So. Long time since I left you guys with the cliffhanger. Sorry about that, had some trouble uploading the chapter. Combine that with me having the attention span of a fruit fly, and the cliffhanger is left hanging. Anyways, thanks for the comments I've gotten. They tell me to keep the story going. :D
Also, I'm taking a piece of advice from a guest and putting some Riven POV in. These will be VERY rare though. I like telling it from Shadow's POV, and I have a whole bunch of plot stuff planned mainly for seeing Riven's viewpoint.
Without further ado, let the cliffhanger be...unhung?
Riven was on her knees. The blood leaking from her many wounds had formed a pool beneath her. She closed her eyes, her hand grasping at her broken sword.
Not only did she fail at redeeming herself, she had dragged another down with her. Poor Shadow. Even with all her arguing, Riven knew she was fond of the man. He was everything she could never be: Shadow fought for no higher power, nor did he seem to ascribe to any nation or creed. Instead, Shadow lived for himself. He set his own standards and led himself as he saw fit. He didn't seem to have any regrets.
Riven wished she could be like that, but knew it was not to be. She had tried and failed. It was the end. Then a voice rang out. It was ragged; the normal carelessness Riven would hear behind the voice was gone, replaced with desperation.
"Riven! I'm done, so kill that jer-!" Shadow's voice was cut off suddenly.
As Varus prepared to fire the final shot, some part of Riven suddenly refused to give up. She couldn't die here. She would not deserve the peace of death until she found redemption.
Riven opened her eyes, but she couldn't move her legs. She watched Varus draw back his bow. Riven strained against her muscles, but nothing would work. It was all she could do to feebly grasp at her sword.
With all her will, Riven poured her energy into the sword, just as she would in battle. The green runes pulsed faintly. She knew it wouldn't be enough, not yet. Desperately, Riven focused any feeble remainder of energy she had within her on that sword.
Varus fired, and everything exploded in a flash of bright green. As Riven's consciousness faded, she barely made out the figure of Varus before her. His bow had disintegrated and a large fragment of glowing green metal had impaled him. Varus seemed to draw into a ball until he completely disappeared from sight.
All went dark, and Riven finally fell to the ground, unconscious.
Riven found herself lying on dirt. The dirt was red like dried blood and felt unsettlingly wet. Sitting up, she looked around. It was a battleground. No, she corrected herself, it was a village.
All of the houses were falling apart, the last embers from a terrible fire lingering in the wooden beams. The sky was dark but Riven needed no light to see around her. She had been in this dream before.
Bodies were littered everywhere. Laying next to Riven was the corpse of a young Ionian woman clutching at her dead lover, having joined him in the afterlife. Riven got up and walked through the town, trying not to look at the gruesome scenes. Finally, in the last house, a child sat upon the ground. The house around him was charred and falling apart, but the child was still burning. His face was frozen in a scream of horror, his body completely still as the flames licked at him.
"Help me," the child's voice rang out, his mouth still. "Save me, dad!" As he screamed his final words, the child was blown to dust by some invisible wind. Riven heard footsteps behind her. She knew who it was.
She turned around. There, facing Riven, was a woman. Her white hair was tied into a bun and her skin was tanned. She wore bits of armor, the largest being a green, metal gauntlet. In her hand a large sword with bright green runes was glowing furiously.
Riven looked into the woman's eyes, her own eyes. She always had to look. In that one moment, she could never turn away. Riven wanted to scream, to run, to kill herself and end the dream, but all she could do was look at those eyes. Look, and be horrified.
Without flinching, without even batting an eye, the Pseudo-Riven rushed forward. Riven felt the pain in her gut, and knew the large sword had been thrust through her stomach, but she couldn't look away from that face
Slowly, Riven felt herself waking up. As everything faded, Riven heard just one phrase whispered into the wind.
"For Noxus…"
When Riven's eyes opened, she noticed an unusual thing: sunlight. Instead of bloodied dirt, she was on cobblestone. The soldier was shocked to hear the sound of birds chirping.
