Leviathan - Kiirkegaard asteroid belt
"The asteroid belt..." Jim said, staring.
A hole twice the size of the swarms biggest Leviathan had been punched through the densely packed asteroid belt with surgical precision, though long enough ago that various sized fragments of space rock had floated back into the unnatural gap.
"Hybrid," Both Sarah and Nova said at once, managing to refrain from glancing at one another.
"So that's where they all went from Korhal, just like Valerian's boys said." Jim turned away from the view and looked at his comrades, "So what's the plan now?"
He caught a small device that nova tossed to him.
"First," she said, "you put this psi screen on before the hybrid fry your brain and turn you into a zombie."
"Don't have to tell me twice," he said, carefully hooking the psi screen around his ears.
"You can wear that for two hours max," Sarah said, expression grim. "You don't want to know what happens if you fail to turn it off by then."
"Two hours, gotcha," Jim said, keenly aware that was not much time.
"It would seem they left a convenient path for us," Stukov gestured once again to the gap, "the Leviathan can certainly fit through without wasting resources on clearing the way ourselves."
A strained hissing sound drew all eyes to Zagara, who was in a rigid position of pain, the severed stump of her leg twitching. They are trying to take the swarm from me!
"Don't let it go," Sarah commanded, "we need to begin our attack immediately."
"I don't think rushing in when the plan has clearly changed is the best idea-" Nova said.
"It's this or get ripped apart by our own forces when Zagara is finally weakened enough to have the swarm taken from her," Sarah said.
A pregnant pause filled the air between the two women, the force of their will palpable.
"I think that says it all folks," Jim said quickly.
"Yes," Stukov nodded, "I can feel them too, trying to chip away at the edges of my forces and begin the fighting before we have arrived. Let us get moving," he said.
Board the space station! Zagara commanded, words echoing through the hivemind and sending the swarm into a frenzy of action. For her part, the brood mother exited the chamber in an awkward clatter- there was simply no time to recover in an evolution chamber and grow the leg back.
"Are you sure you wont stay here?" Sarah said, looking directly at Jim as their group fell in to a run behind Zagara.
The concern in her voice irked him, "Yes I'm sure darlin', you ain't doing this without me."
Nova gave Jim a quick gesture to turn on the psi screen and he complied, the pulsating headache he had not noticed had begun to build behind his eyes vanished.
The Leviathan and its counterparts filtered through the debris of the asteroid belt towards their destination at a quick pace, guided by Zagara's steady thoughts.
Zagara rocked on her feet and shook her crested head with a clatter of bony tendrils, making a quick gesture to the pods they came to stand beside.
"We're going down there in these things?" Jim said, stomach doing a couple flips over the idea.
"This is a zerg ship Jim, you'll be fine. Don't expect me to wait for you cowboy," Sarah said, slipping through a small moist doorway that shut behind her.
"Gross," Nova's lip curled in disgust but she followed suit, squishing into an adjacent pod.
Not one to be left behind, Jim flipped his visor down and shoved his suit through the squishy door without further prompting.
"Hang in there," Stukov said to Zagara before entering his own personal pod.
I will not fail my Queen, Zagara said, even as she hissed in agony. Already some of the swarm was turning, forcing her to divert energy to reclaiming and killing her own.
Jim grasped for handholds as the pod detached from the Leviathan and rocketed towards the space station amidst thousands of others. A green globule burst in his mechanical hand for his effort and he stopped trying, waiting for the landing with rising anxiety.
The pods burst to chunky pieces as they hit the solid ground of the station, Jim stumbled to his feet and raised his weapon as he caught his bearings. It was disorienting watching the zerg stream past him in a hissing, screaming mass instead of actually at him. The moment of reflection passed when he caught sight of a shock of red hair launching towards a massive hybrid. He wasn't sure what happened, but the plume of purple blood and the creature crashing to the ground suggested Sarah was about her deadly work already. He took off after her, Stukov and Nova flanking either side of him as they all charged to catch up.
"Hopefully she leaves some for the rest of us!" Stukov said as he raised his misshapen arm and launched a green glob of acid, which connected to the face of a hybrid that fell down writhing and screaming, zerglings running forwards and covering it in a deadly carpet of teeth and claws.
