Level 37: Pulling You Down With Me
A/N: Special thanks to the other sans, Booster Spice, _Checkmate_, Gulver, and Sidetrack for your comments last chapter! It was kind of lonely admittedly, half the reason it's taken me a bit to finish this massive chapter...I was close, but not too motivated. The other part is that it was massive, and possibly one of the most important ones yet.
Chapter title is a reference to the song "Until the World Goes Cold" by Trivium, one of my favorite bands I was fortunate enough to find just under a year ago.
Oh, and by the way, this chapter is probably one of the most important of the entire story, so I do hope to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Trixie's eyes fluttered slowly as she came to, her consciousness slowly ebbing in and out as she felt her body moving. This movement came to a stop however as whatever was holding her let go, and she plopped down into what she would soon realize was a caked mixture of blood, dirt, and bone. The dirt was wet with blood and water both however, causing her to sink down into it as Trixie finished waking from her sleep.
In a sudden panic at not knowing where she was or how she got there, Trixie tried to pick herself up off the ground only to have her hand sink down into the mud and for her face to slam down into a pool of someone else's blood. The place she was in was definitely outdoors, but the darkness of it made Trixie feel as if she was under the thrall of Nightmare Moon's eternal night.
As she continued to stumble and raise herself, Trixie tried calling out for help, “Kael?”
Once she was on her knees, Trixie could see that she was in some kind of swamp-like terrain...she could smell seaweed and could hear now the slow tides of the waters crashing against the shores of this place. She could see some giant man walking away from her, his body covered in seaweed she guessed came from this very place as well as primitive armor, while in his hand he fiddled with a stone small to him but sizable to Trixie.
Squinting her eyes, Trixie could see that it was a Hearthstone: not the cardgame she had learned, but the method of teleportation back to a certain location. The large brute had, she surmised, grabbed her from her bed and teleported back here, wherever "here" was. Mist was beginning to shroud her vision as her captor continued to leave her, forcing Trixie to give up on observing him.
Despite her deduction meaning she was likely isolated, Trixie still hoped that she was not alone in this dark, damp place, for it gave her no sense of safety and the fact that this being possessed enough power to sneak into the Inn and snatch her frightened Trixie. Why did he take her? Why did he bring her to this of all places, other than obviously it was where he resided?
“Lavitz?" no response still brought Trixie to shiver both from fear and the cold of this new place, "V-vanessa?”
Once before she had been dragged into a realm of darkness, mud, dirt, blood, and mist, and Trixie never wished to relive that experience.
"This isn't Hel, Trixie...you know that. It can't be," Trixie tried to convince herself, failing completely as she heard screams from an area nearby. The swamp was not on completely even ground and so the sources of the screams were beyond her vision due to a triad of fog, darkness, and a hill of sand, but Trixie was not about to go and see why someone let out that bloodchurdling noise...
"Prince Loki?" the father of the warden of Hel was a good person Trixie thought to call out for, since her last trip to Hel had been with him. And it wouldn't hurt to have the man who spawned the disturbed, evil goddess who took a broken Trixie after her encounter with the Ursas and tormented her relentlessly while wearing the face of Princess Luna.
Trixie had only overcome the Ursas with training and magic she had learned from the Prince of the foreign land, but in the end she had been rendered comatose. She had been trapped inside her mind with no ability to escape the mental torment inflicted upon her by the witch she knew as Hela. It had felt like years before she had woken up into a bleak place much like this one, with only Loki and...
Trixie blinked as she came to the full realization that, by the descriptions she had received of a certain Night Elf, she had met Illidan before coming to Azeroth. She was not stunned by the revelation due to the fact that she was already aware of the connection Hel had between worlds, for she had first met Kael there...oh yes, she remembered the mana starved Crack Elf who grabbed her by the throat and forcibly drained her of nearly her entire magic and life energy.
Her memories faded from shortly after that, but she was aware that she had fixed him somehow...or else he would not be the handsome Prince who she traveled with and who would give his life for her. Perhaps, she realized, that his dedication to her now was a result of the fact that before their memory loss he owed his renewed life to her...
There were many others in Hel she knew did not belong to Equestria, be it shattered souls of Humanoids or the chimera of similar beings whose bodies had been marred and their souls damaged to the point that when they tried to pull themselves back together they became a shapeshifting abomination.
Thanks to the bond Loki had with Luna born of having suffered similar fates, Loki protected Trixie throughout it all. Without him, or the quiet yet thoughtful Illidan Trixie was sure she would have spent the rest of her existence in that place some called Niflheim while others called Hel, others Hell, the Underverse, Vellweb...it held different meaning to everyone who came to it, but they all shared something in common: they were damaged, flawed, or otherwise bad people who were unfit of the realm of the "worthy", Valhalla.
Trixie felt her heart sink as she came to think that she wouldn't ever be able to truly live in a place like that...that her lot in life was always to suffer, to be punished for her flaws, and whenever she thought she was coming out from under the stress and pain the carpet would be yanked under from her and she would come to a world of misery like this. What else could she expect? A world made for her after her death, when she had done so many selfish things in her life?
Her ears twitched and she jerked around to find that a behemoth stood before her, having somehow approached her near silently and only revealing himself at the last moment. Trixie's mud-covered arm was grabbed by this sickly-green-blue skinned man who wore a kind of leather armor that left most of his skin bare, other bits covered by animal fur that had not been carefully removed and crafted but rather torn.
"Ahhh!" Trixie yelped as she was lifted up into the air, her mind quickly thumbing through all the things she could and should do.
"Welcome to our humble abode. Let me show you how things are done here in Helheim!" he bellowed, reaching his other hand out to grab Trixie as well. Only, when it was to squeeze her, she was no longer in his hand.
Thanks to teleportation, Trixie had thrown herself over into a pile of washed up seaweed. As she left the man behind, he was assaulted by another being just like him with a sword that carved his face off.
"Hel-Helheim?" Trixie whispered to herself, cowering beneath the mass of seaweed she was using to hide. The wet and slimy material clung to her body and she felt like shuddering at its touch, but she did her best to remain still as a brawl broke out among various members of this green-skinned Humanoid race that was like a scaled up version of Humans albeit with such brute strength and speed that Trixie couldn't really keep up with their movements.
Before Trixie had only been scared of how much this place reminded her of Hel, but to think that she was actually back? Trixie felt tears beginning to well up in her eyes as she feared meeting Hela again...the mistress of Hel was a fickle lady who would come and go as she pleased, tormenting the souls under her control as if it was a sport. Something had happened to drive her insane, and Trixie learned that she at least blamed Loki and Trixie for it, but the reason as to why evaded her since the woman didn't speak.
The brawl of the behemoths was ended decisively when a lithe body weaved in and out of the crowd with a pair of blades Trixie recognized as the Twin Blades of Azzinoth, the warglaive used by Illidan...and by Loki when Loki obtained them from his Hel-bound friend.
This owner who was not Loki was more like the former wielder, possessing a body Trixie determined was a Night Elf's from his purple coloration and tall stature that mixed with his lean muscles made him appear menacing as he stood with his back turned to the crowd that took just a moment to realize they had all been disemboweled before promptly falling over, their souls drifting out of the corpses that now lay there. From what Trixie had experienced before they would eventually take a corporeal form again given time, but for now they were defeated.
The Night Elf who did not possess demonic wings like Illidan was staring right over at Trixie, who began to look at him more. His body was wracked with wounds, as if he had been fighting through many such giants to get to this point, but his body relaxed as continued to focus on Trixie without moving. Seeing as he was not going to take the first move, could probably kill her in an instant if he pleased, and she had little to lose at this point, Trixie rose from the seaweed to wave at and greet him, "Hi there, you look like someone I knew. You're not evil, right?"
One of the brawlers tried to reach out and grab the Night Elf by the leg, only to have said arm severed along with his neck by the Night Elf slamming his glaive down into the man's body, his purple face passive even as blood ran down his body, "I am not one of these cretins, no."
