Disclaimer: This fanfiction is not affiliated with Among Us or Innersloth LLC and is not endorsed or otherwise sponsored by Innersloth LLC. Portions of the materials contained herein are property of Innersloth LLC. � Innersloth LLC.
Recruited as a breeder by her kind, Impostor Lime is glad to find comfort and intimacy in Black's tentacles.
But cycle after cycle, as she discovers her eggs are harvested for a nefarious purpose, her duties become harder to fulfil.
This is a prequel to The Taste of Betrayal / Battle Scars and contains spoilers but it can be read on its own.
I wrote this fic for the August 2022 Prompt Challenge on Reddit.
Prompt: Harvest
Depending on crop and location, August was often the month of harvest for many people, requiring back-breaking work in the fields. Let's take a bit of inspiration from our ancestors and return to our roots. After all, you reap what you sow… and this field is ripe for puns if you choose to go in that direction this month. Okay I'll stop now. You can also take a more direct agriculture inspiration–perhaps your characters are helping bring in the harvest this time. Of course, their harvest could be metaphorical rather than literal. Regardless, let's see what kind of fics this prompt yields us this month. (That really is the last one I swear.)
This story is also available on AO3.
From her concealed spot in the shadows between two buildings, Lime watched people walk past, oblivious to either her presence or Black's on the other side of the street. She liked the dark, when the aliens' poor night vision allowed her kind to slip by unnoticed –a benefit of their cities still on solid ground. It felt good to be herself sometimes without fear of getting identified as an 'Impostor' and killed. If she'd thought living among the aliens scary when her family had escaped from Polus, the danger had become ten times worse since the cataclysm had almost wiped out her kind.
But for the time being, the darkness and the hope Black would help her fulfil her breeding duty brought comfort. He waved to her, and she waved back, confirming their respective identities as Polusians –the aliens passing them without seeing. The two of them quickly closed the distance and walked together into a less busy alley. Only then did they afford to speak.
"So, you told me you'd been recruited to repopulate…" Black began, hesitant.
Lime confirmed with a nod. "We got a visit from Linkers last week." She shivered. From a lifeline between scattered pockets of survivors, the Linkers had become the armed militia of a burgeoning, but already totalitarian ruling party. "They informed us of the regime's plans to 'hit Mira where it hurts and give its people the payback they deserve'," she quoted. "But they found us good breeding stock, and… Well, they don't care who I make eggs with, as long as I do lay plenty of healthy eggs. I thought, perhaps… I mean I don't want to force your hand, it's just we get along well, so… I wondered whether…"
"My brother and I have been recruited for breeding too," Black answered in a fast, clipped voice. His stance relaxed, and relief filtered through his tone: "I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anybody else."
Her forehead leaning against Black's temple, caressing his mouth with the tip of a tentacle while he traced a lascivious arabesque on her sides, their forms relaxing into a hybrid between the aliens' and their own, Lime moaned dreamily. "I wish we were allowed to interact in the open, even if we'd still have to look like the aliens in public."
Black sighed. "I kind of understand why, though. Families are already allowed to stay in touch."
"Exactly! And we'll soon be one, too."
He let out a small groan, half out of uncertainty, half out of enjoyment under her touch. "But if one of us was caught, all of us would be eliminated. It's safer to stay apart and pretend we don't know each other."
"This isn't the life I wanted for my children," Lime pouted.
Black rubbed his forehead against hers. "I know. Me neither."
"I'm serious," she protested weakly, her body urging her to seek more of his attentions. "What's the point in making us breed if we can't even give our children a safe environment to grow in?"
"It's better not to question the regime's decisions," he hesitated. He moved his head away just enough to look at her with all his eyes. "Not that I'm complaining. There's nowhere else I'd rather be."
She had to agree. Abandoning herself in Black's tentacles sure beat being sent to near-suicide murderous missions. The rumours were scary.
Letting go of her concerns, Lime turned her body and mind fully to the present.
Lime had wondered how she was supposed to lay her eggs without attracting attention. She received the answer to her interrogation before it became pressing: just when the eggs had matured inside her, a Linker visited her. Clearly, they'd counted the days and expected she'd get on with her breeding duties immediately.
