Author's Note: All right everyone, I'm back with a new chapter. Schedule-wise, everything is still in a state of uncertainty for me, so I still can't make any concrete promises on how frequently I'll be updating. Future chapters will obviously still keep showing up, I just don't know how long you may have to wait for this.

I understand that the last chapter wasn't very well liked, and I apologize for that. There are very few chapters of my fic like that, I hope you're willing to put up with it.

Hopefully this chapter you guys will enjoy more.

By the way, in the last chapter near the end I had made mentions of the Raiders had taken dry ice from New Folsom. This is not just some minor detail, it will have a role to play in a future chapter, you just watch.

Chapter 36

Aiur System

"All right sir," General Ridgeway said over the BattleCruiser bridge communications console with Mengsk. "That mission you sent me on to Aiur was a total nightmare. Fighting the Protoss even when we have the advantage of numerical superiority is exhausting enough, the operation down there was near suicidal. Most of my boys were killed, vehicles of all sorts from Hellions to Thors had been lost, and there's virtually no one that survived the battle that's in any shape to fight on."

"What about the gestalts and what your engineering team had excavated?" Mengsk asked.

"The excavated stones are intact," the general answered. "Most of the gestalts survived the battle, though almost all of them are exhausted. We were all considered lucky to survive, too. For some odd reason the Protoss all of a sudden stopped their attacks and left the area. I don't know why they did that considering that they were on the verge of overrunning us, but I'm certainly not complaining about it."

"Then all is well, general. You did a much better job than General Madison, who failed completely on obtaining the terrazine as I had ordered. Your mission turned out to be a success, and it shall be well noted. As for your surviving boys, they'll all be awarded with the Silver Star for their actions."

"I hate to be the bringer of bad news sir, but that's not going to cut it with them," Ridgeway said quietly. "They didn't say anything about it as we were leaving Aiur, but that was only because all of us were still on the alert in case the Protoss case chase to us. Now that it's clear we had escaped—"

"So what do they want?"

"Answers, sir. These stones from the Protoss temple ruins mean nothing to them. As far as they see it, it's nothing more than a few pieces of Protoss holy relics."

"They're far more than just religious artifacts I want to add to some museum, Ridgeway. They are part of my plan to regain control of the Koprulu sector, and that part of the plan will start once I have all the components I require in my grasp."

"Emperor, some of my surviving officers have pointed out that this mission is going to add yet another enemy to the Dominion on the list, and I'm inclined to agree with them."

"The enemies of the Dominion are everywhere, general. Almost all of them can be easily crushed."

"With all due respect, the Protoss aren't our ordinary opponents. Most of their technology is far beyond the understanding of even our best scientists and engineers!"

"You think I don't know that? It's exactly why I have those eggheads work around the clock in their labs every time we can get our hands on Protoss technology."

"I'm just afraid what they'll do in the aftermath of what happened today, sir. From their point of view, the Dominion had just stolen religious artifacts from one of their holy sites. They may not be human, but they certainly have shared characteristics with the terran race, and you know as well as I do that we aren't going to simply ignore the ones who desecrate a holy site of ours."

"This is where another benefit of Raynor's victory on Char had produced. The loss of the Queen of Blades means the Zerg leadership is weakened, so the Protoss would use this advantage to take all their territories back from the Zerg. It'll keep their hands busy for quite a while to come, while I push ahead with my own plans."

"My boys want a better idea over what these plans are, sir."

"You can tell them there's no point for me to explain because it's beyond their understanding, and most likely yours as well."

"Maybe not, but they don't like the idea of being left in the dark."

"Please," Mengsk scoffed. "During the Dominion salvaging operation on Tarsonis, most of the marines didn't know what was going on, and they didn't complain one bit."

"That's because they didn't suffer appalling casualties like here, and while they didn't know what information that Confederate adjutant contained since it was encrypted, the marines aren't stupid. They had enough common sense to know whatever was on there was important to the Dominion."