He wasn't very talkative Trixie realized, but he did awfully look familiar...she couldn't place why, but she couldn't shake a feeling of being unnerved as he looked at her with his glowing eyes, "My name's Trixie. It's nice to meet you."
A series of roars made Trixie jump and twist to see that a giant...hydra...dog thing was rushing across the water to come and greet them. And likely eat them too, given that the monster was as large as multiple Ursas put together, its three canine heads resting atop three long necks that emerged from the tides of the dark realm. The howls it let out staggered Trixie, their force enough to stun her from their sheer ferocity as it charged forth to meet its prey.
It was official, Hel sucked.
Fortunately for Trixie, the Night Elf placed himself in the way of her and prepared to fight the giant monster while motioning for Trixie to leave with haste, "I do not have time to speak. Continue onward from here towards the docks. That beast Guarm will make mincemeat out of you, but I can stall it."
"But..."
Trixie felt herself shoved forcefully in a direction down the beach, forcefully turned around by the power of whoever this man was. She turned her head back to him as he prepared to leap forward at this 'Guarm' like he had those other men, only to look back forward and begin running as she decided he knew more than her and should listen to him.
"Go! We did not come here so that you can actually find yourself among the dead!"
Trixie did as told without a second thought, in fact using teleportation to put even more space in-between herself and the clash between Night Elf and hydra-dog-thing. The Night Elf was too fast for Trixie to actually keep track of as he tore into it with the blades of Azzinoth, though the beast seemed to be tough enough to not actually care about what was striking it. Trusting that the man could handle himself, Trixie ran along the shore in the dark swamp-shore she found herself in.
Pausing once she caught site of a wooden dock, Trixie had a thought cross her mind. If this was Hel as she now seemed to have confirmed, then it was possible that the Night Elf had been some associate of Princess Luna and her empire. After all, it seemed that Princess Luna was looking for her, and if these foolish swamp creatures had dragged her down in her sleep...
No, not in her sleep. Trixie thought through her last memories before coming here and actually recalled going outside to relieve herself a few hours after falling asleep, only to hear a crackle in the nearby forest and then nothing.
In any case, if these creatures had in fact dragged her to Hel, they had done half the job of bringing her home. A world of souls from all universes and realities also served as a bridge between them, and she had escaped it once before to return home...she could do so again, should she prove fortunate enough.
"I wonder if he knows Tarkin and those girls..."
But did she want to go home? She had a life with those in Azeroth, she was helping Kael liberate their...his species from his maddened self. A part of Trixie felt reassured in the defeat of that tyrant given that she found him in Hel, so he would die...it was just a matter of when, how, and at what cost.
She wanted to be there to help him win...in fact, as much as she longed to return to her home and be with her family, she felt a stronger urge to return to Azeroth. In both places others had taken her in, and in both places she had made a life and name for herself through her struggles...
Trixie sighed as she realized she really needed to get her past off her chest the next time she had the chance with Kael. He would listen, like he always did...as she continued across the beach at a slow pace, she felt herself bringing her hand up to her neck where she had been introduced to Kael in a forceful manner. He stole her energy...which Trixie realized then that he had been doing for quite some time, feeding off her like a leech due to his magic addiction and the well of energy she had inside of her that she had not yet found the source of. Whatever it was, it had been depleted when she first woke up in Azeroth, but now it was always simmering beneath her surface, ready to explode out when it was necessary and all the while feeding their magic addictions without causing them the pain other Blood Elves might suffer.
"You! Mistress Helya wants a word with you!"
Trixie craned her neck up to see that atop the docks that branched off the shore was a group of the same giants from before, covered with their animal hides and seaweed. They had been working on building a boat with the materials available to them when one of them heard Trixie come closer, only to recognize her and raise his voice to alert everyone there of her presence.
Despite it dawning on Trixie that while this was safer than the giant monster fight going on a little ways back, she found herself trying to correct the builder, "I believe it's pronounced 'Hela'."
The six giants working on the boat leapt down from the raised dock to land in the water and sand around it, their fierce eyes all trained on Trixie as they drew various weapons that ranged from their carving tools all the way to actual combat blades. Trixie stepped back and tried to come up with a plan as they lumbered towards her, none of them apparently concerned with her as a threat.
This laxness would cost them when two of them were cut down not by Trixie herself, but by something no-one in any dimension or reality had been counting on: a rip in the tear of the very fabric of the world. The tear came from a bright slash of an ethereal sword formed of energy, cleaving them in half as the owner of said energy sword stumbled forward through the tear he just made in reality.
The four remaining giants looked to this accidental interloper who dared stumble into Hel of his own doing with scorn, and they turned their blades on him as the bright one in his hands sizzled out. The tall, yet teenage, boy in a blue school uniform called forth another blade to defend himself, this one glowing a bright orange as he parried the attack of one monster and angled his sword to impale another.
"Spirit Sword!"
Trixie saw this as an opportunity to do something herself, and while she doubted she could even harm these behemoths with the power she was sensing from them, she could at least apply kinetic force to them. Mixing a teleportation with a roundhouse kick, Trixie caught one of the giants in the neck and knocked him back a few feet. He was not harmed whatsoever, but the force and momentum behind her attack still could push him it seemed...while also hurting her foot. Trixie cursed as she landed on the ground, only having a second to recover before having to throw herself away from the giants who suddenly saw their original target again.
By then the battle was over however, with this Human interloper having cut down all their enemies in short order...with his red pompadour, eight times worse than the similar odd hairstyle Jerid had, not even getting in his way.
Done fighting, the man turned around to see Trixie, who he did not regard as any sort of threat just like the giants before him...though unlike them, it was because this Human was a sucker for pretty women and so he didn't think she could possibly be an enemy.
That did not mean however that he was not confused about why she was there, "Uh, who the heck are you lady?"
"I was going to ask you the same question!" Trixie scoffed, pointing to the rift he had opened, only for it to close just as she did so. After a moment's contemplation, Trixie muttered under her breath, "You sound like a gay Vegeta."
The Human didn't hear her as he cheerfully introduced himself, striking a 'manly' pose as he did so, "Kazuma Kuwabara, at your service!"
"Vegeta-Armstrong..." Trixie sighed before shaking her head and gave an introduction of her own that was as stylish and grandiose as his was an attempt to be tough, "I'm Trixie Lulamoon. Mind if I ask how you managed to cut your way through...well, reality like that?"
Kuwabara shrugged, obviously not in the loop just like Trixie, "I dunno, I got this new power that can cut up dimensions and stuff, but I don't really know how to use it. I was trying to get into a place called Hel as a favor to my sister, but I think I got the wrong place. Hel's supposed to be all fire and stuff, but this is...icky."
Trixie sighed, understanding his thoughts but also knowing from experience that Hel was not just fire and brimstone...no, it had places like this as well, and in fact this was the kind she had the most experience with after her run-in with the Ursas, "This place is named Hel. Just ask the locals."
"Oh, really? Thanks!" he turned around and began to look for some more giants to speak to, apparently believing the group he just killed to be the only bad ones. He did not note Trixie's sarcasm as he found some more giants and began yelling to them at a distance, "Hey guys, can you tell me where to find a jackass named Sakyo? He's about this tall, black punk hair in a dumb mullet, thinks letting himself die is cool and all."
One pointless fight later, Kuwabara was wiping wet sand off his uniform as he scowled at the dead bodies of the giants around him.
"Well that just wasn't nice!"
Trixie could not even believe how stupid this man was and so she stared blankly at him, "Did you really think people who live in Hel would just help you out?"
"I mean you seem like a pretty nice lady, so why not?"
His assumption that this was her place of residence irked Trixie, who gripped a fist at him, "I don't live here, I'm here by mistake just like you," thinking about his entrance, Trixie realized something that could save them both, "Hey, would you be able to get us out of here by any chance? You cut through the barrier between wherever you come from and here after all, so..."
