I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.

Chapter 23: The Trap is Set

Despite his nasty attitude about being foiled, Kerrigan was at least glad Zerg-Verto wasn't a complete moron and not tell of his outing. Though he didn't have any more information than she did, he was willing to share it with her before fuming for a while on how they had gotten away from him.

"Perhaps we should wait until the others join us in conference before we decide how we should deal with these Dark Templar. They may not be enemies we want to rush after," Kerrigan suggested, getting a slight scowl in return. Verto walked off and planted himself along the wall, eyes shut and very Vegeta-like. Kerrigan snorted slightly at how much the child was acting like the Saiyan prince, but she didn't feel surprised in the least. After all it was Vegeta who trained him to begin with.

"Do what you want! When I find them again I'll destroy them myself!" he said before giving a Zergling nearby a very dark stare, one evil enough that the creature didn't stick around to find out what his bad mood was all about.

-

The next morning Kerrigan finally sensed the Overmind calling to her and called Verto to the bottom of the hive. She sensed he didn't want to join them but seemed to know better than not too.

Well even if he is evil, he still isn't with the Overmind yet. He still longs for freedom and is putting on a pretty decent act, guess I just need to get his good side back. Might be hard though, I can only guess that he said he would stick around in return for his own free will. Let's just hope he doesn't slip up somewhere and the Overmind wants full control, which would be bad. Still I'm trying to figure out how the Cerebrate and the good part of Verto aren't in more control, it doesn't make sense. I'll worry about it later. She took Verto's stiff hand with her own and called out with her mind to the Overmind, getting a response rather quickly. Daggoth and a few of the other Cerebrates joined in the conversation a short few seconds later.

"Alas my long slumber is broken and I am made whole again. The cunning Protoss have dared strike at those who are immortal, and will pay the price. I advise caution however, these Dark Templar are unlike anything we have faced before, for they radiate energies much like my own, and it is these energies that have caused me harm. Yet their overwhelming pride shall be their downfall, for when the assassin Zeratul murdered Zasz, his mind touched with mine, and I took from him the secret location of Auir, the Protoss home world. At long last my children, our searching is over, and we shall soon assault Auir directly and become the perfect race. Yet before we do this, we must ensure the Dark Templar can cause no more harm. They must be eradicated immediately. Verto, you shall set a trap for our confident foes. You shall leave them no where to run while Daggoth and Kerrigan's broods assault their base camp and lead them to you. You will find them in a deep valley nearby Zasz's former Hive cluster. There is only one way out of that valley, so this should be simple. Do not fail me!"

With that said the connection was cut and Kerrigan opened her eyes to see Verto's eyes. His eyes were pointed somewhat downward, but were open like he was listening to every detail. He was likely interested in the start of the one-sided conversation than the latter. He suddenly had a slight smirk on his face like he was planning something.

"What are you planning Verto?" Kerrigan asked as she had disconnected herself from his mind, quite frankly she didn't want to know that badly.

"Nothing that concerns you, just be sure to stay out of my way when that time comes. As for these Dark Templar, I will fight them all myself. Your little band of insects should stay out of my way as well!" he warned.

Kerrigan frowned at the cocky tone she heard, "I don't know what you're planning to do, but I don't advise it. The only way you're going to get out of this mess you're in is to play along like you have been. It wouldn't take the Overmind long to take full control of you if he really wants to, you might want to remember that!"

Verto snorted and stood, walking out of the chamber, "Let me worry about that big octopus."

Oh why did it have to be so complicated! Kerrigan thought to herself. She spent the rest of the day building up her forces and scouting the area mentioned.

-

The next day started off as planned, but it certainly didn't end that way. Kerrigan's scouting Overlords did indeed pick up a large Protoss base camp in that deep Valley. It seemed that Artanis had more forces with him than she expected, or he managed to set up a Warp gate and called additional troops from Auir, though she doubted that. She was right as she didn't spot one anywhere in the base. She could only deduce that he had joined forces with the Dark Templar, not completely surprising. Either way it was going to be a nasty battle; no doubt that's why she and Daggoth were put in charge of it.

