Heroes Never Die

Chapter 10:  Truth Be Told

By: Dark-Elk

"Ghost reportin'."

"What's the situation?"

"Zerg have penetrated deep into sectors 7G and 7H of the north perimeter.  The east perimeter is almost completely breached.  South and west are stable for now."  The ghost's hand reached up to brush her long, ebon hair from her face, tucking it securely behind her ear.  Lights sparkled around her eyepiece as her eyes restlessly scanned the torn landscape. She shifted the gauss rifle secured to her back slightly, moving the trigger housing from where it had been seated, biting harshly into her back.

"Is the silo intact?"

"Yeah."  She coughed slightly as a gust of wind kicked a cloud of dirt into her face. "Last I heard, anyway." Her eyes shifted to the darkening indigo expanse overhead, small clouds slowly skidding across the sky.  Had it been closer to night, she was sure she would be able to see the explosions that were undoubtedly wracking the fleet in orbit.

"Get in as close to the Hive as you can and call it in.  We'll work on evac." A sharp click followed, signaling the ghost's dismissal.

"You got it," she muttered softly to no one at all.

\=-|-=/

Sien jolted forward as her eyes snapped wide open, revealing her baleful emerald eyes. Her breathing was fast, but as she woke up more fully, she started to bring it under control.  The dream…it had seemed so real.  Why did it seem so familiar to her?  She stood up slowly from her bed and stretched her limbs, taking extra care to extend her wing claws a few times to loosen up the muscles that held them aloft.

She ran a carapace-covered hand over her arms, unconsciously trying to warm up her flesh.  Since she had awoken a few days ago for the first time in many months, her body had seemed permanently chilled, a mere step above numbness.  She reached up to brush her long hair back before pausing as she remembered that she didn't have any.  Instead, long, medusa-like spines covered her head, but that didn't detract from the delicate, Asian beauty she still retained.  Her eyes were slightly drawn up at the corners, adding to her already rather exotic appearance.  Now confusion filled those eyes as she pondered how she had possibly forgotten such a simple fact.

"Cerebrate Sien."

"Yes, Jendrel?" she asked mentally.  "Do you have news?"

"Our queen is being held above the desert world of Tanaska.  There appears to be a station in orbit where the First Born are holding her." Jendrel replied.  "The First Born must take us for fools.  There isn't a single starship in orbit; nothing that could possibly serve as a defense against our might."

"She did say the Templar told her that if the base was destroyed, she would be trapped in the imprisonment field forever.  If that wasn't a bluff, it would explain the lack of a fleet," Sien said as she crossed the chamber she had been sleeping in, pausing before a small viewport that gave her a generous view of the stars surrounding the Zerg broods.

"Undoubtedly that is why she wished for you to awaken.  Your skills, along with that of your Brood, are uniquely suited to enter this base and rescue Kerrigan."

Sien nodded absently as she called out to her Brood, calling them from their duties, ordering them to return to her.  "I won't fail.  Kerrigan will be returned to us, and then the Swarm shall make these vermin pay for their insolence," she said simply.

Across the chamber, a half dozen sphincters irised open, revealing the forms of serpentine Hydralisks, doglike Zerglings, and a servant of her own design, one that would ensure her Queen's release.  She mentally nudged the small Brood towards the Overlords that were connected to the command pod that was her home, urging them to settle themselves in the fleshy confines of the Overlords and sleep.

Giving her wing claws one last wide stretch, she turned away from the viewport and followed behind her brood, eager to find Kerrigan and decimate her captors.

\=-|-=/

The unconscious Queen of Blades stirred listlessly, struggling to open her eyes.  As soon as they finally popped open, she quickly shut them again, blocking out the harsh white light.  Her brief glance had afforded her a view of the damned Dark Templar.  He had mentioned his name in passing, but Kerrigan didn't care anymore.

A wrapped foot connected with her side, exacerbating what Kerrigan thought were broken ribs.  That was a bad sign; her Zerg nature should have already healed such minor wounds.  A nova of pain exploded in her mind as the Templar kicked her twice more.  "Answer me, foul Queen!"

She opened her eyes again and hissed softly at the pain.  It had been years since she had last felt prolonged pain such as this.  "Protoss scum. . ." she managed.

