Chapter One: Visit from a Former Friend
Jaina Proudmoore had lost everything.
Why?
Why had it happened? She didn't understand.
She'd followed the Prophet's instructions like a good girl. She'd saved some people of Lordaeron. And now they were all dead. She had supported the truce with the Horde and been paid back with her own blood.
Now as she stood amidst the ruins of Theramore, alone, she did nothing.
She didn't cry. She'd done enough crying over Arthas. She didn't rage. That would only please Varian. She stood there, staring at her own reflection in a puddle.
Really, all this was Varian's fault. Garrosh was too stupid to be held responsible for his actions. Varian had been the one who provoked the Horde so Garrosh rose to power. Though Thrall also had a lot of blame as well. He could have stopped Garrosh at any time. Instead he made the idiot Warchief against her advice.
Was that herself she was looking at in the water?
'What do we do now?' asked herself.
'What are we supposed to do?" asked Jaina. 'We could become vengeful crusaders and lead the Alliance on the warpath.'
'Lead who?' asked her reflection.
Good point.
Jaina had always believed that one should learn from their mistakes. So what was her mistake? Trusting the Horde?
Hardly. She'd never been that dumb. The fact was that Theramore was much weaker than the Horde. Having good relations with the Horde was the logical choice. If Varian hadn't fucked everything up... If Thrall hadn't run off on his vision quest there wouldn't have been a problem.
'The Prophet told us to do this.' noted her reflection.
'Yes, because he wanted to save the people of Lordaeron. Lordaeron was doomed. If we'd followed Arthas to Northrend...'
'The colonies are still standing.' said her reflection.
That was right. The only surviving people left from Lordaeron were now focused entirely in Northrend. In the cities Arthas had founded. The cities the prophet didn't want founded. So was the prophet secretly evil?
Jaina had the feeling that she should be having some kind of emotional reaction to all this. Was she in shock? Was that why she was thinking about this?
'This isn't right.' said the reflection. 'The prophet said we would be saved. That this was our only chance of salvation. It hasn't even been ten years and we're all dead.'
So the prophet was a liar. Well she'd wasted half a decade.
What now?
Jaina smiled. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she'd been crying so long she was sick of it. Maybe because she'd really seen this coming. She'd known or should have known that the Horde would do this eventually.
And now she was going to go back to Stormwind and admit that Varian was right.
No.
No Jaina wasn't going to give him that victory. Why was she shaking? She could feel her breath coming out short. Why was she shaking?
Because it had all been for nothing. Everything she'd ever valued or struggled for had been for nothing. And now she was supposed to go and become a warmonger. No doubt so Varian Wrynn could act self-righteous and look restrained by comparison.
It was so...
So...
Hilarious.
As the rain began to pour on the ruins of Theramore, Jaina Proudmoore howled with laughter.
Thrall sensed something when he awoke that night. Rising to his feet he grasped his war hammer and made his way to the door. Something was approaching. It was familiar but warped somehow.
Opening the door, he wished he hadn't shed his armor.
The war had been getting worse lately. The last news he'd heard was that Theramore was about to be attacked. The conflict had escalated. He reminded himself that Garrosh was the only choice for Warchief. Thrall reminded himself what he had taught Garrosh.
And then he saw Jaina.
Her dress was ragged and torn. Her skin was bruised. Her staff was broken in her hand. And she was smiling widely. It disturbed him, but he lowered his hammer. "Jaina, what is... what is the meaning of this?"
"Oh, nothing in particular. With Theramore obliterated I find myself without much in the way of responsibility." said Jaina. "I thought I'd come to visit an old friend.
"May I come in?"
Theramore destroyed? Was she joking? He couldn't imagine her joking about something like this. But if it had happened, why was she smiling. "...Yes, yes you can."
He led her into the house, and Jaina sat down across from the table from him. Aggra roused and emerged warily. "Go'el, who is this human?"
"This is Jaina Proudmoore, of..." began Thrall, looking to her.
