When the darkness receded, I couldn't even see properly yet before I was in trouble.

I had my helmet on, but I felt something hard pressed to the side of it, and the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking gave me a pretty big clue what was pressed to the side of my head.

"Now I know no one was in here but me before. Pretty sloppy for a Ghost to reveal themselves so fast. But I reckon you're no ghost. So how about you tell me who you are, and I'll see fit not to splatter your brains all over the far wall of my bar."

I swallowed and held absolutely still. The fact that I recognized the voice at least let me know I might get out of this alive.

"My name's Matthew." I answered, keeping my voice steady, "I don't know if you remember, but we ran into each other a while back on Mar Sara. You were just heading towards that fall back base where all the rest of the colonists were when we ran into each other. I had no idea where I was at the time, and you guys were the only people I saw in the middle of nowhere. You were nice enough to take me in and I stayed with the colonists until the Sons of Korhol evacuated us. After that I took the option to get dropped off before hitching a ride to Umoja. Only I never ended up actually making it there."

I trailed off, not sure how to continue. Jim obviously didn't have that kind of patience though and gestured with his gun, pushing my head slightly. "Keep talkin."

I swallowed. "You're going to think I'm crazy, but I swear the next bit is true, and I know information that can help prove it. I'm not from this universe. A while ago this weird system thing picked me of all people to dump all over the multiverse for exactly a week before shuffling me off to the next place. That's why I appeared out of nowhere on Mar Sara. That's why I disappeared from that shuttle heading to Umoja. That's why I appeared suddenly in your bar. Where I'm from, the events of the Koprulu sector revolving around the Great War and after are the main events of a game called Starcraft. As such, I know a lot about events, both past, present, and future. I know you're a good man, and I want to help you if possible... Assuming you don't take me for a crackpot or liar and off me before you catch crazy."

Silence reigned, filled only by the sound of the electrical hum of some lights, the sway of some rickety fan blades on the ceiling, and the drone of a TV in the background reporting some sort of news broadcast.

"You're right. I do think you're crazy." Slightly, the pressure on my helmet withdrew a little. "But I'm willin to give you a chance. You said you had information. Prove me wrong."

I nodded and turned to face him slowly, now that the threat of imminent death had lessened. He hadn't put the gun away, but it was simply pointed in my general direction now, rather than pressed to my helmet. Speaking of...

"Do you mind if I take off the helmet? I only keep it on when the jump happens just in case I end up in the middle of the ocean or out in space."

Raynor simply nodded, and I made the helmet disappear into my molecular inventory.

Jim Raynor raised an eyebrow, seeing the helmet seemingly disintegrate away. "Neat trick." he commented.

I nodded, "Picked it up from a verse that had made small breakthroughs in matter to energy conversion and storage. Alright... information... Probably the clearest evidence I've got to prove my story would be mentioning what I know of the situation you went through with the Protoss. I know a lot more, but I doubt many if any knew about how you and Tassadar joined forces to take down the Overmind."

Raynor made a gesture to continue, though I could see on his face that he was starting to feel surprise, and more important, that he might be actually starting to believe me.

"Ok, so Protoss politics are stupid. I'm seriously glad the Conclave is disbanded. Aldaris was an idiot, even if he did prove in the end to be on the right side... But anyway, he had arrested Tassadar for treason, ignoring the bloody freaking Overmind that'd sat itself upon their planet, along with the scores of Zerg. If I remember correctly... I think it was you and Fenix who lead the charge to bust him out. After that, you had to stomp on some Protoss to get them to work together, before finally you made a push from one side and Tassadar made a push from the other in the Gantrithor, attempting to take down the Overmind."

I sighed. "Unfortunately it proved futile. Not enough damage was being done. So Tassadar channeled the energies of both the Nerazim, the Dark Templar, and the High Templar in order to cause as much damage to the Overmind as possible, and put the Gantrithor on a collision course for the Overmind."

"The Overmind, sensing it's destruction coming, opened a warp conduit to escape, but it was too late. The Gantrithor was shredded by the high energy output of what Tassadar was doing, and the literal bomb of psionic energy smashed into the Overmind, shredding it. Then the Zerg, suddenly blind without their central Hivemind, went berserk. You and the other surviving Terrans and Protoss headed for a warpgate leading to Shakuras, the Nerazim homeworld of sorts. Fenix... and I think you as well, offered to stay behind to shut down the gate on that end. I can only assume you and Fenix got away since you showed up later, but the story and the game itself followed the rest of the Protoss survivors, so I don't know how you got off world."

Raynor, by this point, had set his gun down, having seemingly gotten over his shock in the middle of my narrative and looked like he had a thousand yard stare, lost in memories as he tossed back a shot of whiskey, which made me wonder if it'd be a bit rude if I put my helmet back on since I never could stand the smell of alcohol very well.

"Getting off that rock was hell. Let's just leave it at that." Raynor finally said, before turning to look at me. "I know every single person who made it through that hell with me. You weren't one of em. Either you're one hell of a psychic or... maybe there's somethin to what you were tellin me before." He poured himself another glass. "World hopping, huh." Raynor said, almost to himself, before downing the shot. "And my life is a damn video game too." he poured another shot and downed that as well. I grimaced, knowing he'd have some trouble with alcohol. Jim Raynor was a good man, but it was hard to see in the broken shell I saw in front of my eyes. I knew he'd clean up along the way, but it's somehow so much more real being right in front of me like this.

