"WHERE IS SHE?" I screamed.

"My Lady, please… be reasonable."

"REASONABLE?" My screams bounced off the walls of the throne room. "You told me the potion would keep me connected to her!"

"Yes, my Lady, I did." Master Apothecary Lydon, who had succeeded Putress in the Royal Apothecary Society, wasn't cowering before me like the others. Everyone else in the room had cleared out the moment I'd started to scream.

"So why can't I sense her anymore?"

Lydon simply looked at me, saying nothing.

"No. No, I won't even entertain that notion, Lydon. She's not… she can't be… find out. GO!"

He left. For hours, I stayed by myself in the throne room, wondering what could have happened to her. The last thing I had sensed from her had been her complete and utter panic when she had stepped into that chamber filled with spiders in the citadel.

Was she still alive? Could it be that my connection to her had been severed because she had been killed? Or had the potion not been strong enough?

I couldn't imagine it. I wouldn't. I stood up, pacing. People began to come back into the Royal Quarter, but they didn't come into the room I was in. Not until Lor'themar showed up.

"What do you want?" I snapped at him.

"I heard that they were close to reaching Arthas, so I thought you would want someone with you in case we got news."

"What, you think I need a friend?"

"I don't think that you should be alone right now."

I turned to stare at him, "I really don't need to be with anybody right now, thank you."

"Well, I don't want to be alone. Faith saved my life, and if anything happens to her, I don't want to hear it on my own."

I snarled, but Lor'themar didn't pay attention to me, simply taking a seat and settling down to wait.

"I made a potion for her," I told him. "So that I'd be able to be with her telepathically while she was in Icecrown."

"Did she take it? I thought the two of you were fighting?"

"We are. We were. I took my anger out on her because she was convenient. And I felt guilty."

"You? Guilty?" The regent lord of Silvermoon stared at me. "I don't think that you've ever felt guilty about anything since you've died. Even when you were alive you didn't feel guilt very often."

That was true. But what had happened with Cindera…

"I cheated on her."

A blink. He didn't say anything for several seconds, "With that death knight? I heard about her."

I looked down. I hadn't meant for it to happen. It had just been one of those things. I'd come out of my chambers, and Cindera had been there. She had kissed me, and before I'd even realized what I was doing, I'd started to kiss her back.

"It felt wrong," I said.

"Well, of course it felt wrong, Sylvanas. You're with Faith. Or are you?"

"I am. I think. I don't know anymore, now." Absently, I twisted the vine ring on my finger. I'd gone to get it back after Faith had left. "Cindera kisses differently than Faith does. Faith is still shy with me, but she loves me, I can feel it. Cindera, she was aggressive. She wanted me, but not for the reasons everyone thought. She's dead now, Faith killed her."

Lor'themar got to his feet, "I'm sorry?"

I laughed without much humor, "I always said that Faith was an excellent judge of character. She can spot a member of the Scourge faster than the rest of us can blink, and she never trusted Cindera." I told him what had happened, from Cindera's kiss to her death at Faith's hands.

"But Cindera was helping you fight the Scourge."

"Just for show. I guess she knew that Arthas would be able to get more soldiers."

"So Faith knows that you had an indiscretion. How did she react?"

I sat down, "Shock. Hurt. I've hurt her before, but never like this. And now I've lost my connection with her, and I don't know why. I'm scared that she's dying and I'm not there for her, and I need to tell her I love her one more time, I can't be here without her…" I could feel panic rising within me.

Lor'themar quickly came to me and put his hands on my shoulders, "You need to calm down. I know you're freaked out because you're not with her, but I'm sure she's okay."

"She's fighting Arthas."

He winced, "She's strong. She's fought the Scourge relentlessly for the last ten years, she knows what she signed up for. And if she dies, Sylvanas, if she dies, you're going to be okay. Just like she was."

"She was okay after I died? Really? You're going to try to make me swallow that lie?"

"I just mean that she learned how to live without you. She was able to function."

I didn't answer. True, Faith could function without me, and had done so even before I'd died. But nobody who knew us could deny that we functioned better when we were together.