"Yeah, but I gotta admit I don't know where we'd end up. Still mastering my new power and all, Miss Lulamoon. And besides, it's got a cooldown I think," Kuwabara's dopey expression switched in an instant to a serious one as he considered going home, "Believe me, the moment I can go home to my lovely Yukina I'm out of here."
Well, if the idiot was going to be stuck here for a little bit, why not make him a useful idiot? "Well I really shouldn't be here and am trying to leave before these beasts get me. Would you mind helping me until then?"
This seemed to appeal to Kuwabara's sense of chivalry, as he instantly agreed to her request without any hesitation about how this may impact his own health, "Sure thing! I wouldn't be much of a man if I didn't help a lady in need!"
Now with a bodyguard in tow, Trixie studied her surroundings as best as she could so as to decide what to do next. The fog was not as thick here, so she could see various yet vague objects in the distance. Some were small hills of sand, others seemed to be trees with lanterns hanging off them with dim lights, while one area seemed to be a sizable hill or maybe cliff from what Trixie could see. It was overlooking the main body of water, and was relatively nearby, so it seemed like a good place to go to next.
"I was told to go to the docks by someone I trust, but not what to do when I got there..." thinking further, perhaps there was a boat to escape, but a moment's observation revealed that no boats were docked at present and the only one around was the one still under construction, "There isn't a boat for me to take, so how about we go past the docks to see what's over on that cliff? It might give us a good view over the area."
There was an eerie quiet in the immediate area as the two made their way to their new destination, for while demented cries and waves crashed in the background those became white noise soon enough. For some reason there did not appear to be as many giants in this area, though Trixie was not sure why...perhaps the giant pit of bones and remains they passed was where that hydra-dog thing Guarm lived? That would explain perhaps why people didn't come here...and raised an issue in case Guarm decided to come back.
In any case, a staircase led the way up the relatively small cliff, one which Trixie took point on and rushed up to see what was at the top in an eager hope that standing atop this high ground would give her a view of where they could go next. Every second they stayed was another that one of those giants Trixie could not fight herself could find them, and she still did not know why they had even brought her there.
Kuwabara pushed Trixie back and stood before her defensively, "Stand back, I'll deal with them!"
Trixie was not in a place to argue, since a giant octopus monster was not on her list of things she wanted to fight, particularly when she already knew she was outclassed. This Human from what she presumed was Earth was capable of just carving through them with his blade, as if he was used to killing otherworldly beings, so she had some faith that he would be able to dispatch these tentacles like he dealt with the previous threat.
This belief would hastily proven wrong.
"Spirit," Kuwabara summoned his shining blade as he lunged forth, finishing his battlecry as he cut into one of the tentacles...and proceeded to summon another rift in front of himself, "Swor-oh-oh-oh-craaaaaaaaaaaap!"
Trixie's eye twitched as Kuwabara accidentally used the wrong sword, carving through reality again and stumbling through it in a clear display that he was still learning how his own powers worked. Kuwabara disappeared into this second rift in his foolishness, leaving Trixie behind to gawk as she tried to fathom what she just witnessed.
While debating whether or not she should throw herself into the rapidly closing gash between worlds, Trixie had her options limited by a tentacle wrapping around it all without touching it. Trixie looked to where it originated from and saw that from the waters had emerged a being more massive than she had ever witnessed: a woman with the lower body of an octopus or squid, dark tentacles forming at the end of a torso covered by what seemed to be a ship's wreckage and nets twisted into loose clothing. Their skin was a pale aqua, but it darkened to the color of the tentacles on her forearms, and her fin-like ears held a similar discolored bent to them. Like many other beings of Azeroth, this entity had eyes that glowed with magical power, though hers were white-blue and the shine was duller than with others. Her face was in some ways attractive, but in other ways hideous with her facial features clashing with her mouth's sharp teeth that looked more fitting on a horror story monster than an actual being.
Trixie twitched as she watched this...thing loom over her, its disgusting yet beautiful face appearing almost pensive as it looked down more at the now closed rift it was releasing its tentacle from.
"The interloper that Witch tried distracting me with removed himself," the monster smirked to itself, "That just leaves the three others, but I have already dealt with two of those fools..."
Trixie bit her lip as she looked up at this creature, not sure how to react...it wasn't attacking her yet, it sounded like it was somehow in control of things, and yet she could feel contempt and ill intent oozing from it.
“W-who are you?”
In a flash Trixie saw the closest tentacle hurl itself at her, only to stop right before her face in an act of intimidation. This intimidation worked, as Trixie stumbled back while the beast scowled down at her, “You had best kneel before me, mortal, for I am the ruler of all Helheim, Helya. I will not suffer sleights from any within my realm. All here have their souls bound to me, and do as I say!”
“My apologies...Mistress Hel...Helya?” Trixie gulped as she recognized the names...almost. Instead of Hela it was Helya, and while she was used to referring to it as the shortened name Hel the full name was Helheim, though some also called the realm she knew as Niflheim, “Helheim…”
"You are familiar with our names I presume thanks to the Witch's...connection to me. This is a native piece of the overarching realm you know as Hel, with the souls who come here being some of those from Azeroth. That a Human from another place's Hel came here is one more thing I will have to punish that woman for..." Helya spoke with some disgust, leaving her wet and pungent tentacle right in front of Trixie's face to continue threatening her.
Accepting that she was speaking to a goddess at this point, Trixie shut her mouth and waited to be told what it was this being wanted. She was used to physical goddesses like Celestia and Luna, but she had come to learn that there were even more powerful beings out there with her time with Luna. Since she was nowhere near powerful enough to defy such a being, shutting her mouth and doing as told was the only way she could hope to come out of this alive...no, not alive. With her soul intact, for this was the afterlife, even if she still drew breath. To die here was to have one's soul shattered, and there was no guarantee it would ever reforge itself.
“Now, I have summoned you for a reason. You have a purpose in my schemes, one which goes beyond just what I am asking of you...one action will carry so much more weight you see that a mortal such as yourself could imagine. Do this one task for me and I shall return your soul to you. But until you fulfill it, your soul belongs to me…and to fail me would mean to spend the rest of your existence in this place, left to my very whims,” Helya flashed Trixie a tooth filled smile that, in addition to the coldness of this place, sent shivers down Trixie's spine, “Upon completion, I will personally return you to your world…I will bring you home to the land you know as Equestria, to the teacher you know as Princess Luna, and there you will be able to live once more as if you never had left.”
She...she was going to reward her? It sounded too good to be true...but it was not as if Trixie could bargain to begin with, so why not accept the possibly false hope that this could turn out well for her?
Kneeling down, Trixie tried to appear the part of loyal servant to this surprisingly gracious goddess of the underworld, “Then what do you wish of me, mighty Helya?”
“There is a debt that must be paid. My domain does not apply to all mortals of Azeroth, but rather a select few,” Helya used her tentacle to tap Trixie's sternum softly, displaying surprising dexterity with the giant limb that was many times larger than Trixie just as its owner was the size of many buildings put together, “However, I seek to expand my power so that one day all dead are mine. And if I am to one day rule over the dead, I cannot let certain…anomalies persist.”
A grin befitting of a devil found its way onto Helya's face, and it was in that moment that Trixie's hope that perhaps this was going to work out for the best shattered.
“When I return you to your bed, you will kill Kael’thas Sunstrider. Not the one in Outland, who is the true Kael’thas driven mad inexplicably by magic he once tamed, but the one you travel with who had been stolen from the underworld by another.”
Trixie stopped kneeling and stood up wordlessly. Once on her feet again, she stared down at the ground beneath her as her fists gripped tightly.
“And if I refuse?”
“Then you will remain here for the rest of time, my subject for everlasting torment and pain,” “That is, if your soul itself does not shatter and dissipate like so many others have. Unlike the thief who stole Kael, I do not bother piecing together broken souls of those unworthy enough to have fallen.”
“Going home sounds enticing…” Trixie looked up at Helya with narrowed eyes, “But I am not quite sure I would even want to, even if I was so cowardly as to trade my partner’s life for my own selfish desires. I left Equestria for a reason, and until I find my path and understand who I am, I will not return.”
