Author's Note: This next chapter is a little bit shorter compared to the others, but unless you look carefully, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. This chapter signals the end of tranquality, and the beginning of war in this fic.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

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Chapter 10

Raiders Base, Haven

Within a week, Sarah had recovered from the effects of the Xel'Naga artifact on Char. Jim knew the only way to earn people's trust again is for her to go back into the field and fight, but a part of him was also terrified, just like what had happened when she went down to Tarsonis alone. Back then at least the decision was out of his hands, and he could blame Mengsk. This time, the decision lies in his hands, and if something happened, he would have to live with the guilt that he could have stopped it.

Nevertheless, he knew what had to be done. He told Sarah that to find redemption, she had to fight for the living. When they had fought side by side against the Zerg during their days under the Sons of Korhal, both of them knew right away the fate of terrans unfortunate enough to be caught by them, and subjected to infestation. Although he felt it would never happen to him, the fact remains he was scared it would, as that would be a fate worse than death. When he saw Sarah reborn as the Queen of Blades, it was every bit as horrifying. But after so many years of war, Jim had also learned that there is no such thing as a risk-free battle. The only difference with the Zerg is that it's better to wind up dead than infested. For that reason, he made very few objections when Sarah told him she wanted to go back into the field to fight the Zerg again.

Sarah was still unwilling to admit to she was never the Queen of Blades to begin with, much to Jim's disappointment, but she did explain that during the time she spent with the Zerg, the swarm had continued to grow and evolve. A few aspects of their evolution she had a personal hand in, and had evolved them somewhat differently than what would have been, the main ones being the Queens and Overlords.

Both of these Zerg creatures were now more intelligent than before, rather than constantly relying on their cerebrates for orders and near incapable of independent thought. While the Overlord's ability to excrete creep was part of the normal evolutionary chain, the Overseer was not. Sarah explained that due to fighting the Protoss and terrans for so long, she had continuously tried incorporate their psionic powers into individual Zerg units. Most of the time, this was met with little success, but she had succeeded in creating the Changeling, a tiny Zerg creature carried by the Overseer. It has shape-shifting abilities to transform itself to look like a human being, but that tends to drain an enormous amount of its power and can only be sustained for a few minutes. The same is true for its shape-shifting abilities for combat, so Kerrigan did not employ them for such a role. Instead, it is used to confuse the enemy, as it had the ability to create a psionic impression. After Jim consulted Nova about this, the blond ghost confirmed this to be similar to the psychic attack ability she possessed, used to attack the mind of an opponent. In contrast, the psionic impression is used to confuse terrans into thinking the situation is less dire than it actually is, though this strategy is very ineffective against terran ghosts, as they are also trained in sensing psionics. Even so, the Overseers still required a small degree of guidance, and Sarah was unsure if they could still deploy the Changelings to such effectiveness now that the Queen of Blades is gone.

With regards to the Queens, it's an entirely different story. Sarah explained that she evolved them differently from merely being supporting the Zerg like the Overmind did. Because of so much human DNA at the Zerg's disposal, she had tried to incorporate them into the Queens. Since some of the human DNA came from military officers and marines, the Zerg mutation had allowed the Queens to gain combat effectiveness, as well as the ability for command roles at specific Zerg nests. Sarah went on to say because some of the DNA came from human females, the Queens gained the characteristics of the human reproductive system and had the ability to inject their own blood into the hatcheries, allowing them to produce larvae at an accelerated rate. Although this temporarily weakens the Queen, it is compensated by the absurd healing rate that all Zerg possess. Finally, because of the terran medics assimilated into the swarm, the Queen also gained the ability to use its own power to heal friendly Zerg units or structures nearby, though at a severe cost in their energy strength.

Jim, however, still had concerns about the special Queens. According to marine reports from Char in assaulting the Nydus Network, there was an encounter with a Zerg Queen that was vastly more powerful than the ones encountered on Char's surface. Apparently it had ability to pop Zerg eggs, which released infested terrans, as well as a psionic shockwave which was capable of knocking back infantrymen and incapacitating them for a period of time. Sarah revealed that she had worked hard to incorporate Protoss psionic powers into the swarm, but almost all of them proved unsuccessful. There were virtually no Zerg units with the willpower to control it, and in such cases it resulted in their deaths. The Queen was the only strain that theoretically could after the changes in its evolution, but even that proved to be difficult as most lost control of the powers and had to be forcibly put down. Sarah explained that it became clear to her that the high level psionic powers the Protoss possessed was still too far out of her reach, and she had to settle for the lower level ones. The psionic shockwave ability from the Queen that Jim told her about was a modification of the psionic blast ability Protoss Zealots possess, although without the Khala most Queens ended up killing themselves when using this power. The ones that were lucky enough to survive, however, became vast improvements over the original, and Kerrigan had been trying to create more of these special Queens ever since.

