He'd never had a plan for his future, but he sure as hell never thought about becoming a soldier.
Not a soldier in the traditional sense- no, those weren't around anymore. A champion. A man forever doomed to an eternal battlefield fighting for causes he couldn't give two shits about. Noxus wants to take another jab at Demacia? Boo fucking hoo. But of course he and nine other soldiers would get swept up in the political nonsense, summoned to the Rift, and given free reign to murder each other for a king and a city that wasn't theirs.
Such was the case of his first official bout in the League of Legends. There was a rush of bright blue energy and he was suddenly on a cold stone platform, surrounded by people he had never met before but somehow already knew. Sona, Akali, Shen, and Kayle, comrades and complete strangers. He could hear the summoners chattering in his head and took comfort in the fact that all of the other champions had to listen to it too as they all walked to their lanes. Summoners sure were an angry lot.
Graves didn't care about any of it. He wasn't here fighting for honor, or glory, or whatever the others on his team were here for. He was here for revenge. He forced himself into this match not because he cared about who won the rights to this patch of land or that or whatever this was about, but because this was the only way he could find and kill the man who ruined his life. Kill him over and over again. Sona glanced over at Graves with curious eyes, the sweet tones floating from her etwahl growing quieter and more somber. Graves returned her gaze with suspicious eyes, about to snap out at her when he suddenly remembered she couldn't speak back. With a gruff sigh he continued forward, the music being played behind him making his heart sink down into his gut.
This whole "League of Legends" thing was pretty easy. Kill the small things until you have enough money to buy better weapons to kill the big things. The big things in this case were his lane opponents, a young woman named Ashe and her ally, Janna. Another woman would occasionally yell things over the entire battlefield to let the fighters know what was going on. It annoyed him at first but he quickly got used to it. He especially liked the way she said "double kill!".
She had just finished announcing his third double kill of the match when the telepathic voices of his allies rallied him into the river to help slay the dragon. It was taken down without a problem, the gold weighing down Graves' pocket in a familiar way. A blue column of energy began to envelop him, and he was halfway on his way to base when the familiar sound of shuffling cards made him freeze and kept him grounded in the river.
"Fancy seein' you here."
The voice sent shivers of rage through his entire body. Turning around, Graves saw exactly what he wanted and didn't want to see. Twisted Fate, cleaned up and grinning his stupid grin and wearing his same stupid hat and the same stupid clothes he always wore. Just as stupid as he was on the night Graves last saw him.
He was so overwhelmed by a sudden flood of anger that he couldn't even reply to the Card Master at first, which just gave the cocky man more time to speak himself. "Glad to see you still remember me."
"How could I forget you."
"Ah, still as sweet as ever."
That was more than enough for Graves to take. A few sentences and he was sent over the edge, pulling back a small latch by the trigger of his gun and firing off three buckshots before dashing to the side to avoid the spinning cards that were thrown at him. One of them grazed his shoulder, but his bullets hit Twisted Fate with almost full force. All trace of good humor was gone from the card master's face, or what he could see of it. Glowing cards appeared in his hand, rapidly switching colors from red to yellow to blue to red, then back to yellow again.
Another flip of the same latch and the third barrel on his shotgun opened up, a smokescreen canister shooting out and filling the dragon pit they were fighting in with smoke. He could see the faint glow of that card through the haze, but knew Twisted Fate couldn't see him. Graves kicked the shallow water beneath him and it splashed to the left; the yellow card swung to the same side and gave Graves enough of an opening to get up close to Twisted Fate and get a full shotgun blast into his side.
There was no scream, no sign of pain- just a heavy thud and splash of water. His teammates signaled that they were on their way, but he mentally called them off and shut them out; their connection to him wasn't strong enough and only his personal summoner remained.
'What are you doing!? Finish him and push the tower!'
'Nah.'
'...Wait, what? You can't disobey me!'
'I'm not here to obey you, I'm here for this.' Revenge. Graves managed to shut the summoner out as well, albeit temporarily. He had his mental barriers tested multiple times during his stay with Priggs, so shutting out his allies was simple- an all powerful summoner, not as easy.
Graves turned his attention back to Twisted Fate, who was lying in the water clutching his side. He managed to prop himself up on the sign in front of the pit. His breathing was somewhat labored.
