This chapter introduces a slight departure from all the flashbacks you have seen so far. It still has a flashback but it's no longer just centered on what has happened on the Hyperion. But you will see it for yourself.
Big thanks go to Bjlu0900 for beta-reading this.
Chapter 11
Just another typical Thursday
"Uhhhhnnn..." When Dan regained consciousness, he felt...strange. At first, he had no real idea what was wrong. It was as if he was surrounded by cotton. Warm and wet cotton. That sounded a lot better than it actually felt. Because there was something wrong about this whole situation. As Bowski's mind was fighting its way back to the surface, he shuddered and tried to move, only to realize that his body wasn't listening to him.
"Hnnn..." What had happened? Gosh, Dan felt as if a tank had run over him. Either that, or he had accidentally had some of Magistrate Swann's famous moonshine that she liked to give people as a present.
Though you usually don't give presents to people you like that end up blinding you permanently.
"Ehhhh..." Dan tried to move once more, yet his body remained stiff. However, as his mind started to clear up, he noticed that his body was actually still doing what he wanted to do. Unfortunately, something was keeping him pinned down.
Or, to be more precise: Pinned upright.
"Wha...where...am..." he groaned. Dan's eyelids started to flutter when he tried to open him. He was greeted by an unpleasant sense of vertigo. And one hell of a headache. A cold shiver ran down his spine and he groaned again.
"...concussion...probably..."
Dan wasn't even able to form one coherent thought, all he managed to do was to put two words together. He knew what a concussion felt like. The Marshal had managed to get one twice in his life already.
"Three...times...cha..." he managed to gargle. Well, so much for that. He probably had hit his head pretty hard since it felt as if he wasn't lying on the ground, but being tied to the wall. By warm and wet cotton. That was-
"Flesh. Soft. Weak. Her stench all over it." Dan's eyes shot open when a strange, ungodly voice spoke to him. While no one had used his name in order to address him, he just knew that this thing talking about him.
"Wha...what? Who...?" Bowski managed to stutter. He was surrounded by darkness. Yet even then he knew that he wasn't alone. Another chill ran down his spine when he felt something strange inside of him. It was as if tiny needles were poking his brain, searching his mind for information. Images flashed in front of his inner eyes. He could see things...memories. Moments of his life, some of them long forgotten, some of them happy ones...
...and some of them full of tragic.
"Ghhhuuuuu...!" he groaned in pain. Dan had never experienced anything like that. It felt...there were no words how to describe what he was feeling.
All he knew was that it sucked.
"So many words. So many things. Against the silence that I have endured. So much life. Yet all I felt is death. Why now? Why has she returned?" Another sense of vertigo washed over Dan, and he realized that this strange voice was actually addressing him.
"Who...who are...are you?" Dan stuttered. "What's...going on?" Thinking was so hard.
"Denying...the truth. Pointless." the voice replied. It sounded...old. And as if it was in pain. It was impossible for Dan to say if it belonged to a woman or a man. Heck, it didn't even sound truly human. Imagine a five-thousand-year-old Protoss who had been a chain smoker for most of his life. And whose family of heavy chain-smokers had come to visit.
"I... where are the others...Kerrigan? Is that another one of your jokes?" Dan groaned.
"Kerrigan. Kerrigan. Kerrigan..." the voice replied over and over again. The Marshal gasped when suddenly images appeared inside his mind. He could see...something. Most of it didn't make any sense to him. He saw teeth and claws, flesh and bones. It was pictures nightmares were made of.
However, among those images of terror was one that caused Dan to groan in despair. He could see alien creatures. At least he assumed that they were aliens. They might as well be demons straight from hell. Nightmarish beings, monsters straight from horror movies. Amidst those creatures stood one that was less of a monster and more like a human. But that didn't make it any better.
...it was Kerrigan...
Dan gasped and his eyes rolled into the back of his skull as his brain was filled with even more images. There was no doubt about it. That face...it looked almost exactly like Paula's. But the rest of the body...
...covered with carapace, weird tentacles instead of hair. Purple-glowing eyes that would haunt you in your dreams. None of that made any sense to Dan, yet the images just kept coming. He saw this creature fighting Protoss, tearing apart humans...
It was...
...a carnage.
As he watched the onslaught, he was surprised at how little he actually felt.
