Author's Note: Hello dear readers, I failed to put an AU on the first chapter being unfamiliar with this site's format. Well..now I am? I still feel like the story, layout, and the format could use some polishing. I am still slightly undecided on how to progress the story fully, and the way/how I present the narrative feels unsatisfactory. I feel like I could have done better, so I expect that I'll redo the story midway. But until then feel free to criticize as I am just starting to learn how to exactly write, and I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter Two: Blossoming of the Flower
The scenes were still vivid in Quinn's memories. The memory itself might be fragmented, but the pain, the pain, was always the same as ever...
Pain. That was all Quinn could think of. Along with a growing feeling of sincere hate for the ones responsible for the situation. But she also blamed herself for the current situation, it was not that she hadn't been warned. Talon had repeatedly called her a 'Foolish Girl', 'Blind Scout', 'Lost Bird', telling her that she turned a blind eye to the reality and only looked towards the blinding light that misguided everyone in the so-called 'Nation of Justice'. She knew of the black arts that dwelled beneath the grand castles and open fields, however, what she did not know was how low the nation went to achieve what she wanted. Quinn knew that now and was paying the lesson dearly for the miscalculation. Her thoughts turned towards Valor. Would he be fine? Would he have escaped? Would he be experimented on if captured? Thoughts that plagued her mind swarmed her head, buzzing like angry bees, in sync with the hammering pain in her left eye. Then the face of the blonde girl that lead herself here came to her mind, a pretty face which she would have done anything to wipe the fake smile off her face. The conversation was fresh in her memories, branded inside her head like the void flower that started to blossom in her eye.
"Hello scout," Lux had said, "I've heard that the researchers have found a way to improve eyesight even further."
"I'm sorry but I don't think I need to sharpen my vision Lady Crownguard. I think I'm already sharp enough for every task that I partake." She replied.
A small frown and a slight crack in Lux's expression, "I've heard Jarvan was getting ready to go into the void. He might need someone with the sharpest eyes on Runeterra for that kind of expedition."
"..."
She hadn't thought much on the subject then. She was just looking for a way to serve her country best, and an option had been presented in front of her in a platter.
"Alright," Quinn replied. As soon as she said those words she could've sworn a demonic smile of triumph spread across Lux's features.
"Follow me," Lux said.
As Quinn followed her, she noticed they had kept going deeper into the bottom levels of the grand castle, a place where experiments that were unsafe and usually kept out of public notice took place.
"Lux, I don't think this is a good idea, we're pretty low and I should probably get going so–" She had time to get out before Lux took out her light baton and snared her with a light binding and smiled at her.
"Do you honestly think I would let you get near the Crown Prince? A commoner like you? Mingling with someone as great as him? I find it offending my dear scout." She said as she lifted her chin up as a superior would, "No, this is where you will die, maybe not, but have fun being experimented on with the void~" Lux said with a giggle.
"I heard they were using some kind of plant to use it as a beacon to spawn the void. And for some reason, they have to put it in the eye. So I wasn't completely lying about it. Goodnight bird."
During the time Lux talked Quinn could only look in horror at the situation she had gotten herself into. As Lux finished Quinn wanted to claw her way out, she reached for the girl's neck, only to be met with pitiful eyes and a sadistic smile. Her vision faded to black.
Quinn was strapped onto a raised platform, the scientists drugged her with sedatives enough to tranquilize a mad boar. They planted a seed, glowing with a purple pulse, in her eye. When she woke up, the pain of the flower growing in her eyes kept her awake for a week with no rest. A week with no sleep and pain had nearly shattered whatever had been left of her sanity. She thrashed and screamed on the top of her lungs for hours, begging for the pain to end. Then she finally came to peace with reality and calmed down. The scientists then concluded that she had gone insane and unstable so they left her in the darkness to rot. Just another failed subject they had thought.
Quinn smiled in the darkness, not a smile of happiness or pride of completing a mission, but one of complete apathy and malicious intent. The flower had finally bloomed, and with thoughts of vengeance, Quinn waited for her chance, she had patient, a decade or two or more, it would not matter, she only needed one.
