A young man stood amongst a seemingly endless sea of trees and wildlife. Autumn leaves peppered the grass around his feet, their brilliant hues being augmented ever so gently by the rays of sunlight that shone through the canopy. A gentle breeze caressed his face, anchoring his thoughts in the present moment. It was so serene, so familiar. Something inside of him felt like he'd known this place forever.

"Come on, Caleb. Hurry up!"

A girl was in front of him now, weaving through the wilderness, her indigo hair trailing behind her. Her amber eyes watched him, beckoning him to follow. The boy could feel the smile stretching across his face as he ran after his sister. Out on the outskirts, there was little more enjoyable than playing in the forests with her. It was so strange, this joy. It came so naturally, and yet at the same time, it seemed so foreign. Time seemed to disappear as he continued on, fading from his mind and becoming an almost an incomprehensible concept as he chased after his sister's back.

Eventually, his brain began to register some inconsistencies. Tiny seeds of doubt and suspicion that had been planted in his brain since the beginning began sprouting and growing until he could ignore them no more. Where was he? How did he get here? He had no memories to answer these questions. If fact, he seemed to have no memories at all. That was okay, wasn't it? He should consider himself lucky to find himself in such a serene place on little more than a whim. Despite his contentment, trained instinct began to take control, and he desperately wanted for an explanation to all of this. His gaze turned once again to the girl ahead of him. Perhaps his sister knew the answer.

"Hey, hold on -."

Wait, what was her name? Why couldn't he remember her name? She was his sister, his best friend, his companion, and he couldn't remember her name. The young boy looked on as his sister stopped and turned around in compliance to his request. But that was when he truly knew something was amiss. Her face, the face he was sure he'd known his entire life, appeared as nothing but a blur. The amber eyes he knew she had, the boyish confidence that always augmented her expression, the charming smile that could brighten any day; all of them were gone.

"What's wrong, Caleb?"

With that question, the world around him began to crumble apart. The beautiful autumn scene withered to a decrepit black. The boy's emotions changed with his surroundings. His contentment had been replaced with various feelings: anger, regret, and most prominently of all, fear. 'What's wrong?' she asks? Everything was wrong. None of this was real. She wasn't his sister and this wasn't his home. Caleb? No. His name was –

"Talon!"

The assassin jolted awake to the sensation of being shaken rather violently. It took him a second to gather what exactly was going on. He was lying down on something, the ground, presumably, and a clear night sky loomed over him. The ambient starlight lit up the surrounding tree line. On her knees beside him was ad new comrade of his, a comrade that was wearing a very concerned and very real face.

It was that dream. Again.

"Riven, why did you wake me? Is it my watch?" he asked.

The young woman visibly relaxed at her mentor's return to consciousness. "You looked like you were having a bad dream," she answered. "And no, your watch isn't for another couple of hours."

Talon returned her statement with a displeased stare. Riven quickly caught his meaning and elaborated. "It's not like I abandoned my post just to do you a favor," she explained, "You were making noise, a lot of it. It was kind of difficult to concentrate with you grunting and moaning in your sleep."

He took a deep breath and eased his body for the first time since he awoke. "Then, you have my thanks. I apologize for disturbing you."

"No problem," the white-haired swordswoman answered. She gave the assassin a brief smile before returning to her "post". Despite being deep in Demacian territory, they both knew their two-man camp was practically undetectable. Taking turns sleeping was more of a precaution against dangerous wildlife stumbling onto them than a defense against enemy troops.

Talon watched her back as she walked away from him, being reminded of the scene from his dream. Riven was certainly no sister to him, but she was far more agreeable than the Du Couteau siblings. Unlike those two, she was happy to let him have his space and could easily read him through a simple glance. The ranks of the Crimson Elite were thin, and they were bound to be gradually filled with pompous conceits who think themselves unmatchable, but if he could find a way to work with this girl every now and then, the relief it would afford him would make the rest more than bearable.

