Cindera.

"Oh, damn," said Rotvine. "They got Cindera at the Wrathgate."

"No, I don't think it was at the Wrathgate," I said quietly, looking at the death knight.

She was wearing plate robes that dragged on the ground, making a screeching metallic sound as she walked. She looked colder than I remembered, taller too. In my mind, I sensed Sylvanas' panic, and tried to calm her down. It wouldn't do for me to panic now. Not if I wanted to make it through.

"What do you mean?" asked Varok. I knew he was thinking of his son, who was most likely somewhere in here.

"I have a feeling that Cindera has been serving Arthas for a long time. She never truly joined the Horde, did you, Cindera? You are the one who orchestrated my kidnapping and imprisonment into Naxxramas."

"You were never supposed to get out," she spat, while, inside my head, Sylvanas raged. I begged her to be quiet. "But your lover refused to let you go. She would have been mine, you know, if it hadn't been for you. I could have brought her back here, and the two of us would have made the perfect soldiers for the Lich King."

"I'm so sorry, Cindera," I told her. And I really was. "I should have killed you when I had the chance. I'm sorry I didn't, and that you've continued to suffer like this."

"I haven't been suffering," said Cindera, her voice bouncing off the walls and floors. "Arthas has been good to me. And he will shower me with gifts once I bring you to him. Because you are the one that he wants, and none of you will get past me alive, I promise you that."

"You're delusional," I told her.

"Am I?" she asked, stepping towards us. "Your little friends on the other side aren't going to make it through. Arthas will be bringing more of his minions to meet them and the others who call themselves the Ashen Verdict, and all of you will join the ranks of the Scourge and help us take over Azeroth."

"That is not going to happen, Cindera," I told her. "We might die fighting you, but I can promise you that we will not let any of you raise us into the ranks of the Scourge." I spoke quite calmly, hoping to inject some calm into the members of my team. Carelia, I could see, looked ready to faint. Arel was horrified at my exchange with Cindera, but she was composed. Next to me, Rotvine was shaking in what I assumed to be rage.

He cast a spell so fast I barely saw him move. It was a devastating incantation, one that would have destroyed any lesser being. Cindera, however, appeared barely ruffled by the attack. Her plate robes had taken most of the blow, and looked singed now, but still appeared to be protecting her adequately.

"Now, now, Rotvine. Is that how you greet an old friend?"

"You know full well I was never your friend, you evil witch."

"I suppose that's true. You've always been Faith's loyal lapdog."

Marcus leapt, his sword raised. Cindera saw him coming and gracefully stepped aside, while raising her own sword and catching him in the chest. Beverly screamed, piercingly, but Varok grabbed her arm, keeping her from going to him. There was nothing we could do, I saw right away that Marcus was dying quickly.

I raised my hand, a murmur leaving the back of my throat. Black fire trickled out of the palm of my hand, and engulfing Marcus' body. He screamed once, but a second later, he turned to ash, falling from Cindera's sword. Cindera turned to me, her glare murderous.

"That was my soul!" she cried.

"No," I told her. "You will not get anybody's soul. Not today, not ever. I will burn all of us alive if I need to in order to keep the Scourge from turning us into the likes of you."

Cindera made a sound that was more like a cobra's hiss than anything else. She bounded towards me, swinging her runeblade, but I had already put up my staff and murmured a spell. Carelia had cast a protection spell over us as well, and with both of the spells combined, she didn't hit me, although her sword hit the barriers like a deafening crack of thunder.

"You should have been killed," she said, her voice slightly higher than a whisper. "But I hadn't counted on Sylvanas rescuing you. I definitely hadn't counted on her going to the Alliance to bring about an assault on Naxxramas. A couple of more days, and you would have been finished. But she loves you, which was a very unfortunate turn of events. I tried to lure her away from you. I even kissed her."

I blinked. Sylvanas was oddly quiet in my mind, which I took as a confirmation of Cindera's statement.

"I almost managed to sleep with her. I certainly was able to get her naked, but she pulled away from me at the last moment." She looked at me and smiled, "She has a beautiful body… I'm sure making love with her would have been fantastic."

I couldn't think. Cindera had… Sylvanas… Images flooded my mind, unwanted images of the two of them together, kissing, with Cindera's hands roaming over her body.

Faith…

I quickly shook my head, as if to clear Sylvanas from it. I was hurt, furious that she hadn't mentioned this to me. That I'd found out like this. My heart was pounding in my ears.