"Hurry, the gap is closing!" Nova pumped her legs harder, Sarah had made a path for them that was rapidly closing with fresh new bodies and they would certainly lose her if they let the opportunity pass.
"On it!" Jim shouted, acutely aware of the headaches return behind his eyes. Stoic, he said nothing as they darted inside a blown apart door and into the complex. "Sarah!"
"Hurry up," Sarah said, raising her hands and bearing her teeth seemingly at them.
"What the-" Jim took a half step back as she unleashed her power at them, only to hear the doors behind their group slam shut and crumple.
She gave him a steady look, "That should buy us some time, but Zagara can't hold the swarm from that many hybrid for long. We need to hurry."
"The sooner we kill Narud, the sooner I can be content," Stukov said.
Together they ventured deeper, glassy floors clacking under their boots, the main lights snapped off and the red emergency lights lit the place up eerily. It seemed as though Narud haunted every shadow, and a hybrid stood around every corner. The hybrid were very real, dropping quickly under the combined might of their group, but every bullet hole Jim put into a shadow of Narud just left ghostly laughter behind.
After a few minutes of wandering they came to a divergence in their path. To the right the corridor seemed to twist away and upwards, the left veered down and curled in on itself.
"I'll go left," Sarah said.
"I got right," Nova said.
"I'll go with Sarah then, Stukov you go with Nova," Jim gave the two a quick salute and followed after Sarah who was already on the move.
"Narud has been all over this complex," Nova said, lips in a grimace. His stench and residual energy were everywhere.
"Together we will find the right path and meet up with our comrades once again," Stukov said.
A bead of sweat slid down Jim's temple and he let out a huff. "Is it the hybrid giving me this headache?"
Sarah stopped and looked at him sharply, "You shouldn't have one with the psi screen on."
"Well," Jim closed his eyes tightly for a few moments, fighting back the rising pressure behind his eyeballs, "I do."
"We have less time than I thought then, hurry," Sarah grit her teeth and charged forwards, rifle raised and ready. She cursed her lack of better judgement with him, Jim shouldn't have come.
Giving his head a good shake, Jim followed after and refrained from shooting the creature hiding in Sarah's shadow as she veered around a corner.
He almost lost her then, the creek of a door opening the only sign she had passed into the hallway, other than he was sure he saw her enter it in the first place.
"Jim," she said. Facing him inside what appeared to be a small laboratory, a metal table glowing an eerie red behind her.
"Yeah? Don't we need to keep going before I go insane darlin'?" he let out a little nervous chuckle, his eyes pounded to the rhythm of his heartbeat.
Her lips sealed into a tight line. "I hate what you did to me."
"What?" He looked left and right for the offending thing he could have done.
"I loved being the Queen of Blades."
His stomach dropped to the floor, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What?" he said again, incredulous.
She took a step towards him. "If you truly loved me, you would have let me infest you and lived with me as zerg."
"I don't believe this!" Jim shouted. Of all the times to have a conversation like this, why now?
Between blinks, she appeared in front of him, resting her hand on his metal shoulder. "I could never love you like this. Don't you see?"
"No! I don't see and agh-" A sharp noise, like a high pitched scream, rattled inside his brain so hard and so loud he thought he might be the one screaming.
"You should have," Narud said before everything went black.
Letting out a primal scream, Sarah ripped the offending tentacled and glowing hybrid in half. Panting as it fell to twitching pieces before her, she quickly turned around to check on Jim, he didn't even try to shoot that one. She swallowed hard, feeling warm blood pool around her booted feet, there was no Jim standing there in his CMC.
"Jim?" she said, heart clenching.
No answer. The hallway was silent and dark.
"Jim!" she yelled then, charging back the way they came and rounding a corner. She stopped dead still when a black eyed Jim, outside the armored shell of his CMC, stood there smiling.
"Shoulda kept a better eye on me, darlin'," he said.
"No!" she shrieked, lashing out with power at the twisted vision, it faded from sight and Narud's laughter hung in the air like a miasma.
