"I fucked up."

It had taken Ruby about four hours to get to the point where she was willing to admit that. After her argument with Darmus, she had opened a Death Gate to Acherus, changed into the copy of her old outfit (sue her, she still liked it) and fled to Vale.

She was currently in the red light district of Vale, dodging idiots who thought she was a hooker.

It reminded her of back when she first landed in Azeroth, back when getting back to Remnant had seemed like an inevitability, rather than a hope. She had wanted to come back with stories to tell Yang, Blake and Weiss, so she would slip out of the Silver Hand's base to explore Lordaeron until Uther, or if he wasn't too busy, Alexandros, tracked her down and dragged her back.

Uther, it had been eighteen years and she still missed the old Paladin. He had become a father figure to her, often going out of his way to visit her at least once a day unless something was going wrong.

That wasn't to say he wasn't without his flaws, his hatred of Orcs had always been something they disagreed on and she was willing to bet he would have exploded if he had lived long enough to see Durotar rise. He was also at least in part responsible for Arthas's fall, though Ruby was willing to admit that both Jaina and herself had played their part, and it was ultimately Arthas's fault.

Ruby slipped into the shadows, a beer she had stolen from a bar a few streets back in hand. It pissed her off that she was over twice Vale's drinking age, but would have to wait another month to actually buy alcohol.

She let her eyes roam the alley she was in as she downed the beer (which tasted like shit). Drug dealer, actual prostitutes, that guy was an undercover cop, a couple of guys talking with a girl who looked completely out of place.

The girl looked vaguely familiar. Cute, ginger with green eyes and freckles, wearing a grey dress with green accents. Ruby found herself raking her memories to remember where she had seen her before.

'Oh. She's the girl that we met just before Blake ran off and helped us fight off the White Fang. What was her name, Piper… no. Polly... no, Penny… that was it!'

Ruby slipped out of the shadows, pulling up her hood, and listened to what they were saying.

"How about fifty bucks?"

"For what, Mister?

"You know what."

"I do?"

Ruby was standing right behind them now, she leaned down and rasped out, "How about you leave my friend alone, and in return I don't break every bone in your body?"

Both men whipped around, startled. They seemed to settle down when they saw her appearance. One of them flicked out a pocket knife, cute.

"So, I'll take that as a no?"

They glanced at each other, confused. Idiots.

Ruby gestured sharply, and the idiot with the knife dropped it, and went clutching at his throat. Idiot number two had just enough time to blink before a foot crashed into his gut.

She turned towards Penny, "Come on Penny, we should probably get out of here."

Idiot number one got up then, scooping up his knife and charging at them with a yell. Illidan's glaive was in Ruby's hand with preternatural speed. Before she could swing it though, a sword's dull edge- with something glistening trailing behind it- struck his feet and pulled them out from under him. She looked at Penny who was reeling in the sword with an embarrassed, "You said we should go?"

Ruby chuckled, it reminded her of how Illidan and she met for the first time.

Yang had thought that her month would have gotten better once they found Ruby, she was also completely wrong.

First, she had learned that her sister had been enslaved to the will of a megalomaniac for years, without anyone noticing. That for a period of time it hadn't even been her little sister living with her but a copy. The hardest part about that had been how Ruby didn't seem to blame them at all. She had failed her little sister, but Ruby didn't care.

Then, they had gotten their first look at the 'necropolis' (which according to Blake meant city of the dead, a name that -in Yang's personal opinion- did not bode well for much) that Ruby and her friends were working out of. A giant pyramid floating in the sky that had a giant horned skull hanging from it, with a giant eye between the horns. They were going to see inside it later that day, alongside a reporter from VNN, nominally because Ozpin had contracted jobs out to them, in truth because people were just curious about the flying fortress in the sky.

The fact that Ruby had said to not send anyone squeamish had been duly noted.

Now, she was standing in front of her beloved step-mother, who had just walked into the room with three of Ruby's knights, and, as far as anyone knew, was dead. Her eyes were the glow she was swiftly coming to associate with Arthas's 'servants'. Had that monster dragged her back too?

Tai-Yang could feel his pulse pounding. He staggered forward reaching for Summer. She looked like she hadn't aged a day in the last ten years.

He felt a sob tear from his throat as he staggered forward reaching for Summer, "Why?"

Even he wasn't sure what he was asking, why did you leave? Why did she show up now?

Summer seemed to take it as the first, "I didn't plan to leave, Tai."

Anger blazed forth, "Well, isn't that great?"

"Tai-"

"Ten years, Summer, you left me alone for TEN YEARS! And then you think you can just, what, waltz back in here and everything will be fine? No! I-"

"am going to sit down, and shut your damn mouth and listen."

Tai whipped to the sound of the voice, fire gathering at his knuckles. To his confusion there was no one there.

"Down here, nimrod."

He looked down, standing about even with his shin was a old man in heavy armor who had two proportionally large swords on his back.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Name's Pitwick, and you, are going to sit your ass in that chair, be quiet and listen to what your wife has to say, before I chain you up and make you listen."

