Next Steps

Flight to Freedom is a Starcraft fanfic written by Qwerty-man. It used to be called Next Steps. The story is set after the ending ofWings of Liberty, so beware spoilers.

The story follow the heroes(and villains) from the game after the battle of Char and succesfully deinfesting Kerrigan. Kerrigan struggles to cope with the situation and to atone her actions as the Queen of Blades, while Raynor continues his fight against the Terran Dominion, and tries to resume his relationship with Kerrigan and many of his crewmembers start to doubt about his leadership. Meanwhile, Mengsk is recovering from the mediatic injuries and plans a diabolical scheme to become the supreme Terran ruler of the sector.

The Protoss saw the Battle of Char and the deinfestation of Kerrigan as a golden chance to strike the now leaderless zergs and reconquer Aiur, but they will find that it's going to be harder than expected, while the far threat of the Dark Voice becomes more and more visible...

This fanfic contains examples of the following tropes:

"Hanson:I thought after our sessions, we'd have gotten past this whole suicidal phase.
 * Ascended Extra: Kate Lockwell and Donny Vermillion even get their own subplot.
 * Back From the Dead: Fenix takes his Meaningful Name to a whole new level.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Fenix
 * Big Bad Ensemble: It seems that Arcturus Mengsk is the most prominent Big Bad, but the Dark Voice is a much more dangerous threat.
 * Character Development: A LOT.
 * Defector From Decadence: Warfield's reason to join the Raiders.
 * Driven to Suicide: Kerrigan at the beginnig of the story.
 * Fan Service: there are a lot of scenes with Kerrigan having a bath, or Kerrigan naked.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Kate Lockwell and Donny Vermillion become this over the course of their subplot.
 * Heel Face Turn: General Warfield and Nova.
 * Heroic BSOD:
 * Kerrigan, obviously, after she realized of all what she did as the Queen of Blades.
 * Raynor gets into one thanks to his friend he bottle.
 * But the biggest one goes to Zeratul, who's been in one after he killed Zasz and revealed the location of Aiur to the Overmind. He also feels responsible for Tassadar's death, since he felt that he could reach to the Overmind and kill it himself in time. Kerrigan forcing him to kill the new Overmind and then Raszagal didn't help either.
 * Honorifics: Artanis often refers Raynor as "Honorable Raynor".
 * Hufflepuff House: Averted, both the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate play important roles in one of the main plots, and have a share of development.
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Leaning On the Fourth Wall: "I'm tired of being a blue dot on somebody else's screen!"
 * Magnificent Bastard: You'll think that, after "Media Blitz", Mengsk popularity would never recover, right? Well, think again.
 * Memetic Badass: in universe, Gereal Warfield, who's known as "the man who killed an hydralisk with his bare hands".
 * Mind Rape: Zeratul uses this on Kerrigan to make sure that she wasn't aware of her actions as the Queen of Blades.
 * Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Like in the game, Ariel Hanson. Hilariously lampshaded:

Kerrigan:Well, you're not exactly a psychiatrist

Hanson:I'm a quick learner"


 * The Rival: Nova, to Kerrigan
 * Rival Turned Evil: inverted, since Kerrigan and Nova grew closer over time.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: the Protoss have a wide and elaborated vocabulary not seen in the games.
 * Straw Misogynist: The Protoss Civil Council, who's formed by former Conclave Judicators.