Chapter 6: Damnation
The wind howls and screams around Jaina.
She's so cold.
The four of them move across the snowy fields towards the spire.
Jaina moves the slowest.
Every step is agony.
Every step adds another weight to her body.
Every step increases the loudness and pressure from Ner'Zhul in her mind.
Her body is shaking.
She stumbles to her knees.
"YOU WILL OBEY!"
She sobs, tears pouring down her cheeks and freezing in the frigged cruel air.
"Jaina?"
Arthas kneels down in front of her, careful to avoid Frostmourne.
"OBEY! Kill them! Protect your king!"
Jaina closed her eyes, ragged breathing. "You... are not... my king..."
Her opens her eyes. "He's... he's so loud Arthas... so loud..."
"Just focus on my voice, alright?"
"O...okay...," she whispers.
"OBEY!"
Focus on Arthas's voice...
Focus on Arthas...
"OBEY!"
'I will save Arthas!' she shouts back at him.
Ner'zhul startles, irritation and fury bleeding back at her defiance. Its all she can manage to shout, its her only goal, nothing else matters...
"KILL THEM!"
'I will save Arthas!'
Ner'Zhul growls, Jaina struggles to her feet, repeating the mantra in her head over and over again to drown him own. She struggles to think, to focus...
"I... I shouldn't have come," she manages to say, "The... the closer I get, the more... the more powerful the influence."
She shakily points to the spire. "Arthas... Aurius... you... you have to go. Pull on your faith... as much as you can... let it shield you... and end this."
"What about me lass?" asks Muradin.
Jaina smiles without warmth. "You... you stay here. If... if I lose control... you stop me from going after them."
Muradin couldn't stop her, not if she fought, but... she could convince him to end this. To kill her and destroy her body, dwarfs after all have the tendency to carry both ale and explosives on their person if nothing else.
Arthas's jaw sets, he sees right through her. "No. Jaina, no. We haven't come this far only for you to..."
"There's no time Arthas," she seethes, cold fury igniting.
Why can he never listen to her?
"Arthas lad...," begins Muradin.
Arthas whirls on him and begins shouting.
Jaina can't hear it over the dark whispers slithering through her mind...
They'll betray him...
Jaina blinks. What...?
Look at them, disregarding their prince, challenging him. When his back is turned, they'll kill him.
A shiver rolls down her skin, paranoia coursing through her, eyes going wide, frantically glancing back and forth between Aurius and Muradin and Arthas.
You have to act.
Jaina's grip tenses on Frostmourne.
"After all," whispers Ner'Zhul with dark seduction, "You will save Arthas, won't you?"
"Get away from him," snarls Jaina.
The three men turn, Arthas's eyes furrowing. "Jaina?"
An aura of blue malice surrounds her, she surges to her feet, mania in her eyes, and surges right for Aurius, "Get away from my prince!"
Aurius barely brings up his warhammer in time to block, cursing aloud, "Dammit! Muradin, take off her hand with your axe! Better she lives crippled then any of us dying! Get that sword away from her!"
Jaina spins with inhuman speed, Frostmourne deflecting Muradin's axe before casting frost nova, freezing the pair. She teleports behind Aurius, grinning with malice, Frostmourne twirling in her grip as she makes to sever through his back...
"Jaina STOP!"
Arthas comes from behind and grabs her, his powerful arms locking around her and lifting her up. "Let me go Arthas! I have to save you!"
"Save me from my own allies?" he cries out, "Jaina! Its the Dark Lord, drown him out!"
He doesn't understand...
She's trying to save him.
He is a danger to himself...
He always was, so reckless and careless with his own safety...
You want to save him, don't you?
She had to save him, it was her entire purpose...
You have to keep him forever close you.
Forever close...
You must kill him to save him, to keep his soul forever close and protected near you in the blade...
Kill him to save him...
Jaina slams her head back with a crack, making Arthas lose his grip and stagger backwards. "Damn!"
"Save you save you save you," she stutters out as she turns, voice rising, its so hard to hear over the dark whispers, "Kill you to save you..."
Arthas takes a few steps back, warhammer raised defensively. "Jaina! Listen to yourself! How can killing me save me?"
Her entire body is shaking.
Its so cold.
Why is it so cold?
She raises Frostmourne, ready to save her Prince. To strike it through him. To free his soul. To save him.
Save him, save him now, my Champion.
Arthas steels himself and lowers his warhammer.
She surges forward.
"I love you Jaina."
Frostmourne stops inches from piercing through his armor into his chest, her entire body locking up.
What are you doing? You have to save him!
Jaina gives a strangles cry and staggers back, falling to her knees and sobbing. "No no no no no! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
"Damn you woman!" roared Ner'Zhul, "Kill him! Kill him now!"
Jaina took a deep, gasping breath, and it was like everything crystallized into horrific focus. "Light... I almost... I almost killed my prince..."
She swallows thickly. "Arthas... Arthas please..."