Tai scoffed, "I'd like to see you try."

"Was that a challenge?" he turned towards his companions, "Did that sound like a challenge to you?"

The strawberry blond girl with unusually long perky ears sighed before reaching down and picking him up.

"Pitwick, you're not allowed to beat up your boss's father."

Yang cut in, "Dad, can we please just give her a chance?"

Tai looked at his daughter, "Fine."

They settled down, and Summer took Tai's hand in between her own, "I really didn't plan to leave, the last thing I remember was going to sleep for the night, and when I woke up Ruby was standing over my grave telling me that ten years had passed."

"Your grave?"

She nodded, "Yes, someone killed me and buried my body, nothing else would have kept me from coming back to you, Yang and Ruby."

Yang cut in then, "How did Ruby bring you back, I thought only Arthas could do that?"

The bearded man cut in then, "It will take a while to explain, why don't we all get comfortable?

It had taken about half an hour to explain what Ruby had done and Velann was starting to get really annoyed at how Summer and her husband were dancing around each other, obviously uncomfortable about the fact that Summer was technically dead. There was also Tai's reaction but that had been taken care of with the explanation. Velann glanced across the table, where a man with greying black hair sat. It became clear where Ruby got her everything from, fashion sense (or at least what she had worn when on Azeroth, she had started wearing different clothing once they got to Remnant), and weapon of choice (suddenly Ruby's plan to upgrade Crescent Rose to having a sword form made a lot more sense). He seemed irritated at them also. Their eyes locked and she gestured with her head before making a sharp pushing motion, he nodded. As one they grabbed onto the half of the couple on their respective sides of the table and pushed them into each other.

Just like the time Tyrande and she had done this to Illidan and Ruby it took about two seconds before the couple were attempting to eat each other's face. Admittedly, unlike in the case of Ruby and Illidan, they hadn't been making bedroom eyes at each other across the war table in Dalaran for the past hour. There were days she honestly wondered if her friend was actually bisexual, or just attracted to people capable of large amounts of carnage.

Darmus glanced at her, "One day, that is going to backfire on you so hard."

She grinned, "It hasn't done so yet!"

She looked over at the blonde girl, approaching her and giving her a thumbs up about the push she had just given, who must have been Ruby's sister Yang, "Nice to meet you, I'm Velann."

"I'm Yang"

"I know, Ruby talks about you a lot when she's drunk."

Yang looked torn between worry and pride at her sister apparently drinking and sadness. Huh, that was strange.

"What's she say about me?"

"Mostly? How much she missed you and about fun times you had together."

Yang looked at her in shock, "I don't get this."

"What?"

"Why isn't Ruby angry at us? We never noticed-"

"I'm going to stop you there. The reason Ruby doesn't blame you is two fold, first because she never wanted you to know, and second because she only blames three people for the mess we're all in and that is Arthas, Uther, and herself."

Yang opened her mouth, but before she could say anything Velann cut her off, "Listen, don't worry about it. Ruby never has and never will blame you."

It was at that point that Summer and Tai finally came up for air.

Penny's CPU was running at full speed as she tried to figure out what had happened to her friend. (and didn't that word send a jolt of energy through her circuits? It made her very Aura pulse.)

In the week and six days since they last saw each other, Ruby had somehow aged one year, six months and twelve days (with a margin of error of one month, six days). She had also gained a metallic ringing in her voice and glowing eyes.

They had just stepped out of a diner, where Ruby had bought some hot chocolate for the both of them.

In truth, Penny had never expected to see Ruby again. Mister Ironwood had said that she shouldn't after the fight on the docks, and he had never given her bad advice before.

Then they had run into each other in that alley, in the time Ruby had spent threatening the two men, Penny had accessed the CCT network and found out exactly what they were talking about.

Even after the three years she had been in operation, sex was a concept completely alien to Penny. She understood that humans needed it to reproduce, but (and maybe it was because she wasn't a real girl) she never got the appeal of it.

Penny had intended to slip away the minute Ruby had looked away, but as they walked through the city, she couldn't help but get a thrill about doing something she shouldn't. Besides Ruby was her first friend and it was only normal for friends to walk around together. They didn't talk much but the silence was pleasant and companionable.

They had been walking around for about two hours when Ruby got a message on her scroll, flicking it open she looked at the message before swearing.

She turned towards Penny, "Listen, I just got reminded that there's something I need to do, so I have to go…"

"Oh, Ok." Penny tried to keep her disappointment out of her voice. Ruby looked at her.

"Do you want to come with me?"

She shouldn't, she could get herself and Ruby in trouble but none the less, "Sure!" She wanted to.

"Right, I need to change first."

Weiss was pacing back and forth on the landing pad.

"Where is she?!"

They had been waiting about twenty minutes for Ruby to show up, especially annoying because they had about five minutes until the news started and they were supposed to be flying to Acherus by the time it started.

