Title: i think i destroyed them all
Fandom: tua
Rating: teen
Length: ~500 words
Author notes: horror gen, a companion fic to this one massive spoilers if you wanna read that one first, p dark, title from muse's the globalist

Ben is dead.

Long live them.

.

There is power in not having a name. It’s far harder for adjectives to stick to a moving target, for definitions to become conflated, to raise a war against the unknown.

There’s a multitude of names to chose from, names they’ve been, names they’ve absorbed.

Ben is the latest, the most useful in a few hundred planets. For Ben, while irritating alive- keeping them from using his body constantly- is invaluable dead.

For his sister, his foolish naive sister, wishes him alive and they take the invitation. They finally have a door to this world that cannot be shut.

.

It’s exciting for them to pretend to only be a tiny sliver of themselves. Ben’s books would come to different conclusions- some would say Ben is a part of them, in that they have his memories, others would say they lack his consciousness and he is truly dead.

It matters not; they are in control.

They enjoy reading, something they have never cared for before. It has become a new exercise, to try and isolate every being they have ever been, to reread the same sentence in a myriad of ways. Much like a spectrum of color, their readings all vary, and together they make a beautiful mosaic.

They never cared much for beauty before earth. An odd thing to start appreciating in a doomed world.

Allison takes them to a museum, a frivolous wish for it to contain their favorite art. They don’t expect it to work, but it does. The museum becomes full of abstract paintings that contain every color in existence. Some in order by wavelength, some random- Allison prefers the organized ones.

They like them all. Take up her offer to bring one back to the penthouse. It looks like a Pollock, only less condensed.

.

In the beginning, not of time, the beginning of being with Ben, they wanted his brother. A brother who could jump through time and space, likely universes as well. The perfect vessel.

The endless potential, and they were happy to push Ben closer to him. And then the boy disappeared, but it matters not- all that is lost is eventually found.

.

It’s becoming easier to pretend to be Ben. Less time is spent searching memories for the appropriate response, and more often they go with their impulses. As long as they keep smiling, their shallow sister doesn’t look too deep.

Still, Allison is becoming their favorite human. They like how she keeps trying to please them, even if her guesses are all wrong. They like how she can open endless doors for them.

They like that she’s willing to look past everything for this face, that if they soften their eyes just right, she’ll allow murder.

.

Ben starved them, but Ben isn’t here anymore. They can feast on all the bodies that follow them out to an alley, to a bathroom, back to the hotel.

They must remember to pace themselves. Worlds are finite, the last one gone between the time it took for Ben to die and his sister to allow them in. Their own universe is long past desolate and demolished, consumed and barren and boring.

They’ll be slower, savor this world.