StarCraft Ghost Warrior

Chapter 21

Aftermath

A/N: as always I do not own StarCraft or any of its subsidiaries, that is all owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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-Ghost Academy, Cafeteria several days later-

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Kath and the rest of Grey team were in the cafeteria, talking amongst themselves as was normal. For the past few days the team had been preparing for the training mission that they were supposed to go on only for it had gotten cancelled at the very last second for seemingly no apparent reason.

Of course they had all been disappointed but the most vocal about it out of all of the entire group was Amelia. The girl had really wanted to prove herself on that training assignment and had even taken it up with Director Bick and Sarco Angelini to demand to know the reason as to why it had been canceled.

The girl was pacing back and forth near the team's shared table "I just can't believe those bastards actually decided to can the field training," she practically growled. Amelia had been seething for the past few minutes now and frankly everyone had had just about enough of it. "Amelia could you calm down for a few seconds and just tell us what the head honchos told you?" Kath asked.

Amelia took in a deep breath and then exhaled it before taking a seat nearby "Alright, okay, you want to know? I'll tell you. Apparently there was some kind of a problem with the battle cruiser's warp unit and it needed repairs and before you ask, for some damn reason no there weren't any other ships that were available to take us to Altara." Kath could see that Lio looked saddened by this and mumbled something about "It would have been awesome to see a real battle cruiser."

Everyone had a hard time buying that excuse but Aal was the one who gave their thoughts a voice "Seriously, that's what they told you? All the ships in the entire Dominion and there wasn't one that could be used to take us to Altara?!" he exclaimed in disbelief. Amelia shrugged "I know I don't believe any of it either, but Bick and Sarco won't budge on it and as much as I'd like to try and get them to spill the beans I'd rather not get on the nerves of the guys who can make my life a living hell."

It was then that Andie brought up something that had been bugging him for the past couple of days "Hey I haven't seen Alejandro in a while. What the hell happened to him?" Dylanna looked over at their teammate with a bored look on her face "Don't you ever listen to the announcements before our classes? Alejandro apparently flunked out, so they dropped him from the program."

Kath, having already finished up her meal, started to make her way back to the cafeteria line. As she did, Obi looked at her with a bewildered expression "Hey I thought you said you hated this food? So why in the hell would you want to go seconds?" The dark skinned young woman shook her head "I'm not. If you'd remember correctly, Tosh got hurt pretty bad during our last training session. He's spent the last couple of days in the infirmary and considering how much I've heard about how bad their food normally is, I think that even this would be a preferable alternative."

As Kath stood in line she did her best to ignore the scathing glare that Dylanna was sending her way. What was the redhead's problem with her anyway. Over the past couple of weeks Dylanna had been treating Kath almost the exact same way that she had treated Nova while she was still alive. In fact made Kath wonder to herself if the girl just needed someone, anyone to hate. It was as though she just wanted to be angry at someone just for the sake of being angry.

Kath pushed those thoughts out of her head as she continued to wait in the cafeteria's line for a few minutes more. Eventually she managed to get the food that Tosh preferred and started to make her way for the infirmary, ignoring Dylanna as she made her way out.

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-Ghost Academy, Infirmary-

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It felt like an eternity since Tosh had been confined to the infirmary after he'd been injured during that "training session" a few days ago. In the corner of the room, one of the nurses had left the vid screen on; it was showing a UNN reporter interviewing some business owner about recent urban developments on the colony of Bountiful.

Of course Tosh wasn't paying any attention to the news program, his mind was on far more important matters. For seemingly countless hours now, Tosh had gone over and over what had happened back Altara in his head. There was no way that thing that had taken Nero's form could possibly have been human, there was no way! This begged the question: if Nero wasn't human, then just what in the hell was he?

The first answer to pop into Tosh's head was that maybe it was some kind of protoss who was using his psionic powers to create an illusion of him being Captain Nero. However that theory was quickly discarded when Tosh remembered that "Nero's" powers had a different feel to them than that of a protoss' abilities.

The psionic powers of a protoss felt more like a river, always flowing but in a controlled fashion while a terran's was more of a wave, it varied in both intensity and power from person to person. The energy that Tosh had felt was more like being inside a raging storm and while Tosh had never sensed a Zerg's mind before, he very much doubted that they were that powerful.

