Author's Note: Hey guys, after more than two weeks of no updates, I decided to put this chapter up, even though I haven't fully gotten back into the writing mood yet. Again, one of the advantages in writing slightly ahead.
This chapter is somewhat of a followup to the previous chapter, since I revealed the whole of Nova's past with it. As Blackhole1 had pointed out to me in his review, having that much flash before your eyes in such a short time would have to hurt, and I ended the chapter before writing a reaction to how Nova would take all this, along with Raynor's reaction to seeing what Nova had experienced in her life.
To that end, I'll say this to you, Blackhole1: the part in your review you had mentioned about the possibility of being sympathetic to Tosh given what Nova had learned in her memories. Well let's put it this way: although Tosh is now dead in my fic, his actions have not been forgotten, and he will be mentioned some more as the fic goes on.
Don't forget, this was why back in chapter 19 I wrote about the plans to bust open New Folsom, which then happened in chapters 25 through 30. That was to show that Tosh wasn't the bad guy to begin with, and that what he had hoped for would still be honored, at least to an extent.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.
Chapter 53
Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char
"It had taken me much effort," Ulrezaj telepathically spoke to Duran. "But I have successfully carved off the tissue sample from the Zerg beast, just as you had requested."
"You have done well for me, young Ulrezaj," Duran commented. "This sample will be among the last specimens I will require for my plans, and for our master. Contrary to what you believe, it is not about the hybrid cloning. I have something far bigger in store, once all of the pieces are in place."
"I concur with the Fallen One on this," the Dark Archon said, disgusted. "Your hybrid clones have failed to live up to the standards that had been expected of them. Without the ability to obey commands, they are near useless to us."
"That is something I am still working on," Duran assured. "In the meantime, I believe the Khaydarin Crystal shards you have seen in Kerrigan's hive could be used to further progress forward with our plans. They are your reward for your services in bringing me this sample, so I will allow you total freedom as to what to do with them."
This was something Ulrezaj took great satisfaction in. He did not see the point of coming to Char and raiding Kerrigan's hive cluster, as well as having his Tal'darim warband obtain equipment from that infested terran Command Center. The latter had come as a major surprise to him, as he simply could not understand what uses Duran could have for terran technology. Even today, terran technology was greatly inferior to that of the Protoss. While the technology of the Firstborns were theoretically advanced enough for the forging of the basic structures of the hybrids, terran technology was still ages away from accomplishing something even remotely close to such a feat.
Given his Tal'darim forces and their defeat by the hands of James Raynor, the Dark Archon knew not to underestimate the terrans, but that did not change simple facts. Duran had told him about the terran attempts to replicate the cloned hybrid at the installation called Castanar, but most of their efforts were largely unsuccessful. After James Raynor had attacked it, the hybrid clone had ended up destroying most of the facility, which impeded the terran efforts even further. All of this only reinforced Ulrezaj's belief that with the exception of a few, the majority of terrans were little more than children playing with powers completely beyond their comprehension.
As long as the terran race continued to believe the Zerg swarm is the true threat, the Dark Archon concurred with Duran and his master that they must be continued to be convinced this is the case. Yet despite his immense energies, channeling the power of mind control and bending the individual Zerg creatures to his will would drain him too quickly, and he would be left vulnerable to his enemies. Fortunately, Ulrezaj already had the perfect alternative it, and it would rely on the Khaydarin Crystals found within the hive cluster.
Unlike with Protoss technology, terran technology was far too inferior to control vast numbers of Zerg. On the other hand, he had proved much more capable of controlling the Zerg broods than any of his Nerazim Protoss brethren. This too had been in part to his actions in reading from the Wall of Knowledge at the Alys'aril Nexus. It was from this knowledge that he had learned how to create the warped versions of Khaydarin Crystals, comprised purely of Dark Templar and Zerg energies. They had clearly proven themselves to be effective at controlling the Zerg broods.
Yet his hopes that they would also be able to create genetically enhanced Zerg creatures that would be capable of resisting the effects of the Xel'Naga Temple and thus could slaughter the Khalai refugees had been dashed. Although the crystals were powerful, they still possessed one vulnerability: the psychic and Void energies of a Dark Archon. It was from this knowledge that Zeratul had ordered a Dark Archon to have all of his warped Khaydarin Crystals destroyed, and Ulrezaj thus never even discovered just how much the Dark Templar energies would have enhanced the Zerg broods.