"So you know the future huh." Raynor said.

I grimaced slightly. "Yes and no. I know of a future. The future that would have most definitely happened if I hadn't shown up. I'm not sure what effects my being here and telling you all this will have on the future. It could be better. It could be worse. On a personal level though... the amount of crap you've pulled through already is already incredible enough, without the amount of crap you're going to end up going through in the future. And to be honest... the state you're in now, I'm not sure you want to hear everything I have to say, even if it does ultimately result in good things."

Raynor seemed to mull on that for a bit, eyeing the whiskey still in the bottle for a moment. Then he turned back to me. "I'll keep that in mind. For now, I've got a rebellion to run. Still not sure I trust you yet, but I'm reasonably certain you're not gonna stab me in the back. So sit down over there while I do some work."

I nodded and went to take a seat at a booth on the opposite side of the room, facing the entrance and keeping Jim in my peripheral, while I could see he'd done the same, minus the facing the door part.

I listened with half an ear as he addressed what looked like a high tech record player, but somehow ended up being a holographic emitter instead, to which he addressed his adjutant about the war effort, and used an interface not unlike playing Starcraft normally to direct troop efforts.

While he did this, I thought off and on about what I should say and what I should keep to myself. I'm pretty sure he won't take kindly to Tychus being essentially a traitor, even if he is pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place. Considering the fact that Raynor has a bit of a drinking problem currently and doesn't seem completely emotionally stable where Sarah Kerrigan is concerned, I'm pretty sure it'd be a bad idea to mention her. I could start from the very beginning and explain to him what all these events mean in the big picture of the cycles of the Xel'naga, but I don't want to overload the guy with too much in one go. I'd be metaphorically dropping the galaxy on his shoulders almost.

I stewed on this for quite a while, before giving a start when a glass thunked in front of me. He poured me a glass, but I held up my hand. "Sorry, I don't drink."

Raynor raised an eyebrow. "What kinda man doesn't drink?"

"The religious kind," I responded.

Raynor gave a soft snort and shrugged before taking my glass and abandoning his own, before sitting across from me. I checked my watch. Had I really been lost in thought and contemplating what to say for over an hour?

"So. The future." Raynor said, prompting me.

A few moments passed before I sighed. "I guess... I want to help, I do. I just... I suppose it depends on how much you actually want to know."

Raynor seemed to consider it for a bit, sipping his glass. Finally he asked, "You said it all goes well in the end?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Crazy stuff happens that's almost kinda mind bending, but the end result is actually far better than even I expected when waiting to see the end result of the game."

Raynor snorted and shook his head. "That's gonna take some getting used to," he muttered, almost to himself. After a few moments, he said, "Ah to hell with it. In for a credit, in for a piece. If everything turns out alright, I want to know everything that leads up to it so I can do what I can to make sure it happens."

I nodded and took a deep breath. "Alright. It's a long story though, and I'm not sure how much time I've got. You'll be getting company soon and I don't want to say any of this in front of Tychus."

"Tychus? Tychus Findley's comin here?" Raynor asked, surprised, before his eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with Tychus?"

I sighed. "Mengsk's got him strapped over a barrel. He's got an idea of what's coming in the short term, and he's released Tychus and welded him into a suit of CMC armor that he can't get out of. A suit that'll kill him if he doesn't play ball. For the most part, Tychus won't actually be a problem. He's a bit of a hothead, and being in such a crap situation doesn't help that at all, but he helps you out a great deal with the rebellion. The problem with him doesn't really come up until much later, when you gotta make a choice."

"What choice?" Raynor asked.

"A choice between revenge... and hope. One that will ultimately lead to you having to kill Tychus if you aren't able to get that suit off him without killing him before the choice even comes up." I said.

Raynor shook his head. "I'm gonna need more information than that."

I nodded, "I know. It's just, the information I have to give won't make a bit of sense unless I give you the backstory, so you can see the whole picture, and it's one hell of a bigger picture."

Raynor mulled on this for a moment, then nodded. "Fine. Start from the beginning."

"Alright," I started, "So I'll do my best to sum up some parts or we'll be here forever. To put it simply, all of this starts with the Xel'naga, and ultimately what they are. I've no idea how long they've been around in one form or another, but the Xel'naga are a race of powerful extra dimensional alien beings that sowed life throughout the galaxy. They're powerful to the point that most might mistake them for deities. That attack Tassadar used on the Overmind? That's like a normal fist punching throw to something like them."

"The Xel'naga, as a species, exist in a series of cycles. After a period of time has passed, they find or create the next beings that will inevitably evolve into the next cycle of them, and the Xel'naga then go to sleep in preparation for when the new version of the Xel'naga are ready."

"I've got some speculation as to why what happened next happened, but for the sake of not making this confusing, I'll just stick to what I know for sure. For some reason, one of the Xel'naga decided that the cycle was corrupt and couldn't continue. I don't know if he didn't want to be replaced by the next iteration or what, but the end result is the Xel'naga Amon and his subordinate, the Xel'naga Narud, wanting to wipe out the next cycle entirely before it could even begin."

"While powerful, Amon couldn't do this by himself, and while the rest of the Xel'naga had gone into sleep, not all of them had, so he had to be careful and pervert the next cycle to do the job of destroying the Xel'naga and themselves for him. So Amon set out and started seeding planets with the crystals and the vespene geysers that would ultimately fuel the future wars and resource grabs."

