StarCraft: Kerrigan's Child

Chapter 11

Kerrigan sat in the chair next to Jim's bed with Lilith in her arms asleep staring at the ceiling thinking about what Stetmen explained about what is happening to Jim, "You can't be dying" she thought.

Flashback

"You know what's happening to Jim?" she said as she looked at Stetmen "The Commander is dying" he said depressed, "What?" Kerrigan said shocked as Stetmen looked at his clipboard then back at her "When the energy nova made contact with the Odin and severed its legs the energy conducted into the cockpit and damaged his body" he explained reading off the notes from his clipboard, "But how is he dying if his body was only injured?" she asked as she didn't understand why, "Because the artefact that Mengsk had used had been adjusted so that it could kill both Zerg and Terrans, the reason his soldiers didn't die was because he placed special psionic shields inside their minds so that it protected them against the nova".

Kerrigan looked at him with a glare that meant get to the point "When the Nova made contact to a raider it sliced them in half like a sword, there were certain people who survived the nova but" Stetmen stopped and looked at his clipboard again, "I found that the nova had damaged their DNA and starting to degrade this continued until the victim didn't have enough DNA to live, the rate of degradation is different from person to person, judging from the Commander's rate of degradation his has at least" he paused as he hated to even think of the numbers "A month to live" Kerrigan felt like someone had just crushed her heart.

"A month to live" she repeated in her head in disbelief before being snapped out of it by Lilith calling for her.

Flashback End

A tear fell from her eyes as she couldn't stand the thought of him dying "You can't be" she said in a soft voice not wanting to wake Jim or Lilith up, "There must be something I can do?" she thought as she tried to think of any way to save him "Its my only chance" she said as she concluded that he needed the regenerative powers of the Zerg, "But do I still have control over them" she wondered.

A WEEK LATER

Jim was in a room with Kerrigan watching as Lilith was using her psionic powers to levitate multiple objects in the air, Both of them could see a strained expression appear on Lilith's face as she was starting to levitate the 9th object, "You can do it sweetie" Kerrigan encouraged her which she looked back and smiled "Just a little bit more Lilith you can do this" Jim also encouraged her which she nodded at him, she then used the last reserves of energy over the objects to get the 9th object levelled with the others before she couldn't take it anymore and let them fall back to the floor. She fell onto her knees exhausted at what she did "Did I do alright Mommy, Daddy?" Lilith said tired to both of them, but then felt a pair of hands on her shoulders as she saw that her mother had both her hands on her shoulders, "We are so proud of you" Kerrigan said with a smile as she picked her up off the ground as Jim came to them so he could kiss Lilith on the forehead.

Lilith felt tired as she was in the arms of her mother being carried to their room while her father had an arm around her mother's shoulders, "This is what I wanted" she thought as both her Mother and Father were together and with her. "I wish we could stay like this forever" Kerrigan said with a happy smile as she loved the comfort she was in and life she had, "Me too, why can't Mengsk just die then we can live without the threat of his ego and power hungry hands" Jim said as he had to say such words. "But then there is the threat of the Hybrids and the fallen one" Kerrigan pointed out as she knew Mengsk wasn't the only threat to them, "We will get to that when the time comes, for now let's enjoy this" Jim said as they walked into their room.

Kerrigan put Lilith into her bed which was on the opposite side of the room where her and Jim's bed was, Lilith had by now fallen asleep from the exhaustion and was sleeping soundly with a happy expression on her face. Jim looked at Lilith with a look of sadness "Damn you Mengsk, why do you have to continuously torment my life" he thought as he knew he didn't have long to live, Kerrigan noticed his sadness and couldn't help but feel even more angry at Mengsk he just had to keep doing everything possible to make sure they were miserable.