He kneels down in front of her. "I'm here Jaina."
"Kill me," she begs, "Kill me and destroy my body."
"Jaina! No!" he denies.
"He has my soul!" she warns, struggling to put emotion she can't feel properly into her voice, "Its only a matter of time before he gets the rest of me."
"I'm not giving up on you," he says before glaring behind her at the others, "Back away! Now!"
"Arthas lad," says Muradin, "She was damned the moment she took up the blade, all we can do for her now is set her free."
"All we have to do is kill the damn Dark Lord, and then shatter the damn blade to get her soul out," Arthas snaps back.
"Prince Arthas," said Aurius, "The men protecting the Obelisks wont last forever..."
"Damn the men!" Arthas shouts back, "I'm not losing her!"
Jaina gave a brittle broken laugh. "Arthas... I guess... we are made for each-other, aren't we? We'd throw away everything we have and betray everything we know for one another."
She had been complicit in murdering an entire timeline to have another chance to be with him, and here he was risking the entire expedition, the salvation of the entire world, for her. The world didn't deserve to be afflicted with the pair of them...
Arthas grins his teeth. "We've come too far together Jaina."
Howls ring through the air, Arthas turns his head sharply, but Jaina doesn't need to look. She can feel them. The undead are ignoring the Obelisks and gunning right for them.
Arthas takes in a breath and lets it out. "If this so called 'Dark Lord' thinks he can have you, then he has another thing coming. I will fight for you Jaina, I will always fight for you."
Jaina's throat constricts. If she was still capable of feeling love, her heart likely would have melted for him.
Arthas pressed a hand against Jaina's chest over her heart, light softly pushing in, fighting against the Darkness.
"You think your light powerful enough to drive me from her?" mocked the Lich King, his voicing pouring through her and to him as he fought for her, "With how darkened you've become since you set out on your journey, Prince Arthas?"
"My light? No," agreed Arthas, "My love for her? Yes!"
Jaina gasped as the intensity of the light increased. How could something feel so good yet burn so badly? Yet it... it was working, slowly, surely, a warm light started to drive away the cold from the depths of her mind. When had it gotten so deep? When had Ner'Zhul burrowed in so far?
"Hmm," mused the Lich King, disgruntled, "Unfortunately for you, I believe in backup plans. Anub'Arak, attack."
Jaina barely had time to process the thought before the huge bulking beetle form of the enslaved king of Azjol'Nerub burst through the ground at their feet, smashing into Arthas and sending him flying as Jaina staggered away. With a roar, Anub'Arak, charged at a shocked Aurius and stabbed clean through him with a giant talon, killing him and tossing his corpse aside before going for Muradin. Jaina was powerless to help, the Lich King paralyzing her body through Frostmourne.
"The dwarf is next, then your prince will die," mocked the Lih King, "One way or another, for all your defiance and efforts, I will have what I desire."
Not if she could help it.
Jaina sucked in a breath and began to draw on everything she had. Gusts of fire began to surround her, shards of ice, cackles of lightning, arcane energy flowing through her. She bled her lifeforce, all of her mana, her will, everything into it.
The Lich King scoffed. "Even if you kill Anub'Arak, I have other servants closing in on you."
"Who says I'm aiming for him?" snarled Jaina, focusing on the two things she could truly still feel as more than desperate clinging memory, hatred and cold fury.
The link to the Lich King was two way, and that was her only chance. She grabbed it in his moment of confusion, screamed with power as she pulled it all in, then launched the most devastating magic-mental attack she ever had in her life.
The Lich King screamed.
So did all the Scourge around them. Anub'Arak staggered, his armored form crushing Muradin underneath his bulk as he fell onto his side. Gargoyles plummeted out of the air. Ghouls rushing up the slope collapsed and began to claw at themselves in agony. A splitting, agonizing headache blitzed through Jaina's mind, and she collapsed to her knees, utterly spent and exhausted. Arthas rushed to her and knelt down, hand raised to heal.
"Kill me," whispered Jaina, "Please Arthas... before it's to late... if you love me, kill me."
"I'm not going to kill you Jaina," snapped Arthas sharply, "I'm going to save you."
"Even if you succeeded in driving the Lich King from her mind, which you cannot fully do so long as she is connected to him through the blade," came a silky smooth voice that Jaina hated, "It wouldn't free her soul from the blade."
They both turned their head to see Kel'Thuzad slowly walking up the hill, blood running down his nose, but not as phased as the rest of the Scourge.
"What do you mean?" demanded Arthas.
"Did she not explain it thoroughly enough to you? The blade stole her soul the moment she touched it," said Kel'Thuzad softly, almost sadly, "It was meant for you, she figured that out. She loved you so much that she risked and ended up losing her soul in your place."
Arthas looked gutted. "I..."
"You DARE!" roared the Lich King in fury as he recovered.
Jaina screamed as agonizing pain ripped through her, the Lich King's rage poured upon her. "AAAAAAHHH!"
