Title: Meta Phoenix
Notes1: In which I do that thing in which I inject a part of me into Nova and a part of the nameless Guest into Kerrigan. However, I find history interesting, but when there is a good yarn I just believe it to be difficult to put it down when there is something more important to be done.
Notes2: This first part was written in response to a review made by a Guest reviewer that's not Lucario made for Chapter 12. Some parts also had to be rewritten because, silly me, Ghosts can't block each other out mentally, and I was quite close to scrapping it altogether. Still, I did my research and, hopefully this time, I got things right.
Notes3: The latter parts are influenced by my current interest in revitalizing some of my other fanfics, as well as me reading "Shadow Star Narutaru" among a number of other books borrowed from the local library.
Notes4: The original ending would have had Sylvanas explaining to Jaina how, in her sector (and in regards to them reading the ending of "Narutaru"), post-MOP!Jaina was going to flood Ogrimmar, to which HotS!Jaina would adamantly state her case that she would never end up that way. I always equated HotS!Jaina to be the so-called "Disney Princess" of the game, whereas post-MOP!Jaina just makes me want to slap the ever loving shit out of the backside of her head because, well, fighting demons is a lot more important than swearing vengeance on the Horde.
Notes5: On a final aside, the ending to "Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion" still pisses me off to this day.

"Here, Nova, I got you a present," Kerrigan said abruptly, stopping in front of the table Nova was seated at. Behind her, Sylvanas was attempting to make conversation with the robot librarian, pointing at a book that was high up on the shelves where she couldn't reach and, if the past few minutes were any indication, failing to keep her temper in check. Now, upon this newest arrival, she gave pause and turned her head to watch.

Nova looked up from the manga she was reading, leveling the Queen Bitch a suspicious glare. "A 'present', you say? Like the miniature nuke that just so happened to have replaced my alarm clock, right?"

"Look, I told you already, I had nothing to do with it. Go blame Hammer for telling the deliveryman to put it 'anywhere he feels like it' because the whole place was a mess from all the spring cleaning."

"Yeah, sure. That's one way to set things back a few months. And let's not forget the nerf gun rigged behind the bathroom door."

Kerrigan smirked. "Heh. That was pretty funny."

"I had a bruise literally shaped like a bull's-eye for a good two weeks! And let me guess: you didn't put it there."

The smirk widened into a grin. "Nope."

"Liar."

"Maybe si, maybe no. It doesn't matter now. This, however, does." She tapped whatever she was holding behind her back against her folded wings.

Nova placed the bookmark on the page she was on (the fact she was not quite close to the ending had her thinking things were going along way too easily), closed the book, set it aside, and clasped her hands together on top of the table. "Is it going to blow up in my face?"

"No," said Kerrigan.

"Is it going to knock me off my feet onto my ass—?"

"No, Nova."

"To the point where I'll be rendered unconscious from sunrise to sundown? Because back pain on top of a headache on top of internal bleeding is not my idea of fun."

"No, Nova, none of that's going to happen…in the immediate, physical context. Mentally? Well, given the rumors I've heard about your transition, I suppose so. Here. Happy early birthday or whatever." Kerrigan removed the present from its hiding spot and handed it to her.

Nova accepted it and, upon seeing the cover, immediately balked at the title. "'A Child's Guide to the History of the Terran Dominion and the Before Time'?" She shot the Queen of Blades a disbelieving look. "Why do I need this? I've done my research!"

Kerrigan scoffed. "Yeah, well, apparently you either didn't do enough in school or the transition really did warp your mind. I heard you talking to Sylvanas that one day in the dance studio. Something about twerking and the etymological, cultural differences between how cultures perceive American football and association football. That latter term means soccer, Nova. Don't tell me you've never heard that term before."

"Uh…no, I haven't? What does that have to do with this?" Nova rapped the book with the back of her knuckles. "I'm well past childhood!"

"I wonder about that," Kerrigan murmured under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said if you're going to be making small talk and telling your stories, you should at least take the time out to get your information correct instead of just winging it by memory! It's not going to do your audience any favors if you give them the wrong idea. Do you want them to be pointing out your mistakes more and more after the first time? They'll get fed up and leave if you don't bother to fix them!"

