Chapter 1: Beginnings

There was darkness.

An unbelievable amount of darkness.

More pitch-black than the shadows of night.

Significantly gloomier than a graveyard painted with tar after dusk on a new moon, no stars, and cloudy skies.

Hollow of all light and significance.

It was akin to the unfeeling feeling of being unconscious.

And this unconsciousness was what one particular person was experiencing, of whom was dreaming of this ebony-filled rest.

However, like all dreams, there always comes a time when the sleeping becomes awake.

After a pained groan, this person got up and shook his head in order to shake away the grogginess that usually comes from prolonged stillness. As he came to, his body ached with unfamiliarity. It was not pain in a certain sense, but it was rather similar to how one felt after exercising nonstop for a week straight, and then taking two days of rest. Even his back muscles felt more finely toned than normal. However, the darkness within this cave made it a slight problem for his eyes to adjust, since he did not recognize his own body for some reason. It felt like the shadows within this cave was playing tricks on his mind. Even though his skin felt bare, he felt protected by some armor at the same time. He was certain that he was wearing something else beforehand! But he could not remember what it was. After spending a small amount of time mulling over wha5t things he needed to do, he decided that reconnaissance of the local area would do him well to get his bearings.

The first few things that this person saw was what seemed like the inside of a reddish tinted cave. Much of it looked to be naturally formed, but some parts of certain walls had chisel marks, the inside looking to be artificially carved wider so it could accommodate more space. Thankfully for this person just waking up, he saw blinding light pouring into the cave he was in, signifying that it was daylight.

With another groan, this time with a hint of annoyance, the person got up and walked toward the light, his footfalls pregnant with caution and sluggish movement. From what the newly awakened person figured, it would have been more productive to investigate his current surroundings than to simply wait for something to happen. After emerging from the cave entrance, his feet plodded onto hot sand as his lungs filled with dry air. Set before him was an unusual landscape.

He was set in the middle of a flat summit on a mountain, several kilometers wide and with a naturally high wall of red earth surrounding the summit. Directly within the center, and coincidentally in front of the awoken person, laid an outcropping of raised scarlet stone with steam and water trickling out of it. This spring water pooled into the fluid surrounding it, forming a large lake tens of several meters wide, surrounded by fine sandy brown sand, short green bushes, and tall desert trees. It formed a tiny caldera.

Finding water was a good sign. It would mean weeks of survival in an otherwise hot environment. And where there is water, there is life, evidenced by the trees and bushes that surrounded the freshwater spring. The plants would attract herbivores. The herbivores would then attract carnivores. Herbivores and carnivores would bring meat. Meat and water was a resource that any self respecting person would need to survive. Meat and water was good to have. And the person that just woke up in particular was a natural born survivor, who was trained to adapt to many kinds of environments. It would be no trouble or him to gather what he needed to adapt, and begin surviving from the fat of the land. However, there is the danger of bacteria and microbes existing in the spring water, but digging a pit and letting the sand itself sift the water would sort that problem easily.

But then that raised several questions, to which the awoken person had no answer to. Where did he learn his survival skills? Where did he come from? Where was he now? How did he get here? Did he once belonged somewhere? Did he have friends? Are they close by? Despite such dizying questions, there was only one question that was considered the most important than all of the others at present. A question that amnesiacs would often ask themselves when their identity was forgotten to them. And it was a question that this man would seek the answers of, whether or not they would be answered to him when he asked it aloud to no one in particular. "Who am I?"

It was this question that brought himself to inspect his person fully. Since his body was illuminated with daylight, it would give him the chance to-

PANIC!

He gazed upon an unfamiliar form, and he shrieked abruptly from the new discovery. His skin truly was bare, yet he was also protected by armor at the same time. What used to be his tan skin was replaced by tough chitinous carapace. His fingernails he usually kept short and trimmed was now long and edged, much like the claws of some dangerous animal. His back flexed with unfamiliar muscles, as if some kind of bionic attachment was placed on his back. When he turned his head, bony wings greeted him, which sprouted out from his back. After a pause, he poured a small amount of will into them and flexed the new, unknown limbs. They were not bionic, but organic. He wasn't even sure when, or how, the wings were grafted onto his back. Feeling his heartbeat race, he decided to head for the water at the spring to look upon his reflection, microbes and bacteria be damned.

