"I don't understand." What was she getting at. "Didn't you just tell me you were going to make it through this okay? Well—as okay as you can be?"

"I...had thought so. But now—Jacob, I believe I might be able to stop him once and for all."

"How?"

"The Alys'aril is constructed above one of the strongest energetic nexuses of this world. There is a nest of power here, it is why the site was chosen."

He nodded. This much he knew.

"Ulrezaj is just outside the Alys'aril. So are his adversaries— once again, zerg and terran fight together to destroy a monster who is our common enemy."

So, Ethan and Valerian had followed the dark archon. Jake's thoughts started to race—if Ulrezaj was indeed defeated, they would need to fight both Valerian's forces and the zerg. They would—

A gentle remonstrance brought his attention back to her words. "Time enough to deal with that once Ulrezaj is defeated," Zamara chided. "The three factions fight outside, but their battle will not be won there. It will be won here, inside your mind, inside the khaydarin crystal that contains what is left of me and all the memories I have stored."

"What?"

"Ulrezaj has recovered much of his strength. My guess is that this world—these energies that make the crystals what they are—are what has helped fuel him all this time. He was once a student here; here he was born, in a very real sense. And here, he must cease to be. The selfsame energies that created the monster can give me the abilities to harness him."

Jake thought he was starting to understand what she intended to do. The cold prickle of apprehension crept over him. He prayed he was wrong.

"You think...we can trap him in a crystal, like we're doing with you?"

"Not quite, Jacob. I intend to use a crystal to contain him, yes. But not one like the one that holds me."

Understanding crashed on him like an avalanche, and even deep into his link with Zamara, he felt his physical body twitch in protest.

"Oh no.. .Zamara, you can't—"

"I believe I can. If this crystal is powerful enough to contain not only my knowledge but my essence.. .1 might be able to utilize its powers and those of the nexus to encase him within it. Also, it should serve as a sufficiently strong prison for Ulrezaj. At the very least, I must make the attempt."

Zamara, for the good of her people, was going to spend an eternity imprisoned with a dark archon. He couldn't let her.

"No, Zamara, I will not permit you to do this. Hey!" He lifted his head to the utterly fictitious skies and yelled without a voice. "Hey!Don't let her!"

"Jacob—it is what must be done. I have ever served my people the best I knew how. If Ulrezaj is not contained, he will destroy me, you, Rosemary, every protoss here, and the Alys'aril and all the information it houses. I have done so much to keep the memories with which I have been entrusted safe."

"You think they'll be safe with—with that trapped in with them? What do you think he'll do to those memories? God, Zamara, what do you think he'll do to you?"

"It does not matter. I must stop him, and this is the only option I have. Jacob—please, you must release me now. You must let me do this. If you do not, you could be trapped with us."

"I don't care!" he cried recklessly, realizing he spoke the truth. He wanted to live—he wanted to be with Rosemary, to continue to explore and learn, to feel the sun on his face and taste food and run and laugh and make love. But he could not abandon Zamara. Maybe, if he were trapped with her, he could help somehow.

"No. I have damaged you sufficiently. It is time for me to go, Jacob. To leave the mind I should never have been forced to enter in the first place. I will not take you with me."

"Zamara—"

Zamara half closed her eyes and tilted her head, smiling at him a final time. A whisper in his mind, of affection, and faith in him.

He felt her extend herself, reaching out and at the same time somehow pushing him away. Once, she had descended into his mind so decisively it had been more than he could bear. Now Jake didn't want her to leave, didn't want her to sacrifice herself to—God, he couldn't even wrap his mind around an eternity with Ulrezaj as part of him. He fought her, but hers was the stronger will. When she finally pulled free, he cried her name sharply, feeling lost and abandoned and so very empty. "Zamara!"

She was gone.

Blackness descended.

The mammoth dark being froze. Rosemary frowned and kept peering through the sights. What was going on? The mutalisks and various Dominion craft continued strafing him, but he simply... stood? Sat?.. .right where he was. Suddenly Ulrezaj's mass quivered and spasmed, extending an arm of darkness here, bulging out there, as if something was inside a sack and struggling, kicking, flailing tt?⁰⁰ get out. Her hair and skin prickled suddenly and her gut clenched as energy crackled around her, intense enough to feel but not powerful enough to incinerate or harm. Slowly, she lowered the rifle, staring.

An eerie wail erupted and even she winced. Some of the Dominion vessels backed off, spooked by the strange motions of the dark archon and the ear-splitting cry he was emitting. The zerg kept coming, and this time, Ulrezaj did not repulse them. He simply stood, and they milled around him, doing no damage but clearly also not taking any.

"What the hell..." she murmured.

There was a flash of darkness from Ulrezaj so intense it was almost like a bright light. Rosemary gasped and squeezed her eyes shut for a second, then willed them to open.

Ulrezaj was gone.

She wasted perhaps half a second wondering what had happened, then a predator's grin split her face. In a single smooth movement she'd positioned herself behind a protective pillar, hoisted the gauss rifle, and began firing into the swirling morass of flesh and carapace that was the zerg.

She'd take down as many as possible, glorying in finally being able to destroy something that richly needed destroying.

And then she'd do the same to their leader.

Ethan could not believe it. He didn't know what had happened, and frankly, did not care. Grinning a very human grin, with a thought he effortlessly redirected what was left of the zerg toward the two remaining foes. He was glad that he was no longer forced to fight alongside protoss and terrans—zerg should destroy them, not cooperate with them. Zerg were the superior race, as his queen had said and as he believed. He would prove this to her, prove his worth and loyalty, by bringing her the thing she sought.

Surely whatever arcane little ritual the protoss were doing to separate Zamara from the professor's body was done by now. At the very least, he would move toward the Alys'aril so that he would be in position to snatch the prize before the terrans could claim it.

He had brought many zerg with him to Aiur, but Ulrezaj had decreased their numbers. He had further decimated them here, and Ethan felt the faintest twinge of worry as he glanced up at the skies, dark with ships. No. He was so close. He would not permit worry to distract him.

The disciplines, both mental and physical, with which he had honed his body as a mere human were every bit as strong now as they were then. He called upon them, focused his attention to laser-sharpness, and directed his subjects.

There—a single human female, hiding behind a pillar, firing at the zerg that were converging on the temple. A smile twisted his mouth. Good old Trouble. He'd have to put an end to her this time, and he was sorry in the abstract about that. But it gave him not a moment's hesitation as he trained an entire group of zerglings and hydralisks in her direction, like he'd sic a dog on an intruder.

"Bye-bye, Trouble," he said, watching as they surged up the steps to the courtyard. They were almost within range, and he saw the hydralisks lift their carapaces to expose their razor-sharp spines. They let loose a volley, but Rosemary had seen it coming and interposed the pillar between the spines falling around her like javelins and her smooth, unarmored skin. She peeked around to fire and two of them dropped. Two, out of dozens.