[Fanfiction] Fracture - Chapter 16
PROLOGUE: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/fancreations/fZAXxjHA-fanfiction-fracture PREVIOUS CHAPTER: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/fancreations/LazfvQdc-fanfiction-fracture-chapter-15
Fanfiction.net link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10770866/1/Fracture
Genres: Suspense/Drama/Mystery/a lot of others Characters: Leona, Caitlyn, Nasus, Kassadin, too many to list
Summary: The machine that sustains the lethal matches of the League fails. Events spiral outwards. (Character death.)
TREPIDATION
She knew this place. The pitch blackness, the singular column of light flooding in from far, far above – all of it painted a very familiar picture from the depths of her memory.
It was here that she found reason to join the League.
In the midst of the column floated a lone figure, lit eerily by the rays of the moon. The silvery silhouette was tinted green by the lantern's glow, which swayed slightly as it was drawn back to its owner's hand.
"Come," whispered the Chain Warden. He walked towards the light.
Sivir took a few tentative steps, then stopped. Slowly, she drew her crossblade out.
"It's you," she said simply.
"Battle Mistress," the Magus Ascendant greeted her, low, humming voice reverberating throughout the wide chamber. "I had hoped you would come."
"Why are you here?" demanded the mercenary, holding her blade ready with a white-knuckled grip. "Why is Thresh here? What's going on?"
His stone face remained impassive – not that she had expected it to change. "Are those really the questions you wish to ask? Are you not here concerning... a more pressing matter?"
She scowled, twirling the weapon in her hand. "He said that you had answers. I want them. Now."
"To acquire the right answers," said Xerath unemotionally, "you must ask the right questions."
Of course he would play it difficult.
Sivir bit down a sigh, grinding her teeth together in a bid for patience. These assholes got a kick of riling people up, this she knew all too well.
"What's happening to Cassiopeia?" she asked at length. That was a good place to start – it was the entire reason they were here, at any rate. "How do we fix her? What's with her and Renekton?"
There was a beat of silence. The mage regarded her for a moment, as if processing her queries.
"She is cursed," he said at last, and it was all she could do not to roll her eyes. "Her deceitful soul has been changed to reflect its true nature. She will become a snake, in all respects."
"Meaning?"
"She will soon lose control. Her humanity will disappear. She will be a snake in mind as well as body and soul," explained Xerath, dispassionately.
...let it be known henceforth...
It must have been the silence - there was something ringing in her ears.
"Cassiopeia's soul will become a snake's?" murmured Sivir, eyes wide. "What does that mean...?"
"That everything she has been, is, and will ever be will be no more. That from that point on, she is nothing but a serpent." He seemed to hum, as if in musing. "...It means that even after death, she will no longer be Cassiopeia Du Couteau."
A total wipe, then. The curse would take her right out of the cycle that Nasus was always going on about - if it even existed.
...any who approach this tomb...
Sivir grit her teeth, resisting the urge to cover her eyes. Her head... felt strange...
Despite herself,she swallowed something thick in her throat and looked into the light. Focus. Right now, she needed to focus.
"Then what about Renekton? Her weird obsession with him? That's part of it too, isn't it?" pressed the mercenary. There were still some pieces that didn't quite fit. What was the point of it?
"Indeed. The Serpent's Embrace should have undergone her transformation within a week, or perhaps two. The tomb would have then called her back to it. Her entry into the League and the Machine Herald's system slowed that process. After becoming afflicted, her first encounter with anything close to Shuriman in nature was the Butcher of the Sands."
...be summarily punished, and if not...
"And so she became called to him, in its place?" supplied Sivir, skeptically. Noise, noise - what - what was that noise...?
"Essentially," replied the Magus Ascendant. "The magic was imperfect – perhaps it became decayed over time."
...the unwary trespasser may soon find...
"But why do this?" she persisted, through gritted teeth. Her head - goddamn - her head... "Why turn her into a monster and then call her back?"
"To create guardians for the tomb, of course. You, of all people, should know this." The edge of the sarcophagus serving as his head rotated to look at her. "It was a curse set by your ancestors, after all."
...their heart will mirror their soul.
Something cold trickled down her spine.
And suddenly, her mind was clear.