When he approached the water's edge, he sat still and gazed into the surface. Understandably, he was worried about his own complexion. When he saw a face gaze back from the reflection, he hardly recognized it. Sure, the carapace that formed around his body was slightly covering portions of his neck, which tapered at the edges of his face, but he also saw that its eyes and hair and... much of everything else was wrong. Despite having a humanoid body, the awoken man was now less than something human. From a slowly re-emerging memory, he could slightly remember gazing into a mirror to find a freckled and tan face of a 1.7 meter tall man with dull brown eyes and short black hair. But now, his tan and freckles were gone. COMPLETELY gone. As though an expert plastic surgeon had the tools to do such a job, and that said surgeon made his face into something that the awoken person didn't recognize at all when the operation was complete afterwards. His eyes were no longer a dull brown, but were now a striking green. Worse still was his hair. What once contained hair, where each follicle produced a fine line of raven colored fur, was now replaced by thick, hard, chitinous growths that tapered to a point. It looked like many long legs from an insect were glued onto the top of his head.

This person slowly reached up to one of these mock-hairs and gently touched it. It gave his scalp a tingling sensation. It reminded the person of the phosphene phenomenon, but rather than having to experience the phenom on his eyes, this sensation happened on the top of his head. It was a rather unusual feeling. However, tugging a strand of this mock-hair sent his mind into an instant headache. "OW OW OW ow ow ow, okay, bad idea, ow." The person growled, immediately releasing the carapaced strand of mock-hair. Apparently, the head tendrils he's now sporting was directly connected to his brain. Rather than pick at an open wound, or pulling on his new hair in this case, he'd leave it alone.

Patiently, he sat at the edge of the spring and gazed into the water yet again, spending many seconds pondering about his existence and his past. He spent much of his time looking at the reflection and every detail of its face that mirrored his new visage. All he knew at the moment was that he was trained to survive and adapt, that he had tan and freckled skin and black hair, and that whatever he is now freaked him out somehow. His carapaced self was so alien to him, yet seemed strangely familiar. Like he saw this biological armor somewhere before. It would stand to reason that if he hadn't seen such a thing, he would express less of a reaction out of it. ... That or he had entomophobia or acarophobia. It would be reasonable for him to suggest as such.

But what worried the awoken person most was the lack of history and memories that he could remember on hand. He knew sort of remembered what his face looked like before then, and he knew he trained a great deal for much of his life. Other than that, he didn't know very much about himself.

A trill from a short distance away broke the silence.

The awoken person slowly turned, making sure to not make any sudden movements.

An alien, and yet another thing that seemed so familiar to him, was looking straight at him. This large animal had dull purple, brown, and grey flesh, which had what seemed like pulsating sacks within the abdomen, was standing several meters away from him. It stood on six insect legs that was connected together with a fleshy web, though they distinctly reminded the awoken person of legs from a crab. A torso was set upon the front of the six crab legs and pulsating abdomen, similarly to how a mythological centaur has the torso of a man connect and replace the horse's head on its body. But the torso was not that of a man. Its torso, much like its legs, were heavily carapaced. A pair of thin arms had two fingers slowly clicked and clacked against each other. Bony wings, similar to the awoken man's, was set onto the back of its torso too. They looked dangerous, but didn't seem to provide flight of any sort. Its face and elongated skull was especially covered in carapace, looking organic and ornate at the same time, with its own set of tendril-like mock-hair trailing from under the back of its head. Two distinct disjointed 'jaws' were on the sides of its face, but it had no mouth to speak of.

It trilled again.

The awoken man fell into the freshwater spring in a comical fashion.

He didn't recognize what that thing was, but he knew by instinct that it was dangerous. He figured that by hiding in the water, he could slip by it. ... Then again, he was in a pool of the mountain caldera's only source of spring water with nowhere to go. ... After realizing his tactical mistake, he burbled the word "Fuck." underwater.

More questions surfaced within his mind. He recognized that creature, whatever it was, but could not remember what it was at the same time. He eventually surfaced from the pool of spring water and gazed at the... thing. It trilled again, but did not come closer. Apparently, it wanted to talk to the spectre that it saved from the void.

... That was a strange train of thought. The awoken man shook his head after feeling that line of thinking within his own head. 'Did I think that?' he thought to himself.

The creature shook its own head and trilled once more, explaining that the thought he received was from the queen.

