Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. I had to go back to the drawing board with this chapter a few times.

Chapter 2: Mind's presence

Kerrigan looked around her beautiful mansion. It was quiet. Too quiet. Normally, her son would come to see her, or Raynor would call, asking if everything was alright, but there was nothing, except silence.

Then, out of nowhere, a huge, undistinguishable monster leapt at Kerrigan, taking her by surprise. She jumped aside, dodging the thing's powerful leap. It hit a wall behind Kerrigan and fell unconscious. Kerrigan then had a good look at it.

It was undeniably hideous. It faintly resembled an ultralisk, but the skin was gray, somewhat like the Protoss, with tusks that seemed nothing more than blue blades of lightning. Kerrigan shuddered. "What is this?" She wondered.

"Didn't I warn you?" A familiar voice said.

Kerrigan turned around and swore. She was seeing a ghost. The dark figure of Duran walked towards her, smiling. "The air up here is...nice." He sniffed. "Not that I'm breathing, though." He chuckled. "Nice place, by the way," he exclaimed animatedly, resting his hands on the back of his head while admiring the paintings the walls were covered with.

Kerrigan was shocked. "Aren't you dead?"

He glanced and said simply, "I am." then resumed examining the portrait in front of him absently. He held a thinking gesture while stroking his black beard. Then he concluded, "Hmm...Magnificent artwork."

Kerrigan did not answer that. Instead, her eyes rolled everywhere. "Oh, my god!" she grunted as her two hands ruffled her crimson hair in distress and then she screamed, "Oh, this can't be real."

At that, the old friend had bursts of laughter. "Kerrigan," he called out amusingly. "If so, am I such a nightmare to you?" he smiled again, baring his white teeth that held a significant contrast to his darker skin tones.

Kerringan turned to him and glared on. "Alright," she shouted. "Stop laughing and tell me: what is happening here?" she demanded.

Indeed, he stopped laughing and then held a grave look. Concern. Worry. Then, pensively looking at her family portrait. "It's time. The threat is ...." The voice stopped abruptly and in a blink, the figure was cast away. Yet something that resembled a carapaced zealot filled his absence instantaneously. It stood tall amazingly, looking as tall as a hydralisk. Displaying a menacing look, it stared at Kerrigan, bloodlust filling its eyes. Then, it opened its carapace and mentally shrieked a charging roar.

At this, her eyes widened then closed tightly as she turned her back on it, terrified to look further. The thing was a horrible sight and dashed forward in a hurry. The sound of its steps crashed across her red carpet. It neared until its terrible shrieks pierced Kerrigan's ears deafeningly. She trembled. Her hands covered her ears unsteadily, waiting for the moment. Then there it was. It crashed through her, like a sub-zero shock that literally electrified her spine. She held her last breath as darkness took over. Her body dropped across the crimson cashmere.

**

"Mommy! Mommy," a voice shouted, sounding panicked. "Mommy!" a young voice pleaded in between sniffs of a runny nose.

She then felt being shaken a bit and opened her eyes again. Her 4 year-old son looked at her, crying all over her. "Mommy, mommy?" His soft hands hugged her tightly.

Kerrigan looked around and breathed. 'It was just a dream.' She told to herself as her hand wiped the tear from his eye. She looked at her son: "It's nothing, sweetie."

"No, it's not. You were just twisting and turning and yelling all the time," he stated firmly with tears still streaming down his cheek.

Kerrigan said, holding her head: "Mommy's just worried about something that you don't know about..." She paused then grabbed him and hugged him tightly as she soothed, "It's okay, Arthur. It's okay. Mommy's fine, now."

Kerrigan took a deep breath and sighed. That had been one strange nightmare. But was it really a dream? Or was it a premonition? She had no idea why, but she was sure that it wasn't just a dream. Why else would she always have these dreams these last few weeks? Something was about to happen. She was sure. She took a phone and dialled a number she knew very well.

"You are at the central Dominion Call Control. You have called the Dominion Emperor, Jim Raynor. Please state your name and relation to the Emperor." Said a robotized voice.