"When will you be ready?" the Linker, disguised as a tan-clad alien, questioned.
Lime tried not to let his tone get under her skin. "I am now. How will it work, do I need to say I'm going on a long trip? Or am I supposed to move–"
He cut her mid-sentence. "Come with me. We've got everything prepared. It'll just take a few hours."
"But–"
"Come," he silenced her again.
Tan led her to a generic-looking van and all but shoved her in. After a trip that felt longer than it probably was, spent in tense silence, the vehicle stopped before a warehouse and Lime was brought inside.
Lime felt a lump in her throat at the sight which awaited her: any joy at seeing a live breed-host from her home planet was eclipsed by how miserable the animal looked between four walls. At least, it appeared healthy enough for her larvae to grow to term. Two others of her kind flanked the door to keep the breed-host inside… and, perhaps, her too.
Tan motioned for her to lay her eggs into the breed-host, again closing the door to any discussion. Intimidated, she swallowed back her worries and concentrated, forcing herself to ignore her surroundings. She filled her mind with the animal's scent and relaxed her form to a smaller version of its own; she moved closer, cooing to keep its guard down; then without warning, she leapt at the breed-host, ensnared it in her tentacles, and plunged her ovipositor into the tender flesh of its sides three times to lay her three eggs.
She then jumped back while the breed-host tried to thrash at her; after a few seconds, the animal calmed down and came towards her, its head down in submission. What should've been a moment of joy felt so cold and dry under the detached, almost disdainful gaze of the Linker and the two guards.
Tan didn't give Lime time to stroke the breed-host's head to comfort it; he pulled her back and ordered her to return to the aliens' form.
Once they both sat in the back of the van again, she couldn't hold her questions back anymore. "If my partner and I don't care for the breed-host until the birth, it won't be used to us. How are we to make sure the birth will happen safely?"
Tan shrugged and leaned back into his seat. "We were only harvesting your eggs, you aren't having children."
A cold pit formed in Lime's stomach. What.
Before she could articulate the thoughts that battled in her head, the Linker spoke again: "They'll be born in families known for their loyalty and dedication to our kind."
Indignant, but too afraid to speak up, she asked in a tight voice, "Will Black and I be allowed to have children of our own… eventually?"
Tan made a vague unconcerned gesture. "Doesn't depend on me. You'll be informed if you are." He leaned forward and his threatening stance made her flinch. "Don't even think of keeping eggs for yourselves. Our people need them all."
Only after she'd curled up in Black's tentacles did Lime agree to explain what had happened: being taken to a secret warehouse, the breed-host, Tan's answer. Black clenched his claws in shared anger.
"They're just using us for the eggs," Lime concluded bitterly. "They may never let children be born to us."
Black growled. "So that's what they meant by breeders. Not parents of large families, just providers of eggs."
She nodded. "I know the life we're living isn't safe, but… It's no better for anyone else. They just want to indoctrinate the children into unquestioning obedience. And we may never even be allowed children of our own," she sighed.
He mellowed and ran a tentacle along her body, then wrapped another around one of hers. The contact inflamed her senses, and she sighed in delight despite herself.
"Hopefully, after giving them enough eggs, they'll allow us to have our own children," he smiled in an attempt to comfort her.
"I'm glad you're here with me," she whispered into his ear in response.
Lime didn't see Tan again –Linkers changed places and identities often to cover their tracks. She followed Green obediently, to a dropship this time. She still wouldn't know where they were going, not that it mattered: she suspected the guards brought the inseminated breed-hosts elsewhere straight away.
Once in front of the breed-host, she allowed herself to gaze at it lengthily. A little reminder of home warming her heart, a picture of peace and happiness amidst a hostile world.
Green's sharp voice snapped her from her thoughts: "What are you waiting for, we don't have all day."
"Sorry," she muttered, lowering her head.
She forced herself to put Green's outburst aside and changed her shape to match the breed-host, but the thought she was only there to provide a crop of eggs and wouldn't have children stopped her in her tracks. After a glance at an impatiently sighing Green, she finally leapt at the breed-host and fulfilled her duty.
