Ruby dove behind the cover, "How many more have you got?"

Velann shook her head, "Only three more, then I'm out."

Ruby looked over at the no-man's land between the cover, seeing a bag of Velann's preferred ammo.

"Cover me, I'm going for that bag."

Velann gave a cheery salute, before popping up, throwing one of the canisters at the oppression.

Ruby burst from the cover, rushing towards the bag. Grabbing it, she went low, dodging the suppressing fire.

She slung the bag towards Velann, who caught it.

A body went flying over Ruby's head, "Weiss!"

Ruby reached out, looking for anything, once her hand wrapped around something, she burst from cover, rushing the enemy base.

Weaving in and out of the way from the rain of attacks, she brought her impromptu weapon in a batter swing.

The air rushed from Jaune's mouth as the baguette smashed into his stomach, sending him flying back.

"Jaune!"

Ruby was crashed into the ceiling as the twister of soda cans crashed into her.

A link of sausage wrapped around Pyrrha's throat, breaking her concentration. This had the unfortunate side effect of sending Ruby dropping into the ground.

"Oh, this is going to suck."

The last thing Ruby saw before she crashed into the ground, buried under the cans, was Yang get sent flying by Nora.

As she lay there, hearing the sound of battle rage above her, a lesson from Kael came to her.

'Remember Ruby, a Fire mage is never in control.'

'What do you mean?'

'Fire is the easiest form of Arcane to manipulate, but is impossible to actually control, you can direct it, shape it, but if you are not careful, it will burn you and your allies just as it would your enemies. This is particularly important for a war mage to learn, because you will be near your flames.'

Ruby heated the air around her, a trick she had learned during her time in Kalimdor. She felt her own skin blister and burn as the metal around her heated up.

It was strange, Ruby reflected, how unnoteworthy that was now. She was one of the few Death Knights still alive who remembered when fire was a problem, only a few "problem" ones had been assigned to Acherus. Arthas had dedicated copious amounts of time to fixing that problem after she turned his victory against him.

Eventually, the pressure in the cans grew to be too much, and the contents erupted outward. Ruby burst from her tomb, creating a wind tunnel around her dragging the soda with her.

Team JNPR were slammed into the wall, and coated with the heated drink. Aura would be enough to heal the burns, if there were any. It's not like she had heated it enough to actually burn through the shield effect of Aura. This was after all not a battle but a bit of fun.

Ruby plopped down on one of the (broken) tables, it felt good to get the blood (metaphorically) pumping.

Her Scroll went off with a chirp, and she looked down at it.

'Found One.'

Ruby jumped up and started walking to the door.

If all went well, she would have her answers soon. (And maybe, a little traitorous part of her whispered, a bit of fun of a different sort.)

X LINE BREAK X

Neo kicked her feet, bored out of her mind.

They had been unloading the Paladins that Roman had stolen for the past few hours, and she would give anything for something interesting to happen.

At that exact moment, the wall was smashed down.

'Me and my fat mouth.'

There were six of them, all clad in heavy armor, though only one wore a helmet.

One of them stepped forward and waved a hand, smoke flowed from its wake, and covered the area before Neo could move. The diminutive thief fell, moving her mouth, gasping for air that would not come. As her vision faded out, she heard them speak.

"I wasn't expecting this, Deathlord."

"Easier this way, somebody here knows what we are looking for… Wait, I recognize this one, we'll start with him."

Spoke out, "Who's in charge here?"

Neo reached over and grabbed Roman's arm, hiding themselves both in an illusion.

A Faunus, she wasn't sure what type, spoke up, "I am."

"I'm going to need to ask you to come with us."

Silence stretched after that, did she really think they would go with him?

Finally one of the others, and holy crap was that guy huge, spoke up, "I could have told you that wouldn't have worked."

"I know, but I promised Anduin I would at least attempt to stop with the torture first approach we use."

"And now that it didn't work?"

The girl shrugged, "Technically speaking, it's not torture first, do what you will with the rest, just make sure she survives."

The Faunus tensed, bringing their guns up, only to be brought down before they could fire.

One group were incinerated by ghostly flames, another seemed to be torn apart by their own shadows, a third was consumed by a pillar of light, spikes of ice, blood torn from their body, and simple old fashioned violence.

