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Chapter Text

The Terran barracks was slowly falling apart around her as Kerrigan strode further into its depths, thoughtlessly killing the few remaining marines that stood in her way with bursts of psionic energy as swarms of Zerglings continued to mop up the remaining Terran resistance in the area. Kerrigan knew she should feel regret at killing so many terrans, but she had told Warfield to withdraw from the planet Char twice now, both when she had made her arrival known and when she had crushed his so called 'Invincible' air force. So it was as much his fault for the thousands of Terran deaths for not admitting defeat as hers for pressing the assault after he had begun withdrawing the heavy weapons and what remained of his air fleet. Striding down the corridor that lead to the main command centre of the barracks she saw at the end of it an injured medic, her left shoulder armour rent and bleeding and helmet torn off, attempting to heal an injured marine, whose abdomen had been torn open by the now dead Zergling in front of the two of them.

The marine was barely conscious at this stage, his life signs dangerously low to Kerrigans enhanced vision, but he still noticed her approach towards them and tried to force the medic to run with his still working arm. To Kerrigans slight surprise the medic shook her head at him, standing and drawing a pistol from her belt and pointing it towards her instead of fleeing or panicking.  She paused as a memory hit her of her recent past, the first memory not shrouded in the darkness of her infestation, lying in Raynor’s arms as Tychus pointed a gun at her head under Mengsk’s orders. Anger boiled up in her at the thought of Raynors fate and Kerrigan lashed out, batting the medic back into the wall and causing her to drop her weapon. To her surprise the medic forced herself to her feet once more as the Zerglings around her stood ready and eager to pounce upon the two terrans and tear them to shreds. The woman stood in front of the injured marine and glared hatefully at Kerrigan for a moment before speaking slowly in an attempt to disguise her fear.

"Well? If you are going to kill us Queen of Blades, do it. It was too much to hope that Raynor was right about you!" The Zerglings fidgeted and growled at the woman and two of them began to move towards her, unaware of the reaction that the woman's stand and words had elicited inside Kerrigans mind. Memories of her short reunion with the charismatic outlaw flashed through her mind, dozens of encounters in less than a second, one particular moment sticking in her head and resonating throughout her mind.

Flashback: The Hyperion, subdeck level 5

Visions flashed through her mind, screaming marines torn in twain by Ultralisks as civilians tried to flee from the masses of Zerglings, each Terran’s dying moments filling every last inch of her mind as she awoke covered in sweat, her psionics completely out of control as she jumped between the hyperion and being trapped with the screaming Terrans. Thankfully the crew had created a psionic resistant room for her to stay in, but that didn’t save the bed or any of the other items in the room, which were ripped to atoms as the power raged and lashed out at anything it could. Then he appeared, not even dressed in combat armour but his usual casual dress, striding confidently to her both in reality and in her mind, banishing the faces as he walked up to her and grasped her arms firmly. She couldn’t hear him at first, her mind still reeling from the nightmare, but eventually what he was saying made itself clear to her.

“-rah, Sarah! Calm down darling, you’re safe here, don’t panic anymore.” She saw him wince slightly as a burst of her power lashed out and opened a cut on his cheek, but his confident gaze never left her eyes as she quickly calmed her powers, the room settling quickly, though the smell of ozone could not be dealt with so easily. She couldn’t help but feel deep shame even as she reached up to lightly touch the small cut on his face.

“Jim, they came back. I-I, killed them Jim, everything the Zerg di...” She stopped as Jim shook his head and looked at her seriously as he reached up and grabbed her hand with his own.

“No, Sarah you didn’t, the Queen of Blades did and that is most definitely NOT who you are.” He turned his head and waved off the marines standing at the open door before turning back to her, his eyes lighting up as he looked upon her face once more, causing her to bow her head in shame, unable to look at him with what she had done.

“But Jim, I WAS the Queen of Blades...” His hand let go of hers and she was suddenly terrified of the possibility he was going to admit the truth and then leave her alone in the dark hold once more. She calmed slightly when the hand instead moved to her chin and gently forced her to look up once more at his face.

“No Sarah, because you have something the Queen of Blades never had, something that makes you more powerful than she was even with the entire Zerg swarm behind her.” He smiled at her and she couldn’t help but smile back at him before he leaned forwards and kissed her cheek lightly.

“Now, I am going to get you some more clothes to change into and then the men can bring in a new bed for you, I don’t want anyone else seeing this beauty but me you hear?” Despite her shame and guilt at the situation, the slight possessive tone in Raynor’s voice made her blush slightly as she nodded and he stood, heading back towards the entrance to the room. He had reached the door and was about to enter the switch code when she called out to him, her mind focussed on what he had said before.

“Jim, what is it that you see that separates me from the Queen of Blades so much that you were prepared to fight the entire Zerg swarm to save me?” He turned, familiar smirk on his face as he pondered his answer for a moment before giving it with a tone so sure of himself that she couldn’t do anything but believe the words as well.

“Its your emotions Sarah, the Queen of Blades had strength, power and psionics beyond anything I have ever seen. But she did not have your heart and caring, which is why I knew it couldn’t be you in control under that skin. Keep that heart Sarah, it is what makes you truly unique regardless of which race you are...”

Flashback end:

Barely a second had passed and the Zerglings were gearing up to rend the two terrans to pieces regardless of a lack of her direct orders to do so even as Kerrigan left the memory, her memories of Jim making her realise how much he would be disappointed with her actions right now. Fighting and destroying the Dominion was something both of them had agreed on, but despite his outlaw status Jim had never killed anyone who couldn’t fight back, or had surrendered to his forces. She raised her hand to above her shoulder, fist clenched in a sign that the Zerglings recognised as a stop order even before her psionic commands truly reached them. The medic looked confused and wary even as Kerrigan stared at her for a few long moments, trying to get her emotions and thoughts truly under control once more before carrying on. Then she placed her hand against her head and sent out her orders to the swarm that were still dealing with survivors.  It was done in seconds and Kerrigan removed her hand to look at the medic for a moment longer before a pained smile crossed her face.

“Well done medic, you have just made a name for yourself in the history books, now I would get back to treating your patient before he bleeds out, and then you can send a message out for me.” The Zerglings were loping down the corridor away from them now, leaving the three alone as the medic shook herself out of her shock and obviously realised that Kerrigan was right, quickly returning to healing the man’s heavy wounds. That did not stop her asking a question even as she began to close the man’s wound with her equipment.

“Not that I am hoping you will change your mind or anything, but I suppose I have to ask why you didn’t kill us? I assume its the same as why the comm channels are now filled with reports of the Zerg surrounding our remaining outposts but not attacking and destroying them?”  Kerrigan chuckled, she didn’t realise that the dominion forces would catch on so quickly, but she supposed it was General Warfield’s troops rather than the usual Dominion cannon fodder she usually had to deal with. Realising that the medic was still waiting for an answer to her question, she decided that honesty was the best approach here, and it might let her sleep a little easier tonight at least.

“Simple girl, Jim Raynor saved your lives, you simply reminded me of what he would he would have thought about I was doing. Before he was murdered by Mengsk for trying to save me of course!”  Kerrigan couldn’t help the anger that came into her voice as she discussed Jim’s death, she knew that it would never stop hurting her. There was always going to be that little voice, that she could have and should have tried to fly across to him; to save him despite his assurances that he would be fine and find another way out, noble fool that he had been. The medic looked shocked at the revelation and paused in her healing to look at her with an unreadable expression for a moment before bowing her head once more and returning to her work.

“I am sorry to hear that, he was certainly a much different man in person than he had been depicted in Dominion news reports. What happens now then, are you going to let us retreat? Because most of those left behind aren’t really in any condition to go anywhere in the near future. And even if we do I imagine the fortress is your next target, so it wouldn’t do us much good to run only for you to hunt us down tomorrow.”

That was a point Sarah hadn’t considered and she was for a moment lost as to what she could do, but then it came to her as the medic finished healing the marine who was thankfully now unconscious and therefore unaware of the situation around him. Stepping forwards, she hefted the marine so that his weight was resting on her shoulder as the medic stepped back cautiously, only for Kerrigan to smirk at her and gesture at the marine.

“You have just become the Zerg’s first official prisoner of war, you can at least help me lift him back to where I will be containing you whilst I have a long chat with General Warfield... And this is the message I want you to broadcast to the remaining people in the area, and do it right if you want them to stay alive. I am showing mercy this time, do not make me regret it...”

Persona Change: General Warfield

Sitting in his operations centre trying to come up with a way of defending the bastion against the rapidly growing numbers of Zerg that were seemingly coming in this direction, Warfield was cursing the day he had agreed to come to this planet with Jim Raynor and the others, Kerrigan had proven that the Zerg menace could not be wiped away even with the power of the Xel’Naga artefact and was now reaping his mistake with the lives of his soldiers. He had turned off his communicator soon after ordering the retreat from the Bone trench, not wishing to hear the reports of what happened to the poor souls that couldn’t be extracted in time. If there had been a way for him to cover their retreat he would have taken it, but with his limited resources and men already strained to their limit, he knew that such actions would simply have led to an even greater massacre at the hands of the foul aliens. Warfield was surprised therefore when one of his lieutenants burst into the room, holding a long range communicator in one of his hands.

“Sir, you might want to hear this, The Queen of Blades is taking prisoners!” That was a shock to the system, and completely against the Zerg mentality of devouring all in their path, it had to be some kind of trick or ploy. Grabbing the communicator he caught the message just as it began replaying once more.

“This is medic Felicity Metrez and I am imploring the remnants of the forces trapped in the canyon of bones to lay down their arms and surrender to the Zerg. I speak this free of mind and not under duress, but with the aim of saving lives that would otherwise be wasted pointlessly. The Queen of Blades has sworn that no one who surrenders and does not then try and cause sabotage or escape shall be harmed in anyway, and there are already half a dozen medics here to heal any injured or wounded that you have. I have also been asked to relay a message to General Warfield by the Queen of Blades, it is as follows. ‘Warfield, I have given you a way out twice, but you have refused to take them and your men have died for that mistake. The fact that I am taking prisoners and not killing everyone is because you were one of those that risked everything to come and save me from being controlled, but that courtesy will only extend for so long. Leave Warfield and think long and hard about why I am doing this and what Mengsk has done, to me and Raynor.’ That is the end of her message and the end of this broadcast, I have set my suit to repeat this broadcast until all resistance in the area is over or General Warfield enters communication with the Queen to begin negotiations with her... This is medic...”

Handing the communicator back to his lieutenant now that it had obviously finished its message, Warfield tried to work out what Kerrigan was trying to accomplish by such a move, prisoners would tie up resources and troops that she could use against him here, but she knew that he could not simply up and leave over a couple of defeats, even with the loss of his main battleships being one of them so they weren’t a useful bribe or threatening implement. Seeing no other way of divining her motives, he head past his lieutenant and to the door to the rest of the operations centre, it was time to talk to his deadliest enemy once more...

Persona Change: Felicity Mendez

Looking around the small camp that had been made in the remains of one of the few outposts that had not been overrun by the time the call to surrender had been sent out, Felicity could not help but be impressed by the number of Terrans that The Queen of Blades had actually allowed to live. There were almost 800 people here, most of which were badly wounded marines or medics that had been trying to treat the wounded before the Zerg had overrun them, though there were some civilians and marauders to complete the group. Many of them were terrified that the Zerg, who had spawned dozens of spine crawlers around their buildings, were going to strike them down at a moments notice and that this was all a ruse by Kerrigan to get them to surrender so that they were easier to kill. There were even darker mutterings of those that had fought in the brood wars a decade before, that they were going to be experimented upon to become the infected Terran drones, something that terrified each and every person here on a deep, primal level. Not that that fact had stopped them surrendering rather than being ripped to shreds by the Zerg of course, but the human psyche was almost hotwired to prepare for the worst in any given situation. There was a sudden murmuring through the camp, moving closer to her every second and Felicity could guess what was causing it even before Kerrigan appeared through the buildings with the same supernatural grace that she had used when walking through the barracks the first time that Felicity had met the woman.  Standing from her seat, Felicity bowed her head nervously as the Terran’s jailer came to a stop in front of her, three Zerglings standing like guards behind her, growling at any Terran that got too close.

“I assume that you have enough supplies to look after the wounded here? If not then I can have some Zerglings escort a group to the ruins to find some more?”  The confidence and commanding tone that was exuded by Kerrigans voice caused Felicity to want to either salute or drop to one knee by instinct, something that she managed to resist doing, if only barely. She instead nodded and gestured around the camp.

“Yes Kerrigan, we have enough supplies to look after these men and feed ourselves for the next three days, and all but the worst cases should either be healed or mostly recovered by that point. Though I have to ask, what of General Warfield? I imagine he was not particularly willing to negotiate with you about leaving Char to the Zerg once more, after all we sacrificed to take it...” She trailed off as Kerrigans eyes flared at the reminder of her past persona and Felicity thought for a second that her life was forfeit for her impudence towards their captor, but then Kerrigan’s eyes returned to normal and she shook her head with a frown on her face.

“Unfortunately he was unwilling to abandon the planet with his men, and I imagine even if he had that Mengsk would have had most of them executed or turned to the crime legions anyways. So tomorrow I launch the assault on his headquarters and will drive them off this world one way or the other, which is why I am here, to ask your advice.” Felicity couldn’t help but flinch slightly in shock that the Queen of Blades, champion of the dreaded Zerg was here to ask her advice about something to do with the battle against her leader and hero General Warfield. Trying to work out how to phrase the next sentence so that there was as little chance as possible that Kerrigan would kill her for it, she looked up and shook her head before Kerrigan could carry on after her pause.

“I am sorry Kerrigan, as grateful as I am for you sparing the lives of these people and my own, I cannot betray General Warfield and help with whatever you are planning.” To her surprise Kerrigan looked surprised at her for a moment before she chuckled and waved her hand dismissively.

“Such presumptuous thinking is annoying, even if your loyalty to the man is laudable. What I was going to ask was something slightly different to helping me in the battle, in fact it might save some more lives...”

Timeskip: 12 hours

The Zerg had overwhelmed the Terran forces with surprising ease, the sheer numbers and speed of the Zergling forces mixed with the sheer destructiveness of the banelings and Abberations swept any form of resistance aside and tore the base asunder, leaving Kerrigan with surprisingly little to do in terms of combat. Kerrigan had been forced to personally take to the field initially in order to deal with troublesome siege tanks whose powerful area attacks had disrupted the initial probing attacks of her forces and left them easy prey to the defending marines and hellions. But once past that initial difficulty the swarm had moved too quickly for a second line of effective defence to be mounted, especially with the news that the Zerg were accepting surrender from those who threw down their weapons or were too injured to keep fighting.

Once it was clear their defences had been shattered, dozens of dominion troops had thrown down their arms and surrendered, being herded by packs of Zerglings to the rear of her lines where they were out of reach for possible rescue or rearmament. Kerrigan was glad that Medic Mendez had agreed to her second suggestion about the siege, which had been to have squads of captured medics move into the captured area of the base and begin to evacuate the wounded that they found there to be healed, under Zerg guard of course to stop any of them trying to escape back to the Dominion lines. Kerrigan was glad that the idea of taking prisoners had occurred to her the previous day now, it had reduced the enemies that the Zerg had been forced to fight by almost a fifth, and whilst guarding the captives had consumed considerable biomass of her rather limited supply, it had been worth it by reducing the Zerg casualties in taking the base by roughly the same fraction if not more. Stepping up to the badly damaged operations centre with Mendez and half a dozen medics in close proximity, as the same Zergling that had joined her on Raynors shuttle stalked in front of her, Kerrigan had to respect the stubbornness of the old veteran and his men.They had certainly made her fight for every inch of the planet, even if they had probably guessed quite early on that it would be futile in the end.

Kerrigan sliced through the wreckage that was obstructing the doorway with her psionic powers and strode inside, wondering whether Warfield had been caught in the storming of the base or was on one of the transports that was currently trying to outrun the Zerg forces to the landing pads where their space shuttles were based. The medics began to peel off to search through the outer rooms of the building, their nerves at being around so many Zerg organisms gone after a day of being surrounded by them almost constantly. Kerrigan headed to where she assumed the main control centre was, if Warfield was anywhere that is where he would be, and she had some words to have with the man before she would be willing to let him leave...

Persona Change: General Warfield

Consciousness returned slowly to him and with it so did the pain of his wounds. The command centre had been breached and half a dozen banelings had burst through the corridors, the explosions of acid triggering several further explosions in the buildings fuel supplies and power systems. Opening his eyes he found himself leaning against one of the console centres in the room, the bodies of half a dozen of his most loyal marines laying around him, either dead or soon to be. His hearing was a bit slower to return than his sight, something Warfield attributed to his old age more than anything else, and when it did he could not repress the sorrow of what he heard, bursts of communications from all his surviving lieutenants that he had placed in the back lines just in case this event occurred.

“All positions are overrun... Landing bay is compromised... We are being surrounded...Argh!!” Listening in for a few more moments to get a rough idea of what had happened to the remnants of his force, he isolated one of his lieutenants channels. The man in question having managed to hold together a small force of hellions to escort a convoy of wounded to the transport area despite the fact that it significantly reduced the chances of the men being able to escape the fast approaching Zerg, an action that struck pride within Warfield as it was obvious that his leadership had achieved something.

“Lieutenant, I want you to get those wounded to the shuttles do you hear me?” The man took a second to respond, obviously surprised to hear his voice after the command centre had fallen, though when he spoke it was with the same clipped professionalism that Warfield used with his officers.

“We are nearly there, do you want me to send a squad to pick you up sir?” Looking down at his chest, where a large metal bracket had pierced both his armour and his ribs, stopping barely before his heart, Warfield decided to let the man not worry about him and try and do something stupid like try and rescue him through the Zerg swarm that they were escaping from.

“I’m fine Lieutenant, you just see to those wounded.” He sat up slightly, the movement making the bracket in his chest and the second one in his abdomen shift painfully and put pressure on his lung, though he managed to cover up the pained grunt with a couple of coughs as he put his hand on the bracket. “I’ll get out another way...” There was no response, obviously something had arisen that required the man's personal attention, so Warfield muted his microphone and started to pull on the bracket in his chest, knowing that there was no way he would be able to survive standing with it so perilously close to his heart as it was.

The pain was excruciating and he could not stop himself crying out in pain as the bracket shifted outwards in his grip away from his chest. Such was the pain’s distraction, it took him a moment to recognise the sound of growling approaching from in front of him and to his horror there was a Zergling stalking towards him, its right lower horn damaged in battle but doing nothing to detract from its terrifying appearance. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to move his arm cannon quickly enough to get a shot off at the thing without it leaping at him and tearing him to shreds, and as such he was resigning himself to his fate when the Zergling stopped in front of him for a moment, his lieutenant speaking hurriedly into his ears about how the convoy was going to be destroyed by the Zerg forces that were nearly upon it. Its eyes were filled with ferocity and hunger staring deeply into his own as if judging whether he was worthy of being prey for it to hunt and devour, before with a flutter of its side fins it jumped off to the side, revealing a woman that Warfield dreaded seeing even more than any number of ravenous Zerglings could be. Finding his voice at last, he sat up as straight as he could so that he could face his inevitable fate in the most honorable way he could manage with his injuries.

“Kerrigan, now you listen to me. I have three shuttles packed with men too injured to ever be a threat to you. Husbands, fathers, you let them go, do you hear me?” He didn’t know why he tried reasoning with the fallen woman in front of him, he supposed it was due to the belief that Jim Raynor had had in the ex-ghost that had rubbed off on him during their fighting together on Char. Seeing the woman still stood there imperiously and unrepentant of the deaths around them his anger suddenly rose within him and he decided to let his feelings be known before the end, rising slightly so that he could point his cannon at the woman. “You bitch!  You aren’t even human anymore. How many people have you killed, how many more will have to die? And for what, petty revenge? What would Raynor say if he could see you now...” He knew he had gone too far with his last line by the way that Kerrigan stiffened even as her eyes glowed, her psionics lifting him painfully into the air and causing him to shout in pain once more. Just as he was sure she would finish him off her eyes suddenly shifted away from him as a figure in white ran towards the two of them and he was lowered surprisingly carefully to the floor as Kerrigan looked up and away from him for a moment, Char’s sun bursting through the holes in the command centre roof to light her face for a moment, his lieutenant speaking suddenly in his ear as the medic knelt to start tending to his wounds.

“Sir, the Zerg are retreating, we are going to make it! It is a miracle, General? General?” Ignoring the man’s calls for him for the moment, Warfield cast his eye to Kerrigan’s back as she started to walk away from him, Zergling following like an eager puppy, his mind unable to entirely comprehend what had just happened, though he knew that he had been wrong about the woman, at least as far as his final words had been. Knowing he had to say something as one armies general to another, he called out to her as she reached the ruined doorway.

“Kerrigan, I was wrong about you, and I owe you my thanks for saving my men from my stupidity.” Kerrigan stopped and turned back to face him, her eyes hard and unfeeling once more, a stark contrast to the almost serene expression he had seen moments before.

“Do not thank me Warfield, the dead in this place certainly will not do so if given the choice.” And then she was gone from his sight and he was left alone with the medic who he guessed was one of those who Kerrigan had captured the day before, who looked at him with a sad expression on her face.

“I am sorry sir, but this is going to hurt quite a lot and then we are going to have to get you back to the camp for proper surgery, otherwise you will not survive the hour.” Warfield sighed as he knew she was right, though he honestly was still getting over the fact that he was still breathing now after what he had said to the former Queen of Blades. He looked into the medics eyes to ask the next question, one that he knew he had to ask for his own conscience.

“How many have you managed to save? How many of my men...” He couldn’t finish the sentence, feeling the drugs the medic had administered kicking into his system even as she began to cut out the bracket in his chest, but his ears caught her answer, one that further conflicted his thoughts on Kerrigan.

“More than a thousand, which is more than we would have accepted from the UED or the protoss in all honesty...” And then his vision blacked out and darkness claimed Warfield once more, his heart a little lighter than he had thought possible when he had came to...

Chapter Text

Persona: Sarah Kerrigan

“And let this be the example to those that think that the dominion is prepared to let the back down and run from the Zerg menace, rather than standing and fighting to their last breaths in the name of humanity!” Arcturus Mengsk’s commanding voice echoed throughout the crowded but subdued command centre on Char before the monitors returned to the broadcasters studios.

The large building, which had been mostly restored to its original condition over the last week by the captured SCV’s and the Zerg drones that Kerrigan had spare, now served as Sarah’s stronghold and base of operations on Char. Kerrigan had used this time to finish ensuring her complete control over the remaining Zerg forces on the planet, having to deal with a pair of queens that refused to bow to her command over the swarm and had to be brought to heel with force. The deaths of the queens had not been easy to order, but Kerrigan knew she would have to be brutal if she was going to have any chance of uniting the swarm.

Kerrigan had insisted that Mendez take command of the captured Terrans whilst General Warfield was still recovering from his life threatening wounds, having seen the medic at work at the prisoner’s camp she knew that the woman could lead if given the opportunity and was also not as afraid of Kerrigan as the other Terrans had initially been. Between the two of them they had ensured the recovery of enough of the ruined buildings to house the captured Terrans whilst the injured recovered and Kerrigan could work out what to do with them. In hindsight her uncertainty on the matter had been a mercy rather than a punishment, given the televised execution of all the non-injured men and women who had escaped in the three shuttles from Char by Mengsk’s forces, showing that there was no possible return for them to the Dominion after the others capture was revealed.

Kerrigan was sat amongst the Terrans, having been slowly accepted amongst them despite her ‘Zerg problem’ as Mendez had taken to referring her command over the swarm as. Mengsk’s rather typical if extreme response left Kerrigan with a problem she hadn’t anticipated when she had decided to let the Terran’s live, which was what the hell she was to do in their regard.

She couldn’t in good conscience leave the remaining Terran’s on Char, as Mengsk would most likely be sending forces to try and retake the planet soon enough and their survival if that was the case was doubtful considering the footage. But at the same time space on the Leviathan was limited at best, though now she thought about it she supposed she could use some of the accumulated biomass the swarm had obtained whilst gaining control of Char to grow a second Leviathan to house the Terrans inside, which would give her more combat power whilst solving the space problem, admittedly at the cost of most her available Zerg forces.

She was broken off from her musing by a polite coughing from behind where she was sat. Spinning round in the chair she found the now Lieutenant Mendez standing there, face drawn and downcast from a week of little sleep and the loss of dozens of wounded, not to mention the executions that she will have undoubtedly just seen. She still saluted when Kerrigan’s attention focused on her, something the ex-ghost was not particularly used to, before speaking quickly on the same matter that had been plaguing Kerrigan’s mind.

“General, I assume you have just watched that travesty? Is this what you meant in regards to Mengsk? Nobody has told General Warfield about this yet, we don’t know how he will take the news.” The title Mendez used for her was another thing for her to get used to, and one of Warfields almost ironic suggestions once he had awoken from his surgery. The Terran command structure being as it was, the captured marines needed to refer to her by some sort of title as she was both their captor and faux-ally, weird as that idea was. It had not been long therefore before Warfield had insisted that seeing as how she was head of the Zerg ‘army’ on Char meant she should be of the same rank as him.

This was instead of the rank she had been as a ghost as part of the Sons of Korhal, in which she had been a captain before the incident that made her the Queen of Blades. As such she was now ‘General Kerrigan’ as opposed to the Queen of Blades in the eyes of the captured Terrans, a disassociation that she was rather pleased with, even if it was only a minor change. Bringing her mind back to Mendez’s questions she sighed and gestured to her left, where out of the reinforced window the Terran camp could be seen.

“Honestly, I did not expect Mengsk to be this harsh; considering he has just survived the revolt that Jim started I thought he would be desperate for the manpower that you would give him. The fact that he is so determined to drive out anyone who is seen to show weakness to the Zerg means that there is no way any of those men will be allowed to live if you return to the Dominion as you are. So, as I see it there are three choices available to you all, and none of them are particularly favourable at this point.” It was not just Mendez stood there now, the rest of the Terran’s in the room were listening to her in rapt silence as she made her point.

“The first is that you stay on Char and try your luck in convincing the Dominion troops when they arrive that you were actively resisting my forces this entire time, though that is a risky gambit at best. The second is that we try and find out what has happened to Matt Horner and the remnants of Raynors Raiders, they will certainly not turn you away from joining up.” The unspoken disadvantage of this idea did not need to be stated, considering what had happened to Jim when he had been captured. The Terran’s seemed to understand her reluctance to speak on the matter as none of them spoke whilst she took a deep breath, trying to work out how best to phrase the last and probably most tenuous choice available.

“The third is one that I have not truly given much thought to, but as it is by my work that you are all at such risk I would be prepared to accommodate aboard my ship any who wish to accompany me as I work to reunify the swarm and take down Mengsk.” There was not the huge outcry of disgust that she had expected at this, though there was quiet mumbling as each Terran discussed with various degrees of panic the various options to their neighbours. The room quieted suddenly as an unexpected but familiarly gruff voice spoke from behind Sarah, causing her to turn her head in order to see General Warfield leaning against the frame of the door into the room dressed in marine armour that had obviously been salvaged from several different sets, a medic doing his best to try and keep him standing on his feet whilst apologising quietly to Mendez.

“I think that is a choice that we must allow every man and woman to make by themselves. With a madman like Mengsk in charge there can be no easy option, and I don’t wish to be held accountable for any more deaths this day.” Eyeing the man who by all rights should still be in a medically induced coma, the man having died twice on the operating table whilst they healed his wounds, his heart stopping long enough to cause serious concern both times, Kerrigan walked over to him and grabbed his uninjured arm near the shoulder as she spoke to him.

“You're looking good for a corpse Warfield, though I think Mendez is going to have words with you later if that look is anything to go by. Let’s get you sat down before you cause yourself a hernia. Everyone that is not a warrant officer or above must leave whilst we plan, make sure that everyone knows about the broadcast, so that they can start to decide what they wish to do next.”

The feeling of commanding someone verbally and with charisma was a surprising power rush to her system, definitely more fulfilling than when she had to order the Zerg around psionically. There were dozens of salutes and responses of “General!” before they began to move past her and Warfield, many of them saluting the man as well on their way out. Half dragging the man to a seat, she set Warfield down carefully before indicating that those that remained, almost a dozen men and 4 women, should sit themselves down as well. Kerrigan looked around, seeing the expressions of fear, anger, disgust and even hope on the faces of those gathered, and she was pleased when Mendez took the initiative to speak her own piece.

“As General Kerrigan has stated, we need to decide what we each think is the best approach to the situation and how we will supply ourselves and each of the different groups, should others decide they wish to try and go their own way. So, I think General Warfield should start, as I know many of us respect his opinion in such matters enough that it might influence our own decisions. General?”

Timeskip:

It had been a long day overall but eventually the Terran forces had been split into two different groups, with no one wishing to try and remain on Char to wait for the dominion forces unsurprisingly. General Warfield was heading the group that wished to join up with Matt Horner, and the majority of the Terran’s had agreed with him, especially after it was made known that crown Prince Valerian was amongst that group. However the group would be staying on Char until they finished repairing and re-equipping one of the battle cruisers that had been crash landed in the bone trench but not been too badly wrecked by the crash and Zerg swarm.

The smaller group of survivors, less than 400 marines, medics and SCV’s had chosen to go with Kerrigan under the joint leadership of Lieutenants Mendez and Grahams, a marauder veteran that had also served under Warfield during the invasion of Char. Kerrigan had changed her mind and nearly insisted on the Terran’s all going to join Horner once it became clear that only a small number were going to serve with her, but Mendez had argued that it would make further attacks on dominion territory easier for her and the swarm if there was a human presence amongst their forces to promote further defections and surrendering.

The idea had a lot of merit, especially if she needed to attack areas that had been part of the uprising against Mengsk, so she relented and had the Leviathan altered so that it was more suitable for normal human habitation. This had in turn caused a stir amongst her Zerg commanders, who had refused to integrate with the Terrans before now, Za’gara in particular unable to comprehend why they had not just devoured the humans for their biomass to strengthen the swarm further. Luckily her control over the swarm was more than sufficient to quieten Izsha and Abathur, though she had been forced to remind Za’gara of her place psionically before the brood mother had bowed to her orders. They had packed several barracks and factories aboard the Leviathan so that equipment for the Terran forces could be reproduced and the Terrans could be housed on whatever planet they landed on next, leaving the remaining buildings for Warfield’s forces to use.

Kerrigan could not afford to tarry on Char any longer however, Mengsk’s forces were growing stronger by the second and she had already lost enough time on Char. As such she had ordered the Terrans to be ready to leave by nightfall as thousands of Zerglings; banelings and aberrations flocked back to the grounded Leviathan for loading. Now she had one thing left to do before she could leave, and this would take quite the bit of power to achieve...

Persona: Matt Horner, Captain of the Hyperion

Reaching up to rub at his tired eyes once more, Matt was thankful that they seemed to have finally managed to shake Nova’s pursuing forces, for the time being at any rate. Looking over to Valerian, he noted that the once pampered prince looked as bad as he felt, both suffering from the loss of Jim and Kerrigan. Though he could hardly blame the woman for acting how she did when she found out they had been forced to leave Raynor behind to the Dominion forces.

According to the reports Jim had acted similarly when she had first been lost to the Zerg after the disastrous attack on Tarsonis, though admittedly the man hadn’t had ridiculously strong psionics to throw those around him into walls. As if on cue to his thoughts, the screen in front of him suddenly crackled and flared, waves of light bathing from it for a few moments before a familiar face appeared, looking haggard and breathing hard from the effort of opening such a communication.

“Kerrigan!” He said, louder than he intended as every person on the bridge flinched whilst turning to look in his direction, and he waved them off back to their work as Valerian approached the screen cautiously.

“Matt, Valerian. I hope you don’t mind if I skip the niceties a little, you were further away than I imagined when I tried to set up this link. I am contacting you from Char, which I have retaken from General Warfield’s forces.” Valerian frowned and spoke up angrily at this point, not that Matt was particularly surprised, the young man had been close to the former general, whose death and prompt hero’s burial had been broadcast live from Korhal despite the lack of a body.

“Why did you have to kill him Kerrigan? And all of those soldiers under his command. Was it really just to gain some of your Zerg back?” Kerrigan levelled a pointed glare at Valerian, causing the man to take a step back subconsciously before she responded.

“You should know by now Prince not to believe everything that your dearest father has posted on the news channels. Warfield is in fact still alive, though I doubt he will be able to take to the battlefield again considering the injuries he sustained. He and almost 1500 hundred Terran’s are currently rebuilding a Battle cruiser on Char in order to come and join your little rebellion, which was the reason I have contacted you, so remember this in future before thinking the worst of me, again!” Though Valerian looked sufficiently cowed at this angry diatribe, Matt noticed the hurt in Kerrigan’s posture as she spoke to them about Warfield and his men, implying something he couldn’t quite fathom. He decided to move the conversation to more important matters rather than let the two of them continue squabbling, including one that he didn’t really wish to broach but knew he owed it to Jim’s memory.

“Kerrigan, as glad as I am to hear that you have taken those men alive rather than just killing them, I have to ask, have you heard...” He trailed off, unsure of how to truly broach the topic as Kerrigan noticeably sagged on screen and the connection flickered for a few moments before it solidified and she replied to his unspoken question.

“About Jim? I know well enough Matt.” Her voice was softer than her usual playful and slightly arrogant tone, filled with emotions he was sure she had long since forgotten about. “That is why I am taking back control of the swarm, Mengsk must be stopped from continuing these actions and after your rebellion failed and with Jim... Gone, that task now falls to me. I will be taking the swarm to the planet of Kaldir in order to reunite with one of my brood mothers there before I plan my next move, and I hope that I can count on you and the Raiders support when the time comes Matt. Against Mengsk, I will need every bit of help that I can get.” The picture flickered for a moment longer and then faded to nothing once more before a reply could be made, leaving Matt to his thoughts for a moment before Valerian spoke up in a surprised tone.

“That is certainly not the same Kerrigan we knew before the Umojan incident, and I think I can say that is a good thing. Shall I get the ship ready to travel to Char then?” Matt nodded distractedly, his mind struggling to comprehend that Kerrigan was once more in charge of the Zerg, and that in Raynor’s memory he may end up fighting beside the very things he had fought against for so long in order to take down Mengsk at last. Shaking his head, he stood straight once more and made his way to the helm computers to take control of the ship once more, if Warfield wanted to sign up he was certainly not going to refuse the manpower...

Timeskip:

Location: In orbit above Char

Kerrigan was sat on a seat like protrusion in the floor of the room she was resting in, that served as the resting quarters for her and the Terran officers, who were for the most part undertaking drills and exercises aboard the leviathan to stay combat effective. The original Zergling was there with her, sat with its head in her lap like a faithful hound. It had been another difficult night for her, though the presence of so many links to the Zerg had helped her stabilise her powers, so though she had woken in a cold sweat she hadn’t torn the room part again, which was good considering the number of people she could hurt that were nearby. Suddenly her Zergling raised its head and growled in warning; a second later she felt a familiar presence in the room, one that she had almost as bigger reason to dislike as Arcturus.

“Zeratul…” She spoke the name with malice as the protoss dark Templar appeared from the shadowed realm through which the protoss travelled, though she placed a hand on one of the Zerglings pincers to prevent it from attacking, Zeratul would be able to rip it apart with little difficulty if he wished. The dark Templar simply stood there in silence for a moment, leaving Kerrigan to make the first move. Kerrigan leapt to her feet, charging across the cavern with a rage filled yell, slamming her fist into his chest, following it up with a vicious roundhouse kick that sent the protoss flying backwards for a moment before she reached out with her powers, grasping hold over his form and dragging him back, past her and slammed him into one of the supporting pillars of the room.

Even as she leapt into the air, she wondered why he was not fighting back, he certainly would be able to stop her if he wished. Zeratul had gone toe to toe with her more powerful Queen of Blades form after all. That did not matter right now however, as she spun in the air before launching herself downwards towards him, fist glowing with light yellow psionic energy. This caused Zeratul to react she was pleased to note, obviously fearful of the damage such an attack could do to him. To her surprise however, rather than ignite his psy-blade and cut her down, he merely deflected her lunge so that her fist impacted on the pillar above his right shoulder, cracking it heavily and releasing an explosive burst of air from the impact before he forced her back with his feet.

She recovered quickly and attacked him again before he had time to react and this time her fist did not miss its mark, slamming Zeratul through the pillar and tumbling to rest almost twenty feet away from her. He seemed a little stunned as she walked up to him, the fleshy door to the room bursting open at this point allowing Mendez and Horace to enter with weapons drawn, half a dozen marines behind them and they fanned out into the room. Holding up her hand to show they were not to attack, she reached down and grasped the front of Zeratul’s armour, dragging the protoss up into a sitting position so she could look him in the eyes as she growled her questions to him.

“What do you want? And why did you not defend yourself?” Zeratul did not respond for a moment and Kerrigan felt her earlier anger return to her, raising her fist ready to punch some of the pompous arrogance out of him when he spoke slowly and unsurely.

“I will show you Kerrigan, if you make sure the humans do not shoot me for what I am about to do, they might not understand our methods…” Zeratul was obviously surprised at the Terran’s presence aboard the Leviathan, and it made Kerrigan glad that she had obviously done something to surprise the ancient warrior who had so often read her like a book despite her best efforts to surprise him. Looking across at Mendez, who was stood with pistol ready but had obviously heard the conversation, she didn’t need to say anything for the medic to nod in understanding and give a quiet order to stand down. The marines listened to her and lowered their weapons, though none of them moved to leave the room, obviously not trusting Zeratul despite her assurances. She turned back to Zeratul whose expression had changed to something approaching respect.

“You command their respect rather that lead through fear, I must say that I am surprised. However, I now require you to open your mind, and believe!” As he said the last word his hand shot up faster than she could react and locked round her head, causing the Terrans to raise their weapons once more even as her vision changed to that of star systems and supernovas, travelling millions of light years before settling on a single world. Zeratuls voice spoke from all around her as the world spun in front of her.

