Author's Note: Just a little ficlet I had to get out of my head after reading Twilight of the Aspects. Krasus's last thoughts and deeds, and regrets. Also, some Thrall, since he's badass. Alexstrasza/Kalecgos romance.

Colors

It couldn't be. Chromatus had poisoned the entire races' eggs...they would all become like him. A monstrosity! Krasus couldn't let that happen. He would destroy them all. Then destroy himself. He could only think how it would look to his beloved, his dear, sweet Alexstrasza...but there would be other reds, more worthy than he. Krasus never felt he was worthy of the Dragonqueen.

He always felt that somehow, he lacked. Perhaps it was his...humanity. Or his connection to the mortal races that distanced him from his beloved Queen. He loved her with every fiber of his being, but he knew that he wasn't her true love, couldn't be. Other reds, or even other dragons of other flights, were far more worthy than he. Krasus let out a wracking dragon-sob and looked again at his contaminated leg. Soon, he would be like Chromatus.

He didn't have much time left. Krasus set to work. Heinous, evil work, it would be seen as in the eyes of the others. Destroying entire clutches. His OWN children...murdering them. But he would rather see them dead than a monster. A monster made only to destroy his race, his people, his beloved Queen.

A shaman...the orc...Thrall. Someone had to know. Someone had to know what he did for his people today. That he wasn't...a traitor. That shaman was their hope. The hope of the Aspects. Krasus crushed a green egg under his claws, the tiny chromatic-green dragon inside giving a pitying cry of dismay.

The dragon ignored this, though it ripped his very soul to hear the dying cries of his children and the other flights' children. He had finished destroying all his own eggs, and the eggs of the rest of his flight in the red sanctum and was working on the green now. Ysera's children...he hoped someday she would forgive him. The Dreamer could see farther than most. Perhaps eventually she would see why he had done what he had done.

Krasus hesitated at the portal to the black sanctum. Sartharion's brood had been destroyed by mortals some time ago, but who's to say Chromatus didn't come back and fill it with Chromatic eggs? Krasus hurried and entered the portal. Time was running out. The chromatic contagion was spreading almost throughout his entire body now.

Krasus closed his eyes. He didn't have time to just destroy each sanctum's eggs one by one. Oh, my Queen, my beloved, forgive me! Krasus cast a spell. A massive arcane blast that destroyed half of the Temple and all of the eggs inside it. The dragon's last thoughts as death claimed him were of his Queen, his Alexstrasza.

Later on, much later on, after Thrall had shown her what Krasus had down, how he had SAVED all the flights' children, Alexstrasza felt ready to truly mourn him. Mourn the person, dragon, he had been. A courageous soul, brave enough to sacrifice himself to save their race. He could have let himself become a beast like Chromatus, but he didn't. He had died instead. The dragons held a funeral for him, and Krasus was honored as a hero amongst them.

Alexstrasza gazed heavenward, at the golden fireflies licking the skies, almost as an honor to Krasus. Krasus had always told her he wasn't worthy of her love. He was wrong. So wrong. He was more than worthy. Of any dragon's love. Any female dragon would have been honored to have a consort as honorable and loving as hers had been. Kalec knew loss, as well. He had been in love with Anveena, the incarnation of magic, the Sunwell, and she had done as Krasus had done. Given her life to save the world.

Kalec put a steadying hand on Alex's shoulder as she swayed. She wasn't going to fall. She just felt...saddened...by all the memories here, in the ruby sanctum. Her children, hers and Krasus's children...had been born here...had died here. They had rebuilt, after the destruction. Life had returned to Ruby Sanctum. But Alex had not returned here with life. The Lifebinder had yet to give new life unto the Sanctum. No clutches of hers waited in the corners, under the trees, in the small caves...it felt so empty.

She turned her head and nuzzled Kalec's chest. Both were in elven or half-elven form.

"Alex...I...I know what you're going through. I lost my love too. Anveena gave her life to save the world as well. Krasus was as much a hero as Anveena. I just...I'm sorry, Lifebinder. I am secure in the knowledge that Anveena lives on as the Sunwell, but she will never be Anveena, my Anveena, again. But you have no comfort. But please...Krasus wouldn't want you to mourn forever. He would want you to move on."

Alex nodded, horns slightly nicking Kalec's chin. A little blood dripped from the blue dragon's human face. He ignored it and just hugged her. He had always had respect for her, the Dragonqueen. He had never seen her so...humanized. It humbled him. Their race, dragons as a whole, weren't immortal, not really. They were just as susceptible to human emotions as any other being. Kalec just sighed, and thought of Anveena, her smiling face, so willing to give her life for the world. She would want him to move on too.

"Alex..." Kalec stopped saying whatever comforting words he'd had for her when she kissed him, suddenly. The Dragonqueen's soft, warm, elven body was so different than Anveena's delicate human body...she was beautiful, the Queen. He leaned in to her kiss. This wasn't right, not really. Different flights...they weren't supposed to...care about each other this way.