The leader brought up their gun and fired, a desperate move, seeing as her hands were shaking too much to aim.

She was roughly grabbed by two of them.

"Give her here, I'll bring her to the shuttle waiting to take us to the Ebon Hold, I'll deal with her there."

Oh, they were from that order that Neo had infiltrated earlier. Suddenly that seemed like a mistake.

"What about these?"

One of them pointed at the Paladins.

"What about them?"

"We could use them. At the very least Pitwick would be happy with them."

"A good point."

A portal, it reminded Neo of one of that bitch's portals, opened and a group of zombies staggered out.

A guttural sound came from the leader's throat.

The zombies started to walk over to one of the Paladins lifting it up.

One stopped by Neo's hiding place, sniffing the air. It couldn't smell them right?

It lunged at them forcing Neo to break the illusion to impale it.

"How did we miss you?"

Crap.

Everyone stared at her, another noise came from the leader's mouth, and the mass of undead started to rush towards them.

Double crap.

"Roman?"

"You can talk!?"

"Fuck you."

Then she died fighting an unstoppable tide.

Shuffled away from them to help its brethren.

After they left, Neo broke the illusion with a sigh of relief, they needed to go tell Cinder.

X LINE BREAK X

Somewhere, across the Great Dark Beyond, a being smirked, feeling a ship leave it's flesh, blazing like a beacon of Light, as the same time another beacon lit up at their destination.

Yerl, Anduin, Kalecgos, Khadgar, you better not screw up.

It closed its eyes.

Soon, Sargeras I will end this.

X LINE BREAK X

Blake ran as fast as she could, dodging around people in the streets as she ran to cut Ruby off, trying to beat Ruby and her hostage to the ship.

Torture? They planned to torture the White Fang member they had captured?

Blake crawled up a wall, grabbing the edge of the roof. Without the other people to slow her down she could get there quicker than Ruby, who was using the alleyways to avoid being seen.

Blake dropped down, ready to confront her team leader.

"Blake, what are you doing here?"

"What are you doing? I followed you, I heard what you said, you're going to torture that woman!"

"You don't understand Blake! Somewhere out there, right now, the White Fang is using Necromancy to force people to serve them!"

"You use Necromancy!"

"And I'll burn in hell for that one day! But I've already lost one home to the Scourge, and I refuse to let Vale go the same way as Lordaeron and Quel'thalas!"

"This isn't right, Ruby!"

"The Ebon Blade has never been about what is right! It's about what is necessary!"

"You're psychotic."

"If that's what you think, fine, but you won't stop me from doing what needs to be done!"

"I won't let you do this."

"You assume that you have a choice."

Ruby dropped her package to the ground, grasping the glave. She threw out the hand holding the glave, and a blast of ice wind and snow launched at Blake.

It was only thanks to Blake's reflexes and Semblance that she avoided the attack.

Shifting Gamble Shroud into its pistol, Blake fired it at Ruby only for it to be stopped by a pillar of ice.

"You sound certain that the Scourge would destroy Vale, we have Ozpin, and Goodwitch, and the entire Beacon staff!"

"We had Uther, Alexandros, Sylvanas and Anasterian! It didn't help, we have to stop it now, smother it in the crib before it's too late!"

Blake dove out of the way of a blast of fire.

"There's two thousand students at Beacon, and more at Signal, we can beat them!"

"Every one that dies would be another soldier in in the Scourge's army! Lordaeron had great heroes too, and they all ended up fighting for the Scourge or dead beyond the ability to be raised back!"

Blake dove from her perch, bringing Gamble Shroud across Ruby's left arm, takingadvantage of the weakness she had noted.

As she moved away Ruby grabbed her by the leg.

"Give it up Blake, I've been doing this longer then you have been alive!"

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Blake used her Semblance to dive free, spinning around, she brought both of Gamble Shroud's blades across Ruby's face, destroying both eyes. At that exact moment, the glave struck her chest. Her aura was fading fast and another hit might actually put her in serious danger.

Blake span with the blow, slashing at the arm again. Even as the arm flew away lost by Ruby's refusal (or incapability) to use Auric shielding, she felt fire burn through her Aura.

