Stukov laid out a paper map over the table. Perhaps it was a technological regression of several hundred years compared to a holographic map, but sometimes you had to make do in the Nexus. "We can travel fast over these plains. It is not possible to approach our destination on foot unseen, so the simplest option is to tunnel in. We have to locate the cause of whatever is destabilizing reality and neutralize it by any means necessary." He looked at his assembled subordinates. "That is the primary goal, and we must achieve it at all costs. It is likely will all die if we do not."
Dehaka studied the map. It wasn't something he had much experience with, but the theory was simple enough. "Other, goals? Essence, to be, found?"
"We don't want to make enemies if possible. Leave no trace of your presence, and if you are discovered then attempt escape before fighting... or kill them without any witnesses and leave absolutely nothing behind." Stukov took some small wooden tokens from his pocket. "Dehaka, this is your strength. We will set up a safe escape route, and once you've located the source, report back so that I can decide how we approach this. If you must 'collect', then do not take something that will be missed." He arranged the tokens, showing an angle of approach and the rough location of a fortified position he'd set up.
Brightwing was busy being distracted in the background of the room, chasing a fly with one of her daughters.
"...When do we, approach? Any, other, instruction?"
Stukov shook his head. "As long as you follow the orders, then it shouldn't be too hard." He paused. "Though I'd like to see about getting some more Chimeras at my command after this mission. Mutalisks and Vikings are both too conspicuous to be effective scouts here. And you go immediately- none of us have time to waste."
"Brightwing. Get, three Chimeras. Find me." Dehaka's instructions were remarkably clearly spoken as he slipped out of the house that had been repurposed as a garden and command centre, and ran along the streets.
Stukov was about to almost automatically ask Brightwing if she was even listening, but she was gone before even he looked towards her.
Dehaka got about two hours' running away from the target before stopping and waiting. After a little while, there was a shimmer and a sound like a prolonged chime that heralded the arrival of his team.
Brightwing appeared, backed up by three Chimeras- Dehaka recognised Leaf, Byleistr, and Dag. "We are ready, friend- I am thinking that it will be fun!"
"Fun... Survival, first. Must not, be caught. Your magic, can it help?" He enquired, considering his own spells. Limited as they were, he'd mastered a few cantrips at this point.
"I can make us invisible, friend! We can have fun looking around." She glowed with magic for a second and reality seemed to distort for a second, before she became translucent. She giggled, and flew around for a few seconds, before hovering just behind Dehaka. "Okay friends! Be invisible! ...Do not worry, best friend. I have got you."
Dehaka looked at his own claws. Translucent, just like Brightwing and the small number of children he had to back him up. "...Are we, invisible? Or, clear? Rrr... does not, matter. We act, as though we can be seen. Use, shadows. Cover. Stand completely still, harder to see. Magic, not everything. We, go. I, tunnel past, possible detection- You, warp to me in... half, hour?"
He started digging. Normally, excavating a tunnel would be difficult and time-consuming even for a race that was known for it. Dehaka was among the fastest in the zerg- perhaps the absolute fastest specialised strains could dig from A to B faster, and the Nydus Worms would leave usable tunnels even at maximum speed, but that didn't mean Dehaka wouldn't leave most other strains in the dust.
It was easy enough for him to focus on digging, being alert to danger, AND reflecting on the fact he really did need to be careful not to let any of his team die out here. Not only would he have failed Stukov's goals (Something that came after everything else in importance, but still something he'd try and achieve), but more importantly... the pain. He understood after thinking on it: This was the price of taking the intelligence of humanity. While he could understand new things, see new options, handle conversations, make new allies... it made him care. It made him wish to protect his trusted allies- even if in a different life they'd be breaking free of his pack and becoming his enemies now, but with the essence taken from the terrans? Their pain, he felt it. His losses were more than numbers.
Yet he didn't regret it. Indeed, he felt he was on the path to survival for a long time, so long as he had Brightwing at the centre of his life and his pack around him.
He came up to some concrete. Perfectly smooth, a telling sign of humanity. And the pressure of the soil here told him he wasn't far below ground, nor could he feel any movement above. Unless there was someone standing still and watching above, it was safe. With a little push, he broke through the floor.
This room seemed to be for holding things. Many cells with bars lined one wall, and it was only dimly lit. Still, nobody was here. He silently got out of the hole, pushed the cracked floor back into place, and got into the shadows of the room, before waiting. If someone were to enter, then he'd have a good chance of being missed instead of having to eat them.
He might have taken a touch of human emotion, but definitely not enough to feel bad about eating anything outside his allies. Or his dead allies.
He waited for a few minutes before there was the prolonged chime of a teleport again. His four allies appeared in the shadowy corner with him.
"Okay, friend." Brightwing's voice was a hushed whisper at best. "Friends, make no sound. Careful when you fly. Hide and seek, but we must also seek..."
