Pot... is some greaaat shit, particuarly when you get the good high grade stuff... oomph lots of inspiration to be had there... lots of nightmares. extasy is great too, but not nearly to good for inspiration... eh good for the sex drive though... usually, tends to make my neck break out in a horribly itchy rash though. hmm i miss Oxycodone.. eh buuuut, sadly i had to get off the stuff and onto lesser drugs.. if i didn't i was going to have to go througrehab again.. urrh! i mean the first few times it wasn't so bad... mostly because i had an overseer i could bribe into slipping me some of the good stuff... eh sadly third time around he got caught and fired and a whole bunchof stuff, his replacement wasn't nearly so easy to get along with.. particuarly since he was gay and i couldn't work anny of my more... femine charms on him like i did old Doyle.. *giggle* that man sure did like some head and he wasn't all that hard on the eyes or on the personality either... *Sigh* shame about him. anyway on with the story.
PS blame the beta on the wait, she's taking forever on the help, though in her defense it isn't really her fault... entirely.. eh seh has school and stuff to go through. eh and i sadly... need a damned partner to help write the rest of this stuff, its really been a pain in my ears working up the inspiration and willpower to finish writing parts that i skipped over.
Author POV.
Magtheridon roared and charged through the gates the defenders had swung shut in an effort to keep him caged within the dungeon and blew them off their fuckin hinges, he swung his great blade and blasted them with a wave of fire, he swung his tale and smashed the demons and Orcs, he stomped on the Naga and Blood Elves and breathed fire into the faces of all, he had been caged in darkness and drained of his blood for a while and he was ticked of to say the least.
And so he was pretty damn happy now that he had his freedom back and was perfectly capable of following through with all the threats and promises he'd made to his people after they'd turned their allegiance away from him and to the hybrid Illidan Stormrage. The only thing that could make him happier was if Illidan himself was there to suffer his wrath as well.
Kael'Thas/Scarecrow rode through the corridors laughing and ranting at the dozens and hundreds of people in the citadel who screamed and quaked in fear of him, seeing him in a multitude of images, as the fear toxin he spread out into the air from his purple skinned dark veined right hand, a glowing amethyst spider web in the tainted flesh in the center of his hand where the Abysmal orb he'd absorbed had entered his flesh.
Giving him power over people's worst nightmares and capable of bringing them to life, though he mostly just let it lie at hallucinations and let others kill them or let them kill each other. He cackled madly as the stench of fear and chaos grew so thick in the air it was almost tangible and he drunk it all in using it to power the orb and he named himself Scarecrow the King of Fear and the masses of demons, Orc, Trolls, Elves and Naga bowed to him even as they wept and shook and pissed themselves with fear and he laughed all the while.
The only thing that could make him happier, would be if Valentine were anywhere to be found, so he could thank him in person, for shattering his mind and rendering him incapable of being even half as sane as he once was without the mask over his head.
And then there was the Warlock and his crew. The Warlock wasn't happy, for neither Sylvanas nor Illidan were anywhere to be found and that was really pissing him off. He took his displeasure out on the Sand Naga, whom he'd been using as scouts and whom had sworn Illidan hadn't left the Citadel.
The Warlock growled obscenities and most of those around him fell over or blew up from the consequences of his displeasure, which he might not have minded so much, were it not for that fact that it was getting harder and harder for him to tell the difference between blood staining his vision and his skin and something else turning his very skin red.
"I am not at all happy, you lazy sons and daughters of swine!" he snarled snapping his hand at the groups of people allies and enemies alike on one side of him, causing yet more of them to suddenly be struck by horrid diseases or to explode in showers of blood and various other substances and on one case to turn into a rabbit. "I need to find and eliminate that asshole Illidan Stormrage and that bitch of a cunt, Sylvanas!" he waved a hand at another group of people this one comprised purely of failed Revenants and they flinched but were surprised when none of them fell over dead or horribly wounded of everything and then the building a few yards behind them exploded and glass perforated their bodies from behind, killing a few but mostly only really hurting the rest.
"If I don't, either one master or the others are going to have my head in a jar, then their going to have my body fuck my mouth and play football with me, then they'll bury me in a lice pile for a few days, and who knows what else after that!"
"Well, certainly does sound like you are in quite the pickle doesn't it." a melodic voice drawled, giggling. He spun around to see the infamous Valentine Wolfe, lounging against the corner of a nearby burning building, dressed in his usual dark Dragonhide boots, black trousers a burgundy longsleeve shirt with silver embroidery, white lace at the collar and his expensive but wrinkled looking black wool frock coat with silver serpents embroidered on the cuffs.
"If I were you, well I if I were you I wouldn't be in the situation, I have too much foresight granted to me by my enhanced mind and my chemicals, but if I were you and I didn't have my foresight, I'd say it'd probably be best if you and your people were to umm… wait and keep the citadel relatively intact at least on the outside, so that when they get back, they might be lulled into a false sense of security, least till their through the gates that is, after that no way in helll there'd be much surprise after that, I mean, have you seen the mess your Naga and Magtheridon have created down there, not even a blind man could miss all the carnage. Anyway then I'd set Magtheridon on them, they'd have a hell of a time, taking him on he might even kill Sylvanas, though Illidan really is most likely beyond even his strength and power, then set Scarecrow on Illidan and Sylvanas if she's still alive and then if he fails take care of them yourself, you and your Revenants."
