Chapter 2
Forgotten home
Katarina would never admit it even to herself but what was bothering her right now wasn't the mission in a creepy abandoned madhouse, neither the fact that Swain was hiding something important there and practically challenged her to find out what it was.
No, the real problem was, the place where that madhouse was.
She hadn't returned to the old city since it was abandoned, well, no one has, although there were rumors of a sect of rebels that oppose to the decision of leave the city of their ancestors. The assassin never liked that order either ¿What kind of coward leaves his own city to die just like that?
The van finally stopped, she got out and looked at the city.
'Oh yeah it was for that' the city center was placed on and inside a mountain that resembled to a skull. They were currently standing back to the bridge that connected the citadel with the outsides of the city where the common and poor people lived. Or what was left because now it had become a barren wasteland.
Most of the city was reduced to debris, the houses consumed long ago and the stinking concoction that passing under and around the city flooded the entire place.
'Why is so, so repulsive seeing the city like this?' she wondered 'it's not like if we had lost a fight, what happened was beyond…'
"I never took you as the nostalgic type" the assassin jumped a little at the voice that sounded behind her but she didn't bless it with an answer.
The owner of the voice sighed and walked next to her. He had Roman nose, yellow eyes and was wearing a blue hood and a cloak made of leather stripes that ended in blades. The rail they were currently leaning on and the height of the mountain give a perfect view of what once was their home.
"It's strange seeing it like this isn't?" the owner of the voice asked.
"What are you insinuating Talon?"
"I'm not 'insinuating' anything; I'm just trying to let you know that I sympathize with your pain" the blade shadow stated.
"I do not have any pain" she replied
"To miss your home city doesn't make you weaker, you are still human" she snorted "besides you said yourself that you didn't want to leave".
"And you don't believe so?" the anger in the assassin started to rise "this was the only place that valued our strength and we abandon it just because our said 'general' said so?!" she almost yelled "where is the strength in that?!"
"You know I dislike it as much as you do" he said sternly, Katarina was about to retaliate but Talon was faster "but no we didn't left because Keiran said so, we left because we didn't had a choice…this isn't a question of strength".
Katarina broke her gaze in defeat, she wanted to say more, but she couldn't, because she knew that all Talon said…was true.
"I don't want to feel anything" she admitted "I don't want to feel anymore".
"Your own father taught us to never abandon our emotions, not for not losing our humanity, but because there are our biggest source of power". At the mention of her father the assassin's eyes started watering slightly. She immediately tried to wipe them of but Talon hold her hand stopping her "tell me, what you would do if you do if lost the thrill of murder? Or what would I do if I lost the calm that gives me a sword, hmm?"
The assassin saw the point in his words and its intentions, so she just let her tears fall. Talon was the only person in the world that understood her. He was one of the few people that she didn't hate.
But there is where the relation ended.
"Let's just get this over with" Katarina ended the conversation; there were enough emotions for a lifetime.
"Of course" Talon agreed.
The psychiatric hospital, just like most of the buildings in Noxus, was inside or over the great granite mountain in the center of the city. Except this one was still below the bottom of said mountain; Noxus contained the biggest dungeons system of all Runaterra, there are kilometers and kilometers of tunnels and labyrinths filled with stores taverns and residencies.
One would think that, being underground, this part of the city would be protected of any outside damage.
But the underside was an exact copy of the above.
As creepy as it sounds the 'underground' part, before it had at least some life, but now it could only be described as descent into hell, if they weren't noxians, they wouldn't even dream of going there in such a state. Even their 'emergency team' was looking nervous. With the only source of light been a few flashlights, they were really considering abandon the assassins.
But they weren't THAT afraid.
When they were passing threw a particularly narrow passage, with Katarina on the front followed by Talon and their team, they suddenly hear a crumbling sound. And then it stopped.
That clicked something on Talon's mind.
"Hey, did Swain tell you what this is all about? he suddenly asked.
"He didn't tell you about the whole 'Metuas diem' project thing?" Katarina asked back
"No he did tell me about that, he said he would tell me more when you arrived but…"
"Don't you start complaining about my timing to" she threatened.
"…anyway, I meant what happened specifically, with the scientists and the first rescue team"
"No he kept tight lipped about that but…" she remembered how Swain was speaking when he told her "…I think he might be hiding something there".
"What makes you think that?" Talon asked.
"When we were talking he almost seemed worried about what happened there twenty years ago" the assassin started connecting the dots "and then the way he ordered me to seal the labs connected to the fact that the first order was sent from the inside of the building…"
"You think someone is still in there?" The shadow blade asked with a smirk.
"In these days someone surviving that long it's far from impossible" she mirrored his grin "but the best part was the way he told me that if I overdo the terms of the mission it would be at my own risk" her smirk grew " almost as if challenging me. At this Talon chuckled.