They had been forced to charter a larger airship because there were so many people going. The entirety of Teams RWBY and JNPR, Ruby's parents and uncle, Pitwick, Darmus, Velann, Professor Oobleck, Lisa Lavender and a cameraman from VNN were coming on this trip (though in the case of Pitwick and Velann, it was because they had to get back to Acherus anyway.)

Ruby had jogged into sight then in the armor she had been wearing since she got back, follow by that strange girl from a few weeks ago.

"Sorry we're late! We lost track of time."

As they shuffled into the airship Weiss saw Ruby pull her mother aside and whisper something to her. Summer just smiled and shook her head, pinching Ruby's cheek.

Lavender informed them that they would be start broadcasting in exactly one minute, and Ruby seemed to steel herself. While she wouldn't be answering a lot of questions, that duty would be going to the other three, she apparently wanted to make it clear that her not being social doesn't mean she was weak.

"Hello, this is Lisa Lavender with a special report. We are currently on an airship heading to the large fortress in the sky that has gripped the Kingdoms imagination. We have been allowed on by the owners of the base, called Acherus, the Knights of the Ebon Blade. We also have with us four members of this order, Darmus Redbrand, Pitwick Blackneedle, Velann Darkfall, and Ruby Rose."

Each one of them raised their hand in turn.

"Would you mind giving us a brief history of your organization?"

Darmus sighed, and when he spoke the slight accent he had had thickened, "It's not a happy story, lass. But we'll tell you if you really want to know."

When she nodded, he sighed again.

"Ok. The Knights of the Ebon Blade got our start as the Knights of Acherus. We were enslaved, and I do mean that literally, to the will of a man named Arthas Menethil. Arthas's Semblance allowed him to bind the souls of the people he killed within his sword, and raise them from the dead. He could also grant this power to other people. He intended to turn every living thing into one of his servants. Eventually though, we were able to break free, and after stealing Acherus, we dedicated our lives to crushing Arthas and his Scourge."

"Do we need to worry about him?"

"Not anymore, we stopped him around a week ago."

"And what do you intend to do now?"

"We're going to fight the Grimm."

Nora chose that moment to gasp loudly, drawing everyone's attention to the window.

The massive pyramid that was Acherus was even more impressive in real life than the few pictures they had seen of it.

Pitwick chimed in, Weiss liked Pitwick from what little she had spoken with him, he was surprisingly perceptive, "Isn't it beautiful? Acherus was the strongest of the Necropoli that Arthas managed to finish before we stopped him, not even Naxxramas, the base of Arthas's second in command Kel'thuzad, could withstand a direct assault from the Ebon Hold. Or at least that's what they said. Hey, Ruby?"

Ruby grunted, a scowl on her face.

"Do you think Naxx could have survived an assault from Acherus? You worked there for a bit…"

"First, to answer your question, probably not, second, don't mention that war crime around me."

Professor Oobleck, cut in, from where he had been taking notes, "War crime?"

She glanced around as they all looked at her.

"Let me put it this way, you all heard the horror stories about Menagerie, right?" They all nodded, even Weiss's father, by no stretch of the imagination a Faunus rights activist, viewed what had happened on that island as beyond the pale, "Naxx on a good day made Menagerie look like a happy place to live."

"Ruby, I get that this Naxx place was bad but, I don't think comparing it to Menagerie is-" Blake trailed off their as Ruby fixed her with a look.

"If anything, I'm understating how bad Naxxramas was, if you were lucky, you were turned into a new Death Knight and thrown into the hell we called training. If you were unlucky then you would be fed to the spiders, or experimented on to create new plagues, or used to create abominations, and none of those were quick deaths."

They spent the rest of the short trip answering questions, how many Necropoli were there? (Seven that mattered, countless used to hold the non sapient member of the Scourge) How many people were on Acherus (978 Death Knights, alongside two abominations and an unknown amount of lesser undead that had been on Acherus when they broke free and hadn't been found until after Arthas died) Why were they called lesser undead? (They had intelligence about equal to that of a well trained dog.)

When Summer stepped out of the Airship she was immediately hit by the overwhelming smell of rot. Despite this (and the fact that most of the party was covering their noses) she felt invigorated, and she could see the members of the Knights of the Ebon Blade (was she part of that organization now? She would have to ask.) all stand taller.

One of Ruby and Yang's teammates (the white haired one, she hadn't gotten their names) coughed harshly, "What's that smell?"

Ruby laughed, high and hearty, but with an intoxicated edge, "Were you expecting someplace called 'a city of the dead' to smell like chocolates and flowers?"

It made Summer happy to see Ruby like this, she had spent most of the time Summer had seen her in the past day angry or depressed.

The girl who had come along with Ruby, (it suddenly hit Summer that she didn't know half the people there) who was the only non-undead person not covering her nose looked confused, "Why would it smell like that?"

Laughter bubbled up in Summer's throat, "I think that's the point, dear."

They walked into the center area, the rest of them slowly getting used to the smell.

The blond haired boy yelped loudly and they all turned to look at what he was looking at.

"Uhg."

Summer wasn't sure who said it, but she felt that it accurately summed up what they were looking at.