"Retreat! Retreat now! Fall back to the other defense line!" the screams of a soldier reached his ears and he turned around. It wouldn't change anything. The outcome of this battle was already clear. Perhaps it had never been in doubt in the first place.
No, the outcome had never been in doubt.
No matter how you look at it, there was no doubt how this whole show would end.
As he watched the scene in front of him, he questioned his own feelings. Shouldn't he feel something? Anything? Pity maybe?
Yet all he felt was a sense of fulfillment.
Was it wrong to feel that way? These humans had once been his own kin after all. It didn't matter that he had been born on the other side of the galaxy. Even with all those lightyears between them, humanity had still managed to flourish in this god-forsaken part of the universe. He remembered a time when he had felt pity for the plight of other humans, even if he had fought them. But now? Now he felt...
...joy?
"Hmmm..." a quiet hum escaped his charred lips. No, he wasn't feeling joy either. Though, in all honesty, no one could blame him if he would. Not after everything they had done to him. Killing him hadn't been enough, oh no. The sweet release of death had only lasted for a pitiful fraction of a moment. Just when he had hoped to rest in peace, they had brought him back. Only to tear him apart over and over again.
The pain of the body? That, he had endured.
But the pain of having his mind ripped apart...
...that was still there.
"A penny for your thought." her voice reached his ears. He turned his head away from the gruesome sight right in front of them and looked her straight into the eyes. Even now, as he stood right next to her, he still had a hard time to believe it. Not because he couldn't accept the reality of this situation. He had brought this upon himself, after all. It had been him who had approached her, not the other way around. He had offered his services, knowing full well that she probably could have gone without it.
"What?" he asked and frowned.
"It's an old saying." the Queen of Blades replied, a smirk on her face. The fact that there was still a battle going on didn't seem to bother her at all. "Ji-...someone once close to me once told me about it. It's meant that-"
"I know what it means." he replied. "I'm from Earth, remember?"
"Hmpf." she replied. Was she angry? Upset? Or amused by the fact that he didn't want to play her game? It was hard to tell. Perhaps it was curiosity. He was Zerg, yet he was not a part of the Swarm. That alone seemed like a contradiction to the other creatures that followed her, especially that snake-like one. What was her name again? Izsha?
"You seem distraught." the Queen mused. "Feeling pity for your old comrades?" There was only a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Perhaps he was imagining things, but she almost sounded...sad.
"These aren't...my comrades." he replied with a quiet voice.
"No?" the Queen wanted to know. "Why? Because you are no longer human? Or because they weren't born on Earth?" He took his time before giving her an answer.
"Both, I guess." he mumbled. His face didn't betray his emotions, mostly because his charred visage had lost a lot of its flexibility after being killed, revived, infested, de-infested, only to be re-infested again.
In case anyone was wondering: Yes, he was in pain. Constantly. Every second of his existence, every single moment was nothing but pure agony. He didn't know wherever this was the price of infestation, or because they had used him as a guinea pig over and over again. The woman who could give him an answer to that was standing right next to him, yet he didn't feel like this was the right moment to ask such a question. Then again, there would probably never be "the right time" to ask such a question.
Then again, he was pretty certain that he already knew the answer.
"Understood, Izsha. Have Zagara ready her brood. Once this battle is over, I will take my troops and lead them below. I want her to secure this area. Let her claim it for the Swarm." the Queen suddenly declared. He knew that she wasn't talking to him, yet there was still something strangely familiar about this whole situation. Right in front of them, the battle continued, even though it was pretty one-sided. When he had reached out to the stars in order to find help, he sure as hell hadn't expected the famed and much-dreaded Queen of Blade to listen to his calls. And much less had he expected that she would actually be the one to heed his calls.
In a way, he still wasn't sure wherever she had come as an ally...
...or was just another creature that would add to his misery.
However, it wasn't as if he had any choice in this matter. Alone, hunted by his former fellow humans, he had been all out of options.
You know that feeling? When you are no longer in command of your own fate? When you stand on the deck of a ship with a broken rudder and torn sails, and the waves keep crashing down on you? Every moment could be your last and the only option left of you is to pray to whatever god you may believe in. That was his reality right now.
He wondered...
...if he had been in this situation ever since he had left Earth for the Koprulu-Sector, and just hadn't realized it back then.
