A/N: This is the first fanfiction I've ever published so criticism is not only welcome but encouraged. I plan on this being a series about the interactions between any given champions in a universe where most of their personal conflicts have become water under the bridge and where they don't feel the need to enforce their ideas on others as much. They don't necessarily have to be rivals but it does create more opportunity to stay true to the lore. These scenarios are based on my headcanons of the League being a place more of friendship and peace than of pure violence and chaos.

The Institute of War, a place where all the factions and city-states of Valoran can settle their disputes. From each of these city-states and factions, representatives, aptly called champions, are sent to resolve conflict on the Fields of justice. This setting made for hostile encounters between champions at any given moment and not one individual could be sure who was friend or foe. A place of chaos that harbored malicious intent for champions between them and their foes is what The Institute of War used to be.

A man clothed in white, wielding two guns, recklessly shoots at a green glowing specter from a place known as The Shadow Isles. The specter, with a chain hook in one hand and lantern in the other, laughs manically as each shot misses. He throws hook at the man and it coils around him then begins to drag him closer to the spectral being he hated so much. In a struggle to free himself from the chains, he shouted,

"Curse you, Thresh! I'll kill you 10,000 times before I consider forgiving you for what you did to me, for what you did to Senna!"

Dragging him closer, the being known as Thresh managed to bring the struggling man close to him and brought his lantern between their faces. Holding it up, sounds of the screaming and agony of thousands of tortured souls could be heard from it. Thresh responded to the struggling man, in a cool and smooth voice,

"Oh Lucian, you know you can join her. Think about how blissful it would be! A guaranteed eternity with your beloved."

After enough struggling, the man armed with two guns, known as Lucian, manages to break free. Shocked and horrified by the images seen in the lantern, he is brought to his knees on the ground and struggles to regain his composure.

"10,000 times", he reminds himself, "I'll kill him over and over again."

War and death is still rampant and essential in this institution. The way The Institute of War is able to hold so many battles while keeping the same roster of champions is through the use of revival magic. On The Fields of Justice a champion may die as many times as possible and be revived in time to fight the minute after their death. Because of this, champions with personal conflicts between each other, in which one or both parties have vowed to kill the other, have somewhat settled down in the recent years that the institute has been active. Not only time, but death as well proves to be very powerful in the healing and forgiveness process. There are even occasions when one must ally themselves with their worst enemy along with some strangers in order to win a deciding battle. Champions with no quarrels even begin to make sport of war and in its friendliest state, can even be seen as a fun competition. One may think it insane to have coffee on a Monday morning right before a match with the person who killed their wife and took her soul but, this and many things like it have happened.

In a coffee shop located outside The Institute of War, a champion named Thresh sits on a leather chair with a mahogany table in front of him. On this table, two cups of coffee are set. He decides to take a sip of his while looking at the other expectantly.

"He's never one to be late…" he thinks as his attention trails off to the sound of something turning on. To his right, a large television begins to display specific stats about each champion. It begins with Aatrox and goes into great detail about how many times he's killed each champion and how many times he's died to each champion. Thresh feels no surprise when he sees that Tryndamere is at the top of both those lists. When the report continues and switches over to information about Ahri, Thresh's face begins to turn red upon seeing her portrait. As he diverts his attention away from the screen, he spots Lucian walking in through the double doors and into the shop. Thresh waves and motions him to sit on chair across from him. The gunman gives notices him, walks over to take a seat and sees his coffee waiting for him, still hot.

"'Morning, Thresh." He says before taking a sip of his caffeinated beverage. As he gets comfortable, Thresh turns his head toward the report that is still being displayed on the television. Once it gets to Kog'Maw, Thresh looks back at Lucian and begins with some excitement in his voice,

"Today shouldn't pose much of a challenge. I heard our lane opponents will be Kog'Maw and Janna. Oh when I think of the delightful agony we shall inflict…" Lucian, acknowledging his confidence and eagerness, gives a little chuckle but refrains from breaking his demeanor of not smiling. As he ponders, he remembers past encounters with both Kog'Maw and Janna and makes his skepticism of their guaranteed win clear by responding with

"We'll have to put Kog behind as fast as possible, otherwise he'll become a monster. Janna also could get annoying, I've never been able to catch up to that woman." Before Thresh can keep the conversation going, he notices that Lucian's information was now being displayed. The Lightslinger also looks at the television screen. Looking at all the in-depth statistics and numbers, they both see the kills they've gotten on each other. The Chain Warden discovers that in game, Lucian has killed him 10,282 times since he's arrived at The Institute of War. Silence falls over him as he tries to think of a way to get back to the discussion they were having earlier. He remembers that number all too well and while it didn't mean much to him then, it certainly strikes a chord with him now. After Lucian's report is done, he looks back to Thresh who has his head down, seemingly in some kind of awkward shame. Seeing this, Lucian says,

"I know what you're thinking, Thresh…" he paused before he continued, "I know your assist count with me is below average but today's an opportunity to get that up. Plus…Ahri is gunna be watching so show her and the rest of them what you're made of." Thresh almost chokes when he hears this and his face turns red again. Gaining his confidence back, Thresh begins to talk about their strategy with Lucian and flashy plays they could make to impress the Nine-tailed Fox.

It wasn't long before Lucian realized that he would never get Senna back and it took even less time to realize that Thresh would prove to be an extremely powerful ally on The Fields of Justice. Though conversation not pertaining to battle strategy was short, few, and far between, he discerned that the views on death from those originating in The Shadow Isles were much different from his own. He could never walk past Karthus without hearing one of his sermons of death and how it freed the living from the prison that was their physical form. It still begged the question of how Thresh's methods of keeping souls in a lantern tied into the Deathsinger's religion. He knew Thresh was different, still as crazy and insane, but different. Regardless, he knew from hints given by the warden and his own beliefs that Senna was still with him watching him. Whether it was from inside of a lantern or from somewhere far beyond -like he had hoped- he knew she was there, telling him to keep moving on.