Nova's ship was cruising at warp speed. A system passed every few minutes. The ghost herself was preparing for a mission. Her fleet was really too small to be called a fleet, but the ghosts under her command had insisted. It was four ships of identical design to her own, with powerful cloaking capabilities. The plan was simple. Wait until the target landed, then pin them down with orbital fire while Nova moved in. Reigel normally handled the co-ordination of the fleet for things like this, but for this particular mission, he insisted on helping. A confrontation was overwhelmingly likely. He had prepared an orbital deployment pod, and was currently strapping into some heavily reinforced armour, suitable against pretty much everything. Nova counted through all this in her head. They were nearing the target.

Yttrius was the first to realise something was wrong. They were being pursued by cloaked enemies, and he knew this not because he could detect them, but because someone had just placed a wire tap on the police radio. "Khas, guide me." He mumbled, sprinting for the bridge.

Casa had been combat training against a zergling. Her naivety had been largely shattered, but had given rise to a fierce drive to survive. Her telekinesis rendered her foe helpless as she ducked under it and gave it an amplified punch in the chest. The zergling actually felt that, and looked at her with a many-toothed grin.

Casa didn't hesitate to punch again, but her arm was quickly growing sore. She dropped the zergling, which quickly ran off. Yttrius ran past the room. Casa had never seen him run on board the ship before. Something was wrong.

Yttrius burst into the nerve centre "Emergency! We are being followed!"

Dehaka turned from giving commands. "Are you certain?"

"Someone has tapped into the police radio. They would need to be nearby for that. And there are no planets near here..." Yttrius explained.

"I understand. They must be cloaked. This is not a good situation. Fetch Casa. We will need her." Said Dehaka.

Casa ran into the room "I'm right here!"

"Good. You are the likely target of this attack. Stay somewhere safe."

Yttrius glanced to Dehaka "What's the plan? None of us are equipped to fight cloaked foes, and you don't use overlords since you don't have psionics. This battle is stacked against us."

Dehaka chittered. "We are able to choose where the battle takes place. They cannot attack until we land, or they risk killing their target. There is only one place I will have a true advantage against any foe."

"Where?" Said Casa.

"Zerus. My homeworld. I gave it to the swarm, and so it will have many overlords. I will know the land. The swarm will strike Terrans or Protoss before they turn on us."

The Behemoth jumped. Nova's fleet followed. They remained in warp space for long time, until finally The Behemoth dropped into the orbit of a planet, far out of the Koprulu sector. It touched down.

Nova gave the order to her other ships "Execute! Prevent their liftoff! I'm going in."

Her ship dived after The Behemoth. Nova hung onto her handrail as it made a shock landing only a hundred metres away from The Behemoth. An elite marine division charged out, led by Reigel, while Nova herself picked up her trusty sniper rifle and activated her cloak.

Dehaka dropped out of the bottom of the Behemoth. Yttrius followed. He'd brought it down on top of the tunnel network he used to live in, and while it had since been infested by the swarm, it was still a network Dehaka knew the layout of. He ran down a small path, towards the imminent battlefield.

The clash between the forces was immediate and violent. Nova's elite marines were far beyond the regulars, trained to breaking point. Reigel was a field tactician without equal. But at the same time, Dehaka's zerglings had stronger carapaces than normal, their movement patterns were harder to hit. His Hydralisks went the other way, lightly armoured but firing bursting clusters of spines. Reigel deflected one of these clusters with the stock of his shotgun and fluidly brought it round to shred a zergling. He was not to be taken lightly. Nova ran up to the Behemoth. Its veil didn't block psionic scans. Nova saw one of the entrances units were flooding from, and lithely climbed in. She was much more comfortable avoiding battle.

Dehaka made the first major move of the battle, bursting from the ground directly underneath Nova's ship. Yttrius climbed out after him. "Yttrius. Disable this. We will strike from behind."

Yttrius looked over the exterior, before carefully cutting out a hole in the armour. It gave way to another layer of armour, but it was obviously specialised against bullets and plasma shots, rather than continuous cutting. Eventually, he came through to a layer of circuitry. He chopped it in half. "If it follows safety protocol, then it will no longer allow takeoff into orbit."

Dehaka silently moved to see the battle being waged outside. His forces were barely holding. Carefully, he crept closer to the edge of the ship, and then roared, jumping with a dozen banelings behind him. He'd actually taken the essence for these from Abathur's 'reject pile', the splitter strain. As long as you could get them to the target, then the target would almost certainly have a short lifespan.

