Starcraft: Queen and Country

by Wanderer D


Chapter 019: Roots of Hate

Starcraft: Queen and Country
By Wanderer D
Chapter 019: Roots of Hate

2504, Koprulu Sector, Planet Char █

'I'll convince Queen Kerrigan to let Gallus and the others live if I can…' Sweetie repeated to herself as she sliced her way through droves of unnamed Terrans. 'She has a soft spot for Raynor, right?' she reasoned as one scythe ripped a weapon and hands from an unfortunate solder, while the other decapitated him when the screaming started. 'She knows Gallus is mine, and I have felt her respect for Grampa Warfield… Tychus is a bit of a nag, but I like him, he's fun in a fight. I'm sure she'll go along with it after we win… after all life without enemies is not fun…' 

And she had no doubt they would win. 

Her gambit had played beautifully, and beyond the amount of shock and damage she had caused, it was also the first time she had used her magic as Harmony intended since she had been captured and transformed. 

A spell!

A real honest-to-Twilight spell, after so long! It had felt so good to do that… like rediscovering a love for muffins. Or drinking a glass of water after days in the desert.

It was like taking a shower after being in the mud or taking a deep breath of fresh air during a chill morning. It was invigorating. Empowering. Cleansing and addictive all at the same time. Things seemed more clear and it was as if the world was back into focus again… somehow, even if she hadn't sensed any sort of haze before.

She needed to practice more though… since the magic had hurt a little, going through her system, but magic was coming back to her like a torrent of memories and experiences. She was sure she'd be able to do all of the magic she had learned up to that point… and even more, now that she had so much more sheer power.

Even if channeling her magic had been challenging with her split horn… even a bit painful, especially with the amount of energy coursing through her body as she built it constantly and held it back until she could no longer keep an iota more of magical energy… and then she had released it.

And it had been glorious.

The exhilaration of the magical spell functioning, the energy burning through her, leaving her tingling as it gathered in the sky of Char above the Terran base and, at her command, struck down her enemies… she had never been able to do something like that in Equestria. 

Her magic was stronger, but her body as it was originally wouldn't have survived the exertion, and she'd have ended up with a burst horn, like Tempest at best, possibly dead at worst.

She felt giddy, giggling as she cut off the legs from under a Terran and impaled another through the face.

She hadn't even known if it would work! But taking the risk for her queen had been worth it, and now she knew she could do so much more than any other Zerg, Terran, or Protoss. 

Already she could feel through the Zerg's connection the imminent win… and then, the crescendo of voices she had been hearing ever since the Terrans had set up the artifact rose to a high pitch.

She didn't know what clued her in, but in a second, her magic swirled, forming around her like a bubble, and a second later she had to flap her wings furiously as she fell back to Char's surface, several klicks away from the Terran base, with half of her right hind leg and tail missing.

"Did I just teleport?" she gasped, but then pain flared in her head and she lost control of her wings, slamming into the surface of the planet with more force than anticipated. 

Far away, where the Terran base was, she could see a shockwave of blue energy disintegrating all of her Zerg.

She groggily looked up at it, blinking in confusion. "What—"

"An impressive defense. But not nearly enough to stop us."

Kerrigan's voice came to her mind like a rag of oily water. The voice of her queen was welcome, but there was something there… something wrong. As if something that she hadn't noticed before was holding her queen back from… something.

Sweetie struggled to her hooves, already regaining strength. She glanced back at her severed limb, which was quickly regenerating to the point where she could walk again a few seconds later. 

Soon, she would be combat ready. Before she could think too much on what she had felt, Kerrigan spoke again.

"We have immeasurable numbers… and theirs dwindle by the minute."

"Y-yes my queen, but what the hell was that?" Sweetie asked, checking herself for other missing pieces and finding none.

"Just a distraction. I was more surprised by your ability to escape than Raynor having an ace up his sleeve.

"It's still… painful."

"Pain is just a sign of life. They might have pushed you away and forced me to regenerate, but they will not last long. The end is near, Sweetie Belle.

"It doesn't have to be the end. This can still be turned around."

Sweetie blinked. "Um… did you say something?"

"Concentrate, Sweetie Belle. This is a battle we cannot afford to lose. Do you have any more tricks like the one you performed?"

Sweetie nodded, even if she knew that her queen could not see her. "I believe so, but I'll need a moment… It's been a long time since I used my powers this way."

