Sarah stood on her leviathan staring out at the expanse of space before her. Jim's words kept playing over and over in her mind.
"You are going to form an army; an army of Zerg, Protoss and Terrans."
"You'll bring that little girl home and we're living happily ever after."
If only it was that easy. She'd do it in a heartbeat if she thought she could. There is no way the Protoss would ever forgive her for what she's done and there is no chance the Terrans would even entertain the idea of working with the her and the Zerg.
She looked out at the stars in front of her and allowed her mind to wonder about which star her and Jim and their child would live near. She put her hand to her stomach and thought about her daughter running through the fields on TarKossia or playing on the sand dunes of Mar Sara. She knew if the child was anything like her she'd rather be running around outside getting dirty instead of staying at home playing with dolls. She'd gladly let her daughter get as dirty and as messy as she liked unlike her own mother.
Of course none of that would happen if Amon got his way. If the galaxy was destroyed. If Sarah died before she could give birth. If she put her daughter in a chrysalis.
It dawned on Sarah she had only one option if she wanted any hope for a life with Jim and her daughter. She had to form the army Jim had imagined. Zerg, Protoss and Terrans working together. Even if they didn't go for it she had to try. For Jim and their daughter's sake. For living happily ever after.
She had ordered the swarm to keep a watchful eye over anywhere the hybrids might attack and to keep an eye out for any hybrid sightings. She didn't have to wait long.
"One of the Protoss outposts is under attack from the hybrids, Your Majesty," Izsha informed her.
Sarah turned to Izsha. "Where?" she asked quickly.
"A small outpost in the Pegasus system," Izsha stated.
"Take us there," Sarah ordered.
"Your Majesty, there is a brood closer to the planet. May I suggest sending them?" Izsha suggested.
"No," Sarah told her. "I want to show the Protoss what we are about to do is my choice."
"You want to defend the Protoss from the Hybrids?" she assumed.
"Yes," Sarah replied.
"Why are you going to help the Protoss, My Queen?" Zagara asked.
Sarah looked at her with pity. While her mind was more evolved than other Zerg she still lacked vision. Sarah didn't know what more she could do to make her see. "The swarm are powerful, but Amon is a threat to us. While we could take Amon, we would lose a lot of the swarm," she explained. "If we fight alongside the Protoss and the Terrans we will have a better chance. In addition, we don't have to worry about them attacking us while we fight Amon."
"I understand," Zagara said softly and contemplated Sarah's words silently.
Sarah wondered what she would find when she reached the outpost. Part of her wanted to watch the hybrids take out the Protoss or at least a good number of them before she arrived. But the better part of her knew she had to save them.
She wondered if the Protoss would even accept their help or attack the Zerg rather than receive any type of help from them. She knew they could easily take out of the small force the hybrids were using to attack the Protoss but if the Protoss attacked them it might be closer than Sarah would have liked.
"We have arrived at the Protoss outpost, Your Majesty," Izsha stated, breaking Sarah's thoughts.
Sarah walked forward and looked at the planet below them. It reminded her somewhat of Kaldir; an icy planet - a complete contrast to Char.
"The Protoss have taken many losses but they are currently holding their ground," Izsha explained.
Sarah continued to listen to Izsha's explanation of the hybrids' current attack and formulated a plan for the Zerg to back up the Protoss, without getting close enough to the Protoss for them to attack back.
The battle had gone well and all the hybrids killed. The Zerg had taken minor loses and the Protoss had taken few causalities since their arrival.
"We are receiving a communication from the Protoss outpost, Your Majesty," Izsha informed Sarah.
Sarah nodded and turned to face the communications device. She was glad it was configured to show only her face and neck. She didn't want the Protoss to know she was pregnant.
The communications device sprang to life and displayed a Protoss woman.
"What do you want, Kerrigan?" the proud Protoss woman asked.
"To form an alliance," Sarah said bravely and seriously.
"An alliance?" the Protoss asked in a voice that was mixed with both outrage and hilarity. "The Protoss would never form an alliance with the Queen of Blades after everything you have done."
Sarah tightened her jaw. How much she wanted to end the communication and destroy the Protoss outpost herself... but there was a bigger picture.
"The Queen of Blades that was and the Queen of Blades that I am now are two different people," she explained. "It was one of your own that helped make me who I am today," she added smugly.
"Zeratul," the Protoss woman surmised. "Your actions speak louder than Zeratul ever could," she added. "The moment you were reinfested you released the swarm onto the Terrans: your own people."
"Mengsk had to die," she added angrily. She let her anger settle and stared at the Protoss woman. "This is not about you, or me, or Zeratul, or anyone else. Except Amon. He must be stopped. The swarm are not strong enough to stop him alone. He will kill me and use the hybrids and the swarm to destroy the Protoss and the Terrans. No one wins except Amon."
"I thought this was about the child with the Terran Raynor you still carry within you?" the Protoss said arrogantly.
Sarah was shocked the Protoss knew about her unborn daughter. She had tried to keep her condition secret. Someone onboard the Hyperion must have let it slip to someone. She tried to keep her annoyance and anger at being betrayed from showing. "Whether I have a child with the Terran or not does not change the outcome if we don't stop Amon," she explained.
"We'd save the universe only for you to unleash your child upon it," the woman said.
"The child is human," Sarah stated. "She is not a threat to anyone."
"Perhaps your own mother thought the same thing about you," the Protoss stated.
Sarah felt her blood boil as the Protoss stirred up old memories.
"We cannot believe the child of the Queen of Blades will be any less of a threat than the creature who spawned her," the Protoss continued. "If its mother truly cared for the universe she would kill herself and the child."
"You would ask me to kill an innocent child?" she asked angry that anyone would ever suggest her to do that. "Plus Zeratul believed I had to survive in order to stop Amon," Sarah added arrogantly.
"And when Amon is dead?" the Protoss wondered. "There will be nothing to stop us from hunting you down and killing you and your child."
"You can try," she added boldly. "After we defeat Amon we can return to how things were."
The Protoss woman thought for a moment. "You have helped us today, Kerrigan. But you have a long way to go to prove you can be trusted." She ended the communication.
Sarah didn't know if that had gone well or not.
I totally copped out of writing about that battle at all. I write romance and angst... not Zerg vs. Protoss battles. :)
I'm sooo not a StarCraft expert so please ignore any errors/stupid guesses/out of characterness/randomness I've made (and will no doubt continue to make).
I was debating whether to write Zagara into this more and decided against it. This chapter was about Sarah's relationship with the Protoss... I didn't then want to add Sarah's relationship with Zagara into the mix too much. Especially since we've already seen she can be a willing observer to Sarah's actions in HotS. (Zagara will have a better role later on.)
It's been brought to my attention that there is a planet Pegasus... well maybe someone somewhere liked the name and named a system Pegasus too. It's not like places in the real world ever have the same name... (what there are like 30 places in the US called Washington)... if the whole one time I have used it causes you offence please allow yourself to refer to this as the SpongeBob SquarePants system :)