A/N: I do not own Starcraft or any of the units portrayed within it. Starcraft is the property of Blizzard Entertainment, I only own my original creations. This is a work of fan fiction, existing entirely outside any canon material.

Chapter 36 - Blood for Blood

"Talking" 'Thinking' "Mind-Touch"

"Lily." "Yes, Patriarch?" "Take the roaches and a group of fifty zerglings back away from our gates. Burrow, and prepare for battle. I want you to make sure that none of the enemy have a chance to run away when they strike." Dain's words were met with a brief nod and Lily was already rushing off, the roaches knowing to follow her, the zerglings she chose seeming to understand without a word or gesture. She just called them with her mind, born to the swarm and natural in a commanding position too.

"Sarah." "Yes?" "Gem did something to their shields earlier, focusing her mana into a single bomb. It didn't damage them physically from what I understood, but worked fine shutting down the plasma shields they carry. Can you reproduce that effect with psionics, or do we need that aspected psionics element that the people here seem to have learned?" His question was met with a brief thought, before the Queen sighed and looked at him sadly, shaking her head. "We need Gem for that."

Silently nodding his head, Dain had half-expected that answer. The sole reason it worked was probably the fact that Gem's power worked different from the more pure-strain psionic strength he and the Queen wielded now. Her powers were shaped by belief and restrictive training which strengthened and narrowed her focus, but allowed for a few different uses of power. Something that could be learned, and assimilated. Though again it was something to think about when he had more time.

"Then we shall have to stop them the old fashioned way, with enough strength to beat them to the ground. I want hydralisks and zerglings buried at our flanks, and the main horde of zerglings waiting inside our gates. When the enemy attacks, we shall drown them in our numbers. If we can get Gem to blast their shields apart, assuming they didn't learn of the trick we pulled last time and already adapted to it, then we can continue from there by unleashing psychic assault and finally turning our forces loose on them."

The mental image he held was one of unshielded, physically shocked zealots and dragoons stumbling slightly when a wave of zerglings descended upon them. It might work, though the casualties would get nasty. Surrounding them and attacking at the flanks with ranged fire, and with roach acid from the back, well he had a feeling the enemy would be in for a very nasty fight no matter how they chose to fight. His problem was the fact they might bring air-support soon enough, and he didn't have any flying zerg at his disposal before.

"I will need to morph in a Spire soon for this hive-site, and get some forces into the skies. Taking control of the skies above with something more aggressive than overlords should help, though I still have my suspicions of what they might field later on." The mental image of a carrier flying above their area and unleashing a fleet of small fighters to tear apart their defenses was far from comforting thought, but he had to hope that by the time the enemy would be able to send in such forces he would have enough power to smack them down from the sky.

The hive site showed his warriors spreading out as instructed, preparing for the coming battle. Lily and Sarah were doing a fine job getting everyone ready, while Dain's attention turned towards the Warren, and the once-more opened gate. He had felt a light bit of unease at the thought of something happening within the warrens during the evolutionary shift, but the familiar faces set him at ease. Leading them was Vera, and Gem followed soon after. Meiri and a few of the others followed along as well, but he found himself distracted by Vera's tight hug and hair pressing into his face. "Did everything go as planned?"

He looked at her after the question, softly hugging her close for a moment. "Yes, and no. The changes took place as planned, but during the time it took to change someone attacked my Swarm." He grit his teeth together and looked at Gem. "The protoss. You helped me and mine before, when they attacked here. I am asking if you are willing to help me again? You owe me nothing, and I plan to keep my part of the promise and get you the documents from their base." Noticing her confused expression, he sighed. "Their camp, I mean."

"I'll help. Do we need to go after them or are they coming here?" Gem's voice was calm and her expression remained serious. She had left the mask off when she came to the surface, allowing him to try and read her expression, but he still didn't manage to pick up much. She was good at concealing her thoughts even without a mask.

"They are coming. More of them than the last time, and this time they have already stormed through one of the little outposts. They are feeling strong, tough, and invincible. They will most likely think we are still dreaming. They will arrive soon, but instead of a sleeping foe they will find us fully awake, and prepared for them. They will regret coming here, but they will not live to regret it for long. They would burn this place to the ground with everyone still in it, so I am not going to shed any tears for the ones we kill."

Dain's expression was cold and without mercy as he said this. Though part of him wanted to try and make peace, there was a clear line in his mind that should not be crossed, and the protoss had made their choice already. He would not shed tears over fools rushing to their own deaths. He would have empathy for those he cared about, but if anyone attacked him and his, then they would sign their own death sentence. If peace could be brought upon this land by methods other than force, then he would seek that. If the ones remaining only understood force, then he would wield it as a weapon, and send those in his path to oblivion's embrace.