For that reason, Jim felt Sarah's knowledge of the Zerg would be essential when they deal with the infestation on Agria, and had convinced Dr. Hanson to allow the Raiders the use of the construction yards for such an offensive. Ariel knows the planet better than anyone, and he felt this would present a great opportunity for Sarah to finally begin playing her part.

Jim pressed a button on the communicator console. "Matt, how is the build-up coming along?"

"Still a ways to go, sir," came the reply. "After the appalling losses on Char, the fleet is in no position for offensive operations for a while."

"This isn't a huge one, Matt. All we're doing for the time being is cleaning out the infestation on Agria."

"And then we'd have to come right back here to continue the build-up. We have enough to deal with Agria, but I thought we agreed on trying to clean them out of other worlds as well."

"We will, but that will be on your part," Jim answered. "Once we're done on Agria, I'm heading off to Aiur."

"I'm not sure how Kerrigan will take this, sir. Mengsk may have been the one to abandon her on Tarsonis, but it still doesn't change the fact the Zerg were the ones that turned her into the Queen of Blades. Your Protoss buddy may have requested you and her to be there, but I'm not sure how she'd react when she sees the very thing that infested her all those years ago."

Jim sighed. "It's not some recreation trip to the Overmind's corpse, Matt. We need to know more about the picture at hand. Even if we focus on Mengsk right now, you know as well as I do that sooner or later we need to turn our attention to this Xel'Naga prophecy. Sarah is the key to it all, and we need to understand what the Overmind's intentions were for her. Besides, if Zeratul's ihan crystal is accurate, Tassadar should still be alive down there. Given what I saw during their encounter, it seems likely that he has been exploring the Overmind's memories for the last few years. Therefore, if anyone could know the greater picture, it's him."

"I just don't want to see Kerrigan go into a killing rage when she's at the site, sir. Last thing we need is for her to do something crazy and stupid, and get infested again."

"Why do you think I've had her and Nova train each other near the construction yards for the past few days? Short of the infestation, the two of them are quite alike. I'd say they're perfect match in fighting."

"You sure know how to pick the trainers," Matt said sarcastically. "I'm not sure putting them together is smart. Nova has been trying to surpass Kerrigan long before she joined our Raiders, and I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Sarah felt you got yourself a new girl."

"You're being naïve. Nova already knows how I feel about Sarah after the risks done to get her back, and Sarah knows during her time with the Zerg, she had given me 4 years to move on to find someone else. Since I didn't, I'm sure she's smart enough to know it's not going to happen now."

Matt decided it was pointless to argue further. "How long do you think Kerrigan is fully ready to go back out to the field?"

"I doubt it'd be too long. Right now I'm just having Nova train her in fighting skills again. Both of them are expert martial artists, but it's not like you come across fighting Zerg with hand to hand combat. That'd be utter insanity. Sarah may have done plenty of hand to hand fighting during the years she spent with the Zerg, but since she no longer has the Queen of Blades body, I'm having Nova refresh her fighting in her normal body."

"She also hasn't touched a gun in 4 years," Matt pointed out. "She didn't need one as the Queen of Blades."

"Nova is capable of hitting a target between the eyes at over 100 yards away with just a regular marine gauss rifle," Jim scoffed. "When I fought with Sarah under the Sons of Korhal, I've seen her snipe Dominion marines with her rifle at almost a mile away with no problem whatsoever. The new sniper rifle data Nova gave us after dealing with Tosh shows these new models have accuracies up to 5000 meters away if handled by a competent operative, and both of them are more than capable for the job. Give Sarah a week or so to train with Nova, and the ghost training she had will come back to her."

"You really think Nova can benefit from her? I know there are cases in the Dominion where ghost operatives themselves train people to become ghosts later, but the power gap here is much bigger than what we're used to dealing with. Kerrigan's psionic abilities are so high I doubt she even knows how it'd feel like to be average."

"We've already taken the steps necessary to compensate a little for the gap difference, Matt. Sarah can help her in that aspect as time passes and Nova becomes stronger."

"I still question your action to do such a thing," Matt said. "You're a little too trusting of Nova. I know she reminded you of Kerrigan, but not everyone on the ship trusts her yet. She may no longer be a Dominion slave anymore but she's been trained to protect terran lives under all circumstances."

