Chapter 96: Departure

'Kay. Baroness Tak wishes to speak with you.' Kragnon said through the hivemind, reaching out to Kay.

'What? Why? Shouldn't she be preparing to leave with her people?' Kay asked.

'Apparently, she wants to visit her old home one last time. She says that she left something of hers there and wants to retrieve it, and that it's very important to her.'

'Ugh. This is a misuse of our time.'

'She has requested Zagion to let her be the last person to abscond this timeline in the hope that it'll give her enough time to retrieve what she needs.'

'So she pulled some strings with the seneschal of the Era Agency to get this to happen, huh? She does realize that we are focused on emptying the underground hive cluster network and figuring out a strategy to find and finish off Gollog?'

'It's your call, Kay. I can tell Tak you were too busy to humor her final request.'

'Hmm... ... ... ... ... Well, since this is her final request, I suppose I can make some time.'

'Thank you, Overcommander.'

'Not so fast. I have to inform the other commanders what is happening. Virid, Corvurn, Othafurn, Thyzir, Alexandriana. I'll be escorting Baroness Tak on a little side mission. We'll be going to her palace in the center of Citadel Gargantua. It won't be too long, since this is a final request from her. Will you guys manage without me?'

Virid answered first. 'The underground hive cluster network is still being cleansed and restored. I and the other broodmothers can focus on this without your help.'

Corvurn answered next. 'Indifferent to Kay's side mission, despite inefficient allocation of resources. Would recommend focusing on strategy to destroy Gollog and remaining Golden Star threats.'

Othafurn chimed in. 'Be sure to bring feederlings with you, Kay. There is a high possibility the buildings in the citadel has flooded with radioactive floodwater.'

Thyzir hummed to Kay. 'Better yet, see if you can find any survivors still alive up there. I'm sure Tak would be quite happy if you helped find any lingering refugees and bring them to her. Buuut just to be safe, I advise that you bring some underlings to deal with any dangers you might meet. Perhaps a cadre of zerglings, roaches, and hydralisks? I believe that would be sufficient enough, but bringing a hunter killer or two wouldn't hurt.'

'So long as I can fight that giant robot again, or any enemy that sides with Gollog for that matter, I don't care.' Growled Alexandriana.

Kay sighed. '... Alright then. Time to meet with the baroness one last time.'

On the surface of Kiln, the land surrounding Citadel Gargantua stretched on into a dark horizon, save for the forest of pillars that was near the southern part of the abandoned city. The ground surrounding the city, once a barren sprawl of desert and stone pillars, was taken over by the ever-growing carpet of zerg organic growth. The creep tumors were sparse in this area, yet the creep still grew over everything and everywhere it could. It was thanks to Corvurn's modified creep colony bio-structure that enabled the creep to grow unmitigated across every inch of available land. With the creep proliferating, the resource tumors connected to the creep reaped a bountiful amount of collected energy in large sums, which enabled the zerg the means to produce a large enough swarm to swarm Gollog's sky rings.

A hulking chunk of burning metal sat next to this shadow-covered and abandoned city, which used to be part of Gollog's sky rings. The debris that split off from this orbiting mega structure had fallen off its enormous form during reentry, and had landed within the city. There were only a few buildings that the debris landed on that had caused significant damage to the citadel, but none of them had made any impact craters near or onto Tak's palace. Though unfortunate that baroness Tak's great city had been damaged from the Zerg Swarm's wary with Gollog's sky rings, her palace still remained intact and undamaged.

A nydus worm forced itself through the ground of the palace's courtyard, ripping through the layer of seeping creep and ruining the very expensive tile designs underneath. Once its maw opened up, it puked a small swarm of various zerg that began to scout out the surrounding area. The roaches and hydralisks guarded the nydus worm as its mouth brought up the last of its passengers. The first to come out was Kay and his two hunter killer bodyguards. Next was Baroness Tak, which got around slowly on a new walking cane that assisted her. Kragnon then followed after Tak, which stood a respectable distance away from her. And finally, once Kragnon had stepped out of the nydus worm's mouth, a writhing mass of many feederlings slithered out and trilled in unison.

Baroness Tak sighed. "I never would have thought I would use these monsters twice in a single lifetime."

Kay turned around and nodded at Tak. "It does take some getting used to. Are you sure you want to do this? Even in your... condition?" Kay asked as he gestured to Tak.

