Chapter 6

A storm of fire and thunder raged across the landscape. A war between two factions, runeterra. And yet, the scene shifted and he now saw a standing pillar among the cleaved bodies, a sight that showed what remained of the war.

Nothing.

The landscape was charred with blood, tears of the innocent. Ben felt anger as he looked towards the massacre.

'Innocents' he thought, 'war takes all'.

The starry night took him by surprise as he sat up and looked around the quiet landscape.

Lux was wide awake near him.

'Hey Ben' she said. She kissed him.

Ben felt a strange darkness emanate from Lux and broke the kiss.

'What do you want?'

'Hmm...lots of things. Who are you?'

'I don't know', Ben said. Suddenly his head began to ache. 'Let me go, I'm not feeling well'.

'I'll make you feel better', said Lux with a grin as she stripped his shirt off.

'Let me go for fuck's sake lux!'

He got out and rushed away when suddenly he was trapped in a prism of light.

'Ben, we can do this the hard way or the easy way.' Lux cocked her head quizzically. 'Your choice'.

'GAREN!'

'No-one can hear you, Ben. Now, show me your power.'

Ben breathed over the still water. He couldn't believe what had happened to him the previous night. Lux...

Lux... He got up and walked back to the camp.

The sun rising over the horizon, he saw Lux walking towards him. 'Hey Ben, you're up early.'

Ben didn't acknowledge her.

'Garen!'

'GAREN!'

Ben exclaimed remembering the way he hadn't been able to talk to Garen.

'Hey, I'm up, I'm up Ben.' Garen walked over to him. 'What do you want?'

'Well, we need to get to the institute'.

Yea, yea, here come Xin and Jarvan'.

'Hey Garen, are you better now?'

'Yea, I sure am. Let's go and win this league.'

They set off towards the rising sun.

Throwing open the gates, Jarvan marched in.

The others followed behind.

'This way.'

A clerk inspected them.

'How come you didn't come with your other partner?'

'We got seperated'

She looked at him suspiciously.

'Look Orianna, just punch us in.' sighed Jarvan.

'Fine'.

'Wait, who are you?' she said, pointing at Ben

'Well...' Ben began

'He's with us' Garen told her.

'Demacia... only one substitute?'

'He's not taking part. They're still coming.'

'Ok...done'

'You can pass through'

The doors opened and they passed through one by one.

'Oh hi Garen' Katarina was the first person they saw in the institute.

'Are you free for tonight?'

'We need to make up our plans. I'm sure you need to do yours as well.'

'Or aren't you taking part?' asked Jarvan.

'Hahhaha of course I'm taking part. That eager not to have me beat your ass up?'

'Kata, where have you been?'

'Oh hey, Garen' Darius acknowledged Garen.

'My spinning buddy'

'Why don't you say that to the slut standing beside you?'

'Oh Garen!' Katarina, shocked, looked sadly at Garen.

Garen grit his teeth.

Jarvan pressed onwards and Darius looked menacingly at Garen.

'Well, well, look who's here! Bushren!' A guy laughed.

'And who is this you have with you? Oh God Demacia needs other people to fight for them?'

'Hahaha!'

'Shut up, ass!'

'We don't talk to noxian scum' Jarvan spat on the ground.

The team pushed on.

'We should talk to Leblanc' Garen suggested.

'Yea, we can get our rooms.' approved Xin.

They strode onwards and climbed a flight of stairs.

'So you finally arrived', A woman in black said peering above her glasses.

'Yea we ran into a bit of trouble,' Garen said.

'Well you sure took your sweet time.'

'We had to help this guy. He got attacked by a pack of wolves. It was terrible.' exclaimed Garen.

'Really? How come no-one's bitten. If it was terrible, surely someone might have suffered injuries.'

'I think you're lying to me, Garen Crownguard. But that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you finally arrived. All of you'

'Go talk to Leblanc. Then we'll go and make our plans.'

As Vayne left, Xin knocked on the door.

'Come in'

'Oh, what a lovely surprise, I was wondering where you guys had stuck your heads in.' Leblanc sniggered

'Yea, we got held up.' said Jarvan.

'How much did the caravan cost?' Leblanc asked

'Not as much as we're gonna have when we win this league.' said Xin.

'Haha, I hardly think that's gonna be the case.'

'And who is this you have with you? Did you save him from a pack of wolves?' asked Leblanc.

'Well actually, we kinda found him sleeping and set up camp near him. Unfortunately, some people don't know how to distinguish near from on.' Garen looked pointedly at Lux.

'Oh come on, he looked all alone, as if his parents had abandoned him.'

'My parents didn't abandon me, bitch.'

'What's with the aggressive tone?' asked Lux

'Would you mind shutting the fuck up and not saying anything? Especially about things you don't understand.'

'So Leblanc, where are our rooms?'

Well... here 96, 97, 98, 99 and 14. Leblanc handed the last key to Ben.

'Why am I not with the others?'

'You're not Demacian.' she simply said.

'Don't worry Ben, we'll come and see you.' Garen said.

'Just don't bring Lux' Ben advised.