Nevertheless, despite the loss of his Fist of Ulrezaj group, he knew such plans could still come to pass, and this relied on his Tal'darim warband. The main difference between the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss sects was the fact that the former chose to embrace the Khala while the latter embraced the Void. It was from the Void that the main source of Dark Templar energies came from. The Sundrop substance he had supplied to the Tal'darim had cut off their link to the Khala and they were embraced by the Void instead. This had allowed them to develop Dark Templar techniques just like the Nerazim tribes.
Thus the Dark Archon no longer needed his Fist of Ulrezaj group for the forging of the warped crystals, the Tal'darim had effectively replaced them. And unlike the Fist of Ulrezaj, the Tal'darim at his disposal were far greater in number and thus presented him with the opportunity to create even stronger versions of the warped crystals than before.
This time however, he would not take any chances. Despite the fact that no other Dark Archon have managed to prolong their existence like himself, this did not mean the Nerazims have completely abandoned their usage of Dark Archons. Although in recent times they have learned the technique in merging together to form Khalai Archons, they have not forgotten how to form Dark Archons in their merging.
Fortunately, the presence of the Khaydarin Crystal shards in the hive would facilitate in this plan. The previous warp crystals did not have an original Khaydarin Crystal to enhance it even further and thus proved to be much more vulnerable. This time, Ulrezaj planned to use the shards and infuse both Zerg and Tal'darim energies into it, thus creating even stronger versions of the warp crystals, so strong that no Dark Archon other than himself would have the power to shatter them.
Dark Templar Shrine Entrance, Aiur
Jim and Nova both sat on the front steps outside of the Dark Templar Shrine. The moments of living through several years of her dark past had badly shaken the blond ghost, and Jim was barely holding himself in check to the horrors that Nova had been subjected to.
Neither one of them said a word, but Jim knew he would have to find a way to break the silence. He knew holding it all within her was a bad idea, and he didn't want to see Nova get hurt any further. But he was also unsure of just what he could say to her that wouldn't provoke a hostile reaction from the ghost. Still at a young age, the traumas she had experienced, then wiped from her mind, but now remembered, must have taken a terrible toll on her soul.
"Nova, if I had known the details were going to be like that, I wouldn't have considered the recovery process," he said softly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, Jim," the blond ghost said quietly. "You couldn't have known this. You only wanted what was best for me, because you didn't want me living an empty life and not knowing anything about my past."
"I understand why you wanted to forget. Every one of us has our breaking points, and I can see why you chose the path of ignorance rather than accepting the truth."
"I was weak, Jim. I took the coward's way out instead of choosing to endure, something you taught your Raiders to do."
"There is also something called an endurance limit, you know. There's only so much a person can take before he or she can't stand it anymore. After what I saw, I seriously doubt I would have done any differently from what you did."
Jim gently put his hand on her shoulder. "Let it out, Nova. You've held the pain inside you for long enough with no one to speak to about it. Events like the ones you went through aren't meant to be faced alone. It's alright to show your tears to me, I won't think you're weak."
That was it for the blond ghost. After all the years of holding her emotions in, she finally let go. The walls inside her crumbled and Nova broke down sobbing on Jim's shoulder. Emotions she once felt were only signs of weakness spilled out of her, as every tear fell. Jim had been right, she never was able to endure the memory recovery process alone, it was too much. She realized now that had it not been for Jim being there, the process would have driven her to the point of suicide, just as the traumatizing events of her family's assassination had.
She cried without any control onto Jim, and for more than one event over the course of her life. She cried for her family, who she had loved more than anything else, and having been assassinated right before her eyes. She cried for all the people who had died when she unleashed her psychic scream upon witnessing the assassination, as many of them had nothing to do with it and thus became collateral damage. She cried for all the families of those people who had suffered the loss of relatives due to that psychic scream.