"Don't worry Jim we all are trying to find a way to help you" Kerrigan said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest, "I just want the three of us to be able to live together" she spoke as a few tears fell onto his chest. Jim brought both his arms around her and hugged her tightly "Don't cry darling I'm sure something will happen" he said trying to assure her that he won't die, "Jim" Kerrigan said with fear in her eyes as she pulled her head up so that she could give him a kiss. "This feels like New Gettysburg again instead of you losing me to the Zerg I'm losing you to death" she said as more tears came out, "We will find a way I promise" he said as hugged her tightly.

3 DAYS LATER

Jim stood in the room watching as Kerrigan was tying Lilith's Zerg dreadlock hair into the same style her hair was, Jim noticed he had never seen her wearing anything but a ghost suit and now she was wearing a white short sleeve shirt with long black pants and white shoes, Lilith had the same as her mother but had blue pants and black shoes "Ok its done" Kerrigan said as she finished tying Lilith's Zerg dreadlocks

The moment Lilith turned around to face him he frowned as he could clearly see that if they didn't find some way of curing him of the degradation of his DNA he would be losing Kerrigan and her as well, Lilith sensed the feeling of depression coming from her father and ran to him giving him a hug, "Daddy don't feel sad Mommy will find some way to make you better" Lilith said trying to make him smile.

He hugged her back "I will try sweetie" he spoke back to her trying to sound happy but Kerrigan knew it was a false happiness, the family moment was broken as the sounds of alarms sounded throughout the base. Jim pulled his communicator from his belt so he could see Matt was on the screen, "Matt what's happening?" Jim asked wanting to know "Sir a Dominion special ops team have infiltrated the base, I count 15 ghosts I'm also detecting one of those ghosts has a Psi index of 10" Matt stated, "10, there is only one ghost in the Dominion that has a Psi index of 10" Jim said as he thought of the name "Nova" he thought.

Kerrigan heard name he thought and knew she was a threat she walked to the door "Jim stay with Lilith" she said as she ran out the door, "Sarah wait!" he shouted as the door closed behind her "Lilith I want you to promise me that you will not let anyone in here, if they trying breaking the door down I want you to use your psionic powers to make sure they don't come in" Jim asked his daughter which she nodded.

"But Daddy where are you going?" she asked as he made his way to the door "I'm going to help your mother" he said as he walked out the room and locked the door, Jim ran to a power suit fitter and had his Black suit placed on him he remembered something that Stetmen told him.

Flashback

"Sir if you have to use your power suit then I had Swann install a new system into it, if your heart readings start to decline the suit will start using the energy of a Protoss crystal shard imbedded in your suit to preserve your life" Stetmen explained from the notes on his clipboard.

"The crystal's energy will only preserve your life for about at least 2 hours before the crystal has to recharge, when that happens your life readings will resume to either decline or stabilize".

Flashback End

Jim walked out of the fitter now in his suit and felt where Kerrigan was, he pulled his magnum out and headed to where Kerrigan was.

THE GHOST ARMORY

Kerrigan had just had a ghost suit fitted on her she knew she would have to fight again just not this soon, "There she is, Take her down" she heard two ghosts aimed their rifles at her and fire, she raised her hand at the bullets and stopped them in mid-air and sent them back at the two ghosts. She walked over the two bodies when she heard a voice coming from one of the bodies, "This is Nova find Kerrigan" the voice stopped as she saw more ghosts enter the Armory.

"Sarah!" Jim shouted as he saw the Ghosts enter the Armory and the doors close the next thing he saw was an electrical field hit the doors which opened, He saw her standing their un harmed which made him relieved he began to walk to her when he saw something shine out of the corner of his eye, which he realised was a ghost's rifle aiming at Kerrigan.

"NO!" he shouted as he placed himself in front of her as the bullet left the rifle's barrel and shot through the air and into Jim's suit hitting his heart, "JIM!" Kerrigan watched as he fell to the ground she looked at the ghost and with nothing but rage pulled him out of his hiding spot and began to rip him apart limb by limb with her psionic powers.