Suddenly an infernal noise caught his attention. He turned his head around and watched as a Terran vessel approached on the horizon. No, not one. Three.
"Banshees." the Queen mused. "They certainly picked the name well. Their engines do sound like the scream of the damned." She watched indifferently how the flight of three flew over a huge group of Zerg and recently infested humans, and how they released their deadly load. Fire and death rain down upon the Swarm, yet no matter how many bodies were smashed, it carried on.
He watched with keen eyes. Just what were the pilots thinking, dropping their bombs on their former comrades? Were they feeling despair or rage at seeing the fate of their friends and allies? Or pity? Perhaps they believed that killing the infested was an act of mercy.
The banshees performed their attack with deadly precision, yet it wasn't enough. So they turned around and came in for another round. As far as he could tell, they were causing some serious damage. Worse, they seemed to manage to stall the onslaught of the Swarm. Yet when he glanced over to the side and looked at the Queen, she didn't seem to be worried at all.
"We seem to be losing a bit too many troops, wouldn't you agree?" he decided to speak his mind. Wouldn't it be pure irony to see his quest for vengeance fail only after he had managed to recruit the help of the most frightening force in the galaxy?
"We?" the Queen of Blades asked with a hint of amusement in her voice. "Shall I take that statement as a letter of application?"
"Hmm...how about an internship first?" he mused. To his surprise, the creature next to him threw her head back and laughed out loud.
"Hahahaha! That would be amusing, wouldn't it? Zerg accepting limited memberships. I think that would go against the whole idea of being Zerg." However, the moment those words left her mouth, a worried expression appeared on her face. At first, he thought that something had happened, that their plan was about to be ruined. But then he noticed how she looked at her own hands as if she was remembering something. He wasn't willing to ask her what it was that was tormenting her. How could he? Even though he was more monster than man these days, he knew that the fearsome Queen of Blades was in a different league. He had little doubt that she could tear him apart with ease. Perhaps that was what she would do if they were done here.
Who knew, maybe he wouldn't even put up a fight.
"Annoying flies." the Queen of Blades growled when the Banshees turned around for another pass. He watched how she squinted her eyes and gritted her teeth. Mere seconds later infernal screams filled the air when hordes of Mutalisks flew past their heads and headed straight for the Terran machines. He had no idea where she had kept those things hidden. Had they waited inside that gigantic creature that had brought her here, this leviathan? Or had she grown them in the scorched remnants of the base that were now covered with creep and full of Zerg?
He didn't want to ask.
Still, watching the Swarm from within was...intriguing.
He had fought Zerg. He had fought Protoss. And he had fought men. But fighting an enemy was one thing. Watching how the enemy works from the inside was a whole different story.
"Heh..." he chuckled when he noticed how funny that line of thoughts was.
"What's the matter?" the Queen wanted to know while they watched how the banshees broke off the moment they noticed that they were no longer the undisputed rulers of the sky. The Mutalisks followed them and there was no doubt in his mind that they wouldn't stop until the enemy was gone.
"I just pondered, that is all."
"Well, you might as well share your thoughts with me while we wait for the inevitable." the Queen mused.
"It's nothing important. And it will most likely only bore you." he tried to dodge her request.
"Humor me." she insisted. "Besides, I don't know if you have already noticed it, but Zerg usually are horrible when it comes to small-talk."
"Yes..." he chuckled. "...so I noticed."
"So?" the Queen continued to pry, which caused him to sigh.
"It's just...strange to see all of this." He stretched out his arms and included the whole area.
"War? It confuses you?" she asked with a truly surprised tone in her voice.
"Ha! No, not war. Nor battles. I know the sound, the smell and the taste of war well enough." he replied. "It's just...to stand here, among the Zerg, it is...weird."
"Weird? How?"
"I don't know if I know the right words to describe how I feel, I'm afraid." he mused.
"Well..." the Queen chuckled when she heard that. "...I can always have Abathur work his magic on you. I'm sure once he's done you will have no problems sharing your thoughts with the rest of the Swarm. Or whatever's left of you."
"Sounds lovely. But I think I'll pass." he replied with a dry tone in his voice.
"I still demand an answer to my question." the Queen of Blades said after a while. Even though the tone in her voice sounded friendly, he knew that she was serious about that.