"I see our quester has finally decided to wake up." Riven caught herself smiling in response to the quip.
"Well I certainly can't leave anything to you," she responded, returning to a more usual frown. Looking down, Riven noticed most of her body covered in bandages.
Riven grunted as she shrugged off some of the more restricting wraps. Awake now, her entire body felt like Malphite had used her for a punching bag.
"I tried to keep as much of your modesty as possible," Shadow said awkwardly while scratching his chin. "But, well, I had to stop all the bleeding." Riven did not think twice about it.
"How long was I out," she asked.
"Well, let's see," Shadow answered vaguely. "I was out for a while, and it's been about a week since I woke up." Riven saw him look at her with concern. "Don't move too much. You really took a beating."
"I'm fine." Riven went to grab her sword. Her fingers closed around air.
"Where," she snapped, looking over at Shadow. Riven's eyes narrowed as she saw the mercenary's reaction. His heart was all over his sleeve. "I see."
"We can replace…well no, I guess we really can't," Shadow said, sighing. "Anyways, I kind of don't know what happened in there. You seem to have won, though."
"Yes. It would look that way." Riven felt like she had lost. That desperate burst of power had saved her, but it had also had cost her the only possession she had. The sword represented her spirit. Broken and fragmented, but still strong. Still containing a chance for redemption. Now it was lost.
"So," Shadow said with yet another sigh, "What now?"
Riven did not respond, for she was wondering the same thing. What had this given her? Varus was surely dead now, or at least as close to dead as he could be. But where was her goal, the secret to a lasting peace?
The original passage Lee Sin had given to her was vague at best, and the prophecy in the Lotus Gardens had greatly clarified where she had to go. However, nothing had mentioned what she had to do to get the ancient treasure. Actually, all she knew was that it would bring peace and, hopefully, her redemption. Riven clenched her fist and punched Shadow directly in the face.
"What the heck," Shadow yelled, reeling backwards. Riven smiled inwardly. The look of absolute self-indignation on that ridiculous man's face was so, well, dumb.
"Why did you do that, Riven?"
"I don't know," Riven responded, chuckling. "I'm fine now. Let's go back in the temple."
"Back in, huh?" Shadow seemed all but thrilled at the prospect. Riven saw him grab the chain around his shoulder.
"Varus is defeated. We will be fine."
They walked up the streets, back through the city. It seemed Shadow had carried her some distance on the way back. Their going was slow, as Riven's legs barely had enough strength to move. She pretended not to notice Shadow's looks at her: he obviously wanted to help her, and she was disgusted by the thought.
"Well, here we are," Shadow announced unnecessarily when they reached the temple. "The wonderful dark and scary temple of purple shadow dudes. How could I resist coming back?"
"Shut up," Riven said distantly. She was thinking of only one thing right now: redemption. It was here. It had to be. Riven pushed open the large doors and walked in without hesitation.
Unlike the last time they entered, the doors did not shut behind them. Riven also noticed the lack of an illusion of grandeur. This time, everything was in shambles, showing the result of the fight that had taken place.
"Where do we look? Do we just sit down and chant something? Maybe we run into the middle yelling "Demacia?"" Riven tried not to be annoyed at Shadow's bad jokes. She knew he was just nervous, but the constant levity was somewhat inappropriate at this particular time.
Riven ignored the ruins around them, walking directly towards the center. Before there had been a pool of fire there, right where Varus had made his entrance. Now there was nothing but a small gold plaque sitting at the bottom of a shallow depression.
"It's in the common tongue. For once," Shadow said, rolling his eyes. Riven agreed with that one. It was nice to find something that did not need translating.
The inscription on the plaque read: "To those searching for power, your want will not be fulfilled. To those questing for vengeance, your thirst will not be sated. To those who are here, but know not why: Blood has soaked the path that the mind must now climb."
"Riddles," Shadow complained loudly, "I hate riddles. Everything has to be said in riddles. One day I would like to see a prophecy or ancient message written in plain, simple language. Go here, get this thing, save the land from the bad dudes." Riven, as she had found was best, ignored him.
