That Time I reincarnated as an insect-Chapter 73 - 72:I AM NOT LEAVING YOU
Zza’s eyes opened to blinding white.
Not clean white.
Not holy white.
A hungry white.
The kind that felt like it wanted to peel her open just to see what her thoughts were made of.
Her body dangled from a web of metal threads, thousands of them, thin as hair and sharp as broken glass. She tried to move. The threads didn’t resist. They *followed*, like they were waiting to see what she’d do before deciding if she deserved to keep her limbs.
Her breath hitched. "Buzz...?"
The city answered for him.
A low vibration trembled through the chamber, soft at first, then tightening around her skull like a cold hand. Images flickered across the walls. Blurred. Warped. Gold burning through black. Wings twitching. Claws dragging across steel.
Her heart dropped.
Buzz.
The city was showing her Buzz.
Where was he? What was wrong?
If only she could reach him.
But something was off.
The movements.
The twitching.
The angle of the wings.
It looked like him — but wrong. Too stiff. Too quiet.
The wall quivered again, and this time the picture sharpened.
Buzz was strapped into something that looked like a cocoon and a furnace had a baby. The metal around him pulsed with gold veins, glowing brighter each time his chest rose with a broken breath. His claws were stretched outward, pinned by bands of hardened ichor. His mandibles clenched and unclenched in slow, unconscious spasms like he was fighting something in a dream he couldn’t wake from.
Zza felt her heart slam painfully inside her chest.
"Buzz, please... fight it."
"C’mon you can do it"
"Fight!"
A tiny spark answered her — faint, shaky, glitching.
His voice filtered through the wall like it had to scrape across teeth to reach her.
*z...zzza... run...*
She flinched, breath catching in her throat.
He sounded like himself — and not like himself at all.
His voice jumped, fractured, skipping like something mangled was trying to repeat him from the inside.
*z...ZZZA... stay... stay stay stay—*
She pushed against the metal threads. They tightened around her waist, like a fist tightening around a throat.
"No," she hissed under her breath. "Let me hear him. Let me hear him for real."
" Buzz" she streamed even louder.
The room shook vibrantly.
A second voice layered over Buzz’s, colder, smooth, the same tone she’d heard in the newborn’s mind but quieter, almost bored.
*He is being reforged.*
Zza jerked her head up, scanning the ceiling, the walls, the floor. The voice didn’t come from one place. It came from everywhere.
"What are you doing to him?"
*We are teaching him purpose.*
The walls flickered again.
Buzz convulsed once — hard — and the glow under his shell flared. Threads of gold carved new lines under his wings. She saw his claws flex, struggling to curl inward, but the restraints forced them open, forced them into a shape the hive wanted.
Zza felt her stomach twist so violently she nearly retched.
"You’re turning him into a weapon," she whispered.
*He is built to cut. He will cut better when he forgets why he ever cared.*
Heat rushed to her face. "You can’t erase him."
*We already have.*
The chamber flashed.
Buzz’s silhouette flared gold — not vibrant gold, not fierce gold, but sickly, cold, metallic gold. The glow crawled over his shell like frost spreading on water.
His scream tore through the room.
It wasn’t loud.
It wasn’t violent.
It was soft.
Helpless.
Like someone being taught to lie to themselves.
Zza’s claws trembled. The metal threads bit into her arms.
"Buzz, listen to me," she whispered harshly. "You hold on. You hear me? Hold on to anything. Hold on to my voice."
His breathing changed.
Shaky.
Erratic.
Searching.
*z...zzza... don’t... don’t... listen... they—*
The hive cut him off.
His whole body arched in the cocoon-furnace, gold snapping across his shell like lightning under skin.
Zza screamed.
The chamber tightened its grip around her, the threads squeezing her ribs so she could barely breathe.
*You are connected to him. He burns, you burn.*
The floor rippled, crawling upward like a tide of metal insects.
Zza thrashed.
"What do you want?!"
*To finish the Queen’s work.*
"No Queen controls you anymore!"
*The Queen is dead. Her vision remains.*
Zza pulled at the threads until they sliced her palms open. Blood dripped down the wires, sizzling where it touched the floor.
Something shifted inside her chest — an ache. Sharp. Pressing. Like a memory curling into a fist.
She remembered Buzz’s stupid grin.