"Sarah Kerrigan, wife of Jim Raynor." Kerrigan answered.

"We will check if the Emperor can speak to you now." The robotized voice said, as a small, calm music started to drown its voice.

Shortly after, Jim's voice echoed in the phone: "Hey, darlin'. Not to sound rude, but can this wait? I'm on a meeting with Kalis right now....."

"It happened again."

"What, you mean another stupid dream? Hum, listen. You know like I do that nothing's threatening us. You know that monsters like the ones in your dreams don't exist. What the hell's happening to you? Are you going crazy?"

"No, I'm....."

Then, a sharp pain suddenly struck Kerrigan. One of the Zerg outposts was being attacked. She took a deep breath and focused to look through the eyes of an overlord who was there.

Her eyes widened as she saw the battlefield below. Her zerg forces, small due to the size of the outpost, were largely outnumbered. Some of the creatures they were up against looked exactly like the monstrously huge ones in Kerrigan's nightmare, while others looked like carapace-covered zealots.

"Oh, my god." Kerrigan muttered under her breath. She focused on regrouping her forces, oblivious to Raynor, who was asking her what was happening. With her forces regrouped, Kerrigan had the zerglings form a circle around the hydralisks, who fired acidic spines at the zealot-looking creatures, while the ultralisks fought tusk to tusk with the huge monsters. At that time, the zerglings cut through the carapaces of some of the zealot-like creatures.

Under the carapace, the creatures looked nothing like zealots. Veins covered every inch of their abdomens, and their torsos seemed covered with teeth-sharp blades, all of them ready to be released on the enemy. The zerglings were mowed down easily as each of the creatures unleashed their spikes in a volley of blood and gore. Kerrigan felt pain while each of her zerglings was killed, but she gritted her teeth and sent in her mutalisks to try and stop the attackers.

At first, it was working quite well, as the creatures had no defence against the dangerous flyers, who sent their glave worms zigzagging through the enemies, covering their faces in green acid. The battle seemed won. But then, an overlord other than the one Kerrigan was looking through saw a strange ship approach. It had a strangely familiar look.

"Is that..... a carrier?" Kerrigan said. The carrier-shaped ship had not only Protoss shields, but an ultra-thick carapace that was obviously zerg-like. Then, small vessels flew out of the main ship and headed towards the mutalisks. But those weren't interceptors. Kerrigan said: "Scourges? In a carrier? What in the world?" The scourges attacked the mutalisks and the overlords, killing them all mercilessly, causing Kerrigan unbearable pain. She knew the battle was over. Collapsing in agony, Kerrigan yelled and fell unconscious.

Raynor, hearing the scream, said, worried: "Kerrigan? Are you okay? What the hell happened, for god's sake? KERRIGAN!!!"

***

Kerrigan opened her eyes. No longer was she in the beautiful mansion she lived in. She was now on a barren landscape, which was smoking and filled with corpses. A being stood a few meters in front of her, its face hidden in the shadows. That being was somehow familiar. She approached and yelped in horror when she recognized it: It was her infested self. It said:

"Would you look at that? My weak self. I can't believe how stupid you are, making peace with inferior ones like that. I never would have done such a thing."

Kerrigan answered, defiant: "So? I have my own reasons."

"Would those reasons implicate Jim Raynor?"

"What if that's the case?"

"You let power slip from your hands, do you realize it? For love, for unnecessary feelings, you let power slip from your hands. You're weak, like all humans."

Kerrigan was starting to be angry. Her? Weak? Humanity, feelings, those were, in her opinion, blessings. Her other self spoke:

"Soon, though, you'll get another opportunity, another chance to be once more powerful. Will you let that power slip from your hands as well?"

"What are you talking about?"

The other self answered, bloodlust filling her eyes: "A new power arises. You saw it. Can you feel the rush, the will to fight, the killer instinct that made you so lethal?"