Faith! Focus! You must focus, or she'll kill you!

Haldren muttered something suddenly, and a dazzling shaft of Light appeared directly over Cindera, who tried to stagger away from it. The action cleared my mind, and I was once again aware of where I was. I stared at Cindera as she attempted to flee the warmth of Haldren's spell.

"Oh no you don't," snarled Arel, using her own spell to root her to the floor. "You wanted to attack us, well here you are, we're right here."

The Light was weakening her. Cindera struggled, almost unable to lift her sword as I approached. Almost. She swung it with surprising force at me, and I might have been cloven in half had I not raised my own blade in time to parry her blow. She shrieked, the sound clearly designed to unhinge us. But I was so used to Sylvanas' banshee cries that Cindera's affected me about as much as a fly buzzing in my ear.

"Quiet," I said. The spell was effective, and her mouth shut with a snap. "What to do with you, Cindera? I understand now why you hated me so much, since you were in the butcher's pocket the whole time. But Arthas won't be long for this world. And neither will you."

Varok stepped forward. With a strike of his gauntleted hand, he knocked the sword from Cindera's fingers. She tried to retaliate, but Rotvine blocked her. A black flame appeared under the plated hood of her robe, and she opened her mouth wide in a silent scream. I kept my eyes locked with hers as my fire began to consume her.

"I'm sorry," I said again. Without warning, I thrust my blade through her throat. Dark coagulated blood spurt from her lips, spattering me. A few seconds later, all that remained of her was the armor she had been wearing.

I stepped away from the remains, my head spinning. My stomach churned and I put a hand over my mouth, running to a corner of the room, where I was violently sick. I was happy that Sylvanas could read my mind, because there was no way I'd be able to explain what I had just done.

"I'm sorry," I told Varok. "I'm sorry, I… I shouldn't have listened to her. I froze."

He put a hand on my shoulder, "It's not your fault, Faith. We don't blame you."

"You should. She might have killed all of us while I stood there, and she probably would have had Haldren not intervened."

"Aye, but she didn', lassie," said the dwarf reassuringly.

"She probably said those things to rattle you," Arel told me. "I'm sure they're not even true."

"Except they are," I said. "Aren't they, Sylvanas?"

Sylvanas didn't answer, but I could almost sense her guilt.

Rotvine walked to me, "Cindera also said that Sylvanas had pulled away from her. She didn't go through with it."

That wasn't the issue. "It doesn't matter," I said. Taking a few steps towards where Cindera's runeblade lay, I cast a curse on it, so that any undead touching it would burn. "We shouldn't linger here."

We kept moving, walking out of the chamber. Beverly was walking next to me, but her eyes were wide, terrified. I stopped for a second, and turned her to face me, "I'm sorry about Marcus," I said. "I think the two of you were close, from what I noticed."

Her eyes filled with tears, "It… it happened so fast," she whispered.

I hugged her, and felt her trembling in my arms. "Can you keep going?"

"Y-yes." She wiped at her eyes, "I can do that for him. Thank you… for making sure he wasn't raised."

I nodded, and we moved on, walking through another door that led to an open space bigger than the playing field in Everstone Village had been. I looked around, more than a little shocked by the sheer amount of people in there. They were humans, that was clear to me.

"The Cult of the Damned," I whispered, feeling shivers running up and down my spine. Vague memories of having been kidnapped out of Dalaran flashed through my mind, but I quelled them. I couldn't afford to think about that, not now. In my mind, Sylvanas murmured my name. I know she would have held me had she been near me, although I wasn't sure I would have accepted it right then. I was still stunned by Cindera's confession.

At the end of the room hovered a lich, whom I knew to be Lady Deathwhisper, the Supreme Overseer of the Cult of the Damned.

"Welcome!" she screeched, giving a sinister laugh. "Welcome to the Oracle of the Damned! You might have gotten past a couple of my friends, but this, this will be your final resting place."

"It's the third time we've heard that, and it's already starting to get old," I replied, casually flicking my fingers and sending tongues of flames towards the nearest enemy. The man, whose robes my flames hit, screamed and began running around, hoping that someone would quell the fire, but nobody did anything. The last thing the living members of the Cult of the Damned wanted was to be set on fire. Not because it would kill them, but because they wouldn't be able to be raised into undeath.

"Can we kill all of them?" Arel asked me in a low voice. "Or do you think that we will die trying?"

