Title: Whodunit
Description: "Sylvanas takes part in a crime scene."
Notes1: Inspired by the Dehaka teasers and written in between periods after work and more or less after Dehaka was officially revealed.
Notes2: I'm liking the idea of sprinkling OCs here and there in upcoming chapters. Future appearances may or may not depend on reader feedback. You'll see the Undertale dogs in at least two other chapters, but other than that I'll just be winging it.
Notes3: I also feel that, amidst Nova and Li-Ming overtaking the majority of the content, that I've been neglecting the rest of the cast. I will see what I can do to include them in future chapters. (However, I won't deny liking the idea of a Nova/Sylvanas/Li-Ming OT3 for the other anthology...)
Notes4: This was also inspired by Lucario's...constant reminders about Brightwing. Please, stop asking about her. This anthology's about Sylvanas; you said so yourself that it's about her. This isn't your personal requesting ground, nor is it your grounds for asking questions that don't pertain to the story. I don't care too much about Brightwing. I don't even use her as my main healer (Malfurion is, if I had to choose) unless she's on the F2P rotation and I'm grinding her to level 10. It was okay the first few chapters, now it's just getting on my nerves. This will also be the last of my notes about this; I want them to be about the chapters' developmental process. I don't want to have to make these particular notes more personal than they already are (I feel they're detracting from the overall tone of the chapter.) Otherwise, if you keep asking about her, especially when she's not even present in the chapter, I'm just going to outright ignore them. (But since I'm nice enough and you asked: the antennae. There's your answer. So please, no more.)

"Now I'm going to ask this one more time," Detective Orsten asked the assembled group. "None of you claim any responsibility?"

"You know, instead of just asking, you could be collecting evidence and have forensics look into this," said Sylvanas, leaning back against the classic pillar holding up the greenhouse. She was rewarded with a heated, world-weary glare from the man, to which she shrugged back at him, nonplussed by the challenge present in those eyes. "I'm only speaking my opinion." And fact, but he prided himself on getting things done his way, so it was no wonder this case wasn't getting closed to solved. The Royal Apothecary Society would've run his ass and everyone working in the Nexus Investigation Bureau—the NIB—out of the Nexus itself and do their jobs properly.

Orsten shook his head and regarded the suspects again. "Well?"

"I claim no involvement," said Anub'arak, "but I must say the craftsmanship is quite lovely." He glanced admiringly at the hole in the middle of the garden. "I wish my holes came out just as clean as those."

"I have children to take care of," said Zagara. "All four point five million of them! I have no time for gallivanting!"

"Organism Abathur reiterates presence not within suspect parameters," said Abathur, tapping his many fingertips. "Preferred sanctuaries Hall of Storms and…Darkness. Darkness amicable for combining properties of roach and hydralisk—Hydroroach. Results…not so amicable."

"That's, uh, great," said Orsten, scratching the shadow on his cheeks. "And what about you? You don't dig…but nobody else here goes around leaving half-eaten bodies."

"Brightwing innocent!" the faerie dragon wailed. "Innocent! I was nowhere near Terror Garden or Cursed Hollow! Brightwing was making friends with Ming Lee!"

"Li-Ming," the wizard huffed, exasperated. "Not Ty Lee. Not Azula. Not Homura, Chikane, Kagura, or any of those Japanese names. Li-Ming. Get it right! And as a reminder: trying to eat my source isn't my idea of establishing interpersonal relations!"

"But the magic…it sparkles like emeralds! Like a dream! The Emerald Dream! But it is still not made of emeralds, and Brightwing's head still hurts so much."

"But you do eat people," said Arthur Light. "I know, I still have your teeth marks from when you ripped my lungs out!" He jabbed a finger against the hairs on his chest.

"And Brightwing was hungry. Woodsman put up very good fight." She flicked her long, bulbous tongue out, tasting the air.

"I was lost and didn't know where I was…and by the way, you attacked me first! You didn't leave me any choice!" He turned to Orsten. "This creature may be excused for digging potholes everywhere, but she should be charged for murder outside of official sanctioned fights!"

