His feral scream rang in her ears and muddled her head, and if it were not for the fact that she could still hear the summoners' terrified shrieks, she would have thought she'd gone deaf already.
Miss Fortune staggered backwards, ducking into a doorway out of sight as she tried to catch her breath. She had unloaded everything onto him, yet he didn't even seem fazed. Even now she could feel the ground quaking just the smallest bit from his huge, lumbering footsteps.
"What," she gasped, looking at the Ionian swordsman who'd taken cover next to her, "in the high hell is happening? He was never this much a menace during matches!"
"Hell if I know," he said, crouched low to the ground. "He's eaten five summoners already, I think."
The ground shook again, and there was a sound of crunching bones and flesh and an agonized cry. The Bounty Hunter flinched.
"Make that six," he muttered, peering around the doorway. "Shit, we need to move."
She didn't even have time to ask why before the doorway was batted aside, an entire wall collapsing with it. The Bounty Hunter scrambled away from the falling debris, almost dropping one of her blunderbusses. She could hear the swordsman curse as he grabbed her by the arm, trying to haul her up. The lights seemed to fade out. She sucked in a sharp breath.
"Afraid of the dark?" growled the Terror of the Void with a guttural laugh. He loomed over them, prepared to strike. "That's my shadow."
Sarah Fortune swallowed. They were going to die.
A huge net shot out from the side, tangling itself in his claws. Cho'Gath thrashed, roaring as the swordsman finally got her to her feet. Smoke filled the air.
"The sheriff, and... Graves?" she exclaimed, adjusting her skewed hat.
"Over there," he said, pulling her towards the devastated corridor. In the distance, they could see two figures waving. "Come on, while he's distracted!"
They sprinted down the length of the corridor, bursting out of the thick smoke cloud that had arisen, and it was all she could do not to turn back and look. The monstrosity's frustrated bellows rang out behind them. Her pulse quickened with every tremor.
"He's gotten out of control," stated the sheriff grimly, not even bothering with greetings.
"We need to leave. Now," said Graves, already making quick strides away.
"Has everyone else evacuated?" inquired the sheriff, following after.
"As far as I know," the Ionian swordsman answered, glancing around.
"Where do we go from here?" she asked nervously. How could they all be so calm?
The ground was still shaking, the building was still collapsing in. He paused in his movements, looking over his shoulder at the devastating destruction Cho'Gath had wrought. The summoners' quarter was decimated – who knew how much would be left standing when the Terror of the Void was through.
"From here," he said, "it's wherever the wind takes us."
.
.
.
How many kids can a Zaun-manufactured Secret Weapon carry on the bounce?
Just two, he'd found out. The rest wouldn't hold still.
Zac bounded through empty halls, pulling along the others as a cacophony of crows pecked painfully at his heels. He carried Lulu under one arm, dragging Annie along with his other while Amumu clung to her. Twitch was latched onto his shoulders, almost like a piggy-back. The scarecrow's nightmarish laughter echoed off the walls, and he tried to take steady breaths.
A brief flash of an image flickered in the corner of his eye and if he wasn't made of goo, he might've paled.
"Whatever you do, stick together," he told them, pulling the little girl a little closer to him.
He knew they could take care of themselves – they were all champions of the League for a reason – but something was horribly amiss here, and he felt as if it were his duty to protect them. He usually played tank during matches at any rate. It couldn't be much different here, as weird as the situation was. Fiddlesticks was supposed to be locked up; everyone knew that, yet here he was running amok, and his crows hit like a truck.
Zac glanced up at a fleeting shadow along the wall and grimaced.
"Vroom, vroom!" giggled Lulu, waving her staff from underneath his arm, and suddenly he was running like the wind.
"You couldn't do that for all of us?" he grumbled, trying to steady Annie as she stumbled from his sudden speed increase. Thank god that scarecrow didn't have any way to close the gap.
"Silly Mr. Zac," she said, with uncanny serenity despite their dire circumstances. "You know I can only do it one at a time."
"There's the door!" cried Amumu, pointing at the huge, double doors that led out to the garden. From there they could jump the wall and make it out of the Institute. The mummy sprinted forth and flung out a bandage, wrapping it about the handle.
There was another flicker of an afterimage in the corner of his eye.
"Wait, Amumu, don't -!"
It was too late; the yordle pulled himself there.
He cursed under his breath. Amumu was separated, and they wouldn't move fast enough to cover him. In a normal match, the five of them could've taken them on no problem, with a casualty or two, even without items. But that was when they had chances to spare. He was the only one right now with two.
He saw the bug jump.
"Found you, beast!"
Zac whirled around in surprise, watching as Rengar lunged out of the shadows and snatched Kha'Zix out of the air. The Pridestalker snarled as his blade sunk into the floor, narrowly missing the bug's head.
