Somewhere far beyond the comfort of the twilight grove, on the same night the group was having a hearty dinner, a battered and injured Amawas limped and sat on a throne of Raven-stone. Her left arm was completely gone, and in her right arm, a chain was coiled with a scythe attached to its far end.
All around her, the hall she was in reeked of blood and destruction as countless of the dark ones laid lifelessly on the floor. And amidst them, a pale, lone figure was sitting cross-legged, holding a pocket watch, and mumbling something to itself.
She could not believe that in just a few moments after the mysterious figure's arrival, she had lost her entire castle and armada. In only a few heartbeats, the figure had mowed them down like a herald of pure destruction.
And now it sat cross-legged, devoid of any emotions, mumbling to itself.
Amawas had barely any time to recover from the brutal fight with her brother, and now this, she was tired and angry. She shouted at the figure.
"Just tell me who sent you!"
To this, the figure looked up and said
"Not the time; you have to wait for your time; it's not the time yet." It kept repeating itself.
Amawas got up and pushed her only arm out, challenging the figure, but it didn't look up; instead, it waited and kept mumbling the same thing. In the next moment, from somewhere in the darkness of the hall, a giant black serpentine shot at the figure, only to be disintegrated before ever reaching it. At the same time, Amawas spun her scythe, and it landed on the figure's neck, only to break apart. It didn't even look up.
"It's not your time yet. The sovereign sends his regard and places a reward on your head for failing him. The time of your death is near Amawas." And it disappeared into thin air.
Amawas fell back, panting; she had made an extremely menacing foe, and all the odds were stacked against her now.
************
The queen's chamber was a huge room with nothing in it. The flooring was amazing and regal, and the walls had breathtaking details, but it completely lacked furniture or basically anything else. Queen Golden stood in the middle with Haniya, listening to her attentively.
There was indeed a traitor among the bees that had not only sabotaged the team but had also put their existence at stake. And Haniya had found out who it was. If her theory was correct, the traitor was someone Queen Golden would have never doubted in the first place.
Someone with a high level of access to the infrastructure and technical knowledge of the gateway to begin with. Soon, Sir Jamun, along with another purple bee, entered the room, escorted by Commander Buzz and a squadron of soldiers.
Queen Golden directed to them and said
"Haniya has told me that there's a traitor among us—someone always hidden in plain sight and with inside knowledge."
To this Commander Buzz stepped forward and replied
"I have been thinking the same, your majesty; I think I might know who it is. It's the crow. Noone questions him in the hive; he goes and comes as he pleases, and he purposefully missed flying as well into the gateway with the team."
"I know who the culprit is," Queen Golden said, then she looked at Sir Jamun.
Sir Jamun cleared his throat and pushed the other purple bee forward. It bowed down and began to speak.
"Commander Buzz came to us a month ago with the late Nector 1 Squadron that lost their lives at the Demon Child's home. He then asked us to inform him of the technicalities of the gateway and asked us about its controls; it looked very weird and out of place because he had never done that before. Then he asked all the bees that were present in the room to swear confidentiality that the Queen had asked him to carry out a secret task."
Commander Buzz recoiled back upon hearing this and flew as fast as he could to the purple bee, but dropped on the ground midair. An external force pressed him and restrained him.
"He's lying, my queen," he said, struggling.
The pressure of the force increased another fold, and he stopped talking.
It was Haniya who then spoke
"No, he isn't. I suspect that you became overconfident in your status and went to the gateway room with the entire squad, only to realize it was a significant mistake. You then took advantage of the mission to save Qatan. On the day you attacked our home, a commander with your abilities could have waited until night when everyone was sleeping, greatly increasing the chances of success. However, according to #212, the only surviving bee, you insisted that the squads, especially Nectar #1, move to a dangerous vantage point, while the other tried to free Qatan. You knew they would be spotted and killed in daylight, yet you proceeded, disposing of them in a way that went unnoticed. #212 also confirmed Shaitoots' claim. I became suspicious of you because you were the only bee with high-level access to the infrastructure and inner plans. The crow was ruled out due to a lack of capacity."
Haniya then changed her tone to a menacing, low-sounding voice full of pure spite and anger.
"You put my sisters in danger. You put your team in danger. You betrayed these bees, who revered you and looked up to you. If it were up to me, I would kill you right here."
Queen Golden hovered close to Commander Buzz and released the force. Upon it, he glided up and looked at the queen, realizing that there was no way out of this, he said in a voice full of hatred.
"You took my son's life, Golden. Despite knowing that the vine was an impossible task, you took his life and sent him to die. Anyone with half a sense would see that the real monster is not me, but you. The plague upon our community, you condemned the team Insaaf to death as well. You have been outmatched ever since you took the throne, unable to defeat or avenge anyone," he said spitefully.
"And then, in your blind hatred, you went on and sided with the creatures that took your son's life," Queen Golden replied.
"I was going to go for them next, but not after breaking you apart." Buzz said this and closed his eyes, waiting for his death. But it never came.
**********
A few hours had passed since the team Insaaf had sat down to have a hearty good dinner together when the antenna comms of #212 had buzzed and he had to recall the harrowing experience of Nector1 dying in Isra's home yet again. Together with Queen Golden and Haniya, they had successfully narrowed the list down to Commander Buzz.
Ever since they were sabotaged, #212 had an inkling of doubt that it could be him, but he had not given it a proper thought yet. He had barely any time to recover physically, and the mental toll of previous days had left him forgetting important things on more than one occasion.
Right now, he floated in front of Isra and had asked her to strike him as hard as she could. The weapons he had ordered were now ready, and he had decided to train with the girls.
Isra held an elegant small sword that wasn't sharpened yet on Qatan's instructions. She swinged it, and the sword surprisingly guided her hand and hit #212, but it brushed off as if hitting a metal in mid-air.
"This is called the Ishaar's sword. It's a training weapon that guides the swordsman's hands to the victim," #212 said, then he shouted to Khadija, who held a beautiful bow and arrow in her hands.
"And you have Ishaar's bow. It doesn't even require loading the arrow properly; it does everything by itself, so just lift the arrow to the string and let it guide your hand."
She did as told, and surprisingly, she now held a pointed arrow right at #212 from a good distance.
"Release!" #212 said.
She released it, but the arrow simply brushed off against him, again as if it were hitting a thick metal slab.
"There are some more weapons, so feel free to poke around and see which suits you better; tomorrow we'll do something serious."
And just like that, another day had gone by, and in the end, things were starting to turn in the favor of the bees. The team was back and in good health, the traitor was captured, and Amawas was subdued for now. In terms of collecting the vine, this wasn't much of an improvement, but all in all, the odds were slowly getting in their favor. But that did not mean that the danger ceased to exist.
Some hours later, At midnight, Under the yellow dim moon, a pale, mysterious figure holding a pocket watch appeared out of thin air near the Zar-e-Zameen.