"You may as well charge everyone then," said Li-Ming. "You know how…erratic the tavern can be."

"I'm the worst offender," said Sylvanas. "I've murdered every Hero at least once." Li-Ming nodded in acquiescence. "Then again, it's not like the Hero League takes its rules seriously. Look at the Raven Lord and the Gravekeeper. One of our battlegrounds is a residential area full of ghosts. In a way, their lives matter."

"Oh don't even go there with that business," the wizard told her. "That's a whole can of worms I'd rather not see open!"

"Yes, indeed," the Banshee Queen murmured. "Anyway, I can safely say that Brightwing, regardless of her psychopathic tendencies, is not our culprit. She was with me at the recreation center, having been dragged against our wills by Azmodan to participate in a game of B-ball, in preparation for the Dorm Tournament. We had a basketball, but the demons decided Brightwing was a better alternative."

"I ripped an arm off!" Brightwing exclaimed happily, then a little sourly, "It tasted awful."

"You should've invited us," said Zagara. "I've been meaning to collect more of Azmodan's essence for Abathur to study."

"We don't have room to fit all your children in," said Li-Ming.

"The size doesn't matter. We can always make room for them."

"Us or them?"

"Let's put it this way: I'm very stringent with your Terran gold. However long I stay here and depending on how much I make, whether it's through gambling, unofficial brackets, and bets on your feeble horse tracks, it's going towards padding my children's college funds."

"In what, geographical and ecological destruction?" Sylvanas asked.

"No. Biochemistry! Stem cell research! Medical biology and molecular medicine! A chance to bring higher learning among the Swarm will surely not be squandered."

"Gonna be waiting a long time for that," Li-Ming grumbled.

"Or, you know, you could always apply for whatever passes for FAFSA here," added Arthus, scratching unconsciously at his chest. "Grants, loans, whatever works for you."

Abathur nodded. "Logical decisions."

Anub'arak tapped his raptorial forelegs together. "Now, Zagara, you should know…if you, kikiki, ever decide you need some help, kiki, I can always be of assist—"

"The better to look at my legs, more like!"

"N-No! Not at all, not at all! I mean, kiki, I always figured the children could use a father figure—"

"I need no male!"

"But—!"

"There's a saying among the Terrans: I am a strong, independent, wo—!"

"Alright, I think we're getting way off topic with this nonsense!" Detective Orsten interrupted, stepping in between the zerg and the nerubian. Anub'arak stepped back, startled, while the Broodmother merely glowered at the man. "Can't we go at least one day without things getting this out of control?"

"No, not really." "Never." Li-Ming and Sylvanas said simultaneously. Arthur heaved a weary sigh, wondering again, against his better judgment, if he was still dreaming after a night of crashing and burning off Starbucks coffee or if what was happening now was indeed real.

"Anyway," said Orsten, "I suppose I'll get the boys and girls out here and cordon off the area. You all know matches will be postponed until further notice, correct? Good. Keep whatever grievances you have confined to your fight club; we don't want to have to go into debt again because either a few people got drunk off their high horse—literally—or wind up destroying the entire Hubland while sparring with those armored dogs, like a certain someone did." He leveled a knowing stare at Li-Ming, who shrugged back nonapologetically. "The rest of you," he said to Zagara, Anub'arak, and Abathur, "can leave. As for you, Brightwing—"

"I'm telling you, I haven't eaten people today!"

"But you will eventually, and nobody else goes around randomly attacking others at their own whim! I'm going to have to write you up, Miss Faerie Dragon."

"That is so not fair! You are not very nice."

"That's low, even for you," said Sylvanas. "You should be looking more into this investigation to see whether or not Brightwing is innocent, not open and close a case shut because you're going more by gut reaction than circumstantial research and evidence."

"The folks back at the station aren't going to leave a case cold like this. It'll make everyone feel a little more at ease if we arrest someone."