She stood on one of the tall mountains above the valley, looking down on the base. There was close to three thousand Protoss troops down there by her count, but she did not detect any Dark Templar, assuming they could be detected. Their cloaking ability was similar to hers, and most did not detect her at all unless they had a really good knack for things like that and guessed just right. She glanced over to the entrance and exit to the valley, seeing Verto standing there with a few Overlords above him. He was scowling by the looks of it, though she was pretty far away to tell. Well, no Protoss are going to get out of here on the ground given his hatred for them lately.

She and Daggoth had a plan for battle already set up anyway. She was to assault the base while he struck from afar with a large legion of his Guardians. Kerrigan had never liked the crab-like Guardians much, but she respected their accurate range, despite the lack of air speed and ability to fight in the air. Daggoth was also to prevent the Protoss from escaping through the air, in which he had plenty of air and ground support to take care of that on top of the cliffs. He had little to no assistance for air to ground transport, and it would take too long to go around to the valley. Kerrigan's problem was tricky though, as she had two options for getting her forces in there. Until something was cleared out, she would have to attack full fledged from the air and hope her Overlords would descend fast enough. She didn't want to take the second option and flood the entrance with her ground forces.

Two problems with the latter choice, one they would be forced into a bottleneck and it would cost her much in resources to keep them flowing in as Zerg are very easy to kill when bunched up. The other problem, a certain Saiyan was still in a bad mood by what she could tell. The haste in which he destroyed Zasz's brood still showed his general opinion of the Zerg. Unlike before this change when he was still hesitant to kill. So she began her attack through the air and waited for a hole to open. Unfortunately for her, there was plenty of ground support that could take out her forces, and she was going to have to wait awhile.

An hour into the battle, Kerrigan became frustrated. A small squadron of Protoss scout flyers had taken out Daggoth's Guardians rather quickly. Their air-to-air missiles did a quick job on them despite other Zerg around. The scouts were destroyed but not without losing the valuable ranged attackers, which pretty much ended Kerrigan's option of dropping in troops from above. The only other option was to flood the valley with her ground forces, in which she had many more of than anything else. Verto was nice enough to rise a few feet off the ground so they could get by, then again most anyone would want to avoid that kind of attacking stampede. They reached the Protoss base very quickly and began their attack against the mass of Protoss ground troops. Kerrigan then sent in more air support and transport Overlords as the ground forces arrived, trying to draw confusion. Unfortunately for her, the Protoss had a very quick answer. At the front line, several High Templar had set up behind their base entrance where they had set up Photon Cannons to defend themselves. These Templar then started channeling their Psi energy and sent out a large scale Psi Storm across the narrow passage, killing or severely injuring every Zerg in came across for at least a mile.

In between Psi Storm assaults, she spotted a few of the tank like Reavers coming out to the defense line. That spelled trouble as well, for they shot out explosive balls of energy that generally blew up an area of about twenty to thirty feet in diameter, bad news for a pack of small Zerg. While she still had plenty of troops flowing in, they were just marching to their deaths with that kind of defense set up. This allowed the overload of Protoss troops to concentrate on the air support she had coming in, which didn't last long either. She growled slightly at this.

Ever since the start of the battle she expected a bit of a stalemate at first, but not like this. Between her and Daggoth's forces, maybe they had killed a hundred and fifty Protoss warriors. On the flip side they had lost many more, herself a few thousand thanks to that bottlenecked entrance.

"Kerrigan, this isn't working too well. May I make a suggestion?" Daggoth asked her.

"I'm all ears."

"Restock your forces and surround the area but do not advance. Turn the boy loose to destroy them all. I am somewhat interested in seeing if he could defeat them all by himself!" Daggoth suggested.

Kerrigan wasn't so sure about that, "Against three thousand Zerg I am sure he would win, but against these crafty Protoss I am not so sure. We do not know the extent of the Dark Templar's powers and abilities, it may be more than he can handle. And the Overmind's orders were for him to target them while we handle the rest!"

