World of Warcraft: Burning Skies

by Blackdrag-rose

Inderlude: Time Passes

After the raid on Nathreza, and the acquisition of the Seal of Argus, life pretty much returned to normal in the Black Temple, as in the Illidari continued their training in the art of using their warglaives against the training dummies, not to mention the instances where they sparred with each other to vastly improve their skills, as well as taking the time to master whatever side skill they were interested in, if they had one. Jace, for example, continued to tinker with the various items that he was able to obtain, to give the rest of the group wards and other useful tools for when they were out in the field, in case they had to do something like invading another Legion world and had to stay there for a longer period of time, just in case their Lord decided to test them without being there with them, as there was always a chance they might be sent to another world to raid it on their own. For the most part the demon hunters sought out Varedis for any additional training that he might have for them, along with the likes of Alandien, Netharel, and Theras, three night elves that also served as masters for the rest of the group, or at least they were the training masters that revealed how to use the warglaives and all of the other abilities that the rest of the demon hunters used in battle. It also made sense that there were more than just one master, since both Spitfire and Rainbow knew that there was no way Varedis could be the only mentor for them and the others, so they were rather happy to officially meet the other mentors, just to see if there was anything they could teach them, to prepare for what the future held for them.

For the first couple of days after the raid it was mostly the three night elves that taught whoever came to them for any additional training, mostly due to the fact that Lord Illidan hear a rumor that the remains of the Shadow Council, which was a rather dangerous group of warlocks that served the Legion, might be active somewhere in Outland and that he was going to send Varedis to see if there was any truth to the rumor. Spitfire and Rainbow learned that this wasn't the first time he had been sent out on a mission that was similar to this, as there was a point before their arrival that Varedis found a tome called the Book of Fel Names and discovered that he couldn't remove it from the area he had found it in, so he did the next best thing and absorbed as much power as he could from it before returning to the Black Temple, something that explained the level of power that the blood elf possessed, not to mention the pride he felt since their Lord had praised his actions, just like he had done to everyone after the raid on Nathreza. It also meant that Varedis was the one that their Lord was entrusting all the Shadow Council related business to, since there was a chance he might find artifacts of power for all of the demon hunters to drain, to boost their already considerable powers even further for when it was time to invade some of the other worlds that the Legion controlled. Varedis, on the other hand, clearly felt that not everyone needed any additional power, showing that his pride and arrogance had definitely affected him over the years, but for the most part Spitfire and Rainbow decided to ignore that side of their mentor and go about their usual business as they waited for their Lord to assign a mission to them, or to group they would be joining.

One thing that was of interest to everyone was the fact that the Legion forces in Hellfire Peninsula, which they were planning on dealing with before they got out of hand, tried to invade the Dark Portal and besiege Azeroth once again, only this time around the forces that were sent through the portal ended up defeated and, after some time, the forces of both the Alliance and Horde were able to truly entire Outland. By that Spitfire and Rainbow found out that the Alliance was able to reunite with the forces of Honor Hold, which was a stone fortress their allies had built two decades ago before the way between worlds had been closed, granting the weary soldiers some long awaited reinforcements at last, especially since they were dealing with enemies that wanted to take them down. At the same time the reinforcements from the Horde were able to do the same thing in Thrallmar, the more tribal orc camp that existed on the other side of the province, from where Honor Hold rested, granting the forces there the same thing the Alliance gave their allies, where Lord Illidan knew that the two factions would remain focused on Hellfire Peninsula and wouldn't worry about the other provinces for a time, hence why he didn't appear to be worried, though to be on the safe side he made sure that Leotheras, a demon hunter that trained with Varedis in the past, to ensure Lady Vashj was safe and sound. Varedis didn't seem to care when he heard the news, so a few of the other Illidari wished him well as he departed after Lady Vashj's latest visit to the Black Temple, which had been around the same time that Kael'thas had come as well, showing the pair that it had been a meeting between the leaders of their army.