For a while Tosh continued to think back to what had happened back on that planet and about the shocking revelations that had occurred there. A small part of him still wanted to believe that Mengsk had any part in what happened in that hellhole and that maybe that thing that wore the guise of Nero was lying. However with everything that went on down in that place, such a thought was more like a pipedream than anything else.

As if on cue the programming changed from a boring interview that no one cared about back to the anchorman of UNN himself, Donny Vermillion. On the vid screen behind Donny was a ravaged Dominion base that heavily resembled the Duriel Facility "My apologies but we must interrupt our scheduled programming to bring you this breaking news. A little over three days ago, all contact was lost at a Dominion funded research facility. It was only just a short time ago that search and rescue teams made an alarming discovery at the facility. Here we go now, live to Kate Lockwell on the scene."

The screen changed from the anchorman to that of a raven haired young woman who was standing in the foreground of what was left of the facility. Behind her, Tosh could see a number of SCVs starting to dig through the wreckage of a bunker, whether it was to look for survivors, bodies or just to clean up the mess Tosh didn't know nor really care. Instead he felt a kind of anger he hadn't felt since he and his grandmother had been kicked out of Haji and forced to live in a ramshackle hut.

Tosh continued to listen to what Kate Lockwell was saying "The death toll is high and it's only expected to get worse. A few days ago the Duriel facility came under attack by a hostile who eyewitness describe as belonging to Raynor's Raiders. Most of the facility staff including the head researcher, Dr. Friedrich Genzken were brutally killed during the attack on the base. Many who worked here are still missing and considering the damage done, there is very little hope for finding more survivors underneath the ruins."

The screen changed back to Donny Vermillion "Thank you Kate. We now take you live to Emperor Mengsk who is currently giving a speech on the recent attack by the terrorist group." Now the screen changed to the one whom Tosh had practically idolized for the past several years. Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, the founder and leader of the Terran Dominion.

Mengsk had a serious look in his eye and a grim expression on his face as he stood atop a podium.

"My heart goes out to the families of the brave and noble souls who worked and unfortunately died at the Duriel facility. Those men and women shall be remembered as some of the greatest humanitarians of our time for they worked tirelessly to find cures for some of the worst diseases that our generation has ever known so that we would no longer fear the possibility of our friends and family falling victim to pestilence, so that we all could live long and healthy lives. I vow to each and every last one of you that those responsible for this reprehensible act shall be found and punished to the fullest extent of the law."

Mengsk was then bombarded with questions from the many reporters that had come to listen to his speech. By then Tosh had already completely tuned out what was going on the vid screen. Instead he was seething inside. They were covering everything that happened in that hellhole up and making those who worked look like they were a bunch of saints!

Tosh laid there on the medical bed, inwardly seething to himself as he thought about Alejandro and the agony he must have experienced before Andrew and Nova finally put him out of his misery. It made him sick to his stomach that the disgusting excuses for human beings who had inflicted such horrors were going to be remembered as kind and compassionate individuals.

The dreadlocked trainee was so caught up in his thoughts that he failed to notice the door open and Kath walking inside carrying a tray of food that doubtlessly came from the cafeteria. Tosh almost jumped up when the girl finally called his name "Hey Tosh, you doing all right?" she asked hopefully.

The dreadlocked trainee put on a forced smile, "The docs say I should be getting out of here in a couple of days. How's the rest of the team?" While he spoke verbally he also started thought sending "Kath do you remember anything about Altara? About what happened to Alejandro?"

While normally Tosh would just ask this question the verbally, he had no way of knowing if someone in the Ghost Academy was listening in on their conversation and he didn't want to put himself or any of his friends at risk.

Even though Kath was confused she knew that Tosh would want her to keep that from showing as they had their second conversation unbeknownst to whoever was "Well that's good, the rest of the group is getting pretty antsy. In fact just a few minutes ago Amelia was pacing around complaining about how our training mission to Altara had been canceled. Hell she even went to Sarco and Bick to demand an explanation as to why it was cancelled."

"What do you mean do I remember?" Kath asked confusedly "The Altara training mission got canceled and Alejandro flunked out that's all there is to it."