Tak shook her head and moved ahead as she took out a flashlight. "I have strength for this."

Kay motioned for Tak to stop. "Still, I don't want to waste too much of everyone's time here. If you want, I can let you ride on one of the zerglings."

"Ah... No thank you. I think I am not strong enough to ride one of those." Tak said, politely dismissing Kay's proposal.

Kay nodded and looked down. "Hmm... Well, the next best thing I can offer you is a ride inside of an overlord. They're slow, but they provide a nice view of the land."

Tak tilted her head. "... As fun as that sounds, I don't think I can see the land very well this late at night."

"Wuh? Late? It's midday." Kay said in a confused tone. Suddenly, Kay then realized what Tak had meant. "Oh! Oh, I completely forgot that you don't have night vision!"

"What?!" Tak said incredulously. "What makes you think it's midday? I don't see the sun. Do you?"

Kay nodded. "I do. From the eyes of my swarm. You just think it's the night because my zerg swarm is blotting out the sun."

Tak tilted her head again and looked up at the sky. "... Really?"

"Yeah. Allow me to get the lights." Kay turned away from Tak and began reaching his hands towards the sky. After slowly gesturing for the space above him to part, a rustle of many distant wings and screeches of innumerable sources answered Kay. After what felt like a minute, the sky began to become brightened as billowing clouds of green, brown, and purple parted. Rays of sun emerged from the sky and struck the ground in muted explosions of light and brightness. Baroness Tak had to shield her eyes a few seconds before they could adjust to the daylight that she hadn't seen up till now.

Once her eyes adjusted, her breathed formed a surprised sigh. "Wow..."

Kay turned around and smiled at Tak. "Wow? Is that surprise I hear?"

Tak paused for a couple seconds before making a small hiss. "Oh go stroke your own ego in private. Let's go already." She then proceeded forward with labored determination.

Kragnon huffed and shook his head when Tak was out of earshot. "I seem to keep forgetting how determined she can be sometimes."

Kay rolled his eyes. "You're the one who fucked her. You should know her better than I do?"

Kragnon answered with a firm hit on Kay's shoulder. "Hey! Even if you are the overcommander of the zerg swarm, that doesn't give you a pass on speaking of her in that way."

Kay rubbed his shoulder and huffed. "Alright, I get it. I'm sorry. Still, the point I am making here is that you knew her for the better part of twenty years."

Kragnon looked down and sighed. "Well... You're right about that." Kragnon then began to follow after Tak. "I guess the world I see with my infested eyes made me forget much of my memories of her."

Kay followed after Kragnon and smiled, a wistful expression in his face. "That's the beauty of memories though. If you let them, they will come back to you easily."

Kragnon looked behind himself to stare at Kay. "But what would that mean with your damaged mind? I have spoken with Virid, and she has told me of your addled brain, and how it is damaged and afflicted with amnesia. Wouldn't you find that difficult to live with?"

"Hmm... Good question." Kay thought to himself for half a minute before he found an answer that made sense to him. "Well... I guess knowing that I won't have complete memories does sadden me a little. But at the same time, I'm glad that I was able to survive all these years and got the chance to meet you."

"Even when I was a..." Kragnon looked forward to Tak before whispering to Kay. "... A clone?"

Kay shrugged. "Even if you were one, would you still consider yourself lesser than any other person?"

Kragnon blinked a few times before looking down. "... I suppose not. ... But what about me right now? As an infested gilanian?"

"Hmm... Now that question is more difficult to answer." Kay walked up to Kragnon and patted him on the shoulder. "You might think of yourself as no longer the same person you remembered before your transformation, and you'd be half-right about that. Since you're part of the swarm, your mind is pretty much entangled with our psionic hivemind. Your mind is basically feeling as though it is stretched out across several other minds, but at the same time thoughts that are not your own trickles into your own mind. To put it as simple as possible, the zerg share this hivemind with each other while the hatcheries, overlords, and broodmothers have greater control over everyone's psionic connection. You are an infested gilanian, and you have chosen to become one, which grants you certain liberties of your own mental faculties. With that in mind, let me ask you a question. Would you want to be that past version of yourself you remembered?"

Kragnon shook his head and looked down. "If there was a cure for my infestation, then I would say yes."

