AUTHOR'S NOTES: For seven chapters, I've described scenes of information gathering. Well, good news for those seeking more action: all the info has come in and it's now time to decipher it. We're not necessarily at the action parts yet, but the preparations start to heat up in this chapter, so stay tuned. Also, become familiar with the Orange Islands part of the anime series if you are not, since much of the remainder of this story will allude to characters and events from that part of the timeline. Now, on with the show; send me feedback people!
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Through Azeroth – Chapter 8
Written by daBOSS
Ash and Misty spent the next three days atop the mesas of Thunder Bluff, simply enjoying their honeymoon the way they originally left home to do. There were no walks on the beach, seeing as how they were staying in grasslands, but a trip each day to and from Bloodhoof Village became common. Both were able to put the dangers of Azeroth in the back of their minds while they indulged in their much deserved vacation.
Everything changed on day four.
> > > > > >
"There you are!" Jaina exclaimed as soon as Larien's silhouette appeared from the stairs to her tower. "What took you so long? Thatchet said he'd have the remaining pieces to me by yesterday."
"He went back on his word," Larien replied. "He thought he noticed something and decided to hold them for another day, but he wasn't able to find anything."
Lady Jaina Proudmoore and her assistant Archmage Tervosh had been gradually receiving the physical evidence from Outland during the previous few days. Thrall sent Jaina a goblin messenger to let her know that the Horde would stand by the Alliance should they elect to wage war against the Burning Legion, pushing Jaina full speed ahead in her mission to decipher the Legion's activities. With the evidence coming in slowly, she attempted to uncover the mystery slowly, but that turned out to be useless because she needed everything to come to an adequate thesis. On this day, at long last, the final piece of the discovery arrived in Theramore.
Larien handed Jaina the tiny bag, which she quickly opened and removed the small red and white shards. Jaina placed the shards into the glass container on her table with the others and dumped the soil that took up the rest of the bag in a jar near Tervosh. For a normal person, attempting to glue together the infinite shattered pieces into a whole object once again would be near impossible, but Jaina Proudmoore was no ordinary individual. She was the world's most powerful sorceress, and no one in Azeroth matched her skills in wielding and using magic.
"Stand back Tervosh, Larien," Jaina directed. "I'm going to make this thing whole again. This might be our best clue on the most up to date activities of the Legion."
Jaina closed her eyes and focused her mind on the contents of the container, thrusting both her arms forward to channel her spell. A pink aura emitted from her and struck the container, causing the pieces within to float up and rotate on an invisible axis. Gradually, every last shard came together and glued itself properly in the three-dimensional puzzle. Jaina slowly withdrew her spell, allowing the newly reformed sphere to stop its rotation and situate itself on the bottom of the container once again.
"Is that the object we've been looking for?" Larien asked.
"I hope so," replied Tervosh.
The three looked at the sphere in front of them. It was large, but not to the point where someone required two hands to hold it. One half was red and the other was white, and in the middle where the two colors met, a small button occupied a thick, black dividing line.
Jaina picked up the object from the glass container and examined it closely.
"Where have I seen this before?" she wondered aloud.
"Didn't Ash and Misty carry a few of these on their belts?" Tervosh spoke up.
"Yes, that's it," Jaina agreed. "This must be what they call a Pokéball. It's used to carry their Pokémon around."
Jaina pushed the button and the ball opened, revealing its hollow insides, trying to come up with a hypothesis regarding how such an object ended up broken into multiple fragments upon the grounds of Outland. Perhaps it was an empty ball that belonged to Ash or Misty and broke when they landed through the portal.
She was still in thought when a small insignia near the hinged area along the inside walls of the Pokéball caught her eye. Grabbing her magnifying glass, she made out the image. It was incredibly textured for something so microscopic: a red demon head with horns and detailed facial features all marked on. Jaina recognized it immediately as the emblem of the Burning Legion.
"The symbol of the Legion?" she thought to herself. "Why would it be on a Pokéball?"
Then suddenly, like an invisible freight train that appeared on the tracks a split second before it was to collide with someone standing there, everything hit her hard.
"Oh…my…god!" exclaimed Jaina. "Larien, Tervosh, we have to find Ash and Misty and tell them the news now!"
She started to channel a teleportation spell.