The Warlock looked at him consideringly, nodding as the logic of this struck his slightly unstable mindset, "Interesting plan, you must be the Infamous Valentine Wolfe, I've heard a lot about you, whats with that stupid grin?"
Valentine chuckled, "Life's been good to me, now look I could be a lot of use to you and your people, mister?"
He held out his hand to shake, the Warlock eyed his hand before saying softly, "Some know me as Baelickoris, some as Baelic, some as Damien Aloyious Kreel, some as Jackqueline Na'apark, and some as Jack Napier… I'm uncertain at this point just which of those names is my real one or even if any of those are my real name, but I'm rather partial to Jack, so you can just call me that, Antoine shake this man's hand."
A failed Revenant stepped forward, he was a tall heavily muscular human with a long handsome face and a hooked nose and short brown hair with an intelligent spark in his eyes. "Sure boss." he muttered lowly as he stepped forward and took Valentine's hand. "I'm Antoine, that's the Warlock, pleased to-"
He cut off as his hand touched Valentine's and he stiffened and there was a loud buzzing in the air and he shook and shivered and groaned and he pissed himself as smoke began to rise from his hand and Valentine cackled long and loud as Antoine's flesh darkened and blistered and smoked peeling back away from his cooking flesh, his hand firmly locked in a handshake with Valentine's.
Valentine made dancing moves, singing and howling with laughter as Antoine burned, till eventually Antoine was nothing more than a charred skeleton and he fell onto his back, his crisped hand still holding on tightly to Valentine's.
"Nice to meet you, Antoine, you should really get those black spots on your hand looked at." Valentine cackled as he shook Antoine's skeletal hand off and blew softly on the device strapped onto his own black leather clad hand. "Antoine, got a little hot under the collar!" Valentine snickered and the Warlock chuckled with him, staring down into the crispy sockets off Antoine's skull, "You were a vicious manipulative bastard, in life Antoine," he said solemnly and he spat into the empty sockets, "You were no better in unlife, you lead yourself and your people to doom against Illidan, and I aumm, I'm glad your dead!" the Warlock and Valentine both howled with laughter and they did a little dance on the smoldering skeleton, really scaring the hell out of the remaining failed Revenants and Ground Naga, as they realized their already dim prospects of life under the rule of the madman known as the Warlock had just gotten even worse.
"So," The Warlock said softly, placing a companionable arm around Valentine's shoulders, "tell me, when are they going to be back exactly? Where have they gone, oh and why are you acting like we're allies?"
Valentine giggled, "Because, there is just the slightest chance that Sylvanas and Illidan are going to fail in their quest to stop you or well its going to be their quest anyway and your going to kill them and I'd like to be made the Lord of this place if Illidan falls, as he's the only one whose managed to… see beyond the… moral complications in the things I do and see the benefits in what I do and I can't exactly be certain that whoever takes his place will share his views that the ends justify the means, unless of course I am that person who takes his place, so this is just a little something to get you in a more friendly disposition towards me. So what do you say, you give me your word that you'll leave me in charge of this freakshow if I help you and stuff?" Valentine asked putting out his other naked hand.
"Hmm," the Warlock murmured examining the hand. "Sure, but you know of course my word only means as much as I want it to mean, correct?"
Valentine snickered, "Of course I do silly, that's part of what makes this so much fun, not knowing whether or not you'll uphold your end of this little bargain."
The Warlock cackled with him reached down and ripped off the scorched and skeletal hand of the deceased Antoine, curled the fingers slightly then extended the hand and they shook.
Meanwhile the spirit of Draenor, sensing that the place that its one and only druid in… ever, ruled was under this great threat, did the only thing it could and used up one of its very spare energy reserves to send out a message through space and time to Illidan and hoped he'd get the message.
Illidan Stormrage, POV.
"Sylvanas whats wrong with you!" I asked, feeling panicked as I held her trembling form in my arms and she shook and quivered with the pain in her head. God what was wrong with her? Was it poison but she hadn't done much other than pick at her food maybe tongue a little of it here and there surely that couldn't be enough to-
Stormrage! a loud voice echoed in my head that was strange, alien, neither male nor female but something more something that was both and neither at the same time, it… it was draenor boomed into my head and I paused. Danger, great danger, your Temple is under siege, come quick. Bring Sylvanas, she knows, she can help, Death flies on winds of Kaos, Famine, War and Destruction.
I furrowed my brow in confusion for just a second and then I got it and I snarled, Of course just as things were getting interesting! I looked down into Sylvanas' cobalt blue eyes which were just starting to show the faintest traces of a dark violet within them and I saw fear and pain in those eyes. "We've got to go!" we said in unison then we frowned at each other also in unison, "How did you-" we began and shut our mouths, then I said "Never mind we'll talk about this later we gotta go my Temple is under attack!" and I pulled her in close to me and began the teleportation spell, "So sorry everyone, gotta run our Temple is under attack, see you next time!"
