Lash had a bad feeling.

He'd never been one of those with an intuition for ill tidings or anything of the like, but something about the Alliance fools in Rachet's inn last night just didn't sit well with him. They'd given him dirty looks, for sure, but then such things were to be expected. After all, not everyone could get along as well as Impervious and their Alliance counterpart—truthfully half of the members of both guilds would probably be killing one another if not for the steadfast leadership keeping them in check.

However, last night…

There had been so many of them in Rachet.

Though he'd tried to tell himself that—as he didn't spend much time in the neutral territories—he wouldn't know that it was unusual per se, it just…

Duskeh let out a soft hiss beside him, and he slowed his mount so that he could reach out and pat the huge cat on its head. The creature pressed into his palm affectionately, purring. For a moment, Lash felt like he could forget his worries. After all, animals had far better senses than he.

He'd barely returned his gaze to the road to the Crossroads—he'd figured he'd take the longer route to go home, so that he would have time to think over Howl's infatuation with that draenei and whether he should say something to Gore about it—when Duskeh had abruptly hunched low to the ground, hissing. The cat's ears were perked up and even as it hissed again and looked pleadingly to Lash for directions, his worg growled.

Perhaps his instincts were not as dull as he'd imagined. Though…the goblins had said that the Alliance had gone south, and he was heading northwest until he could hit up the main road through the Barrens.

Giving his pet the go ahead, he followed at a distance, leaving his worg just off the road. The wolf seemed loathe to wait, but it was obedient.

As he drew nearer to Duskeh's target, he could finally hear the sounds of combat. Picking up his pace, crept close to the ground, not wanting to be drawn into whatever the fray was before he was ready.

Coming up over a small rise to see into a long dried out gulley, he jerked his bow from his back.

There, in the ditch, a single orcess stood, her armor cracked and broken, surrounded by six Alliance. She grasped a two-handed blade in front of her, her gaze constantly moving as she waited for one of her attackers to make their move.

A male dwarf and female human behind her began toward her at once. The dwarf stumbled on a stone—he had blood running down his face already and looked like his nose was broken—and the orcess whirled toward the sound, swinging her blade too soon so that he was able to stumble back.

The rest of her adversaries took advantage of her recovery.

Without thinking, Lash bellowed an order to Duskeh. In that moment, he didn't think of Gore's stern warnings that faction conflict would not be tolerated within their guild. He didn't think of the way Gregor always paled when he saw human heads being flaunted in outposts, the way he looked at them as though trying to see if he could recognize them through the grizzled twists that death had inflicted upon their visages.

He notched an arrow and let it fly into the back of the head of the nearest mongrel before she could even turn around to see who had come up behind them. Her body wasn't even to the ground as he let his next fly. It caught a human man—a paladin from the looks of it—in the neck, and he spun to the ground.

Duskeh had tackled a third to the ground. The draenei screamed as the saber cat tore into him, clawing and biting.

Even as Lash notched a third arrow and refocused his attention on the orcess to see if she was being overwhelmed, he relaxed his shoulders a little. She'd taken out both of her original attackers. All that remained was a single, frail looking human mage. The man stumbled back a step, eyes darting from the warrior to Lash to his cat—he realized Duskeh was enjoying himself a bit too much on the well dead draenei and called his pet to him—to his comrades and back. He clutched his staff and staggered back another step.

Lash held his bow, string drawn and ready to end the human. With a cough to clear his throat, he addressed the creature. "What brings you—"

The man's scream cut through Lash's question, much as the orcess' blade cut through the human's shoulder. As the last of the Alliance crumpled to the ground in a pool of his own blood, the warrior whirled on Lash, fury in her eyes as she stomped toward him—well, tried to. Her leg had been injured, and she stopped short, realizing that her limp was hardly intimidating.

"Kill stealer!"

Lash's jaw dropped along with his weapon. He fish-mouthed for a moment before finally standing up straighter, brow knitting together. "I saved you."

"I had it handled," the orcess snapped, shoving her sword into the ground next to her and then spitting on the nearest corpse.

With a grunt, Lash shook his head. He slipped his arrow back into his quiver and slung his bow over his shoulder. "Sorry, then. You looked like you could use a bit of help." The two of them stood there, silently glaring at one another for a few more minutes before Lash finally shrugged. "Lok'tar Ogar."