Talon spent a few minutes trying to fall asleep; however the rest he sought ultimately escaped him. Growing increasingly frustrated with his idleness, the Noxian assassin rose to his feet and stretched, resolving to stay awake up to and through his scheduled watch. He would be losing more sleep than he had planned to, but his assignment was not too demanding, and he was confident he could get away with it. Seeing nothing better to do, he sat up, picked up his arm blade, and took out his honing steel.

"Not going back to bed?" Riven asked from across the campfire.

"I can't," he answered as he ran his steel over his blade's edge. The motion was beyond habitual by this point. He supposed he likened it more to an addiction than anything else.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Riven wasn't expecting him to say yes. She wouldn't classify him as a "quiet type", but he did tend to keep his feelings to himself.

"Do you ever have dreams that feel real?" he asked.

Hearing him say that in his remarkably deep voice was incredibly funny to Riven. "I'm not sure what you mean. Don't most dreams feel like they're real when you're having them?"

Talon shook his head. "I mean dreams that feel more like memories than dreams."

"I can't say I have," she answered. "I've had dreams of things that have happened, but not a dream that I still felt could have happened even after I woke up." She tried to think of what he could have dreamed about, but soon realized how little she truly knew about him. She, like most people, knew he was an urchin that eventually came into the service of Lord Du Couteau, but nothing beyond that. She was beginning to become genuinely curious in the man called the Blade's Shadow. "So, what did you dream about?"

The man sighed, as if preparing himself for some great undertaking. Though his hands continued their motion, his eyes were out of focus. Whatever he was seeing, it wasn't there. "I was in a forest… with a girl."

"Oh? Was she pretty?" Riven teased. Her attitude changed immediately as Talon shot her a glare that was sharper than the spare dagger he kept in his boot. She had to remember that she was talking to one of Noxus's most feared assassins and not her friends back at the barracks. She cleared her throat to signal a sort of apology. "Please, continue."

"I'm not sure how I knew, but the girl was my sister, and the forest was my home. We were playing together and I was… happy. Eventually my sense took over and I realized that it wasn't real. That was about when you woke me up."

Riven didn't speak up immediately, instead pondering his description of his dream. "How did you realize it wasn't real?" she eventually asked.

"I couldn't remember her name," Talon replied. "She also had no face."

"I see. That's bound to raise some suspicion, I suppose," Riven said. The look on his face was one she had yet to see in her few days since meeting him. His usual stone-cold expression had given way to uncertainty.

"So when you say that you feel like it was real, do you mean you think you have a sister somewhere out there?" Riven asked.

"Maybe," he responded. "I knew too much about her for her to have been some random figment of my imagination."

"But didn't you say you were in a forest?" she asked. "I thought you grew up in Noxus."

Talon's gaze returned to the blade in front of him. "To tell the truth, there's a decent period of time that I can't account for at all. Judging by my teeth and when puberty hit me, my first memories are around the age of ten. By that time I was already in the streets of Noxus with nothing but the clothes on my back and a knife."

"So you really might have a sister somewhere out there?"

"I suppose I might, but it makes little difference at this point in my life. Even if I found her, she would likely want nothing to do with me; and the last thing I need is a potential hostage to be used against me."

He had a point. Still, she was glad to have been able to talk with him so easily; she never expected to hear anything from him that wasn't mission-related. At this point, she just wanted to keep the conversation going. "You know I'm surprised you seem so troubled over a dream about a girl in a forest instead of say… nightmares about kills you regret. I'd figure that would be common in your line of work." Riven internally winced. That wasn't exactly an ideal conversation topic for people who barely knew each other.

"I'm no murderer, Riven," Talon remarked. "I regret none of what I have done. When you go to war, regardless of your cause, you resign yourself to the possibility of death at the blade of the enemy. All of my targets had accepted that fact, and if they hadn't, they were fools who had no business with power in the first place. Even in my days on the streets, I never killed anyone I didn't absolutely have to. I'll admit I have developed an affinity for the art of killing, for the thrill of the hunt, but when I do so, I do it out of duty or the need to survive, nothing else."

