Ruby was leaning in the corner of the Combat Instruction room. While she didn't need to be there, it had been twenty years, and she wanted to get a feel for how her soon to be students fought. She could see that occasionally members of the class would glance over at her, obviously confused as to why she was in plate armor.

Goodwitch was talking about scenarios where you were fighting an experienced opponent, 'hey there's an idea.'

"Hey, Goodwitch!"

She watched as Goodwitch inhaled through her nose, it was always fun screwing with people like her.

"Yes, Miss Rose?"

"Highlord Rose, if you please, I didn't get this title so nobody could use it."

She had been spending too much time with Velann.

"Highlord Rose, then, what is it?"

"How about we give them a demonstration of what you're talking about?"

"How so?"

"Say, me against all of Team JNPR?"

She watched as all of the aforementioned team looked at each other in confusion, a feral grin on her face.

"Very well."

Oh, she knew why Goodwitch was letting this happen, she didn't believe an inch of their story, and to be fair it was pretty ridiculous. So she hoped that Ruby would lose this fight so she could use it as leverage to get Ruby back in her class, and throw Darmus and his retinue of Knights out of Beacon.

"Alright kiddos, you heard her, down into the arena."

She was totally doing this because she wanted to see how they fight, not because she was going stir crazy. She wasn't going to use the years of extra experience she had to wipe the floor with them.

She had spent way too much time with Velann.

Jaune couldn't help but wonder how he got into this mess, standing across from his first friend in Beacon, who was staring at his team like a Beowolf looked at a piece of meat.

But, was she really his friend? He knew that he was being slightly hypocritical, he had his dirty secret too, but there was a difference between seeking into a school and not telling anyone something like this!

Team JNPR had discussed it last night, and while they had agreed to not judge her too harshly for it, she was after all, not in full control or even partial, Jaune couldn't help but wonder how much of what he knew of his friend was real, and how much was a lie crafted so nobody would realize she probably knew twenty seven ways to kill them.

"Whenever you're ready Glynda."

He could feel the glare Goodwitch shot at Ruby from here.

"The match will start in three-"

Was it just him or did Ruby's grin just get wider?

"-two-"

She crouched down.

"-one-"

She curled one hand into a claw, why was she doing-

"-Start!"

Cold metal wrapped around his face, and suddenly his body was off the ground, flying, before he was reintroduced to it, skull first.

He heard the sound of gunfire and the black and red blur above him disappeared.

"Jaune! Are you alright!?"

As Pyrrha helped him back up, the world came back into focus. He saw that Ren was firing at Ruby, who was disappearing and reappearing every few seconds, that wolfish grin still on her face.

She disappeared again, only to reappear behind Ren. Before Jaune could even open his mouth to warn him, Ruby slammed her leg into his skull. She then disappeared again, dodging a hammer blow from Nora.

Pyrrha whipped around, just in time for Ruby's fist to smash into Akoúo̱. Ruby looked shocked, just for a second, before the grin came back.

A ringing filled the air and Ruby was sent flying backwards. She dug one of the clawed gauntlets she was wearing into the ground, holding herself in place.

Suddenly tendrils of energy danced across Ruby's form and started to slowly move forward, he glanced over at Pyrrha and saw sweat dripping down her face. Ruby raised one hand, and pulled.

One of tendrils lashed out wrapping around the red head. Pyrrha went hurtling forward into Ruby's waiting fist. As Pyrrha laid on the ground dazed, Ruby walked away, right toward him.

Nora came hurtling out from the left, Magnhild swinging towards Ruby's head. Only to be stopped by Ruby grabbing Magnhild's shaft, she no longer had the grin on her face, instead she looked vaguely bored.

As she lifted the hand holding Magnhild up, she cocked back her other arm and then Ruby dived+ out of the way as Ren WY m3ws bored, she looked irritated. Ruby pulled back her metal clad fist.

Once, Nora's lip split, twice, a whimper escaped her, thrice, Nora went limp.

"Nora Valkyrie is eliminated!"

Ruby threw Nora the side, where she didn't move, before turning towards Ren, Pyrrha took that moment to fire a shot from Miló that struck Ruby in the arm. Ruby didn't even flinch as she kicked Ren in the head, sending him skidding next to Nora, removing him from the match too.

It was at that moment, as she had her back turned and he could see it sitting in her holster that it hit Jaune like a ton of bricks, at no point in the match had Ruby drawn Crescent Rose.

