Not much action in this chapter, it will pick up though I promise! :D
Chapter 1: Confrontation
A few months following the prolouge...
The clatter of wood collapsing could be heard throughout the rundown town. Yasuo walked over to the ruined house. The crackle of flames died down as the embers of the fire that destroyed the home burned with a warm glow. Yasuo felt almost peaceful, entranced by the remains of the fire, until he noticed something uncomfortably familiar about the deteriorating wood. A small trace of a green, life-like mist tangling itself around the wood, eating at it like termites. It was much weaker than he had last seen it at the battle of Ionian. Yasuo stepped back slowly. Noxians. Not like it was surprising, but to be armed with Singed's gas was something of a concern. He walked through the village, or what was left of it. Entering a building he saw bodies, burnt, charred and fragile they where hiding. He reached the center of the village and saw a Demacian standard leaning on a pile of rubble. Interesting for for a Demacian village to be so far from Demacia. He continued to the edge, when he saw it.
The bodies of Noxian bio-soldiers, equipped with crude gas-masks and gas canisters and poisoned laced weapons that lay scattered amidst their masters, were strewn across the grassy plain in front of the forest line. Yasuo stepped carefully around the bodies, when from the forest he heard laughing. Some had lived. Yasuo crept through the forest and crouched in the underbrush in front of a clearing where four figures stood. Three Noxians stood surrounding a young woman who was bent over breathing hard. She had snow colored hair and bore no armor, except some rag bandages, a single tarnished sabaton, a metal spaulder and gauntlet. She looked flustered, eyeing something in the brush behind her. Yasuo's heart started beating faster. He crept to where the woman was looking. The woman's eye's widened and the Noxian soldiers shouted in surprise. Out of the bushes came flying a massive broken sword, which was little more than a hilt. It stuck into the ground when it landed, as soon as Yasuo emerged from the foliage. Yasuo walked over to the blade he had found. The Noxians and woman eyed him cautiously.
Yasuo put his hand slowly on his hilt, closed his eyes and disappeared before their eyes. He reappeared in front of the closest Noxian, whipping his katana up, slicing up the chest of the soldier who fell back. He shot his hand out at the second Noxian, who tried to react, but a a forceful gust of wind pulled him closer to the Yasuo, skewering him on his out-reached katana. The final soldier began to run, but Yasuo whipped out of the body and swung his blade across the air, sending out a wind cleave that hit the runner in the back. Yasuo then turned toward the woman. She had gone and retrieved her sword and pointed it at him.
"Riven," he said, staring down the woman.
"Don't speak that name." She she said breathless.
"Don't deny it, you are Riven. You helped lead a Noxius Invasion against my home," Yasuo said, raising his voice.
"Do not speak of that," the woman said, shaking her head.
"You slaughtered women, children, innocents and my elder!" Yasuo yelled. "Do not deny it, Riven!"
"Stop!"
"You are the reason, I'm here now, no begging will stop me."
"No, look out!" the woman said running towards Yasuo.
Yasuo turned around and saw the first soldier Yasuo had attacked pulling the detonate wire on his canister. He flew feet's backward slamming into a tree and landing face down on the ground. He was blown away from the canister, but the gas spewing from it would soon reach him. Yasuo tired to stand up, but the left side of his body screamed out in defiance of the action. Burn marks and blisters covered that part of his body, although his shoulder guard had blocked most of the explosion from his face. He lifted his right arm, grasping the dirt in front of him. He dug his fingers in and and tried to drag himself farther away, but in a few moments Yasuo blacked out.
Birds chirping was the first thing Yasuo heard. However, it was followed by a shot of pain as he tried rubbing his eyes. He let out a deep breath and sighed. When his eyes had adjusted, he looked at his surroundings. He lay on a very soft mattress, in a simple but clean room. The floors where smooth and spotless, and there was a side table with linens and a bowl of hot water. The stream slowly rose out of the bowl and dissipated into the cool morning air. At the head of the mattress was a bowl of cold water, and Yasuo had a cold linen on his forehead, as well as across his chest, arms and legs. He slowly sat up, leaning back against the pillows stacked up behind his head. His things where propped up against the wall in front of him. He scratched the back of his head. His hair felt different, it was no longer long, and he had a burn on the back of his head. Fire must of caught his pony tail. Behind him there were two sliding doors opening to a cliff edge that peered over a vast lake. It was then that he noticed by his good hand a plate and piece of bread and cheese. He ate slowly, trying to balance, with only one side of his body wanting to function properly.