"Yep...just as sweet as ever." Twisted Fate said with a pain-filled grin that was quickly replaced with a grimace and a sputtering cough.
"Shut it." Graves stood over him, Destiny hanging loosely to his right side and pointed at the other man's general direction. "It's time you paid up."
"I don't owe you any money."
"You owe me six years of my life back. Which I'll gladly shave offa your calendar, Fate." Graves rose the gun so that the dual barrels were level with his eyes.
"I ain't gonna die here. You know that."
"Oh, I know. So I'm gonna kill you as many times as I damn well please until I'm satisfied."
Twisted Fate coughed again, grinning. His white teeth were stained light red. "No matter how long it's been, I know you, Graves. You can't kill me. Don't matter if I come back or not, you can't pull that trigger."
Graves lowered the gun and lowered himself onto one knee in front of Twisted Fate. From this angle he could finally see the other man's eyes. They glowed with otherworldly power, bright white and devoid of the dark brown irises he remembered- he missed. These eyes belonged to someone else.
With a huff of anger he pulled Twisted Fate's hat back into its usual position over his eyes, then pulled the man closer and crushed their lips together in an angry, hate filled kiss. Graves felt Twisted Fate wince and the sound of a faint moan vibrated between their mouths. Twisted Fate didn't pull away, and that both infuriated him and aroused him.
"I missed that," The Card Master said after Graves finally had to pull away to breathe. Fuck, could he just not talk for a couple minutes? "I missed you." He added, catching the outlaw completely off guard. Graves shoved Destiny into Twisted Fate's gut and pulled the trigger. He immediately went limp and silent in Graves' arms.
It wasn't satisfying. It was downright painful, actually, knowing that he could empty chamber after chamber into Twisted Fate's skull and he'd be back forty seconds later, good as new. Graves had been conned before, but this...this was quite the scheme the Institute pulled on him. They promised him revenge, an outlet for his hate, and they delivered empty lies and pointless scores. He'd killed Twisted Fate fifteen times in the span of fifty minutes once, and expected it to feel satisfying and keep him afloat, always pushing forward just to put a bullet in his skull one more time before the nexus imploded. Never once did he feel anything, because he knew in less than a minute Twisted Fate would be back, his smile sharper and the cards stacked in his favor. They served up his worst enemy, his old friend, on a silver platter but kept him just out of reach. It was much worse than being cheated at a game of cards.
Graves wasn't supposed to drink on the job, but rules never stopped him. Twisted Fate's body fell into the river with an unceremonious splash and he removed a flask from deep within his coat, taking a long swig of sweet, discontinued liquor before rejoining with his teammates to push the middle tower. He counted down the seconds in his head and looked at his team. The enemy was initiating as soon as that eye appeared over their heads and destiny revealed their location.
Shen kept a majority of their team busy and Sona played a song no champion could resist. Akali dived onto the queen of the Freljord and Janna blew her away with a monsoon. But no one seemed to notice the swirl of cards on the ground and the man that followed them, appearing directly behind Graves and stopping his movement with a lucky gold card. As soon as he could Graves turned on the card master and unloaded everything he had, and for a moment they were spent and equal and he started counting down the seconds in his head again. His gun was cooling down but Fate's magic cards were rearing to go by the time he could load in another buckshot.
But the cards flew at him and he felt no pain- they snapped off of a brilliantly divine golden shield that had appeared around him, buying him the few precious seconds he needed to close the distance and pull the trigger one final time.
The battle died down and it was only Graves and his savior left standing.
"Thanks for the save, ma'am." He said with a tip of his head. They entered the enemy base to finish the job.
"Not bad for your first match." Kayle replied, the beat of her wings the only other sound on the battlefield. "Consider me impressed." She raised her sword to the sky and it was swallowed by holy fire, and she struck down the remaining structures effortlessly. Graves took his eyes off of her for a moment and glanced over at the enemy fountain, where they had just begun to reappear as if that deciding battle had never happened. Twisted Fate stood on the platform and locked their eyes together, tipping his hat slightly in farewell and succeeding in relighting the anger in Graves' blood. He was still smiling as the announcer proclaimed his defeat, and Graves still felt as empty as the barrel of his gun.