Chapter 34

We crashed into the ground, mud and leaves mixing with the thick layer of gore coating us, and I coughed up orc blood, the green goo splattering onto the ground.

"This is where Gul'Dan brought Archimonde into the world?" Anduin seemed incredulous, but the quaking had already started in my limbs as I recognized the area.

Blackened earth, fel strained sky, looking out over the jungle, large, bubbling rivers of fel leaking down the side of the mountain, and the smell-

"It's definitely the scene from her vision," Teir said quietly, and I felt Anduin's arms around my middle as his magic seeped into me, working to steady me.

As soon as my feet were sure beneath me, we moved forward. I took the lead, following the phantom path from the vision, and when we rounded the corner-

"Ah, the powerful girl who freed me from the portal."

I bit back a snarl. Gul'Dan floated in a spherical shield, behind the Man'ari himself.

"This is the magic wielder? She is but a speck!" Archimonde's voice echoed through my bones, and I broke away from Anduin, standing away from the group as they moved around me.

"Do you wish to challenge me, little one? Do you think you can compare to such power…to a legion?" Archimonde laughed, a grating, nerve wracking sound, but I focusing on the little, crawling vines moving towards me, twitching my fingers behind me back until I stood in a runic circle of empowerment.

"Archimonde the Defiler! You are unholy. You are Man'ari." My voice did not shake, and this seemed to pique his interest, because he stilled, listening, "You have committed a legion of crimes, and for that, I have come to exact punishment!"

I opened my mouth, stretched my hands, and yanked.

His magic exploded into sight, a disgustingly unappetizing green, and I staggered as the force of it hit me head on, and I forced myself to keep going. Archimonde roared, shaking the very ground I stood on, but my runes held. All around me, chaos broke out as the others fought and Gul'Dan tried to disrupt me, but I focused.

I wanted to vomit as his power seemed never ending, the foulness seeping into me and clumping into my magic, and I refused to choke on it as it grew fouler and more putrid.

"You little rat! How dare you consume my magic!"

The scene around me changed suddenly, and tears burst forth from my eyes as I watched loved ones die over and over in front of me, and I must've started to scream.

I felt Teir, in my mind, holding me to my body with all of her strength. It's not real, Jadearra! It's not real!

I shook, screaming at the top of my lungs as I continued to consume the magic, quaking with the sheer enormity of power that this one being had-and it was all wrong.

"You monster! You little wretch!" I felt him attempt to wrest the magic away from me, and I cried out as it tried to crawl back out of my body, and I wrenched it back to me, the pain in my bones building as I took in more power.

"You will not leave me unscathed!"

"Kenlora!"

I was in Teir's head suddenly, and I saw Archimonde send a bolt of sickly green energy at the night elf, the foul magic wrapping around her, and she stood entranced. I was trapped within my web of protective magic, desperately yanking at the energy. Anduin threw himself on top of Teir as she tried to move to her partner, and she ate dirt as she screamed.

I watched through her oozing eyes, horrified, as Kenlora's silvery eyes turned fel green, and her skin roughened and split, and horns burst free from her forehead, wings sprouted from her back, and she screamed like a banshee.

"Ken! Ken! Kenlora No! Kenlora!" Teir was savage, scratching viscously at the ground and at Anduin as she tried to get to her partner.

Kenlora turned, her eyes cold and green, and gave Teir a dark grin, "I never loved you."

I was slammed back into my body, and with a savage howl, I ripped the last of the magic that I could contain away from Archimonde, falling to my knees and clawing at my chest as I tried to contain it.

"Gul'Dan!" Archimonde fell to the ground, sending a bolt of energy to the Orcish warlock, "We had a Pact!"

Kenlora leapt from the ground, the leathery wings flapping elegantly, and took Gul'Dan about the waist, sending them shooting off through the open portal.

The portal closed, and Archimonde's eyes dulled, gone from this world.

I screamed as it ate at me, and Teir screamed out for Kenlora again and Again.