Fifteen feet tall and massive, it appeared to be stitched together from great swaths of flesh, it's guts were held in by bands of iron and it had three arms. Two sat in the anatomically correct place but a third smaller one sprouted from it's back.

"What is that thing?" this time Summer could tell it was Tai who asked the question.

"That's Ozorg, he's one of the Abominations we mentioned."

Ruby waved towards the towering monster, who waved back excitedly, a look of something resembling joy on its misshapen face.

They walked over to a large skull shaped forge and Ruby turned to her, speaking lowly, "While whether you join this order is up to you, I would like to use the Runeforge on Bloom and Wither, even if it's only for my own piece of mind."

Summer reached to the pair of swords on her back, and handed them to her daughter. Ruby placed them into the mouth of the forge. Energy flowed from her to the skull and, in a matter of seconds, the process was finished. The rust that had gathered from ten years of sitting in disuse had disappeared, and a set of dully glowing runes sat on the blade.

As Ruby handed her back the blades, the sound of heavy footsteps came towards them. Ruby glanced up, "Hello Darion."

As Summer turned around she couldn't help but stare. 'Darion' was massive, standing taller than even Tai and Ruby. He looked at her briefly, before turning towards Ruby, "We need you on the balcony." then he walked away.

They followed him, and as they saw why he wanted them there Ruby's face became stony. Laying on the balcony was what appeared to be a massive man, taller than even Ozorg, and like Ozorg it also appeared to be stitched together from skin, bolts littered it's body. When Ruby spoke, it sounded less like a word and more like a growl, "Thaddeus." Her scythe was in her hand in seconds, the blade a dull grey and jagged.

Pitwick spoke, disgust obvious in his voice, "Speaking of Naxx."

Ruby continued her impression of a Beowolf,
"He put that walking war crime in MY Fortress!?"

"To be fair, it was Darion's at the time."

Darion cut in then, "What I want to know is why he didn't use it when we took Acherus."

"Because he's a dick! He knew we would find it eventually and he knew it would piss me off!"

Lisa Lavender coughed sharply, "May I remind you, we are still broadcasting?"

As one they glanced behind them, Darion shrugged before turning away uncaring. Ruby did the same, preferring to glare at the tower of flesh before them. Velann looked confused, like she wasn't sure what Lisa was talking about.

Pitwick coughed, "I'm sorry, my dear, it's just… that," he threw a disgusted look at Thaddeus over his shoulder, "is one of the worst, if not the worst thing to come out of Naxxramas."

"Why?"

"Because," Summer felt a chill run up her spine, and she could tell as angry as Ruby had been earlier, it was nothing compared to how she was feeling now, "Kel'thuzad," she spat the name like it was the worst insult she knew, "had that thing created from the flesh of still living women and children."

Silence stretched in the wake of that revelation, and Summer felt her stomach drop. How many innocent people had been killed to create the giant of stolen flesh in front of them?

"W-What?" the black haired girl sounded horrified, "Why would anyone do that!?"

"You'll learn that the story of the Scourge has many instances of good people falling as far as we could." Was it just her, or had Ruby stroked her scythe blade as she said that?

Darion raised a question that nobody wanted to answer, "What do we do with it?"

"Darmus? I know it's painful, but can you perform the rites?"

"Of course, lass."

They watched as most of the Knights milling around the area left.

Darmus kneeled down and started to speak, Summer had just enough time to notice Ruby and Darion brace themselves, Pitwick grit his teeth, and Velann screw up her eyes, before her world erupted in pain.

Every nerve in her body burned, and time was a blur. Had she been there for a few seconds or an eternity? She was blind, and could hear cries of worry in the distance.

Everything crashed back into place at once. She was no longer standing, instead curled up in a ball on the floor, whimpering. Tai was standing over her, worry on his face.

"What- What just happened?" It shocked her to hear how weak her voice sounded.

"We don't know, there was this light, and I felt better than I had in awhile but you and the Knights had collapsed. That thing's body also burned away."

As Tai helped her to her feet, and helped her stay there, she looked around, and saw what he had meant.

Velann was seated against the wall. Low moans of pain slipped from her mouth. Pitwick and Darion were on their hands and knees, coughing and wheezing. Ruby had fallen to one knee using her scythe to hold herself up, waiving off her team's concerns.

Darmus had collapsed and wasn't moving, smoke rising from his body.

Ruby spoke, it came out as a rasp, "and that is why Death Knights prefer to be as far away as possible from Light when it's used." She staggered upright, and Summer couldn't help but feel shock, she was barely able to keep herself up with Tai supporting her, and Ruby was walking over to Darmus and checking him.

"I need to apologize, Mom, if I had thought about it, I would have asked you to leave beforehand."

"What was that?"

"Light, it's one of those tricks people from Arthas's home made."

Why-"

"Did it hurt us? Because Light and Undeath have never gotten along. You'll learn soon that your sense of pain has been diluted to the point of almost nonexistence, but Light will always burn."

"If Light doesn't like undead, why was Darmus able to use it?"