“Kerrigan, I have been to the beginning.” The scene changed to a jungle whose plants she did not recognise even with the knowledge of her previous self to draw from, vibrant and rich whilst eliciting a dangerous and feral feeling down in her very soul.

“Behold, Zerus, birthplace of the Zerg. Here the Zerg evolved.” The sounds of movement became more and more audible to her before in the next moment two beast like creatures appeared into her view, the first smaller and dog like, with three sets of eyes and a long mouth ending in a sharpened protrusion. The second creature was pursuing the first, larger and stockier than the first animal with large and powerful front arms that it dragged it’s body forwards upon to try and capture the smaller creature. Zeratul spoke as the pursuit continued, the smaller creature ducking through roots whilst the larger one was forced to jump over them instead, the smaller creature beginning to glow as it ducked into a tunnel of roots, seemingly leaving its pursuer behind and unable to catch it.

“This is where the dark one altered them. Those that are left are the primal Zerg.” Suddenly a large claw burst through the roof of the tunnel and grabbed the smaller Zerg, dragging it from its escape route and holding in front of its predator. The smaller Zerg snapped at the larger one twice before the larger Zerg tossed it through the air, pursuing after it before it could recover.

“They fight.” The two beings charged towards each other, the larger one grabbing the smaller one by the neck and slamming through the undergrowth, where it was stopped of Kerrigans direct sight, though the sounds of ripping and tearing made it obvious what was occurring.

“They Kill.” Her view shift so that she could see the larger Zergs face as it ate some of its fallen prey, its form shifting before her eyes as two more eyes appeared on either side of its original eye.

“They evolve.” The things body contorted and glowed with the same light as the smaller Zergs body had, it’s mass increasing and body becoming more streamlined as it roared out into the wilderness around it.

The vision faded and Zeratul let go of her face once more, but not before he spoke his final piece to her. “As must you, if you survive…” There was silence for a moment longer before Mendez spoke up hesitantly.

“General, are you okay? What shall we do with the… ah damn it.” As she had been speaking Zeratul faded into the shadows once more, leaving the Terrans alone once more. She could have stopped him leaving with her powers, though she had no desire to harbour the Templar any longer than was absolutely necessary. Whilst she was okay with Terrans now to a certain extent, something about Zeratul drove her to a rage similar only to her feelings towards Jims death or Mengsk’s betrayal, and she honestly could not place why. Standing once more she nodded her head at Mendez, both in thanks and to show she was fine.

“I am fine Lieutenant, though I appreciate the actions of you and your men by coming to my aid. How did you know he was here?” Mendez shrugged and gestured to the door.

“The creepy snake like one told me you had company whilst I was up at the head, and seeing as none of your Zerg were rushing to help you I decided this was either very serious or a test for us, so grabbed those I could on the way here.” Kerrigan nodded, knowing exactly why none of the Zerg had come to attack Zeratul, it had been the only order she had sent out before engaging him in close quarters.

“They did not come on my orders and with good reason. If he had wanted to, the protoss could have destroyed us all, me included even with my powers as strong as they are.” That caused the group of them to shift slightly nervously, obviously they had not faced many a protoss whilst serving in the dominion, not that such a lack of experience was surprising. It was rarely the marines that survived such conflicts, the protoss zealots would always cause terrible casualties to any force of infantry that were not sufficiently protected by armour or bunkered up.

“But Zeratul has proved himself a boon, as much as it pains me to admit it. I now know what our next step after Kaldir shall be, and I imagine it will come as quite the surprise to you…”

Chapter Text

Location: Kaldir

Well this was probably the least hospitable planet that she had ever been on, and that was including Char and the gas world of Morkresk 5 Kerrigan thought with a small amount of humour as the Leviathan came into atmosphere. At least on the poisonous world the Zerg had quickly evolved to counter the gases lethal effects, allowing them to overrun the Terran mining operations there in the name of the Overmind. That had been one of the smaller operations she had been a part of before the Overminds destruction at the hands of the protoss forces and her ascension to the position of the Queen of Blades.

Looking out towards the frozen spires of a Zerg lair, which were sticking out over the ice ridden plains in are rather obvious manner, it was very clear what had probably happened to the brood mothers forces that resided here. Kerrigan knew that she would have to work out a way of protecting her forces from the intense cold before they could truly try and unite the Zerg forces here with the swarm once more. Reaching out psionically, Kerrigan couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of panic as her powers registered the presence of other psionically powerful groups on the planet, many more than just that of the singular brood mother she had been expecting. Breaking the connection before the groups noticed her probing, she looked over to where Mendez was stood next to Za’gara, who was still struggling to deal with the Terran’s presence aboard. Kerrigan spoke slowly, reaching up to massage her forehead as she knew that the mission had just become far more complicated.

“Well, just when I thought things couldn’t become more difficult for us, we have a large Protoss force present on the planet below and conditions that can render even the Zerg inactive.” She paused to think about her next orders for a moment longer before she nodded to herself and spoke once more. “Mendez, come with me, I need to see Abathur before we do anything else. He must have a way of getting around these environmental conditions, or at least mitigating their impact upon us. If only Zeratul had remained aboard i would not have to concern myself with this problem. I would prefer not to bring the golden armada down on our heads over such a small brood.”

She knew the dark Templar was something of an outcast amongst his own kind for some of his actions during the war against the Overmind and then her. Despite this he still held the grudging respect of many of the Protoss, especially amongst his dark brethren, both for his teaching of Tassadar and his other actions as a leading figure of the dark Templars. With him present there would have been the possibility of negotiation, but instead she would have to try and make the stubborn and prideful race see reason by herself. Za’gara chose this moment to speak to her telepathically, her voice confused but also containing a slightly disdainful undertone that Kerrigan could easily pick out.

“My Queen, I thought you wished for revenge against the leader of the Terran forces, but there are no Terrans here for us to slay?” Sighing at the question Kerrigan replied out loud even though she knew she could have replied mentally.

“Nafash’s brood has several powerful adaptations amongst her forces. I need these forces to strengthen the swarm if I am going to take down Mengsk.” Za’gara looked affronted at this, her hands moving in what was obviously an agitated manner in front her, rearing up slightly even as she responded.

“Surely my brood would be enough to defeat his forces that he could array against us, Terran’s are weak!” Kerrigan didn’t know whether to be angry at the not so subtle insult that Za’gara had thrown at her and the other Terran’s aboard, or to laugh at the comment which was flawed to its very core, especially considering who was making that particular comment.

Deciding against the most humiliating reply, which was to point out that the ‘weak Terrans’ had very much driven Za’gara’s brood to near extinction simply by letting the brood mother throw her forces against their positions in her pathetic version of tactics. Kerrigan wasn’t going to let the matter rest entirely either in case the brood mother grew even bolder in her attempted mockery. She turned her head, glaring over at Za’gara with a hint of psionic power behind it as she put the brood mother in her place.

“That is what you used to think about me isn’t it Za’gara? Perhaps it is not your swarm being weak that is the problem with your idea…” She trailed off and let her own more subtle insult rest in the air as she turned her head back to the planet in front of her, returning to the problem of how to begin her operations here. Thinking about it a moment longer she activated her comms unit in her ear, which connected to the communications hubs that the Terrans now had spanning the Leviathans interior.

“Lieutenant Horace, get a squad of marauders and medics together for a mission, and make sure they are equipped with the vacuum capable suits as opposed to the normal equipment. Otherwise they will not survive for long on the planet below. I will get some Zerglings ready to head in via spore transport ahead of you.” Lieutenant Horace acknowledged and she removed her hand, only for Mendez to ask a question of her own.

“What about you General? You certainly cannot go out there in that skin suit, even with your Zerg adaptability you would be dead before we made true landfall.” That was something Kerrigan hadn’t considered, too used to the immunity that being the queen of blades had granted her from such conditions. With that in mind she made a detour towards the Terran sector herself, she would need a suit of her own in all likelihood, and then she could see to getting the Zerg ready to reclaim Nafash’s brood and if necessary crush the protoss forces before they could escape, something she knew would be highly likely…

Timeskip:

“Death to the Queen of Blades, For Aiu…urgh!” As another protoss zealot charged futilely towards her, only to be taken down by the mass of evolved Zerglings that blocked its path, Kerrigan couldn’t help but curse the hatred and pride that the protoss had for her and the Zerg. She had landed quietly on the planet not far from Nafash’s hive cluster, intent on finding a suitably powerful indigenous creature whose essence could be used to adapt the swarm to the flash freezes that swept the planet.

*Flashback*

Kerrigan was very glad that she had listened to Mendez now and had worn a heavy Terran vacuum armoured suit that was capable of insulating the user even in deep space. The reason for her happiness was that the fast cooling temperatures had killed almost half of her Zerglings when it struck them for the first time, which was before they reached the Ursadon Matriarch and retrieved its essence for Abathur to use in evolving the swarm.

The thing had proved little challenge under the combined weight of Kerrigan’s psionics, the marauders grenades and the acid attacks of the feral roaches that she had assimilated into her swarm. The Matriarch and her two smaller beasts only managing to fell a single Zergling before it fell a bloody lump of flesh, the smaller Ursadon’s perishing moments later. The remaining Zerglings quickly feasted on the flesh, Abathur using the psionic links to each Zergling to obtain the Ursadon’s DNA strands for sequencing to the swarms needs.

It took a few minutes to complete the evolution, even for the master geneticist of Abathurs calibre. In that time Kerrigan and her team had advanced up the icy cliffs to the location of the hive cluster that had been left damaged and frozen by the cold. It was interesting however that the cluster was mostly untouched by combat, meaning it had been abandoned by Nafash before the Protoss had attacked it, something Kerrigan found very strange from the by all accounts tactically brilliant Brood mother. Shaking off her concern at the weirdness of the situation, Kerrigan reached out with her mind and connected to the various structures that made up the cluster, in order to bring them back under her control and also to allow Abathur to initiate the evolution he was finishing to the building as well as her troops.

Once he was ready Abathur sparked the change in all of the Zerg currently on the planet down to the last Larvae. The buildings warped and grew, growing thicker and wider as a fur like carapace was grown over all the extruding surfaces, giving the cluster a strange almost non-Zerg feel to it. Kerrigan was distracted from these changes as she felt the presence of dozens of minds suddenly focus on the area of the cluster, obviously having sensed the large amount of psionic energy being used to facilitate the evolution. A more powerful presence shifted through her psionic shielding, which extended almost 100 yards from her in every direction. The presence stopped a few yards in front of her, forming into an astral projection of a Protoss High Templar. His telepathy was filled with confusion and disdain as he stared across at her.

“What is this? The Queen of Blades? But your form is different, weaker, human-like.” Despite the urge she felt to rip the Templars mind to pieces at his arrogant tone, Kerrigan decided to at least try the diplomatic route. Bowing her head respectfully, she managed to keep her tone level as she spoke slowly and clearly.

“Noble Templar, I do not wish to fight you and your kind on this forsaken planet, simply to remove any remaining Zerg that might reside here before leaving quickly and quietly. There need be no blood spilt this day.” For a moment she thought it had worked, the Templar looking around at the gathered marauders and medics with confusion evident in his body language. But then his face hardened and he raised his hand to point threateningly at her.

“You must pay for your crimes against our race Queen of Blades, we remember Aiur, and we remember your actions after the death of the Overmind. We cannot let you take control of the swarm again no matter what. So prepare yourself for judgement, for the golden armada will be here as soon as we contact Shakuras.” And then the projection faded as the Templar retreated, leaving Kerrigan to groan at what had happened.

“Izsha, please tell me that the protoss cannot reach Shakuras psionically?”

*End Flashback*

It turned out that the Protoss couldn’t contact Shakuras straight away, though Izsha then dampened this good news by reporting that the protoss had constructed several psionic towers that could act as amplifying relays once properly charged with psionic energy to achieve contact with Shakuras. It was these towers that were beginning to charge as Kerrigan had prepared the hive cluster for battle, the Protoss' plan almost painfully obvious to her. Kerrigan had destroyed the closest psionic tower with surprising ease, the Protoss seemingly unable to counteract the flash freezes, even if their advanced psionic powers protected them from the worst of the cold damage. Therefore Kerrigan had unleashed a swarm of Zerglings and roaches to lead the charge as the first flash freeze of the battle occurred, tearing through the frozen protoss with almost sickening ease.

She had left the Terrans at the Zerg base to do what Terran’s do best, which in her mind was static defence. A couple of SCV’s and bunkers were deployed from orbit at the entrance to her base, in order to defend against any attackers that might threaten it whilst she was out attacking the various Protoss bases. Leaving the now wrecked protoss base that had been built up around the psionic tower, Kerrigan radioed in the co-ordinates and a medi-vac appeared a few minutes later. SCV’s descended from it in order to begin working on building a command centre and some more bunkers to defend the location whilst the Terrans began mining for their own minerals to use.

Confident that the Terrans could create the rest of the base by themselves, she continued to advance with her forces, taking out small pockets of Protoss forces that seemed to be at key crossroads in the canyons. She decided to wait until flash freezes occurred before attacking what seemed to be a defensive garrison in front of the second base she knew contained a psionic tower. The time lost waiting easily worth it for the number of Zerg forces that it saved from dying trying to break through the protoss defences and destroying the second tower before the flash freeze ended. She got her forces to concentrate on the more dangerous Protoss such as the Archons and the key power pylons before the storm ended, the few remaining forces proving little challenge when they thawed out.

Hearing the sound of Ursadon howling in the distance, Kerrigan smiled all to herself as Abathur mentioned the need to gather more Ursadon Matriarch essence in order to truly counter the effects of the flash freezes and have the swarm at full functionality once more, this would be more fun than killing more protoss at least. The thing was prowling around the cliffs above them, and thought itself safe from her and her troops until they segmented a bit so that it could target the weaker elements of the group. That just wouldn’t do, she was on a time scale after all. With a telepathic command she directed a group of forty odd raptor strain Zerglings bounding up the cliffs to deal with it, though she was disappointed that she wouldn’t get to slay the mighty creature herself.

Shaking her head to clear her mind she received a communication from Mendez, stating that the Terran base was now established and she was leading a squad of marines and marauders to join Kerrigan as fire support to complement her close range forces. As small as the force would be in comparison to her Zerg forces, Kerrigan didn’t say anything as she knew it was hard enough for the Terrans to coexist with the Zerg let alone fight with them, so the fact that they were willing to do so was a good sign. Whilst the Terrans were on their way she led her forces deeper into the cliffs, killing the protoss forces there with a mixture of overwhelming numbers and Kerrigans psionic abilities. Just as she unleashed a kinetic blast that destroyed the shields of the last Archon in the area, she sensed an almost familiar presence nearby, one that was of Zerg origin rather than of protoss. It was incredibly weak however, and if it weren’t for the fact that she was used to separating out psionic presences when dealing with the swarm she would have lost it as it faded a little more.

Thoroughly intrigued, she got most of her forces to hold at the entrance to the canyon she felt the presence inside of, taking half a dozen Zerglings and heading off into the ice, carefully scanning for protoss in case this was some very clever trap they were pulling. The canyon did not stretch too far into the Ice flow, and after five hundred metres or so she could see it narrowing to a large bluff at its end. It was the frozen figure at the base of the bluff that caught her attention and she approached slowly to the corpse of the brood mother Nafash, who had obviously fled into this canyon to try and escape the protoss forces. Looking closer at the corpse Kerrigan realised Nafash seemed to have died of flash freezing as opposed to protoss blades, not that the fact made her death in anyway better or meaningful...

Kerrigan suddenly realised that the psionic presence she was feeling came from below Nafash’s corpse, rather than from it which she had expected, thinking it just the fading presence of the brood mothers psionic presence. Focusing entirely on the feeling, she reached out and felt her surroundings, and true enough there was a chrysalis less than three feet into the ice below the frozen corpse. She could feel Nafash was weak, near death even and her condition worsening slowly, but there was still enough time if she hurried. Pointing to the ground above the chrysalis she lifted the frozen corpse aside and ordered her Zerglings to dig up the chrysalis carefully before reaching for her earpiece.

“Mendez, I need a transport here as soon as possible, I have found Nafash and she is alive, if only just. Send it to the coordinates that we agreed to rendezvous at, my forces have cleared the area there, and we can send Nafash back to the hive cluster to be healed whilst we destroy the other towers.” A bark told her that the Zerglings had finished digging up the chrysalis even as Izsha spoke to her psionically.

“My Queen, another flash freeze is inbound and the chrysalis will not survive the conditions given how low Brood mother Nafash’s readings are.” That was not good news, though she knew she still had enough time if they hurried. Reaching for her earpiece again Kerrigan spoke quickly.

“Mendez, get the pilot to step on it, another storm is incoming and Nafash will not last through it in the open.” There was an acknowledgement that was lost upon her as she felt the forces at the entrance to the canyon come under attack from a sizable protoss force, obviously intent to try and destroy her army so that they could not attack during the flash freeze and the protoss were defenceless. Raising the chrysalis with her powers as the Zerglings rushed out to join the fight, Kerrigan strode towards the canyon entrance confidently, hearing the sounds of guns joining the battle indicating that Mendez had arrived faster than expected to aid her. The first protoss she saw, a stalker that had been attempting to flank some of her roaches, fell to a kinetic blast even as she set the chrysalis down out of the way, so that she could unleash her full fury at the prideful fools in front of her.

The battle finished quickly and Kerrigan remained with at least half of her Zerg force, whilst the Terran’s had two injured from stalker fire and had to be extracted by the same transport that took the chrysalis. The flash freeze set in and Kerrigan knew that the pilot would wait until it had finished before trying to return to base, it wasn’t like it was threatened in the current conditions by any of their enemies. Setting aside all other worries for the moment, Kerrigan set her sights on the second psionic tower, which she could both feel and see in the distance in front of them. Without a spoken word the Zerg charged forwards, determined to kill as many protoss whilst the storm lasted and to destroy the towers before they could reach Shakuras psionically. She had tried to be reasonable with them and they had spurned her, now was the time for vengeance and war to lead, things that the Zerg were very very good at…

Timeskip:

It had taken a lot of effort and many Zerg lives, but they had finally taken the third and final tower and broken the protoss presence in the area. As much as she didn’t want to at this point, she reached out with her mind and found the same protoss presence as before, this time sending her own psionic manifestation to the Templars location. Appearing in her human form, she bowed as the Templar visibly fumed in front of her.

“Templar, you dictated that we must battle this day and we have, now do I need to wipe out your retreating forces in the area or are you going to see reason and realise that perhaps I am no longer the Queen of Blades?” As much as she realised that it would just be easier to crush the protoss forces rather than try and work out a deal with them, the non-violent method would conserve bio-mass and possibly secure her more allies against Mengsk and the dominion, both things which would be useful in the future. The Templar seemed to be set on his decision however as he shook his head, though she noticed a couple of the other Protoss nearby look a little shocked when he did so.

“All of the remaining protoss military forces in the area have been gated away after you took down the towers, but we shall contact Shakuras another way, of that you can be sure Queen of Blades. As much as you try and coat your words with sugar and expect me to believe them, I was there when you betrayed Fenix and I shall not make the same mistake he did again.” Another of protoss stepped forwards, this one an obviously younger protoss in the armour of a zealot, speaking in the protoss native language Khalani, one that Kerrigan knew just well enough to understand the words he was speaking through his link to the Templar she was listening in on.

“But Commander, the children cannot be gated… and many of the civilians refused to abandon…” Kerrigan didn’t need to hear anymore, breaking her connection to the construct she immediately issued a fall back order to the Zerg forces that had been slowly moving through the very large protoss base destroying the buildings in their path as she tried to negotiate once more. Looking through their minds, she quickly realised that behind the military structures that the Zerg had pretty much destroyed, there were what she had to describe as the protoss equivalent of supply bases for the Terrans, places for them to stay when outside of battle. Protoss didn’t have to worry about this as they could usually gate back to their ships easily enough, so their presence meant that the protoss presence here was more than just an expeditionary force of their military.

Outlining what she thought she had discovered to Mendez, she lead the Terran’s forwards through the now burning base and to the first of these housing buildings, which had thankfully only been superficially damaged by her roaches by the time she had issued the fall back order. The door was armoured, but nothing to Kerrigan’s powers, casually ripping through the door before striding inside. Inside she found half a dozen zealots standing defensively in front of almost thirty unarmoured protoss including 8 that were small enough to probably be children. Just as the zealots looked like they were prepared to charge forwards and the Terrans readied their weapons, Kerrigan held up a hand and spoke quickly, the beginnings of a plan to deal with the protoss problem forming in her mind.

“Do not attack us Protoss; if you do you know that my forces will destroy you and those that you wish to protect as well.” The leading zealot paused, obviously eying up the arrayed firepower in front of him and the sounds of her Zerg forces in the distance, but still glared at her as he spoke his next words.

“And you will do that of whether we attack first or not Queen of Blades, just because you have these Terrans fooled does not mean that I will fall for your tricks. Why would you offer us mercy after attacking our forces as you did this day?” Though obviously hostile, the zealot was at least asking questions rather than attacking straight away, and if he thought she had been the one to attack, then she had the chance to prove him wrong and possibly sway his opinion a little. She stepped forwards slightly, noting the zealots stiffening as she did so, causing her to stop once more and speak slowly but firmly.

“I did not initiate the attack today, your leader did even after I spoke to him to try and avoid hostilities. I had to press the assault before you contacted Shakuras, I do not wish to have the golden armada falling upon me because of my past after all.” This seemed to shock the zealot’s present and the leader seemed conflicted for a few moments. Seeing he wasn’t totally convinced, Kerrigan decided to take a bit more of a risky tactic and spoke up once more. “If you wish I can show you my memory of the event to convince you of my truthfulness, though I would need you word of honour not to attack me whilst you were looking at it.”

The reason she added the last bit to her statement was because like Zeratul had required aboard the Leviathan, the viewing of memories between a protoss and a non-protoss required close if not physical contact and would stun her for several moments at the end of the exchange. That was something that could let the zealot have several free attacks upon her if he wished after the exchange, something that would not do her any good even if her psionics would be able to protect her subconsciously to a certain extent. Asking for the zealot’s word of honour was as good as a life oath to the protoss, one they would honour even with their worst enemies, something she knew she classed as these days.

The zealot nodded slowly and stepped forwards, deactivating his psy-blade as he did so to show he was being peaceful. She was now a little apprehensive as she walked to meet the zealot in the middle of the two forces, he was at least a foot taller than she was and broader too. Zeratul might be one of the most skilled and dangerous protoss she had ever faced on the field of battle, but he was also one of the smallest in stature. In what seemed like no time at all the two were stood in front of each other, the zealot looking down at her with a guarded glint in its eye as it raised its hands slowly to engulf Kerrigan’s helmet.

There was a flash and suddenly she was amongst her memories of earlier today, and she barely resisted lashing out at the invader reflexively, her past leading to her hating anyone trying to enter her mind for whatever reason. The zealot went over not only what had happened, but also her thoughts and emotions as she spoke to the Templar both before and after the destruction of the psionic towers. Without warning he followed the psychic links that the protoss memories were linked to her in her mind, observing the meeting with Zeratul on the Leviathan in less than a second, before retreating from her mind and releasing his grip on her helmet to step back in a mildly shocked manner. The zealot turned back to the other protoss and after a few seconds of silence the other zealots deactivated their weapons as well, to the cries of shock and terror from the women and children behind them. The zealot in front of her spoke telepathically to them as she finished recovering from the mind link process, his voice conflicted with emotions.

“My brothers, we have been deceived by Templar Fresa, whose hatred of the Queen of Blades has made him forget our mission here and to risk all our lives for his attempts at vengeance, even though it is obvious that our forces are too few and too spread out to stand a chance of defeating this new enemy.” The zealot then turned back to Kerrigan and spoke seriously once more.

“Though, I cannot simply ignore your past as the Terran’s around you have Sarah Kerrigan. Your crimes against my race are far too numerous and grievous to try and keep track of and it will take more than words to satisfy the honour of the dead. Your actions here on Kaldir will be the beginning of the judgement against you, what path will you take yourself upon I wonder?” He gestured at the civilians behind him, concern for the first time showing itself in his expressions and tone. “Will you let them live if I convince my other brothers guarding the other buildings to give themselves up peacefully? They came here to find a new life, not to fight the Zerg again like we had to on Aiur and Shakuras.” Kerrigan nodded slowly, the zealot had reacted much better than she had expected he would have, though she supposed seeing Zeratul aiding her convinced him that she was changing at least.

“I would, but I warn you that I must stop the rest of your forces from contacting Shakuras in any way that is necessary. I cannot have the golden fleet pursuing me as I try and regain control over the Zerg. And if that means I must destroy every protoss on this planet I will do so without hesitation.” The zealot nodded, obviously expecting as much even as the Terrans advanced to begin sweeping the building for any protoss that had not surrendered or were unarmed.

“If you will permit it, I and the rest of my warriors will return to the camp, there we can try and convince others of Fresa’s madness and maybe even remove him from his leadership position, though that is very unlikely. The fact that you seem to have Prince Zeratul’s blessing on whatever quest you are pursuing will add some weight to our position, but I imagine that you will be forced to kill the majority of the warriors on this planet to ensure that the fleet is not contacted.” Kerrigan raised an eyebrow at this blasé comment about the deaths of hundreds of his kinsmen.

“Does that not concern you; make you think that I haven’t changed from the Queen of Blades at all? Surely you must be somewhat angry at me for the actions I must take.” The Zealot nodded but looked away from her towards the unarmed protoss who were still huddled confusedly in the background, a distant tone in his voice as he replied to her statement.

“It does anger me, and it goes against every tradition and heritage that the elders have taught me since I started military training not to fight you and the Zerg to the last breathe. However, Tassadar also went against our traditions and worked with those we had claimed to be evil eons beforehand, and it is because of him that our race has not been overwhelmed by the enemies that mass against it or succeeded in destroying the overmind like we did on Aiur.” He raised one giant hand to his head, making some sign that Kerrigan did not recognise before continuing.

“Therefore, if to secure the future of my race some of those too blind to see their follies must be dealt with, so be it and I will not stand sacrificing our future simply because our leader tells us it is the path we must take.” The words struck deep within Kerrigan at her own blind following of Mengsk before Tarsonis, and she winced at her younger self and her naivety. Raising her hand, she offered it to the protoss to shake.

“So, not an alliance between the two of us then, but instead we shall make a truce that shall be honoured between us to ensure that the bloodshed on both sides of this conflict is minimised?” The protoss did not hesitate, reaching out his hand and grasping hers firmly as they shook.

“Something I never thought would even enter my mind, but our goals are aligned at this time. I will work with you Kerrigan and see whether you are worthy of redemption yet…”

Timeskip:

The other defenders had for the most part stood down when the zealot had gone to talk with them, though  several of the older zealots had been too fanatical of their hate for Kerrigan and the Zerg to see reason, attacking those that had given up for their ‘treachery’. It was mostly the younger protoss that had surrendered, many of whom had families here which is why they had resisted the attempts to be gated away from their families and leave them to their fates. This by no means meant that the protoss were friendly with her and her allies, but they were at least non-violent towards her as they made the journey across the planet into Protoss territory once more. They ended up leaving the civilian protoss, of which there were almost 500 at the base, under light guard at the now established Terran base, which had moved to producing goliaths for her forces to use in the near future using the excess of resources it had gained from the previous battle.

Of course, letting the protoss to live had produced very different reactions from those in her camp. Abathur had been most disappointed not to at least get some to experiment upon, whilst Izsha was unable to comprehend why she had let them live considering the Queen of Blades memories. Surprisingly Za’gara had not been as against it this time as she was the previous times, though the reasons behind her doing so became clear as Kerrigan stepped back onto the Leviathan, only to find herself confronted by an imprisoned protoss female stood near Izsha. Za’gara spoke up quickly as she strode towards the group of them, the Brood mothers voice full of obvious glee as she spoke up.

“We encountered this one with a group of other protoss on our side of the ice cliffs my Queen, though her companions tried to fight their way to an escape and my brood were forced to kill them. This one was unarmed however and I thought she would be useful for you to interrogate about the Protoss defences.” Kerrigan wondered whether the protoss had actually attacked first or whether Za’gara was manipulating the version of events to her favour, but there was nothing she could do about it for the moment. Instead she decided to try and be tactful with the brood mother for the moment.

“I didn’t think that taking prisoners was your style Za’gara, after all your protests on Char about the Terrans…” The Brood mother nodded her head respectfully towards her though her tone held no note of submission to accompany the gesture.

“I have come to the conclusion that your reasons for taking the prisoners and making them your allies must be to do with this idea of vision which you claim is the reason for your strength my Queen. Therefore I must try and copy your actions until it becomes clear what it is about them that gave you the strength to defeat me, so that I can make those strengths my own. Also, Abathur requested for some protoss to experiment upon, despite his opinion of the unlikelihood of their essence being useful to the future of the swarm.” After stating firmly that none of the surrendered or captured protoss would be experimented upon whilst she ruled the swarm, Kerrigan began to think some more on what Za’gara had been said. The fact that Za’gara wished to gain this power to take down Kerrigan and rule the swarm herself did not need to be stated again, the brood mother had made her intentions clear on that point soon after her defeat and assimilation into the swarm on Char.

It was for that reason that Kerrigan did not point out that vision was not obtained by copying another’s actions, it was about following your own ambitions with all of your strength and will, something that Nafash had done spectacularly, bringing her forces to this often forgotten world to try and build up her own swarm, rather than trying to take over what remained of Kerrigan’s ruined empire on Char. Speaking of Nafash, Izsha spoke up softly, stretching her body out from the body of the Leviathan to approach Kerrigan.

“My queen, Nafash is recovered to the point that she has joined with the swarm once more, and once she realised it was you who controlled the swarm she stopped her attempts to subvert it to her own will. She has sent a request to you for permission to view the swarms memories so that she can understand how you survived the events on Char and the events that led up to your rescue of her so she can understand better how to serve you when she recovers.” Kerrigan smiled, this was the type of subordinate that she could get used to, and she nodded affirmatively to Izsha.

“Inform her that she is allowed to access any memories of the swarm she wishes, and that if she wishes to ask anything else in future she can just ask me directly rather than ask you to do in her stead. She impressed me with most of her actions on Kaldir and her idea of a more elite swarm like she seemed to have been working towards is most impressive if not practical given her limited supplies of biomass.” Izsha nodded once more and retreated back to her original position, allowing Kerrigan to stride forwards and approach the captured protoss, who froze in an obviously terrified manner as Kerrigan reached up and touched its cheek. The protoss was obviously female, dressed in the robes of a civilian as opposed to a soldier or pilot, leading Kerrigan to wonder what she was doing so far away from the protoss bases with the feral Zerg still a threat.

Caressing the Protoss’ cheek once more, she could not help the small feeling of glee that rose in her chest as she flinched away from the motion before she squashed it and withdrew her hand. That was something the former Queen of Blades enjoyed immensely, seeing the fear and helplessness in her victims eyes before she crushed them, and Kerrigan would not be the same as her if she could help it. Bringing her hand back to her side she nodded to the protoss.

“En taro Adun, I think you already know who I am so I will skip the introductions and instead ask a question of you. If you answer it to my satisfaction I will release you from your bindings and we will continue our chat in a more comfortable location.” Seeing the protoss was still terrified of her she realised that she would need to reassure the woman that she would remain peaceful and not torture her for information. “I also promise that you will not come to any harm in my care aboard this ship if you cooperate with me.” The protoss women looked unsure for several moments before nodding slowly her ascent and straightening from her slightly cowering position and looking Kerrigan straight in the eye, the earlier fear repressed impressively to the point that it was barely visible to Kerrigans eyes.

“I am Lasarra, and I know who you are Queen of blades. What is it you will ask of me before I die?” Not the reaction that Kerrigan quite expected from the woman who had been cowering slightly from her mere moments before, but she commended the protoss’ courage in front of what she perceived to be a slow and painful death and the rebellious tone in her telepathic voice. She shook her head and looked out of the mouth of the leviathan for a moment before answering her question.

“You shall not die here unless you wish for it to be so, or if I let you go and you return to the fools that wish to sacrifice their lives contacting the golden armada to come and annihilate me. My question is a simple one, what are you doing on this planet? Given the number of civilians that my forces have encountered whilst destroying the psionic towers, this was no mere expedition to log the life forms of this planet for the protoss archives.” Evidently mentioning the civilians was a bad idea as Lasarra winced and immediately turned away from Kerrigan and refused to answer, taking the wrong assumption that Kerrigan had not realised she had hinted to the woman. Realising that she would get no more out of her for the moment, but intrigued by the woman enough to not merely release her, she tapped her communicator and contacted Sergeant Jacobs, one of the few firebats that had joined her forces and now headed the Leviathan security detail as Mendez had termed it.

“Sergeant, I need you to grab a few marines and come to the bridge, we have a protoss aboard that I want to be escorted to our quarters and then kept under guard until she calms a little and answers my questions. If you need to you can call Izsha and she will provide some Zerglings that will follow your orders.” The Sergeant, who had been one of Raynors rebels before he had been captured and given the choice between death by firing squad or death by being a firebat, spoke with the typical husky voice of a man long addicted to cigarettes.

“Of course general, do you want me to have one of the medics come with us? I mean they don’t know much about Protoss stuff but the prisoner might respond better to a less… powerful person.” Kerrigan knew he meant someone who didn’t have her past with his comment but was grateful he hadn’t just come out and said it like some of the Terran’s had done until they worked out how much it hurt her to hear it every time.

“That sounds good, tell Izsha to release her when you arrive and she is all yours, I need to do some other duties before I can devote some more time to Lasarra here.” Reaching the fleshy wall that served as a doorway to the rest of the bio-ship, she turned and decided to give Lasarra one last point to think of before leaving her in Jacobs hands for the time being.

“Lasarra, just so you don’t think any worse of me then you already do, the civilians are still alive that I encountered down on Kaldir today, despite your commander choosing to abandon them to my forces rather than try and extract them with his men as they withdrew…”

And with that she strode from the room without waiting for a reply, not that she needed one as she could feel the shock emanating psionically from Lasarra, a small smirk rising to her face as she realised for the first time in a long time that she could enjoy trading words with someone other than Jim…

Timeskip:

Persona Change: Lasarra

Sitting on the chair like object in the centre of the room that she had been escorted to by half a dozen humans of all things, Lasarra did not know what to think any longer. Captured by the Zerg and having seen her escort slaughtered to a man was something that had been the worst nightmare for any sane protoss for many years. But instead of being ripped to shreds by the Zergs claws Lasarra was brought to their ship and imprisoned there for several hours without explanation or reason before she appeared at the entrance to the room that she was being kept in with several Zerg type creatures that she had never heard of before.

The Queen of Blades certainly looked a lot different to how she had been described by the protoss reports given by survivors that had fought her in the previous decade, but there was no mistaking the overwhelming presence that had washed over her with the woman’s entrance. Lasarra wasn’t proud to admit it but she had cowered a little in the woman’s shadow when she had approached her, flinching when the Queen of Blades reached up and stroked her face in an almost familiar manner. The conversation had also been different than Lasarra had expected, short and the only thing she had been asked why the protoss were on the planet with so many civilians with them. The way it had been mentioned made Lasarra sick on the inside, there was no guilt or feeling for the deaths of so many young and innocent protoss, and she had refused to answer, determined not to give the monster anything before she died.

That was what she thought anyways, only for the monster to surprise her with her last words and then to be brought to a far more hospitable location by humans that seemed to follow the Queen of Blades willingly. It was Kerrigan’s last words to her that had caused her current emotional turmoil, could she be telling the truth about the civilians not being killed? Was this all part of some elaborate strategy that the Queen had concocted to lull the remaining protoss into surrendering before killing them all? Obviously her nervous shifting had been noticed by one of the humans, a man in large red painted armour who gestured at her to one of the other humans, who approached slowly with some cloth in her hands.

“Would you like me to dress those wounds for you… sorry I don’t know how to address you.” Lasarra could feel the nervous energy coming off the young human in front of her and though she was loathe to talk with those following the queen of Blades she could sense no hidden motive from the woman, so decided to reply rather than alienate a potential ally.

“You can call me Lasarra child, and I do not understand what you mean by dressing my wounds, I assume this is a Terran term?” The wounds the woman was referring to were those left by the tendrils that had imprisoned her before she had met the Queen of Blades, each tendril having teeth which had dug into her flesh in order to dissuade her from moving too much. The wounds were not particularly deep however, so Lasarra could not understand why the human was concerned with them. The woman seemed to understand however and held up the cloth and pointed to it helpfully.

“Dressing a wound means disinfecting the wounded areas and then covering them in bandages, this will reduce the chance of infection and help the wounds recover faster.” Lasarra must admit she was surprised at the Terran’s words, because the protoss did not suffer from any illnesses or infections in the same way that Terran’s did they never really saw the need to do anything other than let their wounds heal up in their own time unless they were particularly life threatening and then usually warrior protoss were often transferred to an immortal or a stalker. She nodded her head, interested to see what happened next with the unfamiliar treatment. The woman then drew out several other items from the large belt pouches she had at her waist and worked on her wounds as Lasarra watched in the kind of devout attention she usually only reserved for the ancient texts. When the woman sprayed some kind of liquid upon her wounds there was a sharp pain that she jerked from, but after the woman apologised in a worried tone Lasarra simply asked what the liquid was for.

Ten minutes later her legs were wrapped up in the cloth that the Terran had referred to as bandages, and though there was no immediate change Lasarra had realised that this was not going to be an instant fixing technique. Before the woman could stand to leave Lasarra reached forwards and placed a hand on her shoulders, noticing the other Terrans instantly turn weapons on her in an experienced and cautious manner. Raising the hand back away cautiously she spoke to the room at large rather than specifically to one of the Terrans this time.

