Summary of previous part (read in full here)
Genster and Gloed, Naga hermaphrodite dragon masters from Zekira have found themselves into trouble. They're stuck in a cave, far from their ideal habitat, being assailed by an invisible, intangible rock-swimming creature who loves to play with it's food. The Naga, being no slouches themselves, have fended it off for days, but the lack of food, water and sleep is of course getting to them. There is no help in sight, the locals all know better than to come close to the cave and there are no dragons close enough for Genster to use her innate summoning abilities.
But their luck changes when Schub, a reptilian humanoid enters the cave, hoping to be able to go for a swim (even if he was warned not to). As a spaceship engineer trainee he is not familiar with the dangers of this planet. Gloed, thinking their enemy has returned, knocks him from his feet and the blue-skinned youth loses  consciousness. Just as Schub is waking up, his commanding officer Grash and communications officer Blad realise that the third of their crew is missing and go out to look for him. The two older reptilians are savvy and hardened men who know to look for tranq darts and to alert the local authorities before venturing into the cave. 
After a near escape, the five run for their lives and take off with their ship, only to be shot by the locals who obviously prefer outsiders to be eaten by the creature in the cave. The team pull out all the stops (and some illegally applied boosters) and make it to space. But their ship is damaged and they need to stop at the next planet over, Erizon. Once there, the two Naga are given the option to wait for repairs to be made or to seek their own transportation. As luck would have it, a dragon was close by and Genster was able to contact it to give them a ride. 

*~*~*

Continuation
The dark shadow of a dragon, passed along and the mythical beast landed a short distance away. The midnight blue dragon had patches of lighter colour on his wings, making him look like a map of the stars. This dragon was clearly bonded as a dark-skinned human descended.
"Greetings." Ladeyn said and introduced himself, "I heard some people wish transport."
Gloed posed herself in front of her deaf sister, intending to take up the bargaining in her usual act-first-ask-questions-later-style, but it was Genster who laid the first contact. Turning her attention to the dragon, Angith, she relayed their story. With her lacking social skills, her story was crude and full of weird turns. But to Angith it made sense.
"Our job as watchers is to protect others, is it not?" he asked his rider.
"When we're at home." Ladeyn added.
"It won't take long to bring these girls to a place where they can further their studies."
Ladeyn shrugged. As usual his efforts to find the Xinaith again had yielded no success and he might as well humour his dragon. Though to call the six-armed gorgons "girls" seemed to be a bit of an understatement to the scientist. He'd seen plenty of alien races over the years, but most had legs. 
Gloed hissed, uncertain about this man's cooperation, she was ready to take him on. Genster could take hold of his dragon if need be and then they would be out of here anyway. Once more, Genster stopped her sister telepathically and assured her that the duo would help them.
"So where were you headed?" Ladeyn asked them.
"Zar" Gloed hissed, drawing out the consonants in a menacing way. 
Ladeyn looked back to Angith and asked: "Do you know it?"
"Do I ever not know a place?" the Tanzanite-coloured dragon replied. 
Ladeyn grinned, knowing his dragon did have an uncanny ability to navigate as most of his colour did. 
"You're in luck ladies, we know of the place." Ladeyn bowed politely and gestured for the Naga to embark. 

*~*~*

An invitation to Balehome
Angith appeared in a purple sky over a desolate landscape with tall spires that escaped the dangerous gasses below. Though the city was more used to space travel, there was a place where dragons could land and offload passengers and goods. It wasn't often used so Angith landed without a wait and left the Naga. 
"My sister tells me to give you her thanks." Gloed mumbled.
"It was my pleasure." Angith replied.
Then Ladeyn and Angith departed and left the Naga to find their own way. Genster stared at her sister and said: "What now?"
They might have lied a little as Zar had not been where they'd been headed at all. But then, they hadn't gotten lost because of an accident either. So Genster could not blame her sister for lying as she'd done the same. 
"The dragon probably realised." Gloed told Genster.
"Angith wouldn't betray us." Genster was certain of that. 
"Well I guess it matters little where they dropped us as long as it's where we want to be."
"Do we want to be here?"
"No, but we can get to The Refugium from here and from there board a ship and then we're back on track. We just need to decide which planet to go to and which dragons to bond."
Her words weren't cold yet when a chitinous dragon appeared next to them. The Myrmex Warrior Venom had been sent out to look for candidates to bond. Candidates who were big on family, who would strengthen the line of his queen and would care for her children. 
"If you want to bond, come with me." Venom said.
Genster took a step back, wanting to analyse the Myrmex' words and intentions, but Gloed was eager to find a place where they could get strong allies. This warrior bug dragon was nothing if not strong. And if push came to shove, she could always poison him with her bite or squish him with her tail since he was delightfully corporeal. 
"Take us." Gloed agreed, grabbing her sister's hand and waiting as they were being teleported across the stars, arriving just outside a cavernous burrow. 

