Author's Note: Hey everyone, it's time for the next chapter to begin.

For you who have enjoyed my fic, I would like for you guys to consider looking at another one: "The True Hybrid" by the author MarchenHope.

She and I had discussed online about ideas for our fics with each other, and we have worked together quite well to improve each other's fics.

Anyways, it's just a suggestion if you guys choose to look.

In the last chapter, I'm a bit unsure how many of you had taken notice of the infested Command Center in Kerrigan's hive cluster, and if any of you know why she'd have such a thing.

All you have to do is think of one thing: it's not so much as why she'd care about the infested Command Center, it's more of who the Command Center once belonged to...

In time, this infested Command Center will play a role in the fic, you'll all see that in the future.

Chapter 44

Aiur

Felanis stood in front of the Tal'darim survivors, some of them carrying the scars of battle from the time spent on Aiur to defend themselves from the Zerg, and them later when fighting the Daelaam Protoss upon their return to scour their homeworld from the Zerg infestation. From what he could see from the Protoss crowd, gathered by the Daelaam Protoss from all over Aiur, it was quite clear they had mixed reactions.

Some of them were relieved to see their founder alive, though not unharmed. Others were angered upon hearing the news that their Xava'tor, all of which had never once even seen his face, was in reality the Dark Archon Ulrezaj. They felt they had been betrayed and manipulated, where their great leader only saw them as expendable tools to be used to achieve his personal goals. Most, however, did not blame Felanis, despite being the only one who has seen the Xava'tor. Despite the Sundrop corruption, the Tal'darim warriors did not lose all of their intellect, and most accepted Felanis's logic how the greater amount of exposure to the substance, the greater the chances of it impairing their judgment. To that end, after Felanis had explained all of what has happened, there were only a select few who were unwilling to forgive the Templar, as he too had been manipulated by Ulrezaj.

With regards to joining hands with the Daelaam Protoss however, it was a completely different story. Despite their minds had been cut off from the Khala, it did not change the fact that they remembered they once embraced it. To that end, Felanis felt that Ulrezaj's actions for turning them into their unquestioning servants were fatally in error.

From what he had seen of the Nerazim Protoss technology, Stalkers and Void Rays in particular, he had also seen their presence among his fellow Tal'darim brethren here on Aiur. The Dark Templars embraced the Void, and thus their technological designs were also infused with Void energy. That the Tal'darim warriors were able to employ the same designs had convinced his brethren that the Sundrop substance had caused them to be embraced by the Void just as the Dark Templars had, despite their hatred of the Nerazim.

It was clear to Felanis that Ulrezaj still had a long ways to go before he could bring the Khalai Protoss fully under his corruption. This, however, was overtaken by the news he had received from some of the Tal'darim of a completely different corruption.

According to some of the Tal'darim Templars, there had been a brief presence of terrans on their homeworld. From what he had gathered from Artanis and Zeratul, the terran faction belonged to the Dominion, a sworn enemy of James Raynor, who had fought alongside the Protoss and assisted them in the death of the Zerg Overmind. Yet what troubled Felanis was the fact that although the Tal'darim had attacked them on sight, all of them had sensed that there was a strange presence within their individual minds, encouraging their rage and fury towards the terrans.

Although the presence had been brief, lasting only a matter of hours, most of the Tal'darim who had experienced this explained that when it had waned, it had left them with very little memory of what had happened when that presence had descended upon them. It was only with careful and thorough interrogation with each and every Tal'darim warrior who had been subjected to this that Felanis was able to piece together the picture. Upon explaining the situation to Zeratul, the Nerazim concluded that it was entirely possible that some of the Tal'darim had become corrupted by the presence of a Protoss-Zerg hybrid in the same way he had encountered on Zhakul, where a powerful hybrid known as Maar had corrupted the Zhakul Guardians and enslaved the Protoss Preservers.

To Felanis, this was dire news. Although Zeratul had already told him about the hybrid when they had met in the ancient Xel'Naga Caverns, now it seems to confirm more and more hybrids were beginning to awaken. The Protoss Preservers were known to have exceptionally strong willpower, and if a single hybrid was able overpower them so easily, there could be no telling what an entire army of them could do. Having been told of the Xel'Naga prophecy on Ulaan and the encounter with Tassadar at the Overmind's final resting site, the Templar was deeply skeptical about the Zerg species, and even the Overmind itself, had been enslaved with the directive to exterminate all life, and that their actions were in reality not of their own free will. It was why he too agreed with the Protoss Hierarchy to exterminate the Zerg defenders around the Overmind's corpse so that more clues about the prophecy could be uncovered.

