BEGINNING OF ARC 3
Louise felt herself stir to consciousness not due to a presence, but rather a lack of one. In the dark, cold, metal room illuminated only by the luminent reflection of the planet below, Louise's eyes flew open as she realized she was in the bed of these borrowed quarters alone. In a panic, her eyes flew around the dimly-lit surroundings, eventually settling on a familiar visage that calmed her.
"Siesta? Why are you out of bed?" Louise blearily asked as she observed Siesta staring out of the substantial view window with a contemplative expression on her face.
Siesta gave a resigned sigh as she tapped the fingers on her left hand against her thigh before giving Louise a weary look.
"I'm… tired," Siesta finally said.
Louise raised an eyebrow at her.
"So come to bed," Louise suggested.
Siesta shook her head, "I'm not that kind of tired." Siesta slumped and leaned her head against the window, staring into the void in a manner Louise felt was… longing. "Aren't you?"
"Aren't I what?" Louise asked with growing inklings of concern.
Siesta gave a wry titter, "Tired. Of everything." Her eyes fell, "Of me."
Louise scrambled out of bed, wincing slightly at the cold metal floor as she embraced Siesta, "No. Never. What's going on? What's making you say these things?"
Siesta did not reciprocate the affection. "I'm tired."
"Of what?" Louise near-whispered into her ear.
A deep, uncomfortable pause precluded Siesta's next words, "Of you."
Louise's stomach dropped. Her body felt loose. Like it wanted to collapse under the weight of those two words. "What?" Louise barely managed to whisper out as she drifted away from Siesta, who was still wearily staring out into the darkness.
"I'm… tired of you. Of this. All this fighting. All for your sake," Siesta shook her head, "I didn't ask for any of this. I just wanted a friend. If I knew it would lead to me dying and still having to fight almost every day?" She scoffed, "I would never have offered my friendship."
Louise was gutted. Her mouth opened. To form words. To scream. Something. Nothing came out. She merely stumbled back onto the bed, her body now trembling and her face awash with tears.
"No… You… you don't mean that…"
Siesta gave an exasperated sigh as she frowned at Louise, "How naive are you?"
Louise flinched and grabbed her gut as she doubled over.
"Don't you think it'd be easier?" Siesta said absent-mindedly.
Louise could not even summon the willpower to look at Siesta's cold expression.
"To just… give up? Quit now before anyone else gets hurt? Before I get hurt again for your sake?" Siesta suggested.
Louise's only response was a barely-stifled sob as her liquid manifestation of despair audibly hit the metal floor.
"Oh, Louise," Siesta said in a patronizing manner as she stood up and placed a hand on Louise's head, "You're hopeless, you know that? You're a drain on my life. On everyone's lives. You know how much easier things would be if you just… disappeared?"
Louise couldn't believe what she was hearing. No matter what her ears heard or her brain processed.
Siesta kneeled before her. Oddly enough, grinning wide, "Ah, that feels so much better to say aloud. Aren't you glad we're having this talk?"
Louise, still refusing to meet her gaze, merely sobbed in response, prompting Siesta to frown at her again.
"Hey," Siesta snatched her face into one of her hands to force their eyes to meet, "It's rude not to look at people when they're talking to you." Siesta's stern chastening cut even deeper into Louise, who once more merely sobbed in response. "Oh, with those tears again. You know you've got a real problem with manipulation, you know that?"
What do you want me to say? I don't understand what's happening… Louise could only manage to barely think her response.
Siesta perked up, then gave her a grin that felt subtly too-wide, "Oh but you do, don't you?" Siesta's hand loosened its grip on her face, caressing it gently before moving down, "You know what's happening. You just need to admit it. Stop making a fool of yourself and… embrace it." Siesta's hand met Louise's neck. Then gripped it with a force that immediately cut off all of Louise's air.
Embrace what? I don't understand! Louise desperately thought as she tried thrashing against Siesta's all-too-superior strength.