An odd noise made me turn my head, just as a guard cried something out about a portal. Several people ran in, and I stood there, frozen, watching as Faith stumbled out of the swirling vortex of energy, falling to her knees.

She was bleeding from half a dozen places that I could see. Her clothes were a tattered mess on her body, which was thinner than I remembered. Her eyes were sunken in her face, and her skin was pale. She dragged the bloody hilt of a broken sword onto the floor, leaving traces of blood there as she tried to get back to her feet. Her right arm hung at an odd angle.

"Faith…" I whispered. I was incapable of moving.

She looked at me and staggered towards me. Nobody tried to help her, understanding perhaps that she wanted to do this on her own. I fully turned towards her, holding out a hand when she reached me. She clasped it, and I pulled her against me in a tight hug.

"I thought you were dead… I couldn't sense you anymore."

"I fainted… the spiders… I think it… the connection broke." She looked at me, "Arthas is dead."

Lor'themar sat down on the nearest available stone bench, running a hand over his eyes.

"What did you say?" I asked her.

Faith lifted the hilt of the sword, and I nearly recoiled. Frostmourne. "He's dead," she repeated. Her knees gave out from under her, and I caught her before she hit the stone floor. "I saw you," she whispered.

I called for healers, and a couple of my guards raced out of the throne room to fetch some. "Saw me?" I asked her. Lor'themar came to us and helped me put Faith in a more comfortable position against me, taking Frostmourne from her hand and laying it aside.

"He had me… in Frostmourne's grip."

I froze and glanced up at Lor'themar, who looked worried now. "How did you survive?"

"I saw… terrible things… what he did to you…" a tear ran down her cheek. "Terenas appeared… then you."

I closed my eyes, "You saw King Terenas and myself? You didn't hallucinate it?"

She smiled a little, "Maybe…" her hand came up to touch my cheek, "You s-said that you were proud of me. That the part of you… the part of you that was h-here would always love me." Her eyes closed, "I love you, Sylvanas."

"Look at me!" I said harshly, giving her a little shake. "Don't you dare fall asleep, Faith!"

"I love you…" she repeated.

"I love you too. Now, you are not dying, do you hear me?"

"Can I sleep?"

"I think she's in shock, Sylvanas," said Lor'themar to me.

"I gathered that. Look away."

"What –."

"I'm going to kiss her. Look away."

He hastily averted his gaze, and I pressed my lips to Faith's in a hard kiss. Her body convulsed once against mine, but she responded. Her tongue found mine, her hand cupping my cheek. I pulled back and looked down at her. Her eyes were more focused, and her cheeks had turned pink.

"Are you with me?" I asked her.

"You kissed me."

"Only thing I could think of to do."

"I'm mad at you."

"I can live with that." I wrapped my arms around her, and she molded herself to me, closing her eyes. She was trembling, and Lor'themar wrapped his cloak around her. "They didn't heal you up there?"

"No time. I came here almost as soon as Arthas died… Sylvanas?"

"Yes?"

"Did you feel anything? When he died, did you feel it?"

I shook my head, "I thought you were dead. There wasn't much else in my mind at that moment." I focused, listening. Ever since he had raised me, I'd been able to hear his whispers in my mind. They'd gotten fainter when I'd broken free from the Scourge, but they had still been there. "I can't hear him at all… Faith, he's really dead?"

She gave a nod, "Yes. I broke Frostmourne. I thought that your soul might have come back. I thought you might have been alive again when he died."

"You thought that killing him would bring me back to life?" My voice sounded strange to my ears, and Lor'themar cleared his throat, putting a hand on Faith's back.

"I hoped that… yes."

She looked horribly sad, but she didn't cry. She just held onto me tightly, and Lor'themar wrapped both his arms around us for a moment.

"You two, I swear," he said. "You could drive a man insane." He kissed Faith's cheek, "You really killed him."

"I didn't do it alone."

The healers arrived, four of them, and they immediately converged on her, taking care of her while she told us what had happened on the Frozen Throne. At some point, she took a locket out of her pocket, handing it to Lor'themar. You should find Carelia's family. We had to burn her body, so they won't have anything to bury…"

I brushed her hair back from her forehead, "Okay. It's okay. You need to rest now, sweetheart."