"That was a trick question. Nobody can be who they remember what they once were. If you decided to try and become who you were, all you'd end up doing is chasing nostalgia. I hear it can be pretty unhealthy to try and relive memories, and doing so repetitively can be a symptom of insanity. I recommend living in the now. Own up to the mistakes you've made and evolve into a better person for it. Alright. Here's a follow-up question. You still wanted to kill Gollog even before your infestation, yet would that objective change had you known of the events that lead up to this moment right now?"

"... Huh. I guess it really wouldn't."

"Right. It wouldn't. Also, the zerg developed a biological defense against any time travel attempts at rewriting a person's moment contracting the HEV infestation. To put it bluntly, you're kind of fucked trying to find a way to prevent your own infestation."

Kragnon sighed. "... Yeah."

"Oh cheer up. It could have been worse." Kay added.

"Like how?"

"I dunno. You could have turned into some kind of diminutive animal. Like some kind of small rat/bird hybrid or something."

"Can Corvurn really do that?" Kragnon asked in surprise.

"I was just making up an example." Kay chuckled.

"Ah." Kragnon added flatly.

Baroness Tak shouted behind herself at the trailing Kay and Kragnon. "If you two are done bro'ing up a storm back there, I'd much appreciate it if you would hurry up."

Kragnon ran forward. "Yes, my beloved." Kragnon called out.

Kay groaned. "And this is coming from the poisoned baroness. You certainly are full of surprises."

Despite initial expectations of the condition of Baroness Tak's palace, it was largely undamaged by Gollog's necrostorm doomsday weapon, with the exception to the dead plants that Baroness Tak's staff had once cared for. Some rooms were still flooded with the radioactive water, and many of the rugs were still quite drenched, which made Tak and her company take a couple detours through the palace. The feederlings were more than eager to lap up any of the radioactive floodwater they come across, whilst the creep began to grow and spread into the hallways and multitude of rooms in Baroness Tak's palace. Tak was agitated about abandoning her old home, but even she knew she couldn't live here in its current condition. Especially since the entire city surrounding the palace was empty of the citizens she cared for.

The doors into Baroness Tak's bedroom were pulled open. Kay walked into the room and gave it a cursory scan before calling to the zerg behind him. "... May I have a zergling volunteer to test the rugs in this room, please?" By Kay's request, a zergling trilled as it sped forward, went past Kay, and began running around on Baroness Tak's rugs. After half a minute of running around on her rugs, Kay noted that there were no changes to the zergling's feet. Satisfied with his test, he motioned behind himself. "Alright. Seems dry. Avoid any cracks in the ceiling and we should be fine."

Tak walked into the room and slowly took in the sights. "Right. It should be here."

Kragnon followed after Tak. "Wait. What were we retrieving again? You didn't tell us what it was." He asked.

"A dagger. It's under my bed." Baroness Tak said as she went toward her bed.

"Ah-ah-ah." Kay said as he stepped in front of Tak. "Let my zerglings go on it first."

Tak's expression soured. "You said this room is dry."

"I said it seems dry. It doesn't mean that it is. Besides. Look at the canopy." Kay said, pointing at the drapes above Tak's bed.

To her surprise, the canopy of her bed had collected a small amount of radioactive flood water. When a zergling got onto her bed, droplets had fallen onto the zergling. The effect was immediate as the zergling's left hind leg grayed and became necrotic. The zergling leapt off the bed and decided to gnaw on its leg, only to have the teeth in its mouth to start falling out. Kragnon grimaced from what he saw. "Ugh. Is it going to be okay?"

"Eh..." Kay looked at the zergling with uncertainty. "I could probably have a couple swarm queens take care of it. If the fluid seeped into its veins, then his symptoms might last for a few hours. However, I think it would be best to let it die on its own." Kay said as he commanded the zergling to limp away. "Even with zerg regeneration, this fluid is very nasty if it gets on you."

Tak went to the side of her bed and kneeled beside it. "Thankfully, the dagger is not in my bed, but under it." She used her walking stick to hook around something underneath her bed. When she pulled her stick back out, she also retrieved a small ornate box hidden beneath her bed. She then picked up the box and placed it on her nightstand near her bed. "Here we are."