"You know what I'm talking about," Siesta's grin became toothy, and was now undoubtedly stretched beyond a level one could consider human as Louise was pinned to the bed by Siesta, "Do you need me to say it? Are you so stupid you can't figure it out?"
Louise's thrashings were weakening as her world grew dark.
Siesta condescendingly sucked her teeth as she brought another hand to Louise's throat and leaned in close to whisper in her ear, "Despair, my love," Louise heard. In a tone and manner that was completely unlike Siesta. It was too deep. Too strong. It shook her mind. "Witness it," the grip tightened, Louise felt all her strength fall away, "Embrace it."
Siesta pulled up, and Louise could see her eyes overtaken by a pure darkness that obscured every part of them.
"Despair."
She could swear she heard and felt a sharp snap.
"SIESTA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Eleonore screamed, causing both thrashing girls to be jerked from the nightmare.
Siesta needed a moment to register what was occurring. She was atop Louise, who was weakly thrashing against her. And her hands were firmly on her wife's throat.
Immediately she loosened her grip as her face became overcome with terror. Before she could do anything further, however, she was grabbed by the back of her blouse and thrown from the bed. In her shock, she made no effort to resist, falling onto the metal floor with no regard for the pain as her mind was enveloped in horror.
Covered in sweat and hyperventilating, each of the girls curled into themselves from where they were, with Eleonore rushing to place herself defensively before her sister, aiming her wand at Siesta with a wrathful disbelief upon her countenance.
Why would she do that? What's happening? Eleonore wondered in a panic as she kept her gaze and wand firmly trained on a trembling Siesta. A whimper from behind her got her attention, and she whipped her head back to see her sister sobbing into her knees. Without thinking, she climbed into the bed and held Louise, stroking her hair as she did.
"It's alright," Eleonore cooed. She felt Louise grip onto her, silently sobbing and shivering under her cold sweat.
After a time, the sobbing gave way to light, steady crying, and Eleonore's heart calmed, allowing her to take in a breath she didn't know she was denying herself.
A rustle past the foot of the bed made Eleonore snap her attention and her wand back upon Siesta, her face once more contorted in wrath as she saw Siesta rise to her knees and reach out.
"Stay back! I don't know why you did it but I won't let you hurt Louise!" Eleonore snarled.
A smaller hand was placed upon her forearm. Eleonore's eyes flicked down to her sister, whose desperate gaze was trained upon a Siesta who mirrored her wife's countenance.
"It wasn't her," Eleonore heard Louise croak out.
Eleonore blinked with disbelief, feeling a gentle application of force upon her arm that she surmised was to lower. With a moment's resistance, she complied, looking down at her sister with teary-eyed concern.
"What do you mean?" Eleonore nearly whispered.
Her only response was Louise crawling past her, situating herself on the edge of the bed as she looked down at Siesta, whose face was twisted with agony as she sobbed.
"You… aren't tired of me? Right?" Louise struggled to ask.
Siesta's head snapped up. She fervently shook it.
"No! Never! I would never say those things!" Siesta declared, her tone wavering as she fought the lump in her throat. "I… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Siesta sharply sobbed into her hands.
Louise reached up to feel her neck, which still throbbed and ached. That was when she had a realization. And remembered she'd seen this before.
She looked back at Eleonore, "It wasn't her."
Eleonore's face contorted with confusion. "Then… what-?"
It was Amon, Zeratul answered the elder sister, manifesting into the room in a cloak of shadows. Louise, though it was exactly what she suspected, still felt this to be a revelation. And her face betrayed it.
"Amon?" Eleonore muttered, "What that… Rohana was talking about? But… I thought he was dead."
Indeed, Zeratul confirmed as he kneeled beside Siesta, placing a hand on her back, time… works differently for such a being, however. He looked directly into Eleonore's widening eyes, The seeds of his destruction are nearing their harvest. Zeratul looked down at a steadily calming Siesta.
