Serana's path to happiness after tragedy.

Chapter 1

This is a one-shot for Serana that hopefully conveys how she was broken then found a new path to find happiness again. This is also a backstory to my main story though i'm not entirely sure when i'll start it.

Serana Volkihar stood on top of Fort DawnGuard looking over the landscape of skyrim. She had been here for about a year now trying to deal with the overwhelming pain in her shattered heart. It had been 3 years since she lost them in that damn final battle with the Aldmeri Dominion. 3 years since the Legion was victorious and Tore apart Summerset Isle looking for all remnants of the Dominion. So many young and old lives cut short. She knew it because she was there. Fighting with the legion because her husband the kindest man she had ever met was a legate in the imperial army. She remembered him fondly and how he had wanted her to turn him into a vampire so he could spend eternity with her. How he was still the same kind man she knew from before she turned him. She looked back on him and how they met and what happened before and after her father was defeated.

(Flashback 150 years ago.) She met him in an old crypt she had been sealed in for centuries if not millenia. Her crypt had been undisturbed for so long as she slept inside. She had woken up as soon as he caught her and set her back on her feet when she fell from the inside of her coffin. She had looked at the very large intimidating nord in dragonbone armor with his greatsword on his back and a shield in his left hand. He was a good 5 inches taller than she was and his blue eyes were soft but also hardened and the scars on the parts of skin she could see. She could see he was a battle hardened warrior and had seen alot. He looked around as he steadied her. She started speaking to him. "Who sent you here?" Serana said. "Who were you expecting?" The dragonborn said. "I was expecting someone like me" said Serana. He had looked at her clearly confused. "Someone like you?" He said. She sighed, "can't you tell by looking at me? A vampire." His reaction was quick and she was quickly filled with fear as he threw he against the stone coffin his greatsword pushing hard against her throat. "Vampire eh. So you're what the other vampires were looking for? This is interesting." Said the dragonborn as he noticed how beautiful she really was and also saw her fear and hunger as his blade started to cut into her neck. She had started to cry which had surprised him and let up the pressure a little bit. She had begged him to not kill her even though she saw the admiration for her beauty in his eyes, she had also seen the hatred for vampires in his soul. She begged and slowly he pulled the blade away from her neck and she fell to floor gasping for air. She looked at him seeing as he was looking at her in the eyes curiously. No vampire had spoken to him or even not attacked him. This one was different he thought. (Let's see what she has to say he thought to himself.) He looked at her expectantly as she instantly healed and got to her feet still fearful of him. "Why did you do that!?" serana screamed at him. For some reason he felt guilty but had pushed it aside. Caring about a vampire was something he was not ready to accept even if she was beautiful and a potential ally considering she didn't instantly run or attack him. He looked her straight in the eyes getting close to her, very close. "You're a vampire that's why. You're kind need to be exterminated" he said in a very matter of fact tone. She was close to tears at how full of hate and anger the young man in front of her was filled with and sending it towards her. He knew nothing about her yet he hated her. She slowly came to a realization that something must have happened to make him like this. So she asked him "What happened to you to make you like this? Why direct all your hate at me when i've done nothing to you?" He had no idea why but he figured he should let her know some things since she was asking and wasn't trying to drink his blood. "My name is Ragenster Yeager. I'm 24 years old. Legate in the Imperial Legion. Vampire hunter and companion. I hate your kind because i saw my family get killed by vampires. They even killed our dog and chickens. I aim to destroy this vampire menace. So i guess you could say i want vengence against all vampires." Said Ragenster. She looked at him and then remembered something. Something about a prophecy and she said that if he took her to her home she would help him. The look on his face was priceless but he agreed. They had left the crypt and she had found out about him being the dragonborn shortly after when he brought down a dragon with the dragonrend shout and had cut off its head in one decisive blow to the neck and then devoured it's soul. They had gone to the castle where she grew up and were greeted by multiple vampires and she noticed how his fingers were always twitching to his greatsword. Her father after greeting her and insulting her mother who wasn't there he had offered Ragenster the chance to be like them and he had refused and had been forced to leave. She smiled a little when he had refused the offer but was also sad when he was forced to leave. For some reason she liked him even though he had tried to kill her. (Flashback end.)

Serana sighed she remembered how much she missed him and when she had left to find him. She smiled because of the happy look on his face when he found out she had come searching for him and how Isran hadn't harmed her. She knew then something was different about him along with being the dragonborn. He was kind and loving and sweet. As evidenced when they had left searching for the moth preist and in the other adventures after. She been attacked by dwemer centurions and giants and each time he would take the hit. She had healed him many times and when she had been hurt so badly fighting the snowelf vampire that she couldn't move and went to sleep expecting to die. Only to wake up 5 days later in a bed in a estate with him watching over her. According to his housecarl he had carried her there and had treated her like something fragile and easily broken. She was falling for him before but this sealed it. She pulled him to her even as weak as she was and had kissed him deeply. She enjoyed it even more when he had kissed her back. She then remembered what had happened after that and couldn't help but smile and blush in embaressment. That day and night between her and the dragonborn and how wild they got. She wouldn't get into that she didn't need to get turned on when she no longer had someone to help her with that problem.