"So tell them the same thing here, Ridgeway. They may not know what's so important about the stones, but it's even more important to the Dominion compared to the salvage operation on Tarsonis."

"They won't buy that. With an adjutant, they can at least understand something. These Protoss relics on the other hand they're completely clueless about."

Mengsk was clearly getting tired of this. "Very well, general. Tell your boys this: my plan will involve the stones they collected as well as the contents I sent General Madison to collect. Once I have everything I need, I'll explain my plan to you. In the meantime, I have uploaded the coordinates of the Dominion installation I want these stones to be transported to. Get to it."

Surface of Bel'Shir

General Madison could hear the grumblings of virtually all of his remaining marines. Clearly they were not happy to be down on the surface of Bel'Shir again after the savage beating they had taken from the Tal'darim. For most, the terrazine gas meant absolutely nothing to them, and the neural resocialization process was the only reason why they hadn't mutinied. Only the few remaining processing personnel he had saw the reason for Mengsk's desire for the terrazine, but even they felt it simply wasn't worth their lives, as even they had to be mobilized in a last ditch effort to keep the unknown Protoss Archon entity from storming into their base and killing everyone in it.

For now, however, the primary concern was one of camouflage. Fortunately for them, Bel'Shir was a jungle moon, and despite the fact that its surface was full of ancient Protoss holy temples, shrines, and other religious sanctuaries, there were nevertheless areas on the moon's surface where the jungle foliage was extremely thick, and therefore made ideal landing spots for the terran Command Centers. However, with most of his military forces wiped out, the only way the mining operation could succeed now was to be as stealthy as possible. Although the BattleCruisers had indicated that large numbers of Tal'darim Protoss had left the moon shortly after Madison's evacuation of the terran base, the general knew that the possibility that there were still Protoss on Bel'Shir could not be ruled out. With no Siege Tanks and Goliaths left, and only a few functioning Thors, Hellions, and Vultures, it was clear that they could not afford to allow the Protoss to know they were down on Bel'Shir once more.

He himself was of course on the ground with his troops, but that didn't make them feel much better. Although his forces still had a substantial amount of small arms, they were only effective against light Protoss units such as Sentries. Although they could be used to great effect against Zealots, it would take very concentrated fire to make that happen, and after the appalling casualties sustained earlier, there were too few combat seasoned infantrymen for the job. Combat engineers and artillery personnel were given refresher training on using the small arms in a desperate attempt to fill the shortages of standard infantry, as did former Goliath pilots and Siege Tank drivers and gunners, their normal services no longer possible with their vehicles destroyed.

The remaining Vultures were under orders not to lay their Spider Mines to defend their current position. Although the mines proved to be very effective at stopping Protoss Zealots, Stalkers, and Sentries, it didn't change the fact that the sound of a mine detonation would inevitably attract unwanted attention, and that was something Madison wanted to avoid. Although marines and Marauders alike were bitter about being denied such a valuable defense, enough eventually gave in to the general's decision, as the ammunition shortages meant that open confrontation with the Protoss must be used only as a last resort.

Madison was thankful when he had seen so many Protoss depart from Bel'Shir. The material strength of his forces was now so seriously depleted that no Thor walker could open fire with its artillery barrage cannons without express permission. The shortages of incendiary fuel meant that it was impossible to fully arm all of the remaining Hellions and Firebats. As such, flame fuel was being allocated to the most combat experienced units, while the reserve fuel stocks were to be held back, to be handed out only when they have exhausted their capacity.

He tapped into his communications link. "This is General Madison. What's the status of our scouting party? "

"So far so good, sir," Came the reply. "There's been no sign of any Protoss activity, and we're almost out of the jungle's cover."

"How much further is it from the holy altars where they're collecting the terrazine from?"

"Just a few more miles, although we don't know what good that'll do us. When we departed this place, the Protoss had virtually all of them sealed up, remember?"