"Kerrigan, just do it. I am positive these Dark Templar will show their heads should he involve himself now, they are all full of foolish pride!" Daggoth claimed. Kerrigan hesitated slightly, not that she had any love loss for the Protoss, but she just wasn't sure Verto could beat that many of them.

"Verto, you may attack the Protoss at your own discretion!" she thought out quickly. He didn't take off towards them with much speed, but he did advance and land at their front lines.

-

"It's a Terran child, must be an infested one! Look at all of the Zerg tissue!" a Zealot said.

"Terran's are weaker than Zerg! Why send this pitiful specimen to face us, have the Zerg lost their resolve?" another laughed. Zerg-Verto kept a sharp scowl on all of them. He regarded just about anyone as his enemy, but these Protoss seemed to stir his anger a little more than usual. Probably has something to do with Aldaris killing Gohan's woman, he thought to himself.

"I wish to battle your Dark Templar warriors, the rest of you are excused. Unless of course you want to die now," he said in a slightly loud voice, keeping a dark scowl.

"Prelate Zeratul and his brethren are busy little Terran, they don't have time to baby sit such a child. Go back to your masters and try to grow up before you come back looking for a fight. Maybe then you'll be worthy to kill!" the lead Zealot said.

"Fine, I'll take all of your lives instead. You might provide me with a little entertainment until I find this Zeratul!" Verto declared, firing a ki blast at the lead Zealot. His blast stopped just shy of the Zealot's head, a green blade phased into view and canceled it out, before its owner decloaked himself and stood in front.

"Stay back my brothers, this one I will deal with!" the new Protoss said. Verto looked amused and surprised to say the least.

"You are the one I came across before aren't you?" he asked.

"That is correct child, now you must face me before I will allow you to bring harm to my people again. You will know me as Prelate Zeratul!"

"So you're a Dark Templar, interesting energy you seem to have. I will make sport of you before I wipe the floor with the rest of your race!" Verto said, taking a fighting stance.

"If you think so child. Since you are our...guest, you should be aware of my rules of combat. Do not involve any of my brethren, to do so will receive a swift and unworthy death, and do not call in more Zerg reinforcements, that will result in the same. Surely a warrior like yourself can understand this short list of ground rules?" Zeratul sneered slightly.

"As per your requests, I have one of my own. If your soldiers value their lives, they had better back off. As for the Zerg, I do not control their actions, but if it makes you happy…" Verto turned and fired a large beam towards the exit to the Valley. All of the Zerg troops waiting at the entrance and in the bottleneck were instantly obliterated when the beam came through. It didn't take but a second before his mind was attacked from afar by the Overmind.

"Verto, what are you doing?!" Verto winced slightly when the Overmind's voice came into his head, and didn't quite think straight enough to answer through his mind. So he answered aloud while staring upwards, confusing the Protoss slightly. The fact that the Overmind had shouted directly at his thoughts made him angry, and any act he was putting on was washed away by his Saiyan instincts.

"I fight my battles, you fight yours! Stay out of my head or I'll come for you next!" he shouted at the air above him.

"Do not assume that you can simply disobey me whenever you wish! You are mine now and you will do as I order. Now destroy this Templar immediately along with the rest of these pitiful Protoss. Your meaningless battles mean nothing to the grand scheme of the Swarm. Failure will not be an option!" Along with that message, The Overmind sent along a bit of a jolt that caused him to stiffen as a small amount of pain touched his tail. He snarled at the air some more before crouching back into his stance.

"Come on, let's get started before big ugly decides to interrupt again!" Verto said to the slightly confused Zeratul.

"Why do you obey the Overmind? You have a stronger will to be free. That creature cannot control you, why obey it?" Zeratul asked instead.

"If it was by choice, believe me I would have destroyed that thing by now. But he did set me free of my prison and unfortunately he does have a small level of authority over this body right now. Don't remind me of it, I want to fight not talk!"

Zeratul sighed slightly, "Very well, may the best warrior win!"

Verto grinned, "I'm sure I will!"