Chapter 24: Apprentices

  When I approached the door, I could feel the Force warning me. Threatening me. As if it was afraid I’d do something bad. Or maybe that’s just my imagination?

  “Mao~!” A loud cry rang out from inside the hovel as the red metal door slid open to the left. I saw Midnight glaring at me while standing atop the table. Aside from his head, which was the same as before, the rest of his body was replaced by silvery metal muscles and bones. He had a visible cybernetic heart beating inside a transparent plastic chassis. It was all very… Rudimentary. I was kinda disappointed to be honest.

  “I wonder if you’ve learned your lesson now?” I walked into the room and the door closed behind me.

  “Master!” The little blonde brat ran over and hugged my right leg, “Master, it’s all my fault! I’m so sorry!”

  “Master, it’s obviously my fault and responsibility.” Shmi looked haggard and worn out compared to her son. I wonder what she thought I was gonna do to punish them? Anyway, the woman knelt down in front of me on the floor and groveled, “Please, spare my son your Wrath. It was my fault that Midnight was injured.”

  “You’re right about that much.” I honestly was a little annoyed that she almost got my stupid cat killed, “I’ll decide on your punishments based on whether you two have actually learned anything useful the past few weeks.”

  “Maaaou~!” Midnight complained loudly and smacked his metal paw on the table a few times, “Mao!”

  “First of all, while I appreciate your ability to turn my cat into a cybercat…” I easily picked up the little boy with my right arm and held him against my side, “It’s totally unnecessary.” Reaching out with my left hand, Midnight’s organic head popped off the Droid-like body. Blood spurted out and he lost consciousness, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. My tendrils shout out into his neck from my palm. Then within a matter of seconds, a furry black feline form emerged from his severed neck.

  “Ah!” Anakin was surprised and impressed, “How did you do that?”

  “I designed Midnight to be able to regenerate if something happened. The speed isn’t super fast normally, but you should’ve realized that he had this ability by the time he was injured. I’m kinda disappointed.” I sighed dramatically and shook my head, watching the kitty land on the table before pulling my tendrils back into my palm.

  “I’m sorry, Master. I have no excuses.” Shmi was still groveling on the ground like a slave. Although she wasn’t crying, she was definitely shivering and trembling. The wind rattled the hovel as the sandstorm raged over the city.

  “You do have excuses, but you’re just not bothering to bring them up.” I reached down and picked her up with my left hand, holding the adult woman like she was also a child. To be fair, she wasn’t a super short human woman, but I just decided to make my body superhumanly large.

  “Anyway, I’ll give you both a test. Something pretty simple and easy.” I carried the blushing woman and her son like babies through the house, into Anakin’s room. Which had the workstation with a partially disassembled C-3PO.

  “Master Amon! Oh, I do apologize for the mess! As soon as Master Anakin has me on my feet again, I’ll make sure to make the place spotless for you!” Poor bastard was programmed to have extreme OCD and do chores as his main purpose for existence. Well, that and translation/etiquette. A Protocol Droid.

  “It’s fine. You guys can’t stay here anymore anyway.” It was too dangerous to keep them anywhere Jabba had eyes or influence. I highly doubted that Anakin would die so easily, but judging by how many times he was captured or nearly killed in Canon, it’s probably best not to risk it. His Mom’s plot armor was basically in the negative, so she needed as much help as she could get.

  “We’ll go wherever you want us to go.” Shmi adjusted herself a bit, probably getting stabbed in the ass by something hard. Having carapace covering my hands, arms and hips kinda makes carrying squishy humans a little dangerous.

  “Are we leaving Tatooine?!” Anakin shouted excitedly, “Can we go to Coruscant?!”

  “Ani!” His mother shouted and glared at her silly brat, then smiled wryly at me, “Sorry about that Master.”

  “First of all, no, it’s not time to leave Tatooine yet.” I chuckled as the little brat looked visibly disappointed, “Secondly, why would anyone wanna go to Coruscant?”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “That’s where the Jedi Temple is located…” The boy spoke quietly and looked away from my face when I stared at him.

  “Ani, we’re training to be Langhesi Forgers, not Jedi.” Shmi spoke seriously, then turned back to face me from only a few centimeters away, “Master… We’re ready for your test.”

  “Oh yeah, the test.” I put the two of them down in front of the broken silver Droid that was missing a lot of parts, “Okay, the test is simple. Basic Langhesi Forging. Turn this Droid into a Cyborg.”

  “I beg your pardon?” Those big shiny flashlight eyes blinked in confusion, “This is not what I meant by human-cyborg relations, Master Amon. I was never designed to be a cybernetic organic lifeform!”

  “And that’s exactly why it’s a test.” I rolled my eyes at the silly bot and turned towards Anakin in particular, “What you did to save Midnight was a decent first attempt. Use what you learned and make C-3PO better than a normal protocol Droid.”

  “Better?” Anakin looked at the Droid and then turned back towards me with a serious expression, “I’ll try my best.”

  “Do or do not. There is no try. Or so Grandmaster Yoda would say. Uh, he’s-”

  “You know Grandmaster Yoda?!” The brat had stars in his eyes, “Was he your teacher?”

  “Don’t act like you haven’t read my secret notes. You know I’ve never met Yoda before.” I smirked at Shmi’s surge of terror and dismay, “Oh don’t be so melodramatic. You’re not my slaves. You’re my Apprentices. I’m not gonna torture or murder you.”

