Chapter 64: Their Fault

Kay told of the tales of the past as best as he could. He did so by starting from the very day a marshal of law, who was once a veteran soldier of several battles and wars from years ago, became a terran commander to a band of wronged warriors, eventually to be known as Raynor's Raiders. They fought to protect the lives of many colonists that were the victims of a war between themselves and several other factions, some completely alien in nature. Though the marshal was betrayed during one of his earlier campaigns, he fought bravely and lead honorably, inspiring and boosting the morale of anyone that joined his cause. The man responsible for the betrayal was Arcturus Mengsk, the leader of the Sons of Korhal. After overthrowing the Terran Confederacy during the great war, he built the Dominion as the new terran government in the Koprulu sector, and became its sovereign ruler. After acquiring his kingly position, Raynor's Raiders later disbanded from Arcturus' Dominion. Several other terran factions waged war with one another during this terrible conflict, including a splinter faction of natural born earthlings that came from planet Earth.

Kay then told the story of an ancient being that was immense in size and filled with a vast pool of intelligence. A creature that had a commanding presence so vast that it used its influence to direct the ever evolving, DNA assimilating, disease spreading monsters known only as the zerg swarm. The master of the zerg was known as the Overmind, and it was said that it was an ancient being that sought perfection for its swarm, even using intermediate commanders, known as cerebrates, to further its agenda and come closer to its goals. Many terrans were killed and infested by its actions, and many protoss had died by its pursuit of perfection, but that had seemed to pale in comparison when it discovered one of the multiple infested terrans contained powerful psionic powers, only to later transform her into its second-in-command. That terran would then forever be known to the zerg as their Queen of Blades, the agent of the Overmind. Even with the Overmind's death, she carried on as the next leader of the zerg swarm. The zerg contained the largest territory out of all of the factions that the terrans and protoss had combined.

Kay then told the story of an ancient and technologically powerful warrior race, which had great mental powers and telepathic unity. They claimed to be the first sentient race to be born within the universe. Despite their claim, they revered another race of ancient beings who were even older than them, as their gods. The warrior race referred to themselves as the firstborn, but the terrans came to know them as the protoss. The protoss considered themselves protectors of life, even when they rarely seldom interfere with the politics of the younger races. However, they saw how the zerg infest life, and they deemed such an action repulsive. The zerg, and the leaders that led them, quickly became natural enemies to the protoss. However, following the events that lead to their home world falling to the zerg infestation, the protoss suffered from an internal conflict that resulted in a civil war, irrevocably weakening their military and government. But such civil disputes didn't stop one protoss commander from sacrificing himself to defeat his people's most terrible enemy. With the zerg's penultimate leader dead, thanks to the sacrifice of a protoss named Tassadar, it had left the zerg with the Queen of Blades to continue ruling them, which resulted in a continued internal conflict within the zerg, known as the brood wars.

The cerebrates tried to merge with one another to become the next Overmind, while the Queen of Blades envisioned that the cerebrates would no longer be efficient as intermediate commanders to her swarm. The earthling faction, the UED Expeditionary Force, tried to enslave an Overmind in its infant stages, believing that if they could control it, they would control the entire sector. They have failed in their attempt since the zerg under the Queen of Blades, and the weakened protoss, joined together to destroy the emerging Overmind and defeat the UED Expeditionary Force.

Four years later, the Queen of Blades returned. Raynor's Raiders utilized ancient technology, developed by the protoss' gods, to break the Queen of Blades' will over her zerg swarm. After the Queen of Blades was transferred to a research facility, it was attacked by Arcturus's Dominion soldiers, and their sole goal was to eliminate the queen of the swarm once and for all. Despite their assassination attempt, she managed to escape. After finding the birthplace of the zerg, discovering an ancient secret to the protoss' gods, and defeating several of her enemies, she regained enough control of her swarm to attack the Terran Dominion's leader. In the end, she killed Arcturus, but not without the help of Raynor's Raiders since they too held a grudge against him. The protoss discovered a deeper danger that threatened the existence of their universe, and sought to bring their people back together through a unified alliance. As they did so, they also had to sacrifice much to refrain from being commanded by a dark god, known as Amon of the xel'naga, which sought to end the continual rebirth of the universe and finally end its cycle. The zerg and terrans saw Amon as an enemy to themselves, as Amon tried to combine DNA from both the zerg and the protoss to become his ultimate tools of war, which he would use to remake the cosmos in his image.

They traveled to a place called 'the void' and the three factions began to wage a climactic war against Amon and his forces, but found that their weapons couldn't harm him when he was bathed in the void's dark energies. The Queen of Blades was later chosen by a surviving zel'naga, known as Ouros, to siphon his DNA and essence into herself. She later became an ascended xel'naga organism, with powers that made her seem powerful enough to defeat the dark god.

