With the Princess of Blades' plans out in the open, Dark Prelate Nozomi, Praetor Rin, High Templar Maki and Dark Templar Hanayo planned to stop the infested Terran over Tyrador VIII. This would mean boarding the target science vessel with full cooperation from the Terrans, as well as having the Golden Armada itself intercept the Zerg Swarm before arriving as the first line of defense and to lessen the risk of the Princess of Blades getting close to the ship.

Tyrador VIII was still far off, and it would take three days at best. This gave the expedition of four a well-needed reprieve to prepare for the upcoming confrontation, as well as precious time to refine their plans and make sure they had the best chance of stopping the Princess of Blades. It was especially important for the young Dark Templar: she needed to steel herself even more for the horrors of war, because she knew she can't rely on her mentor or her best friends all the time. She almost lost her life back there on Meinhoff, and she swore to not repeat her mistakes.

Hyperion
High orbit above Xil

Above a dead world in another part of the sector, Raynor's Raiders prepared themselves for yet another artifact retrieval job. With the Agrian ships setting off to find a new world to colonize, the Raiders were free to take on other jobs to fill their coffers and bolster their forces for the upcoming revolution against the Dominion. Once again, courtesy of the Moebius Foundation, the Raiders didn't have to wait for long.

Xil had been mostly biologically dead for millions of years, with its entire biosphere having been wiped out by some unrecorded disaster, and the planet has yet to recover even after all these millennia. As with Monlyth, the Xel'naga briefly visited Xil, though they abandoned it when disaster struck. However, their relics still remained.

Also the same with Monlyth, the Tal'darim, ever so fanatical to their gods, quickly occupied Xil when they discovered the artifacts, and have stood guard over them ever since. They weren't strangers to invaders, and they certainly didn't take kindly to thieves.

The Moebius Foundation found that out rather painfully from their recent expedition. A specialist crew had been sent to the planet to recover another artifact within yet another Xel'naga temple, but contact was lost shortly after the artifact's location was located. Fearing the worst, the foundation hired the Raiders to discover what happened, and perhaps pick up where the crew left off. The suspects were easily identified when the Raiders' advance force made their way towards the Moebius expedition's abandoned base camp, which included the massive laser drill which was specifically brought to breach the temple. They then, after retaking the base and setting up a defensive network - augmented by the recent addition to the Raiders' arsenal, the vaunted Crucio Siege Tanks which were recently introduced to the Terran Dominion's arsenal to replace the old Arclite tanks - continued the Moebius crew's work. Once again, there was no chance of diplomacy with the Tal'darim. They would have to take the artifact by force.

This time, the two covert snipers and two medics would not be seeing combat for the meantime, and for their short reprieve, they would be doing a performance. This time, it would be all four of them instead of just Honoka and Kotori, and the Hyperion's personnel were eager to once again listen to the same voices which saved them a lot of trouble back on Agria. The four of them were making their preparations in the latter two's room.

"You haven't lost your talent with the guitar, I see," Umi noted as Eli stopped playing the instrument, lent to her by Kotori. It had been Eli's favorite instrument since her grandmother taught her how to play it. Her grandmother eventually passed her old-but-lovingly-maintained guitar over to her grandchild, and Eli wished that she could have brought it along during this mission.

Eli smiled at her partner's compliment. "And you've always been good at writing a song." Umi blushed at the remark, which intensified as Honoka and Kotori nodded gleefully in agreement.

"It sounds so great!" Honoka agreed. "We can't wait to sing it live later, right, Kotori-chan?" Kotori nodded enthusiastically in agreement, and Eli chuckled.

"This is our first time singing in front of an audience," Eli admitted. "More often than not, Umi and I would only sing when nobody was around." Umi nodded vigorously in agreement. "But that was mainly because of Umi. She would freeze up and completely lose her voice if she even suspected that other people could be listening."

"Eli!"

The blonde laughed again at her partner's expense, as Umi buried her face in a pillow. "Although something changed after singing at Agria," she added.

"...I do admit that it felt unnatural for me to do such a thing..." Umi said loudly enough for them to hear. "But...back then, it seemed like the right thing to do...and, with all four of us, I felt like I could do it..." She then felt two people sit beside her, and she hugged the pillow even tighter to her face.

"You sang beautifully with us back then," Kotori said, placing a hand on Umi's shoulder. "We also felt nervous when we decided to sing, but with you and Eli-chan, it felt like we could do anything."

"Mm-hmm!" Honoka agreed, also placing her hand on Umi's other shoulder, and glancing towards Eli as well. "It was like our hearts were one, and together they reached out to everyone's. I want to do it again, and I really feel like we could."

After a few moments of silence, Umi mumbled something unintelligible. "Eh?" Honoka wondered.

"What did you say, Umi-chan?" Kotori followed.

Her grip around the pillow loosened slightly, and Umi's slightly-teary eyes peeked out, with flushed cheeks peeking out just below. "...I also want to do it again. With all of us." The two medics beamed at each other, and wrapped the blue-haired sharpshooter in a hug that made her entire face completely burn up.