"She's playing with us."

This realization chilled him to the bone. He knew from Ruby's story that she was some sort of half zombie super soldier, but seeing her, now, as she turned to finish the fight (her game with them) with Pyrrha and him made it real. She shrugged off bullets from Miló, the blow from Ren already knitting back together.

The next thirty seconds were a blur, Ruby was in front of them. Miló, back in the form of a sword, bit into her cheek, ripping open the injury Ren had made leave a gaping hole on her face. Akoúo̱ was torn from Pyrrha's arm and thrown aside before Ruby's knee crashed into Pyrrha's nose. Ruby lifted Pyrrha up and chucked her out of the arena.

Jaune swung Crocea Mors only to have it ripped from his hand. She then proceeded to smash it's hilt into his temple, at which point, he fell into sweet oblivion.

-X LINE BREAK X-

It took all the training in schooling her emotions Weiss had not to openly gape at what she had just watched.

'how much has Ruby been holding back?' It was a good question, Weiss liked to think she knew her partner well enough by now, and one thing she had learned was that Ruby was poor at unarmed combat, so to see her dismantle one of the best first year teams without drawing her scythe once came as a shock.

As the entirety of Team JNPR was helped up -and checked for concussions- Ruby lept out of the arena and settled back against the wall she had been leaning on before. About six minutes later, one of the Knight that had rode in the day before came rushing in, standing taller than Ruby, which was saying something, seeing as one of the modifications Arthas had made was apparently hiking Ruby up to six feet. The man was blue, had what appeared to be a beard made of tentacles hanging from his face and had hooves. It only became clear what Ruby had been talking about when she said 'mutations' during her story when they meet the Knight to be stationed at Beacon. A man who was only tall enough to reach Weiss's, admittedly short, chest, a man who could shift into a giant bipedal wolf that reminded Weiss, and judging by the way others had discreetly reached for their weapons, most of the first year class of a young Beowolf, and a tall, pale blue woman with tusks poking out of her lips. It also became clear that the Knights of the Ebon Blade had a clothing theme, consisting of ornate armor coated in imagery of bones.

Pushing off the wall, she clapped her hands together, "Right, I need to go do Highlord-y things now," it was extremely unnerving to see the hole in her cheek open as she spoke, sinew and muscle already stitching the wolyund back together, she turned towards Jaune, "Jaune if you can't land a hit on me next time we spar I'm hanging you off Acherus by your leg." She then swept out of the room, her cloak, the only part of her appearance that hadn't changed, billowing behind her.

The man (she thought she heard Ruby and the shorter man, Darmus, refer to him as Malag) looked startled, "You're training with Highlord Rose?" after Jaune nodded Malag shook his head, "Well you'll either come out of it amazing at combat, or dead," and then he rushed out after Ruby.

Weiss shared a glance with Yang and Blake, how much of what they knew about their team leader were lies?

-X LINE BREAK X-

Ruby stood in the elevator to Ozpin's office, he had asked to see her alone. She shifted uncomfortably as the last of her ribs snapped back into place, Nora had managed to pulverize her chest with that hit from Magnhild. It was, even after twenty years, strange to have such a perfect understanding of her own biology that she could tell that one of her ribs had punctured her lungs. That was what she got for not taking the fight seriously.

As the door cracked open she called out, "Alright, Ozpin what do you-" She stopped then and glanced at the window, weighing her options, 'I've survived falls from higher, right?'

What had caused this sudden wish to risk bodily harm to get away? Her dad and Uncle Qrow were in the room with her.

-X LINE BREAK X-

To say Qrow Branwen was angry was like saying a tornado was a little windy technically true but also a huge understatement. Somebody had hurt Ruby, his niece, his student!

He looked over at Tai, who had fire coiling around his body, like a set of constantly shifting tattoos. The flames had leapt straight from dark red to white, a clear sign that he wanted to go out and turn this Arthas to ash.

"Where. Is. He." It wasn't a question so much as a demand that slipped out of Tai's mouth.

"Dead. Your daughter, alongside an organization she apparently leads, hunted him down around eight days ago."

"Any chance we could dig up his body and piss on it or something?" Qrow resorted to his time honored companion, sarcasm.

The flames around Tai dulled down, shock flashing across his face.

"Is she alright?"

"She is fine, though she seems to have picked up a fondness for sarcasm while she was gone."