Kay sighed as he leaned back in his chair, facing what looked like a rather surprised Qalop. "And there I was, stuck chasing after one of Amon's zerglings that were chewing up one of the SCV operators, and then this colossal enormity that looked like a cross between an asteroid, a potato, and a tentacle monster that was covered in shifting shadows, appeared over my head. It loomed over our mineral lines at one of our command centers and started ripping the ground right from underneath my feet! I tried to find shelter by hiding in the command center, but I still ended up falling through the ground and descending into an infinite expanse of space, devoid of any form of light, save for the distant luminescence of small and old stars that were far away. From what I gathered, some of Artanis' and Kerrigan's forces have also suffered a similar fate to me, and they too fell into the void. And thank goodness for that, or I would have been alone drifting and dissolving in that space! A queen that was also caught in Amon's attack saw that my body was in bad shape. Even when she was removed from the zerg swarm's hivemind, and was temporarily allied to our faction, she thought that transfusing healing fluids into my body would restore me back to health. Well, it worked, but I ended up becoming an infested terran. I was hesitant to take up the position of commander to a small brood of the zerg swarm, but at the same time, I was indebted to the queen that saved my life. Found out later that a gate opened up in front of us, and the queen that healed me took the chance to command the surviving zerg to escape through it, and eventually, break out of your facility. ... I uh... I guess that gives you a good idea on where I came from and what I had been through in those past years, before I ever came to Kiln."

Qalop, who had been listening to Kay's story for a length of time, was both impressed and in awe. "... I think that paints a pretty picture for me. Hot damn, man. Sounds like you have been through some shit."

Kay smiled, but that smile quickly faded. "I would've liked to tell you more about myself, but I had suffered some brain damage and some amnesia years ago. Can't even remember my real name if I tried to think hard about it. But even then, I have accepted to being called Kay in the meantime."

Qalop nodded. "I feel as though I should say sorry."

Kay waved dismissively at Qalop. "No no, it's not your fault." Kay paused for a few seconds. "... Kay, well, it's PARTLY your fault. But then again, you didn't know it would turn out like this, nor did I. Fate is a cruel mistress sometimes."

Qalop chuckled and sighed. "Well I am pretty glad I'm able to talk to you like this. For many years, I had always thought that the zerg were bloodthirsty monsters. You disproved that to me, Kay."

Kay furrowed his brows and groaned. "Uhh... Well... The zerg are STILL pretty bloodthirsty, actually. Without a commanding force to restrain them, they would just keep spreading their territory and assimilating whatever life they come across. A lot of them are pretty dumb, but when they don't have something to guide them around, they rely on instinct alone. So... There's that."

Qalop nodded, confusion creeping into his face. "Huh. So what about you? If you have transformed into a pawn as well, then wouldn't that mean you would be a bloodthirsty monster too?"

Kay shook his head. "Actually, I found out that when someone has contracted the Hyper-Evolutionary Virus, or zerg virus as the empire gilanians call it, the mutation happens so fast that their nervous system would become altered, effectively making them suffer from brain damage, and often resulting in insanity. However, the infestation process can be postponed or slowed down, which can result in reduced damage or no damage to the minds of the infected. Instead of hours, it could take days or weeks before their DNA completely changes. Sady, the process is said to be irreversible."

Qalop nodded. "Yes yes, you told about that story with the uh... Stukov character. You said that he had been cured before, but then relapsed and became zerg again?"

Kay shrugged. "That's what I remember. More importantly though, how the hell did the zerg, that you retrieved from that portal within the void, escaped this facility?"

Qalop sighed and rubbed at his prosthetic leg. Depression seemed to gray his expression. "Well... Twenty years ago, we did open a wormhole into a dimension where the gravitational pull of the heavenly bodies would not trigger the sensors outside of the anti-quantum veil. What we didn't know was that the creatures we found within that darkened place were still alive. Before we even made the plans to construct another wormhole-creating gateway that would be created in this new dimension, your zerg monsters began attacking. Even the funny floating things raised hell. My father thought of the idea to blow a hole in the wall to let these creatures find their own way out and save this facility from certain destruction. We even didn't know that a few of the large cocoons were actually forming into what we now know are called overlords, or drifters as the empire soldiers call them. Sadly, my leg got caught in the explosion, while my father died trying to shield me from it. The zerg organisms we pulled from that place escaped our facility, while the remaining staff had the opportunity to repair the damage and give out an anonymous report that some strange creatures escaped containment from an experimental facility. In hindsight, opening an exit for the zerg to escape from was a terrible idea on my father's part."