Of course Kael'thas left a little parting gift, four powerful blood elves that would serve as advisers and assistants for Lord Illidan, where Spitfire and Rainbow learned that they were called Gathios the Shatterer, Veras Darkshadow, Lady Malande, and High Nethermancer Zerevor... however, even though they called themselves the Illidari Council, despite the little time they sent with the rest of the forces, they found that the group of four didn't piss off anyone, rather relations between the various races actually improved, something that made the pair happy as well.

The Council, as the rest of the demon hunters called them, quickly proved themselves to Lord Illidan, who decided to allow them to deal with everything that he didn't want to focus on, meaning he could devote more time to making sure the demon hunters were ready for the future, even though Spitfire could see that the Council did plot against each other every now and then, to get their Lord's favor, something he didn't give very often, if at all. From what Spitfire could gather each of the four blood elves had their own strengths, as Gathios was supposedly a master of war and logistics, Veras dealt with espionage, Malande was the one that focused on making sure the relations between the various races were good, and Zerevor was a master of the arcane, one of the forms of magic that existed in this part of the universe. Most of the demon hunters decided not to worry about the Council, given that they were loyal to Lord Illidan, despite coming from Kael'thas' camp, and that they were quick to locate anything the Illidari, be they one of the demon hunters or one of the other races, needed to perform their duties, which was great for Jace and the engineer demons that he was working with. It appeared that Lord Illidan had seen what Jace was capable of and was making great use of his talents, just like everyone else in the Illidari, as no one was left hanging in the grand scheme of things, and that also applied to Spitfire and Rainbow, who were some of the strongest recruits the group had seen in a long time, something that even Varedis had to admit, despite the fact that he didn't like it... even the Council, despite the fact that they had only just met the pair and had only a few tales to draw upon, admitted the same thing, which really caught them off guard.

What really caught some of the Illidari off guard was the instances where Lord Illidan called upon Spitfire, not for any normal training, like they did in the past, rather he wanted to have her go through battle scenarios with him and see what she picked out as the various scenarios progressed, while Rainbow was free to do whatever she wanted, which was spent honing her skills. Spitfire knew what was going on, as she had told her Lord about her past during her first week in the Black Temple, about how she lead the Wonderbolts and everything, so now he was seeing how she would approach some of the battles that he had been in and the ones that might be coming in the future, no doubt to see if he might have found a new leader for the Illidari, in case something ever happened to him, despite the fact that most of the group saw him as an unbeatable figure that they were striving to replicate, to a degree. Spitfire was willing to humor him, since she knew that the only time she would ever take over was if she was sent to a world with a force of demon hunters for an extended period of time, to gain some leadership skills or to relearn them in a new context, but so far it didn't appear that anything was different and she just focused on making what she deemed to be the right choices, even if they were different from what her Lord would have picked, or did pick depending on which scenario they were talking about. She was sure that some of the scenarios they talked about were real events that her Lord went through, and if they weren't he had a rather active imagination to come up with something so believable, hence why she knew he wasn't making things up since he didn't seem to be the type to do something like that, and went through them to learn whatever lessons he might have for her, or just to keep him company during her breaks.

Rainbow, of course, teased her a few times with the whole 'Spitfire and Lord Illidan, sitting in a tree' joke, something that caused many of the demon hunters to think she had gone crazy until she explained what she was talking about, even if it was easy to tell that Lord Illidan had his sights on someone else, though Spitfire ignored that and focused on the task at hand as the days went by.

---

It was at the end of the first month since the Dark Portal opened that something interesting happened, where Spitfire and Rainbow happened to be at the summit with Lord Illidan, the former getting ready for whatever scenario she and their Lord were going to talk about while the latter moved to the edge of the area to practice with her warglaives for a time, only for them to be interrupted by the return of Kayn and Kor'vas, who had been sent to Hellfire Peninsula some time ago to see how the Alliance and Horde were faring in their war with the Legion.

