"Is this real, Zed?" Syndra sighed, gazing down at the luminescent purple stone on her finger from her armchair in the private room of the temple that she shared with Zed.

"Is what real?" Zed grunted as he landed another punch on a training dummy, making it waver back and forth. He turned around, unwrapping bandage tape from around his fists.

Syndra gestured around the room, "All of it? Seems like a lot has changed for us recently."

Zed smiled under his mask and moved over to lean against her chair, "Well of course! My most hated enemy, dead, my most beloved ally, engaged. I'd be horribly disappointed if it wasn't real after all of the work we have done."

Syndra laughed, "As would I." She reached up and tapped her finger nails on Zed's mask, making a cold clanging noise, "This isn't coming to our wedding," she mused.

"What? Why not?" Zed joked, "How else am I to look the part?"

Syndra gave a tug on the edge of the mask, "I'm sure you'll find a way." With that, she sat back in her chair and rested her arms on her lap.

Zed nodded and walked around in front of her and knelt down to her level, "In that case, I'm going to ask a favor of you." Syndra raised an eyebrow, her interest clearly peaked. "Let our wedding be just us and someone to officiate. Nobody else."

Syndra chuckled, "Zed, I know you very well at this point. I wasn't expecting anything different."
"Really?" Zed inquired, "I've become that horribly predictable?"
"Well, only to me," Syndra smirked, "But that's alright, isn't it? A big scary ninja is allowed to have one weakness, right?"

Zed got to his feet and walked away a few feet before turning back, "Only if the scary ninja's wife has none."

"Well lucky you…"

"Good. Then why wait? I think we should get married tomorrow."

Syndra hopped up from her chair and quickly closed the distance between herself and Zed, looking into his mask skeptically, "Truly?"

Zed nodded and took her hands in his, "Of course! We've no reason to wait. Plus, won't it be nice to have all of that in line before we worry about taking over the world together?"

The witch nodded to confirm, but didn't lose her skeptical look as she closed her hands around her fiancé's, "This is very unlike you, Zed. Me before the mission? Don't tell me you're having doubts."

"No doubts Syndra. That's why I want to marry you tomorrow. None at all."

Yasuo took a deep breath, sizing up his new enemy, eye to eye with the beast for what felt like an eternity. It's jagged red and orange scales lay haphazardly upon its crooked spine and the edges of its wings. Its razor sharp teeth jutted out from its jaw in a threatening ring of sword sized bones. For once, Yasuo had very little to say. But suddenly, the beast took a step forward, opening its mouth and revealing what looked like the inside of a blacksmith's furnace.

"Get it together, Lux," Riven hissed, gathering up the light mage's wand and forcing it into her hand.

Lux quickly nodded and spun her wand between her fingers in an un-convincing guise of confidence. "Yeah! We've got this!"

Yasuo rolled his eyes, "Just stay out of our way, Princess." With that, he unsheathed his blade and held it in front of him, pointing directly at the dragon's face. The dragon responded with an aggressive growl that sounded more like an avalanche than any mortal creature. "Well, I suppose no use in waiting!" Yasuo give a quick grin to Ezreal and Riven and leaped forward, blade in hand.

Ezeral brought up his gauntlet to his forehead and shook his head, "Is he trying to kill himself?"

"Sometimes I wonder!" Riven shouted as she too rushed forward, kicking up gravel in her wake. Yasuo was first to land a strike directly on the Dragon's short, armored snout. His blade sunk into its flesh only an inch or two before running out of momentum. The dragon's thick skin would be too much for a simple slash to penetrate. Riven was next, swinging her heavy, broken blade directly into the dragon's front ankle, connecting with its flesh between the scales. A howl of pain escaped the dragon and its eyes lit up bright orange color that matched the fire in its jaws. Yasuo quickly took a leap back as a ball of flame launched from the beast's mouth and landed directly where he had been standing, leaving smoldering embers in the rocks.

