A/N: As always, thank you for reading and reviewing! =)

…-…

Okay.

First of all, I have seen horror movies. I know what happens when the heroine (or worse, side character) goes off to follow the person they know who's acting strange. They die. Horrible, horrible deaths.

So I wasn't about to go finding Greg by myself. So I sent Neesera's squirrel back to her with a quick message—oh, I should mention, some guys here have 'upgraded' Neesera's squirrels. They're our new camera system since apparently the virus Michel used on the old cameras did irreversible damage to their software or programming or something? So they are now real-time, moving cameras. A few people are trying to get them to have speakers so that we can announce to people we find to follow the squirrel back to base instead of having a little piece of paper rolled up on them—the squirrels are programmed to generally try to avoid being touched by strangers since they'd be running up to demons and such if they weren't, but that makes it harder to get the message to other people—but so far they haven't figured that one out.

Anyway, so I sent Neesera's squirrel to her and kept an eye out for anyone who could help me as I headed outside. We've all pretty much taken up residence in that hotel across the street from the old, original base. We've got some people who are making beds and stuff for the rooms and it's kind of weird to see a king suite get turned into a barracks that can house like twenty people. Hello fire code violations, though with those flame retardant spells I mentioned before, I guess it's not a huge deal.

And even though they've made that many beds for some of the rooms, it doesn't mean there's bodies to fill them all. And my room is pretty empty. I mean, I share it with Brath, Maevlen, and Neesera, but everyone's schedules are so weird that we practically never see each other, so it's like having a single, just with some other people's stuff in it.

You may be wondering about me and Brath. Well, it's a little complicated—isn't everything?—but…I don't know. He still flirts shamelessly, and Clara and a few others give me stern looks, but we haven't really moved forward since that kiss. It's like our lives are on hold while we save the world. Or maybe he's punishing me for drugging him that one time.

So lame.

Anyway. I should probably get back on track to what's happening.

I was almost to the street door and wondering what I would do if I made it to where I'd seen Greg and was still alone. Would I end up falling right into the dumb, clueless role like in the movies?

I just…I didn't want to let him wander around our base, learning the layout, if he was really with the demons. But, more than that…I wanted to know the truth. Like, maybe he'd just been pretending?

I guess, even though I wanted to find someone to go with me, I'd already started playing everything out in my head, right? Like, I'd follow him somewhere, maybe the original headquarters—they had all these trip walls and hiding places and we practically had to tear down the building to find all of them just to get to all of the information they had on the Legion and their plans. When we got there, I'd interrupt whatever he was doing and demand answers.

Why had he sent me the email if he was planning on joining Team Destroy Everything? I mean, it was just dumb. He wouldn't have protected me if he—

Oh my god.

I'm so dumb. So, so, so…

As the realization hit me, I stumbled to a stop and abruptly felt my throat tightening. Suddenly, I didn't want to find Greg. Because if I did and it turned out…

Greg sometimes sent out emails to all of the people in his address book. Some of the jokes or websites are really not in my interests and I'd even complained to mom and dad, asking them to make Greg take me off his list. I tried to point out that it wasn't like he ever emailed me anything personal anyway, and I'd been ready a couple times to block his account, just so I wouldn't get all that junk. But mom had insisted that we keep each other's addresses, so that we could contact one another if there was an emergency. When I'd asked what the point was when we had cell phones, mom had just gotten mad at me and told me that deleting emails wasn't that hard and someday I'd be happy to have his email address.

What if…he hadn't meant to send me that warning? What if it was just the fact that he'd forgotten I was in his address book when he sent it to the people who mattered to him?

All this time. All this time I thought he'd been looking out for me, being the big brother. I mean, I know we were never super close and our interests rarely went in the same direction, but…

But what? He's family? What does that even mean?

I didn't want to find him and have him laugh at me, tell me that I'd never meant anything to him or something horrible like that. He's my big brother after all. When we were little, I used to always want to be like him. I used to chase after him, climb trees after him, all that. He was my hero.

I guess I still want him to be and if I meet up with him, then…then I might have to see that he's not. That maybe he's never been.

Anyway.

I was in the hall just in front of the doorway and it was a rare moment where no one was coming or going and I was able to just stand there. What finally got me moving wasn't some sense of right or wrong or even that I figured I'd be able to get past my own insecurities.

Rather abruptly, I realized that I could feel fel magic. Lots, and lots of fel magic.

For a second, I forgot about Greg and ran out into the street to see what was happening. At first, everything looked normal, but then I looked up and saw that the clouds overhead—I've yet to see the sun since I came back to my world—were darker than usual.

It only took the flash of a memory of Booty Bay to go through my head to know what was happening. And so, at the top of my lungs, I yelled, "INFERNALS!"

That caught plenty of people's attentions and at first they were all confused, but even as they started looking up toward the sky, green spheres began to crack through the clouds, lighting them green and leaving smoking streaks as they plummeted into the earth.

In a breath, we were plunged into chaos.

One slammed into the building above me and I heard screams as it caught people who'd been sleeping. I started to go up, but I could feel something watching me and I turned my head back toward the street.

There was Greg, just as I remembered him. Hazel eyes, messy hair, a speckling of freckles across his nose from when he was little and still liked playing out in the sun. Part of me was so glad to see him, to know that he was really okay.

But the rest of me…

He was watching me with this look. It was like a mixture of surprise and incredulity. Even as I stared back at him, eyes wide, one of the infernals crashed into the road beside him and loomed up. However, it merely glanced toward him and then whirled away, charging a few guards who had stumbled out of the nearest building.