Nova narrowed her eyes. "Are we talking social interaction or writing? Because this sounds more like advice you give to someone who's aspiring to be a writer."

"Either way."

"But I'm not writing to Sylvanas—"

"Well, it's kind of like that—talking and writing. One's done verbally, one's done mechanically. You just wish you could write to her like you do when you talk to her."

"I know what I'm doing! You think this is going to hold my attention? Look at how short it is!" Nova held out the book and quickly thumbed through the pages, making a sound like fluttering bird wings. "And where's the art? It can't be a children's book if there's no art! How's it's supposed to keep me entertained?"

"Nova, it's two hundred pages. You can fly through it in about…a few days, if you want to let it all sink in."

"It's not a children's book if it doesn't have art to break up the walls of text!"

Kerrigan sighed wearily. "Does it matter?"

"In my honest opinion, yes!"

"Nova, if you want her to leave you alone, you should read it," Sylvanas said, coming over to clap a hard hand on her shoulder; the motion made her jump. "If not for your sake or hers, then it would be within your best interest to do it for me."

"But history's boring! It doesn't bear any relevance to my life unless I suddenly decide I want to become a teacher—and I don't, I have no intentions. I'm loyal to the Dominon, but I'm not that loyal!"

"More like you're not that bored," said Kerrigan, shaking her head.

"And what could be more exciting than Dominion history, hmm?" Sylvanas leaned over her shoulder and studied the cover of the manga Nova had been reading. "Let me see…Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion…oh, it's one of those stories that deconstructs a tried and true genre."

"It's not the first of its kind," said Nova. "There are Neon Genesis Evangelion, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Berserk…."

"Your Japanese people come up with the strangest title. What does 'puella' even mean?"

"If it makes it even for easier, you can always just refer it as 'mahou shoujo'. I don't think anyone wants to argue the proper etymological usage of titles anymore than when they did when it aired."

"I see. Ah, you're on the last volume," Sylvanas noted, adjusting the book to see the number on the spine. "I finished it last week. Listen to me closely: if you want to maintain the good feels, you won't finish it."

"Are you going to kill me if I do?"

"I might." Sylvanas tightened her grip, digging her nails in deep.

Nova made a face that was half-pout and half-wince. "So mean!"

"Hey, Nova, I'll make you a deal," said Kerrigan, placing a hand on her hip. "I've read this manga, too, and what Sylvanas says is the truth. If you can finish that book I gave you by the end of the week, I won't spoil the ending of Rebellion for you."

"Oh, please!" Nova snorted. "You don't call yourself the Queen Bitch for nothing! For all I know, you'll spoil it as soon as I crack this bad boy open!"

"No no, I mean it. Take a peek in my mind." Kerrigan tapped the sides of her head with both index fingers, grinning. "Come on. Open those doors to that brain of yours a little more and left the power flow through you. I know you're holding back. Don't you want to learn how the gears churn in there?"

"I've read plenty of erotica to know what you want to do with Raynor. That's nothing new."

The grin remained, but now a warning cloud had fallen upon it. "I can teach you the tricks of the trade, Nova. How to be a better Ghost. How to be better than me. There is so much stuff in here that I might just forget to restrain myself and give you the ending."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh, I would."

"You won't have to," said Sylvanas, and, reaching around, unsheathed the dagger and pressed it lightly against Nova's neck. The Ghost started at its glacial touch. "Nova! You're going to read the book and you're going to like it, or Darkness help me I'll make you into a jack o' lantern fit for the Headless Horseman!"

Nova swallowed hard. She could feel her tiny Adam's apple bobbing up and down with the motion, graze against the curved tip of the edge that was, she hoped, more sharp than blunt. "Y-You know I'll just come back, right?"

"You know I'll do it again when you do and if you don't do as I say, right?" Sylvanas countered bitingly, applying slight pressure against her throat. Nova's lips drew back against her gums, eyes wide and drawn down to the blade. "You Ghosts can read minds; look into mine and see that I'm not giving you the bull." Her own gaze flicked up toward Kerrigan.