Bright red rage filled her until she thought her eyes would explode, her feet carrying her back the way she came with Jim. How long ago had he been gone? Their conversation was not long ago, he couldn't have gone far. Reason warring with passion, she fought to clear the haze of white hot anger and think clearly.
One corner. Two corners. Three. She took a deep breath and focused intently. This was it, the place they last spoke. Looking down, eyes half closed, she watched as footprints appeared with a little coaxing of the mind.
Two small purple colored boots and two large blue mechanical prints gleamed before her eyes. Looking up occasionally, she followed Jim's path like an intent predator.
"If you hurt him," she whispered, cold as ice, "there will be no universe in which you can hide from me."
The shadows laughed.
Panting, Nova looked at the smoldering, half melted and still twitching corpse of the hybrid they were just fighting. "This can't be the right way," she said. They were eight hybrid deep down this winding upwards path, and her nerves were on fire with the knowledge more were all around.
"Perhaps it is time we circle back, I agree," Stukov said, giving her a nod.
Together they walked past the soulless husk and headed back the way they came.
"I feel him everywhere," Nova whispered, worried about attracting undo attention.
"This is his palace," Stukov sneered, "unholy place of worship, whatever you want to call it. Home for Amon's most loyal creation."
"What stake do you have in this?" Nova said.
"Saving the universe isn't good cause enough?" Stukov chuckled, eyeing the tall ghost intently, eyes gleaming in the low light.
"Zerg aren't interested in saving the universe."
"If you haven't noticed, I'm an infested terran, we are a bit different. Still," he said, "you are right, this is personal to me. I have much unfinished business with the monster who created me."
She drew in a short, sharp inhale. Stukov made a lot more sense now, enough sense for pity to be established. "This way," she gestured with the butt of her rifle. Already they were at the divergence of paths, their feet leading them where Sarah and Jim walked before them.
"Where is Jim?" Sarah whispered, staring into the burning eyes of the hybrid she held at her mercy in a psionic grip.
Your love is dead, Sarah Kerrigan. It laughed cruelly before its head bent at an incorrect angle and made a wet snap. The light in its eyes faded away.
It was the third one, each a little more mauled than the next, that she had questioned. Answers had not been forthcoming, but Jim's footprints were still true. Stepping through a sliding doorway into a laboratory of some sort, Sarah stared at the cold steel table that made up the centerpiece of the room. It was not hard to imagine Stukov or any other helpless terran strapped there, subjected to the demented desires of Narud and his ultimate agenda. "You have a lot to answer for, Narud. You're going to pay for every last bit of it."
A dark chuckle lingered in the air.
Stepping through the sliding door on the opposite side of the room, Sarah raised her rifle and spun to her left, crosshairs on Jim's forehead.
"Jim," she said, but didn't lower the rifle.
"Sarah, it's me darlin', put the gun down," he said from the dark insides of his CMC.
"Show me your face," she said, eyes narrowing.
"Need to see the only handsome guy around here?" He teased, the visor flipping up.
In that second, Sarah leaped to the side as a massive claw impaled the vision of Jim and the space where she had occupied.
"Where is he!" she snarled, firing off several psi-infused bullets that ripped through the armored hide of the zerglike hybrid, sending it screaming to the floor and flailing. Without waiting for an answer, she fired several more into it until it was just another steaming corpse.
Looking up from the heap, she saw the continuation of Jim's footprints lead past it and broke into a run. Every second allowed him to get further and further away from being saved.
When the path lead to a sheer black wall with no discernible markings she let a fierce scream of frustration rip from her lungs, clawing her hands over the ebony surface and banging her fists into it.
Heaving breath after breath, she staggered backwards and allowed the potent rage to take form, her hands glowing a bright orange as she made a violent pulling apart gesture. The hallway shook and the wall let out an unearthly wail as a huge crack ran up it from the floor to the ceiling.
"Where are you!" she bellowed, shoving forwards with all her might, her words drowned out by a deafening crack as she punched a hole clean through the wall.
Coughing and clearing the dust from her lungs, she did a quick double take at what her emotional attack revealed- stairs spiraling downwards towards a dim red source of light.
Her hesitation lasted only as long as it took to see Jim's blue steps, a red haze around them, leading downwards.