"Amon then went on to pervert both the Protoss and Zerg, both of which the Xel'naga had deemed the most likely candidates to become the next iteration of Xel'naga. As such, the Xel'naga have a hands off policy regarding such. Amon couldn't wait for this though. He needed to make the Protoss more war like and push them along into becoming what he needed to take on the Xel'naga."

"Ultimately, it wouldn't work with the Protoss, but Amon did set himself up as a 'god' to the Protoss and basically steered along their earliest technological and cultural progress. Eventually though Amon left, sparking a world wide tribal war between the Protoss known as the Aeon of Strife."

"While that was going on, Amon moved on to Zerus and the Zerg. Having learned from his 'mistakes' with the Protoss, Amon decided he needed something that could be more directly controlled. As they were, the Zerg were all individuals, all of which basically evolved by eating each other, consuming other's essence and taking on the best traits of the others. Essentially natural selection and evolution on steroids. This wouldn't do for Amon, and thus he created the Overmind, a being that would take control of the Zerg and bring them to one purpose. Amon's purpose."

"While that was happening, the Xel'naga finally caught wind of what Amon was up to. They came out of sleep to confront Amon. In response, Amon sicced the Zerg Swarm on them."

Raynor winced, "That can't have gone well."

I shook my head. "Not at all. The fighting was brutal and terrible. Powerful as they were, the onslaught of the Zerg proved too much, and many Xel'naga were slaughtered, including Amon ironically enough, though not Narud. Unfortunately, Xel'naga aren't technically native to this dimension so when they die here, their 'spirits' just go back to their home dimension. It was there that Amon and Narud really started to slaughter the Xel'naga whole sale until all but them and one other were dead, as far as I know. There might have been other survivors, but I doubt it."

"Who was the other survivor?" Raynor asked.

"Sadly, I keep forgetting the guy's name. Well, I think it was a guy. Xel'naga don't look very humanoid. You don't actually learn about him until the very end, when it's a really big reveal and he pulls off something which, storywise, is completely cheesy, but ultimately is what leads to the good things." I answered.

"Huh. So what happens next?" Raynor asked.

"Well, with Amon out for the count, he needs to create a body in order to reconstitute himself in this dimension. The Overmind itself was no longer under Amon's direct control, but Amon's last commands were still directly wired into it's brain, something that the Overmind itself raged and hated, ultimately decided to have revenge on Amon for enslaving him and his species the way he had."

"But the Overmind had to work around his prime directive, which was to ultimately confront the Protoss while also striving for more power and perfection. Powerful as the Zerg were, the Overmind knew from what it had gleaned from the dead minds of the Xel'naga that the Protoss could give the Zerg some serious trouble."

"Then along came humanity. The wild card." I said, grinning.

Raynor snorted. "Of course."

I nodded, "Far as I'm aware, humanity actually wasn't messed with or created by the Xel'naga at all. As it was, Terrans showing up and settling the Koprulu sector was exactly what the Overmind needed to not only bridge the gap to fight the Protoss, but would also serve the purpose of setting the stage for the Overmind's eventual freedom and revenge against Amon."

"In order to do this, the Overmind needed to find a successor. A human powerful enough to lead the Swarm after he died, an event that the Overmind planned to happen since he was too ensnared by Amon and he knew it, which is why he goaded the Protoss by landing smack dab on their planet rather than doing the smart thing and sending wave after wave of Zerg from nearby, ultimately whittling them down by a war of attrition. The Overmind planned to find a human powerful enough for this, then infest that person and groom them to become the leader of the Swarm, one that would eventually be free from Amon's control."

Raynor's eyes narrowed. "Kerrigan."

I hesitated, then nodded. "Unfortunately, things didn't go exactly the way the Overmind wanted. Narud was still around and mucking things up, taking the form of a Terran and manipulating things from the background. I wouldn't be surprised if it was through him the confederacy ever ended up creating the Psi Disruptors in the first place. Either way, the Terrans were surprisingly prepared for the Zerg to show up. After the Overmind died, Kerrigan was free, but she still had the vestiges of Amon's control in her subconcious, and Narud coming to her and posing as her second in command couldn't have helped at all."

I sighed, "Ultimately, it served Amon's plans for Kerrigan to get infested. Powerful as she is, Amon plans to make use of her either way to speed along his eventual body creation, which he plans to do using the corpse of the Overmind."

"This... this is where things get weird. Remember that other Xel'naga I mentioned? Well despite not having a body, that Xel'naga hasn't been idle either. After the Brood War, Kerrigan found 'prophecies' depicting Amon and what would happen to her. Realizing the futility of everything and wanting to spite Amon herself, Kerrigan's essentially stopped expanding the Swarm so as to limit its power for when Amon starts manipulating things himself, as well as leaving humanity alive as the wild card, to perhaps throw more wrenches in his plans."

Raynor by this point looked a bit poleaxed by what I was telling him, but when I paused, he gestured for me to continue, seemingly absorbing everything I was saying and committing it to memory.