She laid there pain radiating from her chest, and Ruby limped into view.

The damage around her eyes was healing, but the sockets themselves were empty voids. Blake flinched, pain radiating from her chest, had she done that? Ruby had the White Fang member gripped by the arms.

"Fine, I won't torture her, not today."

What?

"I'm giving you two months to find the information I need, that's the longest I can risk, and if you can't find that information by then, I will track someone down and get the information myself."

She turned to the bound hostage, "You owe this girl your life."

The Faunus nodded, tears welling up in her eyes as the gag was taken out.

"Thank you, thank you so much."

"I want you to go back to your leader, and tell him to stop what he is doing right now, because he is playing with something he could never understand."

"Of course, yes Ma'am!"

"And then, I would suggest leaving the White Fang."

The girl scampered off.

"Now, where is my arm?"

Silence stretched.

"Oi! You people can see in there, point me towards it."

The silence was unbroken.

"Thank you! At least one of you is useful!"

Ruby staggered over to her arm and picked it up.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry Blake."

Then she walked through one of her portals.

Blake lay there, and heard the cry of a crow.

"Hey! You stay awake, we need to get you to the hospital!"

Qrow was leaning over her, a look of worry on his face.

X LINE BREAK X

"Tirion? Darion? Where are you?"

Ruby walked along, straining her ears for the two of them.

The entity knew she hated eye injuries, they took a while to heal, and until they did she was left in the dark, with nothing but ghosts of the past to haunt her.

"Darmus, Pitwick? Is there anyone there?"

you are a pawn of forces unseen…

Oh, joy he was back.

This World-Soul has already almost fallen.

"Ok, seriously, this isn't funny."

Help our brothers finish it and you will be rewarded.

'What the hell had Blake been thinking?

What had She been thinking?'

Time to step in, before she could be swayed to the opposition's side.

You both fought for what you believed in. There is no shame in that.

BE SILENT!

Oh? What do we have here?

This one is dead, she is mine!

I thought I had gotten rid of you?

Her weapon is forged from my blood! She will serve us!

Not so long as I am here, now be quiet.

Ruby slid against the wall, "Please, anyone, help me."

Hush now, somebody will come, but it will be a while.

"Please, I don't want to be alone."

I know, but I believe you can survive this. We have been together for a long time. I know you can withstand it.

The entity turned its focus to its opposite number, trying to tune out its host's desperate cries for help.

The entity had no heart, but if it did, it would have broken as it heard its only friend's pleas.

X LINE BREAK X

Penny stepped off the airship onto the Ebon Hold.

She was tracing Ruby's Auric signature. Nobody had seen the Highlord since she and Blake had fought.

Penny followed the winding hallways, trying to find her way to where her data said Ruby was.

Mister Ironwood and Weiss were following behind her, being the only people who seemed to care about Ruby's disappearance, who wasn't also worried because of its cause.

It made sense that the three from militaristic Atlas would be the ones least intimidated, Mister Ironwood had even noted a (rather grudging) respect for her, willing to do whatever it took to save her home.

As they rounded the corner, entering a room, Penny heard Weiss gasp and Mister Ironwood curse, even as she took in all the data from her sensors.

Ruby was lying there, unmoving. Crescent Rose was lying farther away, alongside Ruby's arm. A trail of congealed blood started from a random spot, and ended just before the stump of her severed arm.

Weiss and Mister Ironwood rushed past her, checking Ruby for any signs of life, Penny knew it was an instinctual action. A battery of tests done on Summer (Ruby had threatened bodily harm on anyone who came near her with a needle) had proven that Death Knights didn't have any heartbeat, even things like breathing were done because on autopilot, and stopped the minute they stopped focusing on it.

Penny continued to take in data, noting that Ruby's Auric signature seemed to be coming from Cresent Rose, rather than Ruby herself. Then she turned and rushed down the halls, looking for help.

The first person she ran into was a large man, his skin an unhealthy blue.

"Help me!"

"What's wrong?"

"Ruby isn't moving!"

"I'm going to need you to explain exactly what is going on."

Penny rushed through her explanation, when she mentioned Crescent Rose, the man turned to the skeleton next to him, "Find Tirion and Thoras, then bring them to me."

