A/N: In reply to Willum's review, I struggled a lot to pin down which Doctor I wanted this to be. I actually had just about the entire story planned out before I chose the Doctor, and I spent a lot of time flipping between Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (and briefly, Twelfth as well). Tenth is probably my overall favorite Doctor, and I definitely do see what you mean. In my head, if I had gone with the Tenth Doctor, I probably would have made this a Donna story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft or Doctor Who.
Chapter Five: Assuming the Mantle
The Time Lords formally knew the Skasis Paradigm as the Universal Theory and informally as the god-maker. Uncountable creations ago, the Xel'naga derived and subsequently solved the Paradigm, gaining total control over the fundamental building blocks of reality. Ascendant Xel'naga normally spent millennia meditating and studying under their elders so that they could understand both the Paradigm and the burden such knowledge placed on them. Out of desperation, Ouros had whispered the solution into Sarah Kerrigan's mind fully aware that she had time for neither.
Thus, in the claws of the former Queen of Blades, the ability to construct and deconstruct the universe at will was wielded like a sledgehammer. She wanted to lash out at the Daleks, to wipe out every single invader, and her powers responded. She wanted James Raynor to return to her side, and so he did.
The Doctor glanced back at Amy and Rory, their expressions a cross of fear and expectation that the Time Lord would suddenly pull off something clever and save the day. He spared them a brief comforting smile, knowing full well that even he could do little against an enraged Xel'naga. He racked his brain for answers and was so absorbed in his thoughts that he nearly missed the tiny golden wisp float away from Sarah's body and pierce Jim's heart.
A second passed, and the man suddenly shot up to a sitting position while gasping for air. His eyes darted side to side, taking in his surroundings as events leading up to his death slowly emerged from the murky haze of his mind. His face steeled with determination as he saw the woman he loved, tears streaming freely down her face as she unmade every Dalek her powers could get ahold of. The psionic shockwaves had knocked him several meters away, but even that short distance might as well have been countless kilometers owing to the crushing atmosphere.
Jim painfully stood up, leaning against a nearby piece of rubble for support as his vision swam. Holding his arm before his face in a futile effort to block out the light, he slowly staggered forward.
"Don't! She'll kill you!" the Doctor gasped out, and Jim ignored him.
The ablative paint of Jim's CMC armor began sloughing off as he drew closer, exposing the bare metal shell underneath. The material buckled under the strain, chunks of it falling to the ground and crumbling to dust. By the time Jim reached Sarah, he was clad only in a few scraps of armor and the battledress he wore underneath. Lacking anything resembling a plan, he simply threw his arms around her, ignoring the heat radiating from her and the sharp edges of her carapace punching through his clothing and slicing up the skin underneath.
"Sarah," he whispered into her ear, "Stop this, please."
"Jim?" she choked out after a seeming eternity, though in reality only several seconds.
Jim stood nose-to-nose with Sarah, watching as the gold slowly faded from her eyes and was replaced with their previous purple.
"I don't know what you did, darlin', but I'm here, and I'm never going to let you go again."
"You're…you're alive," Sarah buried her face into his chest as fresh tears fell.
"I'm alive," Jim reassured her, running his hands up and down her back, "When we've dealt with the Daleks, let's leave. Let's find that uninhabited world and build that house, just you and me."
Sarah pulled back, holding her claws out in front of him.
"Really?" her face suddenly lit up with faint hope, "You don't mind…this?"
"Might take a little getting used to," he admitted with a chuckle, "But you just worry about picking out a view and paint colors, darlin'."
The light died down, and Jim could feel a warmth wash over him as Sarah's powers washed away aches and pains both new and old. The tendrils of light dissolved into millions of tiny pinpoints of golden light and flew upwards towards the rapidly-approaching Dalek reinforcements.
Neither Jim nor Sarah noticed the sight, their focus instead on his hand as he slowly bought it up to cup her cheek and he hesitantly drew closer. With an annoyed hiss, Sarah grabbed the back of his head and crushed her lips against his.
War Room
Imperial Palace, Korhal IV
"I'm receiving reports from the fleet!" Admiral Matt Horner announced as the comm channels suddenly lit up, "The Daleks are retreating back into space!"