That was certainly not what she expected to hear. She was honestly quite surprised that such an infamous and intimidating figure lived by such a philosophy. Though when she gave some thought to what she knew of his background, she supposed it made sense. He killed to survive, he had to. The only reason he was here was because Lord Du Couteau would have killed him otherwise. He killed dozens of guild representatives trying to stay on his own. He never wanted this life; in fact, he spent a fair portion of his life prior actively trying to avoid fighting for a cause he didn't believe in.

"What about you, Riven? What made you join the Crimson Elite? Why are you here?"

"Out of loyalty to Noxus," she answered. "This nation is the only one that truly recognizes and respects an individual's talents, and I have that to thank for all of the success I've met so far. After what they've done to help me cultivate my strength and become the best that I can be, I owe it to Noxus to fight to the best of my ability, and at the highest calling I can answer."

That was a textbook answer if Talon had ever heard one. He now understood why she was sometimes called the poster child of the Noxian ideal. At least her faith was rewarded; the rune blade she carried was one of the finest he had come across, and she was quite good with it. Once she learned how to properly use that wind enchantment of hers, few would be able to stand against her. She would definitely be one to keep his eyes on.

"And you, Talon? I know your loyalties are to General Du Couteau and not Noxus. Can I trust you to have my back out there?"

Talon smiled at that. It wasn't ever y day he came across someone who was smart enough to question her allies' fidelity. It may be unwarranted amongst the numbers of the Crimson Elite, but a bit of skepticism went a long way where he was from. Perhaps they would make a good pair after all. "You don't have to worry about me. You'd be killed by a Demacian one hundred times over before you'd meet your end at my blade. It's best you keep your focus on the enemies in front of you than the allies beside you."

"Thanks, I guess," she replied. "You know you look a lot scarier than you really are."

"Our enemies would disagree."

"You know what I mean. When Katarina first told me I'd be apprenticed to the Talon I was a bit nervous. It's pretty relieving to see there's a man behind the name."

He scoffed at her comment. "Is that that she told you? That you'd be 'apprenticed' to me?"

"Isn't that what this is?" Riven asked. "Why else would she send me with you to spy on the Commandos' movements?"

Talon set down his arm blade and sat down across from her. "I'm babysitting you."

"What?"

"You left the standard ranks what, a week ago? There's still a lot you have to learn before we're able to consider you a full-fledged Crimson Elite. The only reason you're here is because Katarina didn't want to deal with a new recruit."

Riven's face was overcome with embarrassment. She hadn't considered the possibility that her commander was just shoving her off onto her little brother. "But Katarina said you would be in charge of all of my instruction until I'm deemed fit to serve."

"She did?"

Riven nodded. "What she didn't tell you?"

"Shit."

"What is it?"

"Well, it looks like I'm going to be in charge of your training from here on out. Let's try to make this as painless as possible, okay?"

"Of course, sir." To think that their sibling dynamic crossed over into the official chain of command of the Crimson Elite… the idea was ridiculous. Still, Riven supposed she preferred something like this to an uptight and by-the-books organization. It gave it a more homely feel. "If you don't mind, Talon," she said with a yawn, "If you're staying up, I'd like to turn in early."

Talon motioned toward her makeshift sleeping area in a display of approval, his talkative mood now seemingly passed. Riven lay down on the dirt, her head resting on a loose piece of cloth from her outfit. Her eyes closed and her consciousness slipped away. She was eager to begin her new life as one of Noxus's finest.

The pair continued their mission in the following week, eventually coming to realize that the entire Demacian military had been mobilized in some capacity. Unwilling to risk an attempt at infiltration with a rookie in his charge and at risk of exposure with so many soldiers about; Talon called a premature end to their operation and returned to Noxus with Riven. If this sudden military action was aimed at Noxus, the services of the Crimson Elite would be needed more than ever. As such, Riven's training would begin immediately.