-------

  "Uh, Seraphiel. You wouldn't happen to know why there's a rather angry-looking but oddly attractive Draenei Paladin charging at us with her hammer raised, clearly planning to attack? Also backed up by a slightly older Draenei Mage." Shepard asked, not really worried.

  Seraphiel didn’t even turn to look. “Ah. Yes. I might have a slight idea.” She admitted.

  The Paladin in question suddenly sprouted a pair of wings made completely of holy power as she leapt into the air and slammed her ornate and impressively large hammer down towards Seraphiel's head. The strike held just about the same amount of power as the earlier strike from the Demon Primarch Angron, and the result was quite similar, except Seraphiel used her full palm to stop the hammer instead of a finger. She also didn’t do anything to stop the shockwave of power that radiated outwards as she knew everyone nearby could handle it, and she knew the Paladin wanted to make an entrance.

  The Mage was about to add her own into the mix, except she was suddenly surrounded by Kaede, Yoruichi, and Rangiku, all with their weapons within striking distance. The mage gave them a glance, obviously considering whether it was worth it to risk getting attacked, but finally decided against it.

  "Yrel. Edirah. It's been a while." She finally looked at the two Draenei with a hint of a smile and a lot of understanding on her face. "It's good to see you."

  The emotions flashing on Yrel’s face were clearly struggling inside her. Worry, relief, anger, grief, love, concern, and frustration. Her expression settled on the last one. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say for yourself?”

  Seraphiel’s smile didn’t slip even a bit. “I think those are the most important things to say. Pray tell, what would I say? What did you want me to say?”

  “An apology would be a good start.” Edirah’s words burst out. Her expressions were more controlled than Yrel’s, but her eyes didn’t leave Seraphiel’s despite being surrounded.

  "You have me at a disadvantage. What exactly do you want an apology for? I've no doubt done something to warrant one, but for an apology to be genuine, I would need to know what you're referring to." Seraphiel could guess, but she wanted them to say it.

  “How about going to face Sargeras alone?!” Yrel shouted. “We would’ve come with you! We would’ve faced the mad Titan along your side! Instead, you went to your death!” Her voice got much quieter. “Instead, you left us behind. Left us without any knowledge of what had happened to you. Left us alone. To face a world seemingly without you in it.”

  “Ah. That’s the one thing I will not apologize for. I knew the danger of facing the mad Titan. I knew anyone going to fight him would not be coming back. I also knew I would live again, whereas you would not. While it sounds noble that you'd throw your lives away just to die along with me, it was unnecessary. I knew I would win, and I'd rather you live. Even faced with grief, being alive is preferable to being dead." She would brook no argument on that subject.

  “Then why didn’t you at least tell us?” Edirah demanded heatedly.

  “I did. From the very beginning, I told you I would not be around forever. I told everyone that my time was limited. You just didn’t believe me until it happened. I didn’t go into detail, because if I had, you would’ve tried to stop me from fighting Sargeras, not understanding that I would’ve been gone either way. I didn’t tell you that I would survive, because I had no reason to think I’d ever see you again. I’d rather you spend your efforts moving on rather than futilely searching for a way to find me.” She stepped closer to Edirah, effectively dragging Yrel along as she was still grabbing on to the hammer. “It was far from a perfect solution, but no solution that includes one of your loved ones going away forever really can be called perfect. There’s always going to be loss involved.”

  “What about not letting us know you were here in this universe once you arrived?” Yrel asked, not willing to admit Seraphiel was right, but not really prepared to argue at the moment either. Coming up with fancy arguments had never been her forte. Smashing things was. In that, she was very, very good. She could think up further arguments later.

  “Ah. I suppose you wouldn’t believe me if I told you I just arrived.” Seraphiel muttered.

  “After what just happened? Not a chance.” The edge of Edirah’s mouth rose in a slight smirk.

  “There were certain complicating factors on that end.” She prevaricated.

  Yoruichi suddenly lifted her hand with a grin. “Hi! Complicating factor number one.”

  Shepard smirked and raised her own hand. “Complicating factor number two.”

  Tali very carefully lifted a hand. “Complicating factor number three. Sort of.” She said hesitantly, understanding what doing it meant.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Shepard looked at her with slight disbelief. “Wait. Really? When did that happen?”

  Tali very obviously cleared her throat. “Perhaps not the time for that discussion.”

  Wrex just gave a very deep chuckle at that. “Doesn’t surprise me even a bit. If Liara was here, she’d have her hand up too.”

  Rangiku grinned and lifted her hand. “Complicating factor number four.”

  “What are they talking about?” Naidam leaned towards Teclis to ask, which was completely unnecessary, considering his voice was entirely psionic.

  “Definitely not the time for that conversation.” Teclis just shook his head.

  “I’m just wondering if I should be raising my hand.” Naidam clarified innocently.

  “Oh, gods, I hope not.” Teclis covered his face with a hand. “I’m not aware of your private life, but I’m almost certain you should not.”

  Yrel was slightly shocked and blushed a little at the raised hands, while Edirah was just shaking her head in disappointment. “I don’t consider that to be a sufficient excuse for not letting us know you were alive, at the very least.”

  “I knew you were wild, but this is a bit…” Yrel muttered as well.

  "Well, look. As much as they're joking around, I am serious when I said things are complicated. I was planning on letting you know I'm back, just when the time was right. And when I interfered with the battle earlier, I knew my cover would be blown, which is also part of why I didn't say anything before. Now my presence is known to not only you but everyone else too." Seraphiel said, finally letting go of Yrel's hammer.

  Yrel tried to smack her again, just on pure principle, but there was no real heat or strength behind the blow, and she easily dodged it. “What do you mean?” Edirah asked with a frown.

  “Well, my crew just destroyed a rather sizeable Chaos fleet in orbit with a single ship, along with a Demon Primarch, after which I destroyed a Demonic invasion force, including another Demon Primarch. And when I say we killed Demons and two Primarchs, I mean we destroyed them for good, and not just sending them back to the Warp. We injured both Nurgle and Khorne, both rather powerful gods. That’s going to draw some attention from many sources.” Seraphiel explained, noticing with satisfaction that this wasn’t actually news to Edirah. The older Draenei had asked for Yrel’s sake.

  "Indeed," Chachamaru interjected. "This battle makes us, and Seraphiel in particular, a strategic-level war asset. She basically stopped an entire war single-handedly."

  Shepard added her two cents. “She was already that before, after destroying a Tyranid Hive fleet tendril with a single ritual, but almost no one was aware of it before now.”

  “Exactly.” Seraphiel nodded. “I wanted certain things to be in place before word about me got out. Hence why I didn’t really tell anyone. Those here mostly found out on their own.”

  "We aren't just anyone though," Yrel grumbled and made another swipe with her hammer, once again without any real force behind it.

  "To be fair, I didn't even know you were still alive. Or that you wanted to hear from me. It's been thousands of years. Draenei live for almost forever, but a lot can happen in that time. I had all the reasons in the world to assume you two had moved on. For all I knew, it could've been awkward for me to suddenly show up. I notice Maraad is not with you, for instance." Seraphiel pointed out while dodging the blow.

  "That sounds dangerously like an excuse." Edirah shot the idea down. "I'm fairly sure you know better than to make excuses to me. You could've easily found out. And Maraad isn't here because he knows better than to spoil our little reunion. He's around."

  “You didn’t kill him, did you?” Seraphiel looked at Yrel with slight concern.

  “I don’t think so.” Yrel hedged a bit, fiddling with her hammer, not really dispelling the worry.

  “The fact that you’re not sure isn’t exactly comforting.” Seraphiel shook her head in good-natured exasperation.

  "As much as we all enjoy the two of you torturing my daughter, there's still a war going on," Ophiel interjected with a slightly apologetic smile.

  “Daughter?” Edirah noted the word and looked between Seraphiel and Ophiel. “I see. At least you got a proper family this time around.”

  Seraphiel cleared her throat. “As if you didn’t fulfill that duty as much as it was needed last time. Still beats being woken up from stasis by a rampaging Annihilan.” Her start in the life she’d been a Draenei had been an explosive one. Edirah had taken her in when it had become obvious that she had no discernible family.

  Edirah and Ophiel looked at each other with new respect and sympathy in their eyes. Yrel paid that no heed. “On that note, your…sire has also made a comeback.”

  “My…oh. I really hoped I had finished him off the last time. I certainly blasted him with enough power to make it last.” Seraphiel was not happy about that bit of news.

  “Indeed. We all knew Demons have to be killed in the Twisting Nether for it to really stick, but we thought you’d done the impossible as well. Archimonde isn’t leading the current invasion, but we know he’s around.” Yrel revealed.

  “Oh, I’ve heard this song before. Why is it that whatever universe you’re in, you seem to have daddy issues?” Shepard, the one that perhaps knew more of her past than most asked. She’d even told her about not really having a father in this universe either.

  “You’re going to have to blame my real Father, the Creator God of all Creation for that one.” Seraphiel made an annoyed sound. “I don’t decide the circumstances I’m transplanted into. If I didn’t know better, I’d think He’s doing this on purpose. Wait. Scratch that. I do know better. In fact, it sounds exactly the kind of bullshit He would pull.”

  “Is that why you like to call men daddy during…?” Yoruichi teased.

  “Oh hush, I do not. I only do it if they want me to.” Seraphiel shot that line of joking down immediately, but she noted that in her haste, she might have given Yoruichi ammo for further teasing. At least judging by the sudden grin on the woman’s face.

  "Still a war going on." Ophiel reminded everyone, bringing them back to the topic.

  “Right.” Edirah cleared her throat. “So, the good news is that the other two forces haven’t attacked us directly. The other force doesn’t seem to be interested in us in particular, and they’re running wild on the other side of the world. They’ll eventually turn to us, I suppose, but they’re not an immediate problem. The Burning Legion is nearer to us, but they struck our neighbor first instead. They’re using that kingdom as a base to summon more of their number. The good news is that the Legion is attacking hundreds of worlds at the same time, so they don’t have their full focus on us. The bad news is that the fleet in orbit was stopping us from doing anything to strike at them, as that would’ve meant stepping outside the protective shield and getting bombarded to pieces.”

  "It's only a matter of time before the Legion decides to pick up old grudges and come for us in force." Yrel pointed out.

  The Legion had chased the Draenei across their old universe for thousands of years. After all, two of their leaders, Archimonde and Kil’jaeden had been part of the same race as the Draenei, known as Eredar before the Draenei changed their name. It was often the modus operandi of the Legion to turn a part of the invaded population against their own, thus also bolstering their own ranks in the process. Many of the races that were the mainstay of the Legion used to be races they invaded in the past. Legion wasn’t just about brute force.

  “Though I suppose your presence, and what you did to the Chaos Demons might work as a deterrent.” Edirah speculated. “On the other hand, once Archimonde finds out you’re here…well, it could go either way.”

  "I believe we need to talk with the Angels and the rest of the Draenei leadership on how to proceed," Chachamaru suggested. "We caught everyone by surprise with our arrival, and they're on the back foot for now, but they will react somehow soon enough."

  “It also doesn’t sound like a good idea to leave the third locust race to run wild on the other side of the world. While they aren’t immediately dangerous, the damage they could do to the ecosystem of this world isn’t something to be taken lightly.” Edirah added.

  "Well, let's get to it. Is the old fart Velen still alive and in a leadership position?" Seraphiel asked.

  "Forget that, there's something more interesting we need to talk about," Yoruichi interjected. "Why is it that only your old female lovers seem to be gathering around you again? I know better than most that you've had more men as partners."