"Because that's not how Light works, all it takes to use Light is the belief you can use it."

"That makes it sound like anyone could use it."

"With proper training they could, but all the people who know how to use it are either gone, or undead, who don't want to use it for obvious reasons."

Ruby was in a less ideal scenario. When she had drawn Crescent Rose, the shades appeared. One was an Orc, face painted like a skull, and the other was Arthas. This, had never happened before.

"Hello, Ruby." Ruby couldn't help the shiver that ran up her spine. This was a voice who she had never expected to hear again. How have you been?"

"What are you doing here, Arthas?"

She didn't speak the words, but somehow they echoed through the grey scaled world.

Arthas appeared behind her, and breathed the next words into her ear, as one ethereal hand covered hers on Crescent Rose's shaft, "Why wouldn't I wish to speak to my most loyal Knight?"

Ruby was dimly aware of a discussion going on around her, and her mouth moving on it's own accord even as she carried out this silent argument.

"I was never loyal to you, Arthas."

The laughter that followed chilled Ruby to the bone, "There's no need to lie, Ruby, it's only us here, and we already know. You never betrayed me, I betrayed you, and if I hadn't done so, you would have served me to the ends of Azeroth. Unlike Jaina or Uther."

"Shut up! That's not true!"

Arthas crooned in her ear, "But it is, it's all here in your head. When you left me after Stratholme, it was because Uther brought you with him, not because not because of any hatred of me." Before Ruby could respond he changed the subject, "Does it hurt knowing your family will die and leave you alone? That's why you brought your mother back, wasn't it? Because you're scared of being alone? There's a solution to that, you know? All you would have to do is cut them down and raise them. The Helm is nearby, you could command them to never leave you. You could give me a new body, I could help you."

"Shut up!"

Here the Orc spoke, "Or you could fight the Burning Legion, this isn't Azeroth, you could open a portal here. Use the Scourge to fight them. Illidan is probably still alive, they are probably torturing him for his betrayal, it's what they did to me."

"Shut UP!"

Arthas laughed "Yes, Illidan, I find it shocking that you courted him. I must say you were quite cute in that old outfit of yours, though what you did afterwards wasn't quite so cute, you're quite flexible aren't you?

"Shut up shutup shutupSHUTUP!"

Ruby heard Blake ask a question, and the answer was torn from her mouth,"You'll learn that the story of the Scourge has many instances of good people falling as far as we could."

Ruby felt her grip on Crescent Rose tighten as she ran a hand along its blade. As much as she hated it, they both had a point, all it would take is a couple of seconds, then they would never be alone again, and they could go save Illidan.

BUT DO THEY?

A third voice echoed out, though no specter appeared to accompany it. The voice was interesting in how nondescript it was, not too masculine or feminine, not too deep or high, and not too loud or quite.

YOU BROKE FREE DIDN'T YOU? WHY WOULDN'T THEY DO THE SAME? THEN YOU'LL BE EVEN MORE ALONE THAN IF THEY JUST DIED FROM AGE.

Ruby's grip on Crescent Rose tighten to the point where a dull ache of pain coursed through her hand.

AND WHAT IF ILLIDAN IS DEAD? HE WOULD HAVE NEVER LET THEM TAKE HIM ALIVE. THEN YOU WOULD HAVE KILLED HUNDREDS FOR NO REASON.

The words that came out of next were whispered and broken, "I… I just don't want to be alone again."

BUT YOU AREN'T ALONE, YOU HAD VELANN, DARMUS, PITWICK AND DARION WITH YOU. AND NOW YOU HAVE SUMMER, TAI, QROW, PENNY AND TEAMS JNPR AND RWBY AS WELL.

Ruby felt a warmth wrap around her.

AND EVEN IF THEY ALL

LEAVE YOU, I NEVER WILL.

Ruby's mouth opened again against her will again, but unlike last time, if felt gentle, "Darmus? I know it's painful, but can you perform the rites?"

Ruby briefly wondered why, until she saw Arthas and the Orc grow agitated. The Light would weaken them, give her a chance to force them back into Frostmourne Crescent Rose.

She would have to apologize to Darmus and her mother later, by this point she wasn't sure if she could have opened her mouth at all.

When the Light washed over her it didn't hurt as much as it normally did, like being bathed in liquid fire rather than her body destroying itself from the inside out.

She fell to one knee, forcing the two back into the blade. The Orc had a look of resignation on its face, but Arthas had a strange look on his face.

"You WILL join me eventually, dearest Ruby." he reached out and stroked her face. "The Lich King, and Lich Queen."

She lashed out at his fading form, unintentionally pushing Yang aside.

"Ruby are you ok?"

"I'm fine."

She staggered upright, pain raking through her body, and she wasn't quite sure whether the next words were meant as an explanation for the people there, or a taunt for those in the blade, "And that is why Death Knights prefer to be as far away as possible from Light when it's used."

She walked towards Darmus, apologizing to her mother and answering the questions everyone asked as she checked him over.

She stood up and looked at Darion, "He should be fine, but he probably won't be waking up for the rest of the day. Could you bring him to his room?