For less than half a second Tosh's eyes widened before he remembered that he was probably being watched and that he couldn't let anyone catch on that he knew about what had happened on that planet. If the Academy had decided to erase Kath's and probably the whole team's memory about the whole incident, then who knew what would happen if they found out that he knew about what had really happened that day.

Tosh then faked a chuckle and smile "Really? And here I thought that Amelia was the most levelheaded out of all of us, are you sure we're talking about the same girl?"

Kath rolled her eyes "She's only levelheaded when everything proceeds according to plan, when they aren't well, you'll see when you get out of here."

"You know what just, never mind, forget I even asked. I'm probably just a bit muddled or something from that training accident earlier," Tosh assured, hoping that Kath would buy it. Surprisingly enough though she either did or she covered up her disbelief in his words remarkably well. Kath smiled at Tosh "It's cool, we're all have our off days."

"Yeah well hopefully she'll have cooled off by then. Hey maybe later we could-" it was then that the bell chimed over the PA system, signaling that lunch was over and that everyone needed to go to their next class. Kath sighed "Well there's the bell. You uh, want to continue this some other time?" she asked.

Tosh nodded to her with a grin "Of course." With that the two said their goodbyes and Kath left the infirmary intent on getting to her classes before she ended up being late. With Kath now gone, Tosh thoughts turned to the future and he wondered what he should do now.

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-Hyperion, Cantina-

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A couple of days had passed since the successful operation Altara between the protoss and Raynor's Raiders. Shortly after the rescue at Altara, Andrew had managed to convince Raynor to borrow one of the dropships for a slight excursion back to Altara's surface.

Raynor had of course been very reluctant to take such a risk but after Andrew had informed him of the protoss observer units hovering about in the area nearby that would provide an early warning in the event of an attack. Even then Raynor was still very reluctant to allow Andrew to go out on his own but eventually relented to the Ghost operative's requests.

Andrew had taken the dropship back down to the planet along with his personal Ihan Crystal that memories of everything that had happened to Andrew since he woke up in that hospital on Tarsonis that fateful day. The young Ghost operative had waited patiently for nearly six hours. Tosh and the other members of Grey team never showed up. This either mean that they had been captured while they had attempted to escape, which was an unlikely scenario considering how utterly decimated they had been.

After six hours had passed with no word from Tosh or any other members of Grey team, Andrew returned to the Hyperion empty handed and had since secluded himself in his quarters and had refused to speak with anyone.

Truth be told It made Nova worried. She had never seen Andrew like this before, true he could be quiet reluctant to speak about certain things at times back at the Ghost Academy. Of course that was understandable considering the situation he was in. But even during that time he could still be friendly towards others. This was different however it was more like he was completely shutting down around everyone, it just didn't seem like the Andrew that Nova had come to know.

Because of this, Nova headed for the Cantina, to find one of the people that would probably be the best person to go to for advice about the whole situation. Jim Raynor. He had known Andrew the longest out of everyone in the Raiders would probably have a good idea on what Nova should do to help him.

Upon entering one of the areas that Raynor spent most of his time, Nova found that unlike a few hours after a successful mission, the cantina portion of the ship wasn't nearly as populated. Instead there was a much smaller group of people, no bigger than twenty or thirty in total. Everyone was sitting down and talking with one another about whatever topic they wished while they were on break from their duties.

Nova quickly spotted Raynor already sitting down at one of the tables, drinking some beer out of a medium sized glass. Upon seeing the leader of the Raiders Nova started to make her way towards him, effortlessly weaving in between the tables and the people that were either sitting down at them or moving around the room. In a matter of moments Nova found herself in front of Jim Raynor himself who didn't even seem to notice his presence, and was instead busying himself by pouring himself another glass of expensive looking brand of alcohol.

While Raynor poured himself more booze Nova cleared her throat, getting the man's attention. Raynor looked up and saw the young woman and gave a small smile "Hello Nova. So what brings you to this part of the ship?" he asked as he beckoned her to sit down.

Not wanting to tap-dance around the issue Nova decided that it would probably be best if she was direct with the leader of the Raiders, "I wanted to talk to you about Andrew Cole."

At that Raynor gave a small mischievous smile and Nova braced herself for the teasing that would no doubt ensue. Sure enough Raynor saw the opening that Nova had so generously provided him if the grin he was sporting was any indication. Before he could bombard the young woman with enough teasing to make her face turn completely scarlet, Nova finished "He's been acting different than normal lately. He's completely isolated himself in his quarters and he isn't speaking to anyone."

