Do not own Warcraft or Soulcalibur characters unfortunately. Sorry this one took so long, homework and end-of-term projects are killing me. As you have noticed, this fic has been rated 'R' because of language, all thanks to the ever-loving Sylvanas. This one doesn't have much happening, I'm just trying to take things bit by bit for you :)

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Chapter 8: The Torturing Nightmares

Taki had been sharpening her brother's and sister's blades on a small platform outside of the Hoko Temple. The ground had puddles of water from the previous rainfall. Taki stopped her repetitive stroking of stone against steel to gaze into one of the puddles. Her emotionless expression on her twelve year old face stared back at her, she sighed as she turned back to continue her task, only to find that one of her siblings' weapons missing.

"Hm?" Taki turned herself to look around the stone platform for the missing weapon but didn't see it anywhere. She turned back to find another missing, her eyes widened in panic; how could she lose her siblings' weapons?

She stood herself up on the platform to get a better look around her only to hear a light giggle behind her. She whipped around again to find no one but yet another weapon missing.

'What?' Taki thought in utter confusion. 'Could it be my little sister playing with me?' "Sakura-chan?" Taki called out in a low voice then heard another giggle behind her and someone tap on her shoulder.

"Who are you looking for?" A childish voice spoke behind her with a teasing tone. Taki spun around to find a girl who was a little bit shorter than her and didn't look too far from Taki's age.

The girl's beautiful aventurine eyes had an amused gleam in them as her grin widened. Her long golden locks cascaded down to an inch or two below her shoulder blades and chosen locks that would've been falling down to frame her face were pulled back into a small, sky blue bow tie. In her arms were the three blades that went missing. Taki's eyes widened in surprise then lowered in annoyance.

"You!" She folded her arms hastily across her chest as she leaned towards the girl, who looked at her in bewilderment. "You are such a menace! I've seen you staring at me through the trees on odd days, between doing my daily tasks and practicing with small daggers you stare at me endlessly yet you've never come forward until now! Won't you ever just leave me alone? You're not even from this country!" Taki chided the girl, whose expression changed to an innocent smile.

"Well, you just always look so bored. I just wanted to liven you up a bit, that's all." The girl explained as if it was simple. Taki harshly took her blades from the girl's hands and took them over to the rest of the collection.

"Yes, well, could you try to find someone else's life to 'liven' and let me be?" Taki asked as she aligned the blades back to the way they were.

"Want to play with me?" The girl asked with hope in her voice as she walked closer, making her long, and white, sheet-like sundress ripple in the air around her knees. Taki sharply turned to her with a raised eyebrow of surprise.

"What? I don't-!" Taki didn't have time to speak as she felt the girl take her hand and pull her towards the trees which encircled the grounds of thelarge temple. "I don't have time for games! I have to complete my tasks before my father, Toki, has a fit!" The girl turned to her with a grin as she kept pulling her into the forest.

"Come, please. What's so bad about breaking from your chains once and a while?" The girl smiled so sincerely that Taki was at a loss for words at both her smile and her statement, so thus, she let herself get pulled into the forest.

The girl had chosen a game where she would hide and Taki had to find her, which was easy for Taki even if she had to close her eyes. Sometimes when Taki would chase after the girl and they ran over a shallow creek, the girl would suddenly turn around and flick the stream's water at Taki, making her slow down. Even though Taki didn't like to get wet like that, she always found herself laughing and still chasing playfully after the girl.

The thing that surprised Taki was that the girl trusted her, someone she didn't even know, enough to know that Taki wouldn't just suddenly leave for the temple again and leave her alone.

'I may be many things…' Taki thought to herself as she realized this. 'But I'm not cold-hearted.' Taki stopped as she heard a not-too-well stifled giggle behind a large mossy tree. She smirked as she crept around the tree, letting her fingers gently run along the ripple-like edges. By the time she came halfway around the tree with a sharp "Ha!" to playfully scare the girl, she noticed she was already running in another direction. "Hey! You're the one that wanted to play, remember?" Taki yelled, the smirk still upon the corners of her lips.

"Yes, but you have to catch me!" The girl yelled back, laughing all the while. Taki grinned widely.