"Meanwhile during all this, Zeratul ended up discovering, almost by accident or possible intervention by that Xel'naga I mentioned, the crap Narud was pulling while pretending to be Kerrigan's second, though by this point he'd taken off leaving Kerrigan behind. He'd started creating perverse hybrids of Protoss and Zerg, getting something like what would have happened naturally by the start of the next cycle and what would be the next generation of Xel'naga. Only these were altered to obey Amon alone and be almost literal crimes against nature that would be his tools to destroy all life, along with the Zerg. They're so powerful that some of them can't even be stopped by conventional weapons. Zeratul slaughtered the Hybrids he discovered, but Narud, going by Duran at the time, taunted Zeratul, telling him he'd seeded the galaxy with hybrids by this point, and there was nothing Zeratul could do to stop the end."

"Zeratul didn't stop though. He kept searching for answers. He discovered the same prophecies Kerrigan did, confronted her, and eventually ends up at the corpse of the Overmind seeking answers. There, the spirit of Tassadar shows up, which is actually just that Xel'naga I mentioned in disguise so that Zeratul would listen to him. The Xel'naga then went on to explain what the galaxy in the future would be like if things didn't change. Ultimately Kerrigan would stay in hiding until Amon was ready to get his body back. Upon which, Amon would assume control of the Zerg, which he may or may not need Kerrigan for, and with his Hybrids ready and spread throughout the galaxy already, Amon would release a swarm of Zerg and Hybrids on the galaxy, bringing it to its knees, until only a last bastion of Protoss would be left, before they too would succomb and be destroyed, upon which Amon would destroy all Zerg and Hybrids he had, thus succeeding in ridding the galaxy of all life. This is what would happen... unless something changed. Unless someone stepped up and served as the lynchpin that would change the course of the future entirely. You."

"Me?" Raynor asked, eyes widening.

I nodded. "Zeratul would seek you out, letting you know what he learned from 'Tassadar'. You would be needed to seek out the pieces of an ancient Xel'naga artifact, which when used, tends to cause a bad case of death in the Zerg, and most likely in the Protoss as well since I'm pretty sure it affects the creations of the Xel'naga. It would ultimately have an interesting effect on Kerrigan though. Due to her being human for the most part, all that would happen to her is having the majority of her Zerg traits and power being stripped from her, including Amon's control. That's when you'd need to make a choice. Let Tychus shoot Kerrigan, or keep her alive to save the galaxy, which she does in the future."

Raynor sat there in silence, mulling over what I said.

Finally Raynor asked, "Is that everything?"

"Well... up until this point for the most part, yeah. There's everything that happens after and such, but... I'm kinda in a quandary over whether saying it out loud would be a good thing, or if it's already too late."

Raynor narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"Amon." I responded. "There's a couple things in the whole story of Starcraft that are either plot holes, or just have an explanation I'm not seeing. Xel'naga in general, what with the whole 'prophecy' schtick, seem to have some form of ability to see the future or at least omniscience. Either that, or they're smart enough to take what they see and predict with accuracy what will come about in the future. Later in the story when Amon shows up, he shows that he's ridiculously powerful, but at the same time... part of the time he acts as if he is omniscient and knows everything, but if that were true... fighting a being with omniscience without having omniscience yourself is an exercise in futility, and quite frankly the lot of you do a pretty good job of kicking his butt in the end. It just doesn't make sense to me. Is he omniscient or not? For all I know, he could be watching everything I tell you right now, which is why I've been careful to only say what's already happened and what could very well come about in the immediate future. But if he's truly omniscient... and psionic, then he's probably already read my mind and knows everything I know, which means he has as good a chance as you of derailing everything now that you know what I know."

Raynor made a hmm sound as he thought. "If that were the case, then it'd be better if you just told me everything now so I'd have as good a chance to 'derail' things from what he would try to change and put things right."

"True..." I temporized, thoughtfully, "Cept there's one thing."

"What?" Raynor asked.

"Well, if he's already read my mind of what'll happen, then why haven't things already changed drastically? I've been in this verse already, a number of years ago. If he read my mind, then... at the very least I would've expected steps to have been taken to kill you..."

A possibility occurred to me, and I narrowed my eyes looking at Raynor.

Raynor raised his eyebrow, "Well looks like I'm still alive, so I'm guessing he hasn't read your mind then."

"Or he has, and Raynor's already dead." I muttered, thinking quickly.

"What?" Raynor asked, his eyes furrowing in confusion.

"Narud's a shapeshifter." I pointed out.

Silence passed for a moment.

Raynor snorted incredulously, "Wait, you think I'm this Narud fella? How would that even make sense?"

I relaxed slightly, as Raynor continued, "I've heard of paranoia, but really? Come on, man. Even if Amon did read your mind and took steps to kill me off already, why would he send Narud to act like me?"

I shrugged. "Couple possibilities. For one, you're Jim Raynor. Narud's whole schtick is infiltration and what better way to derail crap and neutralize the Terrans than to take the leader of Raynor's Raider's spot and drive a thorn in the Dominion's side? All you gotta do is follow the rails for a while until you've reached the point where the Raiders have beaten the Dominion, then destabilize the Raiders from within, probably by killing Matt Horner and your other top brass, leaving the Terrans leaderless. Granted, you probably wouldn't be able to fool Zeratul when he shows up, but it would work in your best interest to kill him as soon as possible anyway. Now, if I could think of that, what's to stop a supposedly far more intelligent pair of evil beings from thinking up something far worse?"