With that Raynor's previously humorous expression completely vanished and a much more somber look replaced it. The leader of the rebels sighed and decided to explain. "Andrew's got this habit of shutting himself away when things get really bad. He seems to be under the impression that his problems are his own burden and no one else needs to share them. The most prominent of his own issues is that of his past. Andrew's been, almost obsessive to find out about something, anything in regards to where he came from or who his family is. The kid's exhausted every method and lead available to try and get some answers. Now he's getting really desperate and I'm worried that he might start grasping at straws or turn to things that aren't really there for answers."

Nova kind of figured that was the case but she didn't' really know just how far it went. The only question that really remained for her was the one that was on her lips "Is there anything I can do to help him?" Andrew had done quite a lot for her in the past couple of months and the least she could do to repay all that was try and help him now.

Raynor shrugged "At this point unless you can make him remember, the only thing that any of us will be able to do is just be there for him when he finally crashes from all this." The thoughts that were in Raynor's head were that of an almost paternal concern towards Andrew but it didn't take a telepath to realize that the man saw Andrew as more a son than a subordinate.

"You really care about Andrew don't you Raynor," it was a statement not a question and Raynor knew it. The leader of the Raiders sighed, deciding to come clean to the girl before he just broadcasted his thoughts for her to pick up on anyway.

The leader of the Raiders then said "I'm not gonna lie to ya kid, over the past couple of years that boy's become like a son to me. To be perfectly honest there are few times I find myself hoping that one of these days he'll treat me as less a commander and as more of a father."

Nova watched as Raynor took another swig from the glass not really knowing what she could say to a comment like that. Eventually though she just settled with something reassuring "I'm sure he will one of these days Raynor." Raynor smiled at the reassurance "Thanks kid."

The blonde Ghost then stood up and prepared to leave "You're welcome Raynor, and thanks for having this talk with me." Raynor smiled "Not a problem kid." With that being done Nova headed for the crew quarters, leaving Raynor alone with his drink.

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-Hyperion, Crew Quarters, Andrew's quarters-

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For quite some time, Andrew had been alternating between pacing back and forth in his room and sitting down on his bed replaying the events of what had happened in the Duriel facility over and over again in his mind. With Tosh he kind of already knew that he would not have believed whatever evidence he put forwards. Hell it was doubtful that Tosh would believe it even if Mengsk had outright confessed to his face of the many, many crimes he had committed the past few years.

With that in mind, Andrew didn't have much hope for the dreadlocked Ghost Trainee but he still had to at least try to get him to see the truth. Apparently it wasn't enough. A part of him wanted to believe that he and the rest of his team had just been captured by the Dominion security forces. However it was very unlikely that had occurred considering the fact that almost all of Duriel's security detail had been all but completely wiped out by the Protoss assault force.

But the thing that got to Andrew the most was Genzken and his claim that he somehow knew Andrew's mother.

Sure it there was a pretty strong likelihood that he was just trying to mess with his head or get under his skin or something like that but somehow Andrew just knew that that psychopath was telling the truth. Andrew wasn't an empath but he'd had plenty of experience when it came to liars and manipulative bastards. He had after all, dealt with people like Kerrigan and Mengsk during the Brood Wars during their temporary alliance.

If Genzken did in fact know Andrew's mother, just how in the hell were the two of them acquainted? It wasn't all that likely that they were coworkers at least considering how the mad doctor had joked about her lack of respect towards her 'betters'. But if that wasn't the case then how in the hell did they know each other?

Questions like that ate away at him for what felt like an eternity as he paced around his room. Unfortunately every time he tried to come up with something that would explain the connection between his mother and Genzken, he only found himself asking more and more questions.

Eventually though Andrew was broken from his musings when he heard someone knocking at his door. Curious as to who would be visiting him, the young man walked over to the door and opened it. Much to his surprise it was Nova. She also had a very concerned expression on her face.

"Nova. What's going on? Is there some kind of problem?" he asked with an eyebrow cocked upwards. Nova seemed nervous to speak for a moment, as if gauging his possible reactions but she soon asked anyways "Would it be alright if I could talk to you for a moment?" she asked. Andrew blinked but then stepped aside and further opened the door, "Uh sure, come on in," he declared.