Penny rushed to keep up with the man, as he covered the ground with long strides, "What's your name?"

"Nazgrim."

"You'll be able to help Ruby, right?"

"Probably, this happened to one of our old members occasionally."

"What did?"

"A discontinuation between the body and Phylactery."

"Phylactery?"

Penny ran through her on board dictionary for the word, and when that didn't produce any results, connected to the CCTnet, which produced a similar lack of results.

"Ruby isn't a normal Death Knight anymore. She became something more, or, depending on your outlook, less."

"What?"

"A Lich."

"What is a Lich?"

It was another word that Penny had found no luck in finding.

"A Lich is someone who placed their Soul in an item, their Phylactery. So long as their Phylactery remains intact, they can regenerate from any wound and even death or the destruction of their bodies."

"And Ruby did that?"

Something about the idea that her first friend wasn't quite human excited Penny.

"Yes."

"So she should be fine?"

"Hardest part should be holding her still to stitch her arm back on, which is why I called for Tirion and Thoras."

Penny felt relief flood her form as they reached the room, Ruby would be alright.

X LINE BREAK X

"LET ME GO, YOU TWO, BEFORE I FEED YOU TO MY GHOULS!"

"Sorry Deathlord! We can't hear you!"

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY! TIRION GET THAT NEEDLE AWAY FROM ME!"

James watched the interaction between the four, slightly dumbfounded, this was the organization that they were worried about? Their strength was admirable, their discipline was lacking in the extreme.

"Ruby please, you need to get this arm reattached already."

"FUCK YOU!"

"You know," The giant of a man grunted as an elbow smashed into his nose breaking it for the third time in this encounter, "in hindsight, it probably would have been smarter to do this before we brought her back."

"Sorry, I was busy trying to keep her friends from freaking out."

"I'm not blaming you, just saying."

"Almost done!"

"Good, maybe we will be able to find out what they want."

James raised an eyebrow at the… creative threats Ruby was making towards the three of them, 'I'll have to remember that one for next time Qrow is being difficult.'

"Finished!"

The two men dropped Ruby, who proceeded to test out her arm by punching the smaller of the two in the face, shattering his nose, and tieing up the score between the two holding her on that count.

She turned towards him, "Sorry about that… what was it you needed?"

"Highlord Rose, I am General James Ironwood of the Atlesian military."

"A pleasure, General, I as you previously stated am Highlord-"

"Deathlord." the three around her chorused.

"-I'm not using that title shut up. Highlord Ruby Rose-

"-the Argent Champion-" Spoke out Tirion.

"-Vengeance Incarnate-" Chimed in the giant.

"-the Sword and Shield of Wrynn-" added in the blue skinned one.

"Are you trying to piss me off?"

"Yes." The giant admitted.

"That was my intention." the blue skinned male elaborated.

"Consider it payback for making me worry." Tirion explained

"Anyways, might I ask why you are here?"

"We were sent to look for you, nobody had seen you since your fight with your teammate a week ago."

"That was a week ago?"

"You don't know how long it's been?"

"It tends to become difficult to tell how long it has been with no outside stimuli."

"There is no need to be snide."

"Please don't treat me as a fool then. You have some other reason for being here, a General doesn't go looking for someone they have never seen before."

"Uh, yes."

"Well what is it? I'm sure that there has been plenty of disasters while I was indisposed that I need to deal with."

"We would like you to take Penny here as a student to your organisation, so as to foster bonds between the Knights of the Ebon Blade and Atlas."

"And you have spoken to Penny about this?"

"Yes."

Ruby turned to the girl, "If we take you as a student, it will be the most painful experience in your life, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Affirmative!"

"Very well General Ironwood, we'll take you up on that offer."

Good, step one of Oz's plan worked.

X LINE BREAK X

"I need to talk to you."

"Give me a minute." Velann responded to Yang without looking up from the terminal she was sitting at.

Scrolls had unfortunately been restricted to Ruby, Darion, and Tirion at the moment, though work was being made at changing that.

Velann couldn't help but marvel at the technology, not even the Draenei had something like this. Azeroth must have been so backward to Ruby.

Finishing up the news she was reading she turned around, "What's up?"