Again, Eli couldn't help but chuckle at Umi's expense. However, she also sensed a presence just outside their room. It didn't seem hostile, so she casually stood up and opened the door.

The figure standing beside jumped in surprise when Eli poked her head out of the room. "Mrs. Yazawa?" she said when she recognized who was there, and her expression softened. "Would you like to come in?"

"I'm looking forward to watching you girls perform later," Mrs. Yazawa said to them. She looked slightly better compared to when she first boarded the ship. However, it was still obvious that she'd seen better days.

"Thank you, Mrs. Yazawa," Honoka replied. "We can't wait to show everyone the new song we just made."

"That's wonderful! I can't wait to see how the kids would react. Cocoro, Cocoa and Cotarou always listened to your songs on the radio, and N-Nico...always looked forward to..." Her voice then trailed off, and her mouth was left hanging open, as if trying to let the rest of the sentence out. "N-Nico...I..."

Before she started to break down again, Honoka firmly held both of her hands. "You still sense her, don't you?" she softly asked her. "We do, too. We know she's still there. And I promise that we'll bring her back. I still don't know how...but I know we'll find some way!" Tears welled up in Mrs. Yazawa's eyes, and she bit her shaking lips.

"We'll never lose hope in that, Mrs. Yazawa," Umi added, with Kotori and Eli nodding beside her. "And the song we made is for that promise, so we won't ever forget."

"I know that it might be hard to believe..." Kotori started to say.

Mrs. Yazawa shook her head slowly as tears started streaming across her face. "No, I do believe. Thank you, girls. I'd been starting to lose hope..." She rubbed her eyes with a handkerchief. "I know that Nico would still believe." The four looked at each other and smiled softly. "You know, Nico always wanted to meet you two, Honoka, Kotori."

"We did, too!" Kotori said. "We always wanted to work on a song together, and we were looking forward to meeting each other back in Mar Sara..." Kotori looked at a poster of Revolution Overdrive: Songs of Liberty - a famous collection of revolutionary songs that were often played in the jukebox, and which included Nico's first and only single - beside the door. "We'll still make that song together."

Eli looked at the clock beside one of the beds. "It's almost time, girls."

"I shouldn't delay you any further, then," Mrs. Yazawa said, breathing deeply and preparing to head out. "The kids and I will be watching."

"We'll do our best!"

As they watched Mrs. Yazawa exit the room, they looked at each other again with smiles on their faces. Moments like that were what helped them keep hoping. It still seemed uncertain as to whether or not Nico could be cured of her infestation, but within them was a feeling that it was possible. They just had to wait, and keep believing.

"Let's go, girls!" Honoka said, and the other three cheered in response. As they made their way to the cantina they heard that the Raiders' troops successfully completed their mission with only minor casualties, which would mean a larger audience. None of them felt nervous at the realization - not even Umi, surprisingly.

The four of them were introduced by Joeyray, and the audience watched them expectantly. "Hello, everyone," Honoka started. "Before we begin, I'd like to say that this is another song dedicated to a very important person." Everyone in the audience nodded, knowing who they meant. "This song we made recently...it's a promise. We know that it doesn't seem possible, but we feel like it could be. We feel that, somehow, we'll be able to save her from what she's suffering from right now.

"Nico-chan, if you can hear this song, just as how we heard you before, please, don't lose hope. We'll come for you someday, and we'll rescue you." Honoka looked at Eli, who then started playing the guitar, and the four of them began singing their new song.

Hyperion Bridge

A few hours later, Commander Jim Raynor, Admiral Matt Horner, and Dr. Ariel Hanson gathered around the star map.

"...conventional wisdom says a cure is impossible - the virus mutates too fast," Dr. Hanson said. "But I'll look into it."

Dr. Hanson reported that the Agria colonists seemed to have found a new home: an unclaimed planet called Haven, which sat near the edge of Protoss space. The possibility of any of Agria's colonists being infested was raised - and the Protoss were not known to mess around when it came to the Zerg - and eventually led to talk about trying to create a cure.

"Just do what you can," Raynor responded. "That's all anyone's asking." Developing one was all the more important now, since the colonists decided to pick a world near a species that harbored very ill will towards the Zerg. It would be very nasty should any sign of an infestation appear among the colonists. Just in case, he ordered Matt to set a course for Haven. They would have needed to check up on them anyways.

A/N: Fun fact, I actually replayed the Wings of Liberty campaign before writing this, just to refresh my memory of the game.

Other than that, there's not much else to say, except that I've already started work on the next chapter, so it should come out relatively soon (say, one week or two? Nah, kidding; my pace is weird, so I can't accurately predict when I'll finish the next chapter, but it shouldn't take longer than that).

Also, random thought: I wonder what Mama Yazawa's first name is (and the rest of the cast's parents, for that matter)? But that's just another unsolved mystery in the wonderful world of Love Live!