"They did not go any farther than this," Nova said, frowning down the poorly lit hallway. The sense of Kerrigan was strong until a few feet ago, where it suddenly stopped.
"Doubled back then perhaps," Stukov said.
A clattering further down the hall, accompanied by chittering and shrieks, drew their attention and the aim of their weapons. Zerg, charging past the feet of a massive hybrid, poured towards them like a frothing carpet of death.
"Run!" Nova was already well past Stukov, hurrying in the direction they already came, this wasn't a winnable fight if Zagara's swarm was helping the enemy.
Stukov needed no further incentives to follow, forcefully taking control of several hydralisks to turn on their companions, they would prove to be a few moments distraction while they made their escape.
"She had to have gone this way," Nova said, taking a sharp turn and leaving a shimmering image of herself behind, a clone that took off running in the other direction.
Judging by the lack of nearby sounds, the clone distraction served its purpose. Nova slowed to a stop at the violently made entryway to downward spiraling stairs. "We're clear, I can feel that this is Kerrigan's handy work. We are on the right trail now," Nova said, taking the first steps down the stairs.
"That was a clever trick back there, psionic projection is not easy to master," Stukov said. The infested terran seemed unflappable, unphased by the events that led up to their current calm state.
"Now's not the time for chit chat," she said.
"When is it ever?" he chuckled.
Together they descended towards the red light.
To say the Tal'darim were entrenched was an understatement. Sarah's hands shook with effort as she took hold of a fully charged void ray and ran its deadly laser cutter across a squad of its own allies. The explosions heating her skin and psionic screams were satisfying.
Jim had begun to appear now, a small figure in the distance between skirmishes. He was walking towards the massive door of a xel'naga temple entrance, such a small shape, and Sarah felt acutely that time was running out.
Psionic lightning arced from her fingertips and ripped through multiple enemies at once, the tal'darim were meat for the grinder. Those few that made it through to melee range alternated being riddled with psi infused bullets and sliced apart by her own energized fists.
"There!" Stukov said, pointing towards an explosion in the distance as he and Nova came charging down the base of the stairs. The view was staggering, a city of tal'darim between themselves and the tip of a massive pyramid, so was the amount of bloodshed between themselves and that lone glowing shape.
"I see her, but where's Raynor?" Nova said, squinting and looking through the information presented on her HUD.
"Perhaps that is what is motivating her." he said, taking the first running step towards Kerrigan and her trail of destruction.
"He never should have come in the first place," she said, trailing behind ready to provide firing cover with her canister rifle.
The door had already opened and closed, her feet could not carry her fast enough. Sarah's fists slammed up against the cold black surface and she clawed at the now seamless door with the tips of her fingers.
"Kerrigan!" a familiar voice called, Nova.
"Jim's inside!" Sarah said, not turning around.
"We are here to help," Stukov said.
"Jim isn't our mission, Kerrigan!" Nova said, frustration in her tone.
Sarah rounded on the two then, eyes ablaze, "if you ever want to get out of here alive, you'll help me get him back!"
Unphased, Nova felt out with her senses and quirked a brow. "Narud is behind this door. Not Jim. You should know that."
"I have been following Jim's trail since inside the facility, he is here, and so is Narud," Sarah said.
"Then let us open the door and say hello," Stukov said, tipping his head towards the door.
"Together," Sarah said.
Nova shouldered her rifle and felt out with her mind, finding the near perfectly seamless crack where the door opened and filling the gap, like pouring water into a cup. Sarah and Stukov's intent expressions suggested they were doing the same.
Their efforts manifested visually as a conglomeration of lights, blue, green, purple, mixing together and slowly, painfully so, the door began to wail and give in to their combined demand: open up.
"We must enter together," Stukov said through gritted teeth.
Sarah took the first step and Nova and Stukov fell in behind her, inching their way into the perfect darkness the door framed. As soon as all three were in, they let out a combined breath and let go of the door. It slammed shut so hard the ground shook, leaving them in the blinding dark.
Sarah raised a hand and ignited her fist, ghostly purple illuminating their feet and not much farther. "You are out of time Narud, there is nowhere you can run now."