"And you'd rather not take the word of a Queen as evidence?" asked Li-Ming.

Orsten shook his head, held up his hands defensively. "How do I know she's not lying? You know how politicians are! They talk the talk but they don't walk the walk! Why do you think we even have the Hero League in the first place, because the Powers That Be got bored one day and decided they wanted others to do their dirty work?"

"You're just now noticing?" Anub'arak asked.

"Primary objectives unchanged since transitions," Abathur noted.

"You need to pay more attention. You're a terrible detective!" said Zagara.

Orsten flushed with humiliation at the comment. "I'm just saying—!"

"I wonder how long you'd last in her realm," said Li-Ming. "You know, before she sends someone to take your head for a trophy."

"Not even a few hours," said Sylvanas. "Maybe a day, if I'm in a good enough mood. Otherwise, you, my friend, are worm food…or your head's used as a fleshy, meaty hacky-sack for the abominations. Or a volley ball; they have their spurts of coherence and imagination every now and then."

"Well I'm damn grateful I'm Nexus born and raised instead of on that Eldritch abomination-infested world you call Azeroth!" Orsten declared, puffing out his chest and drawing up to his full height—he almost but not quite met Sylvanas's eyes. "Or an eternally conflicted world of idiot angels and demons called Sanctuary!" He pointed at Li-Ming, who to his inner surprise nodded in agreement. "Or…well, you're all over the place, last I checked!" He pointed at Zagara and Abathur. "This realm is my realm! I'm not the most authoritative figure all around, but here? Here I make the rules! I have the final say, and I say that—"

"Hush, you motormouth!" Sylvanas spat, and held up a hand to further silence his protests. Her ears twitched. "Do you hear that?"

"Eh? Hear what—"

"Listen!" she hissed, and everyone strained their hearing. "That sounds like…."

"Something's in the bushes!" Arthur exclaimed, and gestured. "Look!"

And as they did, through the foliage a dark shape rose and shook itself. A pair of eyes peered among the gloom and blinked owlishly at them. It began to rumble, low and deep in the throat.

"By the Powers!" cried Orsten. "What is that?!"

"Don't just stand there! Move!" Sylvanas shoved him aside, drew out her bow, knocked a black arrow and let it fly at the bushes. Li-Ming launched an array of magic missiles and Anub'arak unleashed a straight line of earthen spikes; and Orsten, regaining his wit, pulled the gun from his belt and opened. The eyes widened and then disappeared as the shape of the creature quickly fell back. It roared in pain as the attacks struck. The sound of its loud, ponderous footsteps soon faded into the distance.

"Stop, dammit! You're under arrest!" Detective Orsten rushed into the bushes, pushing aside branches and kicking away those that had been broken in its hasty retreat. The others gathered behind him in a clustered semicircle, staring down at the minion lying bloody and dead in a patch of beaten, ripped grass; some of it appeared dried and brittle like straw.

Li-Ming balked at it. "Well, at least we know it's not Brightwing now."

"I'm innocent! Hurray!"

"It doesn't look fresh, though," Sylvanas said, getting down on her knees beside the body. She touched her hand to its skin and prodded here and there a few times and tried to move its limbs, to which they were very hard to move and creaked under her ministrations. "This person died a while back. He must not have been transitioned long enough to respawn."

"There's a hole over here," Anub'arak called out, waving a feeler to Orsten. On shaky legs the man stumbled over and peered down into it. There seemed to be a tunnel of sorts leading away from the Garden of Terror. He rumbled approvingly. "Beautiful, wouldn't you say, Zagara?"

Zagara joined Orsten at his side and studied it. A moment later she sneered, clicking disdainfully. "It's not much of a tunnel to begin with! See how the hole is formed, the way the edges sprout up in asymmetrical patterns. Normally it's a lot cleaner, more…precise." She turned away. "He'll come back. He prefers to have his meals alone and unperturbed."

"'He'?" asked Orsten.