Kay sighed. "I see." Kay then slowly stood up from his chair. "But I am curious about something else. Were there any other things you pulled from the void?"

Qalop blinked. "Like what?"

Kay looked at Qalop for a few seconds and smiled. "Oh, you know... Technology not of this world? Cadavers of aliens from a different dimension? Information gleaned from what scant technological data could foretell?"

Qalop stared at Kay and slowly shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Kay narrowed his eyes and shook his head at Qalop. "Tch tch tch. Did you just lie to me?"

Qalop blinked a few times. "... I'm sorry, but, what did you say?"

"I said that you lied to me." Kay pointed out, pointing at Qalop. "Don't make it a habit of lying to me, please. I have told you that I have psionic abilities, and you should have already figured out by now that I have the capability to read minds. Like how a telepath can listen to your thoughts."

Qalop looked as though he sweated a little, even if reptiles were not supposed to have sweat glands anyway. "Uh... I-I-I see..."

"Now let me ask you again... What else did you pull from the void besides the zerg and myself?" Kay said slowly, his eyes trained on Qalop's.

Qalop paused for several seconds. "... I'm afraid to inform you that we closed the gateway permanently, and we did so after your beasts were freed from our facility. We were unable to collect any further samples from the void we pulled you from, once we dismantled the gateway and permanently discontinued our research after the explosion."

Kay stared intently at the scientist. "And?"

"... A-and what?"

"Aaaand that you pulled some other bits and pieces of technology from that gateway, before retrieving what you thought were zerg corpses?"

"... What? I didn't say that." Qalop said, shaking his head.

"Yes, but you decided to omit that information from me anyway. Omitting things is just a quieter way of lying to someone, in my opinion." Kay said, getting up from the chair he sat on and slowly walking toward the group of security guards that had been standing for the entirety of Kay's story. They wanted to sit down and take a break, but they didn't want to be unprepared for when Kay began to attack the staff, or destroy the facility they were working in. "I'm going to take a look around."

Qalop stared at Kay with wide eyes, and Kay could feel a hint of fear within him. "What?! Wait, where are you going?!"

"To your morgue and to your technology reverse-engineering labs." Kay said, gently pushing the security guards out of his way and walking into one of the many hallways. Some of the security guards backed away from Kay, but the others were firmly pushed away, despite their desire to fire their gilanian shotguns at their present intruder's face. They knew not to antagonize Kay, because they understood how dangerous the zerg are when they were provoked.

Qalop looked very frustrated as he chased after Kay. "Please don't! Uh, there is very sensitive equipment that we are researching here!"

"I know." Kay said, walking down a hallway on a path that he had telepathically learned from Qalop's mind. It took a long time in order to gently intrude into the gilanian's mind and learn of the hidden facility's secrets, but Kay didn't mind being patient for such a time. "And if what I find doesn't sit well with me, then I'm going to have to destroy it all."

Qalop was flustered and surprised. It was almost as though all of this facility's secrets was somehow transferred to Kay without him knowing about it, and yet he was responsible for the telepathically leaked transfer of information at the same time. "Please don't! Uh, this place has sensitive information, and if it was shared with the public at large, then there would definitely be panic!"

"Considering that I want the Golden Star Empire dead and destroyed, I have nothing to lose." Kay said, finding a door at the end of the hallway. Judging from Qalop's reaction, it must have been the door that lead to the room that Kay needed to see, since Kay could feel Qalop's panic rise even higher. It was almost as though he didn't want him to see what was behind it. The security guards followed after Kay, yet they still knew better to anger him.

Qalop, running out of options, hobbled quickly forward in front of Kay and stretched out his arms, blocking his path. "PLEASE, KAY! NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING HERE!"

Kay sighed, agitated by Qalop's persistence. "And I don't care. Move, or I'll forcefully remove you from my path."

Qalop kept still, unflinching and motionless. He seemed adamantly determined to prevent Kay from seeing what this facility was researching and developing.

Sadly, that had only piqued Kay's curiosity even more. "Listen. I'm normally against harming crippled individuals, but..." Kay reached for Qalop and slowly picked him up, gripping his torso firmly from under his arms. "Do you know how to play a game of Ten-Pin Bowling?"

"Uh... No?" Qalop replied, surprised. Deep down however, he felt as though he shouldn't have answered that question.

Kay smiled. "It's a simple game. Just find a heavy ball shaped object, in this case you, and use it to knock down a triangular formation of pins, or like the pinheads that have been following me." Kay quickly used Qalop as a projectile, sliding him across the smooth hallway floor and colliding with the security guards' leg limbs, making them fall over and yelp in surprise. Kay chuckled as he pumped a fist. "Strike!"