"There's got to be some left that they haven't," Madison replied. "Terrazine gas shares the same basic properties as vespene, and we all know the Protoss use it as a fuel source just like we do. I don't care how much vespene is on this moon, the Protoss wouldn't abandon the terrazine gas collection altogether."

"Even if we can find one that's still open, we won't be able to collect the terrazine fast enough. We need to find a way to open the sealed altars."

"That would immediately attract the attention of the Protoss!" Madison said. "You really think they'd be dumb enough to leave the altar sealed, and then not leave any indicators in case someone comes to mess with it?"

"Well what other choice do we have? If we don't open those altars, it means we'll have to stay here longer for the gas collecting. The longer we stay here, the likelier we're going to get spotted again. If we get spotted again, there's no way we can survive another concentrated Protoss attack. I know it's not something you like to hear sir, but you know as well as I do our forces barely even have the strength for static defense, so if we're still going to proceed with the terrazine collecting, we have to do it as quickly as possible, and get the hell off this rock."

"All right, I'll agree to that. You got any ideas in mind in how to open the altars?"

"Well we know they sealed the altars up by doing something with those jewel crystals on the altar towers. From what Dominion intelligence knows about the Protoss, it's the fact that they are a pure psionic race, and that just about everything psionic about them is also compatible with their technology, a mix of psionic, biological, and mechanical components. Since these altars are also built out of Protoss technology—"

"—it means they're also partially powered by psionic energy," Madison finished. "You're saying that if we can overcome that, the altar seal will drop?"

"It's only a theory, but yes. When we evacuated Bel'Shir, we had seen the Protoss use their Probes to seal off the terrazine altars. The Probes are just robotic drones, so even if they had psionic energy powering them at all, it would be a very small amount."

"So you're saying that such amounts of energy would be lower in comparison to our ghosts," Madison stated.

"That's my hope, sir. If true, then if we get our ghosts close enough to those altar towers, they can channel their psionic energy towards it. If this theory is correct, that should be enough to cause the seal barrier to drop, allowing us access to collect the terrazine from it."

"How long would such a process take?"

"That's impossible to say, general. The Protoss are psionically stronger than the Dominion's ghosts anyway, so the most I can say is it'll probably take longer than what we expect it to."

Madison sighed in frustration. It wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but he knew he couldn't really expect anything better. To make matters worse, even if this theory was correct, it now means they're staking everything on their remaining ghosts. If they were killed, then there would be no hope of any kind of a mission success, and most likely not even a chance of their own survival.

He contemplated this for a while, before speaking slowly into his comm-link. "Do it carefully. We've already lost many ghosts in the Protoss attacks last time, and I have no intention of losing more. I'll send some ghosts down to your location, where you will escort them to the terrazine altars. They must be protected at all costs."

Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char

Ulrezaj watched as the Tal'darim Protoss set up their base defenses as efficiently as possible. Despite the fact that their forces had been greatly weakened by Jim Raynor, the scattered remains that he was able to unite together were still as formidable as ever. From the Xel'Naga Worldship, Monlyth, Xil, Bel'Shir, and Typhon XI, the Dark Archon had united them into his personal warband. Although still not as powerful as he had hoped for, Tal'darim Templars had assured him that more of their brethren from other worlds would be joining with them very soon, most of them eager to see their mighty Xava'tor.

The Tal'darim forces were certainly strengthening with each passing moment, but it remained to be seen if it is up to the task at hand. Here, on the surface of Char, near the primary hive cluster of the Queen of Blades, that shall be put to the test.

Most of the Tal'darim were both impressed, as well as embittered, shortly after their landing on the volcanic planet. On one hand, this was near the scene were the ancient Xel'Naga relic had been activated, reverting the Queen of Blades back to Sarah Kerrigan, and killing vast numbers of Zerg in the process. On the other hand, despite what had been accomplished, most remained bitter towards Jim Raynor, for killing their brethren and stealing the sacred artifacts of the Xel'Naga. Ulrezaj had assured them that the terran would be punished for all the Tal'darim Protoss he had slain, and most of his warband believed him right away.