Sylvanas shouted out in a rush, even as reality began shifting and twisting all about us and I admired her will power not to appear to be weak, despite whatever the hell that was that had gotten to her, but that mattered little now my home was under siege and somehow I didn't think it was just everyday raiders.
I cast one last glance towards Tyrande and Malfurion and ignored what I saw in Malfurion's face mostly concentrating on Tyrande's.
Her being was magical, though not quite magical enough to make her as vivid to my sight as the Naga or Sylvanas or even the Blood Elves, but I could see enough of her to know that what that part of me that still longed her and would continue to do so forever… was never going to get its wish fulfilled… not in this particular area of desire. I ached for her and I longed to have touched her, just once, just once damn it! But… but, yes there was always a but…
I looked down at the one particular but in this instance and I could see that her eyes had yet again changed to my sight, to glowing crimson and I could sadness and hurt in her features, I could see how it had etched its way into her very soul and… I felt a sympathy pain echo inside of me as well as guilt for I knew that she had seen that searching look I'd cast at Tyrande and recognized it for what it was and that it was the source of her sadness.
I sorta hated myself for causing her pain, for as much as I might still long for Tyrande, I had developed a longing for the sorrowful High Elf in my arms as well and I… I think that she just might be my… well I'm not entirely sure what but I did know the word for it though just like before I didn't recognize the language, hell this time I didn't even understand the meaning but I knew the word and it just seemed to somehow fit nonetheless.
Anam Cara.
I whispered it to her just a few seconds before the spell took hold and she did seem comforted by it just a little and some of the crimson left her eyes to be replaced by a just purely sad looking violet with just a glimmer of happiness at the edges as whatever it was that word meant struck home inside of her and she smiled a little even as the little sparks and stars surrounded us and we began to dematerialize.
I doubt she knew what it meant either, but like me she probably instinctively knew that it was just the right word to describe the two of us, better than boyfiend and girlfiend, better than partners, better even than mates, but not overly dramatic or romantic or anything like lovers or betrothed or beloved, but just right… "Anam Cara." I whispered to her again and held her close to me as the spell finally took hold. And we were shot across the universe like gnomes out of a cannon.
(Author's note. Just imagine it like… the transition Kagome undertakes when she goes through the bone eaters well or whatever in Inuyasha, only have Inuyasha holding her loosely and you'll about have the imagery right at least for how I'm imagining it.)
Sylvanas Windrunner, POV.
This time when I fell to my knees and vomited what little I'd consumed at the convention the shakes and cramps weren't nearly so bad and my muscles didn't feel like they were on fire. Whether that was just from my not having that much to vomit it me getting use to it, I didn't know or much care.
What I did care about, was that, that bastard of a Warlock was alive, alike and while not exactly looking well he'd had more than enough power in him to awe a secret race of Ground Naga, into serving him and I suspected that he was also the one who'd given those Raiders their ability to punch through Illidan's safeguards and teleport into the Temple, even if I couldn't prove it I was reasonably certain his touch was involved in it, I remembered what I'd heard Kael'Thas and Vashj tell Illidan, about how the raiders had used a mysterious black Orb to empower them and I remembered the Warlock wielding several black orbs when he'd stood over me that night so long ago it felt like years and eradicated the remains of the fluids inside of me and replaced them with that ugly black as the deepest abyss stuff that I now referred to as Synthablood.
I also remembered how he'd again used a black orb to draw out the Synthablood from the few sister's I'd seen captured and how every single wound she'd seemed to fall apart afterward.
Flashback scene. Sylvanas Windrunner, POV.
"I want that elixir which flows through your veins back, Sylvanas." the Warlock growled as the undead I'd once controlled surrounded him in a protective manner and he opened his hand and black lightening flowed around his hand in a whirlwind till it formed a perfect black sphere that flickered with energy and he threw it at me.
I tried to jump to one side but it was too quick, it was going to strike me and there was nothing I could do about it I was about to close my eyes and prepare for painful death, when Sindoreesa Lira'ethemore, one of my few sister banshees who'd had bodies to have resurrected just like my own had been, jumped into its path.
"No!" I screamed, but it was too late. "sister!" and then to my complete surprise, she just kept on going, till she fell to the floor and rolled up into a low catlike crouch just in front of the Warlock.
He cocked an eyebrow at her and we all stared at her for a few suspense filled seconds, "S-sandy!" one of our other sister banshee's quavered softly, "Are you alright?"
Sindoreesa, just crouched there for a few seconds and then slowly she got to her feet and turned to us… her eyes were jet black, just like the orb that had struck her. She opened her mouth a few times like a fish trying to breath out of water, as she tried to speak but no words came out, instead a blood curdling spine chilling shriek escaped her and she stared at us in horror and anguish as the black elixir poured out from around her eyes and her nostrils and her mouth and ears and then every single wound she'd suffered after she'd received the elixir burst open.
And she fell to the floor writhing in pain, as bones shattered, flesh opened up and spilled out more of the vile substance and more wounds opened up, one of her eyes dissolved and her right hand fell off. And we all watched in horror and shock as she despite her many injuries, tried to rise and let loose with one last strike for spite's sake against the Warlock, but she was finished… it was finished.
She fell to the floor in a messy black stained heap and breathed her last.