"Can… Can we see her?" Qrow grimaced, he hadn't heard Tai sound that broken since Summer died. The fire around him has died completely.

"Of course, I've already sent a message to one of the members of the Ebon Blade asking him to tell her that I needed to speak with her.

"Ebon Blade?"

"It's the name of the organization of renegade 'Death Knights' she leads, The Knights of the Ebon Blade."

Ozpin locked the two hunters with a look, that left Qrow squirming in his chair, feeling like he was back at Beacon and had been caught misbehaving, "I must warn you, I have reason to believe that Ruby is not being truthful about what happened, as such I would like you both to think about transferring to Beacon so as to help keep an eye on her."

Qrow found his voice first, "You want us to spy on Ruby?"

Ozpin stood up, and walked over to the windows, "Yes."

Qrow lept from his seat slamming his hands on the desk in front of him,"Oz, why the hell would we do-

"Because, Qrow, if Ruby is lying then we need to find out where this group came from and how she has connections to them, if she's not, then there is apparently a large collection of people we have never known about out there. A group of people mind you, that your niece was able to meet with regularly enough to plan an assault on a man we had never heard of before despite him gathering an army. A man who was able to make a copy of your niece so realistic that neither of you had even realized she was gone in the first place."

"But-"

"Qrow, I understand, I truly do, but as it stands whatever we know about Ruby Rose needs to be assumed false."

Qrow fell back with an explosive sigh, "I… I understand Oz, it just, fuck, this is Ruby we're talking about."

"I know and you won't have to do this alone, shortly before Ruby disappeared she met and made friends with one of James's students, I'm sending him a request to allow us to have her help us on this too."

At that moment the elevator opened. A voice with a ringing metal echo behind it called out, "Alright, Ozpin what do you-" Ruby stopped there. Qrow couldn't help but stare, she looked like she had aged a year or two since last time he had seen her. Her eyes were a solid glowing silver, and she had heavy armor on.

A look of pain flashed across Ruby's face. "Dad? Uncle Qrow? What are you doing here?"

Qrow opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Tai tore past him and swept Ruby into a bear hug.

Ruby's body tensed, and she slowly, almost mechanically raised her arms up and wrapped them around Tai. "Daddy?" the word came out broken, tears shining down her face.

Qrow stepped forward wrapping his arms around them both.

Somebody had broken Ruby, and he could already tell it would take a long time to put the pieces together, but that was ok, Team STRQ was good at doing that.

-X LINE BREAK X-

"Pitwick, please stop."

Velann sighed for what felt like the thousandth time in the past four days. Pitwick had been practically vibrating since they got the news. Ruby had managed to convince her partner, Weiss, to explain the intricacies of Dust to him. She had been dragged along to play babysitter because Ruby was going to do… something, she had dodged the question every time anyone asked. Darmus meanwhile was training his team of Knights, which (if her own apprenticeship under Ruby had taught her anything) was code for 'take my sadistic impulses out on you'. Thus she was stuck watching Pitwick. She would have never taken the promotion to Knight-Lieutenant if she had known that it meant that the title was code for 'babysitter'.

The Bullhead, that Ozpin had graciously given the Ebon Blade to use so they didn't have to waste a quarter of the day riding from Acherus (and that Thalanor had been itching to learn how to pilot), finally landed and they dropped onto Beacon's soil. Ruby was waiting there for them alongside a girl in white, who (to Velann's amusement) opened and closed her mouth in shock for a few seconds before she schooled her face into a slightly haughty look. The minute they were out, she rushed through the introductions, "Weiss, these are my friends Pitwick and Velann, guys, this is my partner Weiss Schnee," and then she was gone.

Velann frowned, it was never good when Ruby went this far out of her way to avoid answering questions. It usually lead to her pulling some insane stunt that reminded everyone why Ruby was terrifying.

Velann then turned her attention to the girl whose attitude reminded her so much of her people before the destruction of the Sunwell. It would be fun to play with her until she lost that very same attitude.

-X LINE BREAK X-

Ruby leapt down into the forest, allowing her senses, both physical and magical, to stretch out. She was looking for any remains of her mother. It was surprisingly easy to locate, for a place overrun by Grimm there was a surprisingly small amount of death. Then again she was rather deep in the Grimm's territory. She turned and immediately started marching towards the only dead human in the area.

When she got there, she frowned. The body was directly below where she was standing, but there was nothing there. Had someone buried it?

