LISTEN - by J Cae.

A/N: YUP, THE NEW CHAPTER IS FINALLY UP!!!

Hacker1: Hey dude. See that computer over there? Wanna give it a shot? It'll be fun.

Hacter2: This girl here is boring. Her computer doesn't have firewall or anti-virus programs. It's way TOO easy to hack into her system.

Hacker1: Still, it is our devil-given right to make everyone's life hard as hell, right?!

Hacker2: Right. Let's see. J Cae's the owner. Some fanfic writer. We don't need her crappy writing, but we'll delete her school papers.

Hacker1: And now her system restarts on its own after every 15 minutes.

Hacker2: Mwahahaha. Her combo drive will now keep on opening by itself.

Hacker1: Oops, her combo drive is fried. She can't back-up her files, nor reboot the system either.

Hacker2: Mwahaha. Now she won't be able to do anything on her computer, unless she gets someone to fix it for her. Anyhow she'll have a real hard life. Hey, you're right, dude. It is fun.

Hacker1: She'll get all those anti-virus things to entertain us...and next time, we'll be back with a vengeance.

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Yo. I apologize for not updating since forever. Blame it on those SOBs who put a virus into my computer (if you've read my RANGER GENERAL update 2 weeks ago, that was ONLY the first time someone hacked my OS) and then killed my combo drive (now that's the second time). It's really murderously painful (and emotionally taxing as well) to get the computer unscrewed. So PLEASE condemn hackers, and don't be one of them. Thank you. And here's your chapter.

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Chapter Two: Missed

Human city...to walk into a cage...

Rexxar sighed. Sometimes he had to do what he had to do--and this happened to be one of those moments. Pulling the uncomfortable visor over his face, he started down the streets. For whatever reason, the pebbled floor seemed slippery to walk ion in those uncomfortable human boots--he wondered why their soles were made of metal. He was used to walking in his soft doe boots which allowed him to use his toes to grip the ground. Now he could only move slowly and cautiously to avoid stumbling and making a fool out of himself. He frowned at the awkward 'thud thud' that was loud enough to deafen the sleeping moles underground whenever his shoes came into contact with the floor.

Behind him, Rokhan shuffled gracelessly through the small rocks, occasionally tripping. He covered himself up nicely with a cloak, and Rexxar told him to hunch over and pretend to be a stooped old man so that he would not have to look up at anyone and give out his heritage. The troll pretended to cling onto the female floater for support, when actually he was trying to keep her in sight and out of trouble. She followed, wordlessly, showing no recognition or awareness of any sort.

Rexxar tensed as he heard the noise of rumbling wagons. He beckoned to the shadow hunter, and they moved themselves into a dark alley.

A few of the men were transporting large barrels towards the castle. The captain in charge paused to shout a few commands to his men, and then the wagons rolled on forward.

"Gunpowder," Rokhan breathed when the wagons were out of sight. "What be done with it?"

"Let us just get the girl home and be gone from here," Rexxar replied. He guessed the troll was more familiar with humans and their ways. He was well aware of what a few wagons of gunpowder might mean--there was a possibility the humans were readying themselves for war.

The shadow hunter agreed with him. Nudging the woman's arm gently, he managed to get her to walk again--but not for long.

"Hey you! Stop!"

They both tensed. Rokhan pulled the hood lower over his head and urged the woman to move. Rexxar cursed under his breath. They must have missed the rear guards.

Two human soldiers approached the Mok'Nathal and started to say something to him. They did not, however, happen to notice that Rokhan and the floater was with him.

The troll pulled the woman to a side and avoided looking directly at the humans.

"Why are you here? This area is off limits to a third-ranked private such as yourself!" the humans questioned the beastmaster.

"Apologies, I didn't know that," Rexxar's tone was calm, but he was already pondering over what he should do next. It would be easy for him to knock down these two officers, but not while he was in the city centre where some other guards were bound to catch him. He remembered the letter Thrall intended to give Jaina. He was glad Rokhan gave it to him beforehand. "There is urgent news I must deliver to the castle, to Miss Proudmoore."