Kerrigan didn't answer, but Sweetie could feel the presence of her Queen once again on the battlefield. The fact that the Xel'Naga artifact was strong enough to not only damage Sweetie, but push the Queen back?

It was a risk they couldn't allow to exist. Not unless they controlled it. And to be able to do that, she needed to think outside the box again. Could she teleport again and steal it?

When Prof. Quantum State had explained teleportation to Sweetie, it had been… understandable, on a superficial level. She hadn't been slacking in her magical learning, but her focus wasn't in magic. Still, she had somehow internalized the feeling of it, when she had assisted Quantum in casting it.

Perhaps that had been his intention all along. University professors were sneaky teachers, after all. She hadn't allowed her unicorn instincts to take over since being released for fear of the Zerg side consuming her… but instinctual reaction was very different from performing the same feat with intent.

Teleporting was out of the question. It was unreliable for now. With practice… yes. Now that she had done it, she was able to replicate the magical 'feeling' associated with the spell matrix she had to internalize. it would take time to perfect, but she'd get to be as good at it as Twilight!

She paused, as Kerrigan sent an actual Leviathan into the field. She could feel the panic from the Terrans almost as if it was a palpable force.

"Oh, hay no. I'm not letting her have all the fun!" She cackled, taking flight towards the Terran base again, still gathering her energy as she directed her Zerg to flank the units that had amassed in a desperate attempt to stop it.

"Sweetie!"

She barely had time to dodge as Gallus almost tackled her, and it took more effort to resist slashing his armor in half when he dived past her. "Gallus! Be careful, I almost cut you in half!"

She prompted her troops to ignore the Griffon as she hovered in place, allowing him to fly up to her.

"Sweetie Belle. Do not waste time with that creature."

She cringed, but sent a mental message back. "My queen, I'm planning a large scale attack, but I need to gather energy. Gallus will not stop me."

"I shall be the judge of that, Sweetie Belle," Kerrigan sent back. "If you keep defying me, I might lose my use for you."

"I understand," she silently messaged back.

"Don't stop Raynor. They are close... so close to freeing all of us!"

Sweetie gasped, faltering in her flight for just a second. "What was that?"

"What do you mean?" Gallus asked, glancing at his HUD to make sure Warfield wasn't about to blast the Xel'Naga artifact again, but it needed to recharge enough for another blast.

"I… heard another voice. It sounded like the Queen but—"

"Sweetie, I'm not sure what's going on," Gallus said, "but you know this is nuts, right? Don't keep doing this! Can you imagine what your sister or anycreature back home would say if they saw you killing others like that?"

Sweetie shook her head and glanced at him with half-lidded eyes. "Really. Well, that hasn't stopped you from killing Zerg."

"That's because they'd kill me if I didn't fight back!"

Sweetie snorted. "And what happened to us?" she asked. "Were we welcomed with open arms? Were we offered help when we didn't attack anycreature?"

Gallus tried to dodge, but his reactions weren't as fast as Sweetie's, and her scythe went straight through one of his rockets. She brought them both down, slamming him into the surface of the planet.

"No!" she snarled. "They didn't! They obliterated Quartz! They tore me in half! They experimented on me and turned me into a Zerg! Why should I not defend myself? Why should I not fight the cause of all this misery!" She used her other scythe to run through the other thruster in his armor before lifting him up.

Gallus was unhurt, and struggling, but she held him in place with her psionics. Her magic wasn't even necessary. "Why do I have to think of peace when all they do is conquer and kill! If it's not us it's someone else. When I work for peace I get shot at! I don't want to kill but I'm not going to stay still so they can kill me!"

"They're not—they're not all bad!" Gallus growled, raising his armored claws to grasp her scythes. "Raynor is not like the ones that attacked you! He's helping me heal you!"

She saw another blast of the Xel'naga artifact destroying the Zerg that had gotten too close. Rather than running, she created a shield with her accumulated magic around her and Gallus, grunting as the psionics slammed into it, but she held strong. "Idiot! What if I don't want to be cured?!"

Gallus flinched, relaxing his grip a little before shaking his head. "Why wouldn't you?! This is not you talking, Sweetie, you've been—"

"Changed? Of course I have!" She clenched her teeth, her pincers clicking in frustration before she looked back up at him. "But I'm happy like this! I-I'm happy being part of something bigger! Being different! I like being sexy and I like being bad!"