"Impressive.  I had my doubts as to whether or not you would survive the procedures," said the dark one.

"Procedures?" asked Kerrigan slowly.  Talking was difficult; it felt as though her vocal cords had been ground to dust and reconstructed.

"Indeed, foul Queen.  Since your capture, we have learned much about you," said the Templar with a short laugh as his eyes dulled to a rich blue.

"You'll pay for this," Kerrigan threatened, her courage returning to her.  "Your entire race will be decimated for this offense. . ." She stopped as a wave of pain washed across her body.  She screamed at the agony that threatened to drown her, the piercing tone not affecting the Templar in the slightest.  Rather, his eyes seemed to convey delight.

"I no longer think that within your power, Kerrigan.  Without your influence and guidance, the Swarm shall fall into disarray, to be terminated by the First Born and the Terrans."

"You can't hold me," Kerrigan said, panting heavily.  "And when I get free of here, I'll break you, dark one.  I'll break you and infest you.  I'll let you live for a thousand eternities, damned to serve me, tortured by the knowledge of the atrocities I'll make you commit.  It wouldn't be near enough repayment for this, but it's more fitting than death.  You don't deserve death.  You will beg me for death before I'm through with you"

"Fortunately such actions are no longer within your means, Kerrigan.  I did not exaggerate the powers of your prison.  If your Zerg try to free you, the mindless brutes will trap you in your cell forever," the Dark Templar said, his good humor continuing to grow.  "I should leave you now, though.  The scientists are interested in testing you further, and I see no reason to delay them."  He turned and began walking towards the door, but paused when he heard Kerrigan again.

"Wait, damn you!  What the hell do you want from me?"  she yelled furiously.

He turned and met Kerrigan's fiery, immolating gaze with the cool, ancient blaze of his own.  "What better pursuit than the pursuit of knowledge, foul Queen?"

Kerrigan glared after him as he walked through the door and turned away into the darkened corridor.  She struggled to raise herself to a seated position, her eyes closed in pain as what she was now sure were broken ribs shifted against each other.  Why wasn't her Zerg nature healing the wounds?

She stopped and paused as she heard a distant sound, a scratching noise.  It sounded similar to that of a Zergling walking on rocky terrain. . .the sound of claws scratching over a smooth surface.  The adrenaline rush this noise created in Kerrigan helped her ignore her pain as she slowly stood up and leaned back against the frigid metallic wall behind her, enjoying the cool feel of it against her damaged skin.

Kerrigan's eyes snapped open as she heard the scratching intensify, as though something were drawing nearer.  She experimentally flexed her wing talons, intent upon striking out at this intrusion, exacting retribution for her innumerable wounds.  A wave of severe pain and nausea washed over her as she did, and she strained to bite back a scream.  She slid back down to the floor along the wall, landing heavily on the ground.  Her ribs protested the harsh impact, but their torment was lost amongst the sea of pain Kerrigan was drowning in.

The scratching finally stopped, and Kerrigan struggled to raise her head, casting her gaze to the doorway.  A black orb occupied it, suspended by a half-dozen articulated legs, looking almost like a miniature Dragoon.  A number of limbs raised from the top half of the sphere, all ending in various sharp medical tools, needles, and even what looked to be a small mallet.  Kerrigan began to edge away from the machine as she tried to hurriedly calm her mind and work up the energy to create a psionic storm.

Finally she felt the familiar surge of power, drawing from a well of strength deep within the recesses of her mind.  She flung a hand out towards the orb, nearly grinning as psionic energies crackled down her arm, arcing gracefully downwards.  The energy struck a number of the upper limbs, suffusing across the walking orb and engulfing it in a wash of pure sapphire flame.  Kerrigan roared gutturally in triumph, ignoring the pain of her vocal cords and ribs as she jolted onto her feet.

The blue fire slowly evaporated as Kerrigan watched.  Her expression fell from triumph to incredulity in the span of a few heartbeats as the walking orb was revealed again to her, seemingly undamaged.  A shrill, warbling shriek filled the room, making Kerrigan cover her ears as she winced.  A throbbing, pulsating thud seemed to begin in her mind, steadily drowning out her thoughts as it grew to a roaring crescendo.  Her eyes slowly closed, leaving her in an echoing darkness.

