1. Phantasm
The forest was dark. In her dreams, the forests are always dark, covered with an eerie veil of black, with a ghostly wind blowing about, cracking the branches. The crown of trees was high and thick, covering the nocturnal sky and a potential ray of hope. The cawing of crows was not dimmed in the background, not even by the howling winds of midnight, and the whole scene seemed to close out onto her. A white, embroidered dress fluttered in the dark, puffs of air escaping her nostrils as a girl much like a phantasm and less likely human ran for her dear life. Her legs and arms bruised from the constant cutting of branches, feet dirtied and one shoe even lost. The icy cold ground burned her bare foot, and fatigue was taking over her, but she could not stop, not now. Silvery ticks of hair stuck to her sweaty forehead and cheeks, desperation crawling in her eyes, as she ran and ran and kept on running. But she tripped on storming, crushing onto the hard ground, soon to be her graveyard.
And the silence followed. Everything ceased to exist; the wind, the cracking of branches, even the crows. Only her heart was the only sound she heard in the deepest corners of herself, but soon that would cease to exist as well. She could feel herself slowly drifting away, as tainted arms rose from all around her, grabbing onto the thin of her body, dirtying her further. She tried to scream, to trash about, but their grip was too strong on her frail body and she knew she would be dragged back to hell once again. Hot tears streamed down her face, as she tried in a futile attempt to claw her nails onto the flesh of the arms keeping her prisoner, only to realize they were hard as rock and just as morbidly cold. There was no escape for her this time.
She was tired, she only wanted to rest. Maybe, if she closed her eyes once more, the nightmares would cease to exist and the following second, she would be able to rest.
Her life began to flash before her eyes, before everything started to morph into the richest shade of emerald, the only colour in her monochromatic world. The light began to take shape, and she gladly embraced her end. Silver chains burning emerald engulfed from the glean, lunged themselves at her and at any moment now she will be –
She awoke with a gasp, followed shortly by a greedy intake of air. Her lungs were burning inside of her ribcage, and, as she realised she was sweating heavily. Long, silvery hair sprawled on the whitest sheets, clinging to her forehead and shoulders, as a ghostly pale hand reached to her heart, trying to calm down the irregular beating. Such a futile thing to try and achieve.
"Again, I was having the same dream..." She breathed to no one in particular, clenching onto her nightdress, forcing her eyes shut. It was unsettling her, having to spend every single night living that nightmare over and over again, having her consumed by it, until she turned to ash. So very unsettling, as it were more of a premonition than an actual coincidence.
And that thought alone never left the darkest of her mind, once it crept in.
However, she still had to prepare for the day, as consumed as she felt, so, after her heart managed to somewhat calm down, she rose from her bed, heading to the bathroom and begin the gloomy day with a cold, refreshing shower.
Summoner Gabriella left behind her family name and heritage back when she had an affinity for ice. Of course, her power did not consist of making snow bunnies on summer days, nor could she summon forth a typhoon, but she could materialise a weapon if needed, when she had to fight on her own, and outside the Summoner's Rift. It had been not less than a couple of years since she'd been accepted into the Institute, but socialising had not been a forte of hers.
Pulling off the hood off her hair and setting it free in endless waves of eternal ice, she allowed herself to heave out a heavy sigh, after leaving the Summoner's Chambers. A difficult match ended earlier, and all she wanted at the moment was to have lunch and iced tea. She did not fancy the cloaks a lot, as they were pretty average for every Summoner, aside from the ones with high ranks, but at least with that she would not stand out very much. She was no longer Gabrielle Weiss, the heir of the Weiss estate in Demacia, but just a normal Summoner.
As she was making her way towards the canteen, she noticed golden locks bounce next to her, a young girl appearing by her side with a wide, bubble smile.
"Hello Luxanna, good job on the Rift, earlier today," the young woman commented, and the smile on the blonde only widened even more.
"You too, Ella. I always love playing with you. And thank you for letting my use the Imperial clothing today. You know how I miss it from time to time," the younger girl said with a light pout, batting the bluest eyes at her friend.