"Archmage!"

"Grab them!"

I felt the sucking sensation of teleportation, and we were at the ruins of the dark portal, and I screamed, lightning striking somewhere and the smell of sulfur choking me.

This is too much.

"Jadearra! The Portal!"

I couldn't breathe, but I thought of Azeroth, of why I did this, and forced my hands from the ground, and the air ripped in two, and I saw…something on the other side.

"I…can't...!" I felt my skin peeling away from my muscles, my eyes burning as the agony raced through me, the magic pulsing and writhing to be free.

"Hurry! Go! Go! Go!" I felt a 'pop!' as people went through the portal, and the cry of a baby.

Shad.

I screamed, putting more energy into the portal, forcing all of this foul power out into it, and I felt the yanking sensation as I was dragged forward.

Arms wrapped around me suddenly, "I got you, I got you."

"Anduin?!" I screamed, pushing him, but he had me, "You need to go through the portal!"

"Not without you! Come on!" He dragged us forward, and with a last pulse of magic and throb of agony, he shoved us through.

We were in the rift.

I recognized it for all of its screaming voices and colours and flashes of different places.

But I had Anduin in my arms.

"Move! Move! Come on Jadearra!"

I couldn't move, I felt shackled, I was trapped in this hellish place.

Anduin's face was backlit by the chaos, but he wouldn't let go.

"Go to Azeroth! Get out!" I screamed, my voice sounding muffled to my own ears as I tried to get him to let go.

"Not without you! Princessling! You can do it, come on!"

I was drowning, I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't-

"Call The Mist! Drop your link to Archimonde and let the Mist guide you!" Anduin was screaming, "Come on!"

I was drowning, but a sliver of silver came towards me from the blinding white light that hadn't been there before-it was a hand, and a face.

"Reach for it, Jadearra! Come on you can do it, please!" he was yanking on me desperately, shooting bolts of light behind us, but I reached for the hand.

I felt like my arm weighed the world, but the small hand reaching towards me-it was so familiar.

The face came into focus.

"Mother!" I screamed, my voice muffled as the insanity reached a crescendo, "Mother!"

Her hand was joined by another, and another, and another, until thousands were reached for me, but were just out of reach-

"Come on Jadearra, please! We're almost home!"

Home.

I lunged, and the hands wrapped around my arm, and I clung to Anduin desperately with the other, his arms locked around my waist as the dead dragged us headlong into the blinding light.

It was blinding and searing and I heard my screams, along with his, but I also heard Teir and Thessali and Mother and-

We were in water.

We were underwater.

I looked around, panicked and kicking, and Anduin came right after me, the green pool of light closing beneath us.

I opened my mouth to cry out, and water rushed in, and I started to drown.

Anduin did the same, and we clawed at our throats, and I looked to the Heavens-I could see light…was that an angel?

A single, green eye and a golden patch came into focus, and I felt an arm loop around me, pulling me upwards, and then-

I hacked, gulping in air like it was all that mattered, and I looked around in a blind panicked to see Anduin held by the angel's other arm, and that angel was-

"Father!" I couldn't believe it; my father was holding me in this weird pond like thing in the jungle-

"Hold on, sweetheart." He gave a mighty kick of his legs, and I cried with joy as I heard his voice.

Suddenly, I was laid down on dry ground, and I latched onto Father, burying my face into his shoulder and shaking with joy.

"Father, Father-."

"Oh Jade, my beautiful Jade," I felt his hands on my back, and his breath in my hair, "I was so scared when you weren't with the others who came through, and how long behind you were, and-Oh my daughter!"

I was with my Father.

I was in Azeroth.

Then my reuniting was shattered by the agonized scream.

I pulled away from Father to see Teir with Tyrande and Malfurion, and Tyrande had fallen to her knees, and was crying out in agony, while Teir simply kneeled beside her, and Malfurion held his wife.

My chest ached as I remembered. Kenlora.

"You shall not leave unscathed!"

The Legion had taken her.