We had faced worse odds before. But with the lich overseeing them, I doubted we had much of a chance to make it through this part of the citadel unscathed.

That is until several members of the Knights of the Ebon Blade burst through a hidden door in the middle of the chamber, and began attacking the members of the Cult of the Damned where they stood.

"By the Light!" cried Carelia.

We were lucky. The death knights completely surprised Lady Deathwhisper and her cronies, who focused their attentions on them right away, thus allowing us to get started on what we wanted to do. I quickly cast one of my fire spells, making it jump from one cultist to the other. Three of them fell in seconds, burned to a crisp, while my companions felled several others in the same manner.

Nokee and Barash gave bellowing cries, and, followed by Varok, entered the fray, their weapons raised high.

It was almost too easy. As I killed cultist after cultist, I kept an eye on the lich, whose form had turned incorporeal. We wouldn't be able to touch her while she was like that, so I grabbed Rotvine's arm, pulling him aside quickly, "We need to counter her spell!" I pointed to Lady Deathwhisper, and to my horror, noticed that she was raising the few cultists we hadn't managed to burn.

Rotvine cursed, the first time I'd ever heard him do such a thing, and cast a fire spell to burn the stirring corpse. For my part, I focused on the lich and began to chant, slowly swaying from side to side as I did so, the old Thalassian words swirling like honey on my tongue.

Lady Deathwhisper turned towards me, "What exactly are you trying to accomplish, little Faith?"

I didn't answer, continuing my spell, as the battle raged around me. Rotvine joined me, and a moment later, so did Haldren, chanting in his own tongue. Shafts of Light began to appear all around her, not quite touching her, but they were enough to see that she was slowly becoming more corporeal, the more I chanted, and the more of her cultists we killed.

Finally, the time came where I couldn't see through her at all.

"So… you think you can kill me, do you?"

I heard shuffling behind me and snapped my head back to see a reanimated corpse ambling towards me. The air in front of it was oddly distorted, indicating that it had a magical barrier around it. Grabbing my staff, I stabbed it forward, hitting the creature in the chest and crying out one of my fire spells. The body began to burn almost instantly, giving off a nauseating odor of charred putrefied flesh.

"You have nothing else to raise, witch," cried Varok as we all surrounded her, fifteen of us in total.

"Kill her," I said.

We all attacked at once. Multicolored spells hit her in the face, chest and arms, our arcane and fire spells meeting the unholy casts coming from the death knights who weren't hacking away at her form. To this day, I don't know what the killing blow was. Perhaps we were too much for her to handle all at once. But whatever the case, she died with an echoing scream.

"We need to move out of here," said one of the death knights.

"Hang on," said Rotvine. "She was a lich. Her phylactery must be here somewhere."

We found it hidden in one of the recesses on the wall, behind a crude formation of skulls. Haldren took take of it using the Light, shattering it into dozens of pieces.

I turned towards the death knights, "Will you stay with us?" I asked them.

The leader of the small group nodded, "Highlord Mograine asked us to help you. Highlord Fordring led ten others towards another part of the Citadel, because we realized that there were a lot more of them than we thought." He gestured around the area, indicating the smoldering remains on the floor.

I nodded, "I think that Arthas called back a lot of his forces from the front, to concentrate them here. I don't know whether that's lucky for Northrend in general, or just very bad for us."

"We might as well kill as many of them as we can before they kill us," said Varok in an unusually quiet voice.

"We should go, then," I said, putting up magical wards around the room to keep the Scourge away.

"Do you really think those will help?" asked Beverly, watching me as I cast.

"It's better than nothing. With any luck, if we're killed, these wards will decimate several more of the fiends, and I'm okay with that."

"I guess we can't ask for better than that."

Soon after, we were on our way again, having destroyed everything magical in the room so that nobody else would be able to use them.

"I heard that the Alliance is setting up an attack on the Citadel," Arel told us.

"On its own?" wondered Rotvine as I frowned. "Under the Alliance banner?"

"Yes."

"The Horde is doing the same," said Varok. "That doesn't bode well. They'll go head to head with all the tensions that have been running high on both sides lately. The Wrathgate did nothing to improve matters between both of our factions."

Beverly made a sound that was halfway between a derisive snort and a laugh, "It's why Beau was so disinclined to work with you."

"Beau?" I tried my hardest to keep my tone from being a mocking one.