"Can I talk to you? Alone?"

"Sure."

Velann followed Yang into an empty classroom.

"I want you to stay away from Ruby."

"No."

Yang glared at her, "Stay away from her."

"What do you think that would do?"

"Everything could just go back to normal!"

"How would me staying away from Ruby make things normal?"

"Not you as in," Yang gestured to Velann, "you, I mean you as in The Ebon Blade."

"Why would we stay away from our leader?"

"Because it's not healthy for her to be around you!"

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Ever since you all showed up Ruby's been acting different! She was going to torture someone, she hurt Blake, and apparently she was sleeping around with some strange man!"

Yang's eyes were burning red, even as tears streaked down her face.

"I want you all gone and I want my baby sister back!"

"That can't happen."

"Why not!"

"Because she's been dead for twenty years!"

Fuck it. Ruby needed to stop hiding in this delusion that everything was the same as it had been, it was hurting everyone around her.

And if Ruby wouldn't come out of it herself, then Velann would drag her into it kicking and screaming.

X LINE BREAK X

Summer, who had been listening at the door, cut in at that point. "What do you mean my daughter has been dead for twenty years?!"

Velann groaned and looked ready to complain, but muttered to herself, "at least I only have to explain it once, so then you can go and talk to Ruby and I don't have to deal with this."

Yang looked ready to burst into flames, Summer mused, just like her father. Though the passion for adventure had to have come from Raven and the love for family came from herself. Summer took her swords in hand and started to smile threateningly at Velann. "Will you please elaborate?"

Velann sighed looked for somewhere to sit. She told them "Ruby's been lying to you since she returned,, she wasn't gone for six day, for her, at least, it has been twenty years."

"Pull the other one, it has a bell on it."

"I'm serious!"

"Ruby's sixteen."

"She doesn't look it though."

"That's because of Arthas!"

"I'm not denying that, what I am denying is that he aged her up, rather, he stopped her aging at the moment of her death."

"That doesn't make sense!"

"And our 'mutations' do?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't you think Malag would be a lot more angry about being turned into a giant tentacled monstrosity? Or that Pitwick would have a lot more trouble dealing with the fact that he's three feet tall and missing a digit on each hand?"

Summer thought back to her own raising, "Ruby didn't seem concerned about the idea of me having any mutations."

"Exactly!"

"But why would she lie to us?"

Velann shrugged, "Maybe she was afraid of confronting that you would die one day, maybe in an attempt to make it easier for you. Maybe to relive the white washed world she remembers. She doesn't remember this place as it was, but as she would have liked it to have been. It's been two decades for her, how well do you remember a decade ago? Ruby doesn't like dealing with problems if she can avoid it. If I'm honest, I think, on some level, she was glad Sylvanas went insane right after Illidan's death, it allowed her to avoid thinking about it."

Summer locked eyes with the girl, "Tell me everything."

"Grab a seat, it will take a while."

X LINE BREAK X

"Ruby, come on, Uther wouldn't want you to be like this."

Alexandros frowned when Ruby didn't respond, staring dispassionately at the hearth.

Alexandros looked out at the darkened houses of Brill, even if she did respond, he wasn't sure what he would do or even could do. Nobody had left their house, terrified of the Scourge rapidly sweeping it's way across Lordaeron.

It had already passed by Brill earlier, only a couple of weeks ago, moving with an inhuman speed.

Tirion was supposed to arrive later that day, from there he would bring her to Daelin, who would bring her with him on his attempts to find Jaina.

He sat down, cleaning his sword for what felt like the hundredth time, looking for anything to take his mind off what was happening.

He should be out there, fighting, not playing babysitter!

But he couldn't fault Uther, he was half a mind to send Renault and Darion with them even now, when they wanted to be out there just as much as he did. He didn't think there was a moment that he could remember that he was more proud of his sons.

Alexandros tensed as he heard the sound of hoofbeats, which stopped outside his house.

Gripping his sword, he walked towards the door.

A hurried thunderous knocking shook the house. Ruby stood up, reaching for her scythe, Darion grabbed the pair of swords he had taken to, and Renault grabbed his mace.

"Alexandros let me in, it's Ballador!"