"From whom and for what purpose?"

"I am a third-ranked private, as you say, good sirs," he shrugged. "Naturally Captain...Smith would not have to explain anything to me." He waved the letter at them and hoped they did not see the Warchief's seal at the back.

One of the guards said, "Give that to us, and we will take it to the castle."

Rexxar was not worried about them trying to check the letter out--Thrall had it magically sealed and only Jaina could open it with her sorcery. But he was worried about his own safety, and also about those who came with him, "But I was instructed to give it to no one but Miss Proudmoore."

"Which Miss Proudmoore?"

The more he spoke, he realized, the more he was going to give away. He cast a worried look at Rokhan, who, in order to avoid drawing attention to himself, had sat down on the sidewalk opposite the woman, pretending to be in some deep conversation with her. He never looked at the Mok'Nathal, but Rexxar knew he was listening, looking for a chance to help.

"Jaina Proudmoore."

The guards exchanged looks, and decided to let him pass. Rexxar breathed a sigh of relief and resumed his strides down the street.

After a while, Rokhan caught up with him.

"That be close," the troll remarked with a hint of relief.

"That might be," Rexxar shook his head. "But we still have to figure out a way to get into Jaina's citadel."

Their gazes were drawn to the huge premise that stood ahead of them.

"We should just walk in there and act normal," the beastmaster swallowed hard. "If Jaina's still in there, she will let us in. If not..." He did not continue. The quest he had undertaken was a perilous one.

"Don't worry, be happy," the troll chimed as he headed towards the castle.

~*~

We would never make it out of here alive, was Rexxar's thoughts as he followed Rokhan into the castle. His jingling armour almost immediately attracted the guards' attention. They demanded what their purpose was and made them show their faces--a Mok'Nathal and a Troll! But as someone pulled off the woman's hood, they gasped and started discussing among themselves.

Rexxar did not like the uniform look of surprise on the guards, or the soft whispers exchanged among them. He did not like the weapons pressed against his neck. But he managed to show them Thrall's letter and explain that he meant the humans no harm. Recognizing the orcish seal, two of the guards took the letter and went away, but the rest of them were no friendlier to the unwelcomed guests.

And the beastmaster began to wonder even more what was going on. If Jaina was in the castle, then who was this woman floater? If she was not, why were the guards behaving in such a way?

He managed to get Rokhan's attention. "Unless we see Jaina," he said in the orcish tongue. "Don't give the woman up to them."

The troll nodded and wrapped his slender fingers around the woman's arm.

"No talking!" the human guards yelled, and Rexxar and Rokhan did not talk again until they were escorted into the guestroom.

Although Rexxar tried to keep his emotions in check, he could not but gasp as Jaina Proudmoore stood from the chair behind her desk to greet him. "Half-ogre, what is the meaning of this?" she did not snarl at him or even frown, but the displeasure in her voice was obvious enough, "You are in the uniform of our ranks."

Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks. Perhaps he was not familiar with human faces, but the two women in the room looked exactly like the other. It was not only family resemblance. It was as though they were mirror images, cookie-cutter clones.

But his ears and his instincts were definitely not idle. She called him half-ogre and not by name.

"Jaina Proudmoore," he tried to keep his composure, "I hope you understand that we have gone through that trouble to deliver an urgent message from Warchief Thrall." One of the guards who confiscated the letter presented it to Jaina.

She took it from his hands and returned to her seat. She did not open the seal. Instead, she placed it on her desk alongside her other paperwork.

"You must read it," Rexxar insisted. "Whatever it conveyed would be urgent."

"When I have time," she replied with a hint of cold anger. Hugging her lilac sorceress's robes tighter to her body, she picked up her quill pen and spellbooks to continue her studies. "And if you are done, would you please quickly make yourselves scarce? My brother the Admiral would not approve of you, and there is nothing I can do to keep you safe."