"Okay… so who wants to go next?" The Warlock asked a cheerful cocky smile spreading across his face… and we ran.
End Flashback.
Present time, Sylvanas Windrunner, POV.
"Come on Sylvanas, we've got to move!" Illidan's words snapped me out of my revery and I stared at him in confusion for a second and he gave me an irritated growl, "The Temple is under attack, by somebody, somebody you know, I don't know who but you do and I'm guessing that's what all that clutching your head was about, want to tell me about it?" he demanded clenching his jaw tightly.
"I-I was remembering something, something important that I forgot… that I was made to forget, wait a minute how did you-" I started, "I have connection with this world, I think I told you that, my connection to this world gave me knowledge that my base was under attack that my people would fall without my aid and that you know whose attacking it, mind sharing some information with me that you might consider… critical?" he asked edgily and at any other time I might have been just a bit indignant at his tone, but not now, not when I knew for a fact that the man who'd killed my sisters and whom had almost killed me and had taken control of my people away from me and forced me to run with speed away from the place I had considered to be my home and safe haven, was alive."
"I-" I started ad stopped thinking, got to keep this straight and to the point, I can't take the Warlock on my own, Illidan is angry and somewhat nervous because his people are under siege right now as we speak and I've been withholding information I should have told him long ago, but hadn't because I didn't trust him enough, before… and I'm not entirely certain that I trust him now despite what we've done together and how much we've shared and bonded over the last few weeks, but I have to tell him now… I have to trust him. "I think, he's a Warlock, a Warlock with immense power and who isn't working alone, he serves somebody, somebody powerful and older beyond belief, he's… insane but not, h-he's functionally insane if you get what I mean, he's insane like, like psychopaths are insane, he's not afraid to take chances and I think he's the one who raised those ground serpents up in the first place that we fought a few days ago."
Illidan frowned and nodded, "Yes, it would be a Warlock of course, I have faced warlocks before but its never all that easy, particularly if they have skill and power and this Warlock would have had to have lots of both to raise Naga, anything else?" he demanded roughly and I nodded, "Yes… I think… no I'm certain that he's the same Warlock that ran me out of Azeroth, Illidan, he took control of my Undead using the same old connection that tied them once to the Lich King, that tied us once to the Lich King… he's, he's also the Warlock who supplied me with the Synthablood."
Illidan visibly paled, at this and I felt my own cheeks whiten just a little as I saw this. If Illidan was frightened, a man who'd taken on two hundred Raiders and laughed practically the whole while, then I should be too. "Would-" he swallowed and tried again, "Would that also be the same Warlock who put that special arrow in your side?"
I nodded and he swore, "THat… is so beyond not good, that arrow and your Synthablood… its all so, so damn powerful the magics used for those are so old and forbidden even I would hesitate to use them, for fear of what they might do to me… their dangerous magics, dangerous and older beyond either belief or comprehension and even I would probably perish if I tried to use them. If this Warlock has managed to wield them so, I might be just a little out of my league here, especially since he's almost certainly got friends I can only take so much, before I fall."
"True and he has a trick which he could use to destroy me." I explained about how I'd seen him use one of his special magics to kill Sindoreesa and he nodded is head, looking very grave.
We both stared at each other looking pale and frightened and I thought wryly of how the old me, the old dead me who'd felt nothing but sorrow, anger and contempt, would have balked at the idea of trembling alongside a Demon/Night Elf Hybrid, at the idea of facing some nasty little Warlock and I thought further back on the hotheaded, fiery, passionate, fearless woman who'd defended Quel'Thalas and its people with a dedication that bordered on fanaticism, smoked and drank too much on her off days and had to go to older hardened Veterans for phisical comforts such as sex cause everyone else was either too intimidated or cared only for their pleasure and not enough about her's to really satisfy her and how she would have just charged on ahead boldly without thinking much about her own safety and just about the safety of others and the deaths and arrests of those who dared oppose her.
I thought of the undead Banshee, who had taken control of a large segment of the Scourge, defeated 3 Dreadlords, killing 2 and dominating the other. The undead Queen who had been hellbent on revenge, caring only for annhilating the Scourge, damaging and humilating and humbiling the undead King Arthas,even going as far as to kill her own allies to get her petty revenge on her enemies and making new ones in the process,
And then I thought about me, now, I was a different person now, with a mix of the traits I'd had in both lives plus a little extra and I thought of how everything I had done from the time of when I had been reborn and forced to leave my old life behind with the Forsaken, to now had shaped the person who I was now… was still shaping the person who I was becoming, for while I felt completely normal and totally myself, I also felt… incomplete, strange and soft somehow... i felt both better and worse than i ever had before in my existence, everything about me heightened to the peak of mortal possibility and then some, phisically... mentally... and emotionally. but still incomplete.
I was like clay that had yet to harden yet and the person using it was still turning it around and shaping it, not yet decided what it was to be. Not much of an analogy, but the best I could come up with at the moment.