"If you insist…" Taki spoke in a low voice as she ran as fast as her legs could keep up. The sunlight and lightness of the woods made it a little hard to actually lock eyes on the girl, but her long, beautiful golden hair gave her away as it waved in the wind.

It didn't take long for Taki to wrap her arms around the girl's waist and hear the girl give out a small yelp of surprise. Taki turned her in her arms to find her with a wide grin on her face.

"Is playtime over yet?" Taki asked in a low voice and an expressionless face, only a faint smile. The girl's smile faded slightly as she looked down briefly.

"Do you want it to be?" She asked as she looked back up and spoke in a voice as low as Taki's, her smile was completely gone. Taki had no idea what to say, but the majority of her mind said 'no', much to her own surprise. "I don't. The reason I always stared at you was because I knew you had a fun side and that even though you're training to be a huntress, I knew you had a kind and gentle heart." The girl continued.

"I…" Taki looked down, trying to find the right words. The girl's gaze suddenly shot to the blue and randomly cloudy sky, interrupting Taki's thoughts. The girl's emerald gaze remained there for a few minutes, and then she looked back down slightly.

"I-I have to go." The girl stated as she reluctantly broke apart from Taki's arms and not looking into Taki's wide and disappointed gaze as she turned to walk away.

"What? B-but…" Taki tried to find words to make her reconsider.

"I'm sorry." The girl spoke in a depressed tone as she turned back only once to look at Taki then continued. Taki hastily walked up and grabbed the girl by the arms, pulling her back against her chest.

"Wait…Please stay. Stay and play with me." Taki's voice was soft and full of hope. The girl just looked down then reluctantly walked forward.

"I…I can't, I really want to, but I can't. I'm being told that I have to leave." The girl stated in the same depressed tone as she tried to walk forward only to feel Taki take her hand and spin her around so that she was looking deeply into Taki's maroon gaze. Taki didn't question the girl's statement, she just looked at her with depression in her eyes.

"Okay, then at least tell me your name."

"You… you want to know my name?" The girl looked up at Taki as if she was touched by Taki's simple requirement. Taki nodded with a bright smile, which the girl gladly returned. "It's-!"

The girl stopped as she and Taki noticed that the skies suddenly became dark and the woods became more and more ominous, not the bright and spirit-lifting forest it used to be. Taki felt the girl become tense as she began to back away from Taki. Taki tried to stop her and take her back into the safety of her arms but a black mist appeared behind the girl. The mist suddenly formed into a horrible half-man, half-demon figure and forcefully grabbed the girl as she tried to turn around.

The man had long white hair and thick skull-like armor and had a chillingly figured sword next to him that had a small skull of a ram that had glowing blue eyes on it near the hilt. He also had large bat-like wings and his hands were claw-like with long boney fingers. His eyes would've been pure white if it hadn't been for the long and thin, vertical, blood red slits in his eyes. He brought his mouth close to the struggling, fear-stricken girl.

"You should've run while you had the chance if you still valued your life, but I guess you don't. Thank you for your sacrifice to the darkness." His voice was as dark as his armor. He forcefully bent the girl backward and raised his cold sword above her chest.

Taki didn't need to hear the girl scream Taki's name in order to come and help her. She hastily ran forward and tried to kick the half-demon square in the face, but she felt cold, dark root-like vines wrap around her wrists and ankles and pull her back, making her land hard on the ground. She sneered at him when she heard him laugh loudly at her futile attempt.

"Stupid little girl. Enjoy the blood-fest." He grinned evilly as he raised the blade higher above the girl's chest as she tried to struggle. Taki pulled and whipped herself against the strong vines as she heard the girl continuously scream her name for help. Taki could only watch in horror as the blade was forcefully brought down, and watched as the girl's blood coated the ground beneath her with ceased screams and her white dress becoming stained with her own blood…

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"NO!" Taki sprang up from her bed that was the lush grass of the forest that they were traveling through to Dalaran. She heaved as she wiped the cold sweat from her head, neck and chest. She slammed her fist to the ground. 'That girl… this is the second time in a row that that girl comes into my dreams… ever since that stupid undead necromancer confronted me!' Taki yelled in her head, then sighed. 'This is the second time that she didn't even breathe her name, the second time that she somehow is taken away from me.'