Dehaka went for the door, hugging the wall. Silent on the other side. Not locked. "I know, enough magic. Can, sense target. Follow. We work together."
For all his experience, he didn't actually know how to use a doorknob, and carefully cut the door off it's hinges with the knifelike barb on his tail, placing it aside.
They went out into a flight of stairs. Out here, a distant few voices could be heard. Now, the challenge begun.
Dehaka could climb a cliff face without problem, but these walls would easily show claws being driven into them. Brightwing flew up to the high top of the stairwell and landed on the chandelier, surrounded by the three chimeras. Meanwhile Dehaka just slunk up the stairs, moving quickly through the area with no cover.
"Lights. Extinguish." Humans had poor darkvision, and weaker hearing, smell and tremorsense. This might raise some eyebrows, but would make the task much easier.
The tower's first floor was expansive and filled with stone columns. Any infiltrator's dream. The group tactic was to have Brightwing silence the magical candles, then the Chimeras could fly high towards the ceiling and watch for any dangers, and then Dehaka could move along. Despite his expertise and staying in a smaller form, he was still as tall as the biggest warhorses.
They moved on for a little bit when voices drew near.
"How was the guard shift?" Asked a man... a man with a strangely familiar voice.
"Strangely exciting. I actually used to guard the Chamber a lot in the past, but an infinite chaotic wasteland has a lot more to look at. It's much easier to stay vigilant when things happen." Replied a woman.
Dehaka pressed himself behind a pillar and stood absolutely still. The low lighting and his dark hide made him nearly unnoticeable. Brightwing and the others stayed as still as they could, invisibility spells bending light around them.
They actually recognised the man. Hanzo was far from home, but then again Lucio had mentioned he was a traveller with a mission. The woman... well, probably not human judging by the fact she had grey skin, horns and... Dehaka could have sworn he smelled the very faintest hint of decay under whatever flower oil she'd used to mask herself.
He considered that if he was going to infiltrate anywhere human again, rubbing himself down with those oils would probably help him stay undetected if anyone was trying to use scent to detect intruders.
So when the humanoids went past and they made their way through the tower, they eventually had a few more people to pass by. The methods were interesting, and he dared say Brightwing was deeply enjoying herself as she made little illusions to draw off guards, or whispered subtle suggestions laced with magic that produced unusual desires in the weaker-willed ones.
He might not have drawn amusement from her creativity, but he was filled with a warm satisfaction as she showed again and again just how great she was. He'd never have thought to misdirect them quite as artfully as she did, he'd have thrown a rock at best. And her spells- so adaptable!
But what made him feel a sensation of bursting pride and a kind of foreign happiness was seeing the chimeras do the same. It was strange- he'd made hundreds of offspring that were weak copies of himself and never cared a bit. But with someone he loved, and offspring that had minds as strong as his...
And better yet, when one particular human was quite stubbornly (well, lazily) not moving an inch from their path, they proved they'd inherited his strength and cunning too. Dag found a good place to hide them behind a statue, Leif did a quick check for watchers and shut the door, and Byleistr cast a sleeping spell before arranging the dozing human to a more natural, non-conspicuous resting position.
Nobody would look twice at a man taking a nap.
They got up to what was very nearly the top floor- further above, Dehaka couldn't sense anything significant with his very limited magic and neither did he detect the small tremors of footsteps, or the sounds of talking or scents of creatures- not above. but there was something lingering in this room that was... Well, it was similar to Brightwing, in a way. Like her, mixed with a touch of smoke, some slightly different herbs to her (incense?), and a fair amount of something like a human, but... there was the slightest, undeniable hint of a reptile.
He looked around warily, hoping the invisibility was concealing him. There was nowhere to hide where the stairs emerged here, merely a chamber with one ominous door and some smaller stairs going up.
And on the other side of the door... he felt chaos. Negative energy spewing forth into the world. A quick glance at his pack, and he was sure they felt this evil even more strongly than him. So many instincts for flight over fight were firing here he was a moment away from calling the retreat- for the safety of all he cared about.
"Don't be afraid." Said someone.
He froze, very much afraid, glancing all around, tail curled to attack rather than subdue. There was nobody here-
The disembodied voice spoke again. "I mean you no harm. I sense no malice from your hearts, and you were both thankfully merciful in your efforts to sneak into a dragon's domain."
Dehaka turned quickly, ready to fight. He couldn't see anything, but he'd learned enough to be aware of invisibility by now. His mind instantly rolled through his options to reveal them and he knew that a lunge followed by Dark Swarm would clear the area of anything he didn't very consciously try not to shred in the whirl of biological force. He was doing just that when Brightwing reacted...
"Oh, hello again friend!"
Dehaka came to a screeching halt, claws gouging a few little grooves in the floor. He looked back just a little. "...You, know them?"