I saw Illidan, looking out across the desert clearing, we'd teleported into and I could dimly glimpse the Temple to the far east of us and I looked back to where the sun was setting behind us and saw a great expanse of lake, shimmering pink and scarlet and I could practically taste the power thrumming in the air as I gazed at it, power I'd thought was coming off of Illidan but as I realized the source of the power the feeling of it grew and I… I saw it, just a little, I - I saw how the magics twisted and turned in the water, just faint glimpses that rapidly passed and as I blinked my eyes at it it rapidly dissipated and once more it was just water… water that was strangely tinted and seemed to sparkle just a bit like there were jewels hidden within its depths, but still just water and I wondered if I'd imagined what 'd seen.
"Where in the hell is this place?" I wondered aloud, "it's a special clearing, that I found some years ago," Illidan murmured softly, still staring off to where the Temple lay, "I come here at times, when the Black Temple just isn't private enough for me, to think and to restore my energy reserves and at times, to heal myself when some wounds I suffer are beyond my own talents at healing, but mostly to rejuvenate my body, keep myself strong and fit, keep myself young, despite the fact its only prolonging my tormented mind and emotions."
I stared at him in confusion and interest, "How-" I started to ask but he straightened up from where he had just started to stoop a little and gave an obvious glare towards the Temple, "That is another question for another time Windrunner," He growled and took a step forward, "Perhaps I'll answer it later, perhaps not, probably not, in the meantime however I have to get back to my Temple. Where I'm needed and show this Warlock, why I was imprisoned for Ten THOUSAND years and later banished, show him what the Betrayer is made of, he is Not! Prepared!"
He started to flap his wings and I grabbed his hand and forarm frantically, "Your not thinking of leaving me behind and going alone, are you!" I demanded, glaring up at him. He glared down at me, "What other choice do I have? You're obviously frightened, I can smell it coming off of you, I don't even need my sight. You're terrified of losing this life you've gained, terrified of what he might do to you if he catches you, so I'm not going to ask you to tag along with me, cause I don't want you if you have to be asked and dragged along into a fight, I won't fight alongside cowards!"
I bristled in indignation, "Why you!" I drew back my fist and punched out into his stomach… in retrospect it probably wasn't the best idea I'd ever had to hit a demon hybrid, with muscles in his body so obviously well developed and tightly compacted, particularly so in the stomach.
I whimpered slightly as what felt like a lightning bolt shot its way up my arm straight from my knuckles and all the way up to my elbow and a sickening crack filled the air.
I cradled my shattered hand and whimpered some more as the bones and scraped flesh reknit and reset themselves. I heard a noise from above I looked up through eyes made bleary by pain into Illidan's face and saw that he was grinning and I recognized the sound as chuckling.
"What are you laughing at!" I demanded, snarling just a bit like a rabid dog and I felt much like one too.
"Y-you," he said snickering, "you passed, Sylvanas, more than passed you passed with honors."
I glared at him, feeling confused and just a little hurt by his earlier words, "What!" I demanded.
"I was testing you, Sylvanas," he cackled, "testing you, my most mysterious, undead. arrogant, bitchy, unwanted visitor, whom I have had the great misfortune to have known and have come to respect quite highly and am proud to call you my… girlfiend," he bared his pale white teeth at me in his usual roguish wolflike grin, he offered his arm to me, "Sylvanas Windrunner, will you please accompany me to my Black Citadel, where we will have to face only Elune knows what cracks and horrors, where we will most certainly not be okay in the end even if do have each other, possibly die quite horribly maybe not all at once either. But will hopefully kick some Warlock ass and take quite a few of his people down with us, shall we?"
I stared at him for a long few seconds, thought mournfully of my lost Bow and arrows from before, the ones tainted with plague that i knew would make him suffer and I thought of spitting in his face, but then as I shook out my now mostly intact hand I thought of my dead sisters, thought of how they had been there for me when my real sister and my real family had let me down so utterly and thought of their horrible deaths at the hands of the Warlock and that familiar burning need for vengeance arose inside of me once more and I smiled the cold malicious smile of the Banshee Queen I had once been and still thought of myself as and took Illidan's arm. "Sure thing, lets go, Boyfiend, lets go and take our Citadel back." and we flew.
Warlock, POV.
I looked around, the courtyard admiring how much it looked like that place that had been so utterly demolished by the Demon Lord Archimonde, Dalaran. "God these Blood Elves, sure have done themselves good up here, haven't they." I thought aloud, absently.
"YEs they certainly have," Valentine agreed, snorting a purple and red line of powder off the bare back of a still warm and twitching blood elf female corpse. "Not as good as the Night Elves of course, those bastards have everything pretty much, all the other races have either been driven to extinction or been forced to change or make deals with unsavory characters, or even move out of this dimension entirely, 2 races have had to move out of this universe to a few over just to escape all that's been going on this past ten to fifteen years and I've heard talk of several species and sects of the trolls as well as a few other races considering changing universes as well to escape whats going to happen."
I looked over at him, my curiosity peeked, "Really?" I asked and he nodded, "Yes really, sorta worrying I suppose, if you consider how laid back the majority of the trolls are… well except the forest trolls their always angry about something oh and the ice trolls their always angry too though I suppose that's probably because their stuck in a frozen hell infested with undead, so really its just all the other trolls that are laid back, like me really, only I apparently am even more laid back than they are."