A brief cheer erupted, silenced only as reports streamed in from the surviving Dominion Fleet units in orbit. Matt's eyebrows first furrowed in confusion then shot up towards the ceiling in surprise.
"I don't know what's going on up there," the Admiral turned towards Valerian, "But they're all reporting tiny golden lights ripping through the Dalek fleet. The ships are simply…crumbling to dust…"
"Golden light…" Valerian rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
He was confident he knew who the culprit was.
Imperial Palace Atrium
Korhal IV
With the very forces of creation unleashed with abandon, some side-effects were expected. Several corridors away, November Terra gingerly stood back up, gasping for breath as the crushing presence evaporated and previous oxygen entered her lungs once again. She turned her head towards Tosh just as the man groaned and began to stir. She began running towards the Spectre, only to collapse to her knees while screaming in pain and holding her head.
Images of the past rose unbidden to the surface, threatening to break Nova's still-fragile mind. The doctors had warned her that the mind wipes had potentially left permanent damage and, even with terrazine microdoses, some memories may never return. Something had lifted the fog, allowing the supposedly-lost memories to resurface all at once.
Nova awoke to the sight of Tosh kneeling over her, her head cradled on a salvaged cushion. She looked up at the Spectre, a newfound clarity in her eyes.
She remembered Shi. She remembered everything.
Antioch
Aiur
The might of the Xel'naga rippled beyond Korhal, reaching the furthest corners of the Koprulu sector. On Aiur, the Praetor Talandar felt his systems shutting down one by one. His thoughts became muddled and confused as his broken body's processors gradually died. The Dalek weapons fire had fried his mobile transmitter, and he doubted anyone would find him in time to carry out a wired transfer.
Yet before oblivion overtook him, Talandar felt a sudden surge of energy. New life pumped through his circuits, granting him just a few more moments of consciousness. In his mind's eye, he saw memories that were not his own. He was on Aiur, holding the gate alongside the Terran James Raynor as feral Zerg descended upon their position. He was on Moria, overseeing the plundering of the planet's wealth. He was on Korhal, amidst the aftermath of a massive battle against the armies of the United Earth Directorate and their enslaved Zerg. He stood before a chittering mass of chitin as they bore down on him, ripping through his Dragoon shell and tearing apart what remained of his flesh.
Though the rational part of his mind rejected it, Talandar realized only one could be showing him such memories.
"Kerri-"
"-tor Talandar! Praetor Talandar, can you hear me?"
The Purifier awoke to the sight of the phase-smith Karax standing over him and making the final adjustments to his temporary robotic body.
"Thank Adun we found you when we did! Another few seconds and your core would have lost power!"
Primary Hive Cluster
Char
The Overqueen Zagara stood overlooking the devastation before her. Millions of Zerg lay dead, and the scavenger strains were already set to work dragging the corpses back to spawning pools so their biomass could be reclaimed. Destroyed Dalek travel machines littered Char's inhospitable surface, and Abathur had already spirited the most intact examples away to his evolution chamber for further examination.
"I see," Zagara muttered as a mind far more powerful than her own brushed against her conscience.
An equation, simple yet elegant and clearly part of an infinitely-complex whole, overtook the Overqueen's thoughts. She could not comprehend what she saw, though she instinctively knew that true understanding would destroy her mind. She understood enough to grasp the equation's purpose.
"Very well, former Queen of Blades," Zagara whispered to herself, "Adostra…a fitting name indeed."
Imperial Palace Atrium
Korhal IV
The Doctor loudly cleared his throat, and the couple shot apart. Amy and Rory blushed on their behalf.
"Right," the Time Lord coughed, "Dominion Fleet comms have lit up: one moment the Dalek fleets were on the verge of total victory, and the next, they suddenly crumble to dust. Over fifteen hundred Dalek ships and millions of Daleks, gone, just like that! Hah!"
Despite the devastation around him, the Doctor clapped his hands together and laughed.
"James Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, how does it feel to have just saved the sector?"
"Um, Doctor…" Rory approached while holding out a dead solder's radio, "They're saying one ship survived and is making for high orbit. It's quite a bit bigger than the other ones."
"That must be the Dalek's command ship," the Doctor's face paled and his good mood evaporated, "If they're allowed to warn Skaro, the Dalek Emperor will come here with the entire fleet!"