She stopped as she felt her cheeks and eyes burn slightly. She lightly tapped her cheek to find it coated with water. 'Tears…?'

"Another nightmare?"

Taki whipped around to find Mina behind her with eyes of concern as she cocked her head to one side. She hastily wiped the rest of her tears away with her arm as she looked away. "Yes."

"Same girl?"

"Yes." Taki looked down and closed her eyes briefly. "How close are we to Dalaran?" She asked as she looked up to the stars. Mina sighed; she knew she would change the subject.

"We're basically touching it, we just need to get to the camp, so I'm told." She explained. Taki suddenly whipped her head around to her side and stared for a few minutes. "What's wrong?" Taki's gaze didn't tear away.

"I'm sensing something, it's far, but it's for me to just catch the feeling." She slowly walked in the direction of where her head was pointing. "It's quite an elusive sort… is the base camp in that direction?" She asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"It should be, yes." Mina nodded. Taki suddenly turned to her.

"It would be smart for you and the others to follow my direction as soon as possible. I'll just go now and see what this aura is." Without a second thought and not listening to Mina's protests saying that Taki should stay put, Taki ran off to the strong aura. The thing that made Taki actually want to go find it so early was that she recognized the aura.

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"So… She's being housed in that tree?" Sylvanas raised an eyebrow at the hollow tree; it all looked so easy.

"Yes, I can sense her, this Sophitia. That woman's memories gave me much information about our target, of course and then some which I didn't really need to see… Are you pleased?" The necromancer so wanted to hear Sylvanas do the one thing she's never done to others.

Sylvanas gave out a long sigh; she hated doing this to such a self-absorbed and surprisingly somewhat useless worshiper. "Fine, fine. You did a surprisingly well done job of finding what I needed to complete my task of assassination." She sneered slightly as she saw in the corner of her eye his wide grin of self-triumph. "And I must thank you; now that my target is right in front of me your assistance is no longer required." It was now Sylvanas' turn to grin while he turned to her with suspicion.

"I beg your pardon?" He slowly turned to face her completely but stopped as he heard her chuckled beneath her breath. She suddenly whipped around and unsheathed a sharp yet jagged dagger which she forcefully jammed straight through his already dead heart. He grunted loudly and almost fell backward as he felt the cold steel pass through his cage. "Y-you wench!" He breathed with rage as he stared into Sylvanas' wickedly excited expression. His breath became heavier but tried to hold his footing, of course her twisting the blade around inside of him to make him die faster wasn't helping. "Your traitorous soul will be burned in all seven hells! King Arthas will make sure of that!" He retorted as the feeling in his legs slowly gave way.

Sylvanas leaned towards him with a mere smirk on her face and looked straight into his fully green eyes that begun to dim. "You forget, you little pest…" Her voice turned into a whisper as she raised her eyebrows. "I don't have a soul to be tortured; I'm already dead." She watched as he choked slightly and as his flesh slowly became ash. She stood herself straight and brushed away the ash from her hands and clothes. "Humph! Good riddance."

After sheathing her dagger back into her leather belt, she hopped up to a high tree limb so that she could peer through the hollow tree's window and hopefully spot her prey without herself being seen.

She waited until a person with blonde semi-plaited hair strode passed the window, she seemed to be walking back and forth as if she was full of anticipation. Sylvanas narrowed her eyes slightly in annoyance but kept her eyes upon the girl that kept passing through the window.

'This cannot be her.' Sylvanas focused her burning red eyes upon her target that she surely mistaken. The girl looked so… inexperienced in the ways of the blade. 'A sorceress of some kind perhaps?... No; her attire is too… strange to match any of the women that I had run into when I was still really alive. That imbecile of a necromancer must have given me a dead end and searched through the wrong mind!' Sylvanas shut her eyes tightly as she growled and lowered her head, what she was going to do now was going to be a tough decision.

"You've been doing that for hours Sophitia…" Sylvanas' head shot up back towards the window to see the girl with the blonde hair looking into the room. "What troubles you?" The woman that was out of Sylvanas' line of sight continued.

