Xal'Gathar stood uneasily in the wreckage of the battlefield on the other side of Aiur. He could still feel the burning, almost frightning power of something that had yet to be documented in Protoss History. He could feel the Khaydarin energies eminating from the torched field, mingled with the sickening scent of blood and the sight of Zerg, Protoss, and Terran torn to shreds. But the Khaydarin energies weren't the only Protoss signature in the area. Waves of the Argus energy from beyond the Void were just as present as the Khaydarin residue left on the bodies of all on the field.
It made him sick, almost, to realize just what all of this meant. Now he just had to find a way off of the accursed planet and back to the fleet, which had more than likely jumped to Aiur already.
His eyes twitched slightly, and tried to focus in on the figure moving in the middle of the battlefield. It was a long ways off, and Xal'Gather began trecking off into the distance, his heavy Zealot Armor clunking along with each drop of a foot. He kept his eyes routed on the figure, which was becoming more and more discernable. It was another Protoss!
"My brother! How is it you have survived this?" He called out through the telepathic link. There was no response... Could it have been a Dark Templar? One of the Void here? Surely they would have perished early in the battle... But as Xal'Gather came closer to the other Protoss, it was obvious that he was not one of the Khala. The dark black garments, the lack of nerve appendages, and the sickening waves of the Void breaking his link with the Khala.
The figure picked itself off of the ground and turned to the Zealot Warrior that continued towards him. Straining to use the link he'd not used in over 5 millenia, Arow spoke to the only other surviving creature within 10 miles.
"How is it you have survived this massacre, High One?" His telepathic voice was harsh, and there was enough poison on the term High One make a Hydralisk sick.
Xal'Gather stopped 10 Protoss paces from the Dark Templar, and stared for a moment. This was the center of the field... and there weren't just Argus energies surrounding the Dark Templar, or, rather, the cause of the deaths of everyone on the scorched ground of the once open field.
"Answer me!" His voice was at a dangerous low, still retaining the harsh tone.
Grudgingly, the Zealot answered, "I was not here for the massacre you've caused to our bretheren, the Terran, and the vile Zerg," He was not proud that he had been on a scouting mission with two others to protect the rear of the small expedition force to study the battle between the Zerg and Protoss when the battle had taken place. His brothers, T'kal and Sh'sha were dead, Xal'Gather barely surviving the surprise attack from the Lurkers beneath the ground.
It was violent, and very present in his mind, even now as he faced down what he could only consider the opposite of Adun. No, that was wrong, the opposite of Mighty Tassadar. This was like him, able to channel both Dark Templar and High Templar energies, but not in the heroic way of the great Protoss hero who had destroyed the wretched Overmind so long ago. This was an abomination... a sickening creature.
He had been walking silently along with his two brothers, when T'kal had slipped in the first signs of the creep. Then all he could remember clearly was T'kal barely raising his shield up before huge spikes burst from under the earth, and flunk all three of them backwards. They had lit their psionic blades, and began stabbing angrily at the ground, hoping to stab at the unseen foe that they knew as Lurkers. To no avail, however, until the shield of Sh'sha failed, and he was gripped violently in the dripping mandibles of 3 Lurkers who had unburrowed long enough to grab him. T'kal and Xal'Gathar had violently shredded into the faces of the evolved hydralisks, which only seemed to insite their bbloodlust even more. Sh'sha was literally torn into 3 distinct pieces. A head, a torso, and a pair of thrashing, kicking legs.
Knowing that neither remaining brother could survive, both immediately retreated, realizing that the old Terran saying "Discresion is the better part of valor" was quite true. T'kal had been taken violently by a single Hydralisk who unburrowed from the ground infront of the two.
Xal'Gathar let out a soft mental hiss into his own mind as he recalled how his brother had leapt into the body of the hydralisk, barreling the zerg monster to the ground in a fury of psionic blades, solid kicks, and even tearing at the small mind of the hydralisk with his limited psychic strength. Why could it not have been Xal'Gather who had died and not his brother?