"... alright." Gem nod her head in reply, though looking at Dain a little warily after his short speech. While she had expected him to be ready for a fight, she had not needed or expected him to say that much. It did not bother her, but it did make her wonder. Dain's personality seemed to shift back and forth a little, from more quiet lad to more outspoken, and yet cold one. She saw the coldness in those eyes when he spoke of the enemies, and truthfully it scared her a little as well.

"Thank you." Dain smiled again, turning to walk away after brushing his fingers along Vera's hair softly. The two of them were watching after him quietly for a moment, before Meiri's voice spoke from behind them. "He's changing." Her tone was a little worried. "I have only been around a little while but he did not change just in flesh, but in his spirit too. I think whatever it is that this Swarm is doing to him is causing a change, and I am not entirely sure if it's for the better." Her tone showed her wariness, but Vera's glare quieted her down.

"He's doing all he can to protect us, and to keep a promise he made to Gem. After all that has happened to us, I think it's natural for a person to change." She didn't say it to the others, but she felt the Swarm and could understand its desire for safety. Dain reflected it, he fought as a human, with caring for those close to him, but as a Swarm member he was also brutal and efficient where necessary. It was obvious the Swarm side of him was growing stronger, but he still cared for her and Gem. She wasn't so sure about the others though.

"Well, I think that's my ride then." Gem smirked a bit as one of the Overlords floated down to offer a seat to her, tentacles beneath bound together so as to form a seat to watch the battle from. Vera moved alongside her quickly, and the Overlord began to ascend. Meiri and the others exchanged a few words before returning to the warrens, while Dain had moved aside to sit down and focus his senses to those of his overlords.

'The enemy is not far, they are going to reach us soon, but the preparations seem to be nearly done already. I would have hoped that they were willing to back away if we left them be but it has become clear they intend to annihilate all of us unless we put an end to them. Do unto others before they seek to undo you.' Dain grit his teeth together quietly, casting a look at the distance. His eyes could not make the enemy's presence out from the distance yet, but his overlord's senses in the sky told him they were getting closer.

"Stats." He thought briefly, though the command was hardly a necessity, he merely thought it amusing for the moment. The innate sense of just how much his swarm held at its grasp came to him like a gentle tide, leaving him fully immersed and aware of the swarm and it's statefor a short moment.

Swarm Evolutionary Stage: Gamma

Patriarch Bio-Energy: 0 /1.000

Patriarch Bio-Genesis: 100 /cycle

-Primary Hive- (Forest)

Swarm Bio-Energy: 0 /5.000

Swarm Bio-Genesis: 200 /cycle

-Hatcheries: 150 /cycle

-Extractors: 50 /cycle

-Second Hive- (Stronghold)

Swarm Bio-Energy: 0 /5.000

Swarm Bio: Genesis: 200 /cycle

-Hatcheries: 150 /cycle

-Extractors: 50 /cycle

Swarm Composition:

(Primary Base Forces)

Zerglings: 420 - Roaches: 41 - Hydralisks: 14 - Overlords: 7 - Drones: 12 - Infiltrator Lily - Queen Sarah

(Secondary Base Forces)

Zerglings: 20 - Overlords: 1

Compared to what his enemies brought with them, his forces were still standing strong from both the warriors left at the Hive before the battle for Ravenrock and the survivors from the conflict. He had the numbers to crush the protoss attack, he just didn't want to throw his forces away without having a nice sum of bio-energy at hand to strengthen his swarm once more.

Two weeks without contact from Ravenrock might lead them to worry he was going to turn on them, but if they decided to try and attack him when they might think him to be weakened, they would find him stronger than ever and regret that decision. He doubted Faust would act that way, the man was both a bit too honorable and also too smart to poke him after seeing what his swarm was capable of. It would be a sign that not all of Ravenrock had come under Faust's banner if that happened.

Even if they did though it would not deter him from his goals. The Protoss were not a true threat on the ground at this moment, but they might become a threat in the air after a while. He needed a Spire, and some Mutalisks to protect it, and there was bound to be other things to create as well. Specializations would have to wait for now, at least until the attack had been grinded to a bloody smear.

= XXX = Protoss = XXX =

Leading his forces ahead Tae'daus was a warrior of some talent, an elite zealot with strengthened psi-blades empowered by the high templar before they set out. He was supposed to help strike the final blow to this pathetic little Zerg creature that seemed to rely on a few small hives. Unlike the true enemy, these Zerg seemed to have been tamed and small in number. When the scouting party found the enemy base on the plains cocooned up and changing, they knew the time to strike had come.