*~*~*

Hatching
The day had come, and Malice had little attention to spare for those who had been brought to witness the birth of his children. Some of them were kin, Balechildren such as himself, and them he had been glad to welcome. The rest… not so much, though he respectfully admitted he was impressed that Venom had found so many to bring to the caverns, herself. Perhaps he saw nothing on his own to be very impressed by, but if his children chose them — well, then they would know better than he. They would have felt the call of a bond.
He felt it himself, moving among the shifting, glistening shapes of the eggs. He did not yet know who they were, but the bond of ‘hive’ was upon them all. Their thoughts had grown from formless things, to whispers, to murmurs, and now to a chorus upon the Mindstream.
They would be Balespawn, for they had to be, but their minds would be forever within reach of his own no matter how far they might end up roaming with their bonds, their future hives. This delighted him to the very core of his being: as a father, as xenomorph, as a Balespawn. Their every note was distinct and he had already memorized every one.
As for his Queen…
Paroxysm was vaguely unsettled, but also committed. No longer banned from the chambers as he had been, Malice had been able to watch the transition in her demeanour as the days went by and the unborn lives within their shells matured, bringing the day of their birth ever closer. He knew this was not her first clutching. He knew she could tell this clutch was going to be different from all of those she’d had before.
He could understand her feeling distaste, sensing and knowing that these children would be Balespawn rather than Myrmex, but it was by that that Malice would uphold his promise: they would be strong, they would survive, and they would thrive.
Then it turned out that he was wrong.
There was no formal gathering, no ceremonious organization. Between the heaps of eggs glistening in the light of the glowing mosses and fungi were mounds of food, ready for his offspring to consume. Corpses, mostly: prey hunted from the fields and forests of Balehome, none of it prepared any more than by Viscous’s sharp claws, leaving gashes torn in the hide for the impending hatchlings to better feed from. There were fruits and vegetables in piles too, not all of it fresh, and the scent of old blood and early rot mingled their coppery-and-sweet odours into the damp, earthy smells of the brood chamber.
Paroxysm stayed at the back of it, her constant place of repose, but she still lifted her head at the very same moment that Malice turned his own, just before the first sounds of a hard crack among the liquid churning.
::If you would bond my children, then you must come now,:: the Queen’s telepathic voice commanded, reaching to those that Venom had brought for her. Side chambers had been hollowed out for guests to use as they saw fit, while others had opted for temporary wooden shelters erected outside of the mountain: out of the cool earth, under the warm sun, but shrouded by the thorny and often-toxic plantlife of Balehome.
Malice’s own sending was warmer, more encouraging, directed to those who were either xeno-kin or Balechildren. ::My children are coming!:: he told them. ::Come quickly, come meet them!::
The drone Viscous already hovered in the air over the egg, the fore-half of something that might have begun life as a rabbit dangling from their jaws. They dropped it as the dome of the egg shattered, and a small earthy-brown snout snapped at it as the piece of prey fell. The weight of it dragged the hatchling the rest of the way through their egg in a mess of glossy shards and luminous liquid as it pounced ravenously upon its first meal — and Malice stared.
He might not have had eyes the way many other creatures would have, but he could see still, and he saw the form of his child. It looked very little like him but very much like its mother: six-legged, insect-like, with a fat, abdomen-like tail. It had no wings and its body was layered with plates and joins of chitin. There were more spikes upon its young body compared to those of any of the three adult Myrmex in the chamber, but otherwise it resembled them completely.
Had he been wrong? Was it possible to be wrong? How could Myrmex blood overpower that of his Grandmother-Goddess? It was impossible!