\=-|-=/

A thin spear of crimson light sliced through the darkness that had fallen, projecting faintly onto what the ghost had discovered to be a Zerg Hive.  She remained in a prone position, holding the rifle steady, taking great care not to jostle the delicate aiming process.  The longer it took to paint the target, the longer she'd be out here and the easier it'd be for her to be discovered.  Her eyes roamed incessantly back and forth, alertly scanning for Zerg movements.

Her eyes caught sight of a distant mass in the sky.  She spared one hand to adjust the settings of her eyepiece, more closely attuning her vision to the great distance.  Her eyes confirmed what she had suspected: a flight of Mutalisks on patrol.  She swore silently and returned the eyepiece to the default setting, praying quickly and broadly to whatever gods there were to speed up the painting process.

Beep.

The ghost stood quickly, switching off the laser sight and swinging the canister rifle onto her back in a smooth, practiced gesture.  Things were going to get hot around here, and she didn't want to be anywhere nearby.

\=-|-=/

For the second time in as many days, Sien awoke with her mind filled with half-forgotten dream fragments and a vague sense of unease.  It took her only moments this time to remember where and who she was.

My queen, Sien thought as she stood up and reached out with her consciousness, letting it drift out from the command pod and into the great void that stood between the planets and stars, defining their boundaries by its very non-existence.  The energies of entropy swirled gracefully around her, threatening to subsume her mind in their powerful tides.  She focused her mind, drawing a minute portion of the vast energies within her, replenishing her body and her mind. 

Refreshed, she cast her thoughts out again in front of the course the Zerg pod was streaking along, moving inexorably closer to the imprisoned Queen of Blades.  A faint, flickering consciousness she quickly discovered, one she assumed to be that of Kerrigan.  A frown turned Sien's mouth as she examined the power.  Something wasn't right; it seemed far too weak to be her queen's.  Worry creased her brow as she mentally circled the individual, her appraising glare confirming that it was indeed Kerrigan's power.  What are the…

Sien jolted backwards, her mind withdrawn into her body again, and she struggled to catch her breath.  That power…it couldn't possibly be real…

Tentatively, Sien reached out again towards Kerrigan, drawing power into her mental excursion as she went forward.  Kerrigan's mind appeared to her again, still a flickering shaft of light in the midst of a vast dark void, but there was no sign of the power she had sensed only seconds before.  How was that possible?

Suddenly, Kerrigan shrieked mentally, the effect like a harsh, biting slap to Sien's face.  What could the First Born possibly be doing to her that would affect her so?  Sien started forward again, intending to touch the mind of her leader, to comfort her if possible.

STAY AWAY!

It was Sien's turn to shriek as she pulled completely back, her psyche reeling wildly.  Kerrigan's power was completely extinguished amidst the flare of energy she had just felt…there was no one in the universe as powerful as she…was there?

Sien shook her head, vainly trying to clear her thoughts enough to probe for Kerrigan's essence one last time.

\=-|-=/

"Ignorant Zerg beast!" a voice roared nearby Kerrigan, echoing through the chamber sonorously.

Kerrigan opened her eyes slowly again, bearing in mind what had happened the last time she had done so, and braced herself for the stabbing, painful white light that this Dark Templar seemed too fond of.  To her surprise, her open eyes afforded her no better view than when closed; apparently she was now in a chamber the antithesis of her last.  Darkness pressed in on her, thick and smothering, so unlike any other darkened room she had ever been in.  She was standing, but surely not by her own power or will; she had never felt so physically drained as she did now, and even sitting up from the floor would likely have been too much effort for her.  The dark one had probably put her in a more common stasis field, rather than the highly advanced one she had formerly been imprisoned in.

A fist hurtled silently through the darkness, crashing fully into Kerrigan's cheek.  Her head snapped around slightly, her lips contorting into a vicious snarl.  Had the Templar broken more bones?  Her ribs seemed to be healed finally, but her sluggish healing was more than just worrying her.

"Now what?" Kerrigan asked, pumping as much vitriol and hatred into her voice as she could, fueled by her rage at her entrapment and the continuous torture the First Born seemed to happily mete out.

"You know," was the simple growled reply.

Kerrigan blinked a few times as she pondered his words before she seized upon another facet of her current situation.  "I can hear you!  How is that possible?"

