Faster.

Even when pain shot fire through her thigh.

Even when her breath stalled.

Because he was behind her.

And hunter-Buzz didn’t pant.

Didn’t strain.

Didn’t stop.

Only hunted.

Buzz’s real mind clawed at the hive’s control, grabbing at threads, tearing at golden lines, screaming her name.

Hive-Buzz pushed him down again and again, easy, bored, like quieting a shaking child.

The shaft opened into a wider chamber.

Zza shot out—

—and collapsed on a grated platform suspended above a long drop.

Her chest heaved.

She pushed herself up.

Below her the city churned—gears turning where no gears belonged, pipes moving like ribs, whole blocks breathing.

She felt him enter the chamber behind her.

The air tightened.

Her claws curled.

She turned.

He stepped into the chamber.

His form flickered rapidly—elegant, broken, regal, sharpened—like he couldn’t settle on what he was supposed to be.

The real Buzz flickered in his eyes, begging.

Hive-Buzz smoothed over him with a calm smile.

He stepped toward her again.

His wings expanded in a slow sweep.

His voice—both voices—filled the chamber.

**"Come here."**

*"Run, Zza, run—"*

**"Come to me."**

*"Please, please don’t—"*

Her chest caved in with a sob.

She backed toward the platform’s edge.

The fused Buzz raised a claw.

Silence dripped through the chamber.

He spoke again—both versions at once.

**"I can’t let you leave."**

*"Please... leave..."*

Zza stared at him.

Then at the drop behind her.

Then at him again.

Her voice cracked open.

"Buzz... I’m not letting you disappear into that thing."

She stepped backward off the edge.

His scream tore through both voices—one pure panic, one pure rage—as he lunged after her.

The world fell.

The platform snapped.

The city swallowed them both.

The fall didn’t feel fast. It felt stretched, like the world grabbed her by the shell and lowered her through layers that shifted mid-drop. Light bent under her, curling like soft ribbons, and each ribbon tried to wrap around her legs as she fell deeper. She landed on something padded. It had the give of a bed and the cold of a morgue slab. Her claws shook as she pushed herself upright.

The room around her breathed.

Actual breath.

Walls rising and dipping in slow waves, soft light pulsing inside the metal like a fog trapped in ribs. Her head throbbed with each pulse. She stood anyway, even though her legs felt like stitched sticks about to cave.

"Buzz... can you hear me...?"

Her voice sounded tiny. Everything swallowed it before it traveled a single step.

A shimmer crossed the floor.

Not a creature. A memory.

Buzz’s silhouette.

He stood across the room, head lowered, claws curled in. The soft Buzz, the real Buzz, the Buzz who whispered her name like it was a promise instead of an anchor. He lifted his head slowly, eyes soft and desperate.

"Zza... you left me..."

Her throat hitched. She took one step forward without thinking.

Another shimmer rippled over him.

His wings stretched, posture shifting into the smooth, cold elegance she had learned to fear. His face grew still, too still.

"Come closer."

Her stomach twisted hard.

"That’s not you," she rasped.

His voice cracked in half, one tone pleading, the other instructing.

"Zza please... come closer."

She staggered back. The corridor bent with her movement, walls sliding sideways as though embarrassed by her hesitation. Her claws scraped metal until sparks slipped free. Her breath hitched again when another Buzz appeared behind her—this one beaten, swaying, eyes hollow.

"Zza... you didn’t save me..." He limped toward her, claws dragging lines along the floor. "You let me fall..."

She spun around. "Stop. Stop using his face."

The Buzz hallucinations didn’t fade. They multiplied.

One walked out of the wall as if it were soft fabric. One crawled across the ceiling like a spider. One stood in a hallway that didn’t exist a second ago. Each version tugged at a different wound inside her, pulling old memories out like toys.

"Zza... why did you run first..."

"Why did you leave..."

"I needed you..."

"I waited..."

She squeezed her eyes shut until tears burned.

"You’re not real. I know what you’re doing. I know this trick. Get out of my head."