What could it mean, she thought. Her blood was what had revealed the previous information from the shard, but her mind? Riven had a brief mental image of Shadow banging his head against the plaque. She frowned.
"Perhaps…" Riven trailed off, lost in thought. She started working on an idea. Before, there was clearly some sort of being that had left the message for her, and specifically for her. This time it must be similar. The other being wanted her blood, but this one wanted her mind.
With that thought, Riven turned to Shadow.
"I have an idea," she started. "But I'm not sure what's going to happen, and I'll be somewhat unaware of my surroundings."
"Protect you, right?"
"Right."
"Just so you know," Shadow said with an evil smile, "I'm your guide, not your bodyguard. If some crazed shirtless monster shows up, I'm out of here." Riven knew that was not true. She focused back on the plaque.
Riven focused in on herself. She forced her mind to be quiet, focusing all her innate magical power. Once it was gathered, she tried to push out with her mind, looking around. Sure enough, when she opened her eyes, she was now a bright green wispy version of herself, looking back at her still body and a very bored looking Shadow.
"This is-" Riven started. A voice from her left cut her off.
"Impossible? Amazing? Oooh, I know! Flaaaatulent."
A blue orb floated there. Riven stared at it before trying to recover her composure and look intimidating. At some point she realized the ridiculousness of worrying about what a blue ball would think of her.
"What are you," Riven asked curtly. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Kekeke," the voice cackled. "Which to answer? Who's to say?" The orb flew in a small loop, circling around Riven. The voice was oddly high pitched, almost like a young child.
"I'll go with the easy one! You are now supposed to get the key, of course!"
"What key," Riven asked. "What are you talking about?"
"It's over there on the mantelpiece. Kekeke! Sorry, that was from another world. Never had the chance to use that one before!" The blue orb continued to fly around erratically. Riven decided: she didn't like this thing.
"Well, not nearly as fun to say, but I suppose you could say the key is me," the orb said in its soprano cackle. "Well that was actually kinda' fun to say. The key is me, kekeke!"
"And what do I do with you?" Riven tried, and failed, to keep the frustration from her voice.
"Well, I suppose you have to take me. Kekeke, I want what she's having! No! That one is from someplace else too. Too bad, it was so good."
"How exactly do I take you with me," Riven asked, trying to get this idiotic thing back on track. "And why?"
"Well, I am supposed to be part of your mind. A syyyyymbiotic re-la-tion-ship, you know!"
"And why, again?"
"Ah! Of course," it yelled. "To find the End. That is what you're searching for. I am the first key. The other one you already have. The final one you will find. Then you get the End!"
"Wait what? What's the End? And how do we already have a key?"
"Kekeke! Too many questions! I'll go back to your original! Who am I?" The orb paused its rapid movement right in front of Riven's face (or spirit, perhaps).
"I am me. I just sort of sit here. Or there. Anywhere, actually. I help people. Help you. Watch movies. Oh, you don't have movies here. Last place I went did. Fun place. Weird people. Good food."
"ALRIGHT," Riven screamed. "I got it! Just tell me the next step! I have to find a key, right? Where is it?"
"Oh, where is it again?" The orb started flying around in circles again. "Cold. Lots of goats. Nap time!" With that, the orb rushed into Riven's spirit, knocking her back to consciousness.
- Shadow's POV
Shadow sat down. Riven was kneeling over to one side, her face and eyes blank. She had been like that for a while now.
"Uh," Shadow said to no one, "Why do I have the horrible feeling that things are about to get more complicated?"
Just as he finished his complaint, Riven suddenly fell down in a coughing fit.
"Woah, you ok?" Shadow rushed over to the woman's side, lifting her up carefully. "Go easy, you are still recovering. We can come back later if you need."
"I know where we have to go," Riven croaked. They looked at each other for a moment before she continued.
"You'd better get some warm clothes, Shadow, 'cause we're going to the Freljord."