"Ah, Kayn, Kor'vas, you have returned at last." Illidan commented, as he knew that they would have returned at some point in time, so he wasn't angry with them for taking a few additional days to gather as much information as they could before their return, to which he turned towards the pair as they knelt before their Lord, "Tell me, did you discover anything of interest during your time in Hellfire Peninsula?"

"The Alliance and Horde have broken the Legion's forces and have prevented them from using this side of the Dark Portal to invade Azeroth," Kor'vas replied, where Spitfire and Rainbow paused for a few seconds, as they weren't expecting to hear that piece of information, that the forces from the other world have actually broken the army that the Legion had summoned to deal with them, but at the very least it was easier on the two factions since Spitfire had taken out the demon that would have been leading the others, "from what we could gather the Legion constructed a number of gateways to call in reinforcements, so they could wipe out the soldiers that were guarding the Stair of Destiny, only for the forces of both factions to gather together, where they took down the Fel Reavers protecting the gateways and then used some bombs to blow up the structures, leaving behind little for us to salvage. The two factions also disrupted all of the forge camps that the Legion happened to be making near the base of the Throne of Kil'jaeden, effectively crippling the Legion's presence in Hellfire Peninsula, before they mounted a join effort to take down Kazzak the Supreme and 'succeeded' in killing him at the peak of the Throne of Kil'jaeden."

"Hold up, are you telling us that the Alliance and Horde are taking credit for Spitfire's actions?" Rainbow asked, as that was something that she wasn't expecting to hear during the report, since they knew who had taken down the demon in question, especially since she had watched Spitfire take down Kazzak with her own eyes, though both Spitfire and their Lord remained silent, clearly thinking about what they were hearing.

"That is what we discovered during our mission." Kayn stated, though if he and Kor'vas were annoyed by Rainbow's outburst, and the fact that she was interrupting their report as they informed their Lord about what they found out, both of them weren't showing any annoyance, rather Spitfire found that both of them were being patient so Rainbow could back down and let them finish their report, "From what we can gather both factions are telling a similar story about how they stormed the area, took out the guards that were protecting Kazzak, and then killed the demon to reduce the Legion's hold on this world, complete with the Alliance taking his horns and the Horde taking his head."

"Oh man, Spitfire, that sucks!" Rainbow remarked, because she found it funny that the Alliance and Horde had taken the time to gather their forces for an assault on the Throne of Kil'jaeden and, upon finding their target dead, they decided to take the glory of the kill for themselves, rather than ask who had killed Kazzak and wonder if they had additional allies in this world, besides the ones that had been here before their arrival.

"If they want to take credit for the kill, more power to them... though the fact that they shared the kill, by dividing up part of his body to prove they did the deed, means something," Spitfire remarked, because she had been thinking about it since the pair of demon hunters had started talking and shared what they had seen during their mission, though now she had an idea of what was going on, while at the same time noting that their Lord was silent, "it appears that the heroes that went to the Throne of Kil'jaeden don't want the others of their factions to know that someone beat them to the punch, so the heroes of both the Alliance and Horde agreed to tell a similar tale where they banded together to take down an agent of the Legion. They're working together to cover up who actually killed Kazzak, while showing that the Legion held no power in this world... so I'll let them have their 'kill', otherwise telling them that someone else killed the demon would wreck the unity that they have created between their factions."

"Indeed. I was thinking the same thing." Illidan said, showing the group that he had been thinking about what they had been told and that he agreed with what Spitfire had said, even though he had a feeling that the unity would vanish in the near future, given what he knew about the two factions, to which he turned towards the pair that had scouted out Hellfire Peninsula, as per his orders, "Did you discover anything else while you were scouting the province out, or is this all you have to report?"