Kerrigan shuddered. Had she really been that bad before? The other self continued: "I feel it. I feel the will to defeat that insurmountable power. But one thing's for sure: From that power, you can learn. They are the next step of evolution. You'll understand soon enough." The other self and the landscape faded away, leaving only darkness and a confused Kerrigan. She yelled and woke up in a hospital bed, sweating.

***

Dan Kealer counted his winnings, as he had just won over 700 credits from the very unlucky tech crew. Whistling, he entered the hospital, having received a call about Dave Moffy being awake. He looked around. Medics were running around everywhere, clearly occupied.

"Ah, excuse me." Kealer said, "Can anyone tell me where the head medic is?"

A medic stopped and told him: "She's at room no. 253."

"Thanks." Kealer said to the medic, who was already going back to her occupations. Kealer walked around, trying to spot room no.253 and the head medic, and finally, he saw her outside of a room's door, talking to someone who Kealer couldn't clearly see. He walked quickly towards her. Then, he noticed that she was actually speaking to Emperor Raynor.

"She should be all right, now." The head medic said.

"You sure about that?" Raynor asked, clearly worried.

"Affirmative. The pain from the loss of her minions should subside within the next few minutes."

"Alright. Thanks." Raynor turned away towards the person in the room, which Kealer could have sworn looked a lot like Kerrigan. He went to the head medic and asked:

"Ah, hi. What were you talking about with the Emperor just now?"

"Nothing that's of your business. The Emperor's here on personal reasons. Now, I suppose you weren't here to collect imperial gossip. What do you want?"

"You told me that Corporal Dave Moffy woke up. Can I talk to him?"

"Yeah, sure. He's right there." She said, pointing towards the room in front of her. Through the door's window, Kealer saw a young, dark-skinned man, holding his right leg and grunting about something. Kealer walked in the room and asked:

"Corporal Dave Moffy?"

The man answered: "Who wants to know, pal?"

"I'm General Dan Kealer, 'Supreme Commanding Officer of the Dominion' or that kind of shit. I'm here to talk to you about the reason you're here, in this infirmary."

Dave didn't hear the end of the sentence. He was staring incredulously at Kealer, looking at his firebat suit, and then staring at the stripes on the suit's shoulder. "You, a general?" Dave blurted out, incredulously. "Is this a joke? A dirty-mouthed guy like you, an officer? Hell, you look and act like a good old marine. I even played poker with you five days ago. Are you really a general or did you steal those stripes?"

"I'm serious. And for the poker playing, I'm probably the only superior officer in this army who likes to spend time playing poker with his subordinates. Now, to return to the subject, I want to talk to you about the reason you're here."

"Namely, the stupid accident in which I broke my leg. Say, where are John and that moron Terry?"

"Disappeared. The outpost seems to have been attacked while you were unconscious. When I went to investigate, I found you, buried in a pile of stuff, a flamethrower named "Zippo" right on your broken leg. Was it yours?"

"Yeah, I climbed to fetch it on the top shelf when an explosion rocked the ship and I fell to the ground. That's all I remember. But hey....." Dave thought for a second, "Whaddaya mean, the outpost's been attacked?"

Dan ignored the comment and asked: "Why was your flamethrower on the top shelf?"

"Some asshole had put it there. Probably a lame prank. But you didn't answer my question. Who the hell attacked the outpost?"

Kealer grunted, understanding Corporal Moffy didn't seem to have any information at all about the assault. He said: " To answer your question, we have no idea who attacked the outpost. I know that's a pain in the ass, but that's a fact. I'm investigating on what happened. That'll be all, corporal. See ya!"

"Wait a minute, sir! You owe me a rematch at poker, don't you?"

Kealer smiled: "So, you want your ass handed to you again?"

Dave smiled and took out a deck of cards. "Why don't we play right now?" He said.

"Well, I got a report to do on our conversation, I got to continue investigating the assault, and that's without mentioning the daily report to the Emperor that I have to do before 1700 hours. Bah, let's play anyway....." His eyes widened as he remembered something: The director of the science institute had told him to be there before 1600 hours to talk about the DNA sample he had given them. He checked his watch. It was 1605. ".....or maybe not. Sorry, I gotta run. I'll try coming tonight. Bye!" Kealer then ran out of the hospital, towards the lab.