"You are gonna take his challenge, won't you?" the assassin chuckled to
"You know me to well"
After they got deep enough into the caves they finally saw it, the 'Noxian Reeducation Clinic' or NRC. Formerly known as the torture chambers, where they brought the people who oppose the noxian regime to, well, make them think twice before defying the high command. Afterwards they left the torture for the prisoners and it became a psychiatric hospital but changed the torture part for 'treatment' but there wasn't much different in the end.
The architecture was nothing special, just as set of three big windows with a double door below carved on the bottom of the cave. On the first two floors were the offices of the doctors, a small cafeteria and the rooms of the patients. But those were the lower cases; on the first lower floor were the serious case patients (you know the kind that eat human meat) placed in about, a hundred sealed cells aligned in two rows, fifty on the left and right. However, twenty two years ago, another floor was excavated.
"There must be" Katarina stated
"Ok listen!" Talon addressed the 'emergency team' "the sinister blade and I are going down there alone" the relief on their faces was comical "if we need your assistance we'll notify you via radio. Now if we don't come out in an hour check in and call for reinforcement, until then nothing enters or leaves. Am I clear?" he ordered them.
"Yes! Shadow's blade!" they replied in unison, and then the both assassins enter the hospital
"I have to say you managed them quite well" Katarina praised him
"'I couldn't have done it myself' you mean" Talon voiced her thoughts mocking her a little. But she wasn't laughing.
"Better watch your tongue shadow's blade" the assassin warned him "or I'll have to take care of it myself" Talon sighed
"See? We can never have a normal conversation" Katarina snorted ¿why would she want a normal conversation? "This is why I didn't want to come here".
"Yeah about that" she started "why are you here?"
"What do you mean?"
"You said that you wouldn't follow anyone's orders aside my father's" the assassin stated "then you should have left the moment when you find out Swain give the order" Talon turned his gaze from her "but you came anyway, why?" Talon sighed in defeat.
"Because you are your father's daughter" Katarina raised an eyebrow "since he is not here you are the only way I have to prove my loyalty to him, so if you come I'll come to" she started to grow worried for some reason
"I'm not a little girl that needs protection you know?"
"No but if what you said was true whatever Swain has hidden here scares him" the assassin widened her eyes, she didn't say that he was afraid but, it would explain a few things "and we both know Swain doesn't scares easily, so I come with you or…"
"Stop"
"What? Weren't you the one…"he was interrupted
"Not you, that!" Talon turned his gaze to where she was pointing and saw hundreds of 'stop' labels in the walls…written in blood
"What the hell?" Talon examined the labels closer and discovered that many more of 'make it stop', 'please stop it' and even 'I'm sorry,' but the strangest one was 'don't open the door'.
"Who the fuck did this?" while in most of the times Katarina would feel impressed now she was feeling…something akin to unpleasant.
"Well that's why we are here don't we? Let's split you take this floor and I'll take the second, we'll meet here in ten minutes and then we'll go to the first lower floor ok?
"Ok" to tell the truth, right now the assassins didn't like the idea of splitting but…they didn't know why.
Talon disappeared above the stairs leading to the second floor, while Katarina explored the cafeteria, and there she found the corpses of nearly a dozen of men and woman in robes that would be white if it wasn't for the blood.
"Those must be the scientists"
She got closer to examine their wounds and discover something hideous.
They had all the same wounds; there were some kind of abrasions that looked like cuts all over their bodies, two knifes on each ear and black eyes hanging out of their skulls.
"Wait" she examined the rest of the bodies and indeed, they all had the same eyes, perfectly black sclera, iris and pupil. She also noticed that one of the female bodies had something on her right ear that wasn't a knife but a key tied in a thin chain. With a bit of effort she took it out and noticed it wasn't damaged. She put it in her pocket and went to explore the offices.
Most of them were empty, except for some that had more corpses and torn paper all over the floor. She was about to give up with the offices until she found one with a few papers that weren't torn. She started reading them, and didn't understood a thing.
'Maybe I should have studied at the academy?' she thought ashamed.
However the last two papers had something that called her attention, one had references of the project Metuas Diem and the other showed plans of some kind of exoskeletal device. Apparently, that thing allowed the user to survive the effects of the Metuas Diem's drug by giving the body the ability of regenerate the damaged tissue and removing poison of it.
'But, if they managed to create something that could keep the user alive why did Swain say that the project was a failure?' Katarina only got more confused, none of this made any sense.
"S…t...ie" mumbles started echoing in her head. She got into stance and wielded her daggers.
"I know you're there!" the mumbles were becoming louder each past second, there were too many voices at once. She focused, and managed to catch one word.
"Sweetie"
'That voice' it was a voice she hadn't thought about in a long time.
The assassin turned in direction of the voice so fast that her spine screamed in protest. And when she saw the owner of said voice, her heart froze.
In front of her stood a woman of no more than 1.80 meters, with long snow white hair, orange eyes and was wearing a long black dress with crimson patterns that covered all her body except the center of her ample bosom.
"Sweetie" the woman repeated. By this point Katarina's eyes were watering deeply, yet her expression remained shocked.
"M-mom?"