"I'm going to Orgrimmar immediately," Jaina almost hollered. "Tervosh, you're in charge while I'm gone."
"Wait, Lady Proudmoore!" Tervosh gasped, too surprised to say anything else. Never once since her father's defeat had Jaina ever wandered outside Dustwallow Marsh, but now with little explanation, she was sending herself into the Horde capital.
But Jaina did not hear him. She was already gone.
> > > > > >
"It's a human!"
"Get her! Kill her!"
As soon as she landed in Orgrimmar, Jaina found herself surrounded. Orc guards were everywhere, pointing their axes in her face, and she knew that none of them recognized her as an Alliance leader.
"I was too quick to act," she realized. "I should've thought about this first. This is the Horde capital after all, and I'm their enemy."
"Jaina?" a voice distracted all of them. Jaina turned in its direction and saw the figure.
"Thrall," she acknowledged, bowing before him. She knew she would not make it through Orgrimmar's streets, so she had tried her best to teleport herself into his throne room. She had succeeded.
"Let her go!" Thrall cried to his guards. "She means no harm."
The orc guards sheathed their axes and backed away from her. Thrall quickly ran down from his throne and helped her to her feet.
"It's been awhile, friend," Jaina uttered, still a bit shaken from what her sudden entrance triggered.
"Yes it has," Thrall agreed. "What in the world are you doing here? You know you could've been killed."
"It's urgent," she replied. "I have to find Ash and Misty. Where are they?"
"I sent them to Thunder Bluff," Thrall informed her. "The Scourge is attacking Orgrimmar from Azshara. I couldn't keep them here."
"Then I have to go to Thunder Bluff," said Jaina.
"Would you mind telling me what's up first?" asked Thrall. "The Horde is here to help, you know."
Jaina explained her discoveries to Thrall, watching as the Horde Warchief's face turned from confused to the same shock she had moments ago.
"Dear god, you're right," he said when they finished. "We need to let them know right away."
Thrall reached over to his throne and grabbed a gold medallion decorated with the Horde's symbol, placing it around Jaina's neck.
"Here, take my insignia," he said. "Get to Thunder Bluff and tell them the news right away. Come back here and inform me of everything once you're done."
Jaina nodded. "I will Thrall, and thank you."
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A loud knock broke Ash and Misty out of their trance. Having enjoyed their evening before, the two elected to sleep in late. Still tired despite the fact that it was close to noon, they yawned and slowly sat up.
"I'm going to go see what that's all about," Ash said as he kissed his wife. "You wait for me here."
Misty smiled and nodded, lying back in bed. Ash dressed himself in a clean shirt and shorts and approached the door.
"Who is it?" he asked.
"It's Jaina," a feminine voice answered. "And it's pressing. I need to speak with both of you immediately."
Ash could hear the urgency in her voice.
"Misty," he bellowed back toward the bed. "Jaina's at the door. She wants to talk to us."
Misty shot from the bed and put her clothes on. Once she was ready, Ash opened the door. There stood the sorceress they had met days ago, whom they quickly invited into their room.
"All right, I've never come to a Horde city before, but this is too vital to rely on a goblin messenger to deliver to you," Jaina spoke up.
"What's the matter?" Misty asked, feeling the panic begin to rise.
"Ash, Misty," said Jaina, tilting her head upward and looking at the young couple straight in their eyes, "the Burning Legion has already invaded the Pokémon world."
> > > > > >
There was no time to do anything else around Thunder Bluff that day. Ash and Misty hastily grabbed their bags, notified Cairne, and returned to Theramore with Jaina.
"We've been falling right into the Legion's traps all this time," Jaina explained to them upon arrival. "I've gathered all the evidence from Outland, and I still can't believe I didn't figure this out sooner."
Archmage Tervosh handed her the Pokéball as they each took their seats inside the Theramore tower where Jaina worked.
"This Pokéball is embedded with the symbol of the Burning Legion," Jaina described. "Using arcane magic, I've extracted plenty of details regarding the symbol, and we are positive they retrieved it while walking through your world."
"But how did you know they were there in the first place?" Misty quizzed.
"The portal," Jaina replied. "The portal was the key. There are three ways to open a portal to another world. If one has been to that world, collecting dust from a previous portal will provide one with the necessary reagents to reopen such a portal. If one has not, then it is necessary to extract massive amounts of cosmic energies from both the targeted world and the Great Dark Beyond to do so, a la Ner'zhul when he destroyed Draenor while attempting to open numerous portals to new worlds."