Nova unslung her rifle and held it at the ready, her senses and scanning equipment revealing nothing. "Not picking anything up," she said.
"He's here," Stukov assured.
In answer, laughter filled the chamber and bounced around, making it impossible to determine where it came from.
"We've come to say good night you bastard," Stukov stepped forwards, his alien fist clenched and ready.
"You have come to die!" A flare of green lit from afar and it was all Stukov could do to step aside as a searing beam lanced past him.
Sarah caught that beam with her own, letting out a shout of effort.
"It will destroy you if it touches you!" Stukov said, staggering away from it and looking at its dangerous proximity to Sarah.
Narud laughed. His true form, similar to the hybrid themselves, loomed from his position in the dark. It seemed to absorb the darkness around it, standing out in a twisted way as even darker than its surroundings while his front was illuminated by sickly green.
Nova looked between the beams and saw the green inching forwards towards Sarah steadily before she made her decision. Shouldering her rifle she leaped forwards and slammed her hands down on Sarah's shoulders, letting out a long echoing yell as she channeled her own power into Sarah. The beam receded several feet and began to slowly creep back towards Narud.
"Keep it up!" Sarah said through clenched teeth.
"The Xel'naga chose their heroes poorly, as usual," Narud sneered, though his eyes widened slightly, "did you know that none have ever defeated me?"
"On earth they say 'every dog has his day', I trust you know what that means," Stukov said, observing the proceedings. This was not a fight he could contribute to, not in that way. He began to watch their surroundings intently.
There.
Jim, still in his CMC, walked out of the darkness. Dangerously close to the beams, their colors rhythmically danced across the dark surface of his suit and his face. "Sarah," he said, voice devoid of emotion.
"Jim, step away!" Sarah said, eyes widening in alarm.
"You should have stayed with me, this never would have happened," he said.
The beam began to falter, Narud grinned wickedly as he gained ground once more.
Nova was shaking from the draining effort. "You can't let him use Jim against you Kerrigan! You have to win this!" she said.
Panting, Sarah's arms trembled as she redoubled her effort, shoving the beam several more feet. Desperately, she looked to Stukov, who was on the opposite side.
A look of resignation had come upon his face, the infested man staring across the beam at the mind controlled Raynor. "Kill him for me, Kerrigan."
At the same time, both men leaped towards the beams.
"No!" Sarah screamed.
A horrific flash lit the room with green light for a moment, blinding everyone present. The beams arched around wildly for a second before their owners eyes cleared and their purpose redoubled. Jim was laying on his back unmoving, but Stukov was laying directly beneath the beams, blackened and smoking.
White hot fury filled every fiber of her being then and Sarah poured every burning inch of it into the beam, breaking through Narud's and rocketing towards him like a giant purple lance.
Narud let out a long scream of his own as he saw his own death, another bright flash filling the room before all fell completely dark once again.
Nova fell to her knees as Sarah stumbled forwards in the dark, pulling down her own HUD to see with. One life sign, stable.
With tears in her eyes, she fell beside Jim's CMC and leaned over it, hands clenching at its frame. "Jim!"
"Keep it down darlin', I've got the biggest headache," Jim said weakly.
She let out a desperate laugh and hugged the machine while Nova got to her feet and made her way over to what remained of Stukov.
My Queen! Zagara invaded all of their minds, exultant, The hybrid have perished! We are securing the facility now!
Sarah gave directions to their location while Nova knelt down, resting her hand on the blackened human shoulder of Stukov.
The still smoking form of the infested terran man cracked at the touch, crumbling inwards and falling to the floor in a mess of coals. Stukov was no more, and something stung inside Nova at the thought. Swallowing, she stood up and gave the salute of the earth terrans, "you were an honorable enemy," she said.
Sarah watched as she helped Jim to a stand, feeling a pang of loss. "He saved you," she said to Jim.
"Don't remember a damn thing other than following you through a hallway," Jim said, "but I believe it." He looked around and saw the corpse of Stukov,
Sarah filled him in on the details while they all walked to the temple door together. Without Narud's influence, it opened slowly of its own accord for them. The zerg were already flooding into the tal'darim city below and routing them, their spirits broken by loss and their bodies soon following.