"I recognize these shapes, Detective, and I've seen plenty of them pocketing the surface of Zerus. You are dealing with a primal Zerg, specifically," she sighed, exasperated, "Dehaka."

"Oh, gesundheit," said Arthur.

"That's his name, pinkskin!" Zagara snapped at him. She chattered irritably, clicked her mandibles. "Pah! This had better not mean what I think it means."

"Meaning…?" Orsten pressed.

"He could be a new Hero," Anub'arak concluded. "Could it be possible?"

"I should hope not! The Swarm has already established its foothold upon the Nexus. We don't need outsiders!"

"Understatement, Broodmother," Abathur corrected her. "Thieves they are. Designs unoriginal, bootlegged. Swarm's power ours, no others. If indeed Hero, not transitioned, Organism Dehaka must be wiped clean. No traces left behind."

"That's savage, man," said Li-Ming. "Coldblooded."

"Not coldblooded. Necessary."

"Well, aren't you glad, Brightwing?" Sylvanas asked the faerie dragon in a sardonic tone. "Take the word of a Broodmother but not the word of the one and only Banshee Queen. Must be nice solidifying your innocence based on public opinion, yes? Oh, but what would I know? I'm not a cog in the justice system's machine that's been crumbling upon itself for the last few millennia." She flashed her fangs at Orsten, who colored more or less out of shame than aggravation.

"I do have a heart! A healthy, happy heart full of redness!" said Brightwing, and she lifted herself higher on her wings and spun in a circle.

"And essence," Abathur added. "Have not forgotten agenda. Will extract…sooner rather than later."

"So you do," said Li-Ming, and went to stroke the top of her head affectionately.

"Uh huh," Sylvanas agreed dully.

"At least you have a beating heart, chichichi," Anub'arak murmured under his breath, sounding bitter and sad. "But if it makes you happy, then I suppose I should be, as well."

"Yeah, great. Wonderful," Arthur grumbled. "Can we add 'psychotic' to that list?"

"I really do! Here, I'll show you!" She dug into a pouch attached to the belt around her abdomen and in her tiny paws withdrew an object the color of dried mud and many spindled valves spilling over the tips of her claws. It glistened wetly in the sun.

"OH MY GOD!" "WHAT THE HELL!" Orsten and Arthur yelled, recoiling in disgust and horror.

"SPIDER!" Li-Ming cried. She snatched Sylvanas by the shoulders and yanked her hard toward her, latching onto her like a parasite. "Getitaway getitaway GETITAWAYFROMMEEEEEEE!"

"G-Guh! God. DAMMIT! Let go of me!" Sylvanas gasped, feebly trying to push her off with Li-Ming's arms squeezed tight around her neck. The wizard buried her face in the crook of it and slammed her eyes shut, stemming a tide of tears amidst gibbering and wailing in the Banshee Queen's ears.

"That…That doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before," Anub'arak said, a little worryingly, and leaned closer. "Who or what did you kill?"

"Darkness is very bad! Bad guys taste like ink!"

"Nip it in the Terran bud, I say!" said Zagara. "Abathur, perhaps we can use this heart to extract what little essence there might be left inside it."

Abathur observed the still heart, hummed thoughtfully. "Unlikely. Time immeasurable has passed. Must make do with Organism Azmodan for now."

"Is that so? What a pity."

"KILL IT WITH FIRE!" Li-Ming continued, embracing Sylvanas even harder. "FIRE, ICE, LIGHTNING, TEMPORAL DISINTEGRATION! IT DOESN'T MATTER! JUST DO IT!"

"I'll," Sylvanas gasped again, "I'll…kill…you…with…FIRE!" She tried in vain to grab her shadow dagger but failed to reach it. She was teetering, balancing on the balls of her feet and ready to fall to the ground at any moment. "Faaaaaaaahhhhhhh…!"

"Brightwing did good thing today!" said the faerie dragon, smiling and hugging the object close to her. It left a muddy, blotchy imprint on her cheek. "Yes, I did!"