All Hail the Queen

In her dreams, Lexi sees the universe.

The forces of creation are at her disposal. Energy, matter, that which binds it. Within her, espheni and human DNA dies, only to be reborn, in an eternal cycle of rejuvenation. The body of the children of Earth. The mind of those who have conquered the stars. The power of creation that stems from both. And through it all, from within the chrysalis that she slumbers in, as lesser minds both stand guard and cry for blood, she sees through time and space.

She lets her mind take her soul where it wills. Far away from the cries of Men, brandishing their weapons as their ancestors might have wielded clubs outside caves in a bid to ward off an approaching storm. Once the apex predators of their world, now but children in the dark as the espheni close in their web. As they prepare for the coming of the Great Enemy. That which she knows, even now, that they would have her stand against. That war is coming to the world on which she slumbers. That so too has war come to the world which she sees in her dreams.

This world is so unlike Earth. Perhaps, in its distant past, the world of her birth, if not her allegiance, looked like this. Rivers of fire. Temperatures to rival that of Hell itself. This world is not as bereft of life as Mother Earth was before the first microbes stirred in shallow pools, before life colonized sea then land, but it is no less inimical. This world, 500 years in the future, yet young in its life cycle, reminding her of ancient times, before even the espheni took to the stars. She is not here, of course, but she still reaches out. Hand and mind are as one.

Help me.

She reaches out even further as she hears the cry. The hand reaches for the world, and her mind turns its attention to the ash wastes of this ball of rock spinning through space. Upon it, she sees a landscape befitting of Hell. A landscape more inimical than even the Shadow Plane. Only this world is real. Across universes, across time, everything that she sees will come to pass.

She sees the denizens of this rock – if this is Hell, then what better than to call them demons? Creatures of muscle and bone, as numerous as the insects of Earth, and hundreds of time deadlier. Thousands, nay, millions of them march across the ash wastes. Angels clad in white have descended to the fires below, bringing fire of their own. Fire and fury rains down upon the demons. Fury marches ever onward through the fire, and soon, the angels fear that they have trod where none should have dared march. Fury overcomes fire, and the angels are forced to fall back, even as the demons march ever onward.

It's a glorious, albeit terrifying sight. For the creatures of this world are more numerous, more powerful, than anything the espheni have encountered. Enough even to give the Great Enemy pause. And perhaps even more terrifying is that these angels in white are merely the sons and daughters of Earth, 500 years and 60,000 light years from the world which none call Heaven. The espheni have fled the Great Enemy for time immemorial. In 500 years, mankind might well have surpassed them. Her soul, if she possesses such a thing, writhes, as the building blocks that make her…her, do a far more deadly dance. Which species has the true power, she wonders? The one which lords over the lesser? Or the lesser which, given enough time, might surpass the lord?

She has time – time enough in this place to think and reflect, even while barbarians muster at her gates. She has time to follow the cry.

Help me.

To cast down her mind into the demons that cover this world. Past the white noise of the psychic link that binds them – no individual thought there. It is the deepest ocean, and fittingly, bereft of life. The espheni operate in a hive mind, but even they keep their individuality. This…this is nothing but a swarm.

Do you see me?

In which there is one who is different. One stronger of mind, and weaker of body. One who, like her, is being caught between two worlds. One caught inside the…

Chrysalis, Lexi thinks to herself.

A giant chrysalis, even larger than hers – it is being carried by four wasp-like demons. Without her psychic might, just one of them would be enough to tear her apart, to say nothing of the beasts of tooth and claw on the ground, or the flying horrors that fill the skies. They can't see her of course – she isn't even really here.

You can see me.

But the one inside the chrysalis does. The one inside knows much. And reaching out even further in her mind, concentrating on the chrysalis as one might pick a single grain of sand, she touches the mind of the being inside. One whose siren song has reached across the universe. One who has even summoned her here, from beyond the fabric of her reality.

I can see you, Lexi thinks.

See, and behold the face of change.

She knows what awaits the sons and daughters of Earth – it is the same fate the espheni have inflicted upon countless races. Forced change, the decimation of entire peoples, so that their own race might be spared the advances of the one foe they could never conquer. But seeing this broken, misshapen, thing before her, Lexi realizes that true horror lurks elsewhere among the stars. For the thing inside this chrysalis was human. In many ways, she still is human. Even while her body is twisted, as skin and bone are melded in warped union, Lexi can tell that the end product will at least be humanoid. That the bones that jut from her back are not for flight, for this being is intended to be both slave and saviour.

Help me, the being whispers.

And maybe the being knows that. Maybe she knows she is thrice damned – she will be in the link that binds these demons. She will be her own avenging angel. She will hear the whispers of the one already damned, and be made wrath incarnate. Or maybe she knows none of it, and all that matters is the here and now. Maybe she is but a child in the womb, yearning to break free. One plucked from the bosom of Man, given new motherhood, and twice made a bastard child in the process.

I can't help you, Lexi says.

You must! The being is desperate. They couldn't help me. He won't be able to help me.

He?

He's coming. Too late, but he's coming. Even if he finds me…I may not want him.

I don't understand.

Change, the being whispers. So much change. Mind changing. Body changing. Want…don't want…you too, are changing.

I am, Lexi says. As I change, I found you.

Then help me, the being pleads.

I cannot.

The being doesn't say anything. But across time and space, she feels its despair. Like a wave coming to swallow her whole, dragging her into its cold, desperate depths…yet still feeling the fire of something lurking even deeper. Like hot magma rising to the surface, building a new island as the sea drains. For indeed the sea is draining. The fire is getting warmer. Water gives way to fire, which shall give way to fury, which shall give way to woe.

She cannot see the future. But taking a being such as this, gifted with the same gifts that she was…what other use would these creatures have for the one inside this chrysalis? What more do the powerful want but more power? The espheni want her for their war. This being is wanted as both servant and leader. And in her own chrysalis, Lexi pauses…perhaps when given power, one should take it.

Will you help me? The creature asks.

She offers no answer. She cannot help the creature. And if she said yes, she can already tell that part of the creature would reject any aid. Her body is broken. Her mind is on the precipice. One push, and she falls unto oblivion.

I must go, Lexi says.

You would leave me, the creature whispers. Already left, and thus taken. Second abandonment, well, what of it?

I cannot save you.

And who will you save? The creature whispers.

Lexi doesn't say anything.

Who will you save? The creature asks. From the race of your mother, the one who grew you in her womb? Or the race that seeks to make you theirs – powerful as the stars, but ever eclipsed?

Lexi says nothing.

Do you even know?

If you knew…which would you choose?

I am long past choice now.

Lexi knows it to be true. What she doesn't know is what the being that has reached out to her across time and space feels about that truth.

Flee, child of the espheni, flee. For the barbarians are at your gate.

Lexi obliges. Her mind withdraws from the creature within the chrysalis – the one nearly born. Her mind rises above the fire. Into the cold of space, where already, angels of a different kind make ready to plunge into Hell. Time, space, dimensions…she draws back. Still in silence. Still thinking.

Still remembering the words of Sarah Kerrigan.

A/N

So, is it just me, or is Lexi kinda Sarah Kerrigan 2.0? As in, both become hybrids, designed to serve a race at odds with humanity, both developing extreme psychic/gravitic power, both having complicated familial/romantic relationships with Tom/Raynor, both eventually becoming allies to the race they were once against. Oh, and both go into a chrysalis.

I doubt the writers of Falling Skies actually took Kerrigan as inspiration given that StarCraft is a pretty obscure IP, but anyway, gave me the idea to drabble this up regardless.