Ruby moved to the door, cracking it open at his nod.

Even after Ballador was in, Alexandros kept his blade trained on him.

"What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were with Uther. Why are you here?"

"Uther sent me to warn you!"

"What?"

"Arthas won, Uther is dead."

"What?"

"By the Light! Ruby I'm sorry, I forgot you were here!"

Ruby's eyes seemed to glow brighter as she breathed in and walked out of the room.

Alexandros and Ballador shared a look, that wasn't good.

X LINE BREAK X

Darion woke up when he heard the sound of someone moving around downstairs.

He reached over, grabbing his swords, and he crept down stairs.

Standing there was Ruby, opening the door to the house.

"Ruby? What are you doing?"

Ruby turned around, looking guilty.

"Darion? What are you doing up?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"I forgot to feed Steadfast."

"Can't it wait till Tirion gets here?"

"No!"

"Ruby, you're not planning on doing anything stupid are you?"

"No! Of course not. Look, Darion, come over here."

Darion walked over to her, wondering what she wanted.

His face lit up when she placed a hand on his cheek and pressed her lips against the other.

Then he felt his eyes grow heavy. Why was he so tired?

When he woke two hours later, it was to Tirion looking down at him in worry.

X LINE BREAK X

Arthas sat on his father's- no his- throne, Frostmourne sitting at his side.

"Young prince, why have you not started your march on Quel'thalas yet. We need Kel'thuzad if we are to help our… esteemed master."

"I need time to bolster my forces, Uther put up more of a fight then I was expecting."

It was true, the Paladin had fought harder than Arthas had ever seen him, destroying wave after wave of ghouls and Acolytes, and had forced Arthas to confront Uther himself.

"You have two days."

"Of course."

The Dreadlord suddenly recoiled.

"Be wary, there is something close, coming here."

It was at that moment that the door was blasted off it's hinges.

Arthas stood from his throne grabbing Frostmourne.

"Who dares?"

Silver flames raced across the room, burning the undead gathered there to ash and sending Tichondrius fleeing, roaring as his leg was burned.

All the flames converged in one place, Arthas, and the Death Knight brought Frostmourne in between the flames and him, creating a shell of ice around himself.

The flames died out, only for the ice to shatter, and Frostmourne clashed with another blade.

Drawing upon his unholy strength, Arthas pushed the unknown assailant back.

She came skidding to a halt, and Arthas had just enough time to realize who he was looking at, before she disappeared in a storm of rose petals.

Every instinct in his body screamed, and Arthas moved, placing Frostmourne in the way of the scythe. Blue-green eyes met pure silver.

"Ruby."

"Hello, Arthas."

Then she was gone and Arthas was forced to block the next blow.

This was how the fight continued for the next few minutes, Ruby moving around the area with speed Arthas was hard pressed to beat, occasionally throwing blasts of that ethereal fire, but mostly attacking with her scythe.

Arthas retaliated when he could, launching blast of necrotic energy at the girl, but she was never there by the time they hit.

"Are you here about Uther? Would you like to hear how he died?"

A voice echoed through Arthas's head, Muradin, training him out in the courtyard, 'Remember, lad, if ya can anger your foe, they will get sloppy, make mistakes, it's your job ta take advantage of those mistakes.'

Ruby paused for a moment, anger flashing across her face, "I'm here to stop you from hurting anyone else!"

"Really? Is that true? Or is it just what you're telling yourself?"

Ruby disappeared again, and Arthas brought Frostmourne up again.

"He died begging, you know? Pleading for me to spare you."

A lie, Uther had died staring down Arthas, foolishly. (Bravely, a little traitorous part of his whispered.)

More flames lashed out at him, and he flicked them to the side, carelessly.

"I was going to grant him that request, a final gift for setting me down this path, but now that you're here, I think it would be kinder to reunite you."

"You won't win, Arthas."

"There's no need to be like that, Ruby. I'm doing you a favor. Alexandros, his kids, Calia? They'll all be there too eventually."

Ruby appeared in front of him with a shriek of rage.

'There!'

Arthas went low, bringing Frostmourne up, in striking the blade of Crescent Rose and shattering it.

Arthas so Ruby's eyes widen, and fire start to lick at her fingertips, "No you don't!"