One of the security guards groaned in pain. "Qalop?"

"Yeah?" Qalop replied in an undignified position.

"As the head of security in this facility, and as your close friend, I advise from getting in the bug-man's way."

"Noted, Elvog."

Once Kay had dealt with his scaly obstacle, he began to forcefully push the door down and enter into the room beyond it. When he entered into the room, his eyes widened considerably. From the scant memories he had delicately gleaned from the minds of the security guards and Qalop, Kay was just then seeing the horror with his own eyes. There were bodies of several kinds of dead organisms, consisting of zerg, protoss, and humans. He recognized most of them, mainly pertaining to terrans and protoss cadavers that were preserved in several large tubes filled with bubbling liquid, which were placed at the walls and corners of the room. Various kinds of technology, both recognizable and not to Kay, laid strewn and partly disassembled on several tables. As Kay ventured further into this room, he also took note that there were several more zerg bodies than normal. Especially when he found a select few that he distinctly remembered not being part of Keriggan's brood during her campaign, namely the defilers and guardians. Kay could only assume that they were somehow gathered during his twenty year entombment. But there was one thing that was more worse than anything that he could see, and it was the intact protoss body that was idly floating in another one of the liquid tubes, located at the furthest side of the room. Worse still, he could feel that this protoss was alive. Unconscious, but still alive. Unconscious, alive, and... broken in spirit.

Kay walked up to and stared at the comatose protoss in both trepidation and anger. Distant, yet fragmented memories that he was slowly remembering, told him that they were a proud race of warriors. But they were also an angry bunch. They were the 'so much as think about insulting them and they would kill you in the name of their honor' kind of angry bunch. The protoss in question happened to be naked, and Kay could see that his musculature had somewhat degraded. The protoss also had several other features that were quite alien to look at, which consisted of gray skin, had a height that reached somewhere around two meters, had four digits to each pair of hands, had eerie eyes that seemed to glow with power, had no mouths to eat with, had no noses to smell with, and no ears to listen with. He began to remember that the protoss derived their nutrition by basking in light and absorbing water through their skin, which almost reminded him of trees. Trees that could use psionic powers to rip their foes in half, in fact. It was hard for Kay to look at the protoss without imagining leaves and branches growing into a circlet around their heads.

He could hear the hobble of a prosthetic leg and crutch come closer to him, but he completely ignored that sound. He was too engrossed at staring intently at the contained protoss in the liquid tube to acknowledge Qalop coming close behind him. There was a long, awkward pause before Qalop decided to speak. "... Did you know it?"

"..." Kay was unresponsive to Qalop's question for several seconds. After staring intently at the protoss for a length of time, Kay turned to Qalop with intensely glowing eyes. Qalop took a few steps back, almost shivering from the sudden shift in tension as he was stared down by Kay. Kay pointed at the incapacitated protoss. "Explain."

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-we found it like th-that." Qalop stuttered, since he was quite shaken when talked down to in that intimidating manner.

Kay stared with glowing eyes at Qalop, as though he was staring through his very soul to see if he was either lying or withholding any more truths. When he found none of either, despite Qalop's sudden, yet slight headache, Kay relaxed a little bit. "How long have you kept him alive?"

Qalop was silent in his answer for several seconds before his expression turned into surprise. "THAT THING IS ALIVE?! Wait... THAT THING IS A HE?!"

Kay sighed. "You better thank whatever god, or fate, or sentient space booger, decided to keep this guy from coming back to his senses." Kay returned his gaze to the motionless protoss within the liquid-filled tube. After a pause that lasted for a few seconds, Kay began to growl out his next sentences. "But then again, I'm starting to understand the bigger picture on what happened after the past twenty years. Perfectly so, in a sense. ... And with that in mind, I need to fix this problem."

"Uh... Problem? What... What do you mean?" Qalop asked.

Kay turned to Qalop, staring intently at him with narrowed eyes. "Do you have an intercom system that I can use?"

Qalop was very nervous to answer Kay. "... Y-yes?" Qalop answered, hesitantly pointing at a wall console. "Just uh... Just press the yellow button that has the mouth and sound symbols."

Kay nodded and walked up to the wall-mounted device. The scientists and researchers that were unaware of Kay's intrusion into the secret facility were suddenly made aware of his presence, via an intercom announcement that was directed to everyone. [Attention to all staff!] Said Kay through the intercom. [If you are not aware by now, your secret facility has been infiltrated by a zerg organism. You have one minute to quickly vacate this facility before it starts breaking things. Once your minute is up, it will then start breaking all of your lab equipment. After three minutes, it will start dismantling the facility from the inside-out. After four minutes, it will start killing personnel that either attempt to prevent further damage to this facility or stall the zerg organism in any way whatsoever. And after five minutes, the researcher known as Qalop is going to understand why it's never a good idea to anger the zerg swarm.]

