The battle for the entire world had come to a head, and Jaina stood at the base of Mount Hyjal. It was the center of the world, and she shook in her shoes as she watched the demon armies climb to Nordrassil to rip it apart. She had teleported in at the last second to speak with Warchief Thrall, Priestess Tyrande, and Archdruid Stormrage.

She had seen for herself as Archimonde had made his way towards the summit, waltzing through the world and utterly destroying all in his path. He was of such immense power she could barely fathom it. "I'm sorry I'm late. It's just as we feared. Archimonde and his doom guard are making their way towards the summit. He'll be here any moment."

Tension between this small war council was far too thick, and it was only broken when Malfurion offered his idea. Once again, offering the hardest choice for the safety of the world.

"Ten thousand years ago we night elves defeated the Burning Legion. Though the rest of the world was shattered, we were left free to live out our immortal lives in peace, bound to the World Tree. We are its protectors, and through it we were granted immortality and power over nature. Now, at last, it is time we gave that power back." This mini speech created a pause in both Thrall and Jaina. Neither could fathom their own species back ten thousand years, much less have remembered as such. Jaina herself could hardly imagine ten years in the future. Right now it was about saving everyone in the here and now.

Tyrande, however, cried out in protest. "You realize that we will age as these mortals do. Our powers will wane in time. We will lose ourselves to the ages and be unprepared when another threat looms over us."

Afterwards, Jaina would have thought Malfurion was about to tell Tyrande he loved her. The fire in her eyes was admirable, the sorceress thought, and she seemed like in general a woman to be looked up to.

"If pride gives us pause, then perhaps we have lived long enough already. I will proceed to the summit and prepare our defense there." Without leaving time for another word, he charged off, with druids flanking him in their offensive forms. Jaina felt the magic in the air as he settled into the ritual spell that would channel the collective spirits of the night elven people into Nordrassil, to save her.

A spark of inspiration struck Jaina, and she approached the priestess. "If you can provide our bases with support and keep us from being overwhelmed, Thrall and I will delay Archimonde's ascent! If everything rests on this, we should do all we can to support Stormrage."

Her heart beat several beats faster when responded to. "Your plan is a bold one, girl. Perhaps I have misjudged you outlanders."

"We're more than the brutes we must seem to be to you." She turned to go back towards the human encampment, where she saw the troops already lining up in formations. "Azeroth is our home too. We'll do anything we can to protect it." And you, she added in her mind after the fact. It was what she would have said if Tyrande hadn't tried to kill her mere hours ago.

"May Elune shine upon you."

Jaina returned to her countrymen, shouting orders for them to start getting ready for the assault on Archimonde. She knew full well this was almost definitely a suicide mission. Fighting against the leader of the demon army? Foolhardy. But it was that or await the death of the world.

Her speech to the men finished and she raised her staff in the air, shouting as much as her lungs would let her, "For Lordaeron! For those who died in the Scourge's wake! For Azeroth!"

The demon army crested the hill, the footmen put their shields up, and the siege engines began barraging the assaulting demon army. Jaina summoned as many elementals as her body could allow. She continuously pelted the demons with shards of ice cascading from the sky. She shouted when her army needed the will to fight on. Her command over frost was unmatched, but that didn't stop Archimonde's forces from making their way through her base.

Finally, her forces were all but completely slaughtered, and the demons were destroying the few buildings they'd managed to erect. The barracks came crashing down and Jaina was face to face with Archimonde, the destroyer of worlds.

His booming voice called down to her, seeming overconfident to her. "You are very brave to stand against me, little human. If only your countrymen had been as bold, I would have had more fun scouring your wretched nations from the world!"

Jaina, with enough fake bravado to cover the fact that her entire body shook and she was slightly struggling to prepare her spell, shouted back, "Is talking all you demons do?" Before Archimonde has a chance to respond, the spell carries her and whatever wounded left alive out and back to Thrall's base, joining the orcs in their preparations.

She approached the Warchief, her chest finally exhaling with relief. "Thrall, Archimonde will be upon you at any moment. How much longer do we need to protect Malfurion?"

Thrall looked at her, then up at the base of the tree where he knew Malfurion to be. "I wish I knew. The spirits tell me we have enough time, but I don't want to take any chances." A long few seconds went by as the two of them gazed at the world tree, the lifeblood of their planet. "If all we orcs do with our freedom is protect others from Archimonde, it will be a life well spent."

"I doubt this is the end, Thrall." She awkwardly raised a hand up to place on his shoulder. "Fate is almost never that cruel."

The orc turned back to her, gently patting Jaina on the back. Despite not being the most physically impressive orc, it was likely that he would just push her over if he was too forceful. She was young and small. "I appreciate it, my friend."

The two of them walked together out to the orc forces barricaded into the entrance to their base. Once again, the demons approached in hordes and began to be cut down by the catapults, wind riders, axes, wolf riders, and everything else in the army. Orcish blood spilled over the grass, red and green staining the grass of the hillside.

Jaina stood near the back of the base, ready to teleport out the moment Thrall was overwhelmed. The spell kept at half-cast. She wouldn't let her new ally fall before the demon army.

She watched as the orcs, just as her army, were slowly but surely overtaken by the demons. Archimonde himself stomped on the first burrow, crushing the orcs within. The defenders fell back, but many were ripped apart by various demons.

"You Orcs are weak and hardly worth the effort! I wonder why Mannoroth even bothered with you!" Archimonde bellowed, and Jaina could not hear enough to hear Thrall's response.

Instead, she cast her spell, and the few survivors of orcs, humans, and trolls were teleported to the rudimentary night elven encampment at the base of Nordrassil. There, she approached Tyrande, who stood with many others healing the wounded.

"Tyrande, are we ready to drive them back? We've done all we can."

"That is up to Malfurion."