End Time

Ch 3.

After telling Aggra all he knew about the new...Aspect of Time? Thrall honestly did not know if he still considered Murozond/Nozdormu an Aspect at all anymore. He'd frozen this land in time, doomed all who survived to a slow, painful death.

Including Thrall's own beloved. He almost didn't WANT to redeem Nozdormu. For the pain caused to his children, his mate, his friends...the fury inside him wanted to eliminate the vile, corrupt dragon.

Still...he had given Anachronos his word that he would help his father. If Thrall simply slew Murozond, there would be no stopping this future, just...saving it. Freeing it from the tyranny of time that never seemed to flow for anyone, anyone except the surviving mortal races.

Aggra had told Thrall that a mage, a dying blood elf, had told her in his last breaths that Murozond was currently in Dragonblight. Of course that made sense. Where else would a dragon, even a corrupt one, go but their ancient homeland?

Thrall had to get to Northrend. It would take so long to get there that he would surely die if he walked. Aggra had told him that no magic worked here. People who were once mages no longer had any power at all. The time freeze had seen to that.

There had to be a way. Some way to get to Northrend without killing himself walking. All airships and vehicles were grounded as well. None would move.

The elements had answered HIM, though...perhaps, here, Thrall was outside of time. Perhaps whatever monsters inhabited the wasteland, if any, would, could, ignore him. It was either stay here and die or find a way to Northrend.

After telling Aggra of his plan, she volunteered to go with him, but was beat down by Thrall, he told her she was needed here, no one else had the same strength of will she had, no one else could help the survivors like she could, had done for years.

Giving Aggra one last glance, but nothing more, for he was sure he would not have the courage to leave if he stayed here, with her, he exited Ragefire Chasm, attempting to ignore the pang he felt as he left his mate. He would only want to stay and protect her if he saw anymore of her "safe haven" here.

So eerie...a frozen Orgrimmar. He exited the way he came, shuddering as he passed through the gates that were cracked and frozen in a falling state, as if they should come down on his head, but of course they did not. They were frozen in time.

….Thrall? Thrall? I sense...but it cannot be...Thrall jumped at the echo in his head. A female voice. Familiar, but broken, fading...he reached out with what little shamanic power he'd managed to find within himself and attempted to contact the...thing...that was talking to him. No luck. No answer. Whatever she was, she was gone now.

On he walked, beasts, not skeletons or bodies, frozen and unmoving...people too...why had the people here not died? Why had they just been frozen? What was Murozond's endgame? Why had he killed Orgrimmar's inhabitants, but only frozen the people outside?

ENDGAME? You think I need an ENDGAME! I know who you are and why you are, son of Durotan. You seek to...REDEEM...me! To save me from myself! You know not what you speak of. I have saved myself. You seek to speak to me in person? You seek a mage? I will give you a mage!

Thrall's head was rattling from Nozdormu's voice. It was angry, hatred-infused, and...Thrall couldn't help but notice...also full of something almost like regret.

It still bothered him that he was going to be 'given a mage' by the wicked form of his former friend, great Aspect Nozdormu. Why would an evil being provide him the means to seek him out?

Pain suddenly lashed through the shaman, fire, burning, then violet light, and so much hatred, so much rage, so much torment and remorse, feelings of failure and loss...these weren't his feelings. They were the feelings of...someone else.

But the fire and violet light weren't his, and they were directed at him. Spells. Magic. Nozdormu had been right about sending a mage, but not to get him to Northrend...to kill him.

Fire. Real, free fire. The shaman in him seized at it. Calling to the fire, asking it to stop its burning. His robes were on fire at the moment from the mage's spell, but this was unfrozen fire and he could speak to it. The fire backed down, slid off his robes like water. The fire had burned away a lot of his robe, including the hood that had hid most of his face.

A soft, female gasp caught Thrall's attention.

"Thrall..." It was a shuddering voice, broken and hollow sounding, tormented... "You died...you...what...why did Murozond free me from the timespell to come here? He told me I would be free if I killed an intruder in his domain...that I would be sent back. Back to before." The violet light obscuring his vision faded. What he saw shocked and devastated him.

Jaina Proudmoore. She looked every bit as she had in the present timeline. Murozond had frozen her truly in time, no age showed on her young face. The only difference was her face. It had once been bright with hope and possibilities...now it was tormented and haggard. As if all the hope had been leeched out of her.

"Jaina...what has happened? Do you work for Nozdormu? What do you mean, timespell?" Thrall questioned her. She looked at him with hollow eyes and sank down to the ground, apparently unable to hold herself up anymore.

"Nozdormu...I don't know what the long-dead Aspect of Time has to do with any of this. Murozond killed Nozdormu. He said it himself. Murozond is the new Aspect of Time, only he calls himself the Aspect of Infinity. His hourglass stands untouched in the Dragonblight...a testament to a new, all-powerful Aspect. Even Deathwing's charred remains adorn the Wyrmrest Temple. There is no stopping the monster, Thrall. Not even Nozdormu could help." Jaina said all this in a dead voice, devoid of all emotion.

Thrall did not like this Jaina. She had no hope. No apparent thoughts of her own. She didn't even know who Murozond really was. Of course Nozdormu was dead. That is what he would want people to think, as undisputed ruler of his precious timelocked Azeroth. Only Murozond, Aspect of Infinity, and his brood lived here, unafraid. He decided not to tell Jaina that Murozond was Nozdormu. She was obviously not herself, and apparently had not figured out the anagram, so it was safe.

"Jaina, I need...that is...if you can...a portal to Northrend. I need to see Murozond. Its the only way to save Nozdormu. If I can save Nozdormu, I can stop all this from happening."

