Rush opened his eyes just as the light footsteps stopped near him. Rather than jolting awake, he actually had a relatively comfortable awakening - relatively being the operative word. He was sore all over, had slept wrong, and his ears weren't finished regrowing. Compared to how he'd woken up last time, though, he was in much better condition.

All around him, the sound of soft chatter could be heard. Gone was the clash of metal, the cries of the fearful, and the crackle of flames. Instead, his slowly healing ears detected bags being wrapped up, hooves clopping on the ground, and the eeriness of undead speaking.

"Can you stand up, son?"

The gravely, human-accented Orcish woke him up, and the troll rolled over to see a member of the Forsaken dreadguards standing over him. Embarrassed at being found asleep and prone, Rush tried to sit up only for his body to remind him that he was more than a little hurt from the whole ordeal in the previous hours. Wincing and grunting, he felt like he was fighting a bear all over again just to force himself into a sitting position. A stranger's leather pants had been cut down the seams and draped over him like a blanket which was too small, likely the work of the herbalist he'd passed out next to. His wounds had been bandaged with leaves and strips of an unknown animal's hair; he hadn't bled through, but everything hurt all over.

"Can you hear me?" the dreadguard asked him again.

Rush tilted his head up despite the pain in his neck. The dreadguard was a typical undead human along with half a dozen companions mingling among droves of rebel night elves who were practically sprawling in the grass. What amounted to a hobo camp had sprung up around the wreckage of burned out wagons and debris. Not a familiar face was in sight despite all the people surrounding him.

Further embarrassed to have fallen asleep without securing the area, Rush nodded his head and ignored the residual ache in his mostly-healed stab wound. "Where is...yes sir, I can hear. Where is Tematuri? Willow?"

The dreadguard knelt beside him, causing the jungle troll to wonder how bad he must have looked. "We identified and debriefed them both upon our arrival; they're both secure. Given that Willow has provided all the information we need, you will not need to be debriefed yourself. You may speak to her as you prepare to fly out."

Rush did a double take. "Fly? In the middle of nowhere? How did you..." Far too many questions entered his mind, and he realized that there would be no way for a Forsaken official to tolerate them all after having spoken to his superiors already. "Where are they?"

The dreadguard nodded, seemingly pleased when the troll warrior stopped himself from reading off a list of questions. "They'll come to you shortly to explain what happens next; they know exactly where you are. I suggest you wait...the evacuees removed two bullets from your torso and seemed concerned."

"I'll wait for them, then. Thanks for the info, sir," Rush told the dreadguard, who promptly stood up, saluted, and walked away to do more individual visits with the night elves who'd been injured but hadn't died yet.

Once the undead human had left, Rush felt his abdomen. Apparently in his sleep, the whacked out elves had been nice enough to remove the chainmail he'd been wearing and pull the bullets out of his rib cage. Strangely adhesive leaves stuck over the entry wounds, which had taken on a drug-induced tingling feeling which ran so deep into his body that he loathed to imagine how far the bullets had dug into his flesh. Crazy as they might be, the rebel night elves had taken a great deal of care for him when he'd been unconscious. Under normal circumstances, he probably should have woken up the moment less careful hands had tried to dig the bullets out.

He looked around...there were still many of them, which meant that they hadn't lost too many to vengeful sentinels in the chaos of his unplanned wagon raid. Even dirtier and more miserable looking than they'd been before, the rebels sat in the grass and mostly either prayed or held each other and mourned the fallen. Content to leave the Forsaken dreadguards to tally their ranks, the survivors appeared rather subdued, lending a somber atmosphere to the mist-laden clearing full of corpses and wooden debris.

Shortly thereafter, his two companions approached him from the other end of the clearing. Though in better shape than she'd been in during her escape, Tematuri limped as she approached him. She was bundled up in clothing likely stripped from one of the sentinels and had the luxury of proper bandages over her injuries. Willow hadn't been harmed too much, likely due to her civilian status, but she appeared winded and shaken regardless. She remained standing even after Tematuri had sat next to Rush.