Gabriella's own grey ones could only dream to compete with Lux's. Nevertheless, she smiled at her favourite Champion and promised to play with her more. She enjoyed playing with Lux the most, out of all the Champions from the League, and not because they were both Demacians, or, well, used to be.
"Well then, I'm off, I promised Ez to have lunch in the garden today. Bye, bye!" The blonde chirped gleefully, then hurried away, and towards her lover.
Gabriella could only look at her back, how happy she was, despite being sacrificed so many times just a few minutes earlier, by the ruthlessness of Rengar and Yasuo. Then again, she must have gotten long used to it, since she was sent to the Institute when she was still a child.
Shaking her head and coming back to reality, she hung her arms around her figure, pacing slowly towards the canteen. "Well then, what should we eat today? I wonder if they have chicken breast salad with white sauce... Or spaghetti sounds nice... Hmm..." She kept mumbling to herself, not really paying attention to her surroundings.
So the clash was inevitable. The first thing she felt was the cold touch of steel against her nose and forehead. However, that touch soon shifted to pain, as something managed to cut her over her right brow and forehead.
"Ah!" She exclaimed in pain, jolting backwards in an instant, immediately checking her freshly gained cut, and only paling when seeing the vibrant red on her ghostly pale fingers.
The one she clashed onto turned around as well, and when Gabriella realized just who it was, a feeling of dread and nausea took over her. Blazing green surrounded her eyesight, immediately making her sick to the stomach. All that creepy attire he was wearing, with the black overcoat and the large shoulder armour she cut herself in, the eerie way he carried himself, the lantern from where souls apparently cried out, and especially that skull hung onto flames above his shoulders, Gabriella simply could not stand the sight of him.
Thresh, the Chain Warden, her only walking nightmare. Thresh, the maniac everyone seemed to love picking. Thresh, the creep who would utter complete nonsense during matches.
Thresh.
Thresh.
Thresh.
"Oh, my apologies, I did not mean to–" But he was suddenly cut off in midsentence by her glare, one simple look inflicting all sorts of wonderful feelings into his twisted mind.
Gabriella pushed past him without as much as a second look, grumpily whispering "watch where you're going next time" after her. Little did she know that emerald eyes never lost sight of her, at least until she turned the corner and returned to her quarters.
She did not dislike him personally, she disliked the whole idea of him; a corrupted warden who loved playing mind games and torturing people kept at the Institute, where he was slowly corrupting Summoners and having them do as he pleased. She had seen his Judgement, back when he was first brought there, she had seen all the gruesome things he had done, the way his victims eventually fell, in painful last breaths, the way their souls screamed in agony even after their passing, as they were locked in that lantern of his. And yet, people picked him for his skills. Yes, he was a talented fighter – not that she knew any details, since she never watched him – but that ought not to give the right to keep criminals next to innocent youngsters like Lux or Summoners in training, who were not even older than twelve.
"Tsk!" She clicked her tongue once she looked in the mirror from her dresser, dark cloak thrown at the edge of her bed. The cut was rather deep, since she straight walked into those spiky things herself, but where she not lucky, she could be holding one of her eyeballs instead. The mere thought made her shiver. "It's going to take a while to heal, even with my regenerative powers, it would seem," Gabriella added with a heavy sigh, and look among the drawers for something to properly tend to her cut. She would put a band-aid over it and wait for it to heal by itself. It did hurt, true, but there was no point in overexerting herself and her mana so, right before a sparring match with a... an acquaintance of hers.
Still, Gabriella was not very pleased with such a turn of events, but would have to bear with it regardless. So, instead of whining about such an ugly meeting with the Green Reaper, she'd just get to change and head to the Training Chambers. Lunch will have to wait.
"Ella, hello? Valoran to Ella?" An angry voice called out to her, to which the silver haired woman eventually responds with s surprised look.
A red flurry of hair moved closer to her, jade eyes glaring at her like a tigress about to jump on her prey. Katarina was definitely not pleased with her partner's current state of mind. They were supposed to be sparring, and not being careful of Ella, who was daydreaming right in the middle of a fight.