"Glad to see you're eating," a woman's voice said from the doorway.
"You, you were the one to do...all of this?" Yasuo said is disbelief.
"Who else was around?" the woman said.
Yasuo was confused, but too tired to think too hard. The woman, who he he was sure was Riven didn't have her pieces of armor, or more importantly, sword in hand. She wore a brown shirt and a simple white skirt made out of intertwined pieces of linen and held up by a belt that sat loosely on one hip. She was leaning in the door frame, looking at Yasuo.
"Why do you deny your name...Riven," Yasuo said with some distaste.
She sighed.
"I do not like the history associated with it," Riven said finally.
Yasuo finished his food and looked at Riven, his eyes stern.
"You cannot run from your past, Riven. I've tried."
Riven scoffed, but looked at the ground in deep thought. After awhile she raised her head.
"5000 gold pieces for an ex-Ionian swordsman for murder...Yasuo."
"Seen the posters have you, condemned for a mur-" he started.
"For a murder that you didn't commit, I know," She said.
"So, you've heard all the facts of the case? Yes I plea innocent, but it does not matter. Why do-" Yasuo said as he was interrupted once again.
"Know so much? I would, since I was there...at the murder scene..." She said trailing off.
"So it was you-" Yasuo yelled, but was cut off by a fit of coughing
"Yes, I did murder that elder...another body laid to rest because of my blade." she said as she looked aimlessly around the room
Yasuo leaned forward and commanded the wind to carry his katana to his hand. He arced his blade so that the sheathe slipped of and clattered to the side. He dug his blade into the floor and pulled himself into a standing position. Riven eyed the man. He was putting all his weight on his sword to stand. She walked over to him and stood in front of him.
"Do you wish to kill me?"
"With all my heart," He growled.
Riven bent to her knees, leaving the back of her neck exposed. Yasuo raised his blade... and threw it into the wall next to him, a soft tang sounded as it hit home. He snorted.
"And with all my heart I cannot kill you."
Riven's eyes widened.
"What about making me atone for the sins I committed!" She cried. "I have slain innocent, caused you grief!"
Yasuo collapsed back on his bed.
"You, are not the woman I expected to find. I found a woman...who, I'm no different than. In my quest to find you to clear my name of murder, I have only brought death closer to me."
Tears started to run down Riven's face, anger and sadness mixed together. She punched the wall next to her, splintering it.
"You are either a fool or blind, there is no one...no one who has sinned greater than me."
"That may be true, the hatred of the world was powered by people like you."
"Was..?"
"You where the woman I sought after when I left Ionian, but I can no longer find that woman anymore."
Riven started to protest, he barely new her.
"You think me foolish and blind do you? I have tracked your movement for weeks, I was two steps behind, but I knew everything that went on. That was not the first village I have crossed in the recent days that has been decimated by Noxian, Bandits, even Demacian forces. Something was tracking you, so you hid."
"It was my fault that those villages burned! I was foolish to think I could hide! How many people are there that want me dead..." She yelled in anger
"Riven, death..." He said holding out his hand "...is like the wind, always by our sides. There were survivors did you know? Some fled when a wild woman who had just arrived days ago warned them of incoming trouble. Some where wounded, fighting off the invaders, right by a woman's side, they said she seemed to fight like the wind itself was her tool. However, they eventually cornered you here, Singed cornered you here, you fought as they villagers hide. You fought off Singed and his forces, you tried everything to stop them as they burned the village, it almost cost you your life."
"How did you..."
"Riven..." He smiled "I may be foolish, but I am not blind."