Leading his brothers ahead in a hurry, he hummed with blood burning for vengeance, wanting to have the monstrous Zerg torn apart and the glory of victory for himself. Their leader was still troubled by the lack of connection with Aiur, but he and his men just needed to destroy the threat to their camp or at the very least disrupt the enemy before retreating in case they had somehow come out of their cocoons after being attacked at the other base.

Not that it would matter for much longer, he thought to himself with a cruel look in his narrowed eyes. If he had lips he would have been smirking widely. Though the resources on this planet were strange, they were going to have Carriers in a short while, and without the Zerg there to stop them, they would have the firepower to glass the backwater terrans so they would not cause any trouble later. Then they would establish a Protoss colony until such a time they could launch back to Aiur to deliver the news about their adventure.

It was strange though, they felt one another in Khala but no other Protoss could be felt in it. It momentarily chilled him to think there might be no other survivors of their mighty race if things had truly changed so much, but he swiftly shook such pessimistic thoughts. Besides, even if that had somehow come to be, their Leader would lead them back to the glory that was their birthright. For that dream to come a reality however, the threats had to be dealt with. The first among them were the Zerg.

Seeing the creep-covered walls ahead he grinned slightly following along the wall towards where the gate should be, hoping to catch the foe still unaware of their approach, but the chitinous clicks alerted him to the fact the enemy was awake ahead. In a way, he was relieved, slaughtering a slumbering enemy was the way of cowards, though purging the Zerg was a priority that overtook such moral concerns. Besides they were beasts unworthy of a honorable death anyway. Of course, a fight they would win was just as good for him, and if he could prove his strength through battle all the better.

"Lets burn them to the ground! Dragoons blast their specialists, brother zealots we shall carve the truth of Khala into their flesh with our blades! To Victory!" He charged and lead his forces towards the gates in a hurry, intent to slam ahead and carve a path through the enemy. His enthusiasm only grew stronger at seeing the rows upon rows of zerglings waiting within the walls, a roar echoing in their psionic minds as they rushed ahead, only to be caught by surprise as a large tentacle thrust up from the ground skewering two of his men right next to him, another erupting from the ground just barely missing him and killing another zealot in its burst. As his companions passed the retreating tentacles they slashed at them before they could retreat back underground, but most important thing was to keep moving and kill the forces laid out in wait.

Leaping ahead, Tae'daus burst with psionic speed, his blades slashing through the first ten zerglings like an artist painting with blood, the battlefield his canvas. The closing claws and fangs only met thin air before their owners were sliced to pieces, the morale of his companions bolstered by the actions of their hero. Cheering and tearing into the zergling ranks, each zealot carved the closest zergling with their blades with a violent urge running through their bodies and making them fight seemingly fearless. The vibrant flashes of their shields flickering around them secured them in the knowledge their defenses held even as the spines began to pepper their sides. Suddenly the realization hit them that there were no hydralisks behind the swarms of zerglings in their front.

At their sides, the emerging horde leapt at their forces and started clawing people to death, and the hydralisks tensed their muscles before the spines shot with such force that some shields flickered after only a pair of volleys. The dragoons that had ended up dragging a bit behind opened fire upon the flanks before a burst of ground behind them lead the warriors to look behind them to find themselves trapped in a ring of blood and horror, with roaches soaking the cybernetic walkers with such showers of acid they whined, exploded, and claimed the remains of the mutilated warriors that had lived to fight another day within the machines.

The protoss warriors still fought to push ahead when a shockwave of psionic energy washed through them. Unlike the last time however, this time they had adjusted their shields against it. It hurt their shields, but not as much as it could have. They learned, adapted, and prepared for a repeat of the last time. Unfortunately, the enemy numbers exceeded anything they expected to find by at least an order of magnitude.

Tae'daus continued to carve a path of death into the zergling rows as his shield still flickered, but he saw the last of his zealot brothers skewered a bit behind him and barely managed to dodge aside as the second one emerged from where he had just been standing. Cursing silently in his head he was enraged at the way this damn bastard brood dared to stand against him and his brothers and the glorious future they had in mind.

Then suddenly the enemy paused, holding still, and he could hear the clapping. Seeing a lone figure approach, a Terran he thought at first, before realizing the organic nature of the approaching figure's armor and bone-like blade. Glaring at this foe, Tae'daus spoke in a harsh voice. "So the bastard behind the Brood still lives? You will wish you hadn't! I challenge you to a warrior's duel!"