Jaina's slumped form did not move. She was just sitting there, in her torn violet robes, staring straight ahead. Thrall approached her slowly, not wanting to be attacked again. Jaina would never attack him in the normal timeway, but he had no idea if this version was even sane.

What he saw shocked him when he finally got close enough to touch her. The back of her robes were torn. Slivers of gems or violet colored glass laced the flesh on her back. They pulsed within her flesh like strange, parasitic growths.

This was...just vile. Thrall reached out to touch one, perhaps he could get a vision from it. Jaina slapped his hand away and backed away, tearing her robes even more on the hard, frozen sand.

"Don't...don't touch it! Don't touch me! It could, he could take over you. If what you say is true, if you think you can save the Aspect of Time and he could stop Murozond, then I will do all I can to help, but I can only help you part of the way. I am his. He has me under his control."

Jaina's lip trembled as she said this. "If I am able to take you to Dragonblight, it will be by his will. Murozond has full control over me through these...shards...in my flesh. If Murozond allows it, Thrall, you may be in grave danger. It would be part of his plan."

Thrall once again approached her, this time not giving her time to back away to slap him away, and firmly pressed a soft, green hand on one of the pulsating slivers in her back. It was his intention to get into Nozdormu's head in the end, what did it matter if that time was now? Either way, he was no longer afraid. This was Jaina after all. His Jaina.

Before he had met Aggra he had even...Thrall shook his head. Those thoughts were no longer important. He loved Jaina, yes, but loved her like he had loved Taretha. As a sister, if not in body then in soul. He wouldn't be scared off by odd mutations she had. There were far worse things in this horrid world.

Nothing happened. Apparently Murozond did not intend, or rather did not want, Thrall in his head right now. Jaina was shaking under his touch. The metallic slivers continued to pulsate and glow with that sickly violet light.

He knew this world was time-frozen, but he couldn't help instinct and attempted to draw on some of his shamanic power to ease the pain he could feel in his soul-sister. To his great shock, he seemed able to draw power from the pulsing slivers and almost felt as if...he was no longer locked in his own time-freeze.

Voices, pained, tortured, echoed around him. The elements. They were still trapped and pained, but the amplified power he'd gained from Murozond's mind-control shards within Jaina had allowed him to hear them loud and clear.

Fear not, brothers and sisters, great elements. I will stop this. This will not happen. The elements knew him, thanked him, sent him waves of love and adoration, calling him World-Shaman, greatest of them all, Master of the Elements. Thrall was humbled. These were merely the words of pained elements seeking release.

He was no Master of the Elements. One did not master the elements. One worked with them, as equals. The orc thanked the elements and promised them once again that he would put a stop to this and withdrew his hand from Jaina's back.

The feeling of a soft hand in his drew his attention back to the present. Jaina had grasped his hand, and gazed up at him with a look of longing and...hope? Hope. These were the eyes he was used to seeing when he saw his Jaina.

She whispered, "Stop this, Thrall. I will do all I can. I can feel it now. You can stop this. You can save us all. And I can do it. It may be a part of Murozond's plan, but I can take you...us...to Northrend. I will not leave you, Thrall."

Jaina got to her knees and hugged him best she could. "I don't want to leave you. You give me hope. You always have. Always."

With that, the former great mage stood and began to cast a spell. Her lips murmured words Thrall couldn't comprehend, but runes and glyphs around her feet proved that she was casting a portal. Jaina's spell finished, and Thrall looked at the portal, a bit aghast.

It looked so very similar to the cracked, broken portal that had brought him here. The only difference was the crackling violet light that signified an arcane spell.

"I...its...all I can do. But it will take you to Northrend. I promise, Thrall. It isn't a portal to some wicked prison. All mage portals look, well, looked like this. Before the end. Before the timefreeze totally took over." Jaina resolutely stepped through the portal.

Thrall had no choice but to follow, into whatever wasteland the portal led.

There was no pain this time, just a feeling of oddness, something unnatural about this mage portal, but no pain. As he stepped out of the portal, he realized he was in...the Green Dragonshrine? Or at least something that had once been that.

The frozen lake and the frozen leviathan in the center of the lake proved this. Ysera...so, she was alive, but timefrozen. Perhaps another ally, if they could free her from the timefreeze.

"There is no way. I have tried, Thrall." Jaina was standing near Ysera's beautiful, frozen head, one hand on the great dragon's crest. "I wish there were. Ysera...she at least may have stood a chance. The Life-binder died in the battle against Deathwing as well. The only Aspect that lived beyond the timefreeze was Ysera, but I do not call this living."

"When Murozond slew Nozdormu at the bronze dragonshrine, he sensed Ysera's presence here and immediately came. She attempted to fight back, but something, I don't know, some part of him, could not kill her. He simply froze her, and here she has lain for over 10 years."

Thrall tore his gaze away from the great Awakened Dreamer, who had helped him so much in the past.

"Jaina, what does Murozond look like? I've been...meaning to ask this. If you know, that is."

Jaina shuddered. "I know what he looks like. He and all his ilk look similar. The fiends have raven-black scales, but they're cracked, as if they're coming apart...and within those cracked parts of their hides, there is silver lightning. Murozond himself even possesses the cracked skin and silver-veined hide, but his wings are almost a translucent bluish color. Its really odd and wrong."

She shuddered again. "Nothing, no dragon, no demon, should look as they do. I want them to die. All of them. For what they did to us. For what they did to my people." Jaina was crying.

"They will not do anything to your people. To any of the peoples of Azeroth. I will stop them. I promise. I gave my word to Nozdormu's son that I would put a stop to this, and I will, Jaina, soul-sister."

Thrall pulled Jaina into a hug, ignoring her slight protest as his skin once again came into contact with the strange slivers in her flesh.