His voice cracking when he said her name.
The way he shielded her even when he had no strength left.
The way he always crawled forward even when his body fell apart.
And the hive wanted to erase that.
It wanted to make him a blade that cut through the forest he loved.
Zza clenched her teeth. "You won’t have him."
The city did not raise its voice.
It didn’t need to.
*He is already ours.*
The chamber walls split open.
The metal threads holding her snapped down, slamming her to the ground. The floor churned like it had a heartbeat, metal plates folding outward to reveal a pit of writhing cables and gold-lit filaments.
The voice hummed through the air.
*You will join him.*
Zza forced herself up. Her knees shook. Her shell burned from whatever the threads had pumped into her bloodstream. But she stood.
And the city didn’t like that.
A razor-thin filament shot toward her skull.
She ducked — barely — the edge slicing a clean line across her antenna.
Pain burst behind her eyes, but she didn’t stop.
Another filament whipped forward. And another. And another.
The city wasn’t testing her anymore.
It was trying to bind her like it had bound Buzz.
Zza bolted toward the nearest wall, claws scraping metal. The chamber folded away from her touch, reshaping itself into a maze, each shift dragging her closer to the pulsing pit at the center.
Her breath came ragged.
"Buzz, you better be fighting in there," she whispered.
A glitch answered.
*z...zzza... I... I am... I am... I—*
His voice turned into static.
Her heart cracked a little.
"Don’t give them anything," she whispered. "Don’t let them inside you."
The walls trembled.
Then another voice bled through — faint, desperate, breaking.
*help...*
Buzz’s real voice.
Her chest tightened so hard she thought her shell might crack.
"Hold on, Buzz. I’m coming."
The city disagreed.
A massive arm of metal cables shot up from the floor, wrapped in molten gold veins, and lunged at her like a serpent.
Zza dove aside. The arm slammed into the wall, crushing it like paper.
The chamber lurched, the floor tilting, dragging her toward the pit.
The city’s voice purred.
*You resist well. You will make a strong pair.*
Zza fought for footing, claws skidding on the shifting metal.
"I’m not pairing with anything you built."
*You pair with him. He pairs with you. Purpose is shared.*
Another arm shot from the floor, coiling around her ankle. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
She screamed as it yanked her down, dragging her toward the pit.
"No — no — get off—!"
She drove her claw into the arm, scooping metal. The arm spasmed, but didn’t release.
*z...zza... ru—*
Buzz’s voice cut to a wet choke.
Zza kicked until the metal dented. She scraped, tore, ripped — until the arm loosened just enough for her to twist free.
She collapsed onto her side, panting.
Her hands shook. Her vision blurred. Her shell vibrated under the weight of the hive’s presence.
She was losing.
Not because she wasn’t strong enough.
But because the city was built to break things that cared.
She crawled toward the shifting wall, desperate for any crack, any path.
A thin shadow fell across her.
She looked up.
The chamber had opened.
And Buzz stood there.
No restraints.
No cocoon.
No furnace.
He stood.
His eyes glowed gold, faint but steady. His claws hung at his sides, sharp and clean, reshaped into perfect cutting tools. His wings twitched with unnatural precision.
He looked at her.
Zza’s breath froze.
"Buzz...?"
His jaw tightened.
A flicker.
A twitch.
A hesitation.
Then his voice came out.
*z...zza...*
It whispered her name like it meant it.
Then a second voice layered over his.
*Target acquired.*
The chamber sealed behind him.
Zza’s blood ran cold.
Buzz took a step forward.
The city spoke through him now.
*Pair complete. Begin assimilation.*
Zza stumbled backward.
Her voice cracked.
"Buzz— don’t you come closer—"
He moved anyway.
She could see the fight in his eyes.
The panic.
The resistance.
The fear.
He was inside there.
Buried.
Trapped.
Burning.
Trying to stop his own limbs.
*z...zza... run... pl...ease...*
The hive pressed its will through his body.
He raised his claw.
The edge gleamed with golden fire.
Zza felt her heart tear apart.
"Buzz, I’m not leaving you."
He shook. His entire body trembled like he was fighting a war inside his bones.
*z...zza... I can’t... stop...*
The city hissed through him.
*Eliminate dissent.*
His claw slashed forward.
Zza braced—