The blade met some form of resistance, just for a moment, before it pierced Ruby's chest.

The fire went out, and Ruby fell to her knees, blood flowing from her lips and nose.

"I win."

Ruby reached up, placing a hand on his face, and then smiled. It wasn't a pretty thing, like her normal smiles were, there were too many teeth.

"No," she managed to spit out around the blood, and her eyes flashed red.

Then the pain blossomed from his cheek.

X LINE BREAK X

Ruby had read a lot of stories about dying, how your life flashed before your eyes, and heat leaked from your body as you went through a tunnel towards a light, where everyone was waiting for you.

That wasn't happening to her. Admittedly, she was getting cold, but instead, her mind was going back to her trip to Gilneas, or more particularly, the book she had stolen from Jaina to read.

A Dissertation on The Nature of Fel Magic and How to Combat It.

Ruby knew Jaina would have been disappointed in her if she ever found out Ruby had taken it, but she wanted to know everything that there was to know about this place for when she got home.

'Heh, guess that wasn't happening now'

Fel is naturally chaotic, if Arcane is a lake, the Fel is the ocean.

Ruby sank to her knees, the blade tearing through her lung.

Anything that throws the world into chaos attracts the Fel, and none more so than death.

Arthas looked down at her, a slight grin on his face, "I win."

This is, in part, what makes combating practitioners of Fel magic, "Warlocks", so hard to combat, while the more complex the creature is (with sentient creatures such as Elves and Humans being the most complex on Azeroth) the stronger the reaction, even something as simple as a plant can be used to perform the sacrifice.

Well, something complex was dying right now.

Ruby reached up and placed a hand on Arthas's face, she wanted to make sure that it didn't miss.

Had it only really been a few hours since she pulled the same trick to keep Darion from realizing that she was casting a sleeping charm on him?

Ruby tried focusing on the feeling of her life slipping away, of the cold blade stuck in her chest, and the warm blood leaking around it, and out her mouth and nose.

She offered it up to whatever would take it,and something responded.

Ruby felt a euphoric rush flow through her body as she looked at Arthas, her mouth splitting in a massive grin, "No."

And the she released the spell.

Arthas howled in pain, falling backwards as he did so in an attempt to escape Ruby's grasp, but she surged forward, riding the high of the fel energy, laughter bubbling forth as she kept her hold on the side of Arthas's face.

"We'll both go together Arthas!"

She shifted her hand, digging her thumb into his eye even as the flames licked his throat.

Eventually, though, Arthas was able to get his feet under her, and kick her off of him.

As she closed her eyes, feeling the last of the energy leave her, the last thing she saw was Arthas glare down at her, the left side his face a twisted mass of charred flesh and missing an eye.

Then she died in the dust.

She opened her eyes to a chamber, hundreds of people were bound around it, but three caught her eye.

The first was an old man with grey hair, a crown upon his head, a look of sadness on his face as he took her in.

The second was a blond haired young man, blue-green eyes wide with horror.

And the third was stocky, with greying brown hair, wearing golden armor with a blue mantle around it, and glowing blue eyes. He mouthed wordlessly in horror as he looked at her.

Then a voice echoed through the chamber, 'No! You don't get off that easily you little bitch! You! Go fetch me a scythe!'

After what felt like an eternity, Ruby felt a tugging, it grew in intensity until she was wrenched upwards.

She rose, gripping onto the scythe her master had made for her, and walked outside to where the horse was.

Taking a knife from one of the Acolytes, she looked at the horse.

No! This isn't right!

Then she stabbed the horse in the throat.

Steadfast!

She raised the horse, and it's skin seemed to rot, turning a pale green, as it's mane was replaced with flames the same color.

"Interesting, I wasn't expecting that to happen when you raised Steadfast."

"He's not Steadfast anymore, my lord."

"Oh?"

"He is my horse, and I am a Knight of Lordaeron, am I not?"

"Yes."

"Then I should name him after a characteristic that is important to me."

"True, so, what's his name?"

Ruby turned to the prince, and in that moment couldn't think of anyone she wanted to serve more.

In that moment, Ruby couldn't think of anyone she hated more.

"He's Despair."