The elite marines, to their credit, spun on the spot and began firing at the banelings. Five went down before the rest connected, and that was the end for the left flank of Reigel's troops. Dehaka and Yttrius split. Yttrius charged into the ship, intent on dealing as much damage as possible before slipping out, and Dehaka engaged Reigel.

Reigel was extremely prepared. Heavy duty shotgun, designed explicitly for Dehaka? Check. Flame grenades? Check. Adrenaline beyond the point of fear? Check. He pumped the trigger, discharging a blast of lead into Dehaka's chest. Most of it pierced, but it was far from lethal, or even a deep wound. Dehaka feinted to the side, and fired a spike. Reigel dropped to his knees, evading the shot, and threw his flame grenade, instantly engulfing his target in blue fire. His marines turned to help, before the tide of enemies forced them to focus on holding the line.

Nova was attempting to navigate the Behemoth. It was tough, but she eventually found one path that was suspiciously well-guarded. She carefully followed it. "Casa..." She carefully called, after checking there were no zerg around.

Casa could hear the call, and paled. Was that really...? It had to be. Right? She carefully picked up her psionic focus. there was a slider on top. She remembered the short instructions for it. 'Pull it back if you just want to knock targets away. Push it forwards to kill.' She tentatively pulled it back. She realised she had to choose now. She could hide, escape and try not to have to return to her old life. Her mother would never let her go outside again after this, she was sure. Or... she could give herself up. She cared for Yttrius deeply, and even though she still feared Dehaka a little- he had still spared and later saved her life. They were fighting outside, what if they- Casa was wracked with indecision, at a crossroads. And accidentally, she let a little bit of her troubled mind broadcast.

Nova picked up the faintest hints of a train of thoughts. She listened in. Even without the words... the meaning was as clear as a knife through the heart. A tiny gasp escaped her lips. Her own daughter saw her as a worse choice than... Them. "Casa! I'm sorry!" She said, a little louder. She glanced over her shoulder, making sure nothing was approaching.

Dehaka and Reigel's duel was messy. The shotgun tore chunks out of Dehaka's body, but it reconstituted very fast. Dehaka would easily be able to crush Reigel, suit and all through strength alone- but if he got in close the shotgun would go from a painful weapon to a genuine threat to him. How many rounds did it have?

Reigel was sweating, as he danced this deadly dance. Three rounds. It had three rounds left. He had no more grenades, but they'd been useless anyway. His suit was damaged, the metal able to only take glancing blows. Time for one last gamble. Reigel lunged, a claw swipe shattering his helmet into a hundred shards of specially toughened glass, but missing his head. He jammed the shotgun under Dehaka's jaw and pulled the trigger.

The first shot punched through the bottom of his jaw, but was stopped by the roof of his mouth, and moved the shotgun to his chest from recoil. Reigel fired again, and again. The next two lacerated his insides, and at the same time Dehaka tried to crush Reigel. The suit buckled instantly, but Dehaka's strength failed quickly. He kept squeezing, a crunch sounding as one of the arms was flattened. He ran out of stamina, and released the suit. His wounds were far too great to keep fighting in the open-

Dehaka's semi-calculated retreat and composed state of mind were suddenly replaced with one, terrifying line of thought. Swarm, coming this way. A full-sized attack force.

Nova forced the entrance to Dehaka's room open with her mind. She was sure this was where Casa was. She looked around, quickly. It was just a bare chamber, with a slightly unusual floor. Casa could see the barest ripple of a cloak as the psionic power fuelling it was diverted to open the door. She steadied her breathing, clutching the focus. Even if she fired, she might miss. The target might have moved. And even then, her mind was still wrestling with her choice, boiling it down to one key question.

'What do you care about more, the parents who raised you, and would give their lives for you, or the parents who can give you what you want, but may not be so devoted to you?'

Suddenly, Nova decloaked, holding a hand to her earpiece. "Reigel! Are you alright?! Reigel! Your vitals... Damn it, Reigel..." She whispered harshly.

She paused for a second, as a response came through. A tiny smile crept onto her lips. "Thank you, for scaring me half to death. Get yourself onto the transport. I'll make sure you live, arms or not. Did you get the kill?"

Casa froze. 'The kill' had to mean an important target. That was either Dehaka or Yttrius. She pointed her focus at Nova shakily.

Nova listened. "Right, I'll finish the job."