Trixie's refusal of the terms given to her actually surprised Helya, who had thought she would take the bait. She was about to give another offer to have Trixie make a pact with her when Trixie spoke again, her voice snarling.
“And you can forget trying to sweeten the deal with some other gift. I refuse to kill Kael.”
Even if it meant suffering here now, Trixie found herself resolute in her decision. Kael deserved the second chance he was getting, he deserved to save his people from himself...but Trixie? What did she truly have to do in this world that another could not do? She had her second chance when Luna took her under her wing, and she ruined it by failing Luna and by getting herself sent to Hel by the Ursas. Whatever had happened since, Trixie felt that it couldn't have been for the best since her mind still had those memories locked away from her, so why should she live happily if it meant damning Kael to this place for eternity?
This response seemed to be more expected by Helya, who while disappointed still was prepared for this possibility, “How foolish…you would incur the wrath of a god for the sake of the man you love? Even knowing that he is the sort of fool whose lack of willpower can and will lead him to madness and defeat? That you are not partnered with some angel, but an amnesiac revived corpse whose departure from the afterlife defies chronology?”
Trixie's smirk however did catch the goddess by surprise.
“I grew up alone. I’ve always wanted a friend, someone I can trust, someone who actually cares about me and doesn’t just pretend or is just enthralled by who I pretend to be…” Trixie brought a hand to her chest, where Helya had touched before, “If I have to stay here and suffer at your hands so he can live and fulfill the second chance he has before him, I will. He has sacrificed everything he can for me, and as his partner I must do the same. Perhaps this is my own second chance coming to a painful fruition.”
Helya took this in stride, smiling again down at Trixie, “I will deal with him when the time comes, then. Though truth be told, a part of me was hoping you would turn down my generous offer…for now, you and your soul belong to me, and I will enjoy witnessing you suffer.”
Grabbing Trixie with two tentacles, one over the other, Helya lifted Trixie up into the air and began to slowly constrict her as the Elf choked in pain and tried to cry out only to fail due to a lack of breath.
“You belong to me now. Welcome to Helheim, your eternal resting place!”
Trixie shut her eyes and waited for her life to be choked from her, but this did not happen. Instead, she heard someone else, someone new, speak.
“She belongs to no-one.”
Trixie found herself falling to the ground in short order, opening her eyes to see why Helya was suddenly screaming in bloodcurdling pain: someone had hurled a scythe at the massive tentacles and it had carved through them like soft butter. While still gripped by the massive limbs, Trixie felt herself torn away from their powerful grip by something stronger, and she found herself gently landing on the ground with the aid of someone's magic instead of painfully crashing into it like the now removed tentacles.
The scythe twisted through the air in an arc to bring itself back to its owner, a woman tall for a normal Humanoid but who was nowhere near the same scale as Helya. Clad in dark green and black, she wore a dress that revealed near exactly half of her body while shrouding the other half entirely. Her back was turned to Trixie, so she could not see her face, but she could notice the long flowing black hair of the woman that seemed to drift in an ethereal manner while still being a solid object.
“You…” Heyla screamed as she pulled back from the attack she suffered, “You may have broke from your chains, but you will be back in them before long!"
“Who…” Trixie began to say before the woman looked back at her and revealed an all too familiar face, smiling back at Trixie before leaping forward at a speed no mortal could witness to fight the monster known as Helya.
"Hela?" Trixie gawked as she recognized the features of this woman. The spawn of Loki and Luna, she lorded over the dead while wearing the face Luna took while shapeshifted into an Asgardian. Their last meeting, to Trixie's recollection was of Hela torturing her day after day in Hel for crimes Trixie had not even done yet, things Hela knew Trixie could and would do but wanted to avert by having her stay in Hel eternally so she could not bring harm to others.
This begged the question though of why Hela was now fighting on behalf of Trixie against the similarly named Helya in a blur of combat Trixie could not even keep track of as much as she tried. She slowly stood up as she watched the aqua blue of Helya twist about to combat the green and black blur of Hela, but trying to witness it all was actually straining Trixie's eyes.
It all ended in a flash however when suddenly one of Helya's tentacles ripped out of the water and impaled Hela. Luna's face coughed out blood as surprise came across it, shock apparent as she was dealt a crippling blow while a bleeding Helya with wounds all over her body roared.
"THIS IS MY DOMAIN, YOU FOOLISH WRETCH! DID YOU TRULY THINK YOU COULD DEFEAT ME HERE!?"
Her seeming champion defeated, Trixie froze in terror. Hela was the most powerful being Trixie had known before...and now she was resting limp on one of her namesake's many limbs, her scythe having fallen into the dark waters beneath them. In an act of defiance, Hela lifted a hand and summoned to it a Kama, which she then hurled with the last of her strength away from the battle and onto the swamp's terrain. Helya ignored this as she instead set about beating the stunned Hela, not noticing just quite what her foe had done.
A tug on Trixie's arm preceded her being dragged towards where the Kama had been thrown. Shocked just like Hela, Trixie just allowed for it to happen and didn't fight whoever was pulling her along.
"This way Princess!"
Trixie turned her attention to whoever this was, only to find that she recognized them. The blue haired Human who joined her after her arena performance...the one who led Trixie's other fans and was now in Outland with Reuenthal and the others...
"Wait, you're that girl I met at the arena. One of my fans...Sayaka was it?"
Clad in a blue and white custom outfit meant for battle, this Human continued pulling Trixie along with her as she sprinted at a superhuman speed towards the discarded Kama, her face amused as Trixie deducted who she was partially-incorrectly, "Hehe, you probably met another version of me. Time travel's a funny thing after all, but you know all about that. It's a good thing for me though! It means I get out of here and get the chance to help you out again later."
They stopped finally and Sayaka let Trixie go, who cast her gaze back at where they had been to see that Helya was still brutally tearing into Hela, only now hampered by an enraged Night Elf trying to fight her off despite heavy wounds on his own body.
Still, so much of this left Trixie with questions, so she displayed said curiosity on her face as she looked back to Sayaka, "I am confused. Why are you here?"
Sayaka threw her white cape behind her as she reached to her side, where a cutlass rested, "I owed you a favor or ten so I'm here to help out!" pointing to her side, she drew Trixie's attention to the Kama that had been thrown, "Now through the portal once it's open!"
Unlike Kuwabara's bumbling dimension and reality hopping, Hela had torn open a direct portal to the outside of the inn Trixie had been staying at via the Kama. Its tear had not been as big as likely intended given that Hela was not in the best of shape when it was thrown, but the portal was opening for the moment wider and wider, so Trixie could go through it soon enough...she just hoped that it would manage to close behind her.
Trixie's self-preservation was stalled momentarily by something that sent a new set of chills down her spine: whereas she had seen a few giant beings here or there during her stay in Helheim, she now was witnessing a horde of them, countless due to the mists, rushing towards them.
Sayaka did not appear to care about this, as she rushed forward to meet them, hurling a sword at them while summoning another to throw as well, twirling around in a spectacular display of magic that had dozens and dozens of blades all hurling through the air unnaturally to stab their intended targets. The giants did not take this laying down however and they surged forth where their comrades fell, bearing down their many clubs, axes, and swords down on Sayaka who for the most part avoided their strikes, but who was unable to avoid them all from the sheer multitude of them.
Wanting to help, Trixie turned her back on the portal and began to summon forth some of her own magic, "Wait, there's so many of them!"
In a spiral of slashes Sayaka cleared the area around her, giving her a moment to flash a grin back at Trixie, "For reals, let me be cool for once, okay? Your sister got to pull strings and get that idiot guy from before to save you at just the right moment, so I want to do something cool too."
More behemoths bore down on her though, their attacks connecting with Sayaka but dealing no noticeable damage, with the girl suffering the blows yet still capable of operating as if she had not been struck at all. Once she managed to clear that group out, Sayaka sighed to herself and showed the first signs of tiring since the battle began.