“Apologies, I merely was hoping to ask a couple more questions about… well my captor and why you follow her given her past.” The Terrans all looked at the only Terran not to react to her movement, the red armoured one who simply stared at her for a moment before nodding his head at the door, the other Terrans saluting and moving quickly out of the room, leaving her with just the two Terrans. Projecting her thanks to the larger Terran she turned back to the Terran woman who had not moved from her crouched position other than to look at the larger Terran. Realising that the Terran was still nervous of her, she decided to try the same approach she had seen protoss mothers use with their children during their travels on the colony ship, and beckoned to the area on the seat next to her with one hand. The Terran seemed to understand what she meant and moved to where she had indicated whilst replying to her earlier comment.

“What did you want to ask me about the General? I mean I have only encountered her on Char before now so I am not sure how much use I will be.” Lasarra was pleased by the answer, it was a sign that the woman hadn’t been put up to this by The Queen of blades, another point in the woman’s favour, though it was still a much tilted scoreboard against the former human.

“Perhaps you can tell me about why you call her this title, the General? From my studies of your kind it seemed to me to be a rank in your military…” And thus Lasarra started to dig for incriminating evidence of the Queen of Blades fooling them all once more, unaware of the fact that Jacobs was watching the encounter with a smile of his own underneath his visor. Things were going exactly according to plan…

Persona Change: Sarah Kerrigan

Having finished the patrol routes with Mendez so that the Terran’s and the Zerg were not wasting manpower by patrolling the same areas near their bases too regularly, Kerrigan felt Nafash’s presence begin to awaken in the evolution chamber. Leaving Za’gara and Mendez to manage the rest of the deployments as well as to keep an eye for the protoss commanders next move, she made her way hurriedly through the Leviathan to the evolution chamber just in time to catch the chrysalis beginning to open and reveal the brood mother within.

To Sarah’s surprise Nafash was considerably changed from what the other queens and brood mothers that she had encountered in her time since being the Queen of blades. The spider-like feet that the other brood mothers had and the interlocking skin had been replaced by something entirely new, and there were other notable changes to Nafash that Kerrigan noticed almost straight away. She walked like a Terran horse, with four hoof-like legs that had a layer of claws extruding from the bottom of them to obviously aid in gripping surfaces such as the icy ground of Kaldir. She was also more humanoid in appearance, with a protoss looking blank face on top of a heavy-set torso that was covered in the same fur that Kerrigan’s forces had grown after absorbing the Ursadon essence. Three pairs of claws were withdrawn near her back, similar to the wings that the Queen of Blades used to have, and a pair of remarkably human hands covered in the same fur as her torso finished off the rather weird looking but fitting body in front of Kerrigan. (Think a centaur but with thick fur and a Zerg like appearance.)

Nafash was therefore smaller than Za-gara was by a considerable margin but her new evolution was obviously built with speed and resistance to the cold in mind rather than controlling the swarm and expanding creep as Kerrigan had originally intended the brood mother’s evolution to focus upon. Nafash took a couple of unsteady steps forwards out of the opened chrysalis before her two sets of yellow cat like eyes noticed Kerrigan’s presence in the chamber.

Nafash immediately tried to bow in the same manner that the brood mothers had whenever in her presence, only to stumble to a kneeling position as her front legs gave out on her unexpectedly, leaving her looking up apologetically as she spoke telepathically to Kerrigan. “General Kerrigan, I apologise for my ineptness in this form, but it is much different than my previous one and it will take some time to get used to. How may I serve the swarm?”

Kerrigan got over her shock at the new form in front of her and had several questions of her own to be answered before she could reply to Nafash’s own query. “Why the new form Nafash? And you are the first Zerg to address me as anything other than the Queen of blades or some other variant, why is that?”

Nafash found her way back to her feet though still kept her head lowered as she replied. “I refer to you by the title you seem to prefer in your memories, when the other Zerg or your enemies refer to you as the Queen of blades you seem saddened, whilst your memories around your new Terran allies seem to be more preferred by you. I apologise if I have jumped to the wrong conclusion…”

Kerrigan was surprised that Nafash had gleaned so much from her memories already, but unlike Za’gara Nafash seemed capable of lateral thinking so she quickly clarified her preference so that it did not put the broodmother off further ideas. “You are right Nafash, I do prefer the name you have given me, it is a name I made for myself rather than someone else gave me for my past. Please continue to refer to me as such, now explain about your change as it is certainly very different to what I remember.”

Nafash nodded her head, obviously pleased that her observation had been correct before gesturing with her hands at the body. “I had been experimenting with various essences that my Zerg had obtained before we split from the chaos that occurred after your seemingly permanent death at the hands of the Terrans who invaded our home. First I altered myself to have the abilities of the Stygaxian hide snake, whose ability is to shed its skin in such a manner that the skin still looks lifelike allows it to catch would be predators by surprise after burrowing under its fake corpse. I imagine you saw how useful that was to me when you found my chrysalis.”

Kerrigan nodded, that certainly explained the corpse that looked a lot like Nafash atop her hiding place. “Then once the protoss began to attack in too great a numbers I knew that they would eventually start hunting me so that they could break the bond I had with my Zerg and leave them much easier to defeat as a whole. So I devised my own death so that the protoss would call off their hunt and I could then return and take as many of my swarm into hiding as I could until the protoss left or we built up enough biomass to be able to fight the protoss again.”

Nafash rubbed her hands over the fur covered arms she had before finishing her tale. “This form was meant to be my new evolution for better leading my swarm; it reduced my psionic power and the number of Zerg that I could control. But considering I intended to have a smaller more elite Zerg force like those of the Terran mercenaries I have encountered in your service the benefits to my speed, endurance and durability on Kaldir outweighed those costs the evolution brought me. I hope my hasty work does not displease you too much General.”

Kerrigan shook her head even as Abathur crept forwards from the background his fleshy mandibles rustling as he examined Nafash’s form. “Evolution messy, many strands not properly spun and joined. But considering time issues and stress of battle… Impressive work for one of such inexperience, possibly can help Abathur develop new ideas for swarm’s evolution. Permission to clean up new forms DNA so that she can assist you to her maximum potential?” Kerrigan nodded but spoke to Nafash one last time before leaving her to the geneticist’s overeager tendrils.

“You will come see me when he is done Nafash; you did very impressive work before my arrival on this planet. You were intelligent, careful and tenacious with your plans against the protoss, and even managed to explain away your only mistake with your strategy with your escape plan, even though without my presence you would probably still have died out there in the wilderness. You have all the makings of a good leader and I plan on taking advantage of that.”

Nafash looked pleased at the praise and bowed her head once more before calling out her own final question. “General Kerrigan, what was the mistake I made with my plan in your eyes?” Kerrigan paused at the door before looking back with a smile. “You ran away…” And she then stepped out, eager to avoid another incident with Abathur trying to turn her Zerg once more; she could come back and do the baneling evolution with him later once he finished having fun with Nafash.

Timeskip: Half an hour

Kerrigan returned to the Terran area of the Leviathan in higher spirits than she had been when she started off the day, the battle had gone well and she had gained some influential, if not entirely friendly allies amongst the protoss forces that could help make dealing with the very serious threat of the golden armada somewhat easier and less like a planet wide genocide which it had initially shaped itself up to be when the protoss had first attacked.

The fact that she was facing slowly growing resistance to her methods from Za’gara was something that she could deal with, especially with Nafash’s return to the swarm. Izsha had also struggled with the idea of allies amongst the other races but that was more due to how she had been created and the memories that the Queen of Blades had given her. Perhaps if she put her own now human memories into Izsha it would help the Zerg woman understand better what she was doing.

The Leviathan door opened as she approached, the two marines standing guard outside it saluting her as she walked through. Walking through the living and sleeping area that the Terran’s were using she greeted several of them that she had fought with that day or had befriended on Char, but she couldn’t stay and chat with them until she found out what had happened in regards to Lasarra. Asking about the protoss woman quickly had her directed in the direction of the med-bay section of the Terran quarters, though why she would be there even with Jacob’s permission was lost on her.

Entering the med-bay, which was the only actual structure in the area that was fully Terran, built inside the Leviathan to provide a clean area in which wounded Terrans could recover from their wounds with less chance of airborne infection, Kerrigan found Jacobs and Horace stood watching from an observation window to her left, talking quietly about something. Both of the men were now out of their respective heavy armours and dressed in military fatigues.

Horace noticed her presence first as she approached them and snapped off a salute, Jacobs turning and doing the same in a far more relaxed manner, the man not looking particularly happy with something, though that could simply be the fact that Mendez had banned smoking in the med-bay. Rather than talking straight away, Kerrigan instead looked through the window to see what was inside that had two of her top officers so interested.

It was the room of one of the marines that had been badly injured earlier today by stalker fire, and whilst two of the medics were in there giving treatment to his wounds, Lasarra was stood behind them, looking over their shoulders curiously. “She is a researcher general, and was fascinated when the medic I had brought with me offered to bind the wounds on her legs. She has been doing her best since then to exhaust the medic’s knowledge of battlefield treatments and dangers whilst throwing in probing questions about you and your plans for the planet and beyond, but nothing malicious or dangerously classified in nature.”

That was Jacobs, straight to the point as usual and more than prepared to make his own judgement calls on matters. Horace observed Lasarra a moment longer before speaking his own opinion. “She is highly intelligent and very creative with her ideas and opinions on matters. She has already suggested several ways in which our surgical lasers could be made more efficient or powerful, though most would require collaboration between us and some protoss scientists for an extended period to be tested, something rather unlikely to happen at the moment.”

Kerrigan nodded, glad to see that Jacob’s idea had borne fruit in relaxing Lasarra’s guard around them, perhaps this would allow Kerrigan to begin talking to the woman herself, she had to admit she was a little eager to talk with a protoss of high intelligence that wasn’t trying to take her head or confuse her with riddles and visions that explained nothing about their purpose and aim. Flaring her psionics slightly, it had the desired effect of causing Lasarra’s head to shoot up and look cautiously in her direction.

Deciding to initiate the conversation between the two of them before Lasarra got too worried about her watching; Kerrigan spoke telepathically to her, trying to keep her tone neutral so that she did not make Lasarra even more suspicious by accident. “I hear you have been busy this evening, I hope that you have found our technology interesting.”

If Lasarra picked up on her deliberate inclusion of herself in the Terran ranks, she showed no sign as she replied somewhat tentatively. “Yes, it is so different to my own kinds, but I suppose that is to be expected considering how few of the Terrans are blessed with psionic powers. Do you wish for me to return to my holding area now? I hope you are not angry at the Jacobs person for letting me come here, I only wished to learn more.”

The idea of psionics being a blessing was something that Kerrigan had very mixed feelings about, after all her powers had saved her from her abusive father when she was young but had also directly led to her being turned into the Queen of Blades. She was also surprised to hear the slight hint of worry in Lasarra’s voice about Jacob’s decision; she didn’t seem that kind of commander did she?

But she supposed that Lasarra was rather cleverly testing whether she was or not with her question and her actions, her opinion of the protoss woman’s deviousness moving up another couple of notches even as she replied evenly. “Lieutenant Jacobs is more than authorised to let you move where ever you wish as long as you do not threaten the lives of any of his and therefore my men. In regards to you I do not intend to imprison you unless you wish me to, but I would like to try and understand some more things about you and your mission to this planet. Would you care to accompany me for a walk so that we can discuss things?”

Lasarra still looked unsure but slowly nodded her assent, realising that it hadn’t really been a request that Kerrigan had made, more of an order. The protoss spent a few moments stating her goodbyes to the two medics before moving to the door of the room as Kerrigan spoke to tell the two lieutenants what had just happened. “Lasarra and I will be talking together privately, so I will return her to you when I am finished, is there any other business we need to discuss?”

Both men shook their heads and bid their leave even the door opened with soft expelling of air, Lasarra stepping out with only a hint of apprehension visible in her body language, striding up to Kerrigan and bowing her head respectfully. “Where do you wish to go General?” The use of her preferred title made Kerrigan smile slightly even as she indicated that they should start walking out of the medical bay once more.

They walked in silence out of the Terran quarter and into the rest of the Leviathan, heading to a small room that was not far from the Terran quarter, which would serve as a bio-storage area once more was gathered. Entering the room, Kerrigan was surprised that Lasarra spoke without any pressure from her, though the protoss woman stayed facing away from her for the moment.

“The Terrans seem to think that I have judged you too harshly, that you have changed considerably since something happened to you on Char. So, in light of this as well as what Jacobs told me about his personal past with some of the more… zealous of my kind and how they approached a Zerg infestation, I wish to try and understand your reasons for wishing to change as you have. It is not like you have some higher law or person of authority to keep you from performing however you think is best…”

Kerrigan couldn’t help but snort at this drawing a confused look from Lasarra, the woman had no idea how wrong she was about that, though she wondered which Jim’s ideals counted as these days. “I suppose higher law would certainly be one way of putting it, but first, why don’t you tell me about what Sergeant Jacobs said to you in order to change your mind? I do not know the pasts of my men as much as I would like at this point, and it must have been an interesting tale indeed.”

Lasarra was obviously intrigued about what Kerrigan had meant by higher law, but she seemed to realise that Kerrigan was trying to start them off on a conversation topic that she could discuss without feeling like she was being pressured or forced to reveal secrets about the protoss presence here. She nodded her head slowly to Sarah before speaking once more. “It was when I asked why you had attacked us as the medic finished treating my legs…”

*Flashback*

“But if she has changed so much from how she used to be, why did she attack us as she did today? We were no threat to her, but that hasn’t stopped her before has it?” It was only as she finished speaking her question did Lasarra realise she might have overstepped the line, her projected question causing the medic to stiffen even as the red Terran growled audibly at her.

“The general did not attack you today, your warriors tried to attack us soon after we landed, even after Kerrigan tried to speak with your leader to avoid conflict. So do not try and tar her with that brush that your kind are so prepared to throw around, she is certainly better now than those of your kind I have fought before.”

He cut off with a sigh before turning and walking towards the door, the medic standing and starting to follow him when Lasarra spoke both out of curiosity and in an attempt to make up for her blunder that risked her becoming isolated. “Wait! I apologise, I suppose I am speaking from a very limited point of view. Please, forgive me for my words.” The red man paused and seemed to take several deep breaths before turning back and indicating to the medic to return to the seat.

Seeing the man was willing to give her another chance at least, Lasarra knew she had to think carefully about what she said next lest she say the wrong thing once more and make things even worse during her captivity. Finally she decided to first try and understand what the red man had meant about her race, as that would allow her to expand her views on how her race and the terrans had interacted previously. This would be useful as it was something that she had never found interesting enough to cover properly before now. “May I ask what the protoss have done to give you such a low opinion of us? I am not knowledgeable of our interactions with the Terrans...”

The red man strode over and his helmet moved up to reveal his face, scraggly brown hair framing a scarred face and cigarette smouldering in between his lips as he looked at her sternly with his dark green eyes. “I could go on about your kinds actions when the Zerg began to attack us with the Overmind still in control, but I was too young to be able to have been involved in that personally. I will instead focus on the time that I had signed up under James Raynor to fight against Mengsk’s oppression, you know of the man I am sure...”

Lasarra nodded, Jim Raynor was as much a legend to the protoss as any of their own commanders bar Tassadar, considering his actions in helping defeating the Overmind and then also taking down The Queen of Blades a few months before hand, though this was now obviously not the case. Seeing this brought a small smile to the mans face even as he stepped back, blowing the smoke from his cigarette into the air around them.

“Good, the man was a true leader, fighting from the front lines if he thought the mission was too dangerous for us to do ourselves. This was also the case when we were helping some of our colonists settle on a new world away from the Zerg attacks that had been plaguing them. There were a few that were still infected but these had been quarantined whilst the scientists worked on a cure for the Zerg infection. But before they could make any headway on the problem, guess whose fleet turns up in orbit and delivers the ultimatum to us of abandoning the colonists to be purged or be drawn into battle with them, and then begins torching settlements with some huge craft without letting Jim try and talk with them.”

Lasarra was shocked by the news but not overly surprised, the protoss had always taken the Zerg threat very seriously, and if there was the possibility of a full on outbreak occurring there was no chance they would leave such a threat to grow. Before she could speak of this the man kept talking, his tone becoming harsher as he obviously relived the memories of what had happened to him.

“We fought for two straight days before our vikings managed to bring the bloody thing down, we lost nearly half our men and there were over forty thousand civilian casualties, all because your leader decided that a few hundred infested that were secured were a great threat to the entire galaxy. The worst of it was that after the battle your leader came on and congratulated his fighting skills, as if it were some game to be played with toy figures!”

He paused, breathing deeply round the cigarette before looking her in the eye with a serious expression on his face.  “So I tell you why I think Kerrigan has taken the actions she has today, what do you think will happen to us Terrans, the ones she saved and have willing followed her despite her past? Your fleet will slaughter us all like dogs simply because we chose to give her a chance once more, and I imagine they will not stop there. They will take this as a sign that we Terrans have been corrupted and try to wipe us out. So between a couple of thousand protoss who are too trapped in their ways to see reason and the millions who stand to die if we do nothing to stop them, I am proud to be helping Kerrigan!”

Lasarra didn’t respond for several long seconds, her mind processing the thoughts of the man in front of her in an attempt to prove him wrong with logical thought. She couldn’t however, whilst the presence of the Terrans would probably not spark off the war that the man feared, it would certainly cause the Protoss higher ups to take an even harder line in dealing with any Terrans they deemed a threat, and that would be just as bad...

*Flashback End*

Kerrigan was surprised at Jacobs thoughts on her actions, and then felt very guilty once more as she realised that she had not in fact been thinking at all about the Terrans under her command when she had led the assault on the Protoss towers, it had been all about her own survival over anything else. She knew that part of that was because for the last few years, there had been no-one else than Jim, and he had always had the ‘I can take care of myself’ aura that had always inspired her.

She looked up at Lasarra after a few moments, seeing the protoss woman staring at her and made herself the promise that she would change once more, taking Mengsk down was not only her goal now. She had people prepared to follow her for it and they deserved her attention as well, just like they would under Jim. “I will be honest with you Lasarra, before you told me that, I had prevented your leader contacting Shakuras out of self preservation, nothing more and nothing less.”

She held up her hand to forestall any response that she might get before continuing once more, looking down at her human form with a sigh. “I forget that I am human for the most part now,the feelings of my Zerg self are very powerful, and I often wonder whether I take them just because if I do it makes it easier to ignore the emotions I feel. But since Char, it has become easier and easier to ignore the urges.” She moved her hand towards Lasarra, who looked at it nervously before Kerrigan clarified. “I want you to see that I am being truthful, and that I am trying to change who I was Lasarra.”

As Lasarra took her hand somewhat apprehensively, Kerrigan looked her in the eye once more before speaking the word that she had heard from Zeratul only a few days beforehand, when he had done a similar thing to her. “Believe!” And then the memories began, Kerrigan guiding Lasarra to the ones she felt were most relevant, hoping that this would be enough to prove herself to the woman, and hopefully gain another ally in her fight against Mengsk...

Persona Change: Arcturus Mengsk, leader of the Terran Dominion

It was dark over Korhal now, with the lights of the cities buildings replacing the glow of the red sun that the planet orbited around. Looking over what he considered to be his crowning achievement from his private command room, Arcturus couldn’t help but feel agitated with the events of the previous year. Despite his best efforts to save the dominion from the Zerg menace at the hands of Sarah and her lapdog Jim Raynor, Tychus had failed to eliminate the woman when she was weak from the after effects of the Xel’naga artifact and the two had escaped Char whilst he was still reeling from the completely unexpected uprising which came after Raynors storming of the Korhal communications centre.

His decision to use the psi emitter on Tarsonis was not a moment he would ever be able to forget, but to defeat the confederacy extreme measures were required and he had been the one forced to make the call. The loss of Sarah Kerrigan and her transformation into the thing that had been leading the Zerg forces in the region had weighed heavily on him for all these years, but he knew he owed it to his old subordinate to release her from the Zerg infestation entirely, even if it meant ending her life to achieve it.

The most recent news from his forces was very mixed and the cause for his discomfort even as he poured himself another glass of whisky, the same brand he had drunk when he was leading the sons of Korhal despite his change in status. Whilst Nova had reported capturing Raynor and subduing the Umojan rebels that his spy had revealed, she had been unable to deal with the majority of Raynors raiders or destroy the Hyperion to completely remove the thorn that had been at his side for so many years now. Not too mention that Kerrigan had escaped from the facility and had rejoined the Zerg, proving that he had been right in not trusting her.

The loss of General Warfield and the troops on Char had been another blow to the strength of the dominion, especially with so many of his men abandoning him and escaping rather than fighting as they should have. He had dealt with those that had led this desertion quickly enough, he could not afford such actions to be encouraged if another fight with Kerrigan and her Zerg forces was to erupt in the near future. He had swiftly deployed his best fleet to Char once the news of it falling had reached him in the hope he could catch Kerrigan before she could reunite the Zerg against him.

He knew that despite her infestation the woman still hated him for abandoning her to the Zerg, and that was without the piece of propaganda he had sent out about killing James Raynor. The information had been released on his order in the hopes of making Kerrigan throw herself against his forces in a suicidal rage considering the twos previous obvious feelings for each other, but that hadn’t happened. Instead after destroying his outpost on Char, the woman had disappeared with all the remaining Zerg that had been scattered across the planet's surface.

Putting down his drink with a sigh, he set to work, his plan to defeat Kerrigan and the threat of the Zerg once and for all evolving constantly as he took into account data from his tactical readouts, maybe he needed to offer a more tempting piece to the board in order to draw Kerrigan into his trap. Looking down at the profiles of his available forces, he suddenly smiled as he realised exactly who it was he needed to draw out the foul serpent lurking in the shadows. He leaned back to look at a chessboard he had set up to one side, moving one of the white rooks to take a pawn and force a check on the black king. The Black queen had no choice other than to take the rook even though it would then in turn be taken by his own queen, leaving him with a victory that would leave him remembered as the saviour of humanity...

Timeskip:

Persona change: Sarah Kerrigan, General of the Zerg

It was the next day that the protoss forces made their next move to try and contact Shakuras, which had been more than enough time for Kerrigan to properly consolidate her forces and truly cement her control over the remnants of Nafash’s brood in the region, including a brood of feral hydralisks that had hidden itself to the south of Nafash’s base away from the protoss patrols. These powerful long ranged fighters allowed Kerrigan to effectively counter air units without relying upon the rather limited Terran forces that she had at her command or doing it personally.

This turned out to be highly advantageous as she worked out what the next Protoss plan of contacting Shakuras was going to be. The first warning she got was whilst she was overlooking the Protoss defences from her forward base, when a psionic presence of a High Templar appeared in front of her and spoke to her hurriedly as her marine guards raised their weapons warily. “Kerrigan! I am High Templar Doresk. Those of us who think that High Templar Fresa has lost his mind have moved from his main encampment and have taken a hill several miles to the south of his position. However, even as he marshals his loyalist forces against us, he also intends to use the warp portals that were built here eons ago to contact Shakuras.”

She sighed, it had been her hope that her memories would have been enough to curtail the protoss problem but it seemed to not be the case. “What are these Warp portals you mention then Templar? Can we just destroy them and rid ourselves of this problem?” The templar shook his head and gestured over at a small hillock about half a mile to the Northwest. Extending her mind, Kerrigan could feel a psionic presence there that was building rapidly, the ice melting visibly even from this distance to run down the hill in small rivers as it revealed a set of giant circular rings

The Templar gestured at it cautiously before turning back to face her. “If you destroy them the backlash will alert Shakuras that something is wrong and they will embark here with all speed. However, it takes specialised transports to be able to pass through the portals, and the materials required to make them are limited even to our kind. Therefore Fresa can only produce a dozen of these transports before he exhausts his supplies...”

The Templar then left without saying anything further, but it was clear how Kerrigan needed to proceed for this next battle. Gesturing to one of her marines she began to give her orders. “Get Mendez to start scanning for the Protoss bases, both of them. I will get the swarm to the warp portal to set up a blockade, we cannot let anything get through them.” With the marine nodded and already on his communicator, Kerrigan set herself down on the floor, reaching out to give her own orders to the Zerg and her brood mothers as she readied herself to end this farce once and for all...

Chapter Text

Persona- Sarah Kerrigan, Leader of the swarm

"General, the Fresa Protoss are trying to force another transport through our defences with the support of their airpower. We are holding them for now but your hydralisks are taking heavy casualties and almost a dozen marines are down and have had to be evacuated. Lieutenant Horace is also reporting heavy casualties amongst the Zerg ground forces at the refugee base."

Mendez's voice was punctuated by the additional sounds of gunfire and the heavier sounds of missiles being fired, her report confirming the data that was Kerrigan’s mind from Nafash, Izsha and Za’gara, who were each in charge of sections of the Zerg that were currently fighting all across the frozen wasteland, Nafash heading the defence of the Protoss refugee camp, meaning that it was primarily Kerrigan and Za’gara that were defending what had originally been the singular portal.

The first battle of the day had progressed much as Kerrigan had imagined it would, her initial charge easily overwhelming the Protoss forces in the area surrounding the first warp portal that had been activated and allowing her to call in drones to build up a defensive base around the structure. This had proved to be wise, as rather than deter the Protoss from trying to use their transport ships, taking the portal seemed to invigorate their determination to bring her and her swarm down by contacting Shakuras and summoning the golden armada.

Despite their determined assaults both before and during the first two transport runs it had been easy enough for her to hold off their attacks, her hydralisks mixed with spore crawlers were more than sufficient to down the Protoss aircraft that were guarding the transports. Then she used her growing psionic powers, which were more than enough to cripple each transport's engines and bring it to the ground, leaving Mendez and the marines to capture the unarmed pilots and crew members.

Both times she had brought down a transport Kerrigan had been forced to the main hive cluster to rest and regain her strength, the use of such sustained and powerful psychic energy was intensely draining for her and would have been tiring even at her full power. She knew that the broodmothers and even Mendez were starting to question whether such exertion was worth the few dozen pilots and crew aboard the vessels, but she knew otherwise. Glancing across at the now armour clad holographic figure set up in her command room, she inclined her head and spoke tiredly.

"Another transport is coming, so I must go and ground it. How is the evacuation of the refugee base going Lasarra? If the remaining forces keep up their attacks I will not be able to support you for much longer with more Zerg troops." Kerrigan's former captive inclined her head back, her telepathic voice expressing the surprised admiration that her face could not.

"You would still keep to our agreement even after the effort it takes you to do so? You certainly are trying hard to prove you have changed your ways... Kerrigan. The base is mostly evacuated and once that is completed then our warriors can join yours on the frontlines. I have a group of scout ships on their way to the warp gates now and they will reach your position at the same time or shortly after this transport. Their missiles should be able to target the ships engines and force them to ground quickly, so you can concentrate your powers elsewhere."

That was the first piece of good news Kerrigan had heard all day, it would mean that she could finally leave the transport ships to the Protoss. Without the need to keep her powers so defensively she could concentrate on leading her forces against the hangars the ships were made in and therefore stop their production altogether.

The reason she had gone to such effort to not destroy the transports had been due to a conversation the two women had shared even as the first transport had approached her first line of defences.

*Flashback*

As she strode forwards, a small brood of hydralisks slithering up in the shadow of Kaldir's pale and weak sun, Kerrigan was surprised when the voice of Lasarra spoke in her head. Wondering how the Protoss woman had enough psionic strength to speak to her from orbit, she traced the connection and found the woman aboard one of the Medivacs that had brought down the marine re-enforcements moments before to be her second line of defence.

"General, you must not destroy those transports! They are manned by civilians alone who have no part in what High Templar Fresa is doing." The desperate pleading in the woman’s voice served the purpose of assuring Kerrigan that the woman was at least not joking around with her impossible request, but she didn't bother concealing her raised eyebrow as Lasarra came to a stop in front of her.

"That is all very well as a request, but how do you propose for me to stop the damn things from reaching Shakuras then if I cannot destroy them Lasarra?" Lasarra stood there for a few moments before dropping her head in defeat.

"I do not know, but there must be a way it can be done!" Kerrigan knew that it was Jim's ghost resting on her shoulders at that point. Many times he had gone to the aid of those unable to defend themselves, regardless of how impossible the situation was, it was just the man he was. It was Mendez that broke the silence surrounding the pair, having followed Lasarra up to Kerrigan's post at a more sedate pace.

“It is a shame we do not have any missile turrets available, something that big could easily be taken down by targeting its engines. That would make it easy to force them down. But as we don't have godly powers to make them appear in front of us, we need another plan to deal with them one way or another... General." The mention of godly powers had gotten Kerrigan thinking to the powers she had used as the Queen of Blades, able to tear asunder Carriers and Battle cruisers with mere gestures certainly counted. Whist she no longer possessed even a fraction of that power, she might be able to do something herself...

*Flashback End*

"That is news I appreciate Lasarra, I will deal with this transport ship now then I will need you to make your way back here to help coordinate your forces..." Kerrigan paused as Za’gara spoke to her directly, hindering her connection with Lasarra but that didn't seem to particularly bother the Zerg broodmother.

"My Queen, there is a strong fluctuation in psionic energies almost a mile and a half from our hive, I suspect it is a second portal that the Protoss are activating. I would not be surprised if that is the destination of the next transport..." The almost sarcastic drawl in the broodmother’s voice would have brought an amused chuckle to Kerrigan's lips if she wasn't already sprinting to the door, mustering as big an attack force psionically as she felt able.

The last thing she wanted to do was leave her base dangerously undermanned at this early stage in the battle especially with how exhausted she would be after this little exchange. The zerglings raced ahead as more than a dozen hydralisks fell in behind her. Each species knew their tasks as the first Protoss defences round the portal came into place, a pair of plasma cannons that were already taking pot shots at the approaching zerglings.

Blast through the defences as fast as possible, and then the zerglings would hold back any ground attack whilst the hydralisks brought down the Protoss air escort, leaving Kerrigan free to concentrate her focus on the transport, bringing it down and then withdrawing before the Protoss could counter attack and overrun them...

Time skip- five minutes

That had been the original plan Kerrigan thought bitterly as she fired another kinetic blast at the harrying Stalkers that were hemming in her and her remaining hydralisks. Her forces had smashed through the initial defenders and taken the high rise that the gate was based upon in preparation for the transports arrival.

It had just been confirmed that the transport was set in her direction by Mendez when the Protoss had counter-attacked with Archons and zealots in such force that her zerglings had been overwhelmed before the transport had even arrived in the area. The only upside was the zerglings had succeeded in killing enough of the enemy to leave them ill-prepared for storming Kerrigan's position, though that was hardly comforting to Kerrigan as she and the hydralisks stayed in their defensive cover.

Since then the Protoss had been probing her position even as reinforcements of her Zerg kept attempting to smash through their lines to reach her. But it looked like it would all soon be for naught, the transport was approaching rapidly now and there was little she could do to stop it. Even if she were to break her promise of taking the ship down non-lethally, the Protoss air and ground cover would gun her and her troops down well before she would bring the thing down.

The Protoss had also been interfering with her psionic powers as best they could, meaning that she couldn't contact any of her followers to get a co-ordinated plan together to turn this catastrophe around. Just as a flicker of doubt began to fill her mind there was rumbling through the earth around her. Standing once more and looking over the rock she was sat behind, Kerrigan saw a wave of mutated banelings detonating their way through the Protoss defences, leading a wave of raptor zerglings and roaches towards her.

These were not ordinary banelings as she had previously generated as part of the swarm however, observing a pair of the creatures leap/bounce dozens of feet to impact right amongst a group of stalkers and high Templars. She had to admit their death cries were music to her ears even as a wave of Protoss scouts came over her head, firing their weapons at the Protoss escort in a manner blatantly showing their side in the conflict.

"General, we have finished evacuating the Protoss base and came with all haste to aid in your fight." The voice of Nafash was a welcome intrusion as the Zerg in question cantered up the hill behind the overwhelming assault. "Abathur also conveys his apologies for evolving the baneling strand without your consent, but the hunterlings were vital in breaching our way to your position before the transport could break through to Shakuras."

Speaking of the transport, Kerrigan returned her attention to the craft whose shields were flashing under the assault of the scout ships that were weaving between the fire of the remaining escort vessels. She would concern herself with the fact that Za'gara had not seemingly moved any of her forces to relieve her later, though the brood mother was the closest to her embattled position by far.

"Well done Nafash, now let us deal with this transport and then we can begin an attack of our own. From what our scouts have reported, there are several stores of biomass around the area that the Protoss have created. I am most interested in sampling these stores for powerful strands, after I consult with Lasarra of course to keep her happy..."

***

After the arrival of the allied Protoss forces along with Jacobs and Nafash with their respective groups the battle had swung quickly in Kerrigan's favour once more. She had destroyed two of the shipyards that were capable of producing the transports surprisingly easily. The Protoss defences had been unable to properly deal with the mobility and speed of her zergling and hunterlings.

The two's adaptations ability to traverse impassable terrain with lightning quickness and ease meant that whilst the Protoss defensive lines were rapidly reinforcing their front lines, her troops were moving to strike at their vulnerable points from the cliffs around their base. It was as the last shipyard came into sight that Lasarra spoke to her hurriedly once more.

"Kerrigan, the remaining loyalists are evacuating all of Fresa's warriors back to the ship. I think he intends to return to Shakuras and personally inform them of your presence. What should we do? What can we do...?” The slightly defeated tone in her voice was interesting but not entirely unexpected, fighting so fiercely only for the enemy to succeed by running probably sat no better with the Protoss than it did with Kerrigan.

Thankfully the existence of the ship had been one of the first things that the Templar Doresk had mentioned after his warp gate warning, otherwise she would not have been prepared for such a move. The Leviathan might have been able to combat the ship in a straight fight, but risks this large were something she was trying to minimise and as such had come up with a different plan. She looked at Lasarra seriously as she considered how to phrase her next couple of statements.

"Are there any aboard the ship that are not Fresa's? I have a plan to deal with the threat but you might not approve of its execution..." One of Lasarra's eyebrows rose slightly in questioning before she shrugged uncertainly.

"I would have to speak with Doresk but I think all those that are against Fresa came planet side. You have already exceeded any change I could have imagined you undertaking Kerrigan. Whatever you need to do to save us, do it now. I will deal with any consequences on my side." Kerrigan definitely wouldn't consider it a full change of heart from the Protoss scientist, but her attitude shift was certainly worth the amount of effort and biomass she had exerted to try and prove as much to herself as to the Protoss that she had changed. Rather than pushing her luck in order to affirm Lasarra’s stance on the matter, Kerrigan turned her eyes to the nearby group of zealots and high Templar that she had blocked from teleporting away.

The Protoss were doing their best to break through her block on both sides, but with the battle pretty much finished Kerrigan could focus fully on her task rather than controlling the swarms of Zerg, giving her considerably more power to bring to bear. Thinking of her plan, the main component of which was currently wrapped around her left arm tightly, she couldn't help but smirk at her own creativity. Whilst the Protoss could not be infested like the Terrans could be and turned to her ends, that wasn't to say she couldn't manipulate their egotistical sense of superiority over that fact to her advantage...

***

Persona- Taerom, zealot of the Protoss, follower of high Templar Fresa

Taerom could not believe the events of the last cycle. The expeditionary forces had landed on the moon Kaldir under the guidance of High Templar Fresa after the drone scouts encountered Zerg forces on the moon that would interfere with the research work of the non-combatants. He had been part of the second wave involved in gloriously purging the swarm from the planet so that the colonists could begin to investigate the adaptation of the planets orbit for their purposes.

It had gone brilliantly, the Zerg presence crushed and the broodmother hunted until she froze to death, until Fresa suddenly confirmed the presence of the dreaded Queen of Blades on the planet, and her wrath had been too great for any of them too withstand. Looking at the traitor zealots that had incapacitated him and were currently holding him up, his hatred and zeal only heightened further. If those still loyal to Fresa had not been forced to deal with the traitors and their attempt to side with the enemy they would surely have crushed the Queen of Blades and brought the golden armada down on her forces.

There was still hope though, even with the traitors and the noble deaths of many of the loyal Protoss their colony ship was even now escaping so that Fresa could warn Shakuras personally. Therefore as the Queen of Blades approached him he was filled with a grim satisfaction rather than fear, glaring down at her with all the hate he could muster.

"You will not succeed Queen of Blades, even with your victory here your days are numbered, yours and those of your traitorous dogs..." To his surprise the Queen merely smirked at him before raising her left arm to his chest, resting the palm of her hand just below his rib cage.

"You mean your cowardly leaders retreat to his ship and its preparation to return to Shakuras? I have known about that plan from the moment he started withdrawing all of his men from the planet. You are the last of them and his high Templar brethren have been attempting to rescue you for almost half an hour. But don't worry, you will see them all again soon. I just need you to give him my parting gift to him from me."

As she finished speaking, the thing on her arm began to uncoil, its small body rising to unveil a mouth filled with rows upon rows of teeth. It leapt forwards and began burrowing into the soft tissue of his stomach, his pained thoughts projecting to the entire room. Then he felt it, the familiar feeling of being gated by the ship teleporters. And he felt fear for the first time in the confrontation as the magnitude of the Queen's plan dawned upon him.

"NO! TEMPLAR, Don't gate..." The rest of his thoughts were jumbled as he passed through space to the Protoss ship, appearing upon one of the exterior teleporter pads. It was testament to how few the remaining loyal Protoss were in number that no one was there to see to him.

'Must warn the high Templar...' He thought even as he felt the thing inside of him swell and grow once more. He managed three steps before he heard the voice of the Queen of Blades echo around him once more.

"Now!" Then his entire being burst into a cacophony of agony, managing to send a single projection out with his remaining strength, hoping the weak burst would be enough to gain the attention of another Protoss in the area, before the parasite burst from his chest in a surprisingly small spray of gore, moving on dozens of tiny claws to turn back and face him with jaws aquiver.

***

Persona- Sarah Kerrigan

The parasite had done its work brilliantly, infesting the Protoss ship thoroughly and destroying its engines thoroughly. It had been risky initially with a zealot coming to investigate the psionic burst the host had managed to emit before expiring. But the parasite had been most thorough with devouring the remains of the host zealot before infesting a nearby Lyote specimen to hide its presence from the Protoss.