"Nowhere in particular." said Jaina, smile unfading. "I was never a resident of Lordaeron. Dalaran is destroyed. Kul'tiras wants nothing to do with me, and of course, well, we both know what happened to Theramore, don't we?
"Can I have some tea?"
"You may get it your-" began Aggra.
Thrall looked up warningly. "Aggra, play along, please. This is... a matter that is rather sensitive."
Was she serious? This wasn't like her at all.
Aggra caught the concern in his eyes. "...As you wish, Go'el."
Jaina looked at him flatly. Her smile disappeared as she raised an eyebrow. "Go'el?"
"It is my true name." said Thrall.
"Well I'm not using it." said Jaina. "It sounds silly. Thrall is the one who freed his people from bondage. Thrall helped drive back the Legion. Go'el is just a mewling infant who got picked up by a human lord.
"Trying to act as if you are that person is just an act of pointless sentimentality."
"It is my heritage." said Thrall, somewhat offended.
"Maybe." said Jaina, smile returning. "But if nothing else, I've learned you have to let go of the past."
"Jaina, what is this?" asked Thrall. "Why are you acting as though nothing has happened?"
"Well, having everything I ever cared about ripped from me has become so common." said Jaina. "I don't really mind it anymore. And I thought I'd share a little revelation that I had when I was looking at the burnt-out ashes of Theramore."
Thrall eyed her warily. "...What revelation?"
"Everything is completely futile." said Jaina. "This whole truce thing we were working toward, it was nothing more than a momentary pause. An excuse to give you the chance to regroup.
"There was always going to be a war of extermination between the races. The only question was when."
"That isn't true. We can-" began Thrall. Can do what? Stop the war? It was too late for her. War or no it meant nothing. "We could have prevented this."
Jaina laughed uproariously, a manic tinge to her tone. It was the most terrifying thing he'd ever heard, and he gripped his warhammer. "Oh, but we couldn't, thanks to you. After all, you handed the reigns over to Garrosh, didn't you? You could have given it to Cairne Bloodhoof, or Vol'jin, or even Sylvanas. But no one except an orc would do.
"An orc who questioned your every decision. An orc who you knew was a warmongering monster. An orc you could have stopped at any time.
"But you didn't.
"And Theramore paid the price."
So that was what this was about. "I had no choice!" said Thrall. "The spirits-"
"I don't care." said Jaina, voice light and without anger. "I've listened to you whine about your people and their quest for redemption for years. Now you are going to listen to me.
"This whole thing could have been avoided.
"But you didn't want to avoid it, did you, Thrall? No, because that would require you to admit that you were wrong. That your warrior culture needed to change for the world to move on."
Aggra returned, looking in a foul mood. "I have your tea."
She set it down. Jaina took the tea and sipped it. "Thank you very much." Then she looked back to Thrall. "You see, it dawned on me that in all our discussions, you never admitted that the orcs had done anything wrong. No, you were the heroes of your own story. You didn't slaughter innocent people, the demons made you do it. You didn't choose to slaughter the Draenai, that was Gul'dan and Ner'zhul.
"That's why you didn't care about what Garrosh was doing. You couldn't conceive that your people could be the villains."
"Jaina I..." Thrall couldn't deny the truth of what she said. What could he say? "I have made many mistakes. I never meant for this to happen. I thought... I thought the rest of the Horde would keep Garrosh in check. I wanted to put Cairne in charge but...
"The orcs wouldn't tolerate a non-orcish Warchief. Saurfang was too old, and he has no son I..."
Jaina shrugged. She really didn't care about his reasons or anything, did she? "You can justify it all you want, Thrall. But it doesn't matter in the slightest. At this point, I have nothing to go back to. Nothing at all.
"So I'm going to go forward.
"That's why I'm going to kill you."
Thrall raised his warhammer defensively. "Jaina-"
"But not today." said Jaina, sipping her tea again. "That would be too simple. First I'm going to kill your entire species. Every single orc, down to the last child. I can do it. If nothing else, I know the layout of your nation. I know orc culture. And I know Garrosh.
"I won't need an army.