Arriving at the Dominion Central Scientific Institute, Kealer entered, panting. The first thing he saw was the lab director, Dr. Marry Carsy, tapping her feet in impatience, a frown on her face. "You're late."

Kealer was embarrassed. It was one thing to piss off a group of generals, but it was much worse to get Dr. Carsy angry. She was, to everyone in the lab, the definition of "bitch". In fact, some people actually argued whether they'd rather have had Kerrigan, when she was the Queen of Blades, leading this lab.

But, even if she was a bitch, Kealer found her cute. Her untied, brown hair and her beautiful face had got Kealer to actually ask to go on a date with her once, causing her to almost dislocate Kealer's jaw in a good old "bitch- slap". Now, Kealer knew that he needed to be careful what he said in front of her. Dr. Carsy spoke, in an annoyed voice:

"Should have known. You men are all the same." She shook her head. "Now, just come right here. I have to show you something about that sample you gave me."

Kealer then followed Dr. Carsy towards a well-equipped lab, with the technicians moving away at the sight of the lab director. Arriving there, Kealer saw that Dr. Carsy was in front of a table, with a microscope on it. "Sit there" She said, pointing towards a chair. Kealer reluctantly sat down, wondering what she wanted to show him. "Look in this." She said, pointing towards the microscope.

Kealer looked inside the lens. He didn't know much about science, but he guessed that seeing blue and red molecules moving around probably wasn't a good sign. "What are those?" He asked, intrigued.

"The blue ones contain Protoss DNA, or something very similar. As for the red ones, they react to the Zerg DNA tests."

Kealer was starting to get worried. What the hell was going on? He asked: "Now, doctor, I suppose you'd know why Zerg and Protoss DNA are actually in the same blood."

"Actually, we're not too sure. That's where the trouble starts."

"Could it be an infestation?"

"That's what we thought too, but the particles work in harmony, whereas in an infestation, the zerg particles would be absorbing the other ones. It's a symbiosis. It makes no sense. We honestly couldn't think of any possibility at all, except....."

"Hybriding?"

"Yes."

"Now, weren't you supposed to lock away all reports related to hybrid experimentation, by order of the Emperor himself?"

"Yes, and it was done. If you're going to insinuate that we made whatever things attacked the outpost, you're out of your....."

"I ain't insinuating anything, doctor. I just hope you'll give this matter serious investigation. And you better not be hiding anything." Kealer finished, in a condescending tone.

"Now, don't start taking that tone on me....."

"I will if I want to! Start checking if anyone had access to those reports at any time, or I'll have you arrested!" Kealer felt anger, great anger, rising in his chest as he said that.

Dr. Carsy was bewildered. No man had ever treated her like that, and it wasn't about to start. She tried to slap Kealer, but he grasped her arm before her blow could hit and clutched it tightly. He kept a neutral look on his face and took a deep breath. "Listen, doctor." He tried to remain as calm as possible. "Two men, two good soldiers, have disappeared. Much more will as well unless we understand what exactly is going on here. Understood?" the director didn't answer. Kealer yelled out: "UNDERSTOOD?"

Dr Carsy said, a bit shook up, but still angry: "But aren't soldiers risking their lives on their job? Isn't it normal for some of them to die?"

Kealer grasped Dr. Carsy's sleeve and pushed her up against the wall. He didn't care if she had an explosive temper or not. He didn't care that she had been sued five times for death threats. Right now, he only wanted to make one point clear. "Doctor," Kealer started, furious. "Do you even realize what you're saying? Do you think all of us are just drones or something? Hell, you're generally the first one to complain when a field scientist is killed."

"Because that kind of person could have helped science, but regular soldiers....."