"Clever creature," growled the Voidreaver, kicking him off.
Rengar laughed loudly - wildly - thumping his chest. "Let's fight, you and I! I've been waiting for this."
The sound of crows was growing louder.
He spun on his heel and kept running. If Rengar wanted to duke it out with Kha'Zix then fine, but they weren't getting involved. Not now.
"What about Mr. Kitty?" gasped Annie, struggling along.
"Worry about Fiddle first!" he answered. "Amumu, catch!"
"Hey!" Lulu squeaked.
The mummy only just caught her, stumbling through the door.
"Twitch, Annie, go!"
"What?" the little girl exclaimed, as he shoved her forward. Zac pulled Twitch off his shoulders.
"I'll distract Fiddle!" he told her, watching as the scarecrow dashed right past the brawling hunters towards them.
"No! I won't!"
"Trust me!" he yelled, shoving her forward again. Twitch was already near the door. "Go!"
Face scrunching up, she ran for it.
He only just had enough time to glance before a crow dove past. Its beak was sharp and holy shit it hurt so much. He faltered, grasping at where it had sliced open his throat. He could hear Fiddlesticks laughing.
"Don't run! Let's have a party!"
He batted at the storm of crows. He couldn't see anything - they were tearing him up - and he clenched his jaw tight through the pain, trying to find the scarecrow in the mess.
There.
He flung out his hands in a stretching strike, feeling something brittle snap. Zac heard a hiss, and knew he'd done something right. He must have - he felt like his stomach had turned to ice.
No more bravado - it was time to run. The thunderous sound of cawing was beginning to clear; now was his chance. He anchored himself, and started to pull.
From the corner of his eye, he say a crow fly out.
The Secret Weapon sailed through the air, crashing through the door that had been left closed. He scrambled to get to his feet, collecting bits of himself as he went. The kiddies were trying to scale the garden wall.
"Mr. Zac!" exclaimed Annie, running towards him.
"Up we go," he grunted, lifting her up onto the wall. "Where's Twitch?"
"Ran away," answered Lulu, with a harrumph.
"Wait!" cried the Dark Child. "I dropped Tibbers!"
In the distance there was a loud crashing noise. The ground shook beneath them.
He hauled Lulu and Amumu up as well, shaking his head. "Sorry kiddo, but we can't go back for him now."
"But-!"
"Another day!" he said, pulling himself up and over to the other side. "We gotta go."
"They won't eat Tibbers," remarked Lulu matter-of-factly as he helped her down. "He's not their fare, right Pix?"
The faerie – who he'd forgotten about entirely – seemed to nod rapidly, but Annie was reluctant to be pulled off the garden wall even so. Amumu hopped down on his own, tripping and falling flat on his face. If they weren't in a hurry, he might've stopped to wince. The Plague Rat was still nowhere in sight.
Please, oh please let Twitch be okay.
"I promise we'll find him later," Zac assured her, pulling her into his arms. "But right now, we've got to get you back to your parents. It's not safe here anymore."
The Dark Child didn't respond, hugging his arm tightly.
"It'll be all right," he said, patting her on the head as they turned to go.
Behind them, the Institute had gone up in flames.
.
.
.
How long had she been sitting here? Had it been one, endlessly long night? Several nights without any break of day? Or mere seconds stretched by agony?
If she looked up, the sky would crack and fall on her.
There was nothing here. Only an endless expanse of chapped earth and stale air and him, sitting across from her. By now she had resigned herself to staring. If she reached out to touch him, he would turn to stone and crumble away.
He was always there again when she turned around. That was the agony of it.
"You did this," he would say, "didn't you?"
His voice was so heartbroken, she had cried the first time.
"Why?" he'd ask her, and every time she looked away. It was always the same glance, always the same green eyes, but they always wrought the same feelings. Self-consuming guilt. A burning conscience. The desire to waste away.
By now, she had stopped apologizing. After the first few tries, her heart couldn't take the futility.
"How could you be so selfish?" His voice would grow louder, harsher. More severe. It would compel her to speak. "How could you?"
"I..."
But the words escaped her. They always did.
"I can't believe you did this," he'd whisper, and then he'd cover his face with his hands. "I thought you wanted to change."
"I did!" she'd cry. "I do."
"But you haven't," he would tell her, and then he'd say it again:
"You never will."
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A/N: Kind of a short chapter, but necessary for pacing purposes. I didn't refer to Yasuo by name on purpose - didn't seem like something Miss Fortune would know or much care to.
Thanks for reading, reviewing, following and/or favoriting, as always. See you next time.
(Can you guess who the last section's POV is?)