What We Wanted

Athrodar, Clea, Anya and Viraleth all stood near the stables holding their skeletal horses, watching Sylvanas and Victoria talking to each other, both of them laughing at something the other said.

They had set up camp in and around the Dwarven outpost, using the mountain pass and the bridge as the two entry points to their camp, both being easy to defend should the Alliance attack them.

"And you say she sees something in her?" Viraleth asked, tilting her head at her Queen. "Did she say what?"

Athrodar frowned. "She said she saw a fire within her that she wanted to control." He looked over to both Clea and Anya. "Do you see it?"

Clea narrowed her eyes at the young ranger. "How old is she?"

"Twenty five, I think?"

Anya smirked. "Perhaps our Queen has a certain... Interest in her." She looked over to the other three Rangers with her, tilting her head a little. "What?"

Clea opened her mouth to speak, sighing and shaking her head. "Anyway. You said she was a Farstrider Recruit?" The Dark Ranger-General looked over to the elf in question. "How could our Queen see anything in her?"

"That's what I've been saying." Athrodar looked over to the young ranger. "Sylvanas apparently saved her during Arthas' attack. Maybe that has something to do with it."

When Sylvanas laughed at something Victoria said, the four of them all looked at each other. "What did you do to her?" Viraleth asked, turning to face Athrodar. "She has never laughed this often."

Athrodar raised an eyebrow at her. "What makes you think I have done something?" His surprise turned to a frown. "Hold on, since when was laughing such a bad thing?"

"Maybe she reminds our Queen of someone." Anya said, making the other three look at her once more.

"Who could she remind her of?" Clea asked. "She looks nothing like Alleria and if she wanted to see Vereesa, she knows where to find her."

Athrodar looked over to Viraleth who had returned his look, shaking her head at him when they both came to the same conclusion. It was someone she saw in her dream. "Perhaps she just remembers her from the time she saved her life." He said.

Viraleth shook her head. "She wouldn't go through all of this for someone she had already saved."

As their attentions were drawn on each other during their seemingly endless conversation, Serathea had made her way over to them and cleared her throat. "The Dark Lady wants to know what you're all up to."

All four of them looked over to the Night Elf before looking past her and towards Sylvanas and Victoria, seeing both elves watching the four of them. "Oh, you know... Just chatting." Anya said, kicking her foot back and forth.

Serathea nodded slowly, knowing she would have to be a fool to believe her. "The Queen would like to speak to you two." She pointed at both Athrodar and Viraleth.

"What about us?" Anya asked, sounding hurt that she was left out.

"She said you two can continue guarding the stables since you're already doing an amazing job."

Athrodar chuckled as he made his way towards his Queen with Viraleth in tow. "What do you reckon it's about?" The Dark Ranger asked him once Serathea had left them.

"What we think it's about." He replied, the pair of them bowing their heads to Sylvanas.

As the Banshee Queen stood up, she kissed Athrodar on the cheek before whispering in his ear. "Come with me." She turned her gaze towards Viraleth. "Keep an eye on the girl."

Viraleth, forever loyal to her Queen, bowed to her. "Will do, my Lady."

Once they were far enough away from everyone, Sylvanas hugged Athrodar tightly, burying her head in his chest. As soon as the Death Knight placed a hand on her back, he felt her shoulders begin to shake.

"What's wrong?" He asked her, instantly becoming concerned as they both dropped down to their knees. "Talk to me."

"It's her.." Sylvanas muttered, voice breaking with emotion. "That's our daughter over there with Viraleth." She wiped her eyes, though that didn't seem to help. "She looks exactly like her."

Athrodar frowned at her, wanting to believe his Queen but also finding it difficult to, having never seen their supposed daughter from her dream. "Are you certain? Maybe she just looks like someone from your past."

Sylvanas shook her head. "No, it's her." She wiped away more tears, looking at him and trying to calm herself down. "I know it's not our daughter, but my brain had given her a face I knew and it chose to give her that face."

"Is that why you're keeping her attached to your hip?"

Sylvanas nodded. "She has no one, literally the last of her family... I felt sorry for her." She smiled a little at her consort. "And she looks like our daughter."

"But she's not though." Athrodar said, finding that it hurt him a little to say it. "We don't have a daughter, Sylvanas. It's just the universe playing a cruel trick."

She shook her head. "No.. She is here for a reason. She became a ranger for a reason. She looks like our daughter in my dream for a reason!" She saw Athrodar shake his head, knowing he wasn't believing her. "Do you not feel that subtle connection to her? Like she belongs with us?"

Athrodar continued to shake his head, remaining on his knees with her. "Don't do this... She isn't our daughter, she is just someone you saved in your past life." He kissed the top of her hand. "She is just another ranger who came to meet her hero, nothing more."