Nova walked into Andrew's room and shut the door behind her. After the door was fully shut, Andrew turned to his guest and asked "So what was it you wanted to talk about?"

The blonde haired Ghost bit her lip, trying to figure out the best way to bring up the subject matter. Soon though she decided to just be honest with him "Well, I've been worried about you."

Andrew blinked confusedly "Why's that?" he asked. Nova let out a sigh and proceeded to explain "Well, you've cooped yourself up in your room for the past couple of days sulking around in your room and you haven't talked to anyone since the mission."

With that Andrew's eyes narrowed irritably "I don't sulk," he declared. Nova resisted the urge to roll her eyes "Yes and the fact that you're holed up in your room, not talking to anyone save for when you absolutely have to all day clearly means you haven't been sulking."

Andrew didn't seem the least bit amused at the sarcasm but he managed to bite back a retort as he didn't want to escalate the situation any further. Instead he looked at her questioningly and asked "What the hell do you want from me Nova?"

"I want you to talk to me. You don't need to shoulder this by yourself anymore, and we both know that if you bottle this up, things will only get worse," she declared. Ever since her family was murdered and the nightmare that had followed she had bottled everything up, never speaking about it to anyone unless absolutely necessary.

After talking with Andrew though, it had felt as if a weight had been lifted over her shoulders. While there was still a lot of pain from those horrific events they became a little more bearable to live with after she talked with Andrew about it.

The young man in question let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in the whole time and spoke despite his clear reluctance to speak on the matter.

"Alright, fine. I'll tell you. Ever since I woke up in that hospital on Tarsonis I've searched and searched for answers to my past. Almost every waking moment, questions gnaw endlessly at the back of my head; Who were my parents? Do I have any siblings? Did they care about me? Did I care about them? Are any of them alive or were they all killed on Tarsonis? And every damn time I seem to be getting close to an answer, it just slips away. Every. Damn. Time. The whole thing is maddening but I need to keep searching, no matter how awful the answers might be."

After all this time, the only thing that Andrew really wanted, what he needed was closure on the whole issue. Was that all too much to ask? Andrew felt tears stinging against his eyes, the stress and emotions of what had happened were starting to get the better of him.

Then he felt two arms envelope his body and he was momentarily taken off guard. Looking up he saw that Nova was now rather tightly embracing him. Andrew felt his face heat up as he felt Nova hug him. He didn't even know how to respond to this even as Nova started to speak "You don't need to keep facing this alone anymore Andrew. You helped me and now, I'm going to help you," she declared.

Andrew felt his arms wrapping around Nova's body practically on reflex, all the while his mind started to race along with his heart rate. He'd never really asked anyone for help before with retrieving his memories mainly due to how the Raiders had needed as many resources as they could get their hands on in order to continue fighting the Dominion.

He had spoken to a few Protoss about the issue before and had even attempted a few of their meditations to try and balance his mind in the hopes that he would be able to recover his memories. When those failed he asked about other methods and the Protoss healers had informed him that to attempt to forcibly restore his memories was extremely risky and it could cause permanent brain damage or even death. While it was relatively simple to remove the fake memories that had been plastered over the real ones by neural resocialization, it was another thing entirely with amnesia.

Andrew then broke himself out of those thoughts and returned the hug that Nova was giving him and whispered "Thank you Nova. Thank you so much." Even when tears started to fall from his face, Nova just hugged him a little bit tighter.

For a time, the two just held each other close and content to just sit there and enjoy one another's company.

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-Unknown Location-

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To countless beings across the cosmos, the endless expanse of the void of space was the most inhospitable environment in existence. No living thing was capable of surviving inside of it for more than a few seconds without protection before perishing through either suffocation or from having their internal organs frozen solid from attempting to take a breath.

It was a place where only those whose anatomies were unbothered by such trivial difficulties could survive.

In one expanse of space existed the desiccated remains of an ancient starship; one large enough to have perhaps once carried millions of sentient beings or even end whole stars with but a passing glance of the former occupants. Only time had done its worst; reducing this once glorious colossus into a near lifeless wreck. While a handful of sections of the ship still remained active from the starship's power source, others were beyond recovery and completely covered in asteroid fragments that had bombarded the hull over the course of several centuries.

