Author's Note: Hey guys, it's time for another chapter. This one will show off parts of foreshadowing of events to come, which will be revealed later in the future. You'll see what I mean.

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.

Chapter 46

Reserve Sector, Aiur

Nahaan observed the battle from a distance from his Scout superiority fighter, absolutely livid. Despite the satisfaction that once the last Zerg bastion falls, Aiur would be liberated, Artanis had denied him the opportunity to participate in the battle itself. Instead of fighting along with his Khalai brethren and pushing towards the Overmind, he had been ordered to remain behind and act as a reserve.

To the Ara leader, this was a total insult to his title. Like many of his Ara brethren, Nahaan was not ready to accept the Hierarchy as the ruling body of the Daelaam Protoss. As the meeting on Shakuras with the terran Rosemary Dahl had proven, the entire Hierarchy system was far too slow, fractious, and inefficient. The similar meeting with James Raynor and bringing the wretched Queen of Blades onto the sacred soil of Aiur had resulted similarly. Yet other than himself, all of the other Hierarchy Protoss had agreed to compromise and simply monitor Kerrigan, rather than executing her on the spot as she should have been, while accusing him and his Ara Tribe of being completely blind to reason.

This was no surprise to him. Nahaan usually did not spend time on Shakuras, preferring other Protoss colony worlds instead as the Nerazim homeworld only reminded him of the fall of Aiur and the treachery of his fellow Khalai brethren. It would seem as they had completely forgotten about the Discord and the Dark Templar refusal to embrace the Khala, something that Khas had brought to unite all of the Protoss tribes under. They had lacked discipline without the light of the Khala and their psionic storm abilities were a danger to all Protoss. It was for this reason that the Conclave had banished them from Aiur.

Despite the fact that the Nerazim tribes were not as unforgiving as the Conclave, the fact remained that the other Khalai tribes were beginning to accept the unification with their Dark Templar brethren. Yet even to this day, the tensions between the sects remain. It was clear to the Ara leader that the Daelaam Protoss would inevitably fracture and splinter apart, as the Khalai and Nerazim tribes simply could not coexist in peace.

Despite the four years the Khalai refugees had spent on Shakuras, Nahaan had seen many cases where they had once more tried to persuade the Dark Templar to embrace the Khala. This had done nothing more than lead to assassination attempts by the Nerazim. Only a select few were willing to turn their sights towards the Khala, but even then they were unwilling to discard the twilight of the Void that had provided them with their own source of psionic energy, and far more powerful in comparison to the Khala's embrace, according to their claims.

Similarly, very few of the Khalai refugees were willing to embrace of the coldness of the Void, and they believed that if their primal link to the Khala was severed, they would succumb to total madness. The Tal'darim refugees that had reached Shakuras a year ago had confirmed this, their minds altered by the Sundrop drug and cut off from the Khala's light. It had left them constantly addicted to the substance, and angry, distressed, and fearful to Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike. It was only after their link to the Khala had been restored that they were able to regain their rationale, and this only provided further confirmation to Nahaan that the Void powers the Dark Templar tribes embrace were corruptive and harmful, and had made great efforts to appeal to the Hierarchy for increased efforts for the Nerazim clans to abandon the Void.

The fact that he could only make appeals to the Hierarchy had greatly infuriated him. While his Ara Tribe was relatively young by Protoss standards, it was this tribe that had rallied to Khas's cause and his vision of the Khala to unify the Protoss. They were his closest allies during the Aeon of Strife, and it was for that reason that when the Judicator Assembly had been created out of the Judicator Caste, the Ara Tribe came to dominate it and thus the Conclave ruling body, which had governed the Khalai Protoss society for some 3000 years before the war with the Zerg swarm had entered the fray.

As such, the Protoss within the Ara Tribe were used to having the role of leaders, believing their wisdom and Khala knowledge would give them the will to govern the Protoss society for all time. This however had backfired on them during the Zerg invasion of Aiur, and Conclave was grudgingly forced to admit that the Void energies of the Dark Templar were required to defeat the Zerg swarm. With the Conclave now dissolved, the Ara Protoss were forced to realize that their leadership position as the supreme Protoss ruling body had been lost, but many were still unwilling to acknowledge such a thing, and were still infuriated by the fact that they now had to take orders from the Hierarchy, rather than making the laws for themselves.