"Isn't it obvious? Today is our last day and I'm just so… well… anticipated. I know you know why." Sylvanas' eyes widened as she noticed that the blonde human's jaw was moving with her words of response.

'Sophitia… That's her? That's my prey?' Sylvanas thought as if the mere idea was preposterous, but her eyes clearly didn't deceive her. Sylvanas narrowed her eyes and lifted a corner of her mouth while gritting her teeth as if she was disgusted. She watched as the woman named Sophitia turned to look back outside, Sylvanas immediately buried herself deeper within the tree's leaves to prevent herself from being seen.

She noted how desperate yet melancholy the girl's face looked as she leaned herself forward slightly and brought her arms to wrap around herself as if she was trying to imagine something warm being wrapped around her.

Sylvanas rolled her eyes as she looked away with an unimpressed expression. 'She's obviously easily consumed by emotions.' She shook her head slowly as if she was disappointed. 'Feh, she's not even worth my arrows.' Sylvanas sighed with annoyance then looked down at her previously used dagger. 'I still have to complete my task, just so that I can get Arthas out of my hair.' Sylvanas' face became serious as she waited for whoever this Sophitia was talking with to leave.

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"It just takes patience, you're just overwhelming yourself from the wait of being with her." Shandris continued as she leaned against the ladder to the surface, her arms folded.

"I know…" Sophitia reassured but didn't look up to Shandris. "I know I can wait a few more hours for dawn, then another day before we reach Ashenvale and Taki will be there with open arms. But…" Sophitia rubbed her arm with her hand as if she suddenly became nervous. "…I just fear that… that Taki might… might not…" Sophitia had trouble finishing her sentence, although Shandris already guessed what would've come next.

"Don't worry yourself over impossible things; there is no need for that when you know it isn't true." Sophitia sighed as she heard Shandris' statement; she was right. Sophitia blinked a few times as if trying to flutter away the thought as she turned to the cloaked Night elf.

"You don't have to stay; I'll be fine, thank you for your concern." Sophitia smiled, although it was faint. Shandris looked at her for a few minutes as if she was wondering if Sophitia was right about her being 'fine' then nodded as she turned to climb up the ladder, thinking that she deserves time to think about things.

Sophitia went to her bag which was laid on the bed and pulled out a long brown cloak to throw over her shoulders as she noticed that the night air seemed to be getting colder in drafts. She paused before she went to the long-handled torches behind the almost see-through curtains to snuff them out. Once that was complete, she sat upon the edge of her bed and in the darkness of the night with the moonlight, which shown through the adjacent window, and it being the only guide for her eyes.

"Oh Taki…" Sophitia spoke aloud, lost within her own thoughts. "I hope you aren't caught up with possible demons within these mysterious lands, you know what things like that can do to me." Sophitia lightly wrapped her arms around herself after she spoke, as if she was trying to calm herself.

'whoosh-BAM!'

Sophitia jumped and hastily stood herself as something crashed through her barred window. Only when she had turned her head to see what happened, she saw a sight before her that made her gasp and hastily try to back away from the center of the room.

"Did you say… Demons?" The female creature spoke with a wicked smirk as she stood herself back up, her blood red eyes locked onto Sophitia's. The hood of her cloak covered her head but her burning red eyes revealed some of her features, including her pale blue skin and dark blue to almost black hair. Sophitia could see, to her surprise, the long ears that poked out of the woman's hood as the moonlight outlined them.

"What do you want? What business do I have with you?" Sophitia spoke with as much strength and fearlessness as she could muster as she slowly reached for her sword and shield that she placed on the end of the bed.

She listened as the narrowed eyed woman chuckled deep within her throat. The woman unsheathed her jagged dagger slowly and brought the end of the blade close to her face. "Why ask stupid questions that have obvious answers?" The woman's face turned to one of excited rage as she lunged towards Sophitia.

Sophitia only had time to grab her sword and parry the woman's dagger just at the right moment. "Who are you?" Sophitia yelled as she parried the woman's blade again, amazed at how quick this woman's stance recovery was.