Turning his back to her, he patted his leg for Duskeh to follow him. Though his cat did glance over its shoulder, curious, it followed him. His worg was definitely nearer than he'd left it. He frowned, wondering if the creature had been edging toward the conflict, hoping to get involved itself. However, even as he considered that perhaps he ought to train his worg in combat so that it could serve as a second pet, he heard something behind him, and he whirled around, his hand shifting toward his bow.

However, instead of another enemy, it was merely the ungrateful wench he'd saved.

She shifted her weight a little, though she quickly adjusted herself again, as she'd put too much pressure on her injured leg. Gaze on several rocks a few yards to the side, she shrugged a little. "They killed my mount, and I need to get to the Crossroads."

Lash eyed her. "What for?"

Anger flickered over her features again as she glared at him. "Did you not see them? There's dozens more, and they're headed for Mulgore!" She pointed south accusingly, as though his ignorance alone would allow the Alliance to ransack their territory. "We have to warn Thunderbluff!"

With a nod, Lash turned away from her, jogging back to his worg. He called over his shoulder, "I'll let them know."

"You can't leave me out here!"

Stopping next to his mount, he looked back to see that she was hobbling after him, using her sword as s crutch. "I thought you had it handled."

"The fight maybe…" She stopped, even as he hauled himself up onto his mount. The worg paced, eager to be on the move. "I know how many and what classes they're bringing. I won't tell you, so you'll need to bring me with you to the Crossroads." When Lash simply tilted his head at her, she scowled. "People are going to die! What more do you want?"

With a sigh, Lash pulled his worg up to stop in front of her and offered her a hand. "Hurry up, would you?"

~"~

Khai'rhi lay curled up against Genji beneath the covers, her head resting against one of his shoulders. Life was definitely getting better, and if the past week was any indication of what the rest of their lives would be like, then Khai'rhi was whole-heartedly looking forward to spending hers with Genji. She could even imagine a few children running about, curled up in bed with them as they learned not to fear what might be in the dark, playing and filling the house with laughter, and—on occasion—being shipped off to Ta'lim's house so that Khai'rhi and Genji could have a night to themselves.

She smiled to herself as she snuggled closer to him, though she didn't even get a chance to voice her contentment before a loud rapping began on the door downstairs. Khai'rhi's and Genji's ears twitched, but they made no move to answer the door. Anyone who would want to speak with them would know to come back later. Or message them on the guild stones. They were still checking them, after all—the whole 'don't use them, there's a spy' thing had been a great way to get some peace and quiet from the general drama that plagued their guild, though.

After almost ten minutes, however, Genji finally sighed and flipped the bed sheets off of him, looking around for his clothes as he carefully slid out from under Khai'rhi. "Ah go get it..."

Khai'rhi caught his hand. "Hurreh back, yeh?"

He smiled and leaned forward to nuzzle his nose in her hair before slipping on his robe and sauntering downstairs. After all, he wasn't going anywhere, so it wasn't like he'd need to get fully dressed. The rapping kept up, and as Genji drew closer to the door, he realized that someone was using both hands. It sounded like they were tapping out some sort of beat. He tried to plaster a smile on his face as he swung the door open. "Can Ah help—"

"Stun-lock!"

~"~

The Crossroads had been under attack when Lash and Kiaga Bloodblade reached two had been forced to fight their way through the Alliance. The flightmaster had thrown himself into the brawl as well, delaying any outgoing messages.

Though Lash had tried to find someone who could free up a windrider so that Thunderbluff could be warned of the imminent attack, one of the few healers struggling to keep everyone alive had tossed a heal to Kiaga and, her leg healed, she'd flung herself into battle.

Lash had played support, taking out any Alliance who looked like they might be able to overtake their opponents. Unlike Kiaga, most of the Crossroads inhabitants gave him simple nods of thanks before wearily moving to help their comrades and neighbors.

When the last of the Alliance began to retreat, Lash managed to catch Kiaga before she could chase after them. Even as she turned on him, unbridled anger in her eyes, he shook her. "Think, would you?"

She blinked at him and then grumbled a few curses under her breath, the blood lust fading.