About two hours later, Ruby had struck paydirt. Summer's body was doing strangely well for something that had been rotting for ten years. It took a few minutes of moving dirt away from her mother's body without harming it before the cause of her death became apparent. Ruby growled deeply and long, it hadn't been the Grimm that did this, there was a hole from a blade piercing through her mother's heart.

She frowned, her family didn't need to see Summer's body like this.

She raised up a hand, dredging up knowledge she had spent the better part of nine years suppressing, then she cast one spell to repair Summer's body.

Then she cast another, and another, and another.

-X LINE BREAK X-

Light shined into her eyes, she grumbled, it was too early to wake up.

A voice called out, feminine but with a bite of metal, "Are you alright? I haven't done this in a long time and you had been gone for a while. Try to sit up slowly."

What was the voice talking about? She had gone to sleep at her camp the night before, on a mission to hunt a pack of Beowolves.

"Can you sit up?" She cracked open her eyes and sat up. Crouching in front of her was a woman who looked like her younger clone.

"What's going on?" Were the first words of the newly risen Summer Rose.

"There's no easy way to say this, but you've been dead for ten years."

"W-What?"

If what this figure was saying was true then what had happened to- "Tai! Yang! Ruby!"

"They are fine."

"How do you know that?"

The girl searched her face. "Who do you think I am?"

Summer opened her mouth to demand an answer, only to pause and take in the face of the girl, who looked so similar to her.

"Ruby?" The question came out as a croak and Summer abruptly realized that her voice also had a ringing metal echo.

"Hello, Mom."

Summer staggered upright, reaching out to grab onto her daughter, "You've grown up, so much."

A wry smile slipped onto Ruby's lips, "That tends to happen when you've had ten years to grow up."

Ruby stood up, and helped Summer out of the hole she was in. "We should probably get going, the LZ for the Bullhead I came in is about half an hour away." She paused before bringing her fingers to her mouth and whistled.

A couple seconds passed before a horse came trotting into sight. It's skin had turned pale green from rot and in some places was gone all together. Spectral green flames came from it's hooves, and ran down it's back in the place of a mane. The usually soulful eyes of a horse were replaced with flaming green orb that roved over the two woman waiting on it.

Ruby strode forward, stroking it. "Hello my old friend," her voice was soft and caring, she glanced at Summer, "this is Despair, he'll get us to where we need to go."

As they climbed onto Despair's back, Summer asked a question that probably should have been higher on her list of priorities.

"Ruby?" Ruby gave a hum to confirm that she heard her, "You said I was dead right? Then how did I come back?" Summer could feel and see Ruby tense.

"I don't want to talk about it now, can it wait till we're back at Beacon?"

"Beacon?"

"I got let in a couple of years early."

"No, I mean, I never wanted for you or Yang to become Huntresses, I never wanted you to have to fight for your lives."

"Too late for that."

Summer looked down in shame. Had her death caused Ruby and Yang to decide to throw their lives away?

"Wipe that look off your face, it's not your fault."

"Is that anyway to talk to your mother?"

Ruby snorted, "You might not have noticed this, but I'm not exactly a cuddly person anymore mom."

At that point they had reached the clearing where the Bullhead was waiting for them. Once they had climbed is Despair turned and galloped into a portal.

Ruby pulled out her scroll and dialed a number.

"Ozpin? I need you to get my family in a meeting room. I'll explain when we get there."

Summer blinked, confused at how flippantly her daughter was talking to the head of Beacon.

They would definitely have to have a discussion about what had happened when she was gone.

-X LINE BREAK X -

Darmus was pacing, Velann and Pitwick and him were standing at the Beacon landing pads. There had been a massive blast of energy, one that any Death Knight would recognize, someone had just raised a new Death Knight.

Darmus was willing to put good money on it being Ruby. She was one of the few Death Knights who knew how to raise a new one, and she had been dodging questions about where she was going. He had expressed his belief to the other two and they both agreed. Pitwick was leaning against a statue, frost slowly creeping out from his body.

Velann raised the question they were all wondering, "Why the hell would Rubes raise someone?"

Pitwick chimed in, "Ruby has always been ambivalent about raising people, she felt that there might be a time and place to use it."

"She's wrong." This was a matter that Darmus and Ruby had argued about countless times, and the only long lasting argument that neither had given any ground on. He knew that there are people who chose undeath, but he felt that tearing someone away from their afterlife was something profoundly wrong.