Raynor shrugged, his face closed off and thinking. Finally he shook his head, "I don't know, but that way of thinking isn't going to get us anywhere. We'd just end up thinking ourselves in circles until we're both sure the other is about to stab the other in the back. For all I know, you're Narud spinning a yarn to get me to drop my guard so you can do exactly what you just said he would in my shoes."

I winced. "Dang. You gotta point there."

Raynor leaned forward. "The way I see it, best I can do right now is ask you if there's anything else you think I should know. Otherwise, best keep it to yourself for now."

I frowned, thinking for a moment, then responded, "Well... there's a couple things left that you should know I suppose. For one, there's a couple of choices coming up that'll have small consequences in the immediate future, but may pose a problem after the fact."

"What are they?" Raynor asked.

"First is Gabriel Tosh." I said, leaning back with a frown. "At some point, you're gonna need to deal with a situation at New Folsom. Tosh'll show up and ask you to break out his friends who were imprisoned by the Dominion, so were most likely imprisoned wrongly. Thing is, he and his buddies are Ghosts that have taken a drug I forget the name of that is noted to have bad side effects, such as acting kinda psycho. I'm not so sure they were imprisoned wrongly to be honest, and breaking them out also runs the risk of releasing the rest of the inmates, some of which I'm pretty sure should definitely be there."

"The other option is helping Nova. She's a Dominion Ghost hunting for Tosh and seeing as Mengsk wants Tychus along so he can kill Kerrigan, she'll help out by giving you the equipment necessary to field Ghosts. She'll ask you to do something at New Folsom too, but I forget what it was. Either way, you get Ghosts, or whatever Tosh and his buddies are calling themselves. Wraith's I think or something. If you go with Nova, Tosh gets taken out by her, and she thanks you for the help. That's what I picked in the situation, but I've heard plenty of others picked Tosh, and while from what I've heard the situation goes ok... Well... It's your choice there. I'm just telling you what I know so you can make an informed decision after all."

Raynor nodded. "And the second issue?"

I sighed, "At some point in the near future, your Raiders are going to end up helping a female scientist on a colony world that is currently the test bed for the Zerg Hyper Evolutionary Virus. It's essentially a zombie apocalypse there. I think the world's name was... Haven or something like that. Anyway, what I remember of the choice, the Protoss are there to destroy the Zerg situation, but the doctor wants you to help save the colonists since she's working on a cure. Normally, this seems pretty clear cut. The moral choice is obviously to help the colonists, which I did. The Protoss weren't happy, but they respected the choice, you helped save the colonists, the doctor created the cure, and you went on your way. However, if you decide to help the Protoss destroy the Zerg and the infected colonists... things turn out far different."

"It's... not exactly clear what happens. Once you finish clearing the colony, you end up going back to the Doc, only to find her lab dark. She then reveals herself to be infected rather horribly and you have to put her down. I don't know if she was already infected or if she felt pushed to infect herself to try and create a cure faster. If it's the former, then the 'cure' she made could have simply been a way to finish the retrovirus to make it undetectable so it could spread on and no one would be the wiser until it's too late. If it's the latter, and she only infected herself out of desperation... Well, that kinda sucks and is another reason why you should choose to save the colonists."

I hmmmed and frowned, looking down at the table. "Far as I'm aware though, even if it is the former, I don't think it comes to much, at least as far as I know. What with your actions saving Kerrigan, she obviously doesn't go on to infect all the Terrans or whatever anyway, so the whole situation really could be as innocent as it seems. I don't know. But Zerg have been shown to operate autonomously, especially since that's the natural state of a Zerg anyway, since the Hivemind was an aberration introduced by Amon. So the good doctor may prove to be a tricky thorn in the side after all is said and done, assuming Kerrigan doesn't take care of it herself after Amon is finished."

"As for the last thing you should know..." I said, pausing as I considered, wondering if I really should say anything or not.

"What is it?" Raynor asked.

I scratched my head, debating with myself, before I shrugged. "The last thing you should know is that after you use the artifact to free Kerrigan... Actually, you should probably also know that doing that also has consequences. While freeing Kerrigan is a step in the right direction, it also helps out Amon in the short term, since all that energy the artifact is collecting has to go somewhere. I think Narud was nearby during that time, collecting all the energy massed, which speeds up Amon's return, which is probably why he didn't bother taking steps to stop you from using the artifact, since the sooner he has a body, the sooner he can cause problems for everyone. And I'm not entirely convinced he really needs Kerrigan to make use of the Zerg, or if he can't just create another Overmind from scratch. So... yeah. There's that."

Raynor nodded, "Noted. What was the rest?"

I sighed, "After you rescue Kerrigan, you'll take her to a medical facility to rest and heal up. She still has some Zerg left in her, which in this case is a good thing cause the point here is that in order to truly help the galaxy, she needs to be powerful, but free from Amon's control."

"Unfortunately, you didn't know that in the game. And, you end up getting captured by the Dominion. Mengsk then announces that he's killed you. And despite being a lying two faced son of a bitch... Kerrigan believes him."

Raynor raised an eyebrow. "I take it by your words then, that he doesn't."

I shook my head. "He'd be an idiot to do so. Even without you, the Raiders are dangerous, since you've gone out of your way to make sure Matt Horner can run things even without you, even if they're still guaranteed to be more effective under your leadership. Mengsk is better off keeping you alive to interrogate."