"Hmm..." he hummed and tried to gather his thoughts. "...how shall I put it? The Zerg...are a lot less alien than I thought they would be." There was a loud explosion in the distance and both of them watched as a banshee vanished inside a huge fireball when a wounded Mutalisk crashed into the machine, sacrificing itself in order to slay another foe of the Swarm.
"A case of kindred spirits?" the Queen offered, which caused him to laugh again.
"Ha! Hardly. It's just...the creatures that you surround yourself with, they seem so..."
"Competent? Intelligent? Capable of reasoning?" she suggested.
"...human." he replied and noticed how the Queen looked at him in surprise. However, that moment only lasted for the fraction of a second and then she simply turned her gaze away.
"Isn't this a rather odd thing to say?" she wanted to know.
"I don't know anymore what's odd and what's not. I am no longer in charge of my own fate, oh mighty Queen of Blades. Perhaps I have never been. I am but a shadow of my former self. No longer a man. Not truly Zerg either. And not even dying was something that I could do properly. I guess that makes me quite the failure."
"Trust me, I know that feeling." the Queen sighed. In the distance, another banshee was brought down by a suicidal mutalisk. With their air-support gone, the Terran defenders were soon under attack by hordes of Zerg again, some of which had been their friends and comrades not so very long ago.
"There is a certain beauty to it. I wonder if I couldn't see it before because I kept my distance or because I merely wasn't able to perceive it when I was still human." he mumbled.
"Beauty?" the Queen teased him. "Do Zerg arouse you? Perhaps I should ask Zagara if she would be interested in exploring the idea of human-zerg mating habits?" It was obviously a joke.
"Teh, I don't think I'm ready for something like that just yet. Or ever." And then he took a deep breath. "It's just...impressive. The Swarm, seeing it like this. It's like one huge organism. Gerard, he merely saw the weapon. He thought that it was a tool that was supposed to be used. A weapon that was meant to be wielded. But I guess there's more to it than just that."
"You make it sound more poetic than it actually is." the Queen replied. "The Swarm is relentless. Ageless. Without mercy. Or do you consider an avalanche beautiful? It's just going to run you over anyway."
"Sometimes an avalanche can be a beautiful thing. As long as you watch it from a safe distance."
"You and I have very different opinions on avalanches then." the Queen mumbled. "Also, there is no safe distance when the Swarm is involved."
"On that, we can agree."
The battle was about to reach its logical conclusion. He watched from the distance how the defenders intensified their fire. It wasn't a sign of strength. They were no longer aiming at specific targets, they were simply unloading their weapons into the general direction of the enemy. Which meant: everywhere.
For someone who had studied war, this sight was both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. It defied everything he knew about warfare. The Swarm was the ultimate anti-weapon. It didn't require tactic or strategy. You would just point it into the general direction of the enemy...
...and let 'em loose.
"It's not much longer now." the Queen said with a surprisingly tranquil tone in her voice. Was she...sad? He didn't dare to ask. However, when she made a step forward, he couldn't hide his surprise.
"Don't you want to wait until it's over?" he wanted to know. The Queen stopped and looked over her shoulder, flashing him a smile. Even now, even that her body was covered with carapace, that face still looked like the face of an angel. And for a second, he was reminded of his own family, about the one he had left behind when he had traveled to the Koprulu-Sector. To say that the Queen of Blades had anything in common with the wife he had left behind would be utterly ridiculous. Yet, at the same time, that smile the Queen showed him reminded him of the woman that was probably still on Earth, wondering what had happened to her husband.
Hopefully she would die after a long and peaceful life and never find out what had happened to her husband...
"I prefer to lead from the front." the Queen explained. "Care to join me?" For another short moment he thought that she was implying more. But then he chuckled and shook his head. Heh, he was quite the fool. Perhaps the human part of him still longed for companionship. Perhaps all the time alone had turned him desperate. However, he soon realized that she was just referring to this battle. Call it "male intuition".
"Lead on, oh mighty and fearsome Mistress of the Swarm!" he declared. "I shall remain behind and watch from the distance."
"Suit yourself. I will wait for you at the entrance once this battle is over. Don't be late!" And with that, the Queen of Blades walked away. It was truly a sight to behold. She wasn't running. Oh no, she was simply walking towards the battle as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Perhaps it was just another walk in the park for her. Who knew? Still, as he watched how the Queen of Blades joined her minions, he sighed. And after a while, he looked up at the sky and watched how the dark, black clouds filled with thick and acrid smoke were moving past his head.