Brightwing flew forwards and neatly perched on Dehaka's head, dropping the invisibility spells that covered both of them. Dehaka wouldn't really have used naked to describe himself, since he always was, but he certainly felt like he was suddenly naked and being watched. "Alexstrasza, dragonqueen, hello!" She said brightly, before lying down and speaking to Dehaka a bit more closely. "Person watching is Alexstrasza, a good person. She is the aspect of life, important! And very nice."
An 'elven' woman became visible in front of the two, with striking features- red hair, four large horns, golden eyes... And she had a concealed aura of both magic and something like magic, but a little different, more... virile... He wasn't quite sure what she was, but he was sure that if Brightwing hadn't been here to handle introductions then their first interaction would have been one with him either attacking her or acting completely submissive until he had some idea what he was dealing with.
"..." Dehaka paused. "..." He decided to withold any actions until Brightwing spoke more. If she dropped her defences then he'd at least respect the gesture of trust... Just not enough to drop his guard.
Alexstrasza folded her hands. "I'm glad to see that you are alive, little Brightwing. No matter your changes, you fall under my protection... though please understand that I have also agreed to prevent entry to the room behind you- what is inside is too dangerous to leave unchecked."
Dehaka glanced back, and saw those foreboding wooden doors. Whatever it was he'd been sent here to stop was behind them. "Brightwing... you may, speak of our mission. I will, face Stukov, if we are, wrong."
Brightwing started talking. "We were sent here to stop the thing destroying the world... you are trying to stop it too, yes yes?"
Alexstrasza gave a tiny nod. "A large number of factions have united with that very goal in mind. In truth it has provided a strange oasis of peace in a place so chaotic as the Nexus... I presume that you were sent here by a greater authority?"
"Yes... Brightwing joined Dehaka's pack, after I died and got saved. Didn't like it at first because of person who killed me being in charge, but Dehaka very nice and not totally on her side, so I like being with him. Um... other person in group sent us. Okay person. Tiny bit scary."
Alexstrasza gave a knowing smile, and reached out, stroking Brightwing with a care and ease that was so.. natural. "You've clearly gone through a lot, haven't you? I'm happy to know that things have worked out- and you even had children! If one like you, a faerie bound to nobody unless by choice, have decided to trust the one before me, then we should be able to reach some understanding- there needn't be blood shed to keep that door shut until we're prepared." She took a step back. "Dehaka, then. I am Alexstrasza, the Queen of the Red Dragonflight. Let us talk."
"I am, Dehaka." He said uncertainly. "...One-who-collects."
"Why are you here?"
"We seek to stop, the distortion. It is a hungering maw, trying to devour the world. Cannot, let it exist. For our, own sake."
Alexstrasza nodded. "A reasonable goal, and I suppose that since those you are linked to do not know of the true nature of the Dark Nexus, then assuming it is something that can be destroyed is natural. Suffice to say, me and all my children together would not last a full day if we tried to simply break down that threat with claws and teeth. It will take a massive, unified force... Which we are trying to build here."
And then it clicked for him. The feelings he got from her, the way she held herself, dressed, the powers she used... She was, effectively, another pack leader- at least, the title fit her far more closely than most. An odd echo of his past planet, both comforting in familiarity and terrifying as a power to contest with. But at the very least, a power that could be bargained with, however closely he'd have to watch his back.
"..." Dehaka paused. "...Cannot, speak for, Stukov. Can take, message."
"He has phone!" Brightwing added. "Weird human thing, but takes messages!"
"Please let him know that we are trying to form the largest organised force possible to destroy the threat we have contained here, and that if he wishes to help us in that goal then we will co-operate fully." Alexstrasza said in the calmest of tones- perhaps too calm, Dehaka couldn't quell his suspicions at just how... nonthreatening she was being, considering he'd snuck in. "If he wishes to meet with me or send a representative, then he can just approach and say that he wants to join the cause. We don't turn away without very good reason."
"...I, understand. But... the, door?" Dehaka looked at it, and suddenly most of him agreed the door and whatever was beyond it could stay locked up for now. It definitely didn't feel like something worth charging into recklessly. "No. We, go. Brightwing, you go now..." He walked up to a window and silently unlatched it, looking for Stukov's signal at an escape route. There, on the ground below- he could see a patch of suspiciously churned earth. Likely a partially pre-excavated escape tunnel, and also it would be a world of difference jumping down onto that rather than hard-packed soil. Even if he misjudged and did fall a long way down and twist a leg, it wasn't far enough to break his bones and he'd be out of sight quickly enough.
"Be safe, friend! Wait for you back with pack." Brightwing called. She channelled magic of some sort for a few seconds, and then vanished in a flash, the chimeras following suit.
Dehaka waited just long enough to confirm they were gone, carefully climbed through the small-ish window so as not to break it and leave a trace, and then jumped.
He hit the floor hard but not hard enough to stun himself for more than an instant, and then he was gone.