The mastermind looked down on his wound in slight disbelief. How could it be? He was the commander of the hybrid army. He was one of the most powerful hybrids ever created. He was destined to serve his master and aid him on the path to destroy the world.

How could he die here?

But the sharp pain and the decreasing strength told him he wasn’t hallucinating. He was dying, and this female infested terran before her was his killer.

At his last moments, the hybrid didn’t have a single sense of fear. He looked up into the cold, unwavering eyes of Jean and smiled cruelly. If he was to die, then he would die via sacrificing for his master. He would die, but he would bring down his master’s enemy with him. If he could kill the zerg commander, he might be able to break the zerg defenses apart, and the Golden Armada just might have a chance to capture the queen of blades. His master’s plan would still be possible.

The mastermind’s body started to shake uncontrollably. His psi energy went rogue all at the same time. The sound of flesh burning and bones cracking, along with the immense pain, clouded the hybrid, but his smile never disappeared.

The zerg commander realized something was wrong, and she wanted to escape. The hybrid could see it, but it was too late. The hybrid was happy when he bursted into a surge of highly destructive psi energy. At least he didn’t die in vain.

---

Jean noticed that something was off with the mastermind, and she backed off the second the hybrid made that wicked smile. The destructive energy running through the hybrid’s veins screamed danger to her.

Jean fell back as fast as he could, but she knew distance couldn’t save her, so she took some drastic measures.

When the mastermind was getting beaten up he abandoned control of the zerg guards in the cave for additional strength, making the guards once again part of Kerrigan’s swarm. This gave Jean the ability to command them, and she did.

Roaches and hydralisks ran down the creep into the throne room(because there were so many queens in the room). Under Jean’s command, they weren’t hesitant at all to put themselves in between the exploding hybrid and the queens.

The explosion swept through the zerg wall. The first layer of units was incinerated. The second suffered the same fate. So did the third. When the fourth layer perished they died a bit slower. When the fifth, the final line, went down, most of them had their bodies intact. This was a luxury the first four layers didn’t get.

But the zerg units were all gone, and there was still some explosion.

Jean put herself between the explosion and the queens.

Of course Jean wasn’t going mad. She was thinking very clearly. She needed the swarm to take down the Daelaam. She needed the queens to command the swarm. She needed the queens, so she would protect them. Plus, her observation of the explosion told her it wouldn’t kill her.

The carapace was the first to melt. The skin was the next. Jean screamed uncontrollably as the flames engulfed her, but inside she was calculating. She could stand a few more seconds, but then she would be in life threatening danger. Her plan was to use the Warden units to save herself, but that would expose her watch. She didn’t want to do that unless she absolutely needed to. In comparison, a little pain was a small price to pay. After all, she could always heal. Technically she could cut off her nerve system, but that would mean she wouldn’t know when she was in life threatening danger.

And so Jean stood her ground.

Finally, just a few seconds before Jean gave up, the impact of the explosion faded away. She lived.

Jean was really beaten up. Every part of her body was covered with either burnt flesh or broken or melted bones. Her carapace had completely disappeared.

In reality Jean was very lucky. The hybrid mastermind was a powerful psi user. Just the impact done by his self explosion was enough to break through layers of zerg tanking units and almost kill a specialized zerg unit. If he had proper support, just someone to buy him a few seconds, he would’ve killed everyone in the throne room with ease. Unfortunately he grew overconfident and practically threw away his zealots and his element of surprise. This led to his downfall.

“Jean?” A queen asked at the brunt figure.

Jean groaned in pain as her body started to mend. She was a zerg, which meant as long as she had a single breath left she could return to her best state in no time. “Spring the trap.” She ordered with a hiss after connecting to the zerg psi net and observing the battle. The Daelaam was fully engaged with the swarm both in the air and on the ground. “Wipe out their ground forces and obliterate their fleet. Leave no survivors.”

In the flagship of the Golden Armada, Artanis keenly sensed the hybrid mastermind’s psionic presence disappearing. He knew immediately that something had gone terribly wrong. The queen of blades was just reported being seen on the battlefield, so someone else killed the hybrid mastermind, but who? Normal zerg units would be controlled by the mastermind almost immediately. Specialized zerg units were no match for the hybrid and the elite zealots. Who could’ve stopped them?

But Artanis didn’t have long to meditate.

Large amounts of warp signals appeared all around the Golden Armada. They were soon followed by the ships themselves.

At least twenty leviathans exited warp space. Their tentacles waving in the vacuum of space. Newly mutated spore cannons and spore crawlers faced the Golden Armada menacingly. Corruptors and mutalisks immediately exited the capital ships.

On the ground, protoss units who barely had an upper hand were paralyzed in shock as ear piercing roars appeared all around Char. Hundreds of nydus worms poked their heads out of the ground. They opened their mouth, and an endless stream of battle ready swarm units poured out of the tunnel.

The trap was sprung.