"There is more, as the Alliance and Horde have been assaulting Hellfire Citadel as well," Kayn stated, though even as he said that Illidan and Spitfire noticed that there was something else that had happened that he was debating whether or not he should tell them, with Rainbow standing nearby, before deciding that he might as well get it over with, "from what we were able to tell the heroes were able to take down Vazruden the Herald and claim the letter that you sent him, so now they know the fel orcs are part of our army and not the Legion's, and they also invaded the Blood Furnace, allowing them to take out the commander of that area as well. We suspect that the Alliance and Horde are trying to figure out how the fel orcs were created and are possibly trying to figure out a way to reverse it, and the Shattered Halls were assaulted as well... but that's not all, they went down into Magtheridon's prison and, somehow, dragged his head outside so they could split the kill and encourage their soldiers to push forward."

"Hey! You mean they're taking credit for my kill?!" Rainbow remarked, her tone revealing that while she was okay with the factions taking the credit for Spitfire taking down Kazzak, since she was the one that killed the demon in question, she wasn't okay with the Alliance and Horde taking the credit for her kill, especially since the Pit Lord had been quite the foe in his weakened state, causing her to cross her arms for a moment.

"That appears to be the case, though it seems that part of Hellfire Peninsula belongs to them now," Illidan said, not that he actually cared about who actually owned the provinces of Outland, since he had taken this world so he could ready himself and his forces for the war with the Legion, and only for that reason, but this did tell him that the Alliance and Horde might be coming for them at some point in the future, "Kayn, Kor'vas, good work on figuring out what has been happening in Hellfire Peninsula. You are free to return to what you were doing, after taking a break to relax, while I plan out our next move."

As Kayn and Kor'vas nodded their heads, and departed from the summit, Spitfire and Rainbow returned to what they had been doing with their Lord before the pair had returned, as in Rainbow returned to practicing with her warglaives and Spitfire focused on the scenarios that she would be going over for the next hour or two, but while they did that she had the feeling that there was more to the situation than what they were told and that they would see what the Alliance and Horde were up to in the coming weeks.

---

Over the next couple of months Spitfire's feelings on the matter seemed to be validated, as it wasn't long before both the Alliance and Horde moved the majority of their forces and headed into Zangarmarsh, once Hellfire Peninsula was free from the Legion, though that also included them felling the couple of taskmasters that the Illidari had stationed in part of the province, effectively terminating their hold over the province that held the Dark Portal. It didn't take the two factions, or their allies, the Cenarion Expedition, to decide that the pumps Lady Vashj and her naga had installed, which allowed the Illidari to ready their water supplies for their war against the Legion, were wrong and that they needed to be taken down, hence why they started to sabotage all the hard work that their allies put into making their dream a reality. Even though there were a number of them that wanted to rush out and aid their ally, who hadn't called for assistance yet, Lord Illidan had them stay in the Black Temple, knowing that he would respond the moment they heard the distress call from their ally, as he had faith that she wouldn't be stubborn and could call if she needed help. As such Spitfire, Rainbow, and the others learned that the Alliance and Horde aided the Cenarion Expedition in some of their other plans, cutting down a vast number of the naga that were in the province, while at the same time invading sections of Lady Vashj's home, just like they did before they attempted to take on Magtheridon, even though the demon was dead before they even arrived.

Clearing out Hellfire Peninsula had taken the two factions three whole months, since they were getting familiar with the land and learning what they needed to know about the fel orcs that had been positioned in that province, and it was when their fifth month in Outland came to an end that the Illidari got the bad news, that Lady Vashj had been slain and all of her operations had been terminated. Spitfire and Rainbow had only seen the leader of the naga forces on occasion, but it was hard to believe that such a powerful magic user, as both Lady Vashj and Lord Kael'thas were rather powerful when it came to using magic, had been brought down, her forces terminated, and all of their operations in Zangarmarsh had been put on hold, though that also meant that S'theno, a lieutenant before all this, was now the leader of the rest of the naga, who resided both inside and outside the temple, getting ready for the attack on the next Legion world. Of course that was just the first bit of bad news they received, as about two months later, with the Alliance and Horde finished saving the rest of Zangarmarsh and started to push into Terokkar Forest, so they could reach Shattrath City, the Illidari got word that a vast number of blood elves were going to be attacking the city, likely on Kael'thas' orders, only to learn that a good portion of their ally's forces had defected from his side and were no longer allied with the Illidari, which was a blow to both them and to Kael'thas. None of the Illidari knew what had provoked Voren'thal, the leader of the group that defected, into this decision, but they were accepted by the leaders of the city and the faction of blood elves spent the incoming weeks helping the Naaru, beings of Light ruled over the city, in whatever they needed help with, where one thing the Illidari weren't even expecting was one of the Naaru, Xi'ri, breaching the front of Shadowmoon Valley, giving them access to the area that the Black Temple was in, for a time anyway.