What was left of the hydralisk when his brother finished his honorable attack was quickly beheaded by a sorrow filled Xal'Gathar.
The Zealot stared at Arow, who had "over-heard", for no term could better describe it, everything.
"I will avenge the deaths of my brethern for your treachery!" Xel'Gathar screamed mentally at the creature infront of him.
With a sudden charge towards Arow, Xal'Gathar charged his psionic blades, and leapt into the air violently at his new found foe. His limbs thrashed violently through the air as he fell towards Arow.
Arow moved like a black lightning bolt, the dark, near invisible warp blade already being brought forward to meet the Zealot. The twin blades of Xal'Gathar crossed with sparks in an X formation intime to block the upwards slash of the Dark Templar weapon on his opponent's scaley fore-arm.
Xal'Gather was nearly caught off-guard. The strength behind that leap should have smashed Arow backwards, but he stood, almost a statue against the Khala Warrior. He didn't pause but for the smallest moment to think of it, before he was thrown back violently by a combination of telepathic power and the push of the warp blade which had entangled with his psionic blades.
He landed on his back, but left the momentum to throw him up onto his feet again. He was met promptly by a strong Protoss punch to the side of his face before he was even on his feet completely. The warp blade from the left hand slammed into his psionic shield just as he brought it up. It dimmed slightly, the usual dark blue aura fading to a very pale color, before his opponent disappeared.
"Fight me like a Warrior, you pathetic excuse for a Protoss!" He screamed, almost in anguish.
He slashed at the air around him violently with the blades on his arm, fueling the white-blue weapons to greater intensity and length. A rock to his right crumbled slightly beneath the weight of another Protoss, and he charged, only to bet met once again by a solid punch, which seemed to go directly through his shield.
Xal'Gathar, might Protoss Warrior of the New Conclave found, for the first time in his life, he was unable to think. He looked down, seeing the reforming of a Protoss Arm, along with the black warp blade attacked to it. The blade was directly through his heart, his armor, his shield, and his pride. The cowardly Protoss had won in a battle, simply by remaining invisible.
It was then he realized that he was no longer on the ground, but he had been thrown violently high into the air, above the now visible Arow. Arow's left arm was pointed directly at the soaring zealot. Xal'Gathar couln't move, and he stared death in the face as a Photon beam built up on the arm of Arow, before unleashing with unimaginable heat directly into the face of Xal'Gathar.
The broken, headless body of Xal'Gathar hit the ground a moment later, blue blood leaking from his neck and his chest area. A moment later, blue flames writhed about his body, and he disappeared.
Arow blinked once, and shook his head, dismissing the thoughts running through his head. The last thing he needed right now was his conscience to show up. A huge Arbiter uncloaked above Arow as he leapt onto the awaiting fin of his ship, The New Moon. Stepping through the door, he moved towards the engine room slowly, almost wearily, as if the day's actions had suddenly hit him. His walk slowed, his vision blurred, his mind weakened as he began to stumble to the engine room.
The door slid open, showing two very, very different sides to the room. One was wreathed in pale blue light, which shone brightly from a crystal-like formation of gems. Khaydarin Crystals. The other side of the room danced in shadow, almost a shining black light. The "light", if it could be considered such, was cast by a similar formation as the Khaydarin Crystals, but these was far more smooth, and they were the blackest of the void. Argus Gems.
The door slid shut behind him as the cracks of the door suddenly flashed, and what appeared to be sparks from inside the room shone through the reinforced steel door. Brighter than the sun, the energies of Khaydarin and Argus melded, and slammed into the figure of Arow.
He screamed in agony, pain, or perhaps relief, none could be discerned as the shadow and the light spun around him, picking him off of the ground and sinking into his skin as the unholy blue flames engulfed his floating body. The flames shuddered, and pitched into a black color, only to cause him to open his wide, red-eyes as they flashed a calm purple. Then he dropped to the floor, breathing heavily, the light and shadows returning to the walls they were cast upon by the crystals.