"Kerrigan though, believes you to be dead. Now she has reason to get revenge as soon as possible against Mengsk, using that as a stepping stone for revenge against Amon. This pushes her to really start picking her abilities back up with the Zerg. Zeratul shows up and tells her about the Primal Zerg and how the Hivemind was an abberation, urging her to go there, where she'll return to her full power once again as the Zerg Matriarch, but free of Amon's control. After that, she discovers that you weren't really killed and goes to rescue you. Again, you didn't know at that point that she was free of Amon. Seeing Kerrigan looking like a Zerg again, albeit a far more... purple and glowy one, with built in high heels of all things, you kinda... freak out a bit. And I totally get it. After everything she did as a Zerg when she was influenced by the Overmind and Amon, it takes you a bit to see that she's still a good person despite being visibly Zerg again. I just... can't help but wonder... you rejecting her like that really hurt her you know? And I can't help but wonder what would have happened if you'd looked past her exterior to see she hadn't changed after all. A lot of other people who played the game wrote their own stories, going on about just that happening, and generally you play a role of keeping Kerrigan grounded being a decent being, a moral compass if you will. I don't know if that's how things will play out for real, but it is a decent possibility anyway."

Once I finished, I searched Raynor's face to gauge his reaction. Unfortunately the guy has a really good poker face, and while I can tell he's thinking, I can't tell much more beyond that.

Finally though, he nodded, "I'll keep that in mind. Anything else I should know?"

I wracked my brain, thinking about it. After a while, I nod. "There is one last thing. In the end of the original story, Zeratul dies."

"What? Why?" Raynor asked, alarmed.

"When Amon starts influencing things directly, the first thing he does is make use of the Protoss' connection to each other via the Khala, a system that was left in place for the Protoss to find by him, since he was the one who messed with the Protoss' development, though tell that to a Protoss now, and they might just kill you for speaking heresy against their gods. With Amon taking control of the Protoss, Zeratul and the other dark Templar help by severing their braids, the connection that allows them to be part of the Khala in the first place. But some of the Protoss fight back since they're being controlled by Amon. Zeratul dies severing Artanis' connection to the Khala, knowing in the end that it's Artanis' leadership that will lead the Protoss to victory against Amon."

Raynor grimaced. "Damn it. And if I told Zeratul this, he'd probably say something like how it would be worth it to die in such a way. Damned noble stupid Protoss!"

I shrugged, "Can't disagree there. But can you really think of a way to convince a Protoss to give up the very connection that drew them all together and ended the Aeon of Strife, the world war Amon sparked by leaving them? The Dark Templar were cast out for not wishing to join the Khala and were labeled heretics. While the Protoss accept the Dark Templar now, albeit reluctantly, to convince the rest of them to essentially become Nerazim?" I shook my head. "Protoss are prideful and stubborn. You'd have better luck leading a horse to water and making it drink."

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't try." Jim countered.

I looked at him, surprised at that statement. Considering how deep he was in his cups, that was a surprisingly optimistic statement. But I could see in his eyes now a spark that wasn't there before. Seems I may have lit a fire under Commander Raynor's butt, and this time far earlier than he would have before. I smiled, and nodded, "Fair enough."

Raynor nodded and stood up from the booth. "Thanks for telling me all that. Feel free to help yourself to a drink. I'm sure I've got something besides alcohol. In the meantime, I've got a rebellion and a war to win."

I smiled and nodded, "Good to see the legend in action. You're one heck of a man, Jim Raynor. Proud to have met you."

Jim seemed startled for a moment, before he gave a lopsided grin and a jaunty salute, then walked back over to his command station and began working at a feverish pitch.

Taking up his offer, I went behind the bar to look around. I couldn't find anything non alcoholic. Or anything labeled as non alcoholic anyway. Grabbing a glass, I filled it up with the purified water I already had in storage and sipped it while watching Raynor work. The intensity of the man was incredible now.

While I watched and sipped my water, I considered what to do next. Outside of telling Raynor enough to hopefully have things turn out even better than in canon... What else could I do here for the next week? Other than playing tagalong, I can't think of much. Maybe talking to Swann or that scientist Raynor employs to get my stuff upgraded might be a good idea, but I'm not sure if I want to pull them from their work, and I can't think of anything off the top of my head that they'd be able to help give me anyway.

Actually scratch that, if I could get my hands on the self charging reactor that powers a Ghost's invisibility and tie that, and the technology to turn invisible, into my suit, that would be awesome. But I'm pretty sure that the New Folsom situation won't be popping up in a week, so Ghost tech won't be available to play with before I'm off. I wouldn't mind a ship or a mech suit or something, but I can't exactly store that in my backpack, and while my digital mass storage is useful, most of its storage capacity is already taken up by my guns and other stuff, with the majority of it already tied into systems like storing my helmet and the disguise bits of my suit. Maybe if I had better storage capacity, that would help, but short of getting a Protoss Phase Smith like Karax to help out, I'm kinda stuck in that regard.

So no, while playing tagalong might be fun, I don't think there's anything else I can really do in a week to help out or get help from Terrans.

A couple hours later...

Raynor was taking a break while I relaxed in a booth nearby, when I heard thanks to my suits audio receptors, the sound of heavy steps coming from outside towards the building. Considering the wind storm outside had yet to drop this entire time, the fact that I could hear the steps over all that noise is surprising.