Indeed, despite that numerous Ara Protoss had been sent into the battlefield to reinforce the positions of the attacking Protoss warriors, the majority of the tribe had remained behind in reserve. To Nahaan, it would seem that the mighty Ara Tribe had been reduced to the status of the Velari Tribe. During the Zerg invasion, the Velari Tribe was the Templar reserves, and they had been mobilized to repel the Zerg, albeit unsuccessful. The Ara Protoss found it insulting that they now had to perform a similar task, but upon raising the matter with Artanis, Nahaan was told that the Ara Tribe had to realize that it was no longer the supreme ruling caste of the Protoss. As such, tasks that they had ordered the Templar and Khalai Caste to perform but would not even think of doing themselves were no longer an option anymore.

Yet Nahaan felt otherwise with regards to the Ara Protoss' wisdom. After all, they had sided with Aldaris on Shakuras after the Queen of Blades had corrupted Raszagal, yet the Nerazim tribes were blind to it, as were many of the Khalai refugees. There were very few among the former Judicator tribe who believed Kerrigan was now a different person, and most blamed the Protoss Hierarchy for being too trusting. Although Urun and Mohandar both insisted that the veil creature be watched over should there be any signs of abnormal behavior, the fact remained that Artanis and Zeratul's combined efforts had convinced them to stay their wrath. Vartanil had proved the worst of them all, as he had seemed willing to forgive the Queen of Blades for all the suffering she had caused to the Protoss.

However, to assault the Queen of Blades would mean having to get past the obstacle of James Raynor. Despite the terran's mind had most likely been corrupted, the fact remained that his actions on Char had sent the Zerg into disarray, thus weakening their hold on Aiur. Like Urun, Nahaan had also wanted their homeworld reclaimed, and James Raynor's actions had given the Daelaam Protoss that opportunity. For that reason, the Ara leader simply could not move against him. The most that could be done now was to send word to other Protoss brethren in the hopes that they would be swayed by Nahaan that Kerrigan was too dangerous and deceptive to be trusted to be allowed to live, but this had been met with little success.

Despite the feeling of abandonment on Aiur so long ago, both the Khalai and Nerazim Protoss tribes still respected the Xel'Naga. As such, the ancient Xel'Naga prophecy Zeratul had discovered on Ulaan could not be discarded as utter rubbish. Artanis had convinced the tribes that as his mentor, Tassadar could not be so easily corrupted by the Overmind, and its secrets must be uncovered as to shed more light on the prophecy.

The only comforting factor to Nahaan was that despite the fact that Kerrigan was allowed to live due to the impending threat of the prophecy, there were very few Protoss that were willing to consider forgiving her for the atrocities she had committed during her time with the Zerg. As such, most had agreed with his assessment that once the Queen of Blades had served her purpose, she would be executed immediately.

Yet even this was something James Raynor had intended to thwart. It was clear the terran's feelings would never fade for the wretched creature. Nahaan could see it in his eyes. If the Protoss tried to execute the Queen of Blades, he would be there to defend her. He would defy their very alliance just to save the life of a monster that was a threat to all creation. Artanis had insisted that James Raynor was a rational person, yet his feelings towards Kerrigan seemed to prove otherwise from Nahaan's point of view. Thus despite having been told that Raynor vowed to kill Kerrigan after the death of Praetor Fenix, Nahaan was skeptical that the terran would have actually had it within him to carry out such a duty, especially now that he deems that she was no longer a threat as the Zerg influence within her had been purged. To make matters worse, as Kerrigan had not shown any signs of treachery, deceit, or hostility ever since her arrival on Aiur, rumors were spreading that some of the Protoss were beginning to reconsider their views on her and despite their resolve to see her killed as soon as she was of no more use to them, there were signs that the resolves were starting to weaken.

Nahaan would have none of it. He refused to believe his Khalai brethren would eventually forgive Kerrigan for all the sins she had committed. Fortunately, there was one advantage to be held in the reserve while the Daelaam Protoss pressed forward with the terrans and pushed the Zerg forces back. Almost all of the concentration was on the battlefield there, and there were few Observers where his Ara Tribe was as they were needed to provide tactical data to the warriors. This had allowed him to send word to the Protoss survivors on Aiur with little difficulty in keeping it secret from the rest of the Hierarchy.