A voice drifted from behind her ear. Warm. Breathless. Familiar.

"But I miss you."

She jerked forward, heart thundering.

The room dissolved into a swirl of gold dust and dark shapes. She stumbled into a new corridor, or maybe the same one, just folded differently. Hard to tell. The air tasted like sugar and ash. Her legs wobbled. She caught herself on a wall that felt like skin stretched over metal.

Then the corridor reshaped again.

Buzz sat in front of her.

Not standing. Sitting. Knees pulled to his chest. Shaking.

His eyes lifted slowly. Tears ran down his cheeks, dripping onto his claws. Real tears, not gold.

"Zza... I’m scared."

Her heart nearly shredded.

She reached toward him before the thought even finished.

Her claws touched his cheek.

Her hand sank through him like touching steam.

Her body froze.

"Oh."

The corridor whispered gently, almost proud of itself.

"You learn."

Zza wiped her face roughly. Anger stabbed fresh through her fear.

"Show me the exit," she hissed, "or you’ll regret keeping me."

The corridor rippled like it laughed.

Then the lights went out.

A voice—Buzz’s real voice—broke through her mind so sharp she almost fell.

*"Zza, don’t trust anything you see. I’m above you. I’m fighting. I’m—"*

His voice cracked.

Then it vanished.

The silence tasted wrong.

Zza braced her claws and began to run.

The corridor stretched ahead, darker, deeper, filled with whispers calling her name in Buzz’s voice.

She didn’t stop.

Even when her fear begged her to.

Even when the walls grew mouths.

Even when the floor turned to shifting memories.

She ran.

---

### **TRACK B — BUZZ**

He woke like someone tore him out of fire.

The chamber above Zza snapped into focus around him. Broken gold. Jagged metal. A crater in the floor where he’d crashed. His body twitched in five directions at once. His limbs stretched, shortened, stretched again. His shell flickered between cracked and smooth. His wings buzzed so violently he tasted iron.

The hive voice whispered through him, soft as silk, steady as poison.

**"She falls. She breaks. She weakens. You strengthen."**

Buzz’s real mind twisted under it, fighting for breath.

*"Shut up—shut up—shut up—let me breathe—"*

Gold threads pulsed over his legs. His arms. His throat.

The hive locked around him like a cold hand.

**"Your breath is ours."**

Buzz screamed.

A raw scream, not loud, but deep. The kind of sound that comes from a wound deeper than flesh.

He tried to push himself upright.

His body didn’t listen.

His arm moved the wrong way, guided by a force that wasn’t him. His wings flared smooth and regal even while he clawed at the ground, dragging deep gouges through the metal.

*"I need her—"* he gasped inside his mind.

**"Need is irrelevant."**

*"She saved me—"*

**"She weakens you."**

His mind slammed against the hive’s cage.

He saw Zza falling.

Saw her cry.

Saw the corridor trick her with his face.

Every image stabbed him.

*"I don’t want her hurt—"*

**"You want her still."**

The hive-Buzz’s voice bled into the real voice, merging and splitting, a jagged harmony that made his shell vibrate.

His body rose.

Not with his will.

The hive lifted him like a puppet, smoothing his posture, pulling his wings open until they gleamed.

He tried to pull back.

A thread snapped across his mind, yanking something out of him—something soft, something warm.

Memories.

Pieces of Zza.

Her face blurred in his mind.

Her laugh flickered.

Her touch dimmed.

*"Stop—stop—give that back—give it—"*

The hive quieted him with a single cold thought.

**"Shed the memories. Become sharp."**

His breath hitched.

His body stepped toward the corridor Zza had fallen into.

The city opened a path for him.

Buzz trembled inside himself.

*"Zza... wait for me..."*

**"She belongs to us."**

*"She belongs with me."*

**"We are you."**

Buzz’s mind cracked at the edges, light bleeding through the fractures.

The hive-Buzz stepped into the shadows.

Buzz’s real voice wailed inside his own ribs.

And they began to walk.

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