"Well, Gerard, my old friend. It seems that I am the one who should be pitied, not you." he sighed. The battle continued, and from the distance he could see how the mighty and fearsome Queen of Blades joined the fray. She was truly magnificent, a goddess of destruction and carnage. But he no longer felt unnerved by that. Death and slaughter had lost all its horror to him a long time ago. And absurdity held no longer any meaning for him either. Next to him, a group of Hydralisks slithered towards the frontline. They didn't even stop a second to take a look at him. The mighty Queen of Blades had told them that he was not to be touched or harmed, and that was good enough for them. So here he was, one of the last few survivors of Earth, maybe even the only one, putting his life in the hands of a creature that he had once considered his enemy.
"It would seem that you are heading straight for hell, woman." he mumbled and then a sad smile appeared on his disfigured face. "I guess that leaves me no other choice but to follow you. Isn't that right..." And then he looked up at the sky again.
"...Kerrigan?"
"Kerrigan...Kerrigan...Kerrigan..." the voice continued to snarl. "Where is she...where...come out...show yourself! The Swarm...I am no part of the Swarm. You do not command me. I am my own master! Kerrigan...Kerrigan..."
Dan groaned again when his senses returned to the here and now. A strange sense of vertigo washed over him like some kind of tidal wave. For a moment he felt as if he had to vomit, yet he had no idea if what he was feeling was actually his own body. Describing what he was currently feeling seemed impossible. His mind was still filled with images that didn't make any sense to him.
And in its center was...
"Kerrigan..."
Those images...that creature. It hadn't looked like a human, yet that face. It was the exact same face of someone else he knew. But...how was that possible?
His confusion collided with something that felt like rage and bitterness. Only that it wasn't his own. And that it felt as if it was one thousand years old. Like a tree that had been growing for a long time, unchecked and without anyone caring for it. Only that this thing wasn't a tree.
Or, well, at least it hadn't been one a long time ago.
"Kerrigan. Where is she?" the voice spoke to him from everywhere, including the insides of his own mind.
"I..." Dan panted. "...I don't know."
"Liar!" the voice boomed and suddenly Dan's head felt as if it was about to explode. He groaned in pain and his eyes rolled into the back of his skull. The Marshal gritted his teeth and felt how more memories emerged inside his mind, pictures of his own childhood, of past mistakes and successes...
...and...
"We were enemies once..."
"Well, we both seem to be Zerg now."
"Indeed..."
More pictures of this strange womanlike creature appeared inside Dan's mind. He didn't know what was weirder. The fact that this creature still looked so human, even with all the carapace covering her body, or the fact that her face looked exactly like that of Paula.
"I am the final loose end." the voice continued. It was another memory. Distant. Almost completely faded. Like an old photograph. "I suppose you will kill me now."
"If you want to leave, I won't stop you." the voice of this so-called Queen of Blades echoed through Dan's mind. And again, he was reminded of Paula.
More memories flooded his mind.
"You can't go home again." the Queen declared. "I won't let you."
The finality of those words almost caused Dan to groan again. And then he heard those four words that had once been enough to scare the entire sector, to make grown-up men and women scream in terror and turn warriors into cowards.
"I am the Swarm!"
And then...
...everything ended.
Silence reigned supreme. All that Dan heard was his own breath and the blood rushing through his ears. It felt as if the presence was finally gone from his mind. It was as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders.
"Ah...ah...ah...ah..." Dan panted. Too much. It was all too much. He had no idea what was going on. Just what the hell had he-
"Kerrigan...where is she?" the voice suddenly spoke to him again. Only this time he could hear it with his ears, not inside his mind.
"I don't...know." Bowski replied once more.
"Lies. I sense her. All over you." the voice growled.
"I don't know...what you're talking...about." the Marshal groaned. That's when he heard a wet sound. He raised his head and squinted his eyes. His body was still pinned to the wall, his limbs covered with some sort of hardened resin. It was utterly repulsive, yet at the same time this stuff was the least of his problem. There was some faint light illuminating this place, yet all he saw were things that didn't make any sense to him. Perhaps this was still a nightmare? That would explain why he was inside something that looked like a giant stomach...
"Your lies are useless. I recognize her stench all over you. Her powers have touched you. Intimately. You cannot hide the truth from me..." the voice growled. "...Raynor!"