Lash wasn't sure why, but he followed her to make sure she would make it onto a windrider. She'd been a beauty to see fighting, her sword acting as an extension of her body as she fought. He'd nearly been caught off guard twice when he'd caught glimpses of her through the carnage. Duskeh had saved him once, and another orc had come to his aid the second time. He paused when he realized that said orc was the flightmaster.

Even as he remembered the grin the orc had given him, along with a wink as he'd nodded in Kiaga's direction, he found a fist holding out a set of reins to him. Lash blinked and looked up to see Kiaga standing in front of him, holding on to two windriders.

Taking a step back, Lash started to shake his head. "I need to go back to Orgrimmar—"

"They have messengers going to alert the city and send reinforcements to Thunderbluff already," Kiaga shook her head. She thrust the hand with the reins in it toward him again. "We need to go warn the tauren."

"I—" Lash's mouth hung open as he stared at her. He could envision Gore telling him that if he wanted to be a part of Impervious, that there was but one rule that would be truly hard to follow. One rule that, were it not for Gregor, would not exist. His uncle had made him swear that he would never engage in faction conflict. Never go looking for it. If he was attacked, he was to flee, to make a 'tactful retreat'.

Cowardly as it had seemed, Lash had always thought it would be easy to follow. How hard was it to simply avoid the Alliance and work against third party enemies? But now…

Kiaga growled, narrowing her eyes. "You are decent with that bow, and we will need all the help we can get against the force moving on Thunderbluff. Unless you're planning to kill the Lich King yourself, there's no need for you in Orgrimmar. We need you in the front lines. Protect our people."

It only took a moment for Lash to make up his mind.

~"~

"Well, maybeh it be time ta get rid a dat wort'less 'lock, yeh?" Haa'aji shrugged as he lunged forward and startled one of the Scarlet Crusaders guarding the entrance to the monastery. He snapped the terrified human's neck before the man could even cry out something about the plague. "Maybeh we find a betta 'lock. Ah just a mage a sumtin'."

Liila dotted up one of the other crusaders as he came around the corner and spotted them. "I like Timmons. I don't want him to go away."

Haa'aji shrugged, tossing a dagger so that it hit a Scarlet mage in the throat before Liila could cast a spell on it. "Well, maybeh… I dunno, mon. Insteada fixatin' on dat moron, how about dat spikeh elf, yeh? Sethyl. He seem nice 'n strong. Maybeh ya two can get all cuddleh—"

"Are ya frikkin' serious?" Wrachette sat on top of Cloudless' shoulder as the tauren followed along slowly behind them. He wasn't even bothering to throw any heals on them. It wasn't like they'd need them.

Haa'aji started walking backwards so that he could eye the little goblin. "What be ya problem, yeh?"

"My problem," Wrachette snapped, as she patted Cloudless on top of his head, "is that we got us a heartbroken guildie here. Could ya lay off the love talk?"

Cloudless let out a slow sigh. "It's fine. I'm not really listening to anything they say anyway."

"No, it's not fine!" Wrachette cried out, crossing her arms pointedly, only to uncross them and grip Cloudless' shoulder so that she wouldn't fall. "Ya shouldn't have ta hide away in ya head just to avoid listenin' ta these two." She pointed accusingly at Haa'aji as he flipped a dagger out and stabbed behind him in time to nail one of the crusaders in the face just as she came around a corner. "Cloudless here is in pain! Don't ya get it? Gut-wrenchin', heart-breakin', dream-smashin', hope-killin'—"

"You can stop any time," Cloudless murmured, frowning.

"Fire-dousin', lung-collapsin'—"

"Seriously, I don't want to talk about it."

"Agonizin' pain." Wrachette nodded pointedly, her ears bobbing.

Cloudless' shoulders slumped, and Wrachette cried out as she nearly slid off him. However, he caught her before she could hit the ground and set her back on his shoulder after straightening back up.

Haa'aji frowned. "Well, if he be so heartbroken, ya shouldn't be takin' advantage a him, yeh?" Even as the little goblin scoffed at the idea, Haa'aji held his arms out. "Ya be usin' him as a damn pedestal, wooman. De rest a us be walkin', right Genji?"