Without surprise, Green took her back to their vehicle without letting her pat the inseminated animal.
Partly to fill the silence, partly because she needed to know, she tried fishing for more information about the children's planned future: "I hope the children will get to know a world where the aliens aren't always on the look-out for our kind."
"Maybe they won't, but they'll be instrumental in bringing such a world about," Green smirked. "The children born from your eggs will be taught all the tools they need to deceive Mira's crews and take them down. You should be proud to contribute to a future free from the aliens."
Lime's frustration and concern turned to dismay. The regime recruited breeder families to produce cannon fodder!
Shocked and fearing retribution if she argued, she remained silent for the rest of the flight.
"The children will be bred as living weapons," Lime whimpered, trembling against Black's chest. "It's not about restoring the population, it's not even about raising a crowd of obedient subjects. They'll be sacrificing the children for their war on Mira!"
For a moment, only grim silence filled the room.
Black broke it when he cursed under his breath. "I really thought being breeders meant we could just live our lives together, far from all the attacks and murders. I didn't realise we were still contributing to that."
"Why can't we just integrate among the aliens?" Lime sighed. "Why do we have to make things worse?" Rhetorical questions, of course. The power of decision had been taken from their hands when the Linkers had organised into a regime obsessed with revenge.
Black slid a tentacle along her sides; when the contact made her cringe, he promptly took it back. Despite feeling guilty for her reflex reaction, she scuttled away and they stared at each other awkwardly.
"I'm sorry," she apologised. "It's not you. It's just… I really don't feel like it right now."
He nodded. "Yeah, no worries. Honestly, me neither."
He sighed, and she stroked one of his tentacles, a gesture more friendly than sensual. "Perhaps in a few days, to give ourselves time to process it. In the meantime, what would you think of reminiscing about Polus around a good hearty meal?"
"Sounds perfect," he agreed.
"I'm not ready to lay eggs yet," Lime announced.
"You should be. You're late," Coral, the Linker who'd come to harvest her eggs this time, said. Under his ostensibly neutral tone, the threat was obvious.
She squirmed. "I'm sorry. We… we were having trouble conceiving."
"If you fail to give us regular crops of good eggs, you'll be reassigned to a more useful role on the front lines."
Lime started to wonder: would it be so bad? She didn't want to murder aliens who hadn't done anything to her, but perhaps she could slip through the cracks. And if she died… At least she wouldn't have to worry about any of this anymore.
Taking her silence as submission, Coral hammered the point home: "You know how these mission go: you infiltrate their bases, you kill as many of them as you can and you sabotage before leaving –or you sabotage and kill everyone inside, yourself included. That works too. Of course, they'll try to get rid of the impostors among them. You have to divert their suspicion to one of the actual crewmates, otherwise… Pffuit." He sniggered. "You may not have heard of the new decision: infiltrators have to eat those they kill, but only half of the body. Throws the aliens for a loop every time."
A cold shiver shook Lime, and she regretted having even considered going on those missions.
"Oh," Coral added in a mock afterthought, "and if you try to skip over your duty, your family will pay for it."
Lime and Black sat face to face like statues, eyes to the floor, until she finally broke the silence: "We have to do it."
"I know."
"If I don't give them eggs every cycle, they'll reassign us to attack missions." She still made no movement towards Black.
"I know," he repeated. "But it's becoming harder every time…" He shook his head. "This is wrong. Everything's wrong. I don't know what to do."
Lime closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, she looked straight at him. "Black, do you still care for me?"
He locked eyes with her. "Yes," he answered with sincerity.
She managed a weak smile. "And I care for you, too. I want to keep you safe. Please keep me safe."
She stood, walked up to him and sat beside him. Tentatively, she stroked his temple with the tip of a tentacle, then traced the contour of his mouth with another. With a whimper, Black pressed his forehead against hers and allowed his form to morph.
Lime didn't want to have sex. She didn't want to touch Black, and him to touch her. Not like that. Perhaps not ever again.
But at least they didn't have to infiltrate ships and outposts, to gain the aliens' trust only to better betray them, to kill innocents and defile their remains.
She closed her eyes and forced her body to open for Black's.
THE END
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Last update: 30th August 2022.