Unlike the rest of the Protoss who were participating in the battle, Felanis has been ordered to remain behind to ensure there wouldn't be any more hostilities between the Daelaam Protoss and the Tal'darim. With most of their scattered survivors on Aiur now all assembled in one place, he had the opportunity to talk some sense into them.

"This gathering of the Tal'darim is not about the integration into the Daelaam Protoss," he explained. "I know most of you still harbor hatred for many of our Khalai brethren for abandoning us on Aiur to the Zerg while they had escaped to the Dark Templar homeworld."

"They left us here to die!" A Zealot shouted. "The only reason we had survived at all is because the Zerg had suddenly lost interest in attacking us!"

"That was not something they had realized, young Templar," Felanis replied. "Do not forget, by the time the Overmind had finally been slain, there was only one functioning Warp Gate left on Aiur. According to many of the Khalai Protoss, had they not shut down the Warp Gate, far greater numbers of Zerg would have been able to reach Shakuras. Therefore, all that could have been done was try to save as many Khalai Protoss as possible, nothing more. From what I had heard from the Daelaam Protoss, attempts had been used to build more Warp Gates, enabling faster travel."

"Yet they chose not to do the same for us on Aiur?"

"If they had known the Zerg had stopped their rampage against us, I am sure they would have," Felanis assured. "Because of that, the Daelaam Protoss had feared the extinction of the entire Protoss race and civilization by the hands of the Zerg had they chosen to come to our aid. We are all warriors here, my brethren. Every one of us knows that sometimes during the course of battle, sacrifices are necessary in order to achieve the greater good."

"A sacrifice of billions of Khalai Protoss just so the fraction of survivors could associate with the fallen ones? It is total madness!" The Zealot accused. "We banished them from Aiur ages ago because they refused to embrace the light of the Khala as we had!"

"And they did not follow the way of the Conclave and banish the Khalai refugees from Shakuras," Felanis countered. "Do not forget, I too was a member of the Judicator Caste, which had been controlled by the Conclave Judicator Assembly. It was their actions that had nearly brought Aiur to the point of total extinction. It was only with the unification of Khalai and Nerazim Protoss that caused the Conclave to dissolve."

"I shall not join hands by those who are devoid of the light of the Khala!" Another Zealot spoke up. "Khas had united all of us through the Khala and the Dark Templar tribes chose to defy him! The Khalai refugees are traitors, having joined hands with the Nerazims and going against everything the Khalai Protoss stands for!"

"They had also helped some of the Tal'darim brethren to break their addiction to the Sundrop substance and restored the mental link to the Khala," Felanis replied. "This was not done by Khalai Protoss alone, but by Nerazim Protoss as well, even though they embrace the Void instead. As I stated before, this meeting is not about dissolving the Tal'darim and integrating ourselves into the Daelaam Protoss. Zeratul had made it clear that such a decision will be our choice alone. Should we choose not to, they will not force us. This meeting is about setting aside our hatred for them in order to accomplish a far greater goal."

A High Templar at that point spoke up. "Then you have called this meeting to discuss matters regarding our common enemy, the Zerg swarm."

Felanis nodded. "The veil creatures are a threat to both Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike, and more than likely to all of creation. Despite the ancient Xel'Naga prophecy that has been uncovered, I find it hard to believe this entire time the Zerg were actually not the abominations we had fought against for so long."

"You wish for us to fight alongside the Daelaam Protoss to exterminate the Zerg," the High Templar stated.

"There is another factor," the Tal'darim leader explained. "Now that all of you have learned about the true identity of our Xava'tor, I know that all of you feel betrayed and manipulated. It has now been confirmed that the Dark Archon Ulrezaj has escaped his confines and is loose again, and the Daelaam Protoss have promised us that we will be given our chance for retribution for what he has done to all of us."

"Then we should ready our ships immediately to hunt the traitor down!"

"Do not be so quick, young Templar. Remember, your mind has been altered by the effects of Sundrop that Ulrezaj had given us, and thus your link to the Khala has been severed. It is from this Sundrop substance that had allowed Ulrezaj to corrupt and control us, and it is necessary to break the addiction first. The Daelaam Protoss have promised you to help restore the link to the Khala should you choose this. Once your minds are in the Khala once more, we will be free to take our revenge on our so-called Xava'tor."

Felanis could see some of the Tal'darim Protoss hesitate, while others were struggling with their feelings and pride. Many of them were weakening against his logic and reasoning as they were given a choice to join with the Daelaam Protoss or not, so he decided to include another reason.