The Dark Templar ignored this question, instead replying in the form of a powerful kick to her exposed abdomen, knocking the breath out of her lungs.  If the Overmind hadn't taken her tear ducts when he took her humanity, that blow would surely have brought tears to her eyes.  "You called the Zerg here somehow."

Kerrigan gasped for air for a few moments, wanting to laugh triumphantly, but instead settling for a vague, slight smirk.  "My Cerebrates are very loyal.  I had no doubt they would enact some sort of recovery effort."

"It's too soon!" the Dark Templar shot back.  Across the chamber, something clattered to the floor, leading Kerrigan to believe that the Protoss had flung something across the room out of anger.  "Far too soon!"

"Starting to get afraid, are you?" Kerrigan mocked.  "You Protoss are supposed to be intelligent, but instead you capture the leader of the most powerful race in the galaxy and hope to hold her without some form of retaliation!  Even Edmund Duke, a man who makes my Zerglings look like veritable geniuses, would know better!"

"You are blinded by your ignorance, by your purported importance."  The dark one chuckled softly, the quiet laughter seeming to reverberate in Kerrigan's mind.  "Through all your time imprisoned here, you've yet to come to terms with even the most simple, fundamental, and obvious truths."

"I know you will beg for a simple death at my hands, First Born!" Kerrigan retorted.

"There are but mere minutes before your Zerg forces arrive."

"Excellent.  I sincerely hope one of my Queens is amongst their forces; infesting you and the rest of your brethren in this miserable base will be a great pleasure for me," Kerrigan said with a feral grin on her face.

"There are none others; not in this station, nor in this sector," the Templar gravely responded.

"All the better, then!" Kerrigan said with a laugh.  "You won't offer much resistance."

"I will offer none, Kerrigan.  I don't intend to be here when your Brood arrives."

Kerrigan's brow creased slightly in confusion.  "So you're just going to let my children recover me without any struggle?"

The Templar stepped forward into Kerrigan's field of view, nodding slowly as he moved.  "I have already served my purposes."

"To imprison me for a short period of time?  What possible gain could the Protoss have from this?" Kerrigan asked incredulously.

"Your ignorance is astounding for one who has scrambled to the position of the most powerful person in your galaxy," answered the Templar.  "Listen, and much will be made clear to you."

\=-|-=/

The steadily increasing hum emitting from the ghost's eyepiece, a plain, simple noise, was now the harbinger of annihilation for the Zerg Hive.  The ghost couldn't help but smile slightly as the countdown on her visor ticked down, and she half-wished she could watch the bastards fry when the bomb dropped.

Her feet glided effortlessly across the terrain as she ran, dodging around the twisted skeletons of fallen Goliaths, the massive, burned-out hulks of Siege Tanks.  Some of the tanks were tilted nearly completely over, their powerful treads useless to flip the vehicles over.  Bodies of fallen soldiers were everywhere.  The ghost was traveling through a plain of the dead, a long stretch of no mans land.

Scattered around liberally were the bodies of the Zerg.  Zerglings lay in massive heaps; ramparts of the dead.  A massive tusk blade of an Ultralisk was protruding from one of the Siege Tanks, its bearer lying nearby.

Death was everywhere, and in this, she was Death's chosen agent.  The Zerg would die.

\=-|-=/

"I am not what I seem.  Many things," the dark one amended, "are not what they seem."

Kerrigan tried to motion impatiently with her wing claws, only to find they were still bound by the stasis field.  Her triumphant smile had returned, and even this barrier didn't detract from it.

The Templar spread his arms out widely, his cloak billowing outwards.  "I look like a Dark Templar, do I not?  One of the devoted disciples of the void energies that fill the vast spaces between the stars, like Zeratul, or the Matriarch, or any of their number," the Templar said.  He paused for a moment. "A lie."

Kerrigan's eyes widened slightly.  "What do you mean?"

"I am what you would call a Xel'Naga."

"Impossible," Kerrigan said with a derisive snort. "The Xel'Naga were annihilated by the Overmind eons ago, before the Swarm even left Zerus."