He had especially wanted to establish contact with the Tal'darim survivors. Despite their hatred for the Khalai Protoss for abandoning them on Aiur, Artanis and Zeratul were able to establish a cease fire with them so that the Daelaam Protoss could focus all their energies in scouring the Zerg from their world. Nahaan hoped to speak with Felanis, who was gathering the Tal'darim all over Aiur and persuading them to come to the Daelaam Protoss so that they could have their link to the Khala restored.

As such, it meant that as of right now, the Tal'darim survivors were still corrupted by the Sundrop substance and thus easier to manipulate. Since they had suffered greatly at the hands of the Zerg, the Ara leader knew there would be little difficulty in getting out their hatred for Kerrigan. If they could be persuaded to join his cause in seeking justice, then there would be little chance that the wretched Queen of Blades would be able to survive once she had done her part.

Although it was necessary for their connection to the Khala restored, Nahaan had been informed that the Tal'darim that had made it to Shakuras took time to be restored to their former selves, and it would be during that time window that he would contact them. They would then be integrated to his Ara Tribe, and together they would bring swift justice to the Protoss by seeing that Kerrigan shall never rise to threaten them ever again.

Agria

"So just to clarify, even though Agria is back in your hands again, you have no intention of becoming a Dominion colony again?" Kate Lockwell asked Agrian colonist Dr. Maxwell.

"Of course not," the scientist replied into her microphone. "Before the Zerg invasion, Agria was one of the Dominion's principal botanical and wildlife preserves. The whole planet is just a small farming colony, and when the Zerg arrived, the Dominion did nothing to help us. If it weren't for Jim Raynor and his Raiders, we would have all perished. How would you feel about being part of a government who promises to protect you against outside invaders, then immediately abandons you to your fate when they come?"

"I'd be very upset," Kate admitted. "But I would like to know: with the Zerg invasion now stopped, did the Dominion help you in reclaiming Agria?"

"That was also by Raynor and his boys. The whole planet is only a shadow of its former self, but lucky for us the main power grids were only damaged by the Zerg invasion, and not destroyed like on some of the other planets. Raynor helped clear the Zerg off this world, and some of his engineers helped restore the power grid to a reasonable order. It's not as much as we had hoped for, but it provides the bare bones of living and resettlement. It'll take us years to rebuild the colony back to its former self, but it'll be worth it in the end."

"Thank you for that," Kate stated. "Another question: where is your leader Dr. Ariel Hanson? UNN knows that she had been evacuated from Agria just as most of the colonists were, yet she did not appear to come back with you."

"She chose to stay with Raynor and his Raiders. Dr. Hanson saw that Jim Raynor had every intention of restoring freedom to the sector and wanted to be part of that cause. I'm sure she's doing just fine with him right now," Maxwell stated.

"So there you have it," Kate announced. "Despite the halting of the Zerg invasion, the Dominion has done nothing to help the mass numbers of refugees who were force to leave their fringe worlds behind. Instead, they had turned to James Raynor for assistance in the hopes that they could return home. There is now no doubt that the rebel's actions may have had noble purposes to them after all. For UNN, this is Kate Lockwell."

The cameras dimmed and Kate moved away from the camera man, mentioning Dr. Maxwell to follow suit. Despite the successful interview, the anchorwoman was clearly not satisfied. She had wanted major stories from the big players, not the leftover scraps. Ever since Prince Valerian's broadcasts and the footage of the Char invasion had landed in her possession, she had become obsessed with trying to get more of the story on the matter. Unfortunately, despite numerous interviews with the prince, his statements had remained exactly the same: the victory on Char had been by Jim Raynor's hands. She had pressed harder to see if there was more, but the prince had explained that he did not ask the rebel leader about his motives or intentions.

It was clear that the only way she could get more of the story was to speak to Jim Raynor herself, but that wasn't going to be easy. Having been a hunted mercenary all these years meant the man was exceptionally skilled in the art of evasion, and despite the vast amounts of Dominion resources Emperor Mengsk had spent to bring Raynor to justice, the efforts had failed. It left the reporter with no doubt that he could only be found when he wanted to be found.