"Jaina!" cried out Arthas, trying desperately to pour light into her and banish the shadow.
He was thrown back in a dark explosion ripping from her at the Lich King's fury.
"Only you can save her, prince Arthas" said Kel'Thuzad, "But not with the light. She took your place by taking the blade, spurned and drew the Lich King's wrath by so boldly defying and striking against him. The only way you will spare her the fate of eternal torment in store for her is if you take your place back."
The Lich King pauses his assault on Jaina's mind, regarding Kel'Thuzad through Jaina's eyes.
"You expect me to believe that not only would you return her soul, that you wouldn't kill her?" scoffed Arthas.
"Oh yes," said Kel'Thuzad, "The Lich King can return her soul to her from the blade, and she will live if she joins the Cult of the Damned."
"Never," spat Jaina.
Kel'Thuzad pulls a bottle of some dark liquid from his belt. "You wont have a choice."
Dark approval pulses from the Lich King as Jaina's eyes linger on the bottle.
No.
Nonnononoonononononoononononoooooooooooooooo.
Its the cultist elixir...
If they make her drink it...
It would enslave her will to the Lich King as deeply as if she were undead bound to him herself.
"Arthas don...," she begins.
Cold hands grip her spine, and the Lich King renders her silent.
Arthas stared at Jaina helplessly, before turning to Kel'Thuzad, his voice so hushed. "Why? Why this?"
"Events were set in motion long before either of us were born, Prince Arthas," soothes Kel'Thuzad gently, "There is little choice that any of us had. But here and now? You were chosen for this role a long time ago, my prince."
"That answers nothing," spat Arthas.
Kel'Thuzad smiled. "Do you expect us to reveal everything while you still give fealty to the living?"
Arthas goes silent.
"So the question is," purred Kel'Thuzad, "Do you love her as much as she loves you? To give your soul for hers?"
"I was already prepared to do that in the cave," said Arthas harshly.
"Hmm, I suppose you were, a certain archmage does have a tendency to cause a bit of a mess," answered Kel'Thuzad sagely.
Arthas closed his eyes.
Please... please Arthas, fight him. Kill Kel'Thuzad, rush the spire, strike the Lich King down, please...
"Fine," said Arthas grimly, shattered her hopes and grinding them into the snow beneath their feet, "But you fulfill your end of the bargain first."
Jaina gasped, tipping over as sensations poured up her arm from Frostmourne, a tint of warmth returning to her body in a flurry of desperate emotions. But it wasn't the same as before, there was pain, darkness, seeped into her soul, scarred more than it had been before. It had literally been torn from her body by a demonic crafted blade. She lays in the snow, Frostmourne clattering from her grip, gasping for breath, shaking and shivering and sobbing. "A...Arthas..."
"There, soul returned," mused Kel'Thuzad before speaking in a knowing tone, "But, as you can see, she is in no condition to fight, let alone move, nor will she be able to teleport you out of the area if you rush to her. So if you try to spurn this most generous offer, she will die, and suffer a fate worse then death afterwards."
Arthas gritted his teeth in frustration.
Kel'Thuzad regarded Jaina for a long moment. "You defied and actually managed to mentally attack and hurt the Lich King, something few in this world could have ever hoped to manage from the position you were in. You could have easily become one of the most powerful Sorceresses in the world. Instead, you will now become one of the greatest of necromancers, perhaps even second to only the Lich King himself in time."
Freezing tears pour down Jaina's eyes, she wants to claw the necromancer's eyes out, but she has no strength...
He turns to Arthas. "Take up the blade, Prince Arthas, and complete the pact."
"Arthas...," Jaina sobs, "No... please no..."
Arthas drops his warhammer and slowly walks forward, shoulders drooped, grim and grief stricken. He kneels down, looks at Jaina one last time filled with loss and love, and grabs the sword.
Jaina wails as she sees the light leave his eyes.
Arthas shudders, gritting his teeth as he stands, staring down at Frostmourne. "Unpleasant."
"Losing your soul tends to be that," agreed Kel'Thuzad, plucking the cultist elixir off his belt and... and offering it to Arthas, "Now, give her the elixir, and it is done."
Jaina's heart seizes. They wouldn't... they wouldn't be so cruel and so heartless as to make her prince do that to her...
Arthas takes the elixir.
She stares up through blurry eyes, into the now cold eyes of her prince, as he stabs Frostmourne into the snow, kneels down, cupping the back of Jaina's head to lean her up, and pressing the bottle to her lips. Jaina wails and struggles fitfully as he shoves the bottle into her mouth and pours the black liquid down her throat. Any warmth she feels is gone as ice returns, coating her entire being. Ner'Zhul's malice fills her again, and a dark, vexed, but victorious voice booms in her head:
"You. Are. Mine. Now and forever, Jaina Proudmoore. You will serve for my glory. You will toil for the dead. For obedience, you will hunger. And in my service, you will find your duty... joyous."
Jaina screams.