The Queen of Blades blanched. "She…She can read mine, too, you know! Sure, she's second-rate, but I can drop the defenses and give her a peek inside—and only a peek!"

"You're lying," said Sylvanas. "If you were really thinking about the ending, Nova here would've found out by. And you can't block each other out, can you? I'll wager it's almost next to impossible. So by that logic—"

"All of that erotica's fake, anyway!" Kerrigan exclaimed abruptly, blushing a vibrant purple. "Passing fancies for lonely hearts not even Sergeant Pepper can recruit!"

Sylvanas arched a brow. "Is it now?" She snorted. "Some Queen you are. You never let alone know what you're thinking. Always stay two steps ahead of your opponent…especially if they're, well, special." She tapped the dagger once.

Nova shivered. "I, ahem, figured that much. I'll…I'll read, okay? Just, uh, give me a notice when you're going to kill me, please? It's no fun if you do it to me and not the decoy. A good Queen would give her victim a bit of a head start so she can have a much more engaging hunt. At least that's how the Brits did to foxes way back when."

"Yes, well, guess what, I am not nor ever will be a Brit…and Kerrigan over there can be whatever interspecies flavor of the month she chooses to be." Kerrigan responded with a roll of her eyes. "Now, Nova," tap-tap-tap, "read this book in my name and I will guarantee you I will not spoil you. If you value your blissful ignorance, you will thank me for it later."

Nova's eyes had never left the shadow dagger, but at those words they peered up, up, way up, at what little of Sylvanas she could see. "Wow. Really? That's, uh, that's awfully sincere of you."

"Don't press your luck."

"Right. Of course. So, uh, if you don't mind…?" She lifted a hand and poked the back of Sylvanas's knuckles. "I need to look down to read. You dig?"

Sylvanas harrumphed, but she relented and removed the dagger, replacing it in its sheath. When she turned, she saw the robot attendant standing behind her. "Here is the book which you requested, madam, following specific, preferential guidelines," it said in a masculine, baritone voice. It held out a thin book in its grasp, as though it were presenting a plate of delicious appetizers. Sylvanas accepted it and frowned at the cover, which had some purple-haired Japanese girl riding high above a town on a yellow-bodied, orange-faced star-creature with big cartoon eyes.

She held it out back to the attendant. "Are your logic circuits even functioning properly? I asked for something apocalyptic. This, right here, is the opposite of apocalyptic."

"It is what you asked for, my Lady," the robot told her. "Three times, according to the timestamps."

"Yeah, that's great."

"Indubitably. Would you like for me to check it out or at one of our computers—"

"I'm being sarcastic!" Sylvanas snapped, smacking upside its crown with back of the book. She glowered at the cover. "This is something Li Li might read. Maybe even Jaina! But I, the Banshee Queen of the Undercity? No! Never! I can never read a book that's so bright and colorful and…and" she glanced at the cover again and sneered "so happy!"

"What have you got there?" Kerrigan asked. Nova said nothing, her nose buried in the history book.

"First volume to some manga called 'Shadow Star Narutaru'." Sylvanas passed the book off to the woman and folded her arms across her chest. "I heard the serfs saying it was bloody and violent with a very dark ending."

Kerrigan hummed to herself as she flipped through a few pages. "No. Sure doesn't look that way. Not this early, I guess. Who knows, maybe it will. If you're asking for apocalyptic fiction and that guy over there keeps giving you this manga, then surely it must be. Give it a shot." She handed it back to Sylvanas, who turned her nose up at it.

"Ugh...Why do I feel like as though I'm being played?" She sighed again. "I suppose I will give it a chance. There really is nothing here today that has caught my interest. You there! Robot! Show me where the rest of the volumes that belong to this series is, then direct me to your computers so I might check them out personally."

"Certainly, madam," the attendant said, inclining its head to the side and spinning its lobster-like hands. "Thank you for visiting the Grand Nexus Library, where we carry over a hundred thousand books from a hundred thousand realms and sectors throughout the quantum timestream. We hope you enjoyed your stay."