Darion nodded, and threw the unconscious Dwarf over his shoulder.

As Ruby started to walk towards the group, her left leg gave out on her and she fell forward. Before she smashed into the ground, Something caught her below her shoulder.

Ruby looked up, at Penny who had just managed to stop a collapsing Death Knight, in full armor, with minimal effort.

When Ruby stood back up she tried to pull away only for Penny to hold onto her arm.

"Penny, I'm fine."

Penny looked her in the eyes, "No, you're not." and refused to let go.

Ruby sighed, "Fine," and allowed Penny to help her along.

She wouldn't admit that it made her happy to have someone to lean on.

Ilyanaria was staring at her doom. Ok, that was an exaggeration, she was going to talk to Highlord Rose, (she had intended to talk to Velann, but had discovered that they were in the same room) but it felt like she was facing her death. Ilyanaria could count the amount of times she had seen the Highlord on both hands.

The stories on the other hand, painted the picture that worried the Night Elf. During the Human's time as one of the Lich King's servants she had personally razed countless villages, leaving no survivors, or any sign there had been a village in the first place. After they had been freed she had built up a reputation of ruthlessness even among the Knights of the Ebon Blade. Necropoli ramming into each other. Entire blighted regions put to the torch. Vrykul thanes bound in chains and fed to hordes of starving Ghouls. It was said that Hell lived in the Pale Horsewoman's shadow.

In the time in between the Lich King's fall and the Cataclysm, she had just seemed to disappear. It was a popular theory that she had thrown herself off the edge of Icecrown Glacier. Or that she had rode into a raging blizzard, laughing at her victory. A third said she had raised a frost Wyrm and flown away. Considering the Dragon skeleton in one of the rooms in Acherus, Ilyanaria was willing to put good money on that one. No matter where she had disappeared to, (They eventually found out she had been hiding in Gilneas, though apparently Mograine and her few friend among the Knights knew where she was from the beginning) a couple of years passed and nobody had seen hide nor hair of the madwoman.

As suddenly as she vanished she reappeared, amongst the Red Dragonflight no less, having been asked to help with Deathwing by one of their members. While more affable (and less likely to destroy anything in her path) she quickly established that two years had not left her soft as she tore the information of what the Black Dragonflight intended to do from one of their members and helped stop the Destroyer.

She had been involved with the messes on Pandaria (acting as a chaperone to the young prince of Stormwind) and Draenor (personally hunting down and killing Garrosh Hellscream)

Then the Legion attacked again, and she had been put in charge of the Ebon Blade.

Which brought Ilyanaria back to where she was now, namely standing in front of one of the most dangerous people in the world.

Ilyanaria desperately prayed that the Highlord didn't knows about her past as Malfurion's student. The relationship between the Druid and Death Knight had been frosty ever since Illidan Stormrage's death, and Ilyanaria was afraid that bit of knowledge would hurt her chances of getting the Highlord to agree.

She squirmed slightly under the piercing silver gaze. This shouldn't have been hard, she had been there when Archimonde invaded, but something about the Highlord set her skin crawling.

"Who might you be?"

The group who had been with the Highlord all looked at her curiously, they had probably never seen a night elf before.

"Ilyanaria Burningsword, Ma'am!"

"What is it you need, as you can see," here the Highlord gestured to the group behind her, "I am quite busy."

"I would like to request to use some of the land granted to the Ebon Blade to start up a settlement."

The Highlord did not speak for a couple of minutes, and Ilyanaria was afraid that she would say no. When the Highlord spoke, her fears were unfounded, "I see no reason why you shouldn't be allowed to, though until we have enough supplies for the Ghouls to finish the wall, you will be responsible for keeping anyone who decides to live there safe from Grimm attacks."

Ilyanaria breathed an audible sigh of relief, "Of course Ma'am, Thank you, Ma'am."

As she started to walk away the Highlord called out to her, "Just a moment!"

"Yes, Ma'am"

A scowl made its way into her face, had Ilyanaria offended her?

"First off, stop calling me 'Ma'am' you're going to be reporting directly to me on this subject." That was probably the last thing Ilyanaria had wanted to here, but was still a small price to pay, "Second, your last name, it's Orcish," here she switched to Scourgish briefly,"Correct?"

"Yes, from my husband."

"When did that happen?"

Ilyanaria knew why she was asking, she had appeared at both of the other wedding that had happened.

"A year and a half ago."

"Ah, I'm sorry for not being able to make it, I was… indisposed, at the time."

That was one way to describe hunting down an undead queen, while mourning the loss of your mate. (That was another thing about the Highlord that terrified Ilyanaria, she was the mate of the Betrayer himself.)

"It's fine."

"Nonetheless, please pass my apologies along to your husband as well, and feel free to use my Ghouls to speed up the process of building your village, think of it as late wedding gift."

Ilyanaria thanked the Highlord again, before setting off to tell Lam'Guld the good news. As she left though, she couldn't help but notice a diminutive girl with black hair in twintails slip down a hall.