Oddly enough that seemed to be a test of the forces that were within Shattrath City and they pulled back, leaving the Illidari to truly ready themselves for whatever was coming next, as they knew that it was only a matter of time until all of their new enemies would be knocking on their door, since it was clear that Voren'thal likely told them about the potential danger that they posed to the rest of Outland. Instead the Alliance and Horde focused on sending some of their forces into Nagrand so they could aid the allies that were positioned out there, namely the Kurenai, a group of Broken draenei, and the Mag'har orcs that called the province home, allowing the forces to improve their relations with their new allies, while at the same time taking out the various threats that were bothering them in the first place. Interestingly enough Nagrand was the province that seemed to slow down the advance of the Alliance and the Horde, as they ended up spending a great deal of time dealing with the various threats that sought to take down the groups that they were in the middle of helping, which allowed the Illidari time to make sure their forces were ready and the gateways were prepared, because once they figured out which world they were going to they would need everything in position in a short period of time, especially since the two factions saw them as enemies. Another bit of interesting information was that Altruis, who had left the Black Temple some time ago, fearing that Lord Illidan was becoming more like a demon and had lost his purpose, had been seen in the same province and was actually working with the Alliance and Horde to take down the couple of forge camps that the Legion had set up, showing the Illidari that while he had disrespected them by jumping ship, he was still honoring his calling as a demon hunter, even if some would hold this event against him for the rest of his days.

By the time a year passed, since the reopening of the Dark Portal, the Alliance and Horde had succeeded in purging Lord Illidan's hold on Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, and what little he actually had on Terokkar Forest, while also taking the time to make sure Nagrand was safe, before they pushed northward and headed into Blade's Edge Mountains, where Gruul, the Gronn overlord of the area, resided in. Gruul was an ally to the Illidari, not to the extent that Lady Vashj or Lord Kael'thas were anyway, but he and his seven sons were powerful warriors, even if they were giants that were capable of defeating large dragons, so many of the Illidari believed that Blade's Edge Mountains would be safe and that the factions would be forced to retreat to one of the other provinces they had taken. Another three months went by before the Illidari learned that all seven of Gruul's sons had been defeated, showing the raw power that the Alliance and Horde had to offer, before they shattered the Legion's small grasp on that province and moved into Netherstorm, the last province they had yet to visit during their time in Outland, where Kael'thas and the rest of his army was stationed, supposedly getting ready for the assault that Lord Illidan was planning. It was then that Spitfire and Rainbow learned what was taking their Lord so long to pick a world to invade, as he was having a hard time locating the world known as Mardum, which he claimed was a shattered world, in a worse state than Outland was, and that it held the key that would allow them to invade Argus, though he was getting closer to locating its exact position so he could open the way to where it was located.