"Sylvanas Windrunner." She yelled back before she lunged at Sophitia's stomach, only to watch the woman as she dodged to the side. She sneered at her reluctance to die. "I'd tell you not to forget it, but you won't be around long enough to worry about that!" She growled as she slashed diagonally at the girl with rage.

Sophitia lifted her blade against it, only to notice and feel her sword arm get hit with a long but shallow slice along her forearm. She yelped at the burning sensation the blade caused but her slow recovery cost her her stance as the woman harshly pushed her to the wall and took two of her arrows and using them to pin Sophitia to the wall by her cloak at her sides.

Sophitia noticed that Sylvanas had wrapped her cloak around her own arms so that they were nailed to the wall. She grabbed the arrows and tried to pull them out but they were lodged too deep into the tree. She gasped as she noticed that Sylvanas was slowly leaning closer to her face, a disgustful sneer was clearly written upon her own as her eyes traveled around to Sophitia's features.

Sylvanas took within one hand a lock of Sophitia's hair that framed her face and was too short to be pulled back. Sophitia watched silently as Sylvanas eyed her hair then let it slip through her fingers.

"I used to have long golden hair like you." Sylvanas noted as she continued to stare at her hair, she looked as if she thought that Sophitia didn't hear her and nor did she seem to care if she really did or didn't. "But of course that was when I was still alive and not under the Scourge's control." She continued as her body moved in a way as if she was slowly or mentally shrugging.

"The Scourge…" Sophitia repeated, making Sylvanas' red to white pupils snap to hers, as if to say 'what does a human like you know of it?'. Sophitia's eyes slowly narrowed as her eyebrows lowered. "So… you are a follower of Arthas and Frostmourne?" Sophitia became nervous but her face didn't change as Sylvanas' dark and pale face went to one of shock and widened eyes, she looked as if she was just hit across the face. Sylvanas' face screwed into one of uncontrollable rage with narrowed eyes as her fist clenched, as if she wanted vengeance.

Sylvanas lifted her blade up to Sophitia's neck, pushing slightly so that only a small and slow stream of blood could flow out. Sophitia winced as she did so. "I'll make sure that your death is slow and incredibly painful for even muttering such a thing! I may be undead and be under the command of that son of a bitch, but there is no way in the seven HELLS that I would EVER be known as his slave and follower!" Sylvanas' blind rage broke through in her voice as she raised her blade high above her head and growled loudly within her throat as she aimed the blade for Sophitia's chest. Sophitia shut her eyes tightly as Sylvanas had begun to bring it down. "Argh!"

Sophitia looked up to Sylvanas with surprise as she felt no pain but heard Sylvanas yell in pain as her blade crashed to the floor with a loud 'clang'. Sylvanas' arm was now pinned to the wall next to Sophitia, her face screwed with pain as she looked to the adjacent window. Sophitia noticed that a long dagger was lodged into Sylvanas' forearm, just below the joint. Her eyes widened as she recognized the red-wrapped hilt of the defensive blade.

"You're not who I'm looking for…?"

Sophitia sharply turned as she heard the voice that she longed to hear coming from the adjacent window. To her rising heart she saw Taki hunched in the window's oval-shaped frame, her narrowed eyes were locked onto Sylvanas while her thumb, index and middle fingers laid themselves onto her chin. Her expression looked as if she was confused, an expression which matched Sophitia's when she noticed that Taki was back to wearing her red and golden-edged mask.

Taki walked slowly over so that she was a few feet in front of Sylvanas, who sneered at her. Sophitia was both surprised and confused that Taki didn't come over and untie her first, or at least ask if she was okay, she resolved this question by thinking that Taki didn't want any enemies to know how close the two of them were.

Taki looked about Sylvanas as if she was surveying her. "…Yet I can smell him on you." Taki continued in a low tone as Sylvanas raised an eyebrow.

"Do you speak of my late necromancer?" Sylvanas' spoke in a low and somewhat shuttering voice as she seemed to be hunching over slightly, all of which the pain of the blade through her arm was causing.

"Late? I had recognized his dark aura from the last time we met and ended up meters away from here when it suddenly disappeared." Taki explained then slowly raised an eyebrow in slight surprise as she knew an upcoming answer by the slightly amused look on Sylvanas' face.