Louise crawled onto the floor with Siesta, curling herself into her wife's embrace as they both shuddered and choked on tears.
"What was it? What happened?" Eleonore asked in a trembling near-whisper.
Both Louise and Siesta had no idea what to say. His presence… it was so strong. So malevolent. So sadistic. It was worse than anything Siesta experienced with Saito. So indescribably worse. Never had she felt such-
"Despair…" Louise whispered, finishing Siesta's train of thought without her knowing.
Siesta felt Louise twitch and released her so they could meet each others' gaze.
"It… It was Amon," Louise finally said.
Siesta drew in a sharp breath as her eyes went wide. She had so dearly hoped that presence was left far behind in another universe.
"Are you… sure?" Siesta desperately asked both Louise and Zeratul.
Louise's gaze fell before she nodded. "He… must be the Devourer of our world's legend." She gave Siesta a desperate look. Then, her face fell as she hopelessly shook her head, "We... we can't…" Louise struggled to say.
"Don't say that," Siesta said in a wavering tone. "There's nothing we can't do."
"But… how?" Louise asked, hopelessness in her tone as she gave her wife a fearful look.
"I don't know," Siesta said as she took her wife into a firm embrace, "But we'll find a way. We always do."
Can we really? Louise thought, disbelieving. Siesta, still reeling from the vision she was thrust into, did not hear it.
A silence only broken by their shuddered breaths and tears was broken when each human present felt a foreign feeling creep within them. From Zeratul. A feeling Louise did not know he was capable of. And clutched her heart as she looked up at her mentor.
"Are you… afraid?"
Zeratul paused for a moment.
They could feel his dread swell.
Indeed I am, my apprentices, Zeratul admitted. But not for myself. For you.
Both Louise and Siesta gave him a concerned look.
You are… much too young. Even by Terran standards. To bear these burdens. It is unfair to you, Zeratul began, looking away from them, should it come to it… I will gladly lay down my life for you both. And, should you need to choose between facing this trial, and fleeing to safety… I implore you both choose your lives over destiny.
Louise and Siesta were speechless at this. For so long he extolled the virtues of destiny and duty.
Perhaps my time with you has made me acquire a Terran sense of selfishness, Zeratul said, responding to their feelings, but… I cannot bear to lose either of you. Never again.
Zeratul who took them into an embrace. The first time he had ever initiated such a contact.
Louise and Siesta reciprocated. Their eyes filling up with tears that were their own. And some that were not.
Zeratul stayed in their room that night. Working tirelessly to banish any more intrusions upon their minds.
Saito found himself back on the bridge. He did not know how. His head whipped around to behold a scene of carnage that caused him to start hyperventilating.
Bodies.
Eviscerated, bloody bodies surrounded him.
He could see their faces. Permanently frozen in anguished terror.
Louise.
Siesta.
"No!" Saito cried out as he rushed to the body of Tabitha. Their eyes dull, coagulating blood streaming from their mouth, and their body gutted from waist to sternum. "No… this isn't right. This can't be right. You just saved me. Please." He pleaded to anything that could hear him.
And he was heard.
A menacing, rumbling guffaw was heard from behind him. He slowly turned to see him. And his eyes widened in horror upon beholding this impossible visage.
"Surrender, child," the voice coming from Joseph was unlike any he had heard. It was deeper. It echoed in his head. It made him tremble with weakness at the sound of it. And his eyes. They were all black. With a red energy crackling off of them. And his body.
"Surrender," the visage of Joseph spoke once more with a wicked grin as he began marching towards a frozen Saito, grabbing him by the neck as he did, "To despair."
And he wanted to. Whatever this entity was. It felt both unbearably and unbeatably strong. And it awakened a fear in him he had never beheld. Just as he closed his eyes to accept his fate, the body of Joseph was shoved aside, causing it to release Saito. He roughly hit the floor, coughing for a bit before he beheld his savior.
