League of Legends Judgement: Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths

Now, I know this has been done before. But I want to put my spin on it. I love Nautilus, and I love his character. I like playing as him, and the New Dawn cinematic told me how large he really is. But I do not like how Riot has ignored the lore of a character that they could build so much more off of. Now granted, I know that they have been hard at work on things like Tahm and new lore re-build and all that, but if Riot won't put out something about my favorite man in metal, damn it I will.

Observation

A great heavy trudging can be heard throughout the Great Hall. The sound of metal striking against the cold stone echoes throughout the entire area. On one arm rests an enormous anchor, partially rusted and covered in dried salt water. A chain is linked to the top of the anchor, and appears to move up his arm and into an open area on his shoulder pad. A faint light shines through the kinks in his suit, but his facial visor is a pit of seemingly never ending darkness. Only a pair of dark glowing red eyes peer out, staring ever forward. He moves towards the door, slowly, but steadily. The door is of enormous size, and has unintelligible scribblings lining the outer archway. He looks the door up and down before readjusting the position of the anchor on his shoulder. He notices magical runes and inscriptions woven into the stone on the floor, but he does not read them. He has a single goal in mind, use the Institute of War to find and punish those who let him die.

Reflection

The door opens into a room of complete darkness. Nautilus steps inside, anchor still planted firmly on his shoulder. Once he is completely inside, the door slams behind him. Nautilus turns to look at the door again, then turns back. He finds himself on a boat. No, not a boat, a very large ship. He looks around. On either side of the wooden deck he is surrounded by dark blue water. He immediately is confronted by someone, not as large as him but not that much shorter. A friend perhaps? Time and memory has a way of making faces drift away like the ebbing tides of memory. The man speaks to him.

"Nautilus, we haven't found anything yet. I'm beginning to think this ocean has nothing to offer but bands of roaming pirates."

Nautilus thinks for a moment, then replies.

"Let us hope that those same pirates don't try to attack us." Nautilus is dumbstruck. His voice... it is clear. He can speak fluently. His voice is free of the echoing deepness that held him for so long. He can think clearly, his thoughts not clouded by... by what? He can't quite remember. He gazes down at his hands and finds no hardened gloves, but instead skin darkened by a large amount of time out in the blazing sunlight. He looks down at his torso and feet. Nothing.. he is wearing clothes. Normal clothes. Where did the suit go?

"I SEE SOMETHING! OFF THE PORT SIDE!" A shrill voice calls out from high above the ship. A loud rough voice yells out in reply to it.

"Well what is it then? Aren't we supposed to report anythin'' unusual out here?" Its the captain. He wears a bright red hat outlined in a dark black. His torso is covered in a light brown coat with the sleeves torn just below the biceps. He wears a plain white undershirt that is covered in sweat from the hot afternoon sun. "I don't know what it is," Cries the voice back. "It looks like... black sludge. And it's covered the whole ocean!"

"Well, what are we waiting for then? Those damn wizards over at the Institute of War wanted SOMETHING, so let's give 'em something!" The ship picks up speed as the sails unfurl. The wooden mast creaks with strain as the ship moves at full speed towards the dark ooze in the distance.

The scene instantly speeds up to a few days later. Nautilus looks out at the water, once strikingly crystal clear blue, has turned to a thick black sludge that the ship can barely move in. Nautilus looks around at this fellow sailors. They all seem tense and their eyes show fright and unrest. Even the captain, a powerful fearless man, seems slightly unnerved by the strange liquid that had replaced the water. Nautilus hears a familiar voice. He turns to see his friend. He still cannot quite remember his name... all their faces seem to blur together. His friend walks up to him, slightly shorter than usual.

"You really are a brave man Nautilus. No one else is willing to put on the diving suit, and you step forward to take it without so much as a twinge of fear in your eye. I wish I could be as brave as you are."

Something is wrong.

No, no. Something is going to happen. Something bad, something very bad. It is going to happen soon. But what was it... WHAT WAS IT? The memories... so faint... how.. can anyone remember anything?

Nautilus grips the side of the rail, and swings himself to the other side. He drops his lower body overboard. The wooden side railing creaks in response to the massive weight, but holds. No sooner has he done this, then dark tendrils lash out of the ooze and grab a hold of the man. It pulls, but Nautilus holds on. The ship rocks to one side, then the other. The other sailors on the ship look at each other with pure terror. The ship erupts into complete pandemonium. Sailors run every which way, deckhands run back below deck, and soldiers look frantically for their weapons. Whatever is in the water, no one on board wants to meet it. Suddenly, a single sailor stops running and looks overboard at Nautilus. Eventually, all on board are staring at him. One sailor screams,

"WHATEVER IT IS, IT WANTS HIM! LET IT HAVE HIM!" The other sailors nod in agreement and rush to push the man overboard. As they all run tripping over each other to reach Nautilus's hands, the captain tries to stop them. "You can't just leave a fellow man to die to save yourself! HELP HIM YOU COWARDS!" The friend, the one he can almost remember also speaks up over the yelling sailors.