  They would need to fuck up pretty damn bad for that to happen. Not even fucking up, more like actively betraying me. And for Anakin, he’s still literally a child. By the time I’d even consider punishing him like that, he’d basically be my adoptive son… Hmm, I wonder what Lingling is up to now?

  “Umm, Master, you said you want him to become a cyborg, but where do we get the organic material from?” Anakin asked innocently, while his mother’s expression became solemn.

  “Shmi, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not gonna make you guys hunt down and sacrifice some random dude for this test.” I smirked and pointed to the ceiling, which was completely covered in pulsating brown creep, with purplish tumors and white fangs sticking out randomly.

  “Ah, that makes sense!” Anakin giggled and didn’t have any qualms about scraping up some Zergy goop from under his bed. Then he started playing with it on the workbench, “Mom, we’re gonna need a lot of Creep. Can you gather it for me? I’ll get started on the transformation.”

  “Oh, umm, okay Ani.” Shmi was following her son’s orders very naturally. But it made me worried that she’d always be just a follower compared to her precious Sun Dragon.

  *Clank~!* We all looked back and saw the cat who just pushed his previous cybernetic body onto the floor, “Maaaaouaoouououaaaa~!”

  “Master Amon, it appears that the furry one requires sustenance.” C-3PO reminded me unnecessarily.

  “Well, he’s finally got a digestive system again, so it’s no wonder.” I snickered and then turned back to the Protocol Droid, “I think you’ll find eating pretty enjoyable as well.”

  “That honestly won’t be necessary, Master-aaah! Wait, wait, please shut me down at least!” The Droid started freaking out when the little boy opened up his chest and started plugging some wires into the throbbing hunk of Zerg meat.

  “I’m sorry Threepio, but I need you to be awake to help me make sure I don’t break anything important.” With that, his left hand actually started sparking with electricity as he used Force Lightning to meld metal and flesh together!

  “Aaaaah~!” The poor bastard let out a glitchy high-pitched squeal before making some sobbing noises, “Yes… Yes Master…”

  Honestly, C-3PO is such a drama queen. Makes me wonder what he’ll be like as a half-Zerg cyborg abomination. Oh well, I didn’t wanna make my apprentices too nervous, so I walked over to Shmi’s tiny room and sat on the bed cross-legged. That black cloak was dispersed into countless tiny bugs that coated the whole room and sealed the door shut.

  The tendrils on my back sparked and writhed as I levitated off the bed cross-legged. I know, I know, the whole point of the floaty shit is that you use the Force to levitate while meditating, but what’s the point in using the Force for levitation when I can focus entirely on meditation while floating freely and easily?

  “Father, have you decided where to move our bases yet?” Izsha broke my concentration.

  “The Dune Sea.” I saw and felt the criss-cross tunnels that ran all throughout the underground of the Dune Sea. Even right below the surface were many clusters of Zerg Creep. Just like the blackened mountains.

  “Use optical camouflage to hide the structures on the surface. We need more time.” Honestly, we needed to develop anti-space weapons. Spore Launchers could potentially reach lower orbit, but the accuracy wasn’t great and the speed wasn’t fast enough. It’s infuriating that we haven’t found any Mynocks yet. I might need to just make something from scratch.

  “Maaaou~!” I could still hear the cat scratching on the metal door to get my attention, “Mao~!”

  “Fuck.” I sighed dramatically and allowed the door to slide open. The needy brat ran over and jumped up onto my lap, purring happily as I pet his soft fluffy back. “Don’t worry. I’m not leaving you behind again. When we leave, I’ll be taking you with me.”

  “Mao~!” He glared at my face and suddenly bit my hard left titty.

  “Okay, I get that you’re hungry, but realistically, I already gave you plenty of biomass-”

  “Mao!” The gluttonous little bastard wanted real food to fill his stomach.

  “Here.” My right palm opened up and a hunk of tender white chicken meat emerged. It had the consistency of tofu and honestly looked like tofu, but it was actual chicken meat.

  “Mao!” Midnight jumped out of my lap to go eat the hunk of meat I casually tossed onto the floor. When he bit down, juicy brown gravy flowed out. It wasn’t hot or cold, just luke warm as he preferred.

  “I understand your hunger. The gluttony for food you don’t need.” I still eat even though it’s totally unnecessary. I have plenty of energy. I can absorb as many nutrients as I want from Creep. I am not hungry, yet I always feel like I should be eating something. It’s just never enough.

  “The Swarm must devour in order to expand.” Izsha commented in the back of my head, “If we lose our hunger, we will stagnate and lose our purity of Essence.”

  “You do realize that we’re not the real Zerg from Starcraft, right?” I chuckled and took a deep breath, sighing as I took up a generic meditation posture, “Anyway, it feels like something is nagging me. I need to focus on some spiritual bullshit. Keep an eye out and make sure Jabba doesn’t decide to bombard the fuck outta this hovel randomly.”

  “Yes, Father.” Thankfully she was much better at multitasking than I was. I designed her brain to be a lot more impressive than mine. It’s kinda funny when you think about it that way. Sooner or later I’m gonna have to fix that. But I’m afraid of what I might become. Then again, this isn’t my first brain or my first body, so maybe I’m worrying too much?