"Oh, uh, sorry Katarina. I was rather... distracted." She replied rather sheepishly, starting to move about once again. "Shall we continue?"
The redhead rolled her eyes and took the hair band resting on her wrist to tie her fiery hair. "You are infuriating, you know that?" She retorted then with a glare.
Gabriella made a face, then side stepped one of Katarina's blades at the last second. "I did apologise." She then repeated with a rather sulky voice.
"Don't forget that you were the one who asked me to help you practice close range combat. So you better not slack off or I'll kill you for good," she continued, lunging forward, and appearing a split second behind Gabriella, twirling about, only to be evaded sloppily once again.
"I know that! And you know I'm very thankful for your help. I just had something going on earlier today." The silver haired woman spoke, this time meeting Katarina's punches with her forearms.
"Ooh!" The sheer curiosity could not be hidden from the redhead's face. "Do tell. Does it, maybe have to do with the cut you got on your forehead?" She then asked tauntingly.
The expression of displease was obvious on Gabriella's face. With that, the pretty assassin knew she had hit bull's eye. "Something like that. Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it." Gabriella replied curtly with a grimace.
"Was it Thresh again?" The question seemed to catch her off guard, so Katarina took opportunity of that opening to lunge forward once again, instantly immobilising the fair haired woman, winning the round. "Besides, why would you even need close combat? You're a ranged fighter, with that badass scythe of yours." The redhead then voiced her confusion, while helping Gabriella up to her feet.
"Well, yes, but you can never know."
Katarina was close to another smart remark, when her friend got a notification to report to the Institute's Representative's office. "Wow, that is unexpected." Gabriella retorted without an ounce of curiosity, while reading the message.
"Maybe you're sent out to a mission," Katarina said with a shrug.
Fate had a dark humour to unfold certain events. Just when Gabriella thought her day couldn't get any worse, fate was bound to prove her wrong. When she arrived to Kayle's office, a couple of minutes earlier, with her hair tied neatly and wearing one of her more official silver dresses, she was more than certain she was going to be sent on a mission.
"You're a bit early," Kayle noted with a small smile, as she looked up from her pile of documents which nearly swallowed her face. "Have a seat."
And Gabriella did as she was told, having a seat, carefully folding her layers of dress underneath her. She was told to wait a bit until her soon to be partner would arrive as well. That thought alone displeased her. She was rarely prone to teamwork, but almost always refused to cooperate whenever men were involved.
And the moment he stepped in the office, hell soon set loose. Emerald green blurred her sight, and the only thing she wanted to do was run out the door and never come back. Then again, she could not do that, otherwise she'd most certainly be kicked out of the Institute and straight in the streets.
"Hello," he greeted with that phantom voice of his, but Gabriella didn't even spare him a look.
It was Kayle who returned the gesture. A couple of more minutes ticked by, the tension already building up inside of her chest. She could not take it anymore. At the very least, he had the decency not to sit down next to her, but remain standing, leaned against a wall.
"All right, sorry for keeping you waiting." Kayle eventually managed, throwing an apologetic look at both of them. After clearing her throat, she began to state her purpose of calling them in her office. "Summoner Gabriella, Champion Thresh, I have asked you both here today, as I would like to send you on a mission, to retrieve a certain artefact located in Ionia. It's not a long mission, not too difficult either, as Karma was willing to cooperate to offer up the Eye of Niccelodeia once you've managed to find it. It's located in a ruined temple in the depths of Ionia, but I don't believe it to be a hard task. You will proceed with this mission tomorrow."
And with these few words and no possibility to refuse, Summoner Gabriella's fate seemed to be sealed in a Box, forever locked away.
Alright, so, I haven't written in a very long time, and my skills are rather rusty, but do bear with me c: I suppose this story ought to be 2-3 chapters long, probably 3, depending on my mood. I must confess, Thresh is not one of my most played champions, but I find the idea of him rather... alluring. So here is a story i thought up today at college, which wouldn't leave my mind. All I can say is, I hope you enjoyed!
Oh and, it will contain some smut scenes later on and some graphic material, hence the rating. Oh well.