Sylvanas broke down into tears the moment he said what he did, almost as if his words were the final hit it took to knock down her wall of emotions. "I know what I saw.." She muttered against his chest, being held close to him.

"I know." He whispered, rubbing her back to calm her down whilst rocking back and forth slowly. "I know..."

They stayed together for close to ten minutes, giving Sylvanas enough time to let his words sink in, as well as her own. "I'm not sending her away..." She muttered. "Her parents died when she was young, she needs a role model to look up to and I'm going to be it."

Athrodar closed his eyes, surpressing a sigh and just keeping her close to him. "Are you sure that's wise, my Lady?"

"I'm not sending her away." She repeated. "And that's the last I will hear of it."

Athrodar watched her stand up and walk away from him, feeling his chest suddenly tighten as he realised that was one of the few times she had walked away from him. On top of that, she was obsessing over the recruit and for the first time in a long time, he wasn't the first person on her mind.

"It's nothing.." He told himself, standing up from where he knelt. "It will pass in a few days." Though a the words left his lips, he knew them to be a lie.

As he made his way towards the stables, Viraleth had caught up with him after Sylvanas had returned, seeing something was off with him. "Is it what we think?"

"She thinks it's our daughter." He replied, entering the stables and not noticing Anya and Clea had left. "She is blinded by that dream and thinks that ranger is our daughter."

Viraleth watched him climb onto his Death Charger, standing next to him and holding onto the reins to keep him stationary. "Now, does she think it is your daughter, or that it looks like her?"

"Both." He said, pulling the reins out of her hands.

She watched as both rider and horse slowly made their way out of the stables. "Where are you going?"

"Out. I'm going to scout the area, find any Alliance spies, small group of soldiers, anything just to clear my head."

The Dark Ranger stood in front of him, placing a hand on the Death Charger's nose. "You don't believe her, do you?"

"I want to." He really did. He wanted to see what his Queen could see, he wanted to see her as his daughter but he just couldn't. "It's just difficult to as she was the only one to see it."

Viraleth moved out of the way as he kicked his horse into moving forward, galloping out of the camp shortly after, heading south to find any Alliance to kill.

By the time Athrodar had returned, it was the middle of the night and everyone had fallen asleep. The Forsaken were keeping guard, as they had no need for sleep, and several of them bowed their heads as their Queen's consort rode past them.

As he stationed his skeletal horse in the stables, Viraleth had cleared her throat to get his attention, leaning up against one of the beams holding up the building.

"Any messages for me whilst I was gone?" He asked, stroking his horse's nose.

"Just one from the Warchief, telling you to report in the moment you returned."

He glanced over his shoulder and towards the Dark Ranger, keeping his hand on his Death Charger. "Did she even notice I was gone?"

Viraleth shook her head. "You were right. She is obsessing over her like she is her mother."

Athrodar closed his eyes and sighed. "I might as well see what the Warchief wants."

As he entered the Warchief's tent, he watched several of his officers leave, nodding his head slightly to Saurfang who matched his gaze evenly, nodding a little to him as well.

"You were just out scouting." Garrosh said, looking down at the map of the Eastern Kingdoms. "Did you go to Menethil Harbour?"

"No, Warchief. I was just checking our nearest surroundings, try to find any Alliance nearby." He saw Garrosh look up at him, apparently waiting for more information. "There were a few, though I took care of them."

Garrosh grunted, smiling at the idea of Alliance soldiers dying. "Good, this pleases me." He pointed towards Menethil Harbour on the map. "This is our next target. I need you to scout it out, report back when you have a head count."

Athrodar bowed his head. "Warchief." He span on his heel and walked out the tent, being joined by Viraleth the second he left.

"How long do you think it will take to get there?" She asked, following him to the stables once more.

"You're not coming." He told her, hearing a quick laugh coming from the Dark Ranger.

"Does the title 'Chief Scout' mean nothing to you?" She climbed on one of the skeletal horses just as he climbed onto his Death Charger. "I'm bored and you're about to do something I am very good at."

Athrodar smirked at her. "Fine, but we need to leave now. It's the dead of night and they will mostly be sleeping."

She shook her head, smiling at him telling her why they must leave. "I'm better at this than you, y'know. I know why we have to leave at this time."


"What happened to this place?" Viraleth pointed to the half sunken harbour, looking back at Athrodar. "The tide wouldn't do that."

The two of them sat on the mountainside overlooking the harbour, keeping out of sight from the patrolling guards beneath them.

Athrodar looked back at her. "You're right. That wasn't a natural flooding." His attention returned to the harbour below, spotting a patrolling guard. "There's number five."

Viraleth looked down to the guard, shaking her head. "No, that's still four. We counted him already."