"No. I have orders to report back to Dalaran now."

"Now? I'm not letting you go anywhere."

"Sylvanas, I have to."

I pursed my lips, "Fine. I'll come with you, though. Hey, how's Rotvine doing? Is he all right?"

"I think so. I wouldn't have been able to pull off that spell on my own."

We stood up, and pulled Faith gently to her feet. She swayed against me, still weak. "I understand that you need to go to Dalaran, but first, you need to wash, and change. All right? And there's something else we need to do." I picked her up, surprised to feel how light she was now. I walked with her towards the center of Undercity, where many people had gathered.

Everyone there, from the Forsaken to the people from the other Horde races, looked at me expectantly when I arrived with Faith. More than half the population of Undercity had crammed itself there, on every available surface, some of them even floating on rafts in the pools of slime. Evidently, the rumor had already spread.

"Do you want to tell them?" I asked her quietly.

She shook her head, "You're their queen, my love. You should make the announcement."

I looked at everyone, "Less than an hour ago, Faith came home to tell me that Arthas Menethil is now dead. The Lich King, the one who did this to us, is now gone. For good."

For a moment, nobody said anything. Everyone stared at me, dumbstruck. Then, someone started to clap, followed by others. My people usually aren't given to outbursts of joy, but what I saw at that moment, as everyone began to cheer and hug, was something I never thought I would get to witness. Faith kissed me, deeply, surprising me. Bells began to ring all over the city, and I knew they would be echoed across Lordaeron.

Wiping a tear from his eyes, Lor'themar squeezed my shoulder, "I must get back to Silvermoon and give the news to everyone there. I'll meet you in Dalaran."

I nodded, and some of my mages immediately made a portal for him, as Faith was still too weak to perform any kind of magic.

Finally, I found myself alone with Faith in my chambers. I had laid out some black robes to wear with a new Argent Dawn tabard, while she slowly washed traces of the battle from her skin. She'd begun to take on a more natural color, but she still looked stunned.

"I should have been in Dalaran half an hour ago," she told me as I helped her out of the tub.

"I wasn't about to let you go anywhere in the state you were in." I patted her skin dry before helping her with the robes, which I fastened for her. "Faith."

She turned to look at me, her amber eyes wide.

"Thank you. Thank you for killing him."

Faith didn't smile. She stared into my eyes for a long time, taking my hand and squeezing it. "You're welcome."

We arrived in Dalaran to a celebration such as I hadn't seen in a long time. Faith held my hand tightly as we made our way to the Violet Hold. People, both from the Horde and the Alliance, bowed to us when they saw us walking by. We reached the hold, and Vereesa sprinted out of there to launch herself at Faith while Rhonin came striding towards me, a grin plastered on his face. The twins were with him, and upon seeing me, they released their father's hands and raced to me, leaping into my arms. It was all I could do to catch them before they fell.

I saw Tirion Fordring nearby. He had a bandage around his chest, but he smiled, raising a goblet to me. I nodded at him and he walked over.

"Your girl was magnificent against Arthas," he said.

"I don't doubt it," I replied, setting the twins down so that they could hug Faith. "Congratulations, Tirion. And thank you for helping her."

"She's the one who helped us. Had she and Rotvine not used that last spell on Arthas, I'm not sure what would have happened. More of us might have been killed." He glanced at Faith, who was still talking quietly to Vereesa. Both of them had tears streaming down their faces. "You healed her."

"In part. I couldn't let her go anywhere until I was satisfied she wouldn't die on me."

"She nearly did. I don't know what she saw when Arthas had Frostmourne on her, but we couldn't do anything about it. I could tell she was in a tremendous amount of pain."

The thought of Faith in pain made me wince. Tirion seemed to notice that, because he smiled gently.

"You should be proud of her for what she accomplished in there."

"I am."

Someone screamed and I turned around in time to see Faith jumping out of her skin, her eyes wide. But it was just a young woman running towards someone I assumed to be her husband, judging by the kiss she gave him.