"Nice to see you're moving again, soldier," Tematuri told him as she sat down and tried to fiddle with the adhesive leaves over his gunshot wounds.

He leaned away, not wanting to have the wounds disturbed just yet. "How long was I out?"

"It's been three hours, and you didn't toss or turn once," Willow answered. "You didn't even twitch. If you hadn't been breathing so deeply, these jolly fellows might have buried you. Or tried to reanimate you as cannon fodder."

She motioned toward the dreadguards with her elbow. They didn't notice. "Great," Rush said with an eye roll. "How did they find us? And how have Alliance stragglers not found us?"

Tematuri and Willow both looked at each other, but the latter spoke first. "Well, I'd sent that carrier pigeon back when we'd first found these people, and it arrived fast enough. General Garamonde at the base camp sent one back and then became concerned when it returned to him. He had the dreadguards perform a big sweep, and they spotted the wagon fires started by these rebels from a few miles away. They reached us not long after Temma rounded up all the rebel elves who'd been hiding from the sentinels."

Residual embarrassment at having slept immediately after the battle stung him. "I hope it wasn't too hard to secure the area," he said softly.

"No, it was fine; we really had taken them all out between the two of us," Tematuri said. "In fact, these renegades finished off a few sentinels who'd survived the fight at first. They aren't soldiers, but they were tired of being abused."

"I watched the camp while Temma was out, too; it wasn't hard. I just had to calm the survivors down and make sure they tended to each other, and to you," Willow added.

He grunted in acknowledgement and tried to get his bearings on their situation. "So what happens next?" he asked.

Willow sighed in relief. "Our part is over; we can go. These dreadguards are tasked with extraction. Three of their skeletal hippogriffs will take us back to base camp; the rest will stay here with them. There's no way to fly out all two hundred plus of these people, so the dreadguards will let them rest up as long as is necessary to march them all back to camp on foot. A scout team will meet them halfway to help secure their escape, too."

"And then they're with us," Tematuri added.

"Right, I was getting to that part. The General apparently has the legal authority to grant asylum. He's in the process of securing a transport ship to take these people to the Northern Barrens. Instead of just being rebel night elves, they'll be granted legal papers and live under the protection of the Horde. I'm sure there will be controversy among the less tolerant, but this is really happening either way. It's a victory in every sense of the word."

Rush listened to every word while watching the weird, unkempt night elves who'd soon be living in Horde lands. "It's a victory for them," he murmured, not really thinking before he spoke. For a moment, he worried that Willow would take exception to the comment, but she didn't seem to recognize his resentment.

"They'll be functional propaganda tools for us yet." Willow turned to walk back toward the dreadguards, but looked back at the pair of warriors. "I know you're still recovering, but let's try to fly out in the next half hour. I'll push for a leave of absence for you both to recouperate, but I'll have more success if we don't delay our return."

"Understood," Tematuri said as Willow disappeared into the mist. The orc waited a few moments before turning back to Rush. "What's wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"You're not pleased."

He dropped his head and cut off eye contact. "Our mission is accomplished, it's okay."

"But you're not happy."

"I'm okay."

"Ral'rush, I'll be nice."

Sighing and looking back at her, he tried to remind himself that Temma was in his circle of friends, however far to the edge she might be. He was probably being more closed mouthed than he needed to. "Can you help me stand? I want to walk this off."

"Yes, I got you."

With agonizing effort, Rush leaned on Tematuri and dragged himself to his feet. Every arrow wound felt like it would open again, but his grandma had always told him that the longer the rest, the longer the recovery. After another proverbial battle, he wobbled into a loose slouching position. Tematuri grunted under his weight but didn't complain and helped him to start moving around.