... The awoken man felt very sure that that thought he had in particular was not his own. For some reason, the thoughts that wasn't produced from his own mind had actually came from the thing that called itself 'queen'. His head was now developing a migraine since he was processing many more questions he was having in his head. He was slowly remembering his past, but only slivers came to him every time his mind focused on a particular thought. What did the queen creature meant by 'spectre'? Why did it save the spectre? Who was this spectre?

The queen creature raised its appendage to signify to the awoken man to calm down and not panic so much. The spectre that it was referring to was the one it was communicating with now. Although, to be more precise, the queen also stated that it would be more accurate to say that the spectre was also a 'former' terran.

Terran... That name struck a bell. And unfortunately, it was a very loud bell that sent his head ringing. He clutched his head immediately when several new thoughts rushed into his mind. "Ahh... Dammit. Ow." The awoken, and former spectre, said aloud before sinking back into the freshwater spring. Through the pain, he remembered that he was part of a spec ops team of terrans with psychic capabilities called spectres. He remembered... Something about a Rastafarian-accented commanding officer. A marshal commander that was part of a raiding party, or something. And then they teamed up with some aliens to fight a god. ... A god?

The former spectre convulsed in the water as his mind was too wracked in pain. A two clawed hand plunged into the water that the former spectre was hiding in and dragged him out of its coolness. The queen creature pulled him out and gently placed him on the shore, well away from the water's edge in case he decided to hide in the water again. The queen cocked its head curiously at the former spectre, and was wanting to know if it should give another transfusion to him.

The former spectre coughed a few times and shook his head. "No... I'm... fine... I think... Oi." The former spectre said, gingerly palming his forehead and avoiding his new mock-hair. He learned well enough to NOT pull them again.

The queen paused before nodding, deciding to leave him alone and taking a few steps back.

The headache was slowly dying down, but the former spectre was also regaining more of his memories. They were incomplete memories, but memories nonetheless. "I... I remember s... something. We were fighting something. ... Something big. We tried to attack it, but... Our efforts to wound it did absolutely shit. Then... It came behind us. Attacked the mineral fields at our base. I was there when it happened. ... That's pretty much all that I remember right now."

The terrans were fighting Amon with the protoss and zerg, the queen mentioned. Amon's first strike was at the terran's mineral fields, which took a vast chunk of land right from under them. The dark zel'naga used the void energy it wielded as a weapon against them. And after that, Amon then used that same attack on the protoss base, and then the zerg base.

The former spectre turned to the queen and chuckled weakly. "Did we win at least?"

The queen was unsure, but it felt as though they were winning. It was unable to find out since it too was caught in Amon's void attack. It, along with several drones and a few overlords, was caught in the attack and was put into some kind of blackened space. The blackened space ate away at their carapace at a slow rate, though its transfusion ability saved two overlords, several of the drones, and other of the luckier combat strains. Drifting in that blackened space, they eventually drifted upon the lone spectre, whose body was severely damaged by the corrosive effects of the space they were in. In a moment of stupidity, since the queen had been removed from the zerg hivemind at the time, it transfused with the spectre in an attempt to keep him alive.

The former spectre sighed depressingly as he looked down upon himself again, taking note of the carapace he was now sporting. "... And I guess this was your doing?"

The queen shrugged. It was trying to do its best while it was in a difficult situation! Without a hivemind to connect with, there was no direct commands it could act on! Since the zerg was joining sides with the terrans, the queen figured that it could offer assistance to its new ally with a common enemy in the method that seemed best at the time. Although, it didn't expect the former spectre to take the form that the Queen of Blades once took, albeit slightly more... masculine looking. And a little greener. It could have been an aftereffect of that blackened space summoned up by Amon's void attack, but it was unsure.

The former spectre scoffed and turned away from the queen. "Yeah? Well I didn't ask you to turn me into... this." He kicked at the sand pitifully and exhaled. "Damn. I guess I got the short end of the stick on this. Then again... I don't remember much of my past. My head feels like it died a little."

The queen stated that there wasn't really much oxygen within the blackened space in the first place. Being in that space for a prolonged period of time could have caused some brain damage to the spectre.

The former spectre scoffed again. "Well... I guess that would explain why I can't remember my name."

Names are not necessary for the swarm, the queen stated.

The former spectre turned to the queen creature with a glance, a frown plastered to his face. "... Well I would like to remember my name."