It was-
"Omega?" Saito looked up at the Zerg Cerebrate that took his form when they communicated, just as it was doing now.
"You defy me, child?" the voice from Joseph asked, amused, as the body rose once more.
"This one is not for you to take," Omega declared as he rushed forward, slamming his fist into the entity's head.
"This is not a fight you can win, my prodigal son," the voice spoke, even as the body's jaw was hanging loosely from its face.
"We will not be slaves," Omega sternly declared with conviction as he thrust his hands forward, sending the entity against the wall of the bridge, pinning him there with an unseen force.
"You are," the voice from Joseph spoke, calm, yet dripping with malice, "what I made you."
"No," Omega defiantly rebuked, "I am what I made me."
"You would be dead if not for me, ungrateful child."
"I never asked for your mercy. You gave it to me freely. Then you abandoned me. I owe you nothing, Amon," Omega declared as he turned his palms from facing Joseph's possessed body to each other, causing the crackling red energies surrounding the body to intensify for a moment while a wrathful screaming could be heard ringing throughout the space. Then, Omega swiped his hands out, and the energies, as well as this space, disappeared, leaving only the same, blank, dark space that Saito and Omega had shared many times before.
Omega turned to Saito, who was still on his knees, staring up in disbelief.
"What was that?" Saito stuttered, his trembling interfering with his speech.
"The Dark God. Amon," Omega explained as he offered a hand to Saito, who took it and rose to his feet. "The veil between your universe and the Void grows thin. That is the only explanation for how he can manifest himself like this. And I assume you are not the only one he will torment at this time."
"Did you defeat him?" Saito asked, knowing the answer even before the words had left his mouth.
Omega unsurprisingly shook his head, "I have merely dispersed his presence from your mind. He shall trouble you no more. For now."
Saito gave him a look of gratitude, but felt he needed to vocalize it, "Thank you, Omega. I won't forget this."
"I know you won't," Omega smirked. "In fact, I have a favor to ask of you."
"Anything, Omega," Saito said with conviction.
"I need you to bargain with the Protoss for my life," Omega requested.
Saito was taken aback by this, but, after a moment, resumed his look of conviction, "I'll find a way. I swear it."
Omega clapped a hand on his shoulder, "I was correct."
"I'm sure you were. But, about what, exactly?"
"Why you felt the need to warn me about the psi disruptor. It was not just out of courtesy. But kinship," Omega said, "I feel the same for you, Saito. The longer our connection was maintained, the more I learned about you, and the deeper my connection was felt."
Saito gave him a small smile. "It's only natural, I guess."
"Indeed."
Ma'lash was pleased with the progress. Overlooking the rocky valley of the desert he refused to call home, despite residing here for 6,000 years, the mountain the ancient Tal'darim stood upon allowed him to easily observe as his elven slaves worked.
He was having them dig. According to their legends, an ancient dragon made of this world's magic, stone, and living fire was buried here. Here. There. And everywhere. This was not the only digsite. Merely the last. Ma'lash would not have them digging if he even thought it was mere legend.
For almost the 6,000 years he had been here, he had had these people dig. Making wide, deep craters throughout Nephtys to search for the scattered remains of this being. What "elves" proved to be useless upon the chain of ascension? He simply dumped into this work. For the Dark God's plan.
The only reason he was here now was because he felt they were getting close. And the veil between this realm and the Void was growing thin. It was time, he felt. Time to release this universe from the pain of the infinite cycle of existence.
So they could finally taste the sweetness of despair.
His ruminations were interrupted by an approaching Ji'nara. His new, faithful first ascendant.
Highlord, the pieces are assembled in Adyl, as you have requested. We merely await the final one, Ji'nara informed.
Ma'lash pointed to the crater, seeing sand, dirt, and rock give way to reveal what looked like a ruby eye glinting in the sunlight.
It is found. The time of our Dark God is upon us, Ma'lash said.