The Bullhead had appeared over the horizon then, and he stopped pacing.

"Darmus, please just don't do anything drastic. We have enough problems right now without you and Ruby fighting."

Darmus didn't respond to Pitwick(Didn't even listen to the old gnome, with his righteous fury roaring in the back of his head), his eyes locked onto the rapidly approaching Bullhead.

As it landed and Ruby jumped out he cleared the space between them and slammed her into the hull. "What the fuck did you do?"

"It's none of your business-"

"Bullshit, it isn't! You just raised someone, we don't do that Ruby!"

"And why shouldn't I? I didn't hurt them, if anything I did the exact opposite!"

"Because it's wrong" The next words out of Darmus' mouth were, in hindsight, probably the worst thing he could have said, "If you start using that justification, how long until you're just as bad as Sylvanas-"

The world erupted into stars and Darmus let go of Ruby to stagger back, clutching his broken jaw.

"Never, compare me to Sylvanas."

As his jaw leapt back into place Darmus grabbed his hammer, Shattered Light, from his back. The runes along its head lit up as he tensed, Ruby meanwhile had pulled Crescent Rose out and raised one of her arms, a sickly green miasma running along it in the shape of skulls.

Darmus grimaced, Ruby was always best

with her diseases. He had once seen her create one that rotted away a man's hand and nothing more in seconds. He would have to finish this quick. He dragged some of his blood to the surface, intent to create a maelstrom of whirling microblades

Before either of them could move a wall of ice formed in between them, hoarfrost creeping out from it's bottom and chilling the air around it.

"Before you two kill each other, or more likely, everyone around you. might I suggest asking the person Ruby raised their opinion on the matter?"

It was at that moment that Darmus noticed that standing off to the side (apparently pulled there by Velann) was a woman in her late twenties. She was glancing between him and Ruby with a look of horror on her face.

As Ruby's miasma faded away, Darmus released the blades into the ground, once they were on their way out there was no way to return them to his bloodstream.

Pitwick turned towards the woman and smiled up at her, "May I ask your name, young lady?"

"Summer Rose."

They all turned their heads towards Ruby, who looked sheepish. Well, that explained a lot. Velann slid in between them and whispered into Ruby's ear, though Darmus could still hear it, "So how does it feel to be older than your own mother?" Ruby and him both snorted at that. He would later say that it was moments like that, that he had insisted on Velann getting the promotion into a Knight-Lieutenant.

"Summer, if I might ask, how do you feel about what Ruby did?"

She seemed to shift uncomfortably, "I don't know, I'm not really sure what is going on."

Pitwick hummed, "Yes, Ruby has always prefered to dodge questions rather than answer them. On this topic in particular it would be truly difficult to get her to talk. Please if you have any questions, ask them, and I'll do my best to answer them."

Summer asked what must have been every question that had popped into her mind since she had been raised. She had adopted a look of horror as the explanation had gone on. Though, to Darmus's ire, it appeared to be less because of what Ruby had done to her and more what had happened to Ruby while she was gone.

Things took a turn for the worse when, perhaps inevitably, Illidan got brought up.

"Who's Illidan?"

Pitwick had never been one for tact and decided to break the news as swiftly as possible, "He was your daughter's boyfriend."

Summer turned to Ruby, whose face had frozen in place.

"You have a boyfriend?"

Ruby didn't respond, Darmus knew why, Ruby had always hated what she perceived as pity that came in the wake of Illidan's death. Velann was the one who decided to be the bearer of bad news, "Had a boyfriend Mrs. Rose, he died."

Summer looked even further crestfallen at that information, "Ruby, I'm sor-"

"I don't want your fucking pity."

Summer staggered back as if struck, hurt flashing across her face. Ruby turned around and looked at Velann, the next words out of her mouth was the Language of Death that all the Scourge spoke, "You deal with her." Probably forgetting that her mother was now one of them as well and would understand it. Darmus scowled after Ruby.

She then strode away. Darmus reached out to stop Summer from going after her, "let her calm down first."

"Why?"

"Ruby has never been good at differentiating pity and sympathy, and she hates people pitying her."

Summer breathed in deep, "Ok."

"Did she tell you where you were supposed to be going?"

"Just that Ozpin was setting up a room with Yang and the rest."

"Then let's try to find it shall we?"

-X LINE BREAK X-

Ruby tugged at the high collar of her dress uniform. To its credit, it was better than the dress she had been made to wear to the one party she had gone to as Uther's ward. That dress had been a stood next to her scowling, "From the way they are acting you'd have thought they did all the work."