Kalec stopped her. He shoved her away, though unwillingly. The Queen looked at him with a bit of shock and sadness. Tears still stung her eyes.

"My Queen...My Lady. I can't...I can't take advantage of you like this. Not while you are still mourning your lost love. I won't. Besides, I'm of a different flight."

Alex grabbed him and pulled him back into her embrace. "Kalec...it doesn't matter. Krasus, more than anyone, wouldn't have cared about flight color. Was there ever a rule that said an Aspect couldn't mate with another Aspect, love another Aspect? I haven't...I haven't even thought such things since Malygos died..."

She slunk away, assuming dragon form and leaning against a tall tree.

"We were, or are, siblings. Malygos, Ysera, Nozdormu, Neltharion...they were my siblings. You're not. Magic chose you. Your flight chose you. You have a noble heart, Kalecgos. Anveena knew...knows that too. She would want you to love again. Like you told me Krasus would for me...if I can love again, surely you can."

The dragonqueen sighed and lay down, branches of the great tree she lay by concealing a bit of her huge form.

Kalec assumed dragon form as well and followed her to the tree. He nuzzled her side softly, remembering something he'd heard from mortals. Malygos had taken a red dragon as a consort, though unwillingly. Perhaps dragons taking consorts from other flights was not so unheard of. His predecessor had quickly and easily taken a red for a consort, and Malygos, despite what many had said, had been quite sane before he had been killed. Perhaps it wasn't so unusual...

"Keristrasza...do you remember her? Your daughter..my former master, Malygos, took her as a consort. She was a red. Perhaps...you're right. Perhaps love knows no color. Malygos took her unwillingly, but I think, in the end, he cared for her."

Alex just butted his head softly with her own, as if telling him to hush up and lie down. He did as she bid and lay next to her, pressing softly against the dragonqueen's softly heaving sides. She was warm and beautiful...when he looked at her, he had always seen her as if she were surrounded by a halo of glowing white light.

Now, as an Aspect, he could see her the way the other Aspects, or her consorts had. A beautiful dragon, sparkling red scales, sharp, deadly, but delicately curving horns...Alexstrasza was beautiful, in elven form and dragon form.

Alex looked at the sleeping blue dragon, Kalecgos, lying next to her. Somehow, she had come to love him in the months following Krasus's death. It had just taken some words to get her to admit it to herself. What would happen, if she took him for a consort? The Aspects hadn't mated with each other in the past because they were siblings, but Kalec was not related to her..

Would their children, should they even be able to produce any, come out as monsters like Chromatus? Two different colored flights, mating..no. If eggs, if life, was produced inside of her, they wouldn't be monsters. The Titans wouldn't allow inter-flight mating if the product was monstrous.

Alexstrasza nuzzled her new chosen consort, fellow Aspect Kalecgos, and thought about Neltharion.

What would happen when her brother died? When there was no Aspect of Earth? He claimed he was the Aspect of Death now, but Chromatus, and everything else still recognized him as the Aspect of Earth. The Black Aspect. Once he died, if that were even possible, would his flight be utterly destroyed or would they just be confused and lost, as Kalec's new flight had been after Malygos had died?

The dragonqueen didn't know. But she did know one thing. She knew who, and what, she herself would choose as the new Earth Aspect. She didn't have the power to choose a new Aspect. That was up to the flight. But if they were just confused and lost, her guidance would likely prove useful. She would guide them to who they should choose as their new Aspect. He was not a dragon, but his respect for the earth and everything in and about it was far too great to ignore.

Ysera was right when she said Thrall had a great part to play in all this. The shaman was powerful. He was called Earthbinder, even by the dragons. He wouldn't be the Earth Warder. He would be the Earthbinder. He had held the earth, Azeroth, together when all others had failed. He was the ultimate shaman. The greatest of all his kind. He was the Earthbinder! He would be the Aspect of Earth once this was all over, if Alex had anything to say about it.

Thrall had even overcome faction boundaries. He cared not if one was alliance or horde, only if they protected and helped the earth. Kalec and Alex would convince the black flight that Thrall was to be the new Earth Aspect, if the flight wasn't utterly annihilated. If it were...then what?

No, Thrall would still become the Earthbinder, the protector of the earth. If the flight was gone, the power to bestow the powers of an Aspect upon a being fell to the other Aspects. All the others would choose him as Earthbinder. No other being was worthy, not even Malfurion. No, he would be Ysera's successor, should she somehow face demise. Malfurion was more powerful than even the Dreamer now...

The Queen of Life sighed and pressed against Kalecgos's sleeping form. As an Aspect, he was as large as she was, if not larger, being male. Male dragons were just naturally larger than females, unless the female was an Aspect.

Finding love, and life, after losing so much, she was finally as peace. The dragonqueen lay her head on the back of her new consort/beloved and fell asleep.