I looked around, and saw Thrall with his Aggra, and his boy, and-

"Shad," I croaked, my throat raw from water, and the shaman looked to me, blue eyes concerned, but he came over and knelt before me.

"Your babe was scared by the rift, but she is here," Thrall spoke quietly as he passed me the blinking baby girl, and I held her to my soaked chest, smiling down at the little light of Draenor.

"Jadearra? You took a ward?" Father held me like I held Shad, and I looked up into his eye.

"She is named strength, for she was the weakest babe of the Frostwolves since Draka. She was orphaned, and no one wanted her. She is ours," I said, and Father studied me for a moment, before he looked down at the babe.

"I never thought my first grandchild would be an orc, but since when were you ever normal, daughter?"

I felt my face stretch into a tearful grin as I clung to my father and my babe, and I saw Anduin in his father's arms, clinging to him unashamedly.

I looked to Teir again, and it seems that Sylvanas was taking care of her. We locked eyes over Teir's head from where she was curled into her lady. Sylvanas simply gave a nod of gratitude.

I brought Teir home to her.

Father helped me to my feet, and I passed him Shad, "I must do something," I spoke quietly, indicating subtly to Tyrande and Malfurion, and Father nodded grimly.

I made my way to the grieving parents, and knelt before them, aware of what Tyrande thought of me, "I am sorry. I was not fast enough to strip Archimonde of his power."

Silence reigned in the clearing, all those reunited watching this. The Thalassian Princess kneeling before the Darnassian Queen.

I felt the woman move, and glanced up to see that she was kneeling opposite me, her hands resting gently now on my shoulders, and she gave me a nod.

"We are not enemies, Jadearra Theron, no matter our history. Let it be known, for your efforts to save my child, the Darnassian and Thalassian courts will find peace with each other, for family is by blood of any time. I watched your people grow, and I watched you become this incredible young woman," she drew me into her arms suddenly, and I was somewhat stiff as she clung to me, "Thank you."

I was still as the woman clung to me, before I carefully put an arm around her as well, accepting her pledge.

"For Kenlora," I whispered and the woman clung to me tighter.

Malfurion finally eased her to him, and I went to Father, who wrapped one arm around me, the other holding my ward.

"We are together again, on our world," Khadgar said, from where he had been speaking with Jaina Proudmoore, "We all deserve rest. Let us return to our homes."

With that, we parted ways, portals being opened, but before we could walk into the portal between me and Silvermoon, Anduin caught my arm.

I turned, and made a startled sound in my throat as his mouth closed over mine, sweet and gentle, and he whispered against my lips, "As soon as I have a ring."

He pulled away with a heated look, returning to his father, and I watched as the Father and Son stepped into the portal to Stormwind, and sighed as Anduin went miles away to his own home.

I looked to Teir again, who was arm in arm with Sylvanas, preparing to return to Lordearon, and she looked…incomplete.

Teir? I called out through the bond.

I was met with silence.

They left, and I sighed, feeling her own grief echo into me, and I turned to Father, the only living family left in my life, and Shad, my ward and babe who is both Frost Wolf and mine.

I gave a sad smile, fatigue dogging me, "I want to go home."

Father smiled, his joy almost contagious, "Anything for you, my daughter."

We turned to the portal, and stepped through.

There was no rift, and in an instant, we were in Silvermoon.

Cheers rang out from the hundreds of elves gathered below, and I felt a piece of me relax and elate.

I was home.

I was with my people.

I was alive.

I heard barking, and turned to the doors to see-

"Bandit!" I knelt down, getting a tongue to the face by the overexcited wolf, but it warmed me that I had him again.

Delevenia stood by, a warm smile marring even her features, and Elvira was very pregnant, and bouncing up and down with a grin.

"The Reagent Princess is home!" Father boomed, "She conquered the Iron Horde and Draenor, defending Azeroth and Silvermoon!"

Another cheer rang out through the court, and I smiled.

I was home.

But I was different.