Ch6 Bernie and the Plant from Outer Space (FE3H) [Patreon Reward] (Patreon)

[Finale of Bernie and the Plant from Outer Space. Contains hive mind assimilation, alraune TGTF, melting, breast expansion, and lots of plantgirls]

Bernadetta von Varley. Would that even still be her name by day’s end?

That question lingered in Bernie’s dissociating mind as her body was guided forward by Edelgard, Dorothea, and the Professor; or rather, by Marlene. The reclusive human girl didn’t know if that distinction even meant anything anymore.

Eventually, Bernie regained full consciousness. She found herself standing before Marlene’s giant bulb with her escorts waiting patiently around her. There were countless writhing, moaning bodies tightly enveloped in rubbery plant sacs strewn across the forest floor, each and every one no doubt tightly bound in soft vines that ceaselessly stimulated their most sensitive areas.

“Are you all here again, Bern?” Dorothea asked gently.

“Mhmm…” Bernie shakily nodded her head. As she did, the three closest plant sacs to Marlene’s bulb slowly sunk beneath the earth.

Dim light filtered through the bulb’s petals from within, then began to writhe and stir like the occupied plant sacs all around it. Marlene’s unmistakable lavender aroma filled the air, but for the first time Bernie’s fight or flight response wasn’t triggered; it truly was a lovely scent, especially now that her anxiety hadn’t flared up again.

After a few moments, the bulb's petals began to gracefully peel away, first revealing the bulb’s rather large pistil. Once the petals had all bloomed open, Bernie’s heart nearly skipped a beat. Sprouting up from the nectar pool in Marlene’s core were three naked humanlike figures: Byleth, Dorothea, and Edelgard, but not as she’d ever seen them before. All of them now had green-tinted skin, as well as ‘hair’ which was actually floral petals grown to resemble their normal hairstyles. But most strikingly, each assimilated woman was rooted to Marlene’s bulb via flexible plant stalks in place of legs! They were all together in the form of an alraune!

Bernie was awestruck by the amalgamation of her two favourite things: plants and sexy women who she was in love with! She didn’t know how she knew, but those three visibly-florafied figures were in fact their original bodies, albeit warped and corrupted in Marlene’s image. Looking around herself, Bernie was still accompanied by the Edelgard, Dorothea, and Byleth duplicates who had escorted her here, but they still retained their fully human appearances.

Marlene then shifted from speaking through her duplicate bodies to speaking through her alraune bodies.

“We’re still ourselves, Bern~” Dorothea hummed.

“We’re still your loved ones…” The Professor added.

“...and you’re still ours~” Edelgard finished.

“B-but how can I know that f-for sure?” The human girl squeaked timidly. “How do I kn-know which of you is real?”

“All of us are real.” The trio said together.

Edelgard then spoke alone. “These vessels are extensions of ourself. If it would make you more comfortable, we can withdraw our redundant forms.”

At that, Marlene's “vessels” all stepped into Marlene’s bulb where they began to emanate a faint green glow that matched Marlene’s bioluminescent nectar. The duplicates began to steadily lose colour and shape, practically melting away! Soon enough, the duplicates were naught but drops of nectar in the figurative ocean.

“Whuh… W-what just happened…?” Bernadetta stammered weakly.

“Just as they are created extensions of us, they can return to us. Nothing is lost; the people we are yet remain.”

Admittedly, Bernie did feel slightly better now with the duplicates gone; one body per person was enough, even if said people were part of a sexy plant hivemind.

After a quiet moment, Edelgard continued. “We want you to know that you’re safe with us.”

“We would never hurt you, Bern.”

“We will always protect you.”

“Then why? Why won’t you just take me already! I can’t choose this for myself!” Bernie dropped her voice to a whimper. “No matter how much I want to be with you…”

“Because you’re not just another person to pacify and assimilate. You’re much more special to us than that.” Edelgard began, then spoke together again with Dorothea and the Professor. “We would like you to be our queen~”

It took Bernadetta a moment to process what she’d heard before her jaw dropped. Naught but a stifled squeak escaped her lips until she shook her head and organised her thoughts. “S-stop teasing me, I’m serious! I really believed you for a second…”

“We mean it. We want you to take your place here in our heart~”

“We want to be by your side, always~”

“We want to give you a safe, loving home for you to put down roots~”

After speaking separately, the alraune girls spoke together in serene, unearthly voices. A series of sleek, elegant vines slowly wriggled up from below the surface of the nectar pool as if they weren’t subjected to gravity, some of which began to sensually coil around the trio’s stalks and bloom with lovely lavenders. “This is what I, Marlene, am on the inside. I want us to complete each other~”

“But… why me? You already have- you already are the three most wonderful people I know! I’m just stupid, pathetic old Bernie…” She held her trembling hands close to her bosom.