"Your knowledge is filled with half-truths," the Templar said.  "To properly explain all that has happened and the current situation, and even events yet to transpire, my tale must begin before the rebirth of the Protoss as the First Born."  The dark one seated himself before Kerrigan, crossing his legs intricately, and then began to speak:

Xel'Naga is what we have been called, and what most of us called ourselves.  Bringers of Life, Great Creators, and many more definitions the name has held, for the word exists in nearly every tongue spoken in this sector of the galaxy.

Thousands, or perhaps even millions of years before we began the shaping of Aiur, a rift formed amongst my people.  Most of us were content with our mission as it had been for ages innumerable; to create and spread sentient life to all reaches of the galaxy, to unite it in a glorious harmony of peace.  Some eventually tired of our benevolent ways, wanting instead to rule over the life we created with an iron fist, demanding tribute and worship.  The rift grew wider and wider over the eons, until finally the warmongers were cast out from the Xel'Naga.

The outcasts named themselves the Xel'Dor.  None of the sentient tongues has ever had a definition for the word, but amongst the Xel'Naga, they were later referred to as the Bringers of Death, for that could be the only result of their warlike nature.

Surprisingly, the Xel'Dor disappeared almost as soon as they were exiled.  Though that should have worried my people, Aiur was located shortly after their disappearance, and became our great work.

The Protoss, or their predecessors, held vast potential.  The race had evolved without mouths or ears, communicating psionically between themselves, and took their nourishment directly from psi energies.  My people had only found a scant few races able to innately control psi energies, and none to the extent the Protoss could.

The protocols of shaping were initiated upon the nascent Protoss, slowly evolving them from pre-sentient life to full sentience.  The Protoss emerged a race pure in form, able to control psi energies second only to my own people.  We revealed ourselves to the Protoss and began to insinuate ourselves in their lives.  For a time, we were both at peace.

Then something began to change.  Some of the Protoss leaders began demanding access to technologies and abilities, but they should never have known we held them.  We tried to placate the First Born, but we failed.  A large fraction of the First Born attacked my people, charging at our great starships with weapons made of primitive metals.

We were forced to defend ourselves.  Hundreds of First Born fell to our weaponry, and we quickly gathered our people from the various provinces and returned to orbit.  As our starships rotated around Aiur, we watched with great sadness as war continued to spread across the face of the verdant planet, raging from horizon to horizon.  What had caused this madness?

The Xel'Dor.  It was the obvious answer.  They presumably still looked like we did, and the Protoss wouldn't have known the difference between our two races.  Aiur was lost to us now, as were our children.  Our hearts were filled with despair as we left orbit, left the Protoss to squabble amongst themselves.  There was nothing we could do to save them.

We traveled for a long time, jumping between the stars, searching for another planet that held the potential Aiur had possessed.  Eventually, we found Zerus.

It was a foreboding world, bearing no similarity whatsoever to the lush forests that carpeted Aiur from sea to sea;  a charred, dirty world where little life had made the effort to survive on.  The dominant life form, surprisingly enough, was a parasite.  Never before had we come across a planet with a life form as unique as the Zerg, or at least your predecessor.

The Templar paused for a moment, seeming to rearrange his thoughts.  "I believe I can move forward through the evolution of your species; much was made clear to your Overmind, I presume."

Kerrigan nodded absently, turning over the story in her mind.  The Templar, or whatever he was, had promised many answers, but this tale seemed to create more questions than the very few she had had before.  "How do I know you're telling me the truth?" she asked quietly.

"What gain could come of what I've told you so far?" the dark one responded.  He waited for a reply for a moment, and then continued his story.

Your race was the more perfect of the two primary races we assisted; where the Protoss had held purity of form, the Zerg held purity of essence.  Our leaders, made cautious from our failure with the First Born, chose not to reveal ourselves to the Overmind, and instead we hid ourselves behind the moon of Zerus.  Our instruments were trained upon Zerus at all times, continuously monitoring for any sign of the Xel'Dor.

A number of my people began to suggest an expedition to Aiur, in the hopes that the First Born had thrown off any influence the Xel'Dor had over them.  Our leaders agreed to this mission, and dispatched a third of our force to investigate Aiur.

Clearly, this was the opening the Xel'Dor had been waiting for.  As our ships hid in the shadow of the moon, hundreds of black ships emerged from the darkness directly above Zerus.  The secret veil we had covered the Overmind with was torn violently away as the Zerg awoke to find a battle brewing above.  It is at this time the Overmind began drawing the predecessors to your Overlords to Zerus, silently luring them to the surface of Zerus, where they were quickly assimilated into the growing Swarm.