Of course it did not take long before simple infiltration was no longer possible without risking the parasites discovery and destruction. The saving grace was the giant Ursadon specimen that the Protoss had brought aboard for scientific investigation. Even as the parasite had infested the thing and taken control of it to crush the nearby Protoss forces, Kerrigan stored the genetic information it was obtaining during its infestation. After all, such a mighty beast might be useful as part of the swarm and its leaping charge was a deadly ability.

After defeating the Protoss guards that had been assigned to watch the Ursadon and slithering away into the ships vents, the parasite had evolved along the parameters she had set it, turning into a new brood mother that she named Niadra. Under Kerrigan's guidance Niadra had continued to wreak havoc through the ship, devouring more biomass from the scientific samples and spawning Zerg forces to slaughter the remaining Protoss.

She had lost contact with the new brood mother shortly after when the warp power crystals had overloaded with heavy psionic backlash, but she had no doubt that the Zerg would be able to overrun the few remaining survivors aboard the ship. She returned to her body with a surprising feeling of sadness rather than satisfaction, a small sigh escaping you as she turned to where Izsha, Mendez and Lasarra were stood waiting.

"It is done, the ship will not reach Shakuras and the golden armada will not come." Izsha spoke first as she was psionically connected to Kerrigan and could therefore discern her inner thoughts far more easily.

"You seem troubled my Queen, did we not achieve what was needed in slau...stopping the Protoss?” The change in choice of words from the Zerg creature was probably due to the new memories that Kerrigan had been slowly feeding to Izsha since she had seen what Nafash had learned from them. Lasarra still stiffened at the obvious original wording of that sentence but didn't say anything yet, the woman obviously waiting to see how Kerrigan would respond. Shaking her head a little Kerrigan tried to clarify to Izsha about why she was unhappy.

"Izsha, I will destroy anyone and everything that tries to stand between me and my goals, but the pointless deaths over an old hatred? I don't have to enjoy destroying all those that stand in my way for no reason." Izsha cocked her head, obviously slightly confused, before asking another question.

"But my Queen, what about Arcturus Mengsk? Will you not enjoy destroying him once and for all?" Mendez gave a grim chuckle at this before speaking herself.

"She won't be the only one that wants that bastards head on a pike. If she needs a hand I will certainly help put his head there..." Lasarra interjected at this point a confused expression on her face and in her tone.

"Who is this Arcturus Mengsk that you seem to hate so much Kerrigan? I hear mention of him amongst the Terrans as well and what they have said about him is venomous to say the least." Well with his actions after Char Kerrigan couldn't say she was surprised that her followers were against the man. Dredging back up the memories of when Mengsk had rescued her for the first time from the confederacy lab in which they had been experimenting upon her, Kerrigan felt an angry edge to her voice as she relived the hell that had been her life as a ghost of the Confederate forces.

"Arcturus Mengsk is the Emperor of the Terran dominion and therefore likes to think of himself as the almighty ruler of the whole Korpulu sector. He rescued me from the Confederacy despite the hatred he held for me for the deaths of his family at my hands some years before." That certainly got everyone there's attention, it was something that she had long kept secret even after Mengsk had abandoned her to the Zerg. It wasn't out of loyalty to the man or anything like that, but the information seemed unimportant to her as the Queen of Blades and only since Jim had saved her did she come to wonder whether it was simple revenge that had caused Mengsk to leave her on Tarsonis that fateful day.

"Then he and I led the Sons of Korhal to overthrow the Confederacy, and due to his insistence on using a psi emitter to eliminate the Confederate forces through the use of the Zerg, I ended up captured by them and became the Queen of Blades. Ever since the events on Char that prompted my disinfestation he has been pursuing me in an attempt to finish me off now that I am weak. So to stop his madness and free us all from his schemes once and for all, I will finish him and his base of power. It's what Jim would have wanted..." Realising she was becoming dangerously emotional, Kerrigan drew it all back in and reset her mask, the last thing she wanted was for her troops to think she was becoming soft.

"Now, we will leave for the Zerg home world of Zeras the moment all of the Kaldir Zerg have been reclaimed. Nafash, Za'gara, how is that proceeding?" The two brood mothers bowed slightly at her question before Za'gara started speaking.

"My Queen, we have almost half of the planets Zerg gathered on the leviathan now, but space is slowly running out and we will be forced to leave something behind if we want to fit all the swarm aboard." The brood mothers’ rather obvious glance at Mendez was not something Kerrigan appreciated, but she knew that Za'gara would not dare step out of line whilst she was so outnumbered. Nafash snorted and spoke her own piece of her report.

"Therefore General I have already begun amassing the remaining Zerg biomass on the planet to begin forming another Leviathan. I thought that it would be prudent for us to build our forces further in the face of what we are facing ahead. It will take time though General, a week at minimum before the Leviathan is fully formed and ready to leave the planet." A good plan and one that Kerrigan would probably have ordered anyways with the forces available to her. Looking over to Lasarra she decided to inquire about the remaining Protoss' plans.

"Lasarra, what of the Protoss? If you wish I can ask for Matt Horner to bring his forces here to pick you up and return you to Protoss territory?" The attention seemed to surprise the Protoss woman who was still deep in thought.

"Well, I am sure that we can remain here and continue our work with the removal of the Zerg forces that were harassing us. I would like to request to accompany you with a small science force of my own however." That request was the first true surprise of the day for Kerrigan and she quirked an eyebrow and smirked slightly.

"Why would you wish to accompany me Lasarra? Do you not trust that I have changed my ways yet?" There was a small pause from the Protoss before she replied which in many ways answered Kerrigan's question before Lasarra said anything.

"A small part of that is certainly the case, you have proved that you have changed Kerrigan, but I think there will be times when that resolve waivers. Without those who can remind you of yourself, you may fall into darkness once more and I cannot stand by and let that happen. However, the main reason we wish to accompany you is that you will be travelling to the far ends of the sector and beyond and I imagine you will find many things that would be of great interest to all our races if they are researched properly." Kerrigan had to appreciate the honesty Lasarra had given with her reply and could not think of any reason not to bring the Protoss with her, perhaps they would help her understand exactly what Zeratul had wanted from her with his insistence she travel to Zeras.

"Very well, you may bring a small group with you on our travels, though I can only offer you quarters with the Terrans. Protoss technology and Zerg do not go together well I recall...” With that she dismissed them all so that she could retire for some rest, commanding the Zerg aboard the Protoss vessel had been draining after the battle on Kaldir, not knowing that many light years away, another council was being held about the fate of the Korpulu sector with far more far reaching consequences for all of its inhabitants...

Space station Arkansas, in orbit over Jupiter-

Twelve figures sat round a large and ornate wooden table. Gathered here were some of the best and brightest of the United Earth Directorates military and scientific leaders. One of them, a man in his mid-forties with greying hair and moustache dressed in an admiral's uniform spoke evenly as he gazed round at those with him.

"So Admiral DuGaulle and Vice Admiral Stukov have not returned or sent word since their last transmission almost a decade ago? We knew this already and assumed that they had decided to turn renegade with their new minions and that we would deal with them at some point in the future." There was a morbid chuckle from the man to his second right, a man known only as 'The Blade' and headed the UED's ghost programs, himself a highly respected ghost of the insurrection wars almost half a century beforehand.

"That was what we thought, but my men have slowly been infiltrating back into the sector and the news they are sending me is disturbing enough that after consulting with General FienHaus we called this meeting to discuss the news fully." He gestured to a tall blonde woman in a leather armoured trench coat and a masterwork bionic eye that glowed yellow in irritation for a moment at being mentioned before shifting her feet off the table where they had been resting as she reclined and allowing her to sit forwards.

"Yes, Blade's men have transmitted information that indicates that the UED expeditionary force has not gone rogue as we had formerly anticipated, but instead it has been destroyed by the Zerg forces in the region that were under the command of this woman." The face of the Queen of Blades appeared on the holographic display in the middle of the table, getting a gasp from a few of the members who had been too young to have been a part of the council observing the UED forces reports from the previous incursion. FienHaus paused for a moment to let the murmurs die down before she continued speaking.

"Sarah Kerrigan, a former confederate ghost operative who then defected to the outlawed renegade group the sons of Korhal. We lost track of her for almost a year then, before she resurfaced as this. Known as the Queen of Blades, she was recently killed on the planet of Char by the pirate Jim Raynor. With the Zerg in disarray at the loss of its leader Arcturus Mengsk, self-proclaimed emperor of the dominion used the opportunity to eliminate Raynor who was the leader of the popular resistance in the Korpulu sector. With the various opposition factors eliminated, the man will now feel secure in his position and start rebuilding the war torn sector and let his guard down. This is our opportunity."

This drew more than a few raised eyebrows from the older hands on the board, after all that had been a similar logic that had been used for the original expedition and they all knew how that had turned out.

"Surely you are not suggesting that we assemble another expedition to the area? The failure of the last one cost us a lot of support, if we were to try again and fail..." The first speaker had been the one to voice this point as he reflexively messed with his moustache and FienHaus noted those that agreed with him even as she was sure he was sizing up her supporters. Admiral Theodore LeBlanc was the most decorated admiral in the UED armed forces and had the scars to prove his experience for each and every one of them. LeBlanc and FienHaus had a rivalry that often polarised the military and political boards that they were on in their endless competition to prove themselves better than the other.

Luckily before the two of them could come to blows over the issue a third voice spoke up, the cybernetically altered voice of the head of Military Research, Harper Reynolds breaking the slowly mounting tension.

"I think before we discuss the matter further we should all review the data that Blades operatives have sent us. Let us adjourn the meeting until the next cycle and then reconvene about the matter then." LeBlanc grumbled about the delay but offered no real objection, whilst FienHaus merely stood and strode off into the recess behind her that led to the door, not allowing anyone to see her bionic eye glow green for a second as she grinned in triumph. The next force would crush those that opposed them and ensure humanity reigned supreme amongst the stars, and her name would be the one forever associated with that triumph. Blade waited until all the others had left to return to their command posts before signalling to a blank section of wall to his left.

"They are gone, you know your orders?" The view of the wall distorted and shifted, revealing a man in commando gear and a complicated piece of electronic equipment strapped to his chest.

"Yes master Blade. I am to head to the Korpulu sector and warn the people there of the approaching task force and assist their measures to resist it in any way they can." Blade nodded his head with a smug smile on his face and the man was gone in a shimmer, his psionic presence disappearing entirely from the elder man's senses.

"The perfect assassin and spy for the idiots in Korpulu who rely on psionic senses. All the pieces move into place once more and I will be the one who comes out on top once more...” Without waiting for or expecting a reply Blade stood and placed his glass on the table, cloaking himself psionically as he moved towards the door. No point in being careless after all...

A/N: So the horribly pointless conflict on Kaldir comes to a close at last. The survival of the Protoss who sided with Kerrigan was not an easy decision, but in the end I preferred the other subtleties that this method allowed me to slide in. On another note... THE UED IS COMING BACK FOR SECONDS! This meeting allowed me to highlight that actually the whole conflict between the three races in the Korpulu sector is not the only event that is going on.

Korpulu has been watched by the UED for centuries and is now the perfect hotbed for those amongst the high command that wish to make their names renowned throughout the UED, or those that see it as an opportunity to destroy their rivals politically. Whilst I haven't decided how big a picture the various characters in the UED will play in this story (As an actual UED invasion wouldn't occur till the very end of the HOtS storyline at best), but I like to expand on the universe a bit and this was the easiest way to do it.

I have not written properly now in almost 6 months, so this chapter is very tentative. If people don't like it tell me why and I might choose to rewrite it if people can point out any problems I cannot see. Please let me know what you think on the way out Ja Ne!

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Walking through the Leviathans fleshy halls behind Mendez, who seemed inordinately pleased with something, Kerrigan sighed before speaking for the third time since Mendez had insisted they walk together to the surprise.

“What is it you wanted to show me Lieutenant Mendez that couldn’t be done over the communicator? We are nearly to Morecamb and I need to ready the swarm.” What she needed to ready them for went unsaid as Mendez shook her head and pointed to one of the many fleshy doors leading off the passage.

“We are here General and I definitely don’t think you are going to dislike this...” The fleshy wall shifted as they approached, and as Kerrigan walked in she understood what Mendez meant.

“General on deck, Rifles at the ready.” As Lieutenant Horace called out the order, 200 figures in pitch black armour shifted to attention, rifles raised to their shoulders ready to march. Each figure had a insignia imprinted on their chest in white, a simple crown above a pair of crossed rifles. Mendez obviously read her face as she grinned unabashedly before speaking.

“The marauders and firebats wanted to retain their colours for tactical ease until we come up with a suitable alternative, welcome to the 1st company of the Queens Rifles General. Hope you like my idea...” Kerrigan cut her off mid sentence by stepping across and giving her a full bodied hug that engulfed the smaller woman, before Kerrigan realised what she was doing a moment later and released her, stepping back with a small blush.

Deciding to pretend the moment had never happened Kerrigan faced the ranks of marines in front of her. She was reminded of the few war vids she had watched in the past and realised this was one of those moments where a speech was most definitely needed.

“Marines! No you are no longer mere marines, you are my Rifles. You have no idea how much this means to me. I have been many things over the course of my life, many of the worst things you know about well enough. But to be a leader of a group of Terran’s such as yourselves... That is one thing I have never had the honour of before. I cannot express my pride with words, but I will say this and I want you to take it too heart. I will not let your faith in me be for naught.” She paused as Izsha spoke to her telepathically as the Leviathan shook under her.

“My Queen,  we are here. Kilysa and her brood have managed to suppress the Terran’s fleet, but the ground battle does not seem to be going well for your allies.” Kerrigan nodded almost to herself before raising her hand into the air, extending one of her blades as she did so.

“Rifles, we have arrived at Morecamb and a battle, no a hunt lies before us. We have word that Mengsk’s favourite enforcer, a ghost by the name of Terra Nova is leading her special forces unit against the rebel forces upon the ground. Lets make sure that Mengsk does not get her back...” The Rifles all saluted as one before Horace spoke up.

“Queens Rifle’s, lets get to warring! Last man down has double duties for a week . HOORAH!” As the other marines took up the cry Kerrigan nodded to Mendez once more before heading out of the room.

She was already viewing the battlegrounds on the planet below  through the senses of Kilysa’s overlords as she stalked to the Leviathans maw once more. There was of course the initial space battle to deal with, but from the reports Kerrigan had gotten from Kilysa the dominion fleet had been badly damaged in the fight before invading the planet by the rebel forces and they had the transport ships to worry about. So she shouldn’t have too much difficulty forcing them from the planet. Reaching out to the planet below with her psionics Kerrigan began searching for her prey, muttering to herself quietly.

“Come to me Nova. I will find you down here and that is just the beginning of how much you will regret what you did...”

Persona: Nova, ghost of the Terran dominion.

Timeskip: 72 hours

It had all been going so well to begin with at least Nova thought, as she gunned down another Zergling with her canister rifle. Looking round at her remaining troops gathered in this ruined bunker, 12 men and another 5 injured from a party of 40 elite commandos, Nova wondered where the hell the reinforcements she had radioed for were.

They had made good progress with the invasion to begin with, taking almost a quarter of the planet in two days. The Raiders remnants were the only competent resistance her forces had faced and they were in too few numbers to stop a full Dominion army, the rebels were too poorly trained and armed to provide much resistance.

That was until the fleet reported the appearance of a Zerg fleet in the system, staying at long range and only harrying with light flyers. It was a delaying tactic, one of the simplest in the book, causing her to lose most of her air support as the fleet moved to defend the troop transports away from the planet.

The lack of air support slowed their advance, but the rebels seemed to have taken heart at something other than that, because their flagging morale soared and they fought with even more ferocity. For two days the battle had been ground to a standstill, then just as Nova was breaking through one of the weak points in the rebel defenses, she felt HER arrive into the system.

Even from halfway across the system she could feel Kerrigan’s psionic power, radiating with a strength that possibly exceeded that of when Kerrigan had been the old Queen of Blades. The comm channels then filled with reports of the space battle that erupted over their heads, the explosions and metal wreckage that plummeted to the earth over the next 6 hours making it clear which side was winning.

She had called for extraction, if not for the whole invasion force than at least her strike force. It was callous of her, but Nova knew there was only one reason the Queen of the Swarm would be heading this battle and she really did not want to be facing the full force of the Queen’s wrath.

The transports sent to pick her up had been shot out of the sky before they even entered the atmosphere, the pilots dying screams filling her ears over the comms. With her transports gone, she had moved her remaining troops to where they now were bunkered down in the hope that more ships were on their way.

Her hopes were dashed the fleet admiral came on the line and told her that they would not be able to evacuate them until reinforcements arrived from the main dominion fleet. She had been about to argue with the man when the first Zerg landing pod impacted a mile and a half from her position, disgorging its terrifying cargo of Zerglings, roaches and hydralisks upon the dominion soldiers.

More and more pods rained from the sky, the Zerg numbers slowly overwhelming the Terran positions around her own position, the beasts seemingly content to box in her and her men rather than kill them off. Though the harrying attacks had taken their toll when she had tried to lead a breakout to the dominion forces in the distance.

Nova knew how screwed she was, even before Kerrigan’s presence appeared in front of her. Kerrigan seemed a lot more human than she was in any of the vid’s that Nova had been shown, though if the projection that stalked up the small rise was accurate she had definitely gotten... larger since escaping from Nova at the Umojan base, encased in a strange black body suit and almost brimming with psionic energy.

“Ghost Nova, I think you know why I am here and therefore I will skip the pleasantries. I will be taking your head today for what you did. Then I will destroy Mengsk and all those idiots that follow him. Do you have any requests for your execution? I can facilitate most methods of death, but quick and clean are fresh out...” The steely grin and Kerrigan’s low steady voice just reinforced the fact that Nova already knew.

There was no way she was going to survive this unless the fleet reinforcements arrived right now and dropped all hell on the Zerg around them. Actually considering Kerrigan’s power, even that might not be enough.

Drawing herself up in an attempt to stop the slight shaking that threatened to overtake her arms and voice Nova spoke a reply, causing her men to jump to their feet in readiness.  

“Kerrigan, if you are anything near the normal human that Jim said...” She was cut off as her head nearly burst in two under the vicious assault that Kerrigan unleashed at that moment. Nova fell to one knee as she managed to keep the psionic attack from doing too much damage to her as Kerrigan spoke once more, her voice full of anger this time.

“Do not speak his name! You killed him and you try and use him against me? I will tear you limb from limb...” The projection seemed to take a moment to calm itself before continuing. “I will give you this one offer though. Come out of there, alone and meet me over there.” Kerrigan’s projection pointed to another small rise where the wreck of a dominion siege tank laid burning.

“Do this and I will spare your men if they surrender. If not... well my Zerg are very good at what they do...” With that Kerrigan faded from her sight, but her senses could feel her, getting closer every moment.

Nova was surprised at how calm she was feeling, the emotional training she had undergone as a ghost helped but she still thought that her imminent death would have produced some kind of internal reaction. Turning to her men, she decided not to lure them into false hope with Kerrigan’s offer, the treachery of the Queen of Blades was legendary.

“Men, the Queen of Blades is coming for me and we all know that we aren’t going to be able to stop her. I will go and try and draw her away until transport arrives for you.” It was a lie of course, if she was going to die she wouldn’t die hiding in some pit or hole in the ground, but they didn’t need to know that.

Before they could object or try and do something stupid she used her psionics to cloak herself, hefting her rifle and sprinting from the bunker. The Zerg didn’t react to her disappearance, even though the number of overlords overhead that could see her using their psionic abilities meant that they probably knew exactly where she was.

Unknown to her, in the bunker she had just left one of her commandos was having a conversation of his own...

Persona: Admiral Kiel, Head of the Dominion 3rd fleet

“She has just left the bunker Admiral, judging from her actions before doing so the Queen of Blades is definitely nearby and after her, just as you said she would be.” Admiral Kiel of the 3rd Dominion fleet nodded in understanding before cutting the communication link with a barked acknowledgement. He ran a hand through his thinning hair before looking over at the holographic figure.

“It is just as you anticipated my Emperor, do you wish for us to move the battlecruisers into position for an orbital strike? We do not have enough men or ships left to try and trap the Queen of Blades on the planet for a proper war with the Zerg, not to say the reports we have been getting of some sort of Terran strike force accompanying her. I initially thought they were just infested Terrans, but they are utilising siege tanks and goliaths...”  Mengsk shook his head, smiling grimly as he overviewed the same tactical reports that Kiel had been going over relentlessly since the space battle had begun, almost 7 hours before.

“No Admiral, your ships will be needed elsewhere before this menace is finished. Kerrigan and her Terran pets shall pay soon enough. Prepare the special torpedoes I had sent with you. Their payload will be more than sufficient to deal with the Queen of Blades even if she was back at her original power level.” Kiel nodded nervously. He would be glad to be rid of the damned things that had been stored in the darkest  corner of his storage bays, the feeling that emanated from them was far too... evil for his liking.

“Of course my lord, I have some transports with escorts ready to try and pick up Ghost Nova before we fire. Shall I send them down now?” An unreadable expression crossed Mengsk’s face for a moment before he returned to his normal confident demeanour.

“Unfortunately if we do that the Queen of Blades will be beyond our grasp. She has to believe that she is triumphant before we spring the trap. This is war admiral, Nova knew what she signed up for...” Kiel doubted that Nova had actually signed up to anything, but given the large number of officer executions that took place when someone disagreed with the Emperor he wasn’t going to push his luck.

It was another five minutes after the order to load the torpedoes before confirmation came through that they were ready to fire. Mengsk sat back in his holographic chair with a drink of some kind in his hand.

“Get me Nova on the communicator Admiral, we need to confirm when the Queen has reached her.” Judging by the steely look in Mengsk’s eyes as he said this Kiel guessed there was more to it than he was being told, but he nodded.

“Of course Emperor.” This was not going to be a fun communication to listen to...

Persona: Nova

She could see Kerrigan approach from some distance away, the leader of the Zerg forces obviously confident of her own superiority as she strode amongst the dead and dying at the head of 40 black armoured Terrans.

They definitely didn’t look infested like the reports had stated and Nova wondered what the Queen of Blades had done to them to ensure their allegiance. Nova knew she could have and probably should have taken the shot with her canister rifle as she used its scope to observe her soon to be killer.

But that would probably have only made the Zerg woman even more furious as well as encourage the Terrans with her to open fire with their considerable arsenal. And with the threat of a painful death over her head Nova preferred the quick death a battle would bring. Stowing her rifle Nova drew her combat knives as Kerrigan’s voice carried over the space between them.

“Are you ready to die Terra Nova? The ghost of Jim Raynor demands vengeance and the Queen of blades will give it!” Ghost of Raynor, what was Kerrigan going on about? Raynor had been perfectly fine when Nova had brought him to the Final Justice transport. Rather than try and question the incensed woman Nova sprinted forwards in an attempt to surprise her enemy, knives glowing with psionic energy.

The blades were an adaptation of Protoss technology, giving her the damage and penetrative power to combat normal Zerg in close combat, something she would definitely need against Kerrigan. Nova saw Kerrigan grin in anticipation before the same black armour that covered the rest of her body merged over her face, leaving an imprint of a skull wearing a crown in its place.

The two closed quickly, Nova on guard for tricks the Zerg woman might pull with her. She was glad she was so restrained as she went in for her first strike, a swipe at the Queens stomach that nearly cost her her hand at the wrist as a blade of some type snapped out of Kerrigan’s wrist. Jumping back with a frown Nova observed as similar blades grew from Kerrigan’s other wrist, knees and feet, meaning that she now had 6 ways of killing Nova.

Make that 7 different ways, as Kerrigan swiped her blades in Novas direction, her psionic senses screaming at her as a wave of blue energy shot towards her. Rolling out of the way she saw the wave cut deeply into the earth she had been stood on. For the first time since Kerrigan had arrived in system Nova felt fear begin to crawl up her spine, such an attack would cleave her in half without the slightest bit of trouble and it didn’t even seem to tap into the monsters psionic energy.

Opening her mouth for the first time, Nova decided to try and placate Kerrigans wrath a little, perhaps if she could convince the woman she hadn’t killed Jim... But before she could do so Kerrigan moved, with such speed that it seemed to Nova that one second they had been a dozen yards apart and the next moment Kerrigan was less than 6 inches from her, wrist blades locked with Nova’s daggers that she had instinctively blocked with, stopping the blades from removing her head. That didn’t save her from the knee blade however as Kerrigan brought it up with brutal force.

Nova managed to shift her body enough to avoid being skewered, but the blade cut deeply into her side leaving a jagged gash. As she tried to push Kerrigan away from her to gain some room to plan, Kerrigan spoke once more.

“I have spent quite some time thinking about how to kill you Ghost Nova. There are so many ways that would be slow and painful, drawn out to match my agony that you caused.” Disengaging as Kerrigan carried on speaking, Nova felt annoyance as her comm unit activated suddenly, Emperor Mengsk’s voice speaking loudly into her ear.

“Ghost Nova, I hear that the Queen of Blades is after you, what is your current condition?” Nova wasn’t sure whether Kerrigan had freaky hearing to match the rest of her superhuman capabilities or that she had just seen her comm piece light up.

But with a tidal wave of psionic energy Kerrigan lifted Nova up in the air like it was nothing and wrenched the comm piece from her ear, making Nova cry out in pain as her ear drooped and bled, the top half of it ripped almost entirely from her skull by the psionic pull. Kerrigan fiddled with the comm for a few seconds before the image of Mengsk was projected between her and Nova, who was trying to break free of the grip Kerrigan had on her.

“Mengsk, it’s good that you called. Now I get to show you what I plan on doing to you with your favourite lapdog!”  Kerrigan’s tone started out sarcastic before morphing into a full fury, her psionics reacting to her emotions as Nova felt her body pulled in different directions like Kerrigan was going to physically rip her to pieces. Mengsk ignored Kerrigan though and looked at Nova, an expression of what could almost be sadness on his face.

“Nova, I am sorry you must die to allow me to deal with one of my mistakes, but you are a soldier and you knew this might happen. Good traps require bait after all.” Nova was shocked at the rather blunt apology and dismissal of all her years of service, but Mengsk was already facing Kerrigan.

“Kerrigan, if you are in there behind the monster you have become, I want you to know that I am truly sorry for what happened on Tarsonis. But don’t worry, you will be put to rest soon enough.” With that said Mengsk disappeared, the comm unit being crushed in Kerrigan’s hands a moment later, fury quite literally emanating from her through Nova’s altered vision. The Queen of Blades turned to Nova and she couldn’t help the fear building up inside of her as the quite literal figure of death stalked towards her. That was when the earth exploded around the pair of them and Nova knew no more.

Persona: Kerrigan, The Queen of Blades

Earth and rock pummeled her armour from all sides as the earth shook. It took a moment for Kerrigan to come to her senses, realising her psionics had subconsciously protected the now unconscious Nova who was still suspended in front of her.

Whether she had done it out of some strange form of compassion or simply to avoid something else taking her rightful vengeance was a question for another time, the dust and dirt filling the air blown away with a wave of Kerrigan’s hand as she dropped Nova onto the ground.  

Five torpedo like canisters had landed around her, each three times larger than a siege tank. Reaching out with her psionics as Horace and the other Rifles began to approach, Kerrigan’s eyes widened at the psionic strength of the things that were inside the canisters.

“Lieutenant, run!” Her warning came too late as the canister nearest to her Rifles burst open, the thing inside forcing its way out of the reinforced material with remarkable ease. The thing was easily three times her height and though it looked somewhat Zerg-like in its appearance due to its long clawed arms that were easily as big as she was and taloned feet, it was unlike anything she had ever encountered before.

Blue and purple armour covered most of its body and strange tendrils shifted lightly from its back It stepped forwards, stretching itself to its full height as Horace and the Rifles began firing at it, their bullets seeming to do little but anger it as it roared.

Kerrigan’s attention was dragged away from the battle as her pionics screamed at her of other threats. Another of the beasts similar to the first one had seemed to have a little more difficulty extracting itself from its transport, but it was the other two that interested Kerrigan.  

These other things were smaller than the others, but whilst the first looked rather Zerg like these looked to be mutilated abominations of the Protoss archons she had encountered on the battlefield. As if to further the likeness to the archons, one of the things raised its hand and a bolt of psionic lightning shot forth from it. Kerrigan shielded herself and Nova with a shield, grunting as the force of the bolt was much greater than she expected.

As the other also seemed to be readying an attack Kerrigan kicked Nova in one direction before dodging the other way, swinging her blades in retaliation. The larger thing stepped in the way of the attack, blocking it with a grunt as the psionic blades cut deep into its armour and flesh. Judging by the screams she could hear from behind her, the battle was not going well for her Rifles either, so back up was definitely needed.

She had anticipated that Mengsk or at least would try something like a trap so she had had a few surprises of her own waiting in the wings. Right on cue screeching filled the air as dozens of mutalisks flew down to unleash their glaives on the strange monsters, giving Kerrigan the breather she needed to send out some orders psionically.

“Nafash, I need you and your troops here now, these things are going to be difficult to kill without some distractions.” As she spoke she blocked another shot from the archon thing nearest her, the other one distracted cutting down the mutalisks with its psi powers. Responding with another psionic blade that was absorbed by the things shields kerrigan noticed that the Rifles weapons were doing nothing to the Zerg thing they were trying to kill that was rampaging through their ranks, any damage healing up with astonishing quickness.

“Terran weapons are ineffective against them, Zeratul do you know anything of these things?” The templar and a small  protoss force had been deployed nearby for the same reason Nafash had been ready, and his commentary was grim as she rushed forwards to engage the things in combat.

“I have fought only one of these Hybrids before Kerrigan and it nearly overwhelmed a Protoss force by itself, the chances of you surviving fighting three of them until we get there is very doubtful. We are on our way as fast as we can.” Kerrigan scoffed, she wasn’t trying to be cocky but she doubted these hybrids would cause her as much trouble as Zeratul implied.

She changed her mind as the psionic hybrid fired another blast at her, this one stronger than the previous ones and slamming through her shield to impact on her armour and send her flying backwards. Flipping through the air she landed with a grunt next to the destroyed siege tank, shaking her head. If she was going to struggle against more than 1 of them at a time, it was time to change those odds. With a scream of exertion she psionically wrenched the siege tank from the ground and sent it flying at the psionic hybrid, grinning as the metal slammed through its shield and sent it back with a roar.

Running forwards Kerrigan then focussed on the close combat hybrid, who had been swatting ineffectively at the mutalisks and only seemed to notice her at the last minute. It swung its claws at her surprisingly quickly but she dodged under neath it, stabbing its lower body several times before dodging away as it stumbled around trying to attack her.

Shoving her blades up into its stomach area she released her psionics in blast that cut straight through the beast. Moving to avoid being crushed by the hybrids falling bulk Kerrigan’s attention was drawn by a woman screaming. Nova had obviously become conscious once more only to attract the attention of one of the psionic hybrids who was looming over her in an obviously hungry manner.

Swiping off two psionic blades in its direction to gain its attention, Kerrigan prepared to destroy it once and for all. It was only when her back exploded into pain and she was sent flying to the ground did Kerrigan realise she had ignored the second Hybrid, which was a mistake that could prove fatal. She could feel the damage, half her abdomen on her left side gone or covered in 3rd degree burns.

She would survive the attack due to her regeneration she thought as she forced herself to her feet in time to block attacks from both psionic hybrids, her shields slowly buckling under the weight of the assault. She couldn’t die here Kerrigan thought to herself, using the momentary lull as the hybrids prepared their next attack to unleash her own, psionic blades zipping out towards the two threats. The attack forced them on the defensive for a fraction of a second as she felt both Nafash’s and Zeratuls psionic presences approaching. Now only if she could hold out for a moment longer...

Timeskip 5 minutes

Kerrigan wasn’t sure how she was still conscious, it might have been to do with consuming some of her own regenerative armour, but that had been an act of desperation on her part. Zeratul had arrived just in time to save her from being overwhelmed by the two psionic hybrids, though most of what happened after his psy blades had carved into the first one was a blur to her as she collapsed to the ground until the majority of the damage done to her torso had been regenerated.  

Finally someone appeared in her vision, one of her rifles from the armour they were using, though they were bigger than an average marine with red flaming patterns covering the front of their armour that expanded out from the neck line of their armour.

“General, are you alright? Zeratul said you were okay but your stomach...” The voice identified the Rifle as Sergeant Jacobs, and his comment brought her back to reality, his armoured hand helping her stand unsteadily on her feet once more. She looked around the area and then wished she hadn’t.

The majority of the Rifles that had been escorting her littered the ground in various levels of mutilation, the lucky few still alive screaming as they were attended to by medic teams. The combat hybrid lay almost 40 yards from where she stood, the other hybrids being shifted away by Zerglings, probably for Abathur and Lassara and Abathur to examine in detail. Bringing herself from the daze she had been in, Kerrigan looked at Jacobs.

“How many Jacobs?” He looked away for a moment before speaking quietly, his tone hoarser than she normally expected from the chain smoker.

“48 casualties, 36 dead including Lieutenant Horace and the others will be lucky if they get to walk or fight again. Whatever that thing was, it tore through us like it was nothing. The Zerg dead is in the dozens at least but I think their biomass is recoverable. We found another of the larger hybrids in the 5th container, it seemed to have died on impact.”  5 hybrids dead for 36 of her own, even if they were the only hybrids Mengsk had the cost had been too high.

Kerrigan shuddered as she imagined how differently this encounter would have gone if the 5th hybrid hadn’t died.The talk of the injured reminded her of something though and she looked round hurriedly whilst reaching out to Abathur in orbit.

“Abathur, I need our project down here right now.” It seemed that the gene-spinner had been paying attention to the work on the ground as there was a simple feeling of satisfaction in Abathur’s reply.

“Already on its way my Queen, the injection will stabilise them but repeated injections will be required. Will be interesting to monitor results...” Spotting Mendez by her distinctive yellow band that she had insisted that her lieutenants had on their armour, treating a man who had lost both of his legs from the looks of it,  Kerrigan hurried over to her.

“Lieutenant Mendez, I don’t mean to distract you when you are working but I need you to split these men into those that you will be able to save and those you think you can’t.” Mendez looked up at her sharply, anger clear on her features at the implication and insult that Kerrigan hadn’t even realised she had made. holding her hands up in a diffusive manner, Kerrigan spoke quickly to try and cover up the mistake her hazed mind had made.

“I only want you to do this as I have had Abathur working on something that might be able to save their lives and even let them heal entirely.” That caught not only Mendez’s attention but those all around them. Mendez looked at her very skeptically.

“General, no offense but I don’t trust anything that spider comes up with. I have seen enough infected Terrans in my time...” Kerrigan guessed that might be a problem. When she had been the Queen of Blades originally she had seen the Terrans as a cheap and easy to infect resource, using them as cannon fodder against defenses that her Zerg units needed to take.  She knew that rationality wouldn’t help sway them that she had overseen the changes to the infection parasites herself, but if they didn’t agree...

To her surprise the marine that Mendez was treating spoke up, his speech broken up with the occasional ragger cough.

“I’ll do it General... whatever it is...” Mendez looked like she wanted to object but held her tongue as the man carried on speaking.

“No offence doc but the chances of you saving me here, let alone me walking again are zero. We’ve trusted the General before, no reaso...” He trailed off as his vitals began to fail, Kerrigan grabbing one of the biological vials of serum that one of the hatchery workers had just brought to her and stabbed it into the stub of the man’s leg.

The vial emptied and nothing happened for a few moments before suddenly the man jerked back to life with a harsh gasp. Kerrigan sighed with relief before turning to Mendez who was smiling also, though she still looked a little ill at ease with the situation.

“Get these to the marines who are most critical, but only those that might not survive transport to the Leviathan or other medical facilities. This is not an option to be taken lightly...” That comment wiped the smile from the woman’s face, but Kerrigan knew she couldn’t hide something from these people after all they had done with her.

Mendez seemed to think on her words for a moment before nodding and pushing herself to her feet, shouting orders to the other medics as she did so. Her work at minimising casualties done, Kerrigan turned back to Jacobs, a look of fury slowly crossing her face.

“Tell me what else I have missed...” She was angry again, something she thought she had gotten out of her system beating up Nova but obviously not. The remaining Dominion forces on the planet were not going to have a good day...

Persona: Admiral Kiel

Watching the fall of whatever the monsters he had just unleashed on the planet via long range recordings from the few surviving science vessels the fleet had left, Kiel turned to the hologram of Mengsk, glad that he had insisted that the feed be sent directly to his war room feed rather anywhere else.

“Orders sir? The Zerg fleet has been reinforced by half a dozen Terran ships that the Rebels had kept in reserve including the Raiders flagship and with the casualties we’ve already sustained...” Kiel trailed off as Mengsk’s glass exploded in the man’s hand. The emperor seemed to not notice his heavily bleeding hand though as he glared through Kiel to where the readouts were still appearing.

“I just sacrificed one of my best operatives in what should have been the finishing move of this war...” Mengsk seemed to mutter something at the end of his impassioned rant that Kiel didn’t catch and wasn’t sure he would want to. The emperor seemed to consider saying something several times over the next few seconds before finally deciding upon something.

“We started this operation to end the rebel traitors and the Zerg threat in one clean swoop. I underestimated my foes though and that has cost us the lives of good soldiers...” Mengsk waved his uninjured hand as a medic appeared in the hologram, obviously trying to patch up his hand.  

“Admiral, withdraw your fleet and join up with the 1st fleet in the Harux system. The Queen of Blades may have won this battle, but the war is far from over.” The hologram snapped away to nothing, leaving Kiel the unenviable task of trying to get his fleet out of this in anything closely resembling one piece...

Persona: Sarah Kerrigan.

Timeskip: 6 hours.