"You must remember that the Sundrop substance is exactly the reason why the Tal'darim had even existed on Aiur," he explained. "When our world had been overrun by the Zerg and the last functioning Warp Gate had been shut down, vast numbers of Protoss had been left stranded on Aiur. Before the Tal'darim had been formed, all of us had been part of another survivor group: the Shel'na Kryhas. True, the Tal'darim had proven to be more efficient at killing the Zerg, but the Shel'na Kryhas had correctly determined that finding Protoss survivors stranded on Aiur was the greater priority. That all changed when Ulrezaj had given us the Sundrop substance. We had turned against our Shel'na Kryhas brethren, branding them as traitors to our Xava'tor."

One of the High Templars quickly caught on. "And now it has been proven that the Shel'na Kryhas had been right all along."

"Exactly," Felanis said. "Ulrezaj has much to answer for in turning us all into his slaves, and it is my hope that we will be able to bring him to justice. However, this can be done much more effectively once your links to the Khala are restored, so I encourage you to allow the Daelaam Protoss help you in that matter."

Antioch Province, Aiur

Executor Selendis watched from the bridge of her golden Carrier as the rest of her Carrier fleet continued on their work at decimating the Zerg defenses. Like a swarm of locusts, the Interceptors flew about at such speeds that it was virtually impossible for any of the Zerg ground creatures to target them. All they could do was head for the Carriers themselves, but this had minimal success as most of the Zerg were torn apart by the sheer ferocity of the robotic drones.

The only ones that had luck in avoiding their fates were the Roaches and Infestors due to their ability to burrow and move underground. Fortunately, the vast numbers of Observers in the area were able to spot their positions relatively quickly, and James Raynor's ground warriors were able to hunt them down.

Engagements were not always successful, as many of the Infestors unleashed their fungal growth ability to slow the terrans down, but this immediately attracted the attention of the Protoss Interceptors, quickly tearing the Infestors apart before they had a chance to use their neural parasite tentacles. Other Infestors used their disease spores to quickly weaken the terrans, but as the spores were only meant to weaken and not kill, this fell short of expectations. Most of the Roaches were quickly slaughtered the moment they had unburrowed, and those that were lucky enough to survive were so badly weakened that they were only able to pick off a few of the terrans before they had succumbed to their fire.

Yet despite this, more and more Zerg Infestors were sent into the area. According to Raynor, who had chosen to believe every word of the former Queen of Blades without the slightest thought, these creature were more evolved than the standard Infestors, also possessing a frenzy ability, where their spores target nearby Zerg units and allow them to fight more fanatically for a short period of time.

Of course, this had yet to achieve any major success as of all the ground units, only the Queens and Hydralisks were able to return fire at her Carriers, and the former moved far too slowly with the assistance of the Zerg Creep. On the other hand, the Hydralisks had too thin carapace to survive very long amidst the swarms of Interceptors, although the female executor could see very clearly how effective they were against the terran marines. Their so-called armor proved to be too weak to survive much punishment from the Hydralisks' scythes, and while all of them also have strange looking combat shields equipped to them, this offered virtually no additional protection whatsoever against the Ultralisks.

To that end, it greatly frustrated her that the Carriers were being more and more frequently used to provide cover for the terrans, rather than pushing ahead towards the Overmind. Nevertheless, she concurred with Raynor's logic that they only had one shot to crush the Zerg defenses here, so it had to count. If traditional combat had to be temporarily abandoned in order to defeat the Zerg and liberate Aiur, then that's the way it has to be.

Nevertheless, by providing cover for the terran ground warriors, it also left the Protoss Carriers vulnerable to Zerg Scourge attacks. Although Raynor had provided her Carriers with terran escorts called Wraiths, Selendis had quickly discovered that their Gemini Missiles did not possess the hitting power the Protoss Scouts did with their Anti-Matter Missiles. To compound matters, their armor was much weaker in comparison to the Scouts and Phoenixes, and while this had not been a problem against Scourges as they had to ram into the terran ships for damage, it had left them very vulnerable to the Corruptors. In many cases, the Zerg flyers were able to quickly get within range of the Wraiths and cover them with their corrosive slime, before picking them out of the sky with their parasite spores. Fortunately for the terran ground troops below, the Wraiths still outnumbered the Corruptors in the area, and therefore none of them had chosen to morph into Brood Lords, which would have wreaked even further havoc on them.

Fortunately, it would appear Raynor had anticipated this show of fierce Zerg aerial resistance. As her Carriers pushed forward with the terran ground troops, smaller terran vessels known as Scoutships joined in with them. Somewhat like the Interceptors on the mighty Carriers, Raynor had explained that the Scoutships were usually attached to BattleCruisers and used for reconnaissance, although they could engage in aerial targets in emergency situations.