The Xel'Dor ships were more powerful than our own; their weapon's fire illuminated the darkness as they unleashed salvo after salvo of savage, destructive energy.  My people weathered the storm, and then moved away from the moon, wanting to end the Xel'Dor threat.  Our superior numbers began to wear down their fleet, edging us ever closer to victory over our ancestral brethren.

Then the Overmind entered the fray.  Seeing no difference between the Xel'Dor and the Xel'Naga, it unleashed the Swarm on both our peoples, crushing our weakened fleets with ease.  As each ship was disabled, clusters of Zerg dragged it down to the surface and pulled my people from our great starships.  The Overmind was only too pleased to absorb both Xel'Naga and Xel'Dor into its being, gaining access to our vast knowledge of evolutionary science and the planets in the galaxy.  Our bodies were destroyed, but somehow our minds survived within the vast Overmind.

The Overmind gave itself a grand mission to find and assimilate the Protoss, gaining access to their powerful psionic abilities.  The Overmind and the Swarm left Zerus, for the world was more barren than before, and contained no more potential for the Swarm.  So began the nomadic journeys of the Swarm.

As the Swarm sailed between the stars, the Overmind released its hold upon the Xel'Naga and Xel'Dor minds it held, and slowly like sand through fingers, we filtered out into the dark void.  Our differences were far from forgotten.  Rather, the close imprisonment had made both people resolve to destroy the other.

The dark one stopped again.  "Has this story answered many of your questions?" he asked.

Kerrigan shook her head.  "Though it is interesting, there is still much you haven't answered.  You said both the Xel'Dor and the Xel'Naga exist only as spirits now, but then how are you standing before me as a Protoss?"

The Templar smiled slightly as he answered, "Because both the Xel'Dor and the Xel'Naga have learned how to take control of a physical being.  The Xel'Dor tend to do it more forcibly than we do, though.  Before I took control of this Dark Templar, I asked his permission, and he assented."

Kerrigan nodded slightly, and then asked, "Who have the Xel'Dor taken control of?"

The Templar stood up from the floor, stretching out his legs as he moved closer to Kerrigan.  "You have known one," the dark one said quietly.  "He inhabited the body of Samir Duran."

Kerrigan gasped quietly.  It explained so much of their last meeting…

"Samir Duran was possessed before birth.  There never was a "true" Samir Duran in that body.  It gave that Xel'Dor greater power, and a much longer time to carry out his people's grand plan."  The Templar laughed bitterly.  "You were a part of it, for a time.  A pawn, like so many others in the game my people and the Xel'Dor now play."

"But Duran is dead!  I killed him myself, nearly two years ago," Kerrigan exclaimed.  "How can any plans he had still exist?"

"He was but one agent of the Xel'Dor.  The Xel'Dor have countless agents scattered amongst the Protoss and the Terrans," the Dark Templar replied simply.  "Only the Zerg are immune to their control.  You alone are the vulnerable one.  Do you remember a black crystal that came from Duran's body when you killed him?"

"I picked it up from where he was standing and crushed it in my palm," Kerrigan said.

"In doing so you played into the hands of the Xel'Dor.  The crystal would have made you susceptible to their control in time, like a disease."  The Templar gestured to Kerrigan's palm.  "I have taken steps to remove it from your body.  You are now the wild card in the coming conflict.  There is a great war brewing between the Terrans, the Protoss, and even the Zerg, orchestrated by the agents of the Xel'Dor, and brought to a head by the actions of Arcturus Mengsk, of whom you are familiar."

Kerrigan gritted her teeth, trying to drown the instant rage his name caused.  "What has that traitorous bastard done?"

"At the behest of the Xel'Dor agents, he has taken to constructing a superweapon, powerful enough to destroy the Protoss and the Zerg.  It is but a facet of the Xel'Dor plan."

"What sort of superweapon?" Kerrigan asked.

"Of this I cannot speak, and it does not matter.  The superweapon is a ruse."

"What?" Kerrigan asked in confusion.  She had been following the Xel'Naga/Protoss so far, but how could a powerful superweapon be a ruse?