"R... Raynor?" Bowski muttered. "What's a... Raynor?"
Suddenly something long and slimy shot forward and slung around his neck. Dan gagged when something that felt like a tentacle started to choke him.
"Stop denying the truth!" the voice continued. "I know what you mean to her. She would never allow you to come here alone. Where is she? I will not join the Swarm anymore, I will not fight her battles!"
"What...what are you talking about?" Dan gargled. "I don't...what...Swarm?"
The Swarm. He remembered something. A distant memory, something he had heard when he had been a child. Xenobiology classes in high school. Misses Rutherford. Her fascination with alien cultures and how she had bragged that she once had visited the Protoss' embassy on Korhal. And there had been lessons about something else. A species called Zerg and something called "the Swarm". However, Dan had never really cared about those stories. Especially since Misses Rutherford's tests had been about Protoss, Protoss and even more damn Protoss.
"The Queen of Blades...is close. I can feel her." the voice continued. The tendril tightened its grip around Dan's throat, only to suddenly release his him from its stranglehold.
"Gha! Ack! Eargh!" Dan coughed when the pressure was finally lifted from his throat. He took a deep breath and groaned in pain and discomfort. There was another wet sound. It almost sounded like wet tissue being torn apart. It was nauseating and caused him to shiver in disgust.
"I do not know how you found me, Raynor..." the voice continued. Suddenly it seemed so close. Through half-opened eyes, Dan could see how something lowered itself from the ceiling. Something long and elongated, something utterly inhuman. The "thing" positioned itself right in front of his face, and when he finally could make out some details...
...he started to scream in terror.
In front of him was a face. Or what could be considered a face if you had a lot of imagination. The fact that it was horribly disfigured wasn't nearly as nightmarish as the fact that this face wasn't attached to a body, but a long muscular tentacle-like tendril.
This was a nightmare. It had to be. There was no other logical explanation.
"No! NO! STAY AWAY!" Dan shouted. Perhaps it wasn't very manly to panic in such a situation, but right now he truly didn't care. No one had ever prepared him for any of this! He watched in disgust how the face opened its mouth and how actual words poured out of it.
"Has she decided to force me to serve her once more? Has she reclaimed the Swarm and now wants to finish what she has started?" this thing pondered. Dan looked into dead, milky eyes.
"Please...please..." he stuttered but didn't really know what to say or do. Should he beg for his life? Or pray for a quick and painless death?
"Services were offered..." the creature growled. "...services were rendered. She has no dominion over me anymore. Amon is gone, Narud has been slain. There is nothing left for us. Nothing but silence and remorse." And then the head tilted to the side and grinned. It was a truly nightmarish sight.
"What...are you?" Bowski whispered.
"Feigning ignorance will not save you. If she thinks that I will give up without a fight, then she is mistaken. I will tear you apart and show her that I am my own master!" Oh, that didn't sound good. And just when Dan thought it couldn't get any worse...
...the mutilated head opened its mouth and showed the Marshal its teeth.
Oh God, those teeth!
There was a second row of razor-sharp fangs. It was an utterly inhuman sight and when the head moved closer, Dan could feel its hot and rancid breath on his face.
"What...what are you-" Dan stuttered. He watched in absolute horror how that maw came closer and closer.
"Perhaps..." the voice spoke to him without using the mouth of the head. From the corner of his eye, the Marshal could see more things that looked like faces on the wall around him. And they were all talking to him at the same time. "...she will leave me alone if I take a big bite out of you!" A long tongue emerged from the mouth of the head and licked over Dan's cheek, who felt the urge to puke. So this was how he would die? Eaten by a goddamn monster? This was-
"Uh...am I interrupting you two?" an all-too-familiar voice suddenly spoke to them. The mutated head turned around and snarled at the newcomer, who had appeared inside the fleshy room all of the sudden. Both the creature and Bowski said the same thing as they recognized her.
"Kerrigan!" Dan gasped in surprise. "Quick, get out of here! This thing is-"
"KERRIGAN!" the monster howled and the tentacle with the head at the tip came around until it was face to face with the young woman. "So you have finally returned. I shall-"
"Yeah, yeah." Paula muttered. "Sorry to break it to ya', but you got the wrong Kerrigan. I ain't who you think I am."