Rexxar took a bold step forward, knowing she was probably right. But he would dare his life. She could order her guards to seize and kill him. She could probably do so too herself. But he would say what he had to say, "If you still intend to keep the Horde as your ally, you had better read the letter now."

"The Horde is no longer an ally to me or to the humans!" Her eyes widened in rage, "Your Warchief tricked me into betraying my father, half-ogre. His interest was never in restoring peace between us. Thrall merely acted in favour of the Orcs."

His blood grew cold, "That is not true, Jaina..."

She threw her pen at him and cursed under her breath when he just managed to avoid it, "And now with my father dead, my brother Railen Proudmoore has become the Admiral and took over the control of everything else--and I have become his prisoner. Go now, and tell your Warchief it is useless to write to me now. There is no favour I can, nor will, do for him."

The wrath in her voice was so great, he did not think it was even possible in her--and yet being thrown into such a devastating situation..."No," he shook his head, "You knew what you were doing. You wanted to work towards peace between our nations. You defended us from your father, even though we have not asked you to. Your brother has poisoned you against us."

"And what of you? Am I to you a dim-witted child who could be easily swayed by a few words of denial? Get out of my sight now!"

"Jaina, look," Rokhan remembered his duty and gently pushed the female floater in front of him.

"Rokhan, don't!" Rexxar tried to warn him, but it was too late.

Jaina Proudmoore looked into her own face and cried out in shock.

And suddenly, there was an outburst of darkness. Rexxar thought he heard a woman's voice chanting arcane words and a dark figure moving in front of him, but he could not be sure. He thought he yelled for Rokhan to hold onto the floater, but he could not remember if he actually did it.

It was all so confusing...

~*~

"Brysta! Are you all right?"

The dark sorceress opened her eyes to light and chaos and saw her brother bending over her, shaking her gently to wake her from her trance. She removed his hands from her shoulders and tried to stand up from the floor without his aid, but dizziness threatened to take hold of her, and he caught her in his arms before she fell over.

"Did it work?"

That sounded more like the Railen she knew. He might be concerned about her, but he was definitely more worried about whether she succeeded.

She took her time and straightened her black robes, making sure that each fold fell in the right place. Then, she combed her fingers through her shoulder-length auburn hair, refusing to answer his question.

"Brysta, did it work?" he repeated impatiently.

Still tousling her hair, she half turned and muttered, "Did you think I would have tried it if it wouldn't work?"

He sighed in relief.

But Brysta did not share his perspective, "Jaina has grown powerful as a result of her intensive training with the Kirin Tor. Soon enough, if she manages to survive, she would find a way to break that spell. And I would not be able to overpower her then."

"Then, what can we do?" he tensed. If Brysta could not take care of their little sorceress, he did not know who else he could count on.

"What can we do?" she mimicked his anxious tone. "Why are you asking me? You are the Admiral."

~*~

Rexxar woke to find himself lying with his face buried in sand. Rolling over onto his back, he started gasping for air and choked. The afternoon sun burnt his skin, and the heat was almost unbearable. He looked around--his eyes widened to find himself on a small island surrounded by soft white sand.

Where was he?

Beside him, Rokhan was still lying unconscious, mumbling unintelligibly under his breath. He remembered how the troll disliked being exposed to the sun--but apparently Rokhan was in no shape to care. The Mok'Nathal pulled the hood of the borrowed cloak over the troll's face. A little further from the men laid Jaina in her lilac sorceress's robe. The floater was nowhere to be seen.

And the seas floated around the small desert island on which the three of them were marooned.

Rexxar walked over to the woman and shook her gently. If she was Jaina Proudmoore, and if she could still wake up, she could probably teleport them somewhere.

She groaned softly at his touch, but did not wake.

"Jaina!" he called her name louder, to no avail.

He sighed.

Though it was hard to accept, he, the Mok'Nathal wanderer, was stranded on an island he did not know. He had trained himself to survive in the wilderness, away from civilization, but never could he have thought he would have ended up on an atoll with no food or supplies.