The rebel elves in the immediate area stared at the two of them shamelessly. Rush had met his fair share of blood elves and even nightborne, and he knew full well that staring was *not* an acceptable behavior in any elven society. Had they been goblins, he would have tolerated it, but the fact that the stares were coming from elves irritated him; they weren't behaving in accordance with their own culture's rules.

"They bother you?" Tematuri asked while walking next to him to ensure that he didn't collapse.

"Yeah," he replied tersely while hobbling around emptier parts of the clearing. "The Horde has gone a long way for them. The Gilnean Royal Guard and the sentinels have more reason to throw everything they have against us."

"What's changed, then?" Temma countered.

"Huh? Well...not much, I suppose."

"But you're still unhappy."

"Maybe I don't have a reason to be."

She punched him in the arm, causing them both to groan. "Glad that you admit that," she said while rubbing her other arm, which had been marred by the act.

Without thinking, he let his mouth flap open again, escaping into a rare moment of honesty. "Maybe the sentinels should come after us," he murmured before realizing that he'd voiced an opinion he felt guilty for even holding. Tematuri didn't respond, which was a response in and of itself; if she wasn't shutting him down, and wasn't commenting, then she was likely concerned. "Everything Tase did...all the shit he pulled...these people have done the same," Rush muttered while watching the grass in front of them, head hung low. "They betrayed their own faction, turned their back on their people, and cut a deal with the opposing side. I feel like...a hypocrite. If I hate what Tase did - and I do - but I don't hate what these people have done, then I'd be a hypocrite. I got no reason at all to think positively about what these people did...or what I did."

Though not shunning him outright, Tematuri shook her head as soon as he finished speaking. "Tase tried to get us all killed; these people are harmless and never raised a hand against their own faction. It's not the same, Rush. It's not the same, and we're still alive. That's what matters." She didn't look up at him, signaling that the topic was closed. Indirectly reprimanded, he continued to hold his resentment inside and tried to forget about it.

The two of them walked for a few more moments before he began asking about details. "Did their shaman or priestess or whatever make it?" he asked.

"Yawen? Yes, she did. They're practically worshipping that freak right now, the sheep. Devotion to our assigned duty aside, I don't have a high opinion of her as a person. You know, I was unconscious like you when we got caught, but Willow told me that Yawen didn't even cry when her husband was cut into four pieces by the sentinels. She didn't even react. It's like she feels nothing for the people who suffer on her behalf." Tematuri paused when Rush growled. "I'm giving you more reason to be unhappy, aren't I?"

He shook his head in the direction of the elf cultists. "These people are messed up," he sighed.

"They're weird, there's no denying that. But I think Willow is right - a few of them ought to be in token positions, like front desk kind of positions in Horde embassies. It would be a great blow to Alliance PR." When he didn't answer and just continued walking, Tematuri dropped another bombshell. "That Misa lady didn't make it."

"Really? Damn...I kinda made fun of her in the last moments I saw her. Wish I'd been nicer."

Tematuri shrugged. "You didn't know what would happen. And she was one of the weirder ones. Anyway, I'm not sure how it happened. You let me and Willow out of the wagon last, and I found our weapons stashed until the seats of the middle wagon. I rallied a few of these cultists to use as living shields, and while I was finishing off the sentinels, I found Misa's body. Next to a pile of bones, of all things."

"We had one of the skeleton soldiers with us; the sentinels were dumb enough to leave it functional. I sent them to one side of the wagon train and then stayed on the other...they must have been attacked when I blew my cover."

"Nice job with the Draenei armor, by the way. Willow said one of them had escorted the smaller wagon with you in it." They paused, and Tematuri looked up at him. "This was on you, by the way. I'd be dead now if you hadn't escaped and found us."

"Strength and honor be ours to share; we be family, now," Rush replied before a melancholy moment. "I wouldn't have found you without Misa's help, though...where's her body?" Tematuri gave him the most absurd look he'd seen from her. "Just to pay my respects, weirdo."