Nevertheless, Kate felt that in the aftermath of everything that's happened, Raynor would lower his guard to a degree. Due to Prince Valerian's reports, the rebel commander was being praised as a hero from numerous worlds, even the pro-Dominion ones. The story she just got from Dr. Maxwell would strain the Dominion even further, and although the backlashes had proved to be awful with riots and uprisings after Raynor's actions on Korhal, Lockwell felt that such a Dominion government does not deserve to remain in place.

It was exactly this reason that she had wanted to speak to Dr. Maxwell further, though off the air. Shortly after the Korhal broadcasts, Raynor and his Raiders went silent on their revolution. According to Prince Valerian, the Dominion forces he had acquisitioned had struck a temporary alliance with the Raiders to invade Char, during which UNN had announced that the Dominion claimed to have squashed Raynor and his Raiders for good.

Yet the fact that the Raiders had liberated Agria from the Zerg proved to the reporter that no matter what shape they're now in after what had transpired on Char, they were far from crushed. Kate had no doubt that although there had been little reports regarding further Raider activities, it would seem impossible that Raynor would simply abandon his rebellion against the Dominion. For that reason, this silence from the Raiders was nothing more than the calm before the storm.

Nevertheless, she felt she needed to understand Raynor's motives and intentions. Mengsk's rebellion against the Confederacy and ascension to power was never questioned until the broadcasts on Korhal were made public, sending the entire Dominion into chaos. But while Lockwell had announced that the UNN would no longer be 100 percent pro-Dominion, it did not mean she intended to completely turn her back on the Dominion government. Rather, she hoped to determine more perspectives on the story at hand. Unlike Donny, she knew that there were multiple sides to the story, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Dr. Maxwell followed her into a conference room, where the two of them sat down at the table seats. Kate made sure they were to be left alone and undisturbed while she tried to get some more information out of him, and she assured him that there won't be any cameras, so it won't go live on the air.

"I'm guessing this is about trying to find the bigger players," Dr. Maxwell began.

"You're right, doctor," Lockwell replied. "I had hoped to speak with Dr. Hanson as she's the head of the colony, but she's with Jim Raynor and left you in charge instead of the rebuilding on Agria."

"She felt compelled to stay with him and to understand his principals. Everyone here is still bitter that the Dominion did nothing to help us, and most of us feel its military is too incompetent. Hell, during the Zerg invasion there were reports that the Dominion even turned away the colony ships. We were nothing but homeless refugees seeking shelter and the Dominion treated us as a liability problem."

"I know how you feel," Kate said softly. "I had seen the conditions on Meinhoff and saw how bad the conditions were. Yet Emperor Mengsk continued to order Dominion ships to turn away the refugee ships if they enter the core world systems."

"My gut feeling is that he would have ordered them to shoot us out of the sky if we didn't turn away," Maxwell said bitterly. "Lucky for us it didn't have to come to that as Raynor helped us out on Haven. Apparently the Zerg virus had infected some of the colonists and the Protoss arrived with the intention of killing us all to prevent it from spreading. If the Raiders hadn't intervened and forced the Protoss away we would have been dead one way or another."

"We're technically not at war with the Protoss though," Kate pointed out.

"No, but they are at war with the Zerg just as we still are," Maxwell explained. "If the Zerg virus succeeded in infecting us, we'd become them, and the Protoss had no intention of allowing that. Dr. Hanson believed she could find a cure for the virus, but the Protoss wouldn't listen. We got lucky because Raynor had faith in her skills and sided with her."

"Since you're praising Jim Raynor so much, you happen to know where he is now?" Kate asked.

"You want to know his side of the story?" Off Lockwell's nod, Maxwell rubbed his chin. "All I know is that he wanted to get more allies to help the Protoss in their causes after he was done on Agria, and thus he would head off to New Folsom to do just that. If he's not there, then I wouldn't know where he is, other than he's fighting alongside the Protoss for reasons that I don't understand."

"Any idea where that might be?"

"Not at all, Kate. All I know is this much: Raynor has no intention of giving up his revolution as long as Mengsk is still on the Dominion throne. I don't know if this means he's trying to force new leadership for the Dominion or cause it to dissolve completely, but I guarantee you that you'll be seeing his activities in time. During the time the Agrian colonist spent with him, he made it clear that his rebellion is going to continue until Mengsk is brought to justice."