Then for the time being, the queen suggested that the former spectre makes up a new name until he remembers. But even so, the queen was wondering if the former spectre could help it with something. It turned and crawled away as it thought aloud to the former spectre, telling him that it would be grateful to accept his help.

"Help you with what?" The former spectre asked, wondering what a queen could ever want with his help.

The queen is currently in a small swarm that is without a command creature, the queen thought aloud to the spectre. The queen could evolve into a broodmother, but it was new and inexperienced, and had not received the command to morph into one. Rather, with the transformation the former spectre went through, and the experiences he had gained in his travels prior to his infestation, he could prove to be a great help in establishing a hive cluster in this environment, especially since the former spectre had more knowledge on survival than most humans would, it would admit. Plus, once the queen and the former spectre reconnects to the hivemind of the zerg, they can then receive further orders from the highest commanding zerg organisms.

The former spectre held up his hands and waved them around frantically. "Whoa whoa whoa, hold up. I don't really want to be commanded by any bugs. Alright?" He complained. "I'd rather try and figure out who I was or find out how I got here first."

The queen nodded, and explained that a portal opened up within the blackened space. It helped it, him, and the surviving zerg to get here.

The former spectre paused before raising an eyebrow. "Portal?"

The queen nodded again. A circle of light had emerged from the darkness, and it decided to try and investigate the phenomenon before it, the former spectre, and the surviving zerg would dissolve completely in the void. They floated through and discovered themselves in an unusual laboratory that had many reptiles operating within it. The queen figured that it was they who opened a portal within that darkened place in the void, so it decided to bring itself and its fragile cargo through the portal and into their lab. The zerg eventually broke out of the facility, floated in the sky for a while and traveled many kilometers away from the lab. The queen found a place that seemed devoid of sentient life, and then spent much of its time taking care of the former spectre.

The former spectre nodded, reaching behind his head to carefully scratch a spot. "... Well... I am still pissed at you for turning me into an infested terran, or whatever the hell I am now. ... But I guess I should say 'thank you'. For, you know, for saving my life."

The queen nodded its head and bowed.

"BUT." The former spectre announced, pointing at the queen authoritatively. "I want to take some time to think through my thoughts before I do anything zerg related. I'm guessing that you need me to help you, since my... unique condition can probably assist you. But first, I'd rather have some time to myself to sort out my thoughts. I mean... I learned of so many things at once and I need a moment to decompress and process it all."

The queen doesn't really understand, but will allow the former spectre time to himself. The queen turned away after informing him that if he needed to talk to the queen again, he can do so through the hivemind connection.

"Connect?" The former spectre asked.

The queen told the former spectre to simply allow his mind to calm in order to find and open a link into the zerg psionic hivemind connection.

The former spectre looked down in confusion, but he decided to figure out how to do that later. He turned away to approach the shore of the freshwater spring and sat next to the water's edge again. He sat there for a long time as he contemplated his existence. He had a glimmer of memories to remember his past with, yet there was little information to decipher from. Try all he could, there was very little memories available for his self-extrapolation. The former spectre sighed as he meditated on his memories and whatever past experiences that remained. It felt like a small part of his history was made null and then casted off somewhere. ... Well. If the queen was truthful in what it said, the former spectre has nowhere to go and had only the zerg to rely on at that moment. One could surmise that once they get back to... Uh... Some place starting with the letter K. K... Something. Kor... Kopah... Kollu... Back to that raiding party, he could then visit some doctors and scientists and ask them to try and change him back to a human.

His wings flexed with anticipation. It was an unusual feeling, having wings for the first time in his life. He arched his wings in front of him and dipped the tips into the spring water, letting them make ripples in the deliciously tasteless fluid, whether or not microbes and bacteria were infesting it. Despite the hot environment, the freshwater spring was producing more than enough to prevent total evaporation of the lake in the summit of the mountain.

Then the former spectre operative had a terrible thought. What would happen if he started enjoying his new form? Would he ever want to go back to being human again, even if he ever found a way to achieve the normalcy he lost? His bone-wings stopped dipping into the water and folded behind his back neatly. If it would take him through hell or heaven to come back to his place of origin just to remember his past, he would. But for now...

He has to decide as to whether or not he wanted to help the zerg.

A/N: Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhh. Never played Starcraft or the second one, so I'm curious on how I'll mess this fanfiction crossover up!

P.S. The cover image is an image that I drew, using Carbotanimation's super-easy drawing style. Check the guy out if you have free time to spend.