Jim snorted. "Just because Mengsk is willing to go to any lengths to make that happen doesn't mean everyone else shares his perspective. He's not going to have the power to turn everyone in his empire into mindless slaves. His cronies may be loyal to him, but even they have moral standards."

At this point, a new face appeared on the screen. "Jim, will you be ready to take back Agria soon?"

"Don't worry, Ariel. In a few more days once Nova and Sarah's training is complete, I promise we'll move out to get your world back. If the construction yards were better equipped for industrial purposes, we'd have been ready days ago."

"It's ok, Jim," Dr. Hanson replied. "It's better to do it right and make sure Agria is fully secure. Last thing I want is another outbreak from Zerg infestation."

"Doc, I have a favor to ask of you," Jim said. "I know once we've cleared out the planet, your people will want to go home. But it is my hope that you would stay on the Hyperion with the Raiders, unless you think it is essential your people need you on Agria."

"They don't," Ariel replied. "But why?"

"After we go to Aiur to learn more about the prophecy, the next step is either to immediately turn our attention back to Mengsk, or deal with the being that was described in the ihan crystal. Your scientific knowledge would be a great help to us in that aspect."

Ariel nodded slowly. "I'm not sure what I can do though. According to you, not even your Protoss buddies seem to know anything about this new threat."

"You learned plenty about the Xel'Naga artifact in just a few weeks," Jim pointed out. "You're a fast learner, Doc. Still, just as I had asked you regarding about looking for a cure for the Zerg virus, all I ask now is for you to do what you can."

Castanar System

General Ridgeway was horrified by what he saw on screen, as the Dominion dropships unloaded their occupants right outside the Castanar installation. He knew Mengsk wanted to capture the hybrid no matter what, but he hadn't expected him to resort to the usage of another type of hybrid to do the job.

Immediately he pressed the button to the communicator console. The emperor's face appeared on screen, as confident as ever. "General, your reinforcements have arrived. I trust you'll use them effectively to subdue the hybrid."

"Sir, you can't be serious!" Ridgeway protested. "I thought Project Gestalt had been scrapped months ago!"

"Officially yes," Mengsk replied. "Most of the Dominion records will indicate its destruction almost 2 years prior. The reality, however, is somewhat different."

"Sir, you saw what had happened to Dr. Stanley Burgess when he created them! He thought he had created the perfect solider to combat the Zerg, but all he ended up creating was just another threat to the Dominion!"

"I understand that, General."

"Then why did you deliver gestalt soldiers here? Dr. Burgess thought they'd obey his will, but Gestalt Zero succeeded in overcoming the neural inhibitors in him and allied himself with the Protoss!"

"Burgess didn't understand the entire process had to be done from scratch," the emperor replied. "The ghosts he used were regular human beings, and their minds proved unable to cope with the spliced Protoss abilities. While most of the project was destroyed, some of the samples remain. From there, my scientists have succeeded in combining them with the DNA of Dominion ghosts, and all it took was a matter of cloning a human ghost specimen, and splice the abilities in that way. As cloned ghosts alone they're not very effective because cloning psionic potential is something that is still a long way from being perfected, but once you add in the Protoss powers, it's a different story. Their psionic power on the psi-index is still somewhat below my expectations, but they are nevertheless far more powerful than the ghosts we have at our disposal."

Ridgeway watched as the gestalts marched into the installation, still deeply worried. "You're confident they'll succeed?"

"Well your boys have done a pitiful job so far," Mengsk spat. "I'll take my chances with these gestalt clones. If they succeed, it'll be proof I have special uses for them."

"And if not, sir?"

"The clones here aren't all of them, general. The secret labs I still have are cloning more of them as we speak. So far more than 2700 of them have been completed, ready to be brought online on my command. If the 25 here can't do the job, I'll just keep sending in more until they do."

Dominion Lab Complex, Castanar

Gestalt 104 opened his communicator to the Dominion emperor as his squad matched down the devastated corridors. "Sir, we have visual confirmation of the hybrid."

"Good, 104. Given its healing abilities, I'd imagine killing it will pose a problem, but since the order is only to subdue, it should be a walk in the park for you."

"Gestalt units, ready your weapons!" Gestalt 104 ignited his psonic blade on his right arm, as did the other gestalts. By now, the hybrid has noticed their presence and is charging towards them.

"I have complete confidence in you and your squad," Mengsk said. "I know you will make me proud."

"We will not fail you," Gestalt 104 said, before shutting off the comm, as the hybrid roared in anger.

One by one, the gestalts pulled their gauss rifles from their backs and opened fire on the abomination.