Casa swallowed. She was trembling, but she knew it was time to act. She carefully stood, and crept around the edge of the room. She had to get to the battlefield, quickly.

The elite forces were pulling back. Aside from Reigel's injuries, there were reports from the fleet in orbit that there was a veritable army of zerg approaching. Elite or not, that meant 'Get out, now'.

Dehaka had a few roaches forming a living wall around him. Losing your guts, jaw and chunks of most of your other body parts was never a painless affair. His blood scabbed over quickly as his body formed a cover for the wounds, but in all honesty his body as it was was ruined. He knew he couldn't move until he had a way to stop all his blood draining, so he kept his head down and watched as the thick black liquid ran down his left leg, onto the ground. He tensed. Something was wrong. His senses weren't running at full with so much of his mind occupied on the injuries, but there was another presence. What was it?

Casa sprinted once she was out of the room. Her cloak shimmered, but she stayed hidden as she burst from an exit with wild energy, almost fitting in with the mad rush of primal zerg. Where was Yttrius? Where was Dehaka? She saw Yttrius from the corner of her eye. His silvery-white chassis was covered in burns and the blackened marks of bullets, but he was clearly fine. Whatever fighting he'd seen had been superficial. So that meant... She looked again. Most of the primals were harrying the retreating Terrans. But there was one group there... that weren't moving. Casa ran, going as fast as her legs would carry her.

Nova approached the exit just a few moments later, and took under a second to pick out the suspicious group of roaches. She moved cautiously and quickly, weaving through the zerg. Her earpiece buzzed with warnings, but she reached the circle just as Casa did. She levelled her rifle at Dehaka's head, bitterness and rage surging through her mind. All of this was his fault. He stole her daughter. He killed her marines. He hurt Reigel.

Casa knelt in front of Dehaka's face, looking at his wounds. She couldn't tell how bad they were, but they looked far beyond serious to her. What if he was dead already? What-

Her thoughts were interrupted as the bullet pierced her shoulder.

Dehaka didn't fully comprehend what happened until later, but he acted first. As the slowed round hit him in head and harmlessly bounced off, he swung his body weight forwards in a brutal upper slice, knocking Nova's rifle from her hands and denting it beyond repair. He followed through with a downwards strike from his other arm, catching Nova across the face. He could feel his wounds split open again.

Nova stumbled back, as she realised what had happened. Before the full weight of it hit her, she thought of one last desperate move. She activated her warp beacon, designed for bringing back her and a second entity to orbit. She lunged forwards, beacon in hand, activating it...

As Dehaka pressed onwards, unsure what the device was but intending to knock it from Nova's hand. There was a flash.

Yttrius saw the whole thing, and was already running when the shot was fired. As he came up to the circle at a skidding halt, he looked around. Nova was gone. So was Dehaka. But Casa was still there, bleeding on the floor with a shocked expression. Yttrius picked her up, and started running for the Behemoth.

Reigel's ship lifted off to a chorus of warning alarms. He was already out of his suit and having his arms prepared for emergency surgery, but that didn't stop him trying to help. "What's wrong with us, Captain?"

"Hull damage. And a few on board areas have been severely damaged, somehow sir. We can't warp, and we can't leave the atmosphere sir."

"Not good. Just get us away from here. Organise an extraction, and abandon the ship." Reigel commanded coolly.

Nova collapsed to the floor of her ship's warp bay. Her face was cut nastily, but the claws had missed anything that wouldn't heal. She groaned in pain, as she said "Casa, are you alive?"

Dehaka didn't reply, since he had no jaw. But he growled, forcing himself to his feet.

Nova jumped back "What?! You... I'll..."

The ship was only manned by a skeleton crew, a pilot, maybe three technicians and two gun operators. All Nova's standing forces were stranded on Zerus. There was nothing on board that would be able to kill Dehaka, apart from... his own wounds?

"Wait, you can't attack me or you'll bleed out. But I can't attack you without getting close enough that you'd kill me anyway..." Deduced the ghost. "It's a damn stalemate! This... this just isn't fair! You stole Casa! You brainwashed her! You deserve death, you filthy animal!" Nova shouted.

Dehaka didn't take his eyes of Nova, but used one of his smaller arms to feel his injuries. They were serious alright. And he felt light-headed... a sure sign of extreme blood loss. He focused on regrowing his jaw. He would have impaled Nova with a tail spike if he could've, but his tail was somewhere on Zerus' surface right now. The jaw didn't take long to superficially regrow.