The black Arbiter floated gently through the atmosphere, not showing a bit or turbulence inside the crypt-silent ship. It flashed briefly, and vanished from every type of sensor available, including eye-sight as he disappeared into the Void of space.
It made him sick, almost, to realize just what all of this meant. Now he just had to find a way off of the accursed planet and back to the fleet, which had more than likely jumped to Aiur already.
His eyes twitched slightly, and tried to focus in on the figure moving in the middle of the battlefield. It was a long ways off, and Xal'Gather began trecking off into the distance, his heavy Zealot Armor clunking along with each drop of a foot. He kept his eyes routed on the figure, which was becoming more and more discernable. It was another Protoss!
"My brother! How is it you have survived this?" He called out through the telepathic link. There was no response... Could it have been a Dark Templar? One of the Void here? Surely they would have perished early in the battle... But as Xal'Gather came closer to the other Protoss, it was obvious that he was not one of the Khala. The dark black garments, the lack of nerve appendages, and the sickening waves of the Void breaking his link with the Khala.
The figure picked itself off of the ground and turned to the Zealot Warrior that continued towards him. Straining to use the link he'd not used in over 5 millenia, Arow spoke to the only other surviving creature within 10 miles.
"How is it you have survived this massacre, High One?" His telepathic voice was harsh, and there was enough poison on the term High One make a Hydralisk sick.
Xal'Gather stopped 10 Protoss paces from the Dark Templar, and stared for a moment. This was the center of the field... and there weren't just Argus energies surrounding the Dark Templar, or, rather, the cause of the deaths of everyone on the scorched ground of the once open field.
"Answer me!" His voice was at a dangerous low, still retaining the harsh tone.
Grudgingly, the Zealot answered, "I was not here for the massacre you've caused to our bretheren, the Terran, and the vile Zerg," He was not proud that he had been on a scouting mission with two others to protect the rear of the small expedition force to study the battle between the Zerg and Protoss when the battle had taken place. His brothers, T'kal and Sh'sha were dead, Xal'Gather barely surviving the surprise attack from the Lurkers beneath the ground.
It was violent, and very present in his mind, even now as he faced down what he could only consider the opposite of Adun. No, that was wrong, the opposite of Mighty Tassadar. This was like him, able to channel both Dark Templar and High Templar energies, but not in the heroic way of the great Protoss hero who had destroyed the wretched Overmind so long ago. This was an abomination... a sickening creature.
He had been walking silently along with his two brothers, when T'kal had slipped in the first signs of the creep. Then all he could remember clearly was T'kal barely raising his shield up before huge spikes burst from under the earth, and flunk all three of them backwards. They had lit their psionic blades, and began stabbing angrily at the ground, hoping to stab at the unseen foe that they knew as Lurkers. To no avail, however, until the shield of Sh'sha failed, and he was gripped violently in the dripping mandibles of 3 Lurkers who had unburrowed long enough to grab him. T'kal and Xal'Gathar had violently shredded into the faces of the evolved hydralisks, which only seemed to insite their bbloodlust even more. Sh'sha was literally torn into 3 distinct pieces. A head, a torso, and a pair of thrashing, kicking legs.
Knowing that neither remaining brother could survive, both immediately retreated, realizing that the old Terran saying "Discresion is the better part of valor" was quite true. T'kal had been taken violently by a single Hydralisk who unburrowed from the ground infront of the two.
Xal'Gathar let out a soft mental hiss into his own mind as he recalled how his brother had leapt into the body of the hydralisk, barreling the zerg monster to the ground in a fury of psionic blades, solid kicks, and even tearing at the small mind of the hydralisk with his limited psychic strength. Why could it not have been Xal'Gather who had died and not his brother?
What was left of the hydralisk when his brother finished his honorable attack was quickly beheaded by a sorrow filled Xal'Gathar.
The Zealot stared at Arow, who had "over-heard", for no term could better describe it, everything.