Kay and Kragnon leaned over the box. As Tak opened it, the box revealed two objects. One of which was a sheathed stiletto dagger that was pink and red, which was designed with golden accents. There was also a smaller box that was plastic, which contained multiple spheres of various colors. Kay tilted his head. "What are those balls?"

Tak stifled a giggle as she took out the plastic box and retrieved the multi-colored spheres from within. "Bubble candy. You can eat a few of them if you want." She said, holding a few of the orbs in her hand and gesturing for Kay to take them.

Taking the confections, Kay glanced at them for a few seconds before popping one into his mouth. It was hollow, but crunchy and sweet. "Mm. Kinda empty. Almost like eating solid syrup."

"It's made from concentrated sugars from various breeds of kalumas fruits. It's a bit expensive and takes a while to make, but it's usually a type of candy often eaten during celebrations or ceremonies." Tak said, sneaking two pieces past her lips and giving a few to Kragnon. She then retrieved the stiletto dagger. "... Tell me, Kay. If you had the choice, would you let Kragnon kill Gollog?"

Kay blinked at Tak. "... Well uh... If he really wanted to be the one to do him in, I guess I could let him."

"Mm." She then turned to Kragnon. "If that is the case, then I want you to use this to kill the emperor of Golden Star."

"Tak..." Kragnon said with surprise, almost chocking on the candy he was already eating.

"It's okay. Please. Take it." Tak said, gently handing the weapon to Kragnon.

Kay looked at Tak and Kragnon before tilting his head. "... What's going on?"

Tak sighed. "There was a time where I wanted to propose to Kragnon at some point. This was my great great grandmother's knife. It's an ancient tradition of the gilanians to trade their weapons, when they decide to become romantic partners for life. However, the bastard tyrant Gollog was relentless, and I knew I could never settle down as the war continued to rage all around us. The war might be over, yet I was too late to take the chance." Tak then handed her stiletto to Kragnon. "Take this blade in your hand. If you find a way to make Gollog immortal, stab his beating heart for me. Can you do that?"

Kragnon was hesitant, but he slowly reached for Tak's stiletto and took it. A sigh escaped his throat, but he held the knife tightly in his hand. "I promise to plunge this knife into the emperor of Golden Star. For you, my beloved."

Tak smiled gently as she nodded at Kragnon. She then turned to Kay. "We are done here."

Kay nodded. "Alright. Since we're close to a balcony, we can get a ride from a nearby overlord and head straight back to the nydus worm." Kay said, walking away from Kragnon and Tak and going to the windows.

Though Kragnon followed Kay, Tak was hesitant about using an overlord for such transportation. "I don't know about this..."

"Heh, there's nothing to worry about!" Kay said encouragingly as he directed an overlord to hover near his position. "Just think of it as a hot air balloon with a mind of its own. Some words of caution though. If you have any open wounds, keep them dry. Don't lick the walls. There are no seat belts. And there is only one exit. Which happens to be the entrance."

"Uh..." Tak was having second thoughts.

The trip back to the underground flooded refugee camp caverns was more uneventful. Despite her reservations against riding inside of an overlord, it was actually much more pleasant than she expected. Unlike riding on the back of a speeding zergling, or traveling within the bowels of a nydus worm, or laying within the undulating belly of a burrowing shrylisk, the overlord swayed with the wind and hovered forward with a genteel purpose. The ventral sacks even provided a transparent window for its occupants to see out of, enabling Tak to see above her city without the need of using a flyer. Also, 'piloting' an overlord was exceedingly simple. Aside from the mental commands that Kay or Kragnon could issue to the overlord, the alternative way to pilot the overlord that Tak discovered was to poke the walls of its inner flesh. Once prodded, it'll go in the direction it's been directed to go towards. Once they came to the nydus worm, the overlord had to 'land' itself onto the ground so as to allow Baroness Tak a safe way to leave its ventral sack without hurting herself.

Once they returned to the underground refugee camp, they had discovered that many of the surviving refugee residents had already left through the various time gates the Era Agency had erected for them.

Kay sighed as he watched everyone leaving for a brighter future. "Well... I guess this is where we part ways, Tak."

Tak sighed too, as she witness her people leaving through the Era Agency's time gates. "To be honest, I will miss living in Gargantua Citadel."

Kragnon huffed. "It's going to be so empty without you here."

Tak turned and smiled at Kragnon as she gently caressed his face. "So long as you keep a memory of me close to your heart, then it will be okay."