The troll mage's eye twitched as he was dragged into the conversation. Wrachette, however, used it as the perfect ploy to avert the conversation from her own shortcomings. "Ya know, Haaney, ya really ain't got nothin', if ya gotta ask the guy ya kidnapped ta back ya up."

Haa'aji rolled his eyes. "Nahbodeh been kidnapped."

"Pretty sure knockin' somebody out and then takin' them against their will ta an undisclosed location without tellin' anyone where ya took them counts as kidnappin'." Wrachette raised her eyebrows as she shrugged.

"Dat not been what happened, mon—"

"Why would ya yell 'stun-lock', neway?" Genji scowled as he glared at Haa'aji.

Even as the rogue shrugged his shoulders and flipped another dagger over his shoulder to hit a member of the Scarlet Crusade in the back as they ran to warn the others of the Horde group infiltrating the monastery, Wrachette counted on her fingers, her frowning deepening. "Actually, I think we've broken like fourteen laws since we've been here."

"Yeah, you probably don't want to talk to any guards if you see them," Liila murmured, pausing in her steps until Genji caught up. She hugged his arm. "Thank you for your help, by the way."

As Genji muttered a quick, 'no problem', Haa'aji shrugged. "Gotta say, t'ough. Ya 'n Khai'rhi've come a ways, yeh? Ah mean, dis time last year, she'd a been messagin' meh nonstop, askin' if Ah could find ya..."

Even as Genji's eye twitched as it finally dawned on him that Khai'rhi was probably still waiting for him to come back, Liila patted his hand. "I sent her a message saying you'd be back soon."

Genji abruptly picked up his pace, acrane blasting a few crusaders as the group finally came in sight of the entrance to the graveyard wing of the monastery. "Let's get dis ova wit'." He took out a few more of the crazed humans and glared back at Haa'aji. "'n next time, just ask, yeh? A get somebodeh else."

"Mitchell said he'd port us, but he wasn't gonna come, so we needed somebodeh ta port us home..." Haa'aji paused as Genji stopped in his tracks.

"Ya mean de onleh reason Ah be hea instead a somebodeh else is so ya can get a damn portal? What about Ma'garet? A Sprocket?"

"Ma'garet be too fascinated wit' Gregor 'n Timmons' new heartbeats, yeh? 'n Sprocket's buseh takin' ova de auction house."

"'n Ah be buseh wit' meh lova!" Genji scowled and tried to set Haa'aji's hair on fire, only to get stunned again.

Liila and the others watched as the two trolls broke out into a fight, in the middle of the monastery's foyer, with a few terrified crusaders watching them from the shadows. Haa'aji's mention of Timmons had brought back the disappointment that he was avoiding her, even after his release from the dungeons. When she and Haa'aji had gone running to Mitchell for help, she'd barely seen his back as it disappeared into the back room of Gregor's house. Even though they'd tried to persuade the trio—Gregor, Mitchell, and Timmons—to come with them, Mitchell had insisted that he needed to make a full evaluation of where Timmons and Gregor stood and then he'd dejectedly and bitterly added that none of them were allowed in the Undercity any longer. Even though Haa'aji had merely shrugged and waved a few orbs of the sin'dorei at him—it was the only way he, Liila, and Shadow could use portals to the Undercity to avoid taking the zeppelin—Gregor had stepped in and said that if for no other reason, they ought to leave them be to give Timmons time to adjust.

Liila still felt somewhat rejected by her warlock friend. After all, just because he had a heartbeat didn't change that he was Timmons, did it?

"Ah tink ya 'n Khai'rhi need some time ta yaselves. Ah mean, if ya togetha evereh second a de day, ya gonna grow tired a each otha." He paused and winked as he dodged Genji's fist easily, only to get rooted to the floor in a ring of ice. "Give yaself a month a...a few years, even. Separation makes de heart grow fonda, yeh?"

Cloudless paused as Genji tried to sheep Haa'aji, only to have the rogue shadow step behind him and grip him in a tight hug. Though Haa'aji had been talking to Genji, he'd given Liila such a pointed look, like he expected her to take his advice about something. Cloudless eyed the little elf carefully, though she didn't give anything away as she stepped around the dueling trolls and wandered into the graveyard.