Make Azeroth breathtaking

"Wait, wait! You're not planning to continue my brother's research and torture my old body, are you? That body is really useless now! It's definitely not going to be of any use to you!"

Onyxia's face turned deathly pale upon realizing what was happening.

"I think that once you know what I'm thinking, you might actually say 'it smells so good!'"

Tanis fastened her belt and lifted Onyxia up once more.

"Come on, I'll show you what our plan is."

———————————Tinker's Mansion, Underground Experimental Grounds————————————————

"Buzz—"

As the elevator doors opened, Tanis, with Onyxia tucked under her arm, swiftly entered the area that required at least a high-ranking Tinker or special permission to enter, and quickly found the person she was looking for.

"Hey! Iggy, how's it going?"

Tanis greeted Iggy, the sorcerer, who was writing and drawing runes on the table.

"I have a lead on the multi-purpose fire rune you requested, but it will require a lot of testing before it can be put into practical use—hey, Onyxia!"

As Ichi continued writing and drawing, he raised his hand to greet Onyxia.

"Hey—could that be me from before?!"

Onyxia had just greeted Iggy when she was completely drawn to the black dragon's remains hanging in the center of the testing ground in the distance. Although its body was covered with various cables and its head was covered with a cover whose purpose was unclear, Onyxia's instincts still told her that it was her former self!

"Yes, to transform your former body into a semi-biological, variable, giant robot suitable for your use, while possessing even greater combat power than you did back then, the amount of work required is no small feat."

Iggy answered Onyxia's question rather nonchalantly, believing that Tanis had brought Onyxia to the scene to find out more about her.

"Me...driving myself?"

Onyxia was confused by the nesting doll for a few seconds.

"Given the current situation, how long do you think it will take you to regain your former fighting strength?"

Tanya asked Onyxia a question that seemed unrelated to the current situation.

"If you remove the shackles binding me, I can grow up in a thousand years at most! No! Five hundred years!"

Onyxia was baring her teeth and brandishing her claws.

"Five hundred years... In the lifespan of your dragon race, that may be but a fleeting moment. But our enemies will not give us five hundred years. The Burning Legion's renewed invasion is a harbinger, a harbinger that Azeroth will soon no longer be at peace..."

Seeing Tanis's serious face, Onyxia rubbed her cheeks and asked in confusion.

"That's strange. I remember that besides engineering, you were just a cultivator of... what's it called? Qi. When did you become a prophet?"

"If I told you that I felt there was something wrong with you from the very first time I met you, would you believe me?"

"I don't believe it... wait?"

Onyxia's expression stiffened for a moment. She suddenly recalled how Tanis had avoided and stalled her in Stormwind. At the time, she had thought Tanis was afraid of her authority, but now that she thought about it—would someone like her be afraid of authority? Clearly, she knew something to act this way!

"Therefore, I need you to maintain as much combat power as possible without going insane—combat power under the control of our Ratchet City. This is not a constraint, but for safety. After all, I don't even want to mention the name of the one who made your Black Dragon Clan lose their minds for the time being."

Tanis's cautious words made Onyxia basically certain that Tanis was the kind of peculiar 'prophet of nature,' which made her tone involuntarily soften.

"I understand. Now, tell me what you need me to do."

"Although the boot-up test should take a while longer, you've already come..."

Tennys gently pressed a button and opened a door.

"How about trying a new method to control the sensations in your body that you used to experience?"

II. The Secrets Revealed

At first, when Onyxia decided to sit in her former body, she was filled with more than 50% rejection. The remaining less than 50% acceptance was mostly because Tannis was now her 'master', and the last part was because she felt that Tannis might really be a born prophet.

However, as she heaved her way into the cockpit and, following Tannis's instructions, activated and connected the various systems one by one, her deepest resistance was completely burned away by the dragon flames. She felt power within her former body—power far greater than when she was alive! The energy flowing within her body, which should have been dead, had even reached, no, surpassed, that of her damned brother, Nefarian!

"Ow!!!"

Overwhelmed by the surge of renewed power, Onyxia, feeling better than ever since her resurrection, involuntarily transformed back into her dragon form. She opened her mouth and let out a roar that sounded more like a kitten's meow than a true dragon's roar. At the same moment, the modified Onyxia, suspended in the air, also opened her mouth and emitted a deep, resonant dragon's cry. With this cry, Onyxia felt her senses expand rapidly…

————————————Half an hour later——————————————————

"So...tired..."

Onyxia, who had reverted to human form and crawled out of the cockpit, lay sprawled on the ground, looking as if she had been completely burned. Beside her, Tanis and Iggy were analyzing the data they had just collected.

"The mental synchronization rate is only 65%, which is much higher than others. But since the original soul controls the original body, shouldn't the theoretical synchronization rate be at least 80%?"

Iggy placed his hands on the control panel, looking at the data displayed on the screen with a puzzled expression.

"It's possible that Onyxia's body or soul has undergone a fundamental transformation, causing their waveforms to only approximate, rather than perfectly match..."

Tanis touched her chin with her left thumb, speculating about the possibility that Onyxia and Onyxia could not be perfectly synchronized.