"You can't just let him drop! HE'S MY FRIEND AND ALL OF YOURS TOO!" The other sailors either do not hear the two shouting men or choose not to. All they see is how Nautilus is causing the ship to threaten to tip over into the ooze. Nautilus looks up at them with pleading eyes. He stares out of the cold suit and begs for his life. Asking his fellow man to help him when he needs it most. They do not head his cries. The men violently shove the captain out of the way, and with one last cry they wrench Nautilus's grip free from the side of this ship.

Time slows. Nautilus is in a free fall to the ocean below. This... this was what was going to happen. This is what could have been prevented. Time slingshots back to normal speed and he grabs at the ship's anchor in desperation, hoping to give himself some glimmer of hope as to escape. But the anchor breaks free of the chain holding it to the side of the ship. Nautilus sinks towards the ocean floor. The once great ship becoming a dark outline. The once blazingly bright sun, being reduced to a faint glow. And instantly everything turns to darkness.

Nautilus awakes on the ocean floor. He looks around. He is deep. Deep in the sunless, ever dark depths. He stands up, the weight and pressure is immense on him. He remembers being on a ship. Something in the dark ooze grabbing him. And... those who he thought as friends wrenching his grip free. Nautilus looks down at his hands. Hardened gloves again... he doesn't feel alive anymore. Something about him isn't... right. He is instantly consumed with immense anger. They left him to die. No one came to his rescue. No.. someone tried to. Who though? He can't.. quite remember. He hears a familiar voice speak to him.

"Hello Nautilus." The weight of the ocean is instantly relieved, and Nautilus spins around to face the one who spoke to him. It was the man. The man who he tried so hard to remember. The man who tried to help him. Nautilus speaks, his voice once again deep and toneless.

"What happened... Why... why didn't you do more to help me?" The man chuckles, but not in a friendly manner. He walks closer to Nautilus.

"Why would I want to help you Nautilus? You are nothing more than a hulking man inside of a metal suit. Who would want to be friends with you? You were never a man. You always were nothing but an evil thing with a metal heart. Why would I be friends with something like you? A dark creature? A monster?"

Nautilus is consumed in utter rage. He takes a step forward, then another one. His feet are causing cracks in the sandy bed. The ocean is becoming heavier and heavier by the step. It is almost as if the sea itself is trying to halt his progress. But the weight is nothing compared to pure fury. Nautilus shouts.

"Monster? You think I am a MONSTER? I NEVER WANTED TO BE THIS WAY!" Nautilus cannot contain his anger anymore. He swings his anchor at the man, who turns into a plume of smoke. The metallic casing smashes into the ground with a loud crash. He reappears behind Nautilus. Nautilus turns and swings again, but his enemy has already vanished again.

"WHY DO YOU RUN?" The thought of being so close to even one of the men who condemned him to his fate and not being able to punish him infuriates Nautilus.

The man appears again, and speaks.

"Why do you want to join the League of Legends Nautilus?"

"So that I can try to live again!" swing "So that I can find why this happened to me!" swing "SO I CAN PUNISH THE MEN WHO LEFT ME TO DIE!" Nautilus shouts at the man. He smashes the anchor into the ground one last time, and creates a large dent in the floor.

Nautilus is about to speak again, when he realizes something. That strange feeling finally becomes clear. He has already done this before. He has already been sent to the bottom of the sea. He has already been robbed of his life. He has already lost his humanity. His anger clears, something that has never happened before. Nautilus wasn't always the smartest on this ship, but he wasn't a fool.

"You... would have me relive the worst moment of my life? You would have me relive the moment when my life was stolen from me? You... you are NOT the man who stands before me." Nautilus's anger began to swell again. His "friend" takes a step backward.

"Oh really now? Now what makes you so sure?" Nautilus takes another step forward. His memories start to become less faint.

"I know, because you have become the one man who tried to defend me." He takes another step forward. "I know because I remember entering the hall and opening the doors to this terrible place." Another step. He was now nearly touching the man. "And I know, because this man," Nautilus points at the person masquerading as someone he is not. "Would never betray me."

The two stand, looking at each other. The strange man, the one man Nautilus can make out the face of, bores into Nautilus's eyes. Or rather, bores deep into his dark visor. He then says, "How does it feel, exposing your mind?"

Nautilus stands upright, no longer staring at the man who he once called friend. He turns his back to the man, and begins walking away. But before he moves to the area that the door once was, he says a single thing.

"It makes me feel... clearer." Nautilus turns around to look at the man again, but he is gone. The once dark ocean has become a room again. Large cracks and lines now align themselves with the dark marble floor. Nautilus turns again. "I will not stop, not rest, until I find the guilty. And when I do, they will pay for what they have done to me." With that, Nautilus leaves the chamber.

Oh boy. I wrote this long ass thing at nearly one in the morning, and I appreciate if you read through the entire thing. I know this thing is really long and drawn out, and isn't that good so all I ask is that you aren't unnecessarily hostile about it. I know nobody will ever read this, but in case you are one of the six people who probably did read this, thank you for suffering through my terrible writing, Thank you, and have a wonderful rest of your day.