"I will avenge the deaths of my brethern for your treachery!" Xel'Gathar screamed mentally at the creature infront of him.
With a sudden charge towards Arow, Xal'Gathar charged his psionic blades, and leapt into the air violently at his new found foe. His limbs thrashed violently through the air as he fell towards Arow.
Arow moved like a black lightning bolt, the dark, near invisible warp blade already being brought forward to meet the Zealot. The twin blades of Xal'Gathar crossed with sparks in an X formation intime to block the upwards slash of the Dark Templar weapon on his opponent's scaley fore-arm.
Xal'Gather was nearly caught off-guard. The strength behind that leap should have smashed Arow backwards, but he stood, almost a statue against the Khala Warrior. He didn't pause but for the smallest moment to think of it, before he was thrown back violently by a combination of telepathic power and the push of the warp blade which had entangled with his psionic blades.
He landed on his back, but left the momentum to throw him up onto his feet again. He was met promptly by a strong Protoss punch to the side of his face before he was even on his feet completely. The warp blade from the left hand slammed into his psionic shield just as he brought it up. It dimmed slightly, the usual dark blue aura fading to a very pale color, before his opponent disappeared.
"Fight me like a Warrior, you pathetic excuse for a Protoss!" He screamed, almost in anguish.
He slashed at the air around him violently with the blades on his arm, fueling the white-blue weapons to greater intensity and length. A rock to his right crumbled slightly beneath the weight of another Protoss, and he charged, only to bet met once again by a solid punch, which seemed to go directly through his shield.
Xal'Gathar, might Protoss Warrior of the New Conclave found, for the first time in his life, he was unable to think. He looked down, seeing the reforming of a Protoss Arm, along with the black warp blade attacked to it. The blade was directly through his heart, his armor, his shield, and his pride. The cowardly Protoss had won in a battle, simply by remaining invisible.
It was then he realized that he was no longer on the ground, but he had been thrown violently high into the air, above the now visible Arow. Arow's left arm was pointed directly at the soaring zealot. Xal'Gathar couln't move, and he stared death in the face as a Photon beam built up on the arm of Arow, before unleashing with unimaginable heat directly into the face of Xal'Gathar.
The broken, headless body of Xal'Gathar hit the ground a moment later, blue blood leaking from his neck and his chest area. A moment later, blue flames writhed about his body, and he disappeared.
Arow blinked once, and shook his head, dismissing the thoughts running through his head. The last thing he needed right now was his conscience to show up. A huge Arbiter uncloaked above Arow as he leapt onto the awaiting fin of his ship, The New Moon. Stepping through the door, he moved towards the engine room slowly, almost wearily, as if the day's actions had suddenly hit him. His walk slowed, his vision blurred, his mind weakened as he began to stumble to the engine room.
The door slid open, showing two very, very different sides to the room. One was wreathed in pale blue light, which shone brightly from a crystal-like formation of gems. Khaydarin Crystals. The other side of the room danced in shadow, almost a shining black light. The "light", if it could be considered such, was cast by a similar formation as the Khaydarin Crystals, but these was far more smooth, and they were the blackest of the void. Argus Gems.
The door slid shut behind him as the cracks of the door suddenly flashed, and what appeared to be sparks from inside the room shone through the reinforced steel door. Brighter than the sun, the energies of Khaydarin and Argus melded, and slammed into the figure of Arow.
He screamed in agony, pain, or perhaps relief, none could be discerned as the shadow and the light spun around him, picking him off of the ground and sinking into his skin as the unholy blue flames engulfed his floating body. The flames shuddered, and pitched into a black color, only to cause him to open his wide, red-eyes as they flashed a calm purple. Then he dropped to the floor, breathing heavily, the light and shadows returning to the walls they were cast upon by the crystals.
The black Arbiter floated gently through the atmosphere, not showing a bit or turbulence inside the crypt-silent ship. It flashed briefly, and vanished from every type of sensor available, including eye-sight as he disappeared into the Void of space.