“You’re not stupid or pathetic, Bern…” Dorothea spoke with her own voice once more, her green eyes gleaming in the nectar’s glow.

“You’re adorable and kind~” The Professor added with that reassuring tone that would always make her feel better when she performed poorly in training or the officer’s academy. “To you, nobody is too small or unimportant.”

“You’re the one soul who would look at a pitiful, dying plant all alone in the forest and nurse it back to health.” Edelgard smiled warmly, subtly leaning forward closer to the human woman. For possibly the first time, Bernadetta felt as though she was hearing the Adrestian Emperor’s very own heart speaking true. “We love you, so please…” Edelgard, Dorothea, and Byleth each extended an arm and offered a hand to their beloved scaredy cat. “...stay with us, and we’ll stay with you.”

The triad of heavenly alraune ladies blurred in her vision as Bernie’s eyes flooded with tears. She couldn’t stop herself from raising a shaky hand towards her loved ones, which was grasped every so tenderly as soon as she had stepped within reach.

“P-please…” Bernie sniffled quietly. “Don’t leave me…”

A handful of vines carefully scooped the human girl up and into the arms of her beloved comrades. “Of course, Bernie. We’ll always be here with you~”

Warmth, comfort, safety… Love… Bernie felt it all so vividly as she closed her eyes and allowed herself to drop her guard. When delicate vines and soft hands stripped away the clothes from her body, she felt the touch of her lovers; not the touch of a scary monster. When she opened her eyes again, the human girl saw the bulb’s petals close around her in a protective bubble as cosy and homely as her room at the monastery.

The soon-to-be queen was oriented upright in the knee-deep pool of balmy, transparent green nectar. With her feet guided to the squishy base of Marlene’s bulb, Bernie watched as tiny roots emerged and slowly wove themselves together up her legs.

“Don’t worry, precious…” Dorothea hummed passionately. “It won’t hurt a bit…”

Lightly fizzing bubbles formed from Bernadetta’s submerged lower legs as they softened into a consistency similar to putty, allowing the little roots to grow inward into her body; thankfully though, her lovers held her firm so her pliable legs didn’t have to support her weight.

“You’re doing wonderfully, Bernie! Good girl~” Byleth’s heartfelt encouragement and praise made Bernie feel butterflies in her tummy.

“I… I am?”

“Of course you are~” Edelgard nuzzled her face into Bernie’s neck to deliver lots of lovely little kisses and love bites.

“Mmm-! Nnng… Mmmmm…” Bernadetta blissfully moaned as the last of her lingering reservations finally began to melt away.

Eventually, Bernie realised the nectar level was rising up to and over her crotch, spreading its warm fizzy sensation to every inch of skin it touched. Her skin had now become plant matter with a subtle green hue just like her lovers, eliciting a feeling she’d been deprived of for so long: belonging. For as long as she could remember, Bernadetta felt like a weird, almost inhuman outcast; finally seeing her herself with the same kind of weird inhumanity as her most cherished loved ones felt incredibly cathartic. The changes were still only beginning, though.

Just like when Marlene’s aphrodisiacal saliva sunk into her most sensitive areas, the decreasingly-human woman felt suddenly hornier as her submerged girlcock grew stiffer; a delicate hand grasping her throbbing member only compounded her rapidly-mounting libido.

Eager to spread the love, Bernie reached for Edelgard’s and Dorothea’s exquisitely soft pussies and began to finger one with each hand. It was as if the heavens themselves had welcomed her in their gorgeous gates, as if angels were lavishing her fingertips with needy, hungry kisses from their perfect plump lips. Paradise was real and Bernie had found it.

“Ohh! Ohhhh! Ahhhh~”

“Nnng! Mmmm…”

Rapturous moaning filled the enclosed bulb as the next phase of Bernie’s transformation began: her gooey, almost melty legs pressed together and merged into each other to form a plant stalk just like those of the others around her. Muscle and bone were being reborn as fibrous plant matter within her, and the transformative nectar still continued to fill the bulb.

Once the soothing nectar had risen over her sensitive little nipples, a new heat erupted in Bernie’s petite bosom; just as her lower body had been, her torso lost most of its solidity to allow for drastic resculpting. Marlene’s sweet, intoxicating liquid seeped into her chest like water being absorbed into a sponge, merging into Bernadetta’s body to add volume to her soft breasts. Painlessly and gradually, the almost-queen’s lovely boobs inflated to larger and larger proportions.

The euphoria hit Bernie immediately as she felt significant weight in her bosom for the first time. All those nights wishing she were a little more endowed, all those fantasies of being a hot, busty woman… it all paled in comparison to experiencing it for real. Her vision rippled as green tears pooled in her eyes; it seemed she was already merged enough to be crying nectar.