"So, you're not worried?" I asked, fingering the edge of one of my knives, "No of course not," Valentine snickered as he lit up a large foul smelling cigar that fairly reeked of mind altering chemicals, "I plan to be really quite very stoned when what they fear comes along, so stoned I'll have done one or maybe two of three maybe four things, died of an overdose, evolved my mind with these chemicals to a higher enlightened state of being possibly a whole other realm of existence far beyond the harms of this one, both of those, gone into a coma my mind permanently locked into a state of dreams and insanity so I won't feel anything of the outside world, or possibly I'll just have died and gone to stoner heaven and possibly be given an award for most stoned being in existence."
Valentine giggled, "I mean do you know how many chemicals I have swimming around in my system alone right now?" I shook my head no, he snickered again and whispered, "one hundred and forty-six!"
I stared at him, feeling respect and disbelief war for dominance inside of me, somehow I just knew that he was telling the god's honest truth in this case. "And that's actually me being fairly sober and responsible, today!" he cackled and again I believed him.
"How is it that you're alive?" I wondered and he giggled again, "I think part of it is my elven heritage, another part of it is that I'm not all that I seem, I'm… rather a lot more than what I seem really and I've had a lot of time to adapt my body to all the different chemicals inside of me, I look 26 but I'm a lot older than that a LOT older, not immortal but I am very long lived and I've done a lot to enhance my lifespan and prolong my youthful looks further, been through a lot of experimental treatments most of them invented by myself and my body has gone through a great many changes over the years because of all the chemicals that have been in my system and continue to get shoved into my system and I have become something… even more than what I was before, something… far greater than even my creator envisioned… just as you shall be." that last part came out in a hoarse whisper and Valentine's fever bright eyes, met mine just for the barest instant and I felt shivers make their way up and down my spine and my already tenuous grasp on my sanity which I was losing more and more frequently these days and keeping hold of for shorter and shorter periods of time, slip just a little and for an instant I saw me…
I saw a creature that was both myself and not myself, dressed in ragged cargo brown trousers and not a stitch else, with scaly skin standing in a broken shattered land, smoke billowing about all around me and my eyes glowing a bright glorious manic amber color, bright with insanity and power. I saw my hand gesture and saw mountains collapse at the gesture I saw buildings collapse and shatter heard the cries of the dying who were incapable of dying, incapable of such because I wouldn't let them not till they had suffered as I had suffered, not till every last one of them had given me the sufficient sorrow I needed to power my final boost to power an I cackled as I fed off their pain and agony, their grief and their sorrow of what had become of their world.
And I drank up every last bit of their suffering like it was the finest liquor and I enjoyed it like nothing else I had ever enjoyed in the universe, but I wanted more I CRAVED more, I hungered for every last one of their souls and as the Lord of Kaos I would have them.
And then the moment was gone, Valentine looked away, his skin looking just a little more pale than usual and I blinked furiously and raised a slightly shaking hand to my forehead and felt great dampness there and I realized that I was sweating like swine in the summer about to face the butcher and go to hog hell.
"What… the… HELL was that!" I demanded, feeling a range of differing emotions, Exaltation, Hunger, Eagerness, desire… fear.
"Nothing you need concern yourself with now," he murmured softly and I saw that his hands were twitching slightly as he brushed a few straight curls back from his face, "You should go now, get your people prepared, Illidan and Sylvanas are almost to the front gates, they figure it'd probably be safest to enter from the ground level, where the can't be shot out of the air by magic or gunfire or have the nether drakes set upon them, quite so easily."
I stared at him for a long second, before I nodded realizing he was right, whatever it was I had seen could wait till later, at least until I had Illidan and Sylvanas' heads mounted onto pikes.
So with that I turned and I walked away, to marshal my forces.
I wondered which to send at Illidan first, the Ground Naga, or the great and mighty Magtheridon?
Either way, Magtheridon was probably going to die this night, the Betrayer had a lot of power within him, some of the things he could do were things even I could only dream of, but hopefully that'd change soon, also I had more than enough tricks up my sleeves that victory was practically certain… course practically is the key word here, just how far could I go on practically? I wondered.
Nut then I shrugged, no matter everything would happen the way it would happen, soon enough I just had to wait and watch, listen and learn.
Sylvanas Windrunner, POV.
Location, couple hundred yards from the front gate.
When I felt a jolt through Illidan's legs, I tightened my grip but opened my eyes up just a crack and was relieved to see solid ground beneath his feet.
I dropped hastily out of his arms almost embrace the land, I had never been so happy to feel it. "OH good, nice solid land!" I sighed gratefully and glared up at Illidan, "You call that flying! I've known beserker trolls on crack that have flown safer!" I yelled at him and he just rolled his eyes, "My apologies Ranger General," he snickered, "I was under the assumption that wanted to get here fast and that you had a lot of experience with flying."
I glared daggers at him, "That wasn't flying that was crashing like a meteor you freakishly tall, bastard!"
He snickered some more and I sighed and asked, "Do you have a weapon I can use like Tokijin, that'd be perfect I think?"
He stopped snickering and looked at me, thoughtfully, considering. "I was thinking you might pick up some weapon on the way, like a scimitar or scythe from the naga or some other weapon from… someone else... or hell what about that bow and those arrows on your back?"