"Well, I might as well pull out all the tricks..."
Trixie glanced to the portal and saw that it was almost large enough for her to exit through, but part of her didn't want to leave this person saving her behind...which is why she was shocked when she looked back to find Sayaka about to impale herself through the chest with her own blade after a small dance on the puddles of water common in the swamp terrain, as if she could walk on the liquid.
As the blade plunged through her chest, Sayaka fell limp...but this was no good thing for the enemies she faced, for in her place something rose from the water nearby, a massive monster with a knight's helmet, a towering sword, and the lower body of a mermaid. This giant beast was shrouded in shadows and the mists, keeping it partially from Trixie's sight, but she watched as Sayaka stood up from her seeming suicide and began to fight once more, only now with the aid of a giant monster which possessed a screeching voice that even struck fear into the hearts of these Helbound warriors.
Both fear and awe filled Trixie as she realized that she had most definitely crossed into the world of goddesses and otherworldly beings, driving her to crave for the far simpler and easier to cope with reality she had come from. As this mermaid-monster carved apart its foes, Trixie found herself now losing her desire to aid this other girl as she came to the realization that it was the giants who truly needed help. She stepped back towards the portal, and turned her gaze away from the sight of Sayaka fighting alongside this beast she had summoned by piercing her own heart.
On her way out, Trixie took one last look at Helya, whose decayed and torn wings on her back were revealed as the mists around her were swept away by her vicious strikes into the now prone Hela. The sight of the wings sent pangs into Trixie's own back she could not explain, but she wasn't about to spend the time trying to, instead leaping through the portal and landing on the cold and wet morning grass that lay there.
She looked up just in time to see the portal closing, with her last view of Sayaka being the magical sword wielding girl facing off with Helya's wicked minions.
"Trixie?"
In bed with Kael, Trixie looked over to him as he slowly came awake. She was clinging to his side fiercely, not willing to let go of him as she spent the morning in terror of losing not only her life but his.
"Go...good morning," Trixie greeted, so happy to hear his voice after what she had just went through...what would have been a living nightmare for the rest of time if not for the intervention of others.
While still barely awake, Kael was confused about something his nose was drawing his attention towards, "You smell like seaweed."
Not willing to explain it, instead Trixie just groaned as she felt the morning's sun beat down on her face, "Don't remind me..."
Something at the edge of the bed moved itself to climb up on top of Trixie, tugging at her clothing playfully, "Big sis needs a bath!"
Trixie dismissively gave Nana a soft push away, not ready for a bouncing puppy-like little girl this morning, especially since the girl's pigtails looked like fins...
Still, Nana's idea did hold merit: Trixie did need a bath, and it was one of the things she did regret about this world that they did not have them as regularly available as in Equestria, "I wonder if there is any water near here..."
Kael buried his face into Trixie just like she had been doing the past few hours, ignoring her smell to instead enjoy the comfort of having her by his side, "Probably somewhere nearby, since there does not seem to be a short supply of it here."
"True..." a simple solution came to mind, though Trixie's groggy mind wasn't quite sure if it was possible, "I should learn a spell to clean myself. Do I know one of those yet?"
Kael rolled over and grabbed a book from their table, flipping through the pages of their spellbook until he found something about water, which he then dropped on Trixie before burying his face in Trixie again, "Here's one for purifying water, and another for how to infuse magic into it..."
With the ability to now basically create her own bath via cleansed water, Trixie smiled at the opportunity to feel clean again after all the bloodshed, sweat, and now sand and seaweed she had endured, "Want to join me?"
"Trixie, I'm not going to bathe with you. Everyone already thinks we're in a relationship, and..."
While before even Trixie would have drawn a certain line at bathing together, Trixie did not feel the same restrictions that day given what she just went through unbeknownst to the others, "If everyone already thinks that, then why shouldn't we? It's not going to change their minds, and what's the big deal? You've seen me naked, haven't you? You aren't some common lech, so I don't mind if it's you, and I did make you smell like seaweed after all."
Kael blushed as Trixie literally asked him to suffer through seeing her naked, "I...I think I'll pass."
"You sure? When was the last time you bathed, other than when you got me all wet in the Monastery?"
While he was indeed in love with her, even Kael had some boundaries and he scoffed at Trixie's flippant manner of speaking, "Do you really not notice anything about the way you talk?"
"The Great and Powerful Trixie has no idea what you mean, and is hurt you would imply she speaks in a less than satisfactory manner."
Not understanding the sexual tension in the room, Nana poked at Trixie's shoulder to get her attention, "Hey Trixie. Big sister. Big sis Trixie," now having Trixie's less than amused attention, Nana asked her question "Can Nana bathe with you? I've never had a bath as a person before."
Trixie grinned at this animal who was now experiencing full sentience for the first time, learning how to be a Humanoid like Trixie herself had been not too long ago, "Sure Nana. I'll teach you how to take care of your mane, okay?"
"Yay! I'll go find a good spot, big sis!"
Nana rushed out of the room to go do as she said, while in her place came an out of breath Vanessa, who stopped at the doorway and near collapsed as she saw that Trixie was inside.
"Vanessa?" Trixie asked with some concern, getting up from the bed to go help her stand, Kael following suit. When they tried helping her though she pushed past them and instead lean against the bed, which she then knelt in front of as she broke out crying.
"I thought she was gone. I thought..."
That morning the early-bird Vanessa had noticed Trixie was missing and had looked all around for miles to try and locate her, having lost track of her somewhere inside the forest. So panicked that Trixie had been taken, she had not even spared the time to come back and inform the others as she instead hurriedly searched for her, only to finally return in defeat and hear Nana's voice mention her 'big sis'.
Kael reached Vanessa first, for Trixie was frozen by some guilt in how her disappearance hurt someone she cared for. Kael brought a hand down to the Human's shoulder and lowered himself to her level to try comforting her, "Trixie's not going anywhere. She won't abandon you, or me, or anyone here if she can help it."
He figured that Trixie must have stepped outside and somehow picked up this seaweed scent, and her lack of being there gave Vanessa this near panic attack. While close to the truth, he had no idea just how much more had occurred in his night's rest.
Trixie joined him in comforting Vanessa, and after a moment the rebellious girl cast aside her distraught look and began to more silently sulk away from them, leaving Trixie to try and draw attention away from her disappearance by acting like nothing happened. She went back to her spellbook...though soon found Vanessa sitting next to her on the bed, looking over at what she was doing.
It turned out that the constantly heartbroken girl was clingy after all she had suffered. Trixie could relate.
"What are you looking at?"
Trixie shrugged, not wanting to admit that she was drawing attention away from her little...excursion, "I think there are some spells I could start testing out soon, so I am going over the details so nothing goes wrong."
Reaching into a small bag, Vanessa pulled a large book from it that was only able to be stored thanks to the bag's magical properties, "I found this from some guy's room. Doan or something."
Trixie smiled as she received a gift from a former criminal and murderer, appreciating that Vanessa had already come such a long way so as to be genuinely distraught over her disappearance and that she was even willing to gift something she stole to the surrogate mother of sorts she had picked up, "Thank you. This will be sure to help," brushing Vanessa's partially wavy hair out of her eyes, Trixie smiled at the younger girl, "Is there something you want to talk about?"
Vanessa paused, not fighting Trixie's touch at all, "I..."
This seemed to be a bit more than just Trixie's suddenly not being there in the early morning...something else was eating at the young girl, Trixie was sure, and if Vanessa storming off last night meant anything Trixie was pretty sure what was doing it.
"It's about your uncle, isn't it?"
Vanessa snarled and crossed her arms, looking away from Trixie, "He's not my uncle."
"Oh, is that so? Could have fooled me with what I heard," Trixie playfully joked as she put an arm around Vanessa.
This did not go over well with Vanessa, who pushed Trixie's arm away and growled at the assertion that she was related to a Knight of Stormwind, "He's not!"