"They" were the leaders of the Alliance, celebrating the defeat of the Burning Legion (more like banishment from this world and it wasn't like the Legion forces on the planet were gone, yet.).

"Yes, well, when have we ever gotten credit for things we do?" It was something that had bothered Ruby for a while, that despite the sacrifices the Ebon Blade had given for both sides over the years, they were still held at arms length.

Perhaps the thing that galled her the most was all the people who were acting like they knew Illidan before he died. She had dealt with hundreds of people coming up to tell her 'how sorry they were for [her] loss.' It was the same for Jania, and she couldn't help but notice the lack of mention that Thrall's sacrifice should have garnered. But then again to this crowd he was just the hated enemy.

Thassarian's voice cut through her thoughts like a blade, "Lord Greymane, how may we help you?"

Sure enough, Genn was standing in front of them. He looked uncomfortable, a strange expression in the prideful Wolf King's face.

"May I speak to Highlord Rose for a moment, alone?"

"Of course, Lord Greymane."

Ruby followed Genn out onto a balcony.

"I need to apologize to you, Ruby."

So they were returning to first names, "Why?"

" Several reasons. One of which is that you have lost several friends and I'm using it as an opportunity to throw a party."

"Genn."

"You have to understand Ruby, while you and Vairan never saw eye to eye, he was beloved by the people of Stormwind. They are taking his death hard."

"Genn, I'm not blaming you."

"WELL YOU SHOULD BE!" Fangs had replaced Genn's teeth. Ruby jolted back in shock, not used to seeing her Gilnean friend this agitated.

"Genn, what are you talking about?"

"You should have had much more backing than just five men on that mission! You should have had an entire army! But I couldn't give up my hatred of Sylvanas for killing Liam, and because of that, you've lost someone you loved. None of the leaders, of either side, could see past the hatred of our pasts."

"Genn... I…"

"When Illidan came to us with that plan, we all agreed to keep it from you in return for him being the one who died . But thinking back, if someone had kept information that could have saved Liam from me, I would have torn them to shreds. You have every right to hate me, Crowley, Dalaran's leaders, all of us.

""Genn, we all agreed that this was the best plan, even if we didn't have enough support we were going to go through with it to stop the Legion. Illidan made a sacrifice that anyone of us would. Though why does everyone keep acting like I'm his widow?"

Genn turned to look at her, confusion on his face, "You're not?"

"No. Why? Did you think I was?"

Genn coughed, "Well, you see, you two often disappeared together, and he left everything he owned, as little as that was, to you. So we may have been running under the assumption that you two had eloped, or whatever the elven equivalent is."

"Do elves even get married?"

"I don't know."

"It's quite complicated."

As the third voice cut in, both Genn and Ruby whipped around, Genn shifting into his lupine form and Ruby letting a punch dagger she had kept up her sleeve drop into her hand.

They both halted however, when they saw it was Malfurion smiling in that infuriating way he sometimes would.

"Don't do that!"

"I'm sorry."

They lapsed into an awkward silence. Until Genn broke it.

"What do you mean? When you say that it's complicated?"

"While we do have marriages, very few people chose to have one. They are also usually permanent. Most members of our race prefer the term 'mate'."

At this point Ruby tuned out Malfurion, she didn't care in any manner what he had to say. In all honesty, if she felt she could have gotten away with it she probably would have stabbed him.

She tensed, her enhanced sense of smell picking up a familiar, but unwelcome scent, especially here, and now.

"-saw you as his mate."

"Malfurion, shut up!"

"Ruby-"

"Do you two smell that?"

They both breathed in through their noses.

"That smell-"

"It's rot."

At that exact momenta explosion shook the castle, and a cloud of green miasma burst into existence near the gates of Stormwind.

"No…"

She didn't.

"THAT BITCH!"

Why now?

"I'LL KILL HER!"

Had she really gone that far?

"Sir! What do we do?"

"Man the cannons, I want all those rotting bastards back in the ground!"

She didn't want to bury anymore friends today.

"Sylvanas… Why?"

The Forsaken had attacked.

"Ruby! We need to help them!"

Thassarian had rushed over, at some point

he had appropriated three swords, the two smaller ones were already sheathed at his side. He handed her the larger one, alongside a harness for it.