The news that the Dominion fleet had withdrawn had spread like wildfire amongst the planets populous judging by the level of celebration that was occurring outside the massive bunker complex that the Raiders had taken up as their Headquarters whilst they were planetside. Kerrigan had gotten the Zerg to withdraw once the Dominion forces had either been annihilated or had surrendered, mostly the former if she was honest with herself.

She knew that even if she had just saved them from being massacred by the Dominion, the Terrans would not be trusting of her anytime in the near future given the events of the Brood war. Ducking through the doorway into the main command room, she smiled slightly to herself as she saw Valerian’s eyes widen as he noticed her.  The crown prince managed to control his reaction and bowed slightly before speaking.

“Well Kerrigan we owe you a debt of gratitude for saving our lives. Without you turning up I doubt even the Hyperion could have made it out past the Dominion fleet.” Sarah nodded in acknowledgement, ignoring the stares of suspicious looks she was getting from the people in the room that weren’t in raiders colours.

“Well I will remind you of that fact the next time you try and treat my Zerg and I like lab experiments. Now, I hear that you have the ghost Nova here...”  The reason she wanted to see Nova; to finish what she started before the hybrids had attacked, went unsaid.  Valerian seemed to get the idea easily enough as he shifted to stand between her and one of the doors leading off from the room, perfect.

“Kerrigan, we can’t let you kill her, she has vital information about Mengsk’s operations and plans.” Kerrigan brushed him out of the way with one hand as she snorted at what Valerian had said, she had worked under and been betrayed by the man in question, she knew him better than most.

“Mengsk tells no-one anything vital to his operations unless they need to know it. He will have changed plans, authorisation codes and operational plans the moment Nova went down, she isn’t going to be much use to anyone soon enough.”  Striding down the corridor with Valerian following as best he could, she followed the psionic presence she could feel being muffled, probably by psionic inhibitors. It lead to the end of the corridor where 2 Raiders stood armed and ready. Valerian tried one more time to convince her.

“Kerrigan, please, remember that Nova is nothing but the tool, she was just following orders.” Taking a deep breath to stop herself lashing out at the man Kerrigan turned and looked down at him.

“I have been in her shoes Valerian, doing terrible things is what those like us are forced to do in order to survive and what we do is often beyond our control.” Kerrigan turned and strode to the door, which one of the marines opened after a nod from Valerian. Seeing Nova stiffen up as she spotted her, Kerrigan turned her head to throw her final piece at Valerian.

“But I haven’t forgiven myself for what I have done, so why should I forgive her...” As she finished speaking the door slid shut, leaving Kerrigan alone with the captured ghost, who was chained to the far wall with a psi-screen on the floor in front of her, obviously for an interrogator to use.

Nova seemed to be holding herself together remarkably well, the only sign of fear exhibited was a very minor hand tremor that would be very difficult to spot if not for Kerrigan’s advanced senses. She also felt Nova reach out and try and reach into her brain, though when she easily rebuffed the attack the blonde haired woman didn’t react in the slightest. The attack simply hit her psionic shields and rolled off it in waves of seemingly random force. Ignoring the strange psionics Kerrigan strode up to Nova with a pleased smile on her face.

“Well Nova, here we are again and this time there is not going to be any last minute reprieve to stop me getting my revenge.” Her left hand shot out and grabbed the imprisoned ghost by the neck, lifting her into the air despite her struggles.

Nova glared at Kerrigan but said nothing, all fear gone from her and replaced by a dead look, something she recognised after a moment as the way her face had looked in the viewing ports after hearing of Jim’s death. They stood there for several seconds and Kerrigan slowly found her anger at the ghost fading rather than growing as she had expected it would, Jim’s voice appearing in her head once more.

“We are the good guys, acting like the Confederacy will make us just as bad as they are.” With a growl Kerrigan threw Nova back against the wall and clenched her fists.

“Damn it Jim, get out of my head.” Kerrigan turned to leave, no desire to be in the same room as Nova now that the joy of revenge had evaporated from her, when the jangle of chains preempted the ghost’s call to her.

“Kerrigan, wait.” Pausing she turned round and faced the kneeling ghost, who looked up at her seriously.

“Before I tell you anything, I have to ask you a question. The emperor mentioned Tarsonis as an apology to you, but he has always claimed that the vid-logs that the rebels broadcast were faked... Did he really abandon you like that... Like...” Me, the word didn’t have to be said out loud as Nova seemed to collapse in on herself for Sarah to pick it up psionically, given how the ghost projected it subconsciously.

Nova’s expression hadn’t changed but her slumped posture and fluctuating psionic aura were easy signs at the low ebb the ghost had reached. For the first time Kerrigan saw the similarities to this woman’s situation and the state she had been in those last soul destroying moments before the Zerg had taken her on Tarsonis. She nodded her head slowly, noting the complete slumping of Nova’s shoulders as she did so.  

“Yes, it was before the Dominion was founded, we were just the sons of Korhal back then, a ragtag group of renegades trying to take down the Confederacy. Tarsonis was Arcturus’ big scheme, meant to use the Zerg to take out the key military positions for us to take control from the Confederacy.” For the first time in their short interaction a glint entered Nova’s eyes as she straightened up a bit more.

Turning back to face Nova fully Kerrigan sat herself upon the floor, if she was going to be telling the whole story then she was going to be there a while...

Timeskip: 40 minutes.

Opening the door Kerrigan was unsurprised to see Valerian stood there, looking like he had done nothing but stand and fret since she had entered. The fretting was certainly understandable, especially given the shouting and damage she had done in the last few minutes. Opening the door wide enough to show Nova sat perfectly well, Kerrigan couldn’t resist as Valerian’s eyes widened.

“She’s all yours boys, I think you will find her a lot more pliable now at least.” She strode off before Valerian managed to regain his senses, the smirk not leaving her face as she gave one final comment, knowing it would have the same level of impact on Valerian as it did her.

“And she says that Jim is alive and on a secret jail ship, though why Mengsk has not got him on Korhal within arms reach is beyond me.”  Valerian looked like he was going to faint at this news which was amusing to watch even as the two Raider guards began rapidly shouting into their comms units, obviously spreading the information as fast as they could.

The news Nova had given her had definitely been hard to believe at first and she had nearly unleashed her psionics on the woman for lying once more. It was only after atomising the psy-shield and leaving several heavy rents in the cell walls did she realise that pretending to kill Jim but keeping him jailed was exactly what Mengsk would do, to keep the hostage as a distraction in case she did come after him. She knew she should feel some relief or joy at the news, something beyond the feeling of dread that was building up in her stomach.

Jim being alive would be a good thing in an ideal world, but Kerrigan knew that her return to leader of the swarm and her transformation would affect things between the two of them. And that was if she managed to find the man and rescued him before Mengsk could actually make true on the original broadcast. Losing Jim again would definitely be too much. Leaving Valerian to check on Nova’s condition, she walked through the bunker complex silently, only speaking again as she walked through an empty stretch of corridor.

“You do know that I am aware of your presence and that you had a gun pointed at my head for the first five minutes of my conversation with Nova...” There was a shimmer from the corner of her eye before out from under his cloak a tall well built man with long dreadlocks, dark skin and deadly eyes glowing with white psy light appeared.

He had his Gauss assault rifle pointed unshakingly at Kerrigan’s face as she turned to face him, the subtle flickering of thoughts that had pinpointed his presence to her initially was now completely gone as he spoke.

“You be very different from what I imagined, Kerrigan. Though I be seeing why you had Raynor in such a rush to be getting you back. Not that I be owing the man anything for what he did to me Spectres...”

Kerrigan recognised the man once he used the word spectre, Jim had told her about the adventures that he had gotten into whilst trying to rescue her from the Zerg.

“Gabriel Tosh, the reports of your death have been exaggerated greatly it seems. Though why you are guarding the woman who supposedly killed you is most interesting...” Tosh didn’t even react to the insinuations, though he did shrug a moment later and holstered the rifle.

“Nova and me, we be going back a long way, not that she be remembering most of it now. I cover her back, whether she wants me there or not.” The cloaking and thought repression made a lot more sense now, though how Tosh had been in the area to follow Nova....

Kerrigan did not have time to try and work out why the man had appeared or followed her as he had, she had to find Jim and the sooner the better. Turning away, Kerrigan began striding away down the corridor, slightly annoyed that Tosh fell into a light jog behind her to keep up.

“I do not have time for pleasantries Tosh, I know you and Jim didn’t part on the best of terms.” Tosh scoffed at this and muttered something but she ignored him as they entered the main bunker command area.

Matt had returned there at some point whilst she was with Nova and from the looks of it he had gotten her news from the rapid scrolling of information on the screens in front of him. The appearance of Tosh had several of the guards raising their guns in their direction, though a glare from Kerrigan got most of them to back down before Matt noticed their arrival.

“Kerrigan how did you, Tosh? What the hell are you doing back here... Never mind. Kerrigan how do you know that Jim is still alive?” Kerrigan waved over her shoulder back towards Nova’s cell.

“Mr Dark and brooding is here to protect our newest VIP in case someone tries to finish what I started before the hybrids turned up. Nova and I... lets just say she told me about how she delivered Jim alive to some operation she called ‘Final Justice’ and I know I can trust her to tell me the truth.”  Matt seemed to think on what she had said for a moment.

“That name rings a bell, but everything on it gets redacted as soon as its published, the only place that such information on this ‘Final Justice’ might exist on paper outside of Mengsk’s own head is...” Tosh interjected at this point with a fierce look.

“Final Justice be where they takin’ my boys now that New Folsom be compromised. I been trying to find that place for almost a year. Only data about it is held on the Secure Operations network and it be takin’ more than you to be getting that data.” Matt nodded at this though looked distinctly queasy for some reason.

“Yes, only one person could break into that network that isn’t already imprisoned there or working for the dominion and well, he might be a bit a challenge to get hold of.” Kerrigan snarled in impatience and flexed her hands into fists.

“Who do I need to beat down, terrify or slaughter to get this information Matt! Time is of the essence!” Matt shook his head as he finished typing on his console.

“As much as I would like you to jump into fighting against the dominion to get hold of the person we need, he’s held by someone I cannot in good mind let you go off and kill or cripple for no good reason.” Matt was being very evasive even for his usual level of refined wariness of her and realising that her anger was probably not going to help matters, so she took a deep breath and calmed herself as best she could before pressing the matter.

“Matt, who is it we are after and who is it that has gotten them? Its not Warfield whose holding them? I though...” She paused as Matt slammed his hands into the monitor, an angry side that she had never encountered before now.

“WARFIELD? You think he could do anything other than oversee operations or training of our new recruits after what you did to him? But no, the person we are after is Colonel Orlan, an expert in Confederate and Dominion security systems. And the person who is holding him on Jim’s request after he betrayed us last time is...”

“Your wife Matthew? I never knew you cared so much...” The Eastern European accent that interrupted Matt pre-empted the appearance on the main bridge hologram of a hard looking woman with pink hair and a shoddily done red ocular implant marring what Kerrigan could otherwise freely admit was a pretty face.

Not that the face could distract her from the bombshell that had just been dropped on her as she practically screamed at Matt.

“You’re Married?? When, what, how?” Judging by the smirk that appeared on the woman’s face for a moment before she noticed who was talking as well as Matt’s stuttering, it was going to be one hell of a story. Mira looked Kerrigan up and down for a moment before turning back to Matt.

“Matthew, I know you are still upset at the events on Paradise with getting injured. But you don’t write, you don’t call... I would almost think that you don’t care. Given the women you are with, should I be getting jealous?”

Matt paled at the implication but didn’t offer an immediate rebuttal, something Kerrigan was more than happy to supply for him.

“Watch your mouth woman or I will tear your other eye out and choke you with it.” To Kerrigan’s surprise the woman laughed the threat off.

“You have a feisty one indeed Matthew, I can see why you like her.” Kerrigan barely held back the urge to crush the viewing screen as anger swelled inside her. But before she could do so Matt seemed to undergo a change in personality and stepped from his personal console towards the large hologram.

“Mira, you do know you are actively pissing off the former Queen of Blades right?” That little titbit caused a reaction as Mira paled slightly turned back and forth between the two of them for a moment before sighing to herself.

“You have very dangerous friends Matthew and I do not ask questions, even though I should. I assume she is the reason for the call then rather than just to... catch up.” Though the Mercenary tried her best to sound blase about the whole thing Kerrigan could tell that if the call was just business it would definitely hurt. With a small smirk Kerrigan shook her head and answered before Matt could, deciding to get back at him for not revealing the marriage info earlier.

“There was some business, but he also wanted to introduce you to us. I think his words were ‘The most dependable and talented mercenary I know.’” Matt seemed to have worked on his death stare since they had last worked together as she could feel it even as Mira blushed slightly and looked remarkably pleased with herself.

“Matthew, I knew that you cared really. If you are going to go around saying things like that a girl could get ideas...” Matt obviously decided that he wasn’t going to try and fight that one as he sighed and pressed on the point of the conversation.

“Mira, not now please, I am here to ask for your help. I need Colonel Orlan back to hack into the Dominions deep encryption network, he’s the only one we know of that can do it.” Mira frowned at that and glanced at Kerrigan.

“I wish I could help, but I will need the permission of James Raynor to do so.” The bitch knew perfectly well that Jim was officially dead Kerrigan thought as Matt managed to maintain his composure.

“Jim’s the reason why we need him Mira, I know you follow the news well enough to have heard the stories, but they are not true.” Mira seemed to think on it for a moment before grinning slightly to herself.

“Oh dear, well as he’s the client that asked me to hold onto Orlan, I cannot give him to you. Even if you threaten to set the Queen of Blades on me. A mercenaries reputation is all that she has Matthew.”  Blades flew from Kerrigan’s wrists as her hair splayed out backwards from the force of her psionics as she spoke.

“You have your life mercenary, do not make me come and take Orlan from you or the swarm will have great pleasure in taking that from you as well.” Mira did actually look a little afraid at that but she quickly regained her confidence before speaking for the last time.

“If a man with such devilish good looks and brooding intensity as my husband cannot persuade me, what made you think that your threats would. I would not send your swarm against me or I might be forced to ensure Orlan has a little accident. Then we would all be unhappy...” Then the projection cut out, leaving the Terran’s in the control room shifting away from her as she imagined skewering the insufferable woman on a spike and feeding her to Zerglings.  Matt shook his head with a wry smile.

“Never thought I would find someone who could rile you up quite so easily Kerrigan, maybe Mira does have her good points.” The smile faded as he looked at Kerrigan seriously.

“Kerrigan, I know you probably want to go and do some terrifying slaughter of Mira’s operations or something, but I think she was serious about killing Orlan if you are there. Let me handle this, as much as I don’t like it Mira has a soft spot for me that will probably work for our advantage. You should probably go see your men, they had it bad out there with those hybrids.”

Her anger faded at that point and she nodded whilst counting to ten repeatedly in her head. Better to let Matt handle this than lose her one chance at getting Jim back...

Timeskip: 3 hours.

Persona: Lasarra.

The human ceremony for their dead was certainly different to the Khala rituals her own people observed Lasarra thought as she moved back through the Leviathan back to the evolution chamber where she and the other protoss had taken up residence.

The dead Terran marines had all placed in a row on raised wooden platforms on Morecamb’s surface, near the site of the battle they had all died in. Kerrigan had stood in front of the remaining Terran’s, who were stood in perfect rows weapons ready and firebats making up the front line of the group, whilst she made a speech that stuck with Lasarra remarkably clearly.

*Flashback*

Kerrigan was stood very stiffly at the front of the Rifles, ignoring the local news network crews that had gathered to the scene as Protoss, Zerg and Terran all stood in attendance for the first time in living memory. Lasarra was stood by herself though amongst the Raider troops that had attended the event.

Zeratul disappearing after the hybrids had been defeated, stating that the appearance of more of these things made the threat even more grave than he had imagined. Lasarra was drawn from her musing as Kerrigan spoke, her voice crossing the wide space clearly and loudly, aimed obviously at the crowd rather than her own me.

“The Queens Rifles fought for the first time today, against foes that are far beyond any we have faced thus far in our mission to topple Mengsk from his corrupted throne. I stand before you not as the leader of the swarm, but as a General to these men. Whilst we dealt with these foul abominations and freed Morecamb from the Dominion’s foul grip, the price we paid is high.” She gestured forwards with a hand, her voice cracking in a surprising display of emotion for the leader of the swarm.

The hand gesture had obviously been a signal as the firebats all marched forwards, each to a separate pyre. Kerrigan waited for them to get into position again before speaking once more.

“Mengsk thinks that these losses will dishearten us, make us roll over and give up like so many of his previous foes.  Well I say this, we have a chance to stand together against him. Not as Zerg and Terrans, not as former allies or enemies, but fight as part of Raynor’s raiders and honour the memory of the man who has made so many sacrifices for the Korpulu sector. Remember Tarsonis, remember James Raynor!” As she spoke the last bit the firebats all ignited their burners, setting the what were now clearly pyres alight. There was silence for a moment before a cry came from Lassara’s left, a young Terran girl who had raised her hand in the air determinedly.

“Remember James Raynor, remember the Queens Rifles!” Her mother looked down at her shocked for a moment before a burly Raider in marauder uniform next to Lassara thrust his hand into the air as well.

“Remember Marsarra. Remember the Fallen!” Soon everyone was cheering their own cries of remembrance and it was only when Lassara looked back to the pyres did she see Kerrigan stood there, wet marks lining her cheeks as she watched those around her.

Kerrigan then headed over to where the news reporters were stood and though they were obviously afraid of her, none of them were going to miss the chance at this story...

*Flashback End*

Shaking her head as she felt her mood improve at the memory of the Terrans Lassara entered the lab, which had become a mixture of Protoss labs and the original evolution chamber. The Protoss research team were already working once more, if there were more of these hybrids out there then the weapons used by the Rifles would have to be improved as soon as possible.

The main problem was that nearly all Protoss technology utilised their psionic abilities, and very few of the humans showed even a slight psionic aptitude. They had come up with a few possible ways round the problem since they had first been picked up on Kaldir, but that was not the immediate focus of her attention.

The sight of one of the critically injured marines that had been ‘treated’ by the parasite that Kerrigan and Abathur had created was awake and sitting up on one of the treatment counters that had been grown from the Leviathan. What was more amazing to Lassara was that the man was almost a foot taller than he had been when he had been brought in, as well as the fact he had both of his legs back where before there had been nothing but stumps. The marine in question saluted awkwardly in her direction as she approached that Abathur was also lurking nearby, looking over the other 8 marines that had been treated.

“Ma’am, the other Protoss said that you would want to see me.” Well that made a lot of sense, they were probably as amazed by the change that the man had undergone as she was.

“Yes, are the others similarly recovered? Any adverse symptoms due to the procedure?” The marine shrugged before gesturing at his legs.

“The new legs are taking some getting used to ma’am, when I tried standing earlier I was all over the place. Also I can feel my new...guest moving around in here, but considering I owe it my life I will live with it, or at least try to.” At this he gestured to his stomach, where the parasite that Kerrigan had infected him with was taking up residence. Lassara couldn’t imagine how weird and terrifying such a feeling would be, but Terran’s had in her limited experience shown great ability to put up with and adapt to discomfort.

“Evolution refined, based on new Queen of Blades. Genetic strands well formed, benefits to durability and strength as well as regenerative powers.” Lassara liked to think it was a testament to her developing patience that she did not reflexively jump when Abathur suddenly spoke from behind her.

The evolution master having obviously skittered to the position for the sole attempt of trying to scare her. Trying to stop her irritation from pervading her voice Lassara turned to face Abathur.

“That is good to hear Abathur, anything else I should be aware of before I inform Kerrigan of the news? I imagine this will improve her mood significantly.” Abathur clicked away for a moment before one of his spindly tendrils brought from nowhere a modified protoss psionic blade.

“Last development surprising but not entirely unexpected.” The marine raised his hand in an expectant manner as the tendril expertly placed the psionic blade around his wrist, the marine flicking his hand and the psionic blade flickering into life.

“Psionic development in all subjects. Levels typical of Terran ghost, but focussed into physical augmentation, similar to Queen of Blades. Satisfactory evolution.” Taking Abathur’s words in, Lassara was far less restrained with her reaction.

“This is brilliant! To be able to regenerate such damage and improve the Terran biology so much! There are so many tests I want to run and with their new psionics they can fight against those things Kerrigan faced below. Faroz, Harei, get the equipment ready, we have a lot of work to do!” And not much time to do it in if the altered marines were going to be ready for when Kerrigan’s people found where Jim was being held.

And when they did find him, well Lassara didn’t want to think too much about it too much. Lassara got the feeling that if anything would bring the old Queen of Blades back, it would be something going wrong with that mission. And if that happened, then Lassara truly worried for all of the people in the Korpulu sector, whether they were serving under Mengsk or not...

Persona: Za'gara

She had never felt such pain, even when the Queen of Blades had expressed her extreme displeasure at her arrogance on Char. She had secreted away the ancient ones biomass after the Queen had left the planet in a rush to help her precious Terrans.

She had consumed less than half of it before the pain had kicked in, leaving her languishing in her hidden lair as her subservient queens monotonously continued her previous orders, seemingly incapable of hearing her orders to help her.

Then as she spasmed in pain once again, her body shifting and growing into a new and uncomfortable form, a terribly familiar voice entered her head, reverberating through her skull and almost making her black out from the pain.

"Not the host I was expecting to end up inside of. I was hoping to take the Queen of Blades body as my new shell and trap her inside her own body as I took the galaxy for myself. But you false Zerg, and your minions... You will do nicely for my plan of revenge..."

Chapter Text

Persona- Lassara

Looking down at the once verdant and green planet that had been transformed into a craggy and desolate wasteland, Lassara found that the destruction only slightly diminished the feeling of awe that she felt.

"Aiur, our homeland. When you said that we would be going somewhere to hopefully improve Protoss relations should they discover your return General, this is not what I thought you meant." She was talking to Kerrigan via a communications terminal on the bridge of the Queens Rifles newest acquisition, a frigate class battle cruiser that had originally been named 'Pride of the Dominion', but it had quickly been rechristened ‘The Rifled Stockade’.

The name was both an honour to the formation of the Rifles, but it was also a somewhat joking reference to the newly formed regiments lack of general equipment and heavy weapons. How they came to have such a vessel in their possession was due to the events that occurred after the funeral.

The press coverage that Kerrigan had received on Morecamb had revitalised the rebels fight against Mengsk, both there on Morecamb where rapid training and rebuilding was being undertaken as ships began to pour in and throughout the Dominion, where the footage was shared widely despite efforts by Dominion Security to censor the videos as quickly as possible.

She had spoken at length to the nervous but somewhat awed news reporters about the truth behind the events surrounding her becoming the Queen of Blades, the fall of the Confederacy and rise of the Zerg all came out, resting the blame firmly in Mengsk's court for what she had done once infected by the Overmind.

The battlecruiser had arrived in Morecamb space a week later, quickly making it clear that it was not here to fight as over a dozen leviathans readied for combat against it. Though suspicious, Kerrigan had allowed for a shuttle to travel to the planet for a face to face meeting.

The ship’s captain, Katherine Ryker, had been the daughter of colonists who had been living on Tarsonis when the Zerg had wiped the planet clean. She had managed to evacuate on one of the few lifeboats that managed to escape orbit, her parents and younger brother had not. Ryker had joined up with the newly formed Dominion with a burning hatred for the Zerg and had proceeded to battle them at every opportunity, earning commendation after commendation, reaching the rank of captain before the UED invasion that had signalled the start of the Brood Wars.

The new threat had forced her to withhold her hatred as she worked with Admiral Duke on the frontlines of the war, assisting both Zerg and Protoss when needed in fighting off the interlopers. Whether due to her paranoia or simple luck she managed to evade the Zerg betrayal that cost Duke his life and the lives of most his men, coordinating the retreat of the survivors of both the Terrans and the Protoss.

Ryker hadn't expanded on what happened after those terrible events on Augustgrad to her arrival in Morecambe space, but she had been prepared for a full telepathic scan by Kerrigan to prove she and the skeleton crew she had left on the Pride were trustworthy. Kerrigan had read her mind for barely thirty seconds before pulling back with a sad smile and giving the suddenly stiff Terran an awkward hug.

Kerrigan hadn't expanded on what she had seen to anyone, but the Stockade had joined up with the rebel fleet formations in short order and filled with the original Rifles and their equipment in little to no time. The reason for this separation of Kerrigan’s Terran and Zerg forces was for more than just logistical purposes, the lie Lassara and the other commanders knew had just been told to the Rifles to avoid any feelings of animosity.

The truth of the matter was there had been several attacks by the Primal Zerg under Dehaka on the newly named 'General’s Blades' as the infested Terrans had quickly been nicknamed. The Primals had been easily dealt with by the new meta-humans, but when Kerrigan had confronted Dehaka about the incidents he had been entirely unrepentant in his belief that the Primal Zerg did not need to be reigned in.

His suggestion that the survival of the fittest was all that mattered had caused no small amount of anger amongst the other leaders. It had been Mendez that had suggested the segregation idea, before Kerrigan let her frustration at the stubborn and unreasonable Primal boil over.

The medic had become the general’s closest confidant over the course of their rapidly progressing campaign against the Dominion, often discussing matters in private with her before anything was brought to the other commanders.

If not for Kerrigan’s obvious devotion to the still missing Raynor Lasarra might have assumed that there was something more going on, certainly several of the Terrans had jokingly discussed such things amongst themselves in the cantina areas after several human beverages. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts of such things as Kerrigan began to reply, Lasarra instead focussed on the General’s words in response to her own comments.

"Well as we are waiting for Matt and the raiders to locate Colonel Orlan I felt that we should keep up our momentum in a way that Mengsk could not use as an excuse. From the memories Zeratul showed Raynor before he rescued me there are literally billions of Zerg here that can be assimilated into the swarm. Also if there are still remnants of Protoss here, saving any we can is a big bonus that will hopefully make it less likely the Golden Armada will turn up when they finally do realise I am back."  

It was a bleak hope and Lasarra knew that Kerrigan did not truly believe it herself, but such an action definitely proved to her more than anything else that Kerrigan had changed considerably from when she had first met her on Kaldir, something that now seemed a lifetime ago rather than a few Terran months. Kerrigan continued speaking even as Lasarra thought on this, outlining the initial plan.

"As this is the resting place of the Overmind, the residual psionic footprint will have a large effect on the Zerg on the planet as well as making it harder for me to exert any form of psionic control over the swarms down there. As such the Blades and I will lead a Zerg group down there to investigate a suitable deployment zone and to take control of any other Zerg in the area. Felicity and Ryker will coordinate the rifles to deploy after we have cleared a landing area suitable for defensive purposes. This will most likely be a long operation and I want it done slowly and properly, nobody is to do anything stupid and get themselves killed understand?"

There was a chorus of yes' and aye’s from those that were gathered in the command room before Kerrigan cut the connection, obviously going to get herself prepared for the battle to come, something that Lasarra would have to do so as well. This was her homeworld and there was no way she was going to miss the chance to  take part in reclaiming it once more...

Timeskip

Persona- Sarah Kerrigan

As they hit the ground for their third combat insertion of the cycle, Kerrigan found herself surprisingly at home with being part of a team once more, even a team as unique as the one she was currently in. Even as she straightened up her Blades were already cutting down the nearest feral Zerglings with their gauss rifles.

The gauss rifles were using an experimental ammo supply that Lasarra, the Protoss scientists and the Raiders research groups had been working on since the events on Morecamb, seeing how effective psionics had been against Mengsk’s monsters in comparison to normal weaponry.

The bullets were only capable of slower velocities than the normal rounds for the weapons, meaning that there was a small decrease in basic damage potential. It did allow for psionic energy imprinting however, which when activated detonated the fired shells to deadly effect, something they hoped would prove effective against any more of the monsters Mengsk had sent against her.

The ammo was still temperamental at best, they had two cases thus far of bullets activating in the magazine, maiming the Blades who had been using them at the time. However their regenerative properties as well as Felicity’s tender mercies had them both back on their feet quickly enough, and each battle gave them more data to improve the equipment for eventual widespread use amongst the Rifles as a whole.

With the 9 Blades set up in a covering pattern around their medivac transport, picking off any Zerg determined enough to get close to them, Kerrigan reached out psionically. She had already done this at the other two sites on the southern continent of Aiur where they had landed and built up staging posts of Zerg and Terran buildings.

But what she had found there and found now was that the wild Zerg here had been so damaged, by the psionic energy released during and after the death of the Overmind, that they had evolved to ignore psionic controls. They were like the Primal Zerg on Zerus, only these Zerg had no higher brain functions of their own, revolving instead around the three primal needs of the Zerg; food, psionic energy and prey.

Therefore the only way for her to build her armies numbers up here would be to harvest the wild Zerg for their biomass, which whilst easy to do due to the lack of organisation amongst the wild packs was not a quick or rewarding task. With a burst of psionic energy Kerrigan blasted an approaching hydralisk before it could flare its spines, sending its corpse flying backwards into the new mob of wild Zerg that followed behind it.

A telepathic order had the nearest trio of blades turn and unleash a scathing fusillade of gauss rounds into the nearest mob creatures even as Kerrigan powered towards them, psionic armour covering her face seamlessly as she jumped high into the air before cannonballing into the middle of them, outer armour shattering into to deadly shrapnel even as her blades struck out in a whirlwind of destruction.

The mob of a hundred zerglings, hydralisks and roaches was dead or scattered in less than a minute, the Blades splitting into their preordained 3 man kill teams to clear the area as the first overlord floated to the ground above them. Looking at the remaining members of their strike force, Kerrigan was impressed with the amount of firepower Lasarra was wielding from inside her modified goliath, twin cannons spitting fire as they mowed down a pair of encroaching wild zerglings.

Lasarra had insisted on taking an active involvement in the reclaiming of her races homeworld, though Kerrigan wondered whether it was just an excuse to get away from the lab and more importantly Abathur, who Kerrigan knew from personal experience could be a little much if given the opportunity.

Lasarra was backed up by Tosh and Nova, who had been released to Kerrigan after a quick ‘discussion’ with the Rebel leaders, in which Kerrigan made it clear the ghost had been captured by her and therefore was hers to be dealt with. After their little session together Nova had retreated into her emotionless shell somewhat, but she had made it clear that she owed Kerrigan her life both with Mengsk’s sacrifice of her and saving her from the rebels, and would therefore fight for her until they brought Mengsk to justice.

Getting her to agree to work with Tosh, who she had been certain she had killed two years previous and very nearly killed again upon seeing him once more had been somewhat more difficult. Kerrigan was broken from musings by a gauss round whizzing past her, the screech of a wild Zergling making it clear she hadn’t been the target.

“You best not be daydreaming on de job General Kerrigan, we still be having lots of work to be done.” The dark skinned ex-ghost had a point and Kerrigan focussed on the battle without a word of thanks, after all none was really needed. There was a radio call from the Blade team on her left that she acknowledged even whilst fighting through another group of Zerglings that tried to approach the harvesting site.

“General, there are dozens of dead Zerg here leading on a trail away to the north, we definitely aren’t the only ones here. Judging by the bodies positions and wound markings, there are Protoss here and we are probably being watched even now. Orders?” The fact that they thought there might be Protoss watching explained why they used their radios rather than telepathy. But before Kerrigan could issue any orders, a deep Protoss voice spoke inside her mind.

“You step on sacred Protoss ground Queen of Blades, the Tal'darim will purge you and you tainted followers from this place.” Even as the first of the Protoss decloaked themselves, psionic blades shooting out of their armoured wrist guards and protective shields whirring to life, Kerrigan sighed as she remembered some of the stories that Jim had told her about these nut jobs and their allegiances.

The first one struck out at her as it charged along with its two comrades towards her, obviously judging the rest of the strike team to be inconsequential in comparison to her. It was a clumsy overconfident strike that she deflected over her shoulder even as the others on the strike team mowed his two comrades down with a hail of accurate and concentrated fire.

Even as she bisected the foolish attacker from the waist up Kerrigan realised it wouldn’t be all that bad. At least this time she didn’t have to worry about trying to save them from their own stupidity...

Timeskip:

It turned out that the Tal'darim were as incompetent at hiding their tracks as they were at combat strategy, a trail of dead Zerg made it very easy to follow to the Tal'darim base, a couple of miles from their insertion point. Kerrigan had left two teams of Blades and Lasarra guarding the harvesting site with a slowly growing swarm presence backing them up, whilst she lead the remaining team, Nova and Tosh to investigate the base.

The Tal'darim had obviously developed some kind of psionic cloaking/repelling technology which they had attached to each of their warriors as well as their buildings, working in the opposite manner to the psi emitter Mengsk had been so fond of using, wild Zerg forces giving it a wide berth as well as making it very difficult to sense the Protoss from any distance. It did nothing to stop a good old fashioned visual recon however as Kerrigan, Nova, Lasarra and the Blade team leader Sergeant Baines watched the bases activity from a tor overlooking the rather expansive base.

“There are at least a thousand Protoss here General, and that is not including any they may have in stasis or elsewhere that they can gate in if the base comes under attack. We should be glad that the patrol that found us was so overconfident and obviously didn’t tell the base about us before attacking, otherwise we would have been FUBAR for sure.” Gunnery Sergeant Baines was the largest of the new Blades after their transformations, growing almost an extra half a foot compared to the others.

This was something that Abathur had spent quite sometime researching in an effort to ‘isolate mutated gene for possible use in swarm. Giant Raptorlings definite potential if achieved at suitable additional demand of biomass.’ He was a blunt and honest man who would probably step up to fill the deceased Lieutenant Horace’s shoes commanding her Rifles once he had a little more battle experience. Kerrigan nodded in agreement with his assessment before summarising her own thoughts.

“Good assessment Gunny, a full assault would be a very costly and dangerous affair, but we cannot leave such a large base unattended whilst we try to harvest the wild Zerg. So how to best deal with the enemy at hand?” Nova spoke up at this point which surprised Kerrigan and the others quite a bit, Nova had taken to only talking to Kerrigan or Tosh in anything more than dismissive one or two syllable responses to any questions raised.

“Perhaps we don’t have to Sara... I mean General sir.” She trailed off at this point as she seemed to realise what she had done, before shaking herself slightly and speaking up once more.

“We know that the Protoss must have some kind of Zerg repelling device or technology inside this base, we have no Zerg lifesigns for almost a mile around us after all. We move in quietly with an elite squad such as this group whilst your Zerg lead a diversionary assault to distract the Tal’darim, find the source of this Zerg repelling technology and destroy it. You then just let off a giant psionic signal General and the wild Zerg will swarm this place in hours. The Tal’darim will be dealt with and thousands of wild Zerg will die in the process, leaving their bodies for us to harvest.” It was a good plan, whilst there were risks involved with the infiltration the potential payoffs were great enough to offset them. With a nod Kerrigan showed her assent to the plan, though she had some points of her own to add to it.

“Very well, Blade teams 1 and 3 will form the infiltration team whilst team 2 and I will lead the diversionary assault. Nova, you are in charge here, I will get the swarm ready and then it is on you." It was easy to tell the blonde was shocked by the sudden leadership role she had been thrust into, but Kerrigan knew the best way to get Nova interacting with others once more was to get her doing what she did best, and that was fighting on the field with small teams.

"But General, you would surely make a better choice for this..." Nova paused when Tosh put a hand on her shoulder, allowing Kerrigan to explain her logical reasoning behind the choice in leadership.

"Whilst I would definitely give the strike team much more combat power, I would also make infiltration next to impossible. I cannot suppress my psionic signature nearly enough to be invisible to a Protoss scan, honestly I am surprised they haven't sensed me yet. Once the diversionary attack begins they would sense my presence with the first sweep. But if I am part of the attacking group with my psionics flaring at full power, then the Protoss will be fixed on me and me alone, giving your team the chance it needs to succeed."

Whilst it was clear that Nova still would have preferred following orders to giving them, she couldn't argue with Kerrigan’s logic and nodded her head in understanding before giving a salute.

"Understood, we won't let you down general. Let me know when you are ready to begin your attack." Moving away from the tip of the ridge Kerrigan stood from her crouched position and began to jog back towards the last harvesting site they had cleared, it was going to be one hell of a battle against the Tal'darim, but she couldn't help looking forward to it.

As she caught sight of a small group of wild Zerglings moving towards her base, Kerrigan activated her blades even as she wondered how Matt was doing with obtaining Colonel Orlan from Mira...

Timeskip:

Persona- Matt Harper

Looking down at the strategic map display as several groups of raiders attacked a pirate base from different angles, breaking through the ramshackle defences with ease and storming into the motley group of buildings, Matt couldn't help but feel a slight annoyance that always came at this point in a mission.

It was all very well from a strategic point of view that he needed to be up here keeping control of the overall mission, but he missed the directness he could achieve when he had been a colony militia commander on the ground. One of the marine sergeants appeared on his monitor, sweating lightly under the systems twin suns.

“She isn’t here Commander, though we have several containers of high end minerals with her mark on them. I have the men ‘chatting’ with the survivors so hopefully one of them will be able to give us a lead, either on her or her operations. Anything else you wish for us to do?” Not the news Matt wanted to hear when he had heard that Mira had been operating out of this backwater station, though he supposed that kind of misdirection was exactly Mira’s style.

She could hardly have her location known throughout the sector, what would stop her enemies from dealing with her... It clicked in his mind even as he spoke hurriedly to the Sergeant.

“Sergeant, have your men find out who has been trying to cut into Mira’s business or has reason to want her dead as well as what they can find out about her.”  The marine was obviously confused but didn’t comment out of respect for his position as he clicked off the channel, a soft cultured voice from behind Matt showing him that Prince Valerian did not have the same restraint.

“Why are you so interested in Mira’s enemies Matt? If I did not know any better, I would say that you cared a lot more about this mercenary woman than you let on. I imagine Kerrigan would have a field day with such information.” Matt winced at the final point, he knew that the woman would pounce on the idea and never let go of it, which would cause him no telling how much emotional trauma in the long run.

Rather than try and work out his answer to the veiled accusation, which would involve him knowing his own opinion on the woman who equal parts terrified and amused him, Matt instead went for the safest perceived answer of avoiding the topic altogether.