He had to get away from there.

No. First, he had to get back to Theramore Isles. Poor Misha, he supposed, was still in the forest, waiting for him to return. She would probably not be in any danger, since humans were smart enough not to try and cross a fierce bear.

The ends of his hair pricked up suddenly as something furry brushed past his arm. He picked up a black hairy spider between his thumb and index fingers, and before he could study it, he felt a sharp pain shot from his fingertips. He tried to get the little animal off him, but a needle was jabbed into his skin and would not come out. Cursing out loud, he killed the wriggling spider that dangled from his wound and slowly removed the needle. It did not appear to be poisonous, fortunately.

Sighing to himself, he looked out at the horizon. He was indeed thrown into an adverse situation. How was he to get off the island and back to where he was familiar with? Swim away? There was no land visible ahead. He could probably tell east from wets by the position of the sun or the stars, but how was he to ever find the direction to the human bastion if he did not even know where he was?

But a scream pierced through the sound of waves breaking upon the shores, straight into his troubled mind. He spun around to find poor Jaina flailing and trying to wrestle with her robes. Her blue eyes were wide with fright.

"Jaina?"

"Get this thing off me!"

A black spider--much like the one Rexxar killed was crawling across her chest.

"Stop thrashing. I'll catch it," he tried to calm her. "It's just a spider."

He never did understand, but he once saw a few human women scream and run about at the sight of a spider. Perhaps spiders were to them some symbol of unholy spirit? Else there was no reason he could think of that one need fear such a small hapless thing.

Though of course, the giant cannibal spiders corrupted by demon-bile was a different story altogether.

He certainly did not mean to touch Jaina on her chest--Mok'Nathals do not touch women other than their wives. But he had to. She trembled, but did not move away from him, but already, he could see, she was biting her lower lip and trying hard not to show her distress. His hands lingered on her no longer than necessary--he caught the spider in his palm carefully and then set it free.

Jaina turned her head away without thanking him, her face flushed in embarrassment. He moved to Rokhan's side and checked on the troll again, pretending not to notice her reaction, but who could decide what to think?

After long awkward moments of silence, Jaina broke the ice, "Rexxar, what happened? Where are we?"

"I don't have answers to either of those questions," the Mok'Nathal shrugged. "But I was hoping you could teleport us back to Theramore. Are you well enough?"

"Theramore?" her eyes widened in alarm, "Why Theramore? My brother would have you killed if he found you there."

Rexxar explained he left Misha in the woods, but did not want to go too much into details.

"I certainly have no intention to go back there," she confessed quietly, more to herself than to anyone.

"What really happened?" Rexxar pressed. "I think there's a lot to be explained, Jaina. Your brother Railen became Admiral and held you captive. What next?"

He was interrupted by a groan from the troll. Jaina's attention turned to the waking Rokhan immediately, "Rokhan...The woman? Where is she?"

"Who was she, Jaina?" Rexxar demanded. "I swear she looks just like you."

"I think so too," the human sorceress admitted. Usually, when other people said her sisters looked like her, she would dismiss the idea. But the floater that Rokhan brought definitely did resemble her. "But it is just not possible."

"Do you have a twin?"

"Not that I know of," Jaina shook her head. "Where did you find her? Tell..."

But her voice trailed off suddenly and her jaw dropped open. He was confused, but she pointed behind him. He turned his head and cursed out loud.

"Rokhan! Get up now!" he dragged the troll up to his feet. "Come on. Get up now!"

There from under the sand came a million black hairy spiders.

*~*~*~*

J A/N:

Ooh. Cliff hanger there ^_^.

I don't fear spiders. Really. Or I wouldn't have survived living in a dorm where you literally hit spiders hanging from the ceiling when you walk down the hallway. There are spiders in my room as well, spiders on my alarm clock (I pressed on one of them one time when my alarm went off...jeez, if that spider can hear, it should be deafened), on toilet paper (check before use...), and of course, in my bed as well (it's not a pleasant feeling to have something crawl over you while you're sleeping¡Xeven though I didn't wake up screaming like Jaina).