"What?" whispered Sivir.
"I hate to admit, but they were not total fools; a failsafe, in the case that their bloodline could guard my resting place no longer. Or, in your case, lost connection to their origins."
"What the hell are you talking about?" she growled, twirling her blade once. Like hell she would let Xerath play games with her. "If you don't start making sense within two seconds..."
Something cold and sharp pressed into her neck.
"You'll what?" murmured Thresh, echoing voices like a ghostly legion. A metal gauntlet settled on her shoulder, and she almost whirled around to try and end him there and then. "Don't forget who's in control here, Battle Mistress."
"It's very simple," said the Magus Ascendant, leaving the column of light to approach her. "You are descended from the leader of the very mages that sealed me, so long ago."
He drifted close, until she had to squint her eyes to deal with the intensity of his crackling glow, circling her like a hawk.
"They sought to keep vigilance over me, but as Shurima fell and the centuries passed, forgot their purpose. Then you arrived, and when the Serpent's Embrace opened the doors to this chamber and undid the magic seal, you freed me."
She had warned Cassiopeia not to just throw open those damned doors. It had been, of course, another in a long list of warning she hadn't heeded during their venture. A weapon of pure magical energy, more potent than any arcane crystal – she knew that Noxus had been eager to get its hands on it, but what they ended up setting loose on the world was much worse.
Sivir had always known that something about Xerath was inherently dangerous. Just a gut feeling that stuck out to her, a hunch that told her she had to put him down. When she had joined the League, it had been mostly for rep – but chasing after the mage had a little to do with it. That gut feeling might make sense if she descended from a line of people who'd devoted their lives to keeping him under lock and key – but that couldn't be possible.
"You're bullshitting," she muttered. "How could I be descended from powerful mages when I can barely manage enough magic for a damn spell shield?"
It was true that she had no idea where she'd come from – who her parents were or why she'd been found near some ruins. The mercenary had always assumed it had merely been a sign of what her calling in life was. The only thing that she had ever known and had ever needed to know for sure was that she was Shuriman, through and through.
"Blood can thin over the years," answered Xerath simply, stopping before her. "And yet, it will still have its uses."
"What do you mean by that?" she asked warily, taking a step back. She could feel the Chain Warden's grip tighten, his form standing immobile behind her.
"You see this lock on the chains that bind me, do you not?" He stepped closer, and she could see the glowing stone – a yellow, geometric swirl cutting rivulets into its center. "It can be unlocked by no physical key. I had thought that by absorbing enough magical energy, I could destroy it – but I was wrong."
"And what's that got to do with me?" The Battle Mistress tried to back up further, only to be held still by Thresh. Her ears were starting to ring – or maybe that was the beating of her heart. "Why are you telling me this?"
Xerath drew close, extending one jagged arm.
"I will only need a little."
.
.
.
Smoke and rubble.
That was what he expected to see, at least, after hearing Piltover had been totally sacked by the Voidborn. Zaun, on the other hand, looked completely fine – just, empty. There wasn't a soul in sight, and honestly speaking, he wasn't sure whether that worried him more.
Where could all the denizens of a bustling, industrial-complex go? And that fast? It would've taken at least a month to scrape together enough resources to evacuate even half the city, let alone muster enough motivation out of the resident crazies that kept everyone under their thumbs. A month that they hadn't had.
It'd been a bit of a difficult choice to make to leave Annie and Amumu alone, but it had been the right one. Annie's parents had come back, and they had an entire community to look after them. If the Voidborn swept through, they wouldn't be in terrible hands. In the end, he was just too concerned about Zaun to wait for the whole thing to blow over.
And there was still the matter of Twitch.
Zac anchored himself to the side-railing on a balcony, pulling his arms taut before letting go and slinging himself far and away to the next roof over. From there, he had a great view of the entire city and beyond, past its walls into the bay it shared with Piltover.
"What the hell?"
He strained his non-existent ears, but he couldn't hear anything; not surprising, considering the distance, but he thought, maybe worth a try considering there seemed to be some crazy, epic battle going on down in the bay. The Secret Weapon could make out a lot of figures – some huge, some small, some human-looking, some monstrous – and a definitive struggle happening, but who any of them were and why they were fighting he couldn't figure beyond an educated guess.