It took the two factions another three months to deal with everything that was happening in Netherstorm, where the Illidari didn't have many places to gather information from, but from what they could tell the Alliance and Horde not only dismantled the manaforges that Kael'thas had built across the province, to ensure his people didn't go mad while also weakening the province even more, and cut down another force of Legion soldiers that were under the command of an Eredar called Socrethar. From there they sought out the seat of Kael'thas' power, assaulting the ships that the blood elves had taken over some time ago, cutting down the majority of their ally's forces as they reclaimed the Botanica and the Mechanar, the former being a place to study plants and other types of natural life while the latter was an area that their ally stored manacells, which apparently contained great magical power. After those two ships were reclaimed the forces then turned towards the Arcatraz, a ship that served as a jail for some of the most dangerous creatures the Naaru had ever encountered over the years, only for the Alliance and Horde to purge it of every enemy they came across, so that way the Naaru could reclaim their stolen vessel. Once those three areas had been taken down the forces of the two factions invaded the Eye, the ship that Kael'thas and the rest of his forces were in, where it appeared that most of their allies were killed in the attack and that the leader of the faction was taken down as well, though upon returning to Shattrath City both the heroes of the two factions and the Illidari learned that Kael'thas was alive and, more importantly, he had betrayed all of them so he could summon Kil'jaeden into Azeroth.

Instead of heading back to Azeroth, to stop the summoning of Kil'jaeden, Spitfire and Rainbow found that the Alliance and Horde foolishly spent the next couple of months assaulting Shadowmoon Valley, apparently caring more about the fact that the Illidari were still a 'threat' to them and not worrying about the potential disaster that might be coming to the world they were trying to save... and not a few months later, exactly one year and ten months after the reopening of the Dark Portal, the demon hunters gathered at the summit as the forces of the Alliance, Horde, and Shattrath City attacked the main gate of the Black Temple.

"Illidari... my demon hunters," Illidan said, drawing the attention to everyone that had gathered on the summit of the Black Temple, as per his orders, and that even included Altruis, who had been allowed to rejoin some time ago, before he opened his wings and took to the air for a few moments, where he flew over the assembled group and landed near the edge of the area they were standing in, allowing him to look down at the invasion force for a few seconds, though while he did that Spitfire and Rainbow stood beside him for a few seconds, "with countless worlds burning in the Legion's wake, you answered the call. Yet these mortals, in their own ignorance, have come to destroy their own salvation... our time is short, so I will deal with these intruders. You must venture to Mardum and retrieve the Sargerite Keystone."

As he said that last bit, and mentioned the Sargerite Keystone, he used a bit of his power to conjure an image of a fel green stone above his right hand, before he crushed it and raised his left hand up to the area he had been standing in a few moments ago, where he channeled some of his power and opened a fel green portal that would be temporary, as long as he used his power to fuel it, before he focused on all the demon hunters that were around him.

"Now go!" Illidan commander, where the demon hunters nodded their heads and started to charge into the portal he had opened for them, so they could finally invade Mardum and retrieve the item that would allow them to invade Argus, to put a stop to the Legion at long last, before he glanced at Spitfire and Rainbow, who were some of the last ones to head through the portal since they were standing near him, "Remember this, should you fail in your mission, ALL of the worlds in the universe will burn!"

Spitfire and Rainbow nodded their heads, knowing that he was referring to their home world as well, before the pair turned and headed towards the portal as they joined the rest of the demon hunters, to which they quickly passed through it and headed to the world that they and the rest of their group would be invading for the foreseeable future, until they found the item they were after and returned to aid their Lord in defending the Black Temple.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

kinda exposition heavy but still interesting. The alliance and horde claim ownership of Spits and Rainbows kills (much to the chagrin of Rainbow) and slowly work on clearing out the Illidari from the lands. though the next chapter should be pretty exciting if I remember the same bit from the previous version. Wonder how having two displaced will change the timescale of the Mardum campaign and if Spits and Rainbow will get back with enough time to actually help or just be captured earlier. As always another great chapter, looking forward to the next. Keep up the great work

[zachary12]

nice work

[Comickook]

Excellent job, of course, on the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Again, splendid work on Spitfire and Rainbow's reflections on Illidan and his followers (particularly the notes on the collection of power boosting artifacts, the fact that one or two of their allies think that they are already powerful enough and the bits of light teasing on Rainbow's part) as well as the assorted battles before we got to the cliffhanger at the end. Yeah, here's hoping that Rainbow and Spitfire actually DO get back in time to actually help.

Anyway, very certainly looking forward to more of this.