"You know, the one who was taken away when we all got together."

"Right. I thought I'd picked up on some hostility on his part."

"Apparently, his commanding officer was killed by a Horde soldier in the Broken Front in Icecrown."

I shifted uncomfortably. I'd heard of what had happened when a group of Alliance soldiers had attacked the Scourge, only to be ambushed by a Horde recon force. Thrall, and even Garrosh had been unhappy to hear of what the Horde patrol had done to the soldiers. "I wish that hadn't happened. We should be working together against the –."

An explosion sounded above us.

"What was that?" asked Nokee, looking up.

"Cannon fire," whispered Varok.

"The citadel didn't shake, so they're not firing here."

Glancing at each other, we quickly made our way through a door leading outside. Forces from the Argent Crusade were fighting the Scourge there, but nothing could take our eyes away from the two gunships that were firing on each other.

A loud Thalassian curse left my lips. Both of the ships appeared to be going down. Even from where we were, we could see members of the Horde and the Alliance fighting each other.

"We can't worry about them now," I said. "We have a job to do."

Idiots, said Sylvanas in my mind.

Indeed. I couldn't believe they were worrying about that now that we were fighting the Scourge at the citadel. I touched the Argent Dawn tabard I was wearing over my robes and began making my way towards the fights, muttering spells as I went along.

Attackers were swooping in from the sky, picking off Argent Crusaders. We brought them down as swiftly as we could, Haldren using shafts of Light while the rest of us rained down fire upon everyone and the warriors took to striking anything that came close to their swords.

Leaving burning piles of undead bodies behind us along with the fighting, we quickly proceeded towards a platform that would lead us back inside the citadel.

But as we reached it, the doors opened, and a lone figure stepped out. A figure that bore a heartbreaking resemblance to the young and brave orc who had died at the Wrathgate.

Death had forever altered Dranosh Saurfang. I could only imagine the torture that his soul had endured as it had been ripped from his body, reminding me painfully of Sylvanas. Deathbringer he was called now, or so we had heard.

He looked terrifying. His eyes glowed a deadly shade of blue, and his skin visibly hung from what had previously been strong and sinewy muscle. A bit of his upper lip was missing, and we clearly saw his teeth dripping with a substance I didn't want to know about. He still carried his weapon, although it too looked undead, and glowed the same blue as all Scourge weapons.

"Oh… Dranosh…" I whispered as Tarr made a small sound of pain next to me. My throat tightened. That this had happened to him was overwhelming, even though I'd had plenty of experience in dealing with the aftermath of the Scourge. I squeezed Varok's hand quickly, before grabbing my spellblade.

Dranosh appeared to recognize his stunned father, beginning to laugh. "Will you join me, father? Join me, and we will crush this land in the name of the Scourge!"

To his credit, Varok responded in a much calmer manner than I would have done in his place. "My boy died at the Wrathgate," he said. "I am only here to collect his body."

"Stubborn old orc. What chance have you against me? I am younger and stronger than you will ever be!" Dranosh swung his weapon, an eerie sound coming from it as it rent the empty air.

I heard Sylvanas speaking softly to me. Arthas must have tortured his soul for months to turn him into that. Faith, don't forget, the Dranosh you knew is gone forever.

I knew that, and, apparently, so did Varok.

"We named him Dranosh," he said. "It means Heart of Draenor in Orcish. You are not him."

"No. I am better. I serve the Lich King and have powers that your pathetic son never had!"

"Dranosh Saurfang was ten times the being you will ever be," I snarled. I was already beginning to cast a spell, as were the other spellcasters with me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Beverly sneaking up behind him, and hoped that she would be careful. If she engaged him too soon, she would be lost.

"Fools!" cried the thing that had been Dranosh. He charged at his father, stunning him, then faced the rest of us. "Come at me, then, if you dare!"

I gave a cry of rage, unleashing a whirlwind of white fire that just barely caught the side of his face. The smell of charred undead flesh reached me, but Dranosh was incredibly fast on his feet. Having avoided the worst of my spell, he moved quickly, killing Barash before any of us could do anything about it. The brave collapsed in a heap at Dranosh's feet, blood spurting from his neck.

Nokee's bellow of anger drowned out everything. He rushed towards Dranosh, but Haldren created a barrier of Light around him so that he was only momentarily stunned when the undead's weapon struck.

"Kill him," I hissed.