With precision drilled into her by years of practice she pulled on the harness and sheathed the blade. Then they were rushing out of the castle and into the fray.

-X LINE BREAK X-

When the Battle of Stormwind, or more particularly the one of the Forsaken Insurrection, was recorded it would be acknowledged that the Forsaken had been winning decisively until six moment that happened in quick succession changed the tide of battle.

The first was when a Night Elf rogue wielding the Fangs of the Devourer slipped into the Forsaken forces and detonated the entirety of their supply of the Plague, at the cost of her own life.

The second came when a pair Gnome siblings, one a Warlock and the other a mage, The Scepter of Sargeras and Felo'melorn in hand rained fire down upon the Forsaken, breaking their ranks.

The third was when a Worgen warrior, using the Scale of the Earth-Warder, rallied the failing soldiers into a line of plate and blades that broke the Forsaken charge.

The fourth was when the Argent Crusade, led by a Dwarven Paladin who brought the light of the Silver Hand to bear, invigorating her allies and burning the Forsaken in Holy light.

The fifth was when a Dranari Priest slammed Tuure into the ground, releasing a wave of light that stitched together the defenders' wounds.

The sixth was the first of three confrontations between the Banshee Queen and the Pale Horsewoman.

- X LINE BREAK X-

Lilsalia Lunashade slammed her dagger into the Forsaken's throat, "Night-y night."

As she tore the dagger out, she yanked her other hand in the opposite direction, decapitating the undead, "Ewww!"

She slipped into the shadows, heading towards where they were keeping the barrels of the Plague occasionally eliminating a patrol.

As she finally reached them she crouched down checking the barrels, "You're going to hate this surprise!"

"We will, will we?"

She looked up, standing in front of her was a group of Forsaken pointing guns at her.

"Stand up slowly and keep your hands where I can see them."

She did so.

"Now slowly move away from the barrels."

She inched away from them.

"Alright, Men, aim for the head."

"Wait, you're not taking me hostage?"

"What gave that away, the guns aimed qt your head? Any last words?"

Lilsalia thought about it for a second before nodding, "Bye-bye!"

Faster than they could comprehend the detonator for the bombs she had slipped onto the barrels was in her hand and the button pressed.

As the explosion knocked her off her feet, and Plague flooded out of the barrels onto her and her assailants, Lilsalia Lunashade felt two things, the first was satisfaction at the look of horror on the leader's face, the second was agony as her flesh melted from the bone.

Then there was nothing.

-X LINE BREAK X -

Finkmink Tinkfuse raised his hand, sweat pouring from his face as he, alongside his sister Mitnus and the groups of mages and warlocks they had gathered, pumped all their energy into the most destructive spell any of them had ever tried.

As the fire, both Fel and not danced in a giant orb of destruction above them Finkmink couldn't help but think he had the hardest job, containing the fire until they launched it. He had once heard a Shaman say that Fire was an element that did not want to be contained, and years of experience with Fel magic taught him that the same held true for it.

As Warlock and Mage alike collapsed exhausted from the drain on them, he glanced at his sister who grinned at him, before collapsing too.

He launched the spell at the Forsaken forces before falling backwards, the last thing he felt before joining his sister in exhausted sleep was the heat from the maelstrom of fire in the distance.

- X LINE BREAK X-

Donovan Lancaster growled, the Stormwind guards were about to lay down their arms and attempt to flee, not happening, not on his watch.

"So this is it? You are going to be a bunch of cowards?"

"Is it cowardly to flee to fight another day?"

"It is when there are innocent people who need you to protect them. When you joined this guard, I know you swore an oath to protect the people of Stormwind. Are you going to break that oath here? Because if you run, and have no doubt what you're doing is running, then every single man, woman, and child who dies at the soulless monsters hands is your fault just as much as it is theirs. And if I survive today, I will find every single one of you, and I will make sure that stigma follows your family for generations, your children will grow up ashamed to be the child of a coward, and their children will know it and so on and so on, until all that remains of your legacy is that of a coward. Or, you could go out there, and know that even if we die every second we hold the line is one more second for those people to get to safety."

As his speech went on soldiers of Stormwind seemed to stand taller.

"Let's go remind those rotting sacks of shit why they don't fuck with the Alliance!"

As Donovan marched out of the room with the guards of Stormwind, and locked his shield with them he felt a form of grim satisfaction. The Forsaken had already taken one home away from him, they wouldn't take another.