"Mm." Kragnon nodded as a small smile betrayed his sorrow. However, his attention was grabbed by something closing in on them. "It appears as though we will have visitors soon."

Kay, Tak and Kragnon was approached by two figures. Kay recognized them, and waved over to them. "Oh hey! Uh... You guys? ... Oh wait, I remember now. Bayz and... um... You?"

The bubble-suited gilanian stifled a laugh while the other gilanian stared in contempt at Kay. He walked forward, brandishing a makeshift spear. "'You?' How can you remember Bayz's name but not my name?"

Kay nodded and realized. "Ohhhhhh, I remember you now. Catlak. Took me a minute to remember you."

Catlak huffed. "Well don't jog your memory all at once, or we'd be here all day."

Bayz walked up to Catlak and nudged his arm. "Catlak! Don't be disrespectful!"

Catlak shook his head and sighed with a smile. "I think we should focus on saying our goodbyes to Kay first. Don't you think so?"

Kay smiled. "So you guys came here just to say goodbye to me? That's so thoughtful."

"Well yeah." Catlak groused. "You sprung me and my boys from the prison place. If it wasn't for you breaking us out, then we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

Bayz tilted her head at Catlak. "But wasn't it your idea for us to come and say goodbye to Kay?"

Catlak turned to stare at Bayz for a few seconds before grumbling and turning away. Both Bayz and Kay began to laugh at him.

Bayz then kneeled before Kay and bowed her head. "In any case, we thank you for giving us a chance at a second life."

Kay nodded. But then he also noticed something different about the two. "... Wait a minute. Wasn't there a third person with you at some point?"

Bayz and Catlak looked at each other for several seconds before a sigh left their lungs. Bayz shook her head. "She was one of the victims of the plague. Catlak told me that he was with Paug when it happened."

Kay blinked his eyes. He then gestured to Catlak. "Uh... Paug didn't say anything to you during the time she got sick, did she?"

Catlak turned to Kay and shook his head. "Nah. All she said is that she was hearing voices in her head and was confused by what they said. After that though..." Catlak turned away and sighed. "... It got very nasty."

A long, pregnant pause halted the conversation for half of a minute.

Kragnon emitted a low growl. "We lost too many friends too quickly because of him."

Tak clutched her walking stick tightly. "I agree. That bastard has forced us to make too many sacrifices just to maintain a semblance of peace. He needs to die."

Kay turned around and nodded at Kragnon. "You will have your justice, Kragnon. Once every surviving gilanian refugee leaves with the era agents, we'll go after the remains of Golden Star. That, I promise."

Catlak's expression stiffened. "So you're saying that Gollog not only caused that apocalypse thing, but was also the one that caused the plague?"

Kay turned to Catlak and answered with a nod.

Catlak growled. "So he's responsible for Goqqa's death then..."

Bayz sighed sadly, but shook her head and turned to Kay. "Not often does a person promise to kill an immortal and have the means to do it. However, since this is you that is making this promise, I have confidence that you will pull it off. But now it's time we leave for a better future."

Kay nodded and waved at Bayz and Catlak. "Take care of yourselves." Kay then pointed at Tak. "And take this freeloader with you."

Tak scoffed at Kay. "Oh you certainly have a lot of nerve!"

Kay turned to Tak and raised his eyebrow at her. "Are you saying you want to stay here?"

Tak paused for a few seconds before shaking her head and sighing. "Against my better judgement, no." She then walked over to Bayz and Catlak. A derisive snort came from Catlak as a disgruntled baroness joined him and Bayz. Before they began to leave, she turned around and looked at Kragnon one last time before facing Catlak and Bayz. "Let's go."

And with that, Bayz, Catlak, and Baroness Tak left for the Era Agency's time gates. Kay could feel a longing pain develop within Kragnon. Though his heart heaved, he knew that he couldn't come with Tak and continue to stay with her and their children. After all, the agreement that Kay had brokered with Zagion entailed that Baroness Tak and her people would be delivered to a timeline that would be safe for them. Sadly, that kindness didn't extend to anyone that was infested by the HEV. Kragnon clutched onto the stiletto that was gifted to him harder.

Kay patted Kragnon's back. "Come on. It's time we finish this."

A/N: Yinglets are taking too much of my time. :V