"We'll see about that once I get through with them," Sylvanas grumbled, and went with the robot to their destination.

When they were gone and out of earshot, Kerrigan smirked and regarded Nova, whose skin was pale and sweaty under the fluorescents. "'She has no idea', huh? Clever girl. You actually put your skills outside the field to use for once."

"She snapped my neck a while back because I saw her spouting random stuff into a fan and told her it was okay to have fun now and then," said Nova, not looking up from the text. "I don't want to look forward to waking up at the Hall again with my voice gone indefinitely until the next death."

That's not all you had to say, Kerrigan thought, leveling a knowing stare at Nova. The younger girl caught the strain of thought, blushed, puffed her cheeks out, and jammed her nose deeper between the pages.

Sometime later, in the dormitory….

"Hello, Sylvanas," said Jaina, walking into the room. "Fancy meeting you here, of all places!" She had been running errands and helping the good folk of the Nexus tend to the Gardens, and so for the time being wanted nothing more than to dress into something more comfortable and relax. She had just pulled the hood off her head when she noticed the book Sylvanas had in her hands. "What are you reading?"

Sylvanas grimaced, closed the book, and held it up for Jaina to see. She wasn't even sure what she was doing anymore.

The reaction was immediate: Jaina busted out laughing at the sight of the cover. "Oh, that's so cute!" she squealed. "I didn't know you were into young adult fantasy fiction!"

"…I'm not," Sylvanas intoned in a deadpan. "I was bored and looking for something to read, so I asked around. The younger folk suggested this to me." Because they had said it contained horror, blood and guts and plenty of death, but other than a floating monstrosity at the beginning of the story, there was nothing remotely terrifying or life-threatening going on.

"What's it about?" Jaina asked. She plopped herself down next to the Banshee Queen and scanned the art of the double-spread pages. That same girl who was on the cover was riding the same star, only now in grayscale and instead of a town they were flying high above the island they were supposedly on.

"That girl there," Sylvanas said, pointing at her, "she goes to this island to visit some friends and she finds that star-thing or whatever it is while out for a swim. So now she's being a bad little girl and going around acting cool in the middle of the night because she found out she can fly with it." Or whatever. If she was her kid, she'd be tied to a stake like the rest of the hawkstriders at Thuron's Livery outside Silvermoon City until she conveniently forgot the mechanisms of flight and behaved how a normal, non-mage human being should. She relished at the thought of deciding not to have children. "I don't know what's going to happen next."

"Let me read with you. It looks to be a very interesting story. That is, if you don't mind."

Sylvanas rolled her shoulders. "I have nothing better to do. Do what you feel is best."

A week later….

"Well," said Sylvanas, staring with Jaina in stunned silence at the last page of the final volume, "that's…one way to bring about the end of the world. It's…well, it's creative, but it's also…what's the word…anti-climatic?" She looked at Jaina; the poor girl wore the most despairing, horrified expression she had ever seen on her. It was probably what she looked when Theramore got bombed…or lost her virginity to Arthas. "Are…Are you alright?"

Jaina didn't answer. Sylvanas sighed and leaned back against the boxboard.

Neither said anything for a time. Then:

"Holy crap!" Jaina exclaimed. "What kind of an ending was that?! Who…Who in their right mind would write a story like this?!"

Sylvanas checked the author's name. "Kitou Mohirou. That's surname first, given name last."

"By the Light! I…I think people could be so cruel! Especially to…to…."

"To children," Sylvanas finished for her.

"By the Light." Jaina shook her head in disbelief. She stared at the carpeting between her fingers, whose nails were scratching lightly upon it. "I…um…I think I'll go to the stables and, uh, play with those quilen puppies." She pushed up off the floor, grabbed her staff propped against one of the bunk beds, and went for the door, almost as if in a rush to get out.

"Not going to look up pictures of cats on the Internet like everyone else does?" Sylvanas asked her.

"I'm going for the the real thing!" Jaina called behind her as she fled through the door and into the hallway. The door closed shut with a soft slam.