"Well shit…" Yasuo grumbled, extending his hand to send a breeze over the embers, blowing them a few yards to where they would not pose a threat.

Ezreal laughed and was the next to rush in, shooting a barrage of small arcane bolts that each made their mark on the dragon's thick hide. "Leave it to me! Some of my blasts will hurt regardless of those scales!"

Yasuo rolled his eyes and smiled, "Don't get cocky, kid."

"He's doing more than you so far," Riven pointed out, giving another whack at the dragon's ankle and eliciting another roar. This time though, the dragon swiped at the Noxian with its enormous claws, finding its mark on her chest plate and slamming her back into the ground with a grunt.

Ezreal responded in kind by disappearing and reappearing in a flash of light on the other side of the dragon, attempting to draw its attention away from Riven as she shakily got back to her feet, claw marks now crossing her chest gear diagonally.

"Don't worry! I'll help!" Lux shouted desperately as she swung her wand and cast a large circular ball of light at the dragon. The ball quickly whirred through the air to the dragon's position and exploded on contact, suddenly expanding and popping with energy. Unfortunately, the explosion also caught Riven, drawing a cry of pain from her as she stumbled back again, dropping her sword.

"What was that, you moron?!" Yasuo shouted furiously, waving his hand at Lux and conjuring a powerful gust that lifted her off her feet and sent her flying at a nearby boulder. "Didn't I say to stay out of the way? Now look what you've done!"

"Son of a…" Ezreal muttered as he disappeared again in a flash of light and reappeared behind Lux, catching her right before she hit the boulder and cushioning the impact. "Enough friendly fire! Focus! Or did everyone but me forget about the dragon?!"

Yasuo angrily turned back to the dragon just in time to notice another fireball headed directly for him. He instinctively swung his sword upwards in and attempt to redirect the fireball but was just barely too slow. Caught in the chest by the flames, Yasuo was knocked back onto the ground and quickly rolled out of the embers, black burn marks now littering his clothes.

Ezreal looked around at all of his companions, out of the fight for one reason or another and shrugged, "I guess he wants to fight the best!" Gingerly, he turned Lux around and placed a hand on her shoulder, "You good?" Lux looked shaken but ultimately unharmed and was able to give a quick nod back. "Alright then," Ezreal grinned, "Looks like I'm up." Slowly, Ezreal stepped around Lux and towards the dragon that was closing in, a confident grin on his face as he dusted the dirt from his clothes. The dragon was already looking tired and rather beaten with scorch marks from the arcane blasts all over and what was pretty clearly a broken ankle. Nevertheless, it continued bearing down upon the travelers. "Now I wish I didn't have to do this, but you're not giving me a whole lot of options here…"

Yasuo and Riven both watched skeptically from their positions on the ground as Ezreal continued his confident stride towards the Dragon. It almost looked like he was giving up as the dragon began to open its mouth and the furnace inside erupted to life. "Ezreal! What are you doing?!" Yasuo called. Their guide did not respond but just kept walking with that same smug look on his face even as the fireball left the dragon's mouth. Swiftly, Ezreal took a step to the right and let the fireball pass, making a loud explosion behind him. In response, he launched a bolt of magic that seemed to scorch one of the dragon's thick scales, but not much more. The beast snarled angrily and leaned its head back, heating up for another go. The second fireball came just a foot from his face before another magical flash of light went off and Ezreal reappeared ten feet above the dragon and began falling towards it.

"Let's see how you like this!" he shouted as he pulled back an invisible bow string and a huge wall of arcane blasts came to life, the recoil launching Ezreal a few more feet up and raining magic down upon the dragon's entire body. The dragon howled and roared as it fell down onto its belly and let out a low grunt as Ezreal landed on its back, his feet firmly planted in its back. "Now, that wasn't so bad!" Ezreal smirked.