"Sweetie…"

"Back home you'd never even spare me a glance."

Gallus gulped. "We never hung out much an—"

"Here you do." Sweetie interrupted. "I can smell it. I can see it and sense it. Here you want me." She grinned. "And not just to save me. I think you like it when I get aggressive."

Gallus chuckled nervously as she lowered him down. He glanced at his thrusters, broken through and leaking fuel, although thankfully repairable. Once again Zerg ran past the pair of them, a real stampede in an effort to destroy the last defenses of the Terrans.

"I have purpose. I have… somepony I want and who wants me, even if we haven't figured this stupid situation out." She gave him a small smile. "I have a mission and I have friends and responsibilities. I can make a change here like I never could back home." She drew herself up. "It's selfish. And I don't care. I want to be someone people across the universe speak of in awe and respect. I can change this universe for the better, Gallus… I really can, and you guys have no chance of surviving this battle. Please join me."

"Not like this Sweetie…" Gallus insisted, he pushed back extricating his armor from her scythes. "Look at all the lives you're taking!"

"And how many lives is Raynor taking too? Of his own kind? Or Protoss?" Sweetie countered. "Whatever you want to say to me, you can't pick one side only! The only difference is the monsters we fight! Mengsk is a tyrant that used his cronies in the media to convince billions that he was a legitimate champion of justice!" She paced back and forth within the confines of her shield.

"And what did he breed?" she asked the griffon, "Intolerance! Fear! Hate! He betrayed his allies and championed tyranny! He divided people that should have been friends! He—he's the same type of absolutist that created the unicorns first movement in Equestria! Thank Celestia we have Twilight there, but here? Where the greatest 'authority' is corrupt? Do you know how hard it was to get Selendis to sign a peace treaty with me because everyone is so damn used to betrayal?!"

"That's why Raynor and the others are fighting him! Y-you could join us! We can cure you and we can fight together while we find a way home!"

"He's working with Valerian!" Sweetie said, motioning wildly with her hooves. "What's the point of getting rid of a tyrant to replace him with its spawn?!"

Gallus chuckled. "Yeah, a lot of people in the ship had issues about that… but Raynor isn't here for glory or to pave the way to a new empire. What he cares about is saving people… and that's why he and Valerian are working together. He's not like his father."

Sweetie snorted. "So you say. But they have lied about a lot of things."

This time it was Gallus that advanced on her, taking off his helmet as he stared at her. "Yes. So I say. Since when am I not on your side? Since when don't I care or would lie to you? I want us to go home… together."

"It's now or never, General!" Raynor's voice buzzed from the helmet on the floor, making the pair of Equestrians look down at it, blinking. "Hit it!"

"Oh, shit…" Gallus gasped, turning to see the Xel'Naga artifact light up with much more strength than before, and then flashing with such intensity that all Zerg in its immediacy were evaporated. The energy blast hit Sweetie's shield like a battering ram, cracking it immediately.

Sweetie's eyes were wide with fear as the energy surge continued to break through her shields. She shook her head and with panicked speed, turned halfway and projected another spell within her shield dome, which somehow seemed to be holding.

Gallus recognized it. A teleportation portal, just like the one that Quartz had used to evacuate him and Zeratul through to safety. She was going to escape… but how—he gasped, as he realized all of the cracks in her shield coalesced into the portal.

He wasn't a magical genius, but he had been around enough unicorns to recognize transfer of energy. She really was going to escape.

He couldn't allow that. This was the one chance he had to cure her! "Sweetie!"

She barely had time to react as he tackled her, breaking her concentration enough for the shield  to explode around them and the Xel'Naga Artifact's energy to envelop them. But that wasn't the only thing that exploded. The explosion of energy lit up the fuel that had spilled from his thrusters.

Selendis pondered again her agreement with Queen Sweetie Belle of the Zerg.

Already she had received various communications and argued back and forth with the other Protoss about her decision… but something in her resonated with Sweetie's intentions.

The Zerg had to be cleansed. But what if not all Zerg were the same? What if it became a matter of perspective, rather than aggression? What if that was possible? What if this world… Agria… was the bridge that would bring the Khala to its next level of evolution?

Order and chaos… Sweetie didn't seem to believe one had to destroy the other. It was an odd feeling, to consider those concepts again, and realizing that one could not exist without the other.