She cried for the people she had ended up killing during the months she spent in the Gutter due to Fagin's torture and for being a slave to that crime lord. She cried for the people who people who had suffered due to her actions from those killings.
Nova wept without any attempt to hide it, as she wept for the people she met during her early days at the Ghost Academy. She wept for all those who had tried to befriend her, and even to develop relationships with her, yet she chose to reject them all, preferring to be alone. She cried for her own decision of having her memory wiped so the past would stop haunting her, and forgetting the concepts of friendship and companionship altogether and having chosen the path of an obedient Dominion ghost instead.
For that, she cried for all the people she had assassinated in the name of the Dominion, most of which she realized now were nothing more than obstacles to Mengsk and his path to achieving greater power. She cried for all the families she had destroyed due to those assassination missions, and for all the lives she had ruined, yet did not show even the slightest sign of sympathy or guilt about it. She cried for having forgotten about them due to the constant Dominion memory wipes and checkups of the neural inhibitors implanted within her. She cried for the pains they had suffered through because of her actions.
And last, but certainly not least, she cried for Tosh. She cried for having her memory wiped during the Ghost Academy days and thus having forgotten everything he had tried to teach her. She cried for rejecting his beliefs after what he told her after the Battle of Shi, where he tried to convince her that Mengsk was corrupt and had to be removed, yet she insisted that he had gone mad. She cried for having rejected his offer when they confronted each other on Korhal, having insisted that she would remain loyal to the Dominion and to protect the emperor at all costs regardless of the circumstances, even after she had been exposed to the terrazine which undid some of her memory wipes.
Nova wept for the people who had helped her during her time of need when she had been captured by Bennett, yet afterwards she rejected them as they were disloyal to the Dominion. She wept for her betrayal to Tosh, having promised him that she would join at his side with the Spectres after Bennett's death, and then instead choosing to return to serve the Dominion instead. She cried for killing Tosh, for serving the Dominion who had corrupted her and murdering yet another man who had turned against Mengsk's empire in the name of freedom and justice.
The blond ghost wept on Jim's shoulder for more than an hour, letting her tears freely flow. She cried until her body ached, having finally let loose the emotions that she held within her. Yet she was glad for Jim to be there for her. More than anything right now, she needed someone to cry on, someone who would understand her. Sarah hadn't been wrong about Jim. Clearly he understood her much better than she thought he would.
"It's all right," he assured her, as Nova finally began to pull herself back together from the weeping. "I told you I wouldn't think you're weak from that, and that opinion hasn't changed."
"I can see you and I have more in common than I thought, Nova," a voice said.
Nova lifted her head up to see Kerrigan decloak in front of them, sitting on a nearby stone at eye level towards her and Jim.
"Sarah, how long have you been there?" Jim asked.
"Long enough," she said candidly, before turning her head sympathetically towards the blond ghost. "I was wrong about you, Nova. I honestly thought that other than Jim, no one else could have suffered through as much as I did during my time with the Zerg. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. Clearly you didn't have a walk in the park either, and you were traumatized as much as Jim and I have been."
Nova lowered her head slightly, as she wiped away the tears. "I was weak, Sarah. Jim was right about you being stronger than me. You endured 4 years of infestation with the Zerg and countless horrors committed because of that monster, all of which you saw but couldn't do anything to intervene. I was driven to the point of suicide right after my family's murder."
"So was I back on Haven," Sarah reminded her. "Remember, it was you and Jim who helped me through all that. Both of you told me that the first steps to atonement was to fight for those who fell. If it weren't for you I probably would have gone suicidal in less than a day."
"Even so, the guilt factor is still there. That goes for both of us," Nova pointed out.
"Tell me something then," Sarah said calmly. "Now that you got all your memories back, do you want to remember it all? Even I didn't experience something so traumatizing as my family killed in front of me, you know."
"Of course I do. If I don't it would just prove I'm too weak to endure."
"Then it proves you're every bit as strong as Jim and I believe you are. You told me yourself on Haven there are obviously differences between the actions you committed during your time with the Dominion and the ones I committed when I was with the Zerg. If I had chosen to have those memories erased, it would have rendered me a coward, and I would have been no better than the monster that the Xel'Naga artifact had killed."