Leviathan
Together, Sarah, Jim, Nova and Zagara stood inside the ocular chamber of the massive zerg flagship.
"Hard to believe it's over," Jim said.
"The Dominion will need help rebuilding, I intend to return home and serve Emperor Valerian," Nova said.
The swarm will take all of you where you need to go and then return to the Char system. Zagara said, bowing her crested head in respect.
Sarah let out a slow breath, the idea of what came next felt unnaturally daunting, given what had been done already. Jim's mechanical hand closed around hers reassuringly.
"I got a few ideas where we can start," he said, knowing her plight.
"Valerian will want you, you know," Nova said to them both, but her manner remained relaxed.
"Valerian wants lots of things he can't have," Jim said with a smile.
"I won't stand in your way," Nova shrugged, "I'm just a normal terran now." Indeed, both Sarah and Nova felt it true; the Xel'naga's gift for their success had been immediate. Their psionic talents were gone, drained away by the confrontation with Narud.
Jim's eyes widened, "Does that mean..."
"Yes," Sarah looked up at him and felt a pang of insecurity. He was not an open book anymore, for better or for worse.
Jim's hand tightened around hers.
EPILOGUE
James Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan were last spotted having a drink at Joey Ray's bar, the only thing Valerian's men found when they arrived to collect them was Jim's marshal badge. It was suspected that the protoss had a hand in helping them escape and remaining unfound for the years to come.
Tychus Findlay and Jayce Burrough ended up together, Tychus' wild nature dulled by his last adventure and Jayce's guiding hand. They both found gainful employment in Valerian's empire, their unique skills taking them far; but not without a few fist fights!
Nova Terra returned to Valerian's employ like she said she would, but became the headmistress of a new school for psionic terrans, a very different place than the heartless institution she had been trained at originally. She was instrumental in healing a wound between the public and the government that stole so many gifted children over the years.
Emperor Valerian would prove to be the leader he always wanted the people to have, rebuilding the Dominion from the ground up to be for the people and creating a prosperous civilization that had strong ties to the Protoss, the Umojans and the Kel Morians. One of his most loved achievements was turning the fallen Hyperion into a monument to Raynor's Raiders inside Augustgrad, where people could see and touch what the Raiders went through all those years.
Matt Horner became the admiral of the Dominion fleet, and held true to his word about protecting the people. He also joined forces with Mira Han to bring Deadman's Rock into the fold, granting amnesty and legal jobs to the mercenaries who helped save Korhal against Amon's onslaught in the terran's darkest hour; not all mercenaries joined, but most did when they no longer had a neutral port to dock at.
General Warfield returned to retirement with the Emperors blessing. He became the proud father of Tate when the young man's parents were eventually counted among the dead on Korhal. Together they became avid fishermen on a quiet planet, well away from politics and especially aliens.
Zagara returned to the Char system with the swarm and cleansed it of all life, claiming all the planets of the Char system for the swarm. There she would remain, killing and evolving as zerg were intended.
Dehaka returned to Zerus where he took what he learned and truly became the river, the apex predator without peer. His pack would rule the planet, filling the power gap Kerrigan and her swarm left behind.
Artanis, leading the council of the combined Protoss peoples, reclaimed Aiur with the help of the dark templar and many willing terrans eager to repay them for helping on Korhal. With their home world secure once again, they set about creating a new age of peace and rebuilding their glorious empire, more united in purpose than ever before.
The Xel'naga were beyond our ability to track, they disappeared as suddenly as they came. New life was reported to be appearing on formerly barren planets however, and those of us who understood and believed what we experienced on Korhal knew it to be the work of the creator aliens.
A fragile peace had bloomed over the Koprulu sector, but for how long?
A Personal Note
Wow, this has taken forever and a day to complete! I want to thank you for reading this far and for your limitless patience. The ending is not satisfactory to me, but it was never going to be, I just had to get it out there before I went and gave up! I can only hope that you feel a sense of closure, peace and contentment from this ending and that you enjoyed the journey from start to finish. This was an incredibly ambitious project on my part and I am filled with happiness and sadness that it has now come to an end. Thank you!