"So what? You heard us and stopped this so closely finished fight and yet your main task has now been expired?" Sylvanas laughed slightly. "Well I already killed him for you so now that you have nothing else to-"

"Don't think I'm so stupid as to leaving you alone with this girl." Taki interrupted as she waved a hand in Sophitia's direction and merely glancing at her. Taki smirked at Sylvanas' annoyed expression as she pulled out the arrows that held Sophitia to the wall.

Sophitia tried her best to hold in her impulsive need of wrapping her arms tightly around Taki and frantically kissing her lips, cheek and neck for the sake of keeping their love a secret from someone like Sylvanas.

Sylvanas sneered at Taki then suddenly smirked as she stood herself straight up. "Fine…" She reached up for Taki's Rekki-Maru to pull it free. "Then I guess I'm going to have to take you life as w- ARGH!" As Sylvanas' hand wrapped around the hilt of Taki's Rekki-Maru, Taki smirked as she watched Sylvanas' free arm begin to twitch and twist madly and her shriek filled the room. Sylvanas hastily ripped her hand away from the weapon still lodged in her arm as she heaved.

Her elbow joint felt like it was shattered twice and bolts of strange lightning surged into her arm when her hand grasped the hilt. Still heaving, she slowly looked up with an annoyed and rage full sneer on her face. "L-let me guess…" Sylvanas shuddered out due to the pain as she spoke slowly. "You're a demon huntress… with a special blade made to injure and even kill all those who touch it. Am I correct?" Sylvanas didn't need to hear a reply to know that she was right.

"You learn quickly don't you?" Taki chuckled. She turned to Sophitia with slightly raised eyebrows; that being the only emotion she showed. "Are you alright?"

Sophitia nodded nervously; something wasn't right. Usually every sentence that Taki aimed at her ended with 'love'.

"Taki!" All turned to see Mina leaning over and peering though the window. 'Annoyed' would be an understatement for the look that Mina was giving her. She was about to open her mouth to speak but then she noticed the confusion that still lingered on Sophitia's face. 'Oh boy…' was all Mina could think as she came through the window. Mina had an apologetic look on her face that made both Sophitia and Taki look at her in a confused fashion.

"You fool!" Sylvanas suddenly yelled as she diagonally swung the head of one of her arrows into Taki's back, making her yelp slightly. With gritted teeth she turned to Sylvanas, who held the same expression as Taki. "You should learn to finish your enemies when you have the chance! Believe me, I'm not going to stop until you're all dead so that Arthas and his new 'sidekick' nuisance Nightmare will get off of my… my ba-uhn…" Sylvanas suddenly seemed to become drowsy then just collapsed to the floor.

"What happened?" Sophitia asked as she looked at the unconscious Sylvanas, while also walking to Taki and pressing her hand to Taki's shallow wound that was much like the one on her arm. She felt Taki tense up slightly as she did so.

"You three love getting into trouble don't you?" They all looked to the window to find Jaina perched upon the round frame and had her staff on the floor of the room, leaning her chin against it with an amused smirk on her face.

Sophitia sighed silently then looked to Taki, who kept her eyes on the undead intruder. Sophitia lovingly wrapped her arms around Taki and stretched herself slightly along Taki's backside.

"Erm…" Sophitia felt Taki become even tenser, as if she was reluctant to do anything in return. Taki turned slightly to look back at the woman who suddenly decided to cling herself to her. "I know you're happy that I saved you, but you only need to say 'thank you'." Taki stated rather timidly. Sophitia lowered her eyebrows in confusion as she kept the side of her face pressed, then closed her eyes smiled as she nudged Taki playfully.

"Come on Taki, don't tease me after all that just happened." She giggled slightly as she nuzzled Taki's side like a cat warming itself up to its master. Jaina and Mina looked at each other at the same time; they knew this wasn't going to turn out well, especially when Taki turned to Mina with a look saying 'a little help, please?' Sophitia lowered her voice so that Taki could hear. "Now stay with me for the rest of the night; gods know I'll need someone to snuggle up to now that undead people are after me."