The door swung open and Neo's grin split her face, and she laughed aloud, the sound being silenced before anyone could hear it by the illusions of her semblance

The room was filled with weapons and armor of all kind, and Neo made a note to come back and clearly the room out at some point in the future. These were her favorite type of jobs, they made doing what she loved even better.

'I'll take you,' she pointed to a beautifully made gold and silver hammer, though tarnished like it hadn't been used in a long time, 'and you', she shifted her finger to an Ax with a circular hole in it, sitting on a pedestal, were those eyes? 'and I'll sell that one! "That one" was a massive sword that had an orb with the symbol of a hand on it floating above it. Its pedestal had the words 'For Darion' carved into it.

But that was for a later time, right now she needed to find something for Cinder. She glanced around the room before noticing the fragment of metal bound in chains in a dark corner of the room. The fragment was as long as Neo's lower arm length-wise and about was large enough to go from the edge of her wrist to the center.

It was also, as previously stated, bound in a nigh-comically large amount of chains, like whoever put it in here suffered a sudden bout of childishness. Neo half expected there to be a sign on it saying 'No Touching! This Means You!' on it.

Unfortunately for whomever went through all the trouble, Neo was of the mind that the more someone didn't want you to have something, the cooler it probably was.

In a matter of minutes Neo had unweaved the mass of chains around the fragment and put it in a bag. Hopefully the boss lady would pay big bucks for it, she had nearly been eaten by zombies trying to get it!

With a blown kiss to her soon-to-be possessions Neo slipped out of the room and back onto the ship that had brought them here.

Qrow was in heaven, Ruby had been leading them on a tour of Acherus, and outside of a couple of moments, it had been pretty boring. Then they walked into Ruby's collection of alcohol. Apparently some point along the way, Ruby had started to collect booze from everywhere they had gone in their hunt for Arthas.

There were bottles and casks lining the walls, each clearly labeled with a date and location. Ruby had given him a bottle of wine that was "older than Pitwick, and that is saying something!"

That comment had gotten an empty bottle, apparently leftover from Ruby and Velann's last drinking spree (something that had made Summer level a glare at both of their heads, which was promptly ignored), thrown at her head by the miniature Death Knight.

Lisa Lavender had left in the ship a while back, unwilling, or unable, to stay the night in the massive fortress. Without her there for Ruby to show around, Qrow's niece seemed to decide that there was no harm in cracking open one of the casks. As wine was passed out to everyone, Summer's glare seemed to have grown worse, and she had opened her mouth, probably to lecture her younger daughter about her drinking habit, she was cut off by Pitwick, who shook his head.

"You'll find that everyone of us has our vice, our escape from the horrors of what we were made to do under Arthas's control. She doesn't drink very often."

Summer sighed, only to freeze in horror at the next words out of his mouth, "That's not to say an addiction doesn't exist, but that's Arthas fault, not ours."

"What?"

"Our generation of Death Knights, and you've probably avoided it, Ruby isn't completely mad, have a built in addition to causing pain. You'll notice it, the longer we have gone without a fight, the more likely we are to play with our foe."

"Have you ever-"

"Tried to go cold turkey? A few of us did, it didn't end well."

"What do you mean?"

"They went on a rampage tearing apart anyone who got too close to them."

That was apparently the point where even the saint-like Summer drew the line, as she grabbed the goblet of wine before her and downed it with speed that left even Qrow slightly startled, before walking over to the cask and refilling it.

That had been two hours ago, and now most of the group was unconscious around the room. He smirked as he took a picture of Yang cuddling two-thirds of the rest of her team. The last member of the team was sitting across from him, having dedicated her time to teasing the perky ginger next to her alongside her strawberry blond haired friend.

The moment Cinder touched the fragment that Neo had brought her, she knew something was wrong, her stolen Maiden powers flared to life.

She examined it more closely. There was definitely a power around it, one similar to the glove Salem had given her.

She would need to test it on someone. Emerald and Mercury were too important to her plans, the same was true for Roman, and Neo had proven her worth by slipping into the fortress. Adam on the other hand was perfect, he was easily replaceable, there were hundreds of people like him if not as skilled, and he wasn't vital to her plans.

She went to track down the bull Faunus.

"Adam, dear, hold onto this."

"This isn't going to poison me is it?"

"Of course not, you're much more valuable to me alive than dead.

He took it, a look of irritation on the visible half of his face, having gotten used to orders that made no sense to anyone but her.

As he held onto it, a look of interest made it's way onto his face as he examined the scrap of metal

"Do you mind if I keep this?"

"Why?"

"You got this from Ruby Rose's base, correct?" She nodded, "I want to turn it into a knife to skin her with, so that," here he paused as if looking for the word he wanted to use, "Blake will learn the cost of abandoning the White Fang."

"Very well."

It was only after the terrorist left that Cinder realized that she never said where the fragment had come from.

Adam stalked through the White Fang base, the fragment of Frostmourne in hand.

Kill them all, they serve more loyally in death.

He shook his head, attempting clearing his mind.