Qalop was stunned when Kay said that. "... You'll... what?!"

"Like hell you will!" Elvog said, as he and his security guard buddies aimed their weapons at Kay. Kay didn't notice them when they entered into the room he had intruded into.

Kay grabbed for Qalop and directed his face onto the intercom console on the wall, while using Qalop as a meat shield in case the security guards started shooting at him. "Tell your buddies to leave this place quickly, or I am going to shove you into the warpath of the largest zerg organisms in my command." Kay said, twisting both of Qalop's arms. Elvog and the security officers that joined him became hesitant, since their line of fire was blocked by the scientist named Qalop, which had be forcefully promoted to being Kay's hostage.

"GHH!" After some hesitation, Qalop nodded. After Kay pressed the intercom button on the wall console, Qalop spoke into it. [This is Co-manager Qalop! Ghhn. This is not a drill! Evacuate the secret research facility immediately! All projects are to be canceled, terminated, and indefinitely postponed! Quickly proceed to the nearest MEM device and MEM shift to a safe location! Flee like we are gods-damned vaphs during a shryik infestation!]

Kay pushed Qalop away from the wall console to speak into it again. [You have been warned.]

There was some hesitation with the security guards. Elvog looked at Qalop with both doubt and surprise being expressed from his face. "... Qalop, do you really want us to leave you here alone with that monster?"

"Go, dammit. I'll be fine." Qalop said firmly, his tone heavy and serious.

After several seconds of hesitation, Elvog sighed and nodded. He then turned to his security guard buddies. "Let's get out of here." Once he began power-walking out of the corpse and technology analysis room, he was followed after by his security guards.

After Qalop was left alone with Kay, he turned his head to look behind himself. He began talking calmly to his current captor. "Kay, please be reasonable and understand. Our research on the items and bodies we pulled from the void, the place where we found you and the zerg organisms, are purely for academical purposes. Every piece of technology helps us understand how their cultures may have interacted. Even the organs that we have analyzed on the autopsy table gives us a glimpse on xenobiological functions. To erase this laboratory, and the facility that houses it, would erase years of research. Could you find it in your logic that safeguarding this information we have learned can benefit you?"

Kay growled. "Hell no. And to justify my reason of destroying this facility to you, let me tell you that the terran and protoss technology you were analyzing have already been reverse-engineered by the Golden Star Empire. The flying fortresses, for example, is using technology similar to the anti-gravity lift systems that the protoss and terrans use. The sky rings? They are using modified ATS and ATA laser batteries, mixed with protoss weapon designs, for their point-defense turrets and energy lances. Oh, and the fire breather and anti-fiend specialist units that the Golden Star Empire uses? Don't get me fucking started."

Qalop was at a loss of words. If he wanted to be honest, the idea of a mole within his very facility had never came across his mind. He had hoped that the awareness redirection machine would have the capability to shield them from any nefarious double agents, or infiltrators that would steal their research and share it with some other nefarious faction.

Kay sighed. "And before you even think it, yes, it would mean that there might have been a mole within your facility. However, that doesn't matter to me right now. What DOES matter is that this facility exists, and that the Golden Star Empire had somehow found a way to reverse-engineer your research data and applied it to their own technology. You yourself did say that brilliant minds or people that know anti-memetic mental techniques are exempt fromyour awareness redirection machine. Regardless of the evidence you could try to provide and convince me otherwise, I see now that the damage has already been done. Now then..." Kay quickly grabbed at Qalop's torso again and carried him under his left arm.

Qalop was surprised as he was carried in such a manner. He flailed his arms and legs, dropping his crutch when he attempted to break free from Kay's grasp. "WAH~!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"The first minute is up." Kay said to Qalop, whom was now a passenger he carried under his arm. As his eyes, right hand, bone wing tips and phalangal wing spikes started glowing with lethal energy, he directed his anger and focus on the offending lab experiments, reverse-engineered technology, and corpses of both enemies and allies. Kay didn't know if the research done within this facility resulted in Kay's enemies becoming stronger over the past twenty years, but he would at least prevent them from developing their technology further. "It's time to break this shit."

A/N: Sorry for taking so long. I tried saving the document, but the Fanfiction website booted me out and made me lose progress. Remember kids! Use CTRL + A and CTRL + C in case you use the Copy-N-Paste method!