"The superweapon is a distraction while the true machinations of the Xel'Dor come to pass.  The Protoss Zeratul was the one to discover the true heart of the Xel'Dor treachery," he replied.  "Again, the chosen agent of the Xel'Dor in this matter was Duran.  At the behest of his leaders, he took control of a Terran research facility, and from it came the Hybrids."

"Hybrids?  What are they hybrids of?" asked Kerrigan.

The Templar bowed his head slightly, and when he spoke again, his voice was solemn.  "The abominations are a mixture of the First Born, the Zerg, and the Terrans."

Kerrigan's eyes opened widely as she realized the power such an unholy combination would hold.  "Impossible…that's completely mad!"

"Be that as it may," the Protoss said as he lifted his head, his eyes glowing fiercely. "They have done it anyway.  Once the Hybrids are complete, the Xel'Dor will infest all of them, using them as host bodies.  All will fall before their might."

The Protoss glanced up towards the ceiling for a moment before he nodded curtly.  "Your young ward has arrived.  I will leave you now.  Think wisely on what I have told you."  He touched a small disk that was resting on his waist with one of his long, slender fingers, and then a flash of light filled the room.  Kerrigan closed her eyes to block out the harsh glare, made even more painful from the long darkness she had endured in the chamber.  When she opened them again, the Protoss was gone.

A massive crash echoed across the chamber, followed by a quiet call.  "My Queen?"

"I'm over here," Kerrigan yelled back before sighing in relief.  The Protoss, or Xel'Naga, hadn't been deceiving her after all.  Sien had managed to find her.  Kerrigan frowned slightly, her mind still sorting through all the Protoss had extolled to her.  A hybrid race that could defeat the Zerg?  The very idea seemed absurd…but still…

"Kerrigan."

Kerrigan turned slightly, her eyes meeting the exotic gaze of Sien.  "You've done well.  I think the control panel for the stasis field is in this room.  It's probably a standard field, so you can just smash the panel and it'll switch off."

Sien nodded, her Zerg minion's fanning out across the chamber in search of the panel.  "My queen…there were no defenders."

"All the easier for you, then," Kerrigan said cautiously.

"But doesn't that worry you?" asked Sien.  "It seems foolish to kidnap you and not better protect you!  You are the Queen of Blades, and without you the Swarm would fall into disarray!"

Kerrigan started to mention the Dark Templar who had just left, but she stopped herself.  This cerebrate didn't need to know of him.  "There were some First Born vermin here a while ago, but I've been in this room for a while now.  Perhaps they fled when they learned you were coming?"

Sien blinked a few times quickly.  "A Hydralisk has found the control panel.  Be ready when the stasis field dissipates."

A brief static tingle raced over Kerrigan's skin as the field slowly diminished, and she struggled against falling forward.  How long had she been kept standing like this?  Her legs were abnormally weak, but at least her broken bones and ribs seemed to be healed finally.  How had her Zerg healing slowed so much?

"Kerrigan…are you alright?" Sien asked.  "Can you walk?"

"I'll be fine, Cerebrate," Kerrigan said as she stepped off of the platform and onto the cool metal floor.  Her wing claws stretched out widely as they tried to reacquaint themselves to not being cramped inside a stasis field.  "We need to get out of here.  I don't trust the First Born too much," she lied.  "Knowing them, they probably rigged this station to explode."

"Very well, my Queen."  Sien gestured slightly ahead, her Zerg servants already charging out of the door.  "Let us leave, then."

\=-|-=/

Thank you everyone who read this chapter; it has honestly been single-handedly the hardest chapter to write thus far.  My writing style changed slightly twice in the writing of this chapter, and, though I think HND is the better for it, it was frustrating to write and then go back and read the first half and say to myself "Wow, that really bites!".

Many thanks to friends Jaxom92 and 3ternity; I couldn't have finished this chapter without your continued words of approval and outright praise.

And, of course, many thanks to you, Reader.  If you can, and have a moment to spare, please leave me a review with any suggestions you have, comments, or whatnot; all of them are very valuable to me as I continue this story.


Many apologies that this chapter took so long to write, but in the end, it was really worth it.  It is the longest one I've written thus far, and in my opinion, the best one I've done to date for HND.

If you like this story, check out , a haven for writers who are far more skilled than I.

Fight on,

Dark-Elk