"I saw that you had wanted to go back to your normal life, even though you knew that was no longer possible," Jim said softly. "Sarah and I both want the same thing for our own lives, and we know that's not going to happen. But it's not about going back to the way our lives once were, it's about letting everybody else live free."
"And I promised that I would fight for the liberty of others," Nova said firmly.
"Then it's the same thing you had told me back on Haven," Kerrigan replied. "Fight for them, and in time they'll see you've changed. When that happens, they'll forgive you."
Nova nodded silently, before suddenly remembering the one thing she had seen that had surprised her during the initial stages of her memory recovery process. When she saw herself as a member of the Old Families, she had seen Jim's eyes darken in anger. This was something she had only seen whenever the topic of Mengsk had been brought up during the time she spent on the Hyperion. Even the mention of the Zerg did not provoke this kind of reaction, though this was understandable as it was Mengsk who had abandoned Sarah to the Zerg. Still, she couldn't understand why there was this anger towards the Old Families, unless there was still something she didn't understand about the rebel commander just yet.
"Jim, I saw a change in your expression during that recovery process," Nova said carefully. "When you learned I was a member of the Old Families, you seemed to be angry about it. Did something go down between you and them? It seemed like you hate them and the Confederacy even more than the Zerg."
Jim clenched his fist in anger, and Nova immediately regretted asking. Clearly she had touched a nerve by bringing up an old wound from his past. However, Jim uncurled his hands and sighed. It was as if he had been expecting her to ask him all along.
"The Old Families and the Confederacy gave me the reasons to join hands with Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal in the first place," he told her. "Before you, I always thought virtually all of the Old Families were nothing but power hungry tyrants without giving the slightest consideration to the common man. They were responsible for my mother and father's death, and the Confederacy killed both my wife and son."
"What happened, Jim?" Sarah asked softly. This was something even she didn't know of him, and she knew that she had to better understand him.
Jim looked up at the sky before sighing again. "All right, I guess it's time both of you knew. It began all the way back during the Guild Wars. The Umojan Protectorate hadn't existed back then, and there was only the Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine."
"I remember. The Confederacy won that conflict and the Kel-Morian Combine was reduced to only a shadow of its former self."
"And the whole Confederate government became richer than ever," Jim said bitterly. "But that was just the people at the top who prospered. For the common people under the Confederacy, they gained absolutely nothing. In fact, for them all they got was more suffering."
"Your family was among them," Nova realized.
Jim nodded. "When you look at it from an economic standpoint, the Guild Wars allowed the Old Families to reap major profits from selling armaments to the Confederate Military. On the other hand, the constant spending there wreaked havoc on the Confederate agriculture, and many farmers were sent into total bankruptcy. My family on the world of Shiloh had been among the victims of Confederate greed and power lust."
"Shiloh was a Confederate fringe world," the blond ghost said softly. "I heard very little about it when I was young, other than it was among the major food source planets for the Confederacy."
"The land that my family farmed on wasn't exactly ideal, but it made a living," the rebel commander said. "When the economic strains of the Guild Wars began to be felt, my family began to suffer from its effects. It was for this reason that I had joined the Confederate Military, over the objections of my father Trace. He personally didn't want me to go down this path because he was afraid I would end up as monstrous as the Confederates did."
"You ended up just fine though," Sarah said. "You didn't treat anyone as tools or pawns for your personal gain."
"It was why Trace and my mother Karol said while they opposed me joining the military, they wouldn't stop me from doing it. All I wanted was to earn some of the money so my family would be well looked after. That's where Tychus and I first met."
"What happened?"
"Our commanding officer Javier Vanderspool turned out to be corrupt and tried to win battles for his own personal wealth gains," Jim replied. "It was why Tychus and I left the military, and we became outlaws, criminals and traitors to the Confederacy."
"Matt told me you and him got into all sorts of trouble," Nova said, in thought. "It was never about just causing havoc on the Confederacy, was it? You were still doing all this for your family's benefit."