- X LINE BREAK X-

Nalores Goldfist rode at the head of the Argent Crusade, Silver Hand, the hammer of Tyr held in one hand. They had slipped out a hidden side entrance to Stormwind and were riding to assault the Forsaken from behind.

As they rounded the corner they found the Forsaken locked in a stalemate with the guards of Stormwind.

Nalores drew upon the Light as they crashed into the Forsaken's unprotected flank, and could feel it respond, the guards and Crusaders alike seemed to fight harder as the Forsaken's skin burned.

But despite it all, they still were not winning. The Forsaken still had too many soldier, and everyone who died could be potentially turned against them.

-X LINE BREAK X-

Dudiir stood at the top of the Stormwind keep. He closed his eyes as Tuure floated around him. He opened himself to the Light, willingly allowing it to flow through him. Light was a force of creation, it naturally wanted to help, but needed a nudge in the right direction.

He gathered as much as he dared risk, even Light in high amounts could be lethal. He would later learn that he had become a beacon and that for a brief second it had been as if the sun was high in the sky.

As he brought Tuure down and released the Light in a wave of energy. He could feel what happening to those he was helping, wounds knitted together, those on the brink of death leaping up hale and hearty.

He staggered down, allowing himself a moment to rest.

In that moment, a howl reached his ear, like a blast of winter wind.

- X LINE BREAK X -

Finkmink sat up holding his head, "what the hell was that?"

-X LINE BREAK X -

Donovan flinched as the howl reached him, Nalores doing the same. "Did that sound like a name to you?"

She nodded, "Yes"

- X LINE BREAK X -

All throughout Stormwind people heard the cry, one of pure rage and despair.

"SYLVANAS!"

- X LINE BREAK X -

Ruby looked on in horror, standing before them was Koltira, who had just cut down an innocent civilian.

Thassarian asked the question they both had, "What the hell are you doing?"

Koltira didn't respond, instead charging at them.

The fight that followed was quick. Koltira, while dangerous, had never been as good as Ruby or Thassarian.

Ruby blocked his blow with the sword which shattered, as Thassarian's swords slipped into Koltira's side, before pumping ice into his organs.

Even a Death Knight can only take so much damage and his body collapsed. He looked up, "Ruby? Thassarian?"

"We're right here, Koltira."

"You- you need to stop Sylvanas, she's gone mad."

"W-we will Koltira."

To Ruby's shock, she realized Thassarian was crying.

"Good, I'm gonna take a nap, try to heal up a bit. Thassarian? When I get better, you and I are going out for drinks.

"O-of c-course, Kol-Koltira."

At that point the glow faded from his eyes. Thassarian's sobbing grew worse.

Ruby breathed in, and opened a Death Gate, "Thassarian, I'm ordering you to take Koltira's body and leave the battlefield."

It showed just how out of sorts Thassarian was that he didn't even argue, picking up his friend's body he staggered into the gate.

Ruby turned, and then, with no warning, no whistle or called name, she had leapt on Despair's back and was off.

The connection between Ruby and Despair was different from that of any other Death Knight and their mount, they had been used in an experiment to create the ultimate pair. As such Ruby was able to know where Despair was, and could call on him, at all times without any warning. Despair meanwhile gained the ability to move as fast as Ruby could. Faster, in truth, because of his stature.

As she rode through the streets of Stormwind, she released a howl of pure rage, making sure that her target knew she was coming for her, "SYLVANAS!"

- X LINE BREAK X -

Sylvanas sat on her horse, tensed, waiting for the origin of that howl to appear.

When she saw Ruby charging at her she fired an arrow at her, only for it to be deflected by a shattered sword.

As Ruby changed forward towards the last remains of the Forsaken forces, Sylvanas quickly realized how much she underestimated her one time friend.

A miasma followed behind Ruby. The evil mist was killing anything that got caught in it's path, anything already dead went straight onto step two and was raised as zombies.

What had started as a single berserk charge swiftly picked up speed as all manner of creatures joined the stampede. Wolves, gryphons, rams, drakes, horses, humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, dranari, worgen (WHAT!? The only person who had done that before was Arthas!), pandarians. Most having fallen to Sylvanas' forces, It was like hell itself had risen up to serve her.

Sylvanas knew when to cut her losses and this was one of those times, "FALL BACK!"

That was how the friendship between Sylvanas Windrunner, the Banshee Queen and Ruby Rose, the Pale Horsewoman came to an end.