The door into the bar opened, revealing a man in blue CMC armor, standing against the backdrop of the heavy sand filled winds. I knew immediately it was Tychus.

As he stepped inside, Tychus said over his speaker to Raynor's back, who had yet to turn around, "You know, for the most wanted man in the sector, you ain't that hard to find."

I raised an eyebrow as I could feel the tension in the air.

"I had to see it for myself," Tychus continued, snapping open his visor, "Little Jimmy Raynor. The people's hero."

"Tychus Findley," Raynor said, amused, "Heh. Nice suit."

"Pays to be prepared," Tychus said, leaning against the bar, consequently knocking a number of bottles onto the floor and causing them to smash.

"I heard they put you on ice. Life sentence. What, they give you time off for good behavior?" Jim Raynor asked, and I raised an eyebrow. Dang this guy would be killer at poker.

"That's right old buddy." Tychus said, a touch smugly. "I'm a model citizen now."

"Haha," Raynor laughed, amused, "So to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Just a friendly business proposition." Tychus said.

Raynor grabbed another bottle to refill his glass while Tychus continued, "Do you even know what the Dominion are doin out here?"

"I'm guessin you're about to tell me." Raynor said.

"Digging up alien artifacts, old buddy. Your boy Mengsk has gone crazy for 'em." Tychus said.

Raynor just raised an eyebrow as Tychus grabbed a bottle he was reaching for. Tychus smirked as he continued, "But I got a contact that'll pay top dollar for every artifact we... liberate from the Dominion."

"I guess I can hardly pass that up now, can I, Tychus." Raynor said.

"Partners then," Tychus said, grinning and slid a glass down the bar to Raynor. "60/40."

"70/30," Raynor countered, picking up the glass. "My way."

Tychus stared at him and Raynor just grinned back and laughed. "Haha, feels just like old times already."

"Old times," Tychus agreed, clinking the bottle he was holding to Raynor's glass. The two then drank.

Raynor then set his glass down, and Tychus his bottle. "So who's your friend?" Tychus asked, gesturing to me.

"Name's Matthew. He's been advising me on some things. Stuff that'll really give the hurt to the Dominion." Raynor said, saluting me with is glass.

"Really now?" Tychus said, regarding me with interest.

I grinned and spoke up. "You like Thor's Tychus?"

Tychus shrugged, "I reckon I like em enough."

"How would you like to get your hands on the big daddy of Thors later to drive around in?" I asked.

"I'm listenin." Tychus said.

"Biggest hurt you could give the Dominion later on is propaganda." I said more to Raynor than Tychus at this point. "If you get to the news center that broadcast all the Dominion's crap," I said, gesturing to the TV that was still broadcasting the news, "And upload, say... evidence of Mengsk himself betraying Kerrigan and pretty much outting himself as a bad guy in general, that kind of thing would be a kick in the nuts for his ability to control the general public, and I happen to know that when you get to that point where you can actually take advantage of doing such a thing, an experimental super unit, a Thor that's been souped up and renamed the Odin, will be in the area, and just ripe for hijacking and causing some very distracting mayhem."

Jim and Tychus glanced at each other.

"I like the way this guy thinks," Tychus said, grinning as he imagined putting the hurt on the Dominion.

Raynor nodded, grinning my way. "It's why I keep him around."

After that point, Raynor and Tychus continued to talk and drink, though mostly it seemed to be small talk or referencing things I had no idea about.

As for me, I ended up waiting for a while, bored, watching idly as Raynor set up a few missions and controlled a few battles.

It was a few hours before Raynor finally set down his drink, cleaning up a bit, while Tychus got up and waited by the door. Once Raynor was finished, he waved a hand on me. "Come on. Unless you'd rather keep my bar company for a week?"

I shook my head and stood up and followed them out the door. I thanked the heavens for my helmet which I materialized over my head which blocked out all the dust.

"That's a neat trick," Tychus commented on seeing my helmet appear.

"A bit of experimental tech, almost homemade in a way," I told him through my speakers, grinning to myself since it technically was true.

"Wish I had something like that," Raynor commented as he held an arm over his face and lead us not too far away, where a dropship had just come in for a landing.

"Tell you what," I said, "I'll gladly share my tech if you'll authorize upgrading my gear to Ghost specifications."

"Ghost huh?" Raynor said, as he climbed up the ramp and into the Dropship, with us following right behind him and strapping in. "I think I can do that."

I smiled and nodded, "Thanks. I appreciate that. Could probably do with updating my VI to a full on adjutant as well..." I added, mostly to myself.

"VI? Never heard'a somethin like that." Tychus commented.

I shrugged. "Virtual Intelligence. It's just a fancy way of saying an AI that is still a machine, rather than a synthetic lifeform. Don't like the idea of having an AI that's pretty much bound to my wrist is all."

"Heh," Raynor laughed, "That's an odd way to look at it. Every Adjutant and AI I've ever talked to hates the idea of being confined to a single body, and prefer the freedom of being able to bounce around their servers to their heart's content."

I blinked. "Never thought of it that way before... I suppose since my VI can access pretty much any computer system wirelessly, the idea that it's confined to my wrist alone is kinda laughable..."

"Now you're gettin it," Raynor said, grinning, "Don't worry, once we get up to the Hyperion, I'm sure you can get all that taken care of, and more. Egon'll see to that."