He strode closer. His firstborn child didn’t look up at him, indifferent entirely towards his presence, tearing its first meal into bloody chunks and swallowing them whole. It was left up to Malice himself to lean in and note the glowing green-on-red eyes his child held squinted as it thrust its head into the rabbit’s body cavity to get the best of the viscera — and what he had taken for a simple green bioluminescence at the end of its antennae finally shed enough of its egg-goo to sputter, sizzle, and finally burst into the bright green flames of balefire.
More and more, the eggs were breaking apart. Viscous moved hurriedly there and about, excitedly dropping food into gaping maws and ushering the grubblings towards the heaped mounds where they could find more. Even where the dim and shadows of the cavern were long and dark, Malice could see green-on-red eyes and the embers of fledgling balefires.
Could it be? Did the crossing of Myrmex and Balespawn mean a perfect—
::Union!:: suddenly chimed the child at his feet, looking up at him with their bright eyes and bloodied face before amending, ::No, Amalgam! Amalgam Balechild! That’s me!::
He felt their little mind thread through his, even closer than the connections of the Mindstream, and finally understood.
And all around him, similar connections were occurring. These little minds, these perfect beings, were finding the ones they matched, the ones they wanted. They were Balespawn and Myrmex, completely. Neither had overpowered the other and instead they had combined perfectly, like two mighty rivers merging as their paths swept them towards the sea.
Malice gathered little Amalgam up and set his child upon his back, folding his wings in such a way to make sure the grubbling was secure and wouldn’t be falling off his side, and handed food over his shoulder so that they could keep feeding. Then he began to move, as Viscous still was, striding among the mounds of heaped eggs and heaped meals and the growing numbers of his hungry children, helping them find appropriate things to eat.
Many of the eggs lay still, their translucent shapes very empty when he cast his balefire light over them. He could not say he was comfortable with the sight of grubbling smashing in these never-live eggs to slurp up the nutrient rich insides, but not once did he identify worse than that.
Cannibalism may have been an ordinary fact of birth to the Myrmex, but Malice would tolerate no such thing. Balespawn did not turn against Balespawn. Hive should never turn against hive.
Amalgam was the first grubbling upon his back, but not the last. As he did his circuits, others took notice of him, called to him, tried to climb up his long legs as their minds settled in with his as well, deeper and closer than even the Mindstream — and with each one, he felt another presence grow stronger against his thoughts as well. Following it, he made his way nearer to his beautiful Queen, his Paroxysm, and for the first time ever the warrior at her side did not fend off his approach. Venom seemed mollified, in fact, her body language remarkably free of the resentment and distrust that had marked their every interaction thus far.
::You are hive now,:: was Venom’s simple declaration as he briefly regarded her. It seemed the thriving brood around them, now that they had broken shell and proved their viability, was all that was necessary to relax the warrior’s demeanour towards him.
He looked to Paroxysm. She, too, had a number of grubblings clustered to her sides and gorging on food dragged over from the nearest piles. (After all, a hive could not rebuild if all her offspring went off with those they had bonded.) If there was anything like affection in her gaze now, it was of a possessive kind only. He had proven his worth.
::They are not Myrmex as Myrmex always have been, but they are strong and they are many,:: agreed his Queen, her thoughts resting at the fringe of his. It wasn’t a bond, not properly, but it was still a connection more solid than it was tenuous — a growing tangle of threads through the connection of their offspring. ::My species will survive, even if it must be in the form of these Myrmex-Balechildren.::
She paused a moment, then regarded him with certainty.
::We will have to make even more.::
Malice gazed at her with the fondness allowed to him, then back at the milling throng throughout the brood chamber will a swell of fatherly pride.
::Yes,:: he agreed. ::We will.::