“Mira’s enemies will have been tracking her years trying to get enough of an advantage to take her out of the already crowded pile. Whilst they obviously won’t have enough information individually to let us know where to go, if we take out a few of them and grab their information...”   Valerian moved to stand beside him as he looked out onto the empty void with a small look of smug comprehension on his face.

“Then we will be able to piece it together to have an actual strike location for her or her operations. That is very clever thinking, but this won’t be easy Matt, I imagine the majority of the list includes some of the most powerful and ruthless criminals and organisations in the sector. Even with the recruitment boost from Morecamb and the other rebel recruits it will be dicey as to whether or not we have the manpower to take on one of them let alone an entire group of them.” Matt couldn't help but chuckle at this even as he activated the ship’s long range communications array.

"Valerian, why fight alone when we have an angry Zerg General who will quite happily slaughter anyone who stands between her and getting Jim back?" The grin on his face was soon mirrored on Valerian’s own even as both sent a quick mental apology to the poor bastards that would suffer Kerrigans wrath...

Persona- Felicity Mendez

The diversionary attack and infiltration attempts against the Protoss, who Kerrigan had referred to as the Tal’darim, had gone well at first, something Mendez was succinctly aware of as she looked down at the map of the area, which the Stockade had scanned in detail after Kerrigans initial attack wave.

Mendez had taken responsibility for controlling the Rifles for this operation, leaving Kerrigan free to focus attention on her Zerg forces. If you had asked her a few months previously if she would ever have seen herself commanding what was in effect a large company of soldiers on the battlefield she would have been horrified, having no experience of the strategies and tactics involved in a large scale campaign.

Luckily all she had been required to do over the last couple of months was base defence and operational clean up whilst Kerrigan and her Zerg had done the majority of the offensive work. Not that she got the easy roles all the time Mendez mused as she tracked the medivac coming from the battlefield to the ship, the first of potentially half a dozen.

“You better get down to the hangar Lieutenant. Do not worry, I will handle things on the ground.” The light wheeze that accompanied Captain Ryker’s light tenor tone reminded Mendez that she needed to have another look at Captain Ryker’s injuries that she had sustained at Augustgrad, claw wounds from the left hip to the upper torso from a Zergling who had mauled her, before a firebat had wrestled the thing off and torched it.

Looking at the indomitable captain stood in standard marine armour even on the bridge, Mendez couldn’t help but contrast her to the woman she had found barely able to stand for the medical tests she had insisted on the week before, when she and the other rifles had embarked on the ship.

It was a true sign of the woman’s determination to ensure she did not show weakness or distress in front of her crew, something Mendez could respect even if medically all she wanted to do was section the woman until more in depth treatments could be conducted. Seeing the woman’s raised eyebrow Mendez realised she had gotten lost in her thoughts and with a hurried cough she nodded her head and stepped towards the elevator that would take her to the hangar. Even as the elevator descended Ryker contacted her on her comms unit.

“We have just received a message from the Raiders flagship the Hyperion Lieutenant, they want to talk to General Kerrigan and she said to pass everything to you before the mission. Should I patch you in?” Mendez thought about it for a moment before replying, it was probably just an update on the hunt for Mira Han and Colonel Orlan.

“Sure, the transport will be another couple of minutes anyways.” There was a short buzz before Matt’s voice, which had become more and more familiar since this strange alliance had begun, began speaking.

“Felicity, are you with Kerrigan as our pursuit of Mira has given us an opportunity to do the galaxy some good and get some intel on Mira’s operations at the same time. We will need some Zerg support if we are too pull it off however, is Kerrigan busy?”  An understatement of the situation on the ground certainly, but Mendez knew that Kerrigan would want to help the search for Jim in anyway she could.

“We are currently conducting operations against the Protoss Tal’darim on the planet of Aiur Matt, so Kerrigan is a little busy, but I will contact her and let you know when we can get support too you as soon as possible.” As she stepped out of the elevator into the main hangar bay of the Stockade Mendez covered her eyes as the medivac she had been waiting on entered the hangar and spun before shifting to the side in order to land in an orderly fashion next to the other vessels that lined the vast cargo space.

The two squads of marines, new recruits from Morecamb under the watchful eye of Sergeant Jacobs, who had exchanged his firebat armour for Marauder armour soon after the events on Zerus as in his own words ‘we have Zerglings now to do my job, and I always wanted to use some of the big guns.’ He and the marines saluted as she approached where they had taken positions facing the medivac, Jacobs opening his helmet and emitting a cascade of smoke even as he spoke.

“Now boys, nice and easy does it. Word from planetside is that these guys don’t want our heads quite as much as the other bastards do. So no itchy triggers unless I give the order.”  At that moment the bay doors on the medi-vac started to lower with a hiss causing a couple of the marines to jump and raise their weapons worriedly even as the doors reached the ground and the first of the marine escort lead Mendez’s new guests into the hangar.

Three Protoss stepped unsurely down the ramp dressed in the garb of their dark templar sect, each hunched over due to what must have been a prolonged captivity with the Tal’darim. Stepping forwards Mendez began talking, in the hope that it would calm both sides down a little.

“Greetings, I am Lieutenant Mendez and you are now aboard the Rifled Stockade. I am to understand that you oppose the Tal’darim on Aiur and were being held captive by them?” There was a pause as the three looked at each other before the Templar on the left stepped forward and spoke to her telepathically.

“You... Terran, you serve under the Queen of Blades and the Zerg? What great changes have occurred whilst we were trapped on Aiur that even our own kind work with the destroyer of worlds that Zeratul described when he came to delve into the memories of the Overmind.” Mendez sighed to herself as she wished once more that the enigmatic dark prince had not taken off after the encounter with what he referred to as the ‘hybrids’ on the battlefield of Morecamb, his insight dealing with first the Tal’darim and then these Templar would have been most useful.

But that was wishful thinking at best so she returned to the matter and the protoss in front of her, even though their energy weapons had been taken from them and were being kept on Aiur at the moment they were still a threat that could not be ignored out of hand.

“Sarah is no longer the Queen of Blades that Zeratul would have described to you, the fact that we stand here talking should be proof enough of that. Now I have orders to escort you to where the other Protoss are residing, I hope they can explain what has happened here and elsewhere better than I can. Please understand that we will be guarding you until we leave Aiur for our own safety, your leaders have not shown much restraint in dealing with Sarah and we cannot have the Golden Armada coming down on us.”

The three Protoss looked a little confused at her last comment and Mendez realised that if the Golden Armada had been formed as a direct response to Sarah’s first rise to power as the Queen of Blades, then those that had been trapped upon Aiur would not know of it or the threat associated with it. The Protoss leader looked across at the two other two Protoss before nodding his head slowly.

“It is not as if you give us much choice in the matter Lieutenant, but the fact that the Queen of Blades saved our lives and is fighting against both our fallen brothers and the Aiur Zerg cannot be ignored and definitely . What will happen to us when the Queen is done here? Will we be able to return to our brothers on the planet below or are we to remain prisoners here?” Mendez wasn’t sure how to respond to that as that decision was Kerrigan’s alone, which the Templar accepted easily enough as she explained that fact

Walking with them towards the Protoss sector of the ship Mendez braced herself before centering her mind and thinking as hard as she could.

“Sarah, I have news from Matt.” Normally there would be no way that a Terran thought would be picked up by the Zerg leader on the planet below, but Sarah had found herself catching the odd thought and emotion from Mendez in the aftermath of the events on Zerus.

And despite the embarrassment that came with her beloved leader being able to pick up her most intimate thoughts, it was times such as now that Mendez found their link so useful.  It took a few seconds but then Mendez felt Kerrigan’s presence in her head, her tiredness pervading even into her mental voice.

"One minute Felicity, the Tal'darim are pressing us once more and I am needed to help push the bastards back. Can you see if Ryker can get hold of Nova or Tosh? We only have short range communicators down here and they moved out of range." Sarah's presence, which Mendez could best describe as a slight pressure inside her head, lessened slightly signalling she had focussed back on the task at hand.

The nearest of the dark Templar, the largest of the three and not the one that spoke originally, had turned his head in her direction the moment Kerrigan began speaking and though he didn't say anything Mendez was sure he knew that Kerrigan had been talking to her. Shaking it off for now Mendez activated her comms unit once more.

"Captain Ryker, Sar-General Kerrigan wants to know if you have contact with our infiltration team as she has lost contact with them." Her slip in addressing their leader so familiarly made her blush even as two of the escort marines gave short chuckles, signalling that they had caught the mistake even if they would never mention it. Ryker made no mention of it when she replied, which was something Mendez could be thankful for at least.

"Ghost Nova provided an update less than five minutes ago Lieutenant, they have reached the psionic repelling device and were about to deal with the guards and plant charges in order to destroy it. I can try and contact them again for you if you wish?" A sudden hand on her shoulder stopped her from replying straight away, turning she found the leader of the Templar had been the one to grab her, but he withdrew the hand when a couple of the escorting marines reacted by raising their rifles.

"The Kaz'adarn cannot be destroyed, my brothers will need it if we are to continue our fight on Aiur." Mendez assumed he meant the psionic repeller when he had said the Kaz'adarn, but if he wanted the device then it was suddenly became useful as a bargaining chip for dealing with the other Protoss remnants on the planet.

"Well then Templar, if you want the device so badly, then we have more to discuss about how our races can work together. If we were to secure the device, could we count on your support for dealing with the Tal'darim? Or is there a way we could turn it off for a short time so that the wild Zerg can deal with them?" The dark Templar seemed to communicate amongst themselves for a few moments before the one that had looked at her before spoke up, his voice deeper than the other Templar.

"There is such a way human, our leader knows the intricacies of the ancient relics better than any of us. We could contact him if we go planetside once more and for the safety the Kaz'adarn will provide our people I am sure that he will be happy to offer aid in taking it, even to the Queen of Blades." Well, this was definitely above Mendez's head now and she was glad that when she focussed once more on Sarah, the former Queen of Blades replied straight away.

"Right, that is the last of the Tal'darim for the moment. What is the matter Felicity? Your emotions are a little... Oh I see, interesting indeed. I need you to be my voice once more Felicity, it is time to make some more friends..." For some reason the way she said that made shivers run up Mendez's spine, which didn't go away as Kerrigan started relaying what she wanted said.

Timeskip:

Persona: Sarah Kerrigan.

It had been a short and bloody battle once all was said and done, what the Tal'darim had in numbers and powerful colossi, the normal Protoss had in void rays, Archons and dark Templar. Her forces had been relegated to the flanks of the battle and suppressing any wild Zerg assaults as she had been unsure that her Zerg would be able to differentiate between the two forces and avoiding the risk of friendly fire was imperative.

Once they held the Kaz'adarn device the Aiur Protoss leader, an immortal called Graneus, had shut it down with the help of several of the Dark Templar. The presence of so many Protoss in one area, along with her own mighty psionics, drew the wild Zerg like moths to a flame, overwhelming the remaining Tal'darim bases in less than an hour.

Whilst Kerrigan would have liked to remain on Aiur in order to fortify her positions there and gain further biomass for the swarm, Matt’s request for help was more pressing. That did not mean she had to abandon the operation entirely, especially with some new if very tentative allies whose relationship needed nurturing.

Looking round what was rapidly becoming a very diverse war council, consisting of warriors and representatives from all three races including the towering figure of the immortal Graneus, Kerrigan knew there now needed to be a new strategy for her forces now her fleet now consisted of almost twenty leviathans and filled with Zerg.

Each of the mighty beasts was enough to cause a Terran planet trouble by themselves, but Mengsk had yet to show much of his available forces and Kerrigan still lacked the elite Zerg organisms that made the swarm so dangerous. And there was still the matter of Jim to consider before she moved against the Dominion properly. Luckily, Matt and his attempts to find Mira had given her the perfect targets to allow her to diversify her war effort.

"With the defeat of the Tal'darim here they have fled to other areas of Aiur, so it is unlikely they will be a threat to us in the future. However, in the aims of building our forces up and aiding our new allies I intend to leave some of the swarm here to continue dealing with the Wild Zerg and helping Graneus and his men secure more of Aiur for the Protoss to reclaim. Na'fash, your swarm will lead this effort and I will leave you four Leviathans for numbers and transport should it be required. Lasarra, you will remain here to help coordinate things between Graneus and Nafash." The centaurian brood mother bowed her head in acknowledgement as Lasarra moved across to stand behind her.

Kerrigan turned to the three other brood mothers, Kilysa and two others who had contacted her from various worlds on the outskirts of Dominion space.

"You three, I have plans for your broods in order for you to truly gain your place in the swarm. Each of you will take 2 Leviathans and target these planets." She pointed to the outermost sector of colonised space, former Kel-Morian colonies that had remained separate from the Dominion when it 'rescued' the combine from the Zerg during the Brood War, mainly because they held little to no strategic value for the Dominion.

Since then the sector had become home bases to the mercenaries and pirates that operated elsewhere in Korpulu and therefore perfect targets for Matt’s operation. Of course, the Broodmothers would need to work with the Raider teams in the area for the information gathering to be successful, something Kerrigan made very clear with her next words.

"You will be working with Terran forces during your attacks on these worlds and I expect you to obey their orders like you would my own  otherwise I will make my displeasure clear, understood? Lieutenant Baines, consider this your official promotion, you will take the blade teams and three Rifle squads to support these assaults. Try and buy over some of the mercenaries to at least remain neutral if not side with us to pacify the pirate groups on these worlds, their support will be useful when we make a move against the Dominion itself."

Whilst she was opposed to the use of Mercenaries as they could be bought even as they fought for you, the extra manpower and reducing the opposition that faced them was more important than her personal feelings on the matter. With the easiest strategic decisions made, Kerrigan turned to the person who had caused her the most trouble since he had joined her on Zerus.

"De'haka, you and your Zerg have been complaining that I haven't given you a chance to obtain your desired essences, so I am going to give you that chance. Az'kadar, a broodmother based on Mar Sara, has contacted me to say she does not believe I am the true leader of the swarm and even now is trying to gather a force of her own to oppose me. You are to take your brood and four leviathans to Mar Sara, make an example of this deluded fool in my name and the other Zerg will think twice before daring to challenge me again." De'haka looked delighted at the slaughter that lay before him and Kerrigan knew that despite her concerns about his loyalty he would make an example of the renegade broodmother the others would never forget.

With the Zerg forces assigned, the remaining four leviathans would move back to Morecamb as a reserve and also as her show of support for the rebellion, the main council could be dismissed, which Kerrigan did with as much grace as her tired mind could manage. A telepathic thought sent out surreptitiously kept Felicity, Nova, Tosh, Captain Ryker and Sergeant Jacobs behind as the others filed out of the Terran command centre that she had been using as her headquarters.

"You four will be joining me and Captain Ryker as we head to a distress call that Matt has relayed to me as we have the forces to deal with the problem whereas they do not. We are going to the planet of Haven everyone, you are going to help them with a Zerg problem they are having, I need to have a word with this Dr Hansen as I do not like how she addressed the message to whom I assume was meant to be Jim...”

Given the very familiar tone used by the rather pretty woman in the video log, Kerrigan couldn’t help but wonder if there was something that Jim hadn’t told her...

Timeskip:

Persona: Matt Horner

Sitting in the captain’s chair of the Hyperion as the mission reports continued to flash in from strike teams across the sector of pirate bases stormed, entire bands of renegades and murderous outlaws killed or captured and mercenary bands retreating or offering their services to the raiders at reduced rates in order to avoid a quick death at the hands of the Zerg forces supporting the raiders, Matt couldn’t help but feel an unusual sense of smug satisfaction.

“The Dominion have been the dominant power in the Korpulu sector for almost a decade, even with the battles against the Overmind, Kerrigan and the UED. And yet in the last two days we and the Zerg have done more to ensure the safety and order of the outer colonies. Now only if we had done it for those reasons...” Prince Valerian seemed more annoyed than satisfied at the work that they had done, but Matt could understand the man’s feelings, which were due to the young man once again having another failure laid at the feet of his father.

Looking through the information that was being rapidly displayed on the consoles around the command deck, Matt knew it would still take another couple of hours to even start making proper sense of what the assault teams had gathered today, but combining what he was able to gather at a glance and the data they already had on Mira, he had a pretty good idea of where to start looking for her.

Matt’s triumph was cut short when a man in heavily modified ghost armour suddenly appeared next to him, dual gauss pistols out with one pointed at his head whilst the other tracked the guards around the room as they belated reacted to the surprise appearance of the man in their midst.

“Matt Harper, you are a hard man to find. My name is Sergei Ivanson and we have much to talk about...”

Chapter Text

The planet Haven was a rather luxurious garden world on the outskirts of Terran space, if you ignored the giant tracts of battle scars that looked Protoss in origin of course. There were obvious signs of Terran colonisation even from space but from the moment she had arrived in orbit above the planet Kerrigan could feel the presence of zerg there.

It was strange though, apart from a few isolated lairs in the more secluded sections of the world, the majority of the zerg presences she could feel were muffled, as if buried deep beneath something that was interfering with her psionic links. Kerrigan could worry about that feeling later though, as the reason for Dr Hanson’s request for help became clear, 4 battlecruisers and a full sized cruiser were in orbit over the planet and given the amount of ship debris scattered around they weren’t here for the sightseeing tour.

The ships hadn’t seemed to notice their arrival yet, which was probably a good thing as the Stockade would struggle to triumph against such an array of firepower without support. Glancing over to Ryker the captain seemed to understand what she was thinking as she quickly gave orders for them to circle round to the far side of the planet so that they wouldn’t be detected in case the attackers decided to perform longer ranged scans.

Forty minutes later they had moved out of sensor range for the cruiser ships, meaning that Kerrigan could then do a bit of scouting/intimidation without fear of their position being discovered. Reaching out with her psionics, Kerrigan felt the five ships, their electronics, the people aboard them.

She could simply psionically dominate one of the crew and cause some real havoc amongst the attackers, but she had to ensure that they were in fact the reason the good doctor had called for assistance here first. It was easy to locate the bridge, it was a standard design ship after all and it was where most of the power signatures of the ship lead too.

Kerrigan knew she could have gone for one of the small screens in the room to reconnoitre the room without being seen, but she had to admit she liked to make an entrance. Therefore she projected herself onto the main screen in the bridge, looking out over the roughshod command deck with a feeling of distaste, the Hyperion and Stockade certainly were a lot better kept maintained than this at least.

The crew were obviously surprised by her appearance as several of them jumped out of their seats as she gazed round with a small sneer, though the captain of the ship seemed remarkably unimpressed with her, sat in his chair whilst swirling a cup of what looked to be brandy in his hand.

He was certainly imposing, the captain’s chair seeming small in comparison to his muscular physique which was only improved by the wild mane of blonde hair that encased a scar ridden face including a cybernetic eye, which shone balefully even as he seemed to size her up for a moment before speaking.

“We retreat to avoid being massacred by the zerg attacks in the Kel-Morian cluster only to find our former hideout not only infested by zerg but colonised by some god forsaken refugees with some do gooder belief that they are protected by the Raiders of all people. And now you, whoever you are managed to hack into the systems of my flagship, you are bold I will give you that. Are you another harlot like the one who has been resisting our efforts to land? Or are you a colonist who has finally gotten it through your Dominion riddled brain who is going to win this little charade?”

The man was obviously confident of his chances of winning his fight on the planet, but his words and tone had ignited a fire of irritation in Kerrigan’s chest that her armour responded to without her even thinking about it, black shards arcing from her back in a rough imitation of her Queen of Blades wing's that had made her so distinctive. Seeing the man flinch at the appearance of the wings brought an evil smile to Kerrigan’s face before she addressed him and the others on the bridge imperiously.

"I am General Kerrigan, commander of the Queens rifles regiment and leader of the Zerg swarm and I would like to know your name human so that when I tear your still beating heart from your chest for your insults I can do so with extra satisfaction." Her introduction certainly quietened the room as the men and women gathered in it looked at each other uncertainly, the captain's only reaction to be a slight widening of the eyes as he seemed to weigh up his response. When he spoke this time, his tone was a lot more respectful if still defiant and proud.

"The infamous Kerrigan, your reputation precedes you, let's not get too hasty with the death threats over a few ill advised words. You don't quite match up with the vid’s of you that the Dominion has liked to publish over the years so I hope you will forgive my lack of acknowledgement. I am Admiral McFlint, once of Alpha company and also an ex-commando under Commander Hale. What does the famous Queen of Blades want with a small mercenary group like us? We are currently trying to establish a new base of operations but we shall be available for hire in a month or so.”

This man was all business it seems and had made the jump that Kerrigan probably wanted to hire him to help in the war against Mengsk, the possibility of her being here to help the colonists was so remote that he obviously had disregarded it almost instantly.

Well he was probably about to be in for a rude awakening, Ryker speaking quietly over her comm unit to say that she had made contact with Dr Hanson who had told her that the mercenaries were the attackers and had been assaulting their colonies outer defences with heavy infantry, goliaths and siege tanks.

Perhaps it was time to let the impaler strain truly prove itself in the field as part of the swarm. Though first she supposed she would have to give the man one chance to back off, to prove that she wasn't the fabled monster of the Korpulu sector anymore.

"I am here speaking to you because this planet is under the protection of Raynor’s Raiders, who asked me, their ally to come and deal with the issues they are having. Issues that I assume include but are not limited to you and your men Commander McFlint. So I will give you one chance to withdraw you men from attacking the colonists and withdraw to space. If you are truly just looking for a base of operations then you will negotiate with me to earn that space." For a moment she thought that the man would actually do the sensible thing and accept her offer, but then he shook his head slowly and raised his hand before sweeping it around.

“Whilst I know I may be poking the sleeping dragon here, I see no zerg fleets here Queen of Blades, I think that you are distracted enough with the Dominion and Mengsk that you aren’t going to divert your fleet here to deal with us over a few colonists regardless of any promises you have made. That is why you haven’t just wiped us out and instead have tried diplomacy. It’s nothing personal Kerrigan, just good business and I am sure you can understand that.”

Kerrigan cut the connection with the refusal, at least she had tried to avoid the deaths of a few thousand Terran’s, not a lot more she could do than that.  Turning to Ryker Kerrigan began to form a plan not only to deal with the attacking Terran’s, but also to possibly improve her strategic war resources as well.

“Get the transports prepped for lift off in five Captain, I have a doctor to see and some rogue zerg to reintegrate before we deal  with the attacks on the ground. For the fleet, have we got any boarding craft left?” At Ryker’s nod Kerrigan couldn’t help but let a smirk come to her face.

It was one level of terror for the enemy to face her in combat when they were planetside and there was room to maneuver, but aboard the tight confines of a ship? She would make the Admiral regret his impetuous decision, preferably reinforcing the mistake with her fist at the same time...

Time Skip:

Dr Ariel Hanson had been suitably surprised and awed by Kerrigan's appearance from the underbelly of the first Hercules transport to hit the ground flanked by Tosh and Nova, the scientist obviously resisting the urge to start asking questions straight away about her mutations, but she managed to remain graceful and welcoming even as the first company of Rifles disembarked.

Despite her anger at the woman over her messages contents to Jim, Kerrigan found herself liking the intelligent woman more and more as they planned the defence of Haven against the mercenaries. Kerrigan had assimilated the remaining feral Zerg colonies on the planet and started converting their biomass to more defence minded Zerg forces such as swarm hosts and impalers.

Finally, Kerrigan had travelled to the outskirts of the colony with Dr Hansen to assess the militia forces readiness and to plan the front line for the coming assaults. It was then that Kerrigan made a rather surprising discovery that changed her view of her most recent acquaintance entirely.

*Flashback*

They were walking through what seemed to be an abandoned part of the colony, though it might have just been evacuated as a precautionary matter, when suddenly from one of the buildings in front of her lurched an infested Terran.

What shocked Kerrigan the most even as she darted between the unarmed Hanson and the possibly feral Terran was that she hadn’t sensed its approach, since the metamorphosis on Zerus Kerrigan had been able to sense zerg, feral or otherwise, before they came over the horizon.

The idea of Infested Terrans that could sneak past her psionic senses was terrifying to her, but she was even more shocked when the Infested Terran pulled off a rough salute as Dr Hanson placed a calming hand on Kerrigan’s shoulder pad.

“Peace General, the good Sergeant is very much on our side and not violent in the slightest. In fact he is in charge of our Infected Security division, or IS as they prefer to be called these days.” Taking a closer look at the man Kerrigan noticed that he had several differences from normal infected Terran’s she had ‘conscripted’ in her previous incarnation as the Queen of Blades.

The zerg parts of his body were more streamlined than usual, making him bigger and sturdier in a controlled fashion rather than the rapid and random mutation that usually undertook the Terran’s she had captured and experimented up. In addition the head was almost entirely clear of zerg, only a small bone gorget rising from his chest to cover his neck from attack, leaving his very expressive human eyes looking at her warily as if she would begin attacking at any moment.

“G-General? Is this the leader of the reinforcements the Raiders sent Governor? She makes the other thing rather active, I might need to leave you shortly before I lose control for a minute.” It took a moment but Kerrigan realised that the man probably meant the zerg infestation he was bonded with as ‘the other thing’, so it reacting to her presence was not really surprising. Though the man was doing a remarkable job in repressing it and the urges that accompanied it.

Hanson nodded her head and started leading Kerrigan away once more as three more infested Terrans stepped from the building, hefting heavy gauss rifles and chain guns that would be impossible for a normal marine to carry by himself. Hanson started speaking again, obviously having guessed that Kerrigan would have questions about the encounter.

“I don’t know how much you know of our interactions with Jim and his rebels before we came and settled here Kerrigan but there were hundreds of colonists that had become infested by the time we had settled here, part of the reason the Protoss were so determined to wipe us out entirely. But thankfully Jim had faith in me and protected us from the Protoss supership, destroying it and a good portion of the fleet that arrived with it as well. Since then my work on a complete cure has proved to be unsuccessful, but I managed to isolate several compounds in the infected blood that were linked to the infestation control over the body, I and several of the other colony scientists managed to create a drug cocktail that for most part repressed the zerg part of the infected’s new body. This also seemed to grant the infected some measure of control over the infestations growth on their bodies, though trying to reduce its presence too much or remove it entirely has proved fatal for those unlucky or desperate enough to try it.”

Kerrigan was left almost gobsmacked by the woman as she stopped to survey the area for defensive positions, so she was glad none of the others were here to see the awkward moment. What the woman was effectively saying was that she had achieved a less advanced version of her own Blades, without the subconscious millennia of genetic manipulation knowledge that Kerrigan had gained from the Zerg and whilst running an outer world colony at the same time?

Kerrigan was tempted to kidnap Hanson then and there, such scientific genius would be unimaginably useful against Mengsk not to mention saving Jim. But perhaps she should wait until the colony was safe before trying to get Hanson to join up, hopefully there would be news of Jim's location by then she could use as leverage.

After all Kerrigan thought as she eyed the back of the good doctor appreciatively, having spent so much time in Mendez's head recently she found herself not entirely adverse to some of the... Naughtier ideas that popped into her head...

*Flashback end*

With the defences in place and the final deadline McFlint had set the colonists rapidly approaching, Kerrigan was readying her plan to deal with the mercenaries air support. Unfortunately there were no handy scourge nests around for Kerrigan to take advantage of this time as she had done so on Char.

Whilst she could probably wrest one of the battlecruisers from the sky in a manner similar to what she did on Kaldir with the transports, to do so would require time and focus that would leave her exposed to attacks both from the battlecruisers weapons systems and other sources.

The easiest plan of action therefore was something she had carried out on several infiltration missions in the past both for the confederacy and then the Sons of Korhal, though with her increased psionic powers the scale of the mission was a bit grander than the single person missions she remembered. In the transport ship she was stood in there were 30 men and women handpicked for the mission from the Stockade’s crew as well as Hansons IS division, armed with ship fighting weapons and the best armour the colony had available.

The plan was simple as her schemes went, Kerrigan would use her powers to cloak the ship from detection by the cruisers as it approached the flagship and docked in one of its hangers, which would be empty with the assault of Haven being underway. Then she and the boarding party would clear the ship whilst heading for the bridge, with all of his ground troops planet side and being unaware of her presence in the system McFlint would be unable to react in time to prevent them taking the ship.

With the cruiser disabled and their leader captured/dealt with, the Stockade would be able to quickly see off the remaining battlecruisers and the mercenaries on the ground would be easily dealt with. That was the plan anyways, it would be a nice change if everything went according to plan for a change. After being stood in silence for a few more minutes there was suddenly a shudder through the floor of the transport as the engines ignited and they took off.

Obviously the pilots had received the go order from Hanson, who would be heading the defence whilst Kerrigan completed her assault. Turning to the assembled Terrans Kerrigan let her skull mask form over her face even as she spoke to them in a loud confident tone, Tosh and Nova moving up either side of her to make her speech more compelling.

"The mission has begun, we hope that this will prevent a long costly battle on the ground by taking out the enemies support and leadership, but you all already know that. Everyone follow me, keep your formation and watch your fields of fire, we need to move fast and hit hard if we are to avoid being suppressed and overwhelmed. You were hand picked as the best of the best and I have faith that you will not let me or your comrades down, who are we marines?" The Stockade crew immediately beat their chests at her question before bursting out with a response.

"Rifles till we die General, bring on the big guns!" It was a call that the marines had come up with whilst fighting on Morecamb and Kerrigan liked it enough to have adopted it herself, it brought a sense of camaraderie and solidarity to the men that couldn't be duplicated by other methods.

The IS troops looked a little lost but that was hardly surprising, they would get it eventually she was sure. With the little speech out of the way Kerrigan turned her attention to cloaking the transport, their task force wouldn't be much use if it was detected and blown out of the air before it gets there...

Time skip-

Watching through the cruisers window as the two remaining battlecruiser captains sent out surrender signals as the stockade loomed over them, Kerrigan couldn't help but smirk as she turned to face McFlint who was glaring at her whilst sat between to IS soldiers who were stood with a hand on either shoulder pinning him to the chair.

The man had been wise enough to surrender the moment Kerrigan had begun slicing through the bridge blast door, though the mess she made with the pair of modified goliaths that served as security probably served to stop any foolhardy heroics from occurring. Not that Kerrigan was going to let him off easily, the deaths of two of her boarding party as well as the three dozen colonists who were in various states of torture or depravity that made her a little sick to the stomach.

"Well admiral, I did try and negotiate with you before this, tragedy occurred. I am still tempted to carry out my initial promise to you for what I have found being carried out on your ship Darian, I doubt any of the colonists would object to such an action." Indeed, by the time they entered the bridge Kerrigan had been forced to stop one of the IS troopers from putting a bullet in the man's steely face.

Stepping forwards Kerrigan willed the small Zerg parasite she had deliberately brought along for the mission to writhe to life and open its teeth festooned mouth in the man's direction. Watching the man pale for a moment with no small degree of satisfaction Kerrigan spoke once more with every inch of malice she could muster exuding from her pores.

"In fact, I am tempted to infect each and every member of your crew one at a time, so that you can watch as each of them suffer in torture before it will be finally your turn. So I would rack your brain very hard admiral for the answer to my next question, you won't like it if I find your response unsatisfactory. Where can I find the ever elusive Mira Han?"

As the man's face morphed into shock and then confusion for a moment Kerrigan found herself surprisingly unconcerned that he didn't have the information that she wanted, sometimes punishing demons like this man was worth it by itself. She reached up with her free hand to scratch a mark onto the man's cheek, smile never fading as she stood and walked over to the nearest bridge officer.

"Nothing admiral? Well that's a shame, but at least the little one here will get to feed today..." She had pinned the man in place with his psionics, something that made his attempted struggling even more unnerving for the others to watch.

Her rifles were stalwart at this intimidation, though whether that's because they shared her feelings or were assuming this was just a scare tactic she wasn't sure. To Kerrigan’s surprise and slight relief before she actually attached the parasite to the man there was a call from off to her right, one of the senior officers standing in defiance of the dozen rifles now pointed his way.

"Wait, I might have some information that may be relevant to finding Han. But before I tell you how can I know you will not kill us all straight afterwards?" Kerrigan strode over before raising her hand and extending her arm blade so that it was a hairs breadth away from the small portly man, who jumped away in obvious fear.

"You don't know whether I will or not little man, but at the same time what is to stop me from tearing the information from your puny little mind?" The man was obviously out of his depth, but he managed to look up at her with a nervous swallow and spoke quickly, obviously afraid that she might actually carry out her threat.

“Good point, hadn’t thought of that, though I am probably better at giving you data if I am not a vegetable yes? Mira Han is wanted in over a dozen star systems, and that is not including the Dominion, so therefore she uses a few aliases that I have been able to follow over the years as part of my Seneschal duties. Whilst I don’t know exactly where she is, she bases her operations out of an asteroid belt on the edge of Dominion space. If you want her, attacking her operations would be the best place to start.”

The man was visibly sweating under her gaze, but if he knew the location of the asteroid belt he was talking about then it was time she made a call to Matt once more, assuming that he didn’t already know the information she was going to give him...

Timeskip:

It turned out that Matt had in fact already known the information she had obtained and had been in the middle of taking over Mira’s operations there when she had broadcast herself onto the Hyperion command Deck. What had worried her though was the appearance of a tall broad shouldered man in heavy ghost armour next to the command console, under watch by half a dozen marines at all times, she could not sense his psionic presence even when she focussed on him.

After informing Matt of the information the ghost had introduced himself as Sergei, a Phantom operative under the command of the UED and sent by his master to inform her of a threat. What threat it was he had not expanded upon, merely stating that he was here to help them against the Dominion and would tell her more when they met in person.

She had cut the connection shortly afterwards, she had other things to deal with in order to be ready for when Matt alerted her to Jim’s locations, primarily the assimilation of the zerg forces in the area into a new Leviathan for her to use. The majority of the mercenaries had been unaware of the events occurring on the flagship, only some of the senior officers and the captain having access to the quarters where the colonists were being held.

Therefore Kerrigan had recruited them into the Rifles, it was either that or imprisonment on Haven under the IS regiment, something that Kerrigan knew would not be a pleasant experience. Though it was better than the summary infestation she had given to the captain and those she had found guilty of the crimes she had seen, they would serve her in the swarm now until death, seeing everything they did without being able to influence it in the slightest.

Whilst cruel, it was no different to the summary executions that most colonies carried out if someone was to be found guilty of such crimes, and at least this way they would prove to be of some use to her.  With two cruisers and two battlecruisers now under her command as well, Kerrigan could not only claim to have a zerg air force but now a Terran one as well, which would be useful when pacifying some of the Dominion worlds in the future.

The ships were in a bad state however, having been patched together by the mercenaries repeatedly rather than actually being repaired in dry dock, so she would need to remedy that in the near future before she could use them on the battlefield again. By removing the Zerg threat and dealing with the mercenaries, Kerrigan had ensured that the colonists would be able to continue their lives in peace and without the need for immediate overall organisational control, something Dr Hanson made very clear in her farewell address to the colonists after bringing her equipment onto the Stockade.

Hanson had entrusted control of the colony into the hands of her second in command and had proceeded to take up residence in the Stockade's science lab, taking great joy in organising the few science staff aboard to work on various projects. When Kerrigan had asked why she was coming with them, as Sarah hadn't even started trying to persuade her to join them, Ariel had merely given her a look before saying a line that made Kerrigan realise quite how much Jim had done whilst working to save her.

"Jim risked everything to save us and these colonists time and time again, even against the Protoss fleet merely on the trust I could do something to help the survivors that had been infected. After all that he has done for us, how could I stand by and do nothing when he needs help now more than ever?"  Kerrigan hadn’t really been able to respond to the poignant statement that in many ways described her own experience of the man turned rebel hero, leaving the two standing in silence before Ariel had given her a look of understanding before bidding her goodbye.

Memories of Raynor’s efforts during the time before her rescue brought on a melancholy mood that she couldn’t quite shake as she took to overseeing the efforts of the swarm in the other sectors.

The attacks on the Kel-Morian combine had gone remarkably well considering, Kerrigan could not only count on the three broodmothers to work with Terran’s when required but they also had increased the size of the forces they had taken with them and each had several mercenary bands who had offered support for either her or the raider’s, depending on which they thought had been the greater enemy.

Mar Sara was proving a little less clean cut, the broodmother Az’kadar had assembled quite a sizable swarm there with several advanced mutations that Kerrigan had never seen before. Nevertheless De’haka seemed to be taking the challenge in his stride, using tactics to isolate and consume small portions of Az’kadar’s force at a time without risking too much of his own force.

It was a slow and manpower intensive task, but with the feral zergs ability to adapt repeatedly whenever they encountered a new enemy meant that it would steadily gain momentum if Az’kadar did not have any other things up her sleeve that she had been keeping secret. That wasn’t Kerrigan’s concern however, unless De’haka fell into real difficulty and asked for her help she was more than happy to leave the abrasive feral Zerg commander where he was for the foreseeable future.

Na’fash was progressing well on Aiur, the Protoss forces there taking advantage of her numbers to launch several attacks against hives and Lairs in the nearby region, reducing the number of wild zerg being spawned and leaving the existing wild zerg to be easy prey for harvesting.

But despite their best efforts it was like a drop of water from a lake, it would take many years and a much bigger force then they had to even start to clear the planet of wild Zerg. That was assuming the golden armada did not just bombard the planet till all that was left was ash and bone of course, but Kerrigan hoped it would not have to come to that.

She had also been contacted by Izsha, who had taken over much of the day to day running of the swarm in her absence from the command Leviathan. Another Broodmother, by the name of Ryloth, had contacted Izsha and expressed a desire to bring her brood back into the swarm. Having been unwilling to risk attacking the Dominion quite yet until she had saved Jim, Kerrigan decided to send Ryloth to Aiur to support Nafash, the two of them would be able to deal with many more wild Zerg with their brood’s combined biomass.