She looked towards High Hrothgar where he was trained and thought of Paarthunax the only good dragon who wasn't dead or undead in one dragons case. She had met Paarthunax once and he had helped her to actually learn how to shout with the dragonborn but it took her much longer to learn and understand all the words. She then remembered back when her and Ragenster took on her father and when her mother returned. It was vicious and the injuries Ragenster were staggering and how she struggled to heal him after he had delivered the killing blow to her father. She shook her head. It hurt too much to think about. Tears were starting to form as the pain was comeing back quickly but she did everything she could to push it away though it wouldn't leave. She then thought back to when she had found out she was pregnant with their first child. 1 of 3 She smiled as she remebered everything from when He had been born to when the two girls were born years later. They had all joined the Legion with there father. They were proud of them. She smiled at the memories of them as tears fell from her beautiful fiery orange eyes and the pain of her loss hit her harder. She then remembered the final war with the Dominion. The war that had taken everything from her.

The war was harsh the Dominion soldiers were brutal and killed legion troops without mercy in many inhumane ways. It even sickened Serana when she witnessed the killings. Her husband had killed them in much the same ways. He hated the dominion more than vampires and it showed when he showed his ferocity in battle. The clashin of metal against metal the thuum he used to to blow away burn freeze and even summon massive lightning storms that would wipeout entire entire companies of dominon soldiers and wizards. How he would summon dragons that would burn eat and tear the souls of the domion soldiers. She couldn't even count how many her husband killed along side her and their children. She wasn't happy killing the enemy but she was determind to stay by his side. She wouldn't lose them not after all they'd been through or so she thought. She heard all too familiar screams and looked around and saw her daughter turn to ash in her armor when an arrow went into her eye and through her brain. She screamed and went to what was left of her daughter. Overcome with sadness and rage her Ragenster and their two remaining children went all out destroying everything and all soldiers in their path. She had done everything to protect them her shield to block the arrows and was using her magic to block incoming spells but she was soon overwhelmed by the number of hits she took. Even though she instantly healed she was cut off from her husband and children. They had seen her struggle and went to rescue her. She had summoned a gargoyle which helped her barely keep the domion soldiers back. She was running out of magic and was becoming exausted. When she saw her family comeing to her rescue. She watched and fought as Ragenster and her children fought there way through but they were surrounded. Her children fought the ones to sides and behind them as he cut a bloody swath through the dominion. When he and the children reached her they continued to fight and when it looked like they would win. The domion leaders came into the fray and Ragenster shouted "FUS-RO-DAH!" His shout sent many of the troops and unintentionally made a gap for the dominion leaders to attack and attack they did. Her children and husaband held them off as she sent dozens of the spells at the leaders of the dominion. She heard seven screams as her two children were beheaded and turned to ash and the enemy soldiers being cut in half by Ragensters sweep attack. She could barely stand since she had used almost all her energy and from the pain she had from watching her children die. Ragenster fought five times harder soon killing the dominion leaders while the legion was continuing the battle around them. But the leaders had done soo much damage to him that he was just barely holding on. He fell to his knees and she could see a dominion sword in his neck. He was only alive because of how tough he was. She was by his side in an instant and caught him when he fell onto his back. She tried to heal him. Tried potions and everything to keep him alive but no matter what she did it only prolonged the inevitable. She wept as she held him.

"Ragenster it's going to be ok. You'll be fine." She was trying to maintain her composer but failing miserably. He smiled at her though black blood was coming from his mouth. "It's not going to be ok we both know that. I'm sorry i dragged you and the children into this war." He stroked her cheek weakly. "I have lived a good life and regret nothing. Espeacially giving you a chance. I'm glad we stayed together through it all." She smiled at him through her tears. That's when he started fading fast and he knew he didn't have much longer. So he spoke. "Serana i'm almost done. Don't ever forget how much me and the children love you. We always will. Try to find love again and don't let our deaths hold you back. I get the feeling that there's another guy out there for you. I wish you the best. If you die we'll be waiting for you in Sovengarde. I... go now... to...Sov...en...garde." With that he closed his eyes and died in her arms. She screamed and shook him yelling for him to stay with her, to not leave her alone but it mattered not as she kissed him one last time as his body turned to ash in her arms. Nothing but his armor was left and she was broken. In that moment what little bit of her heart that was left shattered completely with his death.

Serana was now openly sobbing unable to keep the pain away. She remembered jumping from here trying to rejoin her husband in sovengarde but it didn't work. She broke her legs when she landed but they healed a couple minutes afterword. No matter how hard she tried she just wouldn't and it frustrated her to know end. This final loss had been all she could take. She looked down at the ground and sighed. She knew it wouldn't work even if she jumped headfirst. She went down the stairs and found a coffin that Ragenster had made for her. The elegant finery and equisite craftmanship was unique only to him. She slowly got into the coffin and sealed herself inside to try to deal with the pain and it would reopen when she was ready. If she was ever ready again. She fell unconcious as she ran out of air and slept though her mind didn't as she was tortured and haunted by images from her past. She slept for about 5,000 years and when she wokeup again she would be facing a new world to her and come face to face with a man far more dangerous than Ragenster and her father combined.

Another backstory done. Please read and review and tell me what you think.