He smirked silently, the Zerg bastard was arrogant enough to come out and have his forces stop attacking, so clearly he thought himself strong enough to win. Unfortunately for the Zerg bastard he was underestimating Tae'daus. He had the best in enchantments, the best in empowerments, the strongest upgrades, the best training they had. This Zerg leader would fall, and with the swarm in confusion, Tae'daus would return home to return leading cruisers to burn this place to the ground to avenge his dead men.

"No." The Zerg leader said, shaking his head. It surprised Tae'daus, he saw no other reason for the attack to have stopped the strike than to challenge him personally. He entirely missed the eerily quiet steps of the Queen moving behind him and the massive psychic assault tore into his mind, and in an instant, the Zerg knew all that Tae'daus knew.

The Protoss numbers. Their locations. Their plans. Their ambitions. In one horrifying moment, Queen Sarah mind-ripped the Protoss, and she wasn't gentle. With the Hive-mind thrown against the feeble protections of Khala with only a handful of Protoss contributing to the once ancient shield, the protections were not even there and their secrets spilled over to the Zerg.

Of course, some information spilled back the other way to the protoss consciousness, but thanks to Sarah's skill there was a rather strict control of what left those lips. Chief among them was the revelation of Aiur burning under the endless tides of the Zerg, and a revelation of Kerrigan walking even after the Overmind was destroyed. He drew upon the memory of those games and the horrors of war he had witnessed to create a mixture of truth and lies to shatter the Protoss morale by revealing the beginning of the end for them, and leaving the mass of Protoss that would extract some information from their fallen warriors to learn what Dain wanted them to learn. The news that would cripple them with shock and sorrow for a moment.

Of course, it was also likely it would lead them to even more fanatical drive to destroy the Zerg, but after the mind-ripping Dain had no mercy for any of the Protoss. They would all fall and become dust. Their worthless race was going to be hunted to extinction. The first-born should become the ashes they had been uplifted from.

As Tae'daus collapsed to the ground his mind was a trembling star going out and shone with the brightness of a supernova in the protoss Khala before fading, his soul annihilated but not before delivering the payload of twisted truth and lies to the rest of the Protoss, while Dain watched the battlefield with a cold certainty on his mind.

"To think I was willing to offer them some dignity or even a chance for peace in the past. No, best make an example out of them. They will be the first race brought to extinction by the Zerg, though lets hope rest of the species on this world are smart enough to not challenge our coming." He nod his head towards Sarah who looked visibly disgusted by the experience still, summing it up with a grimaced look at Dain while explaining as well as he could. "They are so brain-washed I felt like tearing my own mind apart just listening to the whispers to submit, obey, believe."

This got a frown from Dain who briefly considered the morality of his own command of the Swarm. He was their patriarch but he was the sole leader of the Swarm here in this world, and though he sought to allow individuality and encourage it even, he could stomp it out just as easily at least at this point still. He wasn't sure he was the right person to have that amount of power, but then again he wasn't sure who was.

Nonetheless, he watched the zerglings and drones begin to carry the remnants of the protoss out of the compound. He didn't have any use for the fanatics, they didn't deserve to leave a mark of their coming in his hive. They would be wiped off the face of this world soon enough.

From genocide to debating the morality of his own actions and his changing motives, he found his thoughts returning to the destruction once more and silently wondered just how much his Zerg half was gaining control on his thought processes as he immersed himself further and further into the swarm. Yet they embraced his mind welcomingly, the Hive Mind making him feel part of something so much greater than himself, and humbling with the respect he held within it to be allowed to guide its power so. Yet again he briefly wondered if he needed some safeties against going insane with rage himself and using that power for a future that would leave the entire planet a scorched earth where no life other than the Zerg could find sustenance.

He had a grounding connection in Gem and Vera, but he wondered briefly on what he would do if they were gone. The vivid dreams came to his mind and he silently decided to keep them safe even if they would protest his intensions later on. He didn't wish to become a monster, but in a way he had accepted that at a certain level, he certainly counted as one already.

Still, he felt his actions were justified. The problem was that he wasn't sure why he was so certain. The protoss had certainly not made him feel any empathy towards them, but if he was growing more callous every time he changed, he worried at which point he would stop being himself. At which point, he would truly be the monster.

== XXX OOOOO XXX ==

A/N: Long time since the last chapter was posted. I will see if I can get things back in a better state in the coming weeks, but I have not abandoned this story nor do I intend to. Real life has caused me to be unavailable for a fairly long time, but given that situation has been changing again, I felt a new chapter was long overdue.

I am going to leave commenting on the reviews for now, and wait to see who I hear from after posting this. It has been a long time after all and I cannot blame anyone who may have chosen to stop following this tale.