The only worrying point in her search was that Kerrigan found that she could not contact Za’gara  on Zerus, or any of her Zerg there at all in fact, though the sheer distance involved meant that she couldn't be too precise in her calls. She kept trying on and off for the next few days, retreating to her private room on the stockade in an attempt to find some peace to help her focus.

It was on the third day, a day after they had met up with the fleets of Kilysa and the other broodmothers, that a Rifle had come to her chambers and informed her that Matt had contacted them and was waiting on the bridge for her. Casting Za'gara from her mind for the moment, Kerrigan had hurried to the bridge, actually smiling to herself when she saw Felicity, Ariel, Valerian and Matt talking to each other as she arrived over the communicator. Matt spotted her from on screen and broke off the current conversation to call excitedly to her.

"We have information on what Final Justice is Kerrigan!" Kerrigan’s smile widened, at last there was progress. She merely waved her hand for him to continue not wanting to break up his excited mood. Matt tapped away at the screen for a moment and then his display shrunk to a quarter of the screen, pictures of a gigantic ship filling the rest of the screen.

“Final Justice is related to this monstrosity, a prison ship that is called the Moros. This ship is not only bigger than any ship I have ever seen, we are talking easily two thirds the size of your main leviathan Kerrigan, but it is outfitted in the same way. We are talking entire air wings of fighters and fighter bombers, TWIN yamato cannons each of which are easily twice the power of the Hyperion’s cannon and enough point defence cannons to take out any normal Dominion fleet. Mengsk went all out on making sure that even if we could find this ship, taking it without accidentally killing Jim in the process would be impossible. Not that we would have been able to find it normally, it warps to a new random location after only a short amount of time in space.”

The fact that Matt was saying this without being completely despondent meant that there had to be more than what he was telling her directly. Valerian seemed to realise that Matt was planning on gloating over the information and spoke up instead, drawing an irritated look from the man in question before he shook his head and returned to a slight smile as Valerian extrapolated on the information Colonel Orlan had given them.

“Luckily for us, the Moros has to refuel regularly in order to keep making those jumps and we know when the next jump is going to take place, Atlas station in the Kel Morian Cluster tomorrow. The station will send out a freighter to refuel it but the time window is not very large at all, 23 minutes of fuelling before the ship is capable of emergency warping to a backup location that is not disclosed in the files.” Valerian held up his hand as Kerrigan started to speak, the look in his eyes the most serious she had ever seen him.

“I know what you want to do Kerrigan, we cannot go at this with your usual tactic of brute force and ignorance. This is not just Jim, but some of the best and brightest opponents of the Dominion who are being kept aboard that ship. We cannot risk all of their lives with a half baked plan that could get not only them but us killed at the same time.”

“Not to mention my brothers that are being held there, we be rescuing as many of dem as we can.” Tosh’s interjection from behind her brought Kerrigan back from her thoughts of storming the ship singlehandedly if she had to. Valerian had a point that she couldn’t risk being hotheaded over this, if Mengsk was anything like the shrewd and heartless tactician she remembered then even the Moros would not be considered enough of a security measure for him.

He could literally have anything ready in case she attacked the ship, up to and including more of those hybrid things for her to deal with. Nodding her head to acknowledge the men's points, Kerrigan placed her hand on the control console and reaching out with her mind, connecting the conversation to her blades, Nafash and Lasarra, anyone who could provide insight into the coming planning session.

Not wishing to spend precious time updating people on the situation Kerrigan sent the relevant information across psionically, before speaking in the deeper, more forceful voice that came with her utilising so much psionic power.

“Everyone, we know what awaits us tomorrow and we cannot fail. So therefore we need to come up with a plan and it needs to be capable of dealing with everything that Mengsk can and undoubtedly will throw at us.” It took a couple of seconds for those that had been psionically linked to recover from the information dump they had just received, leaving a deep silence that Kerrigan felt compelled to break with her next words.

“Anyone... Anyone got an idea that does not risk blowing the Moros out of the sky with Jim and the other prisoners still aboard?” There was another moment of silence before a dark chuckle from behind her preceded Tosh’s next words.

“I may be having such an idea...”

Timeskip:

It had taken a couple of hours for them to outline the plan and iron out as many potential risks that people had noticed and all in all it had ended up being a pretty solid plan, Kerrigan hoped as she waited aboard the refuelling vessel as it made its ponderous way over to where the Moros was waiting. There were four strike teams, each with a specific objective that needed to be completed in the 23 minute timescale if they were to have a hope of pulling the mission off successfully, assuming that they made it there at all that is.

They had arrived at Atlas station the day before aboard the Stockade, taking advantage that the ship was still technically a Dominion registered vessel to be able to dock with it for refuelling. When the mechanics had finished attaching the docking tunnel they had been in for a rude awakening as hulking Blades stormed onto the ship, felling anyone foolish enough to raise a weapon against them.

The stations marine guard force had been caught unawares and were neutralised in short order as more and more Rifles had moved up behind the Blade’s advance, capturing the unarmed personnel and securing the stations systems. With the station under her control the Stockade had been quickly disengaged and moved well out of sensor range to a nearby asteroid cluster, where the Hyperion and half a dozen rebel battlecruisers along with twenty of her leviathans were waiting.  

Such a fleet could be considered seriously excessive by normal standards, even for a ship of the size and armament of the Moros, but it had been Lieutenant Jacobs that had pointed out that it might not just be the Moros they could end up facing. Such a trap would be exactly Mengsk’s type of sacrificial tactic and Kerrigan was glad that such an eventuality had been brought to her attention.

As such all she had for support was her Blades under Lieutenant Jacobs, a dozen of the Raider’s best ghosts who would be under Nova’s command, four spectres and Tosh that were linking up with the still mysterious Sergei and of course half a dozen of her newest creation, that she had come up with specially for the mission in question.

Turning to look over at the elephant sized Roaches that were awkwardly hidden away at the very back of the craft, Kerrigan knew that such massive Zerg would definitely draw attention to them sooner than they would like for this mission but that was okay, they would be the last group moving out anyway.

First Nova’s team would exfil into the Moros and make their way to the ships engines, checking for traps and other issues that might affect the other teams along the way. Following them would be the Spectres, who would move towards one of the main control hubs on the ship and neutralise the crew manning it.

Between these two teams they should be able to prevent the Moros from leaving the area regardless of what it’s captain wished for, meaning that Kerrigan could then be a little more... abrupt about her next actions, which involved her heading directly for where Jim was meant to be being held with her Shatterlings, taking out any and all enemies that stood in her way.

Whilst she could be more subtle, her actions actually served another purpose, which was to distract forces from being assigned to retaking the engines or the control hub and also to prevent the enemy from stopping the Blades teams from taking down as many of the weapons systems on the ship as possible.

Once enough of the weapons systems were disabled the fleet could be brought in and reinforcements could begin boarding to help them take over the ship. There had been a general consensus the night before; why destroy such a dangerous and well equipped vessel if they could in fact take it for themselves? It had been a good idea and Kerrigan was all for it, she just could not help but shake the feeling they were missing something...

Timeskip:

It had nearly been a disaster, in fact it probably was one and she was just trying to be optimistic, Kerrigan thought as she made her way up the final corridor to where Raynor was being held. Mengsk had actually been even more determined to kill her than she thought, wiring the entire damn ship with explosives to detonate it if she looked like she was going to succeed in reaching Jim and getting away alive.

If it hadn’t been for Nova sensing the explosives as her team made their way to the engines they might all of have been killed by the madman. The revelation about the explosives had made the mission objectives that much more covert in nature, as they couldn’t risk Mengsk knowing about their presence until they removed the bombs or at least worked out how to deactivate them.

Therefore Kerrigan had left the shatterlings aboard the refuelling craft and ghosted through the Moros eliminating isolated patrols and deactivating the remote bomb relays that she encountered on the way. Despite their best efforts however they had only been able to clear a fifth of the ship when the alarm was raised. Luckily Mengsk initially had been content to allow the ships troops to try and deal with her, something they regretted when the shatterlings rolled up to support her.

The mammoth sized roaches were evolved from basic roaches using DNA that Kerrigan and Abathur had extracted from the Feral Zerg leader Kraith, each of them encased in a shell thick enough to resist a large amount of punishment as they rolled forwards into the enemy. The inputting of the new DNA reduced the roaches ranged capabilities, but given the charge ability the roaches were now capable of into smaller enemies she could live with their decreased range.

It was only after Mengsk tried to detonate the explosives in the section of ship she was in, only for them to fail as she had taken out the receivers, that the man seemed to grasp that perhaps his plan would not work out the way he had intended.  

The man hadn’t actually lost his temper to her slight surprise, merely coordinating the ship’s security forces to keep her from getting to Jim’s cell, which had made her even more worried about what the man was finally planning. They ended up saving most of the ship whilst he had been focussed on her, but when Mengsk noticed the steadily increased flow of freed prisoners the other teams managed to free he had obviously had enough of the way the battle was turning out.

The resulting explosion had wrecked the upper decks of the ship and it was only due to the protection of one of her shatterlings engulfing her as the fireball engulfed the corridor she had been in. Luckily the high security region of the ship that Jim had been held in had not been badly damaged in the explosions, though hundreds of other prisoners had not be so lucky.

The destruction had taken out the ship’s weapons so even now the Terran’s from the Hyperion and Stockade were combing the rest of the ship for survivors. Stood outside the door that held behind the man who she could truly say meant more to her than anything, Kerrigan couldn’t help but feel giddy at the thought of the two of them being reunited again. So it was a surprise when she blasted opened the door and stepped in that the first words from her beloved’s mouth were...

“Kerrigan, no. What did you do?” The words hurt almost as much as the look of betrayal on his face as she ducked into the cell, his flinty gaze causing the breath to catch in her throat. His face, morphing from confusion to hatred and sadness cut deep into Kerrigan, even as she gestured around her at the cell he was in hoping that he could, would understand.

“I had to get you out. No matter the cost, it was worth it.” He sat up with a snarl, his rugged face sharp and gaunt from his time in captivity.

“Tell that to Fenix, tell that to the millions you have killed. Kerrigan, how many people’s sacrifices have you spat on with this... this!” He gestured at her when he said that, obviously meaning her armour and increased zerg like features. Kerrigan could only wonder how much worse he would have reacted if she had succumbed to her old Queen of Blades persona.

Despite this, it was clear that Jim was the most disgusted she had ever seen and that was including his reaction to some of the things she had done as the Queen of Blades. Something inside her shattered at the revelation that she had managed to do the one thing he couldn’t forgive in her efforts to save him and she walked forwards, kneeling down as she placed his gun, which she had found in the maximum security lockup into his hands. As she spoke her next line, she raised his hands with her own, closing her eyes as she pressed the barrel of the gun to her forehead.

“You swore that you would kill the Queen of Blades after the events on Augustgrad, do you remember Jim. You were the only person to ever believe that the Queen of Blades and I were not the same person, that I could escape that life and become something more.” At this point she opened her eyes, looking sadly at his flinty gaze for a moment and seeing no pity, no understanding there. She closed her eyes before finishing speaking, if this was going to be the end she didn’t want to haunt Jim by looking him in the eyes as he pulled the trigger.

“Do you still believe that? Do you still believe in me Jim?” There was silence for one moment, then two before suddenly there was the thunderous retort of a gunshot and Kerrigan flinched, only to find herself still breathing as another, another and then two more rang out, Jim throwing the gun away in disgust with a frustrated shout a moment later.  

He was looking away from her when she opened her eyes, breathing laboured as if he had just run a mile. Hope blossomed in her chest at the fact he hadn’t gone through with killing her, perhaps there was chance that she could be forgiven even for this. But before she could say anything he whirled round, looking her dead in the eyes as he said two words that brought her world crashing down around her.

“We’re done!” There was a finality to the words that was only enhanced as he strode past her and out of the cell without a second glance, leaving Kerrigan alone as her hopes and dreams unravelled about her like stray confetti. Jim had become everything to her since he had achieved the impossible and rescued her from the dark influence that was Amon, for him to cast her aside now, had she failed him so badly that the man who had forgiven her for so much couldn’t bear it any longer?

In the darkness of her despair she buckled from a sitting position to end up sprawled on the floor, tears coming to her eyes in a manner that she had almost forgotten was possible as a thunk and scraping sound let her know she had accidentally landed on Jim’s pistol and sent it skittering off to rest just in front of her. Looking at the elegant pistol that she had been at both ends of more than once, Kerrigan found herself coming to a decision that she was surprisingly welcoming of.

She had been fighting the worst the galaxy could throw at her for as long as she could remember, a rest would be a welcome release...

Persona: James Raynor

Jim’s head was a mess as he walked away from the cell he had been captive in for the last two months, his mixed feelings focussed on the thing that was currently inhabiting it. He shook his head to clear the negative thought from his head, Kerrigan may have regressed to the Zerg once more, but to call her a thing would be an insult given that the woman had been so disheartened by his reaction to her new appearance that she had been prepared for him to end her life.

He knew he had overreacted, it was one of his many flaws especially seeing as he would have sacrificed anything including his humanity to save Kerrigan from the Zerg in the first place, but he needed to cool off a bit before he could see her again. He just could not believe that Kerrigan had been forced to revert to being leader of the swarm to save him, such an act could not have been without a price and he wondered quite how many innocent Terran’s had been forced to pay it.

Jim was broken off from his thoughts about the infuriating woman as he heard armoured boots approaching from around one of the corridors. As the first two marines in black armour rounded the corner he went for his holster reflexively, only to remember that first he didn’t have his holster and that he had thrown his gun away in his anger at Kerrigan’s betrayal.

To his surprise the marines upon noticing him moved to attention as several more moved into the corridor, securing the dead Dominion soldiers scattered around from what Jim assumed was Kerrigan rampaging towards his cell and beginning to open the other maximum security cells. Approaching them cautiously as a medic moved through to begin coordinating the movement of the prisoners, Jim spoke up with a little apprehension.

“Excuse me folks, but are you with my Raiders? I don’t remember seeing an outfit like yours on the outside.” The medic turned to him and her helmet opened to reveal a smiling woman in her late twenties, pointing at the symbol on her shoulders with a visible amount of pride.

“We aren’t your Raiders Commander Raynor, though some of your strike teams are currently moving to secure the rest of this ship, we are the Queen’s Rifles under General Kerrigan. I would have thought she would have told you about this already, given how determined she was to come and rescue you she didn’t bother waiting for back up.” Obviously his face gave something away as the medic’s face fell and became a little apprehensive before she spoke again.

“Where is General Kerrigan sir? Sir?” There was something digging in the depths of his stomach that made Jim turn back and start running towards his cell, he couldn’t quite work out was wrong but he had never ignored his gut feelings before and he...

A realisation of why he had such a bad feeling became apparent before he could finish his train of thought, the sinking in his stomach reaching a new level of low as a single gunshot rang out down the corridor in front of him, moments before a wave of energy sent him spinning backwards before hitting the ground and everything going black...

Chapter Text

The psionic reverberations of Kerrigan's attempted suicide sped throughout the Korpulu sector and beyond, Zerg swarms turning feral for a few seconds before their brood mothers were able to recover control and psionically gifted Terrans screaming in pain as blood dripped from their eyes and noses. On the dominion world of Korhal there was massed panic as the anti psionic defences around the emperors palace failed or in some cases exploded, unable to contain the massive energy wave effectively. There was also much confusion amongst the Protoss as to what the meaning of such a large amount of concentrated energy being released could mean, could it be the rise of some new threat?

On Zerus there was no such confusion or panic by the one individual who could sense it's occurrence, for he knew what it was and what it meant for him. Standing atop the large hill which he had rested besides in his old body for millennia, Zurvan stretched his newly evolved body as he looked down at where his loyal Zerg were working to assimilate the biomass of the feral Zerg into another leviathan for his forces. He had been forced to change his new body considerably, unlike his intended target this host body had been made with commanding rather than fighting in mind, which even with Kerrigan's death energy reverberating in the air was something he could not afford to be complacent with like he had before.

Zurvan now stood at fifteen feet in height on eight strong legs, each with tips that oozed poison from their diamond sharp points. In addition he had six arms, all capable of using psionic powers or wielding weapons as he chose. This was something he had picked up from the queen of blades before she had defeated him, whilst his previous attack tactics had been enough to wipe out the feral Zerg who had dared challenge him, he had other enemies to conquer now and that would require significantly more cunning and planning than he had used in years. Looking down at the horde once more Zurvan sent out a psionic message even as he felt the despair of the foolish false Zerg whose body he had taken, dark glee evident in his tone as he did so.

"The queen of blades is dead, now we will go and meet our true destiny, for the primal Zerg to rule all!" As his message sped round the planet it was picked up by Silvan, who had quickly retreated into hiding once she realised that something was wrong with Za'gara. Silvan was not as concerned as most might think with the news Zurvan had trumpeted about. Ever since Kerrigan had fed her some of her armour to help heal silvan after their battle, silvan had always been able to feel a connection to her new commander, even if she couldn't contact her with the terrible news of Zurvan's betrayal.

As such Silvan could still feel Kerrigan was alive, if much weaker than she had been before. Looking around at the few remaining primal Zerg that had remained loyal to her, silvan knew that the decision she was going to make next was a vital one, choosing between her two masters or trying to play both of them against each other. All of those choices were tenuous, the wrong move or word could easily be her end, something she was nowhere near ready to experience...

The Hyperion, medical sub deck.

"You bastard!" That comment was preempted by a swinging fist that sent Jim to the floor for the 6th or seventh time since he had returned to his flagship, probably not the fanfare he had been expecting. Quickly stepping in to stop the man being battered once again Felicity had to acknowledge the amusement that bubbled up at the fact her and Valerian of all people were the ones that were being forced to hold back an irate and cussing matt Horner. The news of what had happened on the Moros had spread quickly, especially with izsha and Nafash struggling to control the swarm in the backlash of the psionic wave that had erupted when Kerrigan...

It was still something felicity couldn't quite comprehend or even think of in regards to the person who had been enemy, saviour, commander and closest friend over the course of the last few months. Kerrigan had always been the confident leader, no matter the difficulties or setbacks there was a plan or scheme that would get them out on top inside that beautiful kind of the Zerg leader. For her to be so broken by her reunion with Raynor that all of that had been stripped away had ignited a fury inside Felicity that she had never felt before.

Despite that though Felicity had not been able to focus her ire on Jim despite him being the root of it all, the charismatic and inspiring man she had briefly met at Char was probably the only person more affected by things than she was. He had been unconscious when the nearest response teams that stayed conscious had reached the maximum security deck, leading many to believe that someone or something had attacked him and Kerrigan. It was only with the realisation that Kerrigan's head wound had been caused by Raynor's gun that the unthinkable idea that Raynor had been the one to try and kill Kerrigan was brought up.

That had caused quite a bit of tension between the Raiders and the Rifles, though the revival of the man in question and the team that had been found unconscious near him and their testimonies had cleared up that fact before the Rifles had attempted to lynch Raynor. The display of loyalty from the men for the leader spoke a lot about how much the Rifles knew Kerrigan had done to protect them and lead them responsibly, something that meant that the medical deck of the Hyperion was currently crewed by Rifles rather than raiders as Dr Hanson did her best to stabilise Kerrigan with Nafash's guidance.

And that brought Mendez back to where she was now, bodily restraining the captain of the Hyperion from going to town on the man they had just turned the Galaxy upside down to try and save. Luckily Matt seemed to have had enough with that punch and was calming down, though Felicity decided to keep a wary hand on the glaring man in case he lost it again. Matt's next words were tinged with levels of anger and disappointment that Felicity never really expected from the man, making it very clear quite how low the legendary Jim Raynor had sunk in his eyes.

"Ker-Sarah went through hell, more than once before she found out you were alive still Jim. We all thought you were dead after Umoja, and for a moment I thought Kerrigan would snap and revert back to her Queen of Blades self as a result of her grief. But she didn't, she remained strong even when she retook control of the Zerg on Char and then defeated Warfield, remaining true to Your ideals of combat even though it very nearly caused her to lose control of the swarm." Matt didn't mention the fact that Kerrigan had in fact changed considerably by the Char campaign, but given how close those that Char had been with that information out of respect for Kerrigan it was quite possible that he didn't know. Each word seemed to cause Jim to sink into himself further and further, making Felicity glad that she had ordered his weapons removed in case he proved suicidal as well, the last thing they needed was a Romeo and Juliet situation here. Matt didn't abate though, his ferocity growing with each recounted memory.

"Then she ended up battling the Protoss, you know the race that has sworn pretty much in its entirety to have her exterminated, and rather than wipe them out as would have been the easiest thing for her to do, she risked the GOLDEN FUCKING ARMADA by saving those that did not want to fight her. I asked her why she did that you know, after I met one of the Protoss that now travels with her, after all if it had been literally anyone else they would have just wiped them out. She turned to me with a sad smile and said 'if there is one thing that I want to hold onto from Jim, it's that making friends from enemies is hard, but it's a damn sight more pleasant than watching the bodies of innocents pile up in front of me.'"

That comment made Jim wince like he had just been hit in the face again, the lines on his face making him seem even older and world weary, but before Matt could continue his tirade the White double doors that lead into the med bay hissed open to reveal an obviously exhausted Ariel Hanson, which wasn't surprising considering she had been in surgery for almost four hours. The assembled officers and Blades waited with baited breath for Ariel to speak, which took a moment as the doctor seemed to take a little while to focus on them.

"She's still alive." Ariel's tired proclamation was met by cheers from most of those present, but like Felicity there were several including Jim and Matt that could tell that the doctor had more news to come that was going to be less positive. They were proved right a moment later as the cries lessened and Ariel motioned for silence. "However, the wound she has taken is serious and she has yet to show any signs of responsiveness. We cannot be sure if and when the general will wake, for all Nafash can tell us at this point Kerrigan is not commanding the swarm either, only giving some kind of subconscious hold order." That deflated the room as fast as the first news had brightened it, many of the Rifles looking at each other a little lost as to what to do, if Kerrigan didn't wake up then what hope did they have against Mengsk. It was the sort of mood that Kerrigan despised and with that in mind Felicity decided to step forwards and be the second in command that she was meant to be.

"Right well there is no point us dallying around here like idiots then. Rifles, get yourselves loaded up to get back to the Stockade, if the swarm are currently not going on the offensive we sure as hell will be. The less time we give Mengsk to work out what might have happened the better, don't you agree captain?" This was directed at Matt who seemed to have reverted back to somewhat his normal self, having helped Jim back up to his feet during the announcement and helping the man stand on shaky legs. Matt nodded and nothing happened for a moment, leading to her barking out her next words with a certain amount of anger and pace. "What are you waiting for, a red carpet? Move out Rifles or I will see you out of the nearest airlock myself!"

Even as the gathered Terrans quickly moved into action at her threat Felicity felt a jolt of amusement that definitely did not come from her own mind. Whirling back to the med bay doors she moved towards them with a purpose that seemed to be perfectly clear, causing Dr Hanson to merely start uttering a refusal before quieting and stepping aside. Focusing on the feeling once more Felicity concentrated every ounce of her strength into sending a mental message she hoped would be heard.

"Don't you dare die on me Kerrigan, for mine and Jim's sake. We need you here for who you are not what you command or how strong you are. Please don't leave us now." Mendez could of imagined it, but there was a flicker of something after she thought that, something that almost reminded her of gratitude...

Persona: Sarah Kerrigan

Being dead, or at least pretty damn close to it, was no where near as much of a release as Kerrigan had hoped. Instead of peace and nothingness she instead found herself following her body as it was rapidly taken through the Moros and then transported to the Hyperion. She was allowed to move from the body a certain amount, which in a way was good as after the first five minutes of Ariel operating on her she felt quite nauseous to say the least. But it meant that she was instead set on a guilt trip worse than she possibly could have imagined, watching her men and the raiders unleashing a fury on Jim who looked more beaten down and defeated than she had ever seen him before.

It wasn't all bad to watch though, seeing Matt truly lose his temper had brought a smile to her face, whilst seeing Felicity take the Terrans to task had elicited a small chuckle before she managed to control herself. Felicity' reaction to her amusement surprised Kerrigan considerably, had the woman felt her reaction? Were they that psionically linked now that such a reaction was possible? Felicity's projected thoughts as she stormed into the med bay certainly supported that idea, but whilst Kerrigan was immensely grateful for the sentiment behind the words she couldn't help but feel that Jim definitely did not feel that way anymore.

Following her second in command as she strode through the medi bay halls, passing several rooms where medic teams were still treating the ghosts and other psionic individuals who had been caught in her psionic outburst, Kerrigan couldn't help but feel guilty at the obvious pain on Felicity's face as she typed in the entrance code to the room Kerrigan's body was being held in. Kerrigan had to admit that she had only been thinking of herself when she had grasped Raynor's gun in the cell, something this out of body experience was revealing to her more and more. At this rate there would be some apparition appearing in front of her to guide her Kerrigan mused a little snarkily remembering some of the children's tales that she had been read when she was young.

Felicity didn't say anything to begin with after she entered the room, merely moving over to the side of the makeshift bed that had been created to allow Kerrigan's increased bulk to be held comfortably whilst Dr Hanson had operated on her. Kerrigan's face was swathed in bandages and having seen the damage the bullet had done to her soft tissue Kerrigan was glad that none of it was visible now. The bullet had impacted the hardened exo skeleton of her skull and along with a burst of psionics it had been deflected down into her jaw, ricocheting between her jaw bone and skull twice before blowing a hole out of her teeth on the right side of her face.

Needless to say Kerrigan was glad her injuries hadn't carried over to her spirit, even with the Zerg healing that would still hopefully kick in she would be lucky to get minor scars after everything was healed up. To Felicity's credit the woman did not look horrified by the visible scars and stitches that littered the visible part of Kerrigan's face, primarily the direct areas around her eyes, nose and mouth, instead she merely reached up to brush one of Kerrigan's surviving hair tendrils from in front of her face off to one side, speaking almost to herself as she did so. Her words were so quiet as she leaned close to her head that Kerrigan had to move closer herself to hear what was uttered.

"Raynor told us what he said, I understand why he means so much to you Sarah but that man can be a complete thoughtless bastard at times. Given how even his own men have reacted I think you will find him a much humbled man when you wake up, probably with a few new scars to add to his ruggedness as well." Felicity chuckled to herself for a moment before the smile faded with a sigh. "You went through hell to get him back, prepared to sacrifice everything that made you who you are in order to see him safe, all of the men have seen it. In fact, such selfless determination has given me hope for the first time in a long time, and having seen the rifles in the aftermath I know I am not the only one to think that. I just, I just wish that you hadn't felt like you had to shoulder everything yourself, all your pain and troubles with the Zerg, your destiny and dealing with Mengsk. Such burdens can lay low even the mightiest of leaders, especially when you think you are abandoned by the one that you trust the most. But we will get you through this, no matter what ever else the world can throw at us."

For a moment Felicity seemed about to lean forwards and take the final step that she had obviously been considering for a while, but before she could there was a familiar rugged baritone cut across the silence in a defeated and weary tone, causing Felicity to whirl around and stand defensively in front of Kerrigan's body.

"I never wanted her to ever have to cope with any of this." Jim was looking at Felicity with a mix of pride and sadness, the worry lines on his face brought into stark relief in the med bays light. Kerrigan had never seen him so open as he seemed to her senses right now, even after rescuing her he had always seemed like he was keeping things from her and with how badly the rebellion had been going she now understood that is probably what he had been doing. He carried on a moment later, lowering his gaze under Felicity's cold stare as Kerrigan moved slowly towards him, her heart still crying out at the sheer despair in Jim's voice.

"Everything I did after the brood wars, opposing Mengsk, trying to find a way to free her from the Zerg, hell even working with Zeratul, was to try and make it so that she didn't have to sacrifice anymore of herself for the good of the Korpulu sector. Her entire life has been one giant case of her being forced to live anything but a normal life, becoming a ghost, joining the sons of Korhal, being abandoned by that bastard to the Zerg..." Jim cut off there, obviously locked in his memories of her final transmissions from Tarsonis that day where she truly lost her humanity.

"When she walked in, dressed in those spikes and with her hair cast about in the wind, the idea that I had failed so utterly in protecting her, making her sacrifice herself and her humanity for me again, I just lost control of myself for a few minutes. I thought she had returned to the Zerg entirely, it was only when I met the medic team that I knew how gravely I had been mistaken." It was a moment of revelation, something that Kerrigan suspected Jim would never have uttered aloud in any other circumstance, even to her before her change.

She had long suspected that whilst Jim had his own reasons for fighting Mengsk, if she hadn't been so determined to get her revenge on the man who had cost her everything then Jim would have happily run away with her to the outer rim, living a quiet life as the Korpulu sector burned. Such an idea certainly appealed to her, even as the idea of living without her connection to the swarm struck her as entirely impossible, something that made Kerrigan realise quite how much Jim had known her struggles and pain even if they had never discussed it.

The admission certainly seemed to lighten Felicity's gaze as she stepped to the side silently, allowing the man to approach to stand next to her at the bed, looking down at Kerrigan with a single tear dribbling down his cheek, before his next words caught both women by surprise, the shock making Kerrigan lose focus over her form for a moment.

"You love her almost as much as I do, no don't try and deny it Felicity, I might be as stubborn as an ox and blind to the obvious but even I can see in your actions that you would walk into hell for her if she asked, and given what some of the others have told me it might not be entirely unrequited. I certainly am not like those old confederate bastards who think that such things are wrong, and given my screw ups I sure as hell can't stand here and try and tell you whether or not I am angry at you for it. After this I will be lucky if Sarah will want to be in the same system as me, definitely not in the 'stay away from my girl territory'." The very bad attempt by the grizzled veteran to inject some humor into the situation made Felicity grin, probably cause she like Jim knew quite how Kerrigan would react to such an outdated call, but it caused Kerrigan to frown.

Knowing the noble self sacrificing idiot for what he was, Kerrigan could predict Jim's attempts to push himself away even if it wasn't what either of them wanted, and there was no way she was going to let him get away with such a wonderful apology (even if he hadn't known she was listening) and then running off before she could make him grovel some more to make it up to her. Though she knew it would hurt and probably slow her recovery somewhat, Kerrigan approached her body even as Jim continued to speak.

"Sarah's been through a lot that would make anyone buckle, the fact that I managed to overcome her indomitable spirit so brutally doesn't mean she's lost to us yet, but she will need someone to help her mend, someone to make her happy..." Light, strange it was so blinding when she had been fine in her projection form. Kerrigan returned to her senses even as Jim turned away, she wanted to call out to him, which was when she remembered she was missing a good portion of her jawline, thus making speech a little difficult.

That wouldn't deter her though Kerrigan thought as she ignored the massive headache and reached out with her mind, connecting to both of her... She wasn't quite sure what she was going to call them but that was something she could work on.

'You are not going anywhere Jim Raynor until you have pampered my every whim to make up for your...our misunderstanding.' Jim had stiffened at Kerrigans mental thought, turning round slowly as if worried he had just been hearing things, only to turn fully when Felicity whistled in relief as she looked down at Kerrigans visible eye with so many contrasting emotions that Kerrigan didn't even know where to start.

"Sarah! I mean General Kerrigan, you are awake. I will go get doctor Hanson." Even as she felt her Zerg healing begin to kick in now she had returned to her body, Kerrigan reached up and grabbed Felicity's closest hand to stop her leaving. The blush on the medic's face at the physical contact made Kerrigan smile, or attempt to anyways before the pain of her mutilated jaw put a stop to that.

'I think first the three of us need to have a conversation about what you two have just been saying, and yes Jim I heard everything, if it weren't for the fact that I think moving will make the pain worse I would be trying to kiss you for your honesty. Though I think I would have then followed Matt in trying to punch you for your presumptive if noble attempt to run away before I woke." Even as Jim looked a perfect picture of delighted relief and shock at Kerrigan's knowledge, Sarah returned her focus to Felicity, who she could see was doing her best to hide her sadness at Kerrigans acquittal of the man.

'Felicity, as Jim said your feelings have not gone unnoticed even if I haven't responded to them, out of a mixture of loyalty to this lovable Buffoon and honestly a bit of hesitancy given that I have no real experience of how relationships work for Terrans or in general. I will not let this go without being discussed any longer, and I refuse to lose either of you because of antiquated conventions that have been in place since before the first ships arrived here.' That got both their attentions as they seemed to be trying to grasp at what Kerrigan was building towards. Felicity spoke first with a flux of apprehension and hope mixed in her tone.

"Sarah, are you saying what I think you are saying? You do realise that Mengsk will try and use such a thing against us, and the men..." Sarah chuckled as she decided to reveal something to Felicity that she had known for the last two weeks.

'The men already think we are together Felicity, they have since the events on Morecamb if not before. If anything I think the rumours have improved morale along the lines of, and I quote 'That Raynor is one lucky bastard if this works out for him.' ' She paused both for dramatic effect and to enjoy the sudden choking sound as Jim seemed to be struggling to breathe, her earlier assessment was correct, Felicity did look cuter when she was blushing. 'And I am through caring what the rest of the sector thinks of me and what I do, I have never done anything 'the normal way', why should I do it the normal way here if that might mean losing one of you?" Seeing that Felicity was still a bit unsure about things Kerrigan decided to play a final card to both lighten the mood and also to see what Jim thought of the whole thing.

'Also, I am fairly certain that I didn't hear anything that constituted a personal no in that sentence, did you JIm?' To Kerrigan's slight relief the rugged ex marshal shook his head and gave a slight chuckle.

"I think you are right there darling, though perhaps we should all sleep on this before trying to work things out further, I mean I ain't going to complain when i get told that I will be seen with two beautiful women instead of just one darling, but I think you may have just broken Felicity with the idea. You get some rest now darlin and then when you are given the all clear by Ariel we can work out quite how much trouble I am in..." Obviously Kerrigan's taciturn forgiveness had been more than enough for Jim, the man looking ten years younger and seemingly unconcerned with Kerrigan's decision about the new direction in their relationship. He was right of course, certainly things would not be as easy as Kerrigan merely saying it was so like sometimes happened in the stories, but compared to the shit they had been through thus far she was sure they would work things out.

Jim leaned in and gave her a quick kiss to the forehead before turning away and stepping off towards the door with a spring in his step, leaving the two women alone as Felicity seemed to regain some level of cognitive capacity. To make things easier on the poor woman Kerrigan opened the connection a little more to allow Felicity to feel her emotions as well as her own, causing Felicity to elicit a small gasp at the extra emotive wave.

Obviously she found whatever she was looking for though as she seemed to steel herself before leaning forwards and copying Jim, lingering a moment longer before shaking her head and heading to the door as Kerrigan closed her eyes and gave into the tiredness that had been enveloping her since she had rejoined her body, giving a final command to the swarm to follow Nash'ala until she awoke, perhaps she could leave others to do all of the work for a little while at least...

Persona: Matt Horner, Captain of the Hyperion

Matt was a little surprised by the appearance of Jim back on the bridge and even more surprised by the smile on the man's face, though given that he was followed by Mendez who had a similar pleased expression on her face Matt assumed that it was probably to do with Kerrigan. Before he could say anything more on the subject, and probably apologise for punching the man in the face no matter how much he deserved it, various screens in the bridge began lighting up and an alarm started sounding. Even as he whirled round to look at the command screen and find out what was up, one of his bridge officers called out to inform him of the problem.

"Captain, multiple warp signatures detected, we are talking about more than just a scouting party here. Protoss in origin!" That made sense Matt thought bitterly as he started issuing orders on his screen to ready defences and get the fighter wings in the air, given the psionic wave that had erupted with Kerrigan's attempted suicide the Protoss were bound to investigate sooner rather than later.

"How many signatures and how long until they materialise?" Depending on the distance the Protoss were travelling from the answer could be seconds or minutes, which whilst not hugely different in the scheme of things would affect how much time Matt could spend giving orders to his crew, the Stock and the few rebel ships he had with him. The man's face seemed to pale a little as he looked at the readouts but his response was firm and not panicked.

"Over twenty signatures that are probably carrier sized Captain, the smaller signals are too many to make an accurate estimate. It looks like they will be arriving in less than 5 minutes, give or take half a minute." Twenty carrier's was a lot of firepower, certainly more than they could handle in a straight fight considering that the Moros was already badly damaged. But perhaps they wouldn't need to beat the Protoss entirely, just give Swann and the others enough time to repair the engines on the Super Carrier and warp it away. With this in mind, Matt walked over to the zergling in the corner of the bridge that had been stood stock still since it had arrived two days ago. Tapping it twice on the head, the zergling growled lightly before nodding slowly, a sign that it had sent the message that he was requesting contact with the Zerg. With Kerrigan incapacitated it didn't surprise him to find that it was Izsha that responded to his communication attempt, the Serpentine Zerg tipping her in confusion as she addressed him across the psionically powered console to his right.

"Captain Horner, The Queen of Blades is unavailable at the moment, what can the swarm do for you?" Seeing that Jim and Mendez were stood by the war table and obviously ready, Matt turned to address all of them at once.

"Right everyone, the Moros needs at least half an hour before it can make a jump, so here is the plan to keep the Protoss back until then..."

Chapter Text

"Another wave of Protoss attack ships, targeting the Moros entirely this time. I think that the Protoss have worked out that we were trying to keep their attention away from it, they have several transports amongst them as well." The report from one of his bridge crew was hardly surprising to Matt, they hadn't been all that subtle in their attempts to keep the attention away from the Moros as it limped from one short jump to another, ruthlessly destroying or crippling those that had tried to break away to attack the damaged supercarrier. With the fleet they had brought to engage the Moros still waiting for a signal from either the Hyperion or the Stockade, Matt could probably have turned this staggered retreat into a proper fight, but the chances of the Protoss deciding that such a force meant they needed the golden armada as backup was something he wasn't about to risk.

Better the Protoss think that Kerrigan had been abandoned by the Zerg and forced to hide with the raiders, it would be better for everyone in the long run and might make them a little less zealous about chasing after her in such large numbers again. Resolving himself to the continued retreat, Matt activated the commlink he had with Engineer Swann, who was currently hard at work on the Moros trying to fix up its vital systems. When the screen came on Matt was alarmed to see a Protoss zealot, until his eyes took in the myriad of bullet wounds that had effectively reduced its chest to gristle and slumped against the back wall. Swann's face appeared a moment later, the bulky engineer covered in sweat and grime, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand before speaking up.

