Chapter Text
When Omni-Man decided it was time to take over Earth and prepare it for the Viltrum Empire we were lucky his son, Invincible, stood up to him and stopped him. He saved us, granting us a bit of respite from that alien race which seemed to only thrive in the subjugation of everyone else.
But you, you were not so lucky. In your universe Invincible agreed with his old man’s point. Humans had a tendency to self-destruct and to ruin things they should cherish instead. So why not do the Empire’s bidding and just subdue them? After all, humans are so weak, so fragile, their lives so short. A race that seemed to be born to be dominated, to be cattle. Plus, the Empire would actually do some good for those creatures. True, they would be killed if they disobeyed. But those who learnt their place would benefit from it. No more hunger, no more wars, no more incurable diseases. A utopia if Invincible had ever seen one.
It took less than a year for him and Omni-Man to prepare Earth for the Empire. They did have to kill a few millions that tried to organize and rebel against them - not that they stood any real chance. And along with them had to die the heroes: the Viltrumites couldn’t afford any possible threat, as small as it could have been.
The humans that were left - still over a few billions, were sorted by age and sex as the Viltrumites along with some races they had bent into slavery rebuilt the major cities as they needed them to be. White seemed to be their color of preference, you observed as you got sorted where you belonged.
You hadn’t put up any resistance, just like many others did. The Viltrumites called you smart for that. They also called you worm and bug and a lot of not so nice appellatives. But you brushed those names off, keeping your head down and trying to do as you were told and survive.
The women of fertile age were brought to the main building in each city, one that towered over the rest and that was strictly guarded. There they got tested then sorted once again and branded on the back of their neck to be more easily associated with their medical records, without having to go to the trouble of using names and surnames. If they were fertile, they were divided into groups of five and brought to their own room - or cell, depending on how you see it. Pumped full of drugs to make them even more fertile and used as breeding stock. Luckily for them, the Viltrumites were advanced in terms of any kind of technology so the women underwent a treatment similar to artificial insemination and didn’t have to be bred one by one by the Viltrumites themselves.
The rest of the adult population was used as workers, strictly controlled by some alien race that humans had never seen before and a few Viltrumites from time to time. The concept of salary was thrown out of the window, humans were provided food and water and every necessity on the daily, including housing. It wouldn’t have been so bad, had they been permitted to keep their families. But the Empire did not care about such bonds. It only cared to have the manpower to extract whatever resources they needed from the planet, and to keep everyone compliant by any means necessary.
Lastly, the children. They were taken and treated good - as far as good goes for Viltrumite standards. They were taught to fight, indoctrinated and taught to bend to the Empire. They would grow up to be happy to be a part of the Empire, just like they would in a cult. Even if they could not ever be Viltrumites, they could and will serve them - and they would be content in doing so.
But things didn’t end here. In fact, Nolan and Mark having lived several years on Earth and having known the human ways, they had presented a few suggestions and requests to the Empire. The one that concerned you the most - even if you were yet not aware of it and its consequences, was the fact that they asked permission to have pets . Because as insignificant as humans were, there were a few things that they were good at. Like pleasing. And while that was something that Viltrumites weren’t really concerned about, it seemed right to give those two a reward for securing such a profitable planet for the Empire. And so the two men got the pets they wanted, and weren’t shy to talk about them to their brethrens. Which only led to them wanting their very own pets.