Not sure of what to do the group stayed still and waited for the tail to make the first move. If they didn't have to fight this thing, then that would be for the best.
"What do you mean by friends?" Sydra yelled out to the Angelic Phantom, still prepared to fight if need be.
"I meant what I said, so I hope you understand we mean you know harm. In fact, you have our gratitude for saving us," the Angelic Phantom said as the Hive Queen's tail stopped a few feet in front of the group. "Please, come with me,"
"What should we do?" Robert asked, whispering to Sydra while glancing at the creature.
"Why should we believe what you said? After all, wasn't it you who was attacking us?" Sydra asked, taking a step forward and looking into the six eyes of the creature.
"Oh no, that wasn't us. You see, the Hive Queen was betrayed by her guards fifty years ago, and until now has been trapped underneath the palace. When I saw you in the laboratory, I had hope that you could distract the Red Coats long enough that I could get into the palace and release the Queen. Then we planned to destroy the remaining Red Coats, but it seems you have already done that," The Angelic Phantom explained to the group, who were starting to understand the situation. It was more believable by the fact that such a large creature, that could easily kill them all, was not attacking them.
"Why did they betray the Queen, and how are you related to her? You don't look like a Scorpede to us," Sydra asked, hoping to get more information out of the creature before possibly walking into a trap.
"I'll explain it all on the way back to the palace. Of course, if you don't wish to come with me, you do not have to as we will not force you," the Angelic Phantom said while making room on the end of the tail for the five of them to get on.
"Alright... We will take you up on your offer to go to the palace. I am quite curious about what has happened here, and why human experiments were going on," Sydra said as he led the others onto the tail. At the moment they had no other choice, at least not if they wanted to learn what had happened here, and hopefully in the Emerald Forest as well.
Once all of them were on the tail it began to retract back to the palace. No one talked on the way, as they were a bit wary of how high they were in the air at the moment. If any of them fell off at this time it wouldn't end well. A few minutes later and the tail was lowered to the ground in front of the palace. As everyone stepped off, the tail began to shrink along with the rest of the Queen's body.
"Ah, that is much better," Said a beautiful woman clad in a black dress. The woman was none other than the Hive Queen who had transformed into a human shape. She had a beautiful white face, but her arms and tail were still covered in a hard black shell. "Hello, my name is Sophia Reign, and you already know my butler Dion Salsi," Sophia said as she rubbed the top of the Angelic Phantoms head. "I owe my freedom to you four. Please, come with me into the palace so we may talk," she said as she waved her hand towards the palace that was still separated in two pieces.
Sydra nodded, and the group followed Sophia inside the left half of the palace. Once they were all inside, the two halves of the palace began to rumble before sliding back across the ground and reconnecting. The loud sound startled Silf, and she grabbed onto Robert's arm as she glanced back. Once the group entered a living area and sat down on the couches, Sydra began to speak.
"The first thing I would like to know is why you were locked up by your ds, and how such a thing came to be," Sydra said as he directed his gaze towards Sophia.
"Well, I should probably start at the beginning then," Sophia said looking downcast at the floor. "It all began a long time ago, back when my ancestors first came to this planet. Our home planet had been destroyed, but some of us had survived deep inside a type of bunker we made. That is what you see around you, the entire cave was our bunker, and on the outside is the type of mineral your planet calls Starlight Onyx. This bunker was shot off into outer space before crashing into your planet along the way. It seems a group of people noticed the meteorite entering this planet's atmosphere and used their powers to slow down the descent so we didn't kill all life here. Once we had finally stopped rolling across your planet we planned to leave the meteorite and start anew here, but before we could the meteorite began to move again to be taken to this place. When we tried to figure out what was going on the people that had brought the meteorite here attacked us and a battle ensued, lasting many years. We lost many of our kind, and they did as well, so eventually my ancestors called a ceasefire with their group. We gave them the antidote to our poison, and they taught us things about this planet." Sophia took a small break and asked Dion to get us some tea before she went back to her story. "Soon though, another war happened back on the surface, and it threatened the lives of the people who brought us here. They ended up coming to us and asking us to allow them to live here until the war ended. My ancestors allowed them too, but it seems that there were still some of our people who had a deep hatred for humans. This hate festered over time until I became the Queen. I was unaware of this group, and they launched a coup against me. When the time was right, they trapped me using runic inscribed chains and locked me under the palace. They couldn't kill me, because all of the previous ruler's memories would be transferred to the new ruler, and if that happened they would be out of luck," Sophia explained as Dion brought in some type of drink that tasted like honey mixed with sweet tea. Taking a sip, Sophia allowed the others to digest what she had told them.
"I assume that the next ruler is not your offspring, but one of the Scorpedes chosen at random?" Sydra asked, thinking this would be the most likely answer. After all, if the Red Coats had killed the Queen, but they didn't know who would be the next Scorpede chosen then they would have had danger always lurking around the corner. Everyone had seen had large the Queen was, and if she was as powerful as she seemed then it wouldn't be good if they left the new ruler to grow to the same strength and come back for revenge.
"Yes, that is correct, and these are the reason they kept me alive. That way they could keep an eye on me, and since I was already trapped they wouldn't have to worry about someone powerful attacking them. Of course, over fifty years they became complacent, and this allowed the four of you to attack them without them being prepared," Sophia said as she set your cup back down on the table.
"But what were the human experiments about? Why was Silf taken away from her family, and experimented on?" Erich asked, looking over at Silf, who was sitting next to Robert and drinking the tea quietly.
"I know the reason behind that," Dion said, as he floated around the room and used his tail to pour more tea. "When the Queen was ambushed, I managed to escape from the palace and went into hiding for twenty years. Over time, I tried to figure out a way to break into the palace and save the Queen. On occasion, I would possess one of the Red Coats so I could check up on the Queen, and during one of those times, I overheard a conversation. It was about the young girl sitting here, being the new human experiment. They seemed excited about the fact that it looked like she was able to merge with the creature they had used. After she had fully merged with the creature, they planned on brainwashing her so that she could be used as a pawn to take over the human settlement that exists several miles from here. The reason they hadn't taken out the settlement themselves yet was because they were unsure if they could take on the powers that the people of this planet possess. That is why they needed someone on their side, that they knew wouldn't betray them, inside the human settlement weakening it. None of the humans would have suspected anything either, because the past rulers did indeed take human children from the settlement and allow them to live in the palace. It was a huge honor for the humans, and it also would have turned into their biggest downfall." Dion explained as he finished refilling everyone's tea and floated back to Sophia's side.
"Wow, I can't believe it was for such a reason. I guess even people from outer space can hold grudges, huh," Robert said as he looked over at Sydra, and wondered what he was thinking about. Sydra had been quiet for a while as he was deep in thought about everything he had heard.