"What is it you need cowboy? The Protoss boarders really aren't making things easy for us over here but we should be up and running if you can keep them off our back for the next five minutes." Running was the preferred option for now, for all he and the others knew the golden armada was on its way.

"We will keep them away Swann, Sarah wants to try something that might make them actually back off, but in the meantime just keep on working to fix the worst of it, we can start properly repairing it when we get out of here." The burly man nodded and closed the communications so that he could get back to work, allowing Matt to turn to the three recent arrivals to the bridge. "Are you sure you want to do this Kerrigan? the Protoss are already showing that they are happy to sacrifice numerous ships in order to trap us into defending the Moros and the executor was pretty zealous about wiping your existence from the Galaxy..."

Kerrigan nodded, straightening up from where she had been using Mendez and Jim as support and standing on her own, waving the pair of them off when she stumbled for a moment before regaining her balance. She was clad in her psionic armour once more though the design of it seemed softer and more compacted, less of the jagged spikes and edges, giving her a less threatening look to her that in Matt's opinion very much matched her recent thawing from the cold hearted tactician she had once been. Her face was a different matter and despite himself Matt could quite stop the mental cringe at the angry red flesh that covered the lower half of her face, despite her Zerg regeneration doing its best to heal what the surgery couldn't.

"I have to try Matt, worst case is that the Protoss don't listen to us or try and get the Golden armada here, which is probably what they are doing right now anyways. In the meantime we either have to wait till the Moros is repaired and we can escape or till the Protoss run out of ships to send at us, neither of those things are things I can influence directly without calling the swarm here, so I must try and think of other things that I CAN do in order to not feel useless." The last part was almost a whisper and for a moment Matt thought he might have imagined it before Mendez stepped up comfortingly to the woman's side. Nodding his ascent Matt moved off to the side of the command dais, allowing Kerrigan to step up and stand in the centre of the command deck. After a moment of concentration the air in the room became charged with energy, Kerrigan being surrounded in a nimbus of light before there was a crack and an ethereal figure appeared in front of them whilst Kerrigan fell to one knee breathing harshly.

"A forced astral projection, I am surprised you did not merely crush my mind instead, such an act would have been simpler to perform I imagine. Have you brought me here as a hostage or merely to gloat as you did during the brood wars, betrayer of Fenix?" The executor had seemed familiar when they had first begun the engagement, but given the raiders long and mixed history with the Protoss it was only now she was stood in front of them so to speak that Matt recognised her as the executor that had attacked them at Haven. She stood warily, her focus solely on the still recovering Kerrigan as she seemed to weigh up her chances of breaking the connection without Kerrigan just killing her out of hand. Therefore she only noticed Jim's approach when the man spoke up before placing one hand on Kerrigan's shoulder, normally casual gaze set into a harsh glare as he spoke his piece.

"I would not bring up Fenix if I were you executor, after all it was your kind that decided to only send him and a token force to help us when we were invaded by the UED, perhaps if you had been so intent on honouring him then as you are at using him as a martyr then my friend would still be with us now. But you were all too busy cowering behind your golden armada that you are all so proud of so that doesn't really surprise me." The executor reacted as if struck and with good reason Matt thought, many amongst the process had respect for the man who fought with Tassadar only a few levels below the slayer of the Overmind himself.

"You dare, I shou..." Pride warred with respect for a moment and then the executor seemed to shrink in on herself slightly and nodded her head. "If you were not known for your honour and deeds amongst us as you are I would kill you where you stand Queen of Blades be damned. But perhaps you are right Friend Raynor, after the fall of Aiur to the Overmind and the actions of its pet, we were perhaps too cautious with our remaining forces, if we had taken your request for aid seriously I don't think we would be having this conversation. But I implore you to come to your senses friend Raynor, Kerrigan has betrayed us all more than once, how can you be sure that she won't do the same again once she has her power back?" Jim looked across as Kerrigan raised herself to a crouch, guilty smile on his face as he traced the angry scar on her cheek with a mixture of affection and apology in his gaze.

"Oh I think once you know what happened today executor you wouldn't consider that idea for a moment longer. But I think we can cover that later, when you have finished trying to aggravate Sarah into killing you I think you should listen to her, if not for your sake then for the sake of all of your kind who will die in trying to continue this feud." Jim's pointed comment about the rather pissed off superhuman next to him seemed to bring her out of the state she had been in, trying to restrain herself from doing exactly as Jim said and wiping the executor from existence, though despite her seeming to calm a little there was still a sparking energy field around each of her clenched fists as the executor looked back at her a mixture of amused and cautious.

"I did not think it would be so easy to get under the skin of the legendary Queen of Blades, even more importantly I did not imagine that she would be capable of resisting her base instincts for so long. Very well, I am intrigued enough to hear what you will have to say in person. Release me and I will order our fleets to stop their attacks, though if they sense treachery or deceit..."

"They will call the Golden Armada and all of us shall perish in terrible fire, yeah we get it. I think you Protoss need some new threats that don't revolve around you all dying and hoping we will stick around to let ourselves be killed." Kerrigan's smirk returned in full force as her words vanished any trace of humour on the executors face, but Sarah held her hands up in a placating manner a moment later before the argument could continue further. "Apologies, I am still recovering from my earlier actions so I am a little short tempered. I will not hold you here any longer executor, and once you have called your fleet back we can arrange an in person meeting to discuss things further." The executor nodded and disappeared a moment later, Kerrigan giving a big sigh of relief the moment they were alone.

"If this meeting continues in the same vein I cannot promise I will not take that woman apart just to shut her up. But at least this will have bought Swann some time..." Not exactly promising for the negotiations ahead but as Kerrigan had said at least they had time now.

"Right, well perhaps we can use this... grace period to send some more engineers and troops over to the Moros. Then even if things do go badly we can get out of here without risking leaving the Moros behind anymore." Mendez broke the slightly awkward silence by focussing on the practicalities of the situation which Matt appreciated very much as it broke the awkward tension in the room and made the crew focus on their particular jobs once more. Matt could only hope that things remained this peaceful after the negotiations actually started.

"Well that was about as much fun as Tarsonis rodeo..." Jim chuckled at his own bad joke while Kerrigan glared at him for a moment before shaking her head with a tired smile. Negotiations had been tense to say the least as they met with the executor and her troops on the nearby planet of Davos, she had been forced to knock out three zealots who had accompanied the executor when they tried to kill her at the start of the talks. Thankfully the other Protoss hadn't taken the opportunity to try and finish her off and had let them at least try and come to a agreement.

Kerrigan had let Jim take the lead regarding the negotiations, the man showing that he was more than just a charismatic rogue as he politicked his way into the Protoss' good books even whilst defusing the worst of the hate they directed at her. Certainly her main offer also helped with the progress of the talks, and the sheer surprise she felt emanate from the Protoss when she made it had helped mitigate her anger to their attempts to aggravate her.

*Flashback*

They had been at it for almost an hour when one of the Protoss, a High Templar from his grand robes, pointed angrily at her over Jim's shoulder and made his exclamation clear to everyone there.

"Enough of letting Friend Raynor speak for you Queen of Blades, I desire more than flowery words of peace and reconciliation to repay the blood of my brothers who have been slaughtered by your Zerg. You say that you were controlled during your time as the Queen of Blades, but what can you offer us in order to prove your different intentions towards us?" What about the fact she was letting them live to see another day despite the fact that they had been the ones to attack first and were quite determined to kill her and her men without a thought?

That was probably a little bitter of her given her history with the Protoss but she really wanted to get this whole thing over with as she hadn't rested now in almost 48 hours, healing coma notwithstanding. And given the actions of both the Overmind and her own Zerg forces would make the Protoss very wary of working directly with her forces in her lifetime... But perhaps she could use something she had already been doing with her forces to her advantage here. Nodding her head to Jim as he tried to step in, the man being able to read her so that no words were needed in order to let him know she was okay with this.

"You wish for me to promise something solid enough that it will stop the possibility of Augustgrad ever happening again, which is understandable given the actions of the Queen of Blades in the past." Her entire party had been clear from the start that they separated the Queen of Blades from Kerrigan when they spoke, whilst it obviously angered the Protoss for them to do so she and Jim felt that it would help with negotiations in the long term.

"I think that you know as well as I that there is nothing I could promise you short of my own life that would satisfy you immediately." She paused for effect and saw Felicity's eyes widen as she said this, obviously worried about how far she might go given her recent actions, but Jim placed a hand on her shoulder to calm the woman as she spoke up once more.

"But after the events of today and the time since my... Release, I cannot give you that satisfaction and to do so would just make things harder between our three races. I have been shown that I cannot give into selfish or easy decisions as I used to when I just commanded the Zerg, and I intend to do my best to look at the big picture to make things better for all of us if I can." It was clear that the Protoss didn't believe her and that wasn't really at all surprising given her past, so Kerrigan decided to get straight to her point that she hoped that even if it didn't win the Protoss over it would at least make them consider their priorities a little more.

"I bring to the table the might of my swarm and the offer to assist the Protoss with any attempts to clear any hostile forces from Protoss worlds or former holdings that the Zerg have led to you abandoning, for a few things in return of course..." Whilst some people might have just made the offer of assistance without the proviso of strings attached, but Kerrigan knew if she did that would just make the Protoss even more suspicious, she would be the same if they did the same to her. But the tantalising offer that she had implied rather than directly stated with her rather specific wording should be becoming obvious right about...

"Qu-Kerrigan, are you saying..." Kerrigan allowed a slight smile to cross her face as the executor used her actual name, the first time a non-Rifle affiliated Protoss had done willingly since Fenix, before nodding her head and doing her best to keep her tone steady and not condescending as she confirmed the executor's hopes.

"Yes Executor, when I have dealt with Mengsk and secured peace in the sector for the time being, I am offering the full strength of my swarm and the Queen's Rifles in the liberation of your home world. If you wish me to that is..." The statement caused more than one of the assembled Protoss to reel back in mild shock, even as Raynor stepped to her side supportively.

"Me and my Raiders will also stand with Kerrigan, in memory of Fenix and Tassadar we will give your race Aiur!" The declaration of unconditional support from Raynor helped, more than half of the Protoss, mainly the youngest present, were expressing emotions such as hope and excitement. Of course there were others that were still firmly suspicious of her and obviously very leery of her offer in any form...

*Flashback End*

Despite the continued suspicion and hostility from some of the Protoss camp, such a split in opinion was definitely better than the universal condemnation that she usually received. Whilst it might still be wishful thinking on her behalf at this point, Kerrigan liked to think that her long term chances of survival had just shot through the roof, especially if she could bring the executor on board before they departed.

Assuming she survived whatever this prophecy Zeratul was steering her into was about, but she could worry about that in the morning, or whatever time she actually managed to sleep until. For now both groups had constructed small bases on the planet to stay at whilst negotiations continued, their respective ships withdrawn to the sides of the planet to avoid conflict and reduce tension. So she could leave the Raiders and the Rifles to plan things and to organise the defences just in case the Protoss decided they couldn't trust them, honestly a bed in one of the bunks set up at the base was the only thing on her mind right now...

If she had been a little more awake and aware, Kerrigan might have noticed the almost muffled feeling that came over her psionics as she made it back to the Raider camp, or the almost unnoticeable psionic presence of hundreds of Zerg organisms that were being quickly and silently conveyed to the planet by overlord. Their purpose drove them relentlessly as their masters only instruction was branded psionically into their primitive minds, only waiting until their secret weapons were fully matured before launching their assault.

'Bring me the body of the one known as Kerrigan, Queen of Blades of the False Zerg...'

Kerrigan had woken instantly as the sounds of gunfire pre-empted the shouting of sentries about an attack. Leaping to her feet she realised she had barely managed two hours of sleep judging by the encroaching darkness outside the bunk area. Grabbing her rifle, which she had made a conscious effort to remember in order to further distance her image from the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan reached out with her mind to find out what was happening. But instead of the usual clear sense of what was going on around her that she usually had, Kerrigan instead found herself in what seemed to be a psionic fog, her senses barely making it beyond the camp itself before failing.

That distance was enough however for her to realise what was happening as she took off at a run, leaping through the air to land in front of the outermost bunker of the camp as waves of Zerg charged towards them. After a few shots Kerrigan had to shoulder the rifle and abandon her pretences of normality in order to combat the numbers of enemies being sent her way. Even with the psionic fog all around her she should have been able to establish a link with the zerglings in front of her if they were feral, the fact that she couldn't meant that they already had a master controlling them and that wasn't good news.

Whether it was a Broodmother trying to usurp her position after the psionic blast she had released seemed to signify her death Kerrigan couldn't be sure, but until she found out whatever was causing this psionic dampening it wasn't really important... Well it was but it was more there was little she could do about it. Forming the psionic armour around her as the zergling swarm closed on her, Kerrigan leapt through the air and started lashing outwards in a whirlwind of death with her blades. The Zerg forces seemed to hone in on her as she did that, reinforcing the idea that they were here for her and not anyone else.

'Kerrigan, what is the meaning of this treache...' The astral projection of the executor cut off her accusation even as Kerrigan slipped under a pair of spines fired her way by a hydralisk, Kerrigan turning the hydralisk's entire upper body into gristle and gore a moment later with a psionic blast that also took out a pair of zerglings behind it.

"A little busy executor, but I suggest you and your men make your way over to this base if you wish to avoid being overrun by whoever is planning this, i certainly imagine this is not the worst of it..."

And she hadn't been wrong, though after the first assault there had been a much needed breather that allowed her to take command of the Rifles and set up a small Zerg base, though trying to control more than a small number of Zerg at one time proved to be too challenging to keep up at the same time as fighting on the frontline of the conflict. Therefore she had been forced into a backline command role for the first time since Jim had released her from Amon's control, guiding the Zerg to take out the three bloated beasts that had been spread across the nearby landscape, which seemed to be the source of the psionic static.

When the last one had fallen the mist had lifted and Kerrigan had connected to the minds of the remaining Zerg she was at last able to trace the psionic connection that controlled them back to its source on the far reaches of the planetary system, hidden behind the outermost planet itself. It was only when she mentally rounded the planet that she truly comprehended what she was up against, and more importantly who it was that might be after her once more.

As she projected herself inside the Leviathan sized behemoth vessel that was surrounded by a host of smaller Zerg fighting craft and very clearly designed in an archaic and combat orientated manner, Kerrigan found herself face to face with an enemy she didn't recognise. At least, she was clueless until a familiar voice spoke in her head and the figure turned towards her.

"Kerrigan, it is good that I was mistaken about your death and that you still live. That will make the wiping out of your forces before devouring you all the more... Satisfying." She barely broke the connection before Zurvan tore her to shreds with his new arms, leaving her gasping for breath on one knee in the command room. Activating her comms unit, Kerrigan took a moment to get her breathing under control before speaking.

"Matt, signal the fleet quickly, we have a problem..." Unfortunately that was something Kerrigan was getting uncomfortably used to saying every time they seemed to make some progress...

Twenty one graves now rested upon Davos' surface, another solemn reminder if any was needed of the cost her war against Mengsk and her other enemies had. And that twenty one were only the ground casualties of the fight against Zurvan, above Davos the space battle that had lasted several hours would have undoubtedly claimed more lives. In fact if it hadn't been for the turn of the Moros with twin Yamato cannons blazing as the behemoth had started its unrelenting attack towards Davos itself then Kerrigan would have been in trouble even with the Protoss fleet and her own doing their best to prevent that.

Even that shouldn't have worked, the Moros running on a skeleton crew and with the battle damage from when they had taken it would have been no match for the behemoth if the beast had actually attacked it head on, but it seemed that Zurvan was being cautious after the events on Zerus. The ancient Zerg instead decided to withdraw at that point, merely stating that he would return at some point to finish things between them, not exactly what Kerrigan needed at this point but there was nothing she could do about it for now.

"You all right there darling? You were mighty quick to leave the funeral..." Raynor's appearance and question was hardly a surprise to Kerrigan, with the psionic mist of the creatures that the Rifles had started naming 'Hive Beasts' Kerrigan had decided she had been complacent and thus her psionic senses were on a knife edge. So she had sensed his and Mendez's approach long before the pair had got within speaking distance, though given who it was Kerrigan had felt content with waiting for their arrival without the need to stand and face them.

"Just adding another enemy to those that are trying to kill me, it seems that no matter how many we win there is always someone else just waiting in the shadows to strike at us next..." Her voice trembled ever so slightly part way through and she hated herself for it even as Jim came to stand beside her, his face showing that he was as tired as she felt.

"And I will do everything in my power to finish every last one of them, with my own two hands if I have to. That's a promise I would follow to the gates of hell if need be." Despite the obvious weariness in his voice Jim's confidence made her smile slightly before she felt she had to ask, even if she already knew the answer.

"Speaking of promises Jim, why did you let me live after purifying me on Char? I know your promise to Fenix meant everything and you couldn't know I was freed before you saved me from Tychus..." Jim to her surprise didn't even flinch when she brought up something that had been in the back of her mind ever since he had told her what happened. Instead he gave a wistful smile up at the stars even as Felicity sat on Kerrigan's other side and pulled Kerrigan awkwardly into her shoulder, obviously Felicity's best attempt at comforting her that she could manage at this time.

"There was something that Tassadar told me and Fenix actually in the zenith of our battle with the Overmind, when both of us tried to accompany him on his final charge and keep the promises that we had made to see this thing through to its conclusion. It was something that Fenix repeated to me as he lay dying on Augustgrad after I made my promise to kill the Queen of Blades, you, for what you had done. 'Some promises are made to be broken friend, just as some great lives are not lived to their fullest.'" Jim seemed to consider saying something more, only to shake his head and settle down next to her without a word, the three weary warriors eager to take the advantage of the respite they had been given, no matter how short it would end up being...

Location- Titan, moon base Prime

Preparations were nearly complete for her ground forces, each company being drilled against the known Dominion tactics the Blade's spies had fed back to her as well as how to combat both the Protoss and Zerg if they were encountered. Lauren Feinhaus snorted slightly to herself as she looked at the data pad in front of her from her own informants in the Korpulu region, Blade must either be getting sloppy in his old age or plotting his own game if the massive difference in Intel she was receiving was correct. She was leaning towards the latter, but that was why she had sent her own men in in the first place, even if most of them had disappeared off the grid shortly after arriving and sending their first reports.

Trust, but verify, a motto she had always lived by and one that had gotten her this far despite the cutthroat diplomacy involved in UED politics. As such Lauren had augmented her already considerable forces with specific forces that the Science divisions had developed in the aftermath of the discovery of the two races. The protests of Admiral LeBlanc and his supporters had prevented her from having many of the more... Top Secret level troops and projects, under the pretence that they were worried that such technology could end up in the wrong hands like the medic and medivac technology had in DuGalle's campaign should her invasion become drawn out or even worse defeated.

Of course they were ignoring the fact that keeping such powerful tools from her force might well be the cause of such a defeat, but whilst Lauren was determined not to fall into the same sense of superiority that she suspected had been the downfall of DuGalle and his men, she was fairly confident that she should be able to triumph given the forces available to her. Especially if she managed to successfully contact the supposedly 'dead' Queen of Blades and offer her help with her revenge against Emperor Mengsk in return for supporting the UED's claiming of the Dominions territory...

Chapter Text

She nearly hadn't come to this wasteland Kerrigan thought to herself as she looked down at Skygeirr station orbiting Ketill IV, in fact it had been Jim that had been the one to persuade her to listen to the shadowy message relayed to her through Izsha. He had been one of the few to think the risk of the hybrids that had been mentioned in the message being brought to Korhal before their attack was too great to ignore.

His logic was that if it was a trap, they could always have a trump card up their sleeve for a counter ambush, denying Mengsk whatever forces he would have entered into the trap. If anyone but Jim or Felicity had used that logic, Kerrigan would have been a little more resistant to the risk she was putting herself at. But after a slightly bumpy start things were getting better between the three of them, there was no one she trusted more.

And despite their awkwardness Kerrigan could see something starting to spark between the others in their 'private' meetings they had when she had been marshaling her forces and commanding the various fronts, primarily to get to know each other but Kerrigan did feel touched that they didn't discuss how to baby her or hide any tension they did have between them from her.

The arrival of the overlord from the planet brought Kerrigan back to the present, the mouth of the leviathan filled with troops ranging from her blades to Jim himself in full tactical gear, just in case the single infected Terran she could sense aboard tried to be a threat.

The fleshy tube that served as a gangplank in this case slithered into the area in front of her, the sounds of metal on flesh and carapace following its arrival as pretty much every person behind her tensed. Stepping out of the fleshy walkway was a tall human that couldn't give a better image to how imposing infected Terrans could be, down to the flight jacket that seemed to meld with his infested arm.

The man looked around with his glowing eyes before reaching up and tilting his flight cap back, speaking with a Russian accent that made it clear to Kerrigan he was the one who had sent her the message.

"Well, this wasn't quite the reception I was expecting. But then again you always were one to surprise me, Sarah Kerrigan." If the man was anxious about the number of guns pointed in his direction he didn't show it, even when Sergei stepped forward with twin pistols and a slight frown on his face.

"Vice-admiral Stukov, you have been thought killed in action for 10 years and declared guilty of cowardice and treason back on Earth." Sergei looked like he wanted to correct the obvious oversight in the UED obituary list, Stukov seeming to ignore him with the kind of panache that only someone who had already died at least once could pull off.

The now identified former UED admiral tilted his hat respectfully to Jim and Sarah, Stukov giving them a moment to get over his rather abrupt reintroduction before carrying on.

"I am hoping that the fact we were once enemies will not cause problems between us now, though given your changes I imagine you have more pressing concerns than me these days. So if you could get your dog to stand down..." Sergei responded to the insult by pulling the trigger, the bullet bouncing off the psionic shield in front of Stukov.

Sergei seemed undeterred but with a thought Kerrigan had two of her Blades restrain him, the UED ghost resisting for a moment before sullenly standing down and relinquishing his pistol. Stukov watched this with obvious amusement, but he didn't comment on it as Kerrigan tried to return the conversation back to why she was here.

"You were thought killed by Colonel Duran during the Brood Wars Stukov, but it instead looks like you met an altogether different fate. However, the question remains, why am I here? You mentioned hybrids being produced here but I cannot sense any powerful psionic presences in this system other than yourself." Kerrigan could sense the thousands of Terrans on the station, but that by itself was not enough for her to have distracted herself from the campaign against Mengsk.

Stukov seemed non-plussed and pointed to the station below them.

"The interior of the station is psionically shielded to a level that I have never seen before, it is why I was only able to contact you when I escaped that place. If we are to destroy the hybrid labs, first we must clear the Dominion defenses at the entrance to them." Kerrigan raised an eyebrow at the rather straight forward approach of the man, surely they could just blast the station from space?

But she supposed it would be best to see this through properly, and Lasarra would definitely be outraged if she just straight out destroyed a potential source of information on the hybrids. Looking to Jim who nodded in agreement, Kerrigan dismissed the security forces who were still loitering uncertainly, giving a mental order to the Blades to sequester Sergei away for the time being.

If it weren't for the fact the man was still useful for any potential information on this supposed second task force coming their way Kerrigan would just leave him there, the man had been nothing but intrusive and irritating since his arrival. But she could deal with him later, now she had a battle to direct once more...

*Line Break*

Claiming the surface of the space station had actually been the easy part of the mission, despite the fact that it was one of the most heavily fortified locations Kerrigan had ever seen. The use of infestors helped tremendously, even if Kerrigan could not squash her emotions enough to infect the garrisons of Terrans like her former self would have done without the slightest hint of remorse.

Instead and proving that she was both becoming predictable and that her ideals were slowly permeating throughout the swarm, Abathur had unveiled a evolution strain for the infestor, rather melodramatically termed the Devastator strain.

*Flashback*

"Many siege tanks on platform surface, powerful attack at long range from behind Terran lines. Difficult for swarm to counter without high loss of biomass, unacceptable weakness, must adapt. Proposed new strain of Infestors, Devastator strain. Take range of explosive shell and improve type of munition, utilise banelings instead. Improved offensive and defensive abilities for swarm whilst avoiding loss of Infestor usefulness due to new alliances, must consider different view for other areas of the swarm."

*Flashback end*

As pretentious as the name sounded the devastators definitely lived up to it and more, the literal hail of banelings meant that the Dominions ground based defenders were very quickly neutralised in front of her advance. The Dominion commander was no fool, trying to use banshees and battlecruisers to kill off the devastators and give his men some time to recover, but her Blade teams and hydralisks had been more than capable of felling the banshees whilst Kerrigan ripped the larger battlecruisers from the sky.

She had kept them intact and as undamaged as possible, you could never have enough ships after all, and the attack continued unabated. The Dominion commander only surrendered when Kerrigan and the ground troops had disabled enough of the anti-air defences to be able to bring in their own heavy air support, two leviathans and half a dozen rebel battlecruisers making very clear that the battle was very much over.

As Jim coordinated the Raider's and Rifles in dealing with the Dominion prisoners as well as rooting out the last few die hard resistors on the surface, Kerrigan had headed below with the swarm. As they descended Kerrigan found very quickly that Stukov had been correct in his talk of psionic shielding, Losing the ability to communicate with anyone but Felicity on the surface and arriving in the labs, Kerrigan felt the powerful signatures of at least a dozen hybrids..

Each of the hybrids she could sense was many time stronger than the ones that she had faced on Morecamb and even with her new powers it would be a challenge for her to face one of them by herself. Things had become even worse when Narud had started releasing the damn things from the cells he had been holding them in, the things were attracted to psionic energy and drained it from their targets, and Kerrigan was by far the biggest psionic battery that they could detect other than Narud himself.

So it had become a race against time, to fight her way through the remaining Dominion forces that were acting as security on this level and deal with the awakening hybrids, before they could drain her of her energy and her life. Reinforcements from her fleet was the only thing that made such a fight possible, especially with the arrival of her Blades and several groups of lurkers and aberrations, which were better suited to fighting the hybrids than the more traditional zergling and roach swarms she had tried to use initially.

The first Raider troops arrived just as she was finishing the last 2 hybrids off, leaving the labs clear for Swann, Lasarra and the others to move down and begin investigating them, the hybrids and whatever other secrets Narud might be hiding down here.

Looking down the ornate stairs that led from the labs to some level deep below, Kerrigan actually felt a little nervous as she used her telepathy to scan the area. There were a lot of signatures down there, making Kerrigan wonder why Narud had kept so many forces in reserve given the importance of these hybrids to the resurrection of his beloved Amon.

The shapeshifter who had been the downfall of the UED invasion obviously had something planned, and given Stukov's rather insightful comments about the psionic energy she had lost when the Xel'Naga artifact had freed her from Amon's control, Kerrigan assumed he probably had a similar trap in mind for her this time.

She didn't like to boast, but the amount of psionic energy she possessed now was the same as if not greater to what she had possessed then, so if as hypothesised Narud needed psionic energy to resurrect Amon, she was the perfect battery for him to utilise for it.

"You don't have to go down there you know darling, if half of what we think about Narud is true then whatever he has planned will probably be useless if you just stay up here. Hell, if I take the Raiders down there instead of the Zerg he won't know what hit him." Jim's comment as he walked up and put an arm around her waist was in line with her own thinking, but given what she could sense of Naru's power now that he had stopped hiding it she might not have a choice.

"Narud is too powerful for that Jim, his power is dangerously close to my own and that means he would slaughter your men even if you did manage to fight your way through the Tal'darim. No, I will lead the attack, but I think Narud is expecting a traditional Zerg onslaught and will be basing his defences on what he knows of my time as the Queen of Blades as well as whatever Mengsk will have told him of our attacks since then. So I think the diversity of our forces will give him a surprise, especially if I keep his attention focussed squarely on me..."

*Line Break*

The Tal'darim forces in the Xel'Naga temples in the depths of Skygeirr had definitely been kept in reserve for good reason, the well trained and devoted fanatics almost overwhelming her forward base several times as she combatted Narud in psionic combat. Kerrigan had done all she could to convince Narud he was in the superior position, Stukov deliberately failing to take the third temple that was giving Narud concentrated psionic energy to fuel his already monstrous powers.

Narud was sickeningly overconfident, taunting her repeatedly as he ordered his Tal'darim forces to storm forward and 'bring Amon the false Queen's head!'. As the Tal'darim forces charged forwards in an attempt to complete their master's demand Kerrigan decided enough was enough and activated her communicator.

Firstly, the platform Narud had been standing exploded thanks to the explosive charges Nova, Sergei and Tosh had placed there whilst Kerrigan had kept Narud distracted, the shapeshifter losing his balance as the ground underneath him crumbled. At the same time Lurkers and swarm hosts that had been burrowed away began to assault the Protoss from beneath the ground, the assault breaking up rapidly as Colossi were brought down under the weight of attacks leaving the Zealots and Stalkers unsupported as waves of Zerglings poured downwards from the labs.

As her psionic attack slammed into the still disorientated Narud and sent him crashing through the doors of the main temple, Kerrigan couldn't help but grin as the sounds of Ultralisk roars reverberated around the giant internal chasm, the giant beasts charging through her forces truly the most terrifying aspect of the Zerg war machine that anyone might have to face, apart from herself of course.

Covering the distance to the temple in a dozen psionically aided leaps, Kerrigan entered cautiously as the sheer power stored in this structure made sensing Narud by his psionics very difficult to pinpoint. Deciding to draw the bastard out, Kerrigan decided some taunting of her own was probably appropriate.

"Come out Narud, it's over and you know it. Even now my forces are slaughtering the last of your deluded followers and I don't see your 'god' coming to save you." Turning slowly so as not to leave her back exposed for more than a few moments at any given time, Kerrigan was unsurprised when a voice spoke from behind her, wrist blade extending as she spun ready to end the man's life.

The sight of Jim there in his Raider outfit caused Kerrigan to pull the attack at the last moment, her instincts difficult to ignore even if they had been expecting him to try this kind of deception.

"Sarah... What have you..." Narud got no further than that as a high velocity sniper round removed the left hand side of his face in a bloody explosion, the shooter's voice coming over the comm system a moment later.

"Well I think I can say sniping yourself in the head is definitely the weirdest thing I have done in a while. You okay there darling?" Raynor was perched on top of the Spire on top of the Zerg base and was no doubt still sweeping the area for any Tal'darim that might try and sneak up on her. Kerrigan didn't reply straight away, her focus on the body in front of her or more importantly the presence she had felt depart after Narud's rather embarrassing final defeat.

Amon, the presence was too painfully familiar to be anyone else, stayed just long enough to launch a wave of energy in her direction. Despite the attack being powerful enough to smash through her shields and send her flying back against the wall, the lack of intent behind it made it clear that Amon dismissed her as any kind of threat to before the image disappeared, leaving Kerrigan to collapse to one knee as the damage from the attack on her internal organs kicked in.

The Blade teams arrived a minute or so later lead by Felicity of all people, the medic tersely ordering the others to sweep the room, Kerrigan's fading vision barely able to make out her concerned face before she allowed her regenerative trance to truly kick in, her consciousness retreating to the comfort of the swarm as her body started to recover...

Chapter Text

It was over. Those three words were all that Kerrigan could think as she looked down from the top floor of Mengsk's now rather battlescarred palace. All of the pain, all of the fighting and blood had boiled down to a confrontation on a scale that other than the fight against the Overmind on Aiur had probably never been seen before. A dozen Dominion fleets, millions of soldiers and mechanised fighters and even three hybrids that Mengsk had obviously kept as a final reserve were thrown against her forces with the kind of zealous ferocity that only came with those that truly believed everything that came out of Mengsk's mouth.

The fight for the orbital defence stations had cost her several leviathans, as well as three rebel ships, but all in all it was a cheap price to gain orbital superiority. Mengsk had obviously prepared for her arrival, his secret weapon the Psi Destroyer would have been a very dangerous weapon against the swarm even with Dehaka's forces that had rejoined her fresh from having defeated Az'Kadar and assimilating her forces. But with the Rifles and the Raiders it had been tactically simple, if still costly war attrition to move across the platform and destroy the system main power core. Thirty two Rifles had fallen there, and that was before the final tally from the battle at the palace had come in.

"You okay there darlin?" Turning from the broken window, Kerrigan saw Jim and the other Raiders that had accompanied them through the palace.

For the first time in almost as long as she could remember, Kerrigan lowered her emotional barriers entirely and allowed all of her pent up frustration, anger and joy bubble out of her in a laugh that certainly edged into the maniacal if not the downright insane.

"I think you need to stop asking that question Jim, it might well become your catchphrase or something and I am sure you want something a little cooler to be remembered for." She paused but then she smiled, looking on the man who had sacrificed so much over and over again for her whether she had wanted to or not.

"But no Jim, I am not okay, not yet. Even after all of this." She gestured out into Augustgrad for emphasis where the sounds of fighting could still be heard despite the death of their 'beloved' Emperor. "I thought the end would change things, make everything okay and allow us to return to some semblance of normality. At least normal for us at any rate." That little ironic joke brought a smile to Jim's face as he moved forwards and embraced her.

"Well, I think we have to help Valerian a little first with the rebuilding, especially as we may have been slightly responsible for some of the damage..." Gods she had missed this, the light hearted banter amidst the storm of mayhem around them, and another voice pierced their little moment before they could continue.

"No one is going anywhere until I have checked you over General, we have to be sure that the artifact didn't have any adverse effects on you." Mendez was back in professional medic mode, but Kerrigan couldn't help but send a quirked eyebrow and a simple and possibly childish psionic jibe back at the mothering woman.

"Not just so you can get your hands all over me again Felicity?" To Felicity's credit she didn't react beyond a slight blush whilst Jim, who she had also included in the message for his amusement burst out into a chuckle, one he quickly stifled when Felicity glared imperiously across at him.

"This is why we didn't want you to charge in like that in the first place Sarah, it was lucky that Mengsk didn't just kill you straight out with the artifact." Even as she gave in to allowing her other other half to start testing her health and general well being, Kerrigan knew that Felicity was right, but she would have done it exactly the same regardless.

"Mengsk was always one for gloating, it was one of his only faults as a tyrannical despot really, and I am sure Jim had him in his sights the entire time regardless. At least this way we made sure that this was his last trump card, rather than finding out something else along the lines." The Artifact had been a surprise, but Kerrigan had been expecting surprises from the moment she had entered the palace, that was why she had allowed the others to come along.

But she had refused to let anyone else die in her quest for justice, she wouldn't give Mengsk that last bite of satisfaction, so she had walked into his trap and allowed him to believe he had won the last gasp of this long and terrible war. Even with her use of the Rifles and Raiders to clear the Psi Destroyer, Mengsk had still only expected her to come for him, the old man obviously assuming that her thirst for vengeance would overcome any kind of tactical control she had.

So Jim breaking every bone in his hand even as he crushed the artifact activation button before throwing the man across the room was a sight that Kerrigan would not forget. She had thought about using her powers to destroy Mengsk, to truly let him experience what he had forced her to become, and it had been tempting even as she had risen to her feet. But then she remembered where they were and had allowed herself satisfaction in a different way.

*Flashback*

Even as Mengsk forced himself back to his feet Kerrigan was upon him, ignoring her injuries and screaming muscles that were taxed to the limit even with her zerg enhancements. She grabbed him by the throat and lifted him from the floor, eyes piercing deeply into his as his hands tried to pry her own from him.

"You have lost Mengsk, every trap, scheme and betrayal has lead you to this point, your final defeat." Mengsk glared at her and spoke up even as she walked them away from his desk to the windows overlooking Augustgrad.

"Kerrigan, you monster, I will..." Kerrigan chuckled at his ranting, tightening her grip round his throat and reducing him to rasping breaths as she turned him to look out on the city.

"You say I am the monster, but look where your pride, your lack of morals and anything other than your desire for power has gotten you. I know you ordered your soldiers to use civilians as shields during my attack, how officers were ordered to shoot anyone who took a step back from the front lines regardless of the odds. Who is the monster really Arcturus? I have at least learnt one great lesson from freeing the Dominions from your grasp, and it is one I will teach you now..." Even as Arcturus tried to speak once more, either to berate her or to try and reason with her, Kerrigan used her psionics and blasted the window in front of them into fragments, locking eyes with Arcturus one last time as she savoured this final moment.

"Pride always comes before a fall Arcturus..." And with that she summoned every last ounce of her strength and threw Arcturus out of the window space, the man's screams audible to her even over the sounds of conflict that still resonated throughout the city...

*Flashback End*

It had been satisfying but not fulfilling as she had often imagined. The hate for the man who had taken everything from her was still there, but it was like a still lake instead of a boiling waterfall, calmed by the fact that everything he had taken from her, she had done the same to him several fold.

"You are all clear Kerrigan, you will just need some bedrest and some peace and quiet I think, though with Mengsk defeated that shouldn't be too difficult to achieve I imagine." Felicity was deliberately ignoring the threat of Amon, but given the Xel'Naga hadn't tried anything at Skygeirr or even now when she was at her most stretched they should be okay for the moment. Her work was not yet done, but for now, Kerrigan finally had something to look forward to.

"Felicity, Jim thank you. For everything." In those few words Kerrigan tried to encapsulate quite how much she meant, but given who the pair were she probably wouldn't have to...

"My pleasure Darlin, always was and always will be..." And with that the pair of veterans along with their partner looked out over the battle wrought city. Despite all of the darkness and pain they had been forced to deal with and every obstacle that had come their way, along with their greatest fight still to come, that was all washed away by each others company. Just for this moment, things on the horizon looked just that little bit brighter...

Chapter Text

A/N: Hi Guys,

Just a quick note to let you guys know that I have posted the start of my sequel to The Queen of Hearts. It is called Starcraft: Legacy of the Fallen, though as I have just published it you might have to wait a bit before it appears. Please head over, have a look, and let me know what you think!

Defias out!