Did that nut-job seer manage to open the Void after all? Is that what was happening down there? And if that was the case, the question of just where the citizens of Zaun were became even more pressing.
An explosion to the east rocked the building, and he had to cling to the shingles on the rooftop to keep his balance. Zac whirled around to look. Through the huge plume of dust that was rising, he could make out more figures – a couple humanoid ones, and a giant one that definitely looked like it was about to eat them.
That was his cue.
Catapulting himself off the roof with a sharp inhale, he sprang off the side of the next building to bounce his way over to the scene. If he hadn't got into some good old fisticuffs with the creature before and gotten a good look at him then, he might've thought the monster before him was Cho'Gath himself. He was certainly rocking the Void-look – extra body parts and alien coloring and all. Whatever he was, he was definitely about to eat that guy he had pinned underneath him and so he pulled an arm back for a stretching strike, quickly knocking the monster off balance as the human scrambled for safety.
"They never pick on anyone their own size," he mumbled to himself, shaking out his hand. Those exoskeletons were sharp.
The monster roared, scrambling back to its feet before a strong gust knocked it back over. Suddenly, it was consumed by an onslaught of laser-projectiles. Zac barely had time to blink and look over his shoulder before it was down and out.
"Zac!"
He knew that airy voice anywhere.
"Janna!" He whirled around to greet her, smiling broadly. "What're you doing in Zaun?"
The sorceress glided up to him, bird familiar in tow. "I could ask the same of you. Everyone should have evacuated already."
"I was looking after some kids, but I came back to see if things were all right," he told her, before glancing back at the smoldering mess, adding sheepishly, "and it looks like they are."
She shook her head, expression sobering as she led him back to the group of people she'd been with. There were at least ten of them in the alleyway, including the one he'd saved – some were hooded, masked, armed with blades as part of some kind of uniform he didn't recognize, and others were much more recognizable. Between two hooded ones, they supported a familiar face.
"Kassadin?" he exclaimed, half in shock and half in worry. The man did not look in good health.
"He was heavily wounded trying to stall for reinforcements, and now we need to get him to shelter so he can recuperate," Janna explained, motioning for them to keep moving. The Voidwalker groaned softly as he was dragged along, breathing sounding unnaturally harsh through his mask.
"What's happening out there? Who are all these people?"
"You know the Machine Herald's acolytes, I'm sure," she answered, gesturing to four of them with their laser weapons and mechanical augments, who nodded at him. "And the rest are part of Kassadin's Preservers of Valoran."
" 'Preservers of Valoran?' Then I'm guessing that crazy mess in the bay is..."
"The Prophet's work," she confirmed, turning slightly to look at him. "He managed to open a tear to the Void."
That... made him a little ill.
Zac took a moment to steady his step as his vision decided to fade out for a second. No - no way in hell. An open tear for those monsters to pour out of? "You – you've gotta be kidding."
"I'm not," the sorceress replied, shaking her head as they rounded a corner onto a main street. "I was in Demacia visiting Lux when this happened, and I got sent out with some soldiers to try and contain the situation in the bay. Both Kassadin and the Machine Herald already had some people out fighting, so we just joined together, but... it doesn't look good."
"We'd been out there three days already, with the Battlecast series and the Voidwalker's men," said one of the acolytes, "but they just kept coming. Even if the other city-states send reinforcements, only the Battlecast can hold a line against that onslaught, and who knows how long they'll last."
"The most powerful of them was pulled away, too," added another, "why, I've no idea, but it's no longer on that battlefield."
Their conversation cut itself short as another explosion, somewhere south, shook the ground. There was a distant roar, and the Secret Weapon, ducking under a lamp post, thought he heard one of the preservers curse.
"There's a storm coming," murmured Janna. Her voice was calm but there was an unmistakable gravity to it. "They must be after Kassadin – we need to find shelter."
"Nowhere above-ground is safe. Those monstrosities will simply tear the city apart building-by-building looking for him," pointed out the only female preserver.
"I've got a place," said Zac, eyeing a manhole cover on the ground, "but I don't think you'll like it."
.
.
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Next Chapter: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/fancreations/gAXBcElu-fanfiction-fracture-chapter-17