-snippet-

Genster and Gloed had taken up residence outside of the cave, preferring the bright, warm sun over the cool dank of the cave. Especially given their previous adventure. The venomous plantlife was a bit bothersome but nothing the two of them couldn't handle with their abilities. Genster had been using her command ability to get some of the other dragons to bring them food and water though she had not dared to try her luck on the servants of the queen Myrmex seeing as that could land them in considerable trouble. She was mostly content to stick to their little shelter and wait while Gloed hunted.
At first Gloed had had to defend their shelter from other candidates, onlookers and just beings that resided there. But soon the potential threats had learned of her foul temper and poisonous fangs and they were mostly left alone. That suited both Naga just fine. Time progressed until the telepathic messages from the Myrmex Queen, Paroxysm, and the Balespawn Xeno sire, Malice, came to urge them toward the cavern.
Descending into the dark, cool cavern sent their hearts into a frenzied rhythm but as they entered a large cavern their fear was replaced by a careful excitement. All around them newly hatched dragons were eating, clawing, glowing. Their eyes were red and green, their insectoid bodies covered in the green balefire.
Their psionic senses picked up the hivemind and made them a bit disoriented as a wave of different voices reached them in a single instant. It took a while for the two of them to single out those that were important, those that would be their family. But they managed.

The harmony among the cacophony of the hivemind of dozens of young grubblings had no less than four bright notes sing out loudest of all towards the pair of Zekiran naga, all of them scattered about the chamber rather than grouped in any one place in particular.
One after the other, a little mind reached out. It touched just one of the naga first, truly not mattering which, because from there it jumped along the psionic connection Genster and Gloed shared to find whichever sister had been initially missed. The two of them together served as anchor points to around which a whole new web of minds was spun, shoring up their psychic walls and offering some more private respite from the general babble around them.
::Let's agree right now that you won't try to command any of us alright?:: said the first dark shape to peel their way out of the shadows of the brood chamber: a brown of various blotched shades, they seemed.

-snippet-

Genster smiled mysteriously, not making promises but she did send:
"I can call for you when I'm in trouble no? As you can call for me, us."
It felt strange to the light-coloured naga to share her thoughts with someone other then her sister. But she felt like the change would be one for the better. 
Gloed meanwhile kept her eyes on the surrounding grubblings, she did not have the command ability anyway and she very much wanted to see more of the grubbling that had spoken and the others that were approaching. She strained her ears though they would not help her locate them. Genster lightly touched her sister's shoulder and pointed at her mind. She even went as far as to close her eyes, shutting off one of her main senses to make room for the psychic connection. 
Gloed decided she would keep up her guard then, they were supposedly safe, but she would never make a mistake regarding their safety again.  

::Calling is much different from commanding,:: the brown was willing to agree, coming to a stop in front of Genster, head craned back to look up the naga's long body and meet their regard evenly. 
::I'm Wary. It's my name, I mean, but a family has to be able to trust each other.::
So saying, they too began to scan the room around them with their eyes, joining Genster in keeping watch as Gloed closed hers.
A couple of yellow grubblings peeled out of the dim from opposite directions. One was curiously speckled with red and blue, confetti-like, racing in and calling, ::It's me, it's me, it's Glare, it's me!:: before pouncing on the end of Gloed's tail, like a kitten just discovering yarn.
The other was more simply coloured, their yellow fading to pale green on all their extremities. They sat near Wary, saying, ::Finally, some people worth this Fer-de-Lance's time. I was afraid I'd have to settle for staying with mother and father, but you two... you two are perfect!::
That left just one note of the mind-web unaccounted for, slowly and slowly making their way from the far side of the chamber, judging by the touch of their thoughts.

-snippet-

Genster wondered if she should go toward the approaching link, but it was a veritable chaos-fest with grubblings crawling, eating and getting bonded. Meet, fruit and vegetables, some fresh, some rotting, were scattered everywhere. Leaving Gloed to guard the other three was maybe not enough. So Genster sent out soothing and encouraging thoughts to the last grubbling that would be joining them. 
Gloed meanwhile was already sizing up the three with them. Glare might be a bit boisterous for her tastes, but Wary seemed like they would become a level-headed companion. Fer-de-Lance would hopefully fall in line, but if the yellow-green grubbling liked them, then hopefully there wouldn't be any problems. 

::I'm coming~:: came the answering thought as the last of the grubblings arrived in the sisters' company at last. They were distinctly green with some striking brown markings, including some mask-like sweeps over their eyes, becoming evident as they wove through the crowded brood chamber.
This last grubbling plopped down in front of Genster, mouth briefly gaping in a yawn that showed sharp (if small) teeth as they got cozy, leaning against her coils. ::I'll be... Viper,:: they decided. ::Thanks for waiting~::

-snippet-

Gloed visibly relaxed now that everyone was close by and safe. 
"Let's eat and then go home." Genster shared mentally, doing her best to touch all of their hivemembers with her hands, tail and body in an attempt to do a group hug. Awkwardly, Gloed joined in. 

Continue to the Hive
Stats: GENSTER - GLOED

The Balespawn-Myrmex were adopted at Balehome.

*~*~*

Credits: all background images and reptilian pictures found with google.