Trixie was going to take the issue further when something tackled her side and instantly went about pulling on her to drag her outside.
"Big sis, I found a spot! Come on, come on!"
Looking to Kael, Trixie conveyed with a nod and her eyes that he should take over with Vanessa. While Trixie left with Nana, Kael indeed did take over in her stead and even sat down right where Trixie had been. Vanessa had moved over to one edge of the bed to be as far away as she could, and she had her body turned so that no-one could see what she was scribbling with a pencil in her journal she had pulled out as Trixie left. She wanted to appear tough, but she was too young to fully keep the tears from welling in her eyes, prompting Kael to speak as he sought to soothe her soul.
"Whether he is or he isn't your uncle, Lavitz is a good man. You shouldn't hold any of this against him."
"I don't need someone looking out for me," Vanessa blatantly lied, not meeting Kael's eyes as she continued to put something down in her journal.
"Despite your statement to the contrary, I very much believe you do and that you know as much yourself," Kael called her on the obvious falsehood, causing Vanessa to scoff but to otherwise stay silent, "You had to grow up early, looking after an entire criminal organization when you were still a child and going under cover with the local population. But just because you had to act the part of an adult earlier than some, does not mean you don't have your own needs."
Vanessa stopped with her journal as she felt a hand softly touch the top of her head and run through her hair to remove the unwashed and thus unruly strands from her face just like Trixie had. This caused Vanessa to blush in embarrassment as she realized she didn't really mind as much as she wanted to, especially since for the first time in what felt like years she was receiving physical care...the Saldeans had known her secret and had known that she was standoffish by nature, so they did not show her much physical affection to respect her boundaries. Unfortunately it was an instance of someone saying they don't want what they truly did want and need, for Vanessa felt herself calming down as Kael pulled her into a hug.
"If Trixie was just some normal woman who helped save your life despite you kidnapping her, then I think you would have remained cynical and tried to distance her from your mind," Kael smiled down at Vanessa as she awkwardly began to return the hug given to her, not having a true response to what he was saying since deep down she knew he was right, "Instead, Trixie is almost your reverse. She's a young adult who acts like a child a good part of the time, even though she can be more serious if she needs to. While allegedly she is looking out for you in some ways as the adult, you actually are a good deal of the reason we are all still alive and are looking after us."
Vanessa nervously looked up at him, her lip quivering as she dropped the barriers she had spent years building up, "Aren't you scared of me? I..." she fought off the urge to sob as she remembered just what she had done, "I killed the last people who looked after me. Don't you think I might do it again?"
A firm shake of the head was all it took to surprise Vanessa, "No, I don't. You obviously regret what you've done, and you only did that because you thought they might willingly or unwillingly cause your own death," Kael ruffled her hair again with a smirk on his face, "So long as Trixie keeps from being a burden to you, then I don't fear for her safety."
Vanessa lowered her head down to rest on his chest, a part of her wishing that she could be holding her father while the rest was just grateful that anyone was daring to show her the same affection the deceased Edwin VanCleef had, "You all should hate me."
Kael rose an eyebrow, "Because you kidnapped Trixie? Because you fought us? I dare say we've seen worse."
In a revealing way, Vanessa kept trying to build up a case as to why they shouldn't care about her, "I'm not a good person. I just want to hurt worse people and other people get hurt because of me."
"The fact that you feel bad tells me you're not the sociopath you likely think yourself to be."
Again disarmed, Vanessa removed herself from the embrace and curled up at the edge of the bed again with her journal. Kael couldn't tell if she was scribbling or writing something, but he did notice that it was a way of her withdrawing from what was around her. She likely had a hundred such defensive mechanisms to shut down her emotions, but he wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily. He wouldn't push her much more on the subject, but he wasn't going to let her act like she was alone in the room.
"Trying to hide behind your journal?"
Vanessa huffed as she continued trying to be antisocial. This only inspired Kael to press onwards, and he smiled wryly down at the journal in which Vanessa apparently kept secrets and daily events.
"I wonder what you've put down about me in there?"
Giving up on her attempt to ignore him, Vanessa blushed as she handed it over to him.
"Y...you can look if you want."
Kael actually expected more of a fight and so he was surprised to be receiving it, "Are you sure?"
"I haven't had that much of a chance to write about you, but I..."
Looking inside the journal proved illuminating for Kael, for whereas a lot of it was a daily log of things, a good deal more was her collecting information that could possibly lead her to killing the man who defeated her father as well as fantasizing about all the things she would do to him when that occasion came around, the surprising part to the journal was that interspersed with the writing was a series of drawings.
"These drawings are quite good," Kael flipped past a page with a girl gnome with the label 'Chromie' beneath it and onto a page of Cookie, both drawn with detail Kael did not think someone so young could muster, "Where did you learn to draw like this?"
"The design plans of my father's ship were damaged and lost, so someone had to come up with and draw everything..." Vanessa explained partially, seeming to imply that her little hobby came from her work with the Defias, "The Brotherhood is a bunch of former engineers, but that doesn't mean all of them can draw well enough to properly convey their ideas or to be understood."
Kael stopped flipping through the pages when he came across what he guessed was the only image of him...and it had him kissing Trixie.
Vanessa was a shipper, he came to realize.
"Yet another person who thinks Trixie and I..." he sighed. Why could everyone see it but Trixie herself?
"She loves you."
The factual tone Vanessa suddenly had caught Kael off-guard, causing him to inquire about it, "Did she tell you that?"
Vanessa looked away again, nervous about having this conversation, "She looks at you the way I've seen the happiest married couples look at their spouses. She might not know it, but she does."
Kael grinned as he thought about something...why would this girl care to observe the way happy married couples look at one another? Did she perhaps wish she had a happy family of her own, as compared to the broken one she grew up with? Perhaps being without normalcy for so long made her long for what so many others had.
In any case, Kael sighed and returned the book to Vanessa, "I hope you're right."
She went back to drawing while Kael instead took to reading his spellbook while lounging on the bed. It might be nearly midday, but he did not wish to actually get up and do anything. After a little while passed a slightly damp Trixie and Nana returned to the room, Trixie's clothes no longer reeking of seaweed thanks to her cleaning them while she was out with the aid of her magic.
"What are you two up to?" Trixie asked as Nana ran off to go eat something, the young girl starving after not having eaten the whole morning.
Vanessa showed Kael another page in her journal which made him grin while he responded to Trixie's question, "Just going over Vanessa's journal. Did your bath go well?"
"It wet my appetite for cleanliness for the time being," she showed her palms to be free of water before trying to pick up Vanessa's journal, "My hands are dry, can I look?"
Vanessa tugged it away and tried hiding it as Trixie reached for it, not sure about how Trixie might respond to what she had been drawing, "I..."
"How come Kael can look and I can't?" Trixie pouted like a child, upset that Kael got to do something she didn't.
Feeling guilty now, Vanessa handed it over with some reluctance, "Here..."
Trixie gleefully took it and began to flip through the pages. She noticed in her quick browsing that Vanessa had drawn Karl, with some lines of fighting advice he must have given her on the page as well, showing that they had at least bonded to some degree. As she continued Trixie finally came across herself, with multiple pages dedicated to her which did a lot to boost her ego.
"You draw me like I'm some kind of goddess," Trixie grinned as she spoke with some irony that the others could not catch, "Finally, someone sees me for who I am."
Another page left Trixie questioning which blonde haired man it was, "I can't tell if this is Kael or Karl."
Kael sighed as Trixie completely glossed over obvious details just because the faces were so similar, "My eyebrows and ears are a bit bigger than his, Trixie, though he does look quite similar to me."
"That one's Kael, Karl is earlier on," Vanessa explained as she peeked at which one Trixie was looking at, "Karl's teaching me some of the things he learned at SI-7. He's a quiet guy, but he's nice when you get to know him."
Stopping on another page, Trixie recognized yet another blonde, though this one made her curious why Vanessa had him at all, "I see that you have Jerid here too."