“Oh my gosh, are these really mine!?” Perhaps the only reason she would ever do so, Bernie withdrew her hands from her partners’ exquisite pussies so she could hold her own hefty tiddies.

“Mhmm hmm hmm, yes Bernie, they’re all yours~” Byleth cooed lovingly as she held Bernadetta from behind.

“You can make your every wish come true, Bern~” Dorothea grasped Bernadetta’s length tighter, gently stimulating the head of her dick by kneading with her thumb.

“You can reshape your body anytime and in any way.” Edelgard stroked her queen’s lush violet hair with her smooth, scarless hands, spreading nectar over her as she did so. “You don’t have to choose between a vulva and a penis; you can have any form you desire!”

“Wh-what!? Really!?” Bernie squirmed elatedly as her mind raced through all the possibilities. “B-but how did you…? Mmm…”

“How did we know that you want both? Oh Bern, we can already feel your mind joining with ours~” The former songstress wrapped one arm around her queen’s back, holding her close as she continued to milk her firm little girlcock.

“You’re wondering how to make that happen, right? All you need to do is imagine the shape you wish to take…” The former Adrestian Emperor closed her eyes, scooped up some nectar, and held out her hand; in her palm, a brilliant crimson rose coalesced from the glowing miracle liquid. “...and manifest it onto yourself”

Wasting no time, Bernie squeezed shut her eyes and imagined her perfect body…

Bernie felt her tingling testes being sucked up into her body and converted into her very own ovaries as her scrotum was repurposed into brand new - and incredibly kissable - labia lips! A new vaginal canal painlessly opened up between her legs as her prostate reconfigured itself into a womb. Her phallus, meanwhile, gained just a bit of girth and length so it fit perfectly in Dorothea’s smooth, supple hand.Once her top priority transformation had occurred, Bernie altered her violet hair to become a series of little plant stems which grew cute little lavender petals! Now, her floral ‘hairstyle’ was closer to resembling the messy, bushy hairstyles of her past, albeit in an organised array of lavenders to match Marlene’s ever-present aroma. Finally, just for good measure, the newest plantgirl added a little more mass to her weighty boobs until they were just right.

“I-! I-!!” The verklempt woman struggled to formulate words as euphoria erupted within her. Finally, the woman she was on the inside was perfectly reflected by her mortal form. Looking at the friendly faces around her, Bernadetta noticed that they were also shedding tears of joy.

The integration of Bernie’s nervous system into Marlene’s network of roots was ramping up now, with dozens of connections made each second. Flashes of inexplicable sensations were felt throughout her body from the countless other assimilated beings of the hivemind with each little nerve that connected with root: Love, loss, birth, death, joy, sorrow… Tapping into an ocean of memory and emotion opened up her mind to so many different perspectives on life.

In contrast to her fears, Bernie’s individuality was not lost, subsumed, or averaged-out as she took her place in the hivemind. Instead, she was able to see the lives her comrades and loved ones lived from their own perspective. Moreover, she could feel Marlene’s thoughts, memories, and emotions as if they were her own as well: a floral being from another world, sent to clean up the mess of a… fell star? Marlene’s mind was so much harder to interpret than any other, but Bernie knew in her heart she truly meant it when she intended to bring peace and happiness to all.

Most notably though, Bernie could finally see herself through the eyes of those who loved her. Finally she knew just how deeply and truly she was loved. Finally she could see the traumatised, lonely girl who tried her best despite it all. Finally, Bernadetta von Varley didn’t feel like a waste of life.

—

Peace was sweeter than Bernie had remembered. Perhaps it was because she’d been through war as a soldier, or perhaps it was because she had a found family who truly cared about her this time. Perhaps it was both.

Though she joined with Marlene and the hundreds of people she’d assimilated, the formerly skittish woman was now joined only with Edelgard, Dorothea, and Byleth. Instead of remaining as one massive, busy hive, Marlene split off into a number of separate, smaller hives. This way, hive members could stay with those who mutually wanted to be together and keep distance from those who wanted it.

Bernadetta was initially rather confused about her role as queen, but she soon learned that Marlene saw her as the perfect anchor to keep each hive division grounded in care, consideration, and kindness. Instead of ruling her subjects by decree and force, she guided them with her pure heart - even when she was no longer directly connected to them.

All in all, things ended up better than she had ever dreamed. She and her polycule had carefully relocated Marlene’s original bulb to live in Bernie’s room at the monastery and planted right where her bed used to be. The four lovers had a cosy little home to live in, and could form duplicate bodies for themselves whenever they wished to step out or travel. Most of the time though, they preferred to stay put in each other’s loving embrace, ever intimate both physically and mentally.

And that was how they lived for the rest of their days.