Tematuri laughed out loud and changed directions through the wreckage turned into a makeshift camp. "I knew that. Her actual remains are in a mass sort of grass...thing that the elves conjured. Apparently, there's a small shrine they set up here to mourn their fallen instead. They'll probably only let you access that. Just remember, we need to go soon."

The two of them walked the other way through the wreckage toward a runed moonstone with wisps floating around it. A few of the elf cultists were praying, and they paid no mind to the troll and the orc who joined them briefly. Still unused to being close up to night elves who weren't trying to kill him, Ral'rush took a moment to ease into the spot he was squatting in to see the shrine.

The wisps didn't really respond to him, so he laid a hand on the lumpy moonstone rising up from the grass. It felt strangely warm to the touch.

"I ripped Tase's head off for you, Misa," he murmured to the wisps. "Just like I said I would."

For a split second, one of the little blue orbs of light stopped its orbit around the stone and twinkled. He could have sworn that the beam of light it cast shined only at him, but it could have been a combination of fatigue and imagination.

"It's time," came the sound of Willow's voice. Both the troll and the orc turned around to see her waiting with a shawl wrapped around herself. "The skeletal gryphons are ready."

"Alright, lets go," Tematuri said while rising.

Both of them began to follow a dreadguard waiting for them, but Rush lingered for a moment. The wisps had gone back to their orbit, and the night elf cultists who he'd helped to save had been absorbed into their preparations to leave. Much life was lost so those people could defect, all in the name of beliefs that were probably blasphemous. Despite having won, Rush felt like the whole ordeal had been wrong from the start. For every renegade night elf he saw there, he didn't see a loyal aspirant hoping to join the Horde; he saw a bunch of freaks who'd landed a free ride to a new home at his comrades' expense.

When he wasn't looking, the wisps which had previously been hovering around the moonstones had floated toward him and began to orbit his wrists. Surprised at first, he made no sudden movements and raised his hands up in front of him. In the palm of his hand, one of the wisps sparkled, briefly flashing an image of a happily manic face and a hand waving at him in a goofy manner. In a second, the image was gone, and the wisps returned to their stone.

A night elf cultist kneeling in the grass on the other side of the moonstone had been spying. "She says she'll follow you as your companion pet since you make such a good team," the old elf man said slowly in not-quite-fluent Orcish.

Irritated at being spied on, Rush managed to control his facial expression. The sincerity in the elderly night elf's eyes, just like that of the rest of them, young and old, made it hard for the jungle troll to display how upset he was no matter how weird and annoying the kaldorei cultists were. Rush relented and sighed, resigning himself to the annoying new companion pet he didn't even want.

"Welcome to the Horde," Rush said plainly and without commitment. The old elf only nodded and returned to his prayers.

Denied any sort of satisfaction at the completion of his mission, Ral'rush rose on aching legs which matched the angry ache in the pit of his stomach. Nightmares of the burning of Teldrassil haunted his mind as much as the dried blood on his hands did; blood that, even if it had been shed in his own defense, didn't feel like the blood of the guilty. And the more he gazed upon the fanatical faces of the crowds of night elf cultists who'd now joined the Horde, the more he felt like he'd been on the wrong side. The stench of betrayal decaying over the whole clearing nauseated him as he no longer even bothered trying to reconcile what he was involved in at Darkshore. All of it, from the War of the Thorns to this most recent foray...all of it had been built on a lie he'd conveniently accepted. The differences between the cultists, Tase, the orders of the Warchief, and even himself became blurred. Rush had betrayed his belief in right and wrong for the sake of duty and obedience, and in doing so, had lost his faith in what he was fighting for.

"Loa protect us all," he murmured, flinching and wincing from his new pet wisp's sparkling light as he joined Temma and Willow at the gryphons.

A/N: not a happy ending, no, but a realistic one. It's also one which current expansions and roleplaying threads have guided this character. In light of that, I feel this bitter, almost bad ending is most befitting for such a story.