It didn't take long for Selendis to see why the terrans were so unwilling to use these ships in a combat role. Compared to the individual Interceptors, the Scoutships were barely any more heavily armored in comparison. And unlike robotic drones that were capable of swallowing up the Corruptors in a blanket of destruction, the Scoutships were much less agile and their burst lasers possessed a much slower firing rate. Had it not been for the Protoss Carriers, they would have been shredded by the increasing numbers of Zerg Mutalisks moving into the battlefield.

Nevertheless, the presence of the Scoutships had its impact on the battle. Having rarely seen these terran ships in combat, much of the Scourge legions were diverted away from their objective of attacking the Protoss Carriers to deal with the new threat, and the same had happened with many of the surviving Hydralisks on the ground. This gave the terran marines a considerable advantage. Without the ability to attack ground targets, the Scourges were defenseless as they came under fire from the marines' gauss rifles, and many of them exploded prematurely before they had a chance to reach their target.

Enraged at the success, Zerg Nydus Worms popped from beneath the ground, as Zerg ground creature poured out of its maw and onto the battlefield to attack the marines from the rear. Firebats and Marauders moved quickly to intercept, but the Nydus Worms could pop up anywhere, and usually in places where they least suspected. As a result in many cases, only the Reapers with their back equipped jet packs were able to reach the organisms in time, but even then there was little success as the first Zerg units to emerge were Ultralisks, and most of the Reapers were forced to retreat to avoid getting trampled to death by the Zerg behemoths.

Selendis had ordered some of her Carriers diverted away from engaging the Zerg ground forces to neutralizing the Nydus Worms, and this increased the pressure on the terran troops on the ground. Fortunately for the time being, most of the increasing number of Zerg ground creatures pouring in were only Zerglings, and many of them were cut down by terran fire before they had a chance to tear them apart with their claws. Although they loathed fighting the Zerg creatures hand to hand, some of the Raiders had no choice but to extend their gauss rifles' bayonets as the surviving Zerglings got through the fire and came on top of them.

From her Carrier, Selendis could see that although the marines did not excel in melee combat as the Protoss Zealots have, they nevertheless were proving their worth against the Zerglings. Clearly they were not used to combat of this style, and this would explain the terrans' weakness when dealing with the Zerg up close. Nevertheless, it reminded her of the early training days when Protoss warriors first learned to be Zealots. Such a process took decades, and the female executor could see similar combat characteristics among the terran marines. Perhaps it was that similarity they had shared that made them a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.

Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char

Ulrezaj stood at the entrance of Kerrigan's main hive. Despite the energies of the ancient Xel'Naga artifact that had passed through it, the massive Zerg structure had remained in remarkably good shape. The Queen of Blades had done an excellent job in fortifying her stronghold on Char. Even without the vast numbers of Zerg at her disposal, the hive was clearly designed to withstand significant punishment and still remain functional. This did somewhat surprise him, though. After being the supreme ruler of the Zerg for all these years, the Dark Archon would have thought Kerrigan would see herself without equal to any being in the universe, yet the amount of protection she had given her main hive was clear proof that her arrogance was not boundless as he had believed.

Fortunately, it would appear that most of the protection had been concentrated at the top of the hive. Ulrezaj suspected this must be because Kerrigan believed that should Char ever get invaded and by some miracle the invaders got within range of her hive, it would be subjected to aerial attacks as the Zerg ground forces would have been too numerous for any ground invader to push through. Unfortunately for her, she had not anticipated James Raynor's usage of the Xel'Naga relic and using it to decimate much of her hive cluster's base defenses in one swoop.

Channeling his psionic powers, the Dark Archon unleashed a powerful dark psionic shockwave at the hive entrance. Despite the durability of the structure, it was no match for Ulrezaj's psionic potential. As the dark psionic shockwaves increased in intensity, along with Dark Archon's shadow tendrils lashing at it, the Zerg carapace protecting the structure gradually began to burn away as its armor and flesh were incinerated until it finally gave away, and a hole was burned open into the wall.

Without another thought Ulrezaj stepped through the opening before the hole closed in on itself to correct the structural weakness. With the Tal'darim outside holding off the Zerg creatures, it was time he discovered what secrets Kerrigan had kept within her primary base of operations.

Author's Note: All right, so with regards to mentioning Felanis at the beginning of the chapter, I did so because he hadn't been mentioned since chapter 34. But as I stated in the past, there are those that are pushed aside for the moment, but not forgotten. This was exactly the case with Fealnis and the Tal'darim survivors on Aiur.

With regards to his concern about the hybrid takeover of them, that was a reference to all the way back in chapter 18, where the hybrid on Aiur (now at the Overmind's corpse site) took control of Tal'darim survivors and used them against General Ridgeway during his mission on Aiur. I'm unsure how many of you remembered that, since it had been a while, so I thought it'd be best to bring it back up.

Anyways I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.