People were shouting—a few were screaming, though this time I wasn't one of them—and I could hear the sounds of concrete and metal and brick crumbling beneath the pressure of the demons.

I saw Isaiah grab two kids who had been playing in the streets and tug them into a doorway, shoving them inside before reaching for his rifle, hanging off his shoulder. His face was drawn and ashen and I could tell that he'd never seen these creatures before. He shot one as it went after a gnome priestess and the creature let out a deep rumble as it turned to face him, his bullet barely having made a dent in the creature's rock body.

Everywhere I turned, people were fighting helplessly against the flaming rock giants. The Azerothians were faring better than the people from my world. They still carried their melee weapons and they were trained enough to put enough force into their swings to crack the stone. Two orc warriors managed to hack off one of another creature's legs and then bash in its skull when it fell.

Even with the one victory, more were coming out of the sky, as though the whole of the Legion had turned its attention toward us. It occurred to me that they were going to keep coming until every last one of us lay broken and beaten in the streets.

I was too lost in the moment to hear the one come up behind me, but as I felt that familiar heat, I darted out of the way just in time as it's arm slammed down on where I'd been. I tried shooting it's head with the handgun I keep tucked into my belt these days, and I did manage to crack the rock a bit, but, like Isaiah's weapon, it was mostly useless because I would have had to hit that exact same spot to break its head open and I'm not that good a shot.

I tripped over the roots of one of those darn trees the druids keep growing everywhere, and fell backwards, cutting my hand on broken asphalt and twisting my ankle.

However, as the creature loomed over me, I heard chanting and suddenly these chains just materialized out of nowhere and the creature whirled away from me to attack one of its fellow demons.

I stared at where it had been for a moment before I considered that it had to have been a warlock to have stopped it and I knew it had been Greg. But then, as I looked toward where I'd last seen my brother, I saw a goblin flash me a thumbs up and then turn his attention away, shadows seething around his fingers as he attacked another of the creatures.

Greg hadn't saved me. A stranger had.

I tried not to think about it.

And then, something clicked in my head.

The whole reason I went to Azeroth to begin with. Warlocks control demons.

There was no way to tell if this was sound reasoning, but with things as they were, I didn't have time to test my theory or ask someone if I might be right. These creatures weren't like the felguards. I'd read a bit in my book about them and they weren't as intelligent as some of the other demons. They were manufactured.

Which meant they were being controlled.

My gaze swept the street until I saw Greg. He was further down the road now—apparently finding his little sister alive hadn't been enough of a surprise to warrant canceling the attack or even heading in my direction. He didn't look like he was contributing to the fighting himself, but rather he was holding something in one of his hands. I couldn't make out what it was, but I thought I could feel fel magic emanating from it—it was hard to tell with all the demons around.

I swallowed my bitterness that he could dismiss me so easily and rolled onto my feet, ignoring the dull pain in my ankle. I took off toward him, pushing myself to go faster and faster until everything else felt like a blur and even my own pain seemed numbed by the speed.

I may have been able to behead a felguard in a blind rage, but I doubted I could kill Greg. Even if I had managed to get physically stronger than him, he was still my brother. So, instead of focusing on him, I went for what was in his hand.

I don't think he ever saw me coming until he realized that he was empty handed and I was stumbling to a stop a few feet away from him. I heard him shout something out, but I ignored him.

He'd been holding a glowing orb in his hand and as I looked down at it, it seemed to glow with a malice of its own. I didn't know what to do with it, so I did the only think I could think of. I pulled back my arm and threw the orb down as hard as I could. A few cracks slithered over its surface, but overall, it was still intact.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and was abruptly shoved to the ground as Greg hurried past me and stooped to pick up the stupid thing. However, I kicked it out of his reach and he paused to glare at me before hurrying after it.

That was all the time I needed. I jerked my handgun loose, slipped off the safety, and prayed that my aim was better than it used to be.

There was this brilliant flash of sickening green light and then an aftershock that sent me flying backwards. I thudded into the street and felt the wind in my lungs abandon me. However, cursing caught my attention and I managed to roll onto my side to see Greg had been flung back as well, though at a slightly different angle. He was pushing himself up and it looked like he'd landed on one of his arms because it was bleeding pretty badly.

However, even as he turned this hateful look toward me that broke my heart, Nicolas was there behind him. With a quick jab with the blunt end of his weapon, my brother was unconscious and Nicolas gave me a quick, approving nod before shouldering Greg and slipping through the fighting toward one of the buildings.

I felt lost. And angry. And oddly triumphant that I'd managed to do something that was really useful.

It was short lived though and before I could take a moment to sort out my feelings, I had to dodge as another infernal tried to squash me.

I'd barely made it to my feet when something truly amazing happened.

We'd been under siege for…maybe five or ten minutes, though it felt like so much longer. And if you looked around, you could see that people were getting tired. That was, those who were still standing. More than a few people lay scattered about the street, some bodies twisted, others in pools of blood, and it turned my stomach to think that they might all be dead. Even if I couldn't remember their names, I'd talked with so many of them, scouted with them, even saved a few.

The orb seemed to have been what was calling the creatures to us, but even without more coming, there were at least forty tearing through our base.

It was then, as people's faces began to reflect the growing hopelessness, the realization that whatever dreams we'd had about retaking our world had been foolish at best, that the shamans showed up.

One minute, you could taste the desperation in the air and the next…the next minute the air was filled with lightning and fire and the ground trembled at the call of casters. I could remember the feeling of what little magic had been used around me—mostly on practice dummies—in Azeroth, but this magic was different.

It felt like home.