“A fundamental transformation; the mutation she underwent at the time of her death was indeed horrifying.”

Iggy, finding the explanation reasonable, shrugged, turned around, picked up Onyxia who was still lying on the ground, and placed her on a board.

"Since we're already here, why not test a few more things?"

—————————————That evening————————————————

"Aaaaaah! It's going to fall apart! It's going to fall apart!!"

After being tormented all day by Tanis, Iggy, and Overspark, Onyxia lay on her little bed, making a lot of noise. Tanis, instead of shoving her back into the ball or hitting her on the head with something as usual, simply watched her quietly.

A few minutes later, Tennys, who had heard the screams subside slightly, calmly opened her mouth while retrieving the files she hadn't finished processing during the day.

"When you were cooperating with our experiments, weren't you tired?"

"How could that be tiring! That's my strength!"

Onyxia, face down, answered in a muffled voice.

"To correct you, it's the power of Ratchet. We just chose you as the pilot."

"But that's mine..."

“If you want to get involved with your past, I’ll consider informing King Varian that you’re here—although I believe he knows you’re here, but even if I don’t say anything, he’ll pretend you’re dead. If I peel back the veil, hehehe…do you want to become a specimen on the walls of Stormwind Fortress?”

Tanis's words made Onyxia's face turn pale for a moment.

"So, although your name is still Onyxia, you are no longer the Black Dragon Princess. You have no relation to the corrupted Black Dragon Clan, your father, or your mother. You are now the pilot of Nidhogg, the dragon-shaped transformable super robot of Ratchet. If you prove yourself worthy of trust, you will become the future captain of the Iron Dragonflight."

"...That's a lot of information...Can I ask some questions about what you just mentioned?"

Feeling that Tanis's words contained a great deal of information, Onyxia propped herself up and leaned against the pillow.

"can."

"First of all, what is Nidhogg?"

"A black dragon from a legend in a certain plane, capable of devouring the very foundation of the world, and it's quite handsome."

"...Second question, what is the Steel Dragon Team? Are you planning to hunt other dragons and transform them into the likeness of my corpse?"

Feeling completely confused about what Tanis's answer meant, Onyxia quickly moved on to the next question.

"No, the reason we are using your body is because we need to collect raw data. In the future, with the support of this data, we will use metal and fire to create something that is on par with, or even surpasses, the fighting power of a dragon."

Seeing Tanis's confident gaze, Onyxia forcibly swallowed back the words she wanted to say, and then asked the third question that she cared about most and wanted a definite answer for most.

"My mother... should have died long ago, why do you say that...?"

"Several years ago, Deathwing attempted to relocate the black dragonflight to Outland, which I believe you are aware of."

Onyxia nodded, then spoke.

"But when my father last contacted us, he told us that there were no more black dragons in Outland."

Tanis gently shook her head.

"That's not the case. Blood elves and draenei living in Outland have continued to witness adult black dragons in recent years. At the same time, in the area where adult black dragons are most active, there is a special dragon species that mutated from black dragons, the Netherwing. Although there is very little information about them, the blood elves who have studied them believe that this dragon is different from all the dragons known in Azeroth."

"But what does this have to do with my mother being alive?"

“I looked through your brother’s notebook and found that most of his research was inherited from your mother. I think that a mutated black dragon will attract the attention of your evil mother to a considerable extent.”

"But the idea that the dragon was my mother—the Black Dragon Queen Sinestra—is purely speculative! She died long ago because of the tyranny of my former father, Deathwing!!"

"Whether it's just speculation or not, we'll find out when we go to the Outer Realms."

Tanis's words caused Onyxia's expression to freeze.

"Go to Outland?"

"Yes."

Tanis shrugged.

"Because the spatial seal of Outland has shown signs of weakening in recent years, Ratchet is preparing to establish a semi-permanent portal with Shattrath City to maintain the increasingly close trade relationship between the two sides. As the second-in-command, I have to go and explore the way and make some preparations. For some reason, I have decided to take you with me as my follower."

III. The two who arrived in the outer realms

The scorching sun.

Wasteland.

Undulating peaks and valleys.

And sparse plants.

Tanis stared at the scene before her, her lips twitching. At her feet, Onyxia tilted her head, whistling as if nothing had happened. Beside them lay the massive, semi-mechanical Onyxia pre-body, now known as Nidhogg.

After a long while, Tanis finally picked up the troublemaker at her feet and began to rub her with a forced smile.

"Didn't I—say—that—you—please—not—press—those buttons—in your control room—until you're fully equipped!—before you've even read the manual!—Our teleport coordinates were supposed to be to the Holy Light Square in Shattrath, but now we've been thrown into some godforsaken corner of Blade's Edge Mountains!"

I thought it was a decoration—

Onyxia, realizing she had caused trouble, gave a vague answer.

"I think you're just trying to cause trouble! Alright, I'm going to try to re-establish communication with Ratchet. If you're bored, you can drive Nidhogg around—I heard that Deathwing used to stay in Blade's Edge Mountains for a long time. You might be able to find some ruins to admire your mad father's power. Just be careful, there seem to be some beings in Blade's Edge Mountains that can fight against dragons."