For the time being however, their efforts were to be concentrated on the Zerg hive cluster. Although there were many Tal'darim that were confused as to why they are to come to Char, none questioned Ulrezaj. In reality the Dark Archon was somewhat confused himself, as it was Duran who had recommended to him to come to the Zerg infested world. He would say little regarding the reasons why, only that Ulrezaj would discover the components that would be vital to his hybrids.

Ulrezaj did not quite see exactly what Duran had in mind for it, but as this was supported by his master, he dared not disobey the Dark Voice.

The task would prove to be extremely difficult, and Ulrezaj undoubtedly was aware of this. Despite the Zerg defeat on Char and the crippling of their leadership, their numbers remained numerous on the ash world. Although the Xel'Naga artifact had killed every Zerg at the base of the primary hive cluster, the numbers that remain proved substantial. Kerrigan's hive cluster was the largest one on Char, comprising of some 2.8 billion Zerg creatures, according to the orbital scans from the Motherships. As such, despite the scans had indicated that approximately 275 million Zerg had been killed at the hive cluster, it still amounted to less than 10 percent of the total.

With their Queen of Blades gone, Ulrezaj had hoped this would make the Zerg forces here less effective in combat, but nevertheless sheer numbers still play a crucial factor in battle, and he knew his Tal'darim forces could not prevail against this many Zerg still in the area. If they had any advantage at all, it would be the fact that without their queen, the Zerg would have no one to give them orders to launch concentrated attacks. Nevertheless, Char remained their base of operations throughout this entire sector of the galaxy, and it seemed unlikely they would allow any intruders to remain on their world, regardless of their leadership status.

"Mighty Xava'tor, our defenses are almost ready," a High Templar reported.

"Very good, young warrior," Ulrezaj replied. "How long before we are ready to commence the attack on the primary hive cluster?"

"Soon. As we speak more of our Tal'darim brethren are warping into the area. Our mighty Carrier fleet will be joining us here soon, and our Colossi are moving into attack position."

"What of our flanks?"

"We have positioned hundreds of Photon Cannons at the east and west entrances to our base. Other High Templars are standing by near their location, ready to unleash the full might of their psionic storms should the Zerg attempt to break through."

"Very well. Be sure that they stay their wrath against the Zerg should they attack from there. Our numbers are still insignificant against them here, and we must focus all our energies at the heart of the hive cluster directly north of us. The answers I seek are located there, and we must break through the Zerg ranks to gather them as quickly as possible."

Bridge, Hyperion, High Orbit Over Aiur

"All right commander, we're entering Aiur's atmosphere now," Matt announced from the Hyperion's bridge. "Looks like your Protoss buddies have already wreaked havoc on the Zerg air power here."

"I'm glad," Jim replied. "But long range scans have indicated there's clearly still Zerg on this world, despite the fact they're being so rapidly killed by the Protoss. Once we touchdown, we've got to mobilize all of our forces to help them out."

"I'm going to be glad to finally be fighting with the Protoss instead of against them," Nova grumbled, more to herself than to Jim. "Don't forget Jim, I was with you on Typhon XI when we retrieved one of the remaining artifact pieces. Here I was thinking you were the fanatical one, going down to a planet that was getting incinerated by fire waves. That the Tal'darim actually went there to fight you despite the fire wave threat which would have killed them too, that's just utter insanity."

"It's nothing new," Jim assured her. "The Protoss are very devoted to keep the holy relics of the Xel'Naga off anyone else's hands, no matter what the circumstances are. But you're right, I too am looking forward to fighting alongside them against the Zerg, instead of like what happened on Haven."

Sarah looked out from the bridge, lost in her own thoughts. Just as she was still refusing to accept she was never the Queen of Blades to begin with, she was also still convinced of the hostile reaction she would be getting from the Protoss down there. There were still plenty among the Raiders who were skeptical about the Xel'Naga prophecy, and it wouldn't surprise her one bit if most of the Protoss felt the exactly same way. But regardless, she would have no more fighting over her. She may have promised Jim that she would fight alongside the Protoss to gain their forgiveness and trust once again, but unfortunately that would only work if they're willing to give her that chance, and she was sure many wouldn't feel that way.