I won't leave teasers for this story...cuz I have no idea what I'm gonna write next--the good and bad about not having a plan. I love you guys for reading and all your wild ideas about the pairing. Had a really good laugh.

DemonGod86: I'm glad Brysta seems scary enough, at least for now. I don't know. Considering she could teleport and do magic stuff, she should be an archmage. But she's kinda dark for a normal archmage, so she could be a new unit, I suppose?!

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Tyraa Rane: Thanks. Yeah, I was kinda hurrying to finish the chapter before I leave the US. Haha, Rokhan's characterization...truth is, no one knows what he's supposed to be like! LotR orcs are yuck, and compared to them, I definitely agree that Thrall, and even Grom is so much cuter!! As for Chen and Jaina, thank Rowan Seven for inducing my creativity. Nasty, wasn't it? Hey, you got a new story, and it's about Jaina too!!

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Ira Poon: You're lucky to have more open-minded parents. It's so annoying sometimes when you can't get them to LISTEN to reason for once in their lives...ugh. I really did it. I shouted the title of my fic!! Brysta is definitely more evil than Railen. I always find a dark and secret villain who is actually in control of the situation more fun to write.

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inaam07: I'm sure Daelin didn't care whether or not Jaina and Thrall were together. He was just so hurt and mad at her for betraying him.

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Anouymous: Oh thanks for pointing that out. A scimitar...really? *shrug* Didn't bother to go through the campaigns again. Maybe I'm just getting old and lazy and impatient, whatever...

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madpostman: Yeah, I know the story sort of advanced quickly cuz I was rushing (ha!) to pack my suitcases O_o. Jaina's one of my favourite characters too, after Sylvanas and Kael ^_^--which means I am going to let a lot of things happen to her...But no guaranteeing what's gonna happen yet cuz I change my mind every 2 minutes.

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Cybaster: Thank you ^_^. Thrall has just as about much chances as all the other men in Warcraft to win Jaina's heart, but with the exception of Arthas who will have the least chance even if he tries hard (oops, did I just say something?!). But hey definitely I'd still root for Raynor x Kerrigan if SC2 comes out, ever...I dunno. I don't like Arthas, but I'm still cool with Kerrigan though they're about as nasty as each other. (When Mengsk that bast*rd betrayed her, I was like shaking the monitor and yelling NOOOOOO, GO SAVE HER, JIMMY MAN!! But didn't have that feeling when Arthas took up Frosty..."Nooo. Save him, Muradin man"...naw). Chen...in Diablo 2. Right. Oh don't worry about him. He'd be having a great time getting drunk on demon brew.

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Kamislash: Yup. Thanks for your information. In fact, Rowan told me the eldest son of Daelin was killed too. I am going to change that when/if/until get over this lazy 'don't-care' syndrome of mine...*sigh*

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Dark Elk: Why thank you. Well, I'm so glad you're interested in this story as well. Oh, I'm sure you can write good War stories. At least I liked Drumbeat. Oh right. I owe you teasers...sorry.

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TWH: Thanks for your comments ^_^. Well, roger that and I'll stop suggesting pairings in my notes. Of course, romance isn't my usual line of work (checks my list of stories). Okay, maybe it is. But I don't usually like to put the focus on it. See I never read pure romance (checks my favourite fanfic list). Oh hey, I do. Ah well. I can't tell you to not worry, cuz I have the tendency to change my mind every 2 minutes, but rest assured that the story's main focus is *phew* on the tension between humans and orcs. I can tell you, too, that I enjoy writing the blood and gut fighting scenes more than anything ^_^.

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Darth: Um...I shall say nothing...thanks anyway.

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Slinky Avenger: You mean T for Tichondrius ^_^?! Thanks for reading.