Athrodar scoffed. "I count five. Look." He pointed to the harbour below. "One, two, three..." He paused for a few seconds seeing only four guards patrolling the town. "Okay, fine. There's four."

Viraleth held out her hand. "Pay up."

He made a sound of disgust, dropping a small sack of coins in her hand. "Stupid..."

"Get better at counting th.. No way."

Athrodar looked back down at the harbour, seeing a fifth torch. "Well... Looks like I get my money back, as well as yours."

Viraleth grumbled, handing over two sacks of coins. "You got lucky. We both know I was correct."

"Until you weren't."

A couple of hours passed by with next to no chatter between the two of them, only counting the number of guards and roaming citizens coming in and out of the inn.

"Half the town is underwater, yet the inn seems untouched." Athrodar shook his head. "Drunken luck."

Viraleth stared at the side of his face. "Are you going to do anything if our Queen continues this obsession with the ranger?"

Athrodar shifted on the rock he was now leaning on, being uncomfortable with the topic. "I don't know." He told her, quickly glancing at the ranger and seeing her eyes fixed on him. "What?"

"You know what." She said, pushing his arm. "What will you do?"

He groaned as she continued to push him. "I'll let it run its course." He finally said, moving away from her. "If she still, for some reason, sees her as a daughter, then I guess I'll have to live with it." He shrugged his shoulders. "And who knows, maybe one day I'll see her in the same light."

Viraleth nodded slowly, returning her gaze to the harbour below them. "What if you can't?"

"What do you mean?"

She looked over to him once more. "What if you can't live with it? What if her staying in Sylvanas' life like that is something you can't live with? Will you leave?"

Athrodar hadn't given it much thought. For someone who always used to look over his shoulder, waiting for whatever he had at the time to come crashing down, he hadn't thought about leaving Undercity and ultimately Sylvanas. "I... I don't know. It never crossed my mind."

Viraleth frowned. "Are you telling me you began to settle down?" She sat up looking down at him. "I spied on you for our Queen for years and you never stayed settled in one place." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Not even when that Magister was in your life."

"I had no reason to stay put." He said, standing up and looking down at her. "Come on, let's go."

Viraleth looked down at Menethil Harbour. "But we don't have an accurate head count."

"About twenty guards." He said, walking past her. "They normally use a quarter of their total guard count for night watch."

"How can you be so sure?"

He smirked, walking down the narrow path to their horses. "I was an assassin. I had to keep count of these things."

The two of them rode back to the Horde encampment, returning with very little interruptions on the ride back as well as realising nobody had known they left, except for the guards on duty.

As they stabled their horses, Viraleth told him she was going to find something to do, making it look like she had been there the whole time.

Athrodar on the other hand had made his way towards the Warchief's tent, noticing the lack of guards outside as well as the lack of talking inside. He poked his head in and saw the Warchief, though he was sleeping in his chair.

Athrodar looked around the outside of the tent, not seeing anyone coming towards or away from him and realising the time to relinquish Garrosh as Warchief came sooner rather than later.

As he closed the flaps to the tent, he placed a hand behind his back, gripping onto the Alliance dagger sheathed on his belt and slowly pulled it out, creeping slowly towards him.

As he stepped closer, he knew he had to speed up his movements because if Garrosh woke up to him slowly walking towards him with a dagger in hand, he needed to be close enough to strike before he called for his guards.

He span the knife around in his hand, quickly moving towards the sleeping Orc and stepping behind his chair, moving a hand towards his mouth to lift up his head and expose his neck.

Just as his hand was about to cover the orcs mouth, Garrosh shifted in his chair, making Athrodar withdraw the hand and curse silently. I always hate this part. He thought. The tension between if they will wake up or not... Worst feeling in the world.

He moved his hand to his mouth once more, bringing the knife around the other side and resting it across his throat, stirring him out of his slumber. "What is the.. MmmMMMmm." Garrosh's mouth was covered by Athrodar's hand, muffling his voice.

"The Dark Lady sends her best." He whispered, slicing deep into the Orc's throat and watching as a fountain of blood poured out of it. He continued to muffle the Warchief's mouth, though was struggling against the strength he still possessed as his hand was seconds away from being torn away from his mouth, hearing him gurgle and choke as his blood began to drown him.

Plunging the dagger into the Orc's heart seemed to stop his struggles, pushing him off the chair and plunging the dagger into the Warchief's back, leaving the blade there as evidence.

The deed was done. Now all he had to do was escape and he would have gotten away with it. Quickly making his way to the entrance of the tent, he heard several shouts followed by the sound of people running to him, quickly looking at the back of the tent and running towards it.