"Except my family didn't accept any of it," Jim said quietly. "They said no matter how corrupt the Old Families are, along with the Confederacy, the money me and Tychus were hording was nevertheless blood money. That was the final message my father gave me in a holovid. He said a man is what he chooses to be. It's the choice that make the man, not how he was born or how he was raised. He said that I was going down a dark path, and this was not something he wanted for me. My father said I could always choose to be something new, and I should never forget that."
"And look at you now," Kerrigan pointed out. "You went from arch-criminal to the people's freedom fighter. I'd say you turned out more honorable than you care to admit."
"I just wished my father was alive to see it, Sarah. Because of the constant money problems caused by the Guild Wars, my family didn't have the money to spare when it came to giving the farming machines maintenance and repair. My father suffered an accident from the robo-harvester when it went completely out of control, and was sent to the hospital. But because my family had virtually been bled dry of money, the only source of money that could have saved his life was the blood money from me. He refused it, saying that it was better to die with dignity than to live in disgrace."
Nova felt a stab of guilt through her heart. After recovering her memories, she saw herself as always treating everyone in her family with kindness, but she had overlooked the common people.
"My mother Karol was the one who gave me that holovid message, on the night of her death," Jim continued, recalling the memories. "She asked me to return home to Shiloh to give me that message in the hopes that I would change my ways."
"What happened to her?" Nova asked softly, careful not to bring up any more wounds that could hurt Jim.
"Because of the constant food demands from the Confederacy in the Guild Wars, it had led to famine on Shiloh," Raynor answered. "Many of the residents ended up getting cancer because of it, my mother among them. The Confederacy created the Farm Aid program to partially assist the poor, starving and dying farmers, but for many it was already too late."
Jim turned his head to Nova. "So you see, I too understand what it's like to lose family members. True, mine were not assassinated in cold blood like yours were, but to an extent you can say they were murdered just the same. After their deaths, I blamed the Old Families for this, for having only thought of themselves and caring nothing for the common people."
"Jim, if I had known, I would have done more to help you," the blond ghost said softly.
"It's all right, you couldn't have known the details of my family back then. And I blame the Old Families only for the deaths of my mother and father. It's the Confederacy I blame for my wife and my son's death."
"I thought your son died in a shuttle accident," Sarah pointed out. "You got the letter from the Confederacy and everything."
Jim laughed humorlessly, startling her. "That was nothing but a story the Confederates made up, Sarah. John had scored high on a psionic evaluation test, which meant he was considered gifted. The Confederates wanted him to take trials to develop this potential, though I didn't want it at all. Yet Lidya felt this was good idea and so he was sent to the Tarsonis Institute of Health and Research."
"The Confederacy planned his death?" Nova asked, shocked.
Jim clenched his fist in anger. "That institute was nothing more than a cover for the Confederate recruiting school for children, Nova. If they passed the trials and tests, they would have been sent to the Ghost Program, where the Confederates would have turned them into mindless drones for their assassination missions and all that. If they failed the tests, then they would be of no further use to the Confederacy. However, they could not risk the children being sent home to tell their families of what really took place in that school, so they're simply disposed of. Since the Confederacy controlled virtually all of the media, the reporters would believe everything they tell them."
"The shuttle crash had been done on purpose," Sarah murmured. "The Confederacy was responsible for killing your son."
"I had suspected it, but Lidya blamed herself," Jim said. "She blamed herself for having convinced me of sending John to the institute which resulted in his death. She never recovered from the traumatizing event and the grief ended up killing her."
He paused for a moment, before continuing. "Of course, every now and then their security measures did slip up, and this was how I found out about what they really did."
"If I had known I would have done more," Nova said softly.
"All of us would have," Sarah told her. "But we can't change the past. All we can do is try to prevent the future from suffering similarly."
"I wanted the voices in my head to stop, but I should have just endured," the blond ghost said glumly. "Both of you suffered more than I did and you didn't choose the memory wipe option."
"After seeing those memories, I doubt we went through any more hell than you did," Jim replied. "Regardless, you took it a lot better than I had expected."
"So we'll now be returning our revolution to the Dominion now?"
"In time," the rebel commander assured. "Once Aiur is fully cleared of the Zerg, the Protoss will be helping us in our endeavors. When that happens, we'll finally have the strength necessary to bring down Mengsk's corrupt government once and for all."
