So, one day, the Condesce stops making her public appearances to lay down the law, and starts sending out drones to do it instead. No one sees her for months, not even her advisers. Without her to reinforce the fear, eventually, a revolution breaks out, leading to her palace being attacked and broken into. Eventually, the break get into her throne room, and find…
The Helmsman, still in his tentacle bindings, gutted, bitten all over, chunks of his skin missing, and drained almost completely of blood, barely alive, practically a corpse, whispering “kill me…” over and over, and the Condesce with a cloak over herself, hiding her face, and wielding her trident. They overrun her and rip off her cloak, revealing that she’s become… a human. Her skin is light, her horns are gone, her hair covering up the bald patches they used to reside at, her blood a bright red, and her lips are stained with the Psiioniics blood and bits of his skin, the stains running down her suit. They kill the Psiioniic out of pity for his situation and the state he’s in, as he whispers “thank you…”
So, they kill the Condesce for two reasons. 1, she’s the Condesce. and 2. even the highbloods turn on her, finding this “pink monkey thing” she’s become filthy, having candy red blood and such, and kill her to bury it for good.
However, a few weeks after, trolls who were involved in the raid start to change. Patches of their skin turn to that of human skin tone, ranging from pale, to dark skinned, their horns begin to fall off, and their blood turns a redder shade, slowly becoming candy red. A virus has spread. The only way to stave off changing? Ingesting other trolls, whether it be blood, skin, organs, what have you. The Highbloods, seeing an epidemic, take control of the drones, sending them out to get them fresh trolls to feast on to stave off this plague. And, if the drones come across any trolls who are too far gone, they are to be killed on sight.
However, through the Rainbow drinkers, something worse is discovered. As their bodies are compromised, due to being, well, rainbow drinkers and having had to die before, if they become human, they die immediately after the infection takes hold of their vital organs, which no longer function. So, they feed constantly, and it’s found out that constantly feeding on trolls keeps you from becoming human, yes… but it changes you. The rainbow drinkers go from elegant vampires to bloodthirsty beasts, running on all fours, matted with hair, glowing constantly, and hunting in packs, barely using the words any more. All trolls are capable of becoming infected, if exposed to an infected troll or an infected troll’s blood or bodily fluid, but the signs of the infection don’t appear until late into the infection process, weeks after being infected, sometimes months, so it’s impossible to know who is and who isn’t until the signs start to appear. But all trolls can become infected.
Cronus, after realizing he can’t be infected after months of purposefully trying to get infected by being around the sick trolls, goes crazy. He constantly wears smudgy makeup to look more human, breaks off his own horns, and covers up his gills, which are, due to having snapped, cut up and scarred. He starts torturing and eating infected trolls to try to find out how he can become infected. He hides them in his basement as his only friend who hasn’t died or run off comes to visit, Kankri, before one day revealing, under his sweater… that he’s covered in bloches of skintone. Cronus snaps, slowly luring him down into the basement, before cannibalizing him. Shortly after, the Jadebloods, who find out that he’s unable to become infected, and thus, is an infinite supply of blood, if handled right, kidnap him and make him a blood slave, as normally, the infect anyone they bite, and that infection spreads quick, having developed fast inside them, but Cronus… he can’t be infected.
So, he gets drained for a long period of time (the fanfic will jump days, weeks, months) before the drones come and try to exterminate the Jadebloods, as they spread the infection quicker, and are a threat to the trolls the Highbloods need to keep the infection off them too, and during that, Cronus escapes, before falling down a muddy slope into a river bank. He sees the skintone makeup he has on washing off into the river, except for a patch of it on his arm. He tries to rub it off before realizing it’s real. He’s changing. He breaks down, crying in happiness, smiling down at himself as he sees there are patches all over him after he takes off his shirt. He continues laughing, until a drone comes up behind him, seeing the infection on him, then shooting him in the back of the head, spilling bright red blood into the river, ending Cronus’ story.