Jaina placed the Pokéball back into Archmage Tervosh's hands.
"The third is a two-sided opening," she said barely above a whisper. "This means that there must be parties on both worlds who work together to bridge their worlds together through a mutually constructed portal. It was how the Dark Portal was opened in the first place, bridging Azeroth to Draenor and allowing the then-corrupted orcish Horde to invade."
Ash analyzed her words. "You mean there's someone in our world who opened the portal to Outland?"
"I'm positive," Jaina responded. "Outland has never had any connections with the Pokémon world, and the energies of that portal, while strong enough to pull you through, were nowhere near the strength of a one-party cosmic portal. The only explanation is that someone from your world worked together with those demons to open the portal."
"That means someone's already been corrupted," Misty said softly, realizing the seriousness of the situation based on everything her and Ash had learned in the past few days.
"I'm afraid so," Jaina agreed. "And Tervosh and I don't think it was a coincidence that you were pulled into our world either."
Ash and Misty stared at each other for a second before turning their heads toward two wizards.
"The portal you came through was not a normal portal, but an absorption portal," Jaina explained. "Normal portals do not suck up physical objects and expel them on the other side of the world; you need to walk into them yourselves to travel through them. Whoever opened that portal did so with the purpose of sending you to Outland."
"Wait, but why?" Ash questioned, slightly confused.
"You're the top ranked Pokémon Master, correct?" Jaina asked, receiving a nod. "That means you're the strongest in the world. If you were back at home, you'd interfere with the Legion's plans. If you were in Outland, Kil'jaeden's top lieutenants could dispose of you quickly and eliminate their toughest resistance."
There was now fear and panic within both Ash and Misty. All this time, while everyone had been trying to figure out what the Burning Legion was up to, the Legion itself may have already been terrorizing their home. Having experienced the horror of facing the Legion firsthand, neither wanted to picture the possibilities.
"I know you're worried, so here's the plan Tervosh and I have drawn up," Jaina said, pressing forward. "We will travel to Outland tomorrow and I will use the dust collected from the previous portal to open one back to your world. Be prepared for the worst."
"Tomorrow?" gasped Ash, almost leaping out of his seat. "Why tomorrow? If they're in our world now, we have to fight back immediately!"
Jaina placed a hand on his shoulder and calmed him back down. "We will act quickly, but not rashly," she informed him. "For the time in between, I will issue a call to arms. We will mobilize all able-bodied Alliance adventurers who volunteer into an army and we will go with you. I will send a message to Thrall and have him do the same with the Horde. We are prepared to fight and defend your home, Ash, because we know that the Legion is planning on using Pokémon against Azeroth the same way they tried using the orcs against us generations ago."
"What about us?" Misty asked. "What can we do to help?"
"I will send you two to Darnassus, the night elf capital," Jaina answered. "I want you to speak with their leader, my good friend High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind. Ten thousand years ago, the night elves were the first race to encounter the Burning Legion, and none are more familiar with the Legion's mindset than they are. I want you to learn as much as you can about them before tomorrow: their powers, their tactics, their weaknesses, etc. Once you have that knowledge, you will be more prepared to battle them."
Jaina and Tervosh stood up, approaching the young couple.
"We know we can count on you two," Tervosh opened his mouth for the first time, "because you can count on us. We promise we won't let you down. The Alliance and Horde are ready to fight for the future of both our worlds."
"Thank you," Misty uttered, shedding a tear. "Thank you both for everything. Ash and I won't let you down either; we guarantee that."
Ash smiled, stood up, and gave a hug each to Jaina and Tervosh before Misty repeated the motion.
"Talk to the gryphon master," Jaina instructed as she escorted the two out of the tower. "Ask for a ride to Ruth'eran Village on the island of Teldrassil. From there, walk into the giant pink portal and you'll be taken into Darnassus. One of their guards will point you to the High Priestess."
"Got it," Ash replied. "Thank you both again. We promise you we'll pay you back somehow."
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AUTHOR'S NOTES: Oh sweet, a shorter chapter! Too bad this took me longer to write than most, but ah well. Whether you're enjoying this or not, send me feedback and let me know. I'd love to hear from you.