I gave him a hard look, "Illidan," I growled, "now isn't the time to be hording our resources, we need every weapon we can if this Warlock is the same one who I think he is, and though i may like my arrows, these ones are designed by Valentine only to dliver severe shocks apparently and i need something a little bit more lethal."
Illidan sighed before he reluctantly drew that demonic blade, Tokijin, out of thin air along with his Warglaives of Azzinoth, which were currently in one piece.
"Here, you go, be careful alright." I grinned at him and felt the familiar comforting weight of the blade in my hand, "Oh don't you worry, I'll have this blade safely back to you when we're finished here, won't be a dent or scratch on it I promise."
Illidan shook his head and muttered, "Its not the blade I'm worried about, Sylvanas." I looked at him for a long second and felt my heart soften towards him somewhat and I place a gentle hand on his arm, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine its you who needs to worry here."
He sighed, "Yeah I guess you're right, so you wanna just go in, guns blazing?"
I looked at the great ominous gates before us, probably a thousand demons waiting to rip us to shreds, I thought of the old days where I had done just that and how it had gotten me brutally killed and turned into one of the undead… and I nodded. "Lets do this." I growled.
Illidan opened up the gates and when we slipped through into the courtyard… there was nobody there.
Me and Illidan shared a look, before we slowly made our towards the center of the courtyard. there was no doubting a battle had been fought here, the place was loaded with corpses and covered in blood, but there were no screams, to sounds of battle. Nor were there nearly as many bodies as you'd expect if you had managed to annihilated the entirety of the Illidan's army, of Orcs, Demons, Naga, Blood Elves… the odd troll here and there. But all I saw was disturbed sand and… trails of blood that lead into quite a few of those disturbances in the sand.
"Son of a bitch, its the Ground Naga again!" I cursed and readied Tokijin in my hand, feeling the familiar warmth of the blade seep into and surround my hands and forearms.
No sooner had the words left my mouth, than a cadre of the Sand Naga attacked… with friends.
Even as me and Illidan fought off the Naga, I sensed heavy vibrations in the ground and I looked around to where I thought the vibrations were coming from to see the ground… moving, shifting aside to admit…
A great wormlike beast burst free from the ground and roared its challenge but a mere three feet away from me and I scrambled back, attempting to flee to safety when three long serpentine tentacles burst out of its great maw which looked rather a lot like a beak actually.
The tentacles wrapped themselves around my legs and bit in as I tried to kick them off and I cried out and lashed out with the Tokijin.
The blade severed the tentacles and the monster emitted a loud howl of pain and sunk back into the ground.
Before had time to catch my breath, one of the many brown serpents fell upon me and sunk his teeth deep into my shoulder, I cried out in agony, as his teeth which were sharper than diamonds, ravaged my flesh tearing out great chunks of my arm and shoulder and swallowing and then doing back down for more, before the flesh could heal.
I cried out for Illidan, but he was occupied with about 23 of the damned things and to top it off… I saw and felt more of those great big worm things coming, I saw three coming from the other side of the courtyard, bodies shifting aside with the dirt and rocks, as the monsters made their way through the earth.
I tried to warn Illidan, but the serpent had one clawed hand wrapped tightly around my throat and I couldn't so much as emit a squeak.
The Naga was ripping away at my flesh and I felt more of them falling on me to eat me alive, I felt out for Tokijin but it had fallen far out of my reach and I couldn't have wielded it that well anyway, not under these circumstances.
So as the monster worm things made their way through the ground towards us and the ground Naga devoured my flesh. I shut my eyes and did the only thing I could possibly do… did the only thing left to me, or at least I hoped it was still there.
I concentrated through the pain of the Naga's teeth and claws ripping away at my flesh, concentrated beyond my outrage and fury that I had been pinned down so soon into the fight, like this and went straight into despair.
I concentrated on the deaths of my sisters, on how hallow and empty inside I'd felt as the undead ravaged my homeland and I was forced to help them do it, focused on the sorrow and loneliness, on how utterly empty I'd felt when I'd finally killed Arthas and how I'd missed Lor'themar, after I'd gotten my free will back and how utterly devastated I'd been when he'd rejected me, when he attacked me with magic and how distraught and guilty I'd felt when I turned it back on him.
Guilt, sorrow, loneliness, grief… rage, just the smallest tinkling of that last one, but it was enough to fuel what I had in mind, what I'd thought I lost when I'd been restored to something of my former glory as a real living member of the High Elves, but I hadn't I'd just forgotten it, but now I remembered and I saw, I saw the little switch in my brain the switch that would let me do something I hadn't done in a while and using all of my darker emotions, fueled by them, it was the easiest thing in the world to flick that switch.
I felt the power rising up within me and despite the hand around my throat i did soemthing i hadn't done in quite a while actually... i screamed.
Illidan Stormrage, POV.
I was fighting off the Ground Naga, totally engrossed in my battle with them and how the Warglaives of Azzinoth almost glided in my hands, as we danced the dance of the serpents and I slipped past the Ground Naga's defenses and opened up their stomachs and removed their heads.
When a loud scream echoed around the… well the world.
The cry was quite easily the loudest most soul shredding, blood chilling, bone shaking, sorrowful, beautiful sound I'd ever heard… and I almost was capable of weeping at how broken and utterly devastatingly beautiful it really was, but the fires where my eyes once had been wouldn't allow it.