"Egon?" I asked, the name ringing a bell.

"My chief science advisor," Raynor answered, his eyebrow raising slightly.

"Ah, ok," I said, nodding as comprehension dawned. I'd honestly forgotten the names of the other characters. Been way too long since I played Starcraft 2. Tychus and Matt Horner were honestly the only names I'd remembered among the Raiders.

The rest of the trip was surprisingly short and was made mostly in silence.

After we docked, we left the ship, and Raynor clasped hands with a large burly man with a claw for an arm.

"Jim! Good to see ya back kid. Ready to kick them Dominion bastards where it hurts?" the man said, as he greeted the two.

"You bet, Swann. It's time to kick this rebellion into overdrive." Jim responded, grinning.

"Who're your friends?" Swann asked, looking over me and Tychus curiously.

Jim patted Tychus on the shoulder. "This here's Tychus Findley. Old friend of mine from back in the confederate days. Got a deal goin', so we'll be disrupting some mining ops of the Dominion's soon. You in?"

Rory laughed, "Sounds good to me. And the kid?"

My eyebrow rose from in my helmet. I suppose to him I would look pretty young. In fact, come to think of it, appearances aside, I may actually be the youngest in this group.

"This here's Matthew," Raynor answered, "Mysterious fellow and informant. Gave me a lot of info on the Dominion and their interests in exchange for a tune up and a week's ride with the Raiders. I expect you and Egon'll love to check out the tech he's got available. Homemade never before seen kinda stuff."

"Really now?" Swann said, interested, "I'll look forward to taking a look later then!" offering his hand, which I shook.

"Nice to meet you," I offered.

"Likewise," He said, nodding to me, before turning to Raynor. "Well, you best get going. This war ain't gonna run itself! Gotta get back to work."

"See you later, Swann," Raynor said, before leading us through a far door and down some halls to the bridge.

O

After a tour and being introduced to Matt Horner and Egon Stetman, I got shown where I could bunk down along with where the mess is. With my introductions settled, I found that as I'd expected, not much of note happened. I spent a good chunk of my time with both Stetman and Swann, the two of them working out how some of the bits of my armor worked.

Egon was especially interested in the molecular data storage, and it was with him I spent the majority of my time with answering questions and learning from him how to work my new suit, which ended up getting an overhaul to implement some of the old Ghost recon armor tech since they didn't have any of the new stuff yet.

At times Raynor would pop over to ask me a few questions, but since I'd already told him pretty much everything, there wasn't much left to cover, and it seems there was enough time jumps during the rest of the game that I never did end up seeing any of the next big missions, so I kept a low profile, and when the end of the week came up, I donned my sleek improved black undersuit with red trimming (by personal request) and did one last check of its armor up and disguise donning features.

Stetman had seemingly worked some miracles since now all I needed was the ghost recon mesh as a base and everything else was now stored in a shockingly vastly improved molecular storage. Total space that he got out of the system for me roughly equals that of a single supply depot, which in his words is overkill, since a single one of those can keep a single marine going for over fifty lifetimes, and I still had space left over for things that didn't involve keeping myself supplied.

With all my armor and clothing stored and capable of being able to be pulled out of storage straight over my body, I realized with a start that I basically have a true gamer's inventory now. Stetman even admitted he modeled the UI for exactly that after he'd wrangled the details of my situation out of me and told me straight up it sounded like I was straight out of a video game. He even took samples of my body tissues when I mentioned I hadn't needed to cut my hair or trim my nails in months, though he wasn't able to find anything by the time I was about to be shuffled off to the next world.

I'm still not really sure how the man kept on top of everything else along with helping me out. Sure he's got underlings, but between him and Stetman, I feel like Raynor's got the equivalent of Einstein and Tesla onboard helping him.

My two favorite upgrades by far though have to be the Personal Cloaking Device and a collapsible modified C-10 Canister Rifle. Swann modified the rifle himself to give it some improvements, but admitted that it probably didn't quite reach the current tech level of the rumored C-15's the Dominion use.

Still, I can't help but be in love with both. Granted, while the cloak is being used, I do have to field some extra bits on my suit, namely some gauntlets, boots, a hefty belt like device around my waist, and the helmet, plus I could only stay cloaked for roughly sixty seconds before I had to recharge, but a full minute of cloak is still extremely impressive, and with this bare minimum of armored setup, my suit's actually rated all the way up to deep space for hazardous environments. And that's without the extra armor that makes me feel a tiny bit like Iron Man when all's said and done.

As for the Canister rifle… Well, what's not to love about a gun that essentially fires grenades as if they were sniper rounds? And thanks to my 'supply depot' load out, which includes a multipurpose fabricator, I literally cannot run out of ammo, especially if I secure the base elements needed after my current supply runs out, which, again, should take roughly fifty lifetimes before that happens. To say Stetman loves the new molecular storage tech would be a massive understatement.

Eventually though, the week ran out and both Raynor and Stetman saw me off, Raynor promising to see me around if I ever popped up again. I gave one final wave as everything faded to black.

AN: I started this story in 2016. If not for this chapter I would probably be MANY chapters farther than this, but I was seriously at a loss for what to do after getting onto the Hyperion. Finally I just decided to sum it up as an after-the-fact exposition dump so I could finally move on. Hopefully the next chapter, and world, won't be as difficult as this was.