Kealer's hands were trembling now. If he'd been carrying a gun, he'd probably have shot Dr. Carsy for that comment. His eyes showed nothing but disgust now. "Whether a person's a scientist or not, most of us have something: family, friends, all waiting for us back home. We're all worth the same, doctor, and you're honestly just an idiot if you can't realize that. Now, you have your instructions. Carry them out right now. THAT'S AN ORDER!." Kealer said, as he let go of Dr. Carsy's arm.

Dr. Carsy nodded and gritted her teeth, even as Kealer let go of her arm. Kealer hadn't squeezed her arm much, but he had hurt her pride, something no one had done before, and she fell to her knees, almost crying and infuriated at the same time.

Kealer left the lab and was immediately greeted by the lab technicians. All of them had listened to Kealer and Dr. Carsy's heated conversation, and all of them cheered Kealer.

"Hell, I thought no one could shut her damn trap!" A technician said.

"I maybe lost 100 credits to you in poker, but this was worth it." Another one said.

Kealer's comm. device rang at that time. Kealer walked away from the others and left the Institute. He spoke in his comm.. device: "Yeah?"

Raynor's voice was heard: "Kealer? How's it going, man?"

"Not bad. I've just got a bit of information on the attackers. For all we know, they could be hybrids."

"Just what I needed. More bad news. That wasn't the reason I called you, though, even if you ARE quite late for your report. I was on a meeting with Kalis, the Protoss Ambassador, and I had to leave for an emergency....."

Kealer interrupted him: "Let me guess. You want me to go back there and hear what he has to say."

"Actually, he's already left my office. But, he left me an observer, which has a visual view of what may be our attackers. Pick up that machinery at my office. Then, read the data the observer has collected. Maybe it'll help. Bye!" The link was shut off.

"At least, it's going somewhere..." Kealer said before heading towards Raynor's office.

***

Zeratul stared into emptiness, as his cape swayed in the wind. He was trying to understand what was happening. Ten years ago, after Mengsk's death, he had left Raynor and the others, not wishing to establish himself on Aiur, the home he had been banned from. He had been drawn to a beautiful planet, filled with green flora, swift rivers and pure beauty, which was called Arenil. Perhaps he wanted to see the planet in which Kerrigan was finally captured, or perhaps he just wanted to feel the beauty of this place. He didn't know why, but he just had to visit it.

Shortly after his arrival, his psionic intuition persevered. The enigmatic Protoss senses surfaced in his mind again. This time, however, it dominated his actions over logic with pure instinct. As a result, he flew his corsair blindsided, as if he guided it by feel. Fingers twisting delicately over the craft's impulse controls, he guided the craft by seeking a distinct shoulder-like coldness that had the semblance of a kindred-like familiarity, as it was acting as a flawless compass.

The lonely metallic-gold coated craft hovered over seas of fertile vegetation until it shadowed over of a lush green valley, surmounted by a magnificent waterfall. It was at that moment he saw the one thing he never could have expected to find: A Xel' Naga temple at the centre of it all, yet surrounded by a kilometre-wide radius of steep, rocky walls that looked unreal enough to be synthetic.

"Adun be praised," he muttered as he awed at the very same structure that was the salvation of his people. His first thoughts were admiration at the breathtaking Xel'Naga architecture, but then, his curiosity somehow touched a volatile memory. And waves of questions that had sorely ached his mind many years ago exploded into his mind.

"Who is our creator? Where do we come from...? Existences. Origins. Conclave. Khala. Adun. And the Xel Naga."

Because of the Protoss' limited knowledge of their creators, his extraordinary mind was left without answers for decades. If only Duran was still alive, maybe he, that had been touched by the power of the Xel' Naga, could have helped him. But he was dead, now.

Abandoning those thoughts, the dark templar wasted no time after landing his ship. Armed with his trusty warp blades and his personal plasma shield, he began his thousand paces towards the sacred temple. With the structure closer in view, he noted observations. It was uncanny; the exterior and towering construction was a spitting image of the Shakuras' one. Yet, he had a strange feeling. It seemed different, somehow as his hands caressed the stone-like dual doorway.