The chance arose when Talon broke in. He had heard the wind of her downfall and the Noxian assassin had a lingering sympathy for the scout. Something that he normally did not have, but on the skirmishes and close calls they had shared, a mutual relationship had formed. Not too deep, but enough to make them look out for each other. He then saw what the scout had become. As he saw the void monstrosity growing on her features, he felt like the boy that had been beaten by General Marcus in the alleyways of the Noxian Slums.
"What have you gotten yourself into bird?" He said.
"A mess." She replied, but smiled and said, "The foolish girl that you once knew is now dead. I am all that remains. That blinding light you once said? I'll smother it with the void. I will rip apart Demacia while it breathes in prosperity. When they think they are on their highest, I will come crashing down on them, exposing every single one of their lies~" Quinn sighed as she spoke, looking almost contempt with just the thought of revenge. Another thought came to her that made hatred flash in her right eye, "Lux...oh how I will savor the sound of her screams~"
Talon was shocked, he had no love for Demacia but this was pure hatred that was rooted to the core. "I don't know you anymore it seems." He said.
"Yes, and you better stay out of my way. I'm not stupid enough to leave you alive after you've heard everything. As I told you that girl is dead. He'll come soon, give me your blade." She replied in haste.
"What? He? Who?" He said puzzled.
"Kassadin, I've seen him in the void dream, he knows what I intend to do, he'll enact his so-called 'Balance'" She said, "Not if I kill him though. Now hand me your blade and let us part ways. Noxus will emerge from the chaos that I bring forth. And maybe if you stay silent enough, I'll find Marcus for you."
At the mention of Marcus, he perked up. He thought about the outcomes and concluded. "Alright, goodbye Quinn, I might as well be dead to you anyway but, I hope the girl I once knew is still in there." He said with a sad expression.
She scoffed, "That girl is long gone."
With one final lingering look, Talon left the basement to escape.
Quinn tested the arm blade, swinging it around a few times.
"Slightly big for me and clunky, but no matter, he is only human, just tainted with the void like me."
She heard the familiar sound of a void portal open and a figure came out, almost gliding.
"I know what you know. And the other way around. You will not come out of this in one piece, Harbinger." Kassadin said, his voice seeming to echo due to the mask.
"Harbinger...of the void...Not bad...I like it." She said with a smile. "However, the only one not going back from where they come from in one piece is you."
With those words with blades drawn, they lunged at each other, while Kassadin could teleport and come from anywhere unexpected, Quinn had the inhumane agility and strength to keep up and track him. They traded blow for blow until eventually Quinn's blade was cut in half by the void blade that Kassadin wielded.
Quinn froze. Hate began to manifest in earnest, loathing the world, even before she could use the chance she had been granted, it had been taken away.
"It seems like the gods do know what must be done," Kassadin said. He glided forward with the air of an executioner.
He raised the blade and as he swung down both individuals heard a cawing of a bird and the strong sound of well-trained wings.
Quinn saw time slow down.
She raised her arms desperate to stop the bird from intervening the strike. She once lost Celeb, not Valor, not again, never again.
It was never enough, the blade cut through the bird with slight resistance and severed Quinn's left arm. All she could see was red. She immediately picked up the broken blade with her right hand, ignoring the blade cutting into her, and stabbed Kassadin in the facepiece.
Kassadin let out a groan while putting his hands on his face, "This..is..not..over." He faded away.
The words fell on deaf ears. Quinn looked at the mangled corpse of Valor. Her companion, soul-mate.
"No…" She let out in a silent whisper. "Why...WHY ME...WHY CAN'T I JUST DIE INSTEAD OF THE ONES I LOVE." She screamed.
"EVERY TIME YOU FUCKING WORLD" Her throat became hoarse.
"Celeb...Valor…." She whimpered. "I'll kill them all, they'll all pay…"
As Quinn dragged herself out into the outer Demacian forests with Valor in her hands, a Void flower in her left eye, left arm bleeding with a stump, and limping with fatigue, she saw a wounded cub dragon in the forest. Speaking human language surprisingly, repeating the words 'Mikhail, Mikhail, Mikhail'. She laughed at the irony of the situation. A sense of Deja Vu, like Valor. She looked down onto Valor.
"Rest in Peace Valor, the world doesn't deserve you."
With those words of finality, she buried him next to the meadows.
She took the dragon under her wings, and they left into the wildlands, never to been seen again by common eyes.