"Once I've killed every single orc except you, I'm going to move on to the other Horde races. I'll destroy the Sunwell, again. Just to spite the blood elves. The others I might let live. I'm still mulling it over.
"I'll pay a visit to Varian sooner or later as well. And I'll take everything that is precious to him a second time. And you can sit on your little island and wait.
"And when I've run out of people to murder, I'll come back here, and I'll end your wife in front of you. I'll kill your children.
"You will lose everything that is precious to you.
"And only then, when your last, pitiful hope is extinguished, will I finally allow you to die."
Thrall stared in horror. Jaina's smile was still there. She looked happy. Aggra had an axe and came forward, only to have her legs sink into the ground.
"I wouldn't." said Jaina. "This is excellent tea, Aggra. I'd hate to kill you ahead of schedule. I'll make sure you die quickly when I return."
He had to stop this. She'd been bewitched. "Jaina, this is madness." said Thrall. "You cannot possibly defeat the entire world on your own. And what you are doing will only continue the cycle of hatred."
Jaina paused. Her smile faded, and she became thoughtful. Was he getting through? If he could just talk her down maybe-
"On the contrary, Thrall." said Jaina, tone dead. "People can't seek revenge when they are dead, Thrall." Then she was all smiles and teleported out the door. He looked to where she was waving cheerfully. "Anyway, I've got a killing spree to begin. Sorry to take up your time. I'm sure you have dirt farming to tend to here, so I won't keep you from it."
"Jaina, wait!" said Thrall as she walked away.
"What?" said Jaina, looking back.
If this went on, Thrall would have to stop her. He'd have to kill her. "...Jaina, please don't do this. I don't want to kill you."
She stretched. "I'm terribly sorry, Thrall. But the feeling is anything but mutual."
And she was gone in a flash.
Jaina teleported to her first destination. A reasonably large village that was built over the corpses of centaurs. As she appeared the orcish guards rushed forward and surrounded her. She curtsied sarcastically.
"Excuse me." she said. "I didn't mean to barge in."
"You, stay where you are human!" said the orc.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I just thought I ought to introduce myself." said Jaina. "I'm Jaina Proudmoore, I've teleported into this village before.
"I noticed that Garrosh has poured most of his forces to the northern and eastern fronts. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to murder you all.
"I hate resorting to violence, but you asked for it."
Jaina melted his flesh off his bones. Then summoning water elementals she sicced them on the guards. She sent waves of ice falling down on other guards, then hurled fireballs into the buildings. Soon the village was burning. The screams of innocent people rose with the smoke of the burning.
Jaina laughed.
The last of the guards were wiped out. Before long the people were fleeing. But they couldn't get away.
She could teleport.
She played a game of cat and mouse with them for hours. She'd let them run away for a while, just enough for them to think they'd escaped. Then she teleported in front of them. Sometimes they tried to split up, but she would kill all the groups but one, then continue to track the last.
At last there was only a mother and her child.
"P...please..." begged the woman.
Jaina rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, I really should kill you. But I like the idea of Garrosh knowing what is happening. Run along, and tell Garrosh that Jaina Proudmoore sends her regards.
"Oh, will you kill yourself if I flay that child alive?"
The woman hesitated. "...Yes."
"Fair enough." said Jaina. "Go on ahead."
And she ran off.
Jaina gazed upon the destruction she had wrought and the broken bodies of her enemies. And she felt good. She hadn't brought back any of the people she loved, but she had killed a bunch of people. And while she was hurting them it distracted her from her soul-crushing loneliness.
This would definitely make for a fun hobby.
She threw aside her broken staff and greeted a new morning happily. "Well, that takes care of one village. Now for the next one."
Author's Note:
So one of the reasons I dropped Warcraft as a series was because I hated the treatment of Jaina as a character. She was completely derailed solely so that Varian Wrynn could be the hero. I wonder if Metzen realizes how destructive blowing up Theramore was to the plot of Warcraft.
Anyway, Jaina basically gets turned into a serious warmonger and then is never allowed any kind of meaningful vengeance.
This fic is meant to address both those problems with the story.