She came down to Jim who had blood coming out of his mouth and his suit began preserving his life, "Jim why did you do it?" she asked him "Because what would Lilith do when her mother is dead?" he answered "The same thing applies to you, where will she go when her father is dead?" Jim then coughed up more blood as his suit was preserving his life.

"Sarah if you have any way to save me I give my consent" he said as he then saw the look in her eyes as the one means she had offered him, "Are you sure" she asked making sure she heard him, "I am" he smiled with a bloodied mouth.

"DADDY!" both of them turned to see Lilith running towards with tears in her eyes "Lilith don't cry Daddy going to be fine" Sarah said reassuring Her daughter, Sarah took the dead ghosts C-20 canister rifle and used her psionic powers to lift Jim as she and Lilith made their way to the exit of the base.

"Mommy where are we going?" Lilith asked worried where she was going and the fact that her father was barely hanging on to life as he fell unconscious, "We going back to the Zerg Lilith although we look human we still have Zerg DNA, I can still control most of the Zerg I just need to build my Psionic powers up again" she said with a smile as they made it to the sunlight of Char.

They walked a short distance before both of them found a wounded Hatchery that still beat with a sense of life, the three of them entered it to see a wounded Raznoth standing guard, when he saw them he bowed before them.

"Raznoth is my Leviathan still alive?" Sarah asked which Raznoth nodded "Good" she then sent a psionic signal to orbit and saw the Leviathan send an Overlord to pick them up and take them to the Leviathan.

KERRIGAN'S LEVIATHAN

Kerrigan walked holding Lilith's hand and Jim being transported by a drone following them through the organic hallways of the Leviathan, they entered the chamber's of Abathur seeing him working on the different Zerg strains, he turned around to see the woman of who he followed, "My Queen you are alive" he spoke gurgling "Yes I am" Kerrigan answered back, "You as well Princess" Abathur looked at Lilith which she nodded at him.

"Abathur I want you to heal Jim" Kerrigan ordered "By your command my Queen" he spoke as the drone lowered Jim into a pool of special healing nutrients after he was pulled out of his suit, "So can you help him?" she asked her gene master "The degradation of his DNA is not severe yet, I can not only stop the degradation but I can restored his DNA to full health but I will need some of his original un damaged DNA for it to work" he stated as then looked at Lilith.

Kerrigan took her daughter into a protective embrace "My Daughter will not be used" she said with her motherly instincts speaking for her, "Use the special virus we were making for him, but make it so once it has done its job he will be like me and my daughter as we are now" she said explaining the idea she had when she concluded Jim's survival could only be assured by making him like her and Lilith.

"My Queen if I was to do that I would need to rework the virus from the start, that could take time which could make the degradation progress further" Abathur voiced his concern. "Just reduce the virus's strength so that its 25% and then give it to Jim" she said now sounding angry, "As you command my Queen, this will take me about 10 minutes, once that is done I will need a Chrysalis so that the virus can work faster then the degradation can proceed, once the virus has finished he will be cured of the degradation" Abathur said as he began to get to work on the virus.

Lilith looked up at her mother "Mommy is Daddy going to be alright?" she ask scared that her father would not get better, Kerrigan looked at her daughter with a smile "He will be sweetie" she answered as she looked at the loving face of her daughter.

10 MINUTES LATER

Abathur held in his spidery hand the reworked virus "My Queen it is finished" he announced which Kerrigan looked at him, "Good" she said as she called for a drone to bring a Chrysalis into the Gene Master's chambers "How long will the virus take?" she asked him, "It's hard to say my Queen, with the degradation it could take days, weeks even months for him to awaken cured of the degradation" Abathur said as a drone came into the chamber with a Chrysalis in it's jaw.

"Please Jim take this chance I'm giving you" Kerrigan thought as she lifted Jim from the pool and into the Chrysalis with the virus, "Daddy get better" Lilith spoke softly as she saw her mother place her father in the Chrysalis. "I'm going to my chambers" Kerrigan said as she took Lilith's hand and began heading for her chambers with the drone that had Jim's chrysalis in its jaw following them.