Vanessa curled up her fist and glared at the page of the Crusader whose jerk-like behavior made her dislike him from the start, even if she did feel a little bad she killed his friend, "I drew him so I could better remember whose face to punch if we come across those Crusaders again."
Studying the picture of Jerid, Trixie laughed as she noticed a similarity to their resident Knight's own appearance and hair, "I bet if Lavitz grew his hair out a bit they'd look almost as similar as you do to Karl, Kael," she paused as she noticed that Vanessa had used a blue coloration for the eyes, which apparently was a rare feature, "Funny, I'd think maybe they were related thanks to the eye-thing if Lavitz wasn't such an old-school prude whose own mother can't get him to bring home a wife yet."
Lavitz wasn't the sort to have a bastard child after all, so no worries there. Passing the thought away, Trixie flipped through the pages more and saw someone she didn't actually recognize and who didn't have a name on the page. It was an Elf with silver hair, but looked like Kael in a lot of ways...did she run out of whatever yellow stuff she was using to color Kael's hair?
"Who's this?"
Vanessa blushed as Trixie showed her one of her most recent drawings, honestly having hoped Trixie would lose interest after a few pages, "I...uhhh..." with a sigh, Vanessa gave up her resistance and decided to fill Trixie in, "When I was thinking about family last night, I drew what I thought yours would be like..."
To her surprise, this didn't seem to offend Trixie in the slightest, and Trixie began to flip through pages and pages of small sketches of what Trixie's children might look like...all of which shared some kind of features that Kael had. Despite the implications of this, what really got Trixie's attention was the fact that it all was colored, "I'm surprised you were able to draw it all in color."
"Inks are easy to make if you know the right flowers and ingredients to use," Vanessa explained, her knowledge of plants and other materials for poisons coming in handy in a different way than usual.
"I hope you don't mind that I used Kael for...you know..."
Trixie laughed at the half-hearted apology, "Well, children only carry half their blood from their mother and the other half has to come from their father, so of course any child of mine could not be as perfect as me, but I could always choose the closest thing to perfect for the father so that they may mirror my greatness. I can't blame you for thinking the same."
"You're certainly full of yourself," Kael quipped.
"If I seek to be the best at everything I do, then why should I shirk my attitude when it comes to whatever children I have? Would their imperfections not thus imply imperfections on my own part?"
"I suppose..." Kael murmured, not sure he wanted to have this conversation.
Trixie handed Vanessa her journal back while grinning smugly, "I would want to have the best man as my chosen mate, but what makes a man ideal? I believe the man should be kind, for cruelty is a flaw and it also would assist in raising the child, but also intelligent, for intelligence is a heritable trait I believe, as well as powerful for what would it do to have foals who can't fend for themselves?"
Kael massaged his temple as he listened to the woman he loved talk about her ideal lover, "So where do you expect to find this Prince Charming?"
"Speaking hypothetically, I don't need to. As Vanessa thinks, you more than fit the bill on all of my criteria, so if I were ever to decide to be a mother you would be the best candidate as my spouse."
Trixie was speaking freely thanks to her recent brush with Hel, and so Kael was left silent as he tried to grapple with the fact that Trixie just in a manner of speaking said she wanted him to be her husband in a hypothetical future.
This revelation was not even diminished as Trixie tried to explain to Vanessa why the drawings in the book might be a bit inaccurate though, "However, Vanessa, Kael's a Prince and I'm a nobody, so when he's on his throne he'll have to marry some rich princess or something like that, meaning this is all just hypothetical and imaginary."
Trixie knew in fact that she was indeed not a nobody, but in this land nobody except Tarkin really cared that she was a Princess elsewhere, so she was as good as a nobody.
Kael sat up and tried to interject, his shoulders moving in a nonchalant shrug, "It comes to mind that we've heard nothing of me having a spouse or lover, or anything about others expecting me to have one. While in an idyllic monarchy what you're saying would be correct, but I think anything goes."
"You want to establish the best government you can though, right? I mean you don't want to be like that evil jerk who kicks puppies in Outland. Choosing a correct political marriage is important. Princess Luna told me that. She was courting a Prince who held claims to two kingdoms after all."
"Two?"
"Yeah, long story. Will tell you when we have like an hour of us time when we're both awake," Trixie paused as a random fact came to mind, "Speaking of which, I didn't realize this before I think, but we've been sleeping together every night. Isn't that how babies are made?"
Both Kael and Vanessa gawked at Trixie's cluelessness. Even having returned from Hel, Trixie was not really clued in on how a lot of things worked. To the others present they just thought she was being particularly dense, but in fact there was a bit more behind it than that.
"Wait, do you not know how..."
Trixie balked at the stares she was receiving, "Know how what? How babies are made? Of course I do! What, do you think I believe in the stork? I just...don't know the specifics. Nobody has ever told me how girls don't digest their babies, since they're in our stomachs right?"
Kael sighed as he realized that if, by some miracle, he managed to wed Trixie...it would only be after someone explained to her how certain things worked.
In a nervous but slightly hopeful voice, Vanessa spoke up, "So...back to my drawings, are you saying they could actually happen?
Trixie nodded, "I don't see why not," looking over to Kael, she hugged him and made him blush red, "Changing our arrangement a bit wouldn't be a bad thing I think...provided Kael really doesn't care about all the Prince stuff..."
She couldn't come out and say it, since she never had really felt this way before, but...she had come to realize just how much he meant to her. That she was willing to sacrifice her own soul for his, just as he was willing to sacrifice his life for her own, confirmed for Trixie what she had been trying to pretend wasn't true for quite some time.
She was in love with her partner...which was why, when he kissed her on the lips a few moments later, Trixie returned it and in fact pulled him in closer so she could wrap her arms around him. She knew it was selfish, but she didn't care and she was done pretending that her intense affection for him was just platonic.
He was her Prince, and she would do anything for him.
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Yes!… Yes!… Yes!
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/001/106/418/e14.jpg
https://youtu.be/_Y8VGN29H4U?list=PLM0mzcL4ygcZcpQclwOB8PnOM3pIYDVvl
but his body relaxed as continued to focus on Trixie without moving
Pausing once she caught site of a wooden dock
It wet my appetite for cleanliness for the time being
1. But his body relaxed as he continued to focus on Trixie without moving.
2. Sight.
3. Isn't it Whet? Though it can be tricky to use in this case...
I'd normally question how Trixie got into Helheim in the first place but it was fragmently established that she was most likely dragged by that giant seaweed monster thing and teleported to that realm. Can I also safely say that: "I've seen enough Hentai to know where this could go but with the current author writing this story it wont go that way" came across my mind when Helya (HELL-YEAH... Ok, that was bad even for me) grabbed Trixie.
It's nice to see that Trixie finally recognised her feelings for Kael even if she had to go through Hel and back (hah) to finally realise it.
Also, instant recognition for the cameo. Oh god Kuwabara you're such a cheesy guy that's too easily paired with shenanigans and clumsiness. Least we can say Chivalry isn't dead. Unless they cut their way into Helheim and act Chivalrious there then Chivalry would be not-dead-dead. If that makes sense. Maybe I should just say Chivalry is Undead but that context here would be a whole nother meaning.
Another cameo that came as a surprise would (of course) be Sayaka suddely popping out of the Ether and what she did... my mind can't properly comprehend save for something akin to the evoking happens in the Persona series. My mind is seriously blanking out the more I think about it for some reason...
Seems that Chromie has made an appearance to Vanessa makes me think she (Chromie) has much more to play in this than we first anticipated than just a Time Cop. If anything else, I'm just surprised that no one died since I felt as if someone would and I don't mean those nameless mobs. Wait... Hela can't die... can she?
FUCKING FINALLY!
7728159 Oh? Did something happened you liked?
7728315 i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/010/491/are_you_frustrated.jpg
7728339 I mean yes, the chapter itself dealt with how she ended up where she was. Knocked unconscious -> hearthstone -> Helheim. As for the hentai, because the way the internet is the thought crossed my mind as well, but it wasn't really necessary to bring up so...yeah.