Riven let out a sigh of relief. "Couldn't have opened with that one?" she grumbled, as Lux helped her to her feet. The young Demacian looked over Riven's injuries with discomfort and a clear expression of guilt but just as she opened her mouth to speak, Riven continued, turning and looking her in the eyes, "Don't worry about it Lux. You got a good hit in on the dragon too and who knows what it would have done to me if you hadn't. We can work on the aim a bit, but I'm glad you helped." Lux's expression broke into a smile of admiration at Riven's mercy and kindness.

Yasuo wasn't so pleased. "Really? You're going to praise that? If Ezreal hadn't been here to bail us out, we'd be food right now."

Ezreal took a leap off of the dragon and landed with a crunch in the gravel, walking confidently towards Yasuo, "At least what she did was an accident. What was the point in throwing our own teammate at the rocks?! You're the one who put us in extra danger." Yasuo walked straight through Ezreal, pushing him to the side and looked Lux in the eye, "You mean well, I get that. But you're the only person here without field experience and I expect you to do what I say when it comes to battle."

Riven scowled and crossed her arms, stepping up to meet Yasuo, "Who put you in charge?"

"I did," Yasuo said shortly, "You and I are the ones on the mission Riven, so it's got to be one of us. And last I checked, I'm not the Noxian murderer who owes the other her life."

That touched a nerve with Riven, who quickly stepped between Yasuo and Lux, the runes on her sword beginning to glow green. "I don't owe you a damn thing! Get over your damn pride Yasuo. I messed up your life. Sorry! But I'm not going to torture myself over that any longer! I was indoctrinated by Swain and I have and continue to make up for the mistakes of my past. Can you say the same? All I see is a shell of a man holding his dead brother's sword and trying to turn away a girl who just wants to help us."

The group fell silent for a moment as Yasuo processed what he had just heard, slowly nodding his head. "Fine. You know what? Fine. You're right. I am a shell of who I was before what happened with Thresh and those souls and a day doesn't go by when I don't regret every single decision I made that led to that. I'm just here to get this damn job done so that some bastard who even scared the goddam horsemen of the apocalypse doesn't screw everything up even more. That's why I'm here. Not for me, for everyone else. And if I have to, I'll do what has to be done. Whatever has to be done."

Riven took a step towards him, holding her hand out to pause him, "That's not what I'm saying. We have very clearly had our differences but from the few times when we've gotten along for more than a few minutes, I can tell you're not a bad guy! Just try to have some sympathy for poor Lux. She's not you. Do you really want her to be?"

The Ionian shrugged, "I suppose not. Perhaps I should take it easy." Yasuo didn't make eye contact but tilted his head in Lux's direction, "Sorry for uh… throwing you."

Lux grinned, "That's alright Yasuo. I forgive you. Thanks." Riven couldn't believe it. Did Yasuo really just apologize for something he did? She was finding it hard to believe that this was the same traveler she once fought.

Suddenly, Ezreal piped up, "Well, it's nice that we're all friends now- Soooo nice- but we need to get going. This thing isn't dead, just knocked out. So unless any of you want round two…"

Riven perked up and looked at Lux who quickly shook her head, "Yeah, no! I think we're good! Let's go!"

So uh… hey guys. Long time, no see. Thanks for waiting for so long for this story to be continued. I hope what Diovolo and I have in store for you makes it worth the wait, but I realize that waiting this long is kinda inexcusable to an extent. We were busy, what can I say? But on the bright side, we really want to start writing more again.

We have lots of new ideas and hopefully a new breath of inspiration to keep us going. We want to do a series of 5-10 chapter stories for lots of champions after finishing LotS. The first of them will likely give you a feel for what all the rest are going to be like but we can't give it away because SPOILERS! All stories will take place within the same universe as The Unforgiven (Including that Jayce story that is sitting there on my page with only 1 chapter). Hopefully you'll like where we take it because we think it's going to be really fun and likely very time consuming. Since we have loads of content we want to do from all over the LoL universe, there will probably be something for everyone.

Until then, LotS still has a long way to go. Maybe 10-15 more chapters. Hope you enjoy them and see you… well… when we see you.