Lockwell sighed. As the head anchor of UNN, she had changed the nature of the new reports so that they would no longer be pro-Dominion, but Raynor wouldn't know that. As far as he was concerned, the network personnel were nothing but a bunch of mindless puppets. She on the other hand always tried to show the other side of the story, but after being portrayed as a terrorist by the media for so many years, it's not likely Raynor would be convinced by this. The only way to convince him otherwise was to speak to him face to face, but other media branches had already confirmed of the events at New Folsom and how the Raiders had busted the prison complex open and liberated almost two million forced laborers that the Dominion had used to build up their military arsenal.

No one seemed to know where Jim Raynor had gone since then, but Kate was unwilling to give up. Much of the non-Dominion worlds were skeptical about Mengsk's propaganda towards the rebel for years, and the reporter was determined to learn more about him. It certainly wouldn't be easy, but she had set her sights on her goal, and she wasn't about to abandon it.

Southern Attack Sector, Aiur

Lieutenant Franklin fired repeatedly with his C-14 gauss rifle, spraying the depleted uranium rounds at the Zerg creatures along with the rest of his squad. They were mixed with some of the War Pig mercenaries Raynor had acquisitioned in the early stages of the war for his revolution, and this had made some of his fellow marines, Marauders, and Firebats uncomfortable. Despite the fact that they were formidable fighters, the fact remained that they were mercenaries. They may be needed to help clear out the Zerg, but Franklin was unsure of where their true loyalties lie.

Nevertheless, he felt secure where he was. The Protoss Colossi machines had done their work well, roasting every Zerg they came across with their thermal lances. Despite the heavy fighting, Franklin and his squad were doing more of a job of cleaning up the stragglers. Occasionally they would come across the Zerg Roaches that were fortunate enough to sneak past the Colossi, but the Diamondback hover tanks that had been assigned to support them took care of the matter, their eviscerator rail guns quickly tearing through their carapace.

Despite the increasing seismic activity that has been occurring all over the sectors and the warnings that a new Zerg creature could be emerging out onto the battlefield, his squad wasn't one bit worried. With the Thors and Colossi supporting them, surely there was nothing to be afraid of.

That was, until the seismic activity suddenly peaked at their location.

Without warning, the ground suddenly cracked open, and Thors and Colossi toppled into the opening.

"Everyone get back!" Franklin shouted. "Something is coming out!"

For most of his squad however, this came too late. Suddenly more and more of the ground began to cave in, and swallowed many of his squad mates whole. As Franklin looked up the opening, what he saw horrified him.

Suddenly, mass amounts of tentacles surged out of the opening. They were massive in size, unlike anything Franklin had ever seen before. Before they even realized what was happening, many of the Thors were ensnared by the tentacles and crushed. As the Zerg creature finally emerged from the ground, all of Franklin's thoughts of an easy push to their final destination evaporated.

The Zerg creature was massive, so huge that even the mighty Thor walkers looked like a child's toy in comparison. It was bipedal, and had many tentacles on its back. As it fully emerged from the ground, Franklin could see that the twin claws on its arms were so huge, it would be able to crush even the Odin walker within it with ease. The creature reared its head and roared, its mouth revealing countless numbers of razor sharp teeth, and the sheer ferocity of the roar had sent several Wraiths off their trajectory, where one of them was swallowed whole by the creature.

As Franklin looked down at his C-14 gauss rifle, he uttered the words everyone around him were thinking, "I think I'm going to need a bigger gun."

Author's Note: All right, for those of you had seen the 2010 film "Clash of the Titans", you should be able to put the pieces together that the Zerg Kraken is somewhat based on the design of the Kraken beast from that film. To that end, to my reviewers Blackhole1 and coincidencless who had reviewed my chapter 42 with "RELEASE DA KRAKEN!", the reality was that you guys weren't all that far from the truth.

Of course, in comparison, there will be some differences here.

For starters, the Kraken in that film was only defeated because of the usage of the Medusa head that turn the creature to stone, and the terran and Protoss forces have no such thing as their disposal. Secondly, in the film, the Kraken never really had a chance to do anything before being turned to stone, and to me, I considered that unimpressive for a creature made from Hades's flesh, and then instantly defeated.

Because of that, I decided that improvements will have to be made on the Kraken that I've designed. However, that is something for another chapter, not here.

So with that in mind, I leave you guys with the chapter I've written for you to enjoy. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.