Trixie and Kael are finally together, but I'm still going to have my fun with it
I wrote a Yu Yu Hakusho fanfic awhile back and realized back then that Kuwabara is easily one of the characters most easily brought into crossovers given that he can cut through reality basically. It was fun actually finally getting to use him though, but unfortunately there wasn't space in our party to accommodate him joining on a more permanent basis (his spot's taken by Lavitz and Kael as the tanks).
As for Sayaka, she's gonna have a bit more screentime.
Especially now that this funnily enough is happening at the same time as her appearance in We Remember Everything, which in turn factors into this story of course.
Chromie indeed is going to have a part to play beyond just Time Cop, and I'm glad you caught her little reference here. I came up with an idea to solve Vanessa's age problem in Warcraft (she ages twice as fast in canon as she ought to, going from small child to adult in like five years) and so to implement it she needs to have some sort of relation to the Bronze Dragonflight, what with them messing with time and whatnot
It won't be for awhile though, so no need to worry about it yet.
7728622 My record is fifty chapters without explicit romance, so we got off a bit early here.
My reactions went something like this.
The Groose is loose in Hel!
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/youtubepoop/images/6/6e/Groose1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131206151519
I actually knew it was someone from Yu Yu Hakusho when I read the "spirit sword" bit, I just couldn't remember his name.
It must've been the kiss, surely no other part of the chapter will have much of an impact. Nope.
7730029
It tends to be a bit of a slow burn with Trixie.
7730220 Glad people got the Kuwabara reference
I was worried he would be a bit too old a reference for some people.
As for the chapter's importance, you're totally right. Just the kiss and nothing else.
I mean it's not like Trixie met goddesses, was introduced to Hel, Vanessa revealed to have a picture of Chromie for some reason, one of Trixie's fans turned out to be a guardian angel of sorts, and other such things. Nothing at all 
7730225 Whereas Kael just burns you fast.
So thats why Sombras horn is thick and red, He jelous of Groose Hair?
I think I saw once a quote that Hell is what you make it, but it depends on the company you keep. I mean, between Hela, Helya, and Hey-Ya playing the place could be almost empty if the dissolution of bodies is faster than the reformation rate. All those souls floating around trying to pull themselves back together.
How does Discord compare, or he relatively restricted in area etc?
I take it Trixie will be very suprised about foals appearing, given how much she will be complaining about puttng on weight making her look fat and ugly, not being used to carrying forms?
7731139 While some souls never manage to pull themselves (and their respective bodies) back together, it is offset by the ever increasing number of them present. The place isn't flooded with unlimited spirits, in fact it's only averagely populated in-game, so by this method their is a new influx to always replace those who just wither away.
Discord is difficult to compare since he is a different entity altogether: he is not a lord of the afterlife, he is a god of Chaos. A lower powered version of him would be the previously mentioned in-story Loki, while the comparisons between Hela and Helya would have to be to entities such as Hades, Satan/Lucifer, various forms of Death, and the like.
Trixie just needs her ego to be reaffirmed, so as long as people tell her that she's pretty and great and powerful I doubt she'd mind
It's not that she doesn't understand the whole process, she's seen pregnant people, it's that she's quite clueless about the specifics since nobody's bothered telling her before.
Is Sayaka somebody from the Persona/Shin Megami Tensei series? I have no real idea where she comes from and I might want to see what's up with her at some point.
Also, Hylia's teats, THANK YOU Vanessa!!! I don't know if ANYONE else could have managed to make Trixie come out to herself like that. Seriously, she's too full of herself to realize when she's being dense.
7735352 Sayaka is a character from Madoka Magica, and she is quite comparable to the Trixie I had in my other story We Remember Everything (which this is now fully crossing over with). Sayaka is a great character and my favorite from her series, but I can't say much more without spoiling a good part of that show. I highly recommend it however.
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Here is the sacrifice-summon in its original anime context.
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An example of her character:
As for Vanessa getting Trixie out of her shell, yeah, Vanessa deserves a medal or award
A lot put together got Trixie to finally get over herself and admit it!
7736304 Oh yeah, I remember that now! It's been a while since I watched that series.
7736311 Glad you know of it then! So yeah, Sayaka will be making more appearances in the future, so hope you'll enjoy those when they come.
I have to say, when the chapter started, I was confused. How did Trixie come to be where she was, when the last I saw of her involved her going to bed in the inn?
Then Helya appeared and claimed she had rights over Trixie and her soul, and my inner lawyer leapt up and screamed OBJECTION!
How dare she try and lay claim to what she has stolen! She claims it is hers, and I refute her claims! But this is not the first time, nor the last time she has done this. Merely being in her realm, whether willing or not, seems enough for her to attempt her chicanery. I hope we get to really shove her nose in the dirt for this later.
Sorry, I just have a lot of lingering feelings about Helya. None of them are kind or favorable to her. When she did thia trick to my mage and I discovered what she had done, I was furious. There was nothing more that I wanted than to pelt her with the full fury of my fire mage: pyroblast chains for days, and all that.
46% crit is a wonderful thing.
Anyhow, it is also a case of "fuck yeah, tell that wench off!" When Trixie told off Helya for her "deal". Even moreso when she blatantly acknowledged her feelings at last.
She had better drop her ideas of how her own legitimacy works though, and get on with husbanding her elf.
Or letting him wife her. One or the other. Not complaining.
Poor Vanessa though, she's been worried all night. She needs hug therapy.
7751212 Hahaha, you and Trixie both were befuddled as to how she got where she was
Fortunately she figured it out by the end.
Helya's a bitch, though a surprisingly sympathetic one when one learns her backstory...unfortunately, having a sympathetic backstory does not excuse her extremely evil actions in the present. Just explains them.
As for your inner lawyer, in We Remember Everything I have Trixie (sort of) literally learn manners from Franziska von Karma
I mean, after all, Franziska is not only associated with horses in various ways, she also is a dead ringer for how a Human (not Equestria Girls) Trixie ought to look and be like. Even have similar personalities in a lot of ways!
Helya will most likely get her comeuppance at some point, but she's such a powerful entity that Trixie's entire tiers away from being able to even scratch her at the moment...so expect her to be a raid boss later. Still have to clear Vanilla, Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor before we get to that point!
Trixie may be haughty, but she's also nice deep down and cares for others who care for her, so there really was no other way for her to deal with Helya except to tell her to fuck off.
She could perhaps have tried to trick her, but Trixie didn't know the ramifications of fully accepting the deal so trying to be all tricky could backfire, so instead she just said fuck you, I do what I want.
In many ways the only things separating Trixie and Kael from being a married couple is A) official recognition and B) having a family (and the process by which this is done). That they're so attached to one another is why literally everyone else around them is shipping them, since they are married already in everything but name and consummation.
Given that it's Trixie, she has the personality to be the one to propose, but also the personality to both expect Kael to as well as the personality to be too nervous about the ramifications of taking it to the next level to actually try and move things forward. In fact, we'll be seeing a bit of this next chapter.
And yes, Vanessa needs a lot of hugs. She needs all of the hugs she can get, but fortunately she's got Trixie and now Kael and the others to help look out for her (even if she refuses to acknowledge that one of them is a blood relative). Unfortunately though a lot more suffering and heartbreak awaits her if she keeps trying to dedicate her life to revenge.
Well shit.
... TO THE WIKI!
And jesus! Talk about huge reveal. Anyone out of the loop of WRE is screwed!
Just like Trixie with Helya.
And yay~ finnally. It happened. Though she still needs the talk.
Well, the wait was worth it.
Is the guy with the dimension sword the same guy in the Cell Vs series? Is the Night elf that held the glaives of Azinoth prE-corrupted Illidan? How exactly did Trixie end up there? Is Sayaka from her battles with the gnomes and shit? I don't understand what the Knight creature she summoned is. How is Hella related to Trixie? What is Hella here?
I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. I'M CONFUSED BEYOND BELIEF.