"Lies!" the creature growled. "Pointless and empty words that hold no meaning! You smell just the way I remember. You taste as-"
"Whoa! Now let's not go there, okay?" Paula sighed. "This is getting out of hand."
"I shall not join you, Kerrigan. I'm no longer who I used to be. I do not answer your call!" the creature continued.
"Huh...man, your eyes sure are lousy." the young woman mused and acted as if this whole thing wasn't freaking her out at all. "Then again, when she told me about you, she called you "the odd one". Now I understand why."
"Kerrrigaaaaaaaan!" the creature snarled. "I will not-"
"Yeah, yeah, you will become my minion." Paula interrupted him again. "I already got my own private minion, she's hiding outside."
"I'M NOT YOUR MINION!" Sirella screamed from somewhere outside this strange, living room.
"See?" Paula merely continued. "I'm good. Don't need you to tag along too. So don't sweat it. Well, if you can still sweat. Don't know about that. Do you even still sweat?"
…
…
…
"Kerrigan..." Dan groaned. "...perhaps this is not the right time, but should we not survive this, I want you to know..." he gasped.
"...I put the blame entirely on you!"
"Yes, I second that!" Sirella yelled from beyond his view.
"Thanks for having my back, you guys!" the young woman shouted back before she looked at the horribly mutated creature. "Man, time sure hasn't been nice to you. I guess that's what you get for being used as a guinea pig by an ancient monster that's serving a dead god. Not that you did that by choice, I mean. Uhm...yeah."
And so, this whole situation had gone from frightening and horrible to just plain weird...
"I will not join the Swarm again! I am my own master and-"
"The Swarm isn't here. Don't worry, Kerrigans no longer run the Swarm." Paula sighed. "So yeah, if you actually don't want to go there because of a certain someone whose name you are constantly repeating, then I have good news for you! Also, honestly, perhaps you should go there and ask for help with your, uhm, well...condition. The Zerg have changed a lot, you know."
"I will never return and-" the creature growled.
"Ah, gawddammit, Stukov!" Paula barked. "I was told that you could be a frustrating fellow, but this is just ridiculous!"
"Stu...kov?" the face repeated that name and frowned. It was as if this creature was not able to remember what it once had been. Who he once had been.
"Stukov..." the creature whispered again, and from the walls, the name was repeated over and over again.
"Stukov."
"Stukov."
"Stukov."
"Stukov."
"Yes, Stukov!" Paula groaned with an annoyed tone in her voice. "That's your name, glad that we worked that one out. Now, can we return to the really important part of this conversation? I just want to know something and then I will leave you alone to do whatever you like doing down here." There was an awkward moment of silence and Paula looked over at Dan. When they made finally eye-contact, she beamed at him.
"Oh, hi Dan! Didn't notice you there. How's life?" she asked with a cheerful expression on her face. Before he could reply anything, however, Paula turned her attention back towards the creature that was continuing to mutter "Stukov" as if its life depended on it.
"And I'm gonna take that one with me. No offense, but I'm pretty sure you have no use for him anyway." she declared. And much to Dan's own surprise he felt a surge of relief when he heard that voice. But that's when he realized that his fate was now in the hands of none other than Paula Kerrigan. Suddenly the idea to be at mercy of this horrible creature wasn't so bad anymore...
"Oh, quit your whining!" Paula barked at Dan when she noticed his line of thoughts. And then she sighed and rubbed her temples. "Okay, here's the plan: Just hand over this guy and tell me where I find Zeratul, and then we will be on our way. How does that sound? Then you can spend the other half of eternity in here and get even crazier. Sounds cool? Do we have a deal?"
"Zeratul?" the creature growled. "Zeratul. Zeratul. Zeratul. Stukov. Zeratul. Zeratul. Stukov..." And then the head of this creature snapped forward and stopped only mere inches in front of Paula's face.
"KERRIGAN!" the monstrous creature screamed. "I WILL NOT JOIN YOU AGAIN! I DO NOT SERVE THE SWARM, I AM MY OWN MASTER NOW!" The whole room started to shake. Now it truly felt as if the walls were made out of muscles instead of metal. All the movement surrounding Dan felt nauseating, yet suddenly he felt how his limbs became loose and he gasped in surprise when gravity regained dominion over his body.
Which was a fancy way to say that he fell down and landed on his face.