A single section of the ship was practically alight with energy, almost resembling a lighthouse in a storm. Within this section of the ruined ship was something that resembled a large circular amphitheater with a large podium at the center. Standing near the podium was a dark skinned man who looked to be somewhere in his late thirties. Or rather most of him did. Almost half of it was little more than a group bunching of Zerg limbs.

This individual had many names and faces to choose from but he mainly enjoyed staying in this particular form. It was one he had, oddly enough grown very much accustom to, ever since he had arrived in the Korprulu Sector. This entity's current alias was that of Samir Duran, formerly of the Confederate Resistance Forces, The UED Expeditionary Force and the Zerg Swarm.

Currently he was waiting for an old, acquaintance of sorts to arrive with an update on how things were progressing with his portion of the great plan.

While something as mundane as 'time' was a relative term to a being like Duran, he didn't have to wait for very long as the door that lead into the amphitheater. There was a soft hiss as the circular door opened like an iris and another man, this one wearing the armor of that of a Dominion marine walked in, the metal boots making a dull thumping noise on the ground as he did.

Duran smiled and turned to face his comrade "Well Nero it was so good of you to finally join me. How was your stay at Altara?"

Nero frowned when he remembered all those months of waiting for that idiot Genzken to make progress with his work at recreating the Queen of Blades. While he knew going in that it was a very remote chance that Genzken would be able to recreate the leader of the swarm, it was still within the realm of possibility. After all, having a more loyal pawn than Kerrigan at their disposal would definitely help speed their plans along further.

"Not well. Genzken was more of a fool than either of us had anticipated. He was an utter failure and you know as well as I do that our master cannot suffer such things from anyone for long."

Duran had a knowing look on his face. That policy applied to everyone that served their master, even agents such as themselves were not exempt from their lord's wrath. Fortunately the one they served was more than intelligent enough to understand the times when there was nothing one could do to succeed at a task. It was only when one had become completely incompetent and unreliable that they were disposed of.

The two shape shifters were broken out of their thoughts when they heard a deep echoing voice coming from everywhere and yet nowhere all at once "Indeed, my servants. However in your case I had anticipated a failure from the Terrans but I could not pass up the opportunity that they might succeed. Another pawn with Zerg Queen's power would have been most useful to us. But it is no matter, Duran begin planning the next phase of the Great Plan, I expect all to be ready within the next six cycles."

Duran smirked as his body began to warp and change from that of the form he was most used to and into something else. In Duran's place was an older looking human male with mid-length white hair done into a ponytail and a Terran scientist's uniform that bore the insignia of the Moebius Foundation. Even Duran's voice had changed completely from a "liquid" accent to one that was of more European descent "It will be done my lord."

The shape shifter then proceeded to walk out of the room, a small echoing tap rang out with each step he took.

Nero was about to leave as well but sensed that his master was not done with him just yet. "Is there something you require of me my master?" he asked before the voice filled his ears once again "As a matter of fact there is. I was curious as to why you spared those Terran children on Altara?"

At first Nero was confused, and more than a little worried. Was his master upset with him for his actions? He hoped not as he had served him faithfully for millennia.

Without any hesitation Nero began to explain his actions to his master. "I believed that killing them would serve no real purpose and that it could quite possibly end up drawing far too much attention to the Dominion. If word were to get out that students in that training facility were being ruthlessly killed then it could cause the Terran public to further scrutinize its government and I simply did not wish to push back our plans if I could avoid it. Besides their masters will more than likely have already erased their memories of being on Altara and even if they had spoken of what I did to them, their words would simply be chalked up as madness."

There was a pause before the voice rang in his ears once again "I see, very well done. Now my servant you must proceed with your next part in the plan."

With no small amount of relief that his master wasn't upset with his decision Nero's form began to shift from that of a Terran marine and into the form of a Protoss Templar. "It will be done my lord. The Forged will soon be yours to command."

To be Continued.

A/N: I always wondered why Blizzard didn't have Amon use more Shape Shifters other than Narud/Duran. I mean wouldn't it be more effective to have more spies like that around? Well then again Legacy of the Void isn't out yet so Narud/Duran may not be the only shape shifter under Amon's command (fingers crossed).

Also if you're wondering about Elena, don't worry she'll show up again. Just not in the way you're all expecting.