"Whoa-ho-ho!" Taki, now panic stricken, ripped herself from Sophitia's arms and stood in front of the bewildered woman with a tensely raised eyebrow out of confusion. "Sl-sleep with you? I don't even know you!" Taki became bewildered herself as Sophitia pulled back with wide eyes of surprise; at first, Sophitia thought she was kidding, but by the serious look in Taki's eyes she could tell that she wasn't.

Sophitia looked at her with a look of sympathy, worry and concern as she slowly raised a hand to Taki's cheek, to see how serious she was. "T-Taki…?" Sophitia moved forward as she spoke in a calm and gentle voice only to watch Taki cautiously back away in the same amount of steps that Sophitia took. In shock, Sophitia slowly brought her trembling fingers close to her lips as her eyes darted. She felt like a statue; one small push and her emotions and feelings would likely fall and crash into thousands of pieces.

She sharply turned to Mina with a glare that definitely made her jump. With lowered eyebrows she signaled Mina to come over to her, which Mina obeyed timidly and obediently. Sophitia pulled her by the collar so that she was close enough that she could whisper the best that she could.

"What in Hades happened?" Mina could hear her voice cracking slightly, because of this Mina had trouble looking straight into her eyes.

"Erm…Well…"

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The next few days could've been better for the three; going through the passes and paths to Ashenvale were more than awkward for Taki and Sophitia. Taki minded her own business and was almost completely oblivious to Sophitia, who kept glancing at her as she walked behind her.

When Sophitia had heard the whole incident of Taki's memory loss, and of course it only being memories of herself and herself only, made her whole world shatter before her and made her feel utter depression. Outside she felt like the strength and spirit had been wiped from her, while in the inside she felt like ripping the ground beneath her apart. Taki's in arms was the only place where she found unlimited comfort and safety and her kiss was the only point in time where there didn't seem to be a world around them to make them stop.

She only wished that there was a way to reverse this but this was done by black magic. She had even asked Jaina for help or advice and she said that this was one thing that she had never come across and had no idea how to fix it. The only other option was to ask Sylvanas herself since she knows the ways of black magic, but the thought of doing that frightened her after the last time that they had met. 'But I must.' Sophitia thought bravely to herself.

The last option, however, was to start over with Taki and hope that she would fall in love with her again. She didn't want to get too close to Taki just yet because she knew that she would scare her off again, so if it came to having Taki fall in love with her again somehow, it would have to take patience.

The only thing she did want to do was tend to Taki's wound on her back, she hand tended to her own on her arm and the blood flow quickly slowed, she just didn't know how Taki was doing. And the thing that hurt her the most was the fact that Taki chose to wear her mask at all times.

"Where is Sylvanas?" Taki suddenly turned to Jaina with a look of concern on her face.

"She's coming with us; we're going to figure out what to do with her once we get to Ashenvale since she can't exactly die." Jaina explained, not looking towards Taki.

"She spoke of Nightmare; he is the one who possesses Soul Edge. Perhaps she can tell us of his whereabouts." Taki noted aloud as she turned back to the road.

"This Nightmare sounds dangerous." Jaina noted in the same tone as Taki.

"He was a knight who was possessed by the demon sword when he was only in his youth. I've heard that he can sometimes regain his sanity, but that never really permanently helps him." Taki explained plainly.

"Possessed by a demon? He didn't do this by his own will?"

"He did at first but he was tricked by the demon sword." Sophitia came in; she knew the most about Nightmare since she had once encountered him. She spoke as if she was trying to speak in the knight's own defense. Jaina turned to her with raised eyebrows as if she was intrigued then turned back to the path.

"Perhaps I can try to help him then." Jaina noted aloud in a simple tone. "I'll show you once we get to Ashenvale. It's kind of a long description of what I might do." Jaina spoke again before Sophitia could as what she was talking about. Taki noticed Thrall looking over at Jaina's direction as if he was wondering what she was saying as well, either that or he thought he knew what she was talking about.

For the rest of the trip, which wasn't much further to its end luckily, Taki tried her best to ignore Mina and Kilik, who was still a little shaken over what the Orcs tended to do to him.