He walked into the main area of the warehouse, where a group of humans had been lined up on their knees.

He felt a rush of satisfaction as one of the members sobbed.

He walked in front of the scum, tightening his grip on the fragment of metal.

Yes, do it! Create your monstrous new weapon. It too will serve me when your soul is mine!

Turning towards the gathered Faunus, he spoke, "These humans," he gestured to the group behind him, "have been found guilty of abusing Faunus, paying them less, assaulting them, and standing by, watching, as others do the same."

He turned towards the three, the first, a muscular man who was sobbing like a baby, the second a young woman who was silent, probably too horrified to speak, the third was another man, also silent, but glaring at him.

He grabbed the head of the first man, "Any last word?"

"Please… don't."

"And how many Faunus begged the same of you?"

The fragment tore into his throat and he collapsed.

He turned to the woman, who looked up at him, "I never did anything-"

"And that is the problem." She too died as the blade impaled her.

The third man, glared up at him, "Get this kangaroo court over with already, prove to the world what scum you are."

Adam growled, and brought the blade down, once, twice, after that he lost track, when he came back from the had overtaken him the man looked more like a mass of meat than anything.

Yes, use your anger

Most of the defender's commanders had gathered in the War Room of Stormwind Keep, the only exceptions being Highlord Rose who had last been seen heading towards where the damage was most obvious, and Dudiir who was assisting with the injured.

Nalores had to resist rolling her eyes, they had been there for several hours and they were no closer to a plan on what to do. Several of them wanted to rush out and hunt down the Banshee Queen, while others like her wished to wait for reinforcements from Ironforge.

"If we don't strike now, they will have time to regroup!"

"Lord Greymane, we don't have enough troops, if we go after her now we'll be leaving Stormwind defenseless!"

The smell of burning flesh filled the air alongside a new voice, "If my hunch is right, you wouldn't find them anyway Genn."

As they turned to look at the newcomer the male Tinkfuse let out a whistle, "You look like hell Rose."

In Nalores's opinion, that was a massive understatement. During the war against the Lich King she had spent a month under the Death Knight's command as punishment for an incident involving a Lich's phylactery, a flagon of beer, and a wolvar. In that month she had nearly died eight times, one of the other members of the squad did die, another had been rendered invalid and Rose had never looked worse for wear.

Comparing that to the Rose before her now was quite shocking. The tail coat she had been wearing was gone, the shirt she had been wearing under it was singed, and the left sleeve had been cut away, revealing her arm to the air, or more accurately, the charred mass of muscle and bone that had been her arm.

The shoulder was a dull pink that grew in intensity as it went down her arm to the elbow, below there it started to turn black and bone started to poke through. Her hand was completely black, and the fingers were fused together.

Nalores could see burns slowly lighten as Rose walked to the war table, leaving her to wonder how bad it looked before.

The Highlord glanced down at her arm, "There was a house on fire, and people were trapped inside it."

Apparently that was all the explanation she feels they needed, as she turned to the king of Gilneas, "I need the SI reports on recent Forsaken attacks."

Greymane cocked an eyebrow before grabbing them from a desk near by, Rose took the pile and started to leaf through it with her functioning hand.

Once she was done, she reached for the pins used to mark locations on the map, only to curse as her hand spammed and she fumbled with it.

Lancaster reached for the pins, only for his hand to be batted away by the Death Knight.

"I don't need your help, Donovan."

It always impressed Nalores how Rose could make any name sound like the filthiest in existence.

Rose stuck the first pin in the location corresponding with Stormwind, then she went back through the stacks of reports, placing one pin for each.

Nalores tensed as she saw the pattern, "They're all ports."

"Exactly"

"But, why?"

"They're either looking for something, or trying to keep us from leaving, and seeing as they were bombing the hell out of the docks, I'm inclined to think it's the latter."

"But why? We have the Skybreaker and teleport spells."

"Teleport only works if you know where you want to go, and it will take at least a week for the Skybreaker to get here."

"But we know where we want to go. Lordaeron!"

"Genn think about this, you are Sylvanas, you have no allies in range, there's an army on your door step, and you decide to attack the enemy's capital. Why?"

Silence echoed through the room.

Finally, it was the female Tinkfuse who spoke out, "It's a trap, she's goading us into attacking the Undercity."

"Bingo."

"Who the hell wants you to attack their city?"

"Someone who's abandoned the area."

"What?"

Ruby raised one of the reports, "according to this, the army has been running into an incredibly small number of Forsaken in Lordaeron."

"Then why did they attack?"

"Because she wanted to keep us from leaving, and she wanted to provoke us into attacking the Undercity. Sylvanas is smart, she knows there's no way she could win this war on her own, so she leaves a token force there, we attack it, and either we waste supplies looking for them, or, a plague bomb goes off."

"And where does she go?"

"What's in the direction that they fled? Where would you go if you didn't want someone to have ships?" Rose took out another pin and stabbed it into the map, "She went to the sea, and from there, if I had to guess, to Northrend or Kalmador."