"You shot your daughter." He said.

Yttrius was in a state of panic. The shot had grazed a lung, and done a lot of internal damage. The Medi-adjutant had stabilised Casa, but it could only do so much. What could he do? Logically, only one thing. But first, the swarm approached. He had to get the Behemoth off the ground. He carefully made his way to the nerve centre, as the primals returned to the ship now that their foe had left. How to fly this thing?

He had prepared in advance. He played a simple audio recording of Dehaka from the first time he'd been in here, and to his relief, the Behemoth lifted off the ground. Now for Casa.

He opened a channel to the fleet above, before they started firing. "Hold your fire! I have Nova's daughter, critically wounded!"

"Who the hell are you?!"

"Purifier 80995, Yttrius. Assigned bodyguard to Casa Terra. Now hold your fire on the Behemoth! Patch me through to Nova!"

"Relaying. Patching you through now." There was a click. "THIS BETTER BE DAMN IMPORTANT!" Came Nova's voice.

"This is Purifier 80995, Yttrius. I have your daughter. Do not open fire on the Behemoth."

"Captain, if you shoot that floating bag of murder I'll throw you out of the airlock! Is Casa okay?"

"She has been shot in the shoulder from behind. The bullet grazed a lung and while our onboard medical machinery was able to suppress the injury, it is far beyond my capacity to heal. Without advanced medical care, she won't see the end of the hour."

Dehaka overheard all of this. Nova's comm device had been knocked astray by his upper slice. "Yttrius. You will save her."

Nova looked to Dehaka in confusion and disgust. "What do you care?!"

Dehaka considered completely unhinging her with 'more than you', but settled for "She must live. There are two ways that she may survive this. You, Nova. You will despise both, so do not interrupt. Give me the device."

Nova reluctantly passed Dehaka the headset.

Dehaka held it close to his mouth. "Both our races can save the dying. She must either be infested, or rebuilt as one of your... machines."

Yttrius was reaching new planes of stress only previously touched by some of the commanders in the End War. "Neither process has a high chance of success. We have never attempted to create a terran stalker, or purifier. And while our records are small for this, an infestation she could control to avoid killing herself requires a high level of focus. She's unconscious. We would either need an expert in Terran psionics and how they link to the mind, or some way of... intelligently infesting her."

Nova grabbed the headset "I know a team that can do the former. Gabriel Tosh, Egon Stetmann, and Raquel Forté. Tosh is the leader of the spectres. He hates me, but he knows a lot about how psionics link to the mind. Egon is a leading bioengineer. He can probably work out the body. Raquel... she initially created the spectre project, proved it possible. Officially dead, but I know where she hides."

Dehaka carefully leaned in, mindful of his scabs. "Controlled infestation is also possible... Though, we would have to bargain with the swarm. I dislike them, but Abathur is able to redesign a body. He would succeed, but, I detest the swarm, and have been clear of that. They may be impossible to bargain with."

Yttrius controlled his voice carefully "So both routes are possible... I would like Casa to choose, as it is her future... but as her legal guardian, it is my duty to judge this."

"WHAT?!" exploded Nova "I'm her mother, you brainless thing!"

"Nova, aside from the fact you are the most wanted criminal in the sector, you inflicted this injury yourself, legal grounds for immediate removal of a minor. I will still do my best, of course. And for what it's worth, I'll leave you to decide if she ever finds out who shot her. Now, I must run some calculations. I will choose the option most likely to succeed." Said Yttrius.

Splitting path: Casa's life

Option A: Mechanical body

Casa's consciousness will be transferred to a new body, designed jointly by Egon Stetmann and Karax. The process will be almost entirely based on data from other experiments and likely to be wrought with problems, but will have full support from the Dominion and Daelaam.

Option B: Infestation

Casa will be handed to Abathur, to have herself fully redesigned as a zerg. The process will certainly succeed, but hinges on Zagara opting to allow it to occur.

Author's note: This decision will be made by you. Send a PM, and most votes wins but pay attention here: I will count a vote twice if you include a good reason for your choice. In event of a tie, the choice that recieved the first vote wins. The ultimate outcome of this will not change my story's path as a whole, but will dictate Casa's ending.

Terranmain: Perhaps biting isn't generally a good way to parent, but neither is shooting them in the shoulder. And it was 'restrained bite intended to give lesson' or 'possibly dying in combat'.