"I think you're still going to have your work cut out for you, though, clearing out the rest of the Scourge."

"Oh, we will. If you don't mind, I will ask Faith to remain with us a while longer, to help with some of the cleanup. It will take at least a year or two to make a dent in the numbers of the undead. Despite everything we killed in the citadel, there are more of them out there."

I nodded, putting my arm around Faith when she came next to me, "And you lost a lot of people in there, Faith told me."

"We did. We had a difficult time of it. The horrors inside that place were innumerable. There were several times when I thought that we weren't going to make it." He gasped and put a hand over the bandage on his chest.

"You have to rest, Tirion," Faith told him. Her voice was thick with emotion.

"So do you, I think. I'll give you a week off so that you can be home, but after that, would you mind coming back for some time?"

"No problem. We'll have to get rid of the Scourge at home as well."

"I'll take care of that with Lor'themar," I told her. "You just focus on what you need to do. I'll expect you home afterwards."

"And what will happen then?"

"We'll try to move on."

She kissed my cheek, but her eyes were sad, "You know, I thought that with Arthas gone, I would feel, I dunno, some sense of closure. But…" she buried her head in my neck, and I kissed her forehead, looking at her.

"But what?" I asked gently.

"All I feel is empty. Arthas is dead, but so is everyone else. You… you didn't come back to life."

"My love I can't come back to life. I was killed."

"I know."

We stood together, not saying anything for a while. Tirion excused himself, presumably to go to the clinic, and Rotvine took his place. Ignoring all protocol, he hugged me, apologizing to Faith for doing so. "I'm taking a few liberties, but only for now."

"Liberty granted, Carrick," I told him. "You did a great job up there. I'm proud of you."

Rotvine beamed at me to the best of his abilities, "Thank you, my Lady. I would say it was a pleasure, but I would be lying through my teeth with that statement."

I smiled, "I know what you mean. You should enjoy the festivities. Today is supposed to be a good day."

"Actually, all I want to do is stay somewhere and think. A lot has happened over the past ten years, not all of it pleasant."

"You're telling me. We've all lost a lot because of the Scourge, but I think that the memorial services will be happening later on."

I was right about that. Over the next few days, I planned services for most of the Forsaken who had fallen to the Scourge over the past ten years. This also included honoring the people of Lordaeron who had been turned in the first place, which meant having a fairly extensive ceremony. Because Faith had always kept meticulous records, it was easy to come up with a monument, on which we inscribed many names in minute handwriting. We placed the monument, which we had made of black marble, in the Undercity courtyard, keeping candles lit around it.

Quel'Thalas also held memorial ceremonies. Faith helped with them as well, coming up with the idea of having a huge white plaque erected at the old gates of Silvermoon, with all of the names of the fallen elves magically flowing on it in pretty script. My name, of course, was among them, despite my insistence that the statue in Fairbreeze Village was quite enough. But Faith was adamant.

"You sacrificed your life for your people, Sylvanas," she told me when I protested. "This memorial is yours as well."

I allowed this, but only because I had planned something for her, with Lor'themar. "You're getting something too, you know," I told her quietly.

"What's that?"

"Come with me."

We left the memorial and made our way to Sunfury Spire, which was overwhelmed with guests for the ceremonies. More lavish ones were planned for when the bulk of the forces would be returning from Northrend in a few weeks' time, but this was a good excuse to party. The Sin'dorei hadn't had many chances to really celebrate for a long time.

Lor'themar was waiting for us, along with Lady Liadrin and Halduron, and, much to my surprise, Vereesa, the twins, and Rhonin.

"Is it safe for you to be here?" I asked them.

"As safe as it can be, I think," answered Rhonin. "The Horde and the Alliance are trying to be at peace, for now."

I wondered how long that was going to last.

"What are all of you doing here?" asked Faith, hugging them.

"They're here at my request," said Lor'themar. "Why don't you follow me upstairs?"

I led Faith to the second level of the Spire, where we all gathered on one of the balconies, overlooking the mass of people who was there. Most of them were Sin'dorei, but I noticed several Forsaken among them, and tauren, including Hamu and his parents, who were standing in the front.