He opened it with one push. And his eyes squinted as he glared at the mysterious light that painted him as he continued pushing through the ancient, rusty gates, old of millions of years.

Inside the temple were countless Xel' Naga scriptures, all just waiting to be read. If Zeratul would understand his creators, he would need to understand these scriptures.

Surprisingly, after a rather short period of time, he was able to translate even the most basic ancient Xel'Naga runes and symbols, moving onto even more complex ones in a matter of days. With that, he started to work with the Collectors, a group of knowledge-hungry dark templars, and his duties started to broaden, from supervising the Collectors, who were almost trying to pillage the temple, to translation assistance over the seventy thousand distinct symbols on each Xel'Naga ceiling. But the most significant part of it all was that he never realised that he had the talent for translating the Xel' Naga scriptures until he had accidentally, or so he modestly admitted, uncovered the hidden message to the most crucial Xel'Naga riddle of it all; how to work the temple.

Under the rough translation it read "Only with two stars under an arched sky may the cosmic wrath of the temple be unleashed" Upon his accidental discovery of a clue, discovered when walking through the temple on one dawn of light, he had discovered that the towers of the temple were simply arc shaped, thus the rest was history. An enigma that had eluded the entire community of the Collectors for many months had so been solved by an unlikely Protoss: Zeratul himself.

His walk ended in the face of a scarred wall. On it, he had found multiple scriptures, from the mundane, to the monumental. Scriptures that were surprising, unbelievable, and almost impossible. He wouldn't have believed them if he hadn't read them. One of them read like this:

We have always wanted to be gods

But of our survival, I don't like the odds

A species of destruction is now here

Filling our hearts with pure fear

Its familiarity making us shed a tear

And even though I am no seer

I know what this species will cause

Chaos and destruction without pause

They have been made of pure power and our intelligence

Though we forgot to grant them a conscience

For that, their powers continue to grow

Do we stand a chance? Well, no

We have always wanted to be like them

We treat each of them like a precious gem

But their souls are greatly corrupted

By greed of power, they have been tainted

They will kill us sometime soon

And our blood will be shed on the great moon

There may be a sole, hopeless way

That will probably keep them at bay

But after this barrier will fall

It will be death and misery for all

Unless body, mind and soul unite

All of them standing, ready to fight

Uniting and fighting like one

For the destruction to be now gone

And for life to continue on

Its struggle eternally undone

Zeratul thought that there had to be a hidden message somewhere in this, yet he couldn't understand it. Not only that, but a scripture after this one seemed to have been torn away from the wall, somehow. Zeratul sighed. Body? Mind? Soul? These terms seemed to have a hidden meaning. But what could it be? And what was the species of destruction that was mentioned? Was it the zerg? Something told him it wasn't that. The zerg had been made of power, but they lacked intelligence. The Protoss, his own brethren? They look like the Xel' Naga, but they are not destroyers. Was it something more?

"The answers lie with the other outcasts." A resonant voice said in Zeratul's head.

Zeratul's eyes widened and he took out his warp blade. "Who said this?" The Dark Prelate asked.

"We, the ones who created you. The Xel' Naga."

Zeratul couldn't believe it. "But you're dead! The zerg have slaughtered you all!"

"Death came to many, but not all. Those who have not shared our demise created the terrans, among other things. They are the species responsible for the final piece of the puzzle, Zeratul. Evolution's end is nearing."

"How do you know my name? And what do you mean by 'final piece of the puzzle'? Show yourselves!"

"We have watched over you for centuries, as you tried to understand these writings that we wrote, at this temple and others like it."

"Well, if you are the ones who have written it, tell me what it means!"

The Xel' Naga laughed and said: "In due time, Zeratul. Right now, go back with your Protoss brethren. They may need you soon."

Zeratul couldn't believe it. Could his creators really be communicating with him? And if yes, why? As he boarded his corsair to go back to Aiur, he had no idea what he was getting himself into.....

End of the chapter

Author's Note: As you read this, I'm hard at work on chapter 3. You have my word that you won't have to wait two months to read it.