Could… Sweetie really achieve this balance?

As she stood on the bridge, she considered this. Here was a planet conquered by the Zerg, but its inhabitants not destroyed or absorbed into the Zerg collective. Here was a planet that had been abandoned by the Terran government, and had willingly joined forces with a Zerg Queen to survive.

The scans did not lie. Zerg were there… and she was not foolish or naive enough to believe that infestation was impossible, but… there was no indication of violence being used, past the remnants of the destruction brought upon the planet by the last battle.

After that… Terran children were still going to their educational institutions. Farmers were farming, the few small cities flourishing. Zerg were actively helping. Although Queen Sweetie Belle was gone, the Zerg acted as if they were receiving specific orders still, which meant that something down there had the potential to order them around, yet no sign of other queens, or even Overlords had emerged in their scanners.

"Executor, we're detecting a spike in energy on the bridge!"

Selendis turned around to where a circular portal had opened. Beyond it, she could see the surface of a world… The scent of ash and death came through immediately, followed by a flash of light that shook the entire bridge, and two creatures tumbling through as the portal imploded.

In less than a second, she and her troops had surrounded the pair, weapons at the ready. She had barely recognized the two creatures when Queen Sweetie Belle started screaming in pain.

"It hurts! Celestia… help, it hurts!"

Selendis moved forth and, gripping Gallus' shoulder, threw him off of the Zerg Queen. Or was she? Most of the armor and pincers were gone, as were the scythes, the chitin armor was thinner, lighter in color, and the gossamer wings seemed brittle, but that wasn't the worst part.

The young alien was screaming in pain, most likely because her horn had split in half almost to the root, and lost several pieces, exposing the soft interior where, if she were to guess, it was mostly made of nerves. The confident young queen was squirming in pain and screaming nonsensical names between whimpers.

"Sweetie!"

She interposed herself between Gallus and Sweetie. "What did you do?!" she demanded, glaring at the other alien.

"S-Selendis?" Gallus seemed to finally recognize her. "What?" He turned around, "How are—"

Sweetie's screams continued, and Selendis turned around just as a team of scientists, sent to her base to study the Zerg, arrived. "Anesthetize her, now!" she ordered them before she turned to face Gallus. "That damaged appendage… how important is it?"

"It's—" Gallus gulped. "It's how she uses her ma-psionics! I've heard that trauma to the horn can be deadly… and if not treated quickly could leave her stunted forever."

"He is correct, Executor," one of the scientists said, turning to face Selendis. "The… horn… from what I can tell from its composition…  its potential is beyond even our own sensitivity to psionics!"

"How was it damaged?" Selendis asked, refraining from making any sort of comment over what the scientist had declared. 

"Uh, I-I think it was when she opened the portal that we came through… it happened just as her shields were destroyed and the Xel'Naga artifact hit us."

"Executor," the scientist dared to speak up, drawing her attention. "I am unsure of the details, but it seems to me that this appendage, the damage done to it by the Xel'naga as well as clear previous trauma are potentially going to kill this… um, creature."

Selendis looked away for a moment, thoughts burning. The Kalah had no answers for this. There was no precedent. But there was also no precedent from what they could learn and she had promised to mutually protect and help each other… on the one hand, a Zerg. On the other, her honor. "Fix it."

The scientist gasped. "W—"

"What is your name?" Selendis interrupted. 

"L-Lasarra, Executor." 

Selendis nodded. "I remember you. You and two others were originally stationed to go to Kaldir to study the Zerg."

Lasarra nodded. "That is correct, Executor. With the… current arrangement, our expertise was deemed more useful here."

"Excellent. Then I am appointing you in charge of saving this Zerg. Queen Sweetie Belle's life is in your hands. She is an ally at this time, and we have a mutual agreement to protect each other. Do not make the Protoss into liars, Lasarra."

"This… is a zerg?" Lasarra asked, staring down at Sweetie as if seeing her for the first time. "I-I see."

"Can you save her horn?" Gallus asked, "she needs to be able to channel somehow… even  (a shudder ran through his body) Tempest Shadow's horn wasn't so badly damaged."

"Is that what she used to open a portal?" Selendis asked. "Where were you before here?"

Gallus sat down. "Char." He let out a long sigh. "I think… we defeated the Queen of Blades."