"UNF!"
"KERRIGAN! RAYNOR! ZERATUL!" the creature howled while more tendrils emerged from the ceiling and the walls. "NO MORE! NO MORE FIGHTING! NO MORE BLOOD!"
"Alright, I had it with you." Paula said and raised her hand. "I tried to be reasonable. If you don't want to listen, then I have to make you see the truth. Here, let me fix you up, pal." That's Paula smirked and raised her hand even further. She looked over at Dan and by now her grin was absurdly wide. "Hey, watch this! You won't see this stuff anywhere else!"
And then she snipped her finger.
And...
...nothing happened.
"Huh?" Paula muttered and looked at her own hand. She snipped with her finger once more. But again, nothing happened.
"Uh..." she hummed and tried again and again. "Weird. This usually works." Dan watched in disbelief how Paula was playing with her fingers as if there was nothing more important right now than snipping her fingers.
"Well...that's anticlimactic." Paula mumbled and then she looked over her shoulder. "Yo, Sirella. What day is it?"
"Depends on the world we are currently on!" the Protoss yelled from outside the room. "And before you ask: Yes, today is Thursday!" Dan could actually see how Paula went pale when she heard that.
"Thursday? Eh? Hehehe...ehhhhh...well, that explains it." Suddenly she didn't seem so confident anymore and made a step backward and away from that horribly mutilated head. "Listen, we probably had a bad start. How about we do this again." And then Paula harrumphed and offered her hand to the tentacle with a head at its tip as if it was just a random guy.
"Hello, my name is Paula Kerrigan, and I have no intention of enslaving people and make them serve the Swarm. So how about we-" she started.
"KERRIGAN!" the creature howled in rage.
"Or not." Paula simply replied and looked at Dan. "Uhm...this might be a good moment to GET ON YOUR FEET AND RUN!" For a second Dan wasn't sure if she was making jokes again. But when he saw how the young woman stormed out of the room, he realized that this wasn't meant to be funny. Probably. Dan managed to get back on his feet and stumbled towards the nearby door. He could see how a tentacle shot towards him and ducked just in time before it could grab him. Paula was already out of the door and he was right behind her when another tendril managed to get hold of his leg.
"GHA!" Dan shouted when he was swooped off his feet and landed on the flesh and wet floor. "Let go of me, you-" His eyes widened in panic when he realized that this creature was pulling him back into the room. He reached out with his hands and tried to hold on to something, anything.
That's when suddenly two big gray hands grabbed his own. Dan looked up and stared into the glowing eyes of Sirella.
"Got you!" the Protoss gasped and pulled with all of her might. For a moment Dan felt as if he was about to be ripped in half, but that's when two more hands joined Sirella's. They belonged to a human. Paula.
"For a marshal, you sure like to slack off a lot!" the young woman huffed. The tentacle continued to pull at Dan's leg, so did the two women. He could feel how his spine started to ache, how his vertebrae started to pop. And just when he thought that he would be ripped apart...
...the two ladies won the unlikely tug-of-war and Dan Bowski was spared the fate of being turned into a living pinata.
"GHA!"
"EEEEP!"
"SUNNOFABITCH!"
The three tumbled out of the door. The tentacle suddenly released Dan's ankle and Sirella's superior strength send him flying. He landed on something soft and when he looked down, he realized immediately what it was he had landed on.
"You know..." Paula groaned. "...I understand that this situation is somewhat unconventional, but under other circumstances this could be called sexual harassment." Bowski, whose head was still resting between her breasts, looked Paula straight into the eyes.
"I hate you so much." he growled.
"Yeah, well, I like you too and-" Paula started.
"KERRIGAN!" the voice of Stukov roared from behind them. Dan rolled off Paula and got back on his feet. Next to him, Sirella was making a step back. And then another one. And another one.
"Well..." Paula groaned when she got back on her feet as well. "...I guess this calls for a strategic retreat. Dan, since you got a gun, and Sirella, since you are big and strong, how about you keep me safe while I... uhm...guys?" When the young woman looked around, she realized that her two "friends" were already almost out of sight as they ran down the corridor.
"KERRIGAN!" the artist formerly known as Stukov snarled and more tentacles emerged from the door. When Paula saw that, she groaned and dropped her shoulders.
"I so hate Thursdays. WAIT FOR ME GUYS!"