Just as the first few guards entered the tent, Athrodar had slipped out the back, taking off his blood stained gloves and throwing them into the river under the bridge.

As he turned around, he saw Viraleth standing behind him, widening her eyes slowly. "What have you done?"

"What our Queen wanted." He said, walking past her and towards the southern entrance to the camp, slipping out unnoticed during all the chaos and finding some place far enough away before summoning his Death Charger, riding back into the camp as if arriving from a scouting trip.

Sylvanas, watching him ride back into camp, left Victoria's side after keeping watch over her whilst she slept and running over to Athrodar. "Where have you been?"

"Don't.. I know you didn't know I was gone." He climbed off his Death Charger, nodding over to the Warchief's tent. "Your wish has been granted." He said, pulling on the reins of his horse and guiding it to the stables. "The Warchief is dead."

Even though that was meant to be good news for her, she couldn't help but feel upset, taking hold of Athrodar's arm and keeping him from walking away. "Are you angry with me or something?"

Athrodar looked down at the ground, avoiding eye contact. "I'm not angry with you." He pulled on the reins once more, continuing his walk to the stables. "I'm just concerned about you."

She caught up to him as he continued to walk away, leaning forward to look him in the eyes. "Why? What do you have to be concerned about?"

He sighed, stopping his movements. "I don't want you to get hurt, and I fear if you continue down this path with her." He pointed towards the tent holding Victoria. "You may get hurt."

She smiled at him, moving her arms around her consort and hugging him. "I love you. But I can handle it myself." She looked up at him, seeing his steeled focus on the stables. "Spend some time with her. You will feel that connection I do with her."

"I... I can't." He pulled on the reins once more, walking towards the stables and away from her.

"What are you so afraid of?!" She yelled as her patience wore thin, stopping him just outside the stables. "This what we wanted! Why won't you even try?"

"Because that's not our daughter!" He yelled back to her, pointing towards the tent once more, not acknowledging the curious stares the two of them were getting from several members of the Horde. "She may look like her, hell she may even sound like her, but I'm not related to her in anyway."

He walked his mount into the stables. "And I never will be." He yelled once more, putting the skeletal beast in between two others.

As he left the stables, Sylvanas was nowhere to be seen, looking to his left and towards the crowd of Horde gathering outside the Warchief's tent and deciding to blend in with them.

"The Warchief is dead." One of the officers said, Sergeant Nazgrim was his name and rank, a loyal Orc that Athrodar had seen in the past. "Slain by an Alliance coward in the middle of the night!" He yelled, holding up an Alliance dagger.

Athrodar surpressed a smile, knowing that he had gotten away with it. "Who will lead us now?" One Orc asked. "Do we return home?" Another asked, slowly causing panic in the ranks.

"No!" Athrodar shouted, making his voice heard by the whole camp. "We will not retreat from this one act of cowardice!" He pushed his way through the ranks of Horde, climbing onto a nearby box to look over the crowd. "We are the Horde!"

There were a few mumbles in the crowd, though none of them were too enthusiastic after the recent event. "I know what you are feeling." He said, looking over all of them. "It's the feeling we had as we battled the Lich King."

He saw a few heads look up at him, though most weren't interested. "Our leader was down, we had low numbers, but we continued to fight! Why? Because we wanted revenge for what he had done."

He pointed towards the Warchief's tent. "The Alliance have snuck into our camp and slain our leader, why? Because they fear us!" He saw several nods from the crowd. "A combined Horde scares the Alliance into paying off assassins to do a job they could not do themselves!"

Sylvanas looked out of her tent and towards Athrodar, watching him give some sort of speech to an ever growing crowd of Horde.

"Do you not want vengeance!? Do you not want to kill every Alliance scum you can find to honour your Warchief!? A Warchief that would have followed you into the depths of hell if you would follow him?"

Athrodar's attention turned towards the Warchief's tent. "I may not have seen eye to eye with Garrosh Hellscream, but he was the fiercest fighter I knew. He would have led the Horde to victory on this continent, because he knew you were all capable of achieving victory."

His attention returned to the crowd, seeing a fire burning within every single set of eyes looking up at him. "I may not have been welcome when I first joined the Horde, but I will prove my loyalty ten times over by killing every single Alliance filth I come across!"

The last sentence got a roar from the crowd, several of them hitting the bottom of their spears on the ground, making a rhythmic drumming sound. "Whoever is made Warchief, know this... You will be leading our people into many battles against the Alliance to honour the fallen hero of Northrend." Athrodar unsheathed his sword, pointing it towards Garrosh's body that was being taken by two shamans. "For Garrosh Hellscream! For the Horde!"

Sylvanas smirked as the crowd rallied behind Athrodar. "You may not think of yourself as a leader, my love... But you sure know how to rally people to a single cause."