Nothing ever goes to plan, and even the best-laid plans can fall apart the moment you go to put them in action. Life also doesn't wait until you're ready to hand you a problem. Instead, we are forced to face them, head out or run.

I stared at the massive bubble fortress below me, feeling like I was missing something. The Guards were bringing the Queen, Mordiraine, up to me, but I was still trying to put the pieces of everything together.

"There are many different things that don't make sense right now," I said out loud to the gathered group.

"True, but the people that we brought back haven't talked yet, and they all seemed to be scared of something," Messia said as she came over to stand beside me.

I had found out that she had only just learned about the stowaway SugaBees, and was just coming back from checking on them. I was hoping that she would have had some good news, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

"I was listening and observing the entire time," Miasma said as she stepped up to the map table opposite to me. "At first, when you said that there was something wrong, I thought that you were just talking about the obvious, so then I targeted Mordiraine with my Holistic Researcher ability. I think that you are right about there being something else, all the Queens threads lead back to her Hive, but I couldn't read any of them."

I thought about her ability, but that didn't make sense; how could something block it?

"Have you tried your ability on other things and people?" I asked, trying to rule out what might be the problem, but Miasma nodded her head.

"Yes, since yesterday, I have tried ten people and countless objects. Each of them would allow me to read each strand until I fully understood that person or thing, but this was different. There was nothing to read on each of the strings, but there were many, more than even you, and yes, I looked but did not touch," Miasma said with a smile, and I nodded my head.

We at least know that it had to be something to do with this Hive, but we had run into a problem right away. Even though the bubbles appeared transparent, they were actually translucent and were like trying to look through muddy water.

*Poof!*

"You should be very careful around this Queen. I have been monitoring her speech patterns as you were arguing with her, and there was a tremor in her voice. There were also other signs conducive to fear, so I think that there is some type of control going on," Hilda explained after the small cloud of white smoke disappeared.

"I think that you are right. Atom and Thanos said that she was terrified, but I didn't see anything like black tar on her," I said.

Xani came over to me and tapped on my arm, and I looked down at her with a smile. "Yes, dear? Do you know something?"

"Yes, there are many different types of monsters in the world that could do something like this, but very few that I know can do it on this scale. The problem is that I don't know how you would prevent it from getting into your mind," Xani said, and I got a cold chill down my back and gave out orders immediately.

"Will and Bob are to be detained until we get this under control. We have no way of knowing if they can or can not be effective as far as I know," I said, but Hilda spoke up for them.

"No, your subjects are immune to all forms of mind control. Sadly, the Queen System at its core is a mind control System if used the wrong way, but that also means that it makes all subjects immune to outside control," Hilda said, and everyone in the room relaxed.

"That is the best news I have heard all day, but that still doesn't help us with what we have to do next," I said, but that was the moment the Rock Trolls started to enter the room from the Honey Gate.

I turned to them and frowned at the floating rock that was with them, but then I realized what it was. My warden, Fen's ability was to seal people away, but it would be tough to speak to Mordiraine like this.

"Let her go, and I will hold her," Miku said, stepping forward.

My warden looked at me with a raised stone eyebrow, but I nodded my head yes. If Miku was this confident, then I was that confident in her ability to do so.

"Release her, but everyone is prepared; we have no idea what could be coming out of this shell. Everyone who is not directly involved needs to stay back as well. Now, let her out," I said, and my warden nodded, and the rock opened, but I did not think that she was going to just fall out of the damn thing!

Luckily, Miku used a shadow to catch her, but the woman was crying. Ugh, more cold shivers, and now I was apprehensive about what this woman was about to say, but she just sobbed in Miku's shadow grasp.

I was about to say something, but then Mordirane started to scream in panic. She started trying to struggle against Miku's Shadows hold, but Miku held her fast.

"PLEASE, NOT MY BABIES; YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T! I HAVE BEEN CAPTURED! THIS IS NOT MY FAULT! YOU WERE IN CONTROL!" The Queen screamed in pain, and I froze, too scared to breathe.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, but Serria was running over to the screaming Queen before I could even blink. What was wrong with this damn woman?! Why did you always have to rush into danger like this!

"Let her go, Miku has her, and the guards are there," Messia said from beside me, but I still felt on edge.