Everyone and everything stopped dead in their tracks at the hideously, horrendously, sorrow inducing sound, including I and as I watched, all the heads in to courtyard slowly turned to where the source of the piercing cry was, as did I but all I saw were Naga and then blood spilled from the eyes and ears of the Naga and then their own howls of anguish filled the night air and their heads exploded.
One by one, almost every Naga's head popped like balloons and the ones that didn't raced around the courtyard like chickens with their heads cut off a few dove underground and some used their claws to commit suicide with.
And as all this happened the path to the scream opened up to show me the source of the sound.
Sylvanas, stood in the midst's of the screaming and flailing and fleeing Naga, her clothes torn and ragged, Synthablood covering her from head to toe and she was glowing.
Sorrowful, beautiful, vengeful banshee magic swirled around her, any color she'd had previously to his flesh was gone, bled out to deep gray with blue tints here and there, her hair likewise was a very pale grayish beautiful shade of blond so pale it almost looked white and it appeared silkier than ever, her eyes her sorrowful but wrathful eyes turned from Cobalt to a deep crimson, were the real killers. She was the most alluring, darkly attractive, beautiful and sad woman I had ever seen in that moment and I wanted nothing more, than to make that sorrow end.
Even Tyrande's beauty paled in comparison's with Sylvanas' at that moment, a feat I hadn't thought possible, but I saw her now with my spectral, sight, saw how she fairly sparkled with her sorrow and her grief and loneliness, her despair and damn me if she hadn't managed it.
I realized dimly, that she was still screaming, still bloody, even as I gazed at her like a starstruck idiot and I abruptly shook myself as I remembered the situation around us and I looked all around us for targets, but not a single enemy was in sight that wasn't dead or weeping in the corner.
I ran over to her and tried to take her in my arms but I flinched as my skin made contact with her's, it was ice cold and had the feeling of Frostmourne to it.
"Sylvanas, you need to stop, their all dead, its over!" I shouted.
Warlock POV.
I heard a loud, horribly anguished screaming and I cried out and clutched at my ears, a banshees wail and not just any old banshee's wail it was that fucking bitch Sylvanas' cry, empowered with abysmal magic!
Damn it, I quickly made a soundproof shield around myself and sighed, gratefully as the noise cut out.
"Damn, I never would have thought, I'd regret giving that bitch the Synthablood, so much!" I snarled, feeling my hackles rise and then, I chuckled as a thought occurred to me and then I laughed, as the truly dark and horrifying truth of the matter settled in.
"Well, at least I know my gifts aren't going to waste!" I cackled, "oh irony just kills me, heh heh, just as its gonna kill Sylvanas."
Sylvanas Windrunner, POV.
I felt the familiar power of the scream raging inside of me, felt the horrible, biting cold of the power that seeped into my very core, but it was… different somehow, changed… magnified and I found it difficult to stop it just as easily as I'd started it to begin with.
I saw Illidan's pale, enthralled face and I saw the pain there the blood oozing from one of his ears, "Sylvanas, you've got to stop!" he shouted, "its done, their all dead or gone, its okay, its safe now!"
I blinked and saw that he was right, all the Ground Naga were either dead or gone, though a few were shaking in the corner sobbing uncontrollably. So it was with surprising difficulty, that I stopped the scream and reigned in the power of it, sucked it all deep within my heart and forced it back to dormancy and I sucked in a deep cleansing breath and coughed violently, I doubled over and my vision blurred as my lungs rattled and shook and I had to struggle to get control of myself again.
"Sylvanas! Are you okay!" Illidan demanded and I felt his large, hands on my back, felt them rubbing and stroking here and there, not in a lecherous fashion but more in a calming, comforting gesture, that really surprised me. "Yeah, I'm good!" I said, swallowing just a bit, trying to get my breath in and out without choking again, damn what the hell was that!
"What the hell was that?" Illidan asked, at the exact same time as I thought it and I snorted just a bit, "Nothing, nothing, just a old trick I learned, when I was a banshee," I shuddered remembering the terrible cold of that "Its been a while since I used it though, I, I wasn't really sure I still could.
"Well apparently you can, great work." Illidan murmured, his tone distant, considering, respectful.
I grinned, at his apparent lack of concern, which I knew to be totally false, "love you too, now can you let go of me now, we still have a lot of fighting left do, alright."
"YeS you do, pitiful mortals!" a loud obviously demonic voice ,ground out, it was like a bunch of rocks grinding together and we both spun around, to see a great giant beast, in the archway leading into the Citadel.
Where a great shadowy figure stood, glowing with powerful demonic magic, i closed my eyes just for a second and I could dimly glimpse its aura and from it i could gauge some of its power... and from that analysis i devised that we... were completely and utterly screwed...
To be Continued. oh and lets get a few things straight here. the Synthablood is immune to a lots of different kinds of magic, even helpful magic, however a strong enough Druid or Priestess with quite the affinity for nature or spiritual power can reach through the barrier the blood puts up, but it really does take a looot of effort. heh which is going to make fighting the Wampyr quite itnerestign wouldn't you say?