If the Protoss chose to have her killed once they land on Aiur, then so be it. She wouldn't resist that, and she would make sure Jim wouldn't defend her from it. In truth, she still felt she didn't deserve to live after everything she did to the Protoss race, and nothing happened since Char has changed that part of guilt about her. True, the Hyperion wasn't attacked by Protoss Carriers or any other ships when it was passing through them to enter the atmosphere, but that didn't mean the same would be true for all the Protoss on the ground.

Jim must have picked up on her thoughts and concerns, as he walked over to her. "It'll be all right, Sarah. Artanis made it clear that the prophecy could not be ignored, and that most of the Protoss have accepted this."

Kerrigan shook her head slowly. "No matter where we land, we're going to be surrounded by more Protoss than you can count, Jim. There's no way you can expect all of them not to take hostile action against me, and I don't want you to protect me if they do."

"We've been over this before. They won't do it, trust me," Jim said, before turning to Matt. "Matt, chart a course for the Protoss capital city of Antioch. According to Protoss reports when we got here, it's among the few places left on Aiur that still had a high concentration of Zerg, so we'll start there in helping them out."

Author's Note: So in this chapter, I kind of wanted to split things over into a few different points with the 4 different perspectives I had told in this chapter.

With Ridgeway and his men, the point I was trying to make was that it doesn't matter how loyal the Dominion soldiers are to Mengsk, it's not complete and unquestioned loyalty. Soldiers are people, not machines. Therefore, they're not just going to blindly follow orders without even the slightest protest or anything.

In the case with Madison, I had wanted to show there are still intelligent people in the Dominion. I'm sure a lot of people were frustrated in the "Welcome to the Jungle" mission because the Tal'darim kept sealing up the Terrazine altars and all. Well now you get to see despite the sealing, there might actually be a way around that.

With regards to what is happening on Char, I did some thinking on the matter. Among the biggest questions I struggled over for a while was the Zerg presence still there. Eventually I decided to take a slightly different path than Blackhole1's "Her Body's Plaything".

Now, in response to why there's still so much Zerg on Char, you have to look at it with two main views:

1. Right now we don't really know what the Xel'Naga artifact is supposed to do. Sure it killed Zerg with its energy nova, but that may not be its designed purpose. And it certainly wasn't meant to be used as a means to cure Kerrigan of her infestation. Back in Blizzcon 2010, this had been addressed quite clearly: "Do you really think someone would have built this device just so thousands of years later when Kerrigan gets infested this relic would reverse all that and restore her humanity? That's a little too Deux Ex Machina."

2. Because we don't really know just what the artifact is really used for, it is also safe to assume that the way that it had been wielded on Char (with the power gizmos and everything) wasn't the proper way. In fact, just because the terrans thought it had reached full power, that's only from their point of view. It doesn't have to mean the artifact is really at full power.

When these two reasons are combined together, that would mean the energy nova we saw that deinfested Kerrigan was actually a lot less powerful than what people thought it would be. Even in the final cinematic when Raynor was carrying Kerrigan across the ashes of Char you could see the artifact did not kill all the Zerg, as up in the air Dominion BattleCruisers were still fighting the Zerg flyers.

For that reason I did not have the energy nova kill off the whole Zerg population on Char. Don't worry, this will have significance later on in the fic as well.

And finally in the last part of the fic, well let's just say I'm building up the suspense. Now that we have finally reached Aiur, confrontation with the Protoss leaders is now inevitable. Raynor may have been able to speak for his own people, but he can't speak for the Protoss, and the opinions they have on Kerrigan will certainly conflict him.

Ok so that's enough of an A/N from me.

Please read and review and I'll see you next time!