"Will you back away from me just a little bit? You're starting to make me nervous!" Mina complained as she turned to Kilik, who let Mina be his barrier between the Orcs and himself.

"You try walking next to someone who liked to beat you around in your cell!" Kilik retorted.

"What's the matter little guy? You afraid?" One of the orcish warriors laughed, but was quickly silenced as Thrall looked at him with an eye saying 'eyes forward!'.

Kilik could really hold his own against a few orcs but since this is an alliance and since they were so vast in numbers, it would be pointless to try and retort anything and end up getting the whole Orcish army started.

Mina had certainly become annoyed by all of this, and to top it off she was still a little nervous of Maiev, who kept glancing to every single leader/outsider as if she was the head of a surveillance tower. The thing that ate at her mind even more than Maiev was Sophitia; when she told her what happened and how Taki looked and did during the time, she looked like she was about to cry. Even though she didn't, even though she just looked towards the ground as if she was suddenly in a daze and merely gasped slightly, she could tell that her spirit just collapsed.

888

When they had gotten to Ashenvale, the four, being Sophitia, Taki, Mina and Kilik, had left it to Jaina and the others to report to Tyrande.

Sophitia glanced at Taki again, who had her back to her, and noticed the red trail being left on her body suit. Sophitia sighed as she reached in her bag and grabbed the cloth bandages that she always packed.

Taki, who was sharpening her blade, sharply turned as she heard a twig snap behind her. She instantly became nervous when she saw the now timid-looking figure that was Sophitia's. "Wanting something?"

"Your back." Sophitia replied, pointing at her wounded back. Taki glanced at it the best that she could then lifted an eyebrow as she turned back to Sophitia, noticing that she had rolls of bandages in her hands.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. The blood has dried onto the wound, so you don't need to do anything." Taki replied simply as she turned back to sharpen her Rekki-Maru, which let out sparks as she did so.

"But I want to." Sophitia stated as she took a step forward, making Taki stop but not turning back. "Let me at least clean off the extra spots of blood for you." Sophitia asked with hope in her voice that wasn't there for just helping the health state of her former love.

"Erm, no thanks, I'm fine without your help." Taki stated simply but paused before she continued. Sophitia felt like a rock was just dropped on her heart, but she just lowered her eyebrows and kept moving forward.

"What do you mean 'no thanks'? I'm doing this for your own health not mine." Sophitia went over to her side and kneeled down slightly to where Taki sat on the lowest step of the ziggurat. "I'm not trying to do anything I swear to the gods; I just want to help you, that's all."

"How do I know that though?" Taki replied in a frank tone as she looked over at Sophitia in the corner of her eye. Sophitia now felt like she was just shut down; she paused to find a perfect, mind-easing reply.

"Do you think someone like me would lie? Now turn around." Sophitia continued in a gentle tone as she tried to turn herself to Taki's back. She started undoing the opening of the top of Taki's body suit but Taki jumped up.

"You're going to take it off?" Taki nearly yelled with a tone of nervous surprise.

"Well not all the way!" Sophitia replied, trying her best to hide her wide grin, mostly directed at Taki's jumpy self. "I'll take you to a secluded spot that I know where you won't be embarrassed, does that sound better?" She raised an eyebrow, although it sunk her heart to know that the place that she was planning to go to was one that she and Taki had been to before they had left.

Taki looked at her with nervousness in her eyes. "S…secluded?" 'This girl doesn't take 'no' for an answer does she?' Taki thought as she raised an eyebrow.

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The next chapter will start off from here basically, it will be mostly focused on Sophitia and Taki's 'trials' of coping with what they have and what they have lost. Nightmare will appear in the next one and Sylvanas will tell her story to the woman that she tried to kill, believe it or not. Jaina made Sylvanas fall asleep in case you didn't guess, and the spell's words will be used within the next few chapters. Jaina's idea will be revealed in the next chapter as well. Kilik's character will mostly be a side-character which will slowly become more dominant.

How Taki feels about all this will appear in the next one as well.

I'm sorry again how long this took and I'm afraid to say that the next chapter might be just as long because I haven't gotten it totally figured out. I hope you like the dream sequence, I know it was a long one. More will come in, maybe not as long though.