Lor'themar, who was wearing a magnificent set of celebratory armor, stepped forward, and began to speak, "As you know, today is a day of mourning, but also one to celebrate the fall of the Scourge. We will have several more of these ceremonies in the coming weeks, but this is a special one, because we would also like to acknowledge a person who has sacrificed a lot, more than most, to do what needed to be done."

He looked at Faith, who tensed beside me, and took a step back. I put my hand on her back and firmly gave her a push forward, trying not to grin.

"All of you are aware of what Major Faith Everstone has been through over the past ten years. But despite all of that, she went on, and fought the Scourge over and over again. She was injured, kidnapped multiple times, and several times, she nearly lost her life. During the Northrend Campaign, she was selfless, helping the Horde as was necessary, but also the indigenous people of Northrend, and on several occasions, the Alliance. As she has said on more than one occasion, as long as we have a common enemy to defeat, we have no business fighting each other."

Faith's cheeks were red, and she was shaking her head, mumbling that anybody in her position would have done the same thing. I grinned then, knowing how much she hated the attention she was being given.

"All over Azeroth, heroes are being honored for what they did against the Scourge. Some of them posthumously, as I believe is the case for Dranosh Saurfang, who fought so bravely." He cleared his throat, "In our case, the hero we would like to honor is right here. Faith, we are presenting you with the Star of Quel'Thalas, for everything that you have done for the people of Quel'Thalas."

I heard Faith gasp. She glanced at me, and I winked at her. I knew she wasn't only reacting this way out of surprised. I had been awarded the Star posthumously, by Prince Kael'thas, before he had gone mad and joined the Burning Legion.

She stood still as Lor'themar pinned the golden jewel to her chest, over her heart. The crowd roared its appreciation, and it took all of my self-control not to shed a tear or two as I watched her address the people.

"I don't feel as though I deserve this," she said in a trembling voice. "So many people have done as much, if not more than I have against the Scourge." She extended her hand to me, and I took it, stepping next to her. "I wouldn't have been able to do any of it without the people who were with me every step of the way."

She began to list off the people who had helped her in battle, mentioning Rotvine and the people who had been with her the final fight against Arthas' forces. She spoke of the Kirin Tor mages and her mentors, of her tauren family and the people who had rescued her on several occasions. Finally, she spoke of me, and how she was positive that her love for me had helped her escape Frostmourne.

"So what I'd like to say to you today, is, yes, mourn the people you have lost. Celebrate the fact that Arthas is dead. But most of all, find your loved ones, and spend time with them. Tell them that you love them. Because life is too short to keep something like that buried inside." She turned towards me, and I was positive that she was going to propose to me, which might have been catastrophic.

I wanted her to. And I didn't. I wouldn't be able to accept.

But all she did was kiss me, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her body to mine. The sound of the cheering crowd disappeared, and all I felt was Faith's mouth against mine. Heat simmered between us, and I just wished for one thing, that we could stay that way forever.

The End

Author's Note:

The End. Two little words that mean a lot in the eyes on an author. I've been writing Fall and Rebirth for a little over a year now, and I was stuck on chapter 4 for the longest time, until I decided to post it on this site. I feel both happy and sad - a complex vortex of emotions - at seeing this story end.

I want to thank all of you for being patient with me through Fall and Rebirth. It has taken me a long while to get to this point. A special thanks to my friend Jo, whom I met through Fall, for all of the feedback and the beta reviews! Thanks for picking me up when I was down, and for never giving up on Faith and Sylvanas! Thanks as well to my numerous reviewers: Arieko, Sithdoom, Pegazus16, Drakefire, and everyone else who has stuck by my two favorite girls as they went through their adventures!

I was going to wait to post this until I was done writing chapter 1 of Almost Beyond, but decided to post it now, so that you all can see the conclusion of the story. I hope you enjoyed it!

Please be on the lookout for Almost Beyond, which I will be posting this week! I hope that you will enjoy it as much as you did this story!

Love,
Lunarelle