Three days have passed since the Imperials, the Blade and Arnor sided together to battle against the Stormcloaks and the Forsworn but now the Forsworn and Stormcloaks have been pulled back to their cities for now and the Blades are pulled back inside their stronghold to recover while the rest moves around Whiterun to return to the Rift to report to the others but then they didn't know that the soldiers of Arnor are all dead, even those that was about to join their ranks in Riften they were all dead.
Talion makes it to the place where they all lie dead, he was in shock to see them all dead, they were not taking prisoners they wanted to slaughter this order, Stormcloaks are dead with Arnor and with them gone it won't be long before the elves makes a final push into Skyrim to invade the city of Riften, with the leader of the people of Arnor dead it is now up to Talion to decide what they should do, he turns back and notices them all looking at him waiting for his orders, he would look back then back to them.
"We got work to do..."
"What do we do to the Stormcloaks?" An Imperial soldier said to Talion
"Let them fight the elves... the enemy of my enemy is my friend." He starts to walk past them; he was going to the borders where the Stormcloaks are defending.
Ten Stormcloaks were defending the corner borders, all standing ready and soon they will get reinforcements because they do not want the elves to come in here, they would notice more are coming through they would draw blades and wait for them to come but then the elves would notice Talion walking towards them, he stabs his sword through one of them and then strikes down another one from behind, the others would spot this and charges to him but then they get attack by one of the elves thunder strikes, knocking down one of them and charges through the border to attack the other Stormcloaks. Talion looks over to another one and would grab the hand that was holding the sword then stabs him as he was quicker than the soldier, he looks over to the elves as they kill the last one, they all kept their swords ready as they get closer to Talion but one of them in the black cloak walks over to him.
"You helped us out... why did you kill them?"
"The enemy if my enemy... is my friend..." he turns back and places his sword away; he walks back to the others
"The enemy of my enemy... i understand..." he looks to the others "We go to Riften." He leads the band of elves towards the city
Talion and his forces stands away looking out seeing the Stormcloaks fighting the elves, the elves would storm inside the city and kills all the guards, they would round up the people and whoever fights them will be killed, they soon charge up the stairs and kills more of the guards, they run inside to get the Jarl and offer a surrender to the elves, giving them the ownership of this victory of this city. They manage to capture the Jarl before she and her associates escape, they return back to the throne room and soon Talion and some of his men enters Riften to speak to the elven leader at once after they are done with the Jarl.
The elven leader looks over to Talion, signalling his elves to stand down, he looks to the Jarl then back to Talion "I should thank you for helping me take this city; it won't be long before the Talos worshippers come to reclaim it."
"I came here to seek an agreement with you, you elves are here for Ulfric and so am i... on one condition, once you kill Ulfric and his followers you leave Skyrim and leave the rest to me and the Empire."
"What a bold agreement, what happens if we wish to stay here a little longer?"
"Then we can have our fight... Once the Stormcloaks are defeated, do we agree with the situation here and in case you haven't notice you are here for them not us." He lends his hand in front of the elf
"Very well then, i will command the elves to attack the Stormcloaks in the north to end this, then we return but if anyone gets in our way we will be forced to kill them." He shakes his hand
"Agreed... i will back off but if you need help i will help you take the city you know where to find me."
"Well we might need some help because my scouts manage to get into Skyrim and told me that all the Stormcloaks are ready to march over here with an army, i don't suppose you have an army to take them on?"
"I know an army, don't worry." Talion turns back and walks out of the room and heads outside of Riften then goes outside of the city to tell the others the situation.
"So were siding with the elves in the end then?" One of them said to one another
"We got no choice, if they agree to this then we get Skyrim back, the empire can send his troops to bring back the peace."
"We still don't have enough to take the city." Talion said to them "We have a handful of men but this isn't enough, the elves can get more but they still can't get the city on their side, i know one more group we can call... the Dark Covenant."
"Are you insane?! They almost took out Whiterun and killed two Jarls."
"Don't worry... i have ways of persuading them to get them on our side without killing us, don't worry just get all of you ready to move to defend Riften against the Stormcloaks."
"Very well then i will lead the defence with the elves at Riften." The imperial commander said to Talion then signals his troops and Arnor to abandon this position and move to Riften to take over.
Talion turns back and thinks for a moment "Are we ready?"
The Imperials, Arnor and elves fortify the city and ask the citizens to stay inside their houses and lock the doors while they wait for the Stormcloaks to appear, because of what happen in the west many of the Stormcloaks that are fortifying the main cities and towns started to abandon them except for Solitude as they must defend it in case the Forsworn appears, all available troops are ordered to return to Windhelm to prepare a defence there to make a stand against the enemy but they would send troops to retake the city of Riften but the way things are going here they need to send everyone to overrun their position, they were ready to fight the Stormcloaks while Talion goes off to the west to find the Dark Covenant infantry because he knows there are still more of them out there and has a technique which only he wishes to use privately and the first place he will go to is Falkreath since it's destroyed there could still be some Covenant patrolling the area then he would make his way to Bloodlet Throne, a fort that lies in the mountain, another place where he thinks they are all there at the moment.
Four Covenants with the Ebony armour on was patrolling the roads in Falkreath, Talion would move closer towards them, he walks to one of them and grabs him taking off his helmet and grabbing the side of his face, his hand would glow into an ethereal type giving the soldier a cyan painted hand on the side of his face.
"You will obey..." Talion said in a ethereal voice before letting go of his face, he takes a step back and the guard would put on his helmet and walks around the place returning to his duties. "It works..." Talion mumbles then walks over and does the same thing to the other three, not letting them know whats going on.
The four stand ready under his control; they stand in the middle of Falkreath looking at Talion with cyan eyes that glow from within their helmets. Talion gave them an order to move to the east to Riften to attack only the Stormcloaks and help the people who are defending Riften, once they got their order they would turn to the side and starts moving to the east together towards the city. In Riften they are ready to fight but they notice the Stormcloaks are coming, they would control the three towers that stands between them, the elven archers stays at the top while the soldiers of Arnor defends the ground and the Imperials and elven infantry would defend the front gate and the third tower if they lose the two of them.
The High Elven leader walks forward drawing his elven great sword standing with the soldiers of Arnor wearing high elven armour this time "Stand strong, show them no mercy." He stands ready with the others as they started to hear them coming.
The Stormcloaks standing at hundreds of them standing on the roads, the leader a general was on his horse looking out waiting for one of his scouts to return to him to report telling him the situation. "The elves control the city and the enemy from the west are here standing by their side."
"That explains how they manage to take control of the border, how many are we dealing with?" the general looks at the scout
"Not many, there could be twenty or thirty of them standing between us, they are fortifying the towers and defending the front gate."
The general turns back looking at his forces "Stormcloaks, protectors of Skyrim, those who stand between us shall feel the wrath of Talos!" He draws his battle axe and then the others would draw their weapons ready "Onward to victory... for Skyrim for Ulfric Stormcloak!" they would all charge towards the towers while some start to move elsewhere
The defenders hears them crying out for battle, they stand their ground and waits for them to come, they notice them charging towards them the archers on the tower would begin to fire down at them, four archers on the tower releases their arrows, missing twice but two of them takes out two of the Stormcloaks while they charge but then one of them would throw an axe towards the infantry taking out one of the Arnor soldiers to the chest then draws his other sword to clash against the others, the elven leader swings his sword towards one of them while the others blocks their attacks then collides with the others, there were too many of them but they do try to hold their ground against the Stormcloaks, on the second tower they would notice others moving around them they would begin to fire arrows but then the covenant infantry appears and strikes down the ones that wanted to go around, they failed to deliver the task as the covenant strikes them down all eight of them down but losing two of the infantry in the process, the other two joins the second tower and stands by the others like nothing happen between the two.
Soon the defenders have to fall back to the secondary tower as the elven leader got wounded during one of the fights then retreats with the others, the archers on the tower escaped but then they get stabbed from behind before they return to the others, the secondary tower defends against their waves of Stormcloaks but then they notice they were flanking their position again with the general with them by their side, they strike back against them all but soon they would have to retreat early, the others by the gate notices this and joins in the fight to help them, the soldiers of Arnor and covenant are all dead so now it's between the Imperials and elves against the Stormcloaks, they continue going as they charge through towards the front gate, the elves on the wall shoots down the attackers but during the fight with the elven leader he strikes down two of them and then takes out another one but then the general comes towards him on his horse and beheads the elven leader, thanks to his axe stuck to his chest he fell off the horse then gets the axe out of his chest and strikes down the elves as they run towards him, they now couldn't stand a chance and the Imperials were soon dead and only a few elves were left defending inside the city.
"Break down the gate, slaughter these elven filth!" he said to his men as they try to bash down the gate with their axes and swords, trying to cut their way through, the elves shoots down at them from above but then the archers below fires back causing them to jump off the gate and then retreat out of there by going to the back gate to return home.
The moment they break down the gate they charge through but they notice the elves were gone, they would celebrate on taking the city and moves forward to secure the city and tell the citizens that they have won, they would use this victory to chase after the elves with all they have heading towards the border but then once they make it outside they spot them, they spot the Dark covenant standing at twenty of them standing ready with Talion in front of them. Talion charges towards them and so do his controlled covenant, the general charges towards them also and clashes on the roads outside of the city of Riften, they fight and die on the field but the covenant got the upper hand just because the Stormcloaks have the numbers doesn't mean they can take on Ebony with just steel swords and axes.
They fight but no one is backing down but then the Stormcloaks were about to retreat as they can't defeat them, the general would keep fighting but spots Talion and was about to charge at him but then he gets impaled twice by two spears from behind, Talion walks over to him to finish it by stabbing his sword through his neck.
"For Lithariel." He said to him then he swings to the side to remove his head off his body, he looks back seeing the Stormcloaks fleeing the area, they would all return to Windhelm after they lost and won this day, Talion looks back to the followers "Attack the Stormcloaks, leave Ulfric to me." He looks forward and starts walking towards the city of Windhelm with his soldiers as this will be the last thing he will do for Skyrim, the end of the war is about to end.