Return (Oc x Trahearne PG oneshot)

-Return- a pg short story

What would he think... if he were alive..?

She had reaped the dragon of death, plucked and slaughtered the dragon of jungle, stoked and stifled the fires of a mad and angry god. She had raised a now Elder dragon from egg, to hatchling, to teenage, to adolescent. She and her child, Aurene, laid low the crystal dragon and her little egg now reigns over the magics of death, mind, jungle and crystal.

What would he think of her after all of that past... What would he say? What would he do?

Would he revel in her light? She was no longer the simple guardian he met as a newly awakened sapling from the dream. Now, she was a Dragonhunter, weapons adapted from the pale tree's branches and bark from her roots. Would he accept the ages changed?

She thought he would. He was not the kind of man that would die out in the old. Not the Sylvari to abandon change. He would have adapted, accepted Aurene and helped her achieve Edlerhood. He would have been all for replacing the dragons, not just killing them.... He would have still loved her as he did before Mordremoth....

The steps of a familiar Charr Revenant shook the sylvari from her thoughts, quill still hovering over the parchment. She had been writing letters and, when able to go home, had been sealing and placing them at the foot of the statue erected in memoriam, though she had not done so since her own death by Balthazar's blade.

"Commander." Rytlock bellowed into her small chambers. "We're here. The rest of Dragon's Watch is waiting on deck."

The armored Sylvari sighed a bit, disapointed in yet another blank letter, folded the parchment, stood up, and placed it in a belt pouch. After wrapping her quiver around her torso and picking up her longbow, she slotted her greatsword between her quiver and backplate, securing her weapons in place as the crystals and metal plates chime and clink against each other.

This would be the first she would see of Aurene's true elder form. She and Caithe had been called here by a vision telling of where to go to meet her and so far of what could be seen, the forest of bark, teal and lavender created by Aurene was not a disapointment to the eye. There was even a crystal tree in the middle similar to the Pale tree but the boughs and branches stretched further and taller than any that the Commander had seen before.

When the airship had docked against the large tree's trunk, Caithe and the Commander walked the ramp onto what would normally be where the Omphalos chamber would be, the chamber big enough to house an elder dragon half the size of Kralkatorrik and a little more. Chandeliers and lattices of slow pulsing crystaline light, hummed and chimed to the wind gently passing through.

There she was. Aurene, with hard barked scales, lilac crystals and wings like that of a dragonfly, flying into the chamber from a gentle flight. wind from her wings gusts with every beat, her lilac membranes folded upon a swift yet gracefull landing on her perch of wooden facet.

"Welcome, Champion." Her voice rang and sung like the sun hitting a bit of clear quartz. "Welcome, Dragon's watch."

The Commander was in awe of the sight, stepping forward at the beauty of her baby's beautiful light. The hand that had touched her before the dragon's acention stretched to the teal dragon, palm up.

"Aurene...." The Commander gasped, breathless at the sight. "you're.... beautiful...."

Aurene ever so gently placed her chin into the commander's armored hand. It was smooth, pointed and comforting to the troubled heart of the sylvari.

After speaking with the both of them about a task and threat at hand, Caithe leaves to the airship to prepare to leave and though the commander goes to follow, Aurene beckons her back.

"your heart is troubled, Champion.... it's been so broken since before my birth..." Aurene's tone is low and concerned. "is it from the one you had spoken stories of as a hatchling..? The Marshal..?"

"... yes..." The commander was reluctant to admit that even with years after, she was still in mourning. She had never gotten closure and never got that last memory from her plagued mind. "He's gone. Taken by the mind of mordremoth."

Aurene narrowed her eyes slightly at the commander. "is that what you believe? Or is it what you know?"

"it's.." The commander hesitated and continued, straightening her posture. "It's what I know"

"Then what you believe is that you killed him."

The commander felt angered at the remark, but, just as quickly as it came, the rage disappated. "yes... that is what i believe."

Aurene rumbled at the confession and nodded so slightly. "if you could have him back, would you?"

The Commander thought about it many times before. It was a selfish thought wishing for the dead to be brought back. Though with Aurene, she had to be honest.

"I would. More than anything in the world i would have him back." The Sylvari sighed "it's a selfish thought and wouldnt be right for me to have my loved one back and no one else to have theirs."

"But you have also seen much more. Been through much more. Lost much more. If this one Selfish act is granted to you, you should know that you deserve the chance"

The white and red sylvari was silent. Aurene had a point.

Suddenly, crystal branches lower from the canopy, crystalized thorns from mordremoth's brambles laying the headless, sword touched husk onto the bark below and releasing him from its maw before moving back up to the canopy. She turned her head away from the sight. She couldnt see him like this, a dead, hollow husk of the eldest Firstborn. Dragon's watch stands on the deck of the airship, quiet at the sight.

Aurene reared onto her back legs and flapped her wings, teal and lilac energy swirling around the corpse to lift it. The wind was soft however, the gentle gale imploring the Commander to look on.

Her blue eyes widened at the sight before her, teal crystal sculpting into the lost head and neck of the Marshal, the same glow repairing the scar and creating crystal thorns along it. the same bramble thorns form at his body and 2 nightshade blooms unfurl at a shoulder and at his opposite hip. He gasps for breath, life breathed anew and golden eyes open when once closed.

Slowly he's let down, the Necromancer Scholar kneeling, coughing and catching breath into lungs long since used. To him, the haze and displacement was enough to make him shut his eyes and feel himself breathe, a weak hand rubbing the leaves on his head.

".... T.... Trahearne.....?" The Commander and Champion slowly stepped to the discombobulated sylvari, hand out to touch him. She would be lieing if she were to say the fear that mordremoth was also revived was not there.

"Comander.... Elli I....." he looked up to see her, her armor no longer Sylvari made as he had seen her before. crystal and metal adornes her figure and crystaline wings at her back to match the crystal and exalted ley energy.

"Eleni... My sweet bud..... you've bloomed..." she immediately pulled him to her in a tight squeeze, armor trembling at the overwhelming feelings of relief and happiness.

Trahearne could only return the embrace. Though questions plague his mind he stays silent. He's alive. He's back into the world of Tyria and he wants only to embrace and listen of the stories she has to tell. And they were the happiest they could be, there in that moment, uninterrupted by events to unfurl.