Zeratul woke up and walked slowly out to the fields. He watched the Protoss Probes fixing broken buildings. The cracked pylons seemed to shine more brighter because of the hot, white sun, it's light shining on the Protoss faces, giving hope that someday Auir will once again become what it was.
Zeratul thought for a moment, and thought to himself, what Auir was... what was Auir?... It was a question he had asked himself many times, he had never seen Auir before the Zerg attacked it. He closed his eyes slightly when the sun's light beamed at them. He heard some electronic noises and looked down to see a Probe.
"Yes? What is it?" asked Zeratul. The Probe replied with little electronic noises. Zeratul stared at the Probe for a minute, then quickly ran towards the rebuilt Stargate. When he arrived he saw an arbiter in the sky, escorted by two sleek scouts.
"By the Matriarch... Aldaris?" Zeratul spoke into the pilot's mind.
"No, I am not he. I am his son, Ardarriss." the pilot spoke back.
A cyclone like hole appeared in front of Zeratul. The "hole" disappeared and in it's place was a high Templar.
"Ardarriss... Welcome, welcome to Antioch." Zeratul said.
"I'm not here because of you, Dark Templar." Ardarriss seemed to stress the word Dark Templar.
"I am only here to honor my father's grave." Ardarriss continued. With that he "flew" forward, slightly shoving Zeratul. Zeratul looked back slightly, and turned invisible.
* * *
Ardarriss looked at his father's grave, the sun's shining light starting to disperse over the horizon. His cool blue, glowing eyes giving off tears of sadness and anger at the same time.
"Father, I will repay you. The Dark Templar that killed you, will be killed. I will make sure of it, father. That Zeratul will be the first to go, for Auir, for you!" shouted Ardarriss out loud. He got up and dusted his knees. He levitated himself and went forward.
Ardarriss brushed by something and stopped. He turned slightly and smiled (in his mind of course. Since he doesn't have a mouth!) He squinted and created a Psionic Storm in front of him. The blue lightning-like energy flashed through the rough ground, and finally hit something.
The invisible Zeratul fell to the ground, while trying not to scream or make a noise. He looked up at Ardarriss and instead of one he saw three.
"Zeratul, did you think I didn't know you were following me? I knew from the beginning. You killed my Father, Aldaris, and now you want to kill me do you?" asked Ardarriss.
"Kill.... your... father..? I... was.. not the one." Zeratul said as he fought off the Psionic Storm.
"Ha! I'm not that stupid, Dark Templar. You and all of your kind will die, Zeratul. I wi--" Ardarriss was cut short because something hit his shield.
"Who dares?" Ardarriss screamed as he turned around.
"I dare buddy. You better get your scaly ass outta here before I shoot you to pieces. All three of ya." Jim Raynor said while pointing two Gauss Rifles at Ardarriss and his hallucinations.
"There are three of me, and you have two guns. Can you stop me that fast?" asked Ardarriss.
"Not by myself no. But my buddy over there..." Raynor pointed to a scout in the sky. "in that scout, is Artanis. He has something called guns at the bottom that will shoot you and your hallucinations to pieces, with my help of course." Raynor said while grinning.
"You have a good plan Raynor, very good indeed." Ardarriss said before he disappeared.
"Where'd he go? He ain't a Dark Templar, he can't turn invisible!" shouted Raynor.
"Seems his Arbiter was near and we've lost him. Let's just get Master Zeratul to safety." said Artanis into Raynor's head.
"Alright, I'll put him in a shuttle that'll lead him straight to Dalomir, you just go ahead and do what you do." replied Raynor.
"Ok, I will move ahead, I hope to see Mojo and Edwarg, I heard that they left about an hour ago."
"Hurry up and go, you might be able to catch up with them, I'll stay here and get Zeratul to a shuttle safely. Be careful up there, I hear the remnants of the Terran Dominion are against us, and since they know that the Protoss are still weak at the moment, well... I just think they're gonna attack some time soon."
"En Taro Adun, brave Terran, I hope to see you again later." Artanis said inside Raynor's mind, while running towards his scout.
En Taro Adun, brave Terran... Those were Fenix's words when he had seen Raynor once. Raynor sighed and threw his guns on the ground and picked up Zeratul.
* * *
Zeratul awoke when he heard the sound of engines. He looked around to see that he was inside a Protoss Shuttle. He couldn't remember how he got there. He only remembered Ardarriss trying to kill him. He got up and walked forward a few steps, when all of a sudden the Shuttle shuttered and stopped.
"Shuttle Pilot? What is going on?" asked Zeratul. No answer came back. Zeratul ran to the front of the shuttle to see the pilot deactivated. Zeratul saw that there was a transmission to the shuttle. Zeratul played the transmission.
"This is General Hazardd, of the Terran Dominion. Protoss forces on Auir, lower your shields and weapon systems or suffer the consequences." said a gruffy looking man.
Zeratul ran to the door and opened it. The shields of the shuttle kept Zeratul safe from being enveloped by the cold vacuum of space. Zeratul turned on his shields and turned off the shuttle's shields. He jumped off the shuttle and floated off to a nearby Terran Wraith. His shields gave him a limited supply of oxygen and kept him safe from pressure in space.
It seemed quiet and on his way so he looked around. Protoss forces? The only Protoss Force he saw was his own shuttle, which was now floating in space, pilotless. He looked at the moon and soon saw flashing lights... lasers! Thought Zeratul. They were fighting far away from where he was. This must be their back-up force. Thought Zeratul. When he reached the Wraith, he quickly grabbed onto its hull.
He ignited his warp blades and cut through the top of the Wraith. He turned invisible and jumped in. The pilot turned around in his chair and looked around. There was no one there. Zeratul grabbed the pilot's oxygen mask and ripped it off the pilot's mouth. The pilot tried to grab his mask but his vision began to blur and his whole body began to boil. He tried to scream but the lack of oxygen stopped him from doing so. Zeratul knew that the pilot would soon die, either from the lack of oxygen or the pressure in space. He jumped out of the hole he made in the Wraith's hull and looked around for a different ship to get onto.
He saw a cargo ship and quickly floated to it. He was slowly running out of oxygen. Unlike humans, his body would slowly absorb the oxygen rather then through the mouth. He grabbed onto the hull and once again sliced through it. He saw some Terran Marines but they quickly died because of the lack of oxygen. Their helmets were open. Zeratul slowly walked forward, towards the pilot. When he arrived he saw that there was no pilot. Out from the control panels, came blue lightning like energy.
Zeratul's body froze, his memory betraying him. The memory of Ardarriss using the Psionic Storm on him kept coming up. Zeratul tried as best as he could but he could still not move. His body began shaking as the blue lightning like energy neared him. He fell to the ground. He laid down on his side, his body shaking like he was on ice, and his knees up to his chest. His invisibility and shields wore off and he heard laughing.
"What's wrong Zeratul? Are you in shock?" asked a voice in his head. Zeratul was too frozen to reply...