It wasn't an easy fight. Beverly leapt at him from behind, her poisoned dagger catching the spot between his shoulder armor and his neck. He shook her off, and she would have gone tumbling off the platform and into oblivious had Carelia not had the presence of mind to pull her forward.

Magic won't work with him! It's taking too long!

Sylvanas was right. I had to go head-to-head against him. I didn't relish it, but I was ready. Not for nothing had she taught me how to fight.

"You fight like a girl," he laughed at me when I parried his blow with my staff.

One of the Knights of the Ebon Blade came up behind him and tried to strike, but he swung his passive axe, missing me by inches, but catching the death knight in the chest. The knight fell right off the edge, the undead light extinguished from his eyes.

But that distraction was enough. Tarr came forward, raising a staff that looked like a gnarled tree branch, and aimed it at Dranosh's chest. Fire leapt from the staff and onto the Deathbringer, who started to scream.

I moved as well, burying my spellblade into the gap in his armor, murmuring a spell as Haldren did the same.

Dranosh screamed again. He fell to his knees, and I saw the look on his face change, "I… am… d-delivered…" His body finally collapsed to the ground, nothing more than a corpse now.

We released our spells on him. He had been badly burned, but was still recognizable as Dranosh Saurfang, hero of the Battle of the Wrathgate.

Slowly, Varok got to his feet and went to him. Sinking down beside the body, he began to murmur in Orcish. I recognized the mournful prayer of the dead that the orcs of Nagrand used, and felt tears coming to my eyes.

"May he be at peace," I said quietly. I put a hand in my bag and withdrew one of the vials of potion I'd prepared such a long time before. Had it only been a month ago? With a sigh, I swallowed its contents, immediately feeling a little refreshed.

On the other side of the platform, Nokee was kneeling next to Barash's body. Tears were running down his kind face, and I went to him, "He died bravely," I said to him. "It was a hero's death. He will walk within An'she's beams and always look after you."

"My brother…" he sobbed.

"Your brother is with his ancestors now. Be proud of what he accomplished here, my friend." I looked up. An Alliance gunship was fast approaching our platform, and as I watched, it docked, its occupants clearly visible.

"By the Light, it's Muradin Bronzebeard," said Haldren.

I blinked. "Muradin?" I gasped. "But I… I thought that he had died when Arthas got Frostmourne…"

"Aye, I very nearly did, lassie," he said, glancing at me.

"I had no idea you were still alive," I told him.

"Who is he?" Carelia asked me.

"According to what I've learned, he's the one who taught Arthas how to fight, when he was still a boy. I thought that he had been killed by the elementals that guarded Frostmourne when Arthas went to grab it."

"Aye. And I'm righ' sorry I wasn' able to stop him taking it." He looked at Varok, "His son?"

I gave a nod, "Yes… he was killed at the Wrathgate."

"We will take him back to Dalaran. I wouldn' ordinarily do this, bein' as yeh're Horde, but yeh're fightin' together," he gestured towards us. "Horde and Alliance together fer one common purpose."

"Our number one priority is to see Arthas dead," said Rotvine. "We'll sort out the rest later."

"Aye." He walked to me, "There was a barrier blocking the entrance to the Frostwing Halls. We have gotten that down, so you should be able to get to Sindragosa now. Go!"

I knew that Varok and Nokee wouldn't be following us, but four of the death knights remained. They nodded to me and lined up to follow me.

"Thank you, Master Bronzebeard," I said to Muradin. "Safe journey back."

"Good luck," he told me.

I watched as he helped Varok and Nokee get the fallen onto the gunship, and then turned towards the open door, seeing shapes moving within. Having only a vague inkling of what awaited us in there, I led whatever was left of my team back inside Icecrown Citadel.

A/N – It looks like the next chapter, Chapter 60, might be the last chapter for Fall and Rebirth. Yes, the story is ending! But have no fear, because I will have a sequel, Almost Beyond, happening immediately afterwards. If the next chapter is the last one, I will not post it until I'm done with chapter 1 of Almost Beyond, so that you may have a double update. I just wanted to warn you in case I didn't update for a longer period than usual.

So I would like to take a moment now to thank all of you for reading Fall and Rebirth. I never thought that I would get it this far, or that so many people would follow Faith's adventures with Sylvanas! Thank you for the reviews, criticisms, and